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Looking at the Top Search enquiries that bring people to these blog pages “deforestation” & “deforestation trends” or “data” are topics that score highly (although admittedly the blog receives few search enquiries…). I’m more interested myself in the drivers of deforestation, and seeking policy solutions and, as appropriate, those economic instruments that might change the incentives to clear forests or make their management more viable, whether by local communities or companies. But nonetheless here are the results of my own search for more information on deforestation:
First stop, the Beeb on the trends in the Amazon: clear and concise data, and good graphics too. This is an exemplary example of how to get the data and arguments across.
Next: FAO Forestry “Facts and Figures” which is not the most imaginative site but it gives an overview of trends and you can follow the source (the FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005), which can be downloaded – - and includes the global spreadsheet, with data on a country basis, which is really useful if you need to analyse the data yourself:
MONGABAY.COM provide the same data, but presented more attractively, plus lots of other information and news updates. For example, the tropical deforestation data here.
CIFOR host a Forest Spatial Information Catalog (sic) a “one-stop access to spatial publications, maps and other documents that will simplify the ability of all levels of visitors to find forestry related data“, which does seem comprehensive; however, the site does not appear to have been updated recently, and I cannot get the maps to open. Much of the data is sourced from the World Conservation Monitoring Centre.
WWF have lots of in-depth information on different forest ecosystems, for example here on tropical & subtropical moist forests, with downloadable images and maps (see for example, below), and detailed descriptions of each “ecoregions” (within which there are further sources to explore).
Remember that deforestation is very much open to interpretation, see for example my earlier post.
Because the lumbermen are wiping out all the timber and never thinking of the future. They are in such a hurry to get rich that they’ll leave their grandchildren only a desert. They cut and slash in every direction, and then fires come and the country is ruined. Our rivers depend upon the forests for water. The trees draw the rain; the leaves break it up and let it fall in mists and drippings; it seeps into the ground, and is held by the roots. If the trees are destroyed the rain rushes off on the surface and floods the rivers. The forests store up water, and they do good in other ways.
- For Zane Grey, born at the height of the cowboy age, the adage “larger-than-life” seems a perfect fit: a world-record holding fisherman, minor league baseball player and – the role for which he is best known – millionaire writer (who true to form later blew most of his fortune). Not only that but he is widely credited for launching the literary genre – the Western – writing dozens of novels, many adapted by Hollywood, taking the imagery of the American West worldwide (his novel “The Lone Star Ranger”, written in 1915, is taken to be the inspiration for the eponymous film & TV hero). He did much to popularise hunting and fishing, and became a champion of the American wilderness. Roll over Hemingway.
- A late-starter at 30, he went on to be a prolific writer and was the best-selling author of his time. “Riders of the Purple Sage” was published in 1912, immediately sold over a million copies, and established the form of the modern Western. Extraordinarily he had only visited the American West a few years earlier.
- Why was he so successful? Principally because he struck a nerve, he was authentic, he was hard working. His stories were firmly grounded in own travels and hunting trips in the West (which would strengthen his own conservationist ideals). His direct writing style was built upon the popular dime stories, and most of his stories follow a straightforward narrative plot often based cycles of captivity, seduction, pursuit and escape for the protagonists, normally strong-minded, individualistic characters, compelled to rebuild their lives in the West, from which they may or may not emerge redeemed. His adventures of those rugged people, conquerors and conquered, are played out against a rugged landscape — its beauty, wildness, fragility and immutable power — and rapid social changes such as the expansion of the frontier, the colonization of the West, industrialisation and the railroads. Grey invokes a simple code of conduct for his characters, wrote sympathetically of Native Americans, and was prescient about the transformation of the so-called wilderness. But just as cowboys were more than gunslingers, so Zane Grey has proved to be more than his caricature. A review of a recent biography (Zane Grey: His Life, His Adventures, His Women, by Thomas H. Pauly) is posted here.
- Remarkably one of his earliest novels “The Young Forester” (1910) has all of this (except seduction: its a story for boys). Its main protagonist goes to Arizona to work as a forest ranger. On arrival the first transformation is a prerequisite: getting kitted out with “Winchester, revolver, bolsters, ammunition, saddle, bridle, lasso, blanket” and buying a horse and pack-pony. Then the adventure can begin in earnest. Its a rippin’ yarn, with an assortment of goodies and baddies – such as the corrupt timber man – kidnappings, gunfights, and bear hunting, with plenty of good forest management advice, which would not be out of place in a modern text book, scattered throughout.
