Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Buku Adat Istiadat
Are Brunei prices lower or not?
Monday, March 30, 2009
Favorite Place on Earth
If there's anyone who knows something about travel, it's Arthur Frommer. The creator of the Frommer's travel-guide series has been to just about every nook and cranny in the world. His favorite of them all, though? None other than Bali.So, how about you?
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Enemies in the Blanket
Saturday, March 28, 2009
The History of the Streets of Bandar Seri Begawan
Friday, March 27, 2009
Royal Brunei Airlines Previous Aeroplanes
Food riots as global phenomenon?
The global economic crisis has made "pessimism porn" something of a favorite pastime these days. More and more publications are talking up apocalyptic scenarios like food and water shortages, devalued currencies, and huge spikes in crime rates as old orders break down. (Great piece in the New Yorker recently that should be required reading.)On Friday
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Of slow blogging, and the reasons for it
Sorry for not posting for a while. In this economy-from-hell, I had to go and make some money while I still could!Wednesday, March 25, 2009
On Leave
Transparent Words
Monday, March 23, 2009
Brunei Budget 101
Sunday, March 22, 2009
The Legislative Council Session continues
Saturday, March 21, 2009
No more flood?
Friday, March 20, 2009
The Legislative Council Session Continues
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Whither Papua?
Word that a key leader of the Free Papua movement is finally warming up to the idea of Indonesia.Somewhat of a mystery, for beliefs that have been decades in the making for Nicolas Jouwe. A feint to wrest more powers from the government, and prevent much-needed funds from leaking back to Jakarta? An admission that a tiny country, alone, might not reach the promised land via independence alone (viz: East Timor)? Or a personal power grab, since he apparently would like to advise SBY on Papuan affairs?
Perhaps a combination of the three. Or, even, a touch of well-timed propaganda from the government - he was meeting with Minister Bakrie, after all, who might not be the most trustworthy mouthpiece in the world.
Deserving Special Awards?
Our Tropical Rainforest
These are more than 17,500 islands in Indonesia, strechted out along the equator like green, ruby and bronze beads of an exquisite necklace. These islands are endowed with vast biological diversity, and approximately one third of the huge number of spieces found on them are endemic. Indonesia stil has one of the largets remaining tropical rainforest in the world, many of which are managed as conservation area. Unfotunately these gifts from nature have been greatly damaged by three decades of exploitation.Indonesia's forests are being degraded and destroyed by logging, mining operations and large-scale agricultural plantations, and from time to time the regime of government always blame the indigenous and local people for shifting agriculture and cutting for fuelwood. I don’t believe that colonization, and subsistence activities cause a major problem of this issue. Their culture is to maintain close links between nature and life as they believe nature will protect them.
Logging for tropical timbers and pulpwood is the best-known cause of forest loss and degradation in the country. Indonesia is the world's largest exporter of tropical timber, generating upwards of US$5 billion annually, and more than 48 million hectares (55 percent of the country's remaining forests) are concessioned for logging. Logging in Indonesia has opened some of the most remote, forbidding places on earth to development. But do you know that 75 % of logging in Indonesia is illegal. Despite an official ban on the export of raw logs from Indonesia, timber is regularly smuggled to Malaysia, Singapore, and other Asian countries. This crime to our forest cause terrible damage, according to World bank data in 2002, every 12 seconds we lost 5000 meter square of tropical rain forest. Indonesia has a biggest contributor in the world as a forest destroyer by erasing 2 percent of its tropical rainforest. Between 1990 and 2005 the country lost more than 28 million hectares of forest, including 21.7 hectares of virgin forest. Its loss of biologically rich primary forest was second only to Brazil during that period, and since the close of the 1990s, deforestation rates of primary forest cover have climbed 26 percent. Today Indonesia's forests are some of the most threatened on the planet. Rainforest cover has steadily declined since the 1960s when 82 percent of the country was covered with forest, to 68 percent in 1982, to 53 percent in 1995, and 49 percent today. Much of this remaining cover consists of logged-over and degraded forest.
The effects from forest loss have been widespread, off course it will affect the global climate as tropical rainforest is actually a world’ s lung. Forest management in Indonesia has long been plagued by corruption. Underpaid government officials combined with the prevalence of disreputable businessmen and shifty politicians, mean logging bans go unenforced, trafficking in endangered species is overlooked, environmental regulations are ignored, parks are used as timber farms, and fines and prison sentences never come to pass. Even the campaigns was launched to raise the awareness, I strongly feel this more to lips service of our government as I believe in NATO ( Not action talk only ) policy. We Indonesia's forests face a discouragingly grim future. And as I write this issues for more than 5 minutes, we loss again 125,000 meter square of our tropical rainforest. So how do you help our mother nature?
Article Source: www.imanbrotoseno.blogspot.com/2007/10/our-tropical-rainforest-these-are-more.html
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
More on Rainforest Services
But let’s take a closer look at the uses of tropical rain forests.
A. Rain Forests As Habitats
For thousands of years, rain forests had been home for all the life forms residing in them, including animals and humans (forest (indigenous) people).
Animals had been utilizing their natural habitats as their needs guided them (by “taking” whatever they needed from their environment (such as food) and “giving back” in some other way (for example, by becoming “food” for some larger predators).
Forest people, on their part, had been historically using rain forest resources in very sustainable ways (6) – the knowledge they had been gathering over centuries from their ancestors and transferring to their offspring.
In most recent times (the last several decades) rain forests have also become home to many new peasant settlers / migrants who moved to their new habitats as a result of their governments’ resettlement programmes, in search of new land for agricultural purposes. (7)
B. Rain Forests As Resource Bases
Following on from the discussion of biodiversity above, it is no surprise that the tropical rain forests are sometimes referred to as an "inexhaustible treasure trove" of nature. (8)
We can distinguish three major groups of goods that come from the rain forests:
- food
- medicines/drugs
- commercial/industrial goods
Since the middle ages, tropical rain forests attracted the attention of many European travellers.
The large-scale exploitation of rain forest resources must have started as one of by-products of the industrial revolution in Europe in the 18 th – 19 th centuries.
