Dispatches

After assessing various approaches to promote forest recovery in heavily degraded and deforested tropical areas, scientists are finding that different options can have vastly different outcomes. In a recent paper (Biotropica 2014; doi:10.1111/btp.12124), lead author Francis Putz and co-author Claudia Romero (University of Florida [UF], Gainesville) explored strategies for minimizing deforestation and forest degradation and for promoting recovery. “[We focused] on tropical forests outside of protected areas. In particular, we tried to provide a sound ecological foundation for sustainable forest management as well as incentives to do so. We stepped up our efforts to promote responsible forestry as a conservation strategy in response to heartfelt but politically or financially untenable calls to halt logging in tropical forests”, says Putz. Researchers evaluating an Indonesian logging site 1 year post-harvest. Many land managers and restoration experts have good intentions, but are not aware of the ecological consequences of specific interventions. As Putz explains, “Decision makers unfortunately often lack full understanding of the land-use options available. We're trying to clarify the tradeoffs made when different options are exercised”. For example, when calculating net deforestation rates for a given country, “If old-growth [forests] are cleared but tree plantations are established at a slightly higher rate, that country would be declared as having no net deforestation”. Putz and his colleagues noted a tendency among managers to plant trees even where natural regeneration is abundant, which could be fueled by ignorance about the ecological distinctions between native and introduced tree species, but also by a cultural preference for trees to grow in straight lines. There may even be financial incentives to plant trees in savannas or grasslands to absorb atmospheric CO2. While such planting may result in a net gain of “forest”, a variety of ecological factors, such as biodiversity, could suffer. “Empowering local communities can help reduce rates of deforestation and forest degradation”, Putz argues. “In many parts of the tropics, rural communities have huge potential roles that have not yet been filled. For this to happen, [members of these communities] first need clear rights: land tenure. Then they need training in forest management, including silviculture, forest engineering, and business management, [as well as] markets for the products from the forests they manage, so that their operations are financially sustainable.” Conceived to strengthen the voice for environmental issues within the UN, the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) held its inaugural 5-day session in Nairobi, Kenya, in late June. UNEA, which invites participation from all UN Member States as well as major stakeholders, replaces the UN Environment Programme's (UNEP's) Governing Council, which previously comprised 58 Member States elected for 4-year terms. The inaugural session focused primarily on the theme “Sustainable Development Goals and the Post-2015 Development Agenda, including sustainable consumption and production”. Upon the session's conclusion, ministers and delegates from 170 nations had adopted 17 resolutions that will help guide the global environmental agenda, including motions on air pollution and quality, marine debris and microplastics, chemical and waste management, illegal trade in wildlife, and strengthening the science–policy interface. “The overarching theme of the importance of good science to natural resource decision making was very prominent in the discussions during UNEA”, observes Patricia Beneke, Director and Regional Representative of UNEP's Regional Office for North America (Washington, DC). “Everything I saw at UNEA reflects the widely held view that we need to have good data and good information in order to do good policy.” The academic, scientific, NGO, and business representation at UNEA was pronounced, according to Beneke. Two days of meetings preceded the plenary sessions, during which civil society attendees developed a statement of input to UNEA, and academics and other participants engaged in multiple concurrent side events throughout the session. Additionally, two day-long symposia focused attention on environmental rule of law and on financing the green economy, respectively. “The first pulled together legal experts and members of the judiciary from many different countries to discuss international law issues as they relate to the environment”, explains Beneke, “and the second focused on banking and financial issues and the impediments to investing in sustainable, green projects”. “The first UNEA was a very positive, high-energy gathering”, adds Beneke. And for many, UNEA's first session was “historic”, initiating a universal platform for environmental policy guidance and granting the environment a more prominent standing in the UN, alongside security, finance, health, and trade. Kathryn Senior In early July, Janez Potoc-Cnik, Environment Commissioner of the European Union (EU), announced new enforceable targets to ensure that by 2030, 70% of all urban waste is recycled, with a 30% reduction in food waste and