IUFRO Spotlight #13

Urban Park Perks’ Research Rounded Up & Rated

PDF for download

Floodplain forests in Leipzig, Germany. Photo Matilda Annerstedt.

Green areas and parks provide many benefits to urban spaces. That’s what people have said for years – but without an awful lot of evidence to back it up.

Now there is an evidence-based report, Benefits of Urban Parks: A systematic review, offering some support to that assertion.

The recent study, one the authors believe is a first-of-its-kind, draws conclusions based on green space related research published in a number of top-level scientific publications.

It offers a comprehensive and critical assessment that evaluates the strength of the evidence supporting a series of park benefits.

Across the globe, the report will be a useful tool for planners, policy-makers and politicians, especially at the municipal level, giving them a better foundation on which to base decisions for building or preserving urban parks. At the same time green space managers can use the findings to argue for parks based on a particular range of benefits (while supporting research in some of the less-explored areas) and researchers can begin to address some of the identified research gaps.

Already, green space managers in cities such as Helsinki, Oslo and New York have informed the authors that they will begin using the report immediately.

The report finds a significant amount of evidence to back up claims that green spaces do benefit urban biodiversity, local cooling and increased property values, as well as some evidence – ranging from moderate to strong – that indicates direct and indirect health benefits.

For example, in terms of health benefits in the studies they analyzed, the authors found strong evidence linking urban parks and physical activity, moderate-to-strong evidence indicating a link to decreased obesity and a moderate amount of evidence supporting findings of reduced stress and improved self-reported health and mental health.

The authors also noted reduced stroke mortality, reduction of ADHD symptoms and reduced cardiovascular/respiratory morbidity were indicated in respective single high-quality studies – not enough on which to base any conclusions, but certainly pointing to a need for more studies in those areas.

For other benefits, such as tourism promotion and water regulation, the evidence is weaker. The authors note this does not necessarily mean those benefits do not exist; just that more research is also needed in those particular subject areas before any conclusions can be reached.

The International Federation of Parks and Recreation Administration (Ifpra) assigned this study. It is an international organization that, among other things, promotes the benefits of parks, recreation, cultural and leisure services, including urban parks. The organizaton wanted to ensure that its promotion is based on sound evidence. So a research study team of four, representing three different institutions, three different disciplines, and four nationalities was set up. They spent most of last year undertaking a systematic review of the scientific evidence for urban park benefits

These four authors are: Dr. Cecil C. Konijnendijk van den Bosch of the University of Copenhagen and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; Dr. Matilda Annerstedt, of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; Sreetheran Maruthaveeran, M.Sc, of the University of Copenhagen and Forest Research Institute Malaysia; and Dr. Anders B. Nielsen of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. They all work at IUFRO Member Organizations and two of them – Cecil C. Konijnendijk van den Bosch and Sreetheran Maruthaveeran – are Deputy Coordinators in IUFRO’s Urban Forestry Research Group 6.07.00.

The full report can be found at: http://www.ifpra.org/images/park-benefits.pdf

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Media Contact

Gerda Wolfrum: +43 1 877 0151 17 or wolfrum(at)iufro.org

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Related Links

Publication: Evidence-based report: Benefits of Urban Parks: A systematic review: http://www.ifpra.org/images/park-benefits.pdf

IUFRO Spotlights main page, http://www.iufro.org/media/iufro-spotlights/

IUFRO Spotlight #12

Putting production from peatlands in perspective

A minerotrophic mire changing towards an ombrotrophic bog, Finland. Photo: J. Päivänen

PDF for download

By Palle Madsen (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
Coordinator of IUFRO Research Group 1.01.00 – Temperate and boreal silviculture

Policy makers and forest managers in the boreal and temperate regions now have a new tool to assist them in making climate-smart and environmentally responsible peatland forestry decisions for the future.

Persons involved in peatland management can benefit from Peatland Ecology and Forestry – a Sound Approach, a new very well-illustrated book that gathers an impressive array of research from various countries and regions.

By making use of the knowledge collected in this book, forest managers should achieve higher growth and yield and greater output of other goods and services from peatlands already claimed for forestry; and improved site selection for various purposes, including mire conservation.

The publication came about in response to requests for a comprehensive source of reading material on the subject from policy makers, students and others interested in managing peatlands and mires.

