Scientists say it will take a massive amount of collective action to reverse deforestation and save society from collapse. Big Cheese Photo / Getty Images Plus
Deforestation coupled with the rampant destruction of natural resources will soon have devastating effects on the future of society as we know it, according to two theoretical physicists who study complex systems and have concluded that greed has put us on a path to irreversible collapse within the next two to four decades, as VICE reported.
<p>The research by the two physicists, one from Chile and the other from the UK, was published last week in<em> <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-63657-6" target="_blank">Nature Scientific Reports</a></em>. The researchers used advance statistical modeling to look at how a growing human population can cope with the loss of resources, mainly due to deforestation. After crunching the numbers, the scientists came up with a fairly bleak assessment of society's chance of surviving the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis" target="_self">climate crisis</a>.</p><p>"Based on the current resource consumption rates and best estimate of technological rate growth our study shows that we have very low probability, less than 10 percent in most optimistic estimate, to survive without facing a catastrophic collapse," the authors write in the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-63657-6" target="_blank">study</a> abstract.</p>
<p>From all the issues that the climate crisis raises like rising sea levels, increases in extreme weather, drought, flooding, and crop failures, scientists zeroed in on deforestation since it is more measurable right now. They argue that forest density, or its current scarcity, is considered the cataclysmic canary in the coal mine, according to the report, as <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/07/29/humanity-likely-faces-rapid-catastrophic-collapse-study-warns/" target="_blank">The New York Post</a> reported.</p><p>"Many factors due to human activity are considered as possibly responsible for the observed changes: among these water and air contamination (mostly greenhouse effect) and deforestation are the most cited. While the extent of human contribution to the greenhouse effect and temperature changes is still a matter of discussion, the deforestation is an undeniable fact," the authors write.</p>
<p>The authors note that the current rate of deforestation would mean that all <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/forests">forests</a> would disappear within 100-200 years.</p><p>"Clearly it is unrealistic to imagine that the human society would start to be affected by the deforestation only when the last tree would be cut down," the authors write, as the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8571787/Human-civilization-stands-90-chance-collapse-decades-physicists-claim.html" target="_blank">Daily Mail</a> reported.</p><p>The trajectory of such rapid resource use to supply a rapidly growing human population would result in the loss of planetary life-support systems necessary for human survival, including carbon storage, oxygen production, soil conservation and water cycle regulation, according to the Daily Mail.</p><p>In the absence of these critical services, "it is highly unlikely to imagine the survival of many species, including ours, on Earth without [forests]" the study points out. "The progressive degradation of the environment due to deforestation would heavily affect human society and consequently the human collapse would start much earlier," they write, as VICE reported.</p>
<p>The numbers the researchers look at highlight the extent of human greed. Prior to human civilizations, the earth was covered by 60 million square kilometers of forest. As deforestation has ramped up, the new paper points out that there are now less than 40 million square kilometers of forest remaining.</p><p>"Calculations show that, maintaining the actual rate of population growth and resource consumption, in particular forest consumption, we have a few decades left before an irreversible collapse of our civilization," the paper concludes, as VICE reported.</p>
<p>The model developed by the physicists depicts human population growth reaching a maximum level that is undermined by the shrinking of forests, which will not have enough resources left to sustain people. After this point, "a rapid disastrous collapse in population occurs before eventually reaching a low population steady state or total extinction … We call this point in time the 'no-return point' because if the deforestation rate is not changed before this time the human population will not be able to sustain itself and a disastrous collapse or even extinction will occur," the authors write, according to VICE.</p><p>Of course, as with every theoretical paper, there are limitations. The paper assumes that some measurements (such as population growth and deforestation rate) will remain constant, which is certainly not guaranteed. Forest is also taken as a proxy for all resources, which could be seen as too simplistic, as <a href="https://www.iflscience.com/environment/chances-of-societal-collapse-in-next-few-decades-is-sky-high-modelling-suggests/" target="_blank">IFLScience</a> noted.</p><p>The authors point out that it will take a massive amount of collective action to reverse direction and save our society from collapse.</p>
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Aerial picture showing fires burning in Brazil's Amazon rainforest on August 23, 2019. Carl de Souza / AFP / Getty Images
The number of forest fires in Brazil's Amazon rainforest increased 28% in July in comparison to last year, the country's National Institute for Space Research reported Saturday.
<p>Brazil holds around 60% of the Amazon basin region and environmentalists say this area is vital to containing the impact of climate change.</p><p>The state agency recorded 6,803 fires in the Amazon last month, compared to 5,318 in the same month of 2019.</p><p>Environmentalists were alarmed by the figure, particularly because August traditionally marks the beginning of the fire season in the region. Many now fear that a repeat of the large surge in fires that devastated the area last August could occur this year again.</p>
<p>"More than 1,000 fires in a single day is a 15-year record and shows the government's strategy of media-spectacle operations is not working on the ground," Greenpeace spokesman Romulo Batista said in a statement.</p><p>The fires have been largely set to clear land illegally for farming, ranching and mining. Activists accuse Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro of encouraging the deforestation, as he has been in favor of opening up the rainforest to agriculture and industry.</p><p>The first six months of 2020 were already the worst on record for deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, with 3,069 square kilometers (1,185 square miles) cleared, according to INPE data, an area larger than the nation of Luxembourg.</p>
Government Measures Not Enough
<p>On July 16, the Brazilian government banned burning in the Pantanal wetlands and the Amazon forest for four months.</p><p>President Bolsonaro also issued an order in May for the military to coordinate environmental actions in the Amazon.</p><p>But experts say the fire numbers indicate the government's response has not been effective. The deforestation index also remained high this year until July, compared to the last couple of years, according to Carlos Nobre, a researcher at the Advanced Studies Institute in the State University of Sao Paulo.</p><p>"We can conclude, with data until the end of July, that the effectiveness of government actions to reduce fires and deforestation is low," he said.</p><p>Experts also say that this year's dry season will be even more prone to fires than last year. U.S. space agency NASA warned last month that warmer ocean surface temperatures in the North Atlantic have creating the conditions for a more extreme drought in the Amazon.</p><p>"Human-set fires used for agriculture and land clearing more prone to growing out of control and spreading," NASA warned. "Conditions are ripe."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/brazil-amazon-rainforest-fires-surge-in-july/a-54405259?maca=en-VAM_volltext_ecowatch-28485-html-copypaste" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle</a>.</em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2646869688#/" target="_self"></a></p>From Your Site Articles
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Woodland caribou in northern Ontario. J.H. / CC BY-ND 2.0
By Tara Lohan
A logged forest is a changed forest, and for woodland caribou that could mean the difference between life and death.
