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This edition of the APN newsletter sees the launch of a new series of articles giving an introduction to other organisations involved in global change research in the Asia-Pacific region. The first organisation to be featured is the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission's Western Pacific Sub-Commission (IOC/WESTPAC). No doubt many of you will be aware of IOC/WESTPAC and its activities, but perhaps some will not. As a regional network for global change research, the APN has a number of roles to play, not least that of promoting international cooperation and preventing unnecessary duplication of research activities. I hope that this series of articles will help increase awareness of the many different bodies conducting global change research in the region. Until the next edition of the APN newsletter, may I take this opportunity to extend to all my best wishes for 1999. Yuki Mori
Dr. Louis Lebel and Dr. Daniel Murdiyarso
In mid 1997 and early 1998 vast areas of Sumatra and Kalimantan in Indonesia, and to a lesser extent in neighbouring islands and countries, were burnt. The prevailing dry ENSO phase made conditions ideal for the use of fire to clear land for agricultural development and also for the unintentional spread of fires into surrounding forests. The cumulative effect of many fire sources was compounded by atmospheric conditions that led to the concentration and transport of smoke into neighbouring countries. The resulting transboundary haze became, once again, a major political issue in the region. The negative impacts of the fire and haze within Indonesia were substantial, particularly, on human health, biodiversity conservation efforts, and economic losses in tourism and forestry sectors. The impacts of haze were also significant in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. The underlying causes of the fires and transboundary haze problem are complex (See Figure 1). First, it is important to distinguish the various types of fires, from those burning in peat swamps and coal seams, which produce lots of smoke from small areas, fires lit by large-scale agricultural businesses to clear land for oil palm plantations, fires lit to clear land as part of large agricultural development projects and fires used by small-holders to clear land and burn crop and wood residues. Second, it should be acknowledged that fires are used both as a tool to clear land, and as a weapon in social conflict over land rights. Third, the underlying driving forces of land-use and -cover change include key influences from beyond Indonesia's borders, in particular, in creating demand for trade in palm oil and timber products and investment in these activities. A comprehensive policy response to the recurrent fire/haze problem , therefore, must address both the local and transboundary causes and impacts.
To work towards long-term and sustainable policies to reduce the impacts and severity of transboundary haze episodes, the Impacts Centre for Southeast Asia, has undertaken a series of collaborative Science-Policy activities. The critical part of this assessment has been the commissioning of four studies. Three of the studies address policy and management responses whereas the fourth summarises what is known about the sources and development of the fires and haze. A fifth study is now being added that will summarise work done, largely by other groups, on the impacts. The studies are supported by a series of working group meetings, seminars, briefings and an electronic conference. As the activity has evolved we have also participated and shared on-going results with other related programs at every opportunity. The contents of this article draw heavily on these on-going studies and interested readers are encouraged to visit the Impacts Centre web-site for more details.
These studies underline that there are important policy issues at the domestic, regional and global levels. At the domestic level the over-arching issue is land-use planning in management. In turn this can be seen as a cascade of related sub-issues: (1) the appropriateness of government targets for the conversion of forests into oil palm and timber plantations; (2) the fairness of the process by which land-use rights are acquired and maintained; (3) the presence of incentive systems (e.g. taxes, tariffs, subsidies) that encourage production of large amounts of wastes which are then burnt; (4) improving fire management itself, for example, by regulating when land clearing permits are implemented. At the regional level a key issue is whether the cooperative model favoured by ASEAN is adequate to prevent another recurrence of a serious haze episode or whether a stronger deterrent is needed, for example, the threat of cross-boundary litigation. At the global level the key issues of concern include irreversible losses of biodiversity resulting from forest conversion and the impacts of land clearing and fire emissions on the earth's atmosphere. With this hierarchy of policy issues, interacting institutions, and a large set of actors with their own agendas and interests, there is a clear need to develop a coherent policy framework to address the transboundary haze and fire problem. Such a framework must acknowledge the role of international pressure as well as domestic policy reform. The Impacts Centre of Southeast Asia and its many partners are working together on an integrated assessment of the fire/transboundary haze issue. Through this process many new science-policy-resource management partnerships are being forged. This experience will be invaluable, not only for tackling the haze issue, but also to address other transboundary environmental problems in the Southeast Asian region.
