27 arborvitæThe IUCN/WWF Forest Conservation Newsletter March 2005

contents

2-4 News: the Indian Ocean tsunamiIncoming reports on tsunami-related forest impacts and issuesplus other news in brief

5 News: protected areasTsunami impacts on protectedareas plus other news in brief

6-7 Meetings and internationalinitiativesThe World Conservation Congress,the Climate Change Conventionand the CITES Ramin listing

8-9 Feature: Forests, naturaldisasters and human security

10-11 Forests and floodsDoes logging cause floods? Will rural-urban migration reduce floods?

12 Natural disasters: socio-political issuesPeople-led protection, the case of Haiti, and the ‘upstream degradation’ theory

13 Livelihoods and forestsTrees in pastoralists’ droughtmitigation strategies

14 WWF focusWWF’s response to the tsunami disaster

15 IUCN focusIUCN’s response to the tsunami disaster

16 Reviews in brief

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Forests and Natural Disasters

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Natural disasters appear to be on the increase. According to the 2004 World DisastersReport, natural disasters have risen by about 65% over the last decade. More than 478,000people were killed by disasters such as earthquakes, floods and hurricanes from 1994 to2003, according to a UN report last year. Since then, the Indian Ocean tsunami has puta new perspective and high profile on these figures, accounting as it has for more than280,000 deaths. The disaster has made the forest conservation community, as everyone else,stop and think. Is it inevitable that natural catastrophic events become ‘natural disasters’?What role can forests play in reducing peoples’ vulnerability to natural catastrophicevents and how can forest conservation programmes and policies strengthen this role?

Evidence from the tsunami, as summarized in this issue, confirms that in some cases atleast well-established mangrove forests and coastal tree plantations offered an effectivephysical barrier against the tidal waves, and helped save both lives and property. The tsunamihas also shown the importance of forests in post-disaster recovery, by providing timber for thereconstruction of homes and the fishing boats on which the livelihoods of tens of thousandsof families depend. These forest-disaster linkages have a number of policy implications:that poorly-planned mangrove clearance for uncontrolled shrimp farming and touristdevelopment needs to be brought under control, that coastal zone development wouldbenefit from sustainable forest restoration and management activities, and, whereverpossible, post-disaster reconstruction should use timber from responsibly-managed forests.

However, there is also a danger in always assuming a straightforward causal linkagebetween more forests and better disaster prevention. This issue will explore some ofthese uncertainties, including whether upland forests really do help prevent floods andlandslides in all circumstances. Those who argue the need for more forests on the backof natural disasters also ought to consider to what degree factors such as weakgovernance structures (that permit the expropriation of the poor’s livelihood resources)and high levels of poverty (that force poor people to live in high-risk areas) help turnnatural catastrophic events into natural disasters. Given that the tsunami alone isexpected to throw nearly two million more people into poverty, according to a report by the Asian Development Bank, forest conservationists need to better appreciate thatreducing poverty, ensuring local forest rights and promoting good governance are notonly essential components of any disaster reduction strategy but also critical for long-term biodiversity conservation. Even though the linkages are often complex, the basicbuilding blocks of disaster reduction and forest conservation strategies are the same.

Stewart Maginnis, IUCN and Chris Elliott, WWF

A boy inNagapattinam,India amid therubble of hishome, after thetsunami struck.

Coastal Forest DefencesIncoming assessment reports are highlighting the importantrole played by mangrove forests, coastal plantations and othernatural ecosystems in weakening the impact of the tidalwaves. These ecosystems not only helped reduce themagnitude and strength of the incoming tidal waves, but alsocollected the marine debris that can be even more damagingto populated areas than the gushing seawater. Throughout theregion, coastal areas with dense mangrove forests, matureshelterbelt plantations and other substantial vegetative coverreported fewer human losses and less damage to infrastructurethan those areas where coastal forest ecosystems had beendegraded or converted to other land uses. In the Indian state

Rapid EnvironmentalAssessmentin Sri LankaA team from IUCN’s Sri Lanka office undertook a survey inmid-January of a section of the country’s south-easterncoastline to assess the tsunami-related damage to theterrestrial and wetland habitats. While finding the damageto the area quite patchy, the team found a strong correlationbetween the extent of ecosystem modification before thetsunami and the level of tsunami-related damage. In general,sites shielded by broad beaches, tall mature sand dunes,thick coastal scrubland, casuarina plantations and/or broadintact mangrove patches showed little or no damage andproved effective barriers in protecting inland landscapes.

Six of the nine mangrove sites surveyed had beensubjected to ecological damage that will require restorativeaction. Vegetation in home gardens was also severelydamaged, by being uprooted or exposed to high levels ofsoil salinity. The team also found evidence that the tsunamihas changed the distribution of several invasive alienspecies. Propagules of the invasive alien prickly pear cactus(Opuntia dillennii) that occurred in beachfront habitatshave been transported inland by the tsunami waves andhave already started to establish in these new areas. Theinvasive tree species Mesquite (Prosopis juliflora), alreadyprevalent in the area, may increase rapidly now as it tendsto dominate in conditions of high salinity.Contact: Channa Bambaradeniya, cnb@iucnsl.org

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news: the Indian Ocean tsunami

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Tsunami-RelatedImpacts on Forests

A Sri Lankan boy climbs a tree where aboat landedafter it wasswept inland by the tsunami.

Here we summarize some of the forest and

biodiversity issues that are emerging from the

preliminary assessment reports on tsunami

impacts across the affected countries.

“Coral reefs act as a natural breakwater, and mangroves are a natural shock absorber, and this applies to floods andcyclones as well as tsunamis.”Simon Cripps, Director of WWF's Endangered Seas Programme.

of Tamil Nadu, for example, villages in Pichavaram andMuthupet with dense mangroves seem to have been bufferedfrom the worst effects of the tidal waves, compared to othernearby areas without mangroves. Shelterbelt plantations ofCasuarina equisetifolia along a strip of Tamil Nadu’s coast alsoproved effective natural barriers, where the trees were matureenough to withstand the tidal waves.

In Thailand, the head of the Department of Marine andCoastal Resources was quoted as saying that mangroves inRanong and Phang Nga provinces had saved hundreds oflives. Eyewitness reports in Aceh also observed that coastalareas with dense mangrove coverage experienced a relativelysmooth incoming tide rather than the full impact of the tidalwave, and suffered far fewer human deaths than othernearby areas where mangroves had been previously cleared.The relatively low death toll on the Indonesian island ofSimeuleu, close to the epicentre, has been attributed in partto the surrounding mangrove forests. However, it isimportant to recognize that factors such as bathymetry, waveenergy and coastal topography significantly determined theextent to which mangroves were able to play a positive role.

Sources: www.scidev.net, December 30, 2004; www.alertnet.org,

January 14, 2005

MangroveRehabilitationRequires CautionGovernments across the region have announced large-scalemangrove replanting programmes to replace thoseuprooted by the tsunami and develop better coastalresilience to future extreme weather events. Indonesia’sMinister of Forestry was quoted as outlining governmentplans to replant 600,000 hectares of mangrove forests, withat least 30,000 hectares planned for the province of Aceh.The Indonesian government’s post-tsunami recovery andreconstruction framework, prepared in collaboration withthe World Bank and other international donors, estimatesthat the rehabilitation and expansion of mangroves in Acehwill cost around US$4 million.

While conservation organizations welcomed thesecommitments to mangrove restoration, there were calls forcaution in implementing the plans. Mangrove experts arewarning that ill-planned mangrove plantations coulddamage coastal ecosystems and offer little protection fromstorms or flooding. FAO voiced concerns about theplanned mangrove restoration efforts – warning againstreplacing other valuable ecosystems such as turtle nestinggrounds and sea grass beds. “The real issue is overallcoastal management, not just the presence or absence oftrees”, said Patrick Durst, senior forestry officer in the FAOregional office for Asia and the Pacific. FAO mangroveexpert, Mette Løyche Wilkie, noted that “the protectiveeffects of mangroves against tsunamis mainly depend on thescale of the tsunami and the width of the forest and, to alesser extent, the height, density and species composition”.Narrow, thinly-planted mangrove strips are more likely tobe uprooted or snapped off at mid-trunk by heavy stormsand swept inland, potentially causing extensive damage toproperty and loss of life. In one reported case in Thailand,they have also damaged shallow coral reefs.

