Mangrove forest is always associated with water. As a community that would form the ecosystem of the existence of mangrove can not dimarginalkan. Mangrove forests have multiple functions that can not be replaced by other ecosystems. Physical function as penstabil land (land stabilizer) which is involved in substrate accumulate mud perakaran by mangroves so often bring relief and land also able to withstand sea water abrasion and able to intercept sea-water intrusion to the mainland. Biologisnya function is as a shelter, breed and lay eggs for the fish. Meanwhile, the economic mangrove forests that produce timber kalornya high value so that it is good raw material for charcoal. The last function is a function of chemical waste as penetralisir dangerous toxic chemicals.
The day the existence of the mangrove forest is not exactly the width of land subside. The development of population, with the increasing needs, quickly urged the mangrove forest and trying to replace the business other than the "benefit" in terms of finance but in fact very harmful to the environment. Finally, interactions with the business appear repeatedly chop mangrove forest that is. There is no public awareness of the benefits will be double that if the exploit can be found fishing in the mangrove forest, the interactions of the reign of the brackish water.
Now is time people should be aware, and try to combine with the interactions of the mangrove forest, so in addition to financial benefits obtained, preservation of nature - the ecosystem - to be awake.
Starting from the mangrove forest as a nursery ground on the top, seemingly for the utilization of mangrove fishery business will be more promising good results because of research by making demplot about the influence of mangrove fishery production was carried out.
Or that the mangrove forest is often referred to as mangroves not mean that only a forest of mangrove trees (Rhizophora spp) only. However, a forest of tropical plants, prepared by the community and grow in the intertidal zone. Intertidal zone is the area under the influence of ebb and flow along the coast, as well as the coastline, estuari, lagoons, and river bank.
In general, mangrove trees and arranged on the shrub that grows in the bottom of the tidal highest (FAO, 1952). The area is an area that, where the mud gradually glued to sedimentation caused by the unique mangrove roots. The slowly will change to the semi terestrial (semi mainland). Mud-mud comes from the erosion of land on top of it. Thus the mangrove ecosystem can be if there is a supply of sediment from the river met the sea. In addition, factors that support the growth of mangrove beaches are protected by coral reefs or islands that are located offshore, so that the small waves.
The first plants that make up the mud plains of the type that is resistant to higher salinity of the land plants in general and submerged sea water resistant. Is the dominant vegetation in the mangrove forest of them divided into three zoning: Avicennia sp, the type that has a root of breath / antenna; Rhizophora sp, which has roots tunjang; and Bruguiera sp knee that has roots.
Based on biologisnya function as a nursery ground memijah or where the fish and keep children, ecosystems are often converted by local residents as the area pond.
Tambak is a fish farm in a specific area that is managed so that intensive get optimal results. Pengelolan pond system associated with mangrove forests have been developed and is known by the term silvofishery or wanamina. The terminology silvofishery derived from two words, namely the means silvo forest and Fishery, which means fish farm. Similarly in Indonesia, which is often referred to as wanamina that have overlapping meanings essence of fishing effort with the mangrove forest. Initially, the system is the management of the mangrove forest ancient approach that requires research and assessment of the more modern.
According to William Fitzgerald (1997), silvofishery is a form of integration between the cultivation of mangrove pond with brackish water. Relationship is expected to establish an ecological balance, so that the pond which is lack of ecological elements producers have to be supplied through the provision of food, tersuplai will be subsidized by the manufacturer (marine biota) from the mangrove forest.
The balance of the mangrove forest ecosystem can not be detached from the environmental conditions that support it. How oxygen, sunlight, temperature and salinity of water can support the balance of the ecosystem. In the brackish water that needed sunlight to be used by fitoplankton to berfotosintesis and produce oxygen in the water terlarut so that will be used by the other elements of the system.
Water temperature is also closely associated with other factors such as the womb and oxygen terlarut The bacterial activity. The salinity is very important for the growth of mangrove, because the mangrove forest can not live without the appropriate salinity.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Forestry students do not know enter forest
once again fortunate to enter the forest resource conservation. because of the other departments, like we deh most often enter the forest. although only a day and up to overnight. to national parks, to nature, to preserve clan animals, to the center conservation animals, etc.. unfortunetly no-odor smell forests.
actually I also have some friends who are often out in the forest entrance. but it is not the practice of course, but the student organization activities. if my name in the department himakova (collective student resource conservation forest).unfortunately many activities. animals observation, the survey of flora, of the cave, etc. others student organizations such as this that there is a uni lawalata and fauna conservation. if this level of organization in the university. but unfortunately only a few active and interested in here. the other forestry students more active in other organizations outside the field of forestry. including the time I do. if the current thinking in the longer-thought, nyesal also yes. incoming faculty forestry but did not feel the closeness with nature and forests. seems to be the exclamation lho.
continues to be one of mind. I, for example, I will desire so lecturers forestry. will continue to reach for example, seems to me will make it difficult ngejelasin forest as it is. how they live in the forest. and the like. I want ngejelasin, aja kitanya own experience of a few. it is theoretically possible can. aja but I still want that experience is the story directly as often carried out by lecturers me now. What we can also explain the inspirer of others to maintain, and if we protect the forest itself is familiar with the forest?. so I do? Ha ha ha …
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Statement: Monoculture tree plantations are not forests
Here are statement by forestry professionals and students
Throughout the world, governments are actively promoting the expansion of large-scale monoculture tree plantations, despite the serious social and environmental impacts already witnessed on existing plantations. The promoters of this model claim that plantations are forests, which simply is not true. Plantations are not forests. Unfortunately, many of our colleagues in the forestry sector support this model, and our teaching institutions continue to train new generations of forestry professionals to perpetuate and expand this type of forestry model, aimed at seeing forests where they do not exist.
This is why we feel the need to publicly state not only that monoculture tree plantations are not forests, but also that these plantations result or have resulted in the destruction of our native forests and of other equally valuable ecosystems that they replace.
Those who know the most about this issue are the local populations who directly suffer the impacts of plantations, such as:
- Loss of biodiversity (and the resulting loss of food, medicines, firewood, and materials for housing construction and crafts, among others).
- Changes in the water cycle, resulting both in the decrease and depletion of water sources and the increase of flooding and landslides.
- Decreased food production.
- Soil degradation.
- Loss of indigenous and traditional cultures that depend on the original ecosystems.
- Conflicts with forestry companies over the ownership of land in indigenous territories and those of other traditional communities.
- Decreased sources of employment in traditionally agricultural areas.
- Expulsion of rural populations.
- Destruction of the natural landscape in tourism areas.
For reasons like these, we forestry professionals who strive for the conservation of forests and recognise the basic rights of the peoples who live there must take the side of those who truly defend the forests – the local communities – and oppose the expansion of monoculture plantations.
We want to stress that this process is not beginning today, but in fact dates back to the 2005 World Social Forum in
Today, within this framework, we are calling on forestry students and professionals to adhere to this declaration and to begin a process, inside and outside educational institutions, that will make it possible for those of us who enter this profession to actually do what we thought we would be doing when we entered it: defending forests and the peoples who depend on them.
http://www.wrm.org.uy/plantations/foresters.html
http://www.wrm.org.uy/plantations/Declaration-Foresters.pdf
Friday, October 17, 2008
Bukit Bangkirai:East Kalimantan
Imagine an Orchid forest with more than 45 different species including dancing and dragon scale varieties, sambas breeding deer, flying fox, short- and long-tailed macaque birds, wild boar and 40-meter-high, 150-year-old bangkirai trees. A forestry student’s dream come true and a native bird-watcher’s paradise.
And now it’s accessible to those of us without hiking boots.
This is one of the world’s most beautiful virgin conservation forests — and it is at Jakarta’s front door, in East Kalimantan. It is the Bukit Bangkirai forest and conservation parkland, located in Samboja district, Kutai Kartanegara regency.
There are three roads that lead to this incredible 1,500-hectare wonderland as well as wide-ranging accommodation to suit just about anyone.
Bukit Bangkirai forest is internationally recognized yet still one of Indonesia’s best kept tourism secrets.
It boasts various species of hardwood trees — including the bangkirai tree (Shorea laevis), which can survive for more than 150 years and will usually grow as high as 50 meters.
Bukit Bangkirai is a tropical rainforest and natural monument, and home to other woods including ulin (Eusideroxylon Zwageri), blackwood or ebony (Ebenaceae), red meranti (Shorea smithiana), kempas (Koompassia malaccensis) and kruing (Dipterocarpus).
A two-ha area within the forest has been intentionally filled with jungle fruit tree species in a bid to preserve the mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana), the durian family, including lai (Durio kutejensis), and the mentega (magarine) fruit (Diospyros).
Bukit Bangkirai’s orchid forest provides orchid lovers with the opportunity to feast their eyes on a collection consisting of 45 species, including the black orchid (Coelegyne pandurata), sugarcane orchid (Grammatophyllum speciousum), dragon scale orchid (Cymbidium antropurpureum) and dancing orchid (Bromheadia fynlaysoniana).
A 3.5-ha breeding ground for deer from the sambas family (Corvus unicolor) was cleared but sadly locals today say it has been neglected for too long and is now overgrown with underbrush.
“I’m not sure when, but the deer breeding activities stopped long ago,” said Nyoman Suterini, owner of a food stall in the area.
Nevertheless, there are plenty of other animals to be found in the area, including the owa owa (Hylobates muelleri), short-tailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina), red long-tailed monkey (Presbytus rubicunda), the long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis), wild boar and flying fox.
One of Bukit Bangkirai’s most infamous attractions is its bridge that connects five large trees, better known as the “Canopy Bridge“.
The bridge is suspended 30 meters from the ground and stretches a total of 64 meters in length. It is made of bangkirai timber laths, bound by steel cables and secured by a 1.5-meter safety net on both sides.
But when the late afternoon wind starts to howl, locals say the bridge will do all it can to frighten the very daylights out of those visitors using it and even passers-by.
“When I was up on the canopy bridge, I yelled my heart out not because I was afraid but too excited,” said Japanese student Takeshi Arizono, 29, an alumnus from the forestry school at Mulawarman University in Samarinda.
“My friends and I had a great time … it was my first time on such a bridge.
“The place is terrific and very suitable to conduct a research project,” Takesi said.
As a specialized forestry student, Takesi was investigating the rattan plant and was accompanied by a junior from the Nihon University who was attending comparable studies on the bangkirai tree, the dominant tree species in the area.
“I’ve also seen a bangkirai tree which is 150 years old and 40 meters tall here,” said Takeshi.
Visitors can choose to stay overnight in one of the four fully-equipped cottages built of ulin timber. Tariffs at the time of writing ranged from Rp 350,000 to Rp 450,000 per day.
“The check-out time is more flexible here, unlike hotels in the cities,” said Ommeng from the Bukit Bangkirai resort area.
“And the number of guests staying in a room is unlimited.”
For those who really want to blend in with the natural surroundings, the resort also offers a camping ground with tents and camping space for rent.
“The fee for a camping space is set at Rp 45,000 per day, which is the same price as hiring an eight-person tent,” said Ommeng. “And a four-person tent is rented for Rp 25,000 per day.”
Others who want to enjoy the cool night air of Bukit Bangkirai can try the outbound barracks.
The price here can be as high as Rp 1.5 million per day, but the barracks can accommodate up to 100 people and the area is suitable to hold reunions, workshops and other activities that involve a crowd.
Getting to and from the forest involves either a simple a 58-km drive from Balikpapan, a 150-km drive from Samarinda or a 150-km drive from Tenggarong.
The park is managed by state-run forestry company PT Inhutani and charges entrance fees for visitors and vehicles — Rp 2,000 (approximately 22 US cents) for adults and motorcycles and Rp 1,000 for those below the age of 12.
The entrance fee for a car is Rp 5,000, while buses are charged Rp 10,000.
A group of 50 people or more can receive a 25 percent discount on the entrance fee and a group of more than 100 people can get a 50 percent discount.
Nurni Sulaimana, The Jakarta Post.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
TROPICAL FORESTRY
In the past, timber harvest in the Tropics has seldom been followed by regeneration. Conversion to agriculture is often permanent or results in soil erosion. Timber harvest contracts have usually been short term and have provided little or no incentive for timber companies to replant. So little reforestation has been done in the Tropics that many people believe these forests cannot be restored. However, there are many examples of successful reforestation in India, Indonesia, and the Caribbean.
In the Tropics, as elsewhere, forestry is a mixture of modern innovations and ancient techniques borrowed from local tradition. Plantation forestry is common. Forest reserves have been established for timber harvest, wildlife habitat, scenery, outdoor recreation, or watershed protection. And in the Tropics, agroforestry-tree growing combined with agricultural cropping-is much more common than elsewhere.
Plantation Forestry
In the Tropics, trees are often planted and grown in plantations for wood production. Often, many species must be tried to determine which will grow best. Plantations must also be supported by major investments in forest management and research. Forest nurseries must be established, and planting techniques and cultural practices (spacing and thinning, pruning, fertilization, insect and disease control, and genetic improvement) must be developed.
Extensive pine plantations have been established in the moist Tropics, mainly in South Africa and Australia. Species most often planted include Caribbean pine (Pinus caribaea), ocote pine (P. oocarpa), slash pine (P. elliottii), and benguet pine (P. kesiya). Pines are popular plantation trees because they are generally fast growing, have good survival rates, and are adapted to a wide variety of environments, including degraded forest sites.
Eucalypts, including species such as Eucalyptus grandis, E. deglupta, E. tereticornis, E. globulus, and E. camaldulensis are favored for the same reasons. Eucalypts are commonly grown for pulp, fuel, and lumber. Other species commonly planted include teak (Tectona grandis), Honduras mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), melina (Gmelina arborea) beefwood (Casuarina equisetifolia), and Mexican cypress (Cupressus lusitanica).
Forest Reserves
There are many reasons for establishing forest reserves in the Tropics. They can restore watersheds and wildlife habitat, improve scenic beauty and opportunities for outdoor recreation, and produce wood and other products for local use and export. Many forest products contribute to the sustenance and income of local people: wildlife and fish, firewood, rubber, fruits and nuts, rattan, medicinal herbs, floral greenery, and charcoal.
Perhaps the most famous of these reserves is the 5,600 square mile (14,500 k squared) Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. With its vast herds of grazing ungulates (hoofed animals) and predators, including several endangered species, the Serengeti is a showcase of a savanna ecosystem that has long been protected and managed for wildlife and other natural resources. Although plagued with poachers, the Serengeti promotes the cause of wildlife conservation to the many thousands of "ecotourists" who pay to experience nature each year.
Another type of forest reserve is the "extractive" reserve, which is dedicated to the production of useful products. Large reserves of this type have been established recently in Brazil. Local residents use them for tapping rubber, for gathering fruits and nuts, for hunting, and for harvesting wood on a sustained yield basis. Such uses provide a sustainable income while maintaining the ecological integrity of the forest.
Agroforestry
The practice growing of trees in combination with agricultural crops is fairly common in the Tropics. It is possible to grow food crops year around in many forested areas, and rural poor depend on this source of food as nowhere else on Earth.
Taungya System
Various systems have been developed for combining forestry with agriculture. "Taungya" is a Burmese word meaning cultivated hill plot. This system of agroforestry was developed in Europe during the Middle Ages and probably indepenently in a number of places in the Tropics. After existing forest or ground cover is removed by burning, trees are planted along with agricultural crops. Both are cultivated until the tree canopy closes. Then the area is left to grow trees, and another site is located for combined forestry agriculture.
Shade Cropping
An overstory of trees is often used to provide shade for agricultural crops. A common practice is to grow tree species such as guaba Inga vera) over coffee. In Puerto Rico, many forests developed where coffee was once grown in this manner.
Support Crops
Trees can be planted to provide support (and sometimes shade) for vine crops. Vines such as pepper and vanilla need support.
Alley Cropping
Nitrogen-fixing trees are planted in hedges in widely-space parallel rows along the contour of slopes. Food crops are grown in the "alley" between the rows. The trees add nitrogen and organic matter, protect the soil from erosion, and provide wood and animal forage.
Living Fences
Green fenceposts that will root and sprout often are planted in a closely spaced row. When they sprout, they create a "living fence" that provides shade and forage for cattle.
Windbreaks
Trees are often planted as windbreaks for agricultural crops, farms, or homesites. Such plantings can eventually contribute wood products as well as shelter. Food trees such as citrus, rubber, and mango can also provide fuel, lumber, and other wood products when they have outlived their original usefulness.
NEW DIRECTIONS IN TROPICAL FORESTRY
The conservation issues of the past seem simple compared with those of today. As we move toward the 21st century, human societies are concerned with global warming, deforestation, species extinction, and rising expectations. Growing populations must be fed, clothed, and sheltered, and people everywhere want higher standards of living.
Global Warming
Warming of the earth's atmosphere is a major environmental issue. Air pollution, deforestation, and widespread burning of coal, oil, and natural gas have increased atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons. These gases trap heat from the sun and prevent it from radiating harmlessly back into space. Thus, the 64 greenhouse" or warming effect is created.