Juhani Päivänen of the University of Helsinki Department of Forest Sciences and Björn Hånell of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Department of Forest Ecology and Management collaborated on the work. For them, it was a labour of love. Their work was unpaid and done in their free time.

It takes a broad scope approach – from basic ecological principles to land classification and applied peatland forestry – based on common knowledge and the most recent reported findings from more than 900 references.

The heart of the matter is this: Northern peatlands and mires are an important resource that can be utilized for forestry purposes. But that resource must be utilized in a responsible fashion.

Peatlands are major storers of carbon. However, when they are drained and used – normally for agriculture, grazing and forestry – they become significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

But they can, and should, be used. So it is obvious that making the best possible choices and decisions when those lands are used, can only help.

The contents of this publication will assist those interested in these issues to increase their knowledge of peatland ecology, and to come to a better, more comprehensive understanding of responsible land use that includes improved peatland forestry management as well as wise mire conservation.

The book offers:

• a common language and terminology on issues for practitioners, policy makers and students;
• a broad and detailed description of pristine and drained mires;
• guidelines for classification and management of peatlands; and
• overall, it illustrates that peatland forests represent a renewable resource that can be responsibly managed based on ecological principles.

For book orders and enquiries regarding Peatland Ecology and Forestry – a Sound Approach, contact either:
Finland: forest-office(at)helsinki.fi or Sweden: forecoman(at)slu.se.

Also visit: http://www.helsinki.fi/forestsciences/news/120618_peatland.html

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Media Contact

Palle Madsen: +45 35 331713 or pam(at)life.ku.dk
Gerda Wolfrum: +43 1 877 0151 17 or wolfrum(at)iufro.org

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Related Links

Peatland Ecology and Forestry – a Sound Approach: http://www.helsinki.fi/forestsciences/news/120618_peatland.html

IUFRO Division 1  Silviculture: http://www.iufro.org/science/divisions/division-1/10000/

IUFRO Spotlights main page, http://www.iufro.org/media/iufro-spotlights/

IUFRO Spotlight #11

Power, discrimination and gender equality

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Non timber forests product collection – Stefan Jonsson

By Tuija Sievänen (Finnish Forest Research Institute),
Coordinator of IUFRO Division 6 – Social Aspects of Forests and Forestry

A new publication takes a long, hard look at – and dispels some of the myths about – the issue of gender equality as it relates to development and environmental governance of the forests.

The author, Seema Arora-Jonsson of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Coordinator of the IUFRO Working Party dealing with gender research in forestry, focuses on groups in India, which is widely recognized as a highly gender-biased country and in Sweden, a country seen as highly gender-equal.

Dr. Arora-Jonsson makes the point that simply including women on committees and other governance mechanisms is not enough and can, in fact, work to perpetuate existing inequalities.

She calls for more creative policymaking that recognizes and addresses the wider social context in which the policies are meant to be implemented.

Her findings indicate that some committees involved with forest governance add female members simply to pay lip-service to the concept of gender equality – i.e. having a female member or members automatically makes a neutral “people’s” committee.

Other committees, even those organized by people honestly concerned about gender equality, often see women members as a monolithic presence. A man who is invited or appointed to sit on a committee is usually seen as representing a certain interest – community, development, government, environment, forest management, etc.
When a woman sits on the same committee, she is seen as representing women – all women and all women’s viewpoints.

Dr. Arora-Jonsson noted there is an assumption that women committee members will act as one, and differences of opinion among them are seen as signs of weakness or an inability to co-operate. Lack of agreement among men, on the other hand, is seen simply as a difference in vision.

And, referring to another of her articles on gender issues, Dr. Arora-Jonsson notes that when climate change is thrown into the forest governance mix, conventional wisdom puts women in one of two camps. In developing countries – primarily in the southern hemisphere – women are seen as vulnerable; in the north, as virtuous.

In the south women are seen as victims, more vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change than are men. In the north, women are seen to be more concerned about climate change and environmental stewardship because men in the north pollute more – as an example, some research indicates that men tend, among other things, to drive more.

Focusing on the vulnerability/virtue issue, the author points out, can simply reinforce existing biases, deflect attention from actual inequalities in decision-making and can lead to an increase in women’s responsibility to care for their environments with no corresponding increase in resources or rewards.

