UN REPORT HIGHLIGHTS BENEFITS OF CONSERVING EARTH’S CLOUD FORESTS

UN REPORT HIGHLIGHTS BENEFITS OF CONSERVING EARTH’S CLOUD FORESTS

KUALA LUMPUR/CAMBRIDGE/NAIROBI, 9 February (UNEP) -- The Earth's cloud forests, vital and unique habitats for thousands of rare and endangered species, and suppliers of year-round water supplies for farmers, rural communities and many rapidly growing cities, are under increasing threat from factors, including agriculture, road-building and climate change.

New figures, the result of the first comprehensive survey of these rare, romantic and fragile worlds, indicate that cloud forests cover an area of just under 400,000 square kilometres, or less than 2.5 per cent of the globe's tropical rain forests.

One surprising finding is that, contrary to previous estimates, the majority of these moist humid forests are found in Asia rather than Latin America.

Indeed, the report, Cloud Forest Agenda, which is being launched at a meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, estimates that 60 per cent of cloud forests are found in Asia with around 25 per cent in Latin America and 15 per cent in Africa.

The findings underline the vital need for improved monitoring and conservation measures in Asia, including regeneration of damaged and degraded cloud forests, if these precious habitats are to survive the twenty-first century.  Priority countries may include Indonesia and Papua New Guinea that have been found to hold considerable amounts of cloud forest.

The report makes it clear that conserving and restoring cloud forests is not only a matter of aesthetics or a love of nature, but one of crucial economic importance for millions of people in the developing world.

Water Supplies

The ability of cloud forests to strip and retain moisture from cloud and fogs is key to abundant, clean and predictable water supplies in many areas, especially during dry seasons.  The cloud forests of La Tigra National Park in Honduras provide over 40 per cent of the water for the 850,000 people living in the capital, Tegucigalpa.

Other cities where cloud forests supply significant amounts of water include Quito, Ecuador, Mexico City and Dar es Salaam.  All the water used by the Tanzanian capital in the dry season for drinking and powering hydroelectricity originates in the cloud forests of the UluguruMountains.

The forests of Mount Kenya guarantee the dry-season river flows to the semi-arid lowlands with the headwaters of the River Tana supplying water to over 5 million people.  River systems in the Mount Kenya area also supply other urban centres, Kenya's blossoming international exports of flowers, as well as wildlife and tourist centres.

The study, compiled by researchers from the United Nations Environment Programme's World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and colleagues from IUCN-the World Conservation Union and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), is the first major report of the Mountain Cloud Forest Initiative (MCFI).

Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's Executive Director, said:  "If we are to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals and the World Summit on Sustainable Development's Plan of Implementation in areas such as improved provision of drinking water supplies and reversing the rate at which biodiversity is being lost, we need sound science upon which to act."

"This new report highlights how relatively small and special areas of the Earth play a disproportionately important role in meeting these targets and timetables and that their continued loss will make realizing these international aims harder and harder.  I hope this study will not only trigger improved awareness of the need to conserve cloud forests, but lead to new partnerships and initiatives to conserve and restore them.  Good work in this area is already being undertaken in some countries.  This report underscores how much more is needed, particularly in Africa and areas of Asia, now known to be holding significant reserves of these fragile mountain habitats", he said.

The findings will also be presented to environment ministers and experts attending the eighth special session of UNEP's Governing Council and fifth Global Ministerial Environment Forum taking place in Jeju, Republic of Korea, in late March where water will be high on the agenda.

Achim Steiner, IUCN Director General, commented:  "In many ways we are behaving as if we were driving a car through the fog.  We have a sense that these forests are very remote -- the vast majority of the population has never been to one – and, hence, not important or at risk.  But in reality, their impact on our lives is greater than we assume.  We have to take action now to retain whatever is left of these forests before we abruptly hit upon the fact they have vanished.  Even if the majority of the population does not access these forests directly, they still play a pivotal role in the functioning of our economies, and in the maintenance of our ecosystems.  Often it is the poorest communities -- among them indigenous peoples -- who depend on the resources of these forests.  Destroying them means taking away one of their fundamental lifelines."

Mark Collins, Director of UNEP-WCMC, added:  "This report gives us, for the first time, maps of cloud forest distribution, regional overviews of the threats they face and an agenda for priority actions.  A key finding is that cloud forests are rarer than thought, with the true area 20 per cent less than the previous estimate of half a million square kilometres."

Climate Change Possibly Biggest Threat

Philip Bubb of UNEP-WCMC, co-author of the report, has spent many years in Mexico:  "Cloud forests are fantastically beautiful and lush, with orchids, mosses and ferns growing across every surface.  Each tree branch is like a garden in itself.  The atmosphere is damp and cool with an eerie mist hanging over the forest for much of the day and birdcalls carry vast distances.  When the sun breaks through, it filters through the leaf canopy and brings out the intense colours of the flowers and foliage."

"A unique feature of these forests is that they can capture moisture through condensation from the clouds, which also makes these habitats very sensitive to climate change.  If temperatures rise one degree in the lowland, this equates to two degrees in the mountains and can result in the clouds lifting and the cloud forest drying out.  The El Niño of 1987, which some researchers have suggested was more intense as a result of global warming, caused several weeks of dry weather in the Monteverde cloud forest of Costa Rica.  As a result, 25 of the 50 frog and toad species disappeared and only 5 have returned", he said.

