Deforestation in Brazil: Coordination among different groups is inconsistent.

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Deforestation in the Amazon Aggravates Brazil’s Energy Crisis | EcoDaily

REDD+ in Brazil: Coordination needed. Now

BY BARBARA FRASER

Farming and ranching remain the main drivers of deforestation in Brazil, a new study from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) has found.

But any new government policy to combat the problem may be undermined by lack of coordination and communication, says one of the study’s authors, Monica Di Gregorio, a senior CIFOR associate.

Sharing information and coordinating efforts are crucial for implementing policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), the study claims.

So, to map information-sharing and collaboration networks in Brazil, researchers used questionnaires and in-depth interviews with 56 representatives of government agencies, non-government organizations (NGOs), civil society organizations, research institutions private-sector organizations and donors.

The study found that coordination among those groups is inconsistent.

Read the full article: Forests News

 

Fires, carbon sequestration and rainfall

 

The Atlantic Ocean holds the key to western Amazon rainfall

BY SAMUEL MCGLENNON

In 2010, catastrophic fires ravaged huge tracts of the western Amazon, a region of rainforest that until just a few years earlier was considered beyond the reach of serious drought.

Those flames followed the major fires of 2005, which were also caused by extreme drought.

Both of these conflagrations imperilled communities and livelihoods, sending massive pulses of carbon into the atmosphere.

With each destructive fire, the forests of the western Amazon become more susceptible to drying and further burning.

And that is a big problem according to Lou Verchot, one of the authors of a new study and Director, Forests and Environment Research at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

“Many climate mitigation initiatives involve removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it on land in trees and forests.  There are many initiatives to restore degraded forests or expand agroforestry as carbon sequestration measures, for example,” he says.

“Fire is a huge risk to these investments and one fire can undo a decade or more of work.  If we can predict fire risks, we can factor these elements into carbon sequestration schemes and improve their performance.”

PIECING TOGETHER THE PUZZLE

Verchot along with other scientists from CIFOR and the  International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) have found part of the solution may lie thousands of kilometers away from the Western Amazon – in the Atlantic Ocean.

Read thee full article: CIFOR

 

Forests provide food

Photo credit: Forest News

Food from the forest sustains almost one in six people across the globe. Photo courtesy of pixabay.

Feed the world: New global report highlights forests’ role

BY VIRGINIA M. MONCRIEFF

Forests and trees must be considered essential in global food security and dietary diversity, according to a major new report.

Forests, Trees and Landscapes for Food Security and Nutrition: A Global Assessment Report was released at the UN Forum on Forests in New York.

Sixty of the world’s leading forestry scientists contributed to the report  – several of them from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)  – which was coordinated by the International Union of Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO) .

The report looks at the value of forests which provide food for nearly one in six – almost one billion – people around the globe.

“Despite impressive productivity increases” the report states, “there is growing evidence that conventional agricultural strategies will fall short of eliminating global hunger and malnutrition. (This report) provides comprehensive scientific evidence on how forests, trees, and landscapes can be – and must be – an integral part of the solution to this global problem.”

The authors write that effective management of landscapes and improved governance of forest landscapes is essential for the delivery of ecosystem services for crop production, to provide better and more nutritionally-balanced diets, and to create greater control over food inputs, especially during lean seasons, periods of vulnerability or for marginalized people.

Read the full article: CIFOR

“Zero-deforestation in Indonesia

Deforestation-free commitments: The challenge of implementation – An application to Indonesia

Authors: Pirard, R.; Fishman, A.; Gnych, S.; Obidzinski, K.; Pacheco, P. (2015-

Topic: deforestation,conservation,carbon,rural communities,forest conservation

Series: CIFOR Working Paper no. 181

Publisher: Bogor, Indonesia, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

ISBN: 978-602-1504-90-1- DOI: 10.17528/cifor/005572

The deforestation-free movement (or “zero-deforestation”) has emerged recently in a context of lower state control, globalization and pressure on corporations by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) through consumer awareness campaigns, acknowledging the essential role of agricultural commodities in deforestation. It takes the form of commitments by corporations to ensure that the products they either produce, process, trade or retail are not linked to forest conversion.
This movement has particular relevance for Indonesia. Ambitious targets have been set with concrete action on the ground, and typically go beyond forest conservation to also include peatland management and social issues. Regarding the zero-deforestation component, its implementation relies essentially on two complementary methodologies: High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) and High Carbon Stocks (HCS).

Read the full abstract: CIFOR

 

Raised beds and soil salinity

 

Soil salinity management on raised beds with different furrow irrigation modes in salt-affected lands

Authors: Devkota M., Gupta R.K., Martius C., Lamers J.P.A., Sayre K.D., Vlek P.L.G.

