Tree Huggers

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/24330194

A recent academic review argues that up to 83% of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi species, which form partnerships with trees, may be unknown to science.

This ignorance has important implications.

archived (Wayback Machine):

• phys.org article
• research cited

Another reason to include a variety of native species in your reforestation efforts!

• Brown spider monkeys (Ateles hybridus) are some of the world’s most threatened primates, as deforestation has razed about 85% of their habitat in Colombia.
• With monkey populations living in patches of forests, conservationists in the Middle Magdalena region feared that low genetic variation could lead to a further collapse of the species, so they started creating biological corridors connecting forest fragments.
• The project currently maintains 15 ecological corridors, with plans to create six more. Researchers work with landowners to create private conservation areas, leveraging the benefits of forest restoration for agriculture and ecosystems in general.

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• Río San Juan Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Nicaragua has suffered a wave of deforestation in recent years, fueled by land deals that allow settlers to clear the rainforest for farming, mining and cattle ranching.
• Without government support, Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities have patrolled the forests on their own but are overwhelmed by the number of people settling in the area.
• Some residents have crossed the border into Costa Rica due to security concerns.
• Recently, the government also authorized more dredging on the San Juan River, despite losing a previous case about dredging at the International Court of Justice.

archived (Wayback Machine)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/32029789

All Amazonian countries are trying to reduce deforestation. That is wonderful, but then what to do to combat organised crime? They control a $280bn business – drug trafficking, wildlife trafficking, people trafficking, illegal logging, illegal gold mining, illegal land grabbing. It is all connected. And these gangs are at war with the governments. That’s one of the main reasons I’m becoming concerned because I know reducing deforestation is doable, so is forestry restoration. But how to combat organised crime?

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• A resolution issued by Peru’s Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (MIDAGRI) aims to boost the sustainable development of palm oil production in the country.
• Critics argue that it will lead to increased deforestation and that Indigenous organizations were excluded from the regulation’s drafting process.
• Oil palm is cultivated to obtain palm oil, which is used as a raw material in beauty products, toiletries, food and biodiesel.
• The regulation adds to at least two other recent measures by the Peruvian government with potential environmental impacts.

archived (Wayback Machine)

archived (Wayback Machine)

Reforestation is critically necessary more than ever before, and it is worth doing right. It is important to exercise caution when introducing foreign species to an area and to prioritise native species as much as reasonably possible. That said, this article is overly negative, and I'd like to give a more balanced perspective.

The downsides of introducing Neltuma juliflora to Kenya:

• It grows into waterways and slows their flow, creating breeding grounds for mosquitoes (parasites).
• It occupies land where native tree species could have otherwise been planted, and it is difficult to replace with native species once it is established.
• It makes life even more unpleasant for large domesticated herbivores due to its sharp thorns and its tasty fruits which are not suitable for their physiology.*

The benefits of introducing Neltuma juliflora to Kenya:

• It grows into waterways and slows their flow, giving water more time to penetrate into the soil which its deep roots help to loosen.
• It forms a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing microbes, enriching the soil with its fallen nitrogen-rich leaves, which it sheds throughout the dry season.
• It provides canopy cover and moisture retention in what was "a treeless land" where "grass covered every inch" prior to its introduction, thereby helping to protect a vulnerable landscape from desertification.
• It provides a nutritious food for local humans and other animals in times of scarcity. The fruit is not something for a frugivorous primate to eat out of hand in large quantity, but some animals can and do eat it as-is. For humans, it can be processed into a flour (without the toxic seeds) that can then be added to meals.
• It makes life more difficult for the herders and ranchers who exploit other beings and degrade the landscape for profit, thereby reducing the incentive to commit such violence.

Overall, the plant's introduction was a blunder, but the results are mixed, not entirely a "nightmare" as the article claims. Trees native to the region, or at least to eastern Africa's dry lands more broadly, would have made much more sense to plant instead. Introducing non-native species when reforesting an area can be beneficial (especially in an era of unprecedented climate change, with conditions in some areas shifting out of the range that native species can tolerate), but it's important to select species with low invasive potential and which do not pose a threat to the native animals. In most cases, it would be a safe strategy to plant a combination of native species and carefully-selected non-native trees that produce fruit for human consumption, as cultivated fruit trees mostly have a low potential for becoming invasive in most areas, and they can sustainably feed the people who live in and around the forest. This is important, as there must be people living in the area in order to protect it from cattle ranchers, and without tree-based food sources, the people stewarding the land would need to rely on agricultural practices destructive to the forest for their sustenance.

