A recent study finds orchid bee diversity is supported by forest patches along rivers near oil palm plantations in Brazil.
The study lends evidence that remnant patches of forest support the movement and survival of plant and animal species in deforested landscapes.
Brazil’s new forest code revisions greatly reduce or eliminate the requirement for some agricultural producers to maintain river forest patches.
Over the past 10 years many areas of once-forested land degraded by cattle in the Amazon have been converted to oil palm. To measure how the oil palm plantations may affect biodiversity, researchers studied orchid bees in oil palm plantations and patches of secondary forest along rivers in Brazil.
To the researchers’ surprise, they found that these patches held just as many species of orchid bees as large tracts of primary forest in protected reserves. Their findings, published in Apidologie in late 2017, offer evidence that small tracts of forest embedded in oil palm plantations may help plants and animals survive deforestation.
The Belém Endemism Center is a vast area, 199,211 square kilometers (76,900 square miles) of rainforest that stretches from northeastern Pará to northern Maranhão. Scientists consider it one of the most biodiverse regions of the Amazon, and also one of its most endangered.
A protected forest patch near an oil palm plantation. Photo by Thaline BritoA puma print in a forest reserve. Photo by Colin Phifer
“We were eager to study orchid bees in this region with the recent expansion of oil palm plantations,” said Thaline Brito, a pollination biologist at the Federal University of Pará in Belém, Brazil, and a lead author of the study.
Orchid bees are known for their striking colors and “perfume-making” behaviors. Male orchid bees gather odors from different flower species to create a unique perfume, which they store in their hind legs to later attract female orchid bees. There are 250 species of orchid bees, which pollinate 600 species of tropical plants, including economically important plants such as vanilla and Brazil nuts.
Because orchid bees search for different plant species scattered across long distances on the rainforest floor, they are sensitive to deforestation. Because of this, scientists use their presence – or lack thereof – as a proxy for forest health.
Brito and her team set up traps scented with vanilla, clove and other attractive floral odors inside oil palm plantations, neighboring river forest patches, and in distant reserves of intact primary forest.
Flanked by forest patches on the left and oil palm on the right, a worker from a palm oil production company helps carry the orchid bee scent traps. Photo by Thaline BritoAdelsonm a graduate student and Joel, a forest guard, help set up scent traps for orchid bees inside oil palm plantations. Photo by Thaline BritoLarge-bodied Eulaema orchid bees are attracted to the vanilla- and clove-scented traps. Photo by Thaline Brito
Researchers expected to find moderate numbers of orchid bee species in the river forest patches, few in the oil palm plantations as orchid bees do not visit oil palm flowers, and the highest number of species in forest reserves.
Instead, they discovered that orchid bee diversity in patchy river forest was similar to that in forest reserves. As the researchers expected, few orchid bees were found in oil palm plantations.
The study’s findings are timely because Brazil’s 1965 forest code, which requires private landowners to keep 60 to 80 percent of their land forested, was recently revised. While the new revisions attempt to curb illegal deforestation by encouraging landowners to register their property boundaries and forest reserves in a national database, the river forest patch requirement is significantly reduced, in some cases eliminated, allowing for more intensive land use. This study is one of a handful of recent studies that show how river forest patches support the survival of plants and animals in deforested areas. Since the forest code revisions in 2012, research indicates the downward trend of deforestation in Brazil has reversed and deforestation has increased 29 percent.
An oil palm plantation abuts a major road. Photo by Thaline BritoRecently harvested oil palm fruit from which palm oil will be produced. Photo by Colin Phifer
The new study is the first to look at oil palm plantations in Amazon rainforest and their impacts by using rigorous baiting methods to measure orchid bee diversity.
“They are simply the most efficient way to study bee abundance and dynamics,” said David Roubik, senior scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, who has identified over 250,000 orchid bees. He was not involved in the study.
One caveat to the study is that primary forest in reserves may not be completely intact. But the authors say that compared to oil palm plantations and secondary forest, it provides far superior habitat.
“Overall, the reserves are more intact than not, but should not be considered untouched,” said Colin Phifer, an ecologist and coauthor of the study at Michigan Technological University. “Still, I have personally seen three species of primates, including one endangered species.”
