Demand for rubber 'threatens forests'

The global demand for rubber tyres is threatening protected forests in Southeast Asia, according to a study.

Tropical forests are being cleared for rubber plantations, putting endangered birds, bats and primates at risk, say UK researchers.

By 2024, up to 8.5 million hectares of new rubber plantations will be needed to meet demand, they report in Conservation Letters.

This could have a "catastrophic" impact on wildlife, they warn.

Species such as the endangered white-shouldered ibis, yellow-cheeked crested gibbon and clouded leopard could lose precious habitat, said the team led by Eleanor Warren-Thomas, from the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia.

"The tyre industry consumes 70% of all natural rubber grown, and rising demand for vehicle and aeroplane tyres is behind the recent expansion of plantations. But the impact of this is a loss of tropical biodiversity," she said.

"We predict that between 4.3 and 8.5 million hectares of new plantations will be required to meet projected demand by 2024. This will threaten significant areas of Asian forest, including many protected areas."

Eight-point-five million hectares is about the size of the land area of Austria.

Biodiversity concern

Rubber is the most rapidly expanding tree crop within mainland Southeast Asia.

Concern has been growing among conservationists that switching land use to rubber cultivation can harm soil, water and biodiversity.

The banteng is found in the forests of Cambodia

The first review of the effects on biodiversity and endangered species found the problem was comparable to oil palm and was linked to the growing tyre market.

The study focussed on four biodiversity hotspots in which rubber plantations are expanding:

• Sundaland (Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and Bali)

• Indo-Burma (Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, most of Myanmar and Thailand, and parts of Southwest China, including Xishuangbanna and Hainan Island)

• Wallacea (Indonesian islands east of Bali and Borneo but west of New Guinea, plus Timor Leste)

• The Philippines.

It found that numbers of bird, bat and beetle species can decline by up to 75% in forests that have been converted to rubber.

Sustainability initiatives

The researchers, from UEA and the University of Sheffield, are calling on tyre manufacturers to support initiatives such as certification schemes.

Commenting on the study, Dr Matthew Struebig of the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent, UK, said certification standards for the rubber industry were key to protecting forests.

"There's a lot we can do as scientists and the public to make rubber production more wildlife-friendly," he said.

"It can range from agro-forestry - mixing rubber with other trees - to retaining patches of natural vegetation along rivers or in small conservation set-asides, as is done in organic farming in Europe.

"The onus is on the rubber industry to develop a certification standard that is credible, for the public to support that, and for scientists to help develop ways to manage the rubber crop in an environmentally friendly way."

The research is published in the journal Conservation Letters.

From BBC Science

Corn snake fly-tipped in Norfolk with kitchen cabinets

An exotic snake had a lucky escape after apparently being fly-tipped at the side of a road with a pile of kitchen cupboards.

The corn snake will eventually be rehomed at a specialist centre, the RSPCA said

The non-native corn snake was spotted by a "shocked" council worker as he sorted through the rubble in a remote area off Mill Lane in Setchey, Norfolk.

It is now being cared for at the RSPCA's East Winch centre.

Manager Alison Charles said "abandoning" the snake was a "callous way to treat a pet".

Tim Borodka, who found the reptile on Friday, said: "It gave me quite a shock when I suddenly saw the snake slither away from me.

"I have come across lizards and wild grass snakes before, but nothing like this."

'Likely abandoned'

Ms Charles said the snake would have been unlikely to survive in the wild if Mr Borodka had not put it in a box and taken it to the King's Lynn rescue centre.

"The snake was found so far from any homes and amongst fly-tipped rubbish so it seems likely that it was abandoned."

Corn snakes are native to parts of North America and can grow up to 6ft (1.8m). The 3ft (0.9m) snake that slithered past Mr Borodka will eventually be rehomed at a specialist centre.

"We would encourage people who are thinking about taking on an exotic pet to research the needs of the particular species thoroughly and ensure they can meet them at all times," Ms Charles added.

Last year the RSPCA was called in to collect 807 exotic pet snakes. More than 450 of these were thought to be former pets that had either escaped or been deliberately dumped or released.
From BBC News

Acidic oceans helped fuel extinction

Acidic oceans helped fuel the biggest mass extinction in the history of life on Earth, a study says.

The researchers studied rocks from the United Arab Emirates, which retain a record of acidic changes in the water

The exact causes behind the Permian-Triassic mass extinction have been much debated.

Two separate pulses of CO2 into the atmosphere - a "one-two punch" - may have helped fuel the die-off, new research suggests.

Changes to ocean acidity would have been one of the consequences, according to the study in Science journal.

Computer models suggested that this CO2 may have been released by massive bouts of volcanism from the Siberian Traps, now represented as a large region of volcanic rock in northern Eurasia.

The Permian-Triassic mass extinction, which took place 252 million years ago, wiped out more than 90% of marine species and more than two-thirds of the animals living on land.

The event is thought to have played out over a 60,000-year period and acidification of the oceans lasted for about 10,000 years.

The team led by Dr Matthew Clarkson from the University of Edinburgh analysed rocks unearthed in the United Arab Emirates - which were on the ocean floor at the time.

The rocks preserve a detailed record of changing oceanic conditions at the time. They then developed a climate model to work out what drove the extinction.

The researchers think the rapid rate of release of carbon was a crucial factor in driving the ocean acidification.

The carbon was released at a similar rate to modern emissions. Dr Clarkson commented: "Scientists have long suspected that an ocean acidification event occurred during the greatest mass extinction of all time, but direct evidence has been lacking until now.

"This is a worrying finding, considering that we can already see an increase in ocean acidity today that is the result of human carbon emissions."

From BBC News