Neltuma juliflora and its close relative Neltuma pallida are very important species in their native ranges in Ecuador and Peru. They are some of the most abundant trees in these tropical dry forest ecosystems (including much of the Tumbes-Piura dry forest which is a biodiversity hotspot on the brink), and they serve as vital pioneer species in reforestation efforts in the region, providing much-needed shade for other plants and food for native animals (at a time of year when little else is available), as well as stabilising the soil and reducing erosion from coastal wind and torrential rain and seasonally-flooding rivers. This article was an exemplary case of "right plant, wrong place."

* The article seems to imply that sugar inherently causes tooth decay, but that obviously isn't true; plenty of animals eat sugary fruits without dental problems. The pulp of mesquite fruits is dry and sticky, so when eaten by cows who are not at all adapted to such food, it probably coats their teeth, dries out their mouth, and alters their oral microbiome, with dehydration and unfriendly bacteria leading to tooth decay.

JBS, the world’s largest meatpacking company, began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on June 13, just six months after its U.S. subsidiary, Pilgrim’s Pride, made a $5 million donation to Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration, the single largest contribution to the event. The Brazil-founded company has sought a U.S. listing for more than a decade, and in its latest attempt faced a nearly two-year delay imposed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a federal agency responsible for regulating the stock market, amid pressure from civil society groups over the company’s history of corruption and its role in Amazon deforestation. The NYSE listing is “a catastrophe for the planet,” Alex Wijeratna, senior director at the U.S.-based environmental nonprofit Mighty Earth, one of the main signatories of letters raising concerns to the SEC, said in a statement following the listing. “Giving JBS access to billions of dollars of new funding will serve to supercharge its climate-wrecking operations and war on nature.”

archived (Wayback Machine)

• Panama is pouring new resources into protecting Darién, a remote province where the rugged, nearly impenetrable jungle provides cover for migrants, drug traffickers, illegal loggers, miners and cattle ranchers.
• Dozens of park guards have been hired and trained with new technology, and officials are working on implementing stricter regulations for logging and agribusiness.
• New roads and bridges will bring investment, access to education and health care to hard-to-reach communities, but they could also attract an influx of people ready to cut down the forest.
• As more people arrive to the region, the agricultural frontier pushes closer to the limits of the park, raising concerns among rangers about how they will defend it in years to come.

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• Tropical dry forests are critically endangered ecosystems that once covered vast areas of the planet but have been largely destroyed, with less than 8% of the original extent remaining in some regions due to conversion to agriculture and development.
• These forests support hundreds of millions of people who depend on them for essential resources, such as food, medicine and economic opportunities, while also hosting remarkable biodiversity, including jaguars, tapirs and numerous endemic species.
• A 2022 study revealed that more than 71 million hectares of tropical dry forests were lost between 2000-2020 alone — an area twice the size of Germany — with remaining forests under immediate threat in rapidly expanding deforestation frontiers and from climate change, with some areas experiencing two additional months of drought compared to the 1960s.
• Immediate conservation action is crucial as scientists warn that without aggressive intervention, including land restoration, assisted migration and emergency management techniques, these ancient ecosystems face collapse within decades.

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• A new comment article published in Nature Climate Change makes the case for more forest-based agroforestry — integrating crops into existing forests — as an underutilized climate and livelihood solution.
• The authors find that there’s a noticeable lack of funding for forest-based methods compared to field-based agroforestry, in which trees are added to pasture and croplands, which they say has led to missed opportunities for carbon storage and biodiversity.
• A lack of consensus and understanding on how to define agroforestry is another factor in the misalignment of intentions and outcomes of agroforestry as a climate solution.
• The authors call on policymakers and scientists to fund and study forest-based agroforestry methods with more rigor, especially in places where people depend on rural livelihoods such as agriculture.

archived (Wayback Machine):

