The following is a guest post written by Bronson Griscom, Ph.D., director of Forest Carbon Science for The Nature Conservancy.

Can tropical forests be logged sustainably and still maintain their incredibly rich biodiversity — and benefits to people? A new study published in the journal Conservation Letters provides evidence that, with smart forest management, the answer can be “yes.”

As a forest scientist and a co-author on this article, I believe our findings confirm a critical middle way forward in protecting tropical forests: maintaining the diversity of tropical forest plants and animals, reducing carbon pollution, securing economic opportunities for local communities, and recognizing that the world’s growing population will continue to have significant needs for timber.

Why a “middle way”? Why not just focus on halting logging of these forests wherever possible?

After all, our article does find that fully protected forests are often better at conserving more plants and animals than forests managed for timber. Also, cutting trees in the tropics generates as much carbon pollution as all the cars, planes, boats, and trains in the world. That’s why a lot of organizations like The Nature Conservancy, where I work, see protecting tropical forests as a powerful part of the solution to climate change.

But what happens when tropical forest logging is halted?

For one thing, what happens to the people in tropical forest regions who depend upon logging to put bread or rice on the table for their families? Getting rid of logging jobs may backfire as a conservation goal if the alternative livelihoods involve forest conversion. (We’ve seen this in Borneo, where villages face the option of engaging timber companies or oil palm companies…or attempting to refuse both and relying on subsistence agriculture.) Another problem: some builders might replace wood with another material like steel or cement, and the process of making those other materials generates more carbon pollution than wood. Furthermore, in some places loggers are a stronger force for forest protection than national parks. This dynamic has been demonstrated in community-managed forests of Mexico and Guatemala.

These are reasons why we considered the implications of a “middle way” in tropical forest conservation: a path that integrates logging and conservation. Our study reviews over 100 scientific papers and concludes that, in places with improved forest management practices, selectively logged tropical forests[1] retain the lion’s share of their plants and animals (85-100%) and carbon (roughly 75%). Not only that: timber yields can be sustained, albeit at a lower timber volume than the first cut.

In other words, tropical forests are surprisingly resilient to damage, as long as they are not completely cleared for another land use.

The challenge is to strike the right balance between striving for full protection for forests that have the highest conservation value and promoting good forest management where protection is not feasible or optimal. Certification standards like the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) are important tools to achieve this, yet less than 1% of tropical forests have been certified as “well managed.”

Our continuing research on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia is showing that nearly half of the impacts from logging operations can be avoided through better forest management. For example, we can replace bulldozers — which require wide logging roads in the forests and knock over all sorts of non-commercial trees as they do their logging work — with much smaller winching machines that slide logs out on narrow trails.

But reduced-impact logging techniques are a controversial idea in the conservation community because they mean approaching logging companies as potential allies in forest conservation.

We need to remember this: established logging companies are usually the only major industry touching these remote landscapes that share one fundamental interest with conservationists: keeping forests as forests. As such, logging companies, including everything from multinational corporations to community-based logging, can be a powerful ally for conservation. What’s more, they have legal tenure over nearly a quarter of the world’s tropical forests — substantially more area than all the tropical protected areas on Earth.

Still, we should not forget that logging is a violent act. I am thinking of my first trip to Borneo. I was up at dawn to hear the raucous hoots of gibbons — acrobats of the ape family. The morning mists lifted off the jungle mountainside to reveal blotches of bare red earth, like shrapnel wounds in the green patchwork of canopies. These were gaps in the trees revealing bulldozer roads carved into the mountainside. Many of these wounds can be avoided with improved logging practices, but some are unavoidable.

I should be more thrifty in my use of wood products, so I hold that image of the red scars beneath the mists of Borneo close to heart as a reminder of the price that is paid. Even so, in places like these where we are unable to ensure total protection, our study shows that native tropical forests can produce timber, provide local jobs and store carbon — all while supporting the lion’s share of biodiversity. Conservation needs to move past ideology to constructive action. The astonishing diversity of tropical forests, the people who live in and near them, and our climate all depend upon it.

Say you’re a conservation scientist and you’ve been working for years—perhaps decades—to protect specific species and habitats from the traditional evils: development, poaching, pollution, invasives, etc.

