This article goes farther than many I have seen in referring explicitly
to the matter of indigenous peoples. Perhaps it goes into a bit more
detail than is necessary to convey the main points it tries to make,
but it does evidence, I think, a growing phenomenon of organizations
working both for environmental causes and for the rights of indigenous
peoples using electronic mail, mailing lists, and World Wide Web sites
in furtherance of their goals. Such organizations will surely make
ready allies for ourselves as we pursue our individual and collective
efforts on behalf of indigenous peoples.
Though the main emphasis in this article is on environmental matters
pertaining to Papua New Guinea, it contains the following words, which
I'd like to quote in an attempt to demonstrate the relevance of this
article and to help you decide if you want to read the article in its
entirety:
The indigenous peoples of PNG desperately desire to better their
economic and material condition. Conservation in PNG will fail
unless the reasonable development aspirations of the local people
are addressed. Capitalizing on the customary land ownership, PNG
has tremendous potential for the promotion of land use patterns
that stress long term stewardship as a means of meeting these
aspirations.
and:
PNG is in a unique position to defend its rainforests. Over 97% of
the land remains under customary land ownership. PNG law protects
the rights of indigenous landowners to decide land use.
and:
The Internet has provided the core tool, the development of cheap
and rapid communication between forest peoples and those living in
Northern countries.
and:
Ensuring local struggles' conservation data is collated and
distributed widely is crucial at this junction as pro-industrial
logging governments and businesses have increased their propaganda
machines worldwide (with their relatively unlimited resources) to
counter and try to discredit the support of the global community for
indigenous peoples' struggles.
and:
Worldwide Forest/Biodiversity Campaign News scans numerous sources
on the Internet, including Usenet discussion groups, Econet's
bulletin boards, popular media and the press, and list servers and
other local forest conservation efforts similar to our PNG Campaign,
to provide wide-ranging coverage, on average 3 items a week, of the
efforts to save the world's rainforests, temperate forests,
biodiversity and indigenous cultures. This list is currently being
distributed to 500+ academics and activists around the world.
I would like to encourage those who feel as I do about this matter to
write to Glen Barry (grbarry@students.wisc.edu), thanking him for this
article, especially for making the connections he does, and suggesting
that more such treatments, in which the matter of indigenous peoples
lives can be more prominently featured, would be very useful and would
likely result in increased support for the causes he espouses. I hope
we can enlist the active cooperation of Glen and others like him to
forge alliances among those working on behalf of environmental causes
and those interested in supporting the legitimate struggles of Native
peoples to gain their rights in fuller measure and a greater under-
standing on the part of the public as a whole. (I hope also that a
deeper and more meaningful dialogue between Natives and non-Natives
can take place, and want to do what I can to make such dialogue
possible.)
I hope to say more in future about the importance I see of creating
the linkages between indigenous and environmental issues. Meanwhile,
please do take a look at this article if you can, and try to take the
time to drop a note to its author telling him how you feel about what
he has written (feel free to send me a copy of your message, if you
like, which may help me make a more effective case to Glen to justify
closer ties with his work and that of others working on such causes.
Thanks.
--Gary (gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us) ]
From: Glen Barry <grbarry@students.wisc.edu>
Subject: PNG: Using Info Tech for Forest Advocacy
***********************************************
WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Using Informational Technologies for Forest Advocacy
***********************************************
Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
March 26, 1996
SOURCE & OVERVIEW
Here is an article that I wrote for Rainforest Information Centre's just
released World Rainforest Report. The article details how computer based
informational technologies can be used to their greatest advantage in the
struggle against ecological impoverishment. The whole RIC WRR, February,
1996 edition can be found at RIC's new homepage:
http://www.peg.apc.org/~ricwww/wwrr33/index.html
Glen Barry
******************************* RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Your Green Computer
Using Informational Technologies for Forest Advocacy with an Emphasis on
Papua New Guinea's Rainforest
Computers are a powerful tool for the dissemination of information. Using
his work on PNG forest issues as an example, Glen Barry shows how computer
based informational technologies can be used to their greatest advantage in
the struggle against ecological impoverishment.
by Glen Barry
1. Introduction
Significant consensus has emerged concerning the threats facing the planet's
biological diversity and biological health. Scientists, activists and
government officials increasingly are united in their conviction that
humankind's unrestrained industrial activities in general, and the
widespread and accelerating decline of forests in particular, are degrading
the biosphere. Less progress has been made in communicating to the general
public the consequences of the rapid impoverishment of biological systems we
are now experiencing. This is particularly true in Papua New Guinea (PNG)
and other Pacific island countries.
