3rd July 2009
From: Environmental Research Web
News Link: http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/futures/39717
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Although deforestation of the Amazon rainforest has been pursued to boost economic development, people in areas that have suffered extensive deforestation are no better off than those in regions that are still forested. That's according to a team from the UK, Portugal, France and Brazil, who discovered a "boom-and-bust" pattern as deforestation proceeds.
From: Environmental Research Web
News Link: http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/futures/39717
.
Although deforestation of the Amazon rainforest has been pursued to boost economic development, people in areas that have suffered extensive deforestation are no better off than those in regions that are still forested. That's according to a team from the UK, Portugal, France and Brazil, who discovered a "boom-and-bust" pattern as deforestation proceeds.
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"The current boom-and-bust pattern of development seen in the Brazilian Amazon is a lose-lose-lose situation, which destroys habitat for thousands of other species, threatens to cause large-scale climatic damage, and, as we now show, provides no lasting benefit for local people," Andrew Balmford of the University of Cambridge told environmentalresearchweb. "Clearly alternative development pathways are needed, which reward local communities for the global benefits that living forests provide, and which therefore place greater value on trees that are standing rather than felled."
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Balmford and colleagues found municipalities in the earlier stages of deforestation had relatively high incomes, life expectancy and literacy, probably because of the newly available natural resources, such as land, timber and minerals, and improved road access to education and medical care. But in areas where deforestation had progressed further, these indicators had returned to levels typical for intact forest regions, perhaps because of the exhaustion of natural resources and an increasing human population.
"The current boom-and-bust pattern of development seen in the Brazilian Amazon is a lose-lose-lose situation, which destroys habitat for thousands of other species, threatens to cause large-scale climatic damage, and, as we now show, provides no lasting benefit for local people," Andrew Balmford of the University of Cambridge told environmentalresearchweb. "Clearly alternative development pathways are needed, which reward local communities for the global benefits that living forests provide, and which therefore place greater value on trees that are standing rather than felled."
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Balmford and colleagues found municipalities in the earlier stages of deforestation had relatively high incomes, life expectancy and literacy, probably because of the newly available natural resources, such as land, timber and minerals, and improved road access to education and medical care. But in areas where deforestation had progressed further, these indicators had returned to levels typical for intact forest regions, perhaps because of the exhaustion of natural resources and an increasing human population.
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"We provide the clearest quantitative evidence so far that while deforestation occurs because of people striving to improve their living standards, these increases are transitory and levels of development revert to pre-deforestation levels once the deforestation wave has passed – leaving local people no better off than they were before," said Balmford.
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To carry out the analysis, the researchers from the University of Cambridge, UK, Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal, Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, France, Imperial College London, University of East Anglia, UK, and Amazon Institute of People and the Environment, Brazil, examined the United Nations Development Programme human development index for 286 municipalities in the Brazilian Amazon.
"We provide the clearest quantitative evidence so far that while deforestation occurs because of people striving to improve their living standards, these increases are transitory and levels of development revert to pre-deforestation levels once the deforestation wave has passed – leaving local people no better off than they were before," said Balmford.
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To carry out the analysis, the researchers from the University of Cambridge, UK, Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal, Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, France, Imperial College London, University of East Anglia, UK, and Amazon Institute of People and the Environment, Brazil, examined the United Nations Development Programme human development index for 286 municipalities in the Brazilian Amazon.
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The index is the mean of three subindices: life expectancy, literacy and standard of living (based on per capita income). The team classed the municipalities according to their position relative to the deforestation frontier, assessing both deforestation extent and activity. Deforestation activity was at a minimum in the areas with both very low and very high extent of deforestation.
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"Addressing the problem of deforestation in the Amazon requires understanding its socioeconomic as well as biological and climatic consequences – so we decided we needed to bring a large dataset on levels of human development together with spatial information on patterns of forest clearance," said Balmford.
The index is the mean of three subindices: life expectancy, literacy and standard of living (based on per capita income). The team classed the municipalities according to their position relative to the deforestation frontier, assessing both deforestation extent and activity. Deforestation activity was at a minimum in the areas with both very low and very high extent of deforestation.
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"Addressing the problem of deforestation in the Amazon requires understanding its socioeconomic as well as biological and climatic consequences – so we decided we needed to bring a large dataset on levels of human development together with spatial information on patterns of forest clearance," said Balmford.
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Solutions to the problem are likely to take a combined approach, say the researchers, and could include supporting the better use of areas that have already been deforested for ranching and agriculture, restricting further deforestation, promoting reforestation, direct incentives to encourage forest-based livelihoods via the sustainable harvest of timber and nontimber forest products, and targeted policies to improve literacy, health and land tenure security.
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Payments for ecosystem services will play a key role in supporting these initiatives: Brazil is beginning to implement these schemes at a national and state level. The post-Kyoto climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December could see the introduction of the REDD initiative to provide financial incentives for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation in developing countries. Balmford hopes the team's results will help to inform these negotiations.
Solutions to the problem are likely to take a combined approach, say the researchers, and could include supporting the better use of areas that have already been deforested for ranching and agriculture, restricting further deforestation, promoting reforestation, direct incentives to encourage forest-based livelihoods via the sustainable harvest of timber and nontimber forest products, and targeted policies to improve literacy, health and land tenure security.
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Payments for ecosystem services will play a key role in supporting these initiatives: Brazil is beginning to implement these schemes at a national and state level. The post-Kyoto climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December could see the introduction of the REDD initiative to provide financial incentives for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation in developing countries. Balmford hopes the team's results will help to inform these negotiations.
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The Brazilian Amazon contains 40% of all remaining tropical rainforest but lost forest at an average of 1.8 million hectares per year from 1988 to 2008. Many believe that Brazil is in a key position to benefit from the REDD initiative as it has huge carbon stocks, a high technical capacity for monitoring forest changes and improving governance.
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The researchers reported their work in Science.
.About the author
Liz Kalaugher is editor of environmentalresearchweb.
The Brazilian Amazon contains 40% of all remaining tropical rainforest but lost forest at an average of 1.8 million hectares per year from 1988 to 2008. Many believe that Brazil is in a key position to benefit from the REDD initiative as it has huge carbon stocks, a high technical capacity for monitoring forest changes and improving governance.
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The researchers reported their work in Science.
.About the author
Liz Kalaugher is editor of environmentalresearchweb.