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% BEE PRODUCTS ultimately, some of it graces the tables of aftershave products and even home care the most affluent people. products are manufactured at the plant World honey trade World trade. About 300 000 tonnes, around under the Volshebnaya Pchela (Fairy Bee) World production. Total annual world one-third of total recorded world honey trademark. The general director of the honey production is somewhere around production, enter the world market and are centre claims that only purely natural 1.2 million tonnes. Reliable statistics are traded internationally. China, Argentina ingredients are used and that they are as difficult to obtain because beekeeping is and Mexico together produce about 60 effective as professional cosmetics. very widely practised on a small scale. In percent of world-traded honey. The EU, The manufacturer says that Bashkir every country, small-scale beekeepers United States and Japan account for about honey, propolis and royal jelly are trade honey locally, and their produce is 70 percent of the import trade. (Source: especially good for skin recondition. unlikely to be included in global production Bees and their role in forest livelihoods, Volshebnaya Pchela cosmetics will be figures. No world organization can provide FAO Non-Wood Forest Products series, 19 distributed in 35 regions in the Russian reliable statistics for the extent of honey [in press].) Federation. In addition, the first batch of production in Africa, in the Middle East or in the products will be supplied to Germany in Asia. It is known that there is considerable German scientist identifies special mid-2008. It is the company's first step on production and that this honey flows, properties in manuka honey the cosmetics market. Since 2001, it has through the hands of numerous traders Manuka Health New Zealand said today been supplying Bashkir honey to Moscow, and intermediaries, from producers in that it had launched the first manuka Saint Petersburg, Siberia and the United remote areas to consumers in honey products certified to contain States. (Source: Cosmetics in Russia industrialized countries. For example, specified levels of a special antibacterial [Russian Federation], 24 January 2008.) honey flows from the forested mountains of ingredient. This follows publication by a Ethiopia eastwards towards the sea and the German technical university scientist of a A tree full of honey Middle East; from villages high in the paper that identifies the natural Bangalore. The banyan tree near Himalayas through ports such as Calcutta compound, methylglyoxal, which is Nandagudi, Bangalore rural district in India and Karachi, to markets in the Middle and responsible for manuka honey's unique has the “world’s largest number of Far East. In many cases, the honey has properties. Manuka Health chief executive beehives”– this unique tree has as many as been harvested by some of the world’s Kerry Paul said that the scientific paper 600 beehives. The Institute for Natural poorest and most remote people yet, was significant for the honey industry and Resources Conservation, Education, for consumers. Research and Training (INCERT) is making Institute of Food Chemistry head, efforts to get this matchless tree Professor Thomas Henle, the Dresden recognized as an International Heritage Technical University in Germany, found Site so as to create awareness about the methylglyoxal was the dominant importance of its bee colony. antibacterial constituent in manuka honey. M.S. Reddy, Reader at Bangalore Prof. Henle wrote in his paper that the University said that the banyan tree had high amounts of methylglyoxal in manuka been monitored by apiculturists for more honey have not been found in any other than a decade and their records show that food. His research analysed 40 samples of there were approximately 625 bee colonies honey from various sources around the in November 2005. A survey conducted in DEFINITIONS OF HONEY world, including six New Zealand manuka October 2007 revealed the number of hives honeys. Methylglyoxal levels in the in the tree to be around 575. Definition of honey according to Codex manuka honeys were up to 1 000-fold The banyan tree is largely surrounded by Alimentarius. Honey is the natural sweet higher than in the non-manuka products. eucalyptus trees whose flowers are a major substance produced by honeybees from Tests found a median methylglyoxal level source of nectar for the bees. During the the nectar of plants or from secretions of in non-manuka honeys of 3.1 mg/kg. monsoon season, the size of the colony living parts of plants, or excretions of Concentrations of the compound in reduces as the rock bees migrate because plant-sucking insects on the living parts manuka honey ranged from 38 to 761 of lack of flowering in the eucalyptus trees. of plants, which the bees collect, mg/kg. A minimum of 100 mg/kg is To prevent this migration, the villagers in transform by combining with specific required for effective antibacterial activity. the vicinity are being encouraged to substances of their own, deposit, (Source: TV3 News [New Zealand], 23 undertake agricultural activities such as dehydrate, store and leave in January 2008.) planting coconuts and floriculture, which honeycombs to ripen and mature. may help create sustenance for the bee Definition of honey according to the Honey-based cosmetics manufactured colony. This is so that the bees may thrive European Union. The EU definition in the Russian Federation all year around. differs in one respect from the above in In December 2007, the Apitherapy and For the past three years even the that it states that honey is only honey Beekeeping Centre in Bashkiria launched a villagers have stopped extracting honey according to the Codex definition when production site to manufacture cosmetics after they had been informed that their produced by Apis mellifera honeybees. based on honey and api-products. Over 20 unskilled methods of extraction had led to stock keeping units (skus) of shampoos, the decline in the number of beehives. shower gels, facial and body creams, (Source: The Hindu [India], 4 January 2008.)