Source: Agricultural Water Management 162: 243-250

Mismanagement of irrigation water and the ensuing secondary salinization are threatening the sustainability of irrigated agriculture especially in many dryland regions. The permanent raised-bed/furrow system, a water-wise conservation agriculture-based practice, is gaining importance for row- and high value-crops in irrigated agriculture. However, because of additional surface exposure and elevation, raised beds may be more prone to salt accumulation especially under shallow water table conditions. A field study was carried out in 2008 and 2009 in the Khorezm region, Central Asia, to investigate the effect of three furrow irrigation methods on salt dynamics of the soil and the performance of the cotton crop on the raised bed-furrow system. The irrigation methods compared included (i) Conventional furrow irrigation wherein every furrow was irrigated (EFI) at each irrigation event; (ii) Alternate skip furrow irrigation (ASFI where one of two neighbouring furrows were alternately irrigated during consecutive irrigations events; and (iii) Permanent skip furrow irrigation (PSFI) during which irrigation was permanently skipped in one of the two neighbouring furrows during all irrigation events. For salinity management with PSFI a ‘managed salt accumulation and effective leaching’ approach was pursued.

Read the full article: CIFOR

Forestry and SDGs

Photo credit: CIFOR

A giant Brazil nut tree in the Unamat forest, Puerto Maldonado, Madre de Dios, Peru. Brazil nuts form a crucial addition to livelihoods in parts of the Peruvian Amazon. Marco Simola/CIFOR photo

Sustainable Development Goals and forestry: Lessons from Peru

BY BARBARA FRASER

EXCERPT

In Peru and throughout the Amazon Basin, people depend on forests for meat, fruits and seeds, medicines, palm fronds for thatch, and many other products.

Those contributions, along with their role in buffering the effects of climate change, make forests crucial for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a proposed global framework for guiding poverty reduction and ensuring a sustainable future.

“Forestry contributes to the solution of development challenges,” said Peter Holmgren, Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) in Bogor, Indonesia. “Forests can contribute to the elimination of poverty, to food security, to prosperity in the green economy and to energy.”

The SDGs, which will come up for a vote at the UN General Assembly in September,grew out of the Rio+20 conference in Brazil in 2012.

WHERE FORESTS FIT IN 

The 17 goals aim to, among other things, eliminate poverty, hunger and inequality while supporting economic opportunity—a significant part of which is the sustainable management of the natural resources on which economic and social development depend.

Only one goal—No. 15—specifically addresses environmental issues, calling for sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainable management of forests, and a halt to land degradation and biodiversity loss.

Read the full article: CIFOR

Not just trees: On SDGs, development and zero-deforestation pledges

 

Forests ‘not only about the environment’: On SDGs, zero-deforestation pledges

What we can see this year, in 2015, is that there’s a real opportunity for combining or to see a confluence between these two major international development and climate negotiations

BY CIFOR

VIDEO : https://youtu.be/6AxnqIcTe_Y

Where do forests fit into the climate and development agendas? How—and when—will the promise of REDD+ be fulfilled? What is the value of zero-deforestation pledges?

These are some of the most pressing questions for forests in 2015, and ahead of International Day of Forests (21 March), three experts from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) sat down to talk about these issues and others.

Read the full article: CIFOR

Is the forest an integral part of a human landscape ?

Photo credit: CIFOR

View of the Juruena River, Mato Grosso, Brazil. Icaro Cooke Vieira/CIFOR photo

It’s a forest, not a ‘museum’: What sustainable development means in the tropics

There are people who live in the forests; there are people who depend upon these forests. Their concerns need to be addressed

BY KATE EVANS

A tropical forest: A habitat for wildlife, untouched by humans? Or trees ripe to be cleared for profit?

Or is the forest an integral part of a human landscape: relied on by people for clean water, timber, forest foods, wood fuel, a haven for animals and plants, and a carbon sink for the health of the climate system?

The importance of forest products for tribal women in India – http://photos.ifad.org/asset-bank/images/assets/13001-13100/13051/47_10103_P33s.jpg

Forestry experts argue that this last picture is closest to the true nature of forests – and this is how we must think of them if, as a global community, we are to achieve the new UN Sustainable Development Goals and tackle climate change.

