Forest

Introduction The continent of South America has about one-eighth of the Earth’s land surface, situated between latitudes 12°N-55°S and longitudes 80°-35°W; no other continent has a greater latitudinal p. Eighty percent of its land mass is within the tropical zone, yet it extends into the subantarctic. The extensive zones of temperate and cold climates in the vicinity of the Equator, in the Andes, are unique. The land area of about 17,519,900-17,529,250 km? is under the jurisdiction of 13 countries (Table 49); French Guiana is governed as an overseas department of France.

The region’s 1995 population of c. 320 million people is estimated to reach 452 million people in 2025. Three of the world’s 21 megacities are in South America: Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro (WRI, UNEP and UNDP 1994). Geological setting Although the neotropics may be conveniently considered as a single phytogeographic unit, the region is geologically complex. The neotropics include not only the South American continental plate but the southern portion of the North American plate, as well as the independent Caribbean plate (Clapperton 1993).

The complicated geological history of the region, for example as these plates intermittently separated and collided through the Cretaceous and the Tertiary, provides the milieu within which plant evolution has been superimposed. South America has been an island continent during most of the period of angiosperm evolution, whereas Central America constitutes one of the two tropical parts of the Laurasian “world continent”. Both South America and North America have been moving westward, roughly in tandem, since the breakup of Pangaea in the Mesozoic.

In contrast, the Antillean plate with its flotsam of Antillean islands formed only during the Cenozoic and has moved in a retrograde eastern direction, at least with respect to its larger neighbours. Whereas South America and North America have been widely separated through most of their geological histories, there has been generally increasing contact between them through most of the Cenozoic, culminating in their coalescence with formation of the Isthmus of Panama c. 3. 1 million years ago (Keigwin 1978).

The date of this epochal event in neotropical geological history has been gradually estimated to be younger, with estimates of 5. 7 million years ago giving way to as recently as 1. 8 million years ago (Keller, Zenker and Stone 1989). In addition to their Pleistocene connection via the Isthmus of Panama, South America and North America apparently were more or less directly interconnected via the protoAntilles for a short time near the end of the Cretaceous, prior to formation of the Caribbean plate (Buskirk 1992).

The outstanding geological feature of South America is the Andes, the longest mountain range in the world, which extends in a nearly straight line of over 7000 km from the north to the southern tip of the continent. The Andes have the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere, the highest mountain in the world’s tropics, and as measured from the centre of the Earth (rather than metres above sea-level), the highest mountain in the world.

The most important break in the north-south sweep of the “cordillera” is the Huancabamba Depression in northern Peru, where the eastern chain of the cordillera is entirely ruptured (by the Maranon River) and even the western chain dips to 2145 m (at the Abra de Porculla). The existence of this massive mountain range has had profound effects on plant and animal evolution in South America, and consequently has profound effects on essential conservation priorities.

In essence, the Andes represent a classical plate tectonic upthrust of continental rock, as the leading edge of the westward-moving South American plate collides with the oceanic Pacific plates. The Southern Andes are the oldest, with significant uplift already present in early Cenozoic times, prior to the Oligocene. Most of the uplift of the Central Andes was in the Miocene or later, whereas most of the uplift of the northern portion of the cordillera has been Plio-Pleistocene (van der Hammen 1974).

To the north the Andes become more geologically complex, breaking into three separate cordilleras on the Ecuador/Colombia border. Much of the north-western margin of South America, including Colombia’s western and central cordilleras, appears to be amassed “suspect terrane” rather than an integral part of the South American continental plate (Juteau et al. 1977; McCourt, Aspden and Brook 1984). Much of the rest of the South American continent consists of two great crystalline shields that represent the western portion of what was once Gondwanaland.

The north-eastern portion of the continent constitutes the Guayana Shield, whereas much of Brazil south of Amazonia is underlain by the Brazilian Shield. These two major shields were formerly interconnected across what is today the Lower Amazon. They consist of a Precambrian igneous basement overlain by ancient mucheroded Precambrian sediments. The Guayana region has been the most heavily eroded, with basement elevations mostly below 500 m interrupted by massive flattopped table mountains, the fabled “tepuis”, typically rising to 2000 m or 2500 m.

The peak of the highest of these, Cerro Neblina or Pico da Neblina on the Venezuela/Brazil border, reaches an altitude of 3015 m and is the highest point in South America outside the Andes. The tepuis and similar formations are highest and most extensive in southern Venezuela, becoming smaller and more isolated to the west and east where La Macarena near the base of the Andes in Colombia and the Inini-Camopi Range in French Guiana respectively represent their ultimate vestiges.

The quartzite and sandstone of the Guayana Shield erode into nutrient-poor sands, and much of the Guayana region is characterized by extreme impoverishment of soils. The rivers draining this region are largely very acidic blackwater rivers, of which the Rio Negro is the most famous. The Brazilian Shield is generally higher and less dissected, with much of central Brazil having an elevation of 800-1000 m. The Brazilian Shield is mostly drained by clearwater rivers such as the Tapajos and Xingu.

In contrast to these ancient shields, the Amazonian heartland of South America is low and geologically young. Prior to the Miocene most of Amazonia constituted a large inland sea opening to the Pacific. With uplift of the Central Andes, this sea became a giant lake that gradually filled with Andean sediments. When the Amazon River broke through the narrow connection between the Guayanan and Brazilian shields near Santarem, Brazil, Amazonia began to drain eastward into the Atlantic.

Nevertheless, the region remains so flat that ocean-going ships can reach Iquitos, Peru, which is only 110 m above sea-level, yet 3000 km from the mouth of the Amazon and less than 800 km from the Pacific Ocean. Most of Amazonian Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia is below 200 m in elevation. The process of Amazonian sedimentation is continuing, as the sediment-laden white-water rivers course down from the Andes, continually changing their channels and depositing and redepositing their sediments along the way.

About 26% of Peruvian Amazonia shows direct evidence of recent riverine reworking (Salo et al. 1986). With the lack of relief, it is not surprising that rather fine nuances of drainage, topography and depositional history are often major determinants of vegetation. Like Amazonia, some other distinctive geological features of the South American continent are relatively low, flat and geologically young, such as the chaco/pantanal/pampa region to the south, the Venezuelan/Colombian Llanos to the north and the trans-Andean Choco region of Colombia and Ecuador to the west.

Large portions of these areas have been inundated during periods of high sea-level in the past, and large portions of all of these regions are seasonally inundated presently. One aspect of the geological history of Latin America that has received much biogeographic attention is the series of Pleistocene climatic fluctuations and their effects on distribution and evolution of the present neotropical biota. It is clear from the palynological record that major changes in vegetation were associated with the cycles of Pleistocene glaciation (e. . van der Hammen 1974), although to what extent lowland Amazonia was predominantly drier (e. g. Haffer 1969; van der Hammen 1974), colder (Colinvaux 1987; Liu and Colinvaux 1988) or both, and how this affected the Pleistocene distribution of tropical forest, remain hotly contested (Colinvaux 1987; Rasanen, Salo and Kalliola 1991). Although most of the corroborative geomorphological evidence for dry periods in the tropical lowlands during the Pleistocene is now otherwise interpreted (Irion 1989; Colinvaux 1987), some new data look promising.

There are also several other theories that attempt to explain aspects of present biogeography on the basis of past geological events, including river-channel formation and migration (Capparella 1988; Salo et al. 1986; Salo and Rasanen 1989), hypothesized massive flooding in south-western Amazonia (Campbell and Frailey 1984), and the formation of a putative giant Pleistocene lake in Amazonia (Frailey et al. 1988). Mesoamerica For its size, Middle America is even more complex geologically than South America (see Central America regional overview).

Nuclear Central America, an integral part of the North American continent, reaches south to central Nicaragua. The region from southern Nicaragua to the isthmus of Darien in Panama is geologically younger and presents recent volcanism, uplift and associated sedimentation. Like South America, the northern neotropics have a mountainous spine that breaks into separate cordilleras in the north. In general the Middle American cordilleras are highest to the north in Mexico, and lowest in Panama to the south-east.

In Mexico, the geological picture is complicated by a band of volcanoes that bisects the continent from east to west at the latitude of Mexico City. This “eje volcanico transversal” is associated with the Mexican megashear, along which the southern half of the country has gradually moved eastward with respect to the northern half. In southern Central America, volcanism has been most intensive in Costa Rica, which has two sections of its Central Cordillera reaching above treeline. In northern Costa Rica and adjacent Nicaragua the volcanoes become gradually reduced in size and more isolated from each other to the north.

Similarly in Panama the Central Cordillera is over 2000 m high to the west near the Costa Rican border but only about 500 m high in most of the eastern part of the country. In central Panama, the Panama Canal cuts through a continental divide of only 100 m elevation, and in the San Juan River/Lake Nicaragua area of Nicaragua the maximum elevation is even less. For montane organisms, these interruptions in the cordillera represent major biological discontinuities. The Yucatan Peninsula area of Mexico, Guatemala and Belize represents a geologically anomalous portion of Middle America.

It is a flat limestone formation more like the Greater Antilles or Peninsular Florida than the mountainous terrain and volcanic soil of most of Middle America. Limestone is otherwise relatively rare in the continental neotropics, in contrast to many other parts of the world, with small outcrops like those in the Madden Lake region of central Panama or the Coloso area of northern Colombia being associated with peculiar floras. These areas, like the Yucatan Peninsula, tend to show distinctly Antillean floristic affinities, paralleling the geological ones.

Caribbean The Antillean islands constitute the third geologic unit of the neotropics (see Caribbean Islands regional overview). The Antilles make up in geological complexity what they lack in size. The most striking geological anomaly is Hipiola, which is a composite of what were three separate islands during much of the Cenozoic. In addition to being completely submerged during part of the midCenozoic, the southern peninsula of Hipiola was probably attached to Cuba instead of Hipiola until the end of the Cenozoic.

Jamaica too was completely submerged during much of the mid-Cenozoic, and has a different geological history from the rest of the Greater Antilles, with closer connections to Central America via the nowsubmerged Nicaraguan Rise. Possibly a collision of the western end of the Greater Antilles island arc with Mexico-Guatemala fragmented its western end to form Jamaica. Also phytogeographically and conservationally important, some of the Antilles have extensive areas of distinctive substrates.