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Honey hunting of honeybees harvested from wild bees. (Source: Bees production within the Krongtes commune, Honey hunting – plundering wild nests of and their role in forest livelihoods, FAO help maintain quality and find additional honeybees to obtain crops of honey and Non-Wood Forest Products series, 19 [in honey markets. beeswax – is still widely practised where press].) The honey harvesting training course is people are poor and living at the subsistence just one of the many initiatives that the SWA level and where wild honeybee colonies are CET is using to build a relationship with abundant. Honey hunting may be seen as community members and assist them in part of the lives of the world’s remaining conserving their natural heritage through hunter-gatherers, often at the margin of the the process of sustainable natural resource farming world. The colonies of honeybees use. (Source: Insert to Voices from the nest in the wild and, depending on species, Forest, 13.) may be nesting in tree cavities, in trees or rocks, in termite mounds or underground. Turkey is second in honey production Where bees are plentiful, honey hunting may Turkish Apiarists’ Union chair Bahri Yilmaz be a common practice. Wild honeybee reported that the EU imported some 200 000 colonies are sometimes regarded as “hole in tonnes of honey each year and Turkey, which the wall” automated cash machines of produces 70 000 tonnes of honey annually, industrialized countries. When a family or exports only 18 000 to Europe. At the meeting individual needs some cash, they can Sustainable honey collection boosts on "Beekeeping and Honey Production in plunder it quickly by honey hunting from a returns to Cambodian communities Turkey", the point was raised that Turkey known colony for some honey or some cash Honey collection provides an important was second after China in honey production or “barter value”. The products from honey source of income for Cambodian rural yet there were serious problems regarding hunting may be indistinguishable from the communities, but the current system of honey exports, advertising and marketing. products from beekeeping in hives. harvesting damages the nests and The head of the Turkish Apiarists' Union • Positive aspect dramatically reduces production. WWF complained about the inadequacy of legal - For hunter-gatherers, honey hunting Cambodia’s Srepok Wilderness Area (SWA) regulations. He said that illegal honey is a quick way of obtaining high project Community Extension Team (CET) commerce was a significant problem for carbohydrate (honey) and high protein has been teaching villages to harvest honey producers in Turkey since this illegal honey (pollen and bee larvae) foods with no more sustainably – with encouraging was being exported with a “Turkish honey” financial cost. When a buyer is results. label and it was all being sent back to available, honey hunting is often seen “I collect honey from 12 honey nests. Now Turkey when various chemicals were found by the very poor as an easy way to I can collect honey from the same nest, two in the honey. He said that some 40 000 raise ready cash. to three times. I am really happy.” These people in Turkey were professional • Negative aspects were the words of indigenous Bunong beekeepers and about 180 000 families - Honey hunting kills bees. villager, Sean Tha, who lives in Pu Rapet earn a living from beekeeping. “If the honey - For some bee species and in some village, Krongtes commune, Pech Chrada producers are supported, this production areas honey hunting may now cause a district in Mondulkiri province. Tha had just can expand to become a very important non-sustainable depletion of completed a training course on sustainable source of economic income." (Source: honeybee colonies and habitat. honey collection, delivered by SWA, with the Biamag [Turkey], 1 January 2008.) - Honey hunters may cause forest fires. technical assistance of Dr Phung Huu Chinh Because honey hunting usually takes of Hanoi-based Viet Nam Bee Research and Beeswax place under difficult circumstances (such Development Centre, a linkage facilitated by Beeswax is the creamy coloured substance as swinging from a rope on a cliff face or the Non-Timber Forest Products Exchange used by bees to build the comb that forms high in trees at night time), the product Programme. The course focused on a the structure of their nest. Very pure from honey hunting is usually a mixture of collection technique that leaves the honey- beeswax is white, but the presence of pollen ripe and unripe (i.e. high water content) producing portion of the hive intact. and other substances causes it to become honey, beeswax, dead bees and other In the Mondulkiri Protected Forest where yellow. debris. However, this does not mean that CET works, honey collection and sale can Production and trade. Beeswax is a valuable the product is of low value: it will often contribute up to 30 percent of total family product that can provide a worthwhile ferment quickly but has high local value as income. This harvest season (April to May), income in addition to honey. One kg of a cultural food, a tonic, an aphrodisiac or for example, Tha collected honey worth beeswax is worth more than 1 kg of honey medicine. In Africa, honey from honey about 200 000 riel (US$50). Unfortunately