Category: Threats

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The geography of rice

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Robert Hijmans has a great new global map of rice cultivation out. Robert is at IRRI now, hence his current preoccupation with rice, but he’s done the same thing for several other crops, and of course there are his cool cartograms too. I guess it is his map that underlies the figures of the potential impact of climate change.

Of course, this is a snapshot. How cultivation of a crop changes over time is difficult to capture in a single image, but there’s a map which does a pretty good job for maize.

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Up in smoke

A paper in Forest Ecology and Management describes how high-quality “briar root” smoking pipes are made from the lignotuber — a starchy swelling on underground stems or roots — of the tree heath, Erica arborea. The best lignotubers, and therefore the best pipes, come from the Peloritani Mountains of NE Sicily. Unfortunately, current management practices — which discourage “grub-felling” and use for pipe-making and charcoal production — have ironically resulted in an increasing frequency and severity of fires. The authors suggest that the cultural and environmental roles of tree heath in Sicily need to be seen as two sides of the same coin and not as being in opposition. What’s happening with cork is another example of the same thing.

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Micronesian canoe making on the wane

How many plants does it take to make a canoe? Well, according to a great paper in the latest Conservation Biology, the answer is 27, at least in Pohnpei, both wild and cultivated. Unfortunately, canoe-making skills and knowledge are eroding fast: “Given current trends, the present generation of Pohnpeians may be the last to retain any knowledge of this traditional craft.” The authors issue a bit of a challenge at the end of their paper:

Because of the immense scale of traditional knowledge erosion in virtually all areas of the globe, we invite other researchers, conservationists, and development workers to assess the loss of traditional knowledge and practices, identify areas for interventions, and help make those interventions happen in the areas where they work. Efforts at strengthening awareness of the link between culture and the environment can be very helpful in supporting local conservation programs, and important for personal, community, and environmental well-being around the world.