Rubber was one of the rain forest’s most prominent products, which indeed found many uses in newly born industrial societies. And perhaps, one of its most famous applications was for rubber tyres which were originally used in bicycles, and consequently in motor cars. (9) 
As for the foodstuffs, you wouldn’t believe how much food that we consume every day originated from the rain forests.
Vanilla and cacao beans (used to make chocolate), for example, were discovered during the very early voyages of the conquistadors to the Americas. (10)
It is hard to overestimate the importance of rain forest food products in modern times.
Chris Park mentions that about 12 crops provide 90% of the world’s food and half of them come from tropical rain forests including rice and maize. (11)
Even the domestic chicken was apparently bred from the red jungle fowl of Indian forests. (12)
Products like coffee, bananas, tea, sugar, pineapples, avocados and a lot more are widely used both for local consumption in the rain forest home countries and for exports.
Currently, a vast number of rain forest plants are also widely used in medicines. (13)
The “most lucrative” rain forest resources
There is virtually no doubt that, historically, logging had been the most lucrative business activity in the tropical rain forests. This activity allows an accumulation of short-term profits without substantial long-term investments from logging companies.
In the most recent years, relative political and economic stability of rain forest countries allowed for the development of other extractive industries, such as mining and oil & gas. (14)
All these activities have inevitably caused, and are still causing, serious environmental damage.
Specifically, this leads to deforestation of pristine ancient rain forest ecosystems and an irreversible loss of valuable forest biodiversity.
C. Rain Forests As Unique Guarantors Of Local Environmental/Climatic Stability
Apart from helping to regulate the global climatic conditions, rain forests also guarantee local environmental stability in several ways.
What happens if rain forests are removed?
1. Soil Erosion 
Rain forest soils are quite poor in nutrients, as virtually all of them are contained within the forest vegetation and animal biomass (thanks to the very efficient nutrient cycling within the forests).
So if a forest is cleared, the soil is fully exposed to heavy rainfalls that can easily wash away the topsoil and degrade the soil quality.
Once the topsoil is away, it leaves the deeper soil layers exposed to the air. The air hardens the deeper soil and degrades it even further.
Thus, such degraded soil can hardly be used for any productive activity.
2. Downstream silting
As the rainfalls wash away the rain forest soil, they can push such sediments to rivers, water reservoirs and irrigation systems and leave them silted.
This can cause contamination of drinkable water as well as interruption of operations of hydroelectric installations.
Higher river silt levels can also expose river-neighbouring areas to floods.
3. Downstream flooding
As a result of deforestation a larger proportion of rainfall, that would have otherwise been absorbed by the vegetation, is now directly transferred into river systems and may cause serious flooding in river-neighbouring areas.
4. Droughts
Rain forest vegetation stores a lot of moisture that evaporates and comes back as rainfall.
If this natural storage of moisture is destroyed, less rainfall is recycled and droughts ensue.
As an example, experts blame such rain forest clearance for recent droughts in Australia. (16)
5. Rain Forests Help Reduce the Amount of Solar Radiation Reflected Back Into the Atmosphere
When solar radiation reaches the surface of the Earth, some of this radiation is absorbed by the planet and some of it is reflected back into space.
Some of this radiation reflected back will actually escape into space, and some of it will get trapped in the atmosphere. 
A certain proportion of the radiation trapped in the atmosphere will then be re-reflected down to the planet and thus force the temperature to rise.
This is called a greenhouse effect, and it causes global warming.
So the importance of the rain forest vegetation from this point of view is that it helps reduce the amount of solar radiation reflected back into the atmosphere and therefore helps keep the temperatures stable.
Article Source: www.tropical-rainforest-animals.com/Tropical-Rain-Forests.html
Tropical Rain Forests Why We All Have A Big Stake In Them
- They regulate global climate patterns and help mitigate negative effects of climate change, specifically, global climate warming, (Service 1), and
- They serve as storages of global biodiversity, specifically plant and animal diversity (Service 2).
Those are the two main factors that have been widely put forward as the arguments which are strong enough for us people to try to do our utmost to “save the rain forests” from their continuous destruction.
Rain Forest Service 1 – Regulating Climate Patterns 
There is a strong interdependent relationship between the climate and the tropical rain forests.
On the one hand , favourable local climatic conditions determine the existence of rain forests in principle in a certain location.
For example, true tropical rain forests can only exist in geographical locations with “continuous supply” of rainfall and sunshine. Such locations are mostly found in the geographical areas around the equator.
On the other hand , rain forests affect the global climatic conditions by acting as pollution filters / “carbon sinks” / “lungs of the earth”.
Rain forest trees absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) and produce oxygen back into the atmosphere, by way of photosynthesis. (3)
In very simple terms, such carbon absorption by rain forests helps reduce the amount of CO2 that could otherwise be released into the Earth’s atmosphere and cause global warming. (4)
Rain Forest Service 2 – Biodiversity 
Biodiversity (biological diversity) is defined as a number and variety of plant and animal species in a certain habitat.
We know that tropical rain forests have the highest levels of biodiversity, as compared to any other place in the world.
For example, from one of the UN Chronicle issues we learn that a 2,500-acre area of a typical tropical rain forest is home to some 1,500 species of flowering plants, 750 species of trees, 400 species of birds and 150 different species of butterflies. (5)
In another example, check out some facts about the Ecuador rainforest, one of the most biodiverse places on the planet.
Rain forests are home to a large number of endangered animals, such as the mountain gorilla, which are crucial components of tropical biodiversity.
But why is it so important for us to preserve biodiversity as much as we only can?
From the utilitarian point of view, the common answer to that question is:
If we continue to lose biodiversity, we are going to lose out on potential discoveries of new foodstuffs, medicines, industrial raw materials.
This is not to mention the fact that it would be nice for the human race to allow other life forms, that comprise biodiversity as such, to live peacefully, just because they already exist.
Article Source: www.tropical-rainforest-animals.com/Tropical-Rain-Forests.html
Be Part Of The Rainforest
I am in love with a place called La Selva Biological Station which is located in the Caribbean lowlands northeast of San Jose, the capital city of the country of Costa Rica. Currently I'm visiting for the second time having "discovered" it last year while I was in Costa Rica for an immersion language school.
