Deforestation in Haiti Adds to Post-Earthquake Landslide Concerns

by John J. Berger, Ph.D and Lani Maher

Haiti, the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere, finally captured international attention following a devastating 7.0 earthquake that struck the country on January 12th. The quake killed an estimated 230,000 Haitians and left over a million homeless. International relief organizations are currently working to help Haitian refugees and start rebuilding all that was destroyed.

It is unfortunate, however, that such a catastrophe was necessary to bring Haiti’s ongoing struggles into the public eye. Prior to the earthquake, Haiti already faced extreme poverty and environmental degradation, which severely exacerbated the earthquake’s impact on the Haitian people.

Homeless Haitians set up tents nearby the Presidential Palace, in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti Earthquake. Marcello Casal Jr, Agência Brasil.

According to NASA, Haiti has one of the worst cases of deforestation in the world, with only about 2% green cover, in contrast to the Dominican Republic, which borders Haiti and has about 28% green cover. Measurements of green cover indicate the proportion of a country’s total terrestrial area that is covered by vegetation, as opposed to soil, sand, or concrete. The lack of trees in Haiti has been very detrimental to the environment and to the Haitian population that depends on them. Five hundred years ago, the island of Hispaniola, where Haiti and the Dominican republic are now situated, was densely forested, but centuries of logging and poor farming practices have removed most of the trees and soil nutrients. Still, Haitians are continuing to scavenge the last forest remnants for fuel.

Because Haiti’s soil is largely void of plant roots, it is especially vulnerable to erosion and it’s ability to absorb and hold water and nutrients is impaired. This makes it especially susceptible flooding, while contributing to the country’s shortage of clean drinking water. The lack of forest also eliminates transpiration, which in turn reduces ambient humidity and rainfall and creates unfavorable conditions for new plant growth. All this presents substantial difficulties for Haiti’s subsistence agriculture. Haiti’s extreme deforestation thus also contributes to the country’s inadequate food supply, as well as its dismal economic condition.

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The border between Haiti (left) and the Dominican Republic highlights the relative deforestation of Haiti. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.

January’s earthquake also raised concerns among relief workers about landslides in Haiti, as the quake may have destabilized denuded hills and mountainsides that lack trees to hold the earth in place. This may leave Haitian cities especially susceptible to damaging landslides, even as they try to rebuild. Therefore, relief and rebuilding efforts will not be enough to mitigate future natural disasters unless Haiti’s deforestation problem is addressed. Only then can this country and its people have a chance to overcome its impoverished and weakened state.

Additional Sources

Greenpeace Victorious After Five-Year Forestry Struggle

Kimberly-Clark Bows to Kleercut Campaign Demands:
Adopts New Environmental Policy
, by John J. Berger, Ph.D and Lani Maher

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We hear of so many environmental tragedies and good battles lost in the environmental arena, but sometimes, steps are taken in the right direction. Greenpeace’s Kleercut campaign appears to be one such success story.

For five years, the Kleercut campaigners have worked to pressure Kimberly-Clark, the multinational paper and consumer products company, to stop supporting the destruction of ancient and endangered forests, like the boreal forests of North American. Kimberly-Clark is the world’s largest tissue producer and the maker of Kleenex, Scott and Cottenelle toilet paper, as well as diapers and other products.

In addition to efforts by Greenpeace, the company was also receiving pressure from clients demanding answers to hard questions and threatening to terminate their contracts with the tissue giant. After nearly five years of public campaigning by Greenpeace, the company’s level of awareness of forest-related issues and sustainability had reached a tipping point. That then resulted in the development and adoption of what he believes is one of the strongest paper policies on the planet, according to Greenpeace Canada’s Forest Campaign Coordinator, Richard Brooks.

On August 5, 2009, Kimberly-Clark released a new environmental policy that was developed in conjunction with Greenpeace to promote the protection of ancient boreal forests in Canada and other treasured forests worldwide. The tissue giant vowed to exclusively use Forest Stewardship Council certified pulp in the production of Kimberly-Clark products and agreed to increase its use of recycled fibers from 29.7% to 40% by 2011. While Kimberly-Clark’s operations will still involve logging, the provisions of its new fiber procurement plan now emphasize environmental values.

