Sorsogon vice gov recommends forest farming vs climate change « SORSOGON UNITED:
The vice governor of Sorsogon province where the vast forest areas are confronted with rapid deterioration due to natural and man-made destruction is pushing forest farming as an effective measure to avert the negative impacts of climate change in the locality.
“Through forest farming, we would be able to have economic gains from the forest we nourish while contributing to the global effort of solving the problem on global warming,” Vice Governor Renato Laurinaria told the Philippines News Agency at his mini-forest farm here over the weekend.
“The signs of global warming that indicate we are now in the midst of it are already ominous as we feel the immediate effects of global warming through the climatic changes that make our summers hotter while the typhoons during the rainy season are increasingly getting to be fewer, but more furious,” he said.
Showing posts with label forests. Show all posts
Showing posts with label forests. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Logger accused of breaching licence 50 times, damaging endagered species habitats, removing five times the permissable amount of canopy; Sydney, Australia
Forests NSW accused of breaching licence 50 times:
THE State Government is investigating a logging operation overseen by its own authority, Forests NSW, that allegedly involved the destruction of native animal habitat and more than 50 breaches of its licence conditions.
Timber harvesting in Yabbra Forest near Casino late last year damaged areas used by the highly endangered black-striped wallaby, koalas and yellow-bellied gliders, among several other protected native species, according to an independent report.
The logging operation was supposed to leave half the tree canopy intact but in some places less than one-tenth remained, according to observations from a consulting ecologist, David Milledge.
THE State Government is investigating a logging operation overseen by its own authority, Forests NSW, that allegedly involved the destruction of native animal habitat and more than 50 breaches of its licence conditions.
Timber harvesting in Yabbra Forest near Casino late last year damaged areas used by the highly endangered black-striped wallaby, koalas and yellow-bellied gliders, among several other protected native species, according to an independent report.
The logging operation was supposed to leave half the tree canopy intact but in some places less than one-tenth remained, according to observations from a consulting ecologist, David Milledge.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Tree cover and agricultural land not natural enemies as supposed
Tree cover far bigger than expected on farms: study | Green Business | Reuters
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent OSLO (Reuters)
- Almost half of the world's farmland has at least 10 percent tree cover, according to a study on Monday indicating that farmers are far less destructive to carbon-storing forests than previously believed.
'The area revealed in this study is twice the size of the Amazon, and shows that farmers are protecting and planting trees spontaneously,' Dennis Garrity, Director General of the World Agroforestry Center in Nairobi, said in a statement.
The Centre's report, based on satellite images and the first to estimate tree cover on the world's farms, showed tree canopies exceeded 10 percent on farmland of 10 million square kms (3.9 million sq miles) -- 46 percent of all agricultural land and an area the size of Canada or China.
ALSO COVERED IN: Can farms and forests mix?
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent OSLO (Reuters)
- Almost half of the world's farmland has at least 10 percent tree cover, according to a study on Monday indicating that farmers are far less destructive to carbon-storing forests than previously believed.
'The area revealed in this study is twice the size of the Amazon, and shows that farmers are protecting and planting trees spontaneously,' Dennis Garrity, Director General of the World Agroforestry Center in Nairobi, said in a statement.
The Centre's report, based on satellite images and the first to estimate tree cover on the world's farms, showed tree canopies exceeded 10 percent on farmland of 10 million square kms (3.9 million sq miles) -- 46 percent of all agricultural land and an area the size of Canada or China.
ALSO COVERED IN: Can farms and forests mix?
Seeing the tree from the forest: Predicting the future of plant communities
Seeing the tree from the forest: Predicting the future of plant communities
New algorithm explores future changes in plant populations
The ability to envisage the future may be closer than you would think. A recent paper by Sean Hammond and Karl Niklas in the August 2009 issue of the American Journal of Botany (available here) presents an algorithm that may be used to predict the future dynamics of plant communities, an increasingly interesting area of study as significant environmental changes, such as global climate change and invasive species, are affecting current plant communities.
Similar ecological factors, such as nutrient availability and habitat stability, play a role in the growth and development of both an individual plant and a community of plants, like a forest; however, the length of time that these factors effect change differs between individual plants that may live for decades and plant communities that may exist for thousands of years. A goal of plant ecology has been to find ways to predict plant behavior in communities based on observed properties of a few representative members.
Hammond and Niklas have developed an algorithm—spatially explicit, reiterative algorithm, or SERA—that explores whether changes occurring in plant communities, such as self-thinning and the competitive displacement of one species by another, can be attributed to the characteristics of the individual plants that comprise the community.
