Dispatches
2012; Wiley; Volume: 10; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1890/10.1.4
ISSN1540-9309
AutoresESA,
Tópico(s)Oil Palm Production and Sustainability
ResumoA December 2011 report, The Truth Behind APP's Greenwash, produced by the Indonesian NGO Eyes on the Forest and WWF, claims paper giant Asian Pulp and Paper (APP) is irresponsibly logging Sumatra's tropical forests while running a misleading media campaign to camouflage its activities. These activities include clearcutting inside a tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) sanctuary the company itself helped set up. “APP's large-scale greenwashing campaign runs counter to a string of missed commitments to source pulp for its Sumatran pulp mills from plantation timber rather than native tropical forests”, according to a spokesperson for WWF International. “Now, for instance, suppliers to APP are clearcutting within an area the company itself designated as [part of] the Senepis Tiger Sanctuary, which it points to as an example of its commitment to tiger conservation.” Clearcutting in the Senepis Tiger Sanctuary. The report implies that the Senepis Tiger Sanctuary was in fact a machination of APP to prevent its suppliers from losing logging concession land to a government-proposed Senepis National Park in 2004, and to gain “green points” at the same time. Maps show that, instead of the national park appearing, an APP-proposed sanctuary materialized farther to the northwest. However, most of this sanctuary's 106 081 ha fall on concession land already protected by an unrelated, Forest Stewardship Council-certified company. The contribution from APP timber supplier concessions is only around 8000 ha, within which clear-cutting is reported to have already taken place. “Satellite images and groundwork show that, overall, APP suppliers have cleared about 49 000 ha of the [entire] Senepis tiger landscape – including most of the area selected as worthy of national park status”, said the WWF spokesperson. “This is not what most people would view as tiger conservation.” “All of APP's operations are sustainable and legal, and are routinely audited by internationally recognized, credible third-party organizations”, argues Ian Lifshitz, Sustainability Manager, the Americas, APP Group (Toronto, Canada). “Regarding the specific allegations made in the Eyes on the Forest report, it has been proven through official Government maps that these accusations are totally unfounded.” A recent Greenomics Indonesia report (www.greenomics.org/docs/Report_201112_EoF_Report.pdf) insists, however, that these maps are “not based on [those] in the microdelineation document [approved] by the Government of Indonesia”. Observations at submarine springs along the coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula have provided a grim preview of the probable fate of coral reefs as oceans turn more acidic with the increasing absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Findings published online in Coral Reefs (2011; doi:10.1007/s00338-011-0839-y) offer fresh evidence that the diversity and abundance of reef-building corals will decline, likely bringing momentous shifts to reef ecosystems. The global ocean has become 30% more acidic since the Industrial Revolution, lowering seawater pH, which reduces levels of carbonate ions used by many marine organisms for constructing shells and skeletons. A handful of field studies around underwater volcanic CO2 vents have documented the strong impacts of these conditions on individual organisms and communities, and evidence from laboratory research is mounting on the harmful effects on animal respiration, reproduction, and other critical functions. Off the limestone-rich Yucatán coast, natural springs continuously discharge groundwater with naturally low pH, comparable to oceanic conditions expected worldwide by 2100. This submarine outflow mixes with coastal waters flowing around the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, roughly 50 meters away, providing an ideal setting for investigating long-term impacts of acidification on corals and other organisms. In a 3-year study led by Elizabeth Crook of the University of California, Santa Cruz, researchers sampled pH and other seawater characteristics at varying distances from 10 springs. They also tabulated the number of coral species and the density and size of coral colonies. The results showed that, compared with sites nearest to the reef, there was a threefold decrease in the diversity and size of coral colonies closest to the springs (where pH was lowest). “The good news is that some coral species are able to calcify and grow at very low pH”, says coauthor Adina Paytan. “The bad news is that they are rarely major contributors to the Caribbean reef framework.” This suggests that ocean acidification's impacts on reefs will vary depending on species and ecosystems, the authors write. Although some calcifying corals will likely adapt and continue to grow, decreases in coral diversity will change the composition and species richness of reefs, potentially altering or reducing