In addition to large areas of limestone, most of the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Hipiola, Puerto Rico) have significant areas of serpentine and other ultrabasic rocks formed from uplift of patches of oceanic crust during the north-eastward movement of the Caribbean plate. The Lesser Antilles are small and actively volcanic. Most of the other smaller islands are low limestone keys with little or no geological relief. These patterns are clearly reflected in the Antillean flora. The most striking concentrations of local endemism occur in areas of ultrabasic rocks or on unusual types of limestone on the larger islands.

The Lesser Antilles, Bahamas and other smaller islands have only a depauperate subset of the generally most widespread Antillean taxa. Vegetation The neotropics include a broad array of vegetation types commensurate with their ecological diversity. Along the west coast of South America are both one of the wettest places in the world – Tutunendo in the Choco region of Colombia, with 11,770 mm of annual precipitation, and the driest – no rain has been recorded in parts of the Atacama Desert of Chile.

The largest tract of rain forest in the world is in the Amazon Basin, and Amazonia has received a perhaps disproportionate share of the world’s conservation attention. While the forests of Upper Amazonia are the most diverse in the world for many kinds of organisms, including trees as well as butterflies, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, other vegetation types have equal or greater concentrations of local endemism and are more acutely threatened.

In particular, the plight of dry forests and of Andean montane forests are beginning to receive increased attention. Some isolated areas of lowland moist forest outside of Amazonia also have highly endemic floras and are currently much more threatened than Amazonia. In the following paragraphs are sketched the major neotropical vegetation types, followed by a conservation assessment of each. At the very broadest level, the lowland vegetation types of South America and the rest of the neotropics may be summarized as: 1.

Tropical moist forest (evergreen or semi-evergreen rain forest) in Amazonia, the coastal region of Brazil, the Choco and the lower Magdalena Valley, and along the Atlantic coast of Central America to Mexico. 2. Dry forest (intergrading into woodland) along the Pacific side of Mexico and Central America, in northern Colombia and Venezuela, coastal Ecuador and adjacent Peru, the Velasco area (Chiquitania) of eastern Bolivia, a broad swath from north-west Argentina to north-east Brazil encompassing chaco, cerrado and caatinga, and with scattered smaller patches elsewhere. 3.

Open grassy savanna in the pampas region of north-eastern Argentina and adjacent Uruguay and southernmost Brazil, the Llanos de Mojos and adjacent pantanal of Bolivia and Brazil, the Llanos of Colombia and Venezuela, and the Gran Sabana and Sipaliwini savanna in the Guayana region. 4. Desert and arid steppe in northern Mexico, the dry Sechura and Atacama regions along the west coast of South America between 5°S and 30°S, and in the monte and Patagonian steppes of the south-eastern part of the Southern Cone of South America. 5. The Mediterranean-climate region of central Chile. 6.

The temperate evergreen forests of southern Chile with an adjacent fringe of Argentina. More complex montane formations occur along the Andean Cordillera which stretches the length of the western periphery of South America, in the more interrupted Central American/Mexican cordilleran system, in the tepuis of the Guayana region and in the coastal cordillera of southern Brazil. Moist and wet forests In general, forests receiving more than 1600 mm (Gentry 1995) or 2000 mm (Holdridge 1967) of annual rainfall are evergreen or semi-evergreen and may be referred to as tropical moist forest.

In the neotropics, lowland tropical moist forest is often further subdivided, following the Holdridge life-zone system, into moist forest (2000-4000 mm of precipitation annually), wet forest (4000-8000 mm) and pluvial forest (over 8000 mm). Nearly all of the Amazon Basin receives 2000 mm or more of annual rainfall and constitutes variants of the moist forest. There are also several major regions of lowland moist forest variously disjunct from the Amazonian core area. These include the region along the Atlantic coast of Central America (extending into Mexico), the lower Magdalena Valley of northern Colombia, the Choco egion along the Pacific coast of Colombia and northern Ecuador, and the coastal forests of Brazil. Lowland moist forest is the most diverse neotropical vegetation type, structurally as well as taxonomically. In most lowland moist-forest and wet-forest regions around a quarter of the species are vines and lianas, a quarter to a half terrestrial herbs (including weeds), up to a quarter vascular epiphytes and only about a quarter trees (Gentry and Dodson 1987; Gentry 1990b).

To the extent that smaller organisms such as herbs and epiphytes may demand different conservation strategies than large organisms like trees (or top predators), this habitat diversity assumes conservation importance. Diversity patterns are also important for conservation planning. There is a strong correlation of plant community diversity with precipitation – wetter forests generally are more botanically diverse. For plants the most speciesrich forests in the world are the aseasonal lowland moist and wet forests of Upper Amazonia and the Choco region.

For plants over 2. 5 cm dbh in 0. 1-ha samples, world record sites are in the pluvial-forest area of the Colombian Choco (258-265 species); for plants over 10 cm dbh in 1-ha plots, the world record is near Iquitos, Peru (300 species out of 606 individual trees and lianas). Concentrations of endemism do not necessarily follow those of diversity. Local endemism appears to be concentrated in cloud-forest regions along the base of the northern Andes and in adjacent southern Central America (cf.

Vazquez-Garcia 1995), and in the north-western sector of Amazonia where the substrate mosaic associated with sediments from the Guayana Shield is most complex (Gentry 1986a). Overall regional endemism in predominantly moist-forest areas is greatest in Amazonia, with an estimated 13,700 endemic species constituting 76% of the flora (Gentry 1992d). However many of these species are relatively widespread within Amazonia. The much more restricted (and devastated, see below) Mata Atlantica forests of coastal Brazil have almost three-quarters as many endemic species (c. 500) as Amazonia and similarly high endemism (73% of the flora) (Gentry 1992d). Moreover a larger proportion of the Mata Atlantica species probably are locally endemic. On the other side of South America, the trans-Andean very wet to wet and moist forests of the Choco and coastal Ecuador are also geographically isolated and highly endemic (cf. Terborgh and Winter 1982). Estimates of endemism in the Choco phytogeographic region are c. 20% (Gentry 1982b). Probably about 1260 or 20% of western Ecuador’s 6300 naturally occurring species also are endemic (Dodson and Gentry 1991).

For the northern Andean region as a whole, including both the coastal lowlands of western Colombia and Ecuador and the adjacent uplands, Gentry (1992d) estimated over 8000 endemic species, constituting 56% of the flora. Moreover this is probably the floristically most poorly known part of the neotropics, perhaps of the world, surely with several thousand mostly endemic species awaiting discovery and description. Dry forests There are seven main areas of dry forest in the neotropics, and by some estimations this may be the most acutely threatened of all neotropical vegetations.

The interior dry areas of South America are outstanding in their regional endemism, estimated at 73%. Two of the most extensive neotropical dry-forest areas represent manifestations of the standard interface between the subtropical high pressure desert areas and the moist equatorial tropics. In Middle America, this area of strongly seasonal climate occurs mostly along the Pacific coast in a narrow but formerly continuous band from Mexico to the Guanacaste region of north-western Costa Rica.

There are also outliers farther south in the Terraba Valley of Costa Rica, Azuero Peninsula of Panama, and even around Garachine in the Darien (Panama), partially connecting the main Middle American dry forest with that of northern South America. These western Middle American dry forests are made up almost entirely of broadleaved deciduous species. In addition, the northern part of the Yucatan and large areas of the Antilles are covered by dry-forest variants. Most of the Caribbean dry forests are on limestone, and their woody species tend to be distinctively more sclerophyllous and smaller leaved than are the Pacific coast dry-forest plants.

In the driest areas, both these types of dry forest tend to smaller stature and merge into various kinds of thorn-scrub matorral. In South America, only the extreme northern parts of Colombia and Venezuela reach far enough from the Equator to enter the strongly seasonal subtropical zone. Floristically and physiognomically this northern dry area is very much like similarly dry areas of western Middle America. The strongly seasonal region of northern South America also includes the open savannas of the Llanos extending from the Orinoco River west and north to the base of the Eastern Cordillera of he Colombian Andes and the north slope of the Coast Range of Venezuela. Large areas of the lowlying, often poorly drained Llanos are seasonally inundated, especially in the Apure region. The main area of tropical dry forest in South America is the chaco region, encompassing the western half of Paraguay and adjacent areas of Bolivia and Argentina, south of 17°S latitude. The “chaco” is physiognomically distinctive in being a dense scrubby vegetation of mostly smallleaved, spiny branched small trees interspersed with scattered large individuals of a few characteristic species of large trees.

To the south, the chaco gives way to the desert scrub of the Argentine monte. There is a distinctive but generally neglected area of dry forest at the interface between the chaco and Amazonia in Bolivia. The names Chiquitania and Velasco forest have been used locally in Bolivia to refer to this vegetation, which extends from the Tucuvaca Valley and Serrania de Chiquitos in easternmost Santa Cruz Department interruptedly westward to the base of the Andes and along much of the lower Andean slopes of the southern half of Bolivia.

This region of closed-canopy dry forest is physiognomically similar to that of western Central America, with tall broadleaved completely deciduous (caducifolious) trees. Although it has been locally regarded as merely representing the transition between the chaco and Amazonia, it is a floristically and physiognomically distinctive unit that should be accorded equivalent conservation importance to the other major dry-forest vegetation types (Gentry 1994).

The chaco is adjoined to the north by two large and phytogeographically distinctive areas of dry forest, the cerrado and caatinga, which cover a small portion of easternmost Bolivia and most of the Brazilian Shield area of central and north-eastern Brazil. The typical vegetation of the “cerrado” region consists of wooded savanna with characteristically gnarled sclerophyllous-leaved trees with thick twisted branches and thick bark, widely enough separated to allow a ground cover of grass intermixed with a rich assortment of woody-rooted (xylopodial) subshrubs.

The cerrado also includes areas where the trees form a nearly closed canopy (“cerradao”), and large open areas of grasses and subshrubs with no trees at all (“campo limpio” and “campo rupestre”). Although the cerrado is appropriately considered a kind of dry forest, some cerrado regions actually receive more rainfall than do adjacent forest regions; excess aluminium in the soil may be as important as the climate in determining its distribution. The even drier forest of the caatinga of north-eastern Brazil extends from an appropriately subtropical 17°S latitude farther north to a surprisingly equatorial 3°S.

Why this region should have such low rainfall remains poorly understood. Another climatic peculiarity is the irregularity of its rainfall, not only with low annual precipitation, but also with frequent years when the rains fail almost completely. The typical vegetation of the “caatinga” – relatively low, dense, small-leaved and completely deciduous in the dry season – is physiognomically similar to that of the chaco. The final major South American dry-forest area is the coastal forest of north-western Peru and south-western Ecuador.