and, unlike honey, beeswax is not a food hunting is mainly made into honey beer. In the honey price is not stable because it product and is simpler to deal with since it this case, the various impurities help it to depends on brokers to set the price. The does not require careful packaging, which ferment all the more quickly. However, not price for selling in the village is 10 000– simplifies storage and transport. However, all honey ends up this way; for example, in 12 000 riel per litre but, if sold directly to beeswax as an income-generating resource India, large volumes of honey are harvested tourists, it can reach up to 20 000 riel per is neglected in certain areas of the tropics. from Apis dorsata colonies and reach the litre. Some African countries such as Ethiopia and domestic honey market. There are no CET leader Amy Maling said that the next Angola, where fixed comb beekeeping is still statistics available on the volumes of honey step for CET is to set targets for honey the norm, have significant beeswax exports,

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while in other countries the trade is scabies, tinia, dandruff, chapped lips, attractive to a colony in search of a nesting neglected and beeswax is discarded. sunburned skin, hard skin on their hands, or place. Propolis is used in traditional Worldwide, many honey hunters and any of the common skin diseases. Three medicines and also as an effective glue to beekeepers do not know that beeswax can honest traditional doctors have confirmed mend or seal containers of wood, metal or be sold or used for locally made, high-value the positive effect of this lotion for skin clay, and to seal up knots in wood. products. Knowledge about the value of problems. (Source: Aaron Ndichia in Bees Propolis has long been used for making beeswax and how to process it is often for Development Journal, 85.) wood varnishes, famously as a varnish for lacking. It is impossible to give statistics, but violins made by Stradivarius, in Cremona in perhaps only half of the world production of FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: northern Italy. The propolis in this region is beeswax comes on the market, with the rest Aaron Ndichia, Apiculture and Nature gathered by bees from poplar trees. being discarded and lost. Conservation Organization, PO Box 5150, (Source: Bees and their role in forest Uses of beeswax. Beeswax has hundreds Bamenda, Cameroon. livelihoods, FAO Non-Wood Forest Products of uses, of which the following are but a few E-mail: [email protected] series, 19 [in press].) examples. • In cosmetics. About 40 percent of the world trade in beeswax is for the NWFPS AND CLIMATE cosmetics industry, which requires first- % CHANGE class beeswax that has not been HONEY AND BEE PRODUCTS IN overheated, is pure and free from CAMEROON Climate change and indigenous peoples propolis. The world price is usually Many unique livelihood systems have been US$4–10 per kg. At a local level, making In 2006, honey and bee products from developed by indigenous peoples and provide skin ointment from beeswax can be one the main producing areas (northwest, examples not only of the human capacity to of the most profitable beekeeping southwest and Adamoua provinces, also adapt to specific and often inhospitable activities. known as the western Cameroon environments, but also often of resilience, • In pharmaceutical preparations. About Highlands) had a value of at least €3 i.e. an ability to adapt to changing 30 percent of the world trade in beeswax million, comprising approximately 3 225 circumstances. The uniquely adapted is for the pharmaceutical industry that, tonnes of honey and 50 000 kg of wax. lifestyles of many indigenous peoples and like the cosmetic industry, requires (Source: Market access for Cameroon the very fact that they tend to be highly good-quality wax. honey: an opportunity for income and dependent on traditional knowledge, living in • Candle-making. About 20 percent of the employment for the rural poor. Available symbiosis with their natural environment beeswax trade is for candle-making. from FAO’s NWFP Web site and often acting as stewards of biocultural Beeswax candles are less common and (www.fao.org/forestry/site/35667/en) diversity, make them inherently perceptive of more expensive than candles made from any signs of threats to the production paraffin wax. In the past, church candles landscape in which they live; moreover, their had to be made of 100 percent beeswax, insight and experience may also provide and this is still followed in some Propolis alternative paradigms to address emerging societies. Apis mellifera honeybees collect resins and threats from climate change. (Source: Bees and their role in forest gums from buds or injured areas of plants. Several indigenous communities make livelihoods, FAO Non-Wood Forest Products This glue-like substance, usually dark brown their living within vulnerable environments – series, 19 [in press].) in colour but also sometimes varying in in mountainous areas, in the Arctic, in yellow, green or red, is called propolis. Just jungles or in dry lands – and are thus often A Cameroon body cream using beeswax as with honey and pollen, propolis differs in the first to discern and suffer the effects of In Cameroon, many beekeepers and honey composition according to the