the ecosystem services they provide. In March 2011, a massive earthquake epicentered under the Pacific Ocean near Japan's east coast generated a tsunami that damaged reactors at the Fukushima Dai'ichi plant, triggering a well-publicized nuclear crisis. In the four months following the disaster, US chemist Ken Buesseler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Woods Hole, MA) and Japanese scientists Michio Aoyama of the Meteorological Research Institute (Tsukuba, Japan) and Masao Fukasawa of the Japan Agency for Marine–Earth Science and Technology (Yokosuka, Japan) began collecting and analyzing data on the radioactivity levels of the ocean waters adjacent to the plant. “Fukushima is the largest accidental source of radionuclides to the ocean. Because of this, concentrations of many man-made radionuclides, such as cesium-137 and cesium-134, are orders of magnitude higher than before”, explains Buesseler. The study culminated in an article published in Environmental Science and Technology (2011; doi:10.1021/es202816c). Buesseler and his colleagues found that radioactivity peaked in April, one month after the tsunami, but levels remained high through July 2011, when the study concluded. Despite these elevated readings, the study also confirmed the “good news” that natural dilution in the ocean means that levels are hundreds, or even thousands, of times lower farther from shore and over time. Because of this dilution effect, major impacts on human health are unlikely. “Except for at the release point, concentrations are still lower than those for the most abundant natural radionuclide in the ocean, potassium-40. So we don't expect concern regarding direct human exposure or direct ecological impacts to marine biota”, continues Buesseler. “But the bad news is that, at the source [the discharge point in the ocean at the power plant], the levels are still high...and continuing through December [shown by continued monitoring], so the source has not shut off.” Indirect consequences of radioactivity are still of regional concern. For example, seafood samples caught in nearby waters continue to register radionuclide levels above the Japanese threshold of concern (500 becquerels – a measurement of radioactivity – per kilogram for cesium-137). Buesseler says this trend has not diminished over time: “Even if the levels are not directly harmful to humans or to sea life, it's worth studying to better understand the accumulation of radionuclides in seafood and in the seafloor [sediments], as well as its transport in the ocean – all areas where we know something, but not enough for protection and assessment…not just of Fukushima, but of other possible sources in the future.” The American Bird Conservancy's (ABC's) recent petition to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to regulate bird kills by wind turbines uses some legal wrangling in its attempt to protect the more than one thousand species protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). Turbines kill up to 440000 birds yearly, by FWS's own estimation. At least some of those birds are covered under the MBTA, which states that only expressly permitted “take” of these birds is legal. Without any regulation, every turbine is violating the law, ABC argues. “There is no doubt that wounding or killing a migratory bird protected under the MBTA with a wind turbine is a violation”, says Shruti Suresh, a lawyer with Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal (Washington, DC), who helped ABC prepare its petition. Legal precedent appears to be on ABC's side, with the 1999 decision in the case of United States vs Moon Lake Electric Association Inc. Moon Lake, an electrical distribution cooperative in rural Utah and Colorado, was charged with six MBTA violations after its power poles electrocuted birds of prey. The court found that Moon Lake should have anticipated that a lack of protective equipment on its poles would result in bird deaths. Red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) injured by a turbine at the Altamont Pass Wind Farm in California. Similarly, Suresh explains, wind turbines can be reasonably anticipated to kill birds, so a developer that chose an inappropriate site for a new turbine could be held criminally liable under the MBTA. But whether a developer would be held liable is still unclear. Legal studies professor Jeremy Firestone (University of Delaware, Newark), who coauthored a 2008 paper stating that courts would not be likely to lump responsibly operated wind turbines in with irresponsibly designed electrical poles, argues that “This is commerce, just like building buildings and driving cars, and there are going to be some bird kills. The companies shouldn't be subjected to criminal liabilities, or the threat of it.” FWS has not brought any lawsuits against wind energy developers, and private citizens can only take legal action against projects where there is a federal nexus (such as when projects are authorized on public lands, which are far outnumbered by private-land wind farms), so the threat of litigation may not be keeping