The question is, will the signal of green thought prevail in time to make
ecological living the norm? How can technology be used to achieve the ends
of maintaining biodiversity? This paper is meant to enable others with an
interest in PNG, the Pacific region, and/or forests in general, to under-
stand the potential for informational campaigning, utilizing a whole range
of startlingly powerful information technologies, like relational databases,
the Internet and many other PC-based tools.
The creation of networks through which information flows on specific
ecological issues is one way that individuals can make a difference. And in
my opinion; gathering, networking and collating of environmental information
which we have carried out on behalf of PNG's forests could be replicated
with great benefit in most places, and for most environmental and other
progressive causes. Pick a forest and save it.
Over the past several years, I have carried out research on forest
informational campaign strategies; with particular attention to how to use
databases, the Internet, and desktop publishing for the conservation and
management of PNG's rainforests and biodiversity. This forest advocacy
research, largely carried out under the organisational name Ecological
Enterprises, has been action oriented; building information links and
educational opportunities for biodiversity and rainforest protection, within
PNG, and between PNG and the rest of the world.
Salzman (1989) considers focused advocacy to be a person (or group)
reporting data concerning an area in which they have expertise and deeply
held convictions. This leads to action to make sure the information is
interpreted correctly and acted upon (Rohlf 1991). Salzman adds, that it is
entirely appropriate--and crucial--for scientists to become focused
advocates. This message is important for PNG rainforest advocacy efforts.
Ecological Enterprises has become a leading information center for the
processing of information of and about PNG's and the World's forests,
biodiversity and indigenous cultures. Our advocacy campaign's basic premise
is that ecological and biological considerations need to be inserted into
virtually all resource use decisions, forestry in particular, if human
society is to have a chance to stop the reduction in biological
functionality of the world's ecological systems.
I will not attempt to address at length the debate concerning whether
conservation should or should not use modern technology for advocacy or
other uses. Significant adverse ecological impact of just the resources
needed to build computers and supply them are noted. Nonetheless, I am of
the opinion that conservationists have no option but to embrace
informational technologies at this critical juncture. Computers as a tool,
not as an end unto themselves, must be the focus.
2. PNG's Biological Significance and Conservation Potential
PNG's tropical forests and freshwater wetlands are equal in biological
importance to the Amazon and Congo Basins (Alcorn 1993). Forest resources
play a vital role in sustaining the livelihood of its 3.7 million people.
PNG covers 46.3 million hectares, of which about 34.23 million ha are still
covered by closed natural forest and about half of which are accessible for
exploitation (Lamb 990).
PNG is in a unique position to defend its rainforests. Over 97% of the land
remains under customary land ownership. PNG law protects the rights of
indigenous landowners to decide land use. Many PNG NGOs and others,
Ecological Enterprises included, have carried out extensive grassroots
educational efforts which have brought the well-documented social and
environmental costs of industrial logging to numerous village communities.
Out of such awareness, both at the village level in PNG, and with many
hundreds of people on the Internet, inevitably comes discussion of what
development options there are that don't inherently diminish biological and
cultural richness.
2.1 Ecological Alternatives Exist--Forest Loss Doesn't Have to Happen
The indigenous peoples of PNG desperately desire to better their economic
and material condition. Conservation in PNG will fail unless the reasonable
development aspirations of the local people are addressed. Capitalizing on
the customary land ownership, PNG has tremendous potential for the promotion
of land use patterns that stress long term stewardship as a means of meeting
these aspirations.
