Asia's Forests Fast Receding By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan

Asia's Forests Fast Receding

By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan

The destruction of Asia's forests continues at an alarming pace, averaging 1.8 million hectares a year or 5,000 hectares a day. Frantic governments are instituting measures to arrest the rapid decline but, so far, the success has been very limited.

This is the grim assessment of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (UNFAO) after a comprehensive survey of Asia's forest resources. UNFAO conducted the survey with the United Nations Development Program or UNDP.

Deforestation is heaviest in Southeast Asia which produces some of the world's best timber. According to the survey, Indonesia's annual deforestation rate of 500,000 hectares is the highest in the region. Second is Thailand with 333,000 hectares; the range of between 100,000 to 150,000 for West Papua, Malaysia, India, Laos, Philippines and, Burma.

These countries were among the Asian and Pacific nations covered in the study. The others are Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Kampuchea, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and Vietnam.

The End of Virgin Forests

The ravaging is felt most by Asia's closed or virgin forests which totals over 300 million hectares. The survey said that from 1976 to 1980 alone, the total closed forest ravaged was more than nine million hectares.

The figure leveled off in the next five years to 1.82 million hectares per year.

But even at this rate, Asia's virgin forests were reduced to just more than 270,000 million hectares after year 2000. The region's annual rate of deforestation of closed forests is between 0.60 to 1.2 percent.

From 1981 t0 1985, the deforestation rate was its worst in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Kampuchea, Philippines; while there was a decrease in Thailand, Laos, Brunei and India.

The other Asian countries had either slight deforestation increases. But other countries turned from being wood exporters to timber importers.

Take the case of Thailand, to keep its sawmill industry rolling, the country has become increasingly dependent on log exports.

From a net exporter, with depletion of forest resources, ban on exports and growing demand for wood, Thailand has become a net importer.

Sizable import of logs started in 1977 and increased even after 2000, mostly from Malaysia and Indonesia.

Loggers No Longer Are the Only Culprits

The UNFAO-UNDP study said unlike before, loggers are no longer mainly to blame for the rapid destruction of forests. The report noted that forest resources were ravaged faster in areas with high population density and where shifting cultivation have not been effectively stopped.

Population pressure on Asia's existing forest resources, is undeniable, unorganized and spontaneous encroachments, squatting, migration b y lowlanders--manifestations of increasing demand for cultivable land by the landless and unemployed rural poor--are already accounting for considerable for deforestation, warned the UN bodies.

This form of deforestation is more prevalent in the Philippines where almost all the culprits are landless tenants, farm laborers or just plain land speculators.

In Nepal, the population pressure on the hills has caused people to migrate to the plains or terai and encroach into forest land.

Over in Thailand, unrest in neighboring countries has let loose a flood of refugees contributing heavily to deforestation.

Slash and burn agriculture or shifting cultivation also wrecks havoc to Asia's forest resources. The practice is variously known throughout the region as kaingin, jhum, chena or podu. Available figures indicate that more than 75 million Asians depend on shifting cultivation for livelihood. The extent of forests affected is over 200 million hectares.

Shifting Cultivation

Examples abound: In Bangladesh, jhuming is practiced by 26 tribes living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region involving almost a million people. The overall effects are loss of timber, water, and soil and the decline of the capacity of the land to produce agricultural crops.

In India, shifting cultivation is practiced in 12 states where some 7 million people are involved in an area of more than one million hectares; the northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Mhegalaya account 80 percent of India's shifting cultivation population.

Shifting cultivation is also practiced by more than 20 million Indonesians. However, it is confined in the islands of Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku and Nusatenggara. Over 20 million hectares of forest have been adversely affected from the viewpoint of soil cover and soil fertility.

Timber... More Timber

As Asia's population increases, so does the demand for timber and fuelwood. And this in no small measure, contributes to the destruction of forest resources. Estimates are that of all wood cut in Asia, over half for timber, one third for fuel, most of which are consumed by the region's poor. The oil price hikes yearly is exacerbating the situation.

Logging operations particularly in Southeast Asia has been merciless plus the fact that millions of hectares are being cleared of trees in Indonesia to accommodate palm oil plantations.

The UNFAO-UNDP study said that forests are major foreign exchange earners by many cash-strapped developing Asian countries but also asks " Is it worth it?"

“No”, it concluded because,"the full amount of export value cannot be viewed as representing a benefit to the exporting country.”

Simply said, no amount of money can ever compensate for the destruction done to the contribution forests do for humanity and the whole of creation.