plants from climate change. hunters did not know the value of the honey which bees have been collecting. Similar disruptions in livelihoods occur in comb. Many would burn the combs to drive Stingless bees use large amounts of other areas where indigenous peoples make away evil spirits (as the belief goes) or resin in the construction of their nests. The their living – the disappearance of atolls, discard them as waste. Since I introduced constituents of these materials remain glacier melts and forest fires impact their them to harvesting beeswax from the combs, unknown and this “propolis” cannot be livelihoods. Even though they are not beekeepers and non-beekeepers have used by the pharmaceutical industry. responsible for climate change, indigenous developed a great deal of interest in honey Propolis has antiseptic and anaesthetic peoples are excessively affected by it. and other bee products. properties and is commonly used as an Additionally, they are disproportionately One example is my recipe for body cream. ingredient in medicines, toothpaste, oral represented in both developed and This wonderful lotion has not only increased sprays and chewing gum, and in shampoos, developing countries among the poor and the demand for beeswax, but has solved a soap, skin ointments and cosmetics. It is food insecure. major problem among babies, especially in mainly sold as a tincture of propolis made However, these peoples are not just the Kom tribe of the northwest province by dissolving it in alcohol. victims of global warming; they have a where newborn babies were taken to special In forest societies, propolis is still used critical role to play in supporting global traditional healers to be protected or treated for many purposes. Kikuyu beekeepers in adaptation to climate change. Several against skin diseases. Adults and babies Kenya carry with them a lump of propolis to indigenous populations possess a unique who use this lotion do not suffer from rub inside empty hives to make them knowledge of plant genetic diversity that may

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be needed to fight plant and animal diseases, implementing and adapting CDM in forest Canada is home to about 10 percent of or they know how to breed varieties that can regions, endeavouring to secure that the world's forests and more than 90 cope with stressed environments. The indigenous peoples and other forest percent of the country's forest land is Amazon River basin is home to about 400 communities benefit from the initiative. government-owned. different indigenous groups. Although this Financial incentives are supposed to The report, which was light on specifics, territory accounts for just 7 percent of the compensate landowners for “environmental said the forests will feel the impact of global world’s surface area, it harbours more than services” such as carbon storage and warming even if steps are taken half its biodiversity; indigenous knowledge watershed protection. Nevertheless, internationally to reduce emissions of and livelihoods depend on an intimate perverse subsidies that provide incentives for greenhouse gases linked to climate change. familiarity with a wide range of these unique clearing forests, combined with insecure (Source: Reuters UK, 1 April 2008.) species. Intense research is being carried out property rights of local forest communities, on traditional medicines and many may position industrial interests behind the Bark cuts methane emission from cows pharmaceutical products derived from plants current deforestation to profit from the REDD The Australian Department of Primary have been discovered through interaction (reducing emissions from deforestation and Industries (DPI) staff jointly with University of with indigenous peoples. ecosystem degradation) initiative and other Melbourne scientists have made a Another valuable feature of indigenous ecosystem payment schemes, excluding breakthrough in reducing bovine emissions knowledge is the ability to discern and rural forest communities. Accordingly, by feeding an extract from the bark of black interpret natural phenomena to forecast efforts to reduce forest-based carbon wattle (Acacia mollissima). The scientists weather changes or identify livelihood- emissions must be combined with the supporting resources. protection of the rights of forest communities During this century, tropical rain forests to realize the income potential of their are predicted to experience a 2–8°C environment. Trade-offs between reducing CALL FOR INCREASING THE temperature rise and alarming changes in carbon emissions and reducing poverty have RESILIENCE OF THE WORLD’S FOOD rainfall caused by sea surface temperature to be pursued. SYSTEMS TO CLIMATE CHANGE anomalies, in particular the El Niño- The Global Forest Resources Assessment, Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Forecasts which is continuously carried out by FAO, is The summit on soaring food prices, indicate at least a 20 percent decrease in now including global biomass and carbon convened in June by FAO, concluded Amazonian rainfall. Negative effects will be data, at the same time as CDM small-scale with the adoption by acclamation of a exacerbated by deforestation and forest forestry projects, which have the potential to declaration calling on the international fragmentation. provide