A promising eco-timber industry is being developed in PNG. As an alternative
to industrial forestry which degrades the resource upon which economic
livelihoods depend, support of small-scale, community based, ecologically
sustainable forestry and other low impact forest utilization may be the most
effective manner to conserve biological diversity and economic futures in
PNG. NGOs and landowners are joining together as practitioners of
eco-forestry (small, community based sawmilling under a strict forest
management plan) using 'wokabaut somils', small portable sawmills. The
light, portable sawmill can be carried into the forests.
When a tree is to be harvested, it is felled with minimal disturbance to the
surrounding trees and then milled on the spot. No roads and no heavy
equipment are needed. Only some of the trees over a certain girth are
harvested. PNG can probably never have enough preserved land in properly
distributed reserves to maintain viable populations of most endemic species.
PNG's rugged geography has resulted in a vast number of microhabitats. The
result was a radiation in species and cultural diversity in each isolated
valley. When vast tracts of relatively unpopulated forest landscape
currently exist, why presume that 90% must still be cleared to arrive at
what will then be preserved? Doesn't the failure of large scale industrial
forestry to bring long term improvement in local people's way of life, while
decimating local biodiversity, beg for a more farsighted development
strategy? While the goal of establishing National Parks and other preserves
is laudable, viable management systems for natural forests must be found.
2.2 Wokabout Sawmills
Wokabout Sawmills and other small, portable mills are among the best tools
in the world for sensitive harvesting of trees (Seed 1993). They cause less
environmental destruction than multi-national loggers and ensure local people
get better financial benefits. Seed (1993) estimates that a maximum of 200
new wokabaut somil operations would need to be established to exclude large
scale industrial logging from all vulnerable areas of PNG. Ecoforestry
efforts using portable sawmills will only be as successful as their manage-
ment plans are scientifically rigorous. These management plans generally
allow careful logging on 1000 acres (about 20 acres a year over a 50-year
rotation) leaving the vast majority of the land untouched. Once the tree is
felled, the sawmill is assembled over the trunk, and the tree sawn into
planks. The small clearing is rehabilitated and seedlings of the species
taken are planted. Future timber trees are identified, staked, and mulched
with sawdust. The number of cut trees per hectare is strictly limited, so
there will be little more damage than would occur naturally and be repaired
through gap dynamics (Seed 1994). There is a pressing need to experiment
with regeneration in a variety of alternate management plans with varying
harvest intensities, gap sizes, and levels of mechanization.
3. The Forest Networking Project - History and Methodology
We have detailed the extensive forest clearing occurring across Irian Jaya,
Indonesia, PNG, and the Solomon Islands. Recent advances in ecotimber
harvesting schemes have also been noted. The problem and solution have been
identified.
The Internet and other technologies offer great potential to communicate
internationally and locally, to bring about a solution to this decline in
ecosystem functionality. Ecological Enterprises' Internet Forest Networking
Project has been actively organizing individuals and communities for six
years, with email bulletins posted to conservationists, government
employees, academics -- getting ecological facts and figures into the hands
of people who are willing to make a difference.
Conservation materials have also been widely distributed on APC's networks
(Greennet, Pegasus, Econet) and their rich environmentally-orientated
bulletin boards. These efforts have recently intensified with the
construction of Gaia Forest Archives home page accessible through the World
Wide Web and gopher systems.
In order to address the clearly unacceptable destruction of the vast
majority of South Pacific forest ecosystem, we have developed informational
campaign strategies which seek to:
1. Organize local forest conservation information in a systematic manner to
serve the needs of community development and empowerment work in PNG in
particular, and in a less detailed manner, the world at large. This involves
the collection, selection, compilation, sorting and dissemination of
information;
2. Act as support and contact center for community actions and campaigns;
3. Act as intermediary for receiving and disseminating information;
4. Provide consultation and services to the community and community-based
organizations in PNG in particular, and the world in general;
5. Demonstrate to other environmental campaigners how information
technologies can be used to network ecological information. The Internet has
provided the core tool, the development of cheap and rapid communication
between forest peoples and those living in Northern countries. Such
communication presents two obstacles, technical aspects and cultural
differences.
