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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Pollution & threats to the environment > Deforestation
Avoided deforestation can be characterized as the use of financial incentives to reduce rates of deforestation and forest degradation, with much of the focus on forests in tropical countries. While avoided deforestation, as a policy issue, is not new, the current debate in academic and policy circles on including it in future climate change mitigation strategies such as the Clean Development Mechanism is gathering pace - and this debate is only likely to intensify as negotiations continue over what should be included in the successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, which is set to expire in 2012. Up until now, however, the debate in terms of the scientific and economic implications of avoided deforestation has not been brought together. This book aims to bring together important research findings in the area along with their policy implications, whilst linking avoided deforestation to political economy as well as to the latest developments in environmental and natural resource economics.
In this work, Chico Mendes, founder of the Brazilian rubber tappers' union, talks about his life's work in the last interview before his murder in December 1988. As a trade union leader, he won international acclaim for his role in the non-violent campaign to protect the Amazon rain forest, on which the rubber tappers depend for their livelihood.
Avoided deforestation can be characterized as the use of financial incentives to reduce rates of deforestation and forest degradation, with much of the focus on forests in tropical countries. While avoided deforestation, as a policy issue, is not new, the current debate in academic and policy circles on including it in future climate change mitigation strategies such as the Clean Development Mechanism is gathering pace ? and this debate is only likely to intensify as negotiations continue over what should be included in the successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, which is set to expire in 2012. Up until now, however, the debate in terms of the scientific and economic implications of avoided deforestation has not been brought together. This book aims to bring together important research findings in the area along with their policy implications, whilst linking avoided deforestation to political economy as well as to the latest developments in environmental and natural resource economics.
'A bold, ambitious and truly wonderful history of the world' Peter Wohlleben, author of The Hidden Life of Trees 'A fascinating story and a crucial revision of the momentous importance of tropical forests to human history' Lewis Dartnell, author of Origins _________________________ Jungle tells the remarkable story of the world's tropical forests, from the arrival of the first plants millions of years ago to the role of tropical forests in the evolution of the world's atmosphere, the dinosaurs, the first mammals and even our own species and ancestors. Highlighting provocative new evidence garnered from cutting-edge research, Dr Roberts shows, for example, that our view of humans as 'savannah specialists' is wildly wrong, and that the 'Anthropocene' began not with the Industrial Revolution, but potentially as early as 6,000 years ago in the tropics. We see that the relationship between humankind and 'jungles' is deep-rooted, that we are all connected to their destruction, and that we must all act to save them. Urgent, clear-sighted and original, Jungle challenges the way we think about the world - and ourselves. _________________________ 'Welcome to the "Jungle" - a breathtaking book' Mark Maslin, author of How to Save Our Planet 'Timely, readable and highly relevant' Steve Brusatte, author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs 'Its revelations and stories will stir, rearrange and populate your mind for years to come' Paul Hawken, editor of Drawdown 'Brilliant ... it delivers a timely warning about our abuse of the environment' David Abulafia, author of The Great Sea 'Finally, a book on rainforests that does justice to their majesty and importance' Simon Lewis, co-author of The Human Planet
'This book carefully blends conceptual insights with extensive empirical evidence to navigate the reader through an issue that is still poorly understood [and is] a valuable reference for the development practitioner to understand the fundamental causes of illegal logging, its myriad consequences and the policy choices available to address the problem' Nalin Kishor, Forest Law Enforcement and Governance Coordinator, The World Bank 'An excellent resource for those working to conserve and sustainably manage forests worldwide. It offers an extensive and comprehensive study of illegal logging, bringing together the knowledge and views of experts who examine its roots and social, economic and environmental implications. One of its important contributions is to show that, unless coupled with reform of forestry regulations to take into account local people, law enforcement to curb illegal logging can negatively impact them. Therefore, any effective and fair approach to the problem needs to involve governments, forestry operators and local communities alike' Gonzalo Oviedo, Senior Social Policy Advisor, IUCN In many countries illegal logging now accounts for a large share of the harvest. Once cut, illegal logs feed an insatiable demand for exotic hardwoods in developed and developing countries. The result has been loss of both revenue and biodiversity, and consequently the issue has risen to the top of the global forest policy agenda as one of the major threats to forests, and donors and national governments are starting to develop initiatives to control illegal logging. Yet for such a massive illegal trade, there is surprisingly limited knowledge available as to the major causes of illegal logging and its impacts on biodiversity, people and livelihoods and national economies, and thus plenty of speculation and action without evidence. It is clear that while illegal logging does have negative impacts, it also, controversially, and perhaps paradoxically, benefits many stakeholders, including local communities. This book, written by the world's foremost experts, examines the key issues including law and enforcement, supply and demand, corruption, forest certification, poverty, local livelihoods, international trade and biodiversity conservation. It includes key case studies from forest-rich hotspots in North, South and Central America, equatorial Africa and Indonesia. While there are clearly no easy answers, this book sorts fact from fiction and explores the many dimensions of the causes, impacts and implications for forests, people, livelihoods and forest policy. Published with CIFOR