Citation:
Brito, T.F., Phifer, C.C., Knowlton, J.L. et al. (2017). Forest reserves and riparian corridors help maintain orchid bee (Hymenoptera: Euglossini) communities in oil palm plantations in Brazil. Apidologie 48: 575-587. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-017-0500-z
Banner image: Study coauthor Colin Phifer holds a recently captured metallic orchid bee. Photo by Colin Phifere
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Indonesian and Malaysian ministers have derided as unfair and misguided the European Parliament’s vote to approve the phase-out of palm oil from biofuels by 2021.
The vote Wednesday, over concerns about the environmental and social impacts of the palm oil industry, still needs to be ratified by the European Commission and member governments.
Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur have filed official notes of protest, claiming a protectionist conspiracy to promote other vegetable oil producers, but activists say the EU’s concerns, including about deforestation, are valid and the ban justified.
JAKARTA — Officials in Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s biggest producers of palm oil, have lambasted the European Parliament’s decision to phase out the commodity from motor fuels over the next three years due to environmental concerns.
Indonesian Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita said Thursday that the vote to reduce to zero “the contribution from biofuels and bioliquids produced from palm oil” by 2021 was misguided and unfair, given that Jakarta had taken steps to address the environmental impact of the palm oil industry.
“They can’t eliminate palm oil exports so easily because demand is very high,” he told reporters at the Indonesian parliament. “If it’s suddenly stopped, then what about Unilever detergent [which uses palm oil]? We don’t want to be the target of a negative campaign all the time.”
Enggartiasto urged the European Union to open a dialogue with the Indonesian government over its concerns about the impacts of the palm oil industry on the environment.
A peat swamp in Sumatra smolders during the 2015 haze crisis. The drainage canals were dug in order to prepare the land for planting with oil palm, but the practice renders the land vulnerable to catching fire. Photo by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
Ramifications for palm oil producers
The trade minister’s remarks came a day after the European Parliament voted on targets to cap crop-based biofuels, which follows the parliament’s overwhelming decision last year to ban the use of vegetable oils in biofuels. The amendments will now go to the European Commission and member states before they become law.
The move will have serious ramifications for Indonesia and Malaysia, who together produce nearly 90 percent of the world’s palm oil.
“The voting [Wednesday] in the EU Parliament to ban palm biodiesel was not only discrimination, but it signified a black day for free trade,” Malaysian Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Mah Siew Keong tweeted Thursday.
He accused the European Parliament of engaging in protectionism to benefit the European oilseed industry — an argument frequently deployed by palm oil lobbyists who see a conspiracy to undermine palm oil in favor of vegetable oils produced in Europe and North America.
“A fair share of treatment should be given to other vegetable oils used in the biofuel mix in Europe, such as grapeseed. But then, the EU Parliament has always been anti-palm oil,” Mah said at a press conference in Malaysia.
Indonesia’s Enggartiasto expressed similar views, adding that other types of vegetable oils used in biofuels also required clearing sizeable plots of land — one of the key environmental sustainability concerns that has long dogged palm oil.
The Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (GAPKI) claims palm oil uses five times less land than vegetable oils like soy for the same yield, and that any deforestation as a result of clearing land for new plantations is legally permitted.
An oil palm plantation adjacent to tropical forest in Borneo, where a “triple hotspot for biodiversity, carbon and threat, [means] there is a compelling global case for prioritzing their conservation,” the scientists write. Photo by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
Diplomatic protests
This latest development has sparked fears in Indonesia and Malaysia that other countries could move to impose similar bans.
“Other countries might follow suit, as Europe is big and a market leader, and most countries view it as an important export destination, therefore there are chances they would do it as well to comply with the EU requirement,” Ahmad Kushairi Din, director general of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), said at the same press conference as Mah.
To counter the motion, the two Southeast Asian governments have sent official letters to the EU.
“We’ve written to the 27 EU energy ministers, with correct facts and solid figures, to again reiterate our stand, and to show our disappointment,” Mah said.
The Indonesian Trade Ministry last month wrote to the office of the EU trade commissioner and EU trade ministers to protest the proposal. It is considering sending another letter in the wake of the parliament’s vote.
“But [the amendment] has only been approved by the parliament; it hasn’t been passed into a policy,” the ministry’s chief trade negotiator, Iman Pambagyo, said in a text message to Mongabay. “We need to see how the European Commission reacts to the parliament’s decision. But right now we’re discussing steps that we’ll take before there’s any decision by the EU Commission.”
