The Greening of the Caribbean - efj.org.jm lectue booklet web.pdf · The Greening of the Caribbean: ... participate in reforestation and preservation of forests on private lands ...

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The Greening of the Caribbean: From the Tanos to the Anthropocene

Ariel E. Lugo, E. H. Helmer, and Olga Ramos GonzlezUSDA Forest Service International Institute of Tropical Forestry

1201 Ceiba, Jardn Botnico sur, Ro Piedras, PR 00926-1115

presented at the

9th Annual EFJ Public Lecture Thursday October 17, 2013

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Message from the CEO & Conservator of Forests

Forestry Department

Let me, on behalf of the entire Forestry Department staff, express profound gratitude to the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica and the Forest Conservation Fund for dedicating the 9th EFJ Public Lecture to exploring a forestry related matter. The support received from these organisations over the years has been stellar and has served to bolster the Forestry

Departments capacity to fulfill its mandate to reforest denuded areas, preserve and conserve Jamaicas forest resources.

This year is a seminal year for our Agency as we observe 75 years of committed service to Jamaica. I am therefore honoured to be leading an organisation that has served its country for three quarters of a century. Despite the many challenges faced, the Forestry Department has remained resolute in combating deforestation, regardless of its cause. In addition, the Agency has successfully managed to stay relevant to its stakeholders amidst the rise of new threats to our forests.

Over these years we have maintained the islands forest cover at 30 per cent, even though the Agency manages only a third of this amount. We have found new and innovative ways to entice our partners to participate in reforestation and preservation of forests on private lands through various programmes including our private planting programme which has over 3,000 registered private land owners and has so far distributed well over 1 million seedlings. The Agency has successfully forged partnerships with companies in the bauxite sector, who we have successfully encouraged to return mined out lands to forests. We have also built relationships with the communities living closest to our forests and created Local Forest Management Committees who co-manage some of our Forest Reserves. To date we have launched 13 such community groups across the island.

On a more personal level, each of you benefit from the work of the Forestry Department every day. There is not a man, woman or child living in Jamaica today who is not either directly or indirectly impacted by the on-going work of the Agency. The water that you drink has its origin in watersheds that are largely forested areas; the air that you breathe emanates from the lungs of planet the trees; many landslides have been prevented due to the on-going reforestation activities.

Whilst we celebrate our many achievements, we recognize that the road ahead will continue to be challenging, but also full of opportunities if we make determined efforts to upgrade the local forestry sector and adjust to new and emerging environmental challenges.

Public education and partnerships will be critical to overcoming some of these challenges. We will continue to use the many programmes we have in train. In addition, we will continue to educate the public about the value of our forests and the need for its conservation and protection through initiatives including our Forest Treks, National Tree Planting Day, schools programme and community meetings.

In this Anthropocene era where mans impact on the environment is becoming even more evident, it is incumbent on us to do more to prepare for the impacts and where necessary mitigate the effects. The forestry sector is at the crossroads. As stakeholders, we all have to consider the future we want to see for the sector in Jamaica. I see great potential for the Forestry Department and its many stakeholders to play leading roles in making the sector more responsive. I am confident that you will all rally around our cause for a greener and healthier environment.

Marilyn Headley

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The Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ) was established to facilitate the promotion and implementation of activities which will conserve and manage the natural resources and environment of Jamaica and improve and positively impact child development. EFJ has been working to this end through provision of funding to Non-Governmental and Community based Organisations, Academic Institutions and in partnership with key stakeholders throughout the length and breadth of the island. The funding provided by EFJ has impacted the natural and built environmental landscape, children, communities, livelihoods, plant and animal species across the length and breadth of Jamaica.

The Forest Conservation Fund (FCF) was established in 2004 through a Debt-for-Nature Swap. The partnership between the Governments of Jamaica and the United States of America, The Nature Conservancy and the Jamaica Protected Areas Trust was created to support local tropical forest conservation activities such as reforestation, capacity building and conservation training, animal and plant biodiversity conservation, research in medicinal uses of tropical forest life to treat human health-related concerns, and the support of other alternate livelihoods of protected area communities.

The Jamaica Protected Areas Trust Limited (JPAT) was established out of discussions between the Governments of the United States of America and Jamaica, The Nature Conservancy and NGOs about the inadequate support for protected areas. As a result, JPAT was established and a Debt Swap was negotiated between the Governments of the United States and Jamaica, facilitated by The Nature Conservancy. Registered in 2004, JPAT supports the effective management of the countrys protected areas. In particular, they are the administrator of the Forest Conservation Fund that was put in place through this Debt Swap Agreement.

THE PARTNERSAbout the Presenter

Ariel E. Lugo was born in Mayagez, Puerto Rico, studied in public schools and went on to obtain his Bachelors Degree (1963) and Masters Degree (1965) in Science (Biology) from the University of Puerto Rico. He obtained his Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1969.

His professional experience has included the following:

Assistant and Associate Professor of Botany, University of Florida at Gainesville (1969-1979).