The first time I visited last year, I read about the La Selva's Adopt-a-Trail Program. I knew I wanted to be part of it. The funds go directly to La Selva's trail maintenance and environmental education. La Selva gets much needed funding and you get your name on a trail marker.
There's no administration fees taken out, your $200 donation does $200 worth of improvement and teaching that will not only affect today and this year, but will provide improvement through generations to come by being able to educate others in the hope of creating a vision within them for preserving our fragile world.
We can make a difference whether we can be here or not ... and for those who may never get to a rainforest, it's a tribute to your love for the planet to be part of it. It's a living contribution to the future because our planet's rainforests have a major role to play for the entire earth. For me, it's being a steward of Creation.
In The Beginning
Last year when I knew I wanted to be part of this, I instantly thought of a marker deep in the jungle, thinking our names out there in a piece of jungle would bring part of the jungle into a piece of my soul even at a great distance away.
But, after much pondering, I chose a spot that was in the Leslie Holdridge Arboretum. I felt it represented Genesis in a fashion - "in the beginning, God ..." Think of all the species that God created. His desire was for diversity also and it was created for our enjoyment. Scientifically we now know that it was created to benefit and preserve the planet's atmosphere, which is why it's important to save it.
About 75% of La Selva is covered in some of the most pristine old growth tropical rainforest in Costa Rica. The arboretum is in one of the previous cacao plantations and contains 254 species of trees from all over the reserve. The trees are tagged for easy identification. The purpose of the arboretum is to have an example of all the tree species in La Selva represented in the reserve.
Wide Paths For EducationThis year I figured I'd get my deep jungle location, but was led to choose a marker only 200 meters from the central area, and on one of the two widest trails. It's still dense rainforest, as you can see .. just not deep into the jungle.
What it represented to me was 'wide paths for education' because I imagined groups of people whose soul and spirit have been switched on to the importance of preservation and conservation. With education the masses can understand the importance of our tropical rainforests to the entire planet.
Adopt-a-Trail Program
The Adopt-a-Trail Program is an exciting way to be part of making a difference daily, even when I can't be here to experience it. I have often said that La Selva is my favorite place on all the earth, and I've been blessed to have traveled around the world and to 47 of our United States. There's something mysteriously wonderful at La Selva, and I think it's God's presence amidst a preserved old-growth forest. God is said to have a "still, small voice" so it's a place where it's easy to hear it. The incredible diversity of plant and animal species ... well, it's a little bit like the Garden of Eden ... and in my mind, a vision of what Heaven will be like.
Sponsor a piece of salvation for the planet through La Selva's Adopt-a-Trail Program or learn more about La Selva Biological Station.
Article Source: www.thenatureinus.com/2009/03/be-part-of-rainforest.html
Housing Dilemmas
Keeping the Rainforest Tropical
a rainforest may not leap to mind when one thinks of Cleveland, but the fact that one can associate the two words is largely due to mechanical engineering and the flexibility the discipline often contains.
Without state-of-the-art HVAC technology, it's doubtful that this unique tropical habitat—located within the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo complex—could exist, and it continues to benefit from equipment improvements, such as advanced motor and drive design.
The RainForest at the zoo near Lake Erie contains two acres of plants and wildlife similar to those found in rainforests around the world. Each year, more than a million visitors come to this two-story, domed, simulated biosphere to experience what it's like walking through tropical regions of Central America, Africa, or Asia—and see some 600 animals in a natural setting, including birds, monkeys, reptiles, and colorful fish that ply lagoons, swamps, and warm rivers.
Despite wide swings in temperature and humidity on the Great Lakes, visitors and inhabitants of the RainForest enjoy a nearly constant 76°F and 76 percent humidity. This is due to the robust HVAC system that has evolved over the years.
Direct Air Systems Inc., with locations in Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, working in conjunction with Zesco Inc., specialists in electrical-mechanical motion control and based in Cleveland, provide HVAC service to the RainForest.
The RainForest has two air handler units that are 100 percent outside air. To provide and maintain optimum environmental conditions for the facility, Direct Air Systems installed SEMCO energy wheel systems for the units, one of which has a throughput of 60,000 cfm used primarily for cooling. The other unit, rated at 40,000 cfm, has a preheater and humidifier rack. Both units have side-by-side, 10-foot-diameter, 1,000-pound dry desiccant heat wheels, which are necessary to conserve 18,000 pounds of water every day, transferring moisture from the RainForest's stale exhaust air and giving it to the dry outside airstream once every 2.5 hours.
bringing in fresh air
The term "desiccant" refers to material bonded to the surface of the heat wheels. The desiccant collects moisture and odors, which are exhausted out of the building from the upper portion of the wheels.
The wheels rotate anywhere from seven to 18 times a minute, depending on the humidity level. Fresh air, referred to as "process air," is drawn in by the same wheels.
The fresh air's temperature and humidity are moderated by the wheels' slow revolution and the fact that the wheels' mass and desiccant surface transfers a portion of the heat and moisture collected from the interior. Heaters, when necessary, warm the air before it passes to the RainForest's spacious interior, which has more than 60 temperature zones, including those for offices, a cafeteria, and gift shops.
Rather than being roof-mounted and exposed to the elements, as is commonly done with air handling units, the ones serving the RainForest are built into the facility to maintain unit efficiency that would otherwise be lost in Cleveland's warm summers and cold winters.
The desiccant process was selected for both efficiency and simplicity. It was concluded that boilers, Z-ducts, heat pipes, or other methods did not compare to the 85-percent efficiency the heat wheels provide. Additionally, heat wheels are fairly simple to operate. The thinking was that the simpler the fundamental mechanical equipment, the greater the reliability and ease of maintenance. That proved to be the case—up to a point. While the technology should have worked flawlessly, a nagging problem developed.
Each wheel rotates with a custom-fabricated, 31-foot-long belt and, when first installed, was equipped with a one-horsepower ac electric motor rated for 1,750 rpm, and a mechanical gearbox to provide a 5:1 gear reduction.
At the time of installation, this was a fairly common equipment configuration. However, it was discovered that mechanical gearboxes used for the RainForest were failing at an alarming rate.
picking up the pace
The difficulty was finally identified. It dealt with the revolutions per minute. The pace was too slow for the gearboxes' splash lubricating systems to properly engage. As a result, parts were not being properly oiled and were wearing out prematurely.