immediate benefits to low-income community to increase assistance to Tropical rain forests are home to several smallholders and indigenous communities, developing countries, in particular the indigenous peoples. Living from nature and are receiving particular attention. least developed countries and those depending on technologies that do not Descriptions of the FAO Forestry that are most negatively affected by dominate their environment, they have Department’s activities related to climate high food prices. learned to watch their surroundings and change are given at On climate change, the Declaration understand the intricacies of the rain forest, www.fao.org/forestry/site/17827/en/ said: “It is essential to address the relying on the renewable benefits it provides. (Source: FAO’s contribution to an interagency question of how to increase the However, forest property rights are not paper on climate change and indigenous resilience of present food production always clear and indigenous communities peoples submitted to the Seventh Session of systems to challenges posed by climate often experience severe difficulties in the United Nations Permanent Forum on change ... We urge governments to defending their traditional rights against Indigenous Issues [UNPFII]). assign appropriate priority to the outside forces encroaching on their agriculture, forestry and fisheries territories. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: sectors, in order to create opportunities Surging demand for biofuels, timber and Regina Laub, Gender and Natural Resources to enable the world’s smallholder pulpwood is driving a large-scale destruction Management Officer, FAO, Viale delle Terme di farmers and fishers, including of carbon-rich peat lands and rain forests. Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy. indigenous people, in particular For example, according to FAO, Africa lost the E-mail: [email protected] vulnerable areas, to participate in, and highest percentage of rain forest (10.5 benefit from financial mechanisms and percent) during the 1980s and the first half of Canada must adapt to climate impact on investment flows to support climate the 1990s. To date, legal land titles have not forests change adaptation, mitigation and been granted to forest peoples by Central Vancouver. Canada must prepare for the technology development, transfer and African governments. impact of global warming on its forests, such dissemination. We support the The Clean Development Mechanism as increased fires in the west and ice storms establishment of agricultural systems (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol is intended to in the east, the country's forest ministers and sustainable management practices oblige industrialized member countries to said on Tuesday. Canada's lumber and paper that positively contribute to the meet a part of their greenhouse gas industry must also address its declining mitigation of climate change and reduction commitments by supporting competitiveness and use of trees for NTFPs ecological balance.” (Source: FAO projects in developing countries through such as biochemicals, the provincial and Newsroom, 6 June 2008.) direct investment and knowledge and federal officials said in a draft report on the technology transfer. FAO is active in future of the country's forests.

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found that feeding the crystallized powder US$1.6 million. The problem? No not only reduced methane but also nitrogen conservation groups are interested. emissions, and increased milk production. Apparently the asking price is too high, DPI "Greenhouse in Agriculture" according to The Economist. programme leader Dr Richard Eckard said in Ngoyla-Mintom forest, as the concession an interview "A tannin in the bark is is known, borders the Republic of the Congo combined with nitrogen in the rumen making and serves as a corridor of habitat between it easier to digest and giving more benefit to three national parks in Cameroon, Gabon the animal. The nitrogen goes out in the dung and the Republic of the Congo. Ngoyla- and then released slowly into the Mintom is home to forest animals including environment. The tannin stopped the elephants and gorillas. nitrogen going into the bloodstream, where Without offers to meet its asking price, the animal had to work hard to process it.” Cameroon Minister of Forestry Joseph Matta “A problem is that there were no country to be effective in their natural says that he has little choice but to auction commercial suppliers of the supplement in safeguard duty. Uganda’s declining current the land to loggers. As The Economist puts it, Australia and we are importing it from forest cover, which is now about 22 percent of "Ngoyla-Mintom is thus turning into an Brazil or South Africa where it is used to the land area, compares poorly with other interesting test of what the conservation tan leather," Dr Eckard added. (Source: developing countries such as Cameroon (47 market will bear”. AllAboutFeed [the Netherlands], 19 percent) and the United Republic of Tanzania One possibility is that carbon traders will February 2008.) (45 percent). look at the value of carbon stored in the Development projects should, therefore, vegetation of Ngoyla-Mintom and conclude Development should not affect forests not cause a serious