developers up at night. Litigation or no, ABC's petition asks FWS to simply regulate wind projects. “The bottom line is that we have this incredible law, one of the oldest wildlife laws in this country, and it has worked well under many circumstances”, says Suresh. “Now, it just needs to evolve with what is happening in today's world.” Last February, David Harper, a scientist at the University of Leicester (Leicester, UK), urged retailers not only to sell “fair trade” flowers but also to consider ways to ensure the sustainability of the source of those flowers. Since 1982, he has studied Lake Naivasha in Kenya, home to numerous species of fish and birds, and a large population of hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius). Lake Naivasha provides cooling water for geothermal power exploration (which provides 15–20% of Kenya's electricity), and drinking and irrigation water for half a million people living in the catchment. In addition, most of the roses and many other flowers sold in Europe are grown along its shores. But Lake Naivasha's condition has severely deteriorated during the past few decades, due to a combination of an influx of invasive species and a rapidly increasing human population in the region. With minor improvements, many broken dams around the lake can be made useful. Retailers are beginning to heed the call. Both the Swiss and German–Austrian supermarket giants Coop and Rewe recently granted nearly US$270 000 to Harper and fellow conservation scientists Caroline Upton and Ed Morrison (University of Leicester) to develop and oversee projects to improve the health of Lake Naivasha and its watershed. Harper's team is now working with local people to restore sustainability to the lake's ecosystem, in part by teaching anti-erosion farming practices, water harvesting and drip irrigation methods, and water purification techniques through the use of artificial wetlands. In addition, Harper says, “We're in discussions with Floating Islands International, a US company that makes floating ‘islands’ of mesh made from recycled plastics into which one plants appropriate aquatic species. This is an excellent way of coping with a lake that has high natural water-level fluctuations and 1200–1500 hippopotamus, a population that is very important to conserve.” This method would also help protect the vegetation from African buffalo (Syncerus caffer), which would destroy it at the lake's edge, he adds. Harper believes that with some innovations, good use can be made of 900 or so small dams in the catchment – most broken – that are remnants of colonial times. “These dams are sediment traps, storing water that is used during the dry season. Small dams are now being proposed worldwide as an appropriate adaptation for dealing with climate change, [by] acting as sponges to mitigate flood events. My concept is to work with communities to manage the sustainable use of water from these dams.” Although most of the recent energy-related headlines in the US focused on fossil-fuel extraction, another development – which quietly took place last year – involved the export of energy resources from the US to Europe. RWE npower, a European company, began shipping wood pellets from the state of Georgia to the UK. The pellets, made from trees grown in the southeastern US, will be used in the Tilbury Power Station, the UK's largest biomass-fueled power facility. Tilbury received its first delivery – 46 000 metric tons of pellets – in November. RWE aims to phase out its aging coal-fired plant at the same location by the end of 2015, and says the station has the capacity to generate 750 megawatts of electricity. RWE's website also claims that its biomass pellet plant in Savannah, GA, will be able to produce 750 000 metric tons of pellets annually. Touting its commitment to environmental sustainability, several links on their US subsidiary's homepage cite certification through the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the Forest Stewardship Council. The certification is helpful, say some ecologists, but many questions remain about the overall impact of using wood to generate electricity. “Environmental sustainability is the big ‘wild card’ in this situation”, says Phil Robertson (Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI). “It really begs for a life-cycle analysis.” This would need to include variables like the power required for trans-Atlantic pellet transport and the carbon sequestration lost when harvested trees are used for bioenergy rather than lumber or furniture, which can store carbon for many decades. “From a carbon standpoint, there's a real difference between relying on sawmill waste and using entire trees as fuel”, explains Al Sample, president of the Pinchot Institute for Conservation (Washington, DC). “But economic recession impacts on the lumber industry have limited the availability of these byproducts”. Furthermore, European commitment to reducing carbon emissions has resulted in policy incentives and tax structures that have made wood more cost-effective than fossil fuels for those countries, even if it has to