The University of Michigan, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Fall ’10 Newsletter
Written by : Gail Kuhnlein
Awakening to the sound of gibbons howling at the rising sun in the forests of Central Kalimantan, stepping in fresh tiger scat in southern Sumatra, and working with local forest villagers who tied up logging machinery with heavy vines to retaliate against an illegal logging attempt in Borneo. Just another day in the life of U-M alumnus Gabe Eickhoff.
Eickhoff received his bachelor’s of science degree in biology and anthropology in 2003 and has just begun working as an advisor on climate and forestry with the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) in Laos. Previously, he worked in Indonesia.
He is a partner and senior associate of Forest Carbon, Indonesia – a one-of-a-kind technical consulting firm in Asia. “We own a plane and fly aerial surveys of forest cover, measure carbon stocks, estimate emission levels from deforestation and help design, develop and implement projects.
He describes his career as “one part highly technical forest ecology, one part economics and one part cultural anthropology. Combine those with negotiations within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change within developing countries and you’ve got my field in carbon forestry,” he said.
Eickhoff works in an emerging field called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) – a hot topic nationally and internationally. The premise is simple, he explained. Deforestation drives greenhouse gas emissions and reduces our global capacity to store atmospheric CO2 in our forests. Reducing deforestation will reduce potential CO2 emissions. By quantifying how much CO2 we avoid releasing, say in tons of atmospheric CO2, those reductions can become a commodity, called carbon credits, which can be purchased on an international carbon market by governments or companies looking to reduce emissions. Proceeds then fund the forest conservation activity and the development of rural villages in forest areas.
“For the first time we have at least one way of valuing standing forests and everything within them. A forest area, simply by existing and being actively protected, generates its own funding for sustainable conservation. If we do it right, meaning that we protect indigenous rights and biodiversity, it will be nothing short of revolutionary. If we can make this work, it will turn the conservation world on its head, but it’s hard, very hard.”
Globally, two things must happen with respect to the mitigation of climate change, he cautioned. We must reduce overall emissions at home, and reduce the rate of deforestation around the equator. In Laos, the GTZ has partnered with the Laos Department of Forestry to help them design their national legal system for REDD and design and implement REDD projects in two national parks.