Sources: www.laksamana.net, January 14, 2005; www.fao.org, January 19, 2005

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“Many mangroves have been clearedto grow shrimp ponds so that we, herein Europe, can have cheap shrimp” Jeff McNeely, Chief Scientist, IUCN

Forestry Staff Death TollThere are reports that many forestry and national park staffhave been killed in the tsunami. The Director General ofIndonesia’s Ministry of Forestry Research and DevelopmentAgency was quoted as saying that over one hundredMinistry of Forestry staff had lost their lives in the disaster.Source: www.cifor.cgiar.org

Silver Lining for Mangroves Observations from a mangrove research project in TamilNadu, India indicate that the tsunami has actually improvedthe health of nearly all the 1,500 hectares of mangroves inone area (Pichavaram). The tidal waves have reportedlyopened up the mangrove forests to a fresh influx of seawaterand flushed out the high level of hydrogen sulphide that hadbuilt up. “Last year, the forests faced the danger ofwithering away, with the salinity level rising to an alarming60 grams per litre.” said Dr. V. Selvam, director of the M SSwaminathan Research Foundation’s mangrove project.Now he estimates that, apart from the frontline trees thatwere damaged, 99 per cent of the trees are now in good health.Source: www.mssrf.org

Indonesia’s Mangroves – Damage AssessedThe World Bank’s preliminary damage assessment reportfor Indonesia estimates that of Aceh’s 340,000 hectares ofmangroves, all of the 25,000 hectares that were in poorcondition prior to the tsunami have been lost, with thecost of this loss conservatively placed at US$118 million.It will take some time before the final impacts on theaffected region’s mangroves are known, since thedeposition of silt may clog the pores of the aerial roots ofmangroves and suffocate them. Changes in topography,soil salinity and freshwater inflow from upstream may alsoadversely affect the mangroves and other coastal forests inthe longer term.Source: www.worldbank.org/tsunami

Mangroves in India – Strength in DiversityA preliminary assessment by WWF India of the tsunami-related environmental impacts confirmed other reportsthat the ability of mangroves to withstand the tidal wavesand protect inland areas depended in part on the level ofspecies diversity within the mangrove stands. In theKrishna district of Andhra Pradesh, more than eightspecies were found in just two random samples of thestand and these species-rich stands were considerablytaller and denser than stands elsewhere that weredominated by just a few species. Machilipatnam port,located inland of the Krishna mangroves, was completelyunaffected by the tsunami, despite its vulnerable locationnear the mouth of a canal.Contact: Swayam Prabha Das, sdas@wwfindia.net

“These latest findings…underline how the environment can be both a victimand a buffer against vulnerability to natural and man-made disasters”.

Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of UNEP, on the results of the damage assessment report on Indonesia.

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Mangrovereforested area in thePhilippines.

news: the Indian Ocean tsunami

4 other news in brief

Australian bush fires: January’s bush fires in the Eyrepeninsula, South Australia, burned 100,000 hectares ofmostly grazing land and claimed nine lives. A combinationof high temperatures and strong winds made this thecountry’s worst bush fire incident since 1983. Scientistsfrom Macquarie University's Natural Hazards ResearchCentre analyzed data from previous bush fires andestimated that 500,000 Australian homes are at highrisk of being destroyed by fire because of their proximityto the bush.Source: www.theaustralian.news.com.au, January 15, 2005

Indonesia ups logging quota: Indonesia’s Minister ofForestry is pushing for an increase in the country’slogging quota from 5.45 million m3 to between 20 and 30million m3. "Reducing the logging quota is not a wise wayto curb illegal logging. The low quota has prompted mostforestry-based companies to seek illegal timber to meettheir demand" he said. At present, the forestry-basedindustry has an installed capacity of about 42 million m3

per year, but the industry is flooded with illegal timberfrom already depleted natural forests. The greatdiscrepancy between the demand and the availablelogging quota has been cited as a key contributor towidespread illegal logging across the country. The quotaincrease is expected to boost the industry's contributionto the country's foreign exchange revenue to about US$9billion, from an estimated $7.8 billion last year. Theplans to increase the quota have met with oppositionfrom some Indonesian stakeholder groups and are stillunder debate.Source: The Jakarta Post, January 7, 2005

Philippines logging ban – a landslide win for forests?Following the flash floods and landslides in Decemberthat killed more than 1,000 people, the Philippinegovernment announced a major crackdown on illegallogging, with the appointment of a new ‘illegal loggingTsar’ and the imposition of a total logging ban across thecountry. The logging ban, still to be passed by Congress,would apply to all forests except those on private plantations,which are estimated to cover some two million hectares.Opposition to the ban has come not only from loggingcompanies, but also Indigenous Peoples’ organizationsand some forest conservation groups, on the groundsthat many local peoples’ livelihoods depend on forestresources and community forest management is a bettersolution to help halt the country’s deforestation.Sources: www.iht.com, December 2, 2004; www.panda.org,

December 10, 2004

US passing the conservation buck? A strong conservationethic in the United States has shifted environmentalproblems overseas, said Dale Bosworth, chief of the U.S.Forest Service, at the agency’s centennial congress inJanuary. Referring to President Roosevelt’s turn ofphrase that loggers were “skinning the country”,Bosworth said “I'm afraid that we're still skinning thecountry – somebody's country, anyway, when we importlumber from places that have fewer environmentalprotections.” Bosworth said that American consumersneed to face the ethical issues arising from their highdemand for wood products. “Americans want it all” hesaid, “recreational opportunities, access, clean water,wildlife, scenery ... and lots and lots of toilet paper.”Source: www.denverpost.com, January 5, 2005

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Rebuildinghouses in Banda Aceh.

Timber Demand for ReconstructionThe tsunami has left five million people homeless, withtheir livelihoods destroyed. There is therefore a huge andpressing need to build shelter, rebuild homes and reconstructlost livelihood means – including tens of thousands offishing boats. A report by Greenomics Indonesia, a policyresearch institute, and WWF shows that as much as 260,000hectares of timber – an area more than four times the sizeof Singapore – will be needed for the tsunami reconstructioneffort in Aceh over the next five years. The two organizationssay that to avoid the clearing of hundreds of thousands ofhectares of Indonesian forest, alternative foreign sources oftimber should be explored so as not to create furtherfinancial burdens on the Indonesian government (see theWWF focus page in this issue for more details).

In January, the Indian Supreme Court responded to thepost-tsunami demand for timber in the reconstructioneffort on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands by relaxing itslogging ban for a six-month period. However, the ban willcontinue to apply to forests within 1,000 metres of the sea,national parks, sanctuaries, and coastal mangrove forests.The timber harvested will be used for the reconstructionand repair of houses, the establishment of relief camps andthe repair of public infrastructure and buildings. Whilerecognizing the need for timber for emergencyreconstruction, conservation organizations are urging thegovernments of the tsunami-affected countries to ensurethat timber for the longer-term reconstruction demands issourced from responsibly-managed forests. They warn thata shortage of wood could encourage an increase in illegallogging, particularly in forests close to the damaged coastlines.

Sources: www.panda.org, January 4, 2005 and January 27, 2005

The tsunami’s impact on the region’s marine and coastalprotected areas seems to have varied enormously across theaffected countries and parks. A report by UNEP’s AsianTsunami Disaster Task Force, released on 22 February,highlights the protective function of intact coastal ecosystems.In Sri Lanka’s Yala and Bundala National Parks, vegetatedand stabilized coastal sand dunes took the force out of thetidal waves, which were only able to enter where the duneline was broken by river outlets or artificial channels. Damagein these parks is therefore highly localized, though severe, withpark facilities, forests and grasslands damaged in several areas.

