Finally Indonesian forest got our eyes but sadly due to a massive forest fires that have been sparking for the last 4 months. Forest issues had got more viral and intense, filled our news' headlines and our friends in several regions in Indonesia still have been suffering from the haze.
I have just finished the online course, titled FORESTS & HUMANS. this MOOC was instructed by Dr.Catherine Woodward from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It gave us a basic knowledge about forests' value in particular for human being, an overview of the geography, ecology and economic importance of the world's forest biomes. I was extremely excited about this course even before i had not enrolled it yet, as now i intend to share a pinch of it to you about the instrinsic value of forest and how it is important to protect it, the concept we as a city dweller tend to easily forget.
Actually a map of the world biomes might seem complex, in fact there are some really broad global patterns of forest vegetation types driven largely by climate. So it is hundred percent true that forest has a crucial bond with the balance of our planet's climate. The distribution of different forest types around the world can also be explained by predictable climate patterns and according to the intensity of sunlight in a such area, mostly cause by the tilt of the earth when rotating the sun. The tilt of the earth can cause the change of the seasons and shape our climate, vegetation and even our lifestyles in different latitude. We can simplify the types of forests into three broad biomes ; the tropical forests, temperate forests and boreal forests. these three forest types form three bands around the planet that coincide nicely with latitude.
Since Indonesia is one of the tropics, here i just highlight the part about tropical forests. As tropical forests, Indonesian forest has the characteristic of high level of solar radiation or insolation year round (because it is located in ecuator line) and creating warm average temperatures. Our forest is aseasonal like the other tropical forests around the world including the amazon, with a little variation in day length and no distinct cold season. We also has a high diversity but dominated by broad leaf trees. Here for the comparison,
In the same size of niches of western amazon basin and russian taiga, amazon has more than 100 times higher species than taiga. There are several classification in tropical forests, Indonesian forest is one of the tropical rainforest types or usually known as tropical broadleaf evergreen forest.
So why our forest is so important ? not only for this country but also for a whole globe. Indonesian forests is the second place with the richest biodiversity, so does its natural resources. As we also know that, rainforests are by far the most diverse terrestrial ecosystems on earth, cover only 7 percent of the land surface but they harbor 50 percent of all known species. Thank to our strategic location, because there is more total energy as you move toward the tropics. The energy also support faster growth, higher biomass and greater abundance over longer time periods.
But there are not also abiotic factors that cause the biodiversity patterns, as we have more terrestrial mammals species especially predators, the experts further came up with the predation hypothesis, say that higher predation on the abundant prey species reduces the competition with the less abundant prey species opening niche space so both species can survive. for your visualization, imagine a tiger living among the rabbits and deers (two types of animal who compete each others relying the grass for their diet), rabbit has faster growth rate than a deer so the number of rabbits is far more abundant, ultimately the tiger also eat more rabbits than deers and let the number of rabbits and deers in a balance portion on the same grass, as a result, predation really has a role on maintaining biodiversity. This case also help you to understand why it is so important to preserve a wild predator such as tiger.
Since global warming has become the concern for whole nations, we also have been familiar with the concept of green house gases, where the role of forests as carbon sink is so much essensial in particular for reducing our carbon emissions. i before also mentioned how forests are really intimate with the climate matters, but is it only climate that possible to be affected ?
Hell. No. indeed.
As honest, first time i started giving my attention to forest matters, is because i witness the main function of forests as our clean water supplier. In mountainous areas of the tropics, rainforest gives way to another type of wet forest known as tropical montane forests or cloud forests, and mostly the areas of our forests in Sumatra and Borneo island are classified as montane forests. The typical vegetation in montane forests is shorter in stature, because growth rates are slower but also because the frequent cloud cover means a lot, thus solar radiation is scattered and diffuse. The clouds and interception of water vapor which occur in montane forests represents an extremely important ecosystem service, which often overlooked by us. As already explained by Dr Woodward, the service is called "cloud stripping", by capturing water that might otherwise blow away with the clouds, montane forests are responsible for maintaining and regulating water flow in local streams that feed into bigger streams and ultimately supply clean water to million of people, not only people who live nearby the forests. What happen if our trees are cleared ? of course, stream flow will declaine, less predictable and the water quality also can be affected, make future food and water security vulnerable.
Forests surely have direct value to humans through the goods many people consume from them for subsistence and through the many products derived from them, all civilizations depend on them, city dwellers or even indigenous people. Calculating the dollar value of subsistence use of forests or so-called consumptive value of forest products, is done by estimating the price people would have to pay if they purchased the equivalent of these products on the market. Modern societies also produce many goods from forests recources that are bought and sold in our markets. Beside consumptive value, the other direct value of forests is productive value, is a dollar value of such products such as timber, plant oils, rattan, etc. Depending on the source, the total direct value of forests is estimated in the hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars per year. I know it is so difficult to estimate the world trade, but timber trades alone, including paper production, is around $120 billions per year.
Far larger value to humans than the direct value, forests also provide myriad indirect values which often combined under the umbrella of ecosystem services, such as, pollination, water purification, maintenance the soil fertility, climate regulation and so on. Beside ecosystem services, forests also have an option value or the long term value for the future, which really play important role to the research purposes, such as undiscovered gene that in the future may provide crop resistance to some emerging pest or the discovery of new important medicines. It is much harder to put a dollar value to indirect values. In modern economies, in particular the capitalist ones, the service provided by nature are neither bought nor sold and have been long considered as external for market needs and free for all to use. The recent condition of our woods become it susceptible to the tragedy of commons, famous term by Garret Hardin,
For instance, this term also seen each time a factory emits toxic chemicals into the air. It may enhance their profits to do so but the cost of dirty air is borne by all of us. Same here as our lands had been massively converted into agricultural uses like palm oil plantations.