Assistant Secretary for Planning and Resources Analysis (1973-1974) with the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources and Assistant Secretary for Science and Technology (1974-1975).

Staff Member in the Council on Environmental Quality, Executive Office of the President from 1978 to 1979.

Project Leader at the US Forest Service (1979-1992), Director (1986-1992), and Supervisory Research Ecologist at the then Institute of Tropical Forestry.

In 1992, the Institute became the International Institute of Tropical Forestry and Lugo was Acting Director from 1992-1994.

In 1994 he was appointed to the Senior Executive Service and was in Washington, D.C. as Acting Deputy Chief of International Forestry from February to March of 1995.

Currently the Director of the Institute.

Lugo is also an active scientist with vast research experience. His current research includes: an assessment of the role of tropical forests in global processes; ecological studies of tropical tree plantations; comparisons of plantations and natural forests; relation between forest management and soil and water quality in Caribbean forests; response of tropical forests to disturbances; studies of tropical wetlands; studies of wood decomposition rates in the tropics; and the ecological role of introduced invasive species in the tropics. He has published over 470 scientific articles, is a highly cited

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researcher, has been an expert witness in federal court on several environmental cases, has been consulted on various environmental issues at the local, national, and international level, taught various classes and short courses in several universities, been advisor to over ten graduate students, and is editor for various scientific journals.

Lugo has been the recipient of many honors, including both the Distinguished Service Award and the Distinguished Scientist Award. He received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Puerto Rico, Cayey Campus, a Meritorious Executive Rank Award from President George W. Bush, and he was among the members of the international science community that contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Scientific Assessment that in 2007 received with Albert Gore the Nobel Peace Prize. He specifically contributed to the Effects on Ecosystems chapter of the Climate Change, The IPCC Scientific Assessment published by Cambridge University Press in 1990. This year Lugo received a Forest Hero Award by the United Nations at the United Nations Forum on Forests in Istanbul, Turkey.

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Part I: Introduction and Summary

Good day everyone. I am honoured to be here with you as we recognize Jamaicas National Heroes and celebrate 75 years of accomplishments of the Forestry Department. I am also proud to be here in Jamaica, a land that has made us in the Caribbean proud for the way you have dominated the sprints at the Olympics and other world competitions. The Caribbean people are talented people and poised to lead the world as it is confronted with the consequences of the Anthropocene.

The what? The Anthropocene? What is that! The Anthropocene is the era of human domination over the world (see Part II below). Human activity now dictates what happens in the world. What the climate will be; what species survive and which do not; the amount of available fresh water; how lands will be used; how much wilderness we will have, and so on.

Many are afraid of the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene is an era of uncertainty and some are afraid of what might happen in the future. Will many species become extinct? Will the climate change in ways to which we cannot adapt? How high will the sea level rise and what will happen to all the cities and facilities that we have installed on our coastal zones? Will we lose our coral reefs, beaches and the tourists that visit us to enjoy those natural resources? As we travel into the unknown future we do so with trepidation and feel a little bit scared of what is in store for us, and our children.

However, we are not here to anticipate gloom and doom for our future. We are optimists and see many positive possibilities for us in the Anthropocene. You see, the era of human domination over the world has limits and it gives us humans the opportunity to do well for ourselves, not just to mess things up. Moreover, the Anthropocene has an Achilles heel, and we in the Caribbean are

poised to lead the world as it struggles with the Anthropocene. What is this Achilles heel of the Anthropocene?

The era of human domination over the world is dependent on oil. As humans we can do fantastic things with our technology, but to do so we need oil. We also live in the petroleum era, an era that is limited by oil reserves. At this historic moment we are approaching what has been called Peak Oil or the historic moment when we reach the peak in our consumption of oil reserves (Fig. 1). From Peak Oil onwards, we will be using less and less oil because there will be less and less oil to extract and use.

To survive the Anthropocene we need strategies to deal with a declining oil supply and thus a declining economic activity and declining technological capacity to support human activity. We are now at a time when humans begin to switch from oil to natural energies such as wind, solar, hydrological, and thermal. And guess

Sustainability will give way to prosperous decline.

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30

40

50

1930 1950 1970 1990 2010 2030 2050

Prod

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Non-con GasGasNGLsPolar OilDeep WaterHeavyRegular

Figure 1. Historical and projected global use of fossil fuels. Notice that the curve peaks in the present time period. This high point is termed Peak Oil. After the peak, fossil fuel supplies are insufficient to sustain high consumption and the rate of use decreases.

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what, we in the Caribbean have the cultural and social capacity to survive in a world dependent not on oil but on natural energy resources.

Lets take a look at our beloved Caribbean. We focus on four big things happening in the Caribbean regarding our natural resources.

First of all, the Caribbean is a Hot Spot for organisms, both marine and terrestrial. A Hot Spot is a region of the world with disproportionate quantities of unique biodiversity, meaning plants, animals, microbes, and the ecosystems they form. This means that over 20 percent of the species we see in the Caribbean are unique (or endemic) to the Caribbean, they occur nowhere else in the world.

