for young people · by young people · about young people

The UNEP Magazine for Youth

ForestsTruly wild

Tell the difference

Money grows on trees

Forest heroes

Debt for forests

Plant for the Planet: The Billion Tree Campaign

2 TUNZA Vol 4 No 3

TUNZAthe UNEP Magazine forYouth is available atwww.ourplanet.comand www.unep.org

United NationsEnvironmentProgramme (UNEP)PO Box 30552, Nairobi, KenyaTel (254 20) 7621 234Fax (254 20) 7623 927 Telex 22068 UNEP KEE-mail uneppub@unep.orgwww.unep.org

ISSN 1727-8902

Director of Publication Eric FaltCoordinator Wondwosen Asnake Editor Geoffrey LeanGuest Editors Karen Eng and Claire HastingsNairobi Coordinator Naomi PoultonCirculation Manager Manyahleshal Kebede

Youth Contributors Julia Butterfly Hill, United States;Monir Bu Ghanem, Lebanon; Michael Chan, HongKong (China); Marina Mansilla Hermann, Argentina;Nadia Ramos, Peru; Shane Recalde, Ecuador;Waranya Mei Roekpoorita, Thailand; Joao FelipeScarpelini, Brazil; Nikolaos Theofilidis, Greece

Other Contributors Karl Ammann; Maria Beckett,Religion, Science and the Environment; MichelleDépraz, WWF; Daryl Hannah; Ivonne Higuero;Cecilia Kibare; Elaine Marshall; Stéfane Mauris,WWF; Martin and Vicky Palmer, ARC; RoseySimonds and David Woollcombe, Peace ChildInternational; Erika Vohman

Design Edward Cooper, EcuadorWeb Editor Graham BardenProduction BansonHead, UNEP’s Children and Youth/Sport and Environment Unit Theodore Oben

Printed in the United Kingdom

The contents of this magazine do not necessarily reflect theviews or policies of UNEP or the editors, nor are they anofficial record. The designations employed and thepresentation do not imply the expression of any opinionwhatsoever on the part of UNEP concerning the legal statusof any country, territory or city or its authority, or concerningthe delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

The non-copyrighted contents of this magazine may bereprinted without charge provided that TUNZA and theauthor or photographer concerned are credited as thesource and the editors are notified in writing and sent avoucher copy.

TUNZA welcomes articles, reviews, illustrations and photosfor publication but cannot guarantee that they will bepublished. Unsolicited manuscripts, photographs andartwork will not be returned.

Subscriptions If you wish to receive TUNZA on a regularbasis and are not currently on the mailing list, pleasecontact Manyahleshal Kebede, Circulation Manager,TUNZA, for subscription details, giving your name andaddress and your preferred language (English, Chinese,French, Japanese, Korean or Spanish).

Change of address Please send your address label together with your new address to: Manyahleshal Kebede, Circulation Manager, TUNZA, UNEP, PO Box 30552,Nairobi, Kenya, e-mail manyahleshal.kebede@unep.org.

UNEP promotes environmentally friendly practicesglobally and in its own activities. This magazine isprinted on 100% recycled, chlorine-free paper usingvegetable-based inks.

Editorial 3

Treasure trees 4

Supporting the sky 5

TUNZA answers your questions 6

Tunza fun 7

Forest heroes 8

Truly wild 1 10

Debt for forests 10

Nothing new under the canopy 11

Endangered forests 12

Give as well as take 14

Gorilla wars 15

Truly wild 2 16

Money does grow on trees 16

Win-win 18

Trees in the concrete jungle 18

Championing the Earth 19

Tell the difference 20

Nutty solution 21

Truly wild 3 21

Seven forest wonders 22

UNEP and Bayer, the German-basedinternational enterprise involved inhealth care, crop science andmaterials science, are workingtogether to strengthen young people’senvironmental awareness and engagechildren and youth in environmentalissues worldwide.

A partnership agreement lays down abasis for UNEP and Bayer, who havecollaborated on projects in the Asia and Pacific region for nearly 10 years,

to step up current projects, transfersuccessful initiatives to other countries and develop new youth programmes.Projects include: TUNZA Magazine, theInternational Children’s PaintingCompetition on the Environment, the Bayer Young Environmental Envoy inPartnership with UNEP, the UNEP TunzaInternational Youth Conference, youthenvironmental networks in Asia Pacific,the Asia-Pacific Eco-Minds Forum and aphoto competition, ‘Ecology in Focus’,in Eastern Europe.

Contents

Forests 3

We are people of the trees –and not just because ourdistant ancestors lived in

them. We could not survive withoutthem. They protect us from nature’sfury and our own follies. Up in themountains, wooded watersheds regulatethe water supplies of a third of thepeople on Earth. Down on the coasts,mangrove forests protect the landagainst storms and tsunamis as well asproviding nurseries for fish. And alltrees everywhere help soak up carbondioxide that would otherwise speed upglobal warming.

Yet ever since humanity began totill the land, we have treated trees likeenemies, not friends. They were in the way, taking up land that could beused for growing crops or buildingsettlements. Worse, they seemed to

harbour witches and wild beasts, andcould give cover to crooks or warriorsseeking to attack. So from the earliesttimes they were cut down: half of thewildwood that once covered 80 per cent of Britain was cleared by the timethe Anglo-Saxons conquered Englandin the 5th century.

In recent decades this has begun to rebound on us. Cleared watershedshave caused water supplies to dry up,and allowed rain to run off themountainsides, causing massive floods.Mangroves grubbed up to make wayfor fish farms or tourist playgroundshave exposed people to the violence of the sea. And burning forests releasecarbon dioxide, making the climatechange faster and more severely.

Yet some people never took the des-tructive approach. Still in the forest,indigenous cultures have learned tomake a living from their environmentwithout damaging it; these peopleclearly have much to teach us about how

to live in harmony with the environment.Our generation must abandon the con-frontational attitude towards the forestand learn from the wisdom of indige-nous cultures. Otherwise the outlook forour remaining forests – and for us – isbleak indeed.

We want to hear from you – yourviews, your news and your ideas.E-mail us at: tunza@ourplanet.com

ONE BILLION TREES IN 2007!

That’s UNEP’s aim. Supported by star planters including Nobel laureate

Wangari Maathai, UNEP’s Plant for the Planet: The Billion Tree Campaign

challenges nations, corporations, civil-society organizations, communities

and ordinary people – that’s you and me. Each tree will help save our soils,

keep our freshwater fresh, absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and

encourage other plant and animal life… making the world a better place.

Visit www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign to register your individual pledge – or

a pledge from your school, college, youth or friendship group. It also provides

practical advice on what to plant – indigenous species and the right kind of

species for your local conditions – how to plant, when to plant, and how to

care for your trees.

And, through the site, you’ll be able to track the campaign’s progress, post

photos of you in action, and keep in touch with what others are achieving.

Play your part...

join us and

get planting.

Edi tor ia l

www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign

`

Treasure treesL ong ago, before the dawn of agriculture, trees covered about

half the Earth’s land surface. Now, about half of these originalforests have been completely cleared, and most of what remains

standing has been burned, replanted or otherwise affected by people atsome stage. And the destruction continues: every year, some 130,000square kilometres of trees – an area the size of Nicaragua, Greece or theAmerican state of Alabama – are cut down.

Felling forests is an act of self-harm. For they are absolutely essential forhuman well-being – even survival – regulating our climate and watersupplies. Yet they have long been among the first victims of civilization:over 3,000 years ago, the people in Mesopotamia cut down their trees –and soon the land turned into desert.

Today’s developed countries have largely lost their forests. Outside theRussian Federation, only a bare 1 per cent of Europe’s tree coversurvives. And 95 per cent of the forests of the continental United Statesof America have been cut down since Europeans first settled there.

Many developing countries have now become similarly denuded –from Bangladesh to Haiti, from Nigeria to the Philippines, fromThailand to Côte d’Ivoire. These have lost almost all their forest.And the felling is happening fastest in the tropics, where themajority of developing countries are.