Dr. Lebel is at Walailak University, Nakhon-sri-tammarat, Thailand. Dr. Murdiyarso is at the Impacts Centre for Southeast Asia, Bogor, Indonesia. IC-SEA web-site at: http://www.icsea.or.id/
Dr. Max Finlayson and Dr. Rick van Dam
The major wetlands of the Asia-Pacific region provide many values and benefits to humans. Foremost amongst these are the supply of water, the production of foods and the amelioration of floods. In addition the wetlands are major conservation zones for plants and animals including fish and migratory birds. In recent decades the pressure on these habitats has increased as human populations have expanded and sought more land for urban and agricultural usage. These pressures have brought production activities into conflict with conservation and even resulted in the loss of the habitats concerned. Coastal wetlands are vulnerable to flooding, siltation and erosion from global climate change and sea level rise. In the worst case, many of the essential features of the coastal wetlands that provide values and benefits to society could be lost. An analysis of the wetlands in Kakadu National Park in northern Australia by the Environmental Research Institute of the Supervising Scientist (eriss), indicated that many of the existing high-value, coastal freshwater wetlands could be replaced by saline wetlands within 30 years.
APN-funded vulnerability assessments are currently being undertaken for the Yellow River Delta, in China and Olango Island, in the Philippines. These sites were chosen on the basis of their importance for humans and for conservation. The two sites differ markedly, and thus, are ideal case studies for future vulnerability assessments to wetland regions and coastal zones within the Asia-Pacific region. Yellow River Delta is a large, highly developed and industrialised deltaic plain with major freshwater and saltwater influence, while Olango Island is a small, moderately developed, low-lying coral reef island with little freshwater and major saltwater influence. Importantly, both sites incorporate significant nature reserves, representing important habitat for both migratory and non-migratory waterfowl. The assessments are being undertaken in collaboration with eriss, Wetlands International and the relevant conservation management authorities: The State Oceanic Administration (First Institute of Oceanography) in China, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in the Philippines.
The vulnerability assessment comprises an analysis of existing information to cover the following:
Following the assessment, Wetlands International and eriss, in consultation with relevant national agencies will bring together key agencies and individuals in small workshops to discuss the project and its implications for management. The workshops will take place in early December in the Philippines, and mid January in China.
The report from the field research will be forwarded to the relevant national agencies involved. This will be useful as inputs to various global research programs (eg. LUCC, START-ISD) and also important for science policy links under various international environmental treaties (eg. Framework Convention on Climate Change, International Wetlands Convention (Ramsar) and the Biological Diversity Convention). This collaborative process will ensure that local capability is enhanced and training provided, standard data management practices are agreed, communication between research institutions is developed and links made to science policy. This will assist the APN and others in the region who are increasingly showing interest in coastal zone vulnerability, which includes wetland processes as a major component. The outcomes can be used as a basis for further coastal zone management and as an extension of the assessment methodology to other sites. The project emphasises global change issues, especially those associated with climate. Specifically, it will develop an awareness of global change processes in the scientific community and linked science policy fields. These include global conservation initiatives (eg. East Asian-Australasian Flyway Initiative, the International Wetlands Convention and the bilateral Migratory Bird Agreements), the IGBP/WCRP World Climate Research Program, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) research effort for developing vulnerability assessment methodology, and the GAIM/IGBP project on wetlands.
