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https://theconversation.com/forests-in-the-tropics-are-critical-for-tackling-climate-change-yet-the-people-showing-how-are-being-exploited-181387>
"Nowhere is nature more vibrant than in Earth’s tropical forests. Thought to
contain more than half of all plant and animal species, the forests around
Earth’s equator have sustained foragers and farmers since the earliest days of
humanity. Today, their bounty underpins much of our globalised diet and holds
vast potential for new and existing medicine. Those that remain lock up
billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, providing the best natural
solution for climate change. There is no credible path to net zero emissions in
which tropical lands are ignored.
Nations are clamouring for information on how much carbon tropical forests can
keep out of a rapidly warming atmosphere to help limit global warming to well
below 2°C. The best way to study these forests is through long-term
measurements taken in carefully defined plots, one tree at a time,
year-after-year. These plots tell us what species are present and need help,
which forests store the most carbon and grow fastest and which trees excel at
resisting heat and producing timber.
Far from the laboratories and capital cities where forests are studied and
legislated upon, tropical people gather the data that forms the basis of our
knowledge about these vital ecosystems. Conventional wisdom might suggest that
making all their data freely accessible is egalitarian. But for the people
measuring tropical forest species and carbon, offering the fruits of their
labour without fair investment won’t reduce inequalities – it will increase
them.
That’s because those gathering the data in tropical forests are extraordinarily
disadvantaged compared to the researchers and policymakers who use it. Field
workers can put their lives at risk to expand the world’s understanding of one
of its best bulwarks against climate change and its biggest repository of
biodiversity. For this, they receive scant protection and meagre compensation.
Valuing these workers is essential to make the most of what nature can offer to
tackle biodiversity loss and the climate crisis. For example, tropical forests
have an unparalleled ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere. But without
measuring this, the potentially massive contribution of tropical forests to
slowing climate change will be overlooked, undervalued and inadequately paid
for.
Now, 25 leading researchers in tropical forest science from Africa, Asia,
Europe, North and South America are demanding an end to the exploitation which
undermines the sustainability of forests themselves."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