threat to the declining that it is worth protecting for the stream of The debate on whether to conserve natural forest cover in Uganda. There are non- offsets it could generate under REDD, a forests or clear them for investment and destructive investments that can be nascent mechanism for fighting climate development projects is intensifying. At the undertaken within and around forests such change by protecting tropical forests. While recent international conference on climate as tree planting, ecotourism, research and REDD is only in its earliest incarnation, there change in Bali, Indonesia, proposals were beekeeping. These ventures have potentially are signs that it is progressing. Last week, made to look beyond development and lucrative returns but are friendly to Aceh province in Indonesia signed the first commit more resources towards conservation of both the environment and official REDD deal and the World Bank has environment and forest conservation. forests. committed US$300 million to its newly How do developing countries such as Climate-related negative effects of created Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, a Uganda industrialize and transform their deforestation unfolding in Uganda have scheme that will offer tropical countries economies in the wake of increasing calls for already had a retrogressive impact on carbon offset credits to preserve forests. the conservation of forests to mitigate global production. With the persistent A conservative look at Ngoyla-Mintom warming? Sustainable development, a encroachment on central forest reserves and shows that its 830 000 ha of forest store over development paradigm that makes the case the rapid depletion of trees on private land, 200 million tonnes of carbon dioxide for maximizing the benefits of investment erratic weather is likely to get worse and (assuming 250 tonnes of carbon dioxide/ha – while minimizing environmental degradation, could be replicated in other parts of Uganda. actual values may exceed 700 tonnes). is the way to go. Mitigating and reversing this climate trend Should Ngoyla-Mintom qualify for REDD, the Credible development projects should requires improving planning to maximize forest protection scheme would seem likely have comprehensive guidelines on investment while conserving forests and the to offer competitive returns relative to environmental conservation. Projects should environment. logging concessions. be subjected to environmental impact On 3 December 2007, the Government REDD calculations. From 2000 to 2005, assessments to mitigate degradation. There launched a US$653 million Natural Cameroon lost an average of 1 percent of are certain conservation ecosystems that Resources Sector Investment Plan. This its forest cover each year. For calculating must remain intact because of their role in seeks to increase forest cover to 30 percent the potential revenue generated from life-supporting systems. Substantial forest of the land area by 2012. The plan is REDD, this figure is applied to the cover is a proven ingredient in stabilizing ambitious but, if implemented, will buttress 830 000 ha of Ngoyla-Mintom forest cover, temperatures and climate. Trees suck up efforts towards stabilizing temperature and amounting to a forecast annual loss of large quantities of carbon dioxide, a major climate, which will in turn be a vital 8 300 ha. contributor to global warming and a hazard ingredient for sustainable agricultural and Assuming emissions of 160 tonnes for numerous ecosystems. industrial production and for posterity. of carbon dioxide/ha from logging, at

Uganda’s forest reserves were gazetted (Source: New Vision [Uganda], 14 January US$3 /tonne of CO2, REDD would generate around strategic locations such as 2008.) credits worth US$64 million (net present mountains, waterbodies and areas with value over 30 years using a 5 percent unique vegetation and wildlife species. Carbon traders, not conservationists, could discount rate), well in excess of the US$26 Forests cannot be transferred because they save the Cameroon rain forest million in concession fees (net present value are associated with these permanent The Government of Cameroon is looking to over 30 years at a 5 percent discount rate). features that cannot be replicated. Forests lease 830 000 ha of biodiverse tropical forest The US$38 million difference seems more must cover a significant portion of the to conservationists for an annual sum of than likely to make up the opportunity costs

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of foregoing the jobs and local development Bamboo, the so-called "grass of hope", those of other species. This harmony from timber harvesting. has various features that should be taken between species allows them to interact These calculations err on the side of into account, according to Manda: bamboo positively with each other and fully utilize caution. Carbon emissions from the logging grows more rapidly than trees – as much as the resources of a given space. Artificial or deforestation of Ngoyla-Mintom would 400 mm or approximately 16 inches per day. landscapes proved far less productive than probably be considerably higher than the With a maturity of four to five years, natural ones. figures used, particularly if the land was multiple harvests are expected every The findings appear to