Biodiversity

PNG gossip column, The Drum, reports today:

TALK on “Deforestation and Forest Degradation in PNG’’ coming up in Moresby Friday next week, with Canberra-based expert Colin Filer leading the debate. He’s clashed with avid environmentalists recently, should be an interesting session (Post-Courier 30 July 2008).

Has CF “clashed with avid environmentalists” recently? The most controversial thing I’ve seem him do in the last seven days was to blow for an own goal when reffing girls U14 soccer last Saturday.

On another front, I’ve made the enigmatic discovery that a certain tome called “Filer’s Files” is to be had for US$13.95 from the National UFO Centre. I was certain he didn’t have the free time.

Filer: preferred umpire role	UFO expert?

Part of the charm of the sleepy port town of Madang is, according to all observers, the millions of Spectacled Flying Foxes that roost each night in the trees which line its avenues. Read the rest of this entry »

In response to the journal article I wrote about below, I was emailed the following:

I wonder how many subsistence farmers practice seed management for its value in conserving genetic diversity or just do it as a survival mechanism. In my experience no-one wants to be a subsistence farmer and will grasp every opportunity for income generation. Therefore the local seed system will only last as long as a subsistence farming system. If the poverty eradication objectives are met then the local seed system will disappear.

The other point to note is that the free market is governed by what the consumer wants to buy and not what the farmer wants to grow. So a uniform quality, well presented product will sell better than the genetically diverse product that may have many inherent values but are not appreciated by the consumer.

To what degree is the market, poverty alleviation and biodiversity diametrically opposed? Read the rest of this entry »

For anyone still following the rice seed debate I found this article the other day on formal and informal seed systems.

Almekinders, C. J. M., N. P. Louwaars, et al. (1994). “Local Seed Systems and Their Importance For an Improved Seed Supply in Developing Countries.” Euphytica 78: 207-216.

Variety use and development, seed production and storage by farmers under local conditions, and seed exchange mechanisms are presented as the three principal components of a dynamic system that forms the most important seed source of food crops for small farmers in developing countries. The information on this topic is based on a literature review and a case study. Analysis of strengths and weaknesses of local seed systems leads to the conclusion that local seed systems and the formal system are complementary. Integrated approaches in breeding, and seed production and distribution show to have promising potential for improving seed supply for small farmers.

The authors claim that for most staple crops the share of the formal seed system in the total seed system rarely exceeds 10 percent.

Read the rest of this entry »

As the Biodiversity Mafia gathers in Bonn for the 9th Convention of Parties to the CBD, creationists are still trying to figure out how Noah managed to cram at least two members of every known nostril-owning faunal species (including dinosaurs) onto an Ark whose deck space was a tad short of one hectare.  Some innovative solutions to this fascinating problem are canvassed here.