Direct Air Systems thought about its experiences with other HVAC applications and mentioned to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo maintenance team an ac drive/ac motor solution that didn't require gearboxes. This was becoming an increasingly common arrangement and had a good track record. It was also state-of-the-art technology, moving away from the problems and complexities that moving-parts mechanisms presented.
"When we saw we weren't getting too far with the gearbox-lubrication issue, we turned to equipment that was available to us—now," Steve Snyder, president of Direct Air Systems, explained. "The direct torque approach we recommended was something that would be cost-effective, easy to maintain, and simple in its operation. Gear lubrication would not be an issue. Plus, direct torque is proven engineering. The Cleveland Metroparks sought bids for the project, as it is a public agency, and our bid was selected."
The retrofit involved ABB's Direct Torque Control solution, which uses the ac motor's torque as the primary control element.
The original one-hp ac motor and gearbox equipment in each of the energy wheel systems was removed and replaced with an ABB 5-hp induction motor/ac low-voltage drive combination. This arrangement allows the motor to be connected directly to the load without the need for a gearbox or pulse encoder. The ABB solution allows full motor torque down to zero speed.
Through the use of an algorithm, the ABB drives, in this case variable speed ACS models, can run without an encoder to provide speed feedback. The algorithm enables the drive to calculate the state of the motor's torque and flux 40,000 times per second. Elimination of the encoder further reduces maintenance and decreases downtime.
Although each energy wheel system is controlled by individual Johnson Controls systems, the status of the motors and drives is monitored by the RainForest's comprehensive Johnson Controls building management system.
In the event of a control failure, the ABB ACS drives are designed to go automatically to a preset rpm rate, to ensure that heat transfer is maintained. Spare motors are on hand at the RainForest and drives are kept at Direct Air Systems' office location, minutes away from the facility.
Since the installation of the ABB motor/drive combination more than four years ago, there has been no interruption in service. Direct Air Systems is seeing increasing use of direct torque control.
"It is definitely one of the approaches we recommend," Snyder explained. "Often there is more than one way to solve a problem. The Direct Torque Control method proved to be a good solution. It has three characteristics that we like: It's cost-effective, simple, and reliable."
Article Source: www.memagazine.org/backissues/membersonly/mar07/features/rainfore/rainfore.html
Tropical Forests - Earth's Air Conditioner
The researchers, including Ken Caldeira of Carnegie's Department of Global Ecology and Govindasamy Bala at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, found that because tropical forests store large amounts of carbon and produce reflective clouds, they are especially good at cooling the planet. In contrast, forests in snowy areas can warm the Earth, because their dark canopy absorbs sunlight that would otherwise be reflected back to space by a bright white covering of snow.
The work simulates the effects of large-scale deforestation, and accounts for the positive and negative climate effects of tree cover at different latitudes. The result, which appears in this week's early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, makes a strong case for protecting and restoring tropical forests.
"Tropical forests are like Earth's air conditioner," Caldeira said. "When it comes to rehabilitating forests to fight global warming, carbon dioxide might be only half of the story; we also have to account for whether they help to reflect sunlight by producing clouds, or help to absorb it by shading snowy tundra."
Forests in colder, sub-polar latitudes evaporate less water and are less effective at producing clouds. As a result, the main climate effect of these forests is to increase the absorption of sunlight, which can overwhelm the cooling effect of carbon storage.
However, Caldeira believes it would be counterproductive to cut down forests in snowy areas, even if it could help to combat global warming. "A primary reason we are trying to slow global warming is to protect nature," he explains. "It just makes no sense to destroy natural ecosystems in the name of saving natural ecosystems."
Article Source: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070409181831.htm
Cleaning The Atmosphere Of Carbon: African Forests Out Of Balance
In a companion article, Helene Muller-Landau, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, says that understanding the causes of this African forest carbon sink and projecting its future is anything but straightforward.
Growing trees absorb carbon. Dead, decomposing trees release carbon. Researchers expect growth and death to approximately balance each other out in mature, undisturbed forests, and thus for total tree carbon stocks, the carbon held by the trees, to remain approximately constant. Yet Lewis and colleagues discovered that on average each hectare (100 x 100 meters, or 2.2 acres) of apparently mature, undisturbed African forest was increasing in tree carbon stocks by an amount equal to the weight of a small car each year. Previous studies have shown that Amazonian forests also take up carbon, although at somewhat lower rates.
"If you assume that these forests should be in equilibrium, then the best way to explain why trees are growing bigger is anthropogenic global change – the extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could essentially be acting as fertilizer." says Muller-Landau, "But it's also possible that tropical forests are still growing back following past clearing or fire or other disturbance. Given increasing evidence that tropical forests have a long history of human occupation, recovery from past disturbance is almost certainly part of the reason these forests are taking up carbon today."
Muller-Landau, who directs a project to monitor carbon budgets in forest study sites worldwide as part of the Smithsonian's Center for Tropical Forest Science and the HSBC Climate Partnership, advises that this newfound sink shouldn't be taken for granted, or presumed to continue indefinitely. "While we still can't explain exactly what is behind this carbon sink, one thing we know for sure is that it can't be a sink forever. Trees and forests just can't keep getting bigger. Tropical forests are buying us a bit more time right now, but we can't count on them to continue to offset our carbon emissions in the future."
Article Source: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090219105322.htm
Tropical Rainforest Nutrients Linked To Global Carbon Dioxide Levels
Results of the research, conducted by Cory Cleveland and CU scientist Alan Townsend, are published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"The large change in carbon dioxide emissions from tropical forest soils due to soil nutrients is a new dimension in understanding these important ecosystems," said Martyn Caldwell, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research.
"Tropical rainforests have received considerable attention related to the global carbon balance, but that has largely revolved around rainforest vegetation and its ability to 'take up' carbon dioxide," said Caldwell. "This is a new look at tropical rainforests and their relationship to carbon dioxide levels on Earth."
The study showed that when phosphorus or nitrogen -- which occur naturally in rain forest soils -- were added to forest plots in Costa Rica, they caused an increase in carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere by about 20 percent annually, said Cleveland.