Gender, Arora-Jonsson says, is often correlated with a rather nebulous “larger good”. But seldom are there questions of how the larger good is determined and by whom. To really understand and govern forests, the author maintains, one has to go beyond the trees and look at the social contexts and interrelated issues of development and democracy.

Success in terms of gender equality is unlikely, she says, unless questions of power and discrimination are dealt with.

The publication: Gender, Development and Environmental Governance can be found at:
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415890373/

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Media Contact

Tuija Sievänen: +358 10 2112246 or tuija.sievanen(at)metla.fi
Gerda Wolfrum: +43 1 877 0151 17 or wolfrum(at)iufro.org

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Related Links

Gender, Development and Environmental Governance: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415890373/

IUFRO Division 6 Social Aspects of Forests and Forestry: http://www.iufro.org/science/divisions/division-6/60000/

IUFRO Spotlights main page, http://www.iufro.org/media/iufro-spotlights/

Understanding Relationships between Biodiversity, Carbon, Forests and People: The Key to Achieving REDD+ Objectives

New GFEP assessment report published as IUFRO World Series 31
Edited by: John A. Parrotta, Christoph Wildburger, Stephanie Mansourian

Forests harbour a major proportion of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity and provide a wide range of vitally important ecosystem services – including carbon sequestration and storage. Deforestation and forest degradation continue to erode biodiversity and the capacity of forest ecosystems to help mitigate climate change and provide the goods and services that sustain livelihoods and human well-being locally, and globally. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and enhancing forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+) is a proposed mechanism which has the potential to realise its primary objective – climate change mitigation – with variable impacts, positive and negative, on biodiversity, forests and people. REDD+ is complex, its proposed activities and implementation mechanisms not yet clearly defined, and therefore surrounded by uncertainty. Because of its high relevance to climate change mitigation, the conservation and sustainable use of forests and their biological diversity, the Expert Panel on Biodiversity, Forest Management and REDD+ was established by the Collaborative Partnership on Forests in December 2011 to carry out this assessment.

The Expert Panel included 24 scientists and other experts from a variety of biophysical and social science disciplines relevant to the topics covered in this assessment report. An additional 18 contributing authors added their expertise to the assessment. Each chapter was prepared by a team of Lead Authors and Contributing Authors led by one or more Coordinating Lead Authors. A full draft of the report and its individual chapters was peer-reviewed prior to its completion. The results of this voluntary collaboration between January and October 2012 are presented in the six inter-related chapters comprising this book.

This assessment report evaluates the implications of forest and land management interventions envisaged under REDD+ in a multidimensional and integrated fashion. It summarises the most current scientific literature that sheds light on the relationships between forest biodiversity and carbon (and other ecosystem services), how these complex relationships may be affected by management activities implemented to achieve REDD+ objectives, the potential synergies and tradeoffs between and among environmental and socio-economic objectives, and their relationship to governance issues. Based on the main findings of the assessment (summarised in Chapter 6), a policy brief entitled ‘REDD+, Biodiversity and People: Opportunities and Risks’ has been prepared especially for policy- and decision-makers.

The full report is formally presented at Forest Day 6 on 2 December during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting in Doha, Qatar (26 November-7 December, 2012).

The report, the policy brief and a press release – New Study Suggests Global Pacts Like REDD Ignore Primary Causes of Destruction of Forests – are available for download.

Report and Policy Brief: http://www.iufro.org/science/gfep/biodiv-forman-redd-panel/report/

Press Release: http://www.iufro.org/science/gfep/media-information/gfep-bfmr-assessment-press-release/

For more information about the Expert Panel on Biodiversity, Forest Management and REDD+, please visit:
http://www.iufro.org/science/gfep/biodiv-forman-redd-panel/

IUFRO Spotlight #10

For Peat’s Sake

PDF for download

Wildfire in Alberta, Canada 2011. Photo by Stephanie Koroscil

By Björn Hånell, Coordinator, IUFRO Division 1 (SLU, Sweden), and
Jean-Michel Carnus, Coordinator, IUFRO Division 8 (INRA, France)

Forest fires are a persistent and growing problem around the world. While fire certainly pro

duces some ecological benefits, those are arguably being outweighed by the increasing frequency, size and intensity of fires as the planet warms.

