Markku Kannista pidetään yhtenä Suomen parhaista ilmastonmuutoksen asiantuntijoista. Parhaillaan tämä Nobel-palkittu ilmastotutkija lomailee synnyinseuduillaan Keski-Suomessa. Hänen mukaansa suomalaisten tietoisuus omien valintojen vaikutuksista ilmastonmuutokseen on lisääntynyt ilahduttavasti, mutta silti voi olla, että ilmastonmuutokseen on havahduttu liian myöhään.

La chasse pour l’alimentation est une menace pour la survie de nombreuses espèces et écosystèmes forestiers tropicaux. « Conservation and Use of Wildlife-Based Resources : The Bushmeat Crisis », publié par le Secrétariat de la Convention sur la Diversité Biologique et le CIFOR, résume l’état de nos connaissances sur ce sujet polémique. D’après Nasi et al, le commerce de la viande de brousse est une composante importante mais largement ignorée des économies de bon nombre de pays tropicaux. Ainsi il représente annuellement entre 42 et 205 millions de dollars pour les pays d’Afrique Occidentale et Centrale.

Wealthy nations willing to collectively spend about $1 billion annually could prevent the emission of roughly half a billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year for the next 25 years, new research suggests. It would take about that much money to put an end to a tenth of the tropical deforestation in the world, one of the top contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, researchers estimate. If adopted, this type of program could have potential to reduce global carbon emissions by between 2 and 10 percent.

Similar article appeared in Science Daily

Namun, kisah mahalnya biaya untuk mendapatkan listrik itu menjadi masa lalu bagi penduduk Dayak Iban Sungai Pelaik. Sejak Januari mereka mengembangkan pembangkit listrik tenaga mikrohidro (PLTMH) atau mungkin malah bisa disebut pikohidro karena daya listrik yang dihasilkan dari tiga mesin pembangkit di sana maksimal 1,8 kilowatt. Untuk pengadaan mesin pembangkit, mereka difasilitasi oleh Center for International Forestry Reserach dan Yayasan Riak Bumi guna mendapatkan bantuan dari Kedutaan Besar Jerman.

Conservation and Use of Wildlife-Based Resources: The Bushmeat Crisis”, a technical paper published by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and CIFOR, summarizes the state of knowledge on this controversial topic. According to Nasi, the bushmeat trade constitutes a significant, if largely hidden, component of the economies of tropical forest countries, with estimates ranging from US$42-205 million per year for countries in West and Central Africa.

The good news is that we know a lot about the direct and underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation. The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and other organizations have done more than a decade of research on this topic. We summarized the results relevant to REDD in a publication released last December in Bali, Do Trees Grow on Money? In brief, deforestation is directly caused by conversion of natural forests to agriculture, destructive logging practices and infrastructure development.

Eksploitasi di Kalimantan menyisakan hutan yang hilang dan tanah yang bopeng. Setelah hutan dan tambang, kini perkebunan sawit berskala luas. Konflik terus terjadi antara perusahaan dan warga serta antarwarga atas nama etnis, yang pada dasarnya merupakan perebutan sumber daya alam dan ekonomi. Konflik juga terjadi antarmasyarakat Dayak.

Informal logging takes place along many roads and in the forest fringes, with most of the timber used for local fuel or exported from the northeastern DRC to nearby Uganda, where population increases are driving up demand for wood. French forest scientist Robert Nasi of the Center for International

Forestry Research in Bogor, Indonesia, estimates that Kinshasa alone (with a population of 8 million) consumes about 4.5 million cubic meters of wood equivalent per year for charcoal. “If you consider that all of the major cities are using fuel wood or charcoal, it dwarfs the selective logging harvest by more than an order of magnitude.”