"The study is important because human activities are changing the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen in ecosystems all over the globe, including the tropics," Cleveland said. "Tropical rain forests play a dominant role on Earth in regulating atmospheric carbon dioxide."
One big question, said Cleveland, "is how tropical rain forests are responding to climate change. What we have demonstrated is that even small changes in nutrients could have a profound impact on the release of carbon dioxide from tropical forest soils."
The study, which took place in 2004 and 2005 in Costa Rica's Golfo Dulce Forest Reserve, included a series of 25 meter-square plots that were fertilized with phosphorus, nitrogen, or a combination of the two.
Tropical forests contain up to 40 percent of the carbon stored on Earth's continents and account for at least one-third of the annual exchange of carbon dioxide between the biosphere and the atmosphere, said Cleveland. Earth's soils are believed to store several times more carbon than all the planet's vegetation.
"This is the first time anyone has taken a close look at how changes in key nutrients may alter soil carbon dioxide emissions in tropical forests," said Cleveland. "Processes in the tropics affect what is happening around the globe, so this study has some big implications."
Phosphorus is known as a "limiting nutrient" because its availability can govern the growth rate of many organisms. While slash-and-burn agriculture in the tropics often reduces soil phosphorus in the long run, the practice can initially make more phosphorus available to tropical soil microbes, increasing their metabolism and the amounts of carbon dioxide they emit.
Phosphorus and many other nutrients are regularly transported around the Earth by global wind patterns, sometimes riding on huge transcontinental dust clouds, said Townsend. "There is strong evidence that humans are increasing the size of these dust clouds as changes occur in both land-use patterns and climate, which in turn can alter the availability of nutrients to forests," he said.
Nitrogen pollution also is increasing around the world, including in tropical forests, a result of fossil-fuel combustion and crop fertilization activities, said Townsend.
Article Source: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060621084137.htm
Tropical Deforestation
Stretching out from the equator on all Earth’s land surfaces is a wide belt of forests of amazing diversity and productivity. Tropical forests include dense rainforests, where rainfall is abundant year-round; seasonally moist forests, where rainfall is abundant, but seasonal; and drier, more open woodlands. Tropical forests of all varieties are disappearing rapidly as humans clear the natural landscape to make room for farms and pastures, to harvest timber for construction and fuel, and to build roads and urban areas. Although deforestation meets some human needs, it also has profound, sometimes devastating, consequences, including social conflict, extinction of plants and animals, and climate change—challenges that aren’t just local, but global. NASA supports and conducts research on tropical forests from space-based and ground-based perspectives, helping provide the information that national and international leaders need to develop strategies for sustaining human populations and preserving tropical forest biodiversity.
Impacts of Deforestation: Biodiversity Impacts
Although tropical forests cover only about 7 percent of the Earth’s dry land, they probably harbor about half of all species on Earth. Many species are so specialized to microhabitats within the forest that they can only be found in small areas. Their specialization makes them vulnerable to extinction. In addition to the species lost when an area is totally deforested, the plants and animals in the fragments of forest that remain also become increasingly vulnerable, sometimes even committed, to extinction. The edges of the fragments dry out and are buffeted by hot winds; mature rainforest trees often die standing at the margins. Cascading changes in the types of trees, plants, and insects that can survive in the fragments rapidly reduces biodiversity in the forest that remains. People may disagree about whether the extinction of other species through human action is an ethical issue, but there is little doubt about the practical problems that extinction poses.
First, global markets consume rainforest products that depend on sustainable harvesting: latex, cork, fruit, nuts, timber, fibers, spices, natural oils and resins, and medicines. In addition, the genetic diversity of tropical forests is basically the deepest end of the planetary gene pool. Hidden in the genes of plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria that have not even been discovered yet may be cures for cancer and other diseases or the key to improving the yield and nutritional quality of foods—which the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says will be crucial for feeding the nearly ten billion people the Earth will likely need to support in coming decades. Finally, genetic diversity in the planetary gene pool is crucial for the resilience of all life on Earth to rare but catastrophic environmental events, such as meteor impacts or massive, sustained volcanism.
Soil Impacts
With all the lushness and productivity that exist in tropical forests, it can be surprising to learn that tropical soils are actually very thin and poor in nutrients. The underlying “parent” rock weathers rapidly in the tropics’ high temperatures and heavy rains, and over time, most of the minerals have washed from the soil. Nearly all the nutrient content of a tropical forest is in the living plants and the decomposing litter on the forest floor.
When an area is completely deforested for farming, the farmer typically burns the trees and vegetation to create a fertilizing layer of ash. After this slash-and-burn deforestation, the nutrient reservoir is lost, flooding and erosion rates are high, and soils often become unable to support crops in just a few years. If the area is then turned into cattle pasture, the ground may become compacted as well, slowing down or preventing forest recovery.
Social Impacts
Tropical forests are home to millions of native (indigenous) people who make their livings through subsistence agriculture, hunting and gathering, or through low-impact harvesting of forest products like rubber or nuts. Deforestation in indigenous territories by loggers, colonizers, and refugees has sometimes triggered violent conflict. Forest preservation can be socially divisive, as well. National and international governments and aid agencies struggle with questions about what level of human presence, if any, is compatible with conservation goals in tropical forests, how to balance the needs of indigenous peoples with expanding rural populations and national economic development, and whether establishing large, pristine, uninhabited protected areas—even if that means removing current residents—should be the highest priority of conservation efforts in tropical forests.
Articel Source: www.earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Deforestation/
How to Save Tropical Rainforests
Deforestation of tropical rainforests has a global impact through species extinction, the loss of important ecosystem services and renewable resources, and the reduction of carbon sinks. However, this destruction can be slowed, stopped, and in some cases even reversed. Most people agree that the problem must be remedied, but the means are not as simple as fortifying fences around the remaining rainforests or banning the timber trade. Economic, political, and social pressures will not allow rainforests to persist if they are completely closed off from use and development.
So, what should be done? The solution must be based on what is feasible, not overly idealistic, and depends on developing a new conservation policy built on the principle of sustainable use and development of rainforests. Beyond the responsible development of rainforests, efforts to rehabilitate and restore degraded forest lands along with the establishment of protected areas are key to securing rainforests for the long-term benefits they can provide mankind.