Yet we need trees more than ever. More than 2 billion peopledepend on wooded watersheds for their drinking water. Treesefficiently regulate supplies, intercepting rainfall and enablingit to percolate into groundwater, and to feed rivers andstreams.

Trees also bind soil to the ground. When they are felled,earth is left exposed and is washed off the hills by rain.Crop yields fall. And, instead of being stored andreleased gradually, the water rushes off the bare slopes,causing floods followed by scarcity.

The eroded topsoil settles in riverbeds, raising themand making the torrents even more likely to bursttheir banks. China’s Yellow River has been soraised in this way that it actually flows 3 to 10metres above the surrounding land as itapproaches the sea. The silt also builds up

behind dams, drastically shortening theiruseful lives.

Even more important, forests are a vitalbrake on global warming: they are

thought to absorb a third of allhumanity’s emissions of carbon

dioxide, the main cause of climatechange. Cutting them down for

timber releases the brake.Burning them stamps on

the accelerator by emittingeven more of the gas

to the atmosphere.

4 TUNZA Vol 4 No 3

Supportingthe sky

The Maori recognize the im-portance of trees in one oftheir creation stories.

Rangi, the sky father, and Papa, theearth mother, embraced each other.They held each other so tightly thatthey blocked out the sun’s light, leav-ing their children to live in darkness,squashed between the earth and the sky.

Eventually, the children had hadenough of the darkness. They arguedover how best to find the sun. Tuma,the fiercer child, wanted to kill hisparents, but Tane, the guardian of theforests, objected.

‘Let’s separate them, and let the skystand far above us and the earth liebeneath us. Let the sky be a stranger to us, but let the earth remain close tous as our nursing mother.’

In turn, each child tried to push Rangiand Papa apart, but their embrace wastoo strong.

Tane tried one last time. He lay on hisback and put his shoulders againstthe earth. He wedged his feet againstthe sky. He pushed, and groaned and strained.

With one huge push, Tane broke thesinews that held his parents together.Quickly, he propped up his father, thesky, with tall trees from his forests sothat the sky and earth could not cometogether again.

We can lessenthese effects byplanting trees –which is on theincrease around theworld. About 57,000square kilometres are re-forested in this way everyyear, bringing the overallloss down to 73,000 squarekilometres, the size of SierraLeone or Panama.

But replanting usually fails toreplace like with like. What iscut down is normally rich,ancient, ‘old-growth’ forest, whichworldwide is home to more thanhalf the species on Earth. A single1,000-hectare patch of tropicalrainforest, for example, may wellcontain as many as 1,500 species of flowering plants, 740 types of trees,400 kinds of birds, 100 of reptiles, 60 of amphibians and 150 of butterflies –insects as a whole are far too numerous to count.

This breathtaking diversity is regularlyreplaced by vast, regimented tracts of justone or two tree species, and little accom-panying wildlife. The effect is incalculable –on the world’s web of life, on the disap-pearance of species that could have providedimportant new foods and medicines, and onlocal people, who depend on the richness of theforests for more than a fifth of their meagreincomes.

It is far better to leave old-growth forest in place.One country – the tiny Himalayan kingdom ofBhutan – has shown the way. Measuring itssuccess by ‘Gross National Happiness’ rather than‘Gross National Product’, it decided, more than 30years ago, that 60 per cent of its land should alwaysremain covered by forest. In fact, it now has 74 percent tree cover, making it the last green patch in theincreasingly barren mountain chain – an example toinspire, and shame, the rest of the world.

J. Burton/U

NE

P/Topham

Forests 5

6 TUNZA Vol 4 No 3

Q Once a rainforest has been cut down, is there any way that people can replant torecreate the biodiversity that was there before?

A It has taken millennia for rainforest biodiversity to evolve, and we are only now beginningproperly to understand the interconnectedness of many of the species. There are stillmany forest species that have not yet been identified, let alone studied. So while we canreplant, it is unlikely that we will ever be able totally to restore what is lost.

Q We have not heard much about acid rain recently: is it still killing forests aroundthe world?

A Acid rain results from fossil fuel emissions, particularly nitrogen dioxide and sulphur.When these combine with water vapour, sunlight and oxygen in the atmosphere, theycreate diluted nitric and sulphuric acid – which are washed out of the atmosphere byrain and snowfall often far from where the pollution originated, and are particularlyharmful to forests and lakes. The problem has been greatly reduced in Western Europe– thanks to United Nations action – and North America, but is ongoing in Eastern Europe and the Russian Federation, as well as in China, where a parliamentary reportrecently concluded that a third of the vast country is affected.

Q Are there global laws to protect virgin forests from being cut down? Do they work?

A There are no global laws to protect virgin forests from being cut down. However, ForestPrinciples were negotiated at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Today, the United NationsForum on Forests (UNFF), made up of all member states of the United Nations and its specialized agencies, promotes ‘…the management, conservation and sustainabledevelopment of all types of forests’, and is working on turning this into a reality.

Q In some places people are creating forest plantations. Should we welcome this?

A Wood and other products, including food, can be produced from sustainably managedforests and plantations, which should reduce pressure on natural, old-growth forests.UNFF strongly promotes sustainable forest management under which all types of forests,including plantations, are managed to meet economic, social and environmental goals.

Q Should we try NOT to cut down any trees?

A Wood is used in a huge variety of ways, including as building materials, as fuel, in paper,or as part of brushes and other tools, and its sustainable use benefits local communitiesand entire industries. So some forests can be harvested to meet human, economic andsocial needs. The problem is unsustainable cutting or logging, which result in the loss ofboth species and environmental goods and services such as climate regulation andwatershed protection, doing irreparable damage to the health and well-being of peopleand the planet.

Q We read about tree species being moved around the world – rubber from LatinAmerica to Malaysia and Indonesia, or eucalyptus from Australia to Africa. Isthis wise?

A Most experts would recommend extreme caution when introducing non-native speciesextensively, as they may destroy local ecosystems and cause environmental andeconomic damage. Invasive alien species are a significant threat, and can harmindigenous species and the local environment.

Q How can we, young people, help preserve forests? Should we plant treesourselves?

A It is a good idea for young people to plant trees as well as promote the sustainablemanagement of forests. Many organizations promote tree planting using appropriate local,native species. Check with your local community to find out how you can help – or joinUNEP’s Billion Tree Campaign and make a pledge (www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign).

Q&ATUNZA

answers

your questions

Do you have any QUESTIONS on

environmental issuesthat you would like

the experts at UNEP to answer?

Please send them to uneppub@@unep.org, and

we will try to answerthem in future issues.

Forests 7

2008 Tunza Junior Board

Latin America and theCaribbean

Daniela Meléndez (Colombia)

West Asia Ammar Hussain Ali (Bahrain)

Africa Naylee Nagda (Kenya)

Guy Nindorera (Burundi)

EuropeNathan Sutcliffe (United Kingdom)

North AmericaClara Simpson (Canada)

Asia and the PacificMichael Bradley Lewis (Australia)

UNEP’s Choice Junior BoardMember

Juan Samuel Loyola (Philippines)

Representing Norway, theupcoming host country

Helga AnfinsenHanna Eikas

Hakon HaalandKristian Oion

Ifyou happened to be in the Taman Wetland Putrajaya on 28 August, yourconfusion at being surrounded by tree-planting children would have beenunderstandable. It’s not every day that 250 children from 60 countries get

together to plant a forest. Yet forest planting was only one of the many activities that occupied delegates attending the 2006 UNEP Tunza International Children’sConference.

Themed ‘Save a Tree, Save our Lungs’, the Conference was held in Putrajaya,Malaysia, from 26 to 30 August. Delegates aged 10 to 14 were selected, basedupon their involvement in environmental clubs in their home communities. The eventprovided delegates with an opportunity to meet their peers from around the worldand a forum for them to discuss and learn about their environmental rights andresponsibilities. Delegates presented their own activities, voiced their concerns andshared ideas about the environment, conservation and sustainability.

HRH Raja Permaisuri Agong Tuanku Fauziah Binti Al-Marhum Tengku Abdul Rashid,Queen of Malaysia, presided over the opening ceremonies, encouraging par-ticipants to cement friendships and learn from each other in the coming days. Allwere then enthralled by performances by local children, especially a play, ‘Tears ofTrees’. The production’s amazing costumes added depth to the storyline: that treesmust be allowed to grow and reproduce to maintain the healthy ecosystem we callMother Earth.

