Controversies over tropical forest and Kyoto

Slowing deforestation in Amazonia would be a significant contribution to combating global warming and, depending on decisions under the Kyoto Protocol, could provide non-destructive support for rural population in the region (Fearnside 2000a). Crediting avoided deforestation is divisive, both within and among environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and governments. Positions of NGOs on inclusion of avoided deforestation in the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) are tightly linked to geography: European NGOs oppose inclusion of forests, USA NGOs (other than USA branches or affiliates of international groups) favour inclusion of forests, and Brazilian NGOs (also excepting most branches or affiliates of international NGOs) also favour forests. The probability of chance explaining these views being clustered in Europe, North America and Brazil in this way is miniscule. In other words, these positions are based on something other than the universal concerns about climate change and future generations that predominate in public statements on all sides.

A highly polarized debate has emerged in the conservation literature about whether national parks in lesser developed countries should follow a strict protectionist model or find ways to accommodate the development and livelihood needs of local people. A number of social science critiques of national park practice and policy in lesser developed countries have argued that one of the chief problems facing national parks in particular, and biodiversity conservation in general, has been the USA national park model, often termed the ‘Yellowstone model’. This model, in which local and indigenous people and uses have been excluded from parks, has been blamed for harming local people, providing benefits to developed country interests at the expense of local people, high costs of park protection, and ineffective biodiversity conservation (Machlis & Tichnell 1985; West & Brechin 1991; Pimbert & Pretty 1995). Alternatives (henceforth referred to as ‘parks and people’ approaches) seek accommodations between parks and local people, and include community-based conservation, which promotes local involvement and/or control in park decision-making, and integrated conservation and development projects, which attempt to ensure conservation by meeting social and economic needs of local people through agroforestry, forestry, tourism, water projects, extractive reserves, and wildlife utilization.

Recent studies suggest that deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon could increase sharply in the future as a result of over US$ 40 billion in planned investments in highway paving and major new infrastructure projects in the region. These studies have been challenged by several Brazilian ministries, which assert that recent improvements in environmental laws, enforcement and public attitudes have fundamentally reduced the threat posed to forests by such projects. The notion that hazards to Amazonian forests have declined over the last decade was assessed using available data on deforestation rates from 1978 to 2000. Although the alarmingly high rate of forest loss during 1978–1989 (1.98 million ha yr−1) declined somewhat in 1990–1994 (1.38 million ha yr−1), it rebounded to a high level in the period 1995–2000 (1.90 million ha yr−1). Moreover, correlation and regression analyses reveal that both absolute and per caput rates of forest loss accelerated significantly over the last decade. These trends fail to support the assertion that deforestation pressure in Amazonian forests has been brought under control. Poor enforcement of existing environmental laws, rapidly expanding logging and mining industries, increasing population pressure and other challenges are greatly hindering efforts to limit the environmental impacts of development activities in Brazilian Amazonia.

The large number of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Caribbean (over 100) gives a misleading impression of the amount of protection the reefs and other marine resources in this region are receiving. This review synthesizes information on marine resources in two of the first MPAs established in the USA, namely Virgin Islands National Park (1962) and Buck Island Reef National Monument (1961), and provides compelling evidence that greater protection is needed, based on data from some of the longest running research projects on coral reefs, reef fish assemblages, and seagrass beds for the Caribbean. Most of the stresses affecting marine resources throughout the Caribbean (e.g. damage from boats, hurricanes and coral diseases) are also causing deterioration in these MPAs. Living coral cover has decreased and macroalgal cover has increased. Seagrass densities have decreased because of storms and anchor damage. Intensive fishing in the US Virgin Islands has caused loss of spawning aggregations and decreases in mean fish size and abundance. Groupers and snappers are far less abundant and herbivorous fishes comprise a greater proportion of samples than in the 1960s. Effects of intensive fishing are evident even within MPA boundaries. Although only traditional fishing with traps of ‘conventional design’ is allowed, commercial trap fishing is occurring. Visual samples of fishes inside and outside Virgin Islands National Park showed no significant differences in number of species, biomass, or mean size of fishes. Similarly, the number of fishes per trap was statistically similar inside and outside park waters. These MPAs have not been effective because an unprecedented combination of natural and human factors is assaulting the resources, some of the greatest damage is from stresses outside the control of park managers (e.g. hurricanes), and enforcement of the few regulations has been limited. Fully functioning MPAs which prohibit fishing and other extractive uses (e.g. no-take marine reserves) could reverse some of the degradation, allowing replenishment of the fishery resources and recovery of benthic habitats.

As emissions trading regimes become increasingly popular mechanisms for environmental pollution control around the world, environmentalists are asking whether market-based programmes meet their promise of both efficient and equitable pollution reductions. The emissions trading regime of the USA's Acid Rain Programme (ARP) is investigated in order to determine whether the programme has concentrated sulphur dioxide (SO2) pollution disproportionately for the poor and people of colour. While the USA emissions trading regime has been hailed as a success for cost-efficiently reducing pollution in the aggregate, critics contend that the programme is insufficiently attentive to the localized concentrations of harmful SO2 that trading can create. Further, advocates of environmental justice question whether emissions trading might exacerbate the disproportionate pollution burdens already facing the poor and people of colour. Stack emissions and pollution allowance holdings for all 110 power plants participating in Phase I of the trading programme are correlated with income and racial demographic characteristics of the people living around each plant to determine whether the ARP might raise distributive environmental justice concerns. Using USA Census data at the tract level, income and racial demographics around plants that increased and decreased their emissions as well as plants that were net purchasers and sellers of pollution allowances over the first three years of the programme are compared. For the first few years of the ARP, the emissions trading regime does not appear to have been concentrating SO2 pollution disproportionately for the poor and racial minority populations.