Second, the flora and fauna of the Caribbean has been enriched by the introduction of plants and animals by humans. Today, the biodiversity of the Caribbean is much richer than it was when the first humans arrived in the region.

Third, the Caribbean is one of the few places in the world where the area covered by forests is growing. Today, we have more forest cover than any time before in over a hundred years. So we are greener!

Finally, the forests and ecosystems emerging in the Caribbean after the agricultural era are what we call novel forests, because they are composed of a combination of plant and animal species that is different from the historical ecosystems that preceded them before the deforestation that occurred over a hundred years ago. Those species introduced by humans have recombined with the native species of the Caribbean to form these novel ecosystems. Moreover, these novel forests are adapted to human activity because they are a product of human activity.

In summary, the Caribbean is greener than it has ever been, it contains more species of plants and animals than it has ever had, it harbours ecosystems that are different from those that were present before humans, but it maintains pristine native ecosystems with their unique biota therefore conserving the Hot Spot of biodiversity for which we are globally known.

But the greatest surprise for us in the region is that the Anthropocene, particularly after Peak Oil, requires that humans depend more and more on natural resources, and regions with sound stewardship of their resources will find themselves ahead of those who have squandered their resources. Forests acquire new values in the Anthropocene. They provide what we call ecological services that clean our water and assure abundant supplies of this vital liquid. They serve as green infrastructure, particularly in cities where trees moderate temperatures and lower the electric bill of those who have air conditioning. Well-placed and maintained urban forests help reduce criminal activity and provide places where people can relax and lower the daily stress. And now we know that forests store carbon that help moderate the global climate and countries can now receive carbon credits for allowing their forests to grow and not be depleted.

All four natural resource characteristics of the Caribbean, including its forests, are essential for coping with the Anthropocene and leading the world in the era after Peak Oil. But they are not enough. There are still four other aspects of the Caribbean that must be added to the stew of Anthropocene success.

First, Caribbean people are inherently conservationists. One reason the biodiversity Hot Spot of the Caribbean and the native pristine forests in the Islands have survived deforestation and high population density, is because the people made it so. Caribbean people depend on nature for

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survival and they understand the importance of conservation. Jamaica was called the Island of wood and water because of its richness in these resources which were valued by its indigenous populations and continue to be treasured by the present population.

Second, Caribbean people embrace diversity and novelty. We love equally the native Lignum vitae and Hutias as we do the introduced Mango or Breadfruit tree. We benefit from all biodiversity and value all of it.

Third, we are a people of diverse culture and beliefs, with well-organized democratic governments and manage to somehow to live up to the motto of Jamaica: Out of Many, One People. As one people, we also accept science as a source of understanding and objective information for policymaking and development of regulations.

Finally, we function as a social ecological system, each Island according to its social and ecological circumstances. Nevertheless, the connection between the social and ecological systems of the Caribbean is what provides the power of adaptation for the Anthropocene. An adaptation that will propel the Caribbean to a global leadership position for dealing with the decline of the worlds fossil fuels after Peak Oil.

As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Forestry Department and recognize the achievements of your Island Heroes, we must reflect on the future of our beloved Caribbean.

Here is our reflection: The Caribbean has evolved considerably over the millennia adapting and evolving as necessary to survive in a changing world. We experienced the Tainos, the Europeans, deforestation, agricultural monocultures, land degradation, urbanization, hurricanes, and now as the world recognizes

the Anthropocene, we realize that we have been living in the Anthropocene for a long time because the Islands have been densely populated and surviving on their own for many centuries before modern technology connected us to the whole world. Today, we have beautiful landscapes and we are wiser than before because although we have abused the land, the land has been sufficiently resilient to allow us to witness its recovery while we live off the fossil fuel (oil) reserves.

Ah, but the oil is being depleted and we might need to go back to depending on the land. Will we be smarter the second time around? Or will we make the same mistakes as before?

As optimists we say we will do better because we are wiser and we now know how important the land and natural resources are to our survival. We can feed off our cultural heritage and our close connection to the biota to develop social ecological systems that will allow us a prosperous livelihood as the Anthropocene comes to an end. What are the things we must do to be successful in the post Peak Oil era?

We must be people oriented, focus on the quality of life, on the greater good for everyone, we need to make our cities liveable by adding trees because that is where most people congregate. Urban forests and green infrastructure are important components for making the city liveable. We must concentrate conservation activity on all lands so that we may address issues of food security as well as environmental quality. Our governance and conservation processes must be transparent, collaborative, and inclusive. Basically all lands and all hands have a role to play.

Caribbean Islands can do what we need to do because we have done it before and we now know better to make the future be a prosperous one for everyone. We will lead the world as we have done in the past

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when the world interest was in our natural bounties. In the future we will lead because of our understanding of how to live off the land without destroying its capacity to support us.

