The Disappearing Canopy
Recent Changes
http://issuu.com/marquo/docs/globalforestresourcesassessment2005
Forest Change
TRF – the importance?
TRF – the importance?
• Incredibly rich ecosystems – playing a
fundamental role in the basic functioning of the
planet
• Home to probably 50% of the world’s species –
an extensive library of biological and genetic
resources (the genetic bank)
• Helps maintain the climate – regulating
atmospheric gases & stabilizing rainfall
• Protection again desertification
• Provision of numerous ecological functions
TRF – the importance?
• At least 32 300 ha – disappear every day from
Earth
• At least another 32 300 ha – under forest
degradation
• Several hundred species – lost to extinction (the
vast majority: never been documented by science)
• Threat of global warming / climate change
– more carbon is added to the atmosphere
• More topsoil is lost to erosion
TRF – the importance?
• According to FAO estimation:
- 10.4 million ha of TRF were permanently destroyed each
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year from 2000 to 2005
For primary forests, annual deforestation rose from 5.41
million ha to 6.26 million ha in the same period
Primary forests are being replaced by less biodiverse
plantation and secondary forests.
The significant increase in plantation forests, forest cover
has generally been expanding in N. America, Europe and
China while diminishing in the tropics.
The major causes of global deforestation: industrial
logging, conversion for agriculture (commercial &
subsistence), forest fires (often purposefully set)
Causes of Deforestation
• Clear-cutting for logging and pulpwood
• Forest conversion for permanent agriculture (palm oil plantations,
soybean fields)
• Large-scale shifting cultivation (i.e. slash-and-burn) where forest is
not permitted to regenerate due to subsequent clearing
• Forest conversion for permanent pasture
• Open pit mining and large-scale mining operations
• Clear-cutting for charcoal production
• Large roads and infrastructure projects
• Wildfires that destroy the forest canopy
• Dam construction
• Volcanic eruptions
• Chemical defoliants
• Urban expansion
Causes of Degradation
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Most forms of logging for timber harvesting, especially "selective logging"
Small-scale shifting cultivation (i.e. slash-and-burn)
Over-grazing
Small scale mining and associated pollution
Over-harvesting for fuel wood
Fragmentation from small roads
Wildfires that burn leaf litter and small plants but leave canopy trees intact
Over-harvesting of non-wood forest products (medicinal plants, foods, fibers)
Over-hunting
Invasive species
Oil pollution
Storm damage
Extreme drought
Air pollution and acid rain
Recent deforestation News
• Madagascar bans rainforest timber
exports following global outcry
(03/25/2010) Under mounting pressure
over illegal logging of its national parks,
Madagascar's transitional government on
Wednesday reinstated a ban on rosewood
logging and exports.
Recent deforestation News
• Half of Indonesia's mangroves gone in
less than thirty years
(03/23/2010) The Jakarta Post reports that,
according to the local NGO People’s
Coalition for Justice in Fisheries (Kiara),
Indonesia's has lost 2.2 million hectares of
mangroves in less than thirty years, going
from covering 4.2 million hectares in 1982
to just 2 million hectares today.
Recent deforestation News
• Half of Indonesia's mangroves gone in
less than thirty years
(03/23/2010) The Jakarta Post reports that,
according to the local NGO People’s
Coalition for Justice in Fisheries (Kiara),
Indonesia's has lost 2.2 million hectares of
mangroves in less than thirty years, going
from covering 4.2 million hectares in 1982
to just 2 million hectares today.
Recent deforestation News
• Nestle fiasco continues: Indonesian oil
palm planters threaten boycott too
(03/23/2010) Candy and food giant Nestle is finding itself
between a rock and a hard place. The online campaign against Nestle
continues: today protesters once again posted thousands of negative
messages on the company's Facebook page, most demanding that Nestle
cut out palm oil linked to deforestation from its products. At the same time, a
new problem has cropped up for Nestle: Indonesian oil palm planters are
threatening to boycott Nestle products. Proving that the issues surrounding
oil palm and deforestation are nothing if not complex: Facebook protestors
say they will boycott Nestle if it doesn't cut out all links to Sinar Mas, a
company that Greenpeace has linked to deforestation, whereas the
Indonesia Palm Oil Growers Association are preparing a boycott if Nestle
stops buying from Sinar Mas, according to the Jakarta Post.
Recent deforestation News
• A new world?: Social media protest
against Nestle may have longstanding
ramifications
(03/20/2010) The online protest over Nestle's use of palm oil linked
to deforestation in Indonesia continues unabated over the weekend.
One only needed to check-in on the Nestle's Facebook fan page to
see that anger and frustration over the company's palm oil sourcing
policies, as well as its attempts to censor a Greenpeace video (and
comments online), has sparked a social media protest that is
noteworthy for its vehemence, its length, and its bringing to light the
issue of palm oil and deforestation to a broader public.
Recent deforestation News
• A new world?: Social media protest
against Nestle may have longstanding
ramifications
(03/20/2010) The online protest over Nestle's use of palm oil linked
to deforestation in Indonesia continues unabated over the weekend.
One only needed to check-in on the Nestle's Facebook fan page to
see that anger and frustration over the company's palm oil sourcing
policies, as well as its attempts to censor a Greenpeace video (and
comments online), has sparked a social media protest that is
noteworthy for its vehemence, its length, and its bringing to light the
issue of palm oil and deforestation to a broader public.
Recent deforestation News
• A new world?: Social media protest
against Nestle may have longstanding
ramifications
(03/20/2010) The online protest over Nestle's use of palm oil linked
to deforestation in Indonesia continues unabated over the weekend.
One only needed to check-in on the Nestle's Facebook fan page to
see that anger and frustration over the company's palm oil sourcing
policies, as well as its attempts to censor a Greenpeace video (and
comments online), has sparked a social media protest that is
noteworthy for its vehemence, its length, and its bringing to light the
issue of palm oil and deforestation to a broader public.
Recent deforestation News
• Scientists: new study does not disprove
climate change threat to Amazon
(03/19/2010) Recently, Boston University issued a press
release on a scientific study regarding the Amazon's
resilience to drought. The press release claimed that the
study had debunked the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change's (IPCC) theory that climate change could turn
approximately 40 percent of the Amazon into savanna due to
declining rainfall. The story was picked up both by mass
media, environmental news sites (including mongabay.com),
and climate deniers' blogs. However, nineteen of the world's
top Amazonian experts have issued a written response
stating that the press release from Boston University was
"misleading and inaccurate".
Recent deforestation News
• Indonesia opens protected rainforests to
mining and other developments
(03/16/2010) Indonesian President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono has issued new
regulations, which will allow underground
mining in protected areas, according to the
Jakarta Post. The new rules will also allow
power plants, renewable energy, and
transportation such as toll roads in
protected forests.
Useful Websites
•
Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005
http://issuu.com/marquo/docs/globalforestresourcesassessment2005
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A WORLD Imperiled: FORCES BEHIND FOREST LOSS
http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0801.htm
•
Forest countries seek carbon credits
http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/media/2007/09/news_20070914_glb.htm
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Rainforest Information
http://rainforests.mongabay.com/
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How to save tropical rainforests
http://rainforests.mongabay.com/1001.htm