The author has maintained a steady stream of information out of PNG to the
international conservation movement concerning forest legislation, policy,
specific forest negotiations, and local environmental campaigns. As early
as 1989, we were putting out information from PNG on the internet. At first
this was utilized primarily for fund raising, group writing and campaign
coordination of core PNG rainforest activists around the world. Only
occasionally were items systematically addressed to the larger public.
Then in 1991, while volunteering with the Rainforest Information Centre in
Australia as the New Guinea Islands Campaign Director, I began to type in
PNG conservation newspaper articles, NGO informational releases, and other
items for a small private conference that was once again addressed primarily
to a small group of dedicated activists. This was largely because at this
time it was unclear whether this type of material was too radical for
mainstream viewing; and because expensive gateway charges apply when Econet
emails are sent to people on other email networks.
Econet is part of the APC networks, the largest assembly of on-line
environmental information and activists, which connects 17,000 activists in
94 countries. For further information on EcoNet membership, a nonprofit
online system, send a message to <ECONET-INFO@igc.apc.org>. Econet has a
tremendous number of environmentally orientated computer conferences where
participants 'post' items, which are then available for others to read when
they log in, allowing conversations that are lively, global, and immediate.
Dozens of conferences on the internet deal with environment and development
topics (Brown 1994). ;
As the private conference png.campaign within the econet conference
continued to grow, it soon became clear that any advantages to a "private"
bulletin board were being lost as individuals whom the core campaigners did
not know personally, scattered throughout the globe, were added to the
permissions list. At this time the content of our postings changed from
primarily campaign coordination to the presentation of materials that would
broaden and deepen the movement. Rather than thinking that half a dozen
extremely dedicated individuals were going to save the forests single-
handedly, additional emphasis was placed on interesting and recruiting new
activists.
Since late 1991, basically all materials that have run in the PNG print
media concerning rainforest conservation efforts have been made digital and
indexed. In 1993 we acquired a piece of hardware called a scanner and a
class of computer software known as Object Character Recognition (OCR) which
allows clear hard copies to have their text moved directly into a word
processor where it can then be edited, put in a newsletter, or printed. It
can also be posted to email list subscribers and to the econet conference
reg.newguinea.
In mid 1993 we started getting more familiar with the Internet, of which
Econet is but one domain; and realized that anyone without a paid membership
in Econet was not getting our information.
4. Current Informational Campaigns
These early Internet forest conservation efforts have continued, and
branched out to become involved in the conservation struggles of various
communities whose Internet appeals are being collected from numerous sources
for indexing, distribution and archiving. As well as Econet's bulletin
boards, many Usenet conferences, list server discussions, and World Wide Web
and Gopher databases all are inputs into what we eventually circulate and
archive.
Ensuring local struggles' conservation data is collated and distributed
widely is crucial at this junction as pro-industrial logging governments and
businesses have increased their propaganda machines worldwide (with their
relatively unlimited resources) to counter and try to discredit the support
of the global community for indigenous peoples' struggles.
E-mail is a way by which messages can be sent from one computer to another
anywhere in the world through telephone lines. It is cheaper than phone or
fax and correspondences can be captured onto the computer which greatly
facilitates networking and the distribution. Email has allowed cheap and
rapid communication between forest peoples and those living in Northern
countries.
As Brown (1994) points out, "electronic mail has become a vital tool for
those who work on environmental and social issues. Thousands of activists
and organizations around the world are now using computer networks to
coordinate campaigns and exchange news." Generally, document downloads of
250kb a day --about 200 articles -- are sifted through in order to find the
4 or 5 items a day which not only report events, but contain information
which would be useful for others wanting to become active in support of good
forest policy in a particular area. About 3 items a week are sent to the
Worldwide Forest/Biodiversity Campaign News email list, really the best of
the crop. About another two dozen a week are uniformly formatted and put in
our document database in the Gaia Forest Archives, where any individual with
Internet (gopher or World Wide Web) connection can access and search them.
The other type of information we frequently network is reports, documents
and manuscripts from organizations and individuals. For these items, we have
been granted permission to network by the authors and issuing organization.