Part II. The Anthropocene

The Industrial revolution is said to have started in about 1760 and gained momentum between 1840 and 1870 (called the second industrial revolution). During this historical period, humans developed new energy sources in support of their activities, thus increasing the level of economic activity, wealth, and well-being of people. As the industrial revolution gained momentum, petroleum (oil) developed as the predominant energy source for humans and in 1870 Standard Oil Company was founded and became one of the largest monopolies in the global oil business. Since then, and mostly through the 20th century, the era of oil allowed humans to transform the Earth.

One of the best-documented changes of how humans transformed the world is the increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (Fig. 2), which is a direct result of the burning of fossil fuels (oil). The more oil we burn, the more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is called a greenhouse gas because it absorbs heat and retains it. Thus, as the carbon dioxide concentration increases, the atmosphere also heats up leading to what is called global warming (Fig. 2). The warming of the atmosphere has effects on world climate (both the temperature and rainfall) and the temperature of the oceans. Collectively these changes induced by human activity lead to what is known as climate change and sea level rise. Climate change is used to describe the steady change in the average climate conditions of the world and sea level rise refers to the increase in mean sea level, a phenomenon

that is well documented throughout the world. Because all these changes are a result of human activity, they place humans in the position of affecting the climate of the planet and thus the conditions that affect all organisms on Earth.

With oil we also power technologies and machines that allow us to move mountains and fill in coastlines and wetlands; we change the shape of the land - the topography. By doing this, we also change the habitats of organisms. We cut forests, we cultivate and harvest plants, we husband preferred animals, and we cause species extinctions even as we produce new varieties of plants and animals to feed ourselves or use for whatever purposes we have in mind. We move around the globe in powerful planes and ships and we

Figure 2. Global temperature anomaly and carbon dioxide concentration change between 1960 and 2010. The temperature anomaly (left axis) means the deviation of atmospheric temperature from the global mean (set at zero in the axis). All the temperature change since 1960 has been towards warming (higher than the average). The colour lines are smooth averages from the annual data shown by the oscillating lines. The carbon dioxide the graph (right axis) shows a wavy but steady increase through the record. The wavy part reflects the metabolism of the Earth, which increases the carbon dioxide concentration during winter and decreases during the growth period of plants. This seasonal change reflects changes in photosynthesis (deceases) and respiration (increases).

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transport species from one side of the planet to another. Species used to living in one part of the world, are now quickly moved to another part of the world. For example, the Breadfruit tree lived only in Tahiti, until Captain Bligh moved it to Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean. As with the Breadfruit, we move thousands of species from one place to another, creating a whole new circumstance for the conservation of biodiversity.

For all the above reasons (our effects on climate, on the cover of the Earth, and the movement and extinctions of species) and others that I have not mentioned (for example, we move more phosphorus and nitrogen in this planet than the rest of nature combined), humans are now the main factor governing how Planet Earth looks and functions. Such is the Era of the Anthropocene, the time when humans dominate the Earth!

Part III: The Scientific Basis of the Changes That Have Taken Place in the Caribbean

Anyone that reads Micheners epic historical fiction novel Caribbean (Michener 1989), will have an understanding of the enormous influence of humans on this part of the world and how a diverse group of people from South America, Africa, and Europe helped shape the many cultures within the Caribbean Islands. Humans have always shaped the landscapes of countries but in the Caribbean, human (i.e. anthropogenic) activities have shaped landscapes to a degree seldom attained in large continental areas (Lugo et al. 1981, Lugo 1996). As an example, deforestation is a common problem to most tropical countries, but in the early 20th century the islands of Haiti, Trinidad, Puerto Rico, and most of Cuba were all considered almost forest-less lands (Gill 1931, p 66). Such levels of deforestation seldom occur on continental areas. Also, wholesale

changes in land cover took place in the Caribbean well before Nobel Prize winning Paul Crutzen (2002) suggested that the current geologic era be identified as the Anthropocene, or the era of human domination over the world. Therefore, the Caribbean is an ideal geographic region to analyze, anticipate, and develop strategies for coping with the effects of the Anthropocene on landscapes and the biota.

The Caribbean is a location where the effects of the Anthropocene on the biota can be explored with confidence because the Caribbean contains dense human populations in small geographic areas and has a well-documented long history of human activities impinging on its biota (Lugo 2004). Moreover, with the advent of satellite images, it is possible to do an overview of the whole Caribbean with an eye on detecting change and searching for general patterns of landscape evolution. The research of Helmer and colleagues (Helmer et al.

Figure 3. Land cover of nine Caribbean Islands and their location within the region. These land cover maps are from images dated between 1998 and 2007 and most correspond to about the year 2000. To develop this map we used the following study to illustrate the bathymetry (or depth of the ocean floor) of the map: Amante, C. and B. W. Eakins, ETOPO1 1 Arc-Minute Global Relief Model: Procedures, Data Sources and Analysis. NOAA Technical Memorandum NESDIS NGDC-24, 19 pages, March 2009.

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2008a, 2012; Helmer and Rozycki 2008; Kennaway et al. 2008; Hernndez and Prez 2005) seeks to develop a wall-to-wall analysis of the evolving Caribbean landscapes and results so far allow for a comparison of a number of islands using the same methodologies (Fig. 3). The data shows a much greener Caribbean than it was just 40 years ago (Table 1). Moreover, the greening trend appears to be accelerating in islands like Puerto Rico where the percentage

of forest cover has increased since 2004 at about 1.9 percent per year (Brandeis and Turner 2013).

