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The Earth's inner core is thought to have been formed by the precipitation of iron from the fluid outer core1. It is considered that a part of the inner core surface where iron in the fluid outer core is precipitated may be melted and formed a mushy region2-4, but its position is not well understood seismologically. We recently analyzed seismic waveforms observed at the antipodal station of the seismic source and showed that there may be a clear precursor of lower reflections at the inner core boundary5. It has been found that this precursor wave can be successfully modeled as a reflection under the liquid / solid interface at a depth of 100 km below the inner core boundary. In this study, we use these precursor waves of the lower reflection at the inner core boundary observed at the antipodal station (> 179°). The sensitivity kernel for the shear wave velocity structure on the inner core surface was calculated by the adjoint method corresponding to these precursor waves, using theoretical seismic waveforms. The location of the fluid region was identified using the obtained sensitivity kernel. Our results show two regions of the inner core surface where the shear wave velocity is close to zero and is considered fluid. These regions are consistent with the westward shifts of geomagnetic anomalies observed on the Earth's surface and the regions of upwellings expected from geomagnetic dynamo simulations in the outer core3. These results may provide a seismological evidence that the inner core is locked to the mantle through the geodynamic motion in the outer core and provide new insights to the origin of the earth's magnetic field.

The historic Lāna‘i earthquake of 1871 is reappraised based on new science. This 1871 event occurred between O‘ahu and Maui, where currently 80% of the State of Hawai‘i population resides. I focus on expanding the considered modified Mercalli intensities (MMIs) applied in prior seismic hazard analyses and the application of an earthquake MMI–magnitude, duration–magnitude, and fault-scaling relations. Compared with the MMI–distance trend of the 2019 Mw 7.1 Ridgecrest, California, earthquake, the Lāna‘i event appears larger. The 1871 earthquake and other M≥4.9 earthquakes (measured instrumentally) trend along the Moloka‘i fracture zone (MFZ), suggesting a tectonic relationship. The MFZ near Hawai‘i is the boundary between ∼85 and ∼100 Ma age lithosphere. Consistent with the preponderance of available evidence and new science, I propose a hypothetical, revised Mw∼7.5 earthquake model of the 1871 Lāna‘i earthquake associated with the MFZ. This seismic event may credibly be considered as the third largest earthquake statewide in Hawai‘i’s history and the largest historic earthquake northwest of the Big Island of Hawai‘i.

SUMMARYSeismic attenuation is measured from a swarm of 50 earthquakes in Kīlauea volcano in 2018, associated with caldera collapse. The traverse extends at nearly constant azimuth to the saddle between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, continuing to Maui beneath the distal flanks of three dormant volcanos. From Maui the traverse then extends seaward to the Aloha Cabled Observatory (ACO) on the seafloor north of O‘ahu. The effective attenuation is measured with respect to an ${\omega ^{ - 2}}$ earthquake source model. Frequency dependent ${Q_P}$ and ${Q_S}$ are derived. The initial path is shallow and uphill, the path to Maui propagates at mid-crustal depths, and the path to ACO extends through oceanic crust. The observations of ${Q_P} \le {Q_S}$ over each traverse are modelled as bulk attenuation ${Q_K}$. Several attenuation processes are observed, including ${Q_\mu }$, ${Q_K}$, $Q\sim f$, constant Q and scattering. The observation of bulk attenuation is ascribed to contrasting physical properties between basalt and water saturated vesicles. The ratio of Q values between shallow and mid-crustal propagation is used to derive an activation energy E* for the undetermined shear attenuation mechanism. A Debye relaxation peak is fit to the ${Q_S}( f )$ and ${Q_K}( f )$ observed for the mid-crustal pathway. A prior high-frequency attenuation study near Wake Island compares well with this Hawaiian Q data set, which in general shows lower values of Q than observed for Wake.

SUMMARY Antipodal diffracted, compressional wave (Pdiff) data analysed diametrically opposite three large earthquakes have uniformly sampled 99% of the laterally heterogeneous zone above Earth's core–mantle boundary (D″ in seismic nomenclature). These antipodal data offer a fundamental gross Earth datum—a robust, global constraint on the average compressional velocity at the base of the mantle. We use for the first time the seismic phase PKPAB as a reference, which travels an identical mantle path as Pdiff, thereby cancelling common mantle heterogeneity. Differential traveltimes between Pdiff, PKPAB and PKIKP are measured, appropriately making allowance for the phase shifts acquired in propagation. We have independently confirmed the $\pi /4$ polar phase shift of Pdiff at the antipode. The global mean PKPAB − Pdiff time is 136.5 ± 0.6 s. The global mean apparent velocity (13.05 km s−1) and ray parameter (4.65 ± 0.01 s deg−1) are within the margin of error of prior Pdiff studies—which were dominated by Northern Hemisphere paths—indicating that complementary, southern hemisphere paths have a comparable, mean Pdiff apparent velocity. The seismic velocity constraints afforded by antipodal Pdiff and PKPAB suggest that the heterogeneous processes already observed in D″ may be broadly ascribed where D″ coverage has been lacking or poorly resolved.

