Promoting ‘Green Jobs’ in the Forest sector

Applying the UNEP ‘Ecosystem Approach’

Dr. Rory Harrington, VESI Environmental Ltd., Cork, Ireland

A Joint FOREST EUROPE, UNECE and FAO Workshop27th – 28th June 2017 Bratislava, Slovakia

The UNEP/CBD ‘Ecosystem Approach’ : helps see the ‘bigger picture’

• The ‘Ecosystem Approach’ – First prepared for UNEP/CBD in 1997, also incorporated into Ramsar for the delivery of wetland conservation

• A set of 12 principles enabling the delivery of sustainable, social, economic and environment management of ecosystems

• Involves all relevant sectors of society and their impact on ecosystems

• Recognises that the objectives in the management of land, water and living resources are a matter of societal choice

Forest

Persona

Believed/Received

information

Logic and fact

It recognises a diversity of PERSPECTIVES as to how natural resources

might be managed - reflecting individual and collective opinion

“one of the penalties of an ecological education is

that one lives alone in a world of wounds,” Aldo Leopold

“I guess the underlying principle is that

social and economic factors will override

natural factors unless the public is educated

to understand the relationship between

nature and their own long-term welfare.”

Frederick Herbert (Herb) Bormann

Daily, G., 1997. Nature's services: societal dependence on natural ecosystems. Island Press.

The Global

Ecosystem

The ‘Ecosystem Approach' concept considers the science of the ‘total environment’

‘The Global system’ is subject to a concatenation(inextricable linkage) of social, economic and

environmental pressures

• Social: population growth, land ownership, health, community, cohesion, security, politics

• Economic: land and capital, labour, energy, maintenance, sustainability, materials, safety, commercialism

• Environmental: nutrient leakiness, carbon/nitrogen, biodiversity, pollution, aesthetics, zoonotic disease, epidemiology

Considering the past & present, Ireland – is a land de-forested and drained dry like no other in Europe

Blue –pre 1945Red – post 1945

Farm

drainage

State

Drainage

Fire + Grazing + Deforestation + Grazing

Drainage + Grazing…….

Drainage

For 10,000 years Ireland’s ecology is and has been fundamentally altered by Human activities!

Kerry mountains, SW Ireland

Diminishing

forest cover

towards NWIreland: 10 – 11%

Iceland: 3%

Map of forest cover in RoI

Ireland: 11%

EU average: 40%.

Inspired by ‘lost’ biotypes (habitat types)and ecosystem functional analyses

Understanding human-generated impacts through taking an ‘ecosystem approach’

• Forest/woodland/trees

• Marshes, fens and bogs

Ecosystem dynamics?

Evolutionary biology?

Reanimation (restoration)?

Earliest human Arctic occupation(Earliest modern humans > 300,000years)

Pitulko et al. 2016 have found evidence of human occupation (45,000 years ago) well within the Siberian Arctic (at 72°N) Science. 15 Jan 2016: Vol. 351, Issue 6270, pp. 260-263. DOI: 10.1126/science.aad0554

Reanimating wetland and riparian forest infrastructures

Using a ‘cut & fill’ approach – all relevant site characteristics and soils

Sea

Added water feature

The 2500ha catchment – 7km long, a north-south trending orientation, a complex geology (igneous and sedimentary) and variable topography – all requiring a site-specific ‘tailored’ approach – thus taking into account:

• topography

• location

• habitats

• soil-structure

• ancillary activities

• forgone-costs for each site’s landowner

Catchment area = 2,500ha:

• 16 large (>1ha) integrated

constructed wetland (ICW) systems

• C. 12.5 km re-profiled stream

corridors

• C. 200ha forest plantation

• C. 20ha extant woodland

Started in 1989 by

attenuating water flow:Anne Valley catchment, Co

Waterford, S. Ireland

ICW

Inspiring the ‘Integrated Constructed Wetland’ (ICW) concept: an

explicit integration of land and water resource management

Integrated

Constructed

Wetlands (ICW)

- are based on

wetland reanimation

& ecological

engineering

> 100 ICWs

Integrated Constructed Wetland (ICW) treating wastewater from an adjacent farmyard