Forest cover in the Caribbean increased during the latter part of the last century because lands with herbaceous crops like Sugar Cane, and woody crops like Coffee, are now forests undergoing succession (Helmer et al. 2008a, Faber-Langendoen et al. 2012, Abelleira Martnez and Lugo 2008). The forests that have grown on lands formerly covered by annual and perennial crops, which

are so common in the Caribbean, are young (Kennaway and Helmer 2007), they are storing and accumulating carbon (Helmer et al. 2008b, Lugo et al. 2011), and they are protecting watersheds and

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Table 1.

Estimates over time of the percent forest cover in Caribbean Islands. Notice

the increase reflected in the data for the year 2000. Data between 1920 and

1974 are from Lugo et al. (1981) and from FAO (2005) for the year 2000.

The two columns for the 1970s reflect different sources. Empty cells mean

no data available.

Island 1920s 1970s 1970s 1964 1974 2000

Antigua 13.6 15.9 20.5

Bahamas 13 28 23.2 23.2 84.1

Barbados 0 0 4.7

Cuba 46 14 18 14.4 11.0 21.4

Dominica 68.0 46.7 61.3

Dominican Republic 77 23 40 22.6 22.7 28.4

Grenada 11.8 11.8 14.7

Guadeloupe 12 38 32.6 34.8 48.5

Haiti 60 7 0 3.6 1.8 3.2

Jamaica 30 45 46.1 44.9 30.0

Martinique 25 24.5 25.5 43.9

Montserrat 20.0 40.0 27.3

Netherlands Antilles 0 0 0

Puerto Rico 20 17 13.3 14.2 25.8

Saint Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla 19.4 16.7 11.1

Saint Lucia 21.0 21.0 14.8

Saint Vincent 44.1 41.2 15.4

Trinidad and Tobago 59 46 45.2 44.1 50.5

US Virgin Islands 6.7 6.7 41.2

UK Virgin Islands 5.9 5.9 20.0

Weighted Average 50 18 21.0 18.0 16.0 25.0

Table 1. Estimates over time of the percent forest cover in Caribbean Islands. Notice the increase reflected in the data for the year 2000. Data between 1920 and 1974 are from Lugo et al. (1981) and from FAO (2005) for the year 2000. The two columns for the 1970s reflect different sources. Empty cells mean no data available.

harbouring species (Abelleira Martnez 2010, Helmer et al. 2008b), including local and regional endemic species and even endangered endemic species like the Puerto Rican Parrot (Lugo et al. 2012a, Associated Press 2013). These forests have the potential to play an important role in maintaining future water resources in the region.

Forest recovery in the Caribbean has not ended, and this trend may become relevant to the vision of compensating countries for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere from deforestation and degradation (known as REDD+). In the last decade forest cover has increased overall across the Greater Antilles (lvarez-Berros et al. 2013). Government support of sugar cane production has recently stopped in Puerto Rico, St. Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados (Helmer et al. 2008a; Helmer et al. 2012), and much of the abandoned Sugar Cane land will undergo forest succession. Across Trinidad, perennial croplands like Coffee,

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Taxon Native Introduced

Families of seed plants 205 26

Genera of seed plants 1,447 500

Species of seed plants 10,948 1,899

Floating or submerged plants 4

Cattails 1

Climber/vines 17

Ferns 5

Grasses 28

Herbs 35

Sedges 1

Shrubs 16

Trees 220

Crustaceans 2

Earthworms 1

Insect 90

Jellyfishes 1

Mites 8

Molluscs 17

Solifuguds 1

Tunicates 1

Amphibians 8

Birds 20

Fish 37

Mammals 20

Reptiles 15

Fungi 2

Diseases 2

Table 2. Estimates of the number of introduced taxa to the Caribbean Islands. The first three rows are from Acevedo Rodrguez and Strong (2008) and the rest are from Kairo et al (2003). Empty cells mean the information is not available in the publications cited. However, information for some of the seed plant taxa is available in the following website: http://botany.si.edu/antilles/WestIndies/query.cfmAlso in: http://www.sil.si.edu/smithsoniancontributions/Botany/The numbers of Kairo et al add to 552 species (327 plants, 121 invertebrates, 100 vertebrates, and 4 fungi and diseases). Kairo et al also combined the species according to habitat: 479 terrestrial, 55 freshwater, and 18 marine.

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Cocoa, and Citrus have become successional forests in recent decades (Helmer et al. 2012). With REDD+, the commodity is organic carbon in tree biomass, dead wood and soils that is produced by avoided deforestation or avoided degradation of forest carbon stores by logging, fragmentation or other human causes. Significantly for the Caribbean, many countries and organizations have officially proposed that forest carbon stored in other ways should be compensable, including by forest growth on land that did not have forest before 1990 or that could become reforested or afforested, or by forest enrichment planting (Parker et al. 2009).