Even more impressive than the company’s new policies, is its dedication to implementing them. Since the plan’s adoption, Kimberly-Clark has stopped purchasing pulp from the Kenogami and Ogoki boreal forests in Northern Ontario, in response to the refusal of forest managers to provide Forest Stewardship Council certified pulp. While these forests are maintained by private companies, they are subject to some regulations and are used, in part, by the public for recreational purposes. Old-growth makes up much of these forest management units, however a very small percentage of the forests are protected from logging and development. Prior to the adoption of their new paper policy, Kimberly-Clark purchased 325,000 tonnes of pulp a year from clearcut logging operations in the Kenogami and Ogoki Forests.

Only time will tell how faithfully Kimberly-Clark will implement its new policies and how sustainable those policies will eventually prove to be. The company has agreed to hold meetings with Greenpeace representatives every six months to discuss ongoing implementation. “I believe that Kimberly-Clark is fully behind the policy and committed to implementing it,” Brooks said.

To read Kimberly-Clark’s fiber procurement plan in its entirety, please click here.

For more information about forests, their global importance, and strategies for their protection, please see Forests Forever: Their Ecology, Restoration, and Protection by Dr. John Berger

Also, check out this video from the Kleercut Campaign. Congratulations again to Greenpeace for running a successful campaign, and to Kimberly-Clark for committing to better environmental practices. We hope they’ll apply them fairly and vigorously.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWtzZzqylhI&amp

U.S. Forest Service Approves Plans To Clearcut Roadless Old-Growth in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest

by John J. Berger, Ph.D and Lani Maher

A plan by Viking Lumber Company of Craig, Alaska to clearcut more than five square miles of pristine old growth forest in the Tongass National Forest has run into stiff opposition. On January 11, 2010, a lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska by the Tongass Conservation Society, Greenpeace, and Cascadia Wildlands claiming that the USFS failed to consider the profoundly damaging effects that the Logjam Timber project on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska would have on local wildlife. The project specifically opens 3,422 acres for logging, almost all of which is old-growth. The project is expected to produce 73 million board feet of timber and require the construction of 22 miles of new roads.

An additional suit has been filed by the Organized Village of Kake, an Alaska Native village, to overturn the Tongass exemption to the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, claiming the exemption was to be temporary and is still being illegally implemented by the Forest Service. Several conservation and tourism groups have joined in the lawsuit.

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Tongass National Forest, Douglas Island in Juneau, Alaska. September, 2004

The Roadless Rule, adopted by the U.S. Forest Service in 2001 under the Clinton Administration, prevented the construction of new roads in all existing roadless areas of our National Forests. However, in 2003, the Tongass National Forest was exempted from the Roadless Rule through an amendment to the rule proposed by then-Governor of Alaska Frank Murkowski and adopted by the Bush Administration.

In response to these lawsuits, Alaskan Governor Sean Parnell has come to the defense of the timber industry by ordering the Office of Attorney General Daniel S. Sullivan to intervene in the cases to protect timber jobs and uphold the Tongass’ exemption from the Roadless Rule.

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Misty Fjords Waterfall, Ketchikan, Alaska. May, 2007

As pointed out in Forests Forever: Their Ecology, Restoration, and Protection, logging in the Tongass is a very costly way to produce jobs. “Data obtained from the USFS and cited by the nonpartisan budget watchdog group, Taxpayers for Common Sense, revealed in 2005 that each direct timber job created in the Tongass National Forest in 2002 cost $170,000 – quadruple the average U.S. 2002 household income – hardly a sensible way to create rural employment.” Furthermore we noted that, “whereas Tongass timber cannot be profitably cut on a large commercial scale in an ecologically sustainable manner, fishing and tourism in Alaska and elsewhere could provide more jobs and revenue than could the continued destruction of the old-growth forest.”

