–Tropical Forests: 11) Cops not welfare can stop illegal logging, 12) Transpiration,
–World-wide: 13) Restoration of vegetation helps counter climate changes, 14) Problem with Palm oil campaign identifies 400 products, 15) Zero deforestation by year 2020, 16) Forests invade tundra, 17) About earth’s 16.2 million square miles of forests, 18) Preventing deforestation is most cost-effective climate solution, 19) Complexities of trees and nitrogen, 20) Studying smoke plumes from northern-latitude forest fires, 21) Google’s disappearing forests, 22) 85% of earth’s terrestrial carbon still unprotected, 23) An Argument for Restructuring pulp and paper industry, 24) Trees grow at exactly 21C / 70F, 25) Computers predict the unpredicatable: forest ecosystem growth, 26) Google Earth Outreach Showcase, 27) REDD will unfairly divert focus of ecosystem protection needs, 28) 3% of all earth’s trees lost in just 15 years, 29) Trends in the ‘global industry’ 30) Annual tree-based Carbon absorption a subsidy in the hundreds of Billions of dollars, 31) Governments own 86% of world’s forests, 32) Research on restoring degraded lands, 33) Warning: Tree planting can sometimes be a bad thing, 34) 42 million square kilometers of forest on Earth,

Tropical Forests:

11) Improving the economic welfare of communities living in forested areas would do little to reduce the widespread illegal logging across the country, environmentalists say. Director of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL) Indro Sugianto said the most effective way to combat illegal logging was to develop an integrated law enforcement system to use against the logging “”mafia””, which was known to be backed by elements in government and the security forces. However, Indro said the poor economic conditions of people living at or near forests had contributed to illegal logging. “”In some cases, illegal logging is a systematic process — and certain parties use the desire of people to improve their welfare to lure the poor into (logging) for their profit,”” he said on Wednesday. Earlier on Tuesday, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), in coordination with the European Commission (EC), launched a joint program aiming to preserve tropical forests and reduce illegal logging practices by raising the living standards of local communities. The EC allocated around 1.2 million Euro (Rp 15.5 billion) for the Small Grants Program for Operations to Promote Tropical Forests (SGP PTF) for a two-year term. The program would cover forested areas in Java, South Sumatra and Central Sulawesi. The grant would be used to pay for livelihood-based projects designed to reduce poverty among the local people often blamed for taking part in illegal logging. Data from the Forestry Information Center shows that the rate of deforestation increased from 1.6 million to 1.8 million hectares per year between 1985 and 1997, to more than 2.83 million hectares between 1998 and 2000; 80 percent of which was due to illegal logging. http://vivi4581.blogspot.com/2008/06/better-welfare-wont-stop-deforestation.html

12) The tropical rain forest ecosystems are enveloped in constant moisture. The moisture is received from the constant cloud cover that is present, the amount of rainfall and the transpiration that occurs. Transpiration is actually a term for the action of water loss through leaves from the plants and trees. The trees that cover the area, or canopy trees, actually give way to about 200 gallons of water each on an annual basis. If the rain forest is large, then they can actually contribute to rain clouds forming and also produce about 75% of their own rainfall. Forest ecosystems are filled with organisms that are dependant upon each other, be they plant, animal or mineral. This biological interdependency happens in many ways. It could be plants relying on a species of insect for pollination and perhaps to disperse seeds. It could also be symbiotic relationships, which are the close relationships between different species, ecologically. It is exceedingly important that we realize just how important these types of relationships are to the existence of an ecosystem. Factors such as deforestation and the practice of land development have played a huge factor in harming such bio-networks. We need to work to make sure that processes, such as ecosystem management and sustainable forestry, are practiced in order to maintain this important part of our world. http://solarpowerenergygeneration.blogspot.com/2008/06/what-are-rain-forest-ecosystems.html

World-wide:

13) Scientists have found that many of the best management practices used to reduce traditional stresses on our environment — such as restoring vegetation along streams — also increases the ecosystem’s resilience to the impact of climate change, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. But, climate change can increase the impact on our environment of traditional stress such as pollution and habitat destruction, according to a new report on ecosystems and climate change. “The peer-reviewed report provides the best-available science to date on management adaptations for ecosystems and resources,” the EPA said in a prepared statement. Strategies in the report can help reduce the potential impact of climate change on estuaries, forests, wetlands, coral reefs and other sensitive ecosystems, the statement said. http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080621/NEWS01/806210326/1001/NEWS

14) I’m not sure if it makes me really excited, or really sad, you all have registered over 400 palm oil filled products on www.TheProblemWithPalmOil.org! Mostly, it makes me really excited, because each and every one of those companies is going to get a letter from the Rainforest Agribusiness team, asking them to join our effort to keep palm oil out of their products until there is an alternative that does not destroy rainforests. Organizing the pressure from these food and cosmetic retailers, we are going to be able to exert real pressure over ADM, Bunge, and Cargill, and push them to make sure that communities, the climate, and the local environment aren’t put in peril by palm oil expansion. We are planning on starting to send letters to the companies starting on July 1st, which is why now is the most vital and important time to supermarket sleuth, and get your products posted on www.TheProblemWithPalmOil.org. Every time we get a product registered, we find that company’s mailing address, and we send them a letter. And then we follow up, to make sure that they hear us loud and clear, and get them to commit our demands. It’s as simple as that. Every time another company signs on to our Palm Oil Pledge, it lets ADM, Bunge, and Cargill know that there is an increasingly strong movement against irresponsible and unsustainable palm oil expansion. In other words, the more products you register on www.TheProblemWithPalmOil.org, the more pressure gets put on the ABCs of Rainforest Destruction. Remember, July 1st! That’s our date for starting to send out letters to companies, and the date we need those products uploaded onto the webpage. http://understory.ran.org/2008/06/20/found-over-400-products-with-rainforest-destruction/

15) United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (Uncbd) is targeting zero deforestation by year 2020, a visiting top executive of the international agency based in Montreal, Canada said on Friday. Uncbd Executive Secretary Ahmed Djoghlaf said that 20 million hectares of forestland in the world is lost because of deforestation. Djoghlaf is in the country to discuss collaboration among the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity of the UN, the Asean Centre for Biodiversity and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in protecting and conserving Southeast Asia’s rich but highly threatened biodiversity. “I am here to discuss with colleagues in Asean [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] Centre for Biodiversity the roadmap for 2010,” Djoghlaf said. The roadmap will be the plans for the next two years before the next Conference of Parties in Japan on 2010. He said the roadmap will be finalized by mid-July. The Algerian biodiversity expert also said that “loss of biodiversity is connected to food crisis.” He explained that main contributor to the food crisis are the pests in some wheat-producing countries, since the death of specie affects all the species in an ecosystem. He added that our grandparents used to rely on 7,000 types of plants, but now most of it is no longer existing. http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/june/21/yehey/metro/20080621met1.html

16) Here, north of the Arctic Circle, relatively flat mats of compressed, frozen plant matter — tundra — are the norm. This ecosystem hosts a cover of reflective snow most of the year, a feature that helps maintain the region’s chilly temperatures. Throughout the past century, however, leading edges of conifer forests began creeping some 20 to 60 meters up the mountains, and in some places these forests are now overrunning tundra, scientists report in the July Global Change Biology. Conifers here now reside where no living tree has grown in some 1,000 years, points out one of the authors, ecologist Frank Hagedorn of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research in Birmensdorf. Ecologists and climatologists are concerned because emerging forest data suggest that the albedo, or reflectivity, of large regions across the Arctic will change. Most sunlight hitting snow and ice bounces back into space instead of being absorbed and converted to heat. So if a white landscape becomes open sea or boreal forest, what was once a solar reflector becomes a heat collector. Sea-surface ice already is melting in the Arctic, and polar ice sheets are thinning. Warming threatens to further degrade these solar reflectors. So does the advance of boreal forests, Chapin says. “Effects of vegetative changes will be felt first and most strongly locally — in the Arctic,” he says. However, he adds, if the Arctic’s albedo drops broadly, this could aggravate warming underway elsewhere across the planet. Tree rings from the Arctic Urals show that since the 15th century, many Siberian larch (Larix sibirica Ledeb.) — the primary tree species — have grown in a stunted, shrubby form, sporting multiple spindly trunks. This adaptation to harsh conditions helps the trees weather wind and snow. But the trees invest so many calories in making multistemmed clusters, Hagedorn says, that they end up puny and unable to make seeds. This infertility has thwarted the stand’s spread. http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/33383/title/Forest_invades_tundra