Past efforts
Historic approaches to rainforest conservation have failed, as demonstrated by the accelerated rate of deforestation. In many regions, closing off forests as untouchable parks and reserves has neither improved the quality of living or economic opportunities for rural poor nor deterred forest clearing by illegal loggers and developers. Corruption has only worsened the situation.
The problem with this traditional park approach to preserving wildlands in developing countries is that it fails to generate sufficient economic incentives for respecting and maintaining the forest. Rainforests will only continue to survive as functional ecosystems if they can be shown to provide tangible economic benefits. Local people and the government itself must see financial returns to justify the costs of maintaining parks and forgoing revenue from economic activities within the boundaries of the protected area.
Limited resources
Countries with significant rainforest cover are generally among the world's poorest. As such, people's day-to-day survival is dependent upon natural-resource use. Most local people living in and around forests never have an option to become a doctor, sports star, factory worker, or secretary; they must live off the land that surrounds them, making use of whatever resources they can find. Their poverty costs themselves, their country, and the world through the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services like erosion prevention, flood control, water treatment, and fisheries protection.
Governments in these countries are in the unenviable position of having to balance the well-being of rural poor with the interests of industry, demands from foreign governments, and requirements from the international aid community. In this climate, it can be easier to simply neglect the continued destruction and degradation of environmental assets than to come up with a long-term plan to ensure that economic development is ecologically sustainable. Success in conserving wildlands in these countries will require reconciling the inevitable conflicts between short-term needs of local people and the long-term nature of the benefits that conservation can generate on a sustainable, ongoing basis.
Forces behind rainforest loss
Rainforests are being cut mostly for economic reasons, though there are political and social motivations as well. A significant portion of deforestation is caused by poor farmers simply trying to eke out a living on marginal lands. Beyond conversion for subsistence agriculture, activities like logging, clearing for cattle pasture and commercial agriculture are sizeable contributors to deforestation on a global scale. Agricultural fires typically used for land-clearing are increasingly spreading outside cultivated areas and into degraded rainforest regions.
Addressing deforestation
Addressing deforestation will need to take the very different needs and interests of these groups into account.
Poor farmers:
Poor farmers are simply trying to put food on the table for their families. A better approach to addressing the needs of the rural poor may be improving and intensifying currently existing agricultural projects and promoting alternative cultivation techniques—notably permaculture. Permaculture adds a mix of crops to the farmer's palette that both enables him to diversify his income stream and enhance degraded soils by restoring nutrients. An added benefit of such techniques is that they maintain forest systems, soils, and biological diversity at a far higher level than do conventional agricultural approaches. As long as such fields are adjacent to secondary and old-growth forest, many species will continue to thrive.
One promising area of research looks at ancient societies that lived in the Amazon rainforest before the arrival of Europeans in the 15th century. Apparently these populations were able to enrich the rainforest soil, which is usually quite poor, using charcoal and animal bones. By improving soil quality, large areas of the Amazon that have been deforested could be used to support agriculture. This could help reduce pressure on rainforest areas for agricultural land. Further, the "terra preta" soil could be used to help fight global warming since it absorbs carbon dioxide, an important greenhouse gas.
A second important part of aiding poor farmers is helping them gain formal title to their land. Right now, in places where it is difficult to gain ownership rights to land and where land is relatively open and abundant, there is little incentive to maintain or improve holdings. Once local people have a stake in the land they are farming, they will have an interest in using it efficiently instead of moving on to a new area of forest once soils are prematurely exhausted.
The creation of credit facilities for poor farmers to both save their earnings and borrow in times of need is also important to improving their quality of life. Micro-credit facilities can provide significant economic benefits to the local economy while bringing dignity to and promoting entrepreneurship among local people.
Finally, improved access to markets is important in enabling farmers to get their agricultural products. Improved access can be a doubled-edged sword if it means increased road-building, which often spurs further deforestation. Any infrastructure improvements should be carefully planned to minimize the future impact on remaining ecosystems.
Industrial/commercial developers:
Thus far it has proved difficult to apply the same permaculture agricultural techniques mentioned above to industrial operations. As currently practiced, large-scale agriculture is typically quite destructive of native ecosystems and does not maintain biodiversity at levels commensurate with adjacent forest areas. Incremental steps like the use of natural pest control and fertilizers can help reduce pollution caused by agricultural operations, while leaving strips of forest as corridors linking sections of forest helps moderate biodiversity losses.
Sustainable logging, while possible, has met resistance from the timber industry for its lack of efficiency relative to traditional harvesting methods, and it remains controversial among conservationists as to the impact on the environment. Illegal logging and counterfeit labeling are major obstacles facing sustainable forest management for timber, but in time the development of higher yielding timber plantations will help alleviate pressures on natural forests.
Restoring and rehabilitating ecosystems
There is no use bemoaning past deforestation of large areas. Today the concern is how to best utilize lands already cleared so they support productive activities, now and for future generations. Without improving the well-being of people living in and around forests, we cannot expect rainforests to persist as fully functional systems and continue to cater to our needs.
In addressing environmental problems in rainforest countries, it is important that decision makers not only be concerned with the transformation of existing natural ecosystems, but also the more rational utilization of already cleared and degraded areas. To lessen future forest loss, we must increase and sustain the productivity of farms, pastures, plantations, and scrub land in addition to restoring species and ecosystems to degraded habitats. By reducing wasteful land-use practices, consolidating gains on existing cleared lands, and improving already developed lands, we can diminish the need to clear additional forest.
Research and experience has shown that the restoration of entire ecosystems is most possible in regions where parts or at least remnants of the original forest still remain and there are few human population pressures. Small clearings surrounded by forest recover quickly, and large sections may recover in time, especially if some assistance in the reforestation process is provided. After several years, a once-barren field can again support vegetation in the form of pioneer species and secondary growth. Although the secondary forest will be low in diversity and poorly developed, the forest cover will be adequate for some species to return (assuming they still exist). In addition, the newly forested patch can be used for the sustainable harvest of forest products and low-intensity logging and agriculture.
