Nature

Since March has started, I find signs of spring more and more often.

Flowers started to bloom and many young students sit on stairs on the university campus square to enjoy the sun as much as possible.

I like so much feeling the change of seasons but the arrival of spring is very special.

And I admire the strong living power and beauty of the nature.

However, the nature has not only its beautiful side but also very powerful threatening side.

March 11th, North West of Japan was destroyed by the extraordinary earthquake and tsunami.

Everyday, I feel so sorry and devastated by watching BBC news about the disaster.

It was so sudden and took over all of normal life, culture and even the protection that people had established for long time.

Now, I am looking at the issue of sustainable forest management associated with improvement of life of people dependent to forests.

Industrialised countries have been trying to stop deforestation dramatically happening in many developing countries in order to reduce GHG (Green House Gas) emissions as the highest priority of the world.

In such international tendency, REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) has been in preparation in many countries (Indonesia, Tanzania, Ghana, Costa Ria, etc).

The purpose of such worldwide programme is to make people stop cutting trees and remain the existing trees or expand the forest areas by paying them for the amount of carbon sequestration that each forest does.

In brief, the capacity of carbon sequestration of a forest is calculated in monetary term and people who used to cut the forest are compensated by protecting it.

There are already anticipated numbers of problems to implement this programme.

To succeed, it is essential that donors, central governments, local governments and local people all have to collaborate, coordinate and reconcile their economic and political interests and social powers.

I wonder what would be the result of valuing forests solely on carbon sequestration capacity...

There are so many people, culture, history and lives within and surrounding of forests.

If we undermine the power of nature, it will probably manifest its presence and hidden destructive power to anyone.

Humans have been developing their life by manipulating nature.

But, now once, need to stop and think of the relations between us and nature...