Along comes a new threat: climate change. Is all your work for naught? What’s the best way to include this new threat into your existing conservation strategies? And how do you take into account the uncertainties of climate change, such as how high temperatures and sea levels will rise?

A team of Nature Conservancy scientists and outside researchers set about answering these questions in a new article published in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation. They assessed 5 possible methods for incorporating climate change into existing or new conservation plans—everything from focusing on a diversity of landscapes (but not species) to making sure that habitats are linked so species can migrate (known as “connectivity”) to embracing strategies aimed at mitigating climate change’s impacts (like REDD).

And the winner is…

(You didn’t really think it would be that simple, did you?)

It turns out every option has trade-offs and assumptions. For instance, while protecting “climate refugia” (the term for those areas least likely to undergo rapid change) is one option with many positives—these areas often have high species richness already—it relies heavily on projecting future climate conditions…which can be a dicey business when you’re talking hyperlocal.

But while there isn’t a clear winner, all of the methods provide solutions that would be good for biodiversity regardless of future climates.

“Perhaps the biggest challenge in implementing climate adaptation strategies is dealing with various kinds of uncertainty,” says Craig Groves, lead author of the study and director of the Conservancy’s methods and learning team. “All 5 of the approaches we outline are fairly robust to these uncertainties, making them ‘no regret’ approaches.”

Groves and his coauthors conclude that regardless of methodology, it’s imperative for conservationists to start planning for climate change adaptation.

“The conservation community has collectively spent billions of dollars in recent decades to conserve biodiversity at real places on the ground and in the water—and we stand to lose a lot on our investment if we don’t start accommodating climate change,” warns Groves.

Download a PDF of the report here.

(Image: Researchers study transplanted staghorn corals, which have been hit hard by coral bleaching due to climate change. Image source: Tim Calver.)

1. Our president/CEO Mark Tercek identifies corporate sustainability officers as “unsung heroes.”  (Huffington Post)
2. Watch out for superweeds!  (Grist)
3. How much more are you willing to pay for clean energy?  (Green)
4. Business is booming for the makers of hybrid vehicles.  (CleanTechnica)
5. Last month’s rainy weather brought respite from the “prolonged airborne particle pollution” that affected the UK earlier this year.  (Guardian)

Here at The Nature Conservancy, we’re always up for a good challenge. Especially when nature is the winner. That’s why the Conservancy is participating in Groupon’s Earth Day Challenge over at Crowdrise. The challenge is simple:

• Make a donation to your favorite green charity by May 15 (we suggest The Nature Conservancy!)
• Winning charity takes home $25,000

That’s right — $25,000. That’s a big chunk of cash that we could use to further advance our mission of conserving the lands and waters on which all life depends.

Are you up for the challenge? Visit Crowdrise today!

[Image: Chestnut-mandibled toucan in Costa Rica. Image source: Sergio Pucci/TNC]

Last week at the World Office we celebrated both Carol Baudler’s retirement as Director of the Conservancy’s Conservation Campaigns Program and her 30 years of remarkable service to The Nature Conservancy and to the cause of conservation.

Because of the unique character of Carol’s contribution, this event was much more than a recounting of the past — it had important lessons for how we do conservation as an organization and as a society in the years to come.

During the celebration, Ingrid Nyborg, my colleague in the U.S. Government Relations Department, said that Carol’s career is a good example for the young people at the Conservancy who want to decide how to spend the next 20 years of their lives — Carol has shown how one person can make a difference, can do challenging, exciting things with lasting benefits for those who follow us.

Ingrid is right. Carol was a pioneering Director of the Conservancy’s Government Relations Department and subsequently went on to create the Conservation Campaigns Program with the objective of using the powers of public opinion research, strategic design of measures and messages, and targeted communication campaigns to support state conservation ballot initiatives.

The Conservation Campaigns program, collaborating with Nature Conservancy chapters and with partners, has leveraged the approval of an astonishing $47 billion in new conservation dollars at the state and local level to protect many of the most significant natural areas and natural systems in North America. It has also helped states to stand up against some very bad anti-environmental ballot measures. The program has achieved an almost 92 percent winning ratio of measures at the ballot box!

