Showing papers by "Alan Grainger published in 1996"
TL;DR: The UN Food and Agriculture Organization's latest assessment of tropical forest resources in 1990, gives unreliable estimates of forest areas and deforestation rates in the humid tropics as discussed by the authors, and the reliability of many estimates is further constrained by being based on outdated national surveys and modelling adjustments rather than a special pantropical remote sensing survey.
Abstract: The UN Food and Agriculture Organization's latest assessment of tropical forest resources in 1990, gives unreliable estimates of forest areas and deforestation rates in the humid tropics. Estimates for tropical rain forest are too low and statistics in the report cannot be used to derive estimates for tropical moist forest. Comparability with previous assessments is limited; the map used to divide tropical forest cover into different forest types is flawed; and the reliability of many estimates is further constrained by being based on outdated national surveys and modelling adjustments rather than a special pantropical remote sensing survey.
49 citations
01 Jan 1996
16 citations
01 Jan 1996
TL;DR: The traditional separation between the social and environmental sciences has hindered development of interdisciplinary methodologies and led to predominantly physical assessments of key problem areas, such as the potential to mitigate global climate change by sequestering more terrestrial carbon in woody biomass as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Models of global environmental change need to integrate its socio-economic and physical environmental dimensions much better than they do at present. The traditional separation between the social and environmental sciences has hindered development of interdisciplinary methodologies and led to predominantly physical assessments of key problem areas, such as the potential to mitigate global climate change by sequestering more terrestrial carbon (C) in woody biomass.
5 citations
01 Jan 1996
TL;DR: In this article, the technical feasibilities of intervening in those processes so that forests play a stronger role in sequestering carbon from the atmosphere are discussed, and a discussion of the social, economic, institutional and political contexts within which all human endeavour takes place.
Abstract: The preceding discussions have dealt with basic biophysical processes associated with forests and the global carbon (C) cycle, and the technical feasibilities of intervening in those processes so that forests play a stronger role in sequestering C from the atmosphere. Such discussions are a vital component of a full understanding of how humanity might mitigate what we shall call the C problem—what will it take to manage and use forests to lessen climatic change due to increasing atmospheric CO2? Any meaningful answer requires that we put the technical possibilities into the social, economic, institutional and political contexts within which all human endeavour takes place. Are these contexts—current and future— facilitative of strong implementation of the technically feasible actions, or will they pose constraints? If the latter, what will it take to remove the barriers?
1 citations