Fragile environments
The next 4 weeks
Key Idea – only the one
• Environmental abuse has serious
consequences. Its causes need to be
tackled to ensure a more sustainable
future.
• But there are still 3 sections to study …..
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Section 2 (already covered)
• Causes of deforestation: commercial timber
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extraction; agriculture; mining; transport;
settlement.
Consequences: loss of biodiversity; contribution
to global warming; economic development.
Managing rainforests in a sustainable way (eg
agro-forestry); the need for international cooperation.
A case study of a threatened tropical rainforest
(eg the Amazon, West Africa, Indonesia)..
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Where are we going?
• What is deforestation? How do we cause
it? In particular what are the issues in the
Amazon rainforest area?
• What are the consequences of the
destruction?
• How can forests’ be managed sustainably?
• With reference to the Amazon
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Deforestation
• Is cutting down trees – not just in forests, but as we sae
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in the Savanna of the Sahel as well.
Most of the temperate deciduous forests of Europe and
North America and China have long since gone – but only
relatively recently have the tropical forests come under
attack.
Why are they being cut down? Depends who you ask and
how they do the measuring!!
The textbook – and a couple of other sources say about
1/3 is down to commercial farming and ¼ for logging – and
the rest includes items like mining and oil drilling, road
building, HP dams and the huge reservoirs behind them
and urban sprawl to support all the above.
However when we come to look at the Amazon, the issues
are a bit differently balanced.
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This shows you the size of the problem!
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But if you look at the % you get a
slightly different story!
What patterns
and anomalies
do you see?
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• This the best
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I can do
Nothing more
up-to-date
seems to be
available
worldwide
But so far as the
small holding – this
is not so much
slash and burn, but
where roads are
added, poor people
are encouraged to
move in and try
their hand!
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The Amazon
• The climate tends
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to indicate rain on
a daily basis and a
steady
temperature
throughout the
year, that is hot
but not excessively
so – high 20’s
rather than mid
30’s degrees C.
Manaus is the
largest city in the
Amazon .
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The Amazon
• Is a tropical
rainforest. As can
be seen, there are
several layers of
plants, many of
which are rooted in
the trees and are
never rooted in the
ground. In this rich
environment live
many thousands of
insects and other
animals that are
unique to the area.
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• The Amazon rainforest, world's largest remaining natural
resource, represents 54% of the total rainforests left on
Earth.
• It covers an area of 6.5 million square kilometres,
embracing nine South America countries: Brazil, Colombia,
Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and the Guianas - Guyana,
French Guiana and Suriname, or two thirds of the South
America continent.
• The uses to which the Amazon is listed as being put included
logging, ranching, roads and urban development, large HEP
scheme and according to textbook palm oil! No mention of
soya farming for cattle feed and biofuels! Palm oil really
does not figure, although Malaysian multinationals would love
to start as the potential is huge, but thus far it is still on
the drawing board. Also according to the textbook,
deforestation has been caused by extracting plants for
medicinal use! Really? I thought collecting medical supplies
was seen as sustainable?
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Another cause of deforestation
• Not in the textbooks, yet but serious
nonetheless.
• Droughts in 2005 and again in 2010 have
led to the thought that deforestation
could become a natural force, in part
driven by climate change, that could lead
to the Amazon loosing its ability in some
years to be a carbon sink.
• In drought years, when the forest dried
out, this could also leave it liable to forest
fires.
See a couple of posts on
http://lindym.wordpress.com/category/amazon/
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Issues that arise with deforestation
in the Amazon – the consequences
• Includes flooding, increase of CO2 in the
atmosphere, bare soil looses nutrients
(leaching), biodiversity loss and
displacement of native Americans
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Hot off the press*
What could Brazil use an
excuse for doing this?
• The Belo Monte Dam is a proposed hydroelectric dam
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complex on the Xingu River in the state of Pará, Brazil.
The planned installed capacity of the dam complex would
be 11,233 Megawatts (MW), which would make it the
second-largest hydroelectric dam complex in Brazil, and
the world's third-largest in installed capacity.
On January 26, 2011, the environmental license for the
construction of the dam was officially permitted,
authorizing Norte Energia to start building it.
The subsequent dams would directly and indirectly
affect 25,000 indigenous peoples in the entire Xingú
basin, flooding more forest with an added 6,140 square
kilometres of reservoir.
[Approx 1/3 size of Wales – a universal measure that is
gaining in popularity, along with football pitches!]
* This should appear somewhere in the homework
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In addition
• Mining pollutes rives and gold mining uses
mercury which is highly toxic
• Roads, to the soya farms for example,
create great scars through rainforest and
give easier access and lead to unplanned
settlements.
