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Island forest in Peru. (Photo by R. Butler)
International Conservation Organizations
Today international conservation organizations serve as environmental consultants for governments and large corporations interested
in reducing pollution, setting aside protected areas, and conserving biodiversity. Organizations like the International
Conservation Union (IUCN), Conservation International (CI), the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) act as mediators between various development interests,
policy makers, local peoples, scientists, and activist groups in promoting conservation. These organizations initiate
and support a broad range of conservation-related activities, from arranging international conferences to establishing
community-based conservation projects to maintaining parks and reserves. Keeping attuned to economic realities,
they work to integrate the latest scientific findings into preservation efforts.
Activist Groups
Activist groups, like the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the Rainforest Alliance, Amazon Watch, Friends of the
Earth (FOE), and the Sierra Club are publicists and sponsors of rainforest preservation. These organizations support
and initiate community-based conservation projects that involve locals in conservation. They are watchdogs of development
projects that impact the rainforest, and they spread the the word to other organizations, peoples, and governments. They
initiate campaigns against large corporations and governments responsible for deforestation and encourage consumers
to boycott their products. Pressure against these companies from environmental organizations, coupled with boycotts,
will often sway the firm to adopt more ecologically sound methods or abandon plans to clear forest lands for production.
While critics argue that successful boycotts in the North only lead to trade diversion to markets that remain open,
their campaigns draw public attention to deforestation and increase industry's sensitivity to rainforest issues.
The Rainforest Action Network is one of the world's largest organizations completely committed to saving the world's
rainforest. It is based in San Francisco and has countless affiliates throughout the world. The organization
has led numerous campaigns, several of
which have been successful. RAN uses boycotts as a means to pressure companies responsible for rainforest destruction.
RAN, along with other organizations, has been responsible for pressuring companies into less ecologically damaging
practices. The table reflects some of their successes. The first major successful boycott, led by RAN, was a boycott
of Burger King and caused the fast-food giant to cancel $35 million in beef contracts with Central American countries.
Since then, the demand for cattle products has diminished, and these nations have slowed the clearing of rainforest
for pasture land. Recently FOE's "Mahogany is Murder" campaign reduced UK mahogany imports from 31,300
cubic meters in 1992 to 18,900 cubic meters in 1996.
Today RAN and other groups are encouraging boycotts of Chevron-Texaco, Burmese teak ("Teak is Torture" campaign),
mahogany ("mahogany is murder" campaign), and Shell Oil. In the past couple of years several
city governments have refused to purchase goods or services from firms that participate in forest destruction.
In 1995, the city government of Berkeley, California, prohibited firms that operate in Burma—which has witnessed
widespread deforestation and human-rights violations by commercial activities—from selling goods to the city
government. The companies affected by the blockade include Pepsico, Texaco, and Unocal. In 1996, in response to
the hanging of environmentalist leaders in Nigeria, the Toronto metro council rejected Shell Oil's proposal to
fuel city vehicles. In 1997, Berkeley moved to ban companies operating in Nigeria from city government contracts.
According to EDF, municipalities that have banned the use of unsustainably produced tropical timber include Baltimore,
Bellingham, Harrisburg, Los Angeles, Ottowa, San Francisco, Santa Clarita, and Santa Monica.
Private Funding Organizations
In addition to conservation organizations, private corporations have been responsible for funding projects to help the environment.
Recently Motorola allied with the World Wildlife Foundation's conservation effort, by enhancing the organization's
communication capabilities when in remote areas. Now WWF has first-class tracking devices and excellent means of
communication for their fieldwork.
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.
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.
Declaration calls for more wilderness protected areas to combat global warming
(11/11/2009) Meeting this week in Merida, Mexico, the 9th World Wilderness Congress (WILD9) has released a declaration that calls for increasing wilderness protections in an effort to mitigate climate change. The declaration, which is signed by a number of influential organizations, argues that wilderness areas—both terrestrial and marine—act as carbon sinks, while preserving biodiversity and vital ecosystem services.
Hunting across Southeast Asia weakens forests' survival, An interview with Richard Corlett
(11/08/2009) A large flying fox eats a fruit ingesting its seeds. Flying over the tropical forests it eventually deposits the seeds at the base of another tree far from the first. One of these seeds takes root, sprouts, and in thirty years time a new tree waits for another flying fox to spread its speed. In the Southeast Asian tropics an astounding 80 percent of seeds are spread not by wind, but by animals: birds, bats, rodents, even elephants. But in a region where animals of all shapes and sizes are being wiped out by uncontrolled hunting and poaching—what will the forests of the future look like? This is the question that has long occupied Richard Corlett, professor of biological science at the National University of Singapore.
World's first video of the elusive and endangered bay cat
(11/05/2009) Rare, elusive, and endangered by habitat loss, the bay cat is one of the world's least studied wild cats. Several specimens of the cat were collected in the 19th and 20th Century, but a living cat wasn't even photographed until 1998. Now, researchers in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, have managed to capture the first film of the bay cat (Catopuma badia). Lasting seven seconds, the video shows the distinctly reddish-brown cat in its habitat.