New algorithm explores future changes in plant populations
The ability to envisage the future may be closer than you would think. A recent paper by Sean Hammond and Karl Niklas in the August 2009 issue of the American Journal of Botany (available here) presents an algorithm that may be used to predict the future dynamics of plant communities, an increasingly interesting area of study as significant environmental changes, such as global climate change and invasive species, are affecting current plant communities.
Similar ecological factors, such as nutrient availability and habitat stability, play a role in the growth and development of both an individual plant and a community of plants, like a forest; however, the length of time that these factors effect change differs between individual plants that may live for decades and plant communities that may exist for thousands of years. A goal of plant ecology has been to find ways to predict plant behavior in communities based on observed properties of a few representative members.
Hammond and Niklas have developed an algorithm—spatially explicit, reiterative algorithm, or SERA—that explores whether changes occurring in plant communities, such as self-thinning and the competitive displacement of one species by another, can be attributed to the characteristics of the individual plants that comprise the community.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Study warns that UN Climate panel's defintion of forest sets canopy cover threshold too low, puts forests at risk
Forest definition comes under fire : Nature News
Ecologists accuse framework convention of barking up the wrong tree.
Natasha Gilbert
Ecologists have questioned the UNFCCC's definition of a forest.
The health of the world's forests — and their capacity to lock away carbon — could be jeopardized by logging if the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) definition of a forest is not changed, a study warns.
A future climate deal could see developing countries financially compensated for preserving their forests. The UNFCCC defines a forest as an area of land 0.05–1 hectare in size, of which more than 10–30% is covered by tree canopy. Trees must also have the potential to reach a minimum height of 2-5 metres.
Countries participating in the UNFCCC can choose how they want to define a forest from within those ranges. For example, in Brazil a forest is defined as an area of land greater than 1 hectare, with more than 30% canopy cover and a minimum tree height of 5 metres. By contrast, Ghana defines a forest as an area of land greater than 0.1 hectare, with more than 15% canopy cover and a minimum tree height of 2 metres.
But a report in the journal Conservation Letters, says that the UNFCCC has set the proportion of land that must be covered by tree canopy too low. Nophea Sasaki, a forest ecologist at Harvard University, and an author of the study, says that woodland could be 'severely degraded' but still be classified as a forest under the current UNFCCC definition.
MORE ON THIS STORY in: UN forest rules undermine principals of REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) initiative: Study
Ecologists accuse framework convention of barking up the wrong tree.
Natasha Gilbert
Ecologists have questioned the UNFCCC's definition of a forest.
The health of the world's forests — and their capacity to lock away carbon — could be jeopardized by logging if the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) definition of a forest is not changed, a study warns.
A future climate deal could see developing countries financially compensated for preserving their forests. The UNFCCC defines a forest as an area of land 0.05–1 hectare in size, of which more than 10–30% is covered by tree canopy. Trees must also have the potential to reach a minimum height of 2-5 metres.
Countries participating in the UNFCCC can choose how they want to define a forest from within those ranges. For example, in Brazil a forest is defined as an area of land greater than 1 hectare, with more than 30% canopy cover and a minimum tree height of 5 metres. By contrast, Ghana defines a forest as an area of land greater than 0.1 hectare, with more than 15% canopy cover and a minimum tree height of 2 metres.
But a report in the journal Conservation Letters, says that the UNFCCC has set the proportion of land that must be covered by tree canopy too low. Nophea Sasaki, a forest ecologist at Harvard University, and an author of the study, says that woodland could be 'severely degraded' but still be classified as a forest under the current UNFCCC definition.
MORE ON THIS STORY in: UN forest rules undermine principals of REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) initiative: Study
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Study finds British woodlands 'losing biodiversity'; Dorset, UK
BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Woodlands 'losing biodiversity'
British woodlands are less biologically distinctive than they were 70 years ago, says a team of UK researchers.
The use of fertilisers in farming had increased soil fertility, while tree canopies had grown thicker and cut light levels, they explained.
As a result, the woodlands were becoming home to the same species, resulting in the unique characteristics of individual sites being lost.
The findings appear online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The research was carried out by scientists from Bournemouth University, Natural England and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH).
'This study shows that increased pollution and poor countryside management have led to increasing homogenisation of biodiversity in British woodlands,' said co-author Professor James Bullock, an ecologist from CEH.
British woodlands are less biologically distinctive than they were 70 years ago, says a team of UK researchers.
The use of fertilisers in farming had increased soil fertility, while tree canopies had grown thicker and cut light levels, they explained.
As a result, the woodlands were becoming home to the same species, resulting in the unique characteristics of individual sites being lost.
The findings appear online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The research was carried out by scientists from Bournemouth University, Natural England and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH).
'This study shows that increased pollution and poor countryside management have led to increasing homogenisation of biodiversity in British woodlands,' said co-author Professor James Bullock, an ecologist from CEH.
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