In Thailand, the UNEP report cites six marine nationalparks as most severely damaged – Laem Son, Sirinath, Mu KoSurin, Mu Ko Similan, Tan Bok Koran and Hat NoppharatThara. Significant impacts were also reported in four seaturtle conservation projects in the country, with loss of lifeamong project staff and participating communities,destruction of project infrastructure and equipment, damageto nesting sites and loss of thousands of turtles likely tohave long-term impacts on these conservation efforts.

In Indonesia, while detailed assessments have not yet beenconducted on the protected areas, WWF has noted that theproximity of the Gunung Leuser National Park to theimpacted area is of concern. Timber demands forreconstruction, together with the proposed Ladia Galaskaroad through the Leuser ecosystem could potentiallyincrease illegal logging in the park.

Source: www.unep.org, February 22, 2005. Both IUCN and WWF are on the UNEP

Asian Tsunami Disaster Task Force and have contributed to the UNEP report.

other protected areas news in brief

New PAs in Brazil: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvaannounced in February the creation of two new major protectedareas in the Amazon, totalling 3.7 million hectares. Thedecision was made in an effort to fight deforestation and landconflicts and came less than two weeks after the murder of aUS-born nun known for her outspoken efforts to supportpeasant farmers and wildlife conservation in the region.Source: www.panda.org, February 21, 2005

Icelandic PA – Europe’s largest: The Icelandic government hasannounced plans to create Europe's largest national park,protecting some of the island-nation's key habitats and naturallandscapes. Covering more than 10,000 km2 – nearly one tenthof Iceland’s land area — the proposed national park willinclude the Joekulsa, a Fjoellum watershed encompassing thelargest free-flowing rivers in Iceland, and will protect the centralhighland glaciers to the country’s northern coastline.Source: www.panda.org, January 26, 2005

Peru’s first sacred PA: The first Natural Sacred Site in Peruwas launched in December as a Community Conservation Area.Kechua communities from Cusco established the site in theVilcanota region with technical support from Peruvian andinternational conservation organizations. This model ofprotected area aims to recognize and promote Kechua valuesand principles in the conservation and sustainable use ofbiodiversity. The Vilcanota region includes the second mostimportant glacier system in Peru and is recognized as a hot-spot of biodiversity.Source: www.iied.org, December 7, 2004

Wall makes good neighbours in Virunga PA: Local communityassociations and international conservation organizations havecollaborated to build a 20-km dry-stone wall around part ofVirunga National Park, which runs along the borders of Rwanda,Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The wall isdesigned to limit wildlife-human conflict and stop furtherencroachment by farmers and pastoralists. An assessment lastyear revealed massive deforestation as 1,500 hectares of parkland was cleared in less than a month for farming and grazing.Source: www.panda.org, December 20, 2004

Tatras storms: A severe storm in November flattened forests inthe Tatras National Park in Slovakia, clearing a strip 2-5 kmwide and 40-50 km long and affecting all zones of the park.The storm also severely damaged several thousand hectares inother protected areas in the country, as well as someproductive forests. A debate ensued about the appropriaterehabilitation and planning measures to be taken. WWF andother conservation organizations urged the government toleave fallen and damaged trees on site as deadwood, toprovide important habitat and allow for natural regeneration.Source: www.panda.org, November 25, 2004

Bonobos on the run: A new survey of pygmy chimps or bonobosin Lomako forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo indicatesthat their numbers may be higher than was feared a fewmonths ago. The distribution of the bonobos however seems tohave become much patchier than before, probably due topressure from hunting. This may explain why a survey last yearin the country’s Salonga National Park (the only protectedbonobo habitat) found so few bonobos. The patchiness isworrying scientists, as it suggests that hunting is changing thepopulation structure and social ecology of the bonobos andforcing them out of their permanent settlements.Source: www.newscientist.com, February 2, 2005

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news: protected areas

Tsunami Impacts on Protected Areas

Uprooted treesin Yala NationalPark, Sri Lanka.

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news: meetings and international initiatives

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Policing smallboats carryingmixed cargoes of hardwood logs(often includingRamin) is a major challengefor CITESenforcementagencies.

The 3rd IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC) washeld in Bangkok in November last year. Held every fouryears, the Congress is the general assembly of IUCNmembers and combines the business of the Union withtechnical fora on a wide range of conservation issues. Withits high levels of attendance and representation, theCongress also provides excellent opportunities for sharinginformation and experiences among IUCN's worldwideconstituency of members, partner organizations and otherstakeholders. Last year’s Congress saw members voting onover 100 resolutions and recommendations on criticalconservation issues, ranging from Genetically ModifiedOrganisms to the conservation of our oceans. Oneresolution (Res. 55) adopted by the Congress called forIUCN to continue to play an active role in supportinginternational cooperation on forest management, includingthrough the UNFF and the ITTO processes. The Congressalso adopted a recommendation (Rec. 21) on ‘advancingboreal forest conservation’ which advocates sustainable

forest management and the application of the ecosystemapproach in the context of the world’s boreal forests. Therecommendation puts particular emphasis on Canada andRussia (which together comprise the majority of theremaining intact boreal forests) and paves the way for moreinteraction between these two countries and other borealforest nations in the development of a global effort topreserve this important ecosystem.

The World Conservation Forum, the three days of theWCC open to the public, was attended by over sixthousand delegates from across the globe and boasted fivehundred events. More than seventy workshops focused onforests and dealt with issues such as governance, povertyreduction and conservation, forest fires and markets fornon-timber forest products.

Contact: Michelle Laurie, michelle.laurie@iucn.org, Tom Hammond,

tom.hammond@iucn.org

CITES Ramin ListingWhat difference will the CITES listing of Ramin

make to trade in this tropical hardwood?

Hin Keong Chen, TRAFFIC’s Senior Forest Trade

Advisor, looks at the potential benefits.

Ramin was placed on the Appendix II listing at theThirteenth Conference of the Parties (CoP) to CITES, heldin October last year. The fact that the listing was made byconsensus, in contrast to the mahogany listing at theprevious CoP that was achieved only by a simple majority,indicates growing acceptance of the role of CITES inmanaging commercial timber species. Ramin (Gonystylusspp.) is a tropical hardwood that ranges extensively frommainland Southeast Asia to the Pacific islands and is usedin products such as cue sticks, picture and window frames.

CITES listing requires all trading countries to increasesurveillance of the trade to detect and stop illegal activities

The World ConservationCongress - Forest News

in contravention of CITES provisions. Whether theAppendix II listing will be an effective means ofguaranteeing a legal Ramin supply will depend strongly onthe availability of national laws and procedures to verifythe source of Ramin as it moves through the supply chainto the point of export and import. The listing will alsohelp ensure that export volumes of Ramin are maintainedwithin sustainable harvesting levels, once the non-detriment findings (NDF) instrument of CITES isactivated to determine off-take levels. Indonesia hasalready carried out the NDF for the one concession that isits only legal source of Ramin. The CITES listing will alsoassist and stimulate international co-operation to controlthe illegal trade of Ramin. Indonesia and Malaysia, as thetwo key range countries, and Singapore as the main re-exporter of Ramin, have already formed a Tri-NationalRamin Trade Task Force, following a workshop convenedearlier last year by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trademonitoring network of IUCN and WWF.

Contact: Hin Keong Chen, hkchen@pc.jaring.my

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The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

celebrated its tenth anniversary last year.

Brett Orlando, IUCN’s Climate Change Advisor,

looks at the changing climate of negotiations and

prospects for the Convention’s future.

When the Climate Change Convention entered into forcein 1994, the notion that human activities were increasingCO2 emissions and helping to bring about a dangerouschange in the global climate was still hotly disputed.Nowadays, the debate is about how the climate is changingand what level of change would be dangerous. The latestevidence shows that we may have already passed thatpoint, at least in the Arctic. A study released at the climate

Melt down.Climate change isheating up theArctic twice asfast as the restof the world.