The question that we address here is whether this greening is adaptive to conditions of the Anthropocene and what the observed effects have on the biota of the Caribbean. A recent paper by colleagues. addressed the effects of land cover changes on the biota of the Caribbean (Lugo et al 2012b). We noted that the Caribbean is a global hotspot of biodiversity and supports high rates of endemism but at the same time it harbours a high fraction of introduced species (Table 2). This apparent contradiction reflects the biotic turmoil that occurs in the Caribbean, which is similar to the cultural turmoil described in Micheners novel. Native, endemic, and introduced species are mixing in the Caribbean to form novel combinations of plant and animal communities (Lugo and Helmer 2004, Lugo et al. 2012 a and b) that in Puerto Rico, for example, constitute 75 percent of the forest cover (Fig. 4). Novelty in the biotic organization at community levels is a clear response of organisms to the emerging conditions of the Anthropocene. Because the Caribbean has experienced intensive human activity for so long, one expects that the response of the biota is ahead of what is happening in other parts of the tropical world such as continental areas where human activity is more diluted.

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Another finding of Lugo et al. (2012b) was a correlation between urban cover and level of naturalized species in the biota (Fig. 5). Islands with a greater cover of urban areas had a greater proportion of naturalized species in the island. The Anthropocene is also characterized by greater urbanisation and the percentage of urban cover in the Caribbean tends to be high (Table 3) when compared to continental areas such as the United States, where it is just below 5 percent. The Dominican Republic, where agriculture still plays a significant role in the economy, has the lowest urban cover in Table 3. The number of naturalised species in the Dominican Republic is low in proportion to its land area (Lugo et al. 2012b). Overall, it appears from the land cover and species composition of forests that three purposeful human activities (abandonment of agricultural activity, development of urban areas, and movement of species across islands) led to the greening trend and the development of novel forests, none of which were planned. Both the greening of islands and the development of novel ecosystems occurred naturally through processes of succession and self-organization, respectively.

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Figure 5. Relationship between the area urbanized in Caribbean Islands and the concentration of introduced and naturalized species (Lugo et al. 2012b).

It is difficult, and perhaps folly, to try to anticipate if the current greening of the Caribbean is adaptable or not to the Anthropocene. Clearly the forest composition itself is adaptable as the mix of native and naturalized species appear to develop into mature forests capable of coping with both natural and anthropogenic disturbances (Lugo et al. 2005). However, from the point of view of the economy of the islands, the greening has been at the expense of agricultural activity, which places the islands in a vulnerable position by reducing their capacity to feed their populations. The dependence on food importation might become too expensive in the future when fuel costs increase the cost of producing and importing food. On the other hand, the Caribbean is now a global tourism attraction, which attracts a set of visitors to the islands that was not anticipated by Micheners novel. This new economic sector benefits from the green cover of the islands suggesting that the greening has adaptive potential in the Anthropocene, particularly when the environmental services of green cover are added to the mix.What the Caribbean needs for adapting to the future is balance in its land cover, something it has never developed in the past. The islands ranged from forested, to deforested to agricultural and now are on the way back to forested (summarized for Puerto Rico in Table 4). Paying attention to the food production issues will require

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Table 3.

Percent of total area in three land covers for nine Caribbean Islands. Not shown are small percentages of water cover and a two

percent cover in plantations for Trinidad. The United States Virgin Islands is USVI.

Land

Cover Barbados

British Virgin

Islands Dominican

Republic Grenada

Puerto

Rico St. Kitts, St. Nevis,

St. Eustatius Tobago Trinidad USVI

Urban and

Residential 21 7 1 9 14 7 8 8 15

Non-

Forest 62 19 48 40 39 42 8 20 21

Forest and

Woodland 17 74 50 51 46 50 84 69 64

Total

Area (ha) 43,430 15,580 4,818,170 31,672 895,080 28,050 30,100 483,180 35,080

Table 3. Percent of total area in three land covers for nine Caribbean Islands. Not shown are small percentages of water cover and a two percent cover in plantations for Trinidad. The United States Virgin Islands is USVI.

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a balanced land cover. One that has urban, forested, and agricultural land in some optimal ratio based on the circumstances of each island. An agricultural cover of 30 percent in Puerto Rico would still allow for 55 percent forest cover and 15 percent urban cover. We dont know if this is the ideal balance, but it is one that would feed a high percentage of the population (today Puerto Rico imports 80 to 90 percent of its food requirements) while also providing essential environmental services from green areas, and the island would be much greener than it was in the early 20th century. To accomplish this, deforestation would have to take place and urban sprawl reversed (both controversial issues), but hopefully such changes in land cover would be directed using acquired knowledge of where to best convert forests or urban areas into agriculture and on how to optimize land use and management.It would appear that the greening of the Caribbean opens opportunities for a new level of land management based on landscape-level analyses combined with best land management practices at local scales. Part of the human domination of the

world of the Anthropocene involves the access of knowledge and techniques for directing human activity in ways that would benefit both natural and anthropogenic processes.