have important later converted for agriculture. Furthermore, second year up to 120 years. It can also ramifications beyond plant species, since REDD credits are at present higher than easily be intercropped with vegetables. The the high biodiversity of plants depends on US$3 and European ETS credits currently establishment of a bamboo plantation non-plant species. Insects, birds and bats trade for more than US$90 per tonne. Even requires a minimal capital investment. are major pollinators for plant species; so, the current model suggests that at a (Source: Philippine Information Agency [the some plant species depend on a single price point of US$1.21, REDD credits would Philippines], 25 January 2008.) insect or animal species for pollination. break even with revenue from logging Therefore, to have a truly productive concessions. ecosystem all of the region's biodiversity Carbon traders, not conservationists, must be retained. could become the saviours of the Ngoyla- According to the study, "this result Mintom forest. (Source: The price of supports previous findings and also conservation: the unkindest cut, in The suggests that the effect of biodiversity in Economist print edition, 14 February 2008; natural ecosystems may be much larger mongabay.com, 15 February 2008.) than currently thought". The findings give wildlife conservationists a new powerful Bamboo as carbon sequester and income argument for species protection. Many booster biologists believe that we are currently Benguet. Should it prosper, bamboo entering a mass extinction, entitled the production may yet be an alternative for Holocene extinction event. Estimations environmental protection and as a source of range from 20 to 50 percent of species livelihood since intensive production is becoming extinct within approximately one being encouraged in the Cordillera region of hundred years. The reasons are varied for the Philippines. A Memorandum of species extinction but include climate Understanding (MOU) has been forged by change, habitat loss, pollution, bush trade, the Rotary Club of Makati Central, Centre of Biodiversity key to fighting climate change invasive species and the trafficking of Excellence for Regional Cooperation (CERC) Scientists from Brown University have species for medicinal products. and Cordillera Bamboo Development discovered that an ecosystem's productivity Citation: Pedro Flombaum and Osvaldo (CORBAMDEV) to implement the Bamboo is directly linked to its diversity of plant E. Sala. 2008. "Higher effect of plant for Life project, in undertaking advocacy, species. The discovery has granted species diversity on productivity in natural propagation and likewise for biodiversity new importance in the fight than artificial ecosystems". Proceedings of commercialization purposes. Other against climate change: the more productive the National Academy of Science in the signatories to the MOU were the provincial the ecosystem the more carbon it captures. United States of America, 22 April 2008.) government, Baguio diocese and the "It's a double whammy," Osvaldo Sala (Source: Mongabay.com [United States of Indigenous Peoples' Organization. explained. "We not only are disturbing our America], 29 April 2008.) A bamboo advocate, Under-Secretary planet by putting more carbon into the Edgar Manda, President of the Rotary Club atmosphere, but we're reducing the ability of Climate focus neglects biodiversity and of Makati Central, said that bamboo is ecosystems to capture and store it." Sala is poverty issues important for socio-economic development the director of the Environmental Change Many efforts to curb climate change have and ecology, which are seemingly being Initiative and the Sloan Lindemann paid little attention to conservation or to neglected and ignored. Bamboo is also Professor of Biology at Brown University. helping the world's poor, a think tank has known as a "carbon sequester" since 1 ha of The Brown University scientists warned. A paper by the International bamboo plantation sequesters 12 tonnes of conducted their study for six years in Institute for Environment and Development carbon dioxide each year. In watershed Patagonia. They divided an area into 90 plots (IIED) said that bad policy threatened protection, Manda said that a bamboo plant and then began systematically to remove biodiversity and made poor nations more typically binds 6 cm3 of soil and yields six native species from each plot and chart the vulnerable. The authors called for projects times more cellulose than the fast-growing changes in the plot's productivity. tackling global problems to work more pine tree. Productivity dropped as species were closely together in the future. Bamboo has a wide range of uses from removed. "Pro-poor, biodiversity friendly ways to its shoots to its rhizomes. Its waste The scientists believe that productivity is adapt and mitigate climate change are materials can also be used to produce linked to the diversity of species because of clearly the way forward," said co-author bamboo powder, dust for fuel, charcoal, "niche complementarity". In other words, in Krystyna Swiderska. "But for them to work, bricks, fibreboard, paper, lumber and an intact environment each species has local communities must be involved in clothing. evolved its own niche without interrupting decisions about how biodiversity is used.