Sarah B. Pralle takes an in-depth look at why some environmental conflicts expand to attract a lot of attention and participation, while others generate little interest or action. "Branching Out, Digging In" examines the expansion and containment of political conflict around forest policies in the United States and Canada. Late in 1993 citizens from around the world mobilized on behalf of saving old-growth forests in Clayoquot Sound. Yet, at the same time only a very few took note of an even larger reserve of public land at risk in northern California. Both cases, the Clayoquot Sound controversy in British Columbia and the Quincy Library Group case in the Sierra Nevada mountains of northern California, centered around conflicts between environmentalists seeking to preserve old-growth forests and timber companies fighting to preserve their logging privileges. Both marked important episodes in the history of forest politics in their respective countries but with dramatically different results. The Clayoquot Sound controversy spawned the largest civil disobedience in Canadian history; international demonstrations in Japan, England, Germany, Austria, and the United States; and, the most significant changes in British Columbia's forest policy in decades. On the other hand, the California case, with four times as many acres at stake, became the poster child for the "collaborative conservation" approach, using stakeholder collaboration and negotiation to achieve a compromise that ultimately broke down and ended up in the courts. Pralle analyzes how the various political actors - local and national environmental organizations, local residents, timber companies, and different levels of government - defined the issues in both words and images, created and reconfigured alliances, and drew in different governmental institutions to attempt to achieve their goals. She develops a dynamic new model of conflict management by advocacy groups that puts a premium on nimble timing, flexibility, targeting, and tactics to gain the advantage and shows that how political actors go about exploiting these opportunities and overcoming constraints is a critical part of the policy process.
'This book carefully blends conceptual insights with extensive empirical evidence to navigate the reader through an issue that is still poorly understood [and is] a valuable reference for the development practitioner to understand the fundamental causes of illegal logging, its myriad consequences and the policy choices available to address the problem' Nalin Kishor, Forest Law Enforcement and Governance Coordinator, The World Bank 'An excellent resource for those working to conserve and sustainably manage forests worldwide. It offers an extensive and comprehensive study of illegal logging, bringing together the knowledge and views of experts who examine its roots and social, economic and environmental implications. One of its important contributions is to show that, unless coupled with reform of forestry regulations to take into account local people, law enforcement to curb illegal logging can negatively impact them. Therefore, any effective and fair approach to the problem needs to involve governments, forestry operators and local communities alike' Gonzalo Oviedo, Senior Social Policy Advisor, IUCN In many countries illegal logging now accounts for a large share of the harvest. Once cut, illegal logs feed an insatiable demand for exotic hardwoods in developed and developing countries. The result has been loss of both revenue and biodiversity, and consequently the issue has risen to the top of the global forest policy agenda as one of the major threats to forests, and donors and national governments are starting to develop initiatives to control illegal logging. Yet for such a massive illegal trade, there is surprisingly limited knowledge available as to the major causes of illegal logging and its impacts on biodiversity, people and livelihoods and national economies, and thus plenty of speculation and action without evidence. It is clear that while illegal logging does have negative impacts, it also, controversially, and perhaps paradoxically, benefits many stakeholders, including local communities. This book, written by the world's foremost experts, examines the key issues including law and enforcement, supply and demand, corruption, forest certification, poverty, local livelihoods, international trade and biodiversity conservation. It includes key case studies from forest-rich hotspots in North, South and Central America, equatorial Africa and Indonesia. While there are clearly no easy answers, this book sorts fact from fiction and explores the many dimensions of the causes, impacts and implications for forests, people, livelihoods and forest policy. Published with CIFOR
**A Book of the Year in The Times and The Sunday Times ** Trees are essential, for nature and for us. Yet we are cutting and burning them at such a rate that we are fast approaching a tipping point. But there is still hope. If we had a trillion more trees, the damage could be undone. Combining cutting-edge scientific research with vivid travel writing, Fred Pearce shows how we achieve this. Challenging received wisdom about the need for planting, he explains why the best strategy is to stand back, stop the destruction and let nature - and those who dwell in the forests - do the rest. Lucid, revelatory and often surprising, A Trillion Trees is an environmental call to arms, and a celebration of our planet's vast arboreal riches.