The four days were full of activity, fun and information. Workshops addressed suchdiverse topics as ‘How to become an Eco-Journalist’, ‘Let’s make Paper out ofWaste’, and ‘Saving the Marine Turtle’. Each morning, a selection of delegatespresented summaries of their own environmental projects. There were also field trips to the PETRONAS Towers, the Botanical Garden of Putrajaya, and the ForestAcademy’s innovative research centre. And, of course, there was the forest planting.

Delegates, chaperones and volunteers planted at least one tree each on behalf oftheir country. Covered in mud but hugely satisfied, the children continued plantingafter they had finished their own country’s task – helping their neighbours in a trulyglobal effort. The new forest was named Rimba Tunza Taman Wetland Putrajaya,which roughly translates as Tunza Forest.

After four eventful days the Conference came to a close. The final day was awhirlwind. Elections for the Junior Board took place in the morning, and by earlyafternoon the new representatives had been named (see box). These talentedyoung people will work hard over the next two years to organize and shape thedirection of the 2008 Tunza International Children’s Conference in Norway. Theclosing ceremonies began with an eye-popping fashion show. Conferenceparticipants, chaperones and volunteers graced the catwalk wearing the latest lookin wearable recycled waste. And, before leaving, all delegates agreed a Conferencecontract, committing both them and UNEP to concrete action to continue theirefforts to protect the environment and raise awareness.

The success of the Conference is best summed up by 14-year old NikolaosTheofilidis from Greece: ‘Until the Tunza Children’s Conference, I knew only aboutenvironmental problems in Greece. But here I learned about other parts of theworld. We all need to change our attitude to the environment. The Earth is our homeand by harming it we harm ourselves.’

Tunza Fun!

UNEP UNEP

UNEP UNEP

8 TUNZA Vol 4 No 3

Throughout history people have understoodthe vital importance of trees, and have been

ready to die to defend them. Here are a few ofthe heroes of the forests.

1485The Bishnoi sect is started by Guru Jambheshwar in Rajasthan, India. It forbids doing any harm totrees and animals.

1730Bishnoi villager Amrita Devi hugs a tree to stopit being cut down by the local maharajah. She is killed, but 362 other villagers then sacrificethemselves in the same way, shaming the maha-rajah into forbidding felling in Bishnoi villages.Now they are oases of life in a desert.

Early 1800sJohn Chapman, better known as JohnnyAppleseed, roams the United States frontierplanting cider apple trees which he sells for a fewpennies to arriving settlers, helping to establishan economy and improve life in the wilderness.

1922Richard St Barbe Baker founds Watu wa Miti(Men of the Trees) with Kenya’s Kikuyu people to carry out reforestation there after seeing thesoil erosion caused by felling in Canada andNorth Africa. The organization, a forerunner ofmodern conservation groups, eventually becamethe International Tree Foundation, with branchesin over 100 countries. More than 26 billion treesare thought to have been planted worldwide byorganizations Baker founded or assisted.

1973Villagers near the Mandal Forest in UttarPradesh, India, march to protest the felling of ash

trees by a sporting goods company. Inspired bythe Bishnoi, they decide to hug the trees, stop-ping the loggers and starting a non-violentmovement called ‘Chipko’, after the Hindi wordfor ‘embrace’. They knew that cutting down theforest would erode soil and cause devastatingfloods. Similar protests erupted throughout thestate to frustrate the loggers, mainly led by localwomen who depend most on the fuelwood andfodder the trees provide. After years of suchresistance, the Government banned commerciallogging in Uttar Pradesh. Chipko movementsnow focus on reforestation.

1976Chico Mendes, a rubber tapper in the Amazonrainforest, first joins empates, non-violentmarches into logging sites, where demonstratorsask workers to stop clearing forest for cattleranches. He later becomes a pioneering advo-cate of creating forest reserves to be managedby traditional communities sustainably harvest-ing its riches – like Brazil nuts and rubber. In1987, he successfully convinced the Inter-American Development Bank to halt and re-negotiate a road project threatening the forestand its people’s livelihoods, and became one ofthe first recipients of UNEP’s Global 500 award.The next year he was assassinated at the behestof a rancher whom he was trying to prevent fromlogging a reserve.

1976 Sporting hero Alexander Peal, the former goalieof Liberia’s national football team, starts fightingto protect West Africa’s last remaining sizeabletract of rainforest, succeeding in establishing anational park seven years later. He had to flee forhis life in 1989 when civil war broke out and gaverise to a brutal regime, but he continued to fight

Since 2000, Cultiva, a non-profit group, has helpedlocal students plant trees on the badly erodedAndean foothills around Santiago, Chile.

The Government of Newfoundland and Labradorhas begun a pilot programme to offer secondary

Every year, thousands of community and studentvolunteers participate in Australia’s National TreeDay by planting native trees and shrubs: more than10 million trees in the last decade.

Forest heroes

Get involved!L. Hrinivasan/UNEP/Topham

Forests 9

for the forest in exile and returned to continue hiswork as soon as peace broke out.

1977University professor Wangari Maathai, seeingthe destruction caused by deforestation anddesertification in her country, forms the GreenBelt Movement after planting a nursery of treesin her back garden. She also begins campaigningto preserve African forests. Despite repeatedpersecution, she and the movement have so farenabled poor women in Kenya and all over EastAfrica to plant over 20 million trees, both com-bating soil erosion and creating a sustainablesource of fuelwood, fruit and timber. The move-ment has spread internationally and, in 2004,Maathai was the first African woman to receivethe Nobel Peace Prize.

1994After fires destroy forests around their homevillage, Monir Bu Ghanem and four youngfriends from Ramlieh village in Lebanon dedicatethemselves to preventing and fighting fires,planting trees and protecting forests. This group has grown into a national youth actionorganization, the Association for ForestDevelopment and Conservation, which alsopromotes old-growth forest conservation, eco-tourism and environmental education – and in2006 provided shelter for refugees fleeing theconflict between Israel and Hizbollah.

1997Julia Butterfly Hill climbs a 600-year-old, 55-metre-tall coast redwood tree, staying in it fortwo years in a vigil that would ultimately save thetree and a small area of old-growth forest aroundit from commercial logging, bringing the plight ofthe forest to national attention.

1997In her first year of practice as a lawyer, AnneKajir succeeds in forcing logging companies topay damages to indigenous peoples in PapuaNew Guinea. She has continued to fight for theforests ever since – despite being physicallyattacked more than once – exposing widespreadcorruption which is allowing illegal logging todestroy the last remaining intact block of tropicalrainforest in the Asia-Pacific region.

1998Rodolfo Montiel Flores, a subsistence farmer in Mexico’s Guerrero State, founds a peasants’movement to try to stop logging from devastat-ing the area. In the following year, he and acolleague were arrested, imprisoned and ex-tensively tortured. In 2000 he won a GoldmanAward*, sparking an international campaign tohave the two men released. They finally gainedtheir freedom in 2001.

1999Fatima Jibrell leads a march to stop acacia trees being felled and turned into charcoal forexport from Somalia, then an anarchic countryruled by warlords. Despite repeated threats, shesucceeded in persuading the Government of the Somali region of Puntland to ban the exports. Today, she and her colleagues promotesolar cookers to eliminate the domestic use of charcoal.

2004Tree sitters climb into platforms in Eucalyptusregnans trees 65 metres off the ground to protectTasmania’s old-growth Styx forest from beinglogged. Five months later, the Tasmanian Gov-ernment promised to protect 18,700 hectares of trees.

school graduates summer jobs planting some900,000 trees.

The All Pakistan Youth Federation, coordinating392 young peoples’ organizations, sponsors tree-planting campaigns.

Tree For All, sponsored by the United Kingdom’sWoodland Trust, has helped more than 350,000young people plant 3 million trees.

So what are you waiting for... www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign

Shane Recalde

* Wangari Maathai, Alexander Peal, Fatima Jibrell, and Anne Kajirhave also won Goldman Awards.

