Amanda BlakleyMac Harris

We are dependent on earth’s natural systems for

O goods: building materials to seafoodO services: flood control to crop

pollination If environmental systems continue to

decline, we fall

It is important to protect the 4 billion hectares of forests remaining

Replant and Reforest Reducing rainfall runoff, flooding and erosion,

recycling rainfall inland, restoring aquifer all depend on forests and reforestation

Reduce quantity of wood used for paper products• South Korea 77% recycled - if all nations did this, use

of wood pulp would drop by 1/3

The largest demand for wood is the need for fuel• AIDS programs – Kenya nearly 800,000 stoves

distributed burn more efficiently and cause less pollution- also solar cooker project

• Also, Kenya is site of solar cooker project $10 – less than two hours to cook a meal

Forest Protection Efforts• Protected many times to preserve natural services – i.e.

flood control• Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

88 millin hectacres, 76 Countries

Plantations • Top 5 countries now produce 60% of plantation wood–

China, US, Russia, Canada Sweden• Many farms coming up in tropics – higher yields and

longer growing periods pg.156• Can help but must not replace old-growth forest• Could some day satisfy al of the worlds need for wood

Reforestation• Sometimes Occurs Naturally – New England, Soviet Union/

East Europe• Forced:

South Korea – world’s example Post-Korean War – village cooperatives, hundreds of thousands mobilized Today, 65% country forest

• Turkey, TEMA – 10 billion acorn project, 850 million to date

• Niger – Farmers leaving acacia – fixing nitrogen levels and reducing soil erosion

Reforestation effort must be in conjunction with population stabilization

End net deforestation and sequester carbon through different replanting methods

Adopt new agricultural management processes Must halt building of bio-diesel plants

Large Problem: Loss of protective vegetation - erosion• Clearcutting, overgrazing, and overplowing• Must plant in grass or trees before it becomes

wasteland

US Congress 1985 – Conservation Reserve Program• By 1990 14 million hectares of high erosion risk land

planted with permanent vegetative cover• Farmers were paid to plant grass and trees to fragile

cropland• Reduced soil erosion from 3.1 billion tons to 1.9 billion

tons

Conservation tillage: special way to plow the land• Retains water, reduces erosion, raises soil carbon count,

reduces energy use Helin County, Mongolia :Increasing Dairy Cattle –

reducing sheep and goats• Less pressure on land• Greater incomes for people – double in the decade

India: bring forage to animals in dairy industry - thriving

Past attempts: Restricting the catch of individual species• Some success, some collapse

Future: Creating Marine Reserves/Parks • Serve as natural hatcheries, populating the surrounding

waters• World Parks Congress : delegates recommended 20-

30% of each marine habitat be protected• Currently - .6% of the oceans in marine reserves

Future cont: Managing Reserves of 30% would cost $12-14 billion

annually Possible increase of $70-80 billion yearly through

reserves, for less than it now costs to implement subsidies

Ex: New England – post-reserve implementation, snapper quantities increase 40-fold, scallops 14-fold

“All around the world there are different experiences, but the basic message is the same: marine reserves work, and they work fast. It is no longer a question of whether to set aside fully protected areas in the ocean, but where to establish them.”

Also, Reduce fertilizer and sewage runoff that create world’s 200 dead zones

Stabilization of human population and the earths climate are two essential steps• Stabilizing population will help protect the earths

animal diversity• Old fashioned fenced in methods longer are sufficient,

with no population stabilization, no ecosystem can be saved

Deforestation is causing local flooding, rising seas and climate change as a whole

2007 - Shrinking forests in tropical regions are releasing 2.2 billion tons of carbon per year - expanding forests in temperate regions on absorbing 0.7 billion tons - NET 1.5 billion tons released

Tropical deforestation• Asia- Timber• Latin America

- agriculture• Africa – fuel woodand agriculture• Indonesia and Brazil account for morethan half of world’sdeforestation

Current Bans – from necessity• Thailand, Philippines and China• China – society became shareholder – no longer made

sense to log Farmers were paid to plant not deforest

Future: • Brazil – if nothing is done to reverse trend it will be an

economic disaster and accelerate global warming

To reach Zero-Deforestation:• Halting population growth• Slowing construction of bio-diesel and ethanol

distilleries•Slowing affluent consumption

Vatenfall Plan – reforest 171 million hectares of wasteland over a decade

Worldwide Billion Tree Campaign (UNEP)• 2007 – urban tree plating initiatives in many cities • 1.2 pledged• 431 million planted to date

Tokyo – planting trees and shrubs on rooftops to reduce heat effects

US – Cheyenne to Berkley cities are working on urban tree canopies to reduce energy use in various ways

Funding Needed to Restore the Earth

Activity Funding (billions)

Planting trees to reduce flooding/conserve soil 6Planting trees to sequester carbon 20Protecting topsoil on cropland 24Restoring rangelands 9Restoring fisheries 13Protecting biological diversity 31Stabilizing water tables 10

Total 113

www.fscus.org Plan B 3.0, Lester Brown www.nrcs.usda.gov