<p>A recent <a href="https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jwmg.21829" target="_blank">study</a> in the <em>Journal of Wildlife Management</em> tracked the survival rates and population growth of woodland caribou (<em>Rangifer tarandus caribou</em>) across two areas of northern Ontario, Canada. In one area about a third of the forest had been logged 30 to 50 years ago. In the other, the only disturbances were from natural events.</p><p>The research found "substantial differences" in the survival of adult caribou between the two areas.</p>
<p>The animals, it turned out, fared considerably worse in the previously logged landscape — so badly that the researchers, led by <a href="https://www.fryxell-lab.com/thefryxelllab" target="_blank">John Fryxell</a>, a professor at the University of Guelph and executive director of the <a href="https://biodiversity.uoguelph.ca/" target="_blank">Biodiversity Institute of Ontario</a>, concluded it would lead to a dwindling population. The unlogged habitat, however, they found "should be considerably more capable of sustaining caribou."</p><p>The high mortality rates for the caribou in the logged forest are mostly due to wolf predation, but human changes to the landscape help make that possible. Development has been a driving force behind declining caribou numbers throughout their range.</p><p>As a result of these human disturbances, the caribou population in North America is in a precarious position. Woodland caribou once ranged across half of Canada and the northern reaches of the contiguous United States. But they're now gone from their southern range. In Canada's boreal forests, the animals are listed as threatened under the federal Species at Risk Act, Canada's version of the Endangered Species Act.</p><p>While woodland caribou have evolved to live with forests disturbed by wildfire, they haven't fared well in forests disturbed by people. One of the biggest threats is habitat fragmentation from commercial logging, mining, oil and gas — and all the roads associated with those activities.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUxMzA0Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMjc4Nzc5OX0.Im2Bk0epol_P5NjtPoPU8wCFVC6Jmmdekm7ObdaiRbg/img.jpg?width=980" id="4204a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="99b5f5d275212ce21fa200e2d57edd83" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/woodland-caribou-boreal/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>. </em><br/></p>Tar sands mining in Fort McMurray, Alberta fragments habitat for caribou. Kris Krüg / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
<p>But here's the twist: Moose do better in these disturbed landscapes, and that puts caribou further at risk, albeit indirectly.</p><p>Previous research has found that moose prefer the vegetation that grows in these early successional forests that follow a large-scale disturbance, like commercial logging. And a higher density of moose attracts more wolves, which are also able to <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.12732" target="_blank">move faster and hunt farther</a> by following linear clearings like roads and pipelines in these developed areas.</p><p>While moose are the primary prey for wolves, caribou that wander into these forests become another tasty target.</p><p>"The bottom line," Fryxell explains, "is that the combination of vegetation changes, increase in road density, increase in moose, and consequent increase in wolves threaten long-term viability of woodland caribou in boreal landscapes of Ontario, in a similar fashion to many other parts of Canada."</p><p>A national assessment found that around 70% of Canada's local <a href="http://registrelep-sararegistry.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=2FEAAC82-1#_ex" target="_blank">populations of woodland caribou were no longer self-sustaining</a>.</p><p>So what's to be done?</p><p>Last year provincial managers in Quebec floated the idea of <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/12/11/news/quebec-plan-kill-wolves-protect-caribou-angers-conservationists" target="_blank">killing wolves</a> to protect caribou herds. Their idea met with public backlash, but wolves in British Columbia weren't so lucky. During the winter of 2019-2020, a whopping 463 wolves were killed by the B.C. provincial government for the stated purpose of protecting populations of southern mountain caribou, another caribou ecotype.</p><p>Some of the money to pay for the kill came from Coastal GasLink, a company actively clearing land in caribou habitat for a pipeline, the Canadian news outlet the <em><a href="https://thenarwhal.ca/a-dangerous-road-coastal-gaslink-pays-to-kill-wolves-in-endangered-caribou-habitat-in-b-c-interior/" target="_blank">Narwhal </a></em><a href="https://thenarwhal.ca/a-dangerous-road-coastal-gaslink-pays-to-kill-wolves-in-endangered-caribou-habitat-in-b-c-interior/" target="_blank">reported</a>.</p><p>And a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-020-02008-3" target="_blank">recently published study</a> in the journal <em>Biology and Conservation </em>found that the culls were not likely to aid caribou and pointed out several shortcomings in previous research that called for such wolf-control measures.</p><p>There are other, and better, options — like habitat protection and restoration.</p><p>Fryxell's study concluded that "the most secure conservation measure would be to set aside extensive tracts of boreal forest with natural patterns of disturbance to sustain viable caribou sub‐populations."</p><p>Research shows that the animals need at least 65% of their range undisturbed to have a good shot at survival.</p><p>And helping caribou will come with other environmental benefits. Canada's 2018 <a href="http://registrelep-sararegistry.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=2FEAAC82-1#_ex" target="_blank">federal action</a> plan to restore caribou stated, "Boreal caribou is also considered by many to be an indicator of the overall state of Canada's boreal forest ecosystem." So keeping forests intact or restoring habitat is a proposition that would benefit not only caribou but many other species.</p><p><em><a href="https://therevelator.org/author/taralohan/" target="_blank">Tara Lohan</a> is deputy editor of The Revelator and has worked for more than a decade as a digital editor and environmental journalist focused on the intersections of energy, water and climate. Her work has been published by The Nation, American Prospect, High Country News, Grist, Pacific Standard</em><em style=""> and others. She is the editor of two books on the global water crisis.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Local women water newly planted saxaul in the desert at Mingqin county on March 27th, 2019 in Wuwei, Gansu Province, China. The trees were planted as part of Ant Forest, a green initiative on the Alipay app. Wang HE / Getty Images
By Harry Kretchmer
Since its launch in 2016, over half a billion people have used Ant Forest to convert lower-carbon activities such as using public transport into real trees.
<p>The game is helping China <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/144540/china-and-india-lead-the-way-in-greening" target="_blank">lead the way</a> in re-greening the planet and is serving as a model for <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/tree-planting">tree-planting</a> schemes elsewhere.</p><p>It's the kind of innovation the World Economic Forum is seeking through <a href="https://www.weforum.org/uplink" target="_blank">UpLink</a>, a platform for crowdsourcing sustainable development solutions to challenges including how to plant <a href="https://uplink.weforum.org/uplink/s/uplink-issue/a002o00000vOf09AAC/trillion-trees" target="_blank">a trillion trees.</a></p>
<h3>The Ant Forest Model</h3><p>"Ant Forest taps into the best of human ingenuity and innovation to create a better world," said Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme – which in 2019 gave <a href="https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/press-release/chinese-initiative-ant-forest-wins-un-champions-earth-award" target="_blank">the project the UN's top environmental award</a>.</p><p>So how does it work?</p><p>To start with, Ant Forest has plenty of potential players, being part of China's Alipay mobile payments app, which is used by more than a billion people.</p><p>Each time a user performs a lower-carbon activity, such as paying a utility bill online or cycling to work, they are rewarded with "green energy points."</p><p>However, rather than immediately spending those points on a real tree, Ant Forest turns its users <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2019-06-25/the-chinese-gaming-app-that-lets-users-plant-real-trees-video" target="_blank">into game players</a>. The green energy points "grow" into a virtual tree on the user's app. And users can share green energy with friends and see how their virtual forests compare with others.</p><p>For every virtual tree grown, Ant Forest donates – and plants – a real one. And this gamification has had real-world impacts.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUwMzEzNy9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNDgxNTEwMn0.KkxASSTCUOVTTgBQJ5ZYi8ccAvOlPRYHntlcE02um8Q/img.png?width=980" id="93ade" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4cb6504d3b3d13bbbf2f4d1e0900dd3b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
The world is getting greener, with China and India leading the way. NASA / Nature Sustainability
<h3>A Greening China</h3><p>According to a study in Nature Sustainability, NASA satellites have revealed a 5% increase in global green leaf cover since the early 2000s – <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0220-7" target="_blank">with China leading that growth</a>.</p><p>While a third of Chinese greening is due to the expansion of agriculture, <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/144540/china-and-india-lead-the-way-in-greening" target="_blank">42% comes from projects to plant forests</a>. According to the UN, Ant Forest has become the country's largest private sector tree-planting scheme – so the game is a big part of China's greening.</p><p>And the locations for planting are ambitious: arid areas of Northern China like parts of Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Shanxi. Many of the 122 million Ant Forest trees have been planted in areas that have become deserts.</p><p>There has been some criticism. In 2019, the journal <em>Nature</em> reported concerns that holding back deserts with trees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02789-w" target="_blank">could put pressure on water supplies</a>. Scientists in China responded that local conditions are taken into account. <a href="https://medium.com/alipay-and-the-world/alipay-gallery-ant-forest-tree-planting-spring-2019-dc4e0578cc7c" target="_blank">Drought-resistant varieties, such as the "saxaul" shrub,</a> are used by Ant Forest.</p><p>The project is certainly ambitious. In 2019, Alipay's parent company, Ant Financial Group, said the trees covered some 112,000 hectares. And there are sizable spillover benefits, too.</p>
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<h3>Environment and People</h3><p>The young trees maintain and repair eroded <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/soil">soils</a>, as well as reduce global CO2 levels.</p><p>Another major gain from the project has been employment. Ant Financial Group said 400,000 job opportunities have been created through Ant Forest, many for local farmers.</p><p>But if the trees are donated by Ant Financial, why not simply plant the trees and cut out the virtual ones?</p><p>The reason, as the UN puts it, is "<a href="https://unfccc.int/climate-action/momentum-for-change/planetary-health/alipay-ant-forest" target="_blank">significant behavioural change</a>." Gamification has encouraged millions of people to adopt lower-carbon lifestyles.</p><p>The success of the project has now led to <a href="https://www.gcash.com/gforest" target="_blank">a similar initiative in the Philippines</a>, launched by the mobile payments provider GCash.</p><p>The project is an encouraging step, according to the UN's Andersen.</p><p>"Although the environmental challenges we face are daunting," she said, "we have the technology and the knowledge to overcome them and fundamentally redesign how we interact with the planet."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/07/china-ant-forest-app-carbon-emissions-trees/" target="_blank">World Economic Forum</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Agencies in California, Washington and British Columbia are sharing data and strategies to protect forests from wildfires. Joe Mabel / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 4.0
Some of the largest wildfires on record have swept across the West in recent years.