10 TUNZA Vol 4 No 3

Debt for forests

Cameroon’s rich tropical forests are about to get somemuch-needed protection, thanks to a historic deal with France that reduces Cameroon’s debt burden at

the same time. Under the agreement, Cameroon will invest atleast $25 million of its debt to France – instead of having topay it back – to protect its part of the Congo basin, home to rare forest elephants and hundreds of bird species, as wellas local inhabitants like the Ba’Aka people.

Such ‘debt-for-nature’ swaps were first thought up by ThomasLovejoy, an American biologist and conservationist. Herecognized that the world’s richest wildlife areas are usually indeveloping nations, which both carry the greatest debt and havedifficulty paying for environmental protection. The schemeredeems international debt, as long as the money is used tofund environmental protection in the indebted country. It isoften a conservation organization that purchases the debt at a discount (yes, you can buy others’ debts!) and redeems it in local currency, using the money for conservation on thespot. Sometimes an agreement is made directly betweengovernments – as in the case of the France-Cameroon swap –but this is usually monitored by a conservation body, which canhelp identify what needs to be conserved and how. Either way,the developing nation saves valuable foreign currency, whilemanaging its natural resources sustainably for both its own –and the planet’s – benefit.

The scheme started in 1987, when Conservation Internationalpurchased $650,000 worth of Bolivian debt owed to acommercial creditor for just $100,000 – and used the funds tomanage the Beni Biosphere Reserve and create more protectedareas. By 1996, 16 countries had such swaps, including CostaRica, Ecuador, Guatemala, the Philippines and Zambia.

In 1998, the United States of America passed a bill authorizingdebt-for-nature swaps to protect tropical forests. This led tomany more agreements. In 2002, for example, the UnitedStates redeemed $6.6 million of Peru’s debt in this way withcontributions from The Nature Conservancy, ConservationInternational and WWF. This swap helped protect 10 of thePeruvian Amazon’s most biologically rich, critically endan-gered rainforests, over an area of 110,000 square kilometres.

Of course debt-for-nature can’t erase all developing nations’debts. But it does help countries invest in managing thenatural resources that they might otherwise destroy to raisemoney for repayments. And it’s hard to argue with Lovejoy,the still-enthusiastic father of the idea, when he reports thatdebt-for-nature swaps are the world’s biggest way of fundingconservation.

A. Mbabazi/UNEP/Topham

Tr u l y W i l d Forest B iod ivers i ty

Bili apeIs it a chimp? Is it a gorilla? For a whilenoone knew. It’s large and nests on theground like a gorilla, but eats fruit like a chimpanzee. Recent DNA testingidentifies the Bili ape of the isolatedforests of the Democratic Republic ofthe Congo as a chimp subspecies –even though overgrown and with anunusual gorilla-like crest on its skull.

Ebony cupPlectasin – a powerful antimicrobial thatfights pneunomia and meningitis – hasrecently been isolated from this fungusfrom northern European pine forests.Many other fungi-based medicinesprobably remain to be discovered, asdo drugs and foods from all kinds ofwildlife species.

Vanilla orchidThat familiar taste comes from the podof a rainforest orchid from Mexico, firstused by the ancient Totonac people.The vanilla orchid is pollinated by themelipone, a tiny bee that cannot sur-vive outside Mexico. So commerciallycultivated Vanilla planifolia must behand-pollinated, making it expensive.

Mud snakeA ‘chameleon snake’, recently disco-vered by WWF conservationists inBorneo’s rainforests, the Kapuas mudsnake appears reddish-brown in day-light, but goes white in the dark.Researchers think this may help con-trol body temperature, as dark skinabsorbs sunlight. Some 360 specieshave been discovered in Borneo in thelast decade.

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H ome to plants and animals, of course, but how often dowe think of forests as habitats for people? Yet millionsaround the world live in forests, with lifestyles interwoven

with their environment. Indeed, it is thought that many forestcommunities in Latin America have yet to contact the wider world.

Most forest peoples are indigenous minorities living in small,tightly knit communities – and they have much to teach the rest of the world.

At the core is respect. The Bambuti people of the Congo refer tothe forest as mother or father, and hold it sacred: a deity to ask forhelp and to thank. The Yanomami of Venezuela and Brazil believethat the natural and spiritual worlds are united: the fates of allpeople and the environment are inexorably linked. So when peopledestroy the environment, humanity slowly commits suicide.

Communities use the forest with restraint because it provides fortheir basic needs – food, shelter, water, medicine, fuel andclothing. In Borneo, the Penan harvest the sago palm, a fast-growing tree whose pithy trunk is loaded with starch used to makeflour. Only the largest trunks are taken, the smaller shoots carefullypreserved for future harvests. They call this molong, meaningnever taking more than necessary.

When the Haida people of Canada fell a red cedar, the bark ismade into a textile for clothing, ropes and sails, and the wood is used to make dugout canoes, ceremonial masks and boxes,and to build communal longhouses. Smaller branches are used for smoking salmon.

There is nothing new in this. Archaeological finds show that a Haidapopulation was living on Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands)off Canada’s west coast 5,000 years ago. Egyptian records refer topeople in the forests of the Congo 4,500 years ago. And scientistsnow suggest that at least 10 per cent of what is often regarded asvirgin Amazonian rainforest was in fact carefully planted. The peoplethere focused on establishing a diverse assortment of trees: fruits,nuts and palms.

Passing on information is the key to a successful forest lifestyle.Both the Bambuti and the Bagyeli of Cameroon make storytelling,music, dance and mime central to transmitting cultural knowledge.All provide opportunities to teach the next generation the ways ofthe ancestors, showing children how they did things – and howthey are done now.

Many forest peoples were never completely isolated, and many whoonce were now interact with the outside world. Most Penan havemoved into houses along rivers, but regularly return to the forest tohunt. Bambuti live in the forest but trade with villages, providingbushmeat and honey, acquiring manioc and other produce. Therelationship between the Haida community and the CanadianGovernment is entrenched in the Haida Accord, which authorizes theCouncil of the Haida Nation to represent its people when dealing withthe provincial and federal governments about land and resources.

But, in the end, it is their separateness – spiritual, if not physical –that is of the greatest value to the world.

12 TUNZA Vol 4 No 3

Cloud forests

THEIR EVOCATIVE NAME describesthem well: as moist air rises from theworld’s warm tropical and subtropicallowlands into the colder mountains,condensation engulfs the evergreenmontane forests. Resplendent withorchids, ferns and mosses, they providehabitats for such species as the en-dangered spectacled bear and mountaingorilla. About 80 per cent of their diversewildlife has not yet been catalogued, and species are still being discovered,including wild relatives of potatoes andtomatoes. Millions of people depend ontheir ability to provide a clean, reliablesource of water; by gleaning it from the

Boreal forests

THE EXTENT OF the world’s borealforests – 12 million square kilometres – rivals the tropical rainforests and is just as important to the globalecosystem, even if it hasn’t so farattracted the same public concern.Forming a ring around the far NorthernHemisphere just below the Arctic circle,their cold winters and short, but warm,summers produce forests dominated by evergreen conifers. Their year-rounddark green foliage helps them to start

Half the world’s forests have alreadydisappeared, and they are stillshrinking on every continent at therate of 130,000 square kilometresper year – that’s equal to about 35

Endangered

Mexican dry forests (1)

A third of Mexico’s endemic species canbe found in this, the biggest stretch oftropical dry forest north of the equator.Plant life includes succulents, shrubs,thorn scrub and deciduous trees – andamong them live rare red-kneed taran-tulas, gila monsters, swallowtail butter-flies, pumas and jaguars. Less than 2 per cent of the original dry forest remainsin Central America, and it is only frag-mentarily protected from cattle ranching and development.

Southwest Amazonian forests (3)

These isolated tropical forests, floodedsavannas and swathes of bambooforest provide vital refuge for theworld’s greatest diversity of birds,freshwater fish and butterflies, as wellas for jaguars and several primates.Ninety-four per cent of this part of the Amazon rainforest – an area a bitsmaller than Mexico – is intact, but still vulnerable to logging and to pros-pecting for fossil fuel exploitation,among other threats.