There are many dozens of groups and individuals that regularly gather and
send us press releases, action alerts and various other information pieces.
Most of the information in the PNG section has been made available
electronically for the first time by our efforts.
4.1 PNG Rainforest Campaign News
Our "PNG Rainforest Campaign News," which now reaches approximately 300
activists, academics and government officials, provides very comprehensive
coverage of efforts to conserve PNG's rainforests, approximately 2 items a
week (send an email to "grbarry@students.wisc.edu" to be added).
The PNG Rainforest Campaign contact database organizes information for over
1,000 international supporters interested in PNG rainforest protection; and
for whom we research, write and circulate a significant amount of
information current, activist oriented forest conservation information. We
network PNG newspapers' coverage of forest issues, local NGO backgrounders
and materials, and international NGO PNG rainforest information.
In addition, Ecological Enterprises typically writes a few press releases
and action alerts a month; pulling together recent happenings from our other
sources, and channelling public concern within PNG and the World to pressure
for conservation action. Frequently we organize international actions, such
as letter writing campaigns, in support of local conservation appeals. Many
hundreds of environmental groups and individuals, including most major
forest campaign organizations, depend upon Ecological Enterprises for a
portion of their forest conservation information. National Geographic
Magazine , the New York Times, EF! Journal , Rainforest Information
Centre's World Rainforest Report (many times - ed.) and Rainforest Action
Network's World Rainforest Report and numerous newspapers around the world
(including many in PNG) have recently utilized our data and analysis for
articles on the forest situation in PNG.
What is original here, is that 500 people in communities all over the world
are finding out about conservation issues days or weeks after it is
happening (where it used to be months or years -- if ever).
4.2 Worldwide Forest/Biodiversity Campaign News
Our PNG Rainforest conservation network lead us to spend much time on the
Internet, posting and viewing many forest forums. We soon came to realize
that a tremendous amount of worldwide conservation material was languishing
on infrequently visited bulletin boards. We decided to diversify from our
PNG interests and establish a network of activists, academics and public
servants interested in biodiversity and forests issues in general. Hence,
the "Worldwide Forest/Biodiversity Campaign News" was hatched; as we began
to amplify the best of forest conservation appeals.
Worldwide Forest/Biodiversity Campaign News scans numerous sources on the
Internet, including Usenet discussion groups, Econet's bulletin boards,
popular media and the press, and list servers and other local forest
conservation efforts similar to our PNG Campaign, to provide wide-ranging
coverage, on average 3 items a week, of the efforts to save the world's
rainforests, temperate forests, biodiversity and indigenous cultures. This
list is currently being distributed to 500+ academics and activists around
the world.
Recently, we have been following conservation efforts in Malaysia (Sarawak),
British Columbia (Clayoquot Sound), Guyana, and numerous others (send an
email to "grbarry@students.wisc.edu" to join). We have been providing
coverage on biodiversity decline across the globe, amplifying local efforts
to address the situation. We are synthesizing down the networked information
by individuals and groups in order to maximize busy conservationists'
information inflows. We synthesize out the few conservation gems which are
being circulated from the "noise" in many conservation forums, serving the
function of a filter.
Not every individual concerned about forest conservation issues is able to
spend 3-4 hours a day surfing the net finding materials, and another 1-2
hours a day preparing them for distribution, and another 1-2 hours in system
design (most lately setting up the archives, but many years of designing the
mailing list format, adding people, etc.). Much thought has been put into
the format and frequency of postings. Through repeated changes we have
decided that titles that capture the essence of the piece and well written
summaries before the whole item's text are crucial in allowing list
recipients to quickly gauge what items are of interest.
4.3 Gaia1 Forest Archives
In addition to these two email lists, archives of materials, constituting
thousands of informational pieces, have been made available on the internet
through the establishment of the Gaia1 internet server. The archives,
entitled the Gaia Forest Archives (check it out at URL=
http://forests.lic.wisc.edu/forests/gaia.html), provide a range of materials
concerning rainforest and biodiversity.