SUMMARYThe summit collapse of the Kīlauea Caldera—due to magma chamber drainage being directed to the Volcano's lower east rift zone—was accompanied by 50 large, nearly identical magnitude Mw 5 earthquakes between 29 May and 2 August 2 2018. I have examined the seismicity associated with these 50 primary earthquakes, and find that the typical pattern of earthquake aftershocks decaying in number and magnitude is not evident. Rather, immediately after the primary shock there is a hiatus of one-to-several hours before the associated earthquakes grow in number and magnitude up to the next primary shock. In essence, the associated seismicity consists of thousands of foreshocks. The magnitude of completeness is estimated at ML = 2.5. The trend of foreshocks does not fit an Omori power-law model. Rather, the pattern of foreshocks (number per hour) is fit well by a semi-Gaussian curve, which initially grows rapidly and slows hours prior to the primary earthquakes. The Gaussian fits (${r^2} > 0.98$) for three different magnitude thresholds are self-similar with a common half-width, $\sigma \sim 13$ hr. The pattern of foreshock seismic moments aligned with and stacked for the 50 primary events is fit by an exponential trend, growing at the mean (stacked intervals) rate of 17 per cent per hour. The power of foreshocks measured within each interval also grows with time—the total foreshock power per interval (J hr–1) increases by a factor of 18 through the first half of the sequence (May 29 through June 26), and then declines by half through to the end.

To improve the likelihood of conservation success, donors, policy makers, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and researchers are increasingly interested in making conservation decisions based on scientific evidence. A major challenge in doing so has been the wide variability in the methodological rigor of existing studies. We present a simple framework to classify different types of conservation evidence, which can be used to understand the strengths, weaknesses, and biases in the conservation effectiveness literature. We then apply this framework to evaluate the evidence for the efficacy of four important strategies in tropical forest conservation. Even though there has been an increase in methodologically rigorous studies over time, countries that are globally important in terms of their biodiversity are still heavily under-represented by any type of conservation effectiveness evidence.

High-frequency (5–20 Hz) seismic signals precursory to and embedded within the June 17, 2017 ML = 4 earthquake–landslide event are analyzed. This event in western Greenland generated a tsunami in Karrat fjord inundating Nuugaatsiaq village 32 km distant. Spectrogram and wavelet analyses of seismic data from the Greenland Ice Sheet Monitoring Network (GLISN) corroborate observations of seismic precursors at Nuugaatsiaq reported by Poli (Geophys Res Lett 44:8832–8836, 2017) and Caplan-Auerbach (in: AGU fall meeting abstracts, 2017) and reveal additional high-frequency arrivals being generated after the apparent initiation of fault rupture. New observations of seismic precursors 181 km from the Event at Upernavik, Greenland are correlated with those seen at Nuugaatsiaq. Wavelet analysis presents > 100 significant energy peaks accelerating up to and into the earthquake–landslide event. The precursor events show a distinct, power law distribution, characterized by b values of ~ 2.4. Results are compared and contrasted with small precursors observed in the studies of a natural chalk cliff landslide at Mesnil-Val, Haute Normandie, France. The earthquake–landslide appears to have been initiated by seismic precursors located at the fault scarp, leading to a small seismic foreshock and small landslide initiation, followed by a larger earthquake at the fault scarp, precipitating the primary landslide into the Karrat Fjord, which caused the subsequent tsunami.

