Index:

–Tropical Forests: 30) New satellite-based maps measure deforestation rates
–World-wide: 31) We are huge force in this global ecological devolution, 32) An annual 70 million of the world’s wealthiest participate in eco-tourism, 33) Wood underwater can store carbon for thousands of years,

Tropical Forests:

30) A map of the world’s tropical forests has revealed that millions of hectares of trees were cut back to make way for crops in recent years. Created from high-resolution satellite images, the map shows the extent of deforestation in the tropics with unprecedented accuracy. Between 2000 and 2005, at least 27.2m hectares (68m acres) of tropical forests were cleared to make way for farming. Almost half of the deforested land was in Brazil, nearly four times more than the next most deforested country, Indonesia, which accounted for 12.8% of cleared land. Scientists led by Matthew Hansen at South Dakota State University created the map to help inform conservationists and politicians about the state of the world’s forests. While figures on deforestation are already compiled by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, they are based on unverified estimates submitted by individual countries, and rarely describe where in a country forests are being cleared. Recent estimates by the UN suggest that around 13m hectares of the world’s forests are lost to deforestation each year, with South America alone losing more than 4m hectares a year. “We wanted to be able to pinpoint exactly where deforestation was happening, because that gives you much more information for policy makers to act upon,” said Fred Stolle at Conservation International in Washington DC. The scientists collected images taken between 2000 and 2005 by Nasa’s Modis satellite network, which photographs the surface of the Earth every one to two days in 500m-wide snapshots. The researchers used the images to identify deforestation “hotspots” in the tropics, and then created a detailed map using a second satellite network called Landsat, which is accurate to within 30m. According to the map, over the five-year period, Brazil lost 3.6% of its forest cover, Indonesia 3.4%, Latin America 1.2%, the rest of Asia 2.7% and Africa 0.8%. The study appears in the US journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The map showed that deforestation in Indonesia was largely concentrated in just two regions, and that much of it was peatland. “The peatlands are essentially all carbon, so if you clear it and fire it, an enormous amount of carbon will be emitted into the atmosphere,” said Stolle. “Without a precise map, we would not know that level of detail.” The researchers hope to produce annual updates of the map to show trends in deforestation. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/01/forests.conservation

World-wide:

31) The conversion of forest lands by means of human desires and actions denotes one of the huge forces in global ecological revolution and one of the great leads to biodiversity extinction. Its impact on people has been profound and remains to be intense. Forests are turned to barren lands, tarnished and shattered by log harvests, transformation to agricultural lands, road constructions, human made catastrophes, and in many other inexplicable ways. People view forests as a means of total transformation in societies, lands and even businesses. The rate at which it is growing is totally unstoppable that global deforestation came to be a big impact for the survival of lives in this planet. If the number continually rises, more and more sources of life will be totally depleted. The world will not only suffer from the untoward effects of the environment but other outcomes as well such as ailments, social fights and poverty. Currently, if the evil doers think that development is the key to saving the population, then they might consider thinking twice. Even though how far advanced the development may be, nothing can save us from the turmoil if the earth hits back at us. It is a scientific fact that trees help minimize pollution through elimination of carbon dioxide. Forests then are condensed of enormous amounts of carbon dioxide since trees are the ones responsible for absorbing them. In cases of deforestation however, the burned trees give off the polluted gas back to the atmosphere, thus leading to an immense amount of pollution in the air. The evil acts of global deforestation accounts for one-third of the carbon dioxide emissions from all over the earth. The remaining values are caused upon by other factors such as car air pollutants. When much of the earth is going to be removed, expect that the air that we breathe can turn out to be more than just 50% of the toxic carbon dioxide. http://deforestation.blogminisites.com/can-global-deforestation-really-cause-an-impact-in-our-
environment.html

32) “About 70 million people each year travel to places with fragile eco-systems and cultures under what you might call eco-tourism,” Tensie Whelan, executive director of the green group Rainforest Alliance, told AFP. According to the Washington-based group The International Ecotourism Society (TIES), global eco-tourism has been expanding at rates of between 20 and 34 percent a year since 1990 — and in 2004, the business grew three times faster than the tourism sector as a whole. The typical eco-tourist is likely to be an experienced traveller aged 40-plus with higher education and in the top earning brackets, says TIES. The Worldwatch Institute, a US green group, defines eco-tourism as “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the welfare of local people.” Under this broad umbrella comes a wide range of activities. They can operate on a scale that ranges from the personal to the mass market, and their green benefit is highly variable. Projects include tiny groups of people who accompany conservationists into the Amazon to document wildlife or who are given a close-up look at chimpanzees in ancient forests in Africa. At the other end of the numbers scale, South Africa’s well-run National Parks plough fees from visitors into sustaining and policing the reserve. Energy efficiency, water conservation, transport and renewable resources are big features in eco-tourism. Asking environmentally-sensitive guests to re-use their towels is not enough. To win credibility with this upscale, demanding slice of the market, hotels and lodges have to offer such things low-flush toilets, bicycle hire, solar-powered water heating and solar-powered electricity, intelligent lighting or air conditioning panels. Many pledge donations to preserve the local nature reserve or promise to help the local community with good jobs or locally-sourced materials. Another inducement in eco-tourism is carbon “offsets” to compensate for the pollution of the client’s holiday. “Offsets” are schemes by which a polluter buys into a project elsewhere that will compensate for the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) resulting from his trip. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jganLTRiohyPfONh_R7ui0ScOkpA

33) Researchers at the Missouri Tree Ring Laboratory in the Department of Forestry discovered that trees submerged in freshwater aquatic systems store carbon for thousands of years, a significantly longer period of time than trees that fall in a forest, thus keeping carbon out of the atmosphere. “If a tree is submerged in water, its carbon will be stored for an average of 2,000 years,” said Richard Guyette, director of the MU Tree Ring Lab and research associate professor of forestry in the School of Natural Resources in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. “If a tree falls in a forest, that number is reduced to an average of 20 years, and in firewood, the carbon is only stored for one year.” The team studied trees in northern Missouri, a geographically unique area with a high level of riparian forests (forests that have natural water flowing through them). They discovered submerged oak trees that were as old as 14,000 years, potentially some of the oldest discovered in the world. This carbon storage process is not just ancient; it continues even today as additional trees become submerged, according to Guyette. While a tree is alive, it has a high ability to store carbon, thus keeping it out of the atmosphere. However, as it begins to decay, a tree’s carbon is released back into the atmosphere. Discovering that certain conditions slow this process reveals the importance of proper tree disposal as well as the benefits of riparian forests. “Carbon plays a huge role in climate change and information about where it goes will be very important someday soon,” said Michael C. Stambaugh, research associate in the MU Department of Forestry. “The goal is to increase our knowledge of the carbon cycle, particularly its exchange between the biosphere (plants) and atmosphere. We need to know where it goes and for how long in order to know how to offset its effects.” This could be a valuable find for landowners. Although it is not yet common in North America, emissions trading has been gaining popularity in parts of Europe. Also known as cap and trade, emissions trading works to reduce pollution by setting a limit on the amount of pollutants an organization can emit into the air. If they exceed that number, the group is required to obtain carbon credits. http://munews.missouri.edu/news-releases/2008/0626-guyette-oak-trees-carbon.php