The rapid loss of tropical forests, particularly in the developing world, has been a global concern since the late 1980s and has prompted a variety of international initiatives to save the forests. In 1991, the World Bank responded to global concerns and to criticism by nongovernmental organizations by forming a conservation-oriented forest strategy. "Managing a Global Resource" is an outgrowth of the independent evaluation conducted by the World Bank's Operations Evaluation Department and discusses how effectively that strategy was implemented. In this detailed investigation, Uma J. Lele explores why the loss of forests and biodiversity has been so rapid in some developing countries (Brazil, Indonesia, and Cameroon) and not in others (China, India, and Costa Rica). She assesses future prospects for conservation in these six countries by critically examining their policies, institutional arrangements, and emerging national and international instruments to conserve forests and biodiversity. Together these six countries account for 25 percent of the world's forest cover and 44 percent of the world's population. "Managing a Global Resource" presents case studies of the forest sectors of each country in the context of overall development policies, interest groups, and governance issues. Lele's investigation finds a fundamental divergence in forest-rich countries between the global objectives of conservation and the local objectives of development and private profit. In some forest-poor countries, in contrast, natural resource loss has led the countries on their own accord to adopt a variety of conservation-oriented policies and programs. Despite the greater congruence between the global and national objectives in these forest-poor countries, competing demands on their resources and the constraints on their policies, institutions, and human capital make it difficult for them to affect forest and biodiversity conservation. This volume makes it clear that without substantial international financial transfers and knowledge of appropriate, location-specific solutions, much of the world's tropical forests will be lost. Even with substantial financial resources the prospects for conservation depend on a complex and dynamic set of country-specific factors. "Managing a Global Resource" offers unusually rich insights into the global/national interactions and lessons for future strategies. It will be of interest to conservationists and environmentalists concerned with the future of conservation in a changing environment. Uma J. Lele is senior advisor in the World Bank's Operations Evaluation Department. She has written extensively on issues of agricultural and rural development and aid and capital flows, and is best known for her works on rural development and aid effectiveness in Africa.
The rapid loss of tropical forests, particularly in the developing world, has been a global concern since the late 1980s and has prompted a variety of international initiatives to save the forests. In 1991, the World Bank responded to global concerns and to criticism by nongovernmental organizations by forming a conservation-oriented forest strategy. "Managing a Global Resource" is an outgrowth of the independent evaluation conducted by the World Bank's Operations Evaluation Department and discusses how effectively that strategy was implemented. In this detailed investigation, Uma J. Lele explores why the loss of forests and biodiversity has been so rapid in some developing countries (Brazil, Indonesia, and Cameroon) and not in others (China, India, and Costa Rica). She assesses future prospects for conservation in these six countries by critically examining their policies, institutional arrangements, and emerging national and international instruments to conserve forests and biodiversity. Together these six countries account for 25 percent of the world's forest cover and 44 percent of the world's population. "Managing a Global Resource" presents case studies of the forest sectors of each country in the context of overall development policies, interest groups, and governance issues. Lele's investigation finds a fundamental divergence in forest-rich countries between the global objectives of conservation and the local objectives of development and private profit. In some forest-poor countries, in contrast, natural resource loss has led the countries on their own accord to adopt a variety of conservation-oriented policies and programs. Despite the greater congruence between the global and national objectives in these forest-poor countries, competing demands on their resources and the constraints on their policies, institutions, and human capital make it difficult for them to affect forest and biodiversity conservation. This volume makes it clear that without substantial international financial transfers and knowledge of appropriate, location-specific solutions, much of the world's tropical forests will be lost. Even with substantial financial resources the prospects for conservation depend on a complex and dynamic set of country-specific factors. "Managing a Global Resource" offers unusually rich insights into the global/national interactions and lessons for future strategies. It will be of interest to conservationists and environmentalists concerned with the future of conservation in a changing environment. Uma J. Lele is senior advisor in the World Bank's Operations Evaluation Department. She has written extensively on issues of agricultural and rural development and aid and capital flows, and is best known for her works on rural development and aid effectiveness in Africa.
The risks posed by forest destruction throughout the world are highly significant for all. Not only are forests a critical source of timber and non-timber forest products, but they provide environmental services that are the basis of life on Earth. However, only rarely do beneficiaries pay for the goods and services they experience, and there are severe consequences as a result for the poor and for the forests themselves. It has proved difficult to translate the theory of market-based approaches into practice. Based on extensive research and case studies of biodiversity conservation, watershed protected and carbon sequestration, this book demonstrates how payment systems can be established in practice, their effectiveness and their implications for the poor.
