Rainforest Economics

1. Rainforest Economics Rainforest Economics

2. Bifurcated approach to Rainforest Economics • Ecological economics • Traditional market economics

3. Ecological rainforest economics • immense biolog. and geolog. timeframe • Vast, robust biodiversity reservoir • intrinsic value • Vast capacity for nutrient banking/recycling • extraordinary reservoirs of living biomass on some of the poorest soils in the world • Global/regional/local climate control • precipitation & oxygenation

4. Traditional market rainforest economics • Narrow human short-term focus • cultivated products • coffee, cocoa, bananas, dairy, others • Tourism / “ecotourism” • hard currency value to indigent populations • conservation impetus • animals economically harvested v. “recycled” • Vegetation / habitat preservation

5. Traditional market economics (continued) • Rainforest derivative products • more nutritious foodstuffs • genetic library (recombinant DNA techniques) irreplaceable • example: Tufts University project to clone goat able to produce goats’ milk w/human blood anti-clotting protein, antithrombin III (FDA approval pending) • cloning technology three years ago w/sheep ”Dolly” • “only the beginning”

6. Rainforest product sources • Survival mechanisms • Herbivore defenses • Tissue conservation impetus on poor soils • Amazonian Hevea brasiliensis: rubber • hardwoods, resins • most common: one Amazonian study revealed • plant biomass at 99.8 % of total ecosystem biomass • animal biomass remaining 0.2 % • 7 % ate living leaves / stems • 19 % ate dead wood (termites) • 50 % ate dead vegetation • remaining 33 % carnivories • called secondary compounds, allelochemics: lack metabolic function

7. Example: caffeine • stimulant to humans • really an insecticide • harmful at normal levels found in plants • type of alkaloid • called methylxanthines • interfere w/enzymes • e.g. tobacco hornworm • discourages insect feeding • other alkaloids have other uses

8. Example: Cyanogenic glycosides • passion flora (Passiflora spp.) • cyanide poison • plant locks cyanide molecule with sugar molecule • when consumed, sugar reacts w/enzymes in herbivore’s digestive system • leaving hydrogen cyanide • discourages herbivores • Heliconius spp. Butterfly/caterpillar; able to detoxify • each species can detoxify one or two cyanogenic glycosides • butterflies are selective re Passiflora spp. • specialized hydrolytic enzymes reactive

9. Rainforest economic relationships • Case study: Howler monkeys (Alouatta villosa) • Kenneth glander in Costa Rica (1977) • Most monkeys only ate at three of 149 Madera negra (Gliricidia sepium) trees in area • Others ate at other trees perished • three w/lowest levels of rotenone (rat poison) • speculated that hebivory poisons provide a selection pressure affecting development of intelligence and social/communication skills in primates • remembering toxic v. safe trees • analogy: 149 restaurants, 146 poison customers, 3 safe • we would tend to remember where the safe ones were

10. similar Human/animal approaches • humans use toxic rainforest products for beneficial uses • animals likewise • example: orange monarch (Danaus plexippus) • milkweed produces cardiac glycosides (digitalis) to discourage herbivory • caterpillars feed on milkweed • caterpillars accumulate and store digitalis in tissues • after metamorphosis, butterfly toxic to birds • usually regurgitate, but remember unpalatable • reason why they can be so beautifully and colorfully marked: like labeling poison for children

11. Conflict of ecological / market economics • competing resource uses • land use • water allocation & storage • air (e.g., fossil fuel use) • paradigm conflict, and irony: • defense creates value • value creates demand • demand can produce overharvesting • overharvesting contributes to extinction • therefore defenses may contribute to extinction

12. Food products • Fruits • flavors: chemical defenses/inducements re seeds dispersal • get seeds to right place • keep seeds out of wrong place • repellents, antibiotics, odors, ripeners, hormones, colors, germination inhibitors, vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats and carbohydrates • Coffee, teas (caffeine, tannin)

13. Common foods and drugs • from Latin American forests • corn, potato, tomato, peanuts, avocado, cashews, vanilla, sunflower, bananas, mangoes • quinine, mescaline, and cocaine • commonality points toward unknown losses due to deforestation • US sugarcane industry saved (75% reduction)from aphid-transmitted virus by utilizing resistant wild sugarcane variety from Java • coffee rust infections likewise defeated by incorporating wild germplasm genetic resistance

14. Uncommon potential foods • winged bean (legume) • also called asparagus pea • from forest of New Guinea • far more protein that common foodstuffs, e.g., potatoes • matches soybean • once uncommon, now principal crop • pummelo (fruit) • larger than grapefruit • saline tolerant (intrusion increasing) • US consumes 55 million tons of citrus ann.