Back to the contents
of this APN Newsletter
Shigeki Mitsumoto, D. Sc. and Maarten W.M. Kuijper
In 1965, IOC started a regional programme in the Western Pacific Region. The first project was called the Kuroshio Project with 12 countries participating in and supporting joint research on the Kuroshio Current. Since then, a number of activities have been carried out within the region. The IOC Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC) was formally established in 1989 with its main task to develop and co-ordinate the required regional marine scientific research programmes, ocean observations and services based on priority interests of the Member States in the region, and to implement the programmes and activities of the IOC in the regional context. Twenty member states within the western Pacific Ocean region constitute the Sub-Commission. Among the current IOC/WESTPAC Programmes are (i) Ocean Dynamics and Climate, (ii) Marine Pollution Research and Monitoring, (iii), Ocean Science in relation to Living/Non-Living Resources, and (iv) Ocean Services. An example of (iv) is the Northeast Asian Regional - Global Ocean Observing System (NEAR-GOOS). The NEAR-GOOS pilot project covers North East Asian seas. Still in its initial stage, it still focuses on developing data exchange between its partners, and on building the user community. In the future it will also include numerical modeling research for forecasting capability. The GOOS Project is aimed at building up a network of ocean observation systems covering the whole globe, similar to the meteorological observation network under WMO. The objective of GOOS is to ensure global, permanent, systematic observations adequate for forecasting climate variability and change, and for assessing the health or state of the marine environment and its resources, including the coastal zone. Currently, steps are being undertaken to establish pilot regional projects in Southeast Asia (SEAGOOS), in the Pacific (PacificGOOS) and also in the Mediterranean (Euro-GOOS). Apart from the development of GOOS, IOC/WESTPAC places much emphasis on education and training programmes and technical assistance especially for developing countries. In the last year, WESTPAC has conducted training courses for data management held in Tokyo and Bangkok for the countries participating in the NEAR-GOOS and for the countries surrounding the Gulf of Thailand respectively. IOC/WESTPAC also played an important role in the development of the UNEP's Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP). Further activities were the organization of the Fourth International IOC/WESTPAC Scientific Symposium in Okinawa, Japan on 2 - 7 February 1998 and a workshop under the Asian-Pacific Mussel Watch. Training courses were also given on algal toxin monitoring and Operation Methods of Oceanographic Surveys. IOC/WESTPAC is now paying more attention to the research directly related to global climate change, for example through building linkages with APN, IPRC (International Pacific Research Center), PBECS (Pacific Basin-wide Extended Climate Study), and CLIVAR. The future plans in this field will be discussed during the next Session of the IOC/WESTPAC Sub-Commission in March 1999 in Seoul.
The Oceania regional committee for START (START Oceania) held its Inaugural Workshop at the University of the South Pacific, Fiji, from 5-9 October. The workshop was attended by participants from Australia, New Zealand, USA, Tonga, Samoa, Niue, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, ORSTOM, SPREP, UNEP, as well as representatives from University of the South Pacific, SOPAC, UNDP, WWF, SPACHEE, DoE, Greenpeace, PWD, and Agricultural research station. The main sponsors of the workshop were START International Secretariat, APN and USP. The overall objective of the workshop was to identify global change issues of oceanic importance and to develop research 'work plans' with specific reference to coastal issues and climate change/variability impacts. After preparatory discussions, working groups were consolidated to discuss project proposals under four major themes, and a deadline of December 15 was set for the working group leaders to submit the final version of the project proposals to the START-Oceania Secretariat:
SASCOM recently welcomed Dr. Amir Muhammed as the new Chair of SASCOM, replacing Dr. AP Mitra who has played a major role in the APN since its first planning workshops. The APN Secretariat expresses a heartfelt thanks to Dr. Mitra and a warm welcome to Dr. Muhammed. Educated at the Punjab University and Oxford University, Dr. Amir Muhammed has served a prestigious career in numerous positions, including Minister for Food and Agriculture during 1977-78, representative for the Asia-Pacific region to the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (1980-86), President of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences (1992-96), and Chairman of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council. Dr. Muhammed is currently chairman of the Board of Governers of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) Islamabad, chairman of the Pakistan Global Change Committee, and a Fellow to the Third World Academy of Sciences, Trieste, Italy. He is also President of Asianics Agro-Dev International, a private sector consulting firm, and serves as consultant to several organizations including the World Bank, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, UNDP, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and USAID.