the Government must own the forests an’ deal wisely with them. These mountain forests are great sponges to hold the water, an’ we must stop fire an’ reckless cuttin’. The first thing is to overcome the opposition of the stockmen, an’ show them where the benefit will be theirs in the long run. Next the timber must be used, but not all used up. We’ll need rangers who’re used to rustlin’ in the West an’ know Western ways. Cabins must be built, trails made, roads cut. We’ll need a head forester for every forest. This man must know all that’s on his preserve, an’ have it mapped. He must teach his rangers what he knows about trees…We’ll give [timber and wood] free to the settler an’ prospector. We’ll sell it cheap to the lumbermen–big an’ little. We’ll consider the wants of the local men first…The head forester must know his business, an’ not let his range be overstocked. The small local herders an’ sheepmen must be considered first, the big stockmen second. Both must be charged a small fee per head for grazin’ … Fire is the forest’s worst enemy. In a dry season like [this Penetier] would burn like tinder blown by a bellows. Fire would race through here faster ‘n a man could run. I’ll need special fire rangers, an’ all other rangers must be trained to fight fire, an’ then any men living in or near the forest will be paid to help. The thing to do is watch for the small fires an’ put them out.
At the end the Chief of the Forest Service declares a new policy for the Arizona national forest: “I call it splendid conservation… It considers the settler and lumberman instead of combating him.”
Thanks to Ken Rosenbaum for telling me about “The Young Forester”.
The RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch which takes place this weekend (26-27 January) is slated to be the world’s biggest bird survey. For almost three decades this annual event has attracted amateur birdwatchers to take a snapshot of the birds in the UK’s back gardens.
Last year some 400,000 people took part and spotted 6 million birds across 236,000 gardens. This cost-effective and popular monitoring of the changing composition of the bird population has helped focus bird conservation programmes. RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch
The RSPB’s online bird identifier is neat too
How to construct an international financial governance system for carbon trading has become a more pressing question in light of the exposure of global banks to investments in sub-prime mortgages – with the OECD estimating losses of $300billion – described as “a measure of the depth of mismanagement, non-regulation and structural dysfunctionality of today’s financial system.”
The growth of derivatives and other investment vehicles and their impact is told by John Lancaster in the London Review of Books.
But it is from this mess that phoenix-like new and credible instruments and regulations will be needed not least for the delivery of payments on an unprecedented scale to a variety of forest stakeholders – forest managers, poor rural communities, government agencies — to manage and conserve forest resources. While initiatives such as the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, and other similar multilateral and bilateral assistance to countries to implement carbon trading systems, as well as conservation efforts — such as the recent news to support Sierra Leone’s Gola forest, and Guyana’s invitation to the UK to its manage tropical forests (which conjures up images of ‘reversed’ groundnut schemes) are all welcome, the bulk of the necessary investment can only come from international private equity markets.
The central point — whether sub-prime lending or payments for avoided deforestation — arises from the principal-agent problem: the separation of consumers — mortgage holders or forest stakeholders — from financiers. The myriad of ever more complicated investment vehicles designed to spread risk began to create the illusion that risk had been abolished, and in doing so magnified the risk and infected financial markets to such an extent that everyone now bears a part of the risk. The credit crunch at Northern Rock was not as a result of mortgage holders being unable to make their regular payments; the problem was the bank’s inability to secure liquidity in the wholesale money markets which had in essence become the bank’s main customer.
Dani Rodrik in “One Economics, Many Recipes” argues for policies rooted in local realities and strategies that respond to their specific constraints. Forest governance can be designed at a local level — its success will reduce risk and increase carbon values. The success of forest certification over the past 10 years provides a starting point, together with improved national fiscal systems. Poorly performing states will receive, and be answerable for, lower carbon receipts
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Forest conservation is now big business. British Prime Ministers across the political spectrum from Margaret Thatcher to Gordon Brown have shown tremendous largesse with public funds to support forest programmes in tropical countries. Costa Rica is benefiting from a new round of debt-for-nature swaps which will provide more money for conservation. Corporations, conservation groups, celebrities or individuals are also channelling private funding. But when green consumers pay for the conservation of a rainforest, what are they actually getting, who benefits, and will it make a difference?
Cool Earth is a recent example. They use their sponsors’ contributions to buy forest land, passing the freehold to a local trust, and then to lease back the land to the communities affected. They contract local and international NGOs who in turn work with these communities to help their development. It is argued that the forests are thereby protected and we enjoy the environmental benefits too.
But some people are not happy at all about these sorts of scheme: “Buying up our forest makes me very sad,” said Davi Kopenawa, a leader of the Yanomami tribe, in a report in The Independent: “There is no money in the whole world that will buy the Amazon forest. You can’t buy land like you can buy meat or clothes. Land will always remain. We can use and use the earth and it will always be there. But money you can throw away in a river – it won’t last.” He calls for the land rights of indigenous communities to be recognised and respected.
He’s right – this rather than cash is often the key first step to conserving forests. Forests are cleared by farmers, cattle ranchers or loggers because the returns to them are higher than for conservation. Different countries face a range of different domestic market and policy failures, but without correcting these and providing the right mix of incentives for sustainable land uses, funding conservation is unlikely to have a widespread impact.