The Tongass is the nation’s largest stand of continuous temperate rain forest and covers about seventeen million acres. Much of the forest targeted for logging is old growth that took thousands of years to evolve and, if cut, will never return to its old-growth condition on any time scale of interest to present generations. For more information about the Tongass and the general effects that clearcutting has on forests, see Forests Forever, which also contains recommendations on national and global forest-saving action needed (pages 166-231) as well as guidance for citizens reviewing federal timber sales (pages 239-248).

Take Action-What You Can Do To Help Protect the Tongass

    Contact the following officials and tell them why protection of the Tongass is important to you.

  • President Barack Obama
    Contact Form
    Comments for the President: (202) 456-1111

  • United States Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack
    Ph: (202) 720-3631

  • United States Forest Service Director Sherry Reckler
    Ph: (707) 562-9016

  • Alaska Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin
    Ph: (907) 465-2400

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    1. Pemberton, Mary. “Suit Seeks to Overturn Tongass Roadless Exemption.” Associated Press. December 23, 2009.

Additional Resources

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*Note: Pictures featured in this post are not the property of Healthy Forests, but have been released for public use. You can click on them to view them in their original context.

Indonesian Palm Oil Production Causes Mass Deforestation

by John J. Berger, Ph.D and Lani Maher

Recently, deforestation has been a prominent issue amongst scientists and policy makers worried about climate change. The UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen has called worldwide attention to the issue and challenged us to find a way to slow the destruction of forests around the world.

Palm oil is a type of vegetable oil derived from the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) that is used in many commercial food products sold in the United States. However, as a recent CNN article points out, most of those products simply list palm oil as ‘vegetable oil’ in their ingredient list labels. Therefore, many people are completely unaware of palm oil’s existence, let alone its uses and the environmental damage that is occurring as a result of its production. Indonesia and Malaysia are the world leaders in palm oil production and much of the rain forest in these countries is being clear-cut and burned to make room for expanding palm oil plantations. The island of Sumatra in Indonesia has already lost about 85% of its rainforest to palm oil production.1 Oil palm crops are also being cultivated to make biodiesel fuel. However, the destruction of carbon-sequestering rain forests, which contributes to global climate change, under the guise of biofuel production, which connotes environmentalism, is misleading for the consumer and only benefits palm oil producers. To learn more about deforestation and climate change, palm oil production in Sumatra, and the threats it’s posing to Indonesian forests, watch the video below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRPDA-5gcXo]

For more information about forests, their global importance, and strategies for their protection, please see out Forests Forever: Their Ecology, Restoration, and Protection by Dr. John Berger

UN-REDD Program Has Potential

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The United Nations Collaborative Program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD program) has received a lot of media attention lately, in the buzz surrounding this year’s U.N. climate change Conference in Copenhagen. Concerned scientists and citizens around the world had hoped a new international agreement addressing climate change would come out of this week’s conference, and many are supportive of the U.N.’s proposed REDD program, which provides countries with incentives to conserve their forests and slow climate change by paying those countries not to cut their forests. However, according to the New York Times, leaders will likely delay making such an agreement this week. Hopefully a framework for a future agreement will emerge from the talks in Copenhagen.

To keep up with the debate and the conference’s progress, please visit the conference website and check this blog often as we will be posting updates.

For more information on forests and their global importance, and strategies for their protection, please, please see Forests Forever: Their Ecology, Restoration, and Protection.

New Hope for The American Chestnut

We see very few forestry success stories, but here’s one that looks promising! Since the introduction of the Chestnut Blight Fungus to the United States over 50 years ago, the American Chestnut population has been declining and continues to struggle to survive. However, according to the American Chestnut Foundation, a new blight-resistant chestnut was developed last year by breeding an Asian blight-resistant Chestnut with the American Chestnut. Some 500 such trees have been planted and seem to be doing well so far. The American Chestnut has a particularly high growth rate and subsequently, a high carbon capacity. Therefore, it could eventually play a small but important role in our fight to curb global climate change. Click Here for the full story!