Indonesia contains some of Asia s most biodiverse and threatened forests. The challenges result from both long-term management problems and the political, social, and economic turmoil of the past few years. The contributors to Which Way Forward? explore recent events in Indonesia, while focusing on what can be done differently to counter the destruction of forests due to asset-stripping, corruption, and the absence of government authority. Contributors to the book include anthropologists, economists, foresters, geographers, human ecologists, and policy analysts. Their concerns include the effects of government policies on people living in forests, the impact of the economic crisis on small farmers, links between corporate debt and the forest sector, and the fires of the late 1990s. By analyzing the nation s dramatic circumstances, they hope to demonstrate how Indonesia as well as other developing countries might handle their challenges to protect biodiversity and other resources, meet human needs, and deal with political change. The book includes an afterword by Emil Salim, former Indonesian Minister of State for Population and the Environment and former president of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme. A copublication of Resources for the Future and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS).
Indonesia contains some of Asia s most biodiverse and threatened forests. The challenges result from both long-term management problems and the political, social, and economic turmoil of the past few years. The contributors to Which Way Forward? explore recent events in Indonesia, while focusing on what can be done differently to counter the destruction of forests due to asset-stripping, corruption, and the absence of government authority. Contributors to the book include anthropologists, economists, foresters, geographers, human ecologists, and policy analysts. Their concerns include the effects of government policies on people living in forests, the impact of the economic crisis on small farmers, links between corporate debt and the forest sector, and the fires of the late 1990s. By analyzing the nation s dramatic circumstances, they hope to demonstrate how Indonesia as well as other developing countries might handle their challenges to protect biodiversity and other resources, meet human needs, and deal with political change. The book includes an afterword by Emil Salim, former Indonesian Minister of State for Population and the Environment and former president of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme. A copublication of Resources for the Future and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS).
The part played by the Brazilian tropical timber industry in deforesting the Amazon region has not been studied very much. This book describes the expansion of the timber industry in the Brazilian federal state of Para since the 1960s, when Amazon development became an important item on the government's agenda.
The influence of the past, and of the future on current-time tradeoffs in the forest arena are particularly relevant given the long-term successions in forest landscapes and the hundred years' rotations in forestry. Historically established path dependencies and conflicts determine our present situation and delimit what is possible to achieve. Similarly, future trends and desires have a large influence on decision making. Nevertheless, decisions about forest governance and management are always made in the present - in the present-time appraisal of the developed situation, future alternatives and in negotiation between different perspectives, interests, and actors. This book explores historic and future outlooks as well as current tradeoffs and methods in forest governance and management. It emphasizes the generality and complexity with empirical data from Sweden and internationally. It first investigates, from a historical perspective, how previous forest policies and discourses have influenced current forest governance and management. Second, it considers methods to explore alternative forest futures and how the results from such investigations may influence the present. Third, it examines current methods of balancing tradeoffs in decision-making among ecosystem services. Based on the findings the authors develop an integrated approach - Reflexive Forestry - to support exchange of knowledge and understandings to enable capacity building and the establishment of common ground. Such societal agreements, or what the authors elaborate as forest social contracts, are sets of relational commitment between involved actors that may generate mutual action and a common directionality to meet contemporary challenges.
Living with the Wayapi, and their charismatic leader Waiwai, is a
serious adventure. It is demanding, and can turn dangerous in a
moment. The environment is a difficult one, but beautiful and
baffling in its richness. And the job of learning about the people
is like a journey without end.
The world's forests are disappearing at an alarming rate, and with disastrous consequences. Demand for wood and paper products ranks high amongst the causes of deforestation and forest degradation, and is now the major cause of loss in those forests richest in wildlife. There is a great deal to be done to improve the timber industry before our forests are safely and sustainably managed. Bad Harvest presents an incisive account of the role that the timber trade has played in the loss and degradation of forests around the world. It examines the environmental consequences of the trade on boreal, temporal and tropical regions, and its impacts for local people working and living in the forests. It also looks at the changing nature of the trade, and assesses current national and international initiatives to address the impacts of deforestation. Finally, the authors show how things could be improved in the future, by presenting a new strategy for sustainable forest management. Based on 15 years of extensive research - particularly work carried out by the World Wide Fund for Nature - Bad Harvest is essential reading on the subject; not only for environmentalists, but also for those in the timber trade seeking to improve the management and reputation of their product.