22

Table 4.

Generalised land covers for Puerto Rico during the peak of four different eras: pre-

historic, agriculture, present, and future. The proposed cover for future would improve

food security while maintaining green spaces. Notice that the area of legally protected

cover is small.

Cover Pre-historic Agriculture Circa 2010 Future

Forest 99 8 60 55*

Agriculture

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of the Caribbean as well as its strong conservation ethic will become a model for others to follow as the world will struggle to maintain human prosperity in a declining energy scenario.

8. Closer interaction with the land will rule the post Peak Oil era, and this type of interaction has been developed over millennia in the Caribbean.

9. In the past, we exploited the land, but today we know better and can manage our relationship with the land to a level where both survive.

10. Resilient novel forests, well conserved biodiversity hotspots, vibrant social ecological systems, a conservation ethic, and excellence in government will assure that the Caribbean will lead the world in the Anthropocene.

May the Forest be with you!

Literature Cited

Abelleira Martnez, O. and A. E. Lugo. 2008. Post sugar cane succession in moist alluvial sites in Puerto Rico. Pages 73-92 in R. W. Myster, editor. Post-agricultural succession in the Neotropics. Springer, New York.

Abelleira Martnez, O. J., M. A. Rodrguez, I. Rosario, N. Soto, A. Lpez, and A. E. Lugo. 2010. Structure and species composition of novel forests dominated by an introduced species in northcentral Puerto Rico. New Forests 39:1-18.

Acevedo-Rodrguez, P. and M. T. Strong. 2008. Floristic richness and affinities in the West Indies. Botanical Review 74:5-36.

lvarez Berros, N. L., D. J. Redo, T. M. Aide, M. L. Clark, and R. Grau. 2013. Land change in the Greater Antilles between 2001 and 2010.Land 2(2): 81-107.

Associated Press. 2013. Report: Puerto Rican Parrot makes major comeback. The New York Times, August 15, 2013.

Brandeis, T. J. and J. A. Turner. 2013. Puerto Ricos forests, 2009. USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Ashville, NC.

Crutzen, P. J. 2002. Geology of mankind. Nature 415:23.

Faber-Langendoen, D., T. Keeler-Wolf, D. Meidinger, C. Josse, A. Weakley, D. Tart, G. Navarro, B. Hoagland, S. Ponomarenko, J.-P. Saucier, G. Fults, and E. Helmer. 2012. Classification and description of world formation types. Part I (Introduction) and Part II (Description of formation types). Hierarchy Revisions Working Group,

Federal Geographic Data Committee, FGDC Secretariat, U.S. Geological Survey. Reston, VA, and NatureServe, Arlington, VA.

FAO 2005. State of forestry in the Latin American and Caribbean Region.

FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean. Santiago, Chile.

Gill, T. 1931. Tropical forests of the Caribbean. Tropical Plant Research Foundation in cooperation with Charles Lathrop Pack Forestry Trust, Baltimore, MD.

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Helmer, E.H., Kennaway, T., Pedreros, D., Clark, M., Tieszen, L., Ruzycki, T., Marcano, H., Schill, S., Carrington, S. 2008a. Distributions of land cover and forest formations for St. Kitts, Nevis, St. Eustatius, Grenada and Barbados from decision tree classification of cloud-cleared satellite imagery. Caribbean Journal of Science. 44: 175-198.

Helmer, E. H., T.J. Brandeis, A.E. Lugo, and T. Kennaway. 2008b. Factors influencing spatial pattern in tropical forest clearance and stand age: Implications for carbon storage and species diversity. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (20052012) 113, no. G2 (2008).

Helmer, E. H., Ruzycki, T. S., Benner, J., Voggesser, S. M., Scobie, B. P., Park, C., Fanning, D. W., and Ramnarine, S. 2012. Detailed maps of tropical forest types are within reach: forest tree communities for Trinidad and Tobago mapped with multi-season Landsat and multi-season fine resolution imagery. Forest Ecology and Management 279:147-166.

Helmer, E.H. and Ruzycki, T.R. 2008. Map of land cover and forest formations for Mona Island, Puerto Rico. International Institute of Tropical Forestry, Ro Piedras, PR http://fsgeodata.fs.fed.us/rastergateway/caribbean/.

Hernndez S., and Prez M. 2005. Land cover map of the Dominican Republic from Landsat ETM+ imagery circa 2000. Secretara de Estado de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales de la Repblica Dominicana, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Forest types reclassified for Caribbean Land Cover Series maps by E. H. Helmer.

Kairo, M., B. Ali, O. Cheesman, K. Haysom, and S. Murphy. 2003. Invasive species threats in the Caribbean region: report to the Nature Conservancy. CAB International, Curepe, Trinidad & Tobago.

Kennaway, T. and E.H. Helmer. 2007. The forest types and ages cleared for land development in Puerto Rico. GIScience and Remote Sensing 44(4):356-382.