Because of natural variations in climate, it is difficult to measure warming over large areas. Scientists agree, however, that increases in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases will cause higher temperatures worldwide. Even an increase of a few degrees might cause serious melting of the polar icecaps, a gradual rise in sea level, a disruption in normal weather patterns, a possible increase in forest fires, and the extinction of species.
Role of Forests
Trees, the largest of all land plants, act as a kind of environmental "buffer" for the ecosystem they dominate. They help ameliorate the extremes of climate (heat, cold, and wind) and create an environment where large land mammals, including people, can live comfortably. Trees complement animals in the global environment. Mammals take in oxygen from the air and exhale carbon dioxide. Plants use the carbon dioxide in their growth processes, store the carbon in woody tissues, and return oxygen to the atmosphere as a waste product. This process, known as photosynthesis, is essential to life. Carbon captured from the atmosphere by photosynthesis is eventually recycled through the environment in a process known as the carbon cycle. Trees have an especially important role in the carbon cycle. Tree leaves also act as filters to remove atmospheric pollutants from the air. This effect is particularly beneficial in urban areas.
Forestry Issues
Two key issues will dominate forestry in the years ahead: (1) maintaining long-term productivity of managed forests, and (2) preventing further loss of tropical forests. Both problems will require new approaches to forest management.
Traditionally, forestry has focused on growing crops of wood in plantations or in managed natural stands. In this "agricultural mode," other benefits of forest such as watershed protection, wildlife habitat, climate moderation, and outdoor recreation, have received less attention than wood production.
Perhaps more importantly, the sustainability of the full range of forest benefits has not been measured. There is no question that trees can be grown for crops of wood in managed stands. With intensive management-short rotations, species selection, genetic improvement, fertilization, thinning, and other cultural treatments-more wood can be produced in less time than in natural forests. But for how long? And at what cost in other benefits?
As more and more of the world's original forests have been cut, the ecological value of forests has come to be more appreciated. In recent years, increased emphasis has been put on what some are calling "ecosystem management." In this model, the health and long-term stability of the forest are paramount, and timber production is considered a byproduct of good forest management rather than the principal product. In Puerto Rico, for example, wood production is a relatively minor aspect of forestry.
Since the 1930's when timber harvests were curtailed, the forests have been managed primarily for watershed protection, wildlife habitat, and outdoor recreation.
There are no easy solutions to the problem of tropical forest destruction, but most experts agree that the problems cannot be solved simply by locking up the forests in reserves. The forests are too important to local people for that to be a workable solution. There is no doubt that tropical forests will be cut. It is better for them to be cut in an ecologically sound manner than to be cleared for poor-quality farmland or wasted by poor harvest practices.
The only real long-term solutions are: (1) more efficient agriculture on suitable farmland, (2) efficient forestry practice including plantations, and (3) reserves to protect species and ecosystems. Many forestry experts believe that we have only begun to tap the potential for wise use of tropical forests. Many uses have yet to be fully explored. We are only starting to learn the value of tropical forests for medicines, house and garden plants, food and fiber, tourism, and natural resource education.
A Student Guide To Tropical Forest Conservation
In the Tropics, as elsewhere, forestry is a mixture of modern innovations and ancient techniques borrowed from local tradition. Plantation forestry is common. Forest reserves have been established for timber harvest, wildlife habitat, scenery, outdoor recreation, or watershed protection. And in the Tropics, agroforestry-tree growing combined with agricultural cropping-is much more common than elsewhere.
Plantation Forestry
In the Tropics, trees are often planted and grown in plantations for wood production. Often, many species must be tried to determine which will grow best. Plantations must also be supported by major investments in forest management and research. Forest nurseries must be established, and planting techniques and cultural practices (spacing and thinning, pruning, fertilization, insect and disease control, and genetic improvement) must be developed.
Extensive pine plantations have been established in the moist Tropics, mainly in South Africa and Australia. Species most often planted include Caribbean pine (Pinus caribaea), ocote pine (P. oocarpa), slash pine (P. elliottii), and benguet pine (P. kesiya). Pines are popular plantation trees because they are generally fast growing, have good survival rates, and are adapted to a wide variety of environments, including degraded forest sites.
Eucalypts, including species such as Eucalyptus grandis, E. deglupta, E. tereticornis, E. globulus, and E. camaldulensis are favored for the same reasons. Eucalypts are commonly grown for pulp, fuel, and lumber. Other species commonly planted include teak (Tectona grandis), Honduras mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), melina (Gmelina arborea) beefwood (Casuarina equisetifolia), and Mexican cypress (Cupressus lusitanica).
Forest Reserves
There are many reasons for establishing forest reserves in the Tropics. They can restore watersheds and wildlife habitat, improve scenic beauty and opportunities for outdoor recreation, and produce wood and other products for local use and export. Many forest products contribute to the sustenance and income of local people: wildlife and fish, firewood, rubber, fruits and nuts, rattan, medicinal herbs, floral greenery, and charcoal.
Perhaps the most famous of these reserves is the 5,600 square mile (14,500 k squared) Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. With its vast herds of grazing ungulates (hoofed animals) and predators, including several endangered species, the Serengeti is a showcase of a savanna ecosystem that has long been protected and managed for wildlife and other natural resources. Although plagued with poachers, the Serengeti promotes the cause of wildlife conservation to the many thousands of "ecotourists" who pay to experience nature each year.
Another type of forest reserve is the "extractive" reserve, which is dedicated to the production of useful products. Large reserves of this type have been established recently in Brazil. Local residents use them for tapping rubber, for gathering fruits and nuts, for hunting, and for harvesting wood on a sustained yield basis. Such uses provide a sustainable income while maintaining the ecological integrity of the forest.
Agroforestry
The practice growing of trees in combination with agricultural crops is fairly common in the Tropics. It is possible to grow food crops year around in many forested areas, and rural poor depend on this source of food as nowhere else on Earth.
Taungya System
Various systems have been developed for combining forestry with agriculture. "Taungya" is a Burmese word meaning cultivated hill plot. This system of agroforestry was developed in Europe during the Middle Ages and probably indepenently in a number of places in the Tropics. After existing forest or ground cover is removed by burning, trees are planted along with agricultural crops. Both are cultivated until the tree canopy closes. Then the area is left to grow trees, and another site is located for combined forestry agriculture.
Shade Cropping
An overstory of trees is often used to provide shade for agricultural crops. A common practice is to grow tree species such as guaba Inga vera) over coffee. In Puerto Rico, many forests developed where coffee was once grown in this manner.
Support Crops
Trees can be planted to provide support (and sometimes shade) for vine crops. Vines such as pepper and vanilla need support.
Alley Cropping
Nitrogen-fixing trees are planted in hedges in widely-space parallel rows along the contour of slopes. Food crops are grown in the "alley" between the rows. The trees add nitrogen and organic matter, protect the soil from erosion, and provide wood and animal forage.
Living Fences
Green fenceposts that will root and sprout often are planted in a closely spaced row. When they sprout, they create a "living fence" that provides shade and forage for cattle.
Windbreaks
Trees are often planted as windbreaks for agricultural crops, farms, or homesites. Such plantings can eventually contribute wood products as well as shelter. Food trees such as citrus, rubber, and mango can also provide fuel, lumber, and other wood products when they have outlived their original usefulness.
NEW DIRECTIONS IN TROPICAL FORESTRY
The conservation issues of the past seem simple compared with those of today. As we move toward the 21st century, human societies are concerned with global warming, deforestation, species extinction, and rising expectations. Growing populations must be fed, clothed, and sheltered, and people everywhere want higher standards of living.
Global Warming
Warming of the earth's atmosphere is a major environmental issue. Air pollution, deforestation, and widespread burning of coal, oil, and natural gas have increased atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons. These gases trap heat from the sun and prevent it from radiating harmlessly back into space. Thus, the 64 greenhouse" or warming effect is created.
Because of natural variations in climate, it is difficult to measure warming over large areas. Scientists agree, however, that increases in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases will cause higher temperatures worldwide. Even an increase of a few degrees might cause serious melting of the polar icecaps, a gradual rise in sea level, a disruption in normal weather patterns, a possible increase in forest fires, and the extinction of species.
Role of Forests
Trees, the largest of all land plants, act as a kind of environmental "buffer" for the ecosystem they dominate. They help ameliorate the extremes of climate (heat, cold, and wind) and create an environment where large land mammals, including people, can live comfortably. Trees complement animals in the global environment. Mammals take in oxygen from the air and exhale carbon dioxide. Plants use the carbon dioxide in their growth processes, store the carbon in woody tissues, and return oxygen to the atmosphere as a waste product. This process, known as photosynthesis, is essential to life. Carbon captured from the atmosphere by photosynthesis is eventually recycled through the environment in a process known as the carbon cycle. Trees have an especially important role in the carbon cycle. Tree leaves also act as filters to remove atmospheric pollutants from the air. This effect is particularly beneficial in urban areas.
Forestry Issues
Two key issues will dominate forestry in the years ahead: (1) maintaining long-term productivity of managed forests, and (2) preventing further loss of tropical forests. Both problems will require new approaches to forest management.
Traditionally, forestry has focused on growing crops of wood in plantations or in managed natural stands. In this "agricultural mode," other benefits of forest such as watershed protection, wildlife habitat, climate moderation, and outdoor recreation, have received less attention than wood production.
Perhaps more importantly, the sustainability of the full range of forest benefits has not been measured. There is no question that trees can be grown for crops of wood in managed stands. With intensive management-short rotations, species selection, genetic improvement, fertilization, thinning, and other cultural treatments-more wood can be produced in less time than in natural forests. But for how long? And at what cost in other benefits?
As more and more of the world's original forests have been cut, the ecological value of forests has come to be more appreciated. In recent years, increased emphasis has been put on what some are calling "ecosystem management." In this model, the health and long-term stability of the forest are paramount, and timber production is considered a byproduct of good forest management rather than the principal product. In Puerto Rico, for example, wood production is a relatively minor aspect of forestry.
Since the 1930's when timber harvests were curtailed, the forests have been managed primarily for watershed protection, wildlife habitat, and outdoor recreation.
There are no easy solutions to the problem of tropical forest destruction, but most experts agree that the problems cannot be solved simply by locking up the forests in reserves. The forests are too important to local people for that to be a workable solution. There is no doubt that tropical forests will be cut. It is better for them to be cut in an ecologically sound manner than to be cleared for poor-quality farmland or wasted by poor harvest practices.
The only real long-term solutions are: (1) more efficient agriculture on suitable farmland, (2) efficient forestry practice including plantations, and (3) reserves to protect species and ecosystems. Many forestry experts believe that we have only begun to tap the potential for wise use of tropical forests. Many uses have yet to be fully explored. We are only starting to learn the value of tropical forests for medicines, house and garden plants, food and fiber, tourism, and natural resource education.
A Student Guide To Tropical Forest Conservation
Friday, September 12, 2008
A Student Guide To Tropical Forest Conservation-2
DEFORESTATION
Before the dawn of agriculture approximately 10,000 years ago, forests and open woodland covered about 15.3 billion acres (6.2 billion ha) of the globe. Over the centuries, however, about one-third of these natural forests has been destroyed. According to a 1982 study by FAO, about 27.9 million acres (11.3 million ha) of tropical forests are cut each year-an area about the size of the States of Ohio or Virginia. Between 1985 and 1990, an estimated 210 million acres (85 million ha) of tropical forests were cut or cleared. In India, Malaysia, and the Philippines, the best commercial forests are gone, and cutting is increasing in South America. If deforestation is not stopped soon, the world will lose most of its tropical forests in the next several decades.
Reasons for Deforestation
Several factors are responsible for deforestation in the Tropics: clearing for agriculture, fuelwood cutting, and harvesting of wood products. By far the most important of these is clearing for agriculture. In the Tropics, the age-old practice of shifting, sometimes called "slash-and-burn," agriculture has been used for centuries. In this primitive system, local people cut a small patch of forest to make way for subsistence farming. After a few years, soil fertility declines and people move on, usually to cut another patch of trees and begin another garden.
In the abandoned garden plot, the degraded soil at first supports only weeds and shrubby trees. Later, soil fertility and trees return, but that may take decades. As population pressure increases, the fallow (rest) period between cycles of gardening is shortened, agricultural yields decrease, and the forest region is further degraded to small trees, brush, or eroded savanna.
Conversion to sedentary agriculture is an even greater threat to tropical forests. Vast areas that once supported tropical forests are now permanently occupied by subsistence farmers and ranchers and by commercial farmers who produce sugar, cocoa, palm oil, and other products.
In many tropical countries there is a critical shortage of firewood. For millions of rural poor, survival depends on finding enough wood to cook the evening meal. Every year more of the forest is destroyed, and the distance from home to the forest increases. Not only do people suffer by having to spend much of their time in the search for wood, but so does the land. Damage is greatest in dry tropical forests where firewood cutting converts forests to savannas and grasslands.
The global demand for tropical hardwoods, an $8-billion-a-year industry, also contributes to forest loss. Tropical forests are usually selectively logged rather than clear-cut. Selective logging leaves the forest cover intact but usually reduces its commercial value because the biggest and best trees are removed. Selective logging also damages remaining trees and soil, increases the likelihood of fire, and degrades the habitat for wildlife species that require large, old trees-the ones usually cut. In addition, logging roads open up the forests to shifting cultivation and permanent settlement.
In the past, logging was done primarily by primitive means-trees were cut with axes and logs were moved with animals such as oxen. Today the use of modern machinery--chain saws, tractors, and trucks -makes logging easier, faster, and potentially more destructive.
Endangered Wildlife
Forests are biological communities-complex associations of trees with other plants and animals that have evolved together over millions of years. Because of the worldwide loss of tropical forests, thousands of species of birds and animals are threatened with extinction. The list includes many unique and fascinating animals, among them the orangutan, mountain gorilla, manatee, jaguar, and Puerto Rican parrot. Although diverse and widely separated around the globe, these specles have one important thing in common. They, along with many other endangered species, rely on tropical forests for all or part of their habitat.
Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) are totally dependent on small and isolated patches of tropical forests remaining in Borneo and Sumatra, Indonesia. Orangutans spend most of their time in the forest canopy where they feed on leaves, figs and other fruit, bark, nuts, and insects. Large trees of the old-growth forests support woody vines that serve as aerial ladders, enabling the animals to move about, build their nests, and forage for food. When the old forests are cut, orangutans disappear.
The largest of all primates, the gorilla, is one of man's closest relatives in the animal kingdom. Too large and clumsy to move about in the forest canopy, the gorilla lives on the forest floor where it forages for a variety of plant materials. Loss of tropical forests in central and west Africa is a major reason for the decreasing numbers of mountain gorillas (Gorilla gorilla). Some habitat has been secured, but the future of this gentle giant is in grave danger as a result of habitat loss and poaching.
The jaguar (Leo onca), a resident of the Southwestern United States and Central and South America, is closely associated with forests. Its endangered status is the result of hunting and habitat loss.
The Puerto Rican parrot (Amazona vittata), a medium-sized, green bird with blue wing feathers, once inhabited the entire island of Puerto Rico and the neighboring islands of Mona and Culebra. Forest destruction is the principal reason for the decline of this species. Hunting also contributed. Today, only a few Puerto Rican parrots remain in the wild and their survival may depend on the success of a captive breeding program).
In addition to species that reside in tropical forests year round, others depend on such forests for part of the year. Many species of migrant birds journey 1,000 miles or more between their summer breeding grounds in the north and their tropical wintering grounds. These birds are also threatened by tropical forest destruction.
THE PRACTICE OF FORESTRY
Forestry-loosely defined as the systematic management and use of forests and their natural resources for human benefit-has been practiced for centuries. Most often, forestry efforts have been initiated in response to indiscriminate timber cutting that denuded the land and caused erosion, floods, or a shortage of wood products.
Ancient Forestry Practices
In ancient Persia (now Iran), forest protection and nature conservation laws were in effect as early as 1,700 B.C. Two thousand years ago the Chinese practiced what they called "four sides" forestry-trees were planted on house side, village side, road side, and water side. More than 1,000 years ago, Javanese maharajahs brought in teak and began to cultivate it. In the African Tropics, agroforestry (growing of food crops in association with trees) has been practiced for hundreds of years.
In the Yucatan Peninsula of southern Mexico, the ancient Mayas cultivated fruit and nut trees along with such staples as corn, beans, and squash. Bark, fibers, and resin were obtained from plants grown in fields, kitchen gardens, and orchards. Early in their civilization, the Mayas practiced slash-and-burn agriculture. As their population grew, they found more efficient methods of growing crops. They terraced hillsides, learned how to decrease the time between "rotations" of agricultural land with native forests, dug drainage channels and canals to move water to and from cultivated areas, and filled in swampland to plant crops.
The agricultural sophistication of the Mayas enabled their civilization to grow and flourish. What brought about their decline about A.D. 820 is not fully known, but some believe that as their society developed, the Mayas made unsustainable demands on their environment.
Relatively little is known about tropical forestry before the mid1800's in most places. At that time, the European colonial empiresnotably the Dutch, English, and Spanish-brought modern forest management practices to Indonesia, India, Africa, and the Caribbean. Centers for forestry and forestry research were established, and more careful records were kept.