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<p>Restoring these areas and managing forests to prevent more dangerous fires is complicated, especially as the climate warms.</p><p>"A lot of our management has been designed up until now with the expectation of a stable climate. And that expectation is no longer accurate," says Dan Siemann of the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. "And so we're having to think about things like, 'What species should we be planting here that can survive not only in our current climate, but in future climates?'"</p><p>To find solutions, agencies in California, Washington, and British Columbia are collaborating. In a 2018 <a target="_blank" href="https://resources.ca.gov/CNRALegacyFiles/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/CA-WA-BC-Forest-MOU.pdf">memorandum of understanding</a>, the three agencies pledged to share data and innovations.</p>
<p>The group is also exploring ways to offset the costs of forest management. For example, they're looking for markets for wood from the small trees and branches that are cut when forests are thinned.</p><p>Siemann says he's optimistic that by working together, the region can better adapt to global warming while saving time and money.</p><p>"We're really learning from each other and advancing our effectiveness around this," he says.</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/07/california-washington-british-columbia-work-together-on-forest-health/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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The Colima fir tree's distribution has been reduced to the area surrounding the Nevado de Colima volcano. Agustín del Castillo
By Agustín del Castillo
For 20 years, the Colima fir tree (Abies colimensis) has been at the heart of many disputes to conserve the temperate forests of southern Jalisco, a state in central Mexico. Today, the future of this tree rests upon whether the area's avocado crops will advance further and whether neighboring communities will unite to protect it.
<p>The Colima fir tree's distribution has been reduced to the area surrounding the Nevado de Colima volcano. In November 2019, Mexican authorities included the tree on a list of endangered species.</p>
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The Nevado de Colima volcano stands 4,260 meters (13,976 feet) above sea level. Agustín del Castillo
<p>According to biologist José Villa Castillo, the director of Nevado de Colima National Park and Nevado de Colima Cloud Forest State Park, it is imperative to stop the commercialization of the tree's timber and to create policies that conserve the forests in which it lives. Villa Castillo also supported the inclusion of the tree on the endangered species list.</p><p>Villa Castillo acknowledged the enormous challenge of conserving this tree, and he said the pressure to exploit its timber without sustainable management is far from the only problem. The expansion of the nearby avocado industry also threatens its survival.</p><p>When allowed to grow, the Colima fir tree can become monumental: It can reach 60 meters (196 feet) in height and 2 m (6.5 ft) in diameter. To protect this giant, specialists and communities often promote ecotourism and conservation projects inside the national and state parks that surround the Nevado de Colima volcano.</p>Fires That Clear Land for Avocado Crops
<p>In 2012, a group of researchers from the University of Guadalajara proposed to the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) the recognition of the <em>A. colimensis</em> as a unique species to differentiate it from the sacred fir (<em>A. religiosa</em>), which is the dominant fir tree in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, a collection of volcanoes in central Mexico.</p><p>The Colima fir tree "has extremely low genetic diversity; it has the lowest known genetic diversity among all the species in the Abies genus in Mesoamerica and one of the lowest among all the species of trees on the planet," according to the authors of the proposal to recognize the tree as an endangered species. The area it occupies "is very limited": just 15,002 hectares (37,071 acres), or 0.007% of the territory of Mexico.</p><p>The Nevado de Colima volcano, which stands 4,260 meters (13,976 feet) above sea level, is one of only eight peaks that exceed 4,000 m (13,123 ft) in Mexico. It is only 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Pacific Ocean and is considered an "evolutionary island" because the ecosystems in its high-altitude areas drive unique adaptations in species and are cut off from other ecosystems by hundreds of kilometers. The Colima fir tree is an example of the area's biological differentiation, according to Libertad Arredondo, a researcher and expert on the ecology of high mountains.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0MDIwNi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1Nzg0OTUzNn0.Zt2LW_byQMuXteua6jQEuFCHoO9o9lDeDi6l8OlhKcs/img.jpg?width=980" id="39c25" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8b7cab21f2d425be9b26bbfc8ba8d3c2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
The fir forests are mainly located in the middle of slopes or in ravines. Agustín del Castillo
<p>Even though the tree has remained on that "evolutionary island," its situation has become increasingly complicated by the impact of deforestation, which was propelled by the issuance of permits for forest exploitation. Fires, started to convert the land to agriculture or other uses, also present a threat to the ecosystem, according to the experts who suggested the tree should be considered endangered.</p><p>The researchers said the tree's future prospects are further complicated by its slow growth rate, its high degree of genetic erosion, the effects of climate change, and the movement of clouds to higher altitudes. The position of clouds is crucial because they act as an essential source of moisture for fir trees.</p><p>Villa Castillo, an expert in pine genetics and reproduction, said the Colima fir tree has never been successfully reproduced in nurseries, which would likely make it impossible to conduct reforestation efforts to help repopulate the species.</p><p>The forests that contain the Colima fir tree are in cold, humid climates, with very little light reaching the understory, and they're mainly located in the middle of slopes or in ravines. The species thrives when surrounded by oak trees, coniferous trees and other types of vegetation common in mountainous cloud forests. The tree also requires a primary habitat with little disturbance from humans.</p><p>According to Villa Castillo, fire kills most Colima fir tree seedlings, as it kills seedlings of other species in the <em>Abies</em> genus. In recent years, more fires have been started in the forest to clear the way for avocado trees.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0MDIxMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMzk3MTEwOX0.64tgWzkAL5LncEph0-1zgn_VtRe2lPbY9FuoTMZhLAI/img.jpg?width=980" id="41a84" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="63c0cc86433f2d39c6f9fe918f7f2d0e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A tree and other vegetation in the cloud forest surrounding the Nevado de Colima volcano. Agustín del Castillo
<p>Sonia Navarro Pérez, a researcher from the University of Guadalajara who has monitored and conducted biological inventories in the area, has seen firsthand how the growth of the avocado industry has led to the loss of important forested areas.</p><p>She described the case of the indigenous community of San José del Carmen, which is in the municipality of Zapotitlán de Vadillo, near one of the patches of forest.</p><p>"We were working with them to establish productive alternatives that are good for nature," Navarro Pérez said. "But when the avocado came, it overwhelmed us completely."</p><p>Since 2013, the coniferous forests around the Nevado de Colima volcano have lost nearly 6,600 hectares (16,300 acres) due to illegal logging, livestock rearing and intentionally set fires, according to Mexico's deforestation risk index developed by the <a href="https://www.gob.mx/inecc" target="_blank">National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change</a>.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0MDIxNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MzQzOTc5N30.6VB34nDy9awxDLN1ftu7_sO903Rr3nL4OTB3xI4LLRc/img.jpg?width=980" id="09ad2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8deae8560a4c134576d8d7db6c41ed68" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A section of cloud forest in San José del Carmen, inside the state park created in 2009. Community members have been protecting the forest voluntarily for over two decades. Agustín del Castillo
<p>"[What was once] an original area of 7,000 hectares [17,300 acres] of fir-specific forest is now cut in half," said Villa Castillo, the director of the Nevado de Colima national and state parks.</p><p>The expansion of the avocado crops is the most recent threat in a series of events that have negatively impacted the conservation of the forests in the area.</p><p>Between the 1940s and the 1990s, the Atenquique Industrial Company had exclusive rights to use the timber from these forests under a concession from the Mexican government. The result was "that the forests were skimmed — that is, they took the best parts," Villa Castillo said.</p><p>When the concession expired in 1995, the forests did not experience a transition to a sustainable timber extraction method. Those who, along with landowners who held small plots, had rights to the shared land were limited to selling the forested areas, at very low prices, to the new logging industries located in Ciudad Guzmán. "Then, there were many abuses against the communities. The money was given to the caciques" — families who have always controlled the shared land — "alms were left for the community, and our forests were very poorly managed," said Rafael González Merín, the former president of Huescalapa, a collective of communally owned farmland known as an <em>ejido</em>.</p><p>As a result, many residents of the community believe the solution is to conserve the forests with productive projects.</p>Communities Pitch in to Save Their Trees