Making heat waves: Human influence has at least doubled therisk of extreme weather events, estimate the authors of arecent study on the 2003 heat wave in Europe. Scientists fromthe UK Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Researchused computer modelling to compare the likelihood of the2003 heat wave occurring with and without human-inducedincreases in greenhouse gas emissions. They determined thatit was very likely that anthropogenic drivers of climate changein Europe have increased the risk of very hot summers in theregion. The high temperatures of the 2003 heat wave, whichled to 14,000 more deaths than the seasonal average inFrance alone, look set to return. Indeed, the scientists predictthat the likelihood of such events will increase 100-fold overthe next four decades, and conclude that “it is difficult to avoidthe conclusion that potentially dangerous anthropogenicinterference in the climate system is already underway”.Source: Nature 432, 610-614, December 2. 2004

Research in brief

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change negotiations in Buenos Aires in December last yearconcluded that temperatures in the US state of Alaska andin Siberia have risen 2 to 3°C over the last 50 years – twicethe rate seen in the rest of the world.

At the Convention’s first meeting in Berlin, strengtheningefforts to adapt to climate change was seen as a distractionfrom the agenda of reducing emissions. Today it’s clear thatno matter how successful we are at the latter, countries willhave to spend money to adapt because of the amount ofCO2 we’ve already put in the atmosphere. A number ofconservation organizations are tackling this challenge headon by re-thinking their strategies for protecting biodiversityin a warming world. Another difference now is that it’s notonly scientists who are doing the talking. More and moregovernments are testifying, as they did in Buenos Aires, tothe rise of extreme weather events and other impacts theyattribute to climate change.

The Russian Federation’s ratification of the Kyoto Protocolin October last year cleared the way for the first legally-binding agreement to reduce CO2 emissions to enter intoforce in February 2005. Despite its flaws, the Protocol hasprovided a crucial first step and a signal to business thatgovernment is willing to take action. Looking back, in 1994hardly any businesses took climate change seriously. Today,as a result of the Protocol, a carbon market is poised toboom and hundreds of companies are now engaged. Thiswill have implications for the forestry sector as well.

Although much has been achieved over the last ten yearsthere are still doubts over the most fundamental questionsfacing the international community: are governments readyto commit to a long-term strategy to combat climatechange, and are they willing to cooperate under aninternational framework? In Buenos Aires, it became crystalclear that some Parties are not ready to engage and are stillwaiting to see how the Protocol turns out. As the costs ofclimate change impacts start to grow, let’s hope theirprecaution does not turn out to be a ruse for inaction.

Contact: Brett Orlando, brett.orlando@iucn.org

From Berlin toBuenos Aires:

Ten Years of Climate Change

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feature: forests and natural disasters

What role do forests play in reducing human

vulnerability to natural disasters? And what are the

wider implications of forest degradation for human

security? Anne Hammill, Oli Brown and Alec Crawford

of the International Institute for Sustainable

Development (IISD) look at these questions.

The uniquely tragic events of the morning of 26th December2004 need little introduction. With a death toll nowapproaching 300,000 and untold human suffering, the impactsof the Indian Ocean tsunami will be felt for decades.Governments and communities found themselvesunprepared and overwhelmed by the effects of the disaster.Questions over where responsibility lies for the extent of thedevastation have reignited debates about the role of povertyand environmental degradation in amplifying thedestructive power of natural events. Early reports haveprovided evidence linking the clearing of mangrove foreststo the increased exposure of coastal communities to thedisaster. Some have called for a greater investigation of theeconomic factors that drive such degradation, in particularthe expansion of shrimp farming and the tourism industry.

Forests and disaster vulnerability: Evidence from around the worldResearch and experience have shown that forest ecosystemsplay an important role in reducing the vulnerability ofcommunities to disasters, both in terms of reducing theirphysical exposure to natural hazards and providing themwith the livelihood resources to withstand and recover from crises. The degradation of these ecosystems isexacerbating vulnerabilities around the world, as thefollowing examples illustrate.

Before the Indian Ocean tsunami, 2004 had already seen thedeforestation-disaster vulnerability link given high profilefollowing a series of natural disasters. In Haiti, severe floods

in May and Tropical Storm Jeanne in September togetherkilled over 5,000 people. Scientists and the media werequick to highlight the link between these events and thecountry’s high level of deforestation that has cleared 98% ofits forests. In the Philippines, flash floods and landslides inNovember and December left more than 1,600 people deador missing. President Gloria Arroyo publicly blamed thedisaster on the indiscriminate logging that has left thecountry with less than 6% of its original forests.

Previously, the link between forest degradation and disastervulnerability probably received the greatest attention in1998 following Hurricane Mitch that killed over 18,000people and caused an estimated US$4 billion in damages. Inless than one week, almost a year’s worth of rain fell on thedeforested hillsides of Central America, causing rivers tooverflow and resulting in flash floods, mudslides andlandslides. Decades of agricultural expansion and growth inhuman settlements had cleared the vegetation needed toabsorb water and anchor soils during times of heavyprecipitation. In the aftermath of Mitch, studies inHonduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala revealed that farmsusing agroecological practices – including agroforestry –withstood the storm’s impacts better than those usingconventional farming methods. The sustainably-managedplots retained more topsoil and soil moisture, experiencedless erosion and fewer economic losses than neighbouringplots (see: http://www.wn.org/Mitch.pdf).

The powerful cyclone that hit India’s Orissa coast in October1999 provided another powerful example of deforestationand disaster vulnerability. Much of the damage caused bythe cyclone occurred in the extensively-deforested newsettlement areas along Orissa’s coast as the storm surgeripped through a 100-km long denuded stretch, the Ersamablock, killing thousands of people within minutes.According to local reports, illegal Bangladeshi immigrantshad been allegedly encouraged to settle in the affected area

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Survivors ofHurricane Mitchrebuild theirhomes inHonduras.

Forest resources and services play an important role in theachievement of human security. Whether it is through theprovision of livelihood resources (e.g. food, medicine, cookingfuel, construction materials, etc.) or ecosystem services suchas water purification, climate regulation and erosion control,forests are undeniably linked to the well-being and prosperityof people. When the availability of these resources and servicesis undermined, the resulting insecurity can range from hungerand susceptibility to disease, to loss of income and livelihoods,to social tensions and open conflict, and as seen in theexamples above – to acute vulnerability to natural hazards.Exacerbating this increased exposure to hazards is a reducedforest resource base from which to draw on during times of crisis.Oftentimes, these resources are central to the local safety netsthat sustain rural communities as they recover from disasters.

The relationship between forest ecosystems and humansecurity is reciprocal. While forest degradation contributes tohuman insecurity, the reverse is also true. Insecurity in theform of chronic poverty, civil war, or the mass movements ofinternally-displaced people can destroy ecosystems and asresource-rich, multi-functional systems, forests in particularoften bear the brunt of insecurity. Decades of experience hasshown that when impoverished communities are left withoutlivelihood options and support services, they turn to theenvironment for immediate solutions. During times of conflict,armed groups have turned to legal or illegal sales of timber tofinance their operations, and often use forests as bases ortargets during military operations, degrading the resource basein the process. Ironically, post-conflict situations can be evenmore damaging for forests. Governments struggling to maintainpeace and regain an economic footing often promote timberextraction and the conversion of forested land to farmland as away of compensating former combatants, resettling refugeesand generating much-needed foreign exchange. Over the longterm, forest conservation will only succeed in conditions ofsecurity for the communities living in and around them. Forestsneed human security as much as human security needs forests.

Including the environmental dimensions of vulnerability in ourunderstanding of human security would help to focus publicattention, policy-makers and funds on the long-term value offorest conservation and sustainable forest management. All toooften forests are valued only over the short-term and primarilyas sources of timber. This undervaluation means that the realcosts of deforestation and mangrove destruction are not takeninto account in policy decisions that authorize upland logging,shrimp farm expansion or coastal tourism development indisaster-prone areas. It is these long-term and hard-to-valuecosts that become apparent after natural disasters and it is thelocal affected people that are left to bear them.