Sustainable Forestry
Modern forestry has its basis in 18th-century Germany. Like the Chinese and the Mayan forest practices, German forestry is essentially agricultural. Trees are managed as a crop. Two concepts are important: renewability and sustainability. Renewability means that trees can be replanted and seeded and harvested over and over again on the same tract of land in what are known as crop "rotations." Sustainability means that forest harvest can be sustained over the long term. How far into the future were foresters expected to plan? As long as there were vast acres of virgin (original) forests remaining, this question was somewhat academic. Today, however, sustainability is a vital issue in forestry. Most of the world's virgin forests are gone, and people must rely more and more on second- growth or managed forests. Perhaps we now face, as never before, the limits to long-term productivity.
In the German forest model, forestry is viewed as a continual process of harvest and regeneration. Harvest of wood products is a goal, but a forester's principal tasks are to assure long-term productivity. That is achieved by cutting the older, mature, and slow-growing timber to make way for a new crop of young, fast-growing trees.
Harvest-Regeneration Methods
Three examples of timber harvest-regeneration methods (silvicultural systems) illustrate how foresters manage stands to produce timber on a sustained basis.
Selection
Individual trees or small groups of trees are harvested as they become mature. Numerous small openings in the forest are created in which saplings or new seedlings can grow. The resulting forest has a continuous forest canopy and trees of all ages. Such systems favor slow-growing species that are shade tolerant.
Clearcutting
In clearcutting, an entire stand of trees is removed in one operation. From the forester's point of view, clearcutting is the easiest way to manage a forest-and the most economical. Regeneration may come from sprouts on stumps, from seedlings that survive the logging operation, or from seeds that germinate after the harvest. If natural regeneration is delayed longer than desired, the area is planted or seeded.
Clearcutting systems are often used to manage fast-growing species that require a lot of light. Resulting stands are even aged because all the trees in an area are cut-and regenerated-at the same time. Clearcutting has become controversial in recent years because it has the potential to damage watersheds and because it tends to eliminate species of wildlife dependent on old growth trees. If clearcuts are kept small and the cutting interval is long enough, however, biological diversity may not be impaired.
Shelterwood
In shelterwood systems, the forest canopy is removed over a period of years, usually in two cuttings. After the first harvest, natural regeneration begins in the understory. By the time the second harvest is made, enough young trees have grown to assure adequate regeneration. Shelterwood systems favor species that are intermediate in tolerance to shade. Such systems are difficult to use successfully and are the least used of the three silvicultural methods described.
Multiple-Use Forestry
Gifford Pinchot, the first Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, was also this country's first professional forester. Pinchot advocated the use of forest resources-all resources, not just timber-for human benefit. Pinchot was a strong and charismatic leader, and his ideas helped shape the course of forestry in the United States.
Pinchot had a vocal opponent in John Muir, a young naturalist from California who believed that public lands should be preserved rather than used. Eventually Muir and Pinchot became rivals for public approval. Oddly enough, there was no
loser in this early conservation battle. Muir's preservation ethic became embodied in the philosophy of the National Parks, and Pinchot's concept of wise use became the guiding principle of the National Forests.
National Forests are still managed under the concepts of multiple use and sustained yield. The dominant uses of National Forests are considered to be wood, water, wildlife, forage (for domestic cattle and wildlife), and recreation. Extraction of minerals and other valuable products is also considered a legitimate use of National Forests. Because Pinchot's philosophy left room for the "highest and best use" of a given area, the U.S. National Forests now include a wilderness system of more than 32 million acres (13 million ha) in which timber harvest is not allowed.
Today it is generally recognized that most, if not all, nondestructive uses of forest are valid. Some areas may be set aside as parks; others for wildlife habitat or as wilderness. Still others will be managed for timber harvest or multiple benefits. Today, conflicts arise primarily over where these different uses will be dominant. In the National Forests, such decisions are made through a land-use planning process in which the public has ample opportunities for input and involvement.
FORESTRY RESEARCH
At the turn of the century, very little was known about the world's native forests or how to manage them. In the United States, foresters were quick to recognize the value of information about forests and a branch of research was established in the Forest Service in 1915. Early research was done primarily in support of reforestation efforts, but, as forestry grew in size and complexity, so did the research.
Today, the USDA Forest Service has six regional experiment stations located in important forest regions. Each experiment station has several field laboratories generally with specialized assignments for a geographic region or a specific subject area, and numerous sites for field research. In addition, the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, WI, serves as a nationwide center for research and development of new technology relating to wood , including tropical woods. Two laboratories are dedicated exclusively to tropical forest research: the International Institute of Tropical Forestry in Puerto Rico and the Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry in Hawaii.
Research is vital for modern forest management, which is information intensive. Today's foresters require vast quantities of data and a knowledge of ecology: they must understand not only the parts of ecosystems but how different parts of the environment interact. Scientific investigations are conducted in support of all kinds of forestry activities: silviculture, forest insect and disease control, wildlife habitat management, fire prevention and control, range and watershed management, forest products utilization, forest survey, reforestation, ecology, and economics.
Before the dawn of agriculture approximately 10,000 years ago, forests and open woodland covered about 15.3 billion acres (6.2 billion ha) of the globe. Over the centuries, however, about one-third of these natural forests has been destroyed. According to a 1982 study by FAO, about 27.9 million acres (11.3 million ha) of tropical forests are cut each year-an area about the size of the States of Ohio or Virginia. Between 1985 and 1990, an estimated 210 million acres (85 million ha) of tropical forests were cut or cleared. In India, Malaysia, and the Philippines, the best commercial forests are gone, and cutting is increasing in South America. If deforestation is not stopped soon, the world will lose most of its tropical forests in the next several decades.
Reasons for Deforestation
Several factors are responsible for deforestation in the Tropics: clearing for agriculture, fuelwood cutting, and harvesting of wood products. By far the most important of these is clearing for agriculture. In the Tropics, the age-old practice of shifting, sometimes called "slash-and-burn," agriculture has been used for centuries. In this primitive system, local people cut a small patch of forest to make way for subsistence farming. After a few years, soil fertility declines and people move on, usually to cut another patch of trees and begin another garden.
In the abandoned garden plot, the degraded soil at first supports only weeds and shrubby trees. Later, soil fertility and trees return, but that may take decades. As population pressure increases, the fallow (rest) period between cycles of gardening is shortened, agricultural yields decrease, and the forest region is further degraded to small trees, brush, or eroded savanna.
Conversion to sedentary agriculture is an even greater threat to tropical forests. Vast areas that once supported tropical forests are now permanently occupied by subsistence farmers and ranchers and by commercial farmers who produce sugar, cocoa, palm oil, and other products.
In many tropical countries there is a critical shortage of firewood. For millions of rural poor, survival depends on finding enough wood to cook the evening meal. Every year more of the forest is destroyed, and the distance from home to the forest increases. Not only do people suffer by having to spend much of their time in the search for wood, but so does the land. Damage is greatest in dry tropical forests where firewood cutting converts forests to savannas and grasslands.
The global demand for tropical hardwoods, an $8-billion-a-year industry, also contributes to forest loss. Tropical forests are usually selectively logged rather than clear-cut. Selective logging leaves the forest cover intact but usually reduces its commercial value because the biggest and best trees are removed. Selective logging also damages remaining trees and soil, increases the likelihood of fire, and degrades the habitat for wildlife species that require large, old trees-the ones usually cut. In addition, logging roads open up the forests to shifting cultivation and permanent settlement.
In the past, logging was done primarily by primitive means-trees were cut with axes and logs were moved with animals such as oxen. Today the use of modern machinery--chain saws, tractors, and trucks -makes logging easier, faster, and potentially more destructive.
Endangered Wildlife
Forests are biological communities-complex associations of trees with other plants and animals that have evolved together over millions of years. Because of the worldwide loss of tropical forests, thousands of species of birds and animals are threatened with extinction. The list includes many unique and fascinating animals, among them the orangutan, mountain gorilla, manatee, jaguar, and Puerto Rican parrot. Although diverse and widely separated around the globe, these specles have one important thing in common. They, along with many other endangered species, rely on tropical forests for all or part of their habitat.
Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) are totally dependent on small and isolated patches of tropical forests remaining in Borneo and Sumatra, Indonesia. Orangutans spend most of their time in the forest canopy where they feed on leaves, figs and other fruit, bark, nuts, and insects. Large trees of the old-growth forests support woody vines that serve as aerial ladders, enabling the animals to move about, build their nests, and forage for food. When the old forests are cut, orangutans disappear.
The largest of all primates, the gorilla, is one of man's closest relatives in the animal kingdom. Too large and clumsy to move about in the forest canopy, the gorilla lives on the forest floor where it forages for a variety of plant materials. Loss of tropical forests in central and west Africa is a major reason for the decreasing numbers of mountain gorillas (Gorilla gorilla). Some habitat has been secured, but the future of this gentle giant is in grave danger as a result of habitat loss and poaching.
The jaguar (Leo onca), a resident of the Southwestern United States and Central and South America, is closely associated with forests. Its endangered status is the result of hunting and habitat loss.
The Puerto Rican parrot (Amazona vittata), a medium-sized, green bird with blue wing feathers, once inhabited the entire island of Puerto Rico and the neighboring islands of Mona and Culebra. Forest destruction is the principal reason for the decline of this species. Hunting also contributed. Today, only a few Puerto Rican parrots remain in the wild and their survival may depend on the success of a captive breeding program).
In addition to species that reside in tropical forests year round, others depend on such forests for part of the year. Many species of migrant birds journey 1,000 miles or more between their summer breeding grounds in the north and their tropical wintering grounds. These birds are also threatened by tropical forest destruction.
THE PRACTICE OF FORESTRY
Forestry-loosely defined as the systematic management and use of forests and their natural resources for human benefit-has been practiced for centuries. Most often, forestry efforts have been initiated in response to indiscriminate timber cutting that denuded the land and caused erosion, floods, or a shortage of wood products.
Ancient Forestry Practices
In ancient Persia (now Iran), forest protection and nature conservation laws were in effect as early as 1,700 B.C. Two thousand years ago the Chinese practiced what they called "four sides" forestry-trees were planted on house side, village side, road side, and water side. More than 1,000 years ago, Javanese maharajahs brought in teak and began to cultivate it. In the African Tropics, agroforestry (growing of food crops in association with trees) has been practiced for hundreds of years.
In the Yucatan Peninsula of southern Mexico, the ancient Mayas cultivated fruit and nut trees along with such staples as corn, beans, and squash. Bark, fibers, and resin were obtained from plants grown in fields, kitchen gardens, and orchards. Early in their civilization, the Mayas practiced slash-and-burn agriculture. As their population grew, they found more efficient methods of growing crops. They terraced hillsides, learned how to decrease the time between "rotations" of agricultural land with native forests, dug drainage channels and canals to move water to and from cultivated areas, and filled in swampland to plant crops.
The agricultural sophistication of the Mayas enabled their civilization to grow and flourish. What brought about their decline about A.D. 820 is not fully known, but some believe that as their society developed, the Mayas made unsustainable demands on their environment.
Relatively little is known about tropical forestry before the mid1800's in most places. At that time, the European colonial empiresnotably the Dutch, English, and Spanish-brought modern forest management practices to Indonesia, India, Africa, and the Caribbean. Centers for forestry and forestry research were established, and more careful records were kept.
Sustainable Forestry
Modern forestry has its basis in 18th-century Germany. Like the Chinese and the Mayan forest practices, German forestry is essentially agricultural. Trees are managed as a crop. Two concepts are important: renewability and sustainability. Renewability means that trees can be replanted and seeded and harvested over and over again on the same tract of land in what are known as crop "rotations." Sustainability means that forest harvest can be sustained over the long term. How far into the future were foresters expected to plan? As long as there were vast acres of virgin (original) forests remaining, this question was somewhat academic. Today, however, sustainability is a vital issue in forestry. Most of the world's virgin forests are gone, and people must rely more and more on second- growth or managed forests. Perhaps we now face, as never before, the limits to long-term productivity.
In the German forest model, forestry is viewed as a continual process of harvest and regeneration. Harvest of wood products is a goal, but a forester's principal tasks are to assure long-term productivity. That is achieved by cutting the older, mature, and slow-growing timber to make way for a new crop of young, fast-growing trees.
Harvest-Regeneration Methods
Three examples of timber harvest-regeneration methods (silvicultural systems) illustrate how foresters manage stands to produce timber on a sustained basis.
Selection
Individual trees or small groups of trees are harvested as they become mature. Numerous small openings in the forest are created in which saplings or new seedlings can grow. The resulting forest has a continuous forest canopy and trees of all ages. Such systems favor slow-growing species that are shade tolerant.
Clearcutting
In clearcutting, an entire stand of trees is removed in one operation. From the forester's point of view, clearcutting is the easiest way to manage a forest-and the most economical. Regeneration may come from sprouts on stumps, from seedlings that survive the logging operation, or from seeds that germinate after the harvest. If natural regeneration is delayed longer than desired, the area is planted or seeded.
Clearcutting systems are often used to manage fast-growing species that require a lot of light. Resulting stands are even aged because all the trees in an area are cut-and regenerated-at the same time. Clearcutting has become controversial in recent years because it has the potential to damage watersheds and because it tends to eliminate species of wildlife dependent on old growth trees. If clearcuts are kept small and the cutting interval is long enough, however, biological diversity may not be impaired.
Shelterwood
In shelterwood systems, the forest canopy is removed over a period of years, usually in two cuttings. After the first harvest, natural regeneration begins in the understory. By the time the second harvest is made, enough young trees have grown to assure adequate regeneration. Shelterwood systems favor species that are intermediate in tolerance to shade. Such systems are difficult to use successfully and are the least used of the three silvicultural methods described.
Multiple-Use Forestry
Gifford Pinchot, the first Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, was also this country's first professional forester. Pinchot advocated the use of forest resources-all resources, not just timber-for human benefit. Pinchot was a strong and charismatic leader, and his ideas helped shape the course of forestry in the United States.
Pinchot had a vocal opponent in John Muir, a young naturalist from California who believed that public lands should be preserved rather than used. Eventually Muir and Pinchot became rivals for public approval. Oddly enough, there was no
loser in this early conservation battle. Muir's preservation ethic became embodied in the philosophy of the National Parks, and Pinchot's concept of wise use became the guiding principle of the National Forests.
National Forests are still managed under the concepts of multiple use and sustained yield. The dominant uses of National Forests are considered to be wood, water, wildlife, forage (for domestic cattle and wildlife), and recreation. Extraction of minerals and other valuable products is also considered a legitimate use of National Forests. Because Pinchot's philosophy left room for the "highest and best use" of a given area, the U.S. National Forests now include a wilderness system of more than 32 million acres (13 million ha) in which timber harvest is not allowed.
Today it is generally recognized that most, if not all, nondestructive uses of forest are valid. Some areas may be set aside as parks; others for wildlife habitat or as wilderness. Still others will be managed for timber harvest or multiple benefits. Today, conflicts arise primarily over where these different uses will be dominant. In the National Forests, such decisions are made through a land-use planning process in which the public has ample opportunities for input and involvement.
FORESTRY RESEARCH
At the turn of the century, very little was known about the world's native forests or how to manage them. In the United States, foresters were quick to recognize the value of information about forests and a branch of research was established in the Forest Service in 1915. Early research was done primarily in support of reforestation efforts, but, as forestry grew in size and complexity, so did the research.
Today, the USDA Forest Service has six regional experiment stations located in important forest regions. Each experiment station has several field laboratories generally with specialized assignments for a geographic region or a specific subject area, and numerous sites for field research. In addition, the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, WI, serves as a nationwide center for research and development of new technology relating to wood , including tropical woods. Two laboratories are dedicated exclusively to tropical forest research: the International Institute of Tropical Forestry in Puerto Rico and the Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry in Hawaii.
Research is vital for modern forest management, which is information intensive. Today's foresters require vast quantities of data and a knowledge of ecology: they must understand not only the parts of ecosystems but how different parts of the environment interact. Scientific investigations are conducted in support of all kinds of forestry activities: silviculture, forest insect and disease control, wildlife habitat management, fire prevention and control, range and watershed management, forest products utilization, forest survey, reforestation, ecology, and economics.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
A Student Guide To Tropical Forest Conservation
J.Louise Mastrantonio and John K. Francis
SUMMARY
The world's tropical forests, which circle the globe, are interestingly diverse. Ranging from the steamy jungles of the rain forests to the dry forests and savannas, they provide habitat for millions of species of plants and animals. Once covering some 15.3 billion acres (6.2 billion ha), these tropical forests have been reduced through cutting and clearing by 210 million acres (85 million ha) between 1985 and
1990. All types of tropical forests are defined and their products and benefits to the environment are presented and discussed. Modern forest practices are shown as a means of halting forest destruction while still providing valuable forest products and protecting and preserving the habitats of many endangered species of plants and wildlife. The Luquillo Experimental Forest is presented as a possible model to exemplify forestry practices and research that could manage and ultimately protect the tropical forests throughout the world.