Amazon flooded forests (2)

Every year, rainfall makes the RiverAmazon overflow its banks, submerg-ing an area about the size of Venezuelaunder 9 metres of water. The waterfertilizes the surrounding plains andregenerates lakes. Aquatic creatures,from fish and reptiles to river dolphinsand manatees, swim among the trees to breed and feed. It is a uniqueand stable ecosystem – but threatenedby overfishing, sewage pollution anddam building.

Chiquitano tropical dry forest (4)

South of the Amazon rainforest, thethorny scrub habitat of the biologicallyrich but little-known Chiquitano isunder major threat. The grazing ofanimals and growing of soya, alongwith energy projects, threaten treesthat are adapted to fire, flood and drywinters. It’s the world’s biggest healthydry forest, but only 20 per cent of itsoriginal area remains. Its species –many not yet catalogued – includegiant armadillos.

Baltic mixed forests (5)

Coastal rivers create wetlands withinthese temperate forests – making aperfect habitat for many birds, includingraptors. Trees include beech, oak,European hornbeam, Scots pine andlinden. European mink and two speciesof frog are among their endangeredanimals. They still cover great swathesof Germany, Denmark, Poland andSweden, but have long been exploitedand need ongoing protection fromtourism, agriculture and hunting.

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clouds, forests provide all the drinkingwater and hydroelectricity for Dar esSalaam (Tanzania) in the dry season, forexample. Only 3 per cent of the world’soriginal cloud forest is left, and this could soon be lost to such threats asagriculture, grazing and global warming:a rise in temperature of 2ºC could dry up the clouds.

Forests 13

VITAL BUFFERS between land and sea,mangrove forests cover 150,000 squarekilometres of tropical and subtropicalcoastal zones around the world. Theirevergreen trees and shrubs are speciallyadapted to the swampy, oxygen-poorsoil and salt water of the intertidal zone– with salt-resistant roots, leaves thatexcrete salt, and aerial roots that absorb

oxygen directly from the air. Their densevegetation protects marine life, preventsshore erosion, and shields the land fromwind and waves, including tsunamis.Their shallow wetlands, rich in nutrients,provide essential nurseries for fish andshellfish, which in turn are food for birds. Manatees, crab-eating monkeysand amphibious fish also rely on them.But 20 per cent of the world’s man-groves have disappeared since 1980,partly because they used to be seen aswastelands. They are vulnerable to oilspills and coastal development, withshrimp farming accounting for 38 percent of their loss.

photosynthesizing as soon as the sunemerges, while their conical shape helpsthem shed snow, keeping branchesfrom breaking. The forest floor is rich inlichens and moss, while their manyrivers, bogs and shallow lakes areimportant bird habitats. The borealwilderness is still relatively intact,providing important habitat for largemammals such as caribou, bears andwolves. But it is under pressure fromacid rain, air pollution and such energydevelopments as oil exploration andhydroelectric dams.

forests

Western Madagascar dry forests (8)

These forests support hundreds ofendemic species, including the ex-tremely endangered angonoka tortoiseand six of the world’s eight baobabspecies. Many of their trees haveadapted to the dry season by sheddingleaves to conserve moisture, whilebaobab trunks can store up to 120,000litres of water. Most of the forests havealready been cleared for firewood,agriculture and pasture, which continueto endanger what remains.

Mediterranean forests (6)

The many types of forest – from pine to wild olive and carob to various oaks – of the Mediterranean basin containEurope’s richest biodiversity and great-est concentrations of species foundnowhere else, among them the highlyendangered Iberian lynx and theSpanish ibex. Around 85 per cent of theoriginal forest has fallen to centuries ofexploitation; conservationists are nowtrying to protect ‘hot spots’ of highbiological value.

Eastern Deccan Plateau (9)

Many of India’s tigers live in thesemonsoon-swept forests, where theyare joined by such other large mam-mals as guars, the world’s largest wildcattle. Dominated by sal, a hardwoodtree valued for its timber, fragrant resinand fat-yielding fruits, only a quarter of the original forests remain, and only 4 per cent are protected. Fragment-ation as a result of quarrying, miningand hydroelectric power threaten for-ests and tigers alike.

Congo basin moist forests (7)

Dense jungle, mosquitoes and floodedforests keep most people out of one of Africa’s last expanses of wilderness.But the Congo basin’s impenetrabilitymeans that researchers haven’t beenable to catalogue its biodiversity.Known inhabitants include lowlandgorillas, Congo sunbirds, bonobos andforest elephants. As most of the regioncan only be reached by boat, logging isnot yet a problem, but poaching threat-ens its endangered species.

Borneo lowland rainforests (10)

These abound with as much life as theAmazon, but are even more vulnerable.Half of them are already destroyed: therest could be lost within 10 years tologging, palm oil and rubber culti-vation, fires, and dams – threateningthe region’s 10,000 plant, 13 primateand 380 bird species, not to mentionthose still to be identified. The mostgravely endangered include the Borneoorangutan, the Asian elephant, and theSumatran rhino.

football fields per minute. Much hasbeen lost, but there is still much tobe saved. Here is a snapshot of justa few of the world’s most importantforests and forest types.

Mangrove forests

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9John Cancalosi/Still Pictures

Martin Harvey/Still Pictures

Jean-Léo Dugast/Still Pictures

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14 TUNZA Vol 4 No 3

FORESTS: What do you know?1 How much of the Earth’s original forest remains

pristine and undisturbed?a. 1/2b. 3/4c. 1/5d. 1/8

2 Where can you find the largest single expanse oftemperate rainforest?

a. Alaskab. Pakistanc. Uruguayd. Russia

3 A square metre of rainforest can support how manykilograms of living material (biomass)?

a. 60-100 kgb. 45-80 kgc. 120-170 kgd. 20-30 kg

4 African rainforests contain more than half thatcontinent’s animal and plant species. How much ofthe total area of the continent do they cover?

a. 20-25%b. 70%c. 60-65%d. 5-7%

5 Which tree species is the most harvested of those inthe Budongo Forest in Uganda?

a. Teakb. Mahoganyc. Chestnutd. Palm

6 How many species of fungus grow in boreal forestsworldwide?

a. 5,000b. 650c. 1,000,000d. 700,500

7 ‘Orangutan’ means ‘person of the forest’ in whichlanguage?

a. Arabicb. Mandarinc. Malayd. Urdu

8 Bamboo is actually a member of the grass familyand can grow very quickly. How much per day?

a. 38 cm b. 2 metres c. 10 cmd. 84 cm

9 Quinine, a medicine used to treat malaria, isextracted from the bark of trees from which kind offorest?

a. Bamboo forestb. Amazon rainforestc. Cloud forestd. Temperate deciduous forest

Give as well as takeWaranya Mei Roekpoorita, Tunza Youth

Advisor for Asia-Pacific, describes fightingfor the forests with the Thailand Youth

Environment Network

Forests mean life. They provide food, shelter and evenmedicine. All living things, not just humans, benefit. In

Thailand, we face substantial deforestation. Seventy percent of the country used to be covered with forests: by the1960s, this was down to 50 per cent, and by the 1990s theyhad declined to just 15 per cent, severely depleting theirbiodiversity and biomass, and gravely damaging theworking of their ecosystems.

The Thailand Youth Environment Network (ThaiYEN)believes that working with village farmers is the mosteffective way for young people to combat deforestation.Farming practices in Thailand are often not very sustainable.As farmers grow the same crops every year, the soil isdrained of its nutrients and loses its fertility – and they thenclear forests to try to get new productive land.

One of ThaiYEN’s projects works with villagers to developappropriate and environmentally sustainable farming. Wepromote the idea that getting things from the forest is notenough: we also have to give back to the forest. So weshould give back the nutrition we have taken from the soilby growing different crops planted in seasonal rotation,keeping existing fields productive for many years andavoiding the need to sacrifice forests. ThaiYEN alsopromotes sustainable consumption – as articulated by ourking, HRH Bhumibol Adulyadej – diversifying land use bydevoting some to grazing animals, some to crops and someto family gardens.