The following persons were the START Young Scientist Award Recipients in Temperate East Asia Region in 1998. Congratulations to both!!! Joon Kim of Yonsei University, South Korea was given the award based on the paper "Surface Exchange of Water Vapour Between an Open Sphagnum Fen and the Atmosphere" published in Boundary-Layer Meteorology. Helin Wei, of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, was given the award based on the paper "The Effect of Lateral Boundary Treatment of Regional Climate Model on the East Asian Summer Monsoon Rainfall Simulation" published in Scientia Atmospherica Sinica.
SASCOM (South Asia) TEACOM (Temperate East Asia) OTHER CONTACTS SARCS (Southeast Asia) Oceania Back to the contents of this APN Newsletter
Dr. Sumana Bhattacharya
Being a party to the convention, India needs to develop and regularly publish its national inventory of sources and sinks of GHGs using comparable methodologies. The inventory not only takes stock of GHG emissions but also forms a basis for developing strategies for reaching a stabilization target whereby the emissions will not dangerously interfere with the climate system and help in sustainable development.
Even earlier than signing the treaty, India has been preparing a gas-by-gas inventory, the first one was reported in 1991[Mitra, 1991] and an update was furnished in 1992 [Mitra, 1992]. Recently, a sector-by-sector GHG inventory of CO2, CH4, and N2O, CO and NMVOC was estimated from energy, endustrial processes, agriculture, land-use change and forestry and waste for the base year 1990 which is in keeping with the UNFCCC. The standard IPCC methodology [1995,1996] and default emission factors given therein have been used for estimating the emission budgets, however, wherever available, country specific emission factors have been applied (such as, in the case of methane emissions due to coal mining and handling and due to rice cultivation [India ALGAS Report, 1998]. The total amount of CO2, CH4 and N2O emitted in the country during this year was estimated to be 534 Tg, 18.5 Tg, and 0.3 Tg, respectively. In order to compare there relative impacts, each of them have been converted into CO2 equivalent using GWPs of 21 for CH4 and 310 for N2O [IPCC Scientific Assessment, 1995]. The comparison indicates that CO2 is dominating at 53%, CH4 at 39% and N2O at 8%. GHG emissions from the energy, agriculture, industry and waste sectors are 57%, 34%, 2% and 7% respectively. It is interesting to note that the net CO2 emissions from the forestry and land use change sector is almost zero. Current GHG emissions from this country account only for 3% of the global anthropogenic emissions, but it is expected that India's future share of emissions will continue increasing [ALGAS India country report, 1998] if development is not to be compromised. Keeping in view the scenario of continuously increasing emissions over the coming years, an initiative for achieving a stabilized level of emissions in the future in planning processs has to be made which will not compromise India's overall economic, social and environmental development.
Within our country a large number of technologies are available which can help in stabilization of GHG emissions in the various sectors. In the energy sector, CO2 emissions can be stabilized by improvement in energy efficiency through upgrading of currently employed technologies and introduction of advanced technologies that are most efficient, cost effective and are based on renewable energy sources [Shukla, 1996]. Emissions in the agriculture sector are dominated by CH4. Options such as the use of molasses/urea multi-nutrient blocks and anaerobic manure digesters have a potential of reducing emissions from animals and utilization of the multiple aeration method for rice cultivation is also another possibility by way of which the emission of CH4 from this sector may reduced significantly [ALGAS India report, 1998]. According to recent land-use/land-cover statistics of India generated by remote sensing techniques, the area under non-forest degraded lands and forest degraded lands is 93.68 Mha and 35.89 Mha, respectively. The available land area which could be effectively utilized for bio-mass production in India amounts to 65.45 Mha. If a productivity of 4 tonnes per hectare could be attained on only about half of the available surplus degraded land in India, it is possible to obtain carbon emission reductions of about 8Gt in 100 years compared to 4.4 Gts through carbon sequestration and storage options [M. lal et al., 1998]. Options such as substitution of bio-fuels for coal, and sustainable forestry for bio-electricity generation, etc., may also be explored for sustainable development.