The calamity of the Indian Ocean tsunami offers an opportunityto reassess the role of forests in natural disaster prevention andmitigation. It also presents a policy space to make significantprogress in the global commitment to forest conservation.Rather than waiting for the next disaster to remind the worldof the true value of forests, forest conservation must become acentral part of disaster resilience and human security strategies.

Contact: Anne Hammill, ahammill@iisd.ca

by vote-seeking politicians. During the construction oftheir homes, they destroyed the sand dunes as well asmangrove and casuarina forests, essentially stripping awaythe traditional barriers to storm surges and high winds (see:http://www.futureharvest.org/pdf/Weathering_Nat_Disas1.pdf).

Conversely, cyclone-prone coastal communities in Vietnamhave been experiencing the risk reduction benefits of mangroveforests firsthand. Since 1994 the Vietnam National Chapterof the Red Cross has been working with local communitiesto plant and protect mangrove forests in northern parts ofthe country. They have planted nearly 12,000 hectares andthe benefits have been clear. An initial investment ofUS$1.1 million saved an estimated $7.3 million a year insea dyke maintenance. During the devastating typhoonWukong in 2000, project areas remained unharmed whileneighbouring provinces suffered huge losses of lives,property and livelihoods (see: http://www.ifrc.org/publicat/wdr2001/).

Much of the destruction associated with these disasters wasinevitable. At one stage Mitch was a category V hurricane(one of four such hurricanes in the 20th century), while theIndian Ocean tsunami resulted from an earthquake with amagnitude of 9.0 on the Richter scale – the second largestearthquake ever recorded instrumentally. Even if all of thecoasts and hillsides were densely forested, communities andecosystems would have suffered significant losses. But thefact remains that healthy forests could have helped tominimize the impacts, at least in some places.

Forests and human security: The bigger pictureEnvironmental degradation that makes communities morevulnerable to natural disasters is central to the concept ofhuman security – yet somehow these areas are often treatedin isolation. Increasingly, the concept of human security isbeing co-opted into an understanding of security in termsof terrorism or violent crime. But human security is aboutmore than freedom from violence or the threat of violence.It refers to, among other things, peoples’ health, economicopportunities, political rights, community identity, andresilience to shocks such as natural hazards.

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Woman carryingforest produce to market,Madagascar.

David Kaimowitz, Director-General of CIFOR, has

taken a critical look at the case against logging in

the great flood debate. Is logging really to blame

for floods, or is that, as Kaimowitz says, a “useful

myth”? Here we highlight some of his challenges

to the conventional wisdom on forests and floods.

The response to last year’sfloods in Haiti and thePhilippines was predictable –everyone blamed logging forleaving the land vulnerable tothe ravages wrought by thewater and mudslides.Governments, aid agencies,NGOs, academics and themedia talked about the scandalof deforestation and loggingand the need for reforestationand watershed management.Small farmers and loggingcompanies were heldresponsible for the damagedone and the lives lost.

The same response occurred in1998 after Hurricane Mitch inCentral America and after thefloods along China’s Yangtzeriver. Two arguments broughtagainst deforestation andlogging are that they reducethe soil’s capacity to retainwater during heavy rainfalland leave the denuded landmore vulnerable to landslides.The impact of this establishednotion that loggers andfarmers help cause floods canbe enormous. Following theYangtze floods, the ChineseGovernment imposed alogging ban that put over amillion people out of workand the PhilippinesGovernment is nowenthusiastic about a similarlogging ban that woulddeprive many people of theirlivelihoods.

But where is the evidence forthis case? Kaimowitz contends

10

forests and floods

that, while deforestation and logging have been proven tocontribute to smaller, localized floods, no such link hasbeen established with major flood events and forest coveroffers very little protection against such once-in-a-lifetimefloods. Hurricane Mitch, for example, struck at a time whenthe soils were already saturated, and this timing plus thesheer quantity and duration of the rainfall (when between300 and 1900mm of rain fell non-stop for nearly a week)meant that severe flooding would have been inevitable,even if the forest cover had been intact. According toKaimowitz, the presence or absence of trees also had littleinfluence on many of the more severe landslides provokedby Hurricane Mitch. As he puts it “Land use andagricultural practices were practically irrelevant to soilmovements of such great magnitude. Geology, topography,and climate basically determined where these movementsoccurred, not how people managed the watershed.”

While Kaimowitz allows for the possibility that loggingcould make major floods marginally worse, by increasingthe silt build-up in rivers for example, he says that any sucheffect would probably be limited. “If you want to limit thedamage from large floods” he says “flood control measuressuch as drainage channels and keeping people out of riskyareas are more effective methods than trying to stop peoplecutting down trees.”

But, the fact remains that floods have made deforestationand land degradation priority issues for the governments ofthe countries concerned, and that can only be a good thing,right? Up to a point, says Kaimowitz. The myth aboutforest cover reducing major flooding is a useful one, hesays, in so far as it has generated environmental awarenessand provided a rationale for much-needed development andconservation investments in rural areas. However, heargues, the myth has done little to help prepare for futurefloods, or to encourage the kinds of reforestation, soilconservation and watershed projects that might make a realdifference at the landscape level. Worse, says Kaimowitz, isthe fact that many governments have used the myth toforce poor farmers off their lands and away from forests andseveral south-east Asian governments have used floods asan excuse to prohibit the traditional farming practices ofethnic minorities.

So what is the solution for watersheds in flood-prone areas?Kaimowitz urges that “we clearly need to move away fromresponding to immediate crises and exaggerated pressreports and to take a longer-term proactive approach basedon careful analysis and monitoring.” Kaimowitz alsoproposes that we need more emphasis on low-costapproaches to watershed management, based on naturalregeneration, forest conservation, commercially viable treecrops, and fire control.

Contact: David Kaimowitz, d.kaimowitz@cgiar.org. This article is based on

Kaimowitz, D, 2004. Useful Myths and Intractable Truths: The Politics of the Link

between Forests and Water in Central America in M. Bonell and L.A. Bruijnzeel

(eds.). Forests, Water and People in the Humid Tropics: Past,Present, and Future

Hydrological Research for Integrated Land and Water Management. Cambridge

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Can we blame loggers for floods?

Logging and FloodsA Watertight Argument?

11Will Rural-UrbanMigration Reduce Floods?The worldwide trend of rural-urban migration

continues to have many socio-economic and

environmental consequences. Focusing on Latin

America, Mitchell Aide of the University of Puerto

Rico and Ricardo Grau of the National University of

Tucuman, Argentina, discuss some implications for

forest cover and floods.

In September 2004, Hurricane Jeanne passed over PuertoRico and Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic and Haiti).Although both islands received similar levels ofprecipitation the results could not have been moredifferent. The two storms resulted in 7 flood-related deathsin Puerto Rico, 24 in the Dominican Republic, and morethan 3,000 in Haiti. What is so different about Haiti?Although there are many socioeconomic and environmentaldifferences among these countries, we believe that the keydifference is rural-urban migration and the consequentchange in forest cover, particularly in mountains.

An increase in forest cover, especially on mountain slopes,can reduce the risk of landslides and flooding associatedwith extreme rainfall events. For example, in Honduras,Perotto-Baldiviezo et al. (Agriculture Ecosystems &Environment 103:165-176, 2004) showed that the effects ofHurricane Mitch depended on the land cover type.Although forested areas had the lowest landslide risk, areasrecently abandoned and covered with shrubs were muchless affected in comparison with grass fallow, croplands, orbare soil. These differences were even more dramatic inareas of steep slopes.

In Haiti, years of corruption and a faltering economy havecontributed to widespread poverty where large segments ofthe population depend on wood and even roots forcooking. Deforestation and wood harvesting haveconsequently reduced the forest cover in Haiti to less than3%, increasing the vulnerability of local communities to theimpacts of storms like Hurricane Jeanne. Seventy years ago,forest cover in Puerto Rico was not very different fromHaiti, amounting to only 10% of the island’s land andlimited largely to the Luquillo Mountains. Severe erosionand floods were common, and the associated sediment loaddegraded coral reefs around the island. Today, forests coveralmost 40% of Puerto Rico, and a similar process of forestrecovery is underway in the Dominican Republic.