My experience in ThaiYEN has taught me the value of beingconnected to networks of young people. I have met manyyoung environmentalists from South Asia and around theworld through organizations like Tunza and events like the Global Youth Retreat. As a Tunza Youth Advisor I aminvolved in peer-to-peer education programmes and believethat they are invaluable because young people arestubborn: they do not like to be told how to think, but areconvinced by getting involved in practical action.

Woraw

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ANSWERS: 1c, 2a, 3b, 4d, 5b, 6a, 7c, 8a, 9c

Forests 15

GORILLA WARSIn May 2006, Hollywood actor and devoted environ-

mentalist Daryl Hannah – most famous for playing amermaid in the film Splash – took up residence in a

walnut tree. The tree was growing on a lush farm inSouth Central Los Angeles, one of the city’s grittiestareas, and she was there to prevent it being bulldozed bydevelopers.

Hannah had climbed the tree to support the community ofimmigrant farmers from Mexico and Central America whohad created and tended this 5.6-hectare oasis – the largesturban farm in the country – since 1992, after getting apermit to cultivate what had been an abandoned lot. Theygrew 150 species of vegetables and fruits, includingavocados, mangoes and maize and heirloom varieties fromtheir homeland – all fresh organic produce that fed 350 poorfamilies. The farmers ran it by the Mexican ejido system, as communal land, with markets and cultural events open to the public. The farm also absorbed some of the vastamounts of carbon dioxide emitted by the city.

In 2003, the city sold the land to a developer who laterserved an eviction notice. To draw attention to the situation,Hannah sat in the tree for three weeks with activists JuliaButterfly Hill and John Quigley. ‘I’m very confident that itis the morally right thing to take a principled stand insolidarity with the farmers,’ said Hannah.

The fight for the farm is just one part of Hannah’s personalcrusade to protect the environment. A veteran of the filmindustry, she has over 60 credits to her name and is still busy

acting. But she invests the rest of her time in promoting agreen lifestyle. She recently began producing weekly 5-minute videoblogs (found online at dhlovelife.com) –‘guerrilla-style’, as she puts it, without benefit of corporatesponsorship or a film crew. These inspirational mini-documentaries show people making choices that help theEarth in everyday life, covering green cosmetics companies,sustainable architecture, biodiesel, Rwanda’s endangeredgorillas and, of course, the South Central farmers.

Hannah lives her philosophy, too: her house is run on solarpower in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains; she grows much ofher own food; and she drives a biodiesel car. ‘It’s not amatter of a political belief or an environmental stance. It’sreally just common sense,’ said Hannah.

Sadly, there’s only so much that common sense and starpower can do. The South Central sit-in hit headlines, andother celebrities – including actors Martin Sheen andLeonardo di Caprio – supported it. But the eviction wentahead in June, the activists were forcibly removed andarrested, and the farm was bulldozed.

But the farmers are not giving up. They still hold vigils atthe site and are looking for a way to restore the farm, legallyand financially, while starting to cultivate another urbangarden on a 3-hectare plot provided by the city. And Hannahstill stands by them. ‘The subsistence farmers are from oneof the poorest communities,’ she said. ‘This farm should bea model for sustainable urban agriculture. It needs to bereplicated, not eradicated.’

John

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16 TUNZA Vol 4 No 3

Neem Fast-growing and resistant to drought, this native South Asianhardwood has so many uses that it has been called a wondertree. It provides an antiseptic and antifungal ingredient in skinointments and soaps. Its seeds are an important source ofazadirachtin, an effective pesticide that does not harmbeneficial insects or mammals. It is being cultivated forcarving in Kenya, providing an income without depletingalready overharvested hardwoods like ebony, and helping topreserve the habitat of such species as the Sokoke scops owl.

Money DOES growon treesThe way to make money from a forest is to cut it down andsell the timber. Right?

Wrong! Studies show that the trees, and all that goeswith them, yield much more cash if left standing. Harvestingthe living forest for its products, and growing crops inharmony with it, can earn up to nine times as much asfelling it – and will go on producing an income indefinitely.And that is not counting the growing potential ofecotourism, or the incalculably valuable services of forestsin providing freshwater and regulating the climate. Here arejust a few of the riches that forests provide.

Matsutake mushrooms These rare and expensive wild mushrooms, from Japan’s redpine forests, are such a precious traditional delicacy thatperfect specimens are given as gifts. Such is the demand forthem that related varieties are also imported from places like the pine forests of Santa Marta Latuvi, Mexico, wherecommunities of subsistence farmers harvest and sell them forexport for up to $30 per kilogram.

Marisela Zam

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Tr u l y W i l d Forest B iod ivers i ty

Hawaiian I’iwiAlthough rare or absent from some ofthe islands, where it has suffered fromhabitat loss and avian malaria, thisnectar-loving bird still has a foothold inmuch of Hawaii. Traditionally prized forits fabulous plumage, which matures to a brilliant red, the I’iwi’s feathers wereonce collected to make cloaks andheaddresses for Hawaiian royalty.

AyahuascaIts name, in the Quechua language,means ‘vine of the soul’. Traditionallyprepared as a brew taken by the forestpeople as a vision-inducing sacrament,ayahuasca also makes a good medi-cine, causing intense vomiting anddiarrhoea that helps purge the body oftropical parasites.

Borneo elephantThey’re not much taller than people, at2.5 metres, but they’re chubbier thanAsian elephants – of which, accordingto new research by WWF and ColumbiaUniversity, they are a subspecies – andhave bigger ears and longer tails. Onlyabout 1,600 of them remain in theirhome, the northeast tip of Borneo, andthey are threatened by poachers andthe spread of commercial plantations.

Birdwing butterflyThe world’s largest butterfly, with a 28-centimetre wingspan, lives only in NewGuinea’s lowland coastal rainforest. ButQueen Alexandra’s birdwing is rare, andbecoming rarer, thanks to insect col-lectors and to clearing forests for palmoil plantations. It is particularly vulner-able as its larvae depends entirely onone plant – the pipevine, from which itgets a poison that wards off predators.

Dr M

orley Read/S

cience Photo Library

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Brazil nuts One of the most famous of all rainforest products, the Brazilnut utterly depends on its intricate ecosystem. Its tree ispollinated by bees, which themselves depend on orchids thatgrow in the forest, and it needs a rodent – the agouti – todisperse its seeds. As a result the nuts, which are highly valuedfor their oil and nutrients, cannot be commercially cultivatedin plantations.

Cork oak Evergreen cork oak forests provide a natural biodegradablematerial for a host of uses, ranging from floors to bulletinboards, insulation to stoppers for wine bottles. They thriveacross 27,000 square kilometres in the Mediterranean basin andare home to endangered species like the Iberian lynx. The corkcan be harvested from the live tree about once a decade, andthen grows back, providing a sustainable income for more than100,000 people.

Pine nuts Once a staple of Native Americans – who ground them into flour – and now the main ingredient in Italian pesto, pine nuts come from a variety of trees growing wild in Europe,Asia and North America. Rich in protein, fibre and othernutrients, they also sustain many wild creatures, from birds to grizzly bears.

Rubber People have used the sap of the South American rubber treesince before Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic. Itsparked an extraordinary boom in the Amazon in the late 19thcentury, which collapsed when Europeans smuggled out thetrees and set up plantations in Southeast Asia. Syntheticrubber followed and the Amazon now meets only a smallfraction of world demand. But it is still an important sourceof income.

Walter H

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Forests 17

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CacaoMore than half of the chocolate produced by Brazil,the world’s fifth largest cacao-growing country, hasbeen produced by the so-called ‘cabruca’ system,where the rainforest is thinned, but not felled, toaccommodate cacao plants. The crop tolerates theshade and does well. Cabruca has recently beendeclining, but conservationists hope it can be revived,with international investment, to protect thecountry’s Atlantic forest – one of the most species-rich but endangered habitats in the world.