17) The Earth has about 16.2 million square miles of forests but scientists say research is needed to understand the forests’ impact on climate change. “As politicians and the general public become more aware of climate change, there will be greater interest in legislative policies to mitigate global warming,” said atmospheric scientist Gordon Bonan of the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. “Forests have been proposed as a possible solution, so it is imperative that we understand fully how forests influence climate.” The complex relationships within forests both add and subtract from the equations that dictate the warming of the planet, he said. “In the Amazon, tropical rain forests remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,” said Bonan. “This helps mitigate global warming by lowering greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. These forests also pump moisture into the atmosphere through evapotranspiration. This cools climate and also helps to mitigate global warming. “We need better understanding of the many influences of forests on climate, both positive and negative feedbacks and how these will change as climate changes,” he added. Bonan’s study appears in the June 13 issue of the journal Science. http://www.themoneytimes.com/news/20080618/forests_can_help_control_climate_change-id-1026519.ht
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18) Some economists, including former World Bank chief economist Sir Nicholas Stern, have concluded that preventing deforestation is the most cost-effective method of keeping carbon out of the atmosphere. But how do we go about it? One idea is referred to as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, or REDD. Two main strategies are being considered under REDD, both of which involve carbon credits and carbon trading. One would allow industrialized nations to meet Kyoto emissions-reduction targets by providing grants to developing countries if they reduce rates of deforestation. The other would allow countries that avoid deforestation to earn carbon credits that they could sell on the global carbon market. The issue is complicated and the potential pitfalls are many. For example, the market-driven system of selling carbon credits may not benefit those people who live in the forests and make their living off the products of the intact ecosystem because it would only pay those who are currently logging to stop. We also have to face up to the fact that when providing grants to countries that reduce deforestation, it can be difficult to ensure the money benefits the people and not corrupt governments. In some areas, indigenous people have already lost land and rights because governments have turned over forest “reserves” to companies charged with protecting them. Let’s hope the UN discussions lead to some viable solutions — solutions that preserve biodiversity and include all the inhabitants of the rainforest. It’s unlikely that money will solve everything, but it may be a start to addressing the problems of poverty, economic change, and global warming. http://www.metronews.ca/edmonton/live/article/71718

19) Certain aspects of the nitrogen cycle in temperate and tropical forests have puzzled scientists, defying, in a sense, the laws of supply and demand. Trees capable of extracting nitrogen directly from the atmosphere often thrive where it is readily available in the soil, but not where it is in short supply. Now scientists from the Carnegie Institution have explained the paradox by recognizing the role of two other factors: temperature and the abundance of another key element, phosphorous. Benjamin Houlton and Christopher Field of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, with two other co-authors,* published their results in the June 18 online edition of Nature. Nitrogen in the form of dinitrogen (a molecule made of two tightly bound nitrogen atoms) makes up nearly 80% of the Earth’s atmosphere, but few organisms can directly convert dinitrogen into biologically useful nitrogen compounds. Nitrogen fixation, as the process is called, requires the enzyme nitrogenase, possessed by specific types of bacteria. Some of these bacteria live symbiotically in the roots of certain plants, such as legumes, giving these plants a “built-in” nitrogen-fixing capability. “You would expect that nitrogen-fixing species would have a competitive advantage in ecosystems where nitrogen is in low supply, but not where nitrogen is abundant, because fixation is energetically very costly to an organism,” says Houlton, lead author of the paper. “And in fact that’s the way ecologists have found it works in the open ocean and in lakes. But in forests nitrogen-fixing tree species are scarce in the temperate zone, even though the soils have limited amounts of nitrogen. On the other hand, nitrogen-fixing trees can make up a significant part of tropical lowland forests, despite the overall nitrogen-rich conditions.” One part of the solution to the puzzle, the researchers found, is the nitrogen-fixing enzyme nitrogenase. A survey of diverse species and bacterial strains across different latitudes and environments showed the strong influence of temperature on the enzyme’s activity. A consequence is that in cooler climates more of the enzyme is needed to fix a given amount of nitrogen. The high cost of producing the enzyme offsets the benefit of nitrogen fixation in temperate forests, despite low-nitrogen soils. In tropical forests, it’s the link between nitrogen and phosphorus that explains the abundance of nitrogen-fixing species. “Many tropical [forest] soils are severely depleted in phosphorus, even where nitrogen is relatively abundant,” says Houlton. “The extra nitrogen added to the soil by nitrogen-fixers helps mobilize phosphorus, making it easier for roots to absorb.” http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/ci-ren061608.php