Even more anomalous in its geographical setting than the caatinga, this dry-forest region is positioned almost on the Equator. The occurrence of dry forest so near the Equator is due to the offshore Humboldt Current. While similar cold-water currents occur along mid-latitude western coasts of other continents, the Humboldt Current is perhaps the strongest of these and is the only cold current reaching so near the Equator. The dry forest of coastal Peru and adjacent Ecuador is (or at least was, see below) physiognomically similar to that of western Central America, tall with a closed canopy of broadleaved completely deciduous trees.

There also are a number of scattered smaller patches of tropical dry forest and/or savanna in various interAndean valleys, around Tarapoto, Peru, the Trinidad region of Bolivia, Brazil’s Roraima area, the Surinam/Brazil border region, on Marajo Island, and in the pantanal region of the upper Paraguay River. Grasslands and deserts Grasslands and deserts occupy smaller areas of the neotropics than they do in Africa or most higher latitude continents. The main grassland region of the neotropics is the pampas region between about 39°S and 28°S and encompassing most of Uruguay as well as adjacent eastern Argentina and southernmost Brazil.

The other major grassland area is the llanos region of Colombia and Venezuela. Smaller predominantly grassland regions occur in north-eastern Bolivia (Llanos de Mojos) and the south-eastern Guayana region (Gran Sabana and Sipaliwini savanna). There are also areas with few or no trees and dominated by grasses in the cerrado and pantanal regions of Brazil, and scattered outliers associated with local edaphic peculiarities elsewhere. None of the major grassland regions has many endemic species, in contrast to the campos rupestres of the Brazilian Shield and the Guayana area whitesand savannas, which have many endemics.

This contrast is especially marked in southern Venezuela where some savanna patches have clay soils and a llanos-type flora of widespread species, whereas others have sandy soils and a flora of Amazonian affinities with many endemic species (Huber 1982). The desert regions of Latin America are confined to northern Mexico, the monte (Morello 1958; Orians and Solbrig 1977) and Patagonian steppes of Argentina, and the narrow Pacific coastal strip of northern Chile and Peru. The 3500-km long South American coastal desert is one of the most arid in the world – most of it is largely devoid of vegetation.

This region is saved from conservational obscurity, however, by the occurrence of islandlike patches of mostly herbaceous vegetation in places where steep coastal slopes are regularly bathed in winter fog. Although these “lomas” formations are individually not very rich in species (mostly fewer than 100 spp. ), they have a very high degree of endemism due to their insular nature. The overall lomas flora includes nearly 1000 species, mostly annuals or geophytes. Diversity and endemism in the lomas formations generally increase southward, where cacti and other succulents are also increasingly represented (Muller 1985; Rundel et al. 991). Montane vegetation The main montane-forest area of the neotropics is associated with the Andes. A major but more interrupted montane-forest strip is associated with the mountainous backbone of Central America. Venezuela’s Cordillera de la Costa phytogeographically is essentially an Andean extension, although geologically distinct from the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes. The tepui summits of the Guayana Highlands, though small in area, constitute a highly distinctive and phytogeographically fascinating montane environment.

The Serra do Mar along Brazil’s south-eastern coast is mostly low elevation but has a few peaks reaching above treeline with a depauperate paramo-like vegetation. The Andes may be conveniently recognized in three segments: northern – Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador; central-Peru and Bolivia; and southern-Chile and Argentina. In general the northern Andes are wetter, the central and southern regions drier. The main biogeographic discontinuity in the Andean forests is associated with the Huancabamba

Depression in northern Peru, where the extensive system of dry interAndean valleys of the Maranon River and its tributaries entirely bisects the Eastern Cordillera and is associated with a topographically complex region having unusually high local endemism. Treeline in the tropical Andes occurs around 3500 m, depending on latitude and local factors. Above treeline, the wet grass-dominated vegetation of the Venezuelan, Colombian and northern Ecuadorian Andes is termed “paramo”; this drier vegetation, occurring from Peru to Argentina and Chile, is the “puna”.

Colombian and Venezuelan paramos are characterized by Espeletia (Compositae) with its typical pachycaul-rosette growth form. The vegetation above treeline of most of Ecuador and northernmost Peru, locally called “jalca” in Peru, is ecologically as well as geographically intermediate; although generally called paramo in Ecuador, this region lacks the definitive Espeletia aspect of the typical northern paramos. While individual high-Andean plant communities are not very rich in species, many different communities can occur in close proximity in broken montane terrain.

Thus the several high-Andean sites for which Florulas are available (Cleef 1981; Smith 1988; Galeano 1990; Ruthsatz 1977) have between 500-800 species, approaching the size of some lowland tropical Florulas. The moist Andean slopes generally show a distinctive floristic zonation, with woody plant diversity decreasing linearly with altitude from c. 1500 m to treeline. Below 1500 m Andean forests are generally similar both in floristic composition and diversity to equivalent samples of lowland forest. There are also structural changes at different elevations.

For example hemi-epiphytic climbers show a strong peak in abundance between 1500-2400 m, epiphytes are usually more numerous in middleelevation cloud forests, and the stem density of woody plants is usually greater at higher elevations (Gentry 1992a). While the northern Andes have cloud forest on both western and eastern slopes, increasing aridity south from the Equator limits cloud forest to an ever narrower band on the Pacific slope. South of 7°S latitude, forest on the western slopes of the Andes is restricted to isolated protected pockets, and the predominant slope vegetation becomes chaparral, thorn scrub and desert.

One of the most striking features of the Andes phytogeographically is the high level of floristic endemism. In part this is associated with the discontinuity of high-altitude vegetation types, which are strongly fragmented into habitat islands. In addition to microgeographic allopatric speciation related to habitat fragmentation, it seems likely that unusually dynamic speciation, perhaps associated with genetic drift in small founder populations, may be a prevalent evolutionary theme in Andean cloud forests (Gentry and Dodson 1987; Gentry 1989).

The combination of high local endemism (Gentry 1986a, 1993a; Luteyn 1989; Henderson, Churchill and Luteyn 1991) with major deforestation makes the Andes one of South America’s conservationally most critical regions. As with the dry forests, the Andean forests have recently begun to receive greater conservation attention (Henderson, Churchill and Luteyn 1991; Young and Valencia 1992). Estimates of deforestation for the northern Andes as a whole are generally over 90%.

Some areas are even more critical – perhaps less than 5% of Colombia’s high-altitude montane forests remain (Hernandez-C. 1990) and only c. 4% of the original forest persists on the western Andean slopes of Ecuador (Dodson and Gentry 1991). Most of the northern Peruvian Andes are similarly deforested (cf. Dillon 1994). Although relatively extensive forests still remain on the Amazonfacing slopes of Peru and Bolivia, much of this area is being actively deforested, in large part to grow “coca” (Erythroxylum coca) and opium poppy (Papaver somniferum). Flora

From a conservation perspective, the neotropical region merits very special attention. Just as South America is sometimes called the “bird continent”, the neotropics might well be termed the “plant continent” in deference to their uniquely rich botanical diversity (Table 50). If current estimates are accurate, the neotropical region contains 90,000-100,000 plant species, twice to nearly three times as many as in either tropical Africa or tropical Australasia (cf. Prance 1994). The last great places for plant collecting are in the northern half of South America (J.

Wurdack 1995, pers. comm. ), which is two to four times less documented by herbarium specimens than elsewhere in the tropics (cf. Campbell 1989). Some of the main relatively unexplored areas (according to Wurdack) are, in Brazil: Serra de Tumucumaque (Tumuc-Humac Mountains), along the border with Surinam and French Guiana; slopes, especially the eastern slopes, of Pico da Neblina; in north-western Mato Grosso State, along the Linea Telegrafica; in Venezuela: slopes and talus forests of the tepuis; aramos west of Pinango (north of Merida); eastern slopes to Paramo de Tama (State of Merida, near border with Colombia); in Colombia: Paramo de Frontino (west of Medellin); Cuatrecasas’ headwater localities of collection in western Colombia, particularly in the Department of Valle del Cauca (cf. Cuatrecasas 1958); upper elevations of the Serrania de La Macarena (Department of Meta); in Ecuador: Cordillera de Los Llanganates (which is east of Ambato) (cf.

Kennerley and Bromley 1971); Cordillera de Cutucu (Province of Morona-Santiago); Cordillera del Condor, along the border with Peru; in Peru: elevations above 700 m of the Cerros Campanquiz, which are mostly in the Department of Amazonas; the eastern cordillera in the Department of Amazonas, Province of Chachapoyas (e. g. the Cerro de las Siete Lagunas east of Cerro Campanario); portions of the Cordillera de Vilcabamba (which is north-west of Cusco), including the northern Cutivireni region (Villa-Lobos 1995); and in Bolivia: the easternmost Andes and granitic outliers in the Department of Santa Cruz.

Floristic diversity is very asymmetrically distributed in South America (cf. Table 51). If the nine phytogeographic regions recognized by Gentry (1982a) for the neotropics are taken as a basis, Central America with Mexico (Mesoamerica) and Amazonia are the richest in species, with each of these two regions having about a quarter of the neotropical total. At the opposite extreme, the Antilles have an estimated 9% of the total neotropical flora and the Caribbean coastal region of Colombia and Venezuela has only 8%.

The minuscule area of the Guayana Highlands (above 1500 m) accounts for only c. 2. 5% of the neotropical flora, but has one of the highest rates of endemism (65%) in the region (Berry, Huber and Holst 1995). The three main tropical South American dry areas together include a relatively low 11% of the neotropical species total. Intermediate levels of regional plant species richness are found in the Northern Andean and Southern Andean regions and the Mata Atlantica area of Brazil, which each have between 16-18% of the tropical flora of the neotropical region.

Regional endemism is greatest in Amazonia including lowland Guayana (76%), but almost as great in coastal Brazil (73%) and the chacocerradocaatinga dry areas (73%). In contrast, those two Andean subregions, Central America, and the Antilles have endemism levels of 54-60%, and the northern Colombia/Venezuela region only 24%. Farther south in the Southern Cone of South America, the monte of Argentina is estimated to include 700 species with 5% endemism, and Patagonia 1200 species with 30% endemism.