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Good governance and fair access to land University said that land classed as idle is floods, changes in the natural biological and resources must be at the heart of these often not empty land, and can be home to cycles, with interferences in farming and efforts." She warned that "bad polices" diverse undomesticated species. fishing. could accelerate biodiversity loss and To cope with potential risks, Millington “The indigenous peoples need to increase the vulnerability of the world's recommends that environmental understand exactly what is happening to poorest communities. assessment is carried out to distinguish high their forests. They have always been Ms Swiderska and co-author Hannah biodiversity areas from low biodiversity areas forgotten when it is time for decision-making Reid wrote that poor communities heavily that are suitable for jatropha trees or other and the time has come for them to be taken depended upon biodiversity for food, biofuel plants. (Source: SciDev.Net Weekly into account because their ancestral medicine and sustaining livelihoods. Update, 17–24 March 2008.) knowledge on nature enables them to Protecting diversity would give these provide important inputs for the climate communities more options to adapt to a International Alliance will unite the forest debate,” said Yolanda Hernández, the warming world, they added. peoples of the world indigenous representative of the Maya While global agreements, such as the The forest peoples of the world are joining Kakchiquel people of Guatemala. CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity), forces in order to have access to resources The differences that exist both within and the UN Framework Convention on Climate deriving from the thriving green market, among these countries may be better Change and the Millennium Development based on future mechanisms for the addressed in their quest for common Goals, acknowledged the impact of climate reduction of emissions from REDD, to be solutions to ensure the worthy survival of change on biodiversity and poor nations, created through the UN Climate Convention. the people and the conservation of forests, the authors said there were no shared or They want to use this opportunity so that i.e. to maintain the environmental services common goals to ensure that strategies did their fundamental rights may be fulfilled: the required for the balance of the planet. not conflict. "Policy-makers have focused right to land and to natural resources and “Therefore, the scenario provided by the on mitigating greenhouse gas emissions respect for their traditional livelihoods. REDD mechanism brings together the but biodiversity is also key," observed Ms Gathered in Manaus, in the heart of the interests of forest communities and the Swiderska. "For centuries, traditional Brazilian Amazon, the participants of the interests of scientists, environmentalists farmers have used the diversity within both Peoples of the Forest and Climate Change and members of social movements domesticated and wild species to adapt to Workshop have just set the basis for an throughout the world,” says Paulo changing conditions." She said that greater international alliance, based on a Brazilian Moutinho, from the Amazon Institute for recognition of local knowledge could help model with a 20-year long history that brings Environmental Research (IPAM). According deliver results on a global scale. (Source: together indigenous peoples, extractive to the coordinator of Instituto BBC News [United Kingdom], 18 February producers and riverine populations, inspired Socioambiental, Márcio Santilli, this is also 2008.) by the efforts of Chico Mendes. The new an economic opportunity capable of alliance will function as a network and changing the balance of forces on behalf of Chinese biofuel “could endanger transnational forum for the exchange of the acknowledgement of the territorial biodiversity” experiences among forest populations and rights of the traditional and indigenous Beijing. Using China's forests and “idle mostly for influencing international peoples. (Source: ForestNewsWire (press land” to produce biofuels could pose a discussions on climate, deforestation and release) [Canada], April 2008.) p threat to biodiversity, experts warned at an mechanisms for the reduction of greenhouse international meeting. Spike Millington, gas emissions. chief technical advisor to the European The International Alliance of Forest Union-China Biodiversity Programme, Peoples was unanimously approved on raised the problem earlier this month 4 April by the 11 countries that signed the CORRECTION: SAGO PALM (7 March) at the International Workshop on Manaus Declaration: Brazil, Colombia, Costa (METROXYLON SPP.) Biodiversity and Climate Change, held in Rica, Ecuador, Guyana, French Guiana, Beijing, China. Paraguay, Nicaragua, the Bolivarian Republic Unfortunately, during typesetting one In July 2007, China released its middle- of Venezuela, Suriname and Panama and by line was omitted from the text in the first and long-term plan for renewable energy. the members of delegations from Africa column of page 10 of Non-Wood News The plan encourages the development of (Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Asia 16. The sentence should have read: “The non-grain biofuels, including cassava- and (Indonesia). The document was approved with two primary uses are for the production sorghum-based ethanol in northeast and the participation of UN observers and of edible starch and durable leaf thatch". south China, and jatropha-based biodiesel observers of Non-governmental In addition, in order to clarify the text in in southwest China's Guizhou, Sichuan and Organizations (NGOs) from Brazil, the United the box on Edible starch on the same Yunnan provinces. But, according to Kingdom and the United States. page, the author has advised that: “This Millington, the region of southwest China In spite of the differences in legislation synopsis is for the lesser known species of targeted coincides with the home of the last regarding the use and conservation of forests sago palms found to the east and remaining intact natural forests in China. that exist in these countries still hosting northeast of New Guinea and does not He added that the degraded forests in the major extensions of rain forests, they share include the most important economic area also play an important role in common problems and already feel the species M. sagu". biodiversity. Liu Xuehua, an associate negative effects of climate change upon the professor of environment at Tsinghua planet in similar ways: severe droughts,

NON-WOOD NEWS No. 17 July 2008