Forest, desertification, land degradation & biodiversity

Reforestation in Oxapampa: Peru’s Challenges and Priorities

By Fernando Torres Morán

LIMA (IDN) – Oxapampa is a province in the Pasco Region, in the high jungle area of Peru, which is home to the Oxapampa-Asháninka-Yanesha Biosphere Reserve that was recognised by UNESCO in 2010.

The reserve houses a number of protected natural areas such as the Yanachaga Chemillen National Park, with an area of 122 thousand hectares (spread over the districts of Huancabamba, Oxapampa, Villa Rica and Pozuzo) and the San Matías-San Carlos Protection Forest, with an area of 145,818 hectares (spread over the districts of Palcazu, Puerto Bermudez and Villa Rica).

Over the decades, the area has suffered forest depredation, and Peru's non-governmental Pronaturaleza foundation for the conservation of nature has recently condemned the illegal felling of trees in the Yanachaga Chemillen National Park, including the extraction of one hundred thousand planks of wood from trees such as thyme, cedar and fig.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Decent Work & Economic Growth; 20 July 2016

Photo: Baobab tree in a degraded, arid landscape in Kenya's Eastern province. Credit: World Bank/Flore de Preneuf

UNESCO and China Support UNCCD in Combating Desertification

By Devinder Kumar

NEW DELHI | BEIJING (IDN) - Aware that 2.6 billion people depend directly on agriculture, but 52 per cent of the farm land is affected by soil degradation, not only UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the specialised agency UNCCD but also UNESCO have stressed the compelling need to rehabilitate every year at least 12 million hectares of degraded land.

At the same time, during the global observance of the World Day to Combat Desertification – this year in Beijing – China and the UNCCD launched the Joint Action Initiative to combat desertification, rehabilitate degraded land and mitigate the effects of drought (JAI).

: Devinder Kumar; SUSTAINABILITY; Forests, desertification, land degradation & biodiversity; 17 June 2016

If Wildlife Crime Makes You Wild – Get Wild for Life

By Dr Bradnee Chambers *

BONN (IDN) - Unless the science fiction of Michael Crichton’s “Jurassic Park” becomes science fact sometime soon, extinction will continue to mean gone forever; and if we want to avoid losing more species, we must start learning from the mistakes of the past; unfortunately the evidence suggests that all too often we seem determined to repeat them

Humans have hunted animals for food since time immemorial and taking “one for the pot” was not sport but quite simply the only way to feed one’s family. The artisanal methods using bow and arrow or nets made from home-spun twine and the level of the harvest meant such hunting was entirely sustainable. But now things have changed. In addition to other threats, man-made and natural, such as climate change, habitat loss, collisions with vehicles, power lines and wind turbines, wildlife faces another totally avoidable danger: illegal wildlife trade.

: Dr. Bradnee Chambers; SUSTAINABILITY; Forests, desertification, land degradation & biodiversity; 04 June 2016

Timber Smuggling Could Eliminate Senegal's Forests in Two Years

DAKAR (IDN | GIN) – Illegal timber smuggling is devastating the lush Casamance region of Senegal and could strip it completely within two years, predicts Senegalese environmentalist and former minister Haidar El Ali.

Casamance in southern Senegal contains the country's last remaining forests, an area of 74,000 acres that could be depleted by 2018 as smugglers feed the demand for rosewood furniture in China, said El Ali.

Exporting timber from Senegal is illegal, so traffickers smuggle it to neighbouring Gambia for shipping to China.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 31 May 2016

Photo: ‘Think Forest’ Panel during IMF/World Bank Spring Meeting. Credit: Fabiola Oritz.

Investing in Forests the Next Big Thing for Development Agenda

Analysis by Fabíola Ortiz

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) - Investing in forests has become the next big thing as an essential segment of the development solution, whether for meeting climate goals, coping with extreme weather, boosting livelihoods, greening supply chains or carbon sinking. However, the world has lost 50 soccer fields of forests every minute, every day, over the last twenty years.

“This is a great tragedy,” says Andrew Steer, President and CEO of the World Resources Institute (WRI), a global research organization that works in more than 50 countries. Managing forests has been difficult, he adds. Around one fifth of the global population (1.3 billion people) relies on forests for livelihoods.

According to the World Bank, about 350 million people live within or close to dense forests depending directly on them for their subsistence. And of those, nearly 60 million people – especially indigenous communities – are completely dependent on forests.

: Fabiola Ortiz; UN INSIDER; 21 April 2016

Photo: Amazon Rainforest in South America | Credit: Wikimedia Commons - Phil P Harris - Own work 2016

UN Biodiversity Convention Finds Reason to Rejoice

Analysis by J C Suresh

TORONTO (IDN) – The Arctic Partnership announced in Washington, D.C. by U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been welcomed by Executive Secretary Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Although focused on climate action, the partnership agreed on March 10 has far-reaching consequences for biodiversity in the Arctic, including the role of indigenous peoples and their traditional knowledge, he said.

Opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and entering into force in December 1993, the CBD is an international treaty for the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of the components of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources.

: J C Suresh; UN INSIDER; 30 March 2016

Photo by Peter Prokosch | Elephants (Loxodonta africana) at waterhole, Etoscha National Park, Namibia

The Fates of Vultures and Elephants Go Hand in Hand

By Dr Bradnee Chambers

BONN (IDN) - World Wildlife Day, being celebrated on March 3 for the third time – this year under the slogan ‘The Future of Wildlife is in our hands’ – is focusing on the plight of African and Asian elephants, which are being slaughtered in their thousands for their tusks to supply the ivory trade. But other species, such as vultures, are also in serious decline because of human actions.

Organized crime rings are often the masterminds behind the illegal trade in ivory. That elephants might go extinct does not cause them any pangs of conscience. And woe betide anyone who stands in their way; the poachers are often better equipped than the park wardens opposing them.