Coffee Coffee also originated in the shady forest. Indeed,shade-grown coffee – produced by smaller farms onland forested with fruit and hardwood trees that alsoprovide farmers with income – is becoming in-creasingly popular. It is a bit more expensive, but itprevents deforestation, sustains wildlife, preservesmoisture in the soil and decreases erosion. Shade coffeeplants can produce beans for 50 years, compared withjust 10 to 15 years for those grown conventionally in the full sun after forests have been felled.

TRADITIONALLY, forest peoples have farmed in harmony with the trees – and many still do so, from CentralAmerica to Tanzania to Thailand. Two of the most popular of all forest products can be grown on a large scale insimilar ways:

Beijing, ChinaAs it prepares to host the 2008 Olympics, Beijing hasplanted over 800,000 trees in its 680-hectare OlympicForest Park, in the north of the city. Designed to evoketraditional Chinese ‘mountain-water’ art, it will include anenormous artificial mountain and a 122-hectare Olympiclake, as well as carefully chosen native plants and animals.After serving as a venue for tennis and other sports, thePark will provide a quiet refuge and clean air for thecongested city.

Barcelona, SpainThe best view of Barcelona is from the Parc de Collserola,an 8,000-hectare oasis of pine, oak and bubbling springs in the mountains bordering the city. The city established it in 1987, since when Barcelona’s parks and gardens have doubled, while its streets now also boast 150,000flourishing trees.

Rio de Janeiro, BrazilThe 3,300-hectare Floresta da Tijuca is the world’s largesturban forest, providing habitat for many rare and endemic

FREDERICK OLMSTED, creator of New York’s CentralPark, called it ‘the lungs of the city’. He was right.Green spaces aren’t just pleasant retreats in the con-crete jungle, but living organs vital to urban health.

A city’s ‘green infrastructure’ filters pollutants fromwater before it gets into rivers, reduces the amount of

Animals need pathways too!

18 TUNZA Vol 4 No 3

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WIN-WIN

When WWF, the global conservation organization,was looking for a symbol at its beginnings in1961, it opted for the giant panda because it was

highly endangered and instantly recognizable. Now thepanda is finally making something of a comeback, thanksto reforestation.

The panda depends on bamboo forests: each eats 12 to38 kilograms of bamboo each day and a breeding pair needsat least 30 square kilometres of forest to sustain it. Anyforest loss – through logging, road construction or urbanexpansion – can spell catastrophe.

Since 1998, the Chinese Government has workedclosely with WWF and other organizations to preserveforests – and in 2004 a survey found 1,600 pandas, a 40per cent increase since the 1980s.

This is largely thanks to 50 new nature reserves, and‘green corridors’ which act as bridges between the pandahabitats that had been turned into green islands by roads,farms and cities. Thus two large panda populations wererecently linked by a 200-hectare green corridor created byputting a national highway in a tunnel.

The Chinese Government has pledged to restoreanother 1,275 square kilometres of forest, helping pandasand also securing wetlands, forests, arid areas and thehabitat of the snow leopard.

Michel Gunther/WWF-Canon

species. But by 1844 it had been so degraded by coffeeand sugarcane cultivation that the city’s water supplieswere threatened. Within 12 years, Manuel Gomes Archer,the forest administrator, had replanted 72,000 nativeAtlantic rainforest trees, restoring it almost single-handedly.

Nairobi, KenyaOnly 2 per cent of Kenya is still forested, so the 600-hectare Ngong Road Forest Sanctuary in Nairobi is aparticularly precious resource. While providing a carbonsink and stabilizing the water table, it hosts 190 species ofbirds and more than 300 species of plants. Its many insectsand arachnids are still being catalogued.

Louisville, KentuckyThe Jefferson Memorial Forest, 25 kilometres from the citycentre, is – at 2,400 hectares – the largest city forest in theUnited States of America, and was originally established in1946 as a tribute to Kentuckians killed in the Second WorldWar. Hikers, campers and picnickers enjoy its oaks, fernsand wildflowers, as well as its many birds, including greatblue herons and horned owls.

Let’s help them build bridges...

Forests 19

Championing the

EARTH

Just downstream from Manaus, in the heart of theAmazonian rainforest, the giant Amazon and Negrorivers meet – creating one of the most extraordinary

sights on Earth. The black waters of the Negro meet the muddy brown ones of the Amazon, but do not mix,running beside each other for 8 kilometres downriver untilthey finally mingle.

This July, their meeting point witnessed an equallyremarkable event. The Ecumenical Patriarch of theOrthodox Church, Bartholomew I, two Roman Catholiccardinals and other religious leaders joined an indigenousshaman to bless the waters. Brazil watched on livetelevision as the shaman – wearing a headdress of parrotand heron feathers, and carrying a spear and a sacred rattle,performed an ancient purification ritual – followed byblessings from the Christian leaders.

It was an extraordinary act of reconciliation and jointcommitment, for the indigenous people of the Amazon werepersecuted, and largely exterminated, after the arrival ofChristianity.

Now top Christians were coming to learn from them, as part of the sixth of a series of floating environmentalsymposia convened by the Patriarch, dubbed the ‘GreenPatriarch’.

One of the Patriarch’s mostsenior colleagues, MetropolitanJohn of Pergamon, summed it up: ‘We are here to askourselves why it is that theindigenous people have man-aged to protect the environmentbetter than we have been able to do. Let us listen with respectto cultures which have managedto survive the zeal of ourancestors who conquered themalmost to the point ofextinction.’

Nikos Manginas

water washed out by storms, oxygenates the air, cutsenergy use by shading buildings, and absorbs carbondioxide and other gases. Urban forests lower thetemperature of the city, which is normally higher thanin the surrounding countryside. And, of course, theyprovide recreational space and wildlife habitat.

concrete jungle

S hopping malls are some of the best places in which tosave the world’s forests. It’s often hard to protect themon the ground, especially in developing countries

where money is scarce. But if people insist on buying wood– from pencils to furniture, from building materials tobarbecue charcoal – from forests that are sustainablymanaged instead of being ruthlessly cut down, the increasingdemand for timber can be turned into a force to conserveforests rather than destroy them.

But how to tell the difference? After all, the wood looks thesame. That’s where the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)comes in. It sets standards for environmentally friendly wood,and slaps labels on it to let consumers know.

Arising from a meeting in Toronto in 1993 of 130 pro-fessional foresters, indigenous forest dwellers, environmentalorganizations like Greenpeace and WWF, and big retailerslike Sweden’s IKEA and the United Kingdom’s homeimprovement chain B&Q, the FSC set out to benefit peopleas well as trees. So its principles and criteria are designed to ‘promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficialand economically viable management of the world’s forests’.

The FSC protects natural, diverse ‘old-growth’ forests andonly approves wood that has been legally logged. And, as itrealized that protecting forests involves looking after the localpeople, its standards also respect the rights of ownership,workers and indigenous people.

The FSC does not actually certify approved wood itself, butencourages other organizations to do this by carrying outinspections and conferring approval. That keeps it at arm’slength from producers – who can be decertified if standardsslip. The wood is then followed all the way to the finishedproduct, so that any item with the FSC logo can be trackedback to any point in its production.

By the end of the FSC’s first 10 years, almost half a millionsquare kilometres of forest (an area the size of Spain) hadbeen certified across 62 countries. More and more retailers– including Asda (a division of Wal-mart in the UnitedKingdom), Castorama in Italy, Migros in Switzerland andHome Depot in the United States of America – sell FSC-certified wood and wood products. Such retailers formbuyers’ groups committed to stocking only independentlycertified timber and timber products, putting pressure onsuppliers to achieve certification. Consumer demand is grow-ing too, as people learn about it. The production of FSC-standard paper in Europe, for example, quadrupled in 2003.

Most of the certification, however, has been of products fromtemperate forests in Europe and North America, rather thanthe often far more vulnerable tropical regions. Only a fractionof the 7 million square kilometres of the Amazon, forexample, has been certified to FSC standards. And there areonly two approved forests in tropical Africa, one – in theCongo – very recently. But the FSC is increasingly turning itsattention in this direction.

Tell the difference!