Earth’s Carrying Capacity Strained by Population Growth By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan

Earth’s Carrying Capacity Strained by Population Growth

By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan

New York City---Earth’s renewable resources and carrying capacity is being severely strained to “support with some degree and comfort and individual choice” the world’s human population.

This is due to an overrun of fertility rates since 2000,  that caused a global population swell feared to reach 10 billion before 2050,  the US Council on Environmental Quality and the State Department said in a  three-year study called ”Reconnaissance of the Future Global 2000”. 

“The declines in carrying capacity, already evident in scattered areas around the world point to a phenomenon that is fast spreading”, notes the study.

“Unless nations collectively and individually take bold and imaginative steps toward improved  environmental, social and economic conditions, reduced fertility, better management  of resources and better protection of the environment, the world will expect trouble most of the 21^st century”, warns the study.

Grim Outlook

As excerpted by the Population Reference Bureau in its Intercom publication, “Global 2000” rather gives a grim outlook for the world in this century.

The study details some of the consequences should global population trends continue unchanged in this century this wise:

--Extinction of at least 500,000 plant and animal species by 2050.

--A 40 percent slash in all remaining forests in the less developed countries and loss of several inches of topsoil from croplands the world over.

--Much less arable land per person, only one quarter hectare on the average from the four fifths of a hectare.

--More than half of the world’s 2 billion barrels of original petroleum reserved resources will already be consumed.

--Upsurge in prices of vital resources over the inflation level.

--Declines in per capita water supply by 35 to 47 percent.

--Four fifths of the world population  will live in less developed countries.

--Widening gap between the richest and the poorest with great disparities within countries.

--More deaths from hunger and diseases especially among babies and young children and more mentally and physically-handicapped cases among those surviving infancy.

The most troubling of these outcomes is the drop of productivity of Earth’s renewable resources, according to the study.

Technological Advances Will Not Stop the Inevitable

And more troubling, the study suggests, is that even allowing the technological developments and adoptions, the world’s human population will only be within a few generations of reaching the entire Earth’s carrying capacity.

So what are the chances of stemming the tide and averting the consequences?

Not too good.

As the study bares, there is no silver bullet. “There are no quick or easy solutions, particularly in countries and regions where population pressure is already leading to a reduction of the carrying capacity of the land.”

The assessment stems from observations that living conditions spawned by population-induced environmental deterioration render more difficult reduction of fertility to replacement level (at which the population of a country stops growing).

Some Nations Will be Hard Up in Feeding their Population

As the grim scenario looms, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) bared that at least 28 developing countries would not be able to feed their respective countries by the middle of the century because yields will be adversely affected by climate change and genetic erosion.

Four of the 28 countries are in Asia—Philippines, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam. Seven in Latin America—Jamaica, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Windward Isles, Guatemala; 17 in Africa—Tunisia, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Benin, Upper Volta, Togo, Mali, Malawi, Namibia, Comoros Isles, Ethiopia, Nigeria Uganda.

The reasons, UNFAO said are inferior planting seeds and genetic resources, increasing desertification, prolonged droughts and diminishing water supply, deteriorating soil quality and global warming.

Loss of Genetic Resources

Biorich areas in the world responsible for food and medical genes important to humanity face erosion most critically in this century, the US Council of Environmental Quality report stresses. As such,  these regions holding potential genetic properties of plants or animals that can be used to develop better varieties of crops in farming or develop better livestock, need  priority conservation efforts if the world is to tame the population boom.

Genetic diversity is being lost as species are becoming extinct; pharmacists are losing raw materials from which new drugs are developed;  agricultural scientists are losing wild relatives of crop plants that can ensure more productive or pest and disease-tolerant food crops, and; wild animal breeds are being lost which could have improved farm animal breeding.

In its September 2018 report, the Swiss-based International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world’s watchdog of flora and fauna, said an additional 27,000 species are in danger of becoming extinct.

Of the number, 41 percent are amphibians, 5 percent mammals, 34 percent conifers, 13 percent birds,  31 percent sharks and manta rays, 33 percent corals, and 27 percent selected crustaceans.

Wild species are building blocks for the betterment of human life but their loss can mean loss of mankind. The study suggests one way humans may evade the inevitable is by going back to the way of traditional communities.

 “Indigenous peoples or ‘Ecosystem people’ value biodiversity as a part of their livelihood as well as through cultural and religious sentiments. A great variety of crops have been cultivated in traditional agricultural systems and this permitted a wide range of produce to be grown and marketed throughout the year and acted as an insurance against the failure of one crop. In recent years farmers have begun to receive economic incentives to grow cash crops for national or international markets,” the study reminds.

It may be well to learn from them.