INTRODUCTION
The world's tropical forests circle the globe in a ring around the Equator They are surprisingly diverse, ranging from lush rain forests to dry savannas and containing millions of species of plants and animals. Tropical forests once covered some 15.3 billion acres (6.2 billion ha). In recent times, however, they have been cut at a rapid rate to make room for agriculture and to obtain their many valuable products. Between 1985 and 1990, 210 million acres (85 million ha) of tropical forests were destroyed.
This guide shows how modern forest practices can help stem the tide of forest destruction while providing valuable forest products for people. The tropical forests of Puerto Rico, which were abused for centuries, were badly depleted by the early 1900's. Widespread abandonment of poor agricultural lands has allowed natural reforestation and planting programs to create a patchwork of private, Commonwealth, and Federal forests across the land. The most frequent example in this publication is the Luquillo Experimental Forest, which could be a model for protecting and managing tropical forests worldwide.
TYPES OF TROPICAL FORESTS
About half of all the world's forests are in the Tropics, the area between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. This region may be best known for its rain forests - lush, steamy jungles with towering trees, epiphytes, and dense under stories of smaller trees, shrubs, and vines.
Tropical forests are surprisingly diverse. In addition to rain forests, there are mangroves, moist forests, dry forests, and savannas. Such classifications, however, give only a slight indication of the diversity of tropical forests. One study by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, which considered 23 countries in tropical America, 37 in tropical Africa, and 16 in tropical Asia, identified dozens of types of tropical forests: open and closed canopy forests, broadleaved trees and conifer forests, closed forests and mixed forest grasslands, and forests where agriculture has made inroads.
Rain Forests
The largest remaining areas of tropical rain forests are in Brazil, Congo, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Precipitation generally exceeds 60 inches (150 cm) per year and may be as high as 400 inches (1000 cm). Lowland rain forests are among the world's most productive of plant communities. Giant trees may tower 200 feet (60 m) in height and support thousands of other species of plants and animals. Montane (mountain) rain forests grow at higher elevations where the climate is too windy and wet for optimum tree growth.
Mangrove forests grow in the swampy, intertidal margin between sea and shore and are often considered part of the rain forest complex. The roots of mangrove trees help stabilize the shoreline and trap sediment and decaying vegetation that contribute to ecosystem productivity.
Dry Forests
Large areas of tropical dry forests are found in India, Australia, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Mexico, Africa, and Madagascar. Dry forests receive low rainfall amounts, as little as 20 inches (50 cm) per year, and are characterized by species well adapted to drought. Trees of dry tropical forests are usually smaller than those in rain forests, and many lose their leaves during the dry season. Although they are still amazingly diverse, dry forests often have fewer species than rain forests.
Savanna is a transitional type between forest and grassland. Trees are often very scattered and tend to be well adapted to drought and tolerant of fire and grazing. If fire is excluded, trees eventually begin to grow and the savanna is converted to dry forest. With too much fire or grazing, dry forest becomes savanna. This vegetation type has fewer species of trees and shrubs but more grasses and forbs than other forest types in the Tropics.
VALUE OF TROPICAL FORESTS
All forests have both economic and ecological value, but tropical forests are especially important in global economy. These forests cover less than 6 percent of the Earth's land area, but they contain the vast majority of the world's plant and animal genetic resources. The diversity of life is astonishing. The original forests of Puerto Rico, for example, contain more than 500 species of trees in 70 botanical families. By comparison, temperate forests have relatively few. Such diversity is attributed to variations in elevation, climate, and soil, and to the lack of frost.
There is also diversity in other life forms: shrubs, herbs, epiphytes, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects. One study suggests that tropical rain forests may contain as many as 30 million different kinds of plants and animals, most of which are insects.
Wood and Other Products
Tropical forests provide many valuable products including rubber, fruits and nuts, meat, rattan, medicinal herbs, floral greenery, lumber, firewood, and charcoal. Such forests are used by local people for subsistence hunting and fishing. They provide income and jobs for hundreds of millions of people in small, medium, and large industries.
Tropical forests are noted for their beautiful woods. Four important commercial woods are mahogany, teak, melina, and okoume. Honduras mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), grows in the Americas from Mexico to Bolivia. A strong wood of medium density, mahogany is easy to work, is long lasting, and has good color and grain. It is commonly used for furniture, molding, paneling, and trim. Because of its resistance to decay, it is a popular wood used in boats. Teak (Tectona grandis) is native to India and Southeast Asia. Its wood has medium density, is strong, polishes well, and has a warm yellow-brown color. Also prized for resistance to insects and rot, teak is commonly used in cabinets, trim, flooring, furniture, and boats. Melina (Gmelina arborea) grows naturally from India through Vietnam. Noted for fast growth, melina has light colored wood that is used mainly for pulp and particleboard, matches and carpentry. Okoume (Aucoumea klaineana) is native to Gabon an the Congo in west Africa. A large fast-growing tree, the wood has mod erately low density, good strength-to density ratio, and low shrinkage during drying. It is commonly use( for plywood, paneling, interior fur niture parts, and light construction.
Other Economic Values
Tropical forests are home for tribal hunter-gatherers whose way of life has been relatively unchanged for centuries. These people depend on the forests for their livelihood. More than 2.5 million people also live in areas adjacent to tropical forests. They rely on the forests for their water, fuelwood, and other resources and on its shrinking land base for their shifting agriculture. For urban dwellers, tropical forests provide water for domestic use and hydroelectric power. Their scenic beauty, educational value, and opportunities for outdoor recreation support tourist industries.
Many medicines and drugs come from plants found only in tropical rain forests. Some of the best known are quinine, an ancient drug used for malaria; curare, an anesthetic and muscle relaxant used in surgery; and rosy periwinkle, a treatment for Hodgkin's disease and leukemia. Research has identified other potential drugs that may have value as contraceptives or in treating a multitude of maladies such as arthritis, hepatitis, insect bites, fever, coughs, and colds. Many more may be found. In all, only a few thousand species have been evaluated for their medicinal value.
In addition, many plants of tropical forests find uses in homes and gardens: ferns and palms, the hardy split-leaf philodendron, marantas, bromeliads, and orchids, to name just a few.
Environmental Benefits
Tropical forests do more than respond to local climatic conditions; they actually influence the climate. Through transpiration, the enormous number of plants found in rain forests return huge amounts of water to the atmosphere, increasing humidity and rainfall, and cooling the air for miles around. In addition, tropical forests replenish the air by utilizing carbon dioxide and giving off oxygen. By fixing carbon they help maintain the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels low and counteract the global "greenhouse" effect.
Forests also moderate stream flow. Trees slow the onslaught of tropical downpours, use and store vast quantities of water, and help hold the soil in place. When trees are cleared, rainfall runs off more quickly, contributing to floods and erosion.
Student Guide
SUMMARY
The world's tropical forests, which circle the globe, are interestingly diverse. Ranging from the steamy jungles of the rain forests to the dry forests and savannas, they provide habitat for millions of species of plants and animals. Once covering some 15.3 billion acres (6.2 billion ha), these tropical forests have been reduced through cutting and clearing by 210 million acres (85 million ha) between 1985 and
1990. All types of tropical forests are defined and their products and benefits to the environment are presented and discussed. Modern forest practices are shown as a means of halting forest destruction while still providing valuable forest products and protecting and preserving the habitats of many endangered species of plants and wildlife. The Luquillo Experimental Forest is presented as a possible model to exemplify forestry practices and research that could manage and ultimately protect the tropical forests throughout the world.
INTRODUCTION
The world's tropical forests circle the globe in a ring around the Equator They are surprisingly diverse, ranging from lush rain forests to dry savannas and containing millions of species of plants and animals. Tropical forests once covered some 15.3 billion acres (6.2 billion ha). In recent times, however, they have been cut at a rapid rate to make room for agriculture and to obtain their many valuable products. Between 1985 and 1990, 210 million acres (85 million ha) of tropical forests were destroyed.
This guide shows how modern forest practices can help stem the tide of forest destruction while providing valuable forest products for people. The tropical forests of Puerto Rico, which were abused for centuries, were badly depleted by the early 1900's. Widespread abandonment of poor agricultural lands has allowed natural reforestation and planting programs to create a patchwork of private, Commonwealth, and Federal forests across the land. The most frequent example in this publication is the Luquillo Experimental Forest, which could be a model for protecting and managing tropical forests worldwide.
TYPES OF TROPICAL FORESTS
About half of all the world's forests are in the Tropics, the area between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. This region may be best known for its rain forests - lush, steamy jungles with towering trees, epiphytes, and dense under stories of smaller trees, shrubs, and vines.
Tropical forests are surprisingly diverse. In addition to rain forests, there are mangroves, moist forests, dry forests, and savannas. Such classifications, however, give only a slight indication of the diversity of tropical forests. One study by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, which considered 23 countries in tropical America, 37 in tropical Africa, and 16 in tropical Asia, identified dozens of types of tropical forests: open and closed canopy forests, broadleaved trees and conifer forests, closed forests and mixed forest grasslands, and forests where agriculture has made inroads.
Rain Forests
The largest remaining areas of tropical rain forests are in Brazil, Congo, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Precipitation generally exceeds 60 inches (150 cm) per year and may be as high as 400 inches (1000 cm). Lowland rain forests are among the world's most productive of plant communities. Giant trees may tower 200 feet (60 m) in height and support thousands of other species of plants and animals. Montane (mountain) rain forests grow at higher elevations where the climate is too windy and wet for optimum tree growth.
Mangrove forests grow in the swampy, intertidal margin between sea and shore and are often considered part of the rain forest complex. The roots of mangrove trees help stabilize the shoreline and trap sediment and decaying vegetation that contribute to ecosystem productivity.
Dry Forests
Large areas of tropical dry forests are found in India, Australia, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Mexico, Africa, and Madagascar. Dry forests receive low rainfall amounts, as little as 20 inches (50 cm) per year, and are characterized by species well adapted to drought. Trees of dry tropical forests are usually smaller than those in rain forests, and many lose their leaves during the dry season. Although they are still amazingly diverse, dry forests often have fewer species than rain forests.
Savanna is a transitional type between forest and grassland. Trees are often very scattered and tend to be well adapted to drought and tolerant of fire and grazing. If fire is excluded, trees eventually begin to grow and the savanna is converted to dry forest. With too much fire or grazing, dry forest becomes savanna. This vegetation type has fewer species of trees and shrubs but more grasses and forbs than other forest types in the Tropics.
VALUE OF TROPICAL FORESTS
All forests have both economic and ecological value, but tropical forests are especially important in global economy. These forests cover less than 6 percent of the Earth's land area, but they contain the vast majority of the world's plant and animal genetic resources. The diversity of life is astonishing. The original forests of Puerto Rico, for example, contain more than 500 species of trees in 70 botanical families. By comparison, temperate forests have relatively few. Such diversity is attributed to variations in elevation, climate, and soil, and to the lack of frost.
There is also diversity in other life forms: shrubs, herbs, epiphytes, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects. One study suggests that tropical rain forests may contain as many as 30 million different kinds of plants and animals, most of which are insects.
Wood and Other Products
Tropical forests provide many valuable products including rubber, fruits and nuts, meat, rattan, medicinal herbs, floral greenery, lumber, firewood, and charcoal. Such forests are used by local people for subsistence hunting and fishing. They provide income and jobs for hundreds of millions of people in small, medium, and large industries.
Tropical forests are noted for their beautiful woods. Four important commercial woods are mahogany, teak, melina, and okoume. Honduras mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), grows in the Americas from Mexico to Bolivia. A strong wood of medium density, mahogany is easy to work, is long lasting, and has good color and grain. It is commonly used for furniture, molding, paneling, and trim. Because of its resistance to decay, it is a popular wood used in boats. Teak (Tectona grandis) is native to India and Southeast Asia. Its wood has medium density, is strong, polishes well, and has a warm yellow-brown color. Also prized for resistance to insects and rot, teak is commonly used in cabinets, trim, flooring, furniture, and boats. Melina (Gmelina arborea) grows naturally from India through Vietnam. Noted for fast growth, melina has light colored wood that is used mainly for pulp and particleboard, matches and carpentry. Okoume (Aucoumea klaineana) is native to Gabon an the Congo in west Africa. A large fast-growing tree, the wood has mod erately low density, good strength-to density ratio, and low shrinkage during drying. It is commonly use( for plywood, paneling, interior fur niture parts, and light construction.
Other Economic Values
Tropical forests are home for tribal hunter-gatherers whose way of life has been relatively unchanged for centuries. These people depend on the forests for their livelihood. More than 2.5 million people also live in areas adjacent to tropical forests. They rely on the forests for their water, fuelwood, and other resources and on its shrinking land base for their shifting agriculture. For urban dwellers, tropical forests provide water for domestic use and hydroelectric power. Their scenic beauty, educational value, and opportunities for outdoor recreation support tourist industries.
Many medicines and drugs come from plants found only in tropical rain forests. Some of the best known are quinine, an ancient drug used for malaria; curare, an anesthetic and muscle relaxant used in surgery; and rosy periwinkle, a treatment for Hodgkin's disease and leukemia. Research has identified other potential drugs that may have value as contraceptives or in treating a multitude of maladies such as arthritis, hepatitis, insect bites, fever, coughs, and colds. Many more may be found. In all, only a few thousand species have been evaluated for their medicinal value.
In addition, many plants of tropical forests find uses in homes and gardens: ferns and palms, the hardy split-leaf philodendron, marantas, bromeliads, and orchids, to name just a few.
Environmental Benefits
Tropical forests do more than respond to local climatic conditions; they actually influence the climate. Through transpiration, the enormous number of plants found in rain forests return huge amounts of water to the atmosphere, increasing humidity and rainfall, and cooling the air for miles around. In addition, tropical forests replenish the air by utilizing carbon dioxide and giving off oxygen. By fixing carbon they help maintain the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels low and counteract the global "greenhouse" effect.
Forests also moderate stream flow. Trees slow the onslaught of tropical downpours, use and store vast quantities of water, and help hold the soil in place. When trees are cleared, rainfall runs off more quickly, contributing to floods and erosion.
Student Guide
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Rattan Gardens as an Agroforestry System for Development in East Kalimantan
By Judit Mayer, Institute ‘Current World Affairs’, USA
Global views of agroforestry in East Kalimantan are expected for contribution of its studies and development. Proper development showed by its trend / pattern which are distinguished intoupstream areas and downstream areas.
Downstream areas are more capable to apply adventageous factors of development by with both technical and aspects of business modification. Information in more detail about each sub areas is limited for its studies and debelopment policy.
Agroforestry in East Kalimantan is related with shifting cultivation system. Each local relationship may differ. Agroforestry development will be supported by rice field formation, market demand of comodities and provision of facilities and infrastructure. Constrains are mainly market orientation capability of local people which are not adequate yet at the moment.
Cultivation of rattan sega (Calamus caesius) is integrated with shifting cultivation of paddy in much Southern Kalimantan. In the village of Tiwei (Subdistric of Long Ikis, Distric Pasir), with 28 households, the sale of rattan has long provided families with their major source of cash income. While the village area has up to 300 hectares of rattan garden land from current and old plantings, most rattan-cultivating households use only 2 – 5 hectares at any time.
From this land, rattan harvests can reach 1 ton per year. Harvests very greatly, are depending on rattan prices and other work demands. Besides rattan, coffee is also grown, and together with rattan provides for family needs with rising expectations. Recently, many rattan growers are rejuvenating old, exhausted rattan gardens by clearing competing small vegetation (tebasan) to promote the growth of rattan shoots. This system conserves many ecological values of the old secondary forest where the rattan gardens are located, and provides additional income with harvest.
Part of Tiwei’s village land has been designated for possible expansion of an oil palmplantation and transmigration project (PTP VI/PIR VII). This lack of land tenure security has caused some villagers to hesitate to make long-term investments in new plantings (kebun), while others have increased their planting and rehabilitation hoping for greater future income, or for compensation if their lands are taken for oil palm plantation.
Global views of agroforestry in East Kalimantan are expected for contribution of its studies and development. Proper development showed by its trend / pattern which are distinguished intoupstream areas and downstream areas.
Downstream areas are more capable to apply adventageous factors of development by with both technical and aspects of business modification. Information in more detail about each sub areas is limited for its studies and debelopment policy.
Agroforestry in East Kalimantan is related with shifting cultivation system. Each local relationship may differ. Agroforestry development will be supported by rice field formation, market demand of comodities and provision of facilities and infrastructure. Constrains are mainly market orientation capability of local people which are not adequate yet at the moment.
Cultivation of rattan sega (Calamus caesius) is integrated with shifting cultivation of paddy in much Southern Kalimantan. In the village of Tiwei (Subdistric of Long Ikis, Distric Pasir), with 28 households, the sale of rattan has long provided families with their major source of cash income. While the village area has up to 300 hectares of rattan garden land from current and old plantings, most rattan-cultivating households use only 2 – 5 hectares at any time.