20) Starting June 29, NASA’s DC-8 and P-3B aircraft, based at a Canadian military base in Cold Lake, Alberta, will begin their final three-week deployment of the Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites, or ARCTAS, mission. A third NASA aircraft, the B-200 King Air, will fly from Yellowknife, Canada. The mission is the most extensive field campaign ever to study the chemistry of the Arctic’s lower atmosphere. The three airborne laboratories are equipped to fly through the smoke plumes of northern-latitude forest fires. The resulting data, when combined with simultaneous satellite measurements, could reveal the impact of forest fires on the arctic atmosphere. “The summer campaign will focus on boreal forest fire emissions,” said Jim Crawford, manager of the Tropospheric Chemistry Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Coupled with the observations of arctic haze during the spring deployment based in Alaska, these data will improve our understanding of the relative importance of these two influences on arctic atmospheric composition and climate.” Boreal forests, which span Earth’s northern latitudes, have seen a rise in natural forest fires during the last decade. Researchers have debated the degree to which these fires contribute to the Arctic’s atmosphere compared to other sources, such as human-caused emissions from lower latitudes. The ARCTAS flights through smoke plumes, over and downwind from their source, will reveal their composition and transport path. Researchers also will use the data to examine how the chemistry of smoke plumes changes over time and distance. Plume chemistry can contribute to the formation of ozone in the lower atmosphere. Particulates in smoke plumes can affect Earth’s radiation balance with consequences for climate change. The mission also is expected to help researchers interpret data from NASA satellites orbiting over the Arctic. NASA’s Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation, or CALIPSO, satellite can measure the height of various plume components in the atmosphere, information critical to predicting plume movement. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/NASA_Aircraft_Examine_Impact_Of_Forest_Fires_On_Arctic_Cli
mate_999.html

21) Most people who work at CABI know that I am a bit of a geek , especially when it comes to statistics and data visualisation, but now even more so since the release of the Google Earth API and thematic mapping. Anyway, back to the point, I was doing a search for new “environmental science” projects and layers that are being produced for/using Google Earth data, when I came across these wonderful 3D visualisations at the Google Earth Outreach . The layer that interested the inner geek was “Disappearing Forests “. This data layer shows the state of forests around the world by using polygons to represent rates of deforestation. It includes country profiles, providing high quality information in the placement balloons. The world has lost close to half of its forests already, and the continued rate of deforestation contributes greatly to climate change and the loss of global biodiversity. When you first load the Disappearing Forests KMZ , you will see deforestation rate by area. Red indicates a decline in forests, and the scale indicates the number of hectares changed in the last year. Each country has a pie chart, which if clicked on, provides further information on the state of the forests. You can also choose from a list of other forest maps in the Places pane under the folder called “Country deforestation data”. The development of this layer should be credited to David Tryse, who has been involved in some of my other favourite layers, including the Edge of Existence collections (Mammals & also Amphibians ). To create the Disappearing Forests KML, David used data from the World Resources Institute (WRI) : The Last Frontier Forests: Ecosystems and Economies on the Edge (1997), Greenpeace: The Worlds Last Intact Forest Landscapes (2006), and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization: Global Forest Resources Assessment (2005). David used the following tools: PHP(+Ming for flash counter) & MySQL: XAMPP , World Borders Dataset (+chartAPI-icon idea): thematicmapping . http://cabiblog.typepad.com/hand_picked/2008/06/google-earth-di.html