In a given year, forest and grassland fires can be extensive – burning 350- 450 million ha (an area larger than India); expensive – costing many billions of dollars to combat (in Canada alone fire management costs can reach $800 million a year); and lethal – a recent study attributed almost 340,000 deaths annually to respiratory and other causes related to the impact of forest/bush fires.

Making the situation more worrisome are predictions that these fire events could triple in the next 50-75 years.

A recent Canadian Forest Service bulletin: Peatland Fires and Carbon Emissions (Frontline Express 50 http://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/publications?id=33351) noted that some fire researchers from Canada, the U.S. and Russia – where fire in those countries’ boreal forests is a significant activity – have begun looking more closely into boreal peatlands.

Peatland ecosystems cover only 2-3% of the earth’s land surface, but in the boreal they make up 20-30% of the forest region and average 20-30% of the area burned annually.

Those peatlands store an estimated 30% of the world’s terrestrial carbon – some 300 billion metric tons. Typically they are fairly wet areas, but when they dry and burn – usually in severe drought years or from some drainage activities – they have the potential to flip from carbon sink to carbon source as they release huge amounts of greenhouse gases.

How significant are the emissions from peatland fires? In 1997 in Indonesia peatland fires released the equivalent of 20-40% of all annual global fossil fuel emissions. And Indonesia’s peatlands are dwarfed by the peatland reserves in Canada, Alaska and Russia.

Peatland fires tend to produce a lot of smoke and can be difficult to extinguish. In the north they can continue to smoulder stubbornly beneath the winter snow and then burst into flame again in a subsequent year.

Smoke, as noted above, also makes human health a major consideration in peatland fires. Smoke is toxic to begin with, but peatlands contain about 15 times as much mercury – a serious toxin – as nearby upland forests. The mercury-laden smoke can travel far. Recently in Russia, smog permeated Moscow from peat fires many kilometers distant and, within the last few months, air quality advisories were being issued in parts of British Columbia on Canada’s west coast as smoke from Siberian peat fires pushed ozone levels to neverbefore- seen numbers.

While quite a bit is known about the function and behavior of fire in the boreal forest, much of the research there has been on upland forest areas. By comparison, much less is known about the vulnerability of boreal peatlands to fire.

One of the key areas being investigated in the boreal peatlands is focused on developing a peat moisture code. By getting a better handle on peatlands moisture content, researchers will know the potential for burning, when it might occur and how deep it will burn. That will help preparation and mitigation efforts.

A report by J.M Waddington (McMaster Centre for Climate Change, McMaster University) and colleagues suggests that such a code can be developed – with modifications to adapt to specific peat types and issues – within the framework of the existing Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) System.

The FWI System (or portions of it) has been adopted – with adaptations for local conditions – by several countries as a fire management tool: New Zealand, Fiji, Portugal, Spain and several U.S. states, among them.

There are six components to the FWI System. Three are fire behavior indices – related to rate of fire spread; available fuel; and frontal fire intensity.

The other three components, those most germane to this topic, relate to fuel moisture. They are numeric ratings of the moisture content of litter and other fine fuels; the average moisture content of loosely compacted organic layers; and the average moisture of deep, compact organic layers.

The ratings give indications of factors ranging from ease of ignition and flammability of fine fuel, to the amount of smoldering in deep duff layers and large logs.

Wildfire in Alberta, Canada 2011. Photo by Stephanie Koroscil

Peatland drainage – for industrial operations, peat extraction and intensive forest operations – increases productivity

but, by definition, dries the land. That is another area of concern in the boreal peatlands.

A recent study by M.R. Turetsky (University of Guelph) and associates found that drainage doubled rates of organic matter accumulation in the soil, but also increased carbon losses ninefold during wildfire.

This led the authors to conclude that interactions between peatland drainage and fire are likely to cause longterm carbon emissions to far exceed rates of carbon uptake, diminishing the northern peatland carbon sink.