The sudden, large-scale cessation of industrial and agricultural practices following the collapse of the communist regimes in the former Czechoslovakia and East Germany, coupled with a set of programmes aimed at reducing industrial and municipal pollutant loads, provided an unique opportunity to observe changes in a severely polluted river, the Elbe. Several sets of data for the post-communist Elbe reflect water quality and ecological health, including surface water pollutants, accumulation in mussels and several species of fish, and diversity of fish species. The ecological health of the Elbe has indeed benefited, and greatly, from post-communist change. The loads of most pollutants in the Elbe surface water have declined significantly over the last decade. Contaminant loading in fish tissue is also declining. Finally, the diversity of fish species in the Elbe is increasing, with a majority of the returning species being native fishes, characteristic of the pre-World War Two Elbe. Nonetheless, several pollutants remain a concern, including nitrate, suspended sediments, mercury, cadmium, hexachlorobenzene, two DDT metabolites, and three HCH isomers. The reasons for these problems include relicts from the communist era and current activities in the Elbe watershed. Further, the invasion of the river by exotic species, while not yet a concern, does remain a threat.

Nepal has a number of wetlands in the lowland region of the country along the southern Indo-Nepalese border that have experienced great pressures from growing human populations due in part to migration of people from the mountains. A questionnaire survey and informal interviews with key informants in 1998 were used to explore the socio-economic status of indigenous and non-indigenous inhabitants, use patterns of forest and wetland resources and attitudes about conservation in Ghodaghodi Lake, a proposed Ramsar site, in the lowlands of western Nepal. Tharus, indigenous to the region, represented 33% of the population; the rest were migrants from the mountains. Tharus had lower literacy rates, larger landholdings and kept different livestock species. Most Tharu families were dependent on extraction from wetlands; all groups used forests for fuelwood but mountain settlers used forests for fodder more than did Tharus. Most respondents expressed willingness to participate in the conservation of Ghodaghodi Lake; however, only 12%, mostly mountain settlers, had ever participated in formal conservation activities. Conservation attitudes were strongly influenced by educational level and resource use. Educated males of higher caste and mountain origin who had previously participated in formal management activities were more positive towards conservation than other groups. There is a need to implement a participatory integrated management plan, to include community development, education and off-farm income generation, to assure participation of Tharus and lower caste households of mountain origin in the conservation and management of wetlands and forests in the area.

Brackish water ponds for farming black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) have recently proliferated in inland areas of Thailand's central plain, raising concerns about land and water salinization. The environmental impacts of inland shrimp farming were assessed by analysing the salt balance for an inland shrimp farm. Field data on water fluxes and pond salinity, collected from nine ponds in Chachoengsao Province from May–July 1999, were used to model the salt balance for a typical shrimp pond over one growout cycle. During growout, seepage represented 38% (11.5 tonnes crop−1) of salt losses, pond discharge 33% (9.7 tonnes crop−1), and accumulation of salt in pond sediment 6% (1.8 tonnes crop−1). About 23% of the initial salt content remained at harvest and could have been recycled. However, the majority (84% on average) was discharged to the irrigation canals. Much of the salt in pond sediment was also exported to the canal system through tidal flushing of the ponds. Field measurements of salinity were taken in adjacent canals and rice paddies to explore the impacts of salt exports from shrimp ponds. Pond discharge caused increases in canal salinity above levels that would impact on yields of irrigated rice and orchard crops, the main land uses in the region. Elevated soil and water salinity in adjacent rice fields was probably related to lateral seepage from the ponds. The salt budget was also modelled for a zero discharge farming system, promoted by proponents of inland shrimp farming as having few impacts. However, the results suggest that, even in zero discharge ponds, almost half of the initial pond salt content is exported through seepage (45%, 12.4 tonnes crop−1), with another 6% (1.8 tonnes crop−1) deposited in sediments. While techniques exist for mitigating much of the salt leakage, the likelihood of their uptake in Thailand is low. Further expansion of inland shrimp farming in the central plain is therefore likely to contribute substantial salt load to the area's land and water resources.

Water management issues at the scale of whole river basins are becoming significant public concerns in China. Adverse aspects of basin-wide mismanagement of water resources in China are reviewed and analysed with respect to watershed management organizations, systems and policies, legislation and implementation of law, public participation, and other pertinent fields. Several critical issues in watershed management should be addressed in the immediate future, including divided jurisdiction and overlapping responsibilities of water management agencies, water pricing, lack of attention to non-point sources, absence of legislation regarding both watershed organizations and public participation, and illegal implementation of existing environmental laws and national policies concerning agriculture and farmers. Based on those analyses and worldwide practices, conceptual frameworks for integrated watershed management in China, including organization, legislation and institutions, are put forward both for the short and the long term. As a national focus, the Three Gorges Project is expected to have potentially disastrous environmental impacts. Mismanagement in the Three Gorges watershed is indicated, including piecemeal approaches to management, absence of legislation and a watershed approach that is disintegrated by administrative boundaries.