Chile as a whole has 5215 species (Marticorena and Quezada 1985; Marticorena 1990), with 1800-2400 in the Mediterranean-climate area of central Chile where endemism is high, perhaps greater than for any of the equivalent tropical regions. The reasons for the unique floristic diversity of the neotropics as compared to Africa or tropical Australasia continue to be hotly debated. A popular theory is allopatric multiplication of species in habitat-island forest refugia during Pleistocene glacial advances (Haffer 1969; Prance 1973, 1982). Africa, which is higher and drier, would have had fewer refugia and more extinction.

Tropical Asia was less affected, being buffered by the nearby ocean due to the island status of its components and by its proximity to a rain source from the Pacific (the world’s largest ocean). Other theories, not necessarily mutually exclusive (cf. Terborgh and Winter 1982), focus on explosive speciation in the more extensive cloud-forest area of the neotropics (Gentry 1982a, 1989; Gentry and Dodson 1987); “Endlerian” speciation associated with habitat specialization in the uniquely complicated habitat mosaic of north-western and north-central Amazonia (Gentry 1986a, 1989; Gentry and Ortiz-S. 993); speciation associated with riverine barriers to gene flow in the largest river system of the world (Capparella 1988; Ducke and Black 1953); or biogeographical phenomena associated with the Great American Interchange and stemming from the direct juxtaposition of Laurasian and Gondwanan elements via the Isthmus of Panama (Gentry 1982a; Marshall et al. 1979). Social and environmental values, and economic importance The indigenous groups (nations) of South America (Gray 1987) are varyingly diverse peoples who often partly depend directly on the natural environment for their biological and cultural well or survival.

Their approximate presence is shown inTable 52. As the site of one of the Vavilovian centres of domestication, South America has played an important role in providing plants useful to people. The Andean centre of domestication rivals the Indo-Malayan and Mediterranean areas as the region that has produced the most important crop plants. Tobacco, potatoes, grain amaranths, quinoa, peanuts, lima beans, kidney beans, tomatoes and perhaps sweet potatoes and pineapples all derive from the Peruvian Andes and immediately adjacent egions (Anderson 1952). Based on land-race diversity, western Amazonia was the centre of domestication of a series of less well-known but increasingly important crops, including “pejibaye” or peach palm (Bactris gasipaes), “biriba” or “anona” (Rollinia mucosa), “abiu” or “caimito” (Pouteria caimito), “sapota” (Quararibea cordata), “araza” (Eugenia stipitata), “uvilla” (Pourouma cecropiifolia) and “cubiu” or “cocona” (Solanum sessiliflorum) (Clement 1989).

Of the 86 major crops and their more than 100 species included in a summary of crop plant evolution (Simmonds 1976), 24 crops are neotropical in origin either wholly (19) or partly (5). Also, a host of South American forest plants are used locally but have not reached world commerce. Amazonia is especially rich in wild fruits (e. g. Duke and Vasquez 1994). For example around Iquitos, Peru, 139 species of forest-harvested fruits are regularly consumed, 57 of them important enough to be sold in the local produce market (Vasquez and Gentry 1989).

There are a multitude of other uses for neotropical plants. Gentry (1992b) notes that 38% of the Bignoniaceae species of north-western South America have specific ethnobotanical uses and suggests that this could be extrapolated to 10,000 species with uses in this part of the world alone. Many studies have shown that the direct economic value of such products can be very high (e. g. Peters, Gentry and Mendelsohn 1989; Balick and Mendelsohn 1992).

In a single hectare of speciesrich tropical forest near Iquitos, 454 of the 858 trees and lianas of dbh 10 cm or more have actual or potential uses (Gentry 1986c), with the hectare of forest potentially producing US$650 worth of fruit and US$50 worth of rubber per year. If the 93 m? of sellable timber worth US$1000 is included, the net present value of the hectare of forest is US$9000, far more than the net present value of managed plantations or cattle-ranching.

Additionally, the major role of forested areas in controlling erosion, recycling rainfall and as a carbon sink are now well known. As the territory with the largest tropical forest remaining in the world, South America plays a major role in providing such regional and planetary environmental services. Return to Top Loss, threats and conservation Although the neotropical region has the most forest, it is also losing more forest each year than any other area of tropical forest (Myers 1982; Reid 1992).

In western Ecuador only 4% of the original forest cover remains (Dodson and Gentry 1991). Much attention has focused on Brazil, which includes 48% of the South American area. Perhaps the most definitive satellite analysis of deforestation in Amazonia to date (Skole and Tucker 1993) indicates that as of 1988 only c. 10% of Brazilian Amazonia had been deforested, but if allowance is made for a 1-km edge effect, fully 20% of Brazilian Amazonia had been impacted. Deforestation in Rondonia alone has been c. 4000 km? per year, reaching almost 40,000 km? r 15% of the state by 1989 (Malingreau and Tucker 1988; Fearnside 1991). In coastal Brazil estimates of surviving forest range from 2% (IUCN and WWF 1982) to 12% (Brown and Brown 1992). Burgeoning populations are the biggest factor in the ongoing losses, although political and economic instability in some areas, and short-sighted “development” programmes in other areas, also play significant roles. In most of the neotropics, unlike much of the Old World, commercial lumbering operations have played a relatively small role so far.

Conservational awareness throughout the region has increased dramatically in the past few years. Not only are increasing numbers of National Parks and similar conservation units being set aside, but there is also rapidly growing interest in the possibility of sustainable use of tropical forests as a conservation strategy. Unfortunately many destructive and unsustainable uses of forest can masquerade behind the banner of sustainable use. Making this promising new concept fulfil its potential remains a major challenge.

Similarly the growing appreciation of the potential value of biodiversity has been accompanied by too much political preoccupation and posturing about sovereignty over potential genetic resources. Despite such problems, it is clear that the diversity of rain-forest plant life is intrinsically valuable. South America, botanically the richest continent, is also the greatest repository of potentially useful plants. Conservation of South America’s plant diversity is clearly a world conservational priority.

Forests are precious national resource whim not only play significant role in national condor but help in pollution control and maintaining logical balance. These offer a number of direct indirect advantages which have been realised sin time immemorial. Direct Advantages 1. Forests provide valuable timber for dome tic and commercial use. Industries like paper, matt making, plywood, sports goods, lakh and furniture at directly based on raw materials derived from forest 2.

Forests supply a number of minor produce which are utilised in different industries and domes* tic uses. These include lakh, gum and resins, tannin material, medicines, herbs, honey, spices, etc. 3. Forests offer employment to about 4 mil­lion people to earn their livelihood in forest based occupations, i. e. , lumbering, sawing, furniture mak­ing, forest produce collecting, etc. 4. Auction of forests for commercial use fetches annual income to state exchequer. 5. Export of forest products earns valuable foreign exchange to the country. 6.

Grazing of cattle in the forests helps in dairy farming and cattle rising. 7. Forests are the natural habitat for wild life and birds which attract tourists, holiday makers and hunters. These may be developed as very good picnic or tourist centers in the form of wild life sanctuaries and national parks which have good employment and income generating potential. Indirect Advantages 1. Forests are the moderators of climate. These have effective role in controlling humidity and tem­perature and precipitation. 2. Forests play dominant role in carbon cycle.

These absorb atmospheric carbon-di-oxide and help in maintaining the purity of air and controlling atmospheric pollution. 3. Forests help in controlling soil erosion, soil degradation and floods. That is why these are very helpful in land reclamation and flood control. 4. Forests help in water percolation and thereby maintain underground water table. 5. Decay of plant leaves provides humus to the soils and increases their fertility. 6. Indian forests are rich in wild life housing about 500 species of animals. 7.

Forests help in maintaining natural scenic beauty which every year attract a number of tourists and nature lovers. 8. Forests provide natural habitat to a number of primitive tribes which are part of our rich cultural heritage. Their mode of living, economy and cul­tural traits are based on forest environment. 9. Forests provide recluse to rashes, saints and hermits who have enriched our religious and cultural thoughts. Mere a visit of such quiet serene environment relieves physical and mental strains and refurbishes new vitality and vigor.

Many people today see New Hampshire as a woods infested state with so much beautiful nature and an incredible amount plants, lakes, and wild life. Most people who live here think there is so much forests that when deforestation occurs, they believe it doesn’t pose a threat or make a dent. The Granite State has been a victim of deforestation for many years and it has believed to be getting worse every year but to a larger group, it has been actually getting better.

Could it be turning into a problem today or a bigger problem in the future? Is deforestation becoming a problem for New Hampshire? New Hampshire, with 78. 4% forest cover, is currently the second most forested state in the country with Maine being the first. However, the forest cover has been steadily declining since the 1980s. “This loss is about 17,500 acres per year, mostly due to land development” and “Every day, the average person in the USA will consume about 4. 5 pounds of wood, that’s a little over a third of a two-by-four.

Over the course of a year, that adds up to a 16-18″ tree, a hundred feet tall” (Forest Service). Each year, the nation plants more than 5 new trees for each American. Wood is a renewable resource. As long as forests are not converted by development, harvesting trees does not result in an increase of carbon in the atmosphere. Today there are certain foundations and things to do to prevent deforestation. Although we need wood to cut down for certain things, we plant three trees for every tree we cut down.

This is called the 3 to 1 Ratio by Society Protecting New Hampshire Forest’s. About one hundred years ago the White Mountains didn’t look so well according to the many photographs taken of the mountain sides stripped of all the trees of what was once a virgin forest. The forest wasn’t looking so well with the “streams choked with silt from eroding hillsides, and ash from forest fires falling on nearby towns” (Govatski 2009). Factory owners had to deal with the floods after too much rain and then the droughts in the summer. Hotel wners weren’t getting any customers from the looks of things and complaints and by the twentieth century, “a growing consensus between widely diverse interests was building that something had to be done in the White Mountains” (Govatski 2009). With still much interest in the eastern mountains, a Congressional action engaged at the turn of the last century to put off forest preserves in the massive areas of public domain land in the West. Still a lot of people form the East pursued ways to create such Forests. It mostly just focused on the southern Appalachians and the White Mountains.

After a lot of failed presentations, many New England and Eastern organizations worked together to obtain an act introduced by Congressman John W. Weeks of Massachusetts. The Weeks Act was passed on Feb. 15th of 1911, signed by President Taft, which authorized “Federal purchase of forest lands at the head of navigable streams. The Act also provided for cooperation in fire control between federal and state authorities” (Govatski 2009). The Weeks Act was believed to have put in action when the “textile mills and rivers were starting to get polluted” (Pruyn).