<p>Unlike the communities that have been overtaken by the avocado industry, Huescalapa has largely managed to resist its arrival. The community of shared land, which spans more than 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres), is home to pine and fir trees within its shady temperate forests.</p><p>The residents of Huescalapa have also set aside the proposals they've received from the forestry industry, which has expressed interest in buying their trees.</p><p>According to Gerardo Bernabé Aguayo, logging activity in this area of Jalisco "has been very negative because the industry has managed delicate areas — with very limited species — poorly, so we are supporting and launching projects with the communities." Bernabé Aguayo is the president of the board of trustees of Nevado de Colima and Adjacent Basins, a civil association created about 20 years ago after being promoted by the government of the state of Jalisco. To support the conservation of the national and state parks, the board has financing from the regional private sector.</p><p>The board manages about 6 million pesos ($268,000) contributed by the federal government in 2020. With resources from the private sector, it has been able to access an additional 1.5 million pesos ($67,000).</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0MDIxNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMDc1NzAzNH0.IGnOfze7tn8ggoT5P8TX8NYcWyaXM7PMP7EVuNT6tck/img.jpg?width=980" id="4f30b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4664a45293f4fa01bad588872bd03388" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
An area of fir trees that has been destroyed by logging. Agustín del Castillo
<p>Rodrigo Cantera Hernández, the president of the El Alcázar Ecotourism Center, said that in Huescalapa, the caciques removed timber from the fir forests, "but they did not report any money to the other community members, so we fought to eject them and were able to do so a couple of years ago."</p><p>In Huescalapa, three main conflicts over timber have taken place in the past 20 years. First, in 1999, a group of community members sold part of the forest to a forestry industry from Ciudad Guzmán. A movement led by citizens put an end to the logging five months later.</p><p>Next, in 2012, environmental authorities granted permission for forest exploitation in these areas, so fir trees continued to be cut down. An opinion by the <a href="https://www.ideaac.org.mx/" target="_blank">Institute of Environmental Law</a>, a civil society organization, cited scientific evidence that demonstrated the uniqueness of mountain fir trees and forced SEMARNAT to withdraw these permissions.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0MDI2NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU5NzE0NDE5NH0.OpE-rKHn1WJuLaP0KGq7Wu6SpRdk6Lxm9bZAXtLcSm8/img.jpg?width=980" id="85844" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d7eaf947673709bdedf1c79bed771bd7" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
The citizens of Huescalapa formed a cooperative to launch the El Alcázar Ecotourism Center. El Alcázar Ecotourism Center
<p>Then, in 2015, a federal judge suspended a new authorization to exploit timber in the cloud forest.</p><p>For communities like Huescalapa to have economic options that do not involve the use of timber because of the detrimental effects that this may have on the remaining population of Colima fir trees, ecotourism and similar activities are promoted.</p><p>According to Bernabé Aguayo, the goal is for the natural forest to be conserved as "a key area for contemplation, enjoyment, the preservation of environmental services, and research."</p><p>In 2019, the cooperative in El Alcázar received 1 million pesos ($44,600), which allowed it to have the basic infrastructure for the ecotourism center. The cooperative may receive an additional 3 million pesos ($133,800) in 2020 to purchase more equipment and improve the roads, but support for this funding was blocked in a community assembly. "They have not understood that it is for the benefit of everyone, that it is not money for our pockets," said Cantera Hernández, the president of the cooperative.</p><p>In Huescalapa, one of the challenges that interferes with efforts to promote the ecotourism center is the division that exists between community members. Many seek to use the timber, but others are already convinced of the importance of conservation.</p><p>Villa Castillo, the director of the Nevado de Colima national and state parks, emphasized that projects similar to the El Alcázar Ecotourism Center are being promoted in San José del Carmen and Zapotitlán de Vadillo, which are very close to the border between the states of Jalisco and Colima.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0MDI2Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMjYyNjIwNX0.hgqt0rg7HWUZzfKxnsi9Rdeuic2MNP4wvKC9tbYlV8c/img.jpg?width=980" id="704c2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d1df2e0214b93333f8f043c67328ece2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
María de la Luz Cortés Reyes, the leader of the Amixtlán cooperative, which was created in San José del Carmen. Agustín del Castillo
<p>The Amixtlán Ecotourism Center is located in the community of San José del Carmen. A cluster of cabins marks the entrance to the cloud forest, designated a state park since 2009.</p><p>"We decided to protect our forest long before they declared the state park, 20 years before then," said María de la Luz Cortés Reyes, a community leader in San José del Carmen. She recalled that when loggers came with offers to buy the forest, members of the community believed that they offered very little payment and that "the damage [that the loggers left] was too much." For that reason, they decided "not to touch the forest, because it produces water for the crops and for our houses."</p><p>Cortés Reyes said the community was able to construct the ecotourism center because it had resources managed by the Nevado de Colima Cloud Forest State Park and by the Board of Trustees of Nevado de Colima and Adjacent Basins. However, she said it is important that more promotion is given to the area and that urgent problems, such as those with the water supply system, are resolved.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0MDI2OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxODM3MTMzMX0.VlaW4PcaYRS7RxRPby3MmUyUgrnjZ3iZkOp8Hyn3r5s/img.jpg?width=980" id="57891" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f5cdd396882f38e3de1b9cda55cd3852" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/how-mexican-communities-are-helping-to-save-a-fir-forest/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>A view of the Nevado de Colima volcano from the Amixtlán Ecotourism Center in San José del Carmen. Agustín del Castillo
<p>In the community of Zapotitlán de Vadillo, citizens also promoted the Puerta de la Hacienda Ecotourism Center, where administrators support the biocultural production of mezcal, an alcoholic beverage made from agave. The drink is made by two <em>mezcaleros</em>, or people who are experts in creating mezcal: Marcario Partida from Zapotitlán de Vadillo, and Rosario Pineda from Tetapán, a small community in Zapotitlán de Vadillo.</p><p>Other productive projects that are promoted in the communities include the organic production of eggs, such as by Efigenia Larios, a small producer from the community of El Tecuán. Additionally, the shared land communities of Zapotitlán de Vadillo, San José del Carmen and Huescalapa are provided with equipment for fire prevention and materials to help restore the forest soil.</p><p>Artists have painted murals that shine a spotlight on forest conservation in San José del Carmen and Zapotitlán de Vadillo.</p><p>The intention of these efforts is to allow those who own land or have rights on this fragile mountain to "understand that there are other options besides logging, and that they, too, can generate development," said Arredondo, the researcher who specializes in the ecology of high mountains.</p><p>Despite the strong pressure for land use changes brought by the avocado agroindustry and fostered by the high level of impunity that often prevails in rural areas, many of the area's landowners continue to search for a model in which their forests can remain standing.</p><p>"Many neighbors say that we are foolish for not wanting to sell this beautiful forest that we have, but that money only lasts for a short time," said José Avalo Lino, a farmer in San José del Carmen. "We are so certain of [the importance of] preventing logging that, long before the declaration of the natural protected area, our community assembly had already decided to save this forest. We will continue to be 'foolish' in this decision."</p>
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A forest fire in central Yakutia (Sakha Republic) on June 2. Yevgeny Sofroneyev / TASS / Getty Images
By Eoin Higgins
The number of fires in the vast north Asian region of Siberia increased fivefold this week, according to the Russian forest fire aerial protection service, as temperatures in the Arctic continued higher than normal in the latest sign of the ongoing climate crisis.