As awareness of climate change grows, so do the number of cultural depictions of environmental disaster. Graphic novels have reliably produced dramatizations of such disasters. Many use themes of dystopian hopefulness, or the enjoyment readers experience from seeing society prevail in times of apocalypse. This book argues that these generally inspirational narratives contribute to a societal apathy for real-life environmental degradation. By examining the narratives and art of the environmental apocalypse in contemporary graphic novels, the author stands against dystopian hope, arguing that the ways in which we experience depictions of apocalypse shape how we respond to real crises.
In this comprehensive book, the critical components of the European landscape - forest, parkland, and other grazed landscapes with trees are addressed. The book considers the history of grazed treed landscapes, of large grazing herbivores in Europe, and the implications of the past in shaping our environment today and in the future. Debates on the types of anciently grazed landscapes in Europe, and what they tell us about past and present ecology, have been especially topical and controversial recently. This treatment brings the current discussions and the latest research to a much wider audience. The book breaks new ground in broadening the scope of wood-pasture and woodland research to address sites and ecologies that have previously been overlooked but which hold potential keys to understanding landscape dynamics. Eminent contributors, including Oliver Rackham and Frans Vera, present a text which addresses the importance of history in understanding the past landscape, and the relevance of historical ecology and landscape studies in providing a future vision.
Forest degradation as a result of logging, shifting cultivation, agriculture and urban development is a major issue throughout the tropics. It leads to loss in soil fertility, water resources and biodiversity, as well as contributes to climate change. Efforts are therefore required to try to minimize further degradation and restore tropical forests in a sustainable way. This is the first research-based book to examine this problem in East Africa. The specific focus is on the forests of Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda, but the lessons learned are shown to be applicable to neighbouring countries and others in the tropics. A wide range of forest types are covered, from dry Miombo forest and afromontane forests, to forest-savannah mosaics and wet forest types. Current management practices are assessed and examples of good practice presented. The role of local people is also emphasized. The authors describe improved management and restoration through silviculture, plantation forestry and agroforestry, leading to improvements in timber production, biodiversity conservation and the livelihoods of local people.
This book explores how environmental policies are made and enforced in Africa. Specifically, this project explains the gap between intent and impact of forest policies, focusing on three African societies facing persistent deforestation today: Madagascar, Tanzania, and Uganda. The central claim of the study is that deforestation persists because conservation policies and projects, which are largely underwritten by foreign donors, consistently ignore the fact that conservation is possible only under limited and specific conditions. To make the case, the author examines how decision-making power is negotiated and exercised where communities make environmental decisions daily (local level) and where environmental policies are negotiated and enacted (national level) across three distinct African political systems.
In this book, Richard Rosenzweig, describes the policies proposed and adopted in the first generation of climate change policy-making including the Kyoto Protocol and the carbon markets and assesses their failure to halt the increases of rising emissions of greenhouse gases. Carefully structured throughout, each chapter demonstrate how the first generation of policies failed because they were top down, overly ambitious and complex. The author uses the lessons drawn from this analysis to recommend more modest, targeted policies, arguing that they will be more successful in fighting climate change in the new era of policy-making. An invaluable reference for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in taking relevant courses in Environmental Policy, Law and Business. This book will also be a useful overview for researchers working in the field as well as those working in government and policy.
In this book, Jan J. Boersema reconstructs the ecological and cultural history of Easter Island and critiques the hitherto accepted theory of the collapse of its civilization. The collapse theory, advanced most recently by Jared Diamond and Clive Ponting, is based on the documented overexploitation of natural resources, particularly woodlands, on which Easter Island culture depended. Deforestation is said to have led to erosion, followed by hunger, conflict, and economic and cultural collapse. Drawing on scientific data and historical sources, including the shipping journals of the Dutch merchant who was the first European to visit the island in 1722, Boersema shows that deforestation did not in fact jeopardize food production and lead to starvation and violence. On the basis of historical and scientific evidence, Boersema demonstrates how Easter Island society responded to cultural and environmental change as it evolved and managed to survive.
Forests and vegetation emit biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) into the atmosphere which, once oxidized, can partition into the particle phase, forming secondary organic aerosols (SOAs). This thesis reports on a unique and comprehensive analysis of the impact of BVOC emissions on atmospheric aerosols and climate. A state-of-the-art global aerosol microphysics model is used to make the first detailed assessment of the impact of BVOC emissions on aerosol microphysical properties, improving our understanding of the role of these emissions in affecting the Earth’s climate. The thesis also reports on the implications for the climate impact of forests. Accounting for the climate impacts of SOAs, taken together with the carbon cycle and surface albedo effects that have been studied in previous work, increases the total warming effect of global deforestation by roughly 20%. |
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