Funding rainforest conservation efforts
Conservation efforts and sustainable development programs are not going to be cost-free. Even countries that already get considerable aid from foreign donors have trouble effectively making such initiatives work in the long term. Since handouts, which in and of themselves have the tendency to breed dependency, are not going to last forever, funding these initiatives may require more creative sources of income to be truly successful. Here are some other funding strategies for consideration:
Ecotourism—Ecotourism can fund efforts both through park entrance fees and employing locals as guides and in the handicraft and service sectors (hotels, restaurants, drivers, boat drivers, porters, cooks).
Bio-prospecting fees—Rainforest countries can earn revenue by allowing scientists to develop products from the island's native plant and animal species. The pioneer in this area was Costa Rica, which entered into an agreement with the American pharmaceutical company, Merck, to look for plants with potential pharmaceutical applications. Under the agreement, a portion of the proceeds from compounds that do prove commercially valuable will go to the Costa Rican government, which has guaranteed that some of the royalties will be set aside for conservation projects. Similarly, in 2001 Givaudan, a Swiss fragrance and flavor company, sent a team to look for new exotic smells and flavors in Madagascar. Following their survey, Givaudan researchers "reconstituted" 40 aromas that could be used in commercial products. The company has agreed to share a portion of the profits from these products with local communities through conservation and development initiatives.
Carbon credits—For setting aside forest for the purpose of atmospheric carbon mitigation, developing countries can receive payments from industrialized countries looking to offset their carbon emissions. Carbon-offset programs are popular in many circles, since they can "provide a mechanism for motivating wealthy countries to pay for a benefit of forest conservation that transcends national borders." In effect, such programs promote "the transfer of funds from industrialized countries to tropical countries as a commercial transaction rather than an act of charity" (Costa, P.M. "Tropical forestry practices for carbon sequestration: a review and case study from Southeast Asia," Ambio Vol. 25 No. 4, June 1996)).
Corporate sponsorship—Corporations have been a bit slow in "adopting" parks, but they have the money and a marketing-driven interest in taking a closer look at such schemes. See below for more details on a potential plan.
The Linden-Lovejoy-Phillips plan—One interesting idea proposed by Eugene Linden, Thomas Lovejoy, and J. Daniel Phillips for tropical rainforests consists of dividing natural areas into blocks and then soliciting funding commitments from international environmental groups, development institutions, corporations, and other credible donors. There would be a bidding process, after which an entity would take responsibility for maintaining forest cover and forest health in each block of the entire forest system. This plan could be a road for corporations to become involved in conservation as a public-relations/marketing tool. A given percentage of the proceeds could be put into a trust fund with the payout ear-marked for ongoing conservation and sustainable development programs.
Further steps once funding is in place
Expand protected areas—As many areas should be protected as soon as possible. If protected areas can be developed in such a manner to generate income for local communities, an increasing number of parks should theoretically create more economic benefits for a greater share of the population.
Increase surveillance of and patrols in protected areas—This can be done at a reduced cost if local communities benefit from the success of the park. If locals have a vested interest (i.e. are compensated via entrance fees, hired as guides, make handicrafts to sell to tourists, and learn to value their ecosystem for the services it can provide), they will want to watch the park so that the source of their income is not diminished. Community surveillance is the most effective way to patrol a protected area, though it will probably be necessary to have park staff conduct patrols as well. Guides should be trained as well to keep watch for activities that are damaging to the ecosystem and report suspicious activities at park headquarters.
Build research facilities for training local scientists and guides—The average rainforest country needs to build its intellectual capital to grow its economy and make the best use of the country's resources. There need to be further studies on endemic species (many just have a name and a location and new species are being discovered every year) for both pure-research reasons and potential commercial applications. Improved crop yields and reduced erosion could also be possible with future research.
Establish programs that promote sustainable use—Programs that promote sustainable use are key to elevating the standard of living for people living around protected areas. Not all members of a community will see the direct benefits from employment in the service or production sector, and many people will still rely on traditional use of the natural resources around them. These resources must be used in a more effective manner to maximize productivity and minimize the impact on the environment.
Compensate displaced people—As more protected areas are set aside, it is inevitable that some people may be asked to move. It is important that these people are compensated for abandoning their existing livelihood and homes. While direct cash payouts is an option, a better strategy is providing these displaced people with long-term income possibilities through training in better agricultural techniques or alternative crops.
Involve indigenous people, where they still exist, in park management. Indigenous people know more about the forest than anyone and have an interest in safeguarding it as a productive ecosystem that provides them food, shelter, and clean water. Research has found that in some cases, "indigenous reserves" may actually protect rainforest better than national parks in the Amazon.
Promote ecotourism—Ecotourism is perhaps the best hope for developing the economy of some rainforest countries. Planners should seek to minimize the environmental impact and maximize the benefits for local communities.
Ensure economic success does not result in increased deforestation—As rural populations begin to reap benefits from conservation-related activities, it is important that they not reinvest this income in activities that result in further deforestation. Traditionally, in many villages, the more money someone made, the more money was put back into land clearing. Rural banks and savings institutions are virtually unknown in many parts of the developing world. Such facilities, which would enable both saving and lending, could rapidly change the lives of millions through increased entrepreneurship and the ability to put away money for the future.
Encourage entrepreneurship—Encouraging entrepreneurship through such a micro-credit strategy could pay significant dividends for a country's economy as a whole. Studies in developing countries have found that entrepreneurial skills among the poor are actually quite high when people are given access to capital. Default rates are typically quite low as well (do the poor have a greater respect for money?). Stimulating entrepreneurship through small, low-cost loans is possibly a better approach than handouts, which may do little more than breed dependency and reduce human dignity.
Looking toward the future, tough choices
Simply banning the timber trade or establishing reserves will not be enough to salvage the world's remaining tropical rainforests. In order for the forest to be preserved, the underlying social, economic, and political reasons for deforestation must be recognized and addressed. Once the issues are brought into the light, the decision can be made about what should be done. If it is decided that rainforests must be saved, then the creation of multi-use reserves that promote sustainable development and education of local people would be a good place to start. Currently about 6 percent of the world's remaining forests are protected, meaning that over 90 percent are still open for the taking. However, even this 6 percent is not safe if the proper steps towards sustainable development are not taken. If possible, reforestation and restoration projects should be encouraged if we, humanity, hope to come out of this situation without serious, long-term consequences.
