US saves only the lands nobody wanted

Rimrocks, in Escalante, Utah.

By Cat Lazaroff

Washington, DC, Aug. 27 (ENS)— America’s large system of nature preserves fails to encompass the full range of the nation’s biodiversity, a new report shows. The study by US Geological Survey biologists shows that the United States has selectively protected lands that lack commercial, agricultural or other human values, leaving entire ecosystems unrepresented.

Each year, millions of Americans visit one or more of the nation’s system of nature reserves. These areas serve to protect, preserve and showcase the environmental resources of the American landscape.

But according to an article in the August edition of the journal “Ecological Applications,” US nature reserves are not accomplishing a critical task: preserving the biodiversity of plant and animal species present in the lower 48 states.

The research demonstrates that despite covering about 420,000 square kilometers, America’s arrangement of nature reserves fails to encompass the full range of the nation’s biodiversity.

The research team, led by J. Michael Scott of the US Geological Survey, Department of Fish and Wildlife at the University of Idaho, built upon past studies, some of which illustrated that as much as one third of vegetation types are not found within protected lands.

The team examined the distribution of ecological zones in comparison to the location of national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges, and designated wilderness areas, Indian reservations, county parks, and other areas having permanent protection from conversion of natural land cover.

Their conclusion: nature reserves are unevenly distributed across ecological zones, and therefore preserve only a small portion of the plants and animals that call America home.

“The current network of nature reserves in the coterminous United States is the result of lands being set aside not in accordance with a well thought out ecological plan, but rather because the lands lacked value for commercial uses, human habitation, or because of scenic or recreational value,” argues Scott, primary investigator for the study. “These ‘lands nobody wanted’ don’t come close to representing the natural variation found in the US."

The authors divided the lower 48 states into three broad ecological domains: Eastern Humid, Western Humid Temperate, and Dry Temperate domains. They then combined soil productivity data with elevation and land management information to identify 35 potential soil and elevation classes within the lower 48 states.

After breaking down the US landscape by soil productivity, elevation and broad ecological zones, the authors show that nature reserves are predominantly located in middle to high elevations in areas with less productive soils. For example, they found that 63 percent of the nature reserves have soil productivity classifications of four and five, the two poorest classifications on a scale of one to five.

The richest soils tend to be at lower elevations, and these areas are often more developed for agricultural use, timber production and residential development.

The authors contend that by disproportionately locating reserves in higher elevations with poor soil productivity, entire species of plants and animals who reside in lower and more fertile areas are left largely unprotected. Past studies have shown that the greatest numbers of amphibian and reptile species in the western United States are found below 2,000 meters of elevation, while many reserves are confined to higher elevations.

In order for America’s biodiversity to be preserved for future generations, the authors point out that the private sector must be encouraged to protect plant and animal species outside of designated reserves.

“Past experience indicates that involving the private sector in creative strategies such as conservation easements, tax incentives, and other methods, can provide habitat crucial to US species,” said Scott.

There are some signs that policy makers are heeding this call. The recently passed Refuge Improvement Act of 2000 calls upon the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Wildlife Refuge System to be representative of the nation’s ecosystems, giving the agency the authority to take measures to ensure better representation of species not currently under the purview of public lands.

Forests face global extinction,study says

By Alanna Mitchell

Aug. 21— It will take a miracle — and concerted international effort — to save the healthy forests left in the world from obliteration, a landmark study from the United Nations says.

Most will disappear within decades, impairing the planet’s ability to protect water, wildlife, the carbon cycle and even human life, the study, released yesterday in Nairobi, concludes.

Canada, with its expanse of virgin boreal forest, plays a key role in preserving these crucial planetary systems. The report calls for this country and the other 14 national stewards of the world’s most important forests to agree to take care of them.

“Short of a miraculous transformation in the attitude of people and governments, the Earth’s remaining closed-canopy forests and associated biodiversity are destined to disappear in the coming decades,” says the study’s foreword, written by Klaus Toepfer, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Program.

The study is the first comprehensive global snapshot of how much forest cover is left on Earth. Scientists examined satellite photographs of all the world’s forests, figured out how many had enough density to support wildlife, then examined pressures that could destroy those ecosystems.

The report found that roughly 21 percent of the planet’s land area — or 2.9 billion hectares — is covered with what it calls closed-canopy forests, meaning that 40 percent of the forest’s trees are interlocked. That’s a proxy for a forest ecosystem, untouched or replanted, healthy enough to support wildlife and protect watersheds.

Most of the forests are in just 15 countries. Russia has the greatest area of canopy forests, followed by Canada and Brazil. Together, the three countries have nearly half the canopied forests in the world.

Also on the list are the United States, Democratic Republic of Congo, China, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, India, Australia and Papua New Guinea.

The report says the forests in these countries are so important that “the international community, in co-operation with these 15 national governments, should develop a comprehensive forest strategy for conservation and management of the remaining closed forests.”

Only a small percentage of these canopy forests are protected. Globally, there are formal bans on tree removal in just over 9 percent. The proportion ranges from about 20 percent in South America to less than 4 percent in Europe and Asia. In North and Central America, it is only 7.4 percent.

A diverse range of threats put forests across the globe at risk, including poverty-stricken families who need wood to survive and multinational logging companies out for a quick profit.

About half the closed-canopy forests in Asia are under moderate to high threat from logging. Another major threat in Asia is its population growth: The forested land is expected to be needed to grow food.

The goal of the UNEP study is to pinpoint where conservation funds can be spent to protect forests most worth saving. Nick Nuttall, a spokesman for UNEP, said yesterday the organization is counting on steps taken during climate-change convention negotiations in Bonn last month.

There, the world’s most powerful governments agreed to spend money on transferring new technology to developing countries in a bid to reduce the need to burn fossil fuels. That money, in turn, could be aimed at the countries that have forests that matter most.

Closed forests are a clear indication of a healthy ecosystem beneath the trees. These are areas where 40 percent or more of tree crowns are interlocked.

The global picture

Just over 20 percent of the world’s land mass lies under covered forest. The data below illustrates the top five countries and their share of the total:

* Russia 23.3%
*Canada 12.8%
*Brazil 12.6%
*United States 8.2%
*Democratic Republic of the Congo 4.0%

Source: Globe and Mail