The full Waddington paper: Examining the utility of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System in boreal peatlands can be found at: http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/x11-162

The full Turetsky et al paper: Experimental drying intensifies burning and carbon losses in a northern peatland can be found at: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v2/n10/full/ncomms1523.html

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Media Contact

Björn Hånell: +46-90-7868297 or bjorn.hanell(at)slu.se
Jean-Michel Carnus: +33-5-57122865 or jean-michel.carnus(at)pierroton.inra.fr
Gerda Wolfrum: +43 1 877 0151 17 or wolfrum(at)iufro.org

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Related Links

Peatland fires and carbon emissions: http://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/publications?id=33351

Examining the utility of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System in boreal peatlands: http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/x11-162

Experimental drying intensifies burning and carbon losses in a northern peatland: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v2/n10/full/ncomms1523.html

IUFRO Division 1 Silviculture: http://www.iufro.org/science/divisions/division-1/10000/

IUFRO Spotlights main page, http://www.iufro.org/media/iufro-spotlights/

IUCN Campaign – Plant a Pledge

IUCN has launched a campaign, « Plant a Pledge » , and is asking readers to sign the petition at www.plantapledge.com. It takes just a minute of your time!

IUCN is hoping that you will help the campaign by reaching out as widely as possible, by helping to promote the campaign through your networks, through publicising it through the web, social media, presentations and word of mouth.

Plant a Pledge – www.plantapledge.com – is an opportunity for the global public to tell world leaders and land owners that they support the goal to restore 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested lands by the year 2020. The goal is an implementation vehicle for achieving CBD Aichi Target 15 and has become known as the “Bonn Challenge” after it was launched in Bonn, Germany, in September 2011.

The Bonn Challenge target to restore 150 million hectares by 2020 came second when over 1 million people took part in the on-line public Rio Dialogue vote for the most important global recommendation during the recent UN summit in Brazil, “Rio+20”.

Restoring 150 million hectares would inject billions of new dollars into economies every year, and would significantly help mitigate climate change, boost biodiversity and reduce poverty.

The Plant a Pledge petition will gather the signatures from people across the globe, and will be personally delivered by our Ambassador Bianca Jagger to senior delegates at an upcoming high level international meeting, urging land owners and governments to dedicate land to landscape restoration.

Help gather enough signatures to really turn the heads of those leaders and convince them to commit to the Bonn Challenge.

The website www.plantapledge.com  will give you lots more information on the campaign and on forest landscape restoration.

Please go there now and sign the petition and urge all your friends, contacts and networks to do the same, by forwarding this message, and ideally also by sharing it through other means.

If you have time to explore the site, you might like to watch the videos, explore the interactive restoration globe, read the case studies and learn more about the issue and the campaign.

Other things you can do to support this important campaign are:

-        follow the campaign on twitter: http://twitter.com/PlantAPledge
-       ‘like’ the campaign on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/plantapledge
-       Tell all your friends, colleagues and networks and ask them to sign, too!

Thank you for your support!

Summer Students at IUFRO Headquarters

During 4 weeks in July, three young students worked at IUFRO Headquarters to get a taste of work in an office. Here is their report:

Summer students Moritz, Julian and Jonathan in front of the mobile IUFRO World Congress 2014 booth

When you work for IUFRO, you have to be prepared for a wide range of different tasks such as setting up a filing system, sorting notes or getting the mail. One of the most exciting assignments we got was to prepare a draft on how to improve and reorganize the IUFRO webpage according to our own vision. The three of us put together our ideas and debated how the webpage could be changed in order to be more attractive to users not familiar with IUFRO, and still be easy for all users to operate with.

IUFRO Headquarters is a very nice place to work at. While there is a lot of work to be done, the atmosphere is pleasant and relaxed. Everyone is very cooperative and helpful. In our work, we did not have to worry about time pressure, but were encouraged to finish all our tasks properly.

Since the members of IUFRO Headquarters were very busy with their usual tasks, such as doing the finances, organizing meetings, writing reports or minutes, they were highly pleased that we took over extra tasks for them and so facilitated their work.

We learned much: not only about the work of IUFRO and its member organizations, but also about the functioning and logistics of a big association, like IUFRO, and its headquarters.  The time here at IUFRO was a highly informative and instructive, as we learned to work within a group, but at the same time independently. And we now have an idea what it is like to work in an office of an international association.

Jonathan Kleine, Julian Koch, Moritz Wildburger

Photo: IUFRO Headquarters