In an interview with Michele Pruyn at PSU, she noted that because of this water pollution and loss of tourists really woke a lot of New Hampshire people and the State and Federal Government. “This Weeks Act allowed the Federal and State Government to control all deforestation in NH” (Pruyn). Now that they were in charge of the forests, private land owners and factory owners were not allowed to cut wherever they wanted to or cut as many trees as they wanted. The Government had to look it over and enforce the 3 to 1 ratio rule and ban cutting near rivers and lakes because of water pollution.

By cutting trees near water, debris could then easily get into the water and the air would then get smoggy from the cutting of the trees. Now people are only aloud to clear dead or only trees that are in polluted forests and after they would plant three trees for every tree they cut. Some say the Weeks Act saved the forests of New Hampshire. The law established a National Forest Reservation Commision to determine what lands would be purchased. It seized 9 million dollars for every 5 million acres of forest land in the Appalachians and another million for the White Mountains. By 1918 land purchase in New Hampshire culminated in the formation of the White Mountain National Forest. These were “the lands that nobody wanted” but the Weeks Law saved” (PSU). Since then New Hampshire has had a one hundred percent growth rate. Today people are concerned about what they call the “Northern Pass” and what will it do o the land what’s going to happen. You see many stickers on the bumpers of cars everywhere and sign in yards of all people who are against it but there are also a lot of people who believe that it will help very much.

In support, people would have access to 1,200 megawatts of cheap, low-carbon, reusable hydro power which is equivalent to the Seabrook Nuclear Power Station. It would have a “New high-voltage transmission and converter capacity adding needed robustness to the North American power grid” (NNEV). Also, it will be a new source of property taxes in economically-challenged areas of NH. The Northern Pass is believed that it bring a “10 percent reduction in CO2 2018” (NNEV). Many land owners of New Hampshire are opposed to the situation relating the Northern Pass.

Citizens of NH believe that it will bring a “Negative environmental impact of the towers, right-of-way, and construction” (NNEV). Also, there aren’t many people who want a big space of cleared land near their homes with power lines and have to look at that every day. Some say that the visual impact will discourage tourism which is the regions number 1 industry. It is also believed that it will bring “Negative health effects from the electro-magnetic radiation on people living nearby and on the wildlife” NNEV).

There are certainly many opinions on this ordeal and for some people you won’t ever be able to change their minds and that’s something they will always live with. The Northern Pass brings a negative effect on people regarding deforestation in NH and gives some people a positive effect to people who don’t think deforestation is a problem in NH. I think New Hampshire has so many people that want to cherish the forests here forever and never let it die and there are so many groups out there who are fighting for the land just like in the war only this is for trees and no guns are included.

There is a “Conservation Alliance that contributes $25,000 to help protect 400+ acres on Mount Monadnock” (Forest Society). It ended up being successful. Also, The Forest Society in New Hampshire is also trying to preserve 404 acres in Jaffrey and Marlborough that have old beautiful hiking trails and precious wildlife. These efforts will also protect the mountain view of Monadnock that you can see across the region. “Mount Monadnock is one of the most hiked mountains in the Western Hemisphere” (Forest Society). On your way driving to , NH, you can see a large cloud of smoke coming from what looks like a factory.

That place is called the Bridgewater Power Company and they are known for using “biomass for energy and using renewable resource with healthy transportation which is huge” (Pruyn). This place was probably started to be heard of in 1987 when it began commercial operations. “Power was constructed and brought into service in 11 months for less than $1400 per installed kilowatt” (BPP 2011). The plant uses biomass fuel in the form of wood chips. This fuel supply originates as low value forestry waste from the regional logging industry being a renewable resource.

The smoke that comes out of the top of the power plant isn’t anything to worry about either. It is just water vapor going into the air. “The trees you burn are equal to the trees you plant and no carbon dioxide will go into the air if you do that” (Pruyn). I think this is a great way to conserve the forest in New Hampshire and gives people a warm feeling that people are making large efforts to preserve the forest. As a lot of people think that the large number (17,500) of acres that is deforested each year is a scary number, many others believe it to be getting better each year instead of worse.

There are always positive and negative thinking towards changes in our state like the Northern Pass. It might make some people not very happy but I may be a good change for us. I believe that with all of the organizations and the Weeks Act, New Hampshire forests will be here for a very long time if we take care of it properly and it won’t be much of a problem for us.

Work Cited

1. BP “Bridgewater Power Plant – New Hampshire, USA. ” PSEG We Make Things Work for You. 2011. Web. 01 Dec. 2011. http://www. pseg. com/family/holdings/global/plants/bridgewater. jsp
2. Boesch, Nate. The Next Best Time to Plant a Tree: Deforestation in NH. ” Conservation New Hampshire. June 2010. Web. 01 Dec. 2011. http://conservationnh. org/land/the-next-best-time-to-plant-a-tree-deforestation-in-nh/
3. “Forest Society : Press Releases. ” Forest Society: Welcome. 2004-2011. Web. 01 Dec. 2011. http://www. forestsociety. org/
4. Govatski, David. “Weeks Act. ” Home Page. White Mountain History, 2009. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. http://whitemountainhistory. org/Weeks_Act. html
5. NNEV. “Top 5 Reasons to Support or Oppose Proposed a?? Northern Passa?? Transmission Line | Facebook. ” Northern New England Villages, 1 Feb. 011. Web. 01 Dec. 2011. http://www. facebook. com/notes/northern-new-england-villages/top-5-reasons-to-support-or-oppose-proposed-northern-pass-transmission-line/133708956696756
6. State, Plymouth. “Weeks Act Centennial 2011. ” Plymouth State University. Web. 01 Dec. 2011. http://www. plymouth. edu/center-for-rural-partnerships/weeks-act/ Service, Forest.
7. “Frequently Asked Questions. ” US Forest Service – Caring for the Land and Serving People. Web. 01 Dec. 2011. http://www. fs. fed. us/r9/forests/white_mountain/conservationed/faqs. html Interview: Michele Pruyn. Plymouth State Environmentalist

Janet Laurence is a contemporary Australian artist, who is well known for her passionate connection with the environment. Laurence’s fascination in the nexus between science and art, has profoundly displayed human’s relationship towards nature. Janet Laurence explores the limits of art by converging extreme practices such as science, memory, imagination and insanity. She displays this by her confronting organic use of materials and subject matter. Laurence carefully considers her use of metaphors in her artwork.

Each piece of artwork contains a dark meaning or message towards her audience. Laurence displays powerful political messages through her passionate concerns with the environment. Janet Laurence’s subject matter and process has changed vastly over the years, Janet changes her artwork’s themes according to her personal concerns and changes in the environment. Her aims as an artist are to up rise empathy and compassion from her audience. Janet Laurence uses the Australian landscape as a metaphor, as a warning regarding the fragility of our environment.

Her work is symbolic of the fragility of nature, Janet Lawrence demonstrates this in a metaphorical way through her concern with the landscape and natural world. By getting glimpses of nature through the use of acrylic or glass could be compared to a looking glass which could be understood as seeing into a secret place. Janet Lawrence is also interested in the connection between space and the environment, this concept is a metaphorical example used within her practice as a comparison to scientific practices.

Janet uses an assortment of practices including; installation, photography, painting and sculpting. She is commonly known for her public commissions and architectural collaborations. Laurence’s artworks are created in response to specific sites or environments that have powerful meanings behind them. Laurence creates artworks in response to a specific life form or environment. She achieves this by using a diverse selection of materials such as plants, mineral materials and animals. Another example of her own individual use of unconventional materials comprise of glass, lead, ash and fur.

Janet incorporates dead specimens such as owls and eggs to explain the living and a way of presenting an almost museum approach. Each artwork is a reminder that all living life forms are interconnected and have a relationship with each other. Laurence has displayed this through her choice of diverse materials, colours and technique. Janet Laurence’s concern about Australia’s environmental health is extremely evident in her artwork. One of my favorite artworks is “Plants eye view”. This artwork recently won the $40,000 Glover Prize for landscapes.

This award is very significant in Australian art history as Janet Laurence is the first female artists to be awarded the prize. The artwork is a multi-dimensional mirror and acrylic display. A judge from the Glover prize council quotes “The work is very beautiful from the point of view of colour. ” The artwork consists of numerous shades of green and black which emphasizes both nature as well as a more sinister tone. The vast majority of colour shades provide the artwork with a spooky and mysterious monotone. One of my favorite aspects of “Plants eye view” is the very vivid and arresting effect it has on the audience.

The artwork almost makes you believe that you are hallucinating, some audiences commented that it makes you feel like you are experiencing drugs. This piece of art could be symbolic of death or dying, which is another example of Laurence’s use of metaphor in her work. The artwork is a portrayal of the Tarkine forest in North West Tasmania. Janet Laurence has displayed the large endangered forest on a micro scale to suggest that it is a small and insignificant problem compared to the millions of endangered forestry in the world.

She quotes “The Tarkine Forest is very close to my heart”. Janet said that she would often bushwalk through the Tarkine forest, as it contained a fragile but aggressive attitude which somehow made her feel at home. Laurence’s main aim was to accurately display her passion for the environment, and to let her audience experience the same incredible feeling of home as she did. She would often refer to the Tarkine Forest as a secret place that anybody could call home. The second artwork that I have chosen to annotate is “Heart shock”.

This particular piece of artwork is a large dead tree that is artfully suspended upside down. Laurence has cleverly attached elongated transparent silican tubing to each branch, projecting a sinful shadow across the walls. Each tube is consumed with a mysterious fluid, acting like sap dripping from the decaying plant. This work is an excellent example of the way that the scientific use of the acrylic tubes could be compared to that in a laboratory for research purposes, and is symbolic of bringing life back to a dying or an ill object.

The comparison to a scientific experiment that is connected to a laboratory is symbolic of Laurence’s interest in both science and its relationship to art which could be seen as another example of a metaphor in her work. “Heart shock” is a deeply artistic piece of work which contains a sad message. Laurence is attempting to show her audience the devastation of endangered plants through her artwork. Janet Laurence’s art work is an immersive experience for its viewers. She is able to draw people into the inspiring meaning behind each piece.