From this land, rattan harvests can reach 1 ton per year. Harvests very greatly, are depending on rattan prices and other work demands. Besides rattan, coffee is also grown, and together with rattan provides for family needs with rising expectations. Recently, many rattan growers are rejuvenating old, exhausted rattan gardens by clearing competing small vegetation (tebasan) to promote the growth of rattan shoots. This system conserves many ecological values of the old secondary forest where the rattan gardens are located, and provides additional income with harvest.
Part of Tiwei’s village land has been designated for possible expansion of an oil palmplantation and transmigration project (PTP VI/PIR VII). This lack of land tenure security has caused some villagers to hesitate to make long-term investments in new plantings (kebun), while others have increased their planting and rehabilitation hoping for greater future income, or for compensation if their lands are taken for oil palm plantation.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Encountering Nature Through the Twelve Senses
by: Josef Graf
Silence stillness immensity
forest stretching endlessly
snow covered, quietly breathing its tremendous, wide, conifer expanse
And the sough of wind rising and falling
Most beings here - plant or animal - are melded into this spacious and soul-purifying landscape
As is the human
But the human is also, at least in part, separate from the land.
And human nature can discern, by way of the 12 senses, aspects and nuances of the natural world through these 12 portals.
The snow sifts down into the forest, falling windless and so light as to seem almost weightless, afloat in place. A deep silence holds sway, an ocean of stillness that invites entry. And there is space enough here for any size contemplation.
In the northern, boreal realm, across this endless range of semi-homogenous evergreen forest radiating its steadfast and grounded, robust energy - across the conifer deep - here and there, an accent counters the etheric expanse with an astral focus, an animal being - raven, jay, squirrel-hunting marten, wolf, moose, or chickadee.
Tracks in the snow tell the stories. A snowshoe hare nips birch tips from a fallen tree. A luxuriously furred marten pursues a red squirrel. Unless the squirrel quickly makes it to one of its underground dens it will become the marten's meal.
Sometime in the night the wolf came near. It came to investigate who was howling in the evening, howling like, yet unlike, another wolf (it's own sense of language revealing that, although the sound of my howl seemed very similar to a wolf's, there was a subtle difference). It came near enough to discern the scent of human presence, approached as near as it dared, always keeping a periphery of safety as it circuited the area of the cabin.
What curiosity was left unquenched? And in the daylight I could feel the wolf watching me from somewhere in the woods, as I went out on the frozen lake to investigate the passage of its own movement, the story told by its tracks.
Surely, from the wolf's point of view, it experiences the most challenge of interpretation (in a sense, the wolf's level of conceptual sense) from the human community. As is well known, the wolf can read, very intimately, the comings and goings, the various aspects of, the moose, and other inhabitants of its immediate neighborhood. But the human being becomes rich in enigma, embodies a broad range of Unknown in the sphere of the wolf's experience.
Snow-shoeing through a forest during a snowfall can be an ideal setting to attune to the landscape. Distractions are reduced - sound is muffled and visibility is confined to a radius of a few feet (of course it goes without saying that one has to exercise care, bring a compass and be good at orienteering, or you can end up in oblivion!)
Overall, the Spirit of the boreal forest - the heart of the boreal forest landscape, like the heart of one of its trees, one senses, is golden, intricate, warm despite the climate, perhaps because of the climate, to counterpoint the cold.
In sharing this encounter with nature through the twelve senses, I will begin with the outermost, least penetrating sense and proceed to the deepest-registering sense (please note that the following presumes a basic understanding of the 12 senses. If the reader wishes to prime him/herself on this subject, use the links under "Further Resources" at the end of the article. Alternatively, information is readily available by entering an internet search via "12 senses" - and adding "Rudolf Steiner" can be helpful):
Touch.
The longer I touch the snow and ice here, the number grows this sense. Then, in turns, it is awakened by prickle of conifer needle, rasped by bark, or caressed by the soft feel of usnea moss. Whatever the sensate experience of touch, I have to admit that it defines my separation, the self's bounds, or at least the physical body's self-bounding. I do touch nature with this sense, but only her outermost surface, a Braille of rebuff, no entry past the outermost edge. As we continue down this list, we enter, increasingly, into the inner nature of things. But the sense of touch is the most external.
For example, when the wind gusts across my face, my sense of touch feels the impact of that gust, but my sense of temperature registers how cool or warm it is.
A manatee, with more brain space dedicated to touch than any other mammal, has a long-distance sense of touch. Whisker like hairs all over its body act as sensors, so that it can, in effect, "touch" from a distance.
Life.
After a long day of snow-shoeing my sense of life feels drained, very low in energy/chi, even despite practicing energy-enhancing Qi-gong along the way (I'm not by any means a master in the art yet).
Overall, as I undertake this trek, my sense of life is both enhanced and exhausted. My constitutional energy is put to the test, the body forces are working at their limit. However, the etheric energy of the forest is so resplendent that there is a constant influx of vitality. An interesting point to be made here is that in urban areas people have to enhance their life sense due to the lack of nature-borne vitality. In consideration of this, we can say, if asked what is truly the most valuable property in, say, New York, the answer is that Central Park has more worth that all the rest of Manhattan combined!
Migrating birds can detect and use magnetic fields of the Earth to navigate by. Is this so-called "magnetic field" actually part of the sense of life of the planet streaming forth? And are the birds, in a way, projecting their own sense of life outward to detect the Earth's energy in this manner?
Wolves are known to stare into the eyes of their prey before opting to attack, reading in their potential prey the nature of their sense of life, their overall constitutional strength and condition of health.
Movement.
This sense of awareness of the body-in-motion enables us to know where any part of our body is even with eyes closed. It is a sense that can be refined and enhanced, as in the case of intricate choreography.
When projected outward, we can sense movement in others. One evening, as I was bent over a campfire, cooking a meal, I could sense something passing over above me. As I looked up I saw an owl flying in the trajectory I had been sensing. The owl, as we know is capable of flying quite silently. I did not hear its passage, nor could I see it in any way, until after I looked up.
Tracks of a solitary snowshoe hare enter the woods, appearing to have crossed the frozen lake - a distance of about 2 miles. What could have drawn the hare across such an long open distance? Its progress would have been little noticed as its coat matched the snow so well (here again, a developed sense of movement projected outward would have helped to sense the hare's passage.)
Does the weasel sense the movement of mice and voles in the sub-nivean chamber beneath the snow, before it dives in?
Often have I watched a flock of shorebirds, or snowbirds, as they fly in complete unison, twisting, turning, diving, swooping as one. Here, the sense of movement has been refined and con-joined to each member of the flock, as though a single being is operating every nuance of movement. This particular example can also shed light on how the sense of ego operates within the realm of nature - more on that below.
Balance.
The human sense of balance is conveyed through inner ear structures. In animals, "otoliths" serve a similar purpose. In nature, we are often challenged to refine our sense of balance, as the terrain is often rugged and variable.
As with movement, deep appreciation of a dance presentation actually requires us to project our sense of balance, as we extend ourselves into the performance.
Within the animal kingdom, exceptional acrobatics in the balance arena include the cat and squirrel.
Smell.
A blossom permeates the air with it's gaseous aroma. Forces of will meet, from outer (e.g., the rose's "will") and inner, as our own will streams out to meet it.
Desert animals can smell water vapor over a great distance. A wolf's nose has been estimated to be from a hundred thousand to a million times more sensitive than a human's. The bear has one of the most sensitive olfactory capacities of the animal kingdom, and is able to track through water, or read information from a scent trail several days old.
Taste.
Just as the sense of smell operates via the airy element, taste depends on the liquid element. A substance must first be partly dissolved before we can taste it. Nature has a way of producing the most flavorful tastes, for example, in fruits that evolve in natural conditions. Despite humankind's most lengthy and deliberate attempts to improve crops in this regard, nature cannot be topped. Notice how the smallest fruits, such as a wild strawberry, have the most incredible taste. The larger agri-business causes its fruits to grow, the more the taste of its products seems to fall bland.
Salmon are famous for their ability to taste their way back up to waters from which they originated. Some fish can detect substances diluted to one part per billion. Bees have taste receptors on their jaws, forelimbs, and antennae.
Vision.
One night, as I lie in my sleeping bag, I am enchanted by a pre-sleep show courtesy of Aurora borealis. I look through the window up into the night sky, past willow and spruce to the backdrop of stars and drink in the Aurora ribbons, the northern angel flights, radiating, dancing in striations that breathe in and out in fanning coruscations.
Vision is a sense that begins to penetrate further than the foregoing senses. When our eyes perceive the blue-green color of the spruce tree, compared with the yellow-green color of the pine tree, we begin to discern something about the inner nature of these different trees.
Bees, birds, and some animals can see in the ultraviolet range. A hawk has 20/5 vision - it can see from 20 feet what most people can see from 5 feet. A falcon can see a 10 cm object from a distance of 1.5 kilometers. A buzzard can observe small rodents from an altitude of 15,000 feet.
Temperature.
We can sense outer surfaces via touch, but we actually use another sense when it comes to detecting temperature variations. As stated above, the wind is physically felt on one's skin, but its relative cold or warmth is sensed via our sense of temperature.
Because an object is permeated by its warmth or cold, the sense of temperature reaches still deeper than vision, further into the foundation of things.
Pit vipers, and some boas, have a heat sensitive organ between their eyes and nostrils, with which they can ascertain body heat in another organism.
Hearing.
As I journey on, I can hear the rise and fall of the wind through the trees, and the crunch of my snowshoes atop the crusty snow.
Resonance, the sound quality that permeates an object, in its vibrational tone reveals much about the nature of the object. Consider candle ice clinking together. The tone the snow gives forth when walking reveals a lot about snow conditions underfoot. When sawing firewood, the sound of the particular log reveals much about the wood's quality. As we listen to the sounds of both things and living beings, in a certain way hearing begins to tell us something about the soul level of what we are encountering.
A pigeon can detect sounds in the infrasound range far below our own limit, as low as 0.1 Hz. Bats can hear through a range from 3,000 to 120,000 Hz (compared with the human range - 20 to 20,000 Hz.).
Language.
Language is a sense that goes beyond merely hearing something spoken. By the sense of language we are able to perceive meaning behind an expression. Language in nature is a great challenge to de-code. The language of animals and birds, the language of a landscape. Once some familiarity is attained in this area, the human element of language interpretation (that is, truly understanding another in one's native tongue) becomes more facile.
One morning, a ptarmigan singing its dawn poem became a particular challenge to interpret. As the sun began to rise, and the ptarmigan began its song a few meters from the cabin I was waking in, I could sense an intricacy to what it was voicing. But my own sense of language, being not yet sufficiently developed, wasn't up to interpreting its message. However, in my research I have discovered that within the human community there are individuals who are becoming increasingly adept at this level of communication.
Besides the human capacity to interpret language, within the animal kingdom there are some who can use this sense fairly effectively - e.g, the gorilla. However, on a deeper level, all animals have a Spirit of the species aspect that is as egoic as ourselves, and thus capable of fully exercising this faculty. And so, by evoking connection with, say, the Spirit of the Wolf, we can begin to enter into a viable level of communication.
Concept.
As with language, the sense of concept is an arena in which individual animals reach a limit. "One can be directed by intelligence without possessing it, and that is how if is for animals," according to Rudolf Steiner. Here, he is referring to how the over-lighting being, the Spirit of an animal species, can utilize the higher senses - language, concept, and ego - on a par with human capacities, but not in the case of a single animal.
This is not to say animals are not intelligent - only to acknowledge a level of conceptualizing that differs from human. The Spirit of an animal is, indeed, intelligent, and has much to offer in ways that can deepen our understanding about our sojourn upon Earth.
Sense of concept can be a potent arena due to the way in which prana/chi has moved from its traditional forum (the breath) to thinking. Once we learn the ropes, through our thinking life we can enhance our energetic levels.
Nature causes me to conceptualize in particular ways. One key mode is to reflect on the spiritual ecology of aspects of nature. How does the spruce tree part of me have its being? The wolf? The squirrel? The forested part of my inner terrain? the spring? The lakeshore part? The starry dome? What does the magic of Aurora borealis evoke in me?
Ego.
Sense of ego - among ways of getting to know oneself further - that is, using one's sense of ego upon oneself - relating to others is primary. But so, also, is spending time in nature in solitude. Nuances of one's individuality can be explored. How do I experience solitude over a duration? What issues arise? What fears are met and what are my individual "edges" therein? For example, fears related to loneliness, or provision (as one's food stock depletes), of the darkness (what shapes form in the dark out of fear?), or what mid-life issues still prevail?
Central to this line of questioning is - how am I in the face of prolonged silence and stillness, the great leveler of humankind and human aspiration. In what ways does this sabbatical from my life cause me to reflect on my life? What things to strengthen? Or to change? Or to come to terms with? Or seek more understanding about? How do each of the animals, plants, etc I encounter resonate with various parts of my being?
Addendum
In reference to animals, the world is in a state of spiritual evolution, meaning that while we humans are evolving toward a fifth kingdom level of being, animals are also becoming more egoic - individualized, and more and more capable of abilities that were once attributed only to humans (or to the overall species level of the animal). Especially those animals who are spending time with humans, pets, are advancing more rapidly in this way.
All forms of life are advancing, including the other two realms of life on Earth. as plants develop more astral qualities, and the mineral kingdom becomes increasingly etheric.
Hearing and vision - nature automatically creates aesthetically beautiful forms in both aural and visual arenas. Humanity chooses to create beautiful, or not-so-beautiful forms. The more one spends in nature, the more one is immersed in aesthetic beauty.
Projecting one's sense of motion onto the snowflakes, and there is a feeling of softly sifting down through one's being.
Projecting to high mountain peaks, there is a feeling of excarnation, or moving up out of one's body, in a sense.
Similarly, on the West Coast, where the energy is experienced as diffusive - all the rain and sea and growth and abundance of plant life, rainforest exuberance, calls for an extra degree of focusing to counteract the diffusion.
The 12 senses referred to here pertain primarily to the physical aspect of humanity. Other senses come into play as we enter into our spiritual nature, including the human astral body. Steiner refers to some of these metaphysical senses as imagination, inspiration and intuition. Earth Vision proposes to delve into this subject, along with a more extensive examination of the 12 senses in relation to the natural world - a book will likely result in the foreseeable future. If you would like to contribute to this project, please contact author Josef Graf through the email on the EV site.
Josef Graf presents nature in the light of spiritual ecology through articles and E-books on the Earth Vision site - http://www.evsite.net
Silence stillness immensity
forest stretching endlessly
snow covered, quietly breathing its tremendous, wide, conifer expanse
And the sough of wind rising and falling
Most beings here - plant or animal - are melded into this spacious and soul-purifying landscape
As is the human
But the human is also, at least in part, separate from the land.
And human nature can discern, by way of the 12 senses, aspects and nuances of the natural world through these 12 portals.
The snow sifts down into the forest, falling windless and so light as to seem almost weightless, afloat in place. A deep silence holds sway, an ocean of stillness that invites entry. And there is space enough here for any size contemplation.
In the northern, boreal realm, across this endless range of semi-homogenous evergreen forest radiating its steadfast and grounded, robust energy - across the conifer deep - here and there, an accent counters the etheric expanse with an astral focus, an animal being - raven, jay, squirrel-hunting marten, wolf, moose, or chickadee.
Tracks in the snow tell the stories. A snowshoe hare nips birch tips from a fallen tree. A luxuriously furred marten pursues a red squirrel. Unless the squirrel quickly makes it to one of its underground dens it will become the marten's meal.
Sometime in the night the wolf came near. It came to investigate who was howling in the evening, howling like, yet unlike, another wolf (it's own sense of language revealing that, although the sound of my howl seemed very similar to a wolf's, there was a subtle difference). It came near enough to discern the scent of human presence, approached as near as it dared, always keeping a periphery of safety as it circuited the area of the cabin.
What curiosity was left unquenched? And in the daylight I could feel the wolf watching me from somewhere in the woods, as I went out on the frozen lake to investigate the passage of its own movement, the story told by its tracks.
Surely, from the wolf's point of view, it experiences the most challenge of interpretation (in a sense, the wolf's level of conceptual sense) from the human community. As is well known, the wolf can read, very intimately, the comings and goings, the various aspects of, the moose, and other inhabitants of its immediate neighborhood. But the human being becomes rich in enigma, embodies a broad range of Unknown in the sphere of the wolf's experience.
Snow-shoeing through a forest during a snowfall can be an ideal setting to attune to the landscape. Distractions are reduced - sound is muffled and visibility is confined to a radius of a few feet (of course it goes without saying that one has to exercise care, bring a compass and be good at orienteering, or you can end up in oblivion!)
Overall, the Spirit of the boreal forest - the heart of the boreal forest landscape, like the heart of one of its trees, one senses, is golden, intricate, warm despite the climate, perhaps because of the climate, to counterpoint the cold.
In sharing this encounter with nature through the twelve senses, I will begin with the outermost, least penetrating sense and proceed to the deepest-registering sense (please note that the following presumes a basic understanding of the 12 senses. If the reader wishes to prime him/herself on this subject, use the links under "Further Resources" at the end of the article. Alternatively, information is readily available by entering an internet search via "12 senses" - and adding "Rudolf Steiner" can be helpful):
Touch.