This writing i presented here, is to become a reminder to us, how important the forests are. Forests have been, are and will continue to be vital to human existence. They provide woods, food, water and the oxygen we breathe, even the fossil fuels that drive our economies are the legacy of the ancient forests. The high economic value of nature is increasingly clear and provides a compelling reason to protect the forests. However, some people criticize this instrumental human centered view's of nature's worth and argue that nature should be protected for its own right. Only by recognizing the intrinsic value of nature will we ensure that even the tiniest creatures that currently have no monetary value to us are protected. As some quote by Groom says,
Since Indonesia is one of the tropics, here i just highlight the part about tropical forests. As tropical forests, Indonesian forest has the characteristic of high level of solar radiation or insolation year round (because it is located in ecuator line) and creating warm average temperatures. Our forest is aseasonal like the other tropical forests around the world including the amazon, with a little variation in day length and no distinct cold season. We also has a high diversity but dominated by broad leaf trees. Here for the comparison,
In the same size of niches of western amazon basin and russian taiga, amazon has more than 100 times higher species than taiga. There are several classification in tropical forests, Indonesian forest is one of the tropical rainforest types or usually known as tropical broadleaf evergreen forest.
So why our forest is so important ? not only for this country but also for a whole globe. Indonesian forests is the second place with the richest biodiversity, so does its natural resources. As we also know that, rainforests are by far the most diverse terrestrial ecosystems on earth, cover only 7 percent of the land surface but they harbor 50 percent of all known species. Thank to our strategic location, because there is more total energy as you move toward the tropics. The energy also support faster growth, higher biomass and greater abundance over longer time periods.
But there are not also abiotic factors that cause the biodiversity patterns, as we have more terrestrial mammals species especially predators, the experts further came up with the predation hypothesis, say that higher predation on the abundant prey species reduces the competition with the less abundant prey species opening niche space so both species can survive. for your visualization, imagine a tiger living among the rabbits and deers (two types of animal who compete each others relying the grass for their diet), rabbit has faster growth rate than a deer so the number of rabbits is far more abundant, ultimately the tiger also eat more rabbits than deers and let the number of rabbits and deers in a balance portion on the same grass, as a result, predation really has a role on maintaining biodiversity. This case also help you to understand why it is so important to preserve a wild predator such as tiger.
Hell. No. indeed.
Forests surely have direct value to humans through the goods many people consume from them for subsistence and through the many products derived from them, all civilizations depend on them, city dwellers or even indigenous people. Calculating the dollar value of subsistence use of forests or so-called consumptive value of forest products, is done by estimating the price people would have to pay if they purchased the equivalent of these products on the market. Modern societies also produce many goods from forests recources that are bought and sold in our markets. Beside consumptive value, the other direct value of forests is productive value, is a dollar value of such products such as timber, plant oils, rattan, etc. Depending on the source, the total direct value of forests is estimated in the hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars per year. I know it is so difficult to estimate the world trade, but timber trades alone, including paper production, is around $120 billions per year.
For instance, this term also seen each time a factory emits toxic chemicals into the air. It may enhance their profits to do so but the cost of dirty air is borne by all of us. Same here as our lands had been massively converted into agricultural uses like palm oil plantations.
This writing i presented here, is to become a reminder to us, how important the forests are. Forests have been, are and will continue to be vital to human existence. They provide woods, food, water and the oxygen we breathe, even the fossil fuels that drive our economies are the legacy of the ancient forests. The high economic value of nature is increasingly clear and provides a compelling reason to protect the forests. However, some people criticize this instrumental human centered view's of nature's worth and argue that nature should be protected for its own right. Only by recognizing the intrinsic value of nature will we ensure that even the tiniest creatures that currently have no monetary value to us are protected. As some quote by Groom says,
Recognizing the intrinsic value of the nonhuman world has a dramatic effect upon the framework of environmental debate and decision making. If the nonhuman world is only considered to be instrumentally valuable then people are permitted to use and otherwise interfere with any aspect of it for whatever reasons they wish. If anyone objects to such interference then the onus is clearly on the person who objects to justify why it is more useful to humans to leave that aspect of the world alone. If, however, the nonhuman world is considered to be intrinsically valuable, then the onus shifts to the person who wants to interfere with it to justify why they should be allowed to do so
I remember the epilog lines of Dr Woodward, ended the third week of this course, gave me a 5 minutes moment of silence,
xoxo
Note :
In this writing, i just share the part about the value of forests for human. There are still another interesting chapters of this course i really want to share to you like the principal of sustainable forest management and the impact of illegal logging. I swear i will write it to you as soon as possible.
Do you think economic arguments are sufficient for protecting the world's biodiversity ? Or do all creatures, great or small, have an intrinsic right to exist ? So how much we value the world's forests to ensure human being ?In the end, Indonesia is really blessed by its location, weather, islands, natural resources, biodiversity, cultures and so on. For now, it is in our hands about to where we drive the future of our beloved nation and about how we are thankful to this abundant blessing.
xoxo
Note :
In this writing, i just share the part about the value of forests for human. There are still another interesting chapters of this course i really want to share to you like the principal of sustainable forest management and the impact of illegal logging. I swear i will write it to you as soon as possible.
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