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20 TUNZA Vol 4 No 3

Forests 21

Tr u l y W i l d Forest B iod ivers i ty

Acrobatic antsTiny wingless ants – first found in 2004in the Amazonian flooded forests nearIquitos – can save themselves from a fall from the rainforest canopy byexecuting a 180-degree mid-air turn,landing on the trunk, safely above theforest floor. It is thought the ants –which can grow up to a centimetre long– use visual cues and leg movements toperform their death-defying spins.

GinkgoIt’s a living fossil, this deciduousChinese tree with unique fan-shapedleaves; its ancestors thrived in tem-perate areas 270 million years ago. It isnow cultivated widely in Asia for itsseeds, valued for food and medicine. Itsbeauty and hardy constitution – foursurvived the Hiroshima bomb – makesit popular in cities too.

Tree kangarooOver 50 species of tree-dwelling kan-garoo live in the rainforests of NewGuinea and Queensland, Australia. Liketheir grounded cousins, they havestrong hind legs. But these are attachedto short, rounded bodies, longer claws,rubbery soles, and independentlymoving back feet – which help themclimb, leap from tree to tree, and jumpto the ground without getting hurt.

River dolphinOne of the great sights of Amazonia, itswims among the trees of the floodedforests during the wet season, feedingon small fish and crabs. Some legendshold that the pink to greyish boto, as itis also called, embodies the spirits ofthe drowned, giving it some protectionfrom hunters. Still, it is vulnerable tothreats like mercury poisoning fromgold mining.

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Equilibrium Fund

Two thousand years ago the great Maya civilization ofCentral America largely ran on highly nutritious nuts

from a rainforest tree. The Maya nut formed much of thepeople’s staple diet, and they planted millions of the treesthat bore it in forest gardens, along with other food-producing trees like avocados and cacao.

Maya nut trees remain the tallest in the forest, oftentowering over the ruins of the ancient civilization. But atsome stage after the society collapsed, people largely forgotabout the nuts which fell each year to carpet the forest floor,at best resorting to them only at times of famine. Insteadthey chopped down the trees to make room for corn fields,which produced far less food in the same space.

But now the nuts are finally making a comeback amongthe Mayan’s modern descendents, giving them both food andrelative prosperity, while the forest is conserved.

It began when an American biologist, Erika Vohman, wasworking with a local man to gather the nuts for parrots andmonkeys at an animal rescue organization in Guatemala. Hetold her his ancestors had eaten them and made her a‘delicious’ nut soup. When she got home she learned thatthey contain more protein and other nutrients than corn,wheat or rice, and ‘became convinced that I should go backand tell the people who live in the forest about what theywere missing’.

She started five years ago in a village called LaBenedición, full of refugees who had no food or crops. Onceshe had taught them about the nuts, they lived on them formonths. All the families there still eat them, and they haveplanted new trees and have trained people from other villages– mainly women – in how to make use of the resource.

Most of the unlogged trees are in the most remote areaswhere people are hungriest. The trees produce nuts soabundantly that, in two weeks, a family can easily gatherenough to survive on for a year. ‘The women are thunderstruckto discover that they can eat stuff that they have always just walked over,’ says Vohman. ‘They collect the nuts forusing as they are, or dry and grind them into flour. In someareas they now make and sell Maya nut products like cookies.’

She reckons that people from more than 400 villages inGuatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Mexicohave been reintroduced to the nut – but finds it ‘hard to keeptrack’ as villagers are now spreading their knowledgespontaneously to others. Many have been able to set up smallbusinesses, earning cash to relieve their poverty.

The tree needs no pesticides or fertilizers, and providesfood for livestock like goats and cattle. And as people learnof its value, they do not cut it down, thus preventing de-forestation and protecting soil and water.

‘Hopefully,’ says Vohman – who won the 2006 StAndrew’s Prize to expand her work – ‘we have rediscoveredthe Maya nut tree just in time.’

Nutty solution

22 TUNZA Vol 4 No 3

Founded in 1961 with the help of WWF, Manú is probably therichest protected area on Earth: just 1 hectare of its pristinerainforest has been found to contain more than 200 tree species.And its unique altitude range – from 365 to 4,000 metres abovesea level – accommodates at least 14 types of forest, includingcloud forest, montane rainforest and lowland tropical rainforest.Most of its species have yet to be discovered, but so far 800species of birds and 200 of mammals have been identified,including the rare giant otter and giant armadillo. The Incas oncelived here, and now four known indigenous peoples make it their home.

Once the hunting preserve of Polish kings, the ancient Bialowiezaforest – straddling the Belarus/Poland border – is the last stretch ofprimeval temperate forest in Europe’s lowlands. About half of its10,500 hectares are a nature reserve, with one of the richest arraysof wildlife on the continent. Its most famous residents are severalhundred wisent, or European bison, which became extinct in Polandin 1919 but were reintroduced to the wild 10 years later after beingbred in captivity. In all, it has 11,500 animal species – including 250birds and 54 mammals, more than 3,000 species of fungi, and 5,000plant species, including 200 mosses and 277 lichens, many of whichgrow only in primeval forests.

In ancient mythology the Styx river wound nine times around theunderworld. Environmentalists fear that its namesake in Tasmania– one of 13 rivers around the world called after the Greek word forhate – may one day run through similarly lifeless territory becausethe pristine forest that surrounds it is being chewed up for wood-chips and paper. Yet it is home to the world’s tallest hardwoodtree, Eucalyptus regnans (‘king of the gums’), which can live morethan 400 years and grow to over 90 metres high; only California’sgiant redwood (a softwood) is bigger. Less than 13 per cent of the stands of the giant gum remain, and up to 600 hectares of the Styx forest are being logged every year.

Styx Forest, Tasmania

Manú National Park, Peru

Bialowieza Forest, Belarus/Poland

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Forests 23

Not for nothing is the large primeval forest in southwesternUganda called ‘impenetrable’. Its dense undergrowth of vines,shrubs and herbs makes it nearly impossible to get through –unless you are a mountain gorilla, that is, for it is here that half theworld’s population of the endangered species lives. Ranging from1,200 to 2,600 metres up on the western edge of the Rift Valley,the forest includes both lowland and mountain plants, making it one of Earth’s most biologically diverse areas. It is home to atleast 120 mammal species, 350 species of birds, 200 butterflies,and over 100 ferns, while its 200 tree species include 12 foundnowhere else in the world.

Blue-green lakes and spectacular waterfalls punctuate the highmountains and narrow valleys of this nature reserve. They are setamid 72,000 hectares of cloud forest, montane mixed forest, andsubalpine vegetation. Two of China’s most famous endangeredspecies live here: the golden snub-nosed monkey and the giantpanda. But it is becoming a victim of its own beauty. Some 7,000tourists per day are ready to undergo a gruelling 10-hour bus rideto visit it. The numbers are expected to soar as transport improvesand more hotels are built, increasing threats from pollution, erosion and poor development, while the forest is also felled foragriculture and firewood.

Cold and forbidding, the conifer forest stretches along 500 kilo-metres of tundra on the European side of the Ural mountain range,which separates the continent from Asia. The Virgin Komi is huge,the largest area of primeval forest in Europe, covering around33,000 square kilometres – a tract larger than Belgium. It becameRussia’s first World Heritage Site in 1995, saving it from massivefelling for timber. Part of the forest is also protected as a federalbiosphere reserve, but it is still under threat from gold mining andillegal logging, while its large mammals – which include brownbear and elk – remain tempting prey for poachers.

Dinosaurs once lumbered among giant coast redwoods (Sequoiasemperviren), living fossils from 160 million years ago, and still theworld’s tallest trees. From a seed no bigger than one in a tomato,they can grow 122 metres tall (about as high as a 35-storeyskyscraper) with trunks up to 7 metres in diameter. They may live for over 2,000 years in the cool, damp climate of northernCalifornia and southern Oregon, partly because they can clonethemselves from stumps or roots. They resist fire, insects anddisease, which makes their wood particularly valuable for buildingmaterial, but this has contributed to their downfall: up to 95 percent of the original forest has been logged.

Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda

Coast Redwood Forest, California

Jiuzhaigou Valley, China

Virgin Komi Forest, Russian Federation

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Not just logs...

Kitprempool Natta/UNEP/Topham

Not just logs...

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