Rainforest Solutions
How hornbills keep Asian rainforests healthy and diverse, an interview with Shumpei Kitamura
Hornbills are one of Asia's most attractive birds. Large, colorful, and easier to spot than most other birds, hornbills have become iconic animals in the tropical forests of Asia. Yet, most people probably don't realize just how important hornbills are to the tropical forests they inhabit: as fruit-eaters, hornbills play a key role in dispersing the seeds of tropical trees, thereby keeping forests healthy and diverse. Yet, according to tropical ecologist and hornbill-expert Shumpei Kitamura, these beautiful forest engineers are threatened by everything from forest loss to hunting to the pet trade.
"Seed dispersal consists of the removal and deposition of seeds away from parent plants. Because seeds are not mobile, their movements must be facilitated by dispersal agents such as gravity, wind, water or animals. […] Even in central Southeast Asia where the wind- and gravity-dispersed family Dipterocarpaceae dominates the plant community, animal-dispersed plant species diversity is still high and most forest birds and mammals eat at least some fruits," Kitamura explained to mongabay.com in an interview leading up to the 5th Frugivore and Seed Dispersal International Symposium where ecologists from around the globe will meet to discuss the importance of seed dispersers in the world's embattled forests.
Rainforests could be traded on world market
American Electric Power and BP invested in the pilot project alongside environmental groups such as the Nature Conservancy to find out if protecting forests compensates for their own pollution.
The burning of tropical forests emits more carbon dioxide every year than all the cars, planes, and boats on the planet - between 15 and 20% of global emissions.
A deal at Copenhagen could mean both governments and businesses paying billions to keep the forests standing.
With agreement looking unlikely on many other areas, some negotiators feel a deal aimed at preventing deforestation may be the most concrete outcome from the talks.
A Plan to Save Rainforests Gains International Momentum
Today, some analysts believe that a plan to save the world's rainforests, championed then by Conrad in Bali, could again carry the day -- this time at international climate talks in Copenhagen in December aimed at drafting a replacement to the Kyoto Protocol.
Tropical forests to aid society
Researchers working with forest community groups and policy makers in ten countries in Africa and Asia have developed a novel way to improve the flow of social and environmental benefits from tropical forests, according to an independent evaluation of an International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) project published on 17 August.
"With forests set to take centre stage in a new global deal to tackle climate change, there is a desperate search underway for proven ways to improve governance to ensure that forest resources are managed for the public good,” says project leader and head of IIED’s Natural Resources Group, James Mayers.
“That search should look at what’s been achieved by the Forest Governance Learning Group (FGLG). Its experience shows how to improve governance in ways that lead to tangible changes in policy with positive impacts on people who depend on forests.”
Where do forest carbon markets go from here?
For thousands of years, we have been planting and growing trees without difficulty. It's simple, and forest carbon business strategy can be, too. In fact, it's core to what I'm trying to teach the MBA/MS students in my course at the Erb Institute this semester: If the world's best available technology for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is employing the natural photosynthetic capacity of natural forest management, we can too.
But in many ways, we are all unable to see the forests for the trees.
Even though the global carbon market grew to $136 billion with 8.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide traded in 2009, less than 0.1 percent of that was based on removing existing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere using photosynthesis. While it is very important to engage in developing a low-carbon economy, it is equally important to remove existing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, especially since this is, in fact, a key to mitigating climate change.
Forest carbon offset projects -- whether planting trees, improving harvesting techniques, or not cutting trees -- have some unique characteristics that may make these assets a unique investment asset class. Investors can make debt and equity investments in forest carbon offset companies while they can also invest in spot and forward transactions of the mtCO2e produced by these forest carbon offset projects.