While working to protect the natural world, Carol took very seriously her role as a mentor and cultivator of talented staff. She not only hired good people, but she worked hard to build a team based on consensus and trust. And she has been a strong voice for strengthening the role of women in the Conservancy.

All of this is important in itself, but as those who spoke at the event last week suggested, Carol’s achievements and her approach to getting things done have lessons for both the Conservancy and for our country in carrying conservation forward in an often contentious, partisan and negative world:

• Our Conservation Campaigns Program has demonstrated that the American people still believe that the quality and character of this country’s land and water are very important. The overwhelming weight of public opinion revealed by the state conservation campaigns gives us and other conservation advocates a strong platform for convincing elected officials of the merits of conservation. When the convincing fails, Carol has shown that ballot measures can offer a direct route to positive change.
• The opponents of conservation have become skilled at using messaging and media at advancing their ideas. Carol has shown that the environmental community can use the same tools even more effectively than our opponents because we can build on the underlying sympathies and values of the American people.
• In what seems like an increasingly unprincipled political environment, Carol has demonstrated that it is possible to be ethical, graceful and dignified, and still win — that, in fact, a principled approach to the politics of conservation can be a powerful tool in moving campaign strategies from place to place.
• Carol realized that if The Nature Conservancy wanted to use the democratic process of state ballot campaigns to mobilize diverse constituencies to do the right thing for nature, then, to be consistent with that approach, she should build the Conservation Campaigns Program through similar respect for colleagues, teamwork, consensus building and equality of opportunity.  The Conservancy should now model this way of doing things as we pursue our global strategies.

At the celebration this last week, the Conservancy’s senior leadership was visibly moved by the opportunity to thank Carol for her accomplishments. This is a good thing.

While we may pride ourselves in our scientific and planning skills, the conservation of nature is not a dry business. It is about working with people to shape a future world where nature is useful, but also beautiful and magical. That work is part of the unrepeatable journey of life on Earth. Carol Baudler has been a singular guide in that journey — mixing hard-eyed good judgment with a very human passion for our mutual success.

It is right that Carol’s qualities and her life’s accomplishments evoke tears of hope and gratitude and, thus, a commitment to follow the path she has so graciously set before us.

[Image: Carol Baudler, Director of the Conservancy’s Conservation Campaigns Program.]

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In the coastal fishing town of Bayou la Batre, Alabama – where one-third of the population is Southeast Asian – the oil spill left thousands without jobs. Through a partnership with Boat People SOS, displaced workers are finding work helping the Conservancy and its partners build living shorelines. Photo © Andrew Kornylak

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By Christine Griffiths

The late Wangari Maathai, the women’s rights campaigner, professor, founder of the Green Belt Movement and Nobel Peace laureate, used to tell a story of a hummingbird:

A large forest fire forced all the woodland animals from their home. Feeling overwhelmed and powerless, the animals watched helplessly as the fire destroyed their forest, all except the hummingbird. He took a drop of water from a nearby stream and released it onto the fire, again and again, flying as fast as he could. The other animals tried to discourage him, saying that he was too small and couldn’t carry enough water. The hummingbird replied, “I am doing the best I can.” 

After all that has happened in the Gulf of Mexico — repeated hurricanes, a tumbling economy and finally, one of the largest oil spills in U.S. history — you would imagine that the people of the region would feel as beaten and battered as their coast. Not so. After repeated trips to the Gulf in the last couple of years, I’ve been in awe of the hummingbird spirit that soars in these coastal communities.

In December 2010, Atlanta filmmaker Andrew Kornylak and I, along with my colleague Cara Byington, traveled to Bayou La Batre, Alabama, a small fishing town along Mobile Bay’s western shore. From successful entrepreneurs to striving local business owners, from recreational fishers to out-of-work shrimpers, we interviewed a number of locals who all had a personal version of the same story: Mobile Bay and the greater Gulf of Mexico provide the foundation for the culture and economy of the coastal communities. When the natural resources suffer, so do the people.