Forests are not just something ‘nice to have’ but an integral part of what sustainable development means in the tropics, according to Louis Verchot, Director of Forests and Environment Research at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

Read the full article: CIFOR

Adaptation to climate change in Central Africa

Photo credit: CIFOR

Hauling fuelwood in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo. Ollivier Girard/CIFOR photo

Lima call for climate action: Paving the way to revisit Central Africa’s adaptation agenda

BY DENIS SONWA

One of the main outputs of the UNFCCC COP 20 in Lima was significant progress on recognizing the importance of adaptation when responding to climate change. The National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process gained more interest, and how NAP can be supported by the GFC (Green Climate Fund) will be a subject of further discussions before the Paris talks in 2015. The Global Landscape Forum (GLF) organized by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and partners as a side event during the COP clearly states that adaptation and mitigation approaches can be combined and reinforced through “landscape approaches.”

It is now time for countries and regions to turn the outputs of Lima into realities, both nationally and regionally.

Read the full article: CIFOR

Drylands Dialogue and Social Diversity

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Drylands Dialogue; Second Meeting in Nairobi Jan 20-21, 2015

Action Plan for Drylands Dialogue and Social Diversity

by Purabi Bose

The second gathering of the Drylands Dialogue meeting achieved the objective to identify priorities for research and development action plan.

On January 20-21, the second Drylands Dialogue was organized by the African Studies Center (ASC), the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry- Gender (CRP FTA), and AEGIS. The two-day meeting on drylands agriculture-forests-agroforestry-commons nexus gathered some 25 multidisciplinary experts including Dr. Dennis Garrity, Drylands Ambassador, UNCCD; Caroline King-Okumu, IIED; Esther Mwangi, CIFOR; Tobias  Haller, University of Bern; and hosted by Han van Dijk, ASC. The first Drylands Dialogue was held in Leiden, Netherlands on June 17, 2014.

Thematically the two-day meeting was divided in a knowledge part (day I) and a policy-action part (day II). The key objective of the meeting was to build a research-development action plan, building on the results of the first meeting. The research part was devoted to (1) the climate-food security; (2) the education-economic development; and (3) the conflict-land tenure and natural-resource management.

Read the full article: CIAT

 

Wildlife and human nutrition

Photo credit: CIFOR

A mother and her children on the road to Kinsagani, Democratic Republic of Congo. A new study has found a link between availability of bushmeat and child stunting in the Congo Basin. Ollivier Girard/CIFOR photo

Link between wildlife, human nutrition is food for thought for development in Africa

BY ANGELA DEWAN

BOGOR, Indonesia—A new study has found for the first time a link between the availability of wild meat and human malnutrition, and calls for a better balance between conservation and development objectives in the management of bushmeat.

A rapid increase in the hunting of wild animals has raised concerns of “empty forests” — a hypothetical scenario where forests are void of large mammal species — and therefore “empty stomachs” in communities that depend on bushmeat for nutrition.

But the new research finds that things aren’t always that simple.

“What we’ve found is evidence that some areas in the central African region seem to have achieved a good balance between the amount of food available in terms of wild meat and nutrition,” according to John E. Fa, the lead author of the study, a visiting professor at Imperial College London and Senior Research Associate at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). The study also involved collaboration from spatial modelers at the Universidad de Málaga in Spain.

Read the full article: CIFOR

See alSO: CIFOR

Illegal logging – formal agreements to clean up trading routes

Photo credit: CIFOR

Certified timber in a log pond in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Efforts to curb illegal logging may be better-served to focus on large-scale loggers first, research suggests. Michael Padmanaba/CIFOR photo

EU plan to curb illegal logging: Think big by thinking small?

Existing legislation is not ready for small-scale operators, and seeking blanket compliance will outlaw them overnight

BY THOMAS HUBERT

Indonesia—Faced with growing pressure to root out “illegal timber” from international trade, some tropical timber-producing countries have a choice.

Massive logging – http://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2014/10/22/18/18/logs-498538_640.jpg

On one hand, they can adopt and enforce a legality verification system that instantly covers their entire timber supply chain, from large-scale industrial logging for export markets to small-scale artisanal operators serving the domestic market.

On the other: They can start “small” and ramp up enforcement slowly.

The decision could have wide implications for the short-term success and long-term sustainability of the initiative.

For a decade, the European Union (EU) has been negotiating with tropical timber-producing countries to stem illegal logging. Recent research indicates that they may have to leave small-scale producers aside—temporarily—to bring their joint efforts to fruition.

Formal agreements are now in place to clean up several major trading routes from Africa and Asia to Europe. A recent paper by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) suggests, however, that their gradual implementation could avoid disrupting the livelihoods of many thousands of people in timber-producing countries. This could be done with “the ‘weakest’ parts of the sector, notably current informal operators, being granted a grace period of learning before implementing and fully enforcing any new rules,” the authors write.

Recent developments illustrate why.

Read the full article: CIFOR