Materials have been made of uniform format, titled, indexed and presented
graphically in order to make this material available to individuals that
want to become more active in the rainforest movement; and need to
familiarize themselves with forest and biodiversity protection issues in a
particular country.
Data logs of the number of people accessing the informational archives have
been gathered since its establishment. This data shows that as the
information becomes more known and linked, and thus accessible, that
information utilization is increasing dramatically. In just over 6 weeks, we
went from having no accesses to one hundred a day. Potentially, our ability
to influence the worldwide system upscale has increased dramatically, as
recent weeks have seen a dramatic increase in the numbers of people viewing
these materials. The home page has been hit now some 25,000 times over an 8
month period, during which time 70,000 documents were downloaded.
5. Information - A Systems Perspective
Given the systems nature of society and the ideas which are put before the
public, the degree to which this forest advocacy program is successful will
depend on whether accurate, well targeted information flows percolate
through the system; ideally becoming the dominant paradigm, and leading to
more actual conservation, ecological management and restoration of forests
where they have historically occurred.
The discipline of Conservation Biology pays insufficient attention to the
need to better identify sociologically, politically, economically and
ecologically how the the drastic lifestyle changes necessary to pull human
society into sustainability can be attained. Continued presence of forested
landscapes through preservation of all remaining primary forest and
immediate attempts to restore forest cover where it has historically
occurred is essential to insure that the ecological roles of forests and
their biological diversity remains intact.
The Forest Networking project works primarily at the Worldwide scale,
hierarchically, as only the Internet can make possible; with a nested PNG
informational campaign at a lower scale. Increasingly, we are seeing many
other local groups spring up to gather and network conservation information
on a particular country or forest. International support is crucial if
PNG's, and these other conservation efforts, are to have a chance of success.
Modern computers allow the tremendous ability to send thousands of messages
to every corner of the world. Many newbies, or people recently experimenting
with the Internet, respond to such power through indiscriminate sending of
information, but just being able to send signals faster and in more quantity
does not make for a more connected system. Information must be going to
people who are willing and able to make a conservation statement through
their actions.
If the goal of this forest awareness is to have the forest land conservation
ethos become the norm (the dominant paradigm), critical system connections
need to be identified and linked. We have begun to address the lack of
dispersal of information pertaining to local forest conservation efforts
through the filtering, targeting and distribution of vast quantities of
forest and biodiversity conservation advocacy materials. We have done this
without ever flooding anonymous people with information. Instead, we
started small and identified people who wanted the information. Both lists
average half a dozen new subscribers a week. "Both the number of host
computers and the volume of information flowing through the system are
estimated to be doubling every five months (Brown, 1994)". Many types of
individuals receive these unabashedly activist writs every week.
Virtually all major forest campaign groups worldwide, the foreign service
desk officer for PNG from the US and Australia, the head of FAO's forest
branch, World Bank, State Department officials, numerous academics
(particularly a substantial anthropologist network) -- all are receiving and
acting upon our information.
We have seen numerous interesting feedbacks as a result. As the forest and
biodiversity advocacy has progressed, numerous feedbacks and patterns of
information flows and impact have been developing. We also show how the
individual and small groups can have a huge impact. Such an individual
can be viewed as a transmitting holon in a systems biology sense. New
information technologies allow a well informed individual the ability to
package and disseminate information, that is send signals to other parts of
the worldwide system, in previously unimagined quantity, speed, targeted
accuracy, and quality. We can continue this systems analogy by envisioning
information flows through the world as being received by individuals which
are receiving holons.
Successful advocacy depends upon identifying from the whole set of holons
(the world's population) the subset that is concerned enough with these
issues (or likely to become so if provided with the necessary information)
that they are willing to become transmitting holons; or otherwise active
conservationists. And further, targeted receiving holons should be in a
position to make a difference. Success is measured by the extent to which
forest conservation percolates through the total human controlled system; a
component of the larger system, Gaia, and becomes the prevalent ethos. Many
biological systems depend upon informational signals, be they chemical or
ecological, to remain intact.
