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Rainforest in the Daintree of Australia. (Photo by N. Butler)
ORGANIZATION
To best meet the complex requirements for rainforest conservation, it is imperative that we balance conservation
efforts between the local, national, and international sectors. Empowerment over forests and their resources should
begin on the local level of individual communities with municipal governments overseeing parks. State agencies—with
guidance and assistance from intergovernmental institutions and non-government organizations (NGOs)— need to help
formulate broader conservation strategies and provide expertise in protecting and managing protected areas. Partnerships
between participants are necessary to fuse scientific, economic, and social information and formulate an overall
plan for the use and conservation of tropical rainforests.
Today many government agencies responsible for biodiversity conservation in the developing world find themselves
financially strained. In addition, in an era of increasing democratization, these organizations are under mounting
pressure from locals demanding access to the large tracts of otherwise productive land held in socially exclusive
reserves. To best address these financial and social pressures, other organizations—foreign governments, intergovernmental
institutions, NGOs, and "green" groups—must step up and provide expertise and financial assistance. However,
government agencies cannot expect to be bailed out completely. They will need to become more accountable to the
needs of local people and to establish measurable objectives, which can be evaluated on a regular basis. In short,
these agencies must increase their productivity and become accountable to their shareholders much like publicly
traded companies.
Governmental Agencies and Policy
Until recently, most governments have sided with the interests of rapid forest exploitation using subsidies
and economic incentives to accelerate the process and earn quick returns. The interests of the local people have
been largely ignored, as have the environmental consequences. These methods are economically flawed because they fail
to weigh the environmental costs of deforestation ranging from soil
erosion to disruption of weather cycles, to drought and floods, to outbreaks of disease. For example, India estimates that it loses 10 percent of its annual
income to environmental degradation, much of this from deforestation-induced soil erosion. If governments starting treating their forests as depreciable natural capital instead of
non-renewable income, they could better determine the costs of deforestation.
Some governments are now beginning to listen to scientists, economists, human-rights activists, indigenous peoples,
and environmentalists, and are adopting pro-environment stances. Developed, industrialized nations see their
chance to help the cause by donating financial support and technical expertise to help initiate new conservation
policies.
Developed nations
Some governments are willing to give loans and even cancel debts owed by tropical nations in exchange for environmental
protection (essentially debt-exchange programs). For example, the British government recently assigned $150 million
to preservation and sustainable development of tropical forests around the globe. Germany cleared Kenya of
its $400 million debt when Kenya agreed to pass environmental legislation.
In the late 1990s, Germany spearheaded efforts by industrialized countries to protect rainforests. In 1996, Chancellor
Helmut Kohl spoke out against the inaction of the rest of the G-8 in not intervening in the increased deforestation
of the Amazon rainforest. Germany is one of the most environmentally progressive of the industrialized countries.
In May 1998, the G-8 announced it would encourage developing countries to protect their forests by offering aid
to countries that made forest preservation a priority.
In his budget for fiscal 2001, President Clinton proposed $150 million in funds to assist developing countries
preserve their tropical forests while strengthening their economies. Under the budget, $100 million would go towards
conservation programs (through the U.S. Agency for International Development—USAID), while $37 million would be
slated for debt-for-nature swaps under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act.
Developed nations can also provide their conservation expertise to developing countries and assist in the planning
of new protected areas. Technology transfers to improve reserve management and monitoring could also be beneficial
in setting aside rainforest for preservation.
Deforestation emissions should be shared between producer and consumer, argues study
(11/19/2009) Under the Kyoto Protocol the nation that produces carbon emission takes responsibility for them, but what about when the country is producing carbon-intensive goods for consumer demand beyond its borders? For example while China is now the world's highest carbon emitter, 50 percent of its growth over the last year was due to producing goods for wealthy countries like the EU and the United States which have, in a sense, outsourced their manufacturing emissions to China. A new study in Environmental Research Letters presents a possible model for making certain that both producer and consumer share responsibility for emissions in an area so far neglected by studies of this kind: deforestation and land-use change.
Oil palm workers still below poverty line, despite Minister's statements
(11/19/2009) On October 19th, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok told parliament that oil palm harvesters and rubber tappers are living above Malaysia's national poverty line, according to a story in the Malaysian Insider. But now representatives of the workers are saying Dompok lied.
Coastal habitats may sequester 50 times more carbon than tropical forests by area
(11/16/2009) Highly endangered coastal habitats are incredibly effective in sequestering carbon and locking it away in soil, according to a new paper in a report by the IUCN. The paper attests that coastal habitats—such as mangroves, sea grasses, and salt marhses—sequester as much as 50 times the amount of carbon in their soil per hectare as tropical forest. "The key difference between these coastal habitats and forests is that mangroves, seagrasses and the plants in salt marshes are extremely efficient at burying carbon in the sediment below them where it can stay for centuries or even millennia."
DNA uncovers nearly extinct Siamese crocodiles in captivity
(11/15/2009) The Critically Endangered Siamese crocodile, once believed to be extinct in the wild, received some uplifting news this week. DNA testing of 69 rescued crocodiles at Phnom Tama Wildlife Rescue Center (PTWRC) in Cambodia found 35 purebred Siamese crocodiles.
New report: boreal forests contain more carbon than tropical forest per hectare
(11/12/2009) A new report states that boreal forests store nearly twice as much carbon as tropical forests per hectare: a fact which researchers say should make the conservation of boreal forests as important as tropical in climate change negotiations. The report from the Canadian Boreal Initiative and the Boreal Songbird Initiative, entitled "The Carbon the World Forgot", estimates that the boreal forest—which survives in massive swathes across Alaska, Canada, Northern Europe, and Russia—stores 22 percent of all carbon on the earth's land surface. According to the study the boreal contains 703 gigatons of carbon, while the world's tropical forests contain 375 gigatons.