Biodiversity

The unique conditions found in cloud forests make them ideal breeding grounds for special species often found nowhere else in the world.  Species found there include the endangered spectacted bear, the mountain gorillas of Africa and the Resplendent Quetzal, a colorful bird that is the national symbol of Guatemala.

The huge concentration of unique, endemic species is underscored by the Andean cloud forests.  In Peru, over 30 per cent of the 272 species of endemic mammals, birds and frogs are found in cloud forests.

Even tiny pockets of cloud forest can harbour an extraordinary variety of life forms.  For example, the Centinella Ridge in western Ecuador has about 90 endemic plant species in a forest area of just 20 square kilometers.

New species are often being discovered in cloud forests.  In the 1990s, the Jocotoco Antipitta, a bird, was found in about 5,000 hectares of Ecuadorian cloud forest, as was the Scarlet-banded Barbet.  It was discovered in cloud forest near the headwaters of the Rio Cushabatay, Peru.

A new genus of the cow family and two new species of barking deer were discovered in the Annamite cloud forests of the Lao People's Democratic Republic and Viet Nam as recently as 1996.

Crop Improvements

Cloud forests are the natural habitats of the wild relatives of important crops and, therefore, important gene pools for crop improvements.

Recent studies have found wild living relatives of papaya, the tomato, tree tomato, passion fruit, avocado, beans, blackberry, cucumber, potato and peppers in cloud forests.

Threats in Addition to Climate Change

The report identifies nearly a dozen major threats to cloud forests, including clearance for farming and grazing land and habitat fragmentation.  Indeed, loss of habitat has been a particular problem for the spectacled bear in the Andes.  Deforestation has affected migration routes and there have been conflicts with farmers where bears have been eating new crops.  Wildlife corridors in cloud forests are essential if man and bear are to coexist.

In Africa, 10 out of 15 countries questioned said poaching and hunting of animals such as great apes was a key threat.  Fires were also highlighted as a key problem in African countries.

Seven out of 10 Asian countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, mentioned timber extraction and logging as an issue, with seven African and four Asian nations citing collection for fuelwood and charcoal production as a possible threat.

Road construction was cited as a threat in six Latin American countries.  Studies in Puerto Rico indicate that cloud forest soils can take up to 300 years to recover from such construction.  Road and tourists developments, including golf courses, are threatening forests in South-East Asia, in Malaysia's Genting and CameronHighlands and Sabah's MountKinabalu.

Clearance of cloud forests for either illegal opium or coca leaf is reported in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Venezuela.  Introduction of alien species can also be an issue.  Cloud forests in Jamaica are threatened by an introduced Australian tree, and feral pigs in Hawaiian cloud forests have led to plant and bird extinctions.

Opportunities

Some countries are now implementing innovative schemes to save cloud forests.  Costa Rica, for example, under its 1996 Forest Law, pays landowners who conserve or re-establish forests.  Hydroelectric companies also pay up to $40 a hectare a year to landowners with cloud forests in recognition of their role in maintaining water supplies.

Cloud forest tourism can also be a valuable source of income for local people and thus a reason to conserve these habitats.  The report cites schemes in Africa, including trips to see the mountain gorillas in the cloud forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and others schemes in Asia and Latin America.

Notes for editors:  The Cloud Forest Agenda is a product of the Mountain Cloud Forest Initiative, which is a partnership between UNEP and its World Conservation Monitoring Centre, UNESCO and its Man and the Biosphere Programme and International Hydrological Programme, and IUCN and its Commission on Ecosystem Management.

The Mountain Cloud Forest Initiative Programme of action includes:

-- Promotion of prioritized agendas for the conservation and management of cloud forests at regional and local levels;

-- Promotion of ecosystem approaches to cloud forest management and restoration;

-- Supporting local champions for cloud forest conservation;

-- Generation and dissemination of information to decision-makers and practitioners; and

-- Development of practical tools and models for the conservation of cloud forests.

The latest information on the Mountain Cloud Forest Initiative and its products are available at:  http://www.unep-wcmc.org/forest/cloudforest.  The  full report related to this release is available at:  www.unep-wcmc.org/press/cloud_forest_agenda

A Video News Release, for use by broadcasters, is available from Nick Rance at TVE (Television Trust for the Environment) on telephone +44-20-7586-5526, e-mail:  nick.rance@tve.org.uk

The eighth special session of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum Web sites are:  www.unep.org/resources/gov/gc/index.asp and www.2004unepkorea.org/

For more information, please contact:  Eric Falt, Spokesperson/Director of UNEP's Division of Communications and Public Information, in Nairobi, on tel: +254-20-623292, mobile: +254-733-682656, e-mail: eric.falt@unep.org; or Nick Nuttall, UNEP Head of Media, on tel: +254-20-623084, mobile: +254-733-632755, e-mail: nick.nuttall@unep.org

At UNEP-WCMC, Will Rogowski, Head of Marketing UNEP-WCMC, tel: +44-1223-277314, e-mail: will.rogowski@unep-wcmc.org; or Rachel Holdsworth/Gayle Nicol,  tel +44-1954-202789, e-mail: rachel@holdsworth-associates.co.uk.

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