15. Genetic library • potential applications of recombinant DNA techniques; still in infancy • insecticides • insects: e.g., termites • plants: daisy (Chrysanthemum coccineum) produces pyrethrum, the most commercially significant “knock down” insecticide • called “Lucretia Borgia” of plant world

16. Genetic library (continued) • insects may destroy more than one-third of total human agricultural production annually • synthetic insecticides persistent (DDT) • plant-based insecticides biodegradable • no bioaccumulation problem • The success of any gene-splicing approach will be defined by the extent of the available library • devel. insect resistance demands library depth

17. Medicines • muscle relaxant (arrow poison) Chondodendron strychnos • anticancer drug from Tabebuia species patented by Pfizer • expectorant Cephaelis ipecacuanha • every parent familiar, once cured Louis XIV from amebic dysentery • antitumoral drug “pristimerin” Maytenus illicifolia

18. More on Medicines • Digitalis from foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) • cardiac glycoside stimulant insecticide • Can be fatal to normal hearts at ordinary plant levels • Madagascar periwinkle • drug: “vincristine” • folk medicine discovery • 98%+ remission rate children with lymphocytic leukemia

19. Markets for medicines • Largest derivative (processed) market: USA • Largest folk remedy market: china • one est. rainforest pharmacological compounds: $60 billion dollars ann. • One est. commercial medical products derive from rainforest sources • 7,000 products • number is growing

20. Significant subpopulation variations • even within species, plants vary • subpopulations vary, Individuals vary • e.g., apples vary • e.g., taste of maple syrup can vary among individual trees • Plant species may not be homogenous globally, regionally or locally • therefore apparent localized extirpations may in fact be extinctions of individuals with different traits • idea of species as patches of individuals

21. Related products • stimulants: • caffeine • cocaine • pepper • others • sweeteners (stevioside) • perfumes

22. Brazil • name derived from sodium salt brazilien • from the woody tree Caesalpiniaechinata • wide commercial use for purple pigment at time Brazil colonized • Only about 1% of Brazilian angiosperm species plants examined for chemical compounds • rate of work may not keep abreast of extinctions • localized unknown populations of special concern • example: snail darter / Telleco dam

23. Animal harvesting for animal testing • primates • can be raised in captivity • cheaper to capture wild • 90% utilized are wild • anecdote: experience of in-house chemist formerly employed at major chemical manufacturer

24. Risks of Harm • Extinction cascade • interdependence of species • extinction of first species may lead to extinction of second • example: Calvaria major and dodo • seed of calvariamajor required abrasion in intestines of dodo; dodo became extinct over 300 years ago • only 13 individual plants left in wild, all 300 years old • scientist force-fed seeds to turkeys; abraded and germinated • simply perceiving such interrelationships is difficult

25. Electrification in developing nations • competition with rainforest biomasss for land use • not opting for sustainable use methods • hydroelectric method in rainforest environments • est.: water flow could yield 100,000 megawatts daily • equal to 5 million barrels of oil daily • large reservoirs inundate vast tracts of forest

26. Electrification in developing nations (continued) • fossil fuel method produces significant pollution, including acid rain deposition with concomitant effects • expensive fossil fuels create incentive to use hydro where available

27. Hydro-electrification example: Lake Brokopondo • Surinam, 1964 • flooded 570 square miles of rainforest • trees not harvested: take too long, “too expensive” • decomposing trees produced hydrogen sulfide, damaging dam hardware and costing $5m in unanticipated capital repairs (7% above project estimates) • malaria-carrying mosquito breeding grounds enhanced • water lilies choked out other native species

28. Contrast: sustainable practices • Swidden agriculture • Dairy cattle v. beef cattle production • American Quakers to Costa Rica, 1950s • cut trees but left to rot, recycling nutrients • pastures divided into 30 equal parts • cattle one day each part, 12 days grazing each part yearly • became major sources of cheese in central America

29. Conclusion • Public policy consensus • sustainable v. unsustainable • by definition, unsustainable practices must cease • questions are: • when • what is left when it ceases • Optimal human beneficial uses • consume rainforest • preserve rainforest