The longer I touch the snow and ice here, the number grows this sense. Then, in turns, it is awakened by prickle of conifer needle, rasped by bark, or caressed by the soft feel of usnea moss. Whatever the sensate experience of touch, I have to admit that it defines my separation, the self's bounds, or at least the physical body's self-bounding. I do touch nature with this sense, but only her outermost surface, a Braille of rebuff, no entry past the outermost edge. As we continue down this list, we enter, increasingly, into the inner nature of things. But the sense of touch is the most external.
For example, when the wind gusts across my face, my sense of touch feels the impact of that gust, but my sense of temperature registers how cool or warm it is.
A manatee, with more brain space dedicated to touch than any other mammal, has a long-distance sense of touch. Whisker like hairs all over its body act as sensors, so that it can, in effect, "touch" from a distance.
Life.
After a long day of snow-shoeing my sense of life feels drained, very low in energy/chi, even despite practicing energy-enhancing Qi-gong along the way (I'm not by any means a master in the art yet).
Overall, as I undertake this trek, my sense of life is both enhanced and exhausted. My constitutional energy is put to the test, the body forces are working at their limit. However, the etheric energy of the forest is so resplendent that there is a constant influx of vitality. An interesting point to be made here is that in urban areas people have to enhance their life sense due to the lack of nature-borne vitality. In consideration of this, we can say, if asked what is truly the most valuable property in, say, New York, the answer is that Central Park has more worth that all the rest of Manhattan combined!
Migrating birds can detect and use magnetic fields of the Earth to navigate by. Is this so-called "magnetic field" actually part of the sense of life of the planet streaming forth? And are the birds, in a way, projecting their own sense of life outward to detect the Earth's energy in this manner?
Wolves are known to stare into the eyes of their prey before opting to attack, reading in their potential prey the nature of their sense of life, their overall constitutional strength and condition of health.
Movement.
This sense of awareness of the body-in-motion enables us to know where any part of our body is even with eyes closed. It is a sense that can be refined and enhanced, as in the case of intricate choreography.
When projected outward, we can sense movement in others. One evening, as I was bent over a campfire, cooking a meal, I could sense something passing over above me. As I looked up I saw an owl flying in the trajectory I had been sensing. The owl, as we know is capable of flying quite silently. I did not hear its passage, nor could I see it in any way, until after I looked up.
Tracks of a solitary snowshoe hare enter the woods, appearing to have crossed the frozen lake - a distance of about 2 miles. What could have drawn the hare across such an long open distance? Its progress would have been little noticed as its coat matched the snow so well (here again, a developed sense of movement projected outward would have helped to sense the hare's passage.)
Does the weasel sense the movement of mice and voles in the sub-nivean chamber beneath the snow, before it dives in?
Often have I watched a flock of shorebirds, or snowbirds, as they fly in complete unison, twisting, turning, diving, swooping as one. Here, the sense of movement has been refined and con-joined to each member of the flock, as though a single being is operating every nuance of movement. This particular example can also shed light on how the sense of ego operates within the realm of nature - more on that below.
Balance.
The human sense of balance is conveyed through inner ear structures. In animals, "otoliths" serve a similar purpose. In nature, we are often challenged to refine our sense of balance, as the terrain is often rugged and variable.
As with movement, deep appreciation of a dance presentation actually requires us to project our sense of balance, as we extend ourselves into the performance.
Within the animal kingdom, exceptional acrobatics in the balance arena include the cat and squirrel.
Smell.
A blossom permeates the air with it's gaseous aroma. Forces of will meet, from outer (e.g., the rose's "will") and inner, as our own will streams out to meet it.
Desert animals can smell water vapor over a great distance. A wolf's nose has been estimated to be from a hundred thousand to a million times more sensitive than a human's. The bear has one of the most sensitive olfactory capacities of the animal kingdom, and is able to track through water, or read information from a scent trail several days old.
Taste.
Just as the sense of smell operates via the airy element, taste depends on the liquid element. A substance must first be partly dissolved before we can taste it. Nature has a way of producing the most flavorful tastes, for example, in fruits that evolve in natural conditions. Despite humankind's most lengthy and deliberate attempts to improve crops in this regard, nature cannot be topped. Notice how the smallest fruits, such as a wild strawberry, have the most incredible taste. The larger agri-business causes its fruits to grow, the more the taste of its products seems to fall bland.
Salmon are famous for their ability to taste their way back up to waters from which they originated. Some fish can detect substances diluted to one part per billion. Bees have taste receptors on their jaws, forelimbs, and antennae.
Vision.
One night, as I lie in my sleeping bag, I am enchanted by a pre-sleep show courtesy of Aurora borealis. I look through the window up into the night sky, past willow and spruce to the backdrop of stars and drink in the Aurora ribbons, the northern angel flights, radiating, dancing in striations that breathe in and out in fanning coruscations.
Vision is a sense that begins to penetrate further than the foregoing senses. When our eyes perceive the blue-green color of the spruce tree, compared with the yellow-green color of the pine tree, we begin to discern something about the inner nature of these different trees.
Bees, birds, and some animals can see in the ultraviolet range. A hawk has 20/5 vision - it can see from 20 feet what most people can see from 5 feet. A falcon can see a 10 cm object from a distance of 1.5 kilometers. A buzzard can observe small rodents from an altitude of 15,000 feet.
Temperature.
We can sense outer surfaces via touch, but we actually use another sense when it comes to detecting temperature variations. As stated above, the wind is physically felt on one's skin, but its relative cold or warmth is sensed via our sense of temperature.
Because an object is permeated by its warmth or cold, the sense of temperature reaches still deeper than vision, further into the foundation of things.
Pit vipers, and some boas, have a heat sensitive organ between their eyes and nostrils, with which they can ascertain body heat in another organism.
Hearing.
As I journey on, I can hear the rise and fall of the wind through the trees, and the crunch of my snowshoes atop the crusty snow.
Resonance, the sound quality that permeates an object, in its vibrational tone reveals much about the nature of the object. Consider candle ice clinking together. The tone the snow gives forth when walking reveals a lot about snow conditions underfoot. When sawing firewood, the sound of the particular log reveals much about the wood's quality. As we listen to the sounds of both things and living beings, in a certain way hearing begins to tell us something about the soul level of what we are encountering.
A pigeon can detect sounds in the infrasound range far below our own limit, as low as 0.1 Hz. Bats can hear through a range from 3,000 to 120,000 Hz (compared with the human range - 20 to 20,000 Hz.).
Language.
Language is a sense that goes beyond merely hearing something spoken. By the sense of language we are able to perceive meaning behind an expression. Language in nature is a great challenge to de-code. The language of animals and birds, the language of a landscape. Once some familiarity is attained in this area, the human element of language interpretation (that is, truly understanding another in one's native tongue) becomes more facile.
One morning, a ptarmigan singing its dawn poem became a particular challenge to interpret. As the sun began to rise, and the ptarmigan began its song a few meters from the cabin I was waking in, I could sense an intricacy to what it was voicing. But my own sense of language, being not yet sufficiently developed, wasn't up to interpreting its message. However, in my research I have discovered that within the human community there are individuals who are becoming increasingly adept at this level of communication.
Besides the human capacity to interpret language, within the animal kingdom there are some who can use this sense fairly effectively - e.g, the gorilla. However, on a deeper level, all animals have a Spirit of the species aspect that is as egoic as ourselves, and thus capable of fully exercising this faculty. And so, by evoking connection with, say, the Spirit of the Wolf, we can begin to enter into a viable level of communication.
Concept.
As with language, the sense of concept is an arena in which individual animals reach a limit. "One can be directed by intelligence without possessing it, and that is how if is for animals," according to Rudolf Steiner. Here, he is referring to how the over-lighting being, the Spirit of an animal species, can utilize the higher senses - language, concept, and ego - on a par with human capacities, but not in the case of a single animal.
This is not to say animals are not intelligent - only to acknowledge a level of conceptualizing that differs from human. The Spirit of an animal is, indeed, intelligent, and has much to offer in ways that can deepen our understanding about our sojourn upon Earth.
Sense of concept can be a potent arena due to the way in which prana/chi has moved from its traditional forum (the breath) to thinking. Once we learn the ropes, through our thinking life we can enhance our energetic levels.
Nature causes me to conceptualize in particular ways. One key mode is to reflect on the spiritual ecology of aspects of nature. How does the spruce tree part of me have its being? The wolf? The squirrel? The forested part of my inner terrain? the spring? The lakeshore part? The starry dome? What does the magic of Aurora borealis evoke in me?
Ego.
Sense of ego - among ways of getting to know oneself further - that is, using one's sense of ego upon oneself - relating to others is primary. But so, also, is spending time in nature in solitude. Nuances of one's individuality can be explored. How do I experience solitude over a duration? What issues arise? What fears are met and what are my individual "edges" therein? For example, fears related to loneliness, or provision (as one's food stock depletes), of the darkness (what shapes form in the dark out of fear?), or what mid-life issues still prevail?
Central to this line of questioning is - how am I in the face of prolonged silence and stillness, the great leveler of humankind and human aspiration. In what ways does this sabbatical from my life cause me to reflect on my life? What things to strengthen? Or to change? Or to come to terms with? Or seek more understanding about? How do each of the animals, plants, etc I encounter resonate with various parts of my being?
Addendum
In reference to animals, the world is in a state of spiritual evolution, meaning that while we humans are evolving toward a fifth kingdom level of being, animals are also becoming more egoic - individualized, and more and more capable of abilities that were once attributed only to humans (or to the overall species level of the animal). Especially those animals who are spending time with humans, pets, are advancing more rapidly in this way.
All forms of life are advancing, including the other two realms of life on Earth. as plants develop more astral qualities, and the mineral kingdom becomes increasingly etheric.
Hearing and vision - nature automatically creates aesthetically beautiful forms in both aural and visual arenas. Humanity chooses to create beautiful, or not-so-beautiful forms. The more one spends in nature, the more one is immersed in aesthetic beauty.
Projecting one's sense of motion onto the snowflakes, and there is a feeling of softly sifting down through one's being.
Projecting to high mountain peaks, there is a feeling of excarnation, or moving up out of one's body, in a sense.
Similarly, on the West Coast, where the energy is experienced as diffusive - all the rain and sea and growth and abundance of plant life, rainforest exuberance, calls for an extra degree of focusing to counteract the diffusion.
The 12 senses referred to here pertain primarily to the physical aspect of humanity. Other senses come into play as we enter into our spiritual nature, including the human astral body. Steiner refers to some of these metaphysical senses as imagination, inspiration and intuition. Earth Vision proposes to delve into this subject, along with a more extensive examination of the 12 senses in relation to the natural world - a book will likely result in the foreseeable future. If you would like to contribute to this project, please contact author Josef Graf through the email on the EV site.
Josef Graf presents nature in the light of spiritual ecology through articles and E-books on the Earth Vision site - http://www.evsite.net
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
A General Thought about Agroforestry Development in East Kalimantan
by Djoko Suharna Radite, Gajah Mada University, Indonesia.
A general thought about agroforestry development in East Kalimantan intends to increase the information for research and development. The suitability of development is indicated by its main direction, which is principally different for coastal areas and hinterland. Detailed information is still limited and should be increased by deeper studies in some subregions. In connectiom with the local land use systems it is significant that development will be dependent of the development of swamp rice cultivation, of the market demand and of the availability of additional infrastructure.
Role of Agroforestry Development in the Surrounding of catchment areas in Samarinda by Razak Rahim.
Role of Agroforestry Development in the Surrounding of catchment areas in Samarinda is proposed to control the frequent flooding in the inner parts of the city. This development is furthermore expected to contribute to a higher income for the farmers and other people. To achieve this goal, the local governments such as enforcing law have implemented some political efforts, and other integrated planning measures. Agroforestry will be combined with agroindustry. Main constraints identified in the implementation of agroforestry are land tenure, high costs for conversion and the allocation of sufficient land in the surrounding of catchment areas in Samarinda.
Alternatives in Rural Area Development with Agroforestry Approaches in The Industrial Timber Estate Units by Heri Suprapto and Alfred Ch. Ruga, PT ITCI, Balikpapan
As one of the provinces of Indonesia with a big potential for the Industrial Timber Estate (Hutan Tanaman Industri: HTI) programme, East Kalimantan is actively carrying out this programme in the recent years. Until now, however, the development of HTI is concentrated on the establishment of pure plantations. In order to increase its profitability and to support its success, it is necessary to improve, and to develop new approaches, to its performance. Agroforestry is considered one alternative, and the objectives of such an approach are to create new jobs, to achieve optimal land use, and to ‘control shifting cultivation as a pilot project in the context of rural development.
A general thought about agroforestry development in East Kalimantan intends to increase the information for research and development. The suitability of development is indicated by its main direction, which is principally different for coastal areas and hinterland. Detailed information is still limited and should be increased by deeper studies in some subregions. In connectiom with the local land use systems it is significant that development will be dependent of the development of swamp rice cultivation, of the market demand and of the availability of additional infrastructure.
Role of Agroforestry Development in the Surrounding of catchment areas in Samarinda by Razak Rahim.
Role of Agroforestry Development in the Surrounding of catchment areas in Samarinda is proposed to control the frequent flooding in the inner parts of the city. This development is furthermore expected to contribute to a higher income for the farmers and other people. To achieve this goal, the local governments such as enforcing law have implemented some political efforts, and other integrated planning measures. Agroforestry will be combined with agroindustry. Main constraints identified in the implementation of agroforestry are land tenure, high costs for conversion and the allocation of sufficient land in the surrounding of catchment areas in Samarinda.
Alternatives in Rural Area Development with Agroforestry Approaches in The Industrial Timber Estate Units by Heri Suprapto and Alfred Ch. Ruga, PT ITCI, Balikpapan
As one of the provinces of Indonesia with a big potential for the Industrial Timber Estate (Hutan Tanaman Industri: HTI) programme, East Kalimantan is actively carrying out this programme in the recent years. Until now, however, the development of HTI is concentrated on the establishment of pure plantations. In order to increase its profitability and to support its success, it is necessary to improve, and to develop new approaches, to its performance. Agroforestry is considered one alternative, and the objectives of such an approach are to create new jobs, to achieve optimal land use, and to ‘control shifting cultivation as a pilot project in the context of rural development.
Monday, August 4, 2008
DEVELOPMENT OF AGROFORESTRY SYSTEM IN EAST KALIMANTAN
Janes Siahaya, Mulawarman University, Indonesia
Agroforestry systems are well known throughout the world since ancient times. People lived in the forest at that time and cultivated their gardens just for subsistance.
A garden, when there are agricultural and forestry plants planted together, is called an “agroforestry garden”. In Indonesia, forestry plants are not systematically planted by farmers, but rather amateurish. They are used only as shelterbelts or boundaries but not commercially since farmers still can easily gather wood and other products from the forest, especially outside Java and Madura like in East Kalimantan. In forest or timber company areas, in contrast, the agricultural plants are planted not by the company butby the workers, like vegetables, seasonal fruit trees, grains and tuber crops (cassava, etc.), just as a hobby or to fulfill their needs and interests.
In Indonesia as a whole, and EastKalimantan in particular, a change of the land use system from pure agriculture to agroforestry systems in the farmer’s gardens will be connected with some dificulties. However, chances for success and development are good if the folowing factors are taken into account to meet the conditions of the regional development plans:
1. The availability of land (minimum two hectares per farmer),
2. The intensive extension in the field of agro-forestry,
3. An intensive forest annd forestry control,
4. Market access for forest products,
5. A personal interest of the farmers, and
6. Easy availability of credits from rural banks for farmers.
The mentioned factors are essential for solving problems involving food, energy, environment and social-economic functions for an increasing number of population while the area of the land is constant. Prediction of this number for the future is, of course, also needed to enable us to distribute the land to the farmers accordingly. Other factors will become major after the land is utilized.
Several terms agroforestry that is significantly gardening in an area of the forest in part:
1. Agricultural cntractor system (Jamaica).
2. Baumfeldwirtschaft, Brandwirtschaft or Waldeldbau (Germany).
3. Bosakherbouw (Dutch).
4. Chena (Sri Lanka).
5. Consorciacao (Brazilian).
6. Cultures sylvicole et agricole combinée, culture intercalaires, la méthode sylvo-agricole, le système sylvobananier or plantation sur culture (French)
7. Dhya, Jhooming, kumri, punam, taila or tuckle (India).
8. Kaingining (Filipino)
9. Ladang (Malay)
10. Licensed cultivator system (Tanzanian).
11. Parcelere (Puerto Rico).
12. Shamba (Kenya)
13. Tahmil (Libyan)
14. Taungya (Burma), other region used this name (hill cultivation).
15. Tumpang Sari (Indonesian)
Agroforestry systems are well known throughout the world since ancient times. People lived in the forest at that time and cultivated their gardens just for subsistance.
A garden, when there are agricultural and forestry plants planted together, is called an “agroforestry garden”. In Indonesia, forestry plants are not systematically planted by farmers, but rather amateurish. They are used only as shelterbelts or boundaries but not commercially since farmers still can easily gather wood and other products from the forest, especially outside Java and Madura like in East Kalimantan. In forest or timber company areas, in contrast, the agricultural plants are planted not by the company butby the workers, like vegetables, seasonal fruit trees, grains and tuber crops (cassava, etc.), just as a hobby or to fulfill their needs and interests.