Laurence’s work has been described as “echoing architecture while retaining a sense of the instability and transience found in nature”. Laurence has commonly worked with people’s reactions towards her artwork, she loves to view what people think, and create her next piece of work on her audience’s interaction with “nature”. An art reporter for “Featured gallery” quotes; “Through its reflective surfaces, the work engages the viewer directly as though we enter right into the landscape and become one with the nature. I personally love this quote because it proves that Janet Laurence has successfully delivered her message to her audience. In conclusion, Janet Laurence is an incredible artist who has an inspirational message to share with the world. She has a profound connection with nature, which creates a beautiful memorial to endangered environments. Laurence’s intelligent metaphorical connection between science and art has inspired people to take care of their environment. By Nancy Whiston

Marketing:

In business, firm marketing generates the revenues that the financial people manage and the production people use in creating goods and services. The challenge that faces marketing is to generate those revenues by satisfying customers’ wants at a profit and in a socially responsible manner. However, marketing is not limited to business organizations.

Whenever we try to persuade somebody to do something: donate to RED CROSS, not to litter the highways, save energy, vote for candidate, we are engaging in marketing; thus marketing has a broad societal meaning and it is applicable not only for profit making but also for not profit organizations. Many scholars define marketing as follows:

1. According to American Marketing Association, marketing is defined as the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers or users.
2. According to William J. Stanton, Marketing is a system of business activities designed to plan, price, promote and distribute want satisfying goods and services to present and potential customers.
3. According to Evans and Berman, Marketing is the anticipation, stimulation, facilitation, regulation and satisfaction of consumer and public’s demand for products, services, organizations, people, places, and ideas through the exchange process.
4. According to Philip Kotler, Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others. G

enerally, the definition of marketing can be grouped in to two: classical (narrow) definition and modern (broad) definition. Classical Definition: In classical terms marketing can be defined as the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers. This definition is too narrow to describe marketing.

It emphasizes the distribution aspect of marketing. Modern Definition: In broader terms marketing is defined as a system of business activities designed to plan, price, distribute and promote want satisfying products (goods and services) to present and potential customers. In marketing, there are combinations of activities, which start before the creation of a product and don’t end until customers are satisfied. Therefore, product planning, pricing, distribution and promotion are the main activities performed in marketing.

Marketing includes anticipating demand, which requires a firm to do customer research on a regular bases so that it develops and introduces products that are desired by consumers, Management of demand which consists of stimulation, facilitation, and regulation of tasks; and satisfaction of demand which involves actual performance, safety, availability of options, after sale service and other factors. From the above discussions, we can conclude the following about marketing:

• Marketing is the business activity concerned with the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers.
• Marketing generates and facilitates exchange
• The concept of marketing lies on needs, wants, and demands of customers.
• Marketing is greater than selling.
• Marketing is an integrated activity.
• Marketing is concerned with customer satisfaction.

Marketing Functions

The following are the basic marketing functions:

Environmental Analysis and Marketing Research: Involves monitoring and adapting to external factors that affect success or failures, such as the economy and competition; and collecting data to resolve specific marketing issues.

Consumer Analysis: Involves examining and evaluating customer characteristics, needs, and purchase processes and selecting the group of consumers at which to aim marketing efforts.

Product Planning: ( including goods, services and ideas) Involves developing and maintaining products, product assortments, product images, brands, and packaging, and optional features; and deleting faltering products.

Distribution Planning: Involves establishing relations with distribution-channel intermediaries, physical distribution, inventory management, warehousing, transportation, the allocation of goods and services, wholesaling and retailing

Promotion Planning: Involves communicating with customers, the general public and others through some form of advertising, publicity, personal selling, and/or sales promotion.

Price Planning: Involves determining price levels and ranges, price techniques, terms of purchase, price adjustments, and the use of price as an active or passive factor.

Broadening the organizations’ /individuals’ scope: Involves deciding on the emphasis to place, as well as the approach to take, on international marketing, service/ -non-profit marketing and societal issues.

Marketing Management:

Involves planning, implementation, and controlling the marketing program (strategy) and individual marketing functions; and appraising the risks and benefits in decision making.

According to W. J. Stanton and McKarthy, there are eight economic activities in marketing that are broadly classified into three:

• Exchange: -Buying -Selling
• Physical Distribution – Transportation – Storage
• Facilitating /Auxiliary/ – Financing – Marketing research and information – Risk bearing – Product standardization 1)

Exchange: It is the process by which parties provide something of value to one another to satisfy the needs of each.

The seller provides a needed product Goods Services Seller Buyer Money Credit The buyer offers something in return a) Buying: It is acquisition and procurement of goods for eventual resale or for production of other goods or rendering of services. b) Selling: It is not only just to make sales but also to find buyers, stimulate them, and provide advice and service to buyers. It involves advertisement, personal selling, customer service, publicity, etc. 2) Physical Distribution: Refers to handling and movement of goods from production area to market center.

It consists of a) Storage: It provides proper handling and storage of goods until they are demanded and sold. b) Transportation: It is the shipment and movement of goods from their manufacturing place to the market center /place of sale/. It enables to make goods reachable to the consumers.

Facilitating Function /Auxiliary Function: these are functions that facilitate and assist the proper performance of other functions of marketing. It encompasses a) Financing: To carry out business operations smoothly, it requires finance or money. Marketing as a major business activity, leads us to the need for money or finance.

Without it, organizations are unable to schedule their operations. The activity of financing involves the proper handling and management of the inflow and outflow of money. Accordingly, finance is defined as the management function, which involves effectively obtaining and using money. Sources of finance include revenue from sale of company products and services, rental of business properties, from sale of stock, or from loan and credit agencies. b) Market Research and information: Managers of businesses do not make decisions on the basis of common sense or intuition. They require information.

Therefore, to make marketing decisions and to design effective marketing policies, managers should get information regarding tests, preferences, attitudes and needs of customers; position of competitors, capacity of suppliers and creditors. For the success of business, market research is an important activity that involves gathering, analyzing, and interpretation of data collected regarding the needs of consumers. c) Risk Bearing: Business organizations when they are established, it is with the objective of getting profit, expansion, growth, etc. Nevertheless, they fail to achieve their objectives because of uncertainty of the future.

Hence, the chance or the possibility of loss that business face is known as RISK. d) Product standardization and Grading: These are facilitating functions that are used to identify the quantity and quality of production. When goods are standardized and graded neither the buyer nor the seller is required to check each and every part of the product. It saves the time of both buyers & sellers. Standardization enables customers to know that there is always definite or standard quality in a particular package; and grading indicates that a package labeled with grades A, B, or C are always uniform and the same everywhere and ever time.

The field of marketing is a crucial one for several reasons: it stimulates demand; a large number of people are employed on marketing positions; it supports entire industries such as advertising and marketing research; all people are consumers in some situations; it is necessary to use scarce resources efficiently; it impacts on people’s beliefs and life styles; and it influences the quality of our lives. The scope of marketing is quite broad and diversified. To perform the marketing functions, marketing Performers are required and they are organizations or individuals that undertake one or more marketing functions.

They include manufacturers, service providers, wholesalers, retailers, marketing specialists, and organizational and final consumers. Each performer has a different role. One party usually does not perform all the functions. This is due to costs, assortment requirements, specialized abilities, company size, established methods of distribution, and consumer interests.

Tasks of Marketing Management

Marketing managers in different organizations might face any of the following states of demand. The marketing task is to manage demand effectively. The various states of demand and the corresponding marketing management task according to P. Kotler are the following:

Negative demand: This is a state in which all or the major parts of the society, dislikes the product and may even pay a price to avoid it. Examples are vaccination, alcoholic employees, dental work, and seat belts. The corresponding marketing task is to analyze why the market dislikes the product and whether product redesign, lower price, or more positive promotion can change the consumer attitudes. This marketing task or activity is known as CONVERSIONAL marketing which tries to change people’s want rather than serve their wants.

No demand: This is a case where target customers may be uninterested in or indifferent to a particular product. For example, farmers may not know about a new farming method; college students may not be interested in taking foreign language courses. Marketing managers are concerned with finding ways to connect the product’s benefits with the user’s needs and interests. This marketing task is known as STIMULATIONAL marketing; it tries to stimulate a want for an object in people who initially have no knowledge or interest in the product

Latent demand: Consumers have a want that is not satisfied by any existing product or service. This state of demand where many customers share a strong need for something that does not exist in the form of actual product is called LATENT demand. Examples include the need for harmless cigarettes, more fuel-efficient cars, etc. In this case, marketing managers respond by trying and developing effective goods and services that will satisfy the demand through analysis and measurement of the potential market.

The marketing task is called DEVELOPMENTAL marketing and its task is to measure the size of the potential market and trying to develop a new product or service that would satisfy the demand.

Falling demand: Sooner or later, every organization faces falling demand for one or more of its products. For example, churches have seen their membership decline, and private colleges have seen fewer applications. The marketer must find the causes of market decline and re-stimulate demand by finding new markets, changing product features, or creating more effective communication and the marketing task is REMARKETING.

Irregular demand: It is a state in which the timing pattern of demand is marked by seasonal and volatile fluctuations causing problems of idle capacity and overworked. For example museums are under-visited during weekdays and overworked during weekends. The corresponding marketing task is SYNCHROMARKETING, i. e. , to find ways to alter the time pattern of demand through flexible pricing, promotion and other incentives so that it will better match the time pattern of supply.

Full demand: The organization has just the amount of demand it wants and can handle. It is a state where the current level and timing of demand is equal to the desired level and timing of demand. The marketing task is MAINTENANCE marketing and is designed to maintain the current level of demand against changing consumer preferences. The organization maintains quality, and continually measures satisfaction to make sure it is doing a good job.

Overfull demand: It is a state in which demand is higher than the company can or wants to handle. The marketing task is called DEMARKETING and its task is finding ways to reduce the demand temporarily, or permanently.

De-marketing involves such actions as raising prices and reducing promotion and service. It does not aim to destroy demand, but only to reduce it. It calls for using normal marketing tools in reverse.

Unwhole-Some demand: Unwholesome products such as cigarettes, alcohol, and hard drugs will attract organized effort to destroy the demand or interest in particular product or service.

There are five competing concepts under which organizations conduct their marketing activity.

The production concept: This concept holds that consumers will favor those products that are widely available and low in cost. Management of production oriented organization concentrates on achieving high production efficiently and wide distribution coverage. Organizations that appreciate this concept assume that consumers like products that are widely available and accessible at low cost. The production concept is one of the oldest concepts guiding sellers.

