The Lubin Files

World Economic Outlook

The International Monetary Fund's "World Economic Outlook Update" - January 2009 is now available.

Where the rubber meets the garden

In China’s southwestern province of Yunnan, the Tropical Botanical Garden of Xishuangbanna is facing a hard time. Originally surrounded by a beautiful rainforest it is now being quickly approached by an intensive rubber plantation. 
 

Though this tropical paradise was actually discovered by scientists sent from the government to check if rubber trees could be planted at such high latitute, it is now put in peril by the ever increasing need for this material. 
 

By 2010, China is planning to increase its natural-rubber production to 780,000 tonnes per year to meet the needs of its car and tyre industry.
 

"The large-scale rubber cultivation has taken a heavy toll on the local environment," says Zhu Hua, an ecologist at the XTBG, also thinking of the hydrological systems which will be hardly hit, of the climate changes in the area (due to carbon emissions) and of other problems that will follow this intensive deforestation.
 

To know more and enjoy some beautiful photographs of the contrast from a rubber plantation and the rainforest canopy, read this article from Nature
 

Published online 14 January 2009 | Nature 457, 246-247 (2009) | doi:10.1038/457246a

 

Nature is provided to FAO staff via Library subscription.

Obama's picks underline climate focus

The president-elect Barack Obama assigned strong roles for biologists, in chosing his science and technology team.

This is interpreted by Nature (News 22 December 2008) as a sign of his strong commitment towards climate change, sustainability and improvements in energy policies.

His science adviser will be John Holdren “ a leading voice on climate change at Harvard University”  who will work with Harold Varmus, the former director of the National Institutes of Health, and Eric Lander “who helped lead the push to sequence the human genome”. A team of eminent biologists and experienced academics.

A detailed description of John Holdren, of his past experiences and skills is also reported in this paper by Eric Hand and Alexandra Witze.

Published online 22 December 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/457010a

Nature is provided to FAO staff via Library subscription.

EFSA initiates pan-European research project on bee decline

In January 2009 the new EFSA nine-month project on “colony collapse disorder”  (CCD) in honey bees will formally begin. A consortium of European scientific institutes, which received an EFSA grant of €100,000, will try to understand the causes of the decline of bee population.

Honey bees play an important role in the pollination of crops and their decline “could have widespread implications not only in environmental terms but also with regard to the food chain” (Hubert Deluyker, EFSA’s Director of Scientific Cooperation and Assistance).

To know more  visit the EFSA "News Story" of 19 December 2008