Integrated Constructed Wetland (ICW) treating wastewater from an adjacent village: Dunhill, Co.Waterford – with embedded amenities including riparian woodland corridor

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INTO ICW

Out of 3 /Into 4

Out area 4

Date

Mol

ybda

te r

eact

ive

phos

phor

ous

mg/

L P

An ICW in the Anne Valley treating farmyard drainage -

6 years of data for molybdate reactive phosphorus capture: influent

(blue), midway (red) and effluent (green)

Explicit integration

provides:

• positive synergies,

• robustness and

• acceptability

• optimising, not maximising use

of a resource

Optimal

Maximal

The need for ‘new’ economies

Single purpose/limited use

Multiple purpose/benefits

Trees, woods,

forests and

wetlands regulate

water flow &

storage + carbon

sequestration

They provide many ecosystem services and

resources to form the basis for the ‘Green Economy’

Intercepting

precipitation

(leaves,

branches and

stem, C. 40-60%)

Water storage

(interstitial soil

structures, humus, fungal

mycelium, >20+%)

Soil

penetration

(10kg/cm2)

Level areas with tall, dense, emergent (helophytes) vegetation increases

hydraulic impedance

Vegetation roots & stems intercept through-

flow support bio-films, and sequesters carbon

Helophyte vegetation – intercepting,

transpiring and evaporating precipitation

Intercepted water travels to wetlands, streams and rivers- vectoring pollutants

Jan. 6th

2017

Dec.25th

2015

Rainfall events > 1mm31st Dec - 7.0 mm5th Jan - 2.5 mm

•Ecological reanimation focuses on facilitating bio-geo-chemical

processes delivering self-managing (and self-facilitating) systems minimising

‘leakiness’ and entropy - sustainably

•Ecological restoration focuses on facilitating lost biological

assemblages (within recent evolutionary time lines)

A question of ecological reanimation or restoration…….?

Hubbard Brook science is now in a position to make land use recommendations that go with nature rather than

against it. This is important to millions of people who live in New England and to people throughout the world as a

set of general land-use principles.

For example, scientists at Hubbard Brook can offer advice to planners on land use questions such as:

Can water yields be increased in a sustainable, non-destructive way?

How increased water yields can be gained without loss of biochemical quality?

Would proposed vegetation management for water flow affect the release of carbon to the atmosphere and the

problem of climate change?

Would aesthetic qualities of the landscape be affected by changes in landscape management?

In 1960, in a letter to Robert Pierce, manager of the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, he suggested that the

monitored watersheds would be ideal for the investigation of chemical budgets for whole forest ecosystems. In

1963, with the help of a grant from the National Science Foundation, and Dartmouth colleagues, G.E. Likens

and Noye Johnson, and later Tom Siccama, he embarked on a biogeochemical study of Hubbard Brook

ecosystems that became known as the ‘Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study’.

Frederick Herbert Bormann

Pioneering work on forest ecosystems

Reanimated forest and wetlands intercepting and treating overland water flow from agriculture

New and re-profiled (expanded) watercourses

Water and woodland/forest -Water quality and drainage managed with reanimated woodland and ponds

Forest and woodland corridors enhancing the agricultural landscape, providing ‘Green Jobs’ and enhanced income to farmer and community

10 year old forest plantation of mixed conifer and broadleaf species with internal drainage and water management, and no direct drainage to the adjacent stream

Borrow-pits – excavated soil used to ‘mound plant’ and the excavated ‘pit’ (pool) functions as a drainage sump and its central island used as wildlife sanctuary

Reanimating ‘wet forest’ habitats using ‘borrow-pits –excavated soil to ‘mound plant’ trees and the excavated ‘pit’ (pool) as a drainage reception sump

There is expanding interest in nature-

based solutions – ecosystem function, services and application

River ‘window’ Hydrometric weir Garden pond using drain water Swimming pond using drain water

Improved biodiversity

Builds public

empathy for ‘nature’

Dunhill, Co. Waterford

Even peatland might be reanimated

5 year growth of sphagnum on HDPE plastic liner…

Textiles from wetland vegetation

In Ireland ‘’holy’ grass; in N. America as an insect repellent; in Poland it is known as ‘bison grass’, used in herbal medicine and in the production of distilled beverages (e.g., Żubrówka, Wisent)

Uses for wetland vegetationA house of reeds

Food and other uses e.g. ‘light’

Cultural and religious symbols

How much more from a forest?