In Indonesia as a whole, and EastKalimantan in particular, a change of the land use system from pure agriculture to agroforestry systems in the farmer’s gardens will be connected with some dificulties. However, chances for success and development are good if the folowing factors are taken into account to meet the conditions of the regional development plans:
1. The availability of land (minimum two hectares per farmer),
2. The intensive extension in the field of agro-forestry,
3. An intensive forest annd forestry control,
4. Market access for forest products,
5. A personal interest of the farmers, and
6. Easy availability of credits from rural banks for farmers.
The mentioned factors are essential for solving problems involving food, energy, environment and social-economic functions for an increasing number of population while the area of the land is constant. Prediction of this number for the future is, of course, also needed to enable us to distribute the land to the farmers accordingly. Other factors will become major after the land is utilized.
Several terms agroforestry that is significantly gardening in an area of the forest in part:
1. Agricultural cntractor system (Jamaica).
2. Baumfeldwirtschaft, Brandwirtschaft or Waldeldbau (Germany).
3. Bosakherbouw (Dutch).
4. Chena (Sri Lanka).
5. Consorciacao (Brazilian).
6. Cultures sylvicole et agricole combinée, culture intercalaires, la méthode sylvo-agricole, le système sylvobananier or plantation sur culture (French)
7. Dhya, Jhooming, kumri, punam, taila or tuckle (India).
8. Kaingining (Filipino)
9. Ladang (Malay)
10. Licensed cultivator system (Tanzanian).
11. Parcelere (Puerto Rico).
12. Shamba (Kenya)
13. Tahmil (Libyan)
14. Taungya (Burma), other region used this name (hill cultivation).
15. Tumpang Sari (Indonesian)
Monday, July 14, 2008
DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF FORESTRY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
Please distribute widely
******************
DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF FORESTRY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
Yale University's School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) seeks
outstanding candidates for the Deanship of the School. F&ES is more than a
century old, and recognized worldwide as a leading institution for forestry,
environmental science, industrial environmental management, environmental
policy, environmental social science, and related fields, teaching and research
being carried out by nearly 40 academic faculty and frequent distinguished
visitors. The School will move into Kroon Hall, designed as a LEED-platinum
building, at the end of 2008.
F&ES has a widely-acclaimed doctoral program and a large Master's program (one
of the oldest in the country in this field), and it shares coordination of Yale
College's new undergraduate Environmental Studies major. The school has a
global orientation, as reflected in its involvement in a number of areas of
global research and its active recruitment of international students, who
comprise nearly one-third of the student body.
F&ES plays a central role in Yale University's widely recognized activities in
environmental scholarship, education, and operations. Yale's Office of
Sustainability is internationally recognized as a leader in these areas, and the
University is among the few organizations of any kind to have made a firm
commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to pre-1990 levels.
Candidates for the Deanship should have demonstrated strong capabilities for
leadership, as well as a record of scholarship in a suitable area of forestry or
environmental studies, either in an academic setting, the non-governmental
sector, or a government agency. Extensive international experience and an
international perspective are desirable, as is a record of leadership in
multidisciplinary research and in graduate and undergraduate education, and a
record of successful funding for research and institutional development.
Applications should include a letter of interest, a complete CV, and a list of
three references. All information should be sent to Robert Burger, FES Dean
Search Committee, Office of the Provost, Yale University, 1 Hillhouse Ave., P.O.
Box 208365, New Haven, CT 06520-8365, USA. Inquiries can be sent to the
committee at FES.Dean.Search@.... Applications received by September 15,
2008 will receive full consideration.
Yale University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. Men and
women of diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds and cultures are encouraged to apply.
Women and minority candidates, as well as candidates from developing countries,
are particularly urged to apply.
Ben Cashore, Professor
Environmental Governance & Political Science
Director, Program on Forest Policy and Governance
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University
230 Prospect Street, Room 206, New Haven, CT 06511-2104
203 432-3009 (w); 203 464-3977 (cell); 203 432-0026 (fax);
www.yale.edu/environment/cashore; www.yale.edu/forestcertification
******************
DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF FORESTRY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
Yale University's School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) seeks
outstanding candidates for the Deanship of the School. F&ES is more than a
century old, and recognized worldwide as a leading institution for forestry,
environmental science, industrial environmental management, environmental
policy, environmental social science, and related fields, teaching and research
being carried out by nearly 40 academic faculty and frequent distinguished
visitors. The School will move into Kroon Hall, designed as a LEED-platinum
building, at the end of 2008.
F&ES has a widely-acclaimed doctoral program and a large Master's program (one
of the oldest in the country in this field), and it shares coordination of Yale
College's new undergraduate Environmental Studies major. The school has a
global orientation, as reflected in its involvement in a number of areas of
global research and its active recruitment of international students, who
comprise nearly one-third of the student body.
F&ES plays a central role in Yale University's widely recognized activities in
environmental scholarship, education, and operations. Yale's Office of
Sustainability is internationally recognized as a leader in these areas, and the
University is among the few organizations of any kind to have made a firm
commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to pre-1990 levels.
Candidates for the Deanship should have demonstrated strong capabilities for
leadership, as well as a record of scholarship in a suitable area of forestry or
environmental studies, either in an academic setting, the non-governmental
sector, or a government agency. Extensive international experience and an
international perspective are desirable, as is a record of leadership in
multidisciplinary research and in graduate and undergraduate education, and a
record of successful funding for research and institutional development.
Applications should include a letter of interest, a complete CV, and a list of
three references. All information should be sent to Robert Burger, FES Dean
Search Committee, Office of the Provost, Yale University, 1 Hillhouse Ave., P.O.
Box 208365, New Haven, CT 06520-8365, USA. Inquiries can be sent to the
committee at FES.Dean.Search@.... Applications received by September 15,
2008 will receive full consideration.
Yale University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. Men and
women of diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds and cultures are encouraged to apply.
Women and minority candidates, as well as candidates from developing countries,
are particularly urged to apply.
Ben Cashore, Professor
Environmental Governance & Political Science
Director, Program on Forest Policy and Governance
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University
230 Prospect Street, Room 206, New Haven, CT 06511-2104
203 432-3009 (w); 203 464-3977 (cell); 203 432-0026 (fax);
www.yale.edu/environment/cashore; www.yale.edu/forestcertification
Monday, July 7, 2008
Fauna and Flora International Project Officer:- Corparate Partnership - Asia Pacific
Salary range: IDR 120,000,000 to IDR 249,000,000 per anum dependant on skills and experience
Duration of contract:1 year fixed term contract, with potential to extend subject to funding
Location: Fauna & Flora International, Indonesia, based in Lombok. Some travel within Indonesia, and possibly overseas, will be required.
Founded in 1903, Fauna & Flora International (FFI) is the world's longest-established international conservation organisation. Our vision is to create a sustainable future for the planet where biodiversity is conserved by the people living closest to it. We aim to do this through the conservation of threatened species and ecosystems worldwide, choosing solutions that are sustainable, based on sound science and take account of human needs. We operate primarily in developing countries where there is little capacity to conserve endangered and threatened habitats and species. We have become a trusted entity in the world of conservation. Today FFI is active in over 40 countries.
FFI has been working with the private sector for some 15 years. We believe engaging with the private sector is fundamental to FFI’s ability to achieve our conservation objectives. Our aspiration is to create an environment where business has a net positive impact on biodiversity.
Fauna & Flora International is recruiting a Project Officer, Corporate Partnerships – Asia Pacific to assist the Corporate Team with the management, administration and delivery of the corporate partnership programmes and projects. The Project Officer will in particular be providing support to FFI’s contribution to the British American Tobacco Biodiversity Partnership.
The successful candidate will have a degree in conservation biology, forestry, natural resources management, social sciences, rural development, sustainable development, corporate social responsibility or agriculture or other discipline related to this post and a minimum of two years’ relevant work experience. A broad understanding of biodiversity conservation issues in an international context is essential and international experience in a paid or voluntary role and experience in working with an NGO and or corporate on environmental issues would be advantageous. Fluency in spoken and written Bahasa Indonesia and English is essential.
For more information on FFI and its Corporate Team, a detailed job description and information on how to apply, please visit our website at www.fauna-flora.org. Applications consisting of a covering letter, full CV and contact details for two referees should be sent to Laura Somerville, Programme Officer, Conservation Partnerships, Fauna & Flora International, 4th Floor - Jupiter House, Station Road, Cambridge CB1 2JD, United Kingdom, or emailed to laura.somerville@fauna-flora.org
Please mark your application ‘Project Officer, Corporate Partnerships - Asia Pacific ’.
The closing date for applications is Thursday 25 July 2008.
Only short-listed candidates will be notified.
Duration of contract:1 year fixed term contract, with potential to extend subject to funding
Location: Fauna & Flora International, Indonesia, based in Lombok. Some travel within Indonesia, and possibly overseas, will be required.
Founded in 1903, Fauna & Flora International (FFI) is the world's longest-established international conservation organisation. Our vision is to create a sustainable future for the planet where biodiversity is conserved by the people living closest to it. We aim to do this through the conservation of threatened species and ecosystems worldwide, choosing solutions that are sustainable, based on sound science and take account of human needs. We operate primarily in developing countries where there is little capacity to conserve endangered and threatened habitats and species. We have become a trusted entity in the world of conservation. Today FFI is active in over 40 countries.
FFI has been working with the private sector for some 15 years. We believe engaging with the private sector is fundamental to FFI’s ability to achieve our conservation objectives. Our aspiration is to create an environment where business has a net positive impact on biodiversity.
Fauna & Flora International is recruiting a Project Officer, Corporate Partnerships – Asia Pacific to assist the Corporate Team with the management, administration and delivery of the corporate partnership programmes and projects. The Project Officer will in particular be providing support to FFI’s contribution to the British American Tobacco Biodiversity Partnership.
The successful candidate will have a degree in conservation biology, forestry, natural resources management, social sciences, rural development, sustainable development, corporate social responsibility or agriculture or other discipline related to this post and a minimum of two years’ relevant work experience. A broad understanding of biodiversity conservation issues in an international context is essential and international experience in a paid or voluntary role and experience in working with an NGO and or corporate on environmental issues would be advantageous. Fluency in spoken and written Bahasa Indonesia and English is essential.
For more information on FFI and its Corporate Team, a detailed job description and information on how to apply, please visit our website at www.fauna-flora.org. Applications consisting of a covering letter, full CV and contact details for two referees should be sent to Laura Somerville, Programme Officer, Conservation Partnerships, Fauna & Flora International, 4th Floor - Jupiter House, Station Road, Cambridge CB1 2JD, United Kingdom, or emailed to laura.somerville@fauna-flora.org
Please mark your application ‘Project Officer, Corporate Partnerships - Asia Pacific ’.
The closing date for applications is Thursday 25 July 2008.
Only short-listed candidates will be notified.
Agroforest Management Officer (AMO)-based in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia
Agroforest Management Officer (AMO)-based in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia
The Position
ICRAF Indonesia has numerous on-going projects related to smallholder agroforestry that include rubber, cacao and other fruit and timber species as key components in Jambi, Aceh, Lampung, Kalimantan and Java.
The research for development projects also provide some support on tree crops (rubber, cacao, timber and fruit trees), nurseries and land use planning in their target areas. ICRAF has accumulated wealth of information and knowledge on a range of technological options and modeling tools for assessing agroforestry options. In order to strengthen the dissemination of appropriate rubber and timber, fruit, vegetable based agroforestry technology under different projects, ICRAF is opening a new AMO position. The officer will contribute to its research program to assess traditional and emerging agroforestry systems and take a leading role in developing, testing and promoting improved agroforestry systems for smallholder farmers in Indonesia. In addition to technical and socio-economic aspects, the AMO will also take a leading role in training, testing and implementing computer simulation models in the evaluation of agroforestry options under different contexts. It is expected that the AMO will need to spend about half of her/his time in the field, mainly in Aceh Barat.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Under the supervision of Leader of the Agroforest Management Unit of ICRAF Bogor, the AMO will perform the following tasks:
· Under supervision of ICRAF scientists, complete the establishment of demonstration plots of Rubber Agroforestry System (RAS) in Aceh Barat, with a clear strategy for regular monitoring and observations of bio-physical, social and economic aspects of RAS prepare protocols for demonstration plots of improved Rubber Agroforestry Systems (RAS) relevant for Aceh Barat.
· Provide technical supervision and guidance to ICRAF and partner colleagues on development and promotion of tree crop based agroforestry.
· Organize training and other capacity enhancing activities for farmers, government and NGO officials in order to develop local capacity for agroforestry development.
· Develop and maintain effective communication and partnership between ICRAF, farming communities and partner institutions in Aceh Barat, Jambi and Kalimantan.
· Assist in the research (field surveys, data collection and compilation, field reporting) related to environmental aspects (biodiversity, carbon, hydrology) of traditional agroforestry (currently planned for Aceh).
· Take lead in training and support activities for ICRAF partners, students and visitors on various agroforestry models developed or enhanced by ICRAF modelers (e.g. Spatially Explicit Individual-base Forest Simulation, FALLOW and WANULCAS).
Qualification
Must have at least the following qualifications:
· An S2 (MSc) with relevant experience or S1 (BSc) with at least five years of relevant experience on smallholder agroforestry (preferably rubber), data collection (bio-physical, social and economic), compilation, interpretation and analysis and reporting.
· Experience in participatory on-farm research, training-of-trainers (TOT), field supervision and working with farmers, NGOs and government institutions.
· Good networking skills and knowledge
· Experience with simulation models; good aptitude for computer modelling
· Excellent communication skills in Bahasa Indonesia and English (reading, writing, oral and presentation); command of Bahasa Aceh will be an advantage.
· Prepared to spend considerable time in the field.
Applicants are invited to send a letter of application, accompanied by curriculum vitae, transcript of record, names and address of two referees (including telephone, fax numbers and email address).
Applications should indicate 'AMO Application' on their application letters and email submission. All correspondence should be addressed to:
Human Resources Unit, ICRAF
via email: ICRAFSEA-HR@CGIAR.ORG
OR
Fax: (0251) 625416
This is an immediately opening position. Applications will be considered until July 10, 2008
We invite you to learn more about ICRAF by accessing our web site http://www.worldagroforestry.org/sea
The Position
ICRAF Indonesia has numerous on-going projects related to smallholder agroforestry that include rubber, cacao and other fruit and timber species as key components in Jambi, Aceh, Lampung, Kalimantan and Java.
The research for development projects also provide some support on tree crops (rubber, cacao, timber and fruit trees), nurseries and land use planning in their target areas. ICRAF has accumulated wealth of information and knowledge on a range of technological options and modeling tools for assessing agroforestry options. In order to strengthen the dissemination of appropriate rubber and timber, fruit, vegetable based agroforestry technology under different projects, ICRAF is opening a new AMO position. The officer will contribute to its research program to assess traditional and emerging agroforestry systems and take a leading role in developing, testing and promoting improved agroforestry systems for smallholder farmers in Indonesia. In addition to technical and socio-economic aspects, the AMO will also take a leading role in training, testing and implementing computer simulation models in the evaluation of agroforestry options under different contexts. It is expected that the AMO will need to spend about half of her/his time in the field, mainly in Aceh Barat.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Under the supervision of Leader of the Agroforest Management Unit of ICRAF Bogor, the AMO will perform the following tasks:
· Under supervision of ICRAF scientists, complete the establishment of demonstration plots of Rubber Agroforestry System (RAS) in Aceh Barat, with a clear strategy for regular monitoring and observations of bio-physical, social and economic aspects of RAS prepare protocols for demonstration plots of improved Rubber Agroforestry Systems (RAS) relevant for Aceh Barat.
· Provide technical supervision and guidance to ICRAF and partner colleagues on development and promotion of tree crop based agroforestry.
· Organize training and other capacity enhancing activities for farmers, government and NGO officials in order to develop local capacity for agroforestry development.
· Develop and maintain effective communication and partnership between ICRAF, farming communities and partner institutions in Aceh Barat, Jambi and Kalimantan.
· Assist in the research (field surveys, data collection and compilation, field reporting) related to environmental aspects (biodiversity, carbon, hydrology) of traditional agroforestry (currently planned for Aceh).
· Take lead in training and support activities for ICRAF partners, students and visitors on various agroforestry models developed or enhanced by ICRAF modelers (e.g. Spatially Explicit Individual-base Forest Simulation, FALLOW and WANULCAS).
Qualification
Must have at least the following qualifications:
· An S2 (MSc) with relevant experience or S1 (BSc) with at least five years of relevant experience on smallholder agroforestry (preferably rubber), data collection (bio-physical, social and economic), compilation, interpretation and analysis and reporting.
· Experience in participatory on-farm research, training-of-trainers (TOT), field supervision and working with farmers, NGOs and government institutions.