Kennaway, T.,E. H. Helmer, M. A. Lefsky, T. A. Brandeis and K. R. Sherrill. 2008. Mapping land cover and estimating forest structure using satellite imagery and coarse resolution lidar in the Virgin Islands. Journal of Applied Remote Sensing 2: 023551-023527.

Lugo, A. E. 1996. Caribbean island landscapes: indicators of the effects of economic growth on the region. Environment and Development Economics 1:128-136.

Lugo, A. E. 2004. The homogeocene in Puerto Rico. Pages 366-375 in D. J. Zarin, J. R. R. Alavalapati, F. E. Putz, and M. Schmink, editors. Working forests in the Neotropics: conservation through sustainable management? Colombia University Press, New York, NY.

Lugo, A. E. and E. Helmer. 2004. Emerging forests on abandoned land: Puerto Ricos new forests. Forest Ecology and Management 190:145-161.

Lugo, A. E., E. H. Helmer, and E. Santiago Valentn. 2012b. Caribbean landscapes and their biodiversity. Interciencia 37:705-710.

Lugo, A. E., E. Romn-Nunci, M. Quiones, H. Marcano-Vega, and I. Vicns. 2005. El bosque estatal del nuevo milenio antes y despus del huracn Georges. Acta Cientfica 19:83-105.

Lugo, A. E., O. J. Abelleira, A. Collado, C. A. Viera, C. Santiago, D. O. Vlez, E. Soto, G. Amaro, G. Charn, H. Coln-Jr., J. Santana, J. I. Morales, K. Rivera, L. Ortz, L. Rivera, M. Maldonado, N. Rivera, and N. J. Vzquez. 2011. Allometry, biomass, and chemical content of novel African tulip tree (Spathodea campanulata) forests in Puerto Rico. New Forests 42:267-283.

Lugo, A. E., T. A. Carlo, and J. M. Wunderle, Jr. 2012a. Natural mixing of species: novel plant-animal communities on Caribbean Islands. Animal Conservation 15:233-241.

Lugo, A. E., R. Schmidt, and S. Brown. 1981. Tropical forests in the Caribbean. Ambio 10:318-324.

Martinuzzi, S., A. E. Lugo, T. J. Brandeis, and E. H. Helmer. 2013. Geographic distribution and level of novelty of Puerto Rican forests. Pages 81-87 in R. J. Hobbs, E. S. Higgs, and C. Hall, editors. Novel Ecosystems: Intervening in the new ecological world order? Wiley, Oxford.

Michener, J. 1989. Caribbean. Random House, New York.

Parker, C., A. Mitchell, M. Trivedi, N. Mardas, and K. Sosis. 2009. The little REDD+ book: An updated guide to governmental and non-governmental proposals for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation. London: Global Canopy Foundation.

http://fsgeodata.fs.fed.us/rastergateway/caribbean/

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Tree Planting in Denuded Area of Dunns River Watershed

A Reforested Area of the Dunns River Watershed

Restoring our Forestsyear 2004 Invasive Species ( Wild Ginger) in the Blue Mountains

Invasive Species removed for reforestation of Native Species through a Grant to the Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust (JCDT)

A Nursery used by JCDT in the Propagation of Plants for Reforestation in

the Blue Mountains

Growth of Saplings Planted by JCDT in the Blue Mountains6 years later

Tree planting in denuded area of Dunns River Watershed

A reforested area of the Dunns River Watershed

Invasive species (Wild Ginger) in the Blue Mountains removed for reforestation with native species by Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust (JCDT)

A nursery used by JCDT in the propagation of plants for reforestation in the Blue Mountains

Growth of saplings planted by JCDT in the Blue Mountains6 years later

Helping to Save our Forests Through Grants for Plant Research (UWI

Biotechnology Centre)

Serving Through Mitigating the Impacts of Climate Change

Rain water harvesting at Mafoota Agricultural Cooperative Society

Solar Panels powering water pumps.

Supporting Alternative Energy.Solar Power

Greening Through Agro Forestry in the Rio Cobre Watershed

Helping to save our forests through grants for plant research (UWI Biotechnology Centre)

Rain water harvesting at Mafoota Agricultural Cooperative Society

Solar panels powering water pumps.

Supporting alternative energysolar power

Greening through agro forestry in the Rio Cobre Watershed

BEFORE AFTER

BEFORE AFTER

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Seedlings Planted by the Lions Club of Mona Flourishing in the Wallenford

Area of the Blue Mountains

Coastal Protection Through Establishing a Mangrove Nursery at the Discovery

Bay Marine Laboratory

We Support a Legal Framework to Protect our Forests

Working with Oracabessa Foundation. Preserving our Natural Resources

Through Forest Conservation Seedlings planted by the Lions Club of Mona flourishing in the Wallenford area of the Blue Mountains

We support a legal framework to protect our forests

Working with Oracabessa Foundation. Preserving our natural resources through forest conservation

Coastal protection through establishing a mangrove nursery at the Discovery Bay Marine Laboratory

1b Norwood Avenue Kingston 5

Tel: (876) 960-6744 email: [email protected]

www.efj.org.jm

BEFORE AFTER