Fragmented Rainforests' Species and Carbon Much Diminished
Forest fragmentation is rapidly eroding biodiversity and worsening global warming [more] in the Amazon rainforest according to research to be published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Forest fragmentation [search] is the process whereby a large, contiguous rainforest landscape is cut into pieces by industrial logging (including what is sometimes called "selective" but opens large forest gaps creating fragmentation), large-scale cattle ranching, slash-and-burn farming, rapid soya expansion, and wildfires. "Fragmentation causes profound changes to forest dynamics and ecology, resulting in the disappearance of rare species and forest specialists." Fragmentation also has global climate impact since fragments experience a considerable die-off of trees attributed to drying winds and storms.
Perhaps the mainstream environmental ancient forest logging apologists that promote certified industrial logging as a "conservation" strategy in the world's last few large and relatively intact ancient primary and old-growth forests can explain how their support for such logging matches up to the overwhelming science that industrial logging of any type severely diminishes ancient rainforests. I pick the scientific observations of top scientists like William Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama over the hippie-dippies in Greenpeace and Rainforest Action Network, and the career bureaucrats with conflicts of interest in WWF, FSC and WCS. The science is clear – humanity must end ancient forest logging NOW if there is to be any chance of global ecological survival. If you are not working to do so you are a bad guy, on the wrong side of forest conservation history.
Comments
Since the existant rainforests hold the bulk of the Earth's speices diversity, their fragmentation, which leads to their eventual destruction must cease or the planet's ecosystem is destined for collapse.
Posted by: Marcus Lanskey | November 29, 2006 3:04 PM
thank you for your continued work
Question
I hear that cardboard boxes are the end product from rainforest burning
" clear the forest to grow the timber" for cardboard - if this is so
perhaps we can attack thie need
Do you have any inforstructure to amalgamate other countries to find an alternative to using cardboard - I will contact Greenpaece to see if they can help also
Suggested targets are
the owners of the forest
The manufacturers of the cardboard
The end users
If we have a choice in buying things in cardboard
lets do it
Those who buy ivory are as guilty as those who shot the elephant
those who sell coal are as guilty as those who burn it
The world economy is the real enemy now - we must use our choice wisly to steer it's direction
Posted by: Brett Long | November 29, 2006 4:00 PM
THINK BEFORE IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE WILL RESULT.
Posted by: Anthony Ivankovic | December 3, 2006 2:28 PM
Greetings from Vermont!
Thank you for your well-researched and insightful comments. We visited the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama earlier this year and enjoyed it immensely. My hat's off to the dedicated scientists who work so hard to ensure the success of that important research facility. If you're planning a tropical vacation, I strongly recommend a visit to STRI, www.stri.org
Warm regards,
Peggy Farabaugh
www.VermontWoodsStudios.com
Fine Furniture from Sustainable Sources
Posted by: Peggy Farabaugh | December 8, 2006 12:02 PM
that sheet is brutal! There is no way that clearcutting this pristine fragment of the world's ecosystem is an option, or even a consideration. They want to "relocate" the forest...to make way for a sugar plantation? Well the effects on the biodiversity and climates sustainability ain't gon be SWEET! Supposedly it would threaten up to 312 tree species, 287 bird species and 199 butterfly species. And in the non-tree hugging side of things, countless pharmaceutical applications could be abolished. Plus the amount of fungi diversity, which is the beating heart of the foodchain will take centuries to replenish, and thus centuries of an elaborate evolutionary montage will not only seize but be backtracked.
Posted by: AdamVaiya | April 4, 2007 11:45 PM