• Loggers only want the valuable trees – this
leads to needless destruction of large
areas for only few trees.
• Cattle ranching leads to destruction of the
rain forest and soil erosion of bare soils.
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So the major consequences for the
world as a whole are …
• Biodiversity loss
• The contribution made to CO2 emissions by the loss of
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the trees – be prepared to explain how this works! Plants
make food by photosynthesis.
As part of this process, CO2 is taken into the plant and
combined with water, with the help of sunlight, to make
sugar and plants give out oxygen. Thus living plants
reduce the impact of the extra CO2 being produced by
industrialised societies.
The rain forest is so rich in plants, that if these are
removed, there is marked increase in the levels of CO2
found in the atmosphere, which induces further climate
change
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So the major consequences for the
world as a whole are …
• In addition, if the trees are burnt or left to rot, then
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the stored carbon within them is also added to the
atmosphere.
In addition, if they are allowed to rot, for example,
during the building of an HEP scheme, methane which is
variously quoted as have between X21 and X30 the
impact, kg for kg that CO2 has in the GHGs (GreenHouse
Gases).
Taking into account the CO2 the deforested tree will not
be taking out of the atmosphere + the above a figure of
20% contribution to CO2 emissions is widely used to
show the impact. Just how they get there, is frankly a
bit of a mystery!
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But if you are an impoverished LIC
• With huge amounts of interest to repay, then
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you looking longingly at the vast potential for
financial gain locked up in the rainforests. As
Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines are doing
right now.
In the Ivory Coast, a poor small west African
country, already 39/40th of their rainforest has
already been lost.
It is the HICs that object to deforestation,
But then the LICs ask how they are to pay their
debts and develop without exploiting these
valuable resources?
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The answer has to be sustainable
development
• Recall sustainability is the ability of one
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generation to hand over at least as much as they
started with to the next generation
Sustainable management must:
 Respect the environment and the cultures of the local
people
 Take note of traditional skills and knowledge and use
appropriate technology that uses few resources, does
not damage the environment and can be fixed rather
depending on perennial replacement
 Give people control over their land and generate
income for them, not the TNCs.
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Some thoughts on Sustainable
Management
• Protect some areas as National parks where no
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development takes place to ensure the biodiversity is
maintained – possibly encourage ecotourism within these
areas to pay for mountainous
Practice sustainable logging – only cut the trees you need
and do vicariously damage others that you do not (e.g.
Heli-logging in Sarawak) – limit the cull of trees to
sustainable numbers in any given timeframe, so that any
you cut down can have time to replaced.
Reduce the need for fuelwood e.g solar power, windpower
etc
Set up businesses that harvest and process forest
products so giving work to ore people
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But you need case studies …
• Basically, the problem can be tackled in a
number of ways.
• Remember our impoverished LICs? They
saw that allowing – or at best not stopping
– logging was one great way to make money
for their country and give jobs to their
people?
• Now this only works if there is a market.
In this case, until recently, the market
was Europe and the USA. So if somehow
the market can be removed then …….
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Enter the Forestry
Stewardship Council (FSC)
• Now these guys have a scheme!
 (Blackadder? No? – forget it)
• If they can
 Devise a way to harvest wood sustainably
 Demonstrate that this wood comes without damage to
the forests
 Persuade the retailers that they can charge extra by
selling it
 Get the customers onside
• Then they can begin to remove the market for
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unsustainably logged wood.
So this was their starting point.
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So what did they do?
• First they worked with wood and
wood products only
• They worked with different groups and
looked at each sector to see what could be
cut down, how, how much and how often
without it having lasting impact.
• They then promised a market with a
premium (similar to FairTrade with
guaranteed minimum and social premium) if
teach group kept to the agreed rules.
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So what did they do?
• It soon became
obvious that
traceability
and believability
needed to
become part
of the system –
anyone could say
their
wood
was certified
unless you have a
tight system of
checking.
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So who is following FCS?
Precious Woods do
• Precious Woods is a world leader in the sustainable
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management and use of tropical forests. Based in Switzerland
with some 2 300 employees, our company has subsidiaries in
Brazil, Costa Rica, Gabon, Nicaragua, Holland and Switzerland.
Our products find applications in the construction, industrial,
furniture, and do-it-yourself sectors, with customers in
Europe, Asia and the USA
Sustainable management of existing forests: In Brazil we
manage tropical forest in a sustainable and low-impact manner,
thereby ensuring its long-term preservation. Precious Woods
Brazil is certified in accordance with the criteria of FSC.
PW Amazon began practising sustainable forest management
on its own land near Itacoatiara, 250 km east of Manaus, in
1996. Since then, the amount of land owned by the company in
this area has risen to 4 500 km2. In each 25- year cycle only 3
to 6 trees per hectare are harvested, i.e. fewer than
simultaneously grow back.