be pelletized and shipped long distances. “This may reduce one country's carbon emissions, but actually increase emissions from a global perspective”, Sample adds. Norwegian biologists have spearheaded a novel methodology for classifying the environmental risks posed by introduced non-native species, at the request of the Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre (NBIC; Trondheim, Norway). The method – developed by Bernt-Erik Saether, Head of the Centre for Conservation Biology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Trondheim), and colleagues – classifies species according to their reproductive ability, growth rate, individual/population densities, and prevalence. Researchers distill these attributes into two main components on a two-dimensional (2D) chart, with invasion potential plotted on one axis and ecological effect on the other. For an introduced species, the former component represents a metric of its dispersal abilities and establishment potential, whereas the latter is measured as a function of its documented or potential impacts on indigenous species or habitat types, as well as its ability to transfer genes or parasites. The combined values allow researchers to place each species in one of five risk categories, ranging from “no known impact” to “very high impact”, on the 2D grid. “We wanted to create a methodology that makes the criteria used to classify the potential danger of invasive species more transparent”, says Saether. Quantitative metrics were required to do that; to date, most such risk assessments have been qualitative in nature. In 2007, NBIC used qualitative techniques to create the Black List, the country's first official survey of ecological risk of alien species. Risk analysis was conducted on only 217 of the 2483 species recognized at that time as non-native, deeming 93 of those species as “high risk”. Saether explains that the lack of robust quantitative data made it difficult for landscape managers to prioritize which species posed the greatest risks, and prompted their efforts to create a more discriminating methodology. According to Toril Moen (NBIC advisor, Trondheim), the new method will be used to develop the 2012 Black List, to be published this summer. The updated Black List will document all 2650 non-native species currently known within Norway, highlighting the ones found to be of greatest risk. “This method is a good step forward as we determine the best way to assess invasive species risk – one that will be used as a knowledge base to help enforce the requirement to better control the importation and introduction of alien species included in Norway's Nature Diversity Act, passed in 2009”, she concludes. A recent survey shows that about half of all non-commercial drivers in California change their vehicles' motor oil far too often, thereby wasting resources and increasing pollution. “Most people don't even think about it”, says Mark Oldfield, spokesman for the state's Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle; Sacramento, CA), which administered the survey. “It's ingrained that the old standard of 3000 miles [about 5000 kilometers] will make cars last longer, but that's not true anymore”, he adds. Thanks to cleaner-running engines, recommended oil-change intervals for newer cars generally range from 8000 to 16000 km. Besides squandering millions of gallons of petroleum, excessive oil changing leads to degraded waterways. Motor oil makes up 40% of the pollution in US streams, rivers, and lakes, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; Washington, DC). Although 80% of used motor oil is recycled nationwide, the rest – 760 million liters per year – is disposed of improperly. This is a problem even in California, where oil recycling rates are comparatively high. “The vast majority is reused here, but it just doesn't take much to do a lot of damage”, Oldfield points out. The EPA estimates that the motor oil from a single change can contaminate four million liters of drinking water. CalRecycle's survey also revealed that people rarely look up the oil-change intervals recommended by car makers, prompting the agency to launch a public awareness campaign called “Check Your Number”. Related kick-off events entailed giving free parking spots in crowded venues to drivers who check their owner's manuals and display the recommended oil-change intervals on their windshields. “At a San Francisco football game, 90% of event participants learned they should go longer than 3000 miles [without a change]”, Oldfield says. Oil-change intervals for popular car models are also available on a CalRecycle web-site (www.checkyournumber.org/). What's your number? Next steps include encouraging do-it-yourself (DIY) oil changers to dispose of oil filters properly. Most of these end up in landfills, and used filters may retain up to 240 ml of oil, even after draining. “Filters are easy to recycle”, says Oldfield, “so collecting them from DIYers is the low-hanging fruit”. An annual survey has revealed a population explosion in waterbirds since Australia's record 15-year drought ended