The assumption that consumers are primarily interested in product availability and low price holds in at least two types of situations. The first is where the demand for a product exceeds supply as in many Third World countries. Here consumers are more interested in obtaining the product than in its fine points. The suppliers will concentrate on finding ways to increase production. The second situation is where the product’s cost is high and has to be brought down through increased productivity to expand the market.

Texas instruments provides a contemporary example of the production concept: Texas Instruments is the leading American exponent of the “get-out production, cut the price” philosophy. Ford put all of his talent into perfecting the mass production of automobile to be down their instruments all of its efforts in building production volume and improving technology in order to bring down costs. It uses its lower costs to cut process and expand the market size. It strives to achieve the dominant position in its markets.

To Texas Instruments, marketing primarily means one thing bringing down the price to buyers; this orientation has also been a key strategy of many Japanese companies.

The product concept: Under this concept, marketing managers assume that consumers will prefer those products that offer (provide) the most quality, performance, with good features. Managers in this product-oriented organizations focus their energy on making quality products and improving them over time. These managers assume that buyers admire well-made products and can select, purchase and appreciate product quality.

Products oriented companies often design their product with little or no customer input. These managers are caught up in a love affair with their product and fail to appreciate that the market may be less “turned on. ” They trust that their engineers will know how to design or improve the product. Too often they will not even examine competitors products because “they were not invented here. ” A General Motors executive said years ago” “How can the public know what kind of car they want until they see what is available? ” GM’s designers would develop plant for a new car. Then manufacturing would make it.

Then the finance department would price it. Finally, marketing and sales would try to sell it. GM failed to ask customers what they wanted and never brought in the marketing people at the beginning to help figure out what kind of car would sell. The product concept leads to “marketing myopia” a focus on the product greater than on the customer’s need. Railroad management thought that users wanted trains rather than transportation and overlooked the growing challenge of the airlines, buses, trucks, and automobiles. Churches and the post office all assume that they are offering the public the right product and wonder why their sales falter.

These organizations too often are looking into a mirror when they should be looking out the window.

The Selling concept: Under this philosophy/concept/, marketing managers assume that consumers purchase products if the organization undertakes an aggressive selling and promotion effort. Therefore, firms emphasize and direct their effort on promotion and selling of their products. Most firms practice the selling concept when they introduce new products and when they have over capacity. The selling concept holds that consumers, if left alone, will ordinarily not buy enough of the organization’s products.

The organization must therefore undertake an aggressive selling effort. The concept assumes that consumers typically show buying inertia or resistance and have to be coaxed into buying, and that the company has available a whole battery of effective selling and promotion tools to stimulate more buying. The selling concept is practiced most aggressively with “unsought goods,” those goods that buyers normally do not think of buying such as insurance, encyclopedias, and funeral plots. These industries have perfected various sales techniques to locate prospects and hard sell them on product benefits.

Most firms practice the selling concept when they have over capacity. Their aim is to sell what they make rather than make what the market wants. In modern industrial economies, productive capacity has been built up to a point where most markets are buyer markets (i. e. , the buyers are dominant), and sellers have to scramble hard for customers. Prospects are bombarded with television commercials, newspaper ads, direct mail, and sales calls. At every turn, someone is trying to sell something. As a result, the public identifies marketing with hard selling and advertising.

The Marketing Concept: The marketing concept is different from the above three concepts. Managers under this concept assumes that the key to achieving organizational goals is based on the determination of the needs and wants of consumers and delivering or providing the desired satisfaction more efficiently, and effectively, than competitors. When we compare the marketing concept with the selling concept, the selling concept focuses on the needs of the seller; the marketing concept focuses on the needs of the buyer. Selling concept focuses on the needs of the seller; marketing on the needs of the buyer.

Selling is preoccupied with the seller’s need to convert his product into cash. Marketing is preoccupied with the idea of satisfying the customers’ needs of the product and the whole cluster of things associated by creating and delivering the product. The marketing concept rests on four main pillars, namely target market, customer needs, coordinated marketing, and profitability.

The wood is a complex ecosystem dwelling chiefly of trees that buffer the Earth and back up a battalion of life signifiers. Numerous ecological maps are carried out by the wood. Therefore one must be careful in the managing and conserving of the forest. Trees can make environment which in bend affect the sort of animate beings and workss that can be in the wood. However the most of import function trees carry out is the purification of air. Trees are capable of refilling supplies of O in the ambiance and taking out harmful C dioxide, which is done in a cyclic procedure. Other than these environmental functions, the wood may be manipulated to give economic benefits through lumber harvest home which is normally practise by legion states across the Earth. It must be noted that economic benefits of the wood may besides run to non-timber merchandises.

“ Forest direction is the application of appropriate proficient forestry rules, patterns, and concern techniques to the direction of a wood to accomplish the proprietor ‘s aims. ” Pull offing of a forest correctly may give legion benefits.

Guyana is a comparatively little state which is situated on the nor’-east seashore of Latin America, along the Atlantic Ocean. It has a entire land country of 21.4 million hectares of which 16.9 million hectares are forested lands. This means that more than 75 % of the state is considered forested countries. As a consequence of holding such a high per centum of forested countries, a proper wood direction system is needed. Most of the state ‘s wood are still integral and are non being threatened due to the effects of agribusiness. However, the woods of Guyana are being threatened by deforestation. It is estimated that the annual deforestation rate is someplace between 0.1 % and 0.3 % . This deforestation is caused chiefly by the effects of the enlargement of the excavation industry. All forest that is non on private belongings is allocated to the province and is termed province wood. 13.6 million hectares of the forested land is deemed province land. More specifically, 5.8 million hectares of the designated province land are for commercial usage, while 500,000 hectares are allocated for research and protection, 63,000 hectares is outside the legal power of the forest service, and eventually, more that 58 % of the province ‘s wood is fundamentally untasted in relation to commercial usage. In Guyana province wood may be of seven ( 7 ) types:

Permanent production woods – in which the rules regulating the

sustainable direction of woods shall be applied.

Permanent protection woods and biodiversity militias – in which, because of

the exposure of the forest ecosystem, no tree felling or other types of wood

use shall be permitted, and in which representative countries of biodiversity

shall be inviolate.

Reserve forests – woods which are yet to be classified, and on which no

development shall be permitted.

Extractive woods – woods reserved for the sole use of their non-timber

wood merchandises.

Multiple usage forests – woods to be utilised for the concurrent production and

proviso of goods ( lumber and non-timber ) and services.

Permanent research forests – woods devoted entirely to research.

Conversion woods – woods to be cleared for other utilizations.

By categorising the State Forest proper pull offing and monitoring can be achieved. This is so because assorted classs permit limited activity and besides place type of type of activity done within specific Forest countries. This method of pull offing State Forest with adequate enforcement ensures sustainable usage of the forest. Sustainable usage is all about utilizing resources in parts that may non impact future coevalss.

The proper direction of Guyana ‘s wood is achieved through the application and enforcement of policies, these of which includes reaping policies that permits peculiar activities in a given forested country. One of which governs forest reaping licenses. There are four ( 4 ) classs of forest reaping licenses in Guyana: –

Timber gross revenues understandings ( TSAs ) : grants are granted on a rental for 20 old ages or more over an country of 24,000 hectares or more.

Wood cutting rentals ( WCLs ) : licenses are granted on 3-10-year rentals theoretically for countries of 8,000-24,281 hectares

State forest licenses ( SFPs ) : film editing licenses are granted on an one-year footing for countries of province forest up to 8,094 hectares in size.

Exploratory licenses: before a WCL or a TSA is issued, a three-year exploratory period is granted in order to garner all the necessary information for the readying of an investing proposal.

In 1998, the Guyana Forestry Commission ( GFC ) introduced a Code of Practice for Timber Harvesting based on FAO ‘s Model Code of Forest Practice ; the codification, which was revised in 2002, prescribes internationally recognized criterions for exclusion countries and buffer zones, 100 % pre-harvest stock list, route building, felling, skidding, hauling, operational and camp hygiene, and occupational wellness and safety. Besides exclusion countries and buffer zones, the codification besides restricts logging on inclines greater than 40 % and sets a minimal distance of 10 m between crop trees to minimise the size of canopy gaps. Other policy enforced includes the film editing of trees of a peculiar diameter, 34cm. This promotes the proper development of trees that would give quality and efficient lumber, therefore small waste would be since it would be a offense to log a tree whose diameter is lower than that mentioned above.

A log-tagging system to help the monitoring of lumber harvest home and cut down illegal film editing has been in consequence since 1999. The Log Tracking System in Guyana provides noticeable grounds on the legitimacy, location and magnitude of forest operations. The Log Tracking System presently applies to all operations, including those on State Forests, Amerindian Reservations and Private Properties and is linked to the State Forest Permit ( SFP ) Quota System. This is an inaugural to command the volume of green goods harvested. The Log Tracking System is regulated by the usage of Log Tags which are assigned to legal operators at the beginning of an operator ‘s one-year reclamation of his State Forest Permit license and are available to the operator free of charge.

An operator ‘s quota ( forest green goods volume ) is first calculated by a formula estimation of the sustained output which considers the size of the forest country and captures the minimal log reaping variables of droping rhythm, droping distance and minimal girth. The quota is equated to the figure of standing trees which will give this volume ; and it is the figure of trees computed that indicates the figure of tickets to be issued ( one ticket is tantamount to one standing tree ) . Each operator is allocated a figure of tags equivalent to his sustained output and is recognised by a alone sequence of Numberss assigned to that operation.

How the tagging system works – Log tagging is done at the stump where one half of the ticket is affixed to the stump at the clip of felling and the other portion bearing the same sequence of Numberss as recorded on the stump ticket, is affixed to the green goods being conveyed. All forest green goods including logs, timber, hemorrhoids, poles and stations are tagged. It is the alone Numberss of each ticket assigned that indicates who the operator is and hence is able to bespeak the geographic beginning of the forest green goods within the Forest Estate.

Recommendations

There is a deficiency in supervising the activities of individuals involved in the forestry sector. This would promote corruptness and breaching of contracts, in which instance, the policies and/or ordinances that apply to the contract may non be adhered to, which would finally ensue in hapless or weak forest direction execution. This is why there should be proper monitoring plans in topographic point. For this to be successful there is a demand for more human resources to take on the undertaking of supervising forest activities.