22) 85% of terrestrial carbon unprotected! Earth’s terrestrial ecosystems store 2,052 gigatons of carbon in their biomass and soil (to 1 m depth). Protected areas worldwide cover 12.85% of the land surface and help to maintain ecosystem services including climate regulation through carbon storage. The latest analyses reveal that an astonishing amount of terrestrial carbon, over 312 gigatons or 15.2% of its global stock, lies within the protected area network. Our assessment of carbon storage in protected areas integrates information from the most up-to-date studies to inform decision-making at global, regional and national level. http://www.unep-wcmc.org/latenews/index.cfm#st152

23) The U. S. Paper Industry and Sustainable Production: An Argument for Restructuring “Smith’s book is an entirely credible and comprehensive plan for restructuring an entire industrial sector toward ecological imperatives. Its scope and attention to detail will lead to widespread acceptance of the challenge and the practical initiatives required for success.” – Paul Hawken – The problems recyclers face with wastepaper are connected to the issues addressed by forest advocates, as well as to the difficulties confronted by those involved with industrial pollution from the paper industry. In this richly detailed study, Maureen Smith shows how industrial and environmental analysis can be synthesized to clarify these complex problems and produce solutions. Smith outlines the basic structural characteristics of the U.S. pulp and paper industry and its relationship to the larger forest products sector, as well as its patterns of domestic and global fiber resource use. She then reviews the core technologies employed in virgin pulp production, with an emphasis on their environmental impacts, the role of technological innovation, and the relationships between fiber choices and pollution prevention. Building on this base she reveals structural barriers within the industry that have impeded positive change and shows how these barriers are reinforced by the traditional isolation of environmental policy domains. The study includes a comparative analysis of how organochlorine pollution from pulp mills has been addressed in the United States, Europe, and Canada (and why the United States has seen the slowest rate of progress); an assessment of commodity trade patterns in the industry and how they are linked to resource demand; an examination of the momentum building around annual plant fiber use and the diverse interests it reflects; and a review of recent developments in paper recycling within the context of historical trends in fiber utilization. http://uepibooks.wordpress.com/2008/06/16/the-u-s-paper-industry-and-sustainable-production/

24) Tree leaves and needles keep the same internal temperature on summer days — close to 21 Celsius — whether they’re black spruce in northern Canada or palms in Puerto Rico, new research has found. Like the human body, trees have built-in thermostats to cool or warm themselves when necessary, biologist Brent Helliker of the University of Pennsylvania found. How they manage it remains a partial mystery, but the goal is clear: Leaves and needles need to maintain a temperature where photosynthesis can happen easily, which happens to be about 21 C. The pattern holds true for 39 species of trees, measured from the subtropics to Inuvik. Until now, it had been assumed a leaf would be the same temperature as surrounding air. They’re thin, and trees aren’t warm-blooded. Besides, who wanted to take a bunch of ladders and climb all those trees, carrying hundreds of tiny thermometers? So they found another way, by measuring the “isotope,” or specific type, of oxygen produced by each tree. Different temperatures produce different mixes of oxygen isotopes. The results showed trees stayed within two degrees of the average temperature of 21.4. To check their findings, the group found a study of Swiss forests using infrared photographs that show temperature. The canopy (treetop) temperature was four to five degrees higher than the cool, background air temperature of Switzerland The finding applies only during daytime, in the spring and summer when photosynthesis is happening. Leaves do cool off at night and in the fall. http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=29b7635e-128f-4eaf-aeeb-f04021e2ef36