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So who is following FCS?
Precious Woods do
• The timber harvested is processed into sawnwood, planed
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goods, pilings and finished products at the company’s own
sawmills and manufacturing facilities, and exported to Europe,
the United States and Asia.
Low-impact logging techniques are practised in Brazil. In this
way, the timber quality of the fallen trees is preserved, the
surrounding flora is undamaged, the canopy remains mostly
undisturbed and nature is able to close any gaps in a very
short time.
After the felling operations the logs are winched by cable to
the nearest skid trail at 100 meter intervals. The logs are
then taken to collection points by tractors and skidders which
remain on the trails at all times. They are then picked up by
trucks. As a consequence, the impact on the forest soil is very
low.
Renewable energy and carbon rights: The use of waste wood
to produce energy and the sale of CO2 emission rights are
integral parts of our approach to the sustainable management
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of forests and the timber industry.
There are now moves to make
unsustainable logging illegal in the
EU was agreed in Nov 2010
• The new EU legislation, which will come
into force in 2012, is similar to the US
Lacey Act, which makes it illegal to handle
fish or wildlife produced illegally outside
the US.
• An amendment to the Lacey Act to extend
it to timber products was agreed by the
US Congress in June 2008.
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So one solution
• To investigate sound ecological practices
• Get people to agree to meet these
practices in exchange for a better income
• Sell these ideas to customers in HICs and
get them to act as pressure groups on the
retailers.
• This persuades the retailers it is in their
interest to sell these certified goods, set
up the start-to-finish certification, and
then lobby governments to help enforce
higher standards.
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REDD +
• Reduction in Emissions from Deforestation and
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Degradation – the ‘ + ‘ was added later and we
will talk more about that in detail after half
term.
But for the moment, REDD, is part of the set of
agreements that has come out Kyoto and the
annual meetings COP (Conference Of the
Parties) that have gone in since then, in which
agreements between HICs and the forested
areas have agreed to monitor and reduce
deforestation together, with the HICs making
financial contributions to enable LICs to avoid
cutting down the rainforest. REDD+ not only
finances and monitors but part of the scheme is
supporting sustainable development – health,
education, job creation etc.
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One such scheme
is
• The FAS (Sustainable
Amazonas Foundation)
programme that is running
Juma.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/worl
d/americas/8399871.stm
• Initially funded by the
Marriott chain of hotals
who charged a $1
surcharge on each nights
stay, it has now become
one of the best known
schemes to had got full
REDD+ certification. So
funding goes to paying the
families and allowance to
recompense them for lost
income from logging, also
schools are being set up,
electricity installed, help
with marketing natural
products etc.
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So in practice how does this work?
• Natura is another company that has seen the
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commercial sense in supporting Amazonian
communities with work and development with its
range of Ekos product line
Situation near Itacoatiara
Collect Brazil nuts and other forest products for
cosmetics. Currently 16 different forest
products are registered for harvesting in
sustainable ways.
A primary processing plant adds value to their
product and also diversifies their opportunities.
Education, health and other community services
have been bought with additional income –
freetrade type worker protection is part of the
scheme.
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So in practice how does this work?
• Natura products is another company that has
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seen the commercial sense in supporting
Amazonian communities with work and
development.
Situation near Itacoatiara
Collect Brazil nuts and other forest products for
cosmetics
A primary processing plant adds value to their
product.
Education, health and other community services
have been bought with additional income –
freetrade type worker protection is part of the
scheme
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Agroforestry
• In Peru, where many farmers produced
just one crop e.g. cocoa, they now grow
20+ different timber and fruit products
which give them more security as the
failure of one crop one year is not nearly
as disastrous as it was – an example of
permaculture that we mentioned before.
• So in this case, it is not so much
preventing deforestation as encouraging
reforestation, where native plants are
grown in a mixture for gain from
harvesting rather than removal.
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Do trawl the wiki textbook
• Loads of ideas on
• http://ih-igcse-
geography.wikispaces.com/7.8+Manage+rai
nforests++sustainably
• Esp. in PP on that page
• Go for the FSC + 3 others that are as
diverse from this one as possible
• Maybe the Juma project?
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One hint
• There are 2 versions of case study questions on
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this topic:
Along the lines of:
The rainforests cannot be saved without
international cooperation. Explain why this is and
with reference to named examples, how they can
be managed with international cooperation
Or
There are many ways in which small groups and
local communities can manage the rainforests
sustainably. With reference to named examples,
describe how this can be achieved.
So you need 4 ideas – 2 international and 2 local!!
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