Why have large areas of forest recovered in the mountainsof Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic? The shortanswer is that people are attracted to urban centres – in-country and abroad – because of better access to jobs,

education, health services and other social benefits. But,another important factor is the globalization andintensification of agriculture. Agriculture and grazingactivities on marginal lands are often not competitive withlowland production or international markets. Over the lasttwenty years, these drivers of rural–urban migration havecontributed to a decrease of 20 million people who dependon agriculture for their livelihoods, across the LatinAmerican and Caribbean region.

Unfortunately, in Haiti, the solution will not be as simple as‘abandoning the land’. The degraded soils and thecontinued need for firewood will greatly limit the forests’ability to recover. Also, many socioeconomic issues willneed to be resolved before any revegetation activities canhave an impact. Although international agencies havefunded many reforestation projects, the success of theseprojects has been limited because the underlying causes of poverty have not yet been addressed. In addition,reducing the human impact of any future floods willrequire careful human settlement planning, to avoid theworst flood-prone areas.

The lessons learned from these two Caribbean islands haverelevance beyond the region. Rural-urban migration is oneof the most important current demographic processes,particularly in countries undergoing socioeconomicchanges associated with globalization. In most regions, thelands being abandoned are in steep mountainous areas –which play a major role in determining watershed regimesincluding floods and the seasonality of water flow. Theincrease in vegetation cover will help reduce erosion andfloods, and at the same time provide valuable habitats forwildlife. Given that demographic and socioeconomicchanges appear to be as important as conservation efforts,these processes need to be incorporated into forestmanagement and conservation policy.

Contact: T. Mitchell Aide, tmaide@yahoo.com; H. Ricardo Grau,

grau@yahoo.com.ar. This article is based on a paper published by the authors in

Science, September 24, 2004. For a copy of the article contact the authors.

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Recentlyabandonedgrazing lands in themountains ofthe DominicanRepublic.

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12 People-ledProtectionAre governments alone responsible for disaster

prevention? Terry Jeggle, Senior Officer with the

UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction,

reflects on how societies can become involved in

risk assessment and reduction.

The tragic consequences of the recent tsunami disaster inAsia again demonstrated dramatically the failure ofgovernments to take serious account of natural hazards andpreventive measures to minimize the risks associated withwhere their citizens live. But is it primarily governmentswho are responsible for the protection of peoples’ lives,properties and livelihoods? We don’t hear manycommentators reflecting on the roles and responsibilities ofresident populations themselves in raising government andcommunity awareness of natural hazards and associatedrisks. Still less do we hear about how communities couldbecome involved themselves in measures to manage thoserisks and reduce exposure to risks.

There is a strong tendency for the public to think of disastersas singular events, which have already happened. Much lessconcern or investment is dedicated to raising awarenessabout living with risks and anticipating potential crises.Public awareness of natural hazards, an appreciation of theprotective values of natural resources, local education thatspans generations, and neighbourhood risk assessments ofimmediate surroundings are all simple measures that canand should draw on locally-available resources.

While the massive earthquake and tsunami would havecaused great material damage in any event, it is clear thatmany lives could have been saved by greater humanunderstanding of hazard characteristics, timely andeffective warning procedures, and more consideredeconomic and policy choices of beachfront development.

Natural forces can not be prevented, but the extent of people’sexposure to risk can be identified, assessed and greatlyminimized. It is perplexing that while both individuals andgovernment officials remain convinced about the socialimportance of epidemiology or preventive immunization interms of public health, it remains so difficult to translatesimilar outlooks to the field of hazard reduction.

Contact: Terry Jeggle, tjeggle@yahoo.com

natural disasters: socio-political issues

“Natural disasters occur only wherenatural extremes of the environment meeta community that is vulnerable.”

Lewis, J., 1999, Development in Disaster-Prone Places: Studies in Vulnerability, Intermediate Technology.

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Haiti: A High Risk Case Why did Tropical Storm Jeanne kill and displacethousands of people in Haiti last year, whereas itcaused no deaths in nearby Cuba? Disaster expertslooked beyond Haiti’s lack of an early warning systemand its extensive deforestation, to focus on theunderlying causes of the country’s vulnerability tonatural disasters. These causes, they said, includegrinding poverty, an extremely volatile political situationand powerful external forces. “The reason they (the root causes of vulnerability) cannot be overlookedis that without political stability and good governance,an early warning system and other preventive andpreparative measures are unlikely” said Ben Wisner, a disaster hazards specialist. “The broad sweeps ofhistory and political/economic change always havespecific consequences on the ground.” Source: www.alertnet.org, September 30, 2004

School childrenin Cameroonsee how treecover canreduce erosion.Environmentaleducation iskey to disasterprevention.

Culprits up the creek? The longstanding theory thatdownstream problems of erosion, sedimentation and floodingare primarily the result of irresponsible resource use byupstream farmers was rejected as over simplistic in themid-1980s by many within the international academic andpolicy community. A series of studies in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya region found that the anthropogenic causes of theseproblems were in fact dwarfed by natural causes, including ahigh natural rate of erosion. But does the theory still persist innational forest and environmental policies? Piers Blaikie andJoshua Muldavin consider this question in a study on Indianand Chinese environmental politics. They argue that the largelydiscredited ‘upstream degradation’ theory has continued toplay a very important role in how these two countries manageand control valuable natural resources. Both countries haveused the theory as the rationale for policy decisions that havesignificantly impacted local peoples’ forest-dependentlivelihoods. The authors call for new scientific information tobe shared more openly and evaluated together by nationalpolicy-makers and a wide range of civil society members.Source: Annals of the Association of American Geographers 94 (3), 520-548,

September 2004

Research in brief

13

What makes a drought a disaster? Edmund Barrow

of the IUCN office for Eastern Africa examines

some of the threats to pastoralists’ risk

management and coping strategies.

Dry times and droughts have always occurred across thedrylands of Africa and pastoralists – the dominant landusers of such landscapes – have developed detailed droughtand risk management strategies to enable them to surviveand indeed thrive. Now however, droughts are increasinglyturning into natural or ‘man-made’ disasters as faminestrikes at local, national or regional levels. Political anddevelopment strategies are at the root of the problem as thepast three or four decades have seen conversion of the best(‘wetter’ or richer) drylands for agriculture, irrigation,human settlement, parks and reserves. By expropriating thepastoralists’ critical dry and drought reserve areas, suchdevelopment compromises their drought managementstrategies and exacerbates the effects of the dry times, oftenat huge human cost.

Traditionally, pastoralists used sustainable land-use andnatural resource management systems to cope with drought,by moving their livestock herds and making optimal spatialand temporal use of the land. They found ways to spreadrisk and build resilience into their land-use by:

• maintaining wet- and dry-season grazing areas, as well asdry-season forage reserves;

• keeping multiple species of livestock, including grazersand browsers;

• establishing well-defined access rights to land, trees and water;

• practicing low-input often opportunistic cropproduction;

• using and storing wild fruits and foods, especially tree products;

• selling stock and buying grain (and vice versa); and• setting up a supporting social and institutional structure.

Trees and woody species are critical components ofpastoralists’ drought mitigation systems, as they staygreener longer and continue to produce foliage and fruits.Like mangroves along the tropical shorelines, trees are acritically important buffer in pastoralists’ livelihoods. They provide an enormous array of goods and servicesincluding fuelwood, charcoal, building timber, livestockfodder (particularly in the dry season), wild fruits andfoods, human and veterinary medicines, shade and a variety of cultural and ceremonial values and services.Pastoralists have a deep understanding of trees. They knowwhich species are more palatable, how to prepare them asfood, and which species can be used during dry anddrought periods.

livelihoods and forests

To support sustainable dryland natural resourcemanagement and mitigate the effects of drought, we need tobuild on these value and knowledge systems, not substituteor replace them. This is especially important given the veryreal threat of climate change across Africa. What needs tobe fostered is not tree planting per se but sustainablemanagement and restoration of these resources, throughnatural regeneration, better land-use and improved accessrights. In particular, tree and natural resource tenure andusufruct rights have to be understood, given legal andpolicy support, and strengthened. If these rights areignored, abrogated and replaced, a ‘free for all’ will ensueand local controls will be weakened.