6. The Mechanics of the Forest Networking Campaign
Having experimented with rainforests appeals and informational exchange via
the internet for some time, we have slowly, and through trial and error,
identified key concepts that are important for our methodology and that are
communicated to recipients of our forest alerts. It is critical the
essential user understandings be established immediately with the hundreds
of people who allow their mailboxes to be flooded with email appeals.
This informational service is free. All we ask of list recipients is that
they try to contribute an item or two to the list when possible. Recipients
can send items through email to us to be distributed, or you can send a high
quality hard copy to us to scan into digital format. We network numerous
public domain items, which we scan in from hardcopy and/or find posted
around the internet. These include newspapers, magazines and other public
domain sources. These items, we stress, are to be viewed as photocopies.
Recipients are encouraged to use them as a resource in their own work, be it
academic or activist, keeping in mind we are just passing items along as
is--we are "amplifying" these stories, and thus acting as a messenger. If
you want to actually publish the item, in contrast to our photocopying,
recipients need to approach the source listed for permission.
This is all put forth in an email sent to new list recipients, and in the
disclaimer accompanying each item. We are not doing this for profit or
commercial reasons, but rather out of a deep love for all natural things and
distress over the vast destruction being wrought on rainforests,
biodiversity and indigenous cultures in PNG and other tropical and temperate
forested areas. We are bearing witness to what is happening to biodiversity
worldwide.
Once the recipients of the list receive the information, they must decide
what to do once they have become aware--hopefully deciding to act upon their
knowledge, and take responsibility for doing so. During my tenure with the
Institute for Environmental Studies' computer lab, I was instrumental in the
actual design, and configuration of this Gaia1 server. In addition to basic
UNIX installation, this included gathering different modules which provide
different internet server functionality. We had to install Gopher software,
World Wide Web software, and Swish Indexing software to provide the core
functionality of these hybrid gopher/WWW indexed databases of forest
conservation documents.
By far the easiest way to get a WWW page up is having an in at a University
which has the big fast links to the Internet to serve all the hits that
will come in. WWW documents are in hypertext, which is really just a very
simplified wordprocessing sort of language with simple control characters
(remember Wordstar?). There are a number of $10 books with simple style
suggestions (ie how to boldface, etc.).
There seem to be two approaches to getting a web site going; one is to make
it really flashy but little substance, and the other is to first work on
having something of worth when people stumble in. I chose the latter and
only recently have added the flash. The page should load quickly (not be too
big).
There are starting to be a vast number of choices for people to commercially
subscribe to Internet services. The big ones in the US, such as Compuserve
and America online are now offerIng internet connectivity. Most people can
get lots of internet time for say $20 a month. Increasingly commercial
providers for making your own web page available on the Internet are
springing up. Then all that is necessary to get your message across is
writing the hypertext documents in a wordprocessor.
7. Conclusion
PNG's forests, as an intact landscape bound by evolutionary history and
ecological singularity, will be gone within ten years if current logging
continues. In 1993, log export levels increased by four times in a single
year (Henderson 1993) and more recent import figures (Saturday Independent
1995) show logging appears to have slowed its rate of growth, but is still
growing while being well above the generally accepted sustainable yields.
Conservation needs to occur now, or we will lose this startling display of
evolutionary diversification forever.
Inserting what we already know about ecology and biological diversity into
land use decisions is essential if a transition to sustainable livelihoods
is to occur in PNG, and also in the already overdeveloped world.
References
Alcorn, Janis B. 1993. PNG Conservation Needs Assessment. The Biodiversity
Support Program, Washington, D.C.
Aplet, Gregory H.; Johnson, Nels; Olson, Jeffrey T., and Sample, V. Alaric
(eds.) 1993. Defining Sustainable Forestry. Island Press, Washington, D. C.
Brown, Lester. (ed.) 1994. State of the World. Chapter 6, Using Computers
for the Environment. W. W. Norton & Company, New York.
Grumbine, R. Edward. 1994. What is Ecosystem Management? Conservation
Biology. 8(1): 27-38.
Hartshorn, Gary S. 1990. An Overview of Neotropical Forest Dynamics. Four
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