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THE CANOPY
An estimated 70-90 percent of life in the rainforest exists in the trees, above the shaded forest floor. Primary tropical rainforest is vertically divided into at least five layers: the overstory, the canopy, the understory, the shrub layer, and the forest floor. Each layer has its own unique plant and animal species interacting with the ecosystem around them. The overstory refers to the crowns of emergent trees which soar 20-100 feet above the rest of the canopy. The canopy is the dense ceiling of closely spaced trees and their branches, while the understory is the term for more widely spaced, smaller tree species and juvenile individuals that form a broken layer below the canopy. The shrub layer is characterized by shrubby species and juvenile trees that grow only 5-20 feet off the forest floor. The forest floor is the ground layer of the forest made up of the trunks of trees, fungus, and low-growing vegetation. These layers are not always distinct and can vary from forest to forest, but serve as a good model of the vegetative and mechanical structures of the forest.
The billions of leaves of the canopy, acting as miniature solar panels, provide the source of power for the forest by converting sunlight to energy through photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the process by which plants convert atmospheric carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and simple sugars. Since the rate of photosynthesis of canopy trees is so high, these plants have a higher yield of fruits, seeds, flowers, and leaves which attract and support a wide diversity of animal life. Besides attracting a broad array of wildlife, the canopy plays an important role in regulating regional and global climate because it is the principal site of the interchange of heat, water vapor, and atmospheric gases. In addition to collecting solar energy and regulating the climate, the canopy shields the understory from harsh and intense sunlight, drying winds, and heavy rainfall, and retains the moisture of the forest below. Thus the forest interior is a far less volatile environment than the upper parts of the canopy ceiling. The interior region is protected from the extremes of the canopy: temperature fluctuations, damaging solar radiation, and strong winds. Light levels are diffuse and subdued, the humidity is higher and more constant, and there is very little direct sunlight in the lower canopy.Article Source: www.mongabay.com
Indonesian ecolabeling initiative providing cover for rainforest destruction
Telapak and Forest Watch Indonesia say the Indonesian Ecolabel Institute (LEI) has issued sustainability certificates to two companies with documented environmental abuses in Sumatra: Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper, a subsidiary of Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Ltd., and Wira Karya Sakti, a subsidiary of Asia Pulp and Paper.
"LEI's certification only looks at how the timber estates are managed once operational, without considering the significant ecological impacts of forest conversion, especially in peat ecosystems. These industrial timber estates are built by converting natural forests into monocultured plantations, which is clearly against the principles of sustainable forest management," said Wirendro Sumargo, Executive Director of Forest Watch Indonesia.
The environmental groups say that the Indonesian government is part of the problem — it has been issuing new industrial timber estate licenses on lands that have standing forest. "The government has several criteria for timber estate development that stipulate they must be on barren land or land without forest cover," the groups said in a statement. "In reality, many timber estates have been established on logged-over areas in productive forests and even in virgin forests."
The groups cite a recent concession concession granted to PT Selaras Inti Semesta, a subsidiary of the Medco Group, in Papua as an example. Analysis of the concession shows that 44 percent of the 259,000-hectare concession is "good natural forest".
"Establishing industrial timber estates on natural forest and peat ecosystems means ignoring the risks of deforestation, forest fires, social conflicts and climate change," said Wirendro. "Such certification must be halted until there is a guarantee that industrial timber estates will not be allocated on productive natural forest and peat ecosystems."
"Industrial Timber Estate certification like the ones in Sumatera are a misleading eco-label," said Husnaeni Nugroho, Telapak forest campaigner. "LEI must stop this scheme or the forests in Papua will suffer from great risks associated with forest conversion."
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Drought and deforestation in southeast Asia to contribute to climate change
Fires linked to drought and deforestation in Borneo, Sumatra, and New Guinea trigger the releaseof 3.3 billion tons of CO2 between 2000-2006
Analyzing six years of climate and fire data from satellites, Guido van der Werf and colleagues report that burning of rainforests and peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea released an average of 128 million tons of carbon (470 million tons of carbon dioxide - CO2) per year between 2000 and 2006. Fire emissions showed highly variability during the period, but were greatest in dry years, such as those that occur during El Niño events. Borneo was the largest source of fire emissions during the period, averaging 74 million tons per year, followed by Sumatra, which showed a doubling in emissions between 2000 and 2006. Both islands are experiencing rapid forest destruction due to logging and conversion to industrial oil palm plantations. Forests are usually logged and then burned to establish plantations. Previously analyses have shown a high correlation between the location of fire hot spots and plantations in both Malaysia and Indonesia. 
The researchers say their results highlight the importance of including deforestation in future climate agreements. "Deforestation and carbon emissions are substantial and important contributors to the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," James Randerson, climate scientist at UCI and co-author of the study, said. "We should not neglect this flux in developing comprehensive approaches for stabilizing climate."
Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) is indeed under discussion at current climate talks in Poznan, Poland, although the mechanism is being held up due to technical debates and poor coordination among some parties. Globally deforestation accounts for roughly 20 percent of emissions — greater than all the world's cars, trucks, planes, and ships combined. In some years, such 1997-1998 which was marked by a particularly strong Niñ;o event; deforestation and emissions from vegetation burning can account for more than one-third of total anthropogenic emissions.
Forest loss exacerbates drying by reducing evapotranspiration by trees. Smoke can also inhibit rainfall while changes in surface reflectivity or albedo can discourage the formation of rain clouds.
Fire as a climate variable
Given the influence of human land management practices on climate, the authors conclude by suggesting that future climate models incorporate anthropogenic use of fire as a carbon–climate feedback mechanism.
"To date, climate–carbon cycle feedbacks have been mostly modeled as an interaction of canopy-level processes such as reduced net primary productivity and increased soil respiration in response to temperature increases," they write. "Our results provide evidence that the response of human agents (land users) to drought may comprise an equally important class of carbon–climate feedback mechanisms in the tropics. Without proper mitigation strategies, emissions from this region have the potential to increase substantially as climate projections suggest future drying and warming.
CITATION: G. R. van der Werfa at al (2008). Climate regulation of fire emissions and deforestation in equatorial Asia. PNAS Early Edition December 8, 2008
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