During that first trip, we met several people from the local Southeast Asian fishing community. Men, women, young, not-so-young — what they all had in common was that they were out of work due to the oil spill. One woman lost her shrimp boat years earlier in Hurricane Katrina, so she went to work shucking oysters in a local seafood processing plant. But once the oil spill started, the plant was shut down. Her whole way of life was in jeopardy. We heard story after story, each more heart breaking than the last. For all that the people of Bayou La Batre had been through, they were ready to work their way back, given the opportunity. Their resiliency was inspiring.

Fortunately, through Boat People SOS, several found employment bagging oyster shells for a living shoreline restoration project, the first project spearheaded by 100-1000: Restore Coastal Alabama, a coalition that The Nature Conservancy helped organize. That partnership continues today as workers with Boat People SOS are helping the Conservancy install living shorelines this spring in Mobile Bay. In effect, these out-of-work fishers and seafood industry workers are helping to repair the very natural resources they depend on for a living.

See how 500+ volunteers built an oyster reef from those bags of shells.

Earlier this month, Andrew and I returned to coastal Alabama. This time we spent our trip on the east side of Mobile Bay. Among those we interviewed were Alan Williams, a horticulture teacher, and his students at the North Baldwin Center for Technology. Through the Grasses in Classes program, Williams and his students are growing marsh and seagrasses to enhance living shoreline projects around Mobile Bay.

Andrew and I met the class early one morning along the shores of Weeks Bay, a small estuary on Mobile Bay’s eastern shore, where students donned chest-high waders and set out in pairs with shovel in hand to plant the very marsh grass they grew in their classroom. Supervised by Williams and Margaret Sedlecky, coordinator of the Grasses in Classes program for Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, the teenagers ventured into the shallows and worked quickly and meticulously, despite pesky swarms of no-see-ums buzzing around their heads. Most of the students had grown up along the bay, fishing with their parents and grandparents and hunting in the nearby coastal forests. To these kids, this was a day to get out of the classroom, get their hands dirty, their feet wet and have fun. Whether they realized it or not, they were changing their corner of the world.

Years from now, each of them will be able to return to this spot and show their own children a flourishing shoreline, teeming with life. They will have the satisfaction of knowing that they helped save this shore from erosion while creating a healthy aquatic habitat for fish and birds.

These teenagers, the out-of-work fishers and the struggling business owners epitomize the hummingbird spirit that Dr. Maathai so eloquently described. It would be easy to feel overwhelmed with the economic and environmental issues facing the Gulf now. But together, if we all do our best, the Gulf of Mexico will once again be a healthy, thriving place for future generations.

In the words of the late Wangari Maathai, I will be a hummingbird. I will do the best I can.

Become a fan of The Nature Conservancy in the Gulf of Mexico and follow along our restoration journey in the Gulf.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, which helped launch the modern environmental movement. Since then we have seen the ban of the pesticide DDT, the formation of the EPA and the creation of the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act. We have brought back species from the brink of extinction. And we have protected some of the world’s greatest places.

Environmentalists have these and many other successes to celebrate, and this kind of work will remain important. But the next fifty years present a whole new set of challenges. Our growing needs for food, water and energy, coupled with a rapidly changing climate, are straining the natural systems that sustain us all.

Meeting these challenges will require the conservation field to be more science-driven than ever before.

To that end, it is very encouraging to see the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) induct Peter Kareiva, Chief Scientist at The Nature Conservancy, as one of their newest members this weekend for his excellence in original scientific research. As a NAS member, Peter joins an elite group dedicated to furthering science and technology and their use for the public good. For nearly a century and a half, NAS members have advised our nation’s leaders on policy matters related to their fields.

NAS’s recognition of Peter is an important signal about the valuable role that conservation science can play in solving important global challenges, from food security and water scarcity to the impacts of climate change.

Peter and his colleagues throughout the conservation community are making enormous contributions to the field, changing the way we think about protecting nature. Voices like Peter’s are pushing us to develop new conservation models that balance the needs of people and nature. They are helping us better articulate and quantify the economic value of healthy ecosystems, which provide us with clean air and water, food, fiber, fuel and natural flood control. They are developing tools to help produce more food and energy with less pollution and habitat destruction. And they are helping us be ever more precise in measuring the results of our work.