One other weak point in the direction of Guyana ‘s Forests would be the fact that unqualified individuals in the lumber industry are issued licenses and rentals, which means that they may non be experienced or educated adequate to set many of these techniques into efficient pattern. Besides, although there is a plan to place protected countries such as Iwokrama, the country of wholly protected woods is low and there is non adequate control and direction in protected countries. Guyana lacks in trained and qualified forces to help in direction, so despite the fact that direction techniques are in topographic point, the existent execution or executing may non be up to standard. Education plans or the usage of good qualified persons should be applied to help in proper executing of direction techniques.

INTERNATIONAL EXAMPLE OF FOREST MANAGEMENT

China Forest Management System

In footings of forested land, China has 175 million hectares of wood and 12.5 billion three-dimensional metres of forest stock. This is ranked as 5th and 6th severally in the universe. However, despite these facts China is still considered a forest – lacking state. This is so since its forest resources merely histories for 4 % of the universe ‘s wood and China ‘s forested country per capita of 0.13 hectares is far below the universe norm of 0.65. Coevalss of over development, disease and fires have reduced its forest coverage to 18 % of its land mass, ranking its 0.13 hectares of forest per capita at 134 globally, less than one-fourth the universe norm.

The job of deforestation in China day of the months back to some clip, where the measure and the quality of forest resources in China aggressively decreased during the collectivisation period ( 1958-82 ) . The tendency farther accentuated at the beginning of the 1980s, insecure ownership rights taking husbandmans to clear woods after the family duty system was extended to forestlands. Besides the sustained economic growing of China has led to a rush in demand for forest merchandises. The building roar including house edifice in both metropoliss and rural countries, and the lifting demand for educational and cultural activities have been of import factors driving the crisp addition in demand and in quality demands for wood stuffs, furniture, paper and poster board. Confronting the ecological effects of forest over-exploitation and the turning force per unit area from the demand side ; the Chinese authorities has radically reoriented its wood policy over the last 20 old ages, by traveling from a lumber production scheme to resources and ecosystem preservation and Restoration. The recent end of China is to increase its forest coverage to 26 % by 2050.

In its direction of forest plan China has implemented six ( 6 ) policies ;

Natural Forest Protection Program

The aim of this was to implement logging prohibition along the upper ranges of Yangtze and Yellow rivers.

Conversion of Fragile Farmland to Forest Program

Its aim was to retrieve cultivated incline land and fragile grain land and turn them into woods or grassland.

Desertification Control Program

For this policy it entailed an addition in grass, bushs and trees by 5.2 million hectares to halt and change by reversal transition to abandon in some countries. This benefited the ecological environment in that the undertaking country has been dramatically improved with the increasing forest flora screen ; the income of the husbandmans increased.

Aggressive Commercial Plantation Program

For this plan Government designated suited countries for plantation constitution in 18 eastern and southwesterly states, this resulted in an addition in the domestic lumber supply and provided sustainable rural economic development.

Wildlife preservation and natural militias development plan

This is an incorporate direction attack which seeks both impermanent and lasting solutions that shall be adopted in order to react to the clime alteration and cut down the C dioxide content in the ambiance. On one manus, industrial steps shall be taken to cut down the emanation of nursery gas, on the other manus, biological steps including forestry-related 1s shall be adopted in order to efficaciously absorb and repair C dioxide and better the adaptability to the clime alteration.

Forest shelter-belt plan

From the late seventiess to the present, a large-scale afforestation plan called the “ Three Norths Forest Shelterbelt ” plan was carried out to battle desertification and control dust storms in China. However, few elaborate and systemic appraisals have evaluated its success despite the immense investing in the plan, its long-run, the extended country covered by the plan and the importance of battling desertification and commanding dust storms.

By execution of these policies china has been able to pull off its forest more sustainably and at that place have been important betterments that are seeable. Pull offing its woods efficaciously is seen as cardinal if the wood sector is to accomplish sustainable development. Returning farming area to forest along with the other cardinal undertakings has already achieved a step of success. The natural woods in the upper ranges of the Yangtze River and Yellow River are no longer being logged and protective woods have been planted along the midstream and downstream subdivisions of the major rivers in China. Regulations are in force protecting immature woods, natural woods and forestalling the of import protective woods from being logged.

The most of import factor in the direction of its forest trades with ownership. In 2003, China launched a reform of its corporate wood term of office. The purpose was to promote more single duty and stimulate greater engagement in forest direction, cut downing the portion of corporate direction. Under these reforms, private persons may now ‘own ‘ the corporate woods by subscribing legal contracts and having authorized forest certifications. This confers to the new proprietors the right to use the forest lands for 70 old ages. More rights such as transportations and mortgage are authorized to the persons every bit good. Until now, the corporate woods have tended to be managed ill compared to in private owned woods. Corporate wood husbandmans have tended to reap more and put less. In contrast, when the woods have become in private owned, the forest husbandmans have planted more trees and taken a more long-run position in pull offing their forest land.

During the reform period, China ‘s forest resources have increased in both country and stock volume. This encouraging tendency is the consequence of both afforestation activities and increasing attempts made by the authorities to protect woods with the execution of large-scale national plans concentrating on natural wood protection and plantation development. Despite its positive impact on China ‘s forest resources, the recent displacement of forest policies from resource development to resource protection besides contributes to a farther decrease of domestic lumber supply possible, already tightly constrained by historical over-harvesting and by the low productiveness and inappropriate age construction of bing woods.

Within Chinas each territory metropolis, metropolis and county authorities has a forestry disposal authorization, normally named the Forestry Bureau or Greening Committee. These governments are responsible for implementing policies and ordinances issued by higher-level authorities bureaus ; oversing and measuring public presentation ; carry oning forest resource stock lists and forest operations layout ; steering province forest farms, corporate wood farms, and local husbandmans ; and interceding land term of office conflicts. The capacity of local forestry agency or greening commissions mostly depends on the local authorities ‘s economic position. Rich metropoliss and counties tend to hold higher capacity and better installations. Every town has a forestry station affiliated to the county ‘s forestry agency. These Stationss assist the township authorities to fix an one-year forestry program, look into afforestation consequences, verify one-year logging quotas and logging sites in woods managed by collectives and local husbandmans, aid to look into and manage land term of office struggles, protect forest resources, and supply proficient aid to local husbandmans. Most forestry Stationss have low capacity and are ill maintained because of support deficits. Take for illustration Guangdong in China, which is comparatively rich, economically developed country with good market entree started their afforestation plan in 1985 ; where the state achieved its mark two old ages in front of agenda.

Recommendation

Removing the logging prohibition and reforming broader forest regulative model, taking into peculiar history how they affect the rights and inducements of corporate wood proprietors, and so one time a sound model is in topographic point, presenting strong steps against over-harvesting and illegal logging.

Revisiting the planned plantation plan and measure whether this is the most efficient economically, socially, and environmentally sound manner for fulfilling the future demand of mush in China.

Implementing the Natural forest protection plan was based on the demand to stabilise dirts and change by reversal the dirt and H2O debasement caused by unsustainable patterns. Replacing the wood supply with illicitly logged stuff from other states merely exports the environmental debasement instead than better upon it. Anecdotal grounds indicates that unsustainable illegal harvest home is increasing in Russia and Asia to countervail the decreased lumber supplies from the execution if the NFPP. Policies need to be developed to guarantee that the beginning for imported wood is known in order to do the NFPP policy more effectual.

Bettering and implementing relevant Torahs and ordinances and policy mechanism. The Forest Law and Wildlife Conservation Law demand to be revised, and particular Torahs and ordinances including Law on Nature Reserves, and Rules and Regulations on Wetland Conservation, Nature Forest Conservation and Forests, Trees and Forest Land Use Rights Circulation must be promulgated every bit shortly as possible. It is to add and escalate the legal commissariats reacting to climate alteration in relevant Torahs and ordinances. Law enforcement system and dynamic supervising mechanism demand to be improved and jurisprudence enforcement and review be enhanced. Tree-planting mark direction duty of the authoritiess at different degrees and greening duty of different sections should be continuously improved, signifiers of countrywide compulsory tree seting be developed and relevant policies be made. Fund and proficient inputs need to be increased and policy support be provided. It is to put up long-run and effectual working mechanism of China ‘s forestry get bying with clime alteration.

Comparison

Overall, the Chinese method of forest direction seems to be more efficient and effectual as compared to that of Guyana. This is made clear when sing the deficiency of security related with the licenses issued in Guyana ‘s forest direction techniques. It tends to deter investings in State Forest Management, because of the short clip allocated for the rentals. The short clip p provides small confidence that the investor will hold continued entree rights to the same grant country in the hereafter beyond the life of the rental. This therefore encourages inordinate logging activities along with other unsustainable patterns. Where the Chinese direction is concerned, this is prevented because they have extended rentals as compared to the Guyana with clip periods of approximately 60 to 80 old ages in some instances. This prevents the issue of inordinate logging since the proprietors of the rental can non afford to recklessly cut down trees. By publishing rentals for extended periods this put the direction of the forest in the well-thought-of companies given the grant to log, hence if given a 80 twelvemonth lease the company must so pull off logging activities in such a manner that it may be profitable for the allotted rental period. Improper managing of the grant in these instances would help in the hurt of the company.

In Guyana there is a deficiency of policies or proper execution in instances of natural catastrophes such as El Nino triping forest fires which can take to big multitudes of woods being destroyed without any agencies of recovery. This is non so in China, since they have in topographic point, a policy that takes into consideration proper solution to battle effects of natural catastrophe, ( Shelter Belt Program in China ) .

Besides in China there is a Conversion of Fragile Farmland to Forest Program which was mentioned. For this policy, the Chinese would works forest trees or grasslands on parts of land that were officially used for farming or agricultural intents which would hold been left after being exhausted to some extent, abandoned, or no longer executable for cultivation. It fundamentally makes usage of that land that would hold otherwise been left unattended. Planting of forest trees in these countries would in bend lead to maximal use of lost land for re-afforestation. Form research done it is clear that there is no such plan in Guyana, nevertheless there were some sum of re-afforestation in the backwoodss but these plans were ne’er truly analyzed decently to find the effectivity or benefits of it.

In China there is a commercial plantation plan where trees are planted in certain countries for logging intents merely. This in bend maintains a systematic attack towards logging. There is a similar pattern in Guyana where there are different types of province wood allocated for different intents such as forested countries that are protected to continue diverseness, modesty woods: woods which are yet to be classified, and on which no development shall be permitted and forested countries for logging merely.