26,000 More Species Threatened---IUCN Sept 2018 Report By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan

26,000 More Species Threatened---IUCN Sept 2018 Report

By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan

As the world threatening nears an increase of 1-1.5 degrees C global warming by year 2030, the number of the earth’s lifeforms threatened with extinction has increased, the world’s global watchdog of flora and fauna International Union for the Conservation of  Nature (IUCN) said in its September 2018 report.

IUCN bared in its latest Red List that  an additional 26,000 species are threatened with extinction today, out of the 27% of all assessed species worldwide.

Of the number, 41 percent are amphibians, 5 percent mammals, 34 percent conifers, 13 percent birds,  31 percent sharks and manta rays, 33 percent corals, and 27 percent selected crustaceans.

The IUCN Red List is the most comprehensive, objective global approach for evaluating the extinction risk of plant and animal species that started in the 1950s as a card index of species that were considered to be threatened with extinction. Over time, the Red Data Books grew and transformed into the Red List to include more species. The ethos of the program also shifted to incorporate the status of all species, not limiting it to only those threatened with extinction.

Today, The IUCN Red List, regarded as the most influential source of information for species conservation in the world,  holds conservation information for over 93,500 species of plants, animal and fungi, with a mission to increase the list to 160,000 species by 2020. 

Biodiversity Hotspots Around the World

There are thirty five biodiversity hotspots in the world where these threatened life species are located. These areas compose 2.3 percent of the Earth’s surface but have more than half of the world’s endemic plant species.

These are in the California Floristic province, Madrean Pine Oak Woodlands, Mesoamerica of North and Central America; Caribbean Islands; Atlantic Forest, Cerrado,  Chilean Winter Rainfall Valdivian Forest, Tumbes Choco Magdalena, and Tropical Andes in South America; Mediterranean Basin in Europe; Cape Floristc Region,  Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa,  Eastern Afromontane, Guinean Forests of West Africa, Horn of Africa, Madagascar and Indian Ocean Islands,  Maputuland Pondoland Albany, Succulent Karoo in Africa; Mountains of Central Asia; Eastern Himalaya Nepal India, Indo-Burma India and Myanmar, Western Ghats and Sri Lanka in South Asia; East Melanesian Islands, Philippines, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Polynesia-Micronesia, Eastern Australian Temperate Forests, Southwest Australia, Sundaland and Nicobar Islands of India, Wallacea all in South East Asia and Asia Pacific; Japan, Mountains of Southwest China in East Asia; Caucasus and Irano-Anatolian in East Asia.

These are considered hotspots because they are biogeographic regions with significant reservoir of biodiversity but threatened with destruction. The purpose of biodiversity hotspots is not simply to identify regions that are of high biodiversity value, but to prioritize conservation spending.

Culprits Behind Ugly Face of Extinction
The worst threat  endangering  biodiversity in the said global hotspots is internal-- citizen-initiated, aggressive, relentless, unethical to a point, God-less --destruction of habitat. As if the future does not matter.

Man has begun to overuse or misuse most of these natural ecosystems. Due to this ‘unsustainable’ resource-use, once productive forests and grasslands have been turned into deserts and wasteland have increased all over the world. Mangroves have been cleared for fuelwood and prawn farming, which has led to a decrease in the habitat essential for breeding of marine fish. 

Wetlands have been drained to increase agricultural land. These changes have grave economic implications in the longer term. The current destruction of the remaining large areas of wilderness habitats, especially in the super diverse tropical forests and coral reefs, is the most important threat worldwide to biodiversity. Scientists have estimated that human activities are likely to eliminate approximately 10 million species by the year 2050.

There are about 1.8 million species of plants and animals, both large and microscopic, known to science in the world at present. The number of species however is likely to be greater by a factor of at least 10. Plants and insects as well as other forms of life not known to science are continually being identified in the worlds’ ‘hotspots’ of diversity.

 Unfortunately at the present rate of extinction about 25% of the worlds’ species will undergo extinction fairly rapidly. This may occur at the rate of 10 to 20 thousand species per year, a thousand to ten thousand times faster than the expected natural rate! Human actions could well exterminate 25% of the world’s species within the next twenty or thirty years. 

Much of this mega extinction spasm is related to human population growth, industrialization and changes in land-use patterns. A major part of these extinctions will occur in ‘biorich’ areas such as tropical forests, wetlands, and coral reefs. The loss of wild habitats due to rapid human population growth and short term economic development are major contributors to the rapid global destruction of biodiversity.

