URGENT ACTION NEEDED TO MAP, PROTECT WORLD’S WILD FORESTS, SAYS UN ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMME

URGENT ACTION NEEDED TO MAP, PROTECT WORLD’S WILD FORESTS,

SAYS UN ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMME

CAMBRIDGE/NAIROBI, 4 August (UNEP) -- Forests in Chile, made world famous by the series ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’, have been almost destroyed by fire, killing Monkey Puzzle trees up to 2,000 years old.

This ecological disaster has been brought to international attention by researchers at the Cambridge, United Kingdom-based World Conservation Monitoring Centre of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP-WCMC).  Groundbreaking work by Chevening Scholar Cristian Echeverría, based at the Centre, has revealed how fragmentation of wild forests is threatening the extinction of the charismatic Monkey Puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana) beloved by Victorian gardeners.

The Monkey Puzzle is among 8,000 tree species under threat of extinction in the wild.  It is one of only a handful for which a conservation plan exists.  The environmental organization, Fauna & Flora International (FFI), and the UNEP-WCMC are collaborating on the Global Trees Campaign, which aims to establish the management plans vital for the creation of sustainable forests.  An important element of this is the development of a mapping programme leading to a proposed World Atlas of Threatened Trees.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) are sponsors of a report “Towards a Global Tree Conservation Atlas” published this week, which highlights the plight of five “flagship” species that the Global Trees Campaign is working hard to save.  Mark Collins, Director of the UNEP-WCMC, is grateful for the support of DEFRA and Elliot Morley, Minster for the Environment and Agri-Environment.

Dr. Collins is concerned that the future of wild forests has worsened since the Centre published the first global assessment, the “World List of Threatened Trees” five years ago.  It showed that over 8,000 tree species are facing extinction in the wild, with 976 in a critical situation.  He comments:  “New research, such as that on the Monkey Puzzle, is revealing that fragmentation of wild forest and the re-plantation with potentially invasive foreign species are major threats, demonstrating the urgency of managing forests sustainably”.

Professor Peter Ashton, of Harvard and The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, supports his concerns:  “In the tropics, many rare tree species are already functionally extinct.  The high diversity of plants in tropical rainforests means that specimens are naturally widely spaced, if forest cover is further fragmented then the probability of a pollinator being within range decreases.  Some forests are becoming living museums”.

Dr. Collins comments that surprisingly little is known about the status and distribution of tree species, including important timber species such as mahogany.  “Our initial report demonstrates that conservation assessments are required for plant conservation targets to be achieved by 2010.  In particular, we need spatial data, which will help us to identify the most crucial areas for tree conservation and ensure that these eco-regions are managed effectively to provide the protection required.”

The UNEP-WCMC and the FFI are seeking public and private sector funding for a proposed “World Atlas of Threatened Trees”, which will provide photographs of the species, full colour maps showing their distribution, and status reports compiled by workers in the field and an analysis of policy options to prevent extinctions.

Mark Rose, Executive Director of the FFI, believes that further regulation of the timber trade is also required:  “We estimate that almost 50 per cent of the tropical timber in international trade has been illegally logged.  One thousand globally threatened trees are threatened in part by unsustainable levels of felling.  Accurate, objective information is required to strengthen international trade control mechanisms such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).”

The report “Towards a Global Tree Conservation Atlas” provides new information about flagship species such as Araucaria araucana (Monkey Puzzle), Swietenia macrophylla, (Brazilian Mahogany) Cinnamomum cebuense, (Cebu Cinnamon) Baillonella toxisperma, (Moabi -- used for decorative timber, animal feed and cosmetics) Caesalpinia echinata, (Pau Brazil, national tree of Brazil).

The DEFRA is funding a conservation programme for the Monkey Puzzle under its Flagship Species Fund which includes the development of a nursery with indigenous people to establish cultivation techniques.  These endemic evergreen conifer species may reach two metres in diameter, 50 metres in height and live over 1,500 years.  They also take over 200 years to reach seed bearing maturity.  Cristian Echeverría delivers the first progress report on the project this month.

Copies of the preliminary report “Towards a Global Tree Conservation Atlas” are available at:  http://www.unep-wcmc.org/resources/publications/treeatlas.

For further information, contact:  Will Rogowski, Head of Marketing and Communications, World Conservation Monitoring Centre, 219 Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0DL, United Kingdom, tel.:  +44-1223-277314, fax:  +44-1223-277136, e-mail:  will.rogowski@unep-wcmc.org; or Eric Falt, Spokesman/Director, United Nations Environment Programme, Division of Communications and Public Information, P.O. Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya, tel.:  +254-20-62-3292, mobile:  +254-733-682656, fax:  +254-20-62-3692, e-mail:  eric.falt@unep.org.

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