***********************************************
WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Borneo Rain Forest on Verge of Total Destruction
***********************************************
Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org, Inc.
http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Archives
http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest Conservation
12/16/99
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY
The battle to save some portion of Borneo as intact, contiguous
rainforest appears to have been lost. Malaysia and Indonesia have
essentially destroyed this globally significant rainforest.
Consumers of tropical timbers; i.e. buyers of plywood for new home
construction in the U.S., are ultimately responsible. Predatory
logging companies and complicit consumers are bent upon repeating
this pattern of disastrous tropical land management in most of the
World's remaining tropical wildernesses. This must not be allowed to
happen. The following account of new scientific research provides
persuasive evidence that forest sustainability is primarily
determined by conditions over large scales-such as bioregions and
landscapes.
g.b.
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Borneo rain forest on verge of total destruction
Source: Environment New Network, http://www.enn.com/
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 13, 1999
Byline: John Roach
A rare tropical rain forest, where reproduction of the trees is
intricately linked to the arrival of the El Ni¤o weather phenomenon,
faces imminent death due to increased logging and human-intensified
climate change.
The loss of the forest, located on the island of Borneo and regarded
as a unique ecosystem, would put a huge dent in the global economy.
Timber exports contribute $8 billion annually to the Indonesian
economy and provide 80 percent of the plywood used in the United
States home building industry.
"Degradation of dipterocarp forests will have repercussions both in
Bornean terrestrial ecosystems and in regional economies with global
implications in as yet unforeseen ways," researchers, led by
ecologist Lisa Curran at the University of Michigan, write in the
Dec. 10 issue of Science.
Dipterocarps are the main family of rain forest canopy trees in
Indonesian Borneo. The trees synchronize their reproduction, called
masting, to the onset of the El Ni¤o Southern Oscillation, which
occurs about once every four years.
"Climatic conditions of an El Ni¤o year trigger simultaneous fruiting
in dipterocarps and are essential for regional seed production," she
said. "It's like Thanksgiving in the forest."
Wild boar, orangutans, parakeets, jungle fowl, partridges and other
animals congregate to stuff themselves. Local villagers collect
baskets of seeds called illipe nuts to sell as a cash crop. Yet,
since so much seed is produced, there is still enough leftover to
germinate and produce a carpet of new seedlings.
The problem, the researchers discovered, is that intensive logging on
the island around the Gunung Palung National Park over the past
decade has reduced seed production from 175 pounds per acre in 1991
to 16.5 pounds per acre in 1998, even though 1998 was a major El Ni¤o
year.
According to the research, logging appears to reduce the local
density and biomass of mature trees, reduces the spatial extent of
masting and alters the forest's response to El Ni¤o by disrupting
soil conditions or causing extended drought stress.
"Even though the park is supposedly off-limits to logging, the forest
is losing the ability to regenerate itself," said Curran. Seed
predators, who can not find food outside the park, move inside the
park to eat the dipterocarp seeds before they germinate.
In 1998 the scenario worsened when massive forest fires on nearby
logging plantations destroyed an area the size of Costa Rica, brought
pollution and intensified El Ni¤o's drought, killing the few
remaining dipterocarp seedlings.
"It's very sad, but unless the Indonesian government implements
sustainable forestry practices, creates financial incentives to
harvest responsibly and prevents clearing and burning for industrial
plantations, this ecosystem will be unable to recover," said Curran.
###RELAYED TEXT ENDS###
This document is a PHOTOCOPY for educational, personal and non-
commercial use only. Recipients should seek permission from the
source for reprinting. All efforts are made to provide accurate,
timely pieces; though ultimate responsibility for verifying all
information rests with the reader. Check out our Gaia's Forest
Conservation Archives & Portal at URL= http://forests.org/
Networked by Forests.org, Inc., grbarry@students.wisc.edu