with heavy rain and flooding late in 2009. Close to a million water-birds were counted in eastern and central Australia last October, the third-highest tally since yearly surveys began in 1983. Diversity was also high, with 22 observed species, including Pacific black ducks, Australasian shovelers, chestnut and gray teals, and rare freckled ducks. Earlier surveys had indicated a long-term decline since 1983, but overall bird numbers have now bounced back to well above the long-term average. The Australian Wetlands and Rivers Centre's director, Richard Kingsford (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia), says birds have responded to the widespread rejuvenation of rivers and wetlands in a way scientists thought might never happen again. “We haven't reached the previous heights of the early 1980s, but this result highlights the importance of a series of floods over a large part of the continent and environmental reserves”, explains Kingsford. “It also shows the importance of having long-term datasets, when the annual data are so stochastically variable given the ecosystems' boom-and-bust nature.” Macquarie Marshes in flood – this Ramsar-listed wetland lies in the Murray-Darling basin. The survey results coincided with the release of a draft federal plan to reduce irrigation water use by up to 30% by 2019, to address long-term degradation caused by river regulation and over-extraction in the huge Murray-Darling basin draining eastern Australia. Irrigator advocacy groups say the survey proves that prolonged drought, rather than irrigators, was to blame for declining river health. “Reports of exploding bird numbers and wetlands, which haven't had water for over 100 years, miraculously springing back to life – this highlights the resilience of the environment”, says Tom Chesson (National Irrigators Council, Canberra, Australia). “During the darkest days of the drought, irrigators had no water allocated to them and, as we always said, it would take rain – and lots of it – to make the country boom again. And we were right.” But Kingsford says dams in the Murray-Darling basin curtailed the extent and duration of the flooding, and therefore its environmental benefits, despite the exceptionally wet conditions. And in drier years, river regulation denied wetlands the mid-sized floods that keep the ecosystems ticking over. “Not just the water-birds, but the river redgums, the fish, and the whole ecosystem depend on occasional large floods, but these have to be supported by medium-size floods running down the river as well”, explains Kingsford. With a global population of 7400 and categorized as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) already faces an uncertain future. However, the Indian Government's recent decision to allow construction of the 300-megawatt Alaknanda Badrinath Hydroelectric Project threatens some of the last remaining 400 to 700 snow leopards thought to inhabit the Indian Himalayas. The site of the project falls within the buffer zone of the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, which contains Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks, both of which are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. This mountainous region serves as an important dispersal corridor not only for snow leopards but also for bears (Ursus spp) and other wildlife species as well. Given their extensive home ranges, snow leopards are at particular risk of habitat fragmentation. Recognizing this, Project Snow Leopard – launched in 2009 by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MEF) – suggested a landscape-scale approach to the species' conservation efforts. Echoing a similar opinion, the Forest Advisory Committee, a government-appointed panel of experts, advised against the hydropower project's construction twice last year. Nevertheless, in December 2011, the MEF overlooked these objections and gave environmental clearance to the project. Experts now believe that new projects like that on the Alaknanda river pose a greater danger to snow leopards and their habitat than traditional human–wildlife conflicts, such as excessive livestock grazing, natural resource extraction, and livestock depredation. According to Yash Veer Bhatnagar (Director, Snow Leopard Trust–India, Mysore, India), “Development projects, such as roads, dams, and hydro projects [once complete], may have limited impact on large mammals, but often the process of building these structures can be more damaging”. For instance, construction-related activities like rock blasting and use of heavy machinery can cause irreparable harm to populations through habitat degradation and could even lead to increased poaching. “It's surprising that, on the one hand, the government has declared a 135-km stretch in the Gangotri Valley as an ‘eco-sensitive zone’ and has stopped work on major power projects there, while on the other hand it's allowing construction of large projects in other equally sensitive valleys, such as Alaknanda”, remarks Hemant Dhyani (Ganga Ahvaan, Haridwar, India).
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