Pastoralism and dryland natural resource managementdesperately needs to be better understood and supported.The role of trees and woody species in droughtmanagement and coping strategies needs to be given moreattention and recognition. The drylands of Africa are goingto become drier and larger and extreme weather eventsmore frequent and severe, according to the results ofclimate change modelling. Trees will continue to be acritical resource to help many societies cope with drought,and buffer them from the worst effects of natural disasters,so should be at the heart of any real strategy for sustainabledryland natural resource management.

Contact: Edmund Barrow, egb@iucnearo.org

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Pastoralistsin Eritreacollectingwater during a drought.

Drought – Natural Phenomenon or NaturalDisaster in Pastoralists’ Landscapes?

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focus

As reported in arborvitæ 26, Mark Aldrich has taken over asTarget Manager – Forest Landscape Restoration in theForests for Life Programme at WWF International. With thismove, Mark has now passed on the managing editorresponsibility for arborvitæ to Chng Soh Koon,Communications and Marketing Manager for the Programme.Many thanks Mark for your great support for arborvitæ andwelcome Soh Koon!

WWF news in brief

WWF’s Response tothe Tsunami DisasterWhile the tsunami’s destruction of ecological

resources is on a different level to the appalling

loss of human life, its significance should not be

underestimated. In responding to the tsunami

disaster, WWF is focusing its efforts on restoring

damaged ecosystems and finding sustainable

solutions for the enormous task of reconstruction.

Here we report on the key tsunami-related

activities of WWF’s offices in the region.

WWF Thailand is developing activities in three priorityareas: rehabilitation and restoration of conservationinfrastructure; environmental education; and restorationand improved management of coastal habitats. The office isdeveloping a range of activities and tools, such as providingonline information for foreign divers planning on visitingThailand to volunteer in cleaning up the debris on coralreefs. The office is also communicating the importance ofmangroves in lessening the impact of the tsunami. In parallelto these conservation activities, WWF Thailand is also assistingfamilies of deceased or injured staff of partner organizations.

WWF India is focusing its efforts on the Andaman andNicobar islands, which suffered the worst damage from thetsunami. The office is calling for debris piling up from reliefaid on the islands not to be dumped in the mangroves,coral reefs or in the coastal areas. Instead, the office isurging that the plastic debris be shipped back to themainland. WWF India is also collecting data on the role ofmangroves in reducing the tsunami’s impact in certain areasand is calling for an immediate moratorium on mangrovedestruction and the immediate restoration of mangrovesthat have been destroyed. The office is also encouraging thegovernment to strengthen development regulations incoastal zones.

WWF Indonesia is working with the Aceh Forum, acoalition of local NGOs, which is helping with themanagement of refugee camps and aid distribution. The office is also working closely with the Ministry ofEnvironment on the upcoming assessments of the tsunami’senvironmental impact.

The major concern of the WWF network is to help ‘green’the reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts by encouragingcountries to adopt a sustainable, ecosystem approach. Thus for example, WWF is calling for local fisheries to bere-established on a sustainable basis and for appropriatecoastal zone management plans (including mangrove andcoral reef conservation) to be drawn up and implemented.“Poorly planned coastal development has compounded theimpact of the tsunami,” said Mubariq Ahmad, Head ofWWF Indonesia. “It is vital that we don't make themistakes of the past. We need to rebuild in a sustainableand safe way.”

WWF is also calling for the use of sustainable timbersupplies in the reconstruction of Aceh. A report byGreenomics Indonesia, the policy research institute, andWWF shows that the reconstruction needs in Aceh willrequire as much as 260,000 ha of timber (see page 4 of thisissue). The two organizations are proposing that some ofthe aid already pledged by donors for the reconstruction ofAceh should be made in the form of timber. They calculatethat this would amount to one million cubic metres peryear, an amount that could quite easily be met by thedonors’ joint efforts. “The option of sourcing timber as aidfrom other countries is much more rational thanaccelerating land clearing of natural forests in the name ofthe reconstruction of Aceh” said Elfian Efendi, theExecutive Director of Greenomics.

For more information contact: Dermot O’Gorman, dogorman@wwfint.org

Destroyed housesin Banda Aceh.WWF is calling on donors to donatesustainably-sourced timber forreconstruction.

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Avenue du Mont Blanc, CH-1196 Switzerland. www.panda.org

Tsunami Disaster Task Force and, and on mangroveassessments, with FAO and ITTO. It is also working closelywith many of its large NGO members such as WWF,Conservation International, Birdlife International andWetlands International to jointly share, analyze and feed thefindings of their various assessments into the government-led environmental assessments being coordinated by UNEP.

As attention begins to shift to the longer-term needs ofrebuilding shattered communities and ecosystems,generating knowledge about ecosystem rehabilitation thatincorporates local livelihoods has become a key priority. Toaddress this, IUCN has prepared a Decision-Makers Guideto help policy-makers and project managers design andmanage post-tsunami reconstruction, taking into accountecosystem rehabilitation that restores the livelihoods ofsurvivors. “Houses, schools, hospitals and hotels have allbeen damaged, along with fishing grounds, forests, beachesand other natural environments,” said Dr Bill Jackson,Director of the IUCN Global Programme. “All of thesesupport the livelihoods of people in the affected areas, sothe buildings and the ecosystems need to be restored at thesame time for people to regain their daily income andstandard of living”. Specific sectoral summaries are alsobeing prepared for restoring sustainable tourism andsustainable housing.

Contact: Sandeep Sengupta, sandeep.sengupta@iucn.org

or visit www.iucn.org/tsunami

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focus28 rue Mauverney, CH-1196 Switzerland. www.iucn.org

IUCN’s Response tothe Tsunami DisasterThe damage wrought by the tsunami was vast both

in terms of human lives as well as impacts on the

environment. IUCN has been marshalling its global

network of over 1000 government, state agency

and NGO members, over 10,000 commission experts

and its various offices in the affected region to

assess, advise and help plan the rehabilitation of

coastal environments and livelihoods.

In Sri Lanka, IUCN supported emergency relief efforts inthe immediate aftermath of the tsunami by providingresources and transport to the affected communities. Sincethen it has undertaken rapid environmental assessments ofboth terrestrial and marine ecosystems (see news article inthis arborvitae). The assessment teams also gatheredscientific evidence on whether natural coastal ecosystemssuch as sand dunes, estuarine mangroves and lagoonscontributed to reducing the damage caused to inlandlandscapes. At the request of the Departments of WildlifeConservation and Coast Conservation, IUCN also assessedthe damage caused to five Protected Areas and providedrecommendations for management action. It is currentlyassisting the Sri Lankan government on an initiative toDevelop a Coastal Green Belt and an Integrated Coastal ZoneDevelopment Plan. Damage to ecosystems as a result of thereconstruction and rehabilitation efforts is emerging as amajor concern in the post-tsunami phase. IUCN, which hasbeen monitoring these developments, is working closelywith the Urban Development Authority (UDA) – the focalagency for post-tsunami reconstruction and resettlement –to help integrate environmental concerns into the country’sredevelopment activities.

In Thailand, besides providing humanitarian assistancethrough the Thai Red Cross Society, IUCN has beenworking closely with the Royal Thai Government in therehabilitation of the environment in the affected provinces.On the request of the Thai Ministry of Natural Resourcesand Environment, IUCN, in association with variousgovernment departments, NGOs and local stakeholders,undertook a rapid assessment mission to Koh Phrathong,an island in Phang Nga Province which was severelyaffected. It is now entering into a partnership with theSwiss Government, which will fund reconstruction ofvillages on the island, to ensure that environmentalconcerns in rehabilitation of ecosystems, livelihoods andinfrastructure are adequately met. Similar assessments havealso been undertaken by IUCN and its partners in theSeychelles, Yemen and in parts of India and East Africa.