Philippines, 18^th Most Endangered Biodiversity Hotspot

 The Philippines, the world’s second largest archipelago, is one of the few nations that is, in its entirety, both a hotspot and a megadiversity country, placing it among the top priority hotspots for global conservation.

But its unique biodiversity is threatened. Having the highest rates of discovery in the world with sixteen new species of mammals discovered in the last ten years, such endemism however may be lost faster than discovered.

Threatened are 9,250 vascular plant species  which includes gingers, begonias, gesneriads, orchids, pandans, palms, and dipterocarps. Some150 species of palms are included in the hotspot list and 70 percent of the 1,000 species of orchids found in the country.

Among its over 530 bird species, 35 percent or over 60 are threatened. These are found in seven Endemic Bird Area hotspots: Mindoro, Luzon, Negros and Panay, Cebu, Mindanao and the Eastern Visayas, the Sulu archipelago, and Palawan.

The best-known  endangered bird species is the Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi, CR), the second-largest eagle in the world. The Philippine eagle breeds only in primary lowland rain forest. Habitat destruction has extirpated the eagle everywhere except on the islands of Luzon, Mindanao and Samar, where the only large tracts of lowland rain forest remain. Today, the total population is estimated at less than 700 individuals. Captive breeding programs have been largely unsuccessful; habitat protection is the eagle’s only hope for survival.

The other threatened endemic species are the Negros bleeding art (Gallicolumba keayi, CR), Visayan wrinkled hornbill (Aceros waldeni, CR), Scarlet-collared flowerpecker (Dicaeum retrocinctum, VU), Cebu flowerpecker (Dicaeum quadricolor, CR), and Philippine cockatoo (Cacatua haematuropygia, CR).

With regards mammals, the tamaraw (Bubalus mindorensis, CR), a dwarf water buffalo that lives only on Mindoro Island is the most threatened. A century ago the population numbered 10,000 individuals; today only a few hundred animals exist in the wild.

Other mammals  are endangered, like the Visayan and Philippine warty pigs (Sus cebifrons, CR and S. philippensis, VU); the Calamianes hog-deer (Axis calamaniensis, EN) and the Visayan spotted deer (Rusa alfredi, EN), which has been reduced to a population of a few hundred on the islands of Negros, Masbate and Panay; and the golden-capped fruit bat (Acerodon jubatus, EN), which, as the world’s largest bat, has a wingspan up to 1.7 meters.

In the reptilian world, the freshwater crocodile (Crocodylus mindorensis, CR) is considered the most threatened crocodilian in the world. Other unique and threatened reptiles include Gray’s monitor (Varanus olivaceus, VU), the Philippine pond turtle (Heosemys leytensis, CR) and a newly discovered monitor lizard, Varanus mabitang, only the second monitor species known in the world to specialize on a fruit diet.

Among all amphibians, 22 are considered threatened including the Philippine flat-headed frog (Barbourula busuangensis, VU), one of the world’s most primitive frog species.

With regards freshwater fishes, most threatene is Sardinella tawilis, a freshwater sardine found only in Taal Lake. Sadly, Lake Lanao, in Mindanao, seems likely to have become the site of one of the hotspots worst extinction catastrophes, with nearly all of the lakes endemic fish species now almost certainly extinct.

Man’s Destruction of Forests All but Decimated  Most of RP’s Biodiversity

Forests, the Philippines’ leading natural habitat of the country’s biodiversity, are rapidly disappearing. By 2040, there may be no virgin forests, many forestry experts predict. Non-believers scoff at this, saying it is an exaggeration. But the figures cannot be wrong. The effects of deforestation are not figments of imagination.

The rate of deforestation in the country is among the highest in the world. The worst deforestation happened during the period of 1990 to 1999 where 750,000 acres of virgin forest were lost. Today, only 1.75 million acres remain of the nation's virgin forests.

The loss is incredible, the rate of deforestation in that decade was almost 75,000 acres a year. It also came at a time when logging ban was imposed in some selected sites in the country.

As a result, flooding, soil erosion and degradation pegged at 100,000 tons of soil yearly, loss of species diversity and genetic material, loss of human lives and properties and aesthetic and recreational loss were at their worst.

Much of the blame is on  the government that, over the years, have passed laws favorable to logging concessions and implemented forest protection poorly. Government negligence has prompted the devastation of the forests. Today, much of the remaining forests are still being invaded by commercial loggers.

Philippine forestry laws passed since 1930 have failed to provide adequate security provisions for virgin and secondary growth forests, thus the forests had virtually no protection at all. For instance, there is only one forest guard for every 7,500 acres.

But even then, many official policies and strategies from the very start were faulty.

And many polices continue to be faulty.