25) Microsoft and several academics published two research papers on Thursday outlining how improved data analysis and new mathematical models can more accurately predict how climate change could affect the world’s forests. Both papers were published in Science magazine on Thursday. One of the papers, authored by Purves and Stephen Pacala at Princeton University in the U.S. deals with “dynamic global vegetation models,” which can simulate how forests react to various climate changes. The models are essentially sets of mathematical equations that attempt to accurately describe how the forests will behave. Other forestry researchers have been able to do this well with individual trees or groups of trees in an isolated locale, but the models haven’t scaled well to look at forests from a worldwide perspective, Purves said. “We think we’ve managed to crack that problem,” Purves said. “We understand how the growth and death of individual trees leads to the long-term future of forests.” The second paper focuses on how tree seeds have been dispersed in around 90,000 plots of land in Spain. The paper concludes that seeds eaten and distributed by the animals have a greater chance of becoming trees than seeds distributed by wind. That’s because wind-distributed seeds are more likely to end up in less conducive places for tree growth. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/061208-new-data-research-sees-the.html?page=2

26) An excellent set of 3D visualizations has been added to the Google Earth Outreach Showcase. The visualizations show the state of forests around the world by country. The world has lost close to half of its forests already today, and the continued high pace of deforestation contributes greatly to climate change and the loss of biodiversity. When you first load the Disappearing Forests KML, you will see deforestation rate by area. Red indicates a decline in forests, and the scale indicates the number of hectares changed in the last year. Each country has a placemark which provides very interesting details on the state of the forests. You can also choose from a list of other forest maps in the Places pane under the folder called “Country deforestation data”. The KML was developed by David Tryse who also was involved with the Edge of Existence collections highlighted earlier this year in an Outreach Case Study. David used data from the World Resources Institute (WRI): The Last Frontier Forests: Ecosystems and Economies on the Edge (1997), Greenpeace: The Worlds Last Intact Forest Landscapes (2006), and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization: Global Forest Resources Assessment (2005). David used the following tools: PHP(+Ming for flash counter) & MySQL: XAMPP, World Borders Dataset (+chartAPI-icon idea): thematicmapping. This deforestation visualization is really an excellent example of putting Google Earth KML to work. The graph type used is called a prism map and has been used in many KML files (see list below). Recently a tool Thematic Mapping Engine has been developed by Bjorn Sandvik to make it easy to create your own prism maps for Google Earth. http://earth.google.com/outreach/showcase.html – http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2008/06/disappearing_forests_google_earth_v.html

27) The Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) mechanism proposed as a means to fight global warming and protect forests may leave some ecosystems at risk to development argue researchers in an editorial published in the journal Science. Lera Miles of the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre and Valerie Kapos of Cambridge University say that new emphasis on the carbon stocks of ecosystems may cause conservation funds — including those generated through REDD — to flow away from habitats that may be high in biodiversity but low in carbon density such as savannas, grasslands and wetlands. Development pressure — displaced from carbon-rich tropical forests and peatlands in high deforestation countries — would then fall disproportionately on these ecosystems and in countries who are not part of the carbon offsets scheme like those who presently have low deforestation rates. In effect, REDD could trigger a bias in conservation finance. “Land use change, mostly deforestation, accounts for 18-25% of global annual greenhouse gas emissions,” said Miles. “We support the initiative to conserve forests, which will help to address this growing problem as well as maintain valuable habitats; however, we are concerned about potential unintended negative impacts on some ecosystems.” http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0612-forests_redd.html

