The government of Nova Scotia announced an ambitious plan earlier this month to protect 245,000 hectares of forest and park land, establishing the Canadian province as a conservation leader in one of the world’s most heavily forested nations. Roughly 14 percent of all land in Nova Scotia will now be legally protected from development, making it the province with the second-highest percentage of land devoted to protected areas in Canada, after British Columbia.
This news is significant for conservationists and for the vast number of Canadians who depend on these forests for clean air, water, and a bounty of other resources. It also illustrates a powerful truth: precise, science-based maps are an essential component of good forest management and planning.
Indonesia’s Kalimantan Province on the island of Borneo is a resource rich region subject to forest fires that regularly break out during dry spells because of the spread of illegal land-clearing fires. Indonesia is the fourth largest global emitter of greenhouse gas emissions, and forest fires are a significant contributor to these emissions. A new “fire atlas” produced by WRI, its local partners, and the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry is helping the government do a better job of monitoring fires and land clearing, thereby enabling the government to shift money and resources to at-risk protected areas. The next step is a fire atlas for the entire country.
Illegal logging in Central Africa results in the loss of millions of dollars in revenue each year, exacerbates poverty in forest-dependent communities, accelerates forest ecosystem degradation and undermines efforts to invest in long-term sustainable forest management. WRI, in collaboration with the International Conservation Union and the Inter-African Forest Industries Association, developed a set of legality standards that assesses if timber products produced and exported in Central Africa are legal. Those legality indicators are now being used by governments of forest-rich countries in Central Africa for establishing their own national standards, notably in view of satisfying European Union regulations which will soon require that all imported timber products come from legal sources. In addition, WRI works with those governments to map and monitor their logging concessions and protected areas.
The United Nations’ new population growth projections show that the world is set to reach nearly 9.6 billion by 2050. This growth holds serious implications for global food security. Absent other effective measures to control dietary shifts and reduce food loss and waste, the world will need to produce about 70 percent more food annually by 2050 to meet global demands. That is a big task, and even harder to do without converting millions more hectares of forests into farmland, contributing to climate change.
Stretching across six countries, the Congo Basin contains the second largest
contiguous tropical rain forest in the world and is home to a wealth of
biodiversity and wildlife populations. As global demand for the region’s forest
resources continues to grow, Central African nations recognize the importance
of managing these resources for the future.
WRI has been working with the Republic of Congo’s Ministry of Forest
Economy and a Congolese environmental group since 2004 to help that
country gather and digitize data on all its forest concessions, logging roads,
and protected areas for the first time. Forests cover 22 million hectares,
almost 65% of Congo’s territory. Forestry related revenue is second
only to that of petroleum to Congo’s economy.
Combined with training programs, the interactive forest atlas
produced through this collaboration helps the Congolese
government better monitor and manage its forest concession
titles, adjust taxable areas accordingly, and prioritize its limited
resources to combat illegal logging by dispatching field control
units to investigate pre-identified problem areas rather than
stumbling upon them.
One of America’s great natural resources, the 64,000 square mile Chesapeake Bay,
is in a state of decline largely as a result of nutrient pollution from farms and
wastewater treatment plants. Too many nutrients in the water can lead to
explosive algae growth which in turn blocks out sunlight and absorbs oxygen.
Aquatic life dies out. More than 400 coastal waterways worldwide suffer from
adverse effects of nutrient over-enrichment, also known as eutrophication.
Three states with an impact on the Chesapeake Bay – West Virginia,
Pennsylvania, and Maryland – have been working with WRI to set up and launch
a state-based regional nutrient trading market. Farmers can now go online and
sell the nitrogen and phosphorous reduction credits they earn from better
conservation practices to municipalities and companies that must meet mandated
water pollution reduction requirements. It’s similar to the cap-and-trade approach
that has reduced acid rain.
The establishment of a robust water quality trading market in the Chesapeake
region will not only help reduce hard to manage nutrient pollution, but it will
serve as an example for other multi-state watersheds, such as the Mississippi River
Basin, as they seek cost-effective solutions for addressing eutrophication.
Cette carte montre l'affectation des terres dans le domaine forestier national au Cameroun au 31 Mai 2006. Elle donne des informations sur les differentes categories d'occupation du sol dans les domaines forestiers permanent et non permanent sous toile de fond du couvert forestier.
Cette montre l'affectation des terres dans le domaine forestier au Cameroun en 30 Août 2004. Elle donne des informations sur les differentes categories d'occupation du sol dans les domaines forestiers permanent et non permanent, ainsi que des informations sur les infrastructures routières.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of the world’s richest countries in
terms of natural wealth, yet among the poorest in terms of GDP. Forests blanket
60% of the country.
Following decades of mismanagement and two civil wars, the DRC is taking steps to
promote sustainable forest management. In 2005, with World Bank financing, the
government launched a process to review and convert old logging titles into forest
concessions aligned with the country’s new forest code.
Pierre Methot directed WRI's forestry work in Central Africa in 2009. He explains WRI’s role,
“Acting as the international independent observer, alongside our Belgian partner
AGRECO, we designed the review methodology, provided technical support, and
ensured compliance with the law. We insisted the process and results be made
publicly available and that local and indigenous populations be involved.”
Of 156 logging titles reviewed, only 65 were deemed legal for new concessions.
The remaining titles – 12 million hectares of rainforest – were set for cancellation.
“Protecting hectares is important,” says Methot, “but more importantly, this process
was transparent and involved multiple stakeholders – a first for the DRC. It sets the
groundwork for an accountable approach to forest and natural resource management.”
Russia’s forests are the largest in the world. Stretching from the Baltic to the Sea of
Japan, they encompass the last wild forests of Europe, make up the vast wilderness
of Siberia, and provide habitat for the highly endangered Siberian tiger.
In recent decades, road-building, logging, and wildfires have increasingly degraded
these ancient and previously largely intact forests. To protect some particularly
valuable forests, the Russian government used data provided by Global Forest Watch
Russia, a partnership between WRI and several Russian forest conservation groups.
Dr. Lars Laestadius leads WRI’s work in Russia. “The Russian government’s
attitude toward non-governmental organizations is very cautious, but, at the same
time, it realizes they have unique biodiversity data and maps on the country’s
forests. Using satellite imagery and field visits, the Global Forest Watch Russia
network mapped conservation values in Russia’s forests and made the results
These maps influenced the Russian government as it prioritized new areas for
protection and drew the boundaries of three new national parks. Similarly, the
forest-rich Republic of Karelia bordering Finland relied on Global Forest Watch
Russia maps and data for its new forest plan, which outlines thirteen new
protected areas and identifies future areas for protection.