Deforestation for oil palm in Malaysia’s Sabah State. Photo by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
Threatened by palm oil expansion
While the governments seethe, conservation and indigenous rights activists have welcomed the phase-out vote, citing the massive toll the palm oil industry has taken on tropical rainforests and the local communities dependent on them.
Eep Saefulloh, a researcher with Sawit Watch, an NGO that monitors the palm oil industry in Indonesia, criticized the industry talking points that the deforestation caused was legally sanctioned.
“If we’re talking about large palm oil plantations, of course they cause deforestation,” he said. “Unless we’re talking about small farmers only need a hectare or two. But if we’re talking about large plantations that can extend beyond villages and districts, what do we call that if not deforestation?”
While he acknowledged that steps have been taken to improve sustainability in the industry, such as the implementation of various certification schemes such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), he said the challenge was in how to apply those standards in practice, with some companies still clearing lands beyond those designated for plantations.
“We can see that everywhere,” Eep said. “The latest development is in Papua. We all know that Papua is our last frontier for our rainforests and it is also threatened by palm oil expansion.”
Banner image: The sun rises behind an oil palm plantation in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province. Photo by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
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Scientists looked at reactive gases emitted by trees and other vegetation, finding they have an overall cooling effect on the atmosphere globally.
As forests are cleared, emissions of these cooling reactive gases are reduced. The researchers estimate the loss of this function this may contribute 14 percent towards deforestation-caused global warming.
The authors write that effective climate policies will require a “robust understanding” of the relationship between land-use change like deforestation and climate, and urge more research be done toward this goal.
As big carbon storehouses, forests have the power to influence the climate. So much so that the protection and expansion of forests is a key part of the Paris Agreement, which seeks to lower greenhouse gas emissions and stave off the worst effects of global warming.
A new study, published last week in Nature Communications, finds forests may have an even bigger cooling effect on climate than we thought. And that without them, the world may be heating up more quickly than expected.
Living vegetation emits gases that can react and combine with other gases in the atmosphere. Some of these, called biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), affect the formation of other compounds like aerosol, ozone and methane, the presence of which can influence atmospheric temperature.
For their study, an international team of researchers led by the University of Leeds in the UK looked at these reactive compounds to see what kind of a temperature changes they induce. To do this, they simulated boreal, temperate and tropical forest conditions and calculated different warming and cooling effects through computer modeling.
They discovered that while trees emit gases that can warm the atmosphere (e.g., they can increase the formation of ozone and methane), gases that had a cooling effect had a greater overall impact.
“We found that the cooling impacts of these gases outweigh the warming impacts, meaning that reactive gases given out by forests have an overall cooling effect on our climate,” said study coauthor Dominick Spracklen, a professor at the University of Leeds.
A kapok tree bursts into bloom in the Amazon rainforest. The study found warming and cooling effects related to the emissions of reactive gases is most closely balanced in tropical forests compared to temperate and boreal forests.
As forests are cleared, emissions of these cooling reactive gases are reduced. The researchers estimate the loss of this function this may contribute 14 percent towards deforestation-caused global warming.
According to the researchers, this study is the first thorough analysis of the climatic impact of non-CO2 reactive gases emitted by forests and how it’s affected by human-caused land-use change.
“Most previous assessments on the climate impacts of deforestation have focused on the amount of carbon dioxide that would be emitted, or changes to the way the land-surface exchanges energy and water with the atmosphere,” said lead author Catherine Scott of the University of Leeds. “But as well as taking in carbon dioxide and giving out oxygen, trees emit other gases that take part in complicated chemical reactions in the atmosphere and there are implications for reducing these gases.”
The scientists write that effective climate policies will require a “robust understanding” of the relationship between land-use change like deforestation and climate, and urge more research be done toward this goal.
“By understanding these complex effects we now know more about how forests are affecting our climate, and we are able to see a clearer picture of the repercussions of deforestation,” Scott said.
Citation:
Scott, C. E., Monks, S. A., Spracklen, D. V., Arnold, S. R., Forster, P. M., Rap, A., … & Ehn, M. (2018). Impact on short-lived climate forcers increases projected warming due to deforestation. Nature Communications, 9(1), 157.