· Good networking skills and knowledge
· Experience with simulation models; good aptitude for computer modelling
· Excellent communication skills in Bahasa Indonesia and English (reading, writing, oral and presentation); command of Bahasa Aceh will be an advantage.
· Prepared to spend considerable time in the field.
Applicants are invited to send a letter of application, accompanied by curriculum vitae, transcript of record, names and address of two referees (including telephone, fax numbers and email address).
Applications should indicate 'AMO Application' on their application letters and email submission. All correspondence should be addressed to:
Human Resources Unit, ICRAF
via email: ICRAFSEA-HR@CGIAR.ORG
OR
Fax: (0251) 625416
This is an immediately opening position. Applications will be considered until July 10, 2008
We invite you to learn more about ICRAF by accessing our web site http://www.worldagroforestry.org/sea
Partnership Manager, Rare Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Timor Leste
Partnership Manager, Rare Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Timor Leste
Deadline of Application : July 30, 2008
Application to : bogor@rareconservation.org
Level : Manager
Location : Bogor, Indonesia
FLSA Classification : Exempt
Reports to : Director for Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Timor Leste
Last Updated : June, 2008
Travel : Up to 25%
Organization Background
Rare is a fast-growing, international conservation organization that runs state-of-the-art communications and outreach projects in more than 40 countries around the world. Named to Fast Company magazine’s list of “Top Social Capitalists” for the last four consecutive years, Rare is committed to bringing a spirit of entrepreneurship and creativity to solving one of this century’s great challenges – building public support for conservation.
Rare partners with more than one hundred groups at the international and local levels, including The Nature Conservancy, Wildlife Conservation Society, World Wildlife Fund, Aveda corporation, United Nations Environment Programme, Mexico’s National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and many others.
All Rare projects are managed by local partners; we focus both on building community support for conservation and tangibly reducing threats to the environment by working closely with the world’s top local environmental organizations. We recently awarded the Rare Award for Inspiring Conservation to Pulitzer Prize winning conservation leader E.O. Wilson who described Rare’s value as follows: “In an original manner, Rare attends to conservation where it has ultimately the most lasting effect, through education tuned to the culture and needs of local people.”
Description of Position
Rare’s success – in fact the success of local conservation outreach globally – is contingent on attracting the best and brightest leaders at the community level. Rare has already trained more than 200 local conservationists both in the field and at Rare’s three university centers (in the UK, Mexico, and Indonesia). Yet given Rare’s expected growth in both scale and impact by 2011, we need to greatly increase Rare’s investment in recruiting new conservation leaders and partnering organizations at the local level.
The Partnership Manager, based at Rare office in Bogor, is a vital position at Rare that will be responsible for developing and facilitating a robust Pride candidate pipeline to ensure growing demand for Rare’s work around the world and the highest caliber of Pride campaign managers. As the primary interface with all potential new partners in the Bahasa Indonesia (Malay)-speaking world, the Partnership Manager will have the opportunity to help create a key program from the ground up, and interact with a vast network of partners around the world.
Using prior experience in program marketing and community engagement, this position will identify suitable candidates for Rare comprehensive capacity development program by leveraging and maintaining Rare’s regional network of contacts and partners, as well as serving as an ambassador to new target audiences in the Bahasa Indonesia (Malay)-speaking conservation community. The Partnership Manager will also work closely with Rare’s Director for Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Timor Leste and Director of Strategic Partnerships to create aligned recruitment strategies and methods and coordinate prospective partner interviews, participation in Rare global workshops, and submission and review of completed new partner application packages. The Partnership Manager will also have the opportunity to work with Rare’s experienced alumni network to harness their enthusiasm and knowledge to contribute to a cohesive global network of conservation practitioners that ensures a whole that is much greater than the sum of its parts.
Under supervision of Rare’s Director for Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Timor Leste the Partnership Manager will be responsible for:
• Brand Awareness and Outreach
• Build Rare’s brand among current and potential partners to generate increased demand for Rare Pride through new partner outreach and lead generation
• Represent Rare at conferences and meetings to further awareness of Rare and build the pipeline of high quality applicants
• Hold regular meetings with partners
• Support and Facilitation of all Bogor-based Pride Recruitment
• Coordinate Bogor recruiting efforts with Rare's global recruiting strategy through regular communication, planning, and implementation with Rare’s Director, Strategic Partnerships and global recruiting team
• Support the development of a regional recruiting strategy
• Utilize Rare’s existing network of contacts and Pride alumni
• Build new recruiting streams and relationships in the global conservation community in line with Rare’s global recruitment strategy
• Regularly manage and update Rare’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, Prideforce
• Lead applicants through the recruiting process by communicating with leads and applicants regularly
• Ensure a healthy recruiting pipeline against timing and targets
• Organize and help to deliver recruiting workshops
• Support and assist accepted applicants through the required preparatory phase prior to university training
• Marketing and Communications
• Coordinate the marketing and communications of Rare Pride successes, campaign news, new partnerships, alumni newsletters and recruiting efforts
• Manage and maintain regional Pride alumni network, including facilitating adoption of the network through online and offline communications tools and creatively designing new approaches to engage current and past Rare partners.
• Customize globally-provided recruiting tools
• Manage local revision and production of materials, as necessary
Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree required, preferably with an international focus in communications, biodiversity conservation, environmental education, international development, environmental policy, or related field.
• Work experience of at least 4 years required.
• Prior success in marketing, recruitment, pipeline development and management, and/or social network development preferred.
• Experience in mentoring, training, coaching or guidance, especially in a long-distance setting.
• Strong background in leadership, community engagement, and relationship building.
• Knowledge of key players in the national, regional and international conservation/community development community helpful.
• Experience in online communications and alumni network development desired.
• Proficiency in MS Office suite required, experience with SalesForce or other online sales and/orpipeline management tool preferred.
• Written and spoken fluency in English.
• Experience in coordinating communications and marketing efforts across long distances.
• Strong project management skills required.
• Intercultural/multicultural experience and attitude.
• Note that willingness for significant travel is required (up to 25%).
Deadline of Application : July 30, 2008
Application to : bogor@rareconservation.org
Level : Manager
Location : Bogor, Indonesia
FLSA Classification : Exempt
Reports to : Director for Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Timor Leste
Last Updated : June, 2008
Travel : Up to 25%
Organization Background
Rare is a fast-growing, international conservation organization that runs state-of-the-art communications and outreach projects in more than 40 countries around the world. Named to Fast Company magazine’s list of “Top Social Capitalists” for the last four consecutive years, Rare is committed to bringing a spirit of entrepreneurship and creativity to solving one of this century’s great challenges – building public support for conservation.
Rare partners with more than one hundred groups at the international and local levels, including The Nature Conservancy, Wildlife Conservation Society, World Wildlife Fund, Aveda corporation, United Nations Environment Programme, Mexico’s National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and many others.
All Rare projects are managed by local partners; we focus both on building community support for conservation and tangibly reducing threats to the environment by working closely with the world’s top local environmental organizations. We recently awarded the Rare Award for Inspiring Conservation to Pulitzer Prize winning conservation leader E.O. Wilson who described Rare’s value as follows: “In an original manner, Rare attends to conservation where it has ultimately the most lasting effect, through education tuned to the culture and needs of local people.”
Description of Position
Rare’s success – in fact the success of local conservation outreach globally – is contingent on attracting the best and brightest leaders at the community level. Rare has already trained more than 200 local conservationists both in the field and at Rare’s three university centers (in the UK, Mexico, and Indonesia). Yet given Rare’s expected growth in both scale and impact by 2011, we need to greatly increase Rare’s investment in recruiting new conservation leaders and partnering organizations at the local level.
The Partnership Manager, based at Rare office in Bogor, is a vital position at Rare that will be responsible for developing and facilitating a robust Pride candidate pipeline to ensure growing demand for Rare’s work around the world and the highest caliber of Pride campaign managers. As the primary interface with all potential new partners in the Bahasa Indonesia (Malay)-speaking world, the Partnership Manager will have the opportunity to help create a key program from the ground up, and interact with a vast network of partners around the world.
Using prior experience in program marketing and community engagement, this position will identify suitable candidates for Rare comprehensive capacity development program by leveraging and maintaining Rare’s regional network of contacts and partners, as well as serving as an ambassador to new target audiences in the Bahasa Indonesia (Malay)-speaking conservation community. The Partnership Manager will also work closely with Rare’s Director for Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Timor Leste and Director of Strategic Partnerships to create aligned recruitment strategies and methods and coordinate prospective partner interviews, participation in Rare global workshops, and submission and review of completed new partner application packages. The Partnership Manager will also have the opportunity to work with Rare’s experienced alumni network to harness their enthusiasm and knowledge to contribute to a cohesive global network of conservation practitioners that ensures a whole that is much greater than the sum of its parts.
Under supervision of Rare’s Director for Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Timor Leste the Partnership Manager will be responsible for:
• Brand Awareness and Outreach
• Build Rare’s brand among current and potential partners to generate increased demand for Rare Pride through new partner outreach and lead generation
• Represent Rare at conferences and meetings to further awareness of Rare and build the pipeline of high quality applicants
• Hold regular meetings with partners
• Support and Facilitation of all Bogor-based Pride Recruitment
• Coordinate Bogor recruiting efforts with Rare's global recruiting strategy through regular communication, planning, and implementation with Rare’s Director, Strategic Partnerships and global recruiting team
• Support the development of a regional recruiting strategy
• Utilize Rare’s existing network of contacts and Pride alumni
• Build new recruiting streams and relationships in the global conservation community in line with Rare’s global recruitment strategy
• Regularly manage and update Rare’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, Prideforce
• Lead applicants through the recruiting process by communicating with leads and applicants regularly
• Ensure a healthy recruiting pipeline against timing and targets
• Organize and help to deliver recruiting workshops
• Support and assist accepted applicants through the required preparatory phase prior to university training
• Marketing and Communications
• Coordinate the marketing and communications of Rare Pride successes, campaign news, new partnerships, alumni newsletters and recruiting efforts
• Manage and maintain regional Pride alumni network, including facilitating adoption of the network through online and offline communications tools and creatively designing new approaches to engage current and past Rare partners.
• Customize globally-provided recruiting tools
• Manage local revision and production of materials, as necessary
Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree required, preferably with an international focus in communications, biodiversity conservation, environmental education, international development, environmental policy, or related field.
• Work experience of at least 4 years required.
• Prior success in marketing, recruitment, pipeline development and management, and/or social network development preferred.
• Experience in mentoring, training, coaching or guidance, especially in a long-distance setting.
• Strong background in leadership, community engagement, and relationship building.
• Knowledge of key players in the national, regional and international conservation/community development community helpful.
• Experience in online communications and alumni network development desired.
• Proficiency in MS Office suite required, experience with SalesForce or other online sales and/orpipeline management tool preferred.
• Written and spoken fluency in English.
• Experience in coordinating communications and marketing efforts across long distances.
• Strong project management skills required.
• Intercultural/multicultural experience and attitude.
• Note that willingness for significant travel is required (up to 25%).
Call for application: Project Management and Leadership Training
Call for application: Project Management and Leadership Training
Dear all,
British Council will conduct this Project Management and Leadership Training programme in Indonesia , 24-29 August 2008 by inviting a large group of young eco-visionary leaders, age 20-35, from Indonesia , Australia , Japan , Korea , Malaysia , Singapore , and Thailand . Kindly distribute this information below to your partners, contacts, and friends who are keen to apply as the participants.
Please note that the deadline of application is 20 July 2008 Shall you have any enquiry about this programme, please liaise with our team: pmt@britishcouncil. or.id . For further information please go to: http://www.bcnow60.org/cpmt/
Thank you and best regards,
Project Management and Leadership Training Team
British Council T +62 (0)21 515 5561F +62 (0)21 515 5562
E: pmt@britishcouncil. or.id
W: www.britishcouncil.or.id
Dear all,
British Council will conduct this Project Management and Leadership Training programme in Indonesia , 24-29 August 2008 by inviting a large group of young eco-visionary leaders, age 20-35, from Indonesia , Australia , Japan , Korea , Malaysia , Singapore , and Thailand . Kindly distribute this information below to your partners, contacts, and friends who are keen to apply as the participants.
Please note that the deadline of application is 20 July 2008 Shall you have any enquiry about this programme, please liaise with our team: pmt@britishcouncil. or.id . For further information please go to: http://www.bcnow60.org/cpmt/
Thank you and best regards,
Project Management and Leadership Training Team
British Council T +62 (0)21 515 5561F +62 (0)21 515 5562
E: pmt@britishcouncil. or.id
W: www.britishcouncil.or.id
Monday, June 23, 2008
THE AGROFORESTRY OF EAST KALIMANTAN
Darwin Chaniago and Roostiny Ch., Budi Daya Alam Foundation
The regional development of rural towns carved from virgin forest in East Kalimantan and the consequences experienced during the period of Repelita III to the early Repelita V are studied in this paper. An overview and history of development efforts in East Kalimantan Province and the primary objectives at the national, provincial and distric level are given as being basically to eradicate poverty and breakdown segregation and the un balance of socio-economic distribution by developing agroforestry in agricultural buffer areas the small rural areas cut from the jungle.
The selected economic crops both for local demand and commodity export developed in this area include sugar cane, coffee, pepper, clove. The five sub-regional development areas of East Kalimantan’s boundary projects highlight several development principles. The area concerned are Udjoh Bilang of the Long Bagun Distric in the west center, Long Bawan of Kerayan Distric in the north center, Mensalong of Lumbis Distric as the center of Sabah boundary and Nunukan of Nunukan Distric in the north coastal center.
Success results from the use of interdisciplinary central planning and integrated rural development approaches in order to develop a region. Not understanding of both social and ecological effects leads to problems. Agroforestry development is successful when special attention is given to allocate the new land to landless and poor income families. The rural development has successfully increased the number of population, improved infrastructure, transportation, helath, and raised income and career quality of families. Unticipated effects have occurred regarding the population, physical environment, aborigine people and socio-economy.
Despite large expenditures to developed the rural areas with some infrastructure and giving land to qualified poor, the population has not grown as expected. In the early stages of development, extensive erosion of valuable top soil, silting of rivers as well as dying off of forest at development site edges occurred and problems of forest fire caused by shifting cultivation araised. The virgin forests are inhabited by aborigine people, who have been displaced and whose culture, was disrupted by the rural development schemes.
Socio-economic goals have not been fully met in such as the unbalance of economic and population distribution, elimination of poverty, attractionof small bussiness to rural boundary towns, although large progress has been achieved. Recommendation incuding training more local environmental professionals for input into the planning process in order to minimize the environtment impact of development and in order to increase public awareness of the environmental problems. To developed basic infrastructure and investment in rural towns will take more time and should be considered in the Repelita on provincial level and further discussed in the Rakorbang Tingkat II. More research on preservation of natural conservation areas and natural resources within a development site is needed. Making capital more available will encourage small bussiness and industries to invest in the rural boundary towns especially in the northern coastal area of Nunukan and Sebatik.
The regional development of rural towns carved from virgin forest in East Kalimantan and the consequences experienced during the period of Repelita III to the early Repelita V are studied in this paper. An overview and history of development efforts in East Kalimantan Province and the primary objectives at the national, provincial and distric level are given as being basically to eradicate poverty and breakdown segregation and the un balance of socio-economic distribution by developing agroforestry in agricultural buffer areas the small rural areas cut from the jungle.
The selected economic crops both for local demand and commodity export developed in this area include sugar cane, coffee, pepper, clove. The five sub-regional development areas of East Kalimantan’s boundary projects highlight several development principles. The area concerned are Udjoh Bilang of the Long Bagun Distric in the west center, Long Bawan of Kerayan Distric in the north center, Mensalong of Lumbis Distric as the center of Sabah boundary and Nunukan of Nunukan Distric in the north coastal center.
Success results from the use of interdisciplinary central planning and integrated rural development approaches in order to develop a region. Not understanding of both social and ecological effects leads to problems. Agroforestry development is successful when special attention is given to allocate the new land to landless and poor income families. The rural development has successfully increased the number of population, improved infrastructure, transportation, helath, and raised income and career quality of families. Unticipated effects have occurred regarding the population, physical environment, aborigine people and socio-economy.
Despite large expenditures to developed the rural areas with some infrastructure and giving land to qualified poor, the population has not grown as expected. In the early stages of development, extensive erosion of valuable top soil, silting of rivers as well as dying off of forest at development site edges occurred and problems of forest fire caused by shifting cultivation araised. The virgin forests are inhabited by aborigine people, who have been displaced and whose culture, was disrupted by the rural development schemes.
Socio-economic goals have not been fully met in such as the unbalance of economic and population distribution, elimination of poverty, attractionof small bussiness to rural boundary towns, although large progress has been achieved. Recommendation incuding training more local environmental professionals for input into the planning process in order to minimize the environtment impact of development and in order to increase public awareness of the environmental problems. To developed basic infrastructure and investment in rural towns will take more time and should be considered in the Repelita on provincial level and further discussed in the Rakorbang Tingkat II. More research on preservation of natural conservation areas and natural resources within a development site is needed. Making capital more available will encourage small bussiness and industries to invest in the rural boundary towns especially in the northern coastal area of Nunukan and Sebatik.
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