Urgent action needed to safeguard genetic diversity of world’s forests, UN study says

UN, 3 June 2014 – Urgent action to better manage the genetic diversity of forests – under pressure from climate change, exploitation and conversion for other uses – is needed to ensure that the benefits they provide will survive, the United Nations said in a first-of-its-kind report released today. 

“Forests provide food, goods and services which are essential to the survival and well-being of all humanity,” Eduardo Rojas-Briales, Assistant Director-General for Forestry at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said on the release of The State of the World's Forest Genetic Resources.
“These benefits all rely on safeguarding the rich store of the world’s forest genetic diversity – which is increasingly at risk,” he added.

The report says that half of the forest species regularly utilized by countries are threatened by the conversion of forests to pastures and farmland, overexploitation and the impacts of climate change. 

Biodiversity in forest genetic resources is also essential, it says, to improving both forest species' productivity and the nutritional value of the foods they produce, which includes leafy vegetables, honey, fruits, seeds, nuts, roots, tubers and mushrooms.
A wide variability in desirable traits, such as fruit size, growing speed, oil composition and pulp proportion, is a prerequisite for breeding and domesticating improved tree species, it says. 

At the same time, it adds, genetic diversity is needed to ensure that forests can adapt to changing environmental conditions, including those stemming from climate change and invasive pests and diseases. 

Among the primary actions called for by the report is stepped up management and data gathering on forests resources. While existing tree species in the world is estimated at between 80,000 and 100,000, only 2,400 (around 3 per cent) are actively managed for the products and services they provide. 

Data from 86 countries in the report show a lack of data and insufficient awareness of the importance of forest genetic resources, Linda Collette, Secretary of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, said, adding that it often translates into national policies that are “partial, ineffective, or non-existent.” 

“Governments need to act and implement the Global Plan of Action for Forest Genetic Resources and FAO and its Commission stand ready to guide, support and assist countries in the conservation and sustainable use of forest genetic resources,” she said.
[un.org]
3/6/14
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Frantic search for China quake survivors .... Rescuers overcome landslides and 1,100 aftershocks to reach Sichuan region where earthquake killed at least 203 people.

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Thousands of rescuers are fighting to thwart a rising death toll as they search earthquake-shattered villages in southwest China for survivors.

More than 90 people have been pulled alive from rubble as more than 17,000 rescuers help out [AFP]

Rescue teams battled landslides and collapsed roads to reach isolated parts of Sichuan province on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, in images aired on state broadcaster CCTV on Sunday.

At least 203 people have so far been confirmed dead, with 6,000 injured in Saturday's 6.6 magnitude quake. Almost 1,000 were seriously injured in the quake.

Soldiers searched through the night and day for survivors in villages where houses had been destroyed and treated some of the injured.
China's new Premier Li Keqiang has rushed to the disaster zone and was shown by CCTV eating breakfast in a tent.

"The rescue effort is our first duty," he told state media.
Xinhua news agency said more than 17,000 Chinese soldiers, pilots and police had joined the rescue mission and five drones were sent to capture aerial images.
A military vehicle carrying 17 troops headed for the quake area plummeted over a cliff on Saturday, killing one soldier and injuring seven others.
Al Jazeera’s Robert McBride, reporting from Hong Kong, said the suddenness of the earthquake had contrasted with the 2008 one in the same province, which left more than 90,000 people dead or missing.
"People are now watching to see how the new leadership is dealing with this," McBride said.
"This their first test of how they deal this natural disaster."
Boulders
The rescue operation was hampered by huge queues of traffic, some stretching back for 20km, that clogged roads into the disaster zone.

It was as if the mountain was alive ... Now I have no home to go Sichuan earthquake survivor

"We really want to go in and help people, but instead we are waiting in traffic," one relief official said in his car.
Boulders the size of cars littered streets in Lushan county, the epicentre of the earthquake.
More than 1,100 aftershocks have followed since the quake struck Sichuan province on Saturday morning.
Chinese seismologists registered the tremor at 7.0 magnitude while the US Geological Survey gave it as 6.6.
Firefighters helped by sniffer dogs pulled 91 people alive from the rubble, Xinhua said, citing the Ministry of Public Security.
A steady stream of ambulances continued to arrive at Lushan People's Hospital on Sunday.
Most survivors were taken to tents erected in the grounds surrounding the hospital, where doctors treated the wounded.
Power cut
A 68-year-old woman with a broken arm spoke of the terror she experienced when the earthquake struck.

Devastation left people vying for basic needs, such as food, water and blankets, as quake razed homes [AFP]

"It was as if the mountain was alive," she told the AFP news agency. "Now I have no home to go, so I don't know what I am going to do."
The earthquake cut off power and water supplies to much of the area, with Longquan villager Sot Yang Yiyun among the many affected.
"Now we don't have drinking water and power," Sot said.
"We must wait for the government to come and help us out. Also we want to call for help from other parts of the country."
Earthquake-prone Japan, which has been mired in tension with China over a high-seas territorial dispute , offered any help that was required.
"Japan is ready to offer its maximum support," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a message to Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li, according to Japan's foreign ministry.
China responded that overseas help was not needed but it would contact Tokyo if the situation changed, the ministry said.
.aljazeera.com
21/4/13
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• Φονικός σεισμός στην Κίνα....Τουλάχιστον 28 νεκροί /7.0-magnitude earthquake jolts Sichuan