a landfill ban on paper and plastic. “If Europe wants to compete in the 21st-century world of emerging economies, we have to recycle resources back into productive use, not bury them”, he declares. David Palmer-Jones, Chairman of the Environmental Services Association (London, UK), welcomed the proposals, which encourage efficiency and put Europe firmly on the path to improved sustainability. However, he warns that some countries, particularly the newer EU member states, will find the targets challenging, noting that “Even countries that are already close to meeting the current targets will need new strategies and investment to keep the momentum going”. With a current recycling rate of 47%, Germany is leading the way toward reaching the 2020 targets for recycling 50% of urban waste. More recent EU entrants, such as Romania, still bury 99% of their waste, which brings the overall recycling level across the EU down to a more modest 27%; one-third of waste continues to go into landfills. Palmer-Jones predicts that much of the financial investment required would come from the private sector but warns that it has not yet been secured. Even so, efforts to achieve the 2030 targets are expected to create additional jobs for almost 600 000 people across Europe. “The Green Employment Initiative has been linked into the new targets and is a major component of the movement toward a circular economy”, explains Ray Georgeson, Chief Executive Officer of the Resource Association (Otley, UK). Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have voiced their support but a few have reservations. Benedek Jávor, one of Hungary's Green MEPs, agrees that reducing waste will bring benefits but argues that too much emphasis is being placed on recycling. “A greater priority should be reducing and preventing waste generation by setting targets to reduce overconsumption of resources”, he stresses. Per capita rates of waste generation in Europe have plateaued since 2000 but show little sign of declining. Danish MEP Margrete Auken also highlighted that a binding landfill ban “needs to be supported by equally enforceable measures that prevent waste from being incinerated, so that our approach to recycling remains consistent”. Patrick Monahan Although well-known for providing benefits such as timber and carbon sequestration, forests also help protect important archeological sites under their canopies. A study performed in the Angkor region of Cambodia showed that sandstone temples deteriorate far more quickly in an area cleared of trees than within an intact forest. Angkor is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognized for its temples and other structures built between the 9th and 14th centuries CE. Given that their roots sometimes damage the buildings' elaborate sandstone detailing, trees have long been considered as destructive forces to these temples; in the past, therefore, forested areas around some of these monuments were intentionally cleared as part of restoration efforts. However, a recent paper (Sci Total Environ 2014; doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.05.141) has challenged this view. Rain and sun have damaged an Angkor temple no longer protected by the forest canopy. By comparing historical and modern photographs of two nearby Angkor temples – one in a forested area and one in a clear-cut area – and using GIS technology, the researchers discovered that the stone motifs of the temple at the latter site have been deteriorating roughly ten times more rapidly. “Once the forest cover is gone, sunshine and monsoon rains directly attack the stone surface, which peels off”, says the study's lead author Marie-Françoise André (CNRS – Université Blaise-Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France). At the forested site, by contrast, trees create a more stable microclimate around the temple, reducing the effects of weathering that expand and contract the sandstone. The scientific team supported this interpretation through the use of temperature and humidity sensors, showing that climatic conditions were roughly three times more variable at the cleared site. This “bioprotection” provided by trees is an underappreciated way in which ecosystems benefit human society. “A very large number of scientists are currently studying biodeterioration, but very few investigate bio-protection”, André emphasizes. These results are likely to apply to other historical structures, too – even ones outside the tropics. André explains that “bioprotection is a global process”, citing the widespread protective role of forests in reducing soil erosion. By linking living trees and historical structures, this study adds a new cultural dimension to a worldwide environmental issue, pitting deforestation against the preservation of both biodiversity and heritage. Adrian Burton Recycled smartphones powered by a small solar array might soon be fixed to trees all over equatorial rainforests, protecting them from illegal loggers and saving their non-human inhabitants from poachers. The idea – brainchild of Topher White, whose tech start-up Rainforest Connection (RFCx; San Francisco, CA) is producing the devices – is remarkably simple. Discarded smartphones – protected from the elements by a waterproof case and powered by a solar array designed to capture dappled forest light (during the night the phones work on their daily charged batteries) – are hidden high up on tree trunks. Sensitive microphones attached to the phones then “listen” for noises associated with chainsaws or gunshots; each can cover about 2.5 square km of rainforest. Every 5 minutes, the phones send data packets to a cloud-based server, telling it what they have detected. The server analyzes the submitted signatures, and when one matches a chainsaw, for example, it sends a message to the phones of local rangers. In just minutes, boots could be on the ground within a few hundred meters of the crime scene, providing the first real promise of catching ecocriminals red-handed. Smartphones would actually be installed in the canopy. Currently, the monitoring of illegal tree-felling largely relies on aerial or satellite images – but these might come days apart, by which time the bad guys are long gone. The phone bill for running a network of devices would vary between countries, but could be as low as a few dollars per device per month – very low compared with the cost of losing trees or rhinos worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. “Five years ago, this may not have been possible”, says White, “but now, old smartphones are powerful enough to reliably do this kind of surveillance, and these days cell phone coverage has been extended far into rainforests. In the near future, if we can find the resources, we plan to expand the system to monitor for smoke and pollutants”. The success of initial trials held in the forests of western Sumatra in 2013 led to the Zoological Society of London becoming involved in the project and to propose new trials in Cameroon later this year. “RFCx is a good example of using existing technology in ways never envisaged before”, comments Harald Haas, Professor of Mobile Communications at the University of Edinburgh (UK). “It's fascinating to see that mobile communication technology changes not only the way we live, but also the way we protect our planet”. Dinesh C Sharma Ecological degradation of India's Ganges River has been the source of much debate recently. The devastation caused by the flooding and landslides in Uttarakhand in June 2013 brought into focus regional environmental impacts of hydro-power projects and unregulated development activity, while the dumping of untreated wastewater into the Ganges as it flows through urban areas was highlighted during the 2014 national election. During his campaign, India's new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, had vowed – if elected – to initiate cleanup projects, but plans announced in July by his government have disappointed both environmentalists and scientists. The Ministry of Tourism, for instance, proposes promoting the Ganges as “a major tourist destination”, while the Ministry of Shipping plans to dredge the river at several locations to facilitate commercial ship navigation. In addition, barrages (specialized dams) are to be constructed at 100-km intervals along the length of the river, despite claims by the Minister responsible for Ganga rejuvenation, Uma Bharti, that “the government is committed to ensure [the river's] continuous and uninterrupted flow”. “Commercial exploitation of the river will add to the existing pollution load and further degrade riverine ecology”, says Vishwambhar Nath Mishra, President of the Varanasi-based Sankat Mochan Foundation. Construction of barrages, he predicts, will restrict river flow and turn the Ganges into a series of lakes solely for recreation by tourists, while dredging and shipping will adversely affect aquatic biodiversity, including the endangered Ganges river dolphin (Platanista gangetica). Hemant Dhyani, a member of the expert panel established to study the role of hydropower projects in the Uttarakhand landslides, said rejuvenation strategies should start by implementing existing plans such as the previous government's intention to preserve areas around the headwaters of the Ganges as an eco-sensitive zone where development activity would be regulated. The Indian Government has been grappling with how to address the deterioration of the Ganges for at least 30 years. “Any river rejuvenation exercise should begin with an attempt to understand why efforts to clean up rivers since 1974, when the water pollution law was enacted, have failed”, notes Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator of South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (New Delhi, India). Janet Pelley In early June, the Government of Chile canceled the permits for the US$10 billion HidroAysén dam project that would have produced 20% of Chile's electricity. The government says it will replace the lost megawatts (MW) from HidroAysén with energy conservation, renewables such as solar and wind power, and imported liquid natural gas (LNG). “Just 6 years ago, the energy industry presented dams or coal plants as the only choice for fueling Chile's economy”, says Amanda Maxwell, Latin America Project Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council (Washington, DC). Proposed in 2008, the