<p>The news of the increase comes a week after the small Siberian town of Verkhoyansk reported a high temperature of 100.4° F on June 20, a reading that, if confirmed, would mark the hottest day ever recorded in the region. </p>
<p>"While fires are common at this time of year, record temperatures and strong winds are making the situation particularly worrying," the European Union's Earth Observation Programme, which is monitoring the situation, <a href="https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/arctic-wildfires-burning-further-north-than-previously-spotted-from-space-satellite-shows/" target="_blank">said</a> in a statement. </p>
<div id="73927" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="09b86e126577646f203d29afcf911879"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1276290239753936897" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">A record heatwave in Siberia has led to forest fires in the Republic of Sakha.
Temperatures spiked to 30C (86F) on… https://t.co/sCMYu6OUaj</div> — Shakthi #StayHomeSaveLives (@Shakthi #StayHomeSaveLives)<a href="https://twitter.com/v_shakthi/statuses/1276290239753936897">1593126280.0</a></blockquote></div><p>As the Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/081bb0a6004b3f0596a2dab7cfd9817d" target="_blank">reported</a>:</p><blockquote>According to figures reported Saturday by Avialesookhrana, Russia's agency for aerial forest fire management, 1.15 million hectares (2.85 million acres) were burning in Siberia in areas that cannot be reached by firefighters.<br>The worst-hit area is the Sakha Republic, where Verkhoyansk is located, with 929,000 hectares (2.295 million acres) burning.<br></blockquote><p>The Sakha Republic's fire service reported 127 natural fires in the Russian federal sector.</p><p>The fires and heat are due to the climate crisis, Weather Channel meteorologist Carl Parker <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/siberia-fire-arctic-temperatures-1513721" target="_blank">told</a> Newsweek. </p><p>"What climate change is doing is moving the distribution of weather events, such that historically low-frequency, extreme events occur more frequently," said Parker. "Had the climate not changed due to man-made greenhouse gases, the heat we've seen in parts of Siberia would have been a 100,000-year event."</p><p>Parker warned that the fires are part of a dangerous feedback loop in the northern region. </p><p>"What's scary about the warming in Siberia is that there are huge quantities of carbon in permafrost, which can be unleashed during periods like this, particularly as fires develop in the region," said Parker.</p>
<div id="ecd41" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0468dfb70d2572cf52eaeaba0b44f15c"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1276949453023346688" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The situation is getting much worse in Siberia.. #WeDontHaveTime
https://t.co/XZ3EN1WueB</div> — We Don’t Have Time (@We Don’t Have Time)<a href="https://twitter.com/WeDontHaveTime/statuses/1276949453023346688">1593283448.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Jonathan Overpeck, University of Michigan environmental school dean, <a href="https://apnews.com/39c5b62946a0951cf0d98e4f952f47fd" target="_blank">told</a> AP in an email on June 24 that the situation in the Arctic region is unprecedented.</p><p>"The Arctic is figuratively and literally on fire," wrote Overpeck. "It's warming much faster than we thought it would in response to rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and this warming is leading to a rapid meltdown and increase in wildfires."</p><p>"The record warming in Siberia is a warning sign of major proportions," he added.</p><p>Temperatures in Siberia for the first five months of 2020 were an average 14° F over normal. </p><p>"That's much, much warmer than it's ever been over that region in that period of time," Zeke Hausfather, a Berkeley Earth climate scientist, told AP.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/27/warning-sign-major-proportions-number-siberian-forest-fires-increase-fivefold-week" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>. </em><em></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A regenerated rainforest at Samboja near Balikpapan, on Kalimantan, Indonesia on May 20, 2019. Wolfgang Kaehler / LightRocket via Getty Images
It may be surprising that a universal basic income would also help the environment, but that is exactly what a new study found. A government program to help poor, rural Indonesians through direct cash payments had the unexpected effect of reducing deforestation by 30 percent in participating villages, according to a new study, as Newsweek reported.
<p><br/></p>
<p>The program that Indonesia started, Keluarga Harapan program, or "Family Hope" program, which provides direct cash transfers to low-income households to bring them above the poverty line, had no intention of helping the country's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/forests">forests</a>, which have been slashed down at a remarkable rate.</p><p>Instead, the program gave families money if they met certain conditions, like attending regular doctor visits, keeping kids in school, and participating in health and nutrition training. While conditional cash transfers are used in several countries around the world to alleviate poverty, they are not viewed as an environmentally friendly action, according to <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/deforestation-trees-indonesia-cash-poor-families-programs" target="_blank">Science News</a>.</p><p>That's because economic growth is often correlated with environmental degradation. But, that's correlation, not causation.</p>
<p>The new study, published in<em> <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/24/eaaz1298" target="_blank">Science Advances</a></em>, examined the habits of 266,533 households in 7,468 rural villages across 15 provinces on multiple islands between 2008 and 2012. The researchers then compared where the cash was distributed to satellite images of forests during the same timeframe. That's when they noticed that forests where the government was making payments were faring far better than other regions of Indonesia.</p><p>"For decades, people have been debating whether alleviating poverty and protecting the environment are at odds with each other. Resolving this debate is important because lots of poor people are found in the same areas where we find the most endangered ecosystems, like the rainforest," Paul Ferraro, an author of the study from Johns Hopkins University, told <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/government-program-accidentally-deforestation-people-poverty-1510585" target="_blank">Newsweek</a>.</p>
<p>Saving Indonesia's forests is crucial for the health of the planet and wildlife. The forests are home to a diverse range of species and are efficient at capturing carbon. However, forest destruction is responsible for 10 percent of human carbon dioxide emissions, and much of it is the result of extreme poverty, as <a href="https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/how-fighting-poverty-accidentally-stopped-deforestation-1.1450530" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a> reported. For rural villages, selling timber and clearing land for cultivation is often an income stream of last resort.</p><p>Indonesia is home to the world's third-largest tropical forests, but it's also the top global producer of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/palm-oil">palm oil</a>, which generates millions of jobs but is blamed by environmentalists for forest loss and fires, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-poverty-deforestation-trfn/cash-payments-to-cut-poverty-in-indonesian-villages-help-forests-too-idUSKBN23J2SZ" target="_blank">Reuters</a>.</p><p>Not only does Indonesia suffer from troubling rates of deforestation, it also has terrible income inequality. According to <a href="https://www.globalforestwatch.org/" target="_blank">Global Forest Watch</a>, Indonesia had the <a href="https://www.globalforestwatch.org/dashboards/country/IDN?dashboardPrompts=eyJvcGVuIjp0cnVlLCJzdGVwSW5kZXgiOjAsInN0ZXBzS2V5IjoiZGFzaGJvYXJkQW5hbHlzZXMiLCJmb3JjZSI6dHJ1ZX0%3D&map=eyJkYXRhc2V0cyI6W3siZGF0YXNldCI6IjBiMDIwOGI2LWI0MjQtNGI1Ny05ODRmLWNhZGRmYTI1YmEyMiIsImxheWVycyI6WyJjYzM1NDMyZC0zOGQ3LTRhMDMtODcyZS0zYTcxYTJmNTU1ZmMiLCJiNDUzNTBlMy01YTc2LTQ0Y2QtYjBhOS01MDM4YTBkOGJmYWUiXSwiYm91bmRhcnkiOnRydWUsIm9wYWNpdHkiOjEsInZpc2liaWxpdHkiOnRydWV9LHsiZGF0YXNldCI6ImI1ODQ5NTRjLTBkOGQtNDBjNi04NTljLWYzZmRmM2MyYzVkZiIsImx" target="_blank">third-highest rate of rainforest loss</a> in the world in 2019. It also saw the divide between its richest and poorest citizens grow faster than any other country in Southeast Asia over the last two decades, and now has the sixth-largest wealth inequality gap in the world, according to <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/inequality-indonesia-millions-kept-poverty" target="_blank">Oxfam International</a>, as <a href="https://www.mic.com/p/a-new-study-shows-how-a-universal-basic-income-could-help-the-environment-too-22981684" target="_blank">Mic</a> reported.</p><p>"No matter which way we looked at it, the anti-poverty program on average leads to reduction in deforestation in the villages receiving it," said Ferraro, as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-poverty-deforestation-trfn/cash-payments-to-cut-poverty-in-indonesian-villages-help-forests-too-idUSKBN23J2SZ" target="_blank">Reuters</a> reported.</p>
<p>The researchers suggest their results may spill over to other countries in Asia that have similar experiences, such as cutting down forests to grow rice as a supplement to a poor harvest. They also say that their study shows that's what's good for people is also good for the environment.</p><p>"The value of the avoided deforestation just for carbon dioxide emissions alone is more than the program costs," said Ferraro, as <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/deforestation-trees-indonesia-cash-poor-families-programs" target="_blank">Science News</a> reported, adding that the economic benefits of saving the forests justify the intervention.<br></p>
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As Amazonian Wildfire Season Approaches, We Must Protect the Vulnerable Forest
15 June
Insights + Opinion
NASA satellite image showing fires raging across the Amazon rainforest on Aug. 11, 2019. NASA
By Daniel Ross
The wildfires that tore across Australia were as devastating as they were overwhelming, scorching some 15 million hectares of land, killing 34 people and more than 1 billion animals. In terms of its apocalyptic imagery — sweeping infernos torching great swaths with unerring speed — Australia's wildfires were hauntingly reminiscent of the fires that roared through the Amazon rainforest over the past year. Indeed, more than 80,000 fires hit the region during 2019, according to the Brazilian government.