Commercial forestry devoid of empathy with limited employment opportunity

Land cover here is 11% while over 40% of all land in the

33 member states is wooded. Co Wicklow has the highest

forest cover and Co Meath the lowest. These forests are

mostly man-made. Government policy is to bring the

national forest cover to 17%. Counties Cork and Kerry

have a high proportion of forestry and, importantly, great

walks.

Over the centuries, Ireland experienced a near-total

destruction of its forests, mainly because of human activity

and climate change; from an initial forest cover of around

80% to less than 1%

Access and tractor path5m wide

Forest/woodland corridor20m wide

Neighbouring boundary fence

Forest corridor fence

Appropriate tree species

Indicative design for an ‘integrated forest/woodland corridor’

Forest corridors for farmland:• Shelter for animals and

crops• Farm access• Quality timbers• Biodiversity/crop

protection• Amenity• Etc.

Societal needs

Clean Air, Water & Soil:EU:WFD

BWDUWWDSDEtc.

Ramsar (1971)UN:EP

CBDClimate change

Sectoral wants

Agriculture Development:

Urban Rural

Forestry:TimberBiomass

Fishing RecreationNature conservation

Guidance

Reconciling ‘bridge’ between needs and wants

AESTHETIC

The importance of applying ‘universal design’

•Effective

•Fit for purpose

•Sustainable

•Robust

•Soc.Econ.Env. coherent

•Attractive/Beautiful

•‘In context’ - as if it had always been there

But what of restoring empathy and appreciation for ‘nature’ ? It requires understanding and to understand how something works; build it or rebuild it!

Forest potential for employment needs to be demonstrated

Forests can foster multiple use

• Agro-forestry, shelter and protection of agricultural crops and animals

• Timber from a diversity of species, volume, quality and special uses

• Recreation

• Foraging – fungi, fruits and plants

• Hunting and fishing

• Education and inspiration

• Social and a sense of place

Science is a complex business, as this map of journal cross-citations shows. Each

node represents a sub-discipline and the lines represent the strength of

similarity between the nodes. Image: Rafols, I. et al., Science overlay maps

Interdisciplinary web

Key factors for employment/ ‘jobs’ in a sustainable forest economy (‘multiple use’?)

• Remuneration for work done: appropriate, safe and honourable

• Recognising these jobs are not for everyone – partly because of competition, but also because people’s personalities and interests are different

• Timber and its products are largely seen as the main value product of forests –but there are many others: social/ personnel services, secondary crops, woodland skills, timber diversity

• It’s a World of increasing (accelerating) technological development with both loss and gain of employment opportunity

• The power of awareness with creative thinking and innovation creates opportunity

• Forest economy (and many other nature-based resourced economies) are dominated by large corporate interests focused on monetary profit (e.g. share value) demanding consistency in supply and quality – a need for collaboration

Innovation + opportunity + collaboration = success

• The two most important words in any language: ‘WHAT’ & ‘IF’ - human endeavour and evolution: from ‘hunter-gatherer’ to ‘modern’ a continuous cycle of ‘what-if’ and innovation

• The forest ecosystem’s environment has many more opportunities for innovation than simple cropping/harvesting

• A diversity of opportunity is possible through social, economic and environmental engagement

• Perceptions and ‘illusions of understanding’ are best tested by experience: a need for cooperation and communication between the apprentice and the experienced is essential

SO ASKING WHAT IF ………..?• land is used to reanimate forests and wetlands for human wellbeing?

• local soils are used to form micro ecosystems with little embedded cost?

• there is inter-linkage between forests and other land uses?

• a wider range of tree species are used to diversify products?

• there are changes in rotation and harvesting methods?

• no harvesting of some/all trees?

• if forests are combined with other uses?

……and many more….?

Check out www.whatifwechange.org

Society (Incl. land owners and shareholders)

“Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.”

William Wordsworth, 1770 – 1850

“Thank you for your attention”