28) The 2007 statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations indicate that from 1990 to 2005 the world lost 3% of its total forest area, some 13 million hectares per year. The greatest losses were in Latin American and the Caribbean ( 7 % over 15 years or about 16 million hectares per year) Africa (9% over 15 years or 4.4 million hectares per year). Land use change (mostly deforestation) accounts for 18-25% of global annual greenhouse gas emissions. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is currently discussing ways of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) in developing countries. REDD has great potential to deliver benefits for biodiversity and people, as well as for the climate, however it is likely that these benefits will be concentrated in forests with high carbon stocks and that land use change may shift to low-carbon forests and other ecosystems important for biodiversity. Dr Lera Miles, lead author and Acting Head of the Climate Change and Biodiversity Programme at the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC), said: “Land use change, mostly deforestation, accounts for 18-25% of global annual greenhouse gas emissions. We support the initiative to conserve forests, which will help to address this growing problem as well as maintain valuable habitats; however, we are concerned about potential unintended negative impacts on some ecosystems. If forests are protected through REDD without addressing the underlying causes of forest clearance, such as increasing demand for food, then some clearance of natural ecosystems will simply shift to other areas and different habitats will be destroyed.” http://www.scientificblogging.com/news_releases/save_the_forests_lose_a_lot_more

29) A global survey by professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) of the views of business leaders in the forestry, paper and packaging industries is a stark reminder to South African operations of their parochially precarious position in the sector. The report identifies major trends in the global industry driven by a declining demand in mature markets being replaced by a rapid increase in demand in emerging markets. The survey has found that CEOs are deeply concerned about the decline of certain commodity segments, such as newsprint, and the weakening of the building products market in North America, but it also identifies new opportunities in the global industry. While the US subprime mortgage crisis has caused a drastic slowdown in housing in a culture where timber frames form the mainstay of housing construction, other executives expect that decline to be offset by the rapid increase in demand from emerging markets. World economic forecasts are that by 2050, the seven largest emerging market economies (China, India, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey) will outstrip the world’s largest developed economies (US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy and Canada). China, Suckling says, brings a new world-class paper-making plant on stream every four to six weeks. These conditions mean there are new opportunities for companies that are able to adapt to the changes in fibre sources getting their products to the markets where demand is the highest. Operations based in the southern hemisphere, such as in Brazil , are at a great advantage in being able to exploit fast-growing species suited to pulp, such as eucalyptus. http://allafrica.com/stories/200806130428.html

30) The authors – Dr Pep Canadell from CSIRO and the Global Carbon Project, and Dr Michael Raupach from CSIRO – say the billions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) absorbed annually by the world’s forests represents an ‘economic subsidy’ for climate change mitigation worth hundreds of billions of dollars. However, concerns about the permanence of forest carbon stocks, challenges in quantifying changes in the size of those stocks, and concerns about the environmental and socio-economic impacts of reforestation programs, have limited the adoption of policies designed to foster forestry activities. “With political will and the involvement of tropical regions, forests can contribute to both climate change protection through carbon sequestration and also enhanced economic, environmental and socio-cultural benefits,” Dr Canadell says. “Forestry activities have the economic potential to offset 2-4 per cent of projected CO2 emissions by 2030, with tropical regions accounting for nearly two thirds of the total offset”. “A key opportunity is the reduction of carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation in tropical regions,” he says. An estimated 13 million hectares of the world’s forested areas – almost exclusively in the tropical regions – are deforested annually. Dr Raupach says, however, reducing rates of deforestation by 50 per cent by 2050, and stopping further deforestation when countries reach 50 per cent of their current forested area, would avoid emissions equivalent to six years of current fossil fuel emissions by the end of this century. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080613103425.htm

31) Governments “own” about 86 percent of the word’s forests, but recent changes in forest management structure means they effectively control far less than they did just a generation ago. As such, the fate of forests is increasingly determined by concessionary agreements with extractive industries and the whims of market demand for commodities produced on forest lands. Climate change and rapid economic growth are poised to further complicate effective management of forest areas. Writing in Science, Arun Agrawal and colleagues argue that understanding the factors that lead to effective governance — rather than explicit ownership of forest land — will be critical to addressing future governance of forest resources. In the face of decentralization of forest management, logging concessions in publicly owned forests, and timber certification initiatives, they recommend a greater role for community and market actors in determining and managing forest use. Agrawal and colleagues say the transition will need to involve the many stakeholders with interests in forest resources. http://peacemakers.ca.etherwork.net/bulletins/?p=1860