HidroAysén project would have built five dams on two unspoiled rivers in southern Chile's Patagonia region, flooding 5900 ha of wilderness and punching a record-sized 2000-km transmission line north to serve new mines. “Polls showed that 70% of the population did not want Patagonia irreversibly damaged to provide power to the mining industry in the north, and the government understood that”, says Roberto Román Latorre, a mechanical engineer at the University of Chile (Santiago). Meanwhile, the energy landscape in Chile rapidly changed. A series of drought-related hydropower outages and cuts in gas imports from Argentina were making dams and fossil fuels appear unreliable and costly. At the same time, the price of crystalline photovoltaic cells dropped to US$0.60 per watt for large systems, making solar energy cheaper than dams or coal, Román Latorre explains. Building new hydro dams no longer made sense due to their cost and their great distance from end users. With the mining industry centered in northern Chile, one of the driest and sunniest places on Earth, it became clear that solar-based systems were the better way to produce electricity, he continues. The Baker River will continue to flow freely through Chilean Patagonia. The Chilean Government released a new Energy Agenda on May 15, setting a goal of reducing electricity consumption by 20% by 2025 and producing 20% of energy with renewables (excluding large hydro) by 2025. The agenda includes investing in a new LNG terminal in south-central Chile. “Chile's experience shows that energy markets can be transformed in a very short period of time”, Maxwell points out. Chile now has over 600 MW of wind and solar power online and there are several 400-MW advanced solar plants in the planning stages. “This means that by the end of this decade, before the first HidroAysén dam would have operated, a lot of cleaner and less expensive sources will already have been generating for many years”, Román Latorre concludes. Claire Miller The UN World Heritage Committee (WHC) has rejected a bid by the Australian Government to delist more than 70 000 ha of forest from Tasmania's World Heritage Area, which (if approved) would have opened the area to logging. The Conservative Government elected in September 2013 claimed the area was degraded from earlier logging and should never have been included in an expanded listing approved in June 2013 on recommendation by previous and However, environmentalists and government that only of the area had been with the still and other natural The less than at its June 2014 meeting in to the members the case for while declared that the were and would an “If this for conservation according to a responsible of States to the when they their we this the Australian Prime Minister was “The that we made to from the of the World Heritage listing – areas of degraded areas of timber – we was argues the decision is a to the of the to the World Heritage and an important the World Heritage was part of a between the timber and environmentalists to end of over Tasmania's primarily for The Association of to the to but to and many are and a great by the new Conservative – and in – to back this says would want to the of as an such a lost their on a way In the future, people in – endangered or – or their parts could to a new interpretation of of released in by the Committee of the in such could for years or now, only made for business were illegal in or parts for The interpretation previous the of which is now as endangered and their by for also includes both the as or endangered and – of their – by “This new interpretation from therefore, be as a new explains a at of or it targets and to reduce However, this using parts for which had already been but which on is the multiple responsible for the including the and Ministry of for and aquatic the for and for illegal trade the of in and various responsible for associated After its the law attention from international coverage within in May and June. its potential to the interpretation was not as quickly or widely as the Environmental released on the same the latter was a less directly to the is time from to I [the new will an in reducing the consumption of In what is being as a major for conservation, announced in a statement with in that it would its of in the of – a UN World Heritage that is to endangered and some of the biodiversity in the world – and or further there UNESCO and the Government that such are not with its World Heritage The a and against by in 2013 and among other that the in a of to ensure environmental preservation and human for the local population Environ endangered Chief Executive (London, UK), says the has of with the Government to propose a of that has many projects in the including of water and the of a is committed to our business in an and and that the and of people and of the environment remains a business goal is to be a we sustainable for the countries and local as well as for our Director for the (Washington, against the Government to World Heritage and the we about the of this We the Government to all the as by then will universal be for the future, and only then can the its full potential as an of sustainable development for