About
Sustainably Managed Permanent Rain Forest Habitats
Samboja LestariThe Sustainably Managed Permanent Rainforest Habitat concept is a
key differentiation point with other Tree Planting projects run by
other organizations.
Because these programs do not have control of the lands where the trees are planted and in most cases the trees are planted in areas that have a history of deforestation. Many programs take place on farmlands. Ask yourself: What do farmers do for a living? They plant things, they grow things, and they cut them down and sell them.
What we do is different. Our projects mix a variety of technologies to create an economic engine to support the creation of these habitats. These technologies include analog (sustainable) forestry, wildlife habitat enhancement, biomass carbon negative energy production, BioChar soil augmentation and edible forest gardens (Permaculture).
To get a better idea of how this works, watch this extraordinary video from Willie Smits of BOS.
In
many parts of the world, it is critical that we plant a lot of trees
and return a lot of land to forest. The loss of the forest contributes
to loss of habitat for animals, a reduction in available drinkable
water, loss of soil and even landslides that destroy 
Smaboja Lestaritowns and
villages. We also need to increase the number of trees to absorb the
excess gases that cause global warming. Moreover, there is a direct
link between deforestation and drought, which has become a severe and
worsening problem - totally reversible through reforestation -
throughout the tropics.
Most reforestation efforts are being spent on plantations, not on genuine new forests. We use the term "reforestation" a lot, but in reality, unless the lands are permanently returned to forest, you are not reforesting, you are raising a crop of trees. Tree plantations can reduce commercial pressure on remaining forests, but they are not themselves new forests. Just like a loss of trees is not deforestation unless the land usage permanently changes, it isn't reforestation unless the end result is a forest.
Through the years many organizations, Rainforest Action Network, The Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club, etc. have seen the value of the forests and have worked diligently to protect them. Unfortunately, in spite of their efforts, the rainforests of the planet continue to shrink, and the animals that live in the forests continue to fall into extinction.
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Tree Avalanching - The Finacial Engine for Turning the Tide on Global Deforestation
by Dan Tefft, CEO TreeBankingLLC
Tropical Reforestation According to the World
Resource Institute based at Washington DC (U.S.A.), the rates of
rainforest destruction are 2.4 acre per second, 149 acres per minute,
214000 acres per day and 78 million acres per year.
These are truly daunting numbers.
To solve the problem of deforestation, we have to plant forests, not just trees.
The definition of deforestation is not the loss of trees, but the change of land use from forested to some other use. If trees are lost even through clear cutting, if the land is left alone, the trees will come back eventually.
In order to reforest, we have to permanently return land to forest use. If you go out and plant trees anywhere you want - perhaps farmers will let you plant on their property, for example - you haven't yet reforested. This is because eventually someone can cut down those trees because of the value represented there. Very often, someone protects a section of their property and never cuts the trees, but after they die, the property is sold and their protected forest is cleared and turned to another use.
This is also a problem that governments don't seem to handle very well. As seen in the USA, what one administration protects, another administration harvests. As pressure grows on governments because of the debt they all seem to build, the forest is being liquidated - just like those who own properties often sell their trees to help pay off debt or for money to live.
Almost anyone would eventually cut down their trees if economic pressures were severe enough. If you own your own home, where it stands was probably a forest at one time. Would you willingly abandon your home (and the money it represents) in order to let the forest come back? Most likely not, because the money lost to you would be very significant, and you probably could not afford it.
Voluntary preservation of the forest is not enough. This is why it is so difficult to stop deforestation in the tropics - a well-grown tree represents a lot of money. In most tropical regions, a farm worker could buy a home with the money from a single mature tree.
Replacing deforestation with reforestation must meet the following three requirements:
Tropical Reforestation
The trees must be able to fund land preservation.
The trees must be able to diversify.
The trees must be able to fund more acquisition of more land.
The Trees Must Be Able to Fund Land Preservation
Trees have to have a way to pay for their own protection.
Even though most tropical nations put aside land as permanent parks, the governments don't have the money to adequately protect those parks. Because of that, some of the bigger national parks are at risk because of tree poaching. Remember that an old growth tree (which is only 100 years old here) could potentially buy a home in most developing countries.
Thinking a forest will survive without protection is like thinking you could protect your money by leaving it by the side of the road. Sure, there would be many people who would either pass it by or try to give it back to you - but it only takes one person who would consider it "finders keepers" for you to lose your unprotected money. Most people respect the need to preserve the forest, but it only takes a few to undo all the time spent growing trees.
It isn't as simple as just planting trees on land set aside for the purpose - or even passing laws saying areas are protected. Without active protection, the trees will eventually be gone, just like your money by the side of the road.
Give a Gift to Our Planet
2010 Critical Need Projects
Project: Thailand - Khao Yai Park
Project: South Africa - Table Mountain National Park
Project: Borneo - Concession Reforestation Project
Project: Costa Rica - Manuel Antonio National Park / El Rey Beach National Reserve
Coming Soon
Project: India
Project: Bali
Project: Belize
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Turning the Tide: The Ten Year Goal
Rainforest ReforestationsBeginning in spring of 2010, Eco Preservation Society is launching the "Turning The Tide" campaign, a yearly, Earth Day oriented, fund raising drive whose goal is to create 250 Million acres of Sustainably Managed, Permanent Rainforest Habitats TM by 2020, the 50th birthday of Earth Day. How is that possible?
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This Earth Day Birthday: Give a Gift to Our Planet
We Can Turn the Tide on Global Deforestation.
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Earth Day Birthday
The Earth Day Birthday Campaign is designed to give those of us that care about the environmental health of our planet a vehicle for effecting change. This is a grass roots campaign that is designed to empower people to help shape the destiny of the Earth without the need of governments and global institutions. This campaign is designed to engage people and to reach across borders and join together all those that care about our environmental future.
Earth Day Birthday - Give a Gift to Our Planet - Replanting the Rainforests
Replanting
the Rainforests is not a passive program for conserving existing
rainforests. Protecting our last remaining forests is vitally
important, but it is not sufficient. Over 80 percent of the planet's
native forests are gone! We must do more if we are to maintain a
healthy environment for future generations.
Replanting the
Rainforests is not another "Plant a Tree" campaign. Virtually all
tree-planting campaigns in third world countries take place on lands
that have a history of illegal deforestation. Many programs take place
on farmlands. Ask yourself: What do farmers do for a living? They plant
things, they grow things, and they cut them down and sell them. This is
clearly not the way forward if we want to permanently reestablish our
lost forests.
What makes us different?
Sustainably Managed Permanent Rainforest Habitats
The Replanting the Rainforest Program creates Sustainably Managed Permanent Rainforest Habitats. Within these habitats both sustainable forestry and permagriculture techniques will be employed that will as close as possible mimic natural processes so as not to upset the continuity of the forest environment. The natural array of biodiversity is meticulously safeguarded, while at the same time we create the economic engine necessary to prevent the un-sustainable exploitation of the resource.
Our focus is to find under-producing agricultural lands, cattle ranches and degraded forests and restore them to more natural conditions. Our methods include analog forestry, wildlife habitat enhancement, biomass carbon negative energy production, and BioChar soil augmentation and edible forest gardens.
The Earth Day Birthday Campaign is run by the Eco Preservation Society in conjunction with Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation and the Rainforest Trust and in cooperation with TreeBanking LLC, and I Empower U.
We are Turning the Tide on Global Deforestation