<p>Though many months have now passed since global media focused on the unfolding disaster in the Amazon — one of the world's most <a href="https://phys.org/news/2019-11-forests-amazon-important-carbon.html" target="_blank">important carbon sinks</a> — the problem has far from disappeared. Indeed, as the region gears up toward its next Amazon wildfire season, the causes underpinning the problem — like illegal logging, encroachment from agribusinesses and profit-driven government policies — remain very much at play.</p><p>And though uncertainty surrounds some of the short- and long-term impacts of increased commercial activity in the Brazilian Amazon, the consequences on a rapidly warming planet are stark indeed. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51464694" target="_blank">New research</a> suggests that some <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deforestation">deforested</a> regions of the rainforest are exhaling more carbon dioxide than they're taking in.</p>
<p>What's more, experts and environmentalists are quick to point the finger of blame toward a principal factor: a government presided over by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, whose tenure has been characterized by aggressive deregulation and increased commercial exploitation of the Amazon's resources.</p><p>"The impact is obvious: We have much more deforestation," said Philip Fearnside, an ecologist at the National Institute for Research in Amazonia in Brazil, earlier this year. Even before Bolsonaro took office officially, Fearnside <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/why-brazils-new-president-poses-an-unprecedented-threat-to-the-amazon" target="_blank">sounded the alarm</a> about the Brazilian president's intentions in the Amazon. And with Bolsonaro well into the second year of his tenure, "he's made good on those promises," Fearnside added.</p><p>Indeed, in the year ending on July 30, 2019, more than <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/brazil-revises-deforestation-data-amazon-rainforest-loss-topped-10000-sq-km-in-2019/" target="_blank">10,000 square kilometers</a> of Brazilian Amazon rainforest were lost through deforestation — an amount last topped in 2008, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research. The number of active fires in August 2019 was three times higher than in 2018 and the highest number since 2010. The broad ramifications of these trends are far from clear-cut.</p>
<p>According to Jos Barlow, a professor of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation">conservation</a> science at Lancaster University, England, "<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.14872" target="_blank">different fire types have very different behaviors</a>," with varying severities of impact. While "understory" forest fires have the smallest flame heights and burn slowly across the forest floor, for example, "they also have long-lasting impacts, killing around 50 percent of all trees, with mortality occurring for many years after the fire," Barlow wrote in an email.</p><p>And so, "How long will it take for forests to recover biomass and primary forest species composition?" Barlow asked. "Will they fully recover, or will they be locked into a lower biomass state?"</p><p>Then there's the potential impact on the climate. For the first six months of 2019, deforestation and fires in the Brazilian Amazon released as much as <a href="https://whrc.org/new-data-brazilian-amazon-fires-have-released-104-141-million-metric-tons-of-co2/" target="_blank">141 million metric tons of carbon dioxide</a>, according to research led by the Woods Hole Research Center. As César Terrer, a postdoctoral scholar in Earth system science at Stanford's School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences, explains it, the destruction of the Amazon through logging and wildfires means "we're also limiting the potential of current plants to continue storing CO2."</p>
<p>Terrer led a <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/press/view/29425" target="_blank">study</a> using anticipated carbon dioxide levels for the end of the century and found that plant biomass should increase by 12 percent as a result — an increase that would help enable plants and trees to store more carbon dioxide. "A 12 percent increase is huge," Terrer said in a phone interview. "For the Amazon in particular, that's more than 15 billion tons of carbon," he added, explaining that this amount is equivalent to "all the carbon stored in all the trees in all the forests" in the United States. "They could store all that additional carbon for free, if we let them be."</p><p>The problem? That 12 percent increase is predicated upon current plant biomass levels remaining as they currently are. Instead, "we're increasing deforestation rates in the Amazon, which is hugely important for the climate," Terrer said. "I'm strongly concerned."</p>
<p>After the turn of the century, Brazil appeared to be wrestling the problem of a shrinking Amazon. Between 2004 and 2012, Brazil employed an action plan instituting a number of key provisions, including an expanded network of protected areas alongside market incentives and disincentives, like a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/194008291300600308" target="_blank">successful deforestation moratorium</a> agreed to by nearly all soybean processors and exporters in Brazil. Deforestation rates during that time <a href="https://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/deforestation_calculations.html" target="_blank">plummeted</a>.</p><p>But 2012 marked a turning point. Since then, deforestation has been ticking upwards — 2016, for example, saw a <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/business-as-usual-a-resurgence-of-deforestation-in-the-brazilian-amazon" target="_blank">29 percent increase</a>.</p><p>The administration under Bolsonaro has used that fact to justify its policies in the Amazon, said Fearnside. "There were lots of things happening before Bolsonaro took office, but Bolsonaro has certainly increased that [deforestation] substantially," Fearnside said, pointing to the myriad ways his actions have played out.</p>
<p>The current Brazilian president has taken various measures to weaken the country's environment ministry — the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) — not least of all by tapping Ricardo Salles to lead it. Salles has called <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a> an "innocuous" and "<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/10/environmental-fines-are-ideological-says-brazil-minister-ricardo-salles" target="_blank">secondary</a>" issue, and has characterized the rate of illegal deforestation in the Amazon as near "<a href="https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ambiente/2019/07/ricardo-salles-afirma-que-amazonia-ja-tem-desmatamento-relativo-zero.shtml" target="_blank">zero</a>." The director of Brazil's Space Research Institute was fired when the agency's own calculations — which illustrated a <a href="https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/scienceandhealth/2019/08/amazon-deforestation-in-july-increased-278-over-same-period-in-2018.shtml" target="_blank">278 percent increase in deforestation</a> last July — disproved Salles's claims.</p><p>The environment ministry has also stepped back its regulatory oversight. Though <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/environmental-conservation/article/brazils-new-president-and-ruralists-threaten-amazonias-environment-traditional-peoples-and-the-global-climate/F5C1E42BF9F6E6BDDB957B87601FC4F7/core-reader" target="_blank">95 percent of the deforestation</a> that occurred in the first three months of Bolsonaro's tenure was illegal, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/environmental-conservation/article/brazils-new-president-and-ruralists-threaten-amazonias-environment-traditional-peoples-and-the-global-climate/F5C1E42BF9F6E6BDDB957B87601FC4F7" target="_blank">no offenders</a> were punished. Indeed, a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/28/world/americas/brazil-deforestation-amazon-bolsonaro.html" target="_blank">New York Times analysis</a> found that IBAMA's enforcement actions fell by 20 percent during the first half of 2019, as compared with the year prior. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/02/war-for-survival-brazils-amazon-tribes-despair-as-land-raids-surge-under-bolsonaro" target="_blank">Increased land</a> raids have impacted Indigenous populations in particular.</p><p>"President Bolsonaro of Brazil is encouraging the farm owners near our lands to clear the forest," <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/02/amazon-destruction-earth-brazilian-kayapo-people" target="_blank">wrote</a> Raoni Metuktire, chief of the Indigenous Brazilian Kayapo people. "And he is not doing anything to prevent them from invading our territory."</p>
