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Applying Action Competence

Tomsk Taiga—Darwin Project 14:045

Foreword

We live in a time when certainties about the nature of the world we inhabit are fast eroding.  We are accustomed to thinking of the earth’s biomes as being fixed in certain places and, even if we have not visited them, carry a mental impression of these environments throughout our lives.  The mere knowledge that vast wild places survive more or less unmodified by human activities is deeply important to many people.  But these places are becoming smaller and harder to find.

The pursuit of resources, agricultural expansion and increasing demand for human living space have made massive impacts on much of the world’s natural vegetation.  It is tempting to say that this is mainly a recent phenomenon but humans have been massively altering their environments for thousands of years. 

What is different about the present time is the huge size of the resource demand, coupled with technical know-how that can alter the environment at an unprecedented scale and speed.  In the last 50 years this has been witnessed most vividly in the tropical forests.  Almost inevitably the next 50 years will see even greater change in the major biomes as effects of global climate change become more evident.

The communities of plants and animals that live at high latitudes are highly vulnerable.  In all likelihood, climate warming will result in shrinkage of tundra and taiga.  The forests will also increasingly be seen as under-used sources of energy and timber.  Of course, people have historically exploited these resources over long periods of time.  Especially on the southern fringes of the taiga – the location for the expedition reported here – there is probably little that could be regarded as truly unmanaged forest. 

Nevertheless, some of the forests in this region are rich in features that one associates with lightly managed, even natural, forests.  These places are highly valuable for wildlife and they strongly deserve protection from intensive management.  This is all the more important given the future uncertainties.

The expedition to study the forests in the Tomsk region in 2007 was the last of three expeditions to the area mounted by the Cambridge University Expedition Society in partnership with staff and students from Russian universities and other organisations. 

The expeditions have given insight to social and cultural factors influencing the way that local people perceive and manage the forest.  The main aim, however, was to establish a baseline, or yardstick, against which future changes in the forests, whether arising from direct human action or climate change, can be measured. 

This has been achieved successfully but, more immediately, it is to be hoped that all this information will help to inform sustainable management in these forests.

Dr Robert J Fuller, Director of Habitats Research, British Trust for Ornithology

The full report by the UK team can be downloaded by clicking here: Tomsk Taiga 2007 Report.

 

Click here to see the summary of the whole project.

 

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In Kaltaiskii Forest—Photos by Dominic O’Connor Robinson

Year 3 Fieldwork Expedition

Support for Biodiversity in Tomsk Taiga, Siberia, Russia