32) Beyond Deforestation: Restoring Forests and Ecosystem Services on Degraded Lands- By Robin L. Chazdon – Abstract : Despite continued forest conversion and degradation, forest cover is increasing in countries across the globe. New forests are regenerating on former agricultural land, and forest plantations are being established for commercial and restoration purposes. Plantations and restored forests can improve ecosystem services and enhance biodiversity conservation, but will not match the composition and structure of the original forest cover. Approaches to restoring forest ecosystems depend strongly on levels of forest and soil degradation, residual vegetation, and desired restoration outcomes. Opportunities abound to combine ambitious forest restoration and regeneration goals with sustainable rural livelihoods and community participation. New forests will require adaptive management as dynamic, resilient systems that can withstand stresses of climate change, habitat fragmentation, and other anthropogenic effects.nDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269–3043, USA. E-mail: chazdon@uconn.edu

33) Commentators often assume that tree planting is a good thing. But considerable caution is warranted. There can be substantial social impacts as agricultural lands – or fallow plots in shifting cultivation systems – are taken over by enthusiastic tree planters. And extensive tree-planting can also have negative environmental impacts. As Tim Forsyth and I wrote in our recent book on environmental management in Thailand: [S]ome caution is warranted in relation to extensive tree-planting programs, either in the form of plantations, orchards, or initiatives in watershed “rehabilitation.” Contrary to popular belief, increased tree cover is likely to reduce the annual water yield of upland catchments rather than increase water supply. If the objective is to secure larger supplies in major downstream hydroelectric and irrigation schemes, the initiatives are very likely to be counterproductive (Aylward 2000:18). There is also a good chance that extensive tree planting will reduce dry-season flow, because the medium- to long-term benefit in terms of enhanced infiltration on reforested soil may well be limited and strongly outweighed by short- to medium-term increases in the level of water “lost” due to the increased evapotranspiration. … Bruijnzeel’s (2004:208) finding should sound a warning note to those committed to upland reforestation: “the conclusion that already diminished dry season flows in degraded tropical areas may decrease even further upon reforestation with fast-growing tree species seems inescapable.” (Forest Guardians Forest Destroyers, page 115) Tree-planting is a good and wholesome activity but there needs to be careful definition of the environmental objectives of such programs and some sober assessment of whether or not those objectives are likely to be met. http://rspas.anu.edu.au/rmap/newmandala/2008/06/12/the-hydrological-hazards-of-tree-planti
ng/#comment-475306

34) There are roughly 42 million square kilometers of forest on Earth, a swath that covers almost a third of the land surface, and those wooded environments play a key role in both mitigating and enhancing global warming. In a review paper appearing in this week’s Forest Ecology special issue of Science, atmospheric scientist Gordon Bonan of the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., presents the current state of understanding for how forests impact global climate. “As politicians and the general public become more aware of climate change, there will be greater interest in legislative policies to mitigate global warming,” said Bonan. “Forests have been proposed as a possible solution, so it is imperative that we understand fully how forests influence climate.” The teeming life of forests, and the physical structures containing them, are in continuous flux with incoming solar energy, the atmosphere, the water cycle and the carbon cycle–in addition to the influences of human activities. The complex relationships both add and subtract from the equations that dictate the warming of the planet. “In the Amazon, tropical rainforests remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,” said Bonan. “This helps mitigate global warming by lowering greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. These forests also pump moisture into the atmosphere through evapotranspiration. This cools climate and also helps to mitigate global warming.” While even the earliest European settlers in North America recognized that the downing of forests affected local climates, the global impact of such activities has been uncovered over more recent decades as new methods, analytical tools, satellites and computer models have revealed the global harm that forest devastation can cause. As studies have explored the mechanisms behind these effects, and the effects themselves, researchers have come to recognize that calculating the specific harm from a specific local impact is a highly complicated problem. “We need better understanding of the many influences of forests on climate, both positive and negative feedbacks, and how these will change as climate changes,” said Bonan. “Then we can begin to identify and understand the potential of forests to mitigate global warming.” http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/28915/