<p>Some of Bolsonaro's actions have been met with opprobrium among certain sectors of Brazil's corporate class. Blairo Maggi, a billionaire soybean producer and former agriculture minister, has warned of international condemnation of the government's excursions into the Amazon. "The farmers, associations and industry will have to redo what has been lost," he told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/world/americas/amazon-fires-bolsonaro-photos.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. "We retreated 10 steps; we will have to work to get back to where we were."</p><p>Nevertheless, "there are large parts of the agribusiness that are on the other side," said Fearnside, pointing to the <a href="https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1415-43662020000100008&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en" target="_blank">thriving soybean industry</a> in Matopiba, a vast region spanning four Brazilian states. And where is this produce going? In 2017, <a href="https://www.globalcanopy.org/sites/default/files/documents/resources/Brief_DM_soy_final.pdf" target="_blank">92 percent</a> of the soybeans grown for the domestic market in Brazil were used to feed livestock to supply the world's demand for meat.</p><p>"The soy farmers there are all on the bandwagon of denying climate change, which is incredible given that climate change is likely to wipe out their soybean business there," Fearnside said.</p><p>With Bolsonaro only about one year and a half into his presidency, Fearnside is understandably concerned about his remaining tenure and describes the actions already undertaken as having opened up a Pandora's box. This includes the <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/latest/2020/01/wildfire-pollution-worsens-air-quality.aspx" target="_blank">human health impacts</a> from wildfire-created air pollution on both nearby and <a href="https://www.enn.com/articles/61766-brazilian-wildfire-pollution-worsens-air-quality-in-distant-cities" target="_blank">distant</a> urban centers — even intensifying <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50573623" target="_blank">glacier melt in the Andes</a>.</p><p>Other experts agree with Fearnside. According to Jos Barlow earlier this year, all indications suggested that 2020 would be "even worse." That prophecy is proving true, with deforestation <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/brazil-revises-deforestation-data-amazon-rainforest-loss-topped-10000-sq-km-in-2019/" target="_blank">rates currently on pace</a> to surpass last year's.</p>
<p><em>An earlier version of this article first appeared on </em><a href="https://truthout.org/articles/as-amazonian-wildfire-season-approaches-we-must-protect-the-vulnerable-forest/" target="_blank"><em>Truthout</em></a><em> and was produced in partnership with </em><a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank"><em>Earth | Food | Life</em></a><em>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A large plantation of young trees is contrast against an older forest in the background. georgeclerk / Getty Images
By Lauren Waller and Warwick Allen
Large-scale reforestation projects such as New Zealand's One Billion Trees program are underway in many countries to help sequester carbon from the atmosphere.
But there is ongoing debate about whether to prioritize native or non-native plants to fight climate change. As our recent research shows, non-native plants often grow faster compared to native plants, but they also decompose faster and this helps to accelerate the release of 150% more carbon dioxide from the soil.
<p>Our results highlight a challenging gap in our understanding of carbon cycling in newly planted or regenerating forests.</p><p>It is relatively easy to measure plant biomass (how quickly a plant grows) and to estimate how much carbon dioxide it has removed from the atmosphere. But measuring carbon release is more difficult because it involves complex interactions between the plant, plant-eating insects and soil microorganisms.</p><p>This lack of an integrated carbon cycling model that includes species interactions makes predictions for carbon budgeting exceedingly difficult.</p>
How Non-Native Plants Change the Carbon Cycle
<p>There is uncertainty in our climate forecasting because we don't fully understand how the factors that influence carbon cycling - the process in which carbon is both accumulated and lost by plants and soils - differ across ecosystems.</p><p>Carbon sequestration projects typically use fast-growing plant species that accumulate carbon in their tissues rapidly. Few projects focus on what goes on in the soil.</p><p><span></span>Non-native plants often <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-102209-144650" target="_blank">accelerate carbon cycling</a>. They usually have less dense tissues and can grow and incorporate carbon into their tissues faster than native plants. But they also decompose more readily, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51402506_Plant_species_traits_are_the_predominant_control_on_litter_decomposition_rates_within_biomes_worldwide" target="_blank">increasing carbon release</a> back to the atmosphere.</p><p>Our research, recently published in the journal <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6494/967" target="_blank">Science</a>, shows that when non-native plants arrive in a new place, they establish new interactions with soil organisms. So far, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/7074562_Biotic_interactions_and_plant_invasions" target="_blank">research</a> has mostly focused on how this resetting of interactions with soil microorganisms, herbivorous insects and other organisms helps exotic plants to invade a new place quickly, often overwhelming native species.</p><p>Invasive non-native plants have already become a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169534712001747" target="_blank">major problem worldwide</a>, and are changing the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51146313_Ecological_impacts_of_invasive_alien_plants_A_meta-analysis_of_their_effects_on_species_communities_and_ecosystems" target="_blank">composition and function of entire ecosystems</a>. But it is less clear how the interactions of invasive non-native plants with other organisms affect carbon cycling.</p>
Planting Non-Native Trees Releases More Carbon
<p>We established 160 experimental plant communities, with different combinations of native and non-native plants. We collected and reared herbivorous insects and created identical mixtures which we added to half of the plots.</p><p>We also cultured soil microorganisms to create two different soils that we split across the plant communities. One soil contained microorganisms familiar to the plants and another was unfamiliar.</p><p>Herbivorous insects and soil microorganisms feed on live and decaying plant tissue. Their ability to grow depends on the nutritional quality of that food. We found that non-native plants provided a better food source for herbivores compared with native plants – and that resulted in more plant-eating insects in communities dominated by non-native plants.</p><p>Similarly, exotic plants also raised the abundance of soil microorganisms involved in the rapid decomposition of plant material. This synergy of multiple organisms and interactions (fast-growing plants with less dense tissues, high herbivore abundance, and increased decomposition by soil microorganisms) means that more of the plant carbon is released back into the atmosphere.</p><p>In a practical sense, these soil treatments (soils with microorganisms familiar vs. unfamiliar to the plants) mimic the difference between reforestation (replanting an area) and afforestation (planting trees to create a new forest).</p><p>Reforested areas are typically replanted with native species that occurred there before, whereas afforested areas are planted with new species. Our results suggest planting non-native trees into soils with microorganisms they have never encountered (in other words, afforestation with non-native plants) may lead to more rapid release of carbon and undermine the effort to mitigate climate change.</p>
<p>
<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lauren-waller-1102831" target="_blank">Lauren Waller</a> is a </em><em>Postdoctoral Fellow, Lincoln University, New Zealand.</em>
</p><p>
<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/warwick-allen-1124148" target="_blank">Warwick Allen</a> is a </em><em>Postdoctoral fellow, University of Canterbury.</em>
</p><p>
<em></em><em>Disclosure statement: Lauren Waller receives funding from the Tertiary Education Council. </em><em>Warwick Allen was supported by Centre of Research Excellence funding from the Tertiary Education Commission.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Reposted with permission from The Conversation.</em>
</p><iframe height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139841/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1"></iframe>From Your Site Articles
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An ōhiʻa lehua tree in blossom on the Big Island, Hawaii. wanderlust86 / Getty Images
By Shannon Brown
Hawaiian myth says that 'ōhi'a lehua trees were created by Pele, the goddess of fire and creator of the Hawaiian islands. Spurned by a handsome young warrior, ʻŌhiʻa, she turned him into a twisted tree; the other gods, out of pity, turned his heartbroken lover, Lehua, into a flower, so that they would be joined together forever.