• Mongabay article
• Nature Climate Change article

• Record-breaking forest loss in 2024: Tropical primary rainforest loss surged to 6.7 million hectares—nearly double the previous year—driven primarily by fire for the first time on record.
• Latin America bore the brunt: Brazil accounted for 42% of global tropical forest loss, while Bolivia saw a staggering 200% increase; Colombia experienced rising deforestation linked to land grabs and coca cultivation.
• Global implications intensify: Fires also ravaged boreal forests, pushing fire-related emissions to 4.1 gigatons—more than quadruple the emissions from global air travel in 2023. With just five years left to meet global deforestation pledges, halting forest loss will require urgent political action, strong governance, and leadership from Indigenous communities.
• This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

archived (Wayback Machine)

archived (Wayback Machine):

• EcoWatch article
• research cited

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/23646809

The evidence against the Drax power station is damning, yet the government wants to continue its massive public funding, says campaigner Dale Vince

How green is this? We pay billions of pounds to cut down ancient forests in the US and Canada, ship the wood across the Atlantic in diesel tankers, then burn it in a Yorkshire-based power station.

Welcome to the scandal of Drax, where Britain’s biggest polluter gets to play climate hero. [...]

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• Women from the Yine Indigenous community in Peru are working to harvest and process the seeds of the murumuru, a native Amazonian palm tree.
• The community of Monte Salvado, where many Yine people live, borders the Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve and Alto Purús National Park, two areas that are often traversed by Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation.
• Community leaders warn that illegal loggers have been destroying the forests of these isolated communities, forcing them to travel to the Yine people’s communal lands to seek food and help.
• Families in Monte Salvado earn their income through the sustainable collection and processing of Brazil nuts and murumuru seeds, and by selling handicrafts made from the seeds.

archived (Wayback Machine)

Roughly a billion people enjoy coffee daily, and more than 100 million people rely on it for income. However, the coffee industry is the sixth-largest driver of deforestation and is also rife with human rights abuses, including the labor of enslaved persons and children. But it doesn’t have to be this way, says this guest on the Mongabay Newscast.

Etelle Higonnet is the founder of the NGO Coffee Watch, having formerly served as a senior adviser at the U.S. National Wildlife Federation with a focus on curbing deforestation, and before that as campaign director at Mighty Earth, focusing on advocacy for zero deforestation with an emphasis on the cocoa, palm oil, rubber, cattle and soy industries.

The main commodity on her radar now is coffee. On this podcast episode, she explains how the industry can — and should — reform its practices.

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• Brazilian and Chinese authorities — including Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Xi Jinping — recently discussed a proposed railway that would connect Brazil’s Atlantic coast to Peru’s new Pacific-facing Chancay Port, cutting through the Amazon.
• From Lucas do Rio Verde, a major agricultural hub in the state of Mato Grosso, the railway would be built from scratch, advancing into the Amazon’s Arc of Deforestation.
• Planners intend to build the Amazonian section of the railway alongside existing highways, a strategy aimed at minimizing environmental impacts and streamlining the licensing process.
• However, environmental activists warn that the Bioceanic Corridor, together with newly planned roads, waterways and ports, could accelerate deforestation and degradation in the rainforest.

archived (Wayback Machine)

Have you heard of the beautiful living root bridges in Meghalaya, India? Their construction is a lesson in patience as the roots are gradually encouraged to grow in the supportive shape. They need regular care, but grow stronger with age.

“Once a bamboo structure has been stretched across the river, the roots of the tree, usually the rubber tree (Ficus elastica), are teased and manipulated to become entwined with the bamboo until it becomes a strong mesh. The roots are allowed to grow gradually and strengthen over time. In the initial stages, only about 15-20 people can cross the bridge in a day. Much later, it can be as many as 50 or more, although it can take up to two decades for a living roots bridge to be finished.” | The Guardian

Once done, the bridges can have a lifespan of several hundred years; far outliving the original creators of them.

It is unknown when this tradition started, but they were written about in 1844, so it would be far earlier than that.

I just thought people on here might find this tradition as fascinating as I do.

More Info:

• https://youtu.be/1H0qTm7wNjk

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/5116952

A beautiful Catalpa tree shared by a Lemmy user.