In this tough economic environment, when governments, businesses, and NGOs alike are working to achieve maximum results from limited resources, science must play an ever more important role in guiding our decisions.

Congratulations to all the scientists inducted to NAS today who are working to address our most pressing societal needs and challenges.

(Image: Peter Kareiva, The Nature Conservancy’s Chief Scientist photographed at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California. Image credit: © Dave Lauridsen)

Windiest Picnic: Columbus, GA

The picnickers at the Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center in Columbus, Ga., endured winds of around 35 mph on Earth Day. An outdoor movie showing was almost foiled due to the wind, which collapsed the screen the first time it went up.

Most Wild Animals at a Picnic: Tarangire National Park, Tanzania

These students from Olasiti Primary School had quite an Earth Day adventure. On a Picnic for the Planet trip to Tarangire National Park, the students spotted elephants, wild dogs and even lions!

Coldest Picnic: Palmer Research Station, Antarctica

Once again the folks at the Palmer Research Station held a Picnic for the Planet on one of the coldest spots on the planet: Antarctica. Temperatures this time of year hover around 0 degrees Celcius, but that didn’t stop Janice O’Reilly, Perri Barbour, Eddie Quintanilla and Gregorio Campo from enjoying some ice cream!

Hottest Picnic: Salt Lake City

Ok, it may not have been the hottest picnic, but it was hot for them! A suburb of Salt Lake City hit 86 degrees Fahrenheit  – that beat the previous record set in 1934 by three degrees!

Most Yoga at a Picnic: Depok, Indonesia

Picnickers in Indonesia participated in some early morning senam, an Indonesian version of yoga. They also planted trees and participated in a jungle hike before having a picnic lunch.

Most Picnic Tables at a Picnic: Birmingham, Alabama

The nearly 2,000 picnickers at the Picnic for the Planet in Alabama enjoyed checking out more than 50 picnic tables decorated by local businesses. After the event, the benches will be displayed around the city.

Biggest Battle at a Picnic: New Haven, CT

Whose cuisine reigned supreme?  On Earth Day the answer is chef Bun Lai of Miya’s Sushi  who went head-to-head with Jason Sobocinski of Caseus Fromagerie & Bistro and the Cooking Channel show “The Big Cheese” in a 15-minute cooking battle beets, goat cheese and baguettes.

Most Invasives Pulled at a Picnic:  Baraboo Hills, Wisconsin

Picnickers in Wisconsin earned their lunch by pulling 20 bags of garlic mustard. This invasive species spreads rapidly and, if left unchecked, can displace most native wildflowers and other herbaceous species within 10 years.

Best Free Snack — Alexandria, Va.

Runners in the Pacers’ GW Parkway Classic 10-miler had something yummy to look forward to at the end of the race – Nature Conservancy logo cookies provided by Bittersweet Catering.

Wettest Picnic – Three-Way Tie: Palmyra Atoll, Sargasso Sea and New York City

All 12 residents of Palmyra Atoll (including 4 from a visiting vessel) attended this “floating” Picnic for the Planet.

Students and staff aboard the Corwith Cramer held a Picnic for the Planet in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

But the hero award in this category goes to the picnickers in New York City who, despite 2.5 inches of rain and temperatures in the 40s, were in great spirits.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the 2012 Picnic for the Planet. And don’t forget: it’s not too late to share your photos!

[Images: Georgia - Jason Crawley; Tanzania - Marunda/Flickr; Antarctica – Eddie Quintanilla; Utah – Bob Rampton; Indonesia – CJHudlow/Flickr; Alabama – Larry O. Gay; New Haven – Kate Frazer/TNC; Wisconsin – Flickr/CateH2010; Alexandria – Courtesy of Bittersweet Catering; Palmyra – Courtesy of Palmyra Station; Sargasso Sea – Nicholas Steinbauer; New York – Axel Baumann/TNC.

1. In Birmingham, Alabama, more than 629 picnickers got their grub on at Railroad Park.  (al.com)
2. Andrea Mitchell talks Earth Day with our lead scientist, Sanjayan.  (MSNBC)
3. Visitors to Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium took the Picnic for the Planet world record challenge.  (CBS Chicago)
4. On Earth Day, did you appreciate the value of small actions?  (The Huffington Post)
5. Did you also focus on people?  (Christian Science Monitor)

Mark Tercek is the president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy. You can follow Mark on Twitter @MarkTercek and find more of his writing on The Huffington Post.