In addition to supporting its members and developingcommon rapid assessment methodologies, IUCN has alsobeen collaborating with a number of key internationalorganizations at the global level, including the UNEP Asian

Restoring Forest Landscapes: The Global Partnership onForest Landscape Restoration, coordinated by IUCN, will hold an Implementation Workshop on Forest LandscapeRestoration (FLR) in Pétropolis, Brazil from 4-8 April this year.Invited participants will include practitioners, policy-makers,representatives from the public and private sectors, NGOsand multilateral organizations. The workshop aims to buildmomentum and facilitate partnerships for FLR and shareexperience and lessons learned in the implementation of FLR activities. This event is a country and organization-ledinitiative in support of the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF) andwill contribute to the UNFF review of progress.

IUCN news in brief

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reviews

arborvitæISSN 1727-3021

The next issue of arborvitæ willbe produced in June 2005 (copy deadline end of May 2005).If you have any material to sendor comments please contact: Jennifer Rietbergen-McCracken85 chemin de la ferme duchâteau, 74520 Vulbens, France.jennifer.rietbergen@wanadoo.fr

Back issues of arborvitæ can be found on:www.iucn.org/themes/fcp/publications/arborvitae/avnewsletter/avnewsletter26_30.htm

This newsletter has been edited by Jennifer Rietbergen-McCracken. Managing editors Sandeep Sengupta ofIUCN – the World Conservation Union andSoh Koon Chng of WWF International.arborvitæ is funded by IUCN and WWF.Design by HMD Graphic Design Ltd UK.Printed on paper manufactured from 100%post consumer waste.

Acknowledgements:Mitch Aide (Puerto Rico); FitrianArdiansyah (Indonesia); Rachel AsanteOwusu (Switzerland); ChannaBambaradeniya (Sri Lanka); EdmundBarrow (Kenya); Piers Blaikie (UK); MikeBonell (France); Oli Brown (Switzerland);Chandeep Corea (Sri Lanka); AlecCrawford (Switzerland); Chris Elliott(Switzerland); Ricardo Grau (Argentina);Anne Hammill (Switzerland); TomHammond (Canada); Terry Jeggle(Switzerland); Chen Hin Keong (Malaysia);Michelle Laurie (Switzerland); IsabelleLouis (Switzerland); David Kaimowitz(Indonesia); Stewart Maginnis(Switzerland); Sue Mainka (Switzerland);Joshua Muldavin (USA); Dermot O’Gorman(Switzerland); Brett Orlando (Switzerland);Simon Rietbergen (Switzerland); Jeff Sayer(Switzerland); Maija Sirola (UK); IlkeTilders (Netherlands)

The editors and authors are responsiblefor their own articles. Their opinions donot necessarily represent the views ofIUCN and WWF.

Reviews in brief

Forests and Floods: Collecting the EvidenceAvailable from: www.cambridge.org

The flood prevention qualities of forests are given athorough examination in Forests, Water and People inthe Humid Tropics: Past, Present and Future HydrologicalResearch for Integrated Land and Water Management.Editors Mike Bonell and Sampurno Bruijnzeel havepulled together contributions from a wide range ofspecialists, covering fields as diverse as tropicalanthropology, environmental economics, humangeography, climatology, hydrology, meteorology andforestry. The editors’ overview chapters of the book’smain sections and their own concluding chapter makethis a remarkably coherent compilation of, andcommentary on, the state of research into thehydrological and physical functioning of tropicalrainforests and the environmental impacts of forestdisturbance and conversion.

The final chapter, authored by Sampurno Bruijnzeel,Mike Bonell, Don Gilmour and David Lamb, pinpointsthe current gaps in the research. It also provides aninteresting and very pertinent analysis on thediscrepancies between the perceived and proven linksbetween forests and natural disasters such as floods,erosion, landslides and droughts. The authors arguethat the perceptions held by the public and policy-makers on the one hand and researchers on the otherare not as different as some have claimed. On thedeforestation-floods issue for example, they considerthe difference between the public view (that floodsinvariably increase after forest clearance) and thescientists’ view (that deforestation does increase stormflows for small and medium-sized floods but has little orno impact on extreme floods) to be almost bordering onsemantics. However, one issue on which the authorsfind a major mismatch is on the perceived hydrologicalbenefits of reforestation. The commonly-heldperception, that reforestation causes rivers to flowagain, contrasts with the scientific evidence that showsthat reforestation actually decreases river flows in theshort term. The editors blame this discrepancy on alack of effective communication between researchersand the forest management and policy-makingcommunities. They suggest ways in which researchresults can better reach the different stakeholdergroups and stress the importance of bottom-upapproaches that involve local communities in naturalresource management research and decision-making.This local involvement, they say, gives research resultsa much better chance of having a real policy impact.

Barking Up the Wrong Tree?Available from: www.wrm.org.uy

The environmental and human health risks ofgenetically modified organisms have been hotly debatedfor the past decade. Chris Lang’s Genetically ModifiedTrees: The Ultimate Threat to Forests is a forcefulpresentation of how many environmental activists viewthe dangers of genetically modified trees. Lang’sprincipal argument is that GM trees are an extension ofplantation technology and offer no solution to currentenvironmental challenges including tacklingdeforestation, mitigating greenhouse gas emissions

and reducing industrial and agricultural pollution.Lang states that in preparing the book, severalleading biotechnology scientists refused to answerhis questions. If this is the case, then it is a shamefor the book clearly lacks balance and the reader isleft with no sense of the current status of research inthis field. One is also left wondering how GM treesreally constitute the ‘ultimate threat’ to forests giventhat rampant deforestation and degradation havebeen going on for well over half a century, driven notby technology but by more fundamental economic,political and social factors.

Mangroves vs. ShrimpsAvailable from: www.e-elgar.com

Shrimp Farming and Mangrove Loss in Thailand isprobably the first-ever comprehensive study of theeconomic, ecological and social issues involved inshrimp farm expansion and the correspondingimpacts on mangroves. Editors Edward Barbier andSuthawan Sathirathai led a collaborative effort byThai and international researchers that looked notonly at the worldwide and national trends but also atthe local realities of four coastal communities inThailand. The researchers found that although shrimpfarming is hugely attractive at a national scale(generating US$1-2 billion in foreign exchangeannually in Thailand) it is very costly to localcommunities. The results of the economic analysesare startling. The net present value of local uses ofmangrove forests is calculated at around US$632 to$823 per hectare – and this does not include theindirect use values of offshore fishery linkages andcoastal protection. In contrast, the economic returnsof shrimp farming are calculated at only aboutUS$200 per hectare – and if shrimp farmers arerequired to cover the costs of mangrove rehabilitation,then the economic returns are actually negative.

The policy implications of this study are far-reaching.The editors point out that as long as governmentpolicies continue to subsidize shrimp farming byunder-pricing inputs and not requiring shrimp pondowners to cover the external costs of water pollutionand mangrove deforestation, this activity will remainfinancially profitable to commercial investors. The editorspropose several concrete policy recommendations toadjust these incentives, impose effective and faircontrols on mangrove use, improve mangrove replantingefforts, and make shrimp farming more sustainable.

Global Forest UpdateAvailable from: www.fao.org

The State of the World’s Forests 2005 is the sixthedition of this FAO annual update on forest-relatedissues. The theme this time is ‘realizing theeconomic benefits from forests’ and the topicscovered include the economic benefits ofagroforestry, the economics of wood energy, and theimpacts of tariffs and non-tariff measures on forestproducts trade. The bottom-line message is that theeconomic viability of the forest sector is a criticalrequirement for safeguarding the environmental,social and cultural functions of forest resources.