March 30, 2016
The Case of the Killer Cookie:
Protecting Wildlife in Southeast Asia
David S. Wilcove
Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Public Affairs,
Woodrow Wilson School
The Case of the Killer Cookie:
Protecting Wildlife in Southeast Asia
David S. Wilcove
Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Public Affairs,
Woodrow Wilson School
Landon Jones, Introducer, and Davis S. Wilcove, Speaker
Minutes of the 26th Meeting of the 74th Year
The 26th meeting of the 74th year of the Old Guard was called to order at 10:15 by President Owen Leach. Arthur Eschenlauer led us in the invocation and Robert Varrin introduced his guest, Bob Fraser, who is he putting up for membership. Jotham Johnson read the minutes of the March 23 meeting. There were 88 members in attendance.
Landon Jones introduced the speaker, David Wilcove, professor of ecology, evolutionary biology and public affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University. He joined the faculty in 2001 after 16 years working for the Nature Conservancy, the Wilderness Society and the Environmental Defense Fund. He is the author of two books and numerous scientific publications. Professor Wilcove is a 1980 graduate of Yale and has a M.A. and Ph.D. in biology from Princeton.
His talk was entitled “The Case of the Killer Cookie: Wildlife Conservation in Southeast Asia.”
Professor Wilcove began his presentation with a slide depicting “Land Sparing and Land Sharing” indicating that “You can’t always get what you want – but if you try sometimes, you might get what you need,” which was the theme for his lecture. The focus of his talk was Southeast Asia, where the three largest growing economies are China, Thailand and Indonesia which have biodiverse forests and rare and/or localized species. Within this area, he focused on Sundaland, is a biogeographical region of Southeastern Asia that includes the Malay Peninsula as well as the large islands of Borneo, Java and Sumatra and their surrounding islands. By 2010 70 percent of Sundaland’s lowland forests had been converted to agriculture.
Next he discussed the oil palm tree, which is native to West Africa and was first cultivated 5,000 years ago. It is planted around the world and is the most rapidly expanding tropical crop. Its commercial use is 80 percent for food and 20 percent for industry. Ninety percent of its global production is in Southeast Asia – in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries. Oil palm is not hospitable to biodiversity, which can be referred to as “land sharing” and ecologists should prevent forests from being converted to oil palm or “land sparing.” The good news about the oil palm is that riparian buffers work to conserve fish species’ richness and biomass and work well even if the forest is slightly used.
How does the intensity of logging affect biodiversity, as most remaining forests in Southeast Asia are open to logging? For birds there are no major differences in species’ richness among forest types. Most rare and sensitive species persist in twice-logged forests but at lower densities. For dung beetles, unlogged forest has higher species of richness than in logged forest. Dung beetles feed partly or exclusively on dung and improve nutrient recycling and soil structure.
Seventy-five percent of the species in primary forests persist in twice-logged forests, while only 7 to 11 percent of the species require primary forests, and twice-logged forests are not wastelands.
Logging makes a big difference to the value of standing timber as unlogged is $10,460 per hectare (about two-and-a-half acres) while once logged is $4,000 per hectare and twice logged is $2,000 per hectare.
The East Asian and Australasian Flyway was another aspect of Professor Wilcove’s presentation on protecting wildlife in Southeast Asia. He discussed the challenge of protecting shorebirds, whose multiple species make very long journeys with multiple stopovers and wintering sites. One needs to understand the ecology and economics of that problem, something that is rarely done. Natural supratidal habitat is largely gone because of salt pans and aquaculture growth. Salt pans are 800 years old while aquaculture is recent. Saltpans are better than aquaculture as they sustain more species and are suitable for longer periods of time. Both systems have similar profits.
In summary, Professor Wilcove stated that the oil palm is disastrous for most species but that fish can be protected using forest buffers. Most forest species tolerate logging but not all do. Salt pans and, to a lesser extent, aquaculture are compatible with shorebird conservation.
Throughout his talk Professor Wilcove frequently showed pictures of his graduate students who are doing work in this part of the world.
A lively question and answer period followed his presentation.
Respectfully submitted,
Helen Hamilton
Landon Jones introduced the speaker, David Wilcove, professor of ecology, evolutionary biology and public affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University. He joined the faculty in 2001 after 16 years working for the Nature Conservancy, the Wilderness Society and the Environmental Defense Fund. He is the author of two books and numerous scientific publications. Professor Wilcove is a 1980 graduate of Yale and has a M.A. and Ph.D. in biology from Princeton.
His talk was entitled “The Case of the Killer Cookie: Wildlife Conservation in Southeast Asia.”
Professor Wilcove began his presentation with a slide depicting “Land Sparing and Land Sharing” indicating that “You can’t always get what you want – but if you try sometimes, you might get what you need,” which was the theme for his lecture. The focus of his talk was Southeast Asia, where the three largest growing economies are China, Thailand and Indonesia which have biodiverse forests and rare and/or localized species. Within this area, he focused on Sundaland, is a biogeographical region of Southeastern Asia that includes the Malay Peninsula as well as the large islands of Borneo, Java and Sumatra and their surrounding islands. By 2010 70 percent of Sundaland’s lowland forests had been converted to agriculture.
Next he discussed the oil palm tree, which is native to West Africa and was first cultivated 5,000 years ago. It is planted around the world and is the most rapidly expanding tropical crop. Its commercial use is 80 percent for food and 20 percent for industry. Ninety percent of its global production is in Southeast Asia – in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries. Oil palm is not hospitable to biodiversity, which can be referred to as “land sharing” and ecologists should prevent forests from being converted to oil palm or “land sparing.” The good news about the oil palm is that riparian buffers work to conserve fish species’ richness and biomass and work well even if the forest is slightly used.
How does the intensity of logging affect biodiversity, as most remaining forests in Southeast Asia are open to logging? For birds there are no major differences in species’ richness among forest types. Most rare and sensitive species persist in twice-logged forests but at lower densities. For dung beetles, unlogged forest has higher species of richness than in logged forest. Dung beetles feed partly or exclusively on dung and improve nutrient recycling and soil structure.
Seventy-five percent of the species in primary forests persist in twice-logged forests, while only 7 to 11 percent of the species require primary forests, and twice-logged forests are not wastelands.
Logging makes a big difference to the value of standing timber as unlogged is $10,460 per hectare (about two-and-a-half acres) while once logged is $4,000 per hectare and twice logged is $2,000 per hectare.
The East Asian and Australasian Flyway was another aspect of Professor Wilcove’s presentation on protecting wildlife in Southeast Asia. He discussed the challenge of protecting shorebirds, whose multiple species make very long journeys with multiple stopovers and wintering sites. One needs to understand the ecology and economics of that problem, something that is rarely done. Natural supratidal habitat is largely gone because of salt pans and aquaculture growth. Salt pans are 800 years old while aquaculture is recent. Saltpans are better than aquaculture as they sustain more species and are suitable for longer periods of time. Both systems have similar profits.
In summary, Professor Wilcove stated that the oil palm is disastrous for most species but that fish can be protected using forest buffers. Most forest species tolerate logging but not all do. Salt pans and, to a lesser extent, aquaculture are compatible with shorebird conservation.
Throughout his talk Professor Wilcove frequently showed pictures of his graduate students who are doing work in this part of the world.
A lively question and answer period followed his presentation.
Respectfully submitted,
Helen Hamilton