CABI Blogs: hand picked... and carefully sorted

“Demitarianism” to reduce meat consumption and environmental pressures

Barcelona market, photo by Vera Barbosa

As I discussed in a previous blog posted here, ‘Going Veggie to save the planet – does what you eat really matter?’ perhaps we should be eating less meat or even become vegetarians because meat production put considerable pressure on the world’s resources, such as land and water, and also to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. A meat-based diet consumes 2.9 times more water, 2.5 times more primary energy, 13 times more fertilizer and 1.4 times more pesticides than does a vegetarian diet.

Ash dieback – where are we now?

Image courtesy of Fera

The spread of ash dieback in the UK hit the headlines last year bringing the issues of forest health to the fore (see Ash dieback hits British countryside. But what is the current status of the disease?

Much has been done since outbreak, a helpline has been set up and The Forestry Commission has been tracking the dieback and has recently published a map with 378 confirmed findings of the diseases (as of the 18^th Feb). In addition, a key scientific facts paper has been prepared by the expert group led by the government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir John Beddington.

The Food and Environmenta Research Agency (Fera) has a  website with images of disease symptoms and also some videos of the brief history, life cycle and symptoms of Chalara (http://www.fera.defra.gov.uk/plants/plantHealth/pestsDiseases/chalaraInfo.cfm), and the UK Plant Sciences Federation has recently introduced a new website that collates the latest research information on ash dieback (http://treehealth.plantsci.org.uk/).

A great amount of information has been made available to the public to check for ash dieback, examples include The Ash Dieback Pocket Guide produced by the Woodland Trust, and a ‘how you can help’ page on the National Trust website (http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/what-we-do/big-issues/nature-and-outdoors/ash-dieback/).

How alien species cost Europe €12bn a year

 A report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) sets out the staggering cost of alien species - animals and plants brought to Europe from other parts of the world. The cost, and the threat to health and the environment, is said to be greater than expected, costing at least €12bn (£10bn) a year.

More than 10,000 "alien" species have gained a foothold in Europe, from Asian tiger mosquitoes to North American ragweed, and at least 1,500 are known to be harmful, the EEA said. And the real cost could be even greater than quoted.

A sweeter future for bee farmers

Whilst tuning into the BBC’s Great Comic Relief Bakeoff last week I was interested to hear about TREE AID and their honey project in Ghana.

TREE AID supports villagers to produce and market honey so that they can generate income to provide their families. The villagers are encouraged to farm bees during the dry months when there is little else to harvest. The honey is collected at night when the bees are more drowsy from hives placed in suitable trees. Funds raised by TREE AID, along with Comic Relief, will provide suits to protect from bee stings enabling the farmers to extract the honey safely.

Forest honey is produced across the world, from the eucalypt honeys of Australia to the acacia honeys of the Ukraine. A quick look on CAB Abstracts reveals over 450 papers on honey as a non-wood forest product. Some interesting papers include:

Paumgarten, F.; Kassa, H.; Zida, M.; Moeliono, M.; 2012. Benefits, challenges, and enabling conditions of collective action to promote sustainable production and marketing of products from Africa's dry forests. Review of Policy Research, 29, 2: 229-250.

Shackleton, S.; Paumgarten, F.; Kassa, H.; Husselman, M.; Zida, M.; Pottinger, A. J.; Mwangi, E.; 2011. Opportunities for enhancing poor women's socioeconomic empowerment in the value chains of three African non-timber forest products (NTFPs). International Forestry Review, 13, 2: 136-151.

TREE AID works to unlock the potential of trees in dryland regions Africa and has further projects in the following countries: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, and Niger.

Banned chemicals and silent springs

Recently I have been removing an array of chemicals, from alpha-hexachlorocyclohexane to zeta-cypermethrin, from CABI’s compendia (Crop Protection Compendium, Forestry Compendium and Invasive Species Compendium) records, as these chemicals have either been banned or severely restricted in their use. This work was sponsored by Plant Protection Station, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan.

Recycling for Zero Waste

I believe that waste prevention, reduction, re-use and recycling are key measures to achieve sustainability in a world which is becoming depleted of natural resources. These measures will also reduce the environmental impact of pollution, by reducing carbon emissions and might even benefit economic growth. For this reason, I attended a seminar on waste recycling recently to find out the status of waste reduction through recycling in the UK.

Filling the yield gap - the answer’s in agroforestry

In his recent blog Three steps to bridging the yield gap, CABI author Prof. Roger Leakey, explains how agroforestry can help to sustainably increase the productivity of crops. In brief, these are as follows:

Step 1 – Adopt agroforestry practices such as improved fallows and relay cropping to enhance crop yields.

Step 2 – Diversify the agroecosystem by including fruits, nuts and other cash crops in plantings.

Step 3 – Encourage local communities to develop value-adding and processing technologies for new tree crop products.

If followed, the steps could provide not only increased income for local communities but also a more diversified diet with plantings of new crops and an increase in employment and trade.

This three-step model provides both a “simple and inexpensive process to fill the yield gap” says Prof. Leakey.

Prof. Leakey has recently published a book on this subject entitled Living with the Trees of Life: Towards the Transformation of Tropical Agriculture

Link to Prof. Leakey’s blog

Voices from the woodlands

2012 has been an interesting year for those concerned with woods and forests. We’ve seen the outputs from the Independent Panel on Forestry and we’ve had the British Woodlands Survey - not to mention ash dieback. A recent conference gave voice to those woodland workers, owners, and managers  who took part in the survey, providing a fresh perspective on the importance of woodlands. For woodland owners, woodlands are much less profitable today than they were 50 years ago. Thankfully, the recent fashion for wood-burning stoves has led to demand for wood fuel that provides a welcome income.

However, woods and forests provide much more to us than products alone and a key message of the conference was that Britain needs to revive its wood culture – the awareness and appreciation of woodlands and forests. They are essential habitats for both wildlife and humans, somewhere to escape to and enjoy whether it be walking, bird watching or biking.

The conference featured a great diversity of speakers from both Oxford and Cambridge University, the Sylva Foundation, the Woodland Trust, the Forestry Commission, the Earth Trust, Natural England and the Crown Estate, and also views from forest managers, forest owners and even BBC presenters!

If you would like to know more then please visit British Woodlands 2012. The conference presentations are now also available.

 

The 2012 UN Conference on Climate Change (COP 18) – the outcome

As it has become a tradition with the UN climate talks each year, a decision or final agreement wasn’t reached until after the official end. The meeting was meant to close on Friday, 7th December 2012, but final agreements were only reached and made public on Saturday 8th.

The 2012 UN Conference on Climate Change (COP 18) – My highlights of the first week

The United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP 18) has been taking place in Doha, Qatar, for a week now (please see my previous blog). Much hope, albeit no optimism, is being pinned on these events, as scientists warned recently that the planet is heading for catastrophic levels of warming, of as much as 4-6 degrees C. They say emissions must peak by 2020 to have a chance of holding warming to no more than 2 degrees C. This is a highlight of events that caught my attention each day during COP 18, based on what I've been reading in the IISD reports of each day’s events.