Today, 'ōhi'a lehua trees are suffering for a different reason: a fungal disease called rapid ʻōhiʻa death (ROD) is spreading swiftly through Hawaiian forests and killing the trees.
<p>When the pathogen was first identified in 2014, the potential damage seemed catastrophic.</p><p>"The future looked bleak," said Lisa Keith, a research plant pathologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's <a href="https://www.ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/hilo-hi/daniel-k-inouye-us-pacific-basin-agricultural-research-center/tropical-plant-genetic-resources-and-disease-research/people/lisa-m-keith/" target="_blank">Agricultural Research Service</a>. "We really thought in a matter of years, there wasn't going to be a healthy 'ōhi'a forest."</p><p>There's still a lot scientists don't know. But now, there are some bright spots in eradication efforts. Scientists have successfully implemented decontamination stations in sensitive areas on the Big Island, where ROD is more widespread, and there's a better understanding about why trees are vulnerable to it.</p><p>ROD works by blocking the transport of water through trees; the leaves die first, followed by the rest of the tree. The fungus is comprised of two strains of <em>Ceratocystis</em> pathogen<em>:</em> <em>C. lukuohia</em> and <em>C. huliohia</em>. <em>C. lukohia</em> is more widespread and aggressive than <em>C. huliohia</em>, but both result in the death of the trees.</p><p>ROD mortality was first observed aerially on Hawai'i Island around 2008-2010, and Keith estimates it was introduced at least a decade before that. It's possible <em>C. huliohia</em> was present even earlier.</p>
<p>"The current thinking is that <em>C. huliohia</em> has been in the islands much longer than <em>C. lukuohia</em>, and while capable of killing 'ōhi'a trees, went unnoticed until the more aggressive <em>lukuohia</em> was discovered," she said.</p><p>The pathogens first came to public attention in 2014, when large swaths of trees were infected on the Big Island. ROD can only infect trees if the bark is damaged and the inner wood exposed, said J.B. Friday, extension forester at the <a href="https://cms.ctahr.hawaii.edu/forestry" target="_blank">University of Hawai'i</a> (UH), in an interview. He said he believes that damage to trees from Hurricane Iselle that year might have left them open to infection by the pathogen.</p><p>Since ROD arrived, it has spread to more than 71,000 hectares (175,000 acres) on the Big Island, and has been detected on Kaua'i, Oʻahu, and Maui as well.</p><p>Because it is more prevalent on the Big Island, efforts there focus on containment rather than eradication. But scientists respond to every report of the pathogen on other islands, and in Kona and Kohala on the Big Island, where it hasn't yet proliferated. Most of the time, infected trees are felled so that they're less likely to spread pathogen spores, unless the forest is dense and other trees would be damaged.</p>
Looking Ahead
<p>Researchers are also working to understand more about the disease and how it spreads.</p><p>"One of the key principles that we study is called the disease triangle," Keith said. "You have your fungus, you have a susceptible host, and you have the environment." She is assessing each of these to determine whether there's a way to combat the pathogen.</p><p>In her lab, she is inoculating seedlings with the fungus and studying their response. Some show resilience against it, which means they might be able to be used for future replanting efforts.</p><p>The fungus seems to prefer humid, low-elevation environments. Keith has tested trees at various elevations and found that those higher up seem to be protected somehow. "They're susceptible, you have the pathogen, but because of the environment they don't actually get the disease," she said. "On the other hand, a tree at sea level could be dead in 45 days."</p><p>Keith is also involved in the testing of samples, and recently developed a molecular test that can determine within hours whether the fungus is present, and if so, which strain. Previous testing methods could take up to a month.</p><p>Scientists are studying ways to reduce damage to the trees' bark. Everyday human activity such as mowing grass or trimming trees can leave gashes, Friday said. "We've seen many cases where, for example, someone puts in a driveway and they prune all the trees along the driveway, and they'll all die," he said. And in areas without humans, natural events such as winds or storms can still cause branches to come down.</p><p>Beetles and wild ungulates are also thought to play a role in the pathogen's spread. Boring beetles are attracted to dead and dying 'ōhi'a wood, and they create dust that can spread and contaminate other trees. Cattle and goats can cause damage to bark, and researchers are studying whether feral pigs may also make the trees more susceptible by damaging their roots.</p><p>A <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.160304" target="_blank">2016 study</a> found that feral pigs were introduced to Hawai'i by Polynesians up to 800 years ago, not by Captain Cook, as was widely believed. But the pigs pose a danger to Hawaiian forests, because when they root among the dirt, they dislodge native plants, which can then leave forests more vulnerable to invasive species.</p><p>The damage done depends on how healthy the forest is, Friday said. For example, losing a single tree in a native forest wouldn't have a large impact. But in a location where invasive species are growing in the understory, loss of a native 'ōhi'a tree would leave an opening for those species to grow.</p><p>Hunting pigs is a popular pastime among many residents, and officials have also allowed it as a means to control populations.</p><p>ROD can additionally be transported through vehicles, people, and wood from infected trees. But it doesn't spread in a clear pattern, and not all trees are affected, even at low elevations.</p><p>"You will see brown leaves on one tree, but its neighbor right next door looks healthy," Keith said.</p>
Current Projects, Remaining Questions
<p>New developments in eradication efforts include a remote-sensing system and a branch-sampling device that can take wood samples in remote locations. Both were created in 2019 by Ryan Perroy, an associate professor of geography and principle investigator at the UH Hilo <a href="http://spatial.uhh.hawaii.edu/home.htm" target="_blank">Spatial Data Analysis and Visualization</a> lab. For the sampling device, he modified an existing drone from Swiss researchers at <a href="https://ethz.ch/en.html" target="_blank">ETH Zürich</a>.</p><p>The branch sampler still has some technical problems to work out before it is fully operational.</p><p>Sometimes ROD doesn't spread all the way out to the tips of branches, or if it does, the branches become so brittle that they can't be transported. However, sawing off larger branches would create dust, which researchers want to avoid.</p><p>Still, the device would allow researchers to verify the presence of the disease. "We could then send people in if it was determined to be worthwhile to do so," Perroy said.</p><p>The scientists encourage residents to avoid transporting wood or injuring 'ōhi'a, and to clean tools, clothing, shoes and even vehicles before and after entering forests. They successfully implemented a program to decontaminate hikers and tour operators in sensitive areas, which tourists enthusiastically comply with, Friday said.</p><p>In 2011, Hawai'i enacted <a href="https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/rain/" target="_blank">"The Rain Follows the Forest"</a> Watershed Initiative, which protected critical watersheds from invasive species. For example, invasive strawberry guava forests lose <a href="https://hdoa.hawaii.gov/blog/news-releases/final-ea-posted-for-biological-control-of-invasive-strawberry-guava/" target="_blank">27% more water</a> than native 'ōhi'a forests. The project included fencing to exclude feral ungulates.</p><p>Friday envisions something similar to protect 'ōhi'a, while allowing less sensitive areas to remain open for hunting.</p><p>There are still more questions to answer. For example, how far can the dust spread? Can it infect only nearby trees, or can it travel between islands? Why does ROD infect some trees and not others?</p><p>There is another bright spot, according to Friday. "Nobody likes Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death," he jokes. "There are people defending strawberry guava, people defending mangroves when we've tried to do <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/allen/psw_1998_allen001.pdf" target="_blank">mangrove eradication</a>, but there are no fans of Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death here. Everybody's on the same page with that."</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/in-hawaii-researchers-work-to-slow-the-rapid-death-of-a-beloved-tree/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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