In May 2010, I flew over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. As we made our way over the Gulf, we saw the slick spreading like fingers toward the coast. We also saw shrimp boats pressed into service as oil skimmers, and met people whose livelihoods depended on healthy Gulf lands and waters.

Life in the Gulf is entwined with the marshes, the rivers, the forests and the sea. I can think of few other places – certainly in the United States – where people are so closely linked to their environment.

To that end, I am proud to announce The Nature Conservancy’s new partnership with Oxfam America in the Gulf of Mexico. Together we aim to show that environmental restoration is the foundation for lasting economic security for Gulf Coast communities. The partnership seeks to mobilize local communities and businesses to support habitat restoration and increase the resilience of coastal communities.

In the past two years since the spill, my colleagues and I at The Nature Conservancy have seen good reasons for hope in the Gulf.

We saw it in the outpouring of support for our long-term restoration efforts, work that goes well beyond the immediate impacts of the spill.  We saw it in the more than 500 volunteers who helped build a ¼ mile oyster reef along Mobile Bay in Alabama—part of a larger effort to build 100 miles of oyster reefs and to help protect and expand 1000 acres of marsh. And we saw it in the strong bipartisan support for the RESTORE Act, which just passed the House and now goes to a joint committee where lawmakers will hammer out the final details. The bill would ensure that fines for the spill are dedicated to restoring the communities, environment and economy of the Gulf.

There is still much work to be done; restoring the Gulf will not be easy or quick. And to be successful, restoration must focus on both nature and the important value of the benefits and services that healthy, functioning natural systems provide to people. That’s what our partnership with Oxfam aims to accomplish.

Why is a development organization like Oxfam, whose mission is “to create lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and social injustice,” working to promote coastal restoration projects? For one, the design, construction, operation and monitoring of large-scale coastal and marine restoration projects directly creates jobs. Studies have found that each $1 million in investment in wetland restoration can create 29 new jobs. From our own experience, eight of the Conservancy’s recent restoration projects around the U.S., including the Gulf, created or sustained more than 950 jobs, or 39 jobs per $1 million in restoration funding. That’s two to three times more jobs than typically produced by “gray” infrastructure projects, such as levees, dams, roads and bridges.

These projects also support existing livelihoods such as fishing, tourism, and shipping—industries that rely on healthy lands and waters.

Oxfam brings to the partnership a unique capacity to help make socially vulnerable coastal communities more resilient. Since 1994, the organization has been committed to working in the Gulf Coast – a region where people are uniquely linked to the environment, and thus particularly sensitive to disruptions. Oxfam has worked tirelessly with community groups on proposing solutions for both the economic and environmental problems that have increased with every disaster—whether man made or natural. They bring a unique ability to formulate long-term solutions that address underlying conditions, and enable people to work their way out of poverty and into more stable economic, environmental, and social situations—all the while demanding that the communities be an integral part of the process.

By combining Oxfam’s strengths with the Conservancy’s practical, science-based approach to on-the-ground conservation we expect to achieve significant outcomes for people and nature in the Gulf—perhaps more than either of us could do on our own.

With the potential for billions of dollars coming back to the Gulf through the RESTORE Act, there has never been – and will quite possibly never be again – an opportunity like the one we have now to restore the Gulf of Mexico at a scale that matters.

To follow the Conservancy’s work in the Gulf and to keep track of the progress of the important RESTORE Act in Congress, you can join our Gulf Facebook page and visit us on the web at nature.org/Gulf.

For more information about Oxfam America’s efforts in the Gulf Coast, please visit www.oxfamamerica.org/campaigns/us-gulf-coast-recovery.

(Image: Some 545 volunteers that came out to Mobile Bay in Alabama to help restore the Gulf of Mexico by constructing nearly one kilometer of oyster reef as part of the 100-1000: Restore Coastal Alabama project. Image credit: © 2011 Erika Nortemann/TNC)