References
Dr. Bhattacharya is the APN Liaison Officer for the South Asia START region.
The full version of this paper is avilable on the APN homepage.
OPEN SCIENCE MEETING ON INDUSTRIAL TRANFORMATION
The Open Science Meeting on Industrial Transformation (IT) will discuss the Draft Science Plan and a number of potential IT research projects. The meeting will bring together a wide spectrum of researchers such as economists, political scientists, econometricians, sociologists and psychologists involved in research on production and consumption systems, including the industrial ecology community, the marketing communities, as well as key actors from the private sector (strategic environmental management, product development), research funding agencies and policy community. For further information:
The Committee encourages the participation of researchers from a broad range of disciplines, including researchers from developing countries and countries with economies in transition, as well as young researchers from all over the world. For these latter categories of researchers, the aim is to provide financial support for some participants whose abstracts are selected for the meeting. For further information:
#98001 Continuation of Regional Climate Modeling (RCM) Development and Application
for Asia #98002 Vulnerability Assessment of Major Wetlands in the Asia-Pacific Region #98004 Workshop on Indicators for Detecting Variation on Climate Extremes #98005 Toward an Integrated Regional Model of River Basin Inputs to the Coastal
Zones of Southeast Asia #98006 International Workshops for Integrated Assessment Model (IAM) in East
Asia #98007 Research Activities on Land Use in Temperate East Asia (LUTEA) #98008 Support for Organizing Committee Meeting for the 1999 Human Dimensions
Open Meeting in Japan #98009 Workshop on Water and Human Security for Asia #980010 Workshop on Industrial Transformation #980011 Planning Workshop - Marine and Coastal Zone Studies in the Asia-Pacific
Region #980012 Asia-Wide Workshop - Aerosol Studies of the Asia-Pacific Region Back to the contents of this APN Newsletter
Asia-Wide Workshop - Aerosol Studies of the Asia-Pacific Region Description: A workshop co-sponsored by APN and START to follow-up work on GHGs, aerosols/relations to land use studies/emissions, dealing with the entire APN region, to develop a region-wide research program, provide a broad overview of the status of understanding of Asian aerosols and related research. Special focus on Indonesian fires, acid rain, urban pollution. Time and Location: March or May 99, United Nations University, Tokyo Contact: rfuchs@kosmos.agu.org Back to the contents of this APN Newsletter Another milestone in the production of the APN's Strategic Plan was passed at the end of November when the Advisory Committee met to agree the core elements of the strategy. Over 2 days the committee discussed a range of topics including the overall mission and goals of the APN, the financial and legal structure and the most effective means of strengthening the organisation. The basis for their discussions was the outcomes of the earlier questionnaire and face to face discussions held with APN members and key international organisations. A first draft of the
plan will shortly be issued to Scientific Planning Group (SPG) members and
Focal Points for their comments,
and after discussion at the SPG it will be circulated to all those
who took part in the consultations. Back to the contents
of this APN Newsletter Send us your comments! Articles are welcome! APN library Visitors to the APN Secretariat in Tokyo To others: if you expect your business to bring you to Tokyo in the future,
please let us know. Back to the contents of this APN Newsletter
Events in BOLD are APN or APN-sponsored events.
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Back to the contents of this APN Newsletter This new APN Internet Web page recently received the Links2Go Key Resource (see their logo on page 8) award in the topic of International Change. This award identifies which links are most representative of each of the thousands of topics in Links2Go. Once a month, and millions of pages from the World Wide Web are sampled and analyzed to discover relationships between tens of millions of links and thousands of cross-referenced topics. For each topic, Links2Go selects at most 50 of the most representative links, which are the "Key Resources" for the topic. Check out the Links2Go International Change page at: http://www.links2go.com/topic/International_Change. Back to the contents of this APN Newsletter
APN Secretariat
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Figure 1. Conceptual diagram showing some of
the major pathways of influence on the cascade
of issues resulting in haze from land-use
planning through to waste wood management
practices.