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Researchers have found that wars and armed conflict have led to severe declines in large mammal populations in Africa’s protected areas.
Even low-grade, infrequent conflicts were enough to reduce large mammal numbers, the study found.
Despite devastation, wild animal populations can recover if efforts are made to conserve them, the researchers conclude.
Wars or armed conflict of any kind can have just as devastating an impact on wildlife as on people, a new study published in Nature suggests.
Warfare can have a range of effects on wild animals: hungry soldiers and citizens can hunt animals for meat; weapons used in conflicts can kill animals; and armed groups can finance their military activity by poaching animals like elephants and rhinos for their ivory and horns. On the other hand, conflicts could reduce pressures on wildlife by moving people away from conflict zones; extractive industries like mining might stop. The overall effect of war on wildlife, though, remains unknown, write researchers Joshua Daskin of Yale University and Robert Pringle of Princeton University in the U.S.
To find out what the net effect is, Daskin and Pringle analyzed data collected between 1946 and 2010 on more than 250 populations of 36 species of large herbivorous mammals, such as elephants, antelopes, hippos, rhinos and giraffes, distributed across 126 protected areas in Africa. The researchers found that more than 70 percent of the African parks were affected by armed conflicts during the study period. They also found that the frequency of war — and not the intensity of war — was the single most important factor explaining the trends in wildlife populations relative to all others they had looked at: As the number of conflicts increased, wildlife populations declined.
In Mozambique, for example, governments and conflict groups used the Gorongosa National Park during conflicts between 1977 and 1992. The researchers found that these wars devastated large mammal populations in the park. Elephant numbers declined by more than 75 percent by the early 2000s, and numbers of buffalo, hippos, wildebeest and zebra were down to double or even single digits.
“The most surprising finding is the strength of the relationship between the presence of conflict and declines in large mammals,” Hugh Possingham, chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy, said in a statement. “One might have imagined that the magnitude or scale of conflict would be the driver, but the mere presence of conflict seems to be a strong predictor in its own right.”
Clockwise from top left: A guard at Gorongosa park in Mozambique with an endangered pangolin; a white rhino at Hluhluwe-Imfolozi park in South Africa; a Lichtenstein’s wildebeest at Gorongosa; sable antelopes at Gorongosa; zebra in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi; hippo at Gorongosa; Cape bushbuck at Gorongosa; and elephants at Amboseli National Park in Kenya. Photos by Joshua Daskin.
In fact, even low-grade, infrequent conflicts were enough to reduce large mammal populations. The researchers think this could be because of knock-on socioeconomic effects of conflict, such as the disruption of livelihoods, that could be outweighing the direct effects of military activity. These socioeconomic effects “degrade the institutional capacity for biodiversity conservation, or the collective societal ability to prioritize and pay for it,” Daskin said in the statement.
“It suggests to me that any sort of conflict needs to be avoided, even if it’s at a low level, and such conflicts may be indicative of broader social and institutional problems that are the primary drivers of mammal declines,” Possingham added. “Bottom line — to stop threats such as bushmeat hunting, governance really has to be strong.”
But there is hope. Daskin and Pringle found that wild animal populations can recover if efforts are made to conserve them. In Gorongosa, wildlife populations have gone up to 80 percent of their prewar abundance since 2004, the researchers say, largely due to conservation efforts by park staff, the government and local communities.
“Our results show that the case of Gorongosa could be general,” Pringle said. “Gorongosa is as close as you can come to wiping out a whole fauna without extinguishing it, and even there we’re seeing that we can rehabilitate wildlife populations and regrow a functional ecosystem. That suggests that the other high-conflict sites in our study can, at least in principle, also be rehabilitated.”
Local communities must be a part of the solution, Possingham said. “In any area where large-mammal protection is a concern, one has to get the people-side of the conservation initiative sorted — establishing alternative livelihoods, law and order, education, anti-corruption, etc. — at the same time as taking habitat-protection and anti-poaching actions on the ground. If you don’t tackle the ultimate drivers such as a breakdown of civil society, then taking action on the ground and investing in park management might not work.”
Wars devastate populations of large herbivores. Photo of giraffe by Udayan Dasgupta/Mongabay.
Banner image of African elephants by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