To prevent the illegal trade in wild species, stock management is critical given stocks function as a buffer to supply chains during lean periods or as a mechanism for market speculation. The Madagascar government with backing by the World Bank recently promoted the sale of confiscated rosewood to reach a zero‐stocks situation. To better assess options, we contrast the risks and rewards of four stock management options. Stock destruction broadcasts a potent conservation message, but provides little economic benefit. National trade can be beneficial to local socioeconomic development goals, but can lead to laundering of illegal products. International trade is fraught with risks related to illegal trade and is perceived to achieve the least related to forest and socioeconomic indicators. Lastly, banking stocks act to postpone decisions. No management option ensures a sustainable solution, but critical analyses allow better insight to the strengths and weaknesses of the available approaches., Conservation Letters, 13 (4), ISSN:1755-263X

Seismic evidence is presented for a high shear wave velocity, apparent discontinuity near ~100 km depth within a portion of Earth's inner core. Antipodally (>179°) focused data are stacked for five source–receiver diametric ray paths traversing the inner core. Two antipodal paths follow ray surfaces which are aligned with diameters between Tamanrasset (TAM), Algeria and Tonga earthquakes and Pitinga (PTGA), Brazil and Sulawesi earthquakes, providing clear examples of precursors to PKIIKP (an underside reflection at the inner core boundary). Waveform and stacked data (T > 4 s) were engaged in testing more than 16 inner core model series, varying compressional and shear wave velocities in upper inner core structures. The precursory seismic phases are successfully modeled as reflecting beneath a core liquid/solid interface at 100 km depth below the inner core boundary. This interface is highly reflective, and sensitive to a shear wave velocity contrast ≥5 km/s. An earlier precursory phase is observed at TAM and PTGA which may be modeled as an apparent discontinuity near ~250 km depth. This intermediate region has high shear wave velocities more akin to hcp-Fe mineralogy than Preliminary Reference Earth Model (PREM) values. Three other antipodal observations (China–Chile) nearly orthogonal to TAM paths exhibit seismic waves whose waveforms are more consistent with the PREM velocities above 100 km depth, while offering modest evidence for a solid/solid discontinuity at 100-km-depth. This research focused on seismology of the inner core potentially has mineral physics and geodynamic implications too broad to be simply encapsulated herein. Acknowledging some of these implications, we have focused upon measuring and mapping the seismic anomalies.

We have re-examined the historical evidence in the circum-Pacific for the origin of the 1586 orphan tsunami of Sanriku, Japan, previously attributed to a Lima, Peru, earthquake and tsunami in 1586. New evidence comes from corals found in a unique paleotsunami deposit on Kaua‘i. Dated by 230 Th- 238 U geochronology these corals determine an absolute age in high precision of a Pacific tsunami event that was previously dated to approximately the sixteenth century by 14 C methodology. Detrital corrected ages of three low thorium, well-preserved coral clasts range from 415 to 464 years old (relative to 2016), with a mean age of 444 years ±21 (\( 2\sigma_{{\bar{X}}} \)). Literature evidence for circum-Pacific paleotsunami in this time range is reviewed in light of the new high-precision dating results. Modeled and observed tsunami wave amplitudes in Japan from several Peruvian events are insufficient to match the 1586 Sanriku observation, and paleodated earthquakes from Cascadia, the Alaskan Kodiak region, and Kamchatka are incompatible with the Sanriku data in several ways. However, a mega-earthquake (M w > 9.25) in the Aleutians is consistent with the Kaua‘i evidence, Pacific Northwest observations, and the Sanriku tsunami amplitude. The Kaua‘i coral paleotsunami evidence therefore supports the origin of the 1586 Sanriku tsunami in the Aleutian Islands.

Stocks and stockpiles of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora) listed wildlife, including animal and plant-derived products, remain a complex, unresolved issue. The biggest challenges lie in the prevention of further illegal sourcing of—and trade in—products originating from wild populations of threatened species. Stocks can function as a buffer during lean periods or as a mechanism used for speculation. As we outline in this paper, the current situation in Madagascar precludes non-detriment findings intended to enable sustainable use of standing rosewood populations. Backed by the World Bank, the previous Malagasy government was in the process of promoting the sale of massive stocks and stockpiles of confiscated precious woods in order to reach a zero stocks goal, this being ostensibly to halt the illegal sourcing and trafficking of rosewood. We propose and analyse four potential options for stocks management by presenting a framework linking forest management with socio-economic objectives and comparative risks. Destruction (burning) of the known stocks would send out a strong conservation message and has the strongest chance of halting further sourcing, which happens mostly in protected areas and is therefore illegal. National trade is the option in which a precious timber sector would process the woods in stocks. This option is the most beneficial for development. Opening the stocks for exportation through international trade achieves the smallest number of objectives in relation to both forests and socio-economic indicators, but comes with the highest risks in terms of curbing further illegal logging. Banking represents a fourth option, which essentially postpones any decision related to stocks management by storing the stocks for extended periods. None of the four management options is able to ensure a sustainable solution that can resolve the issues surrounding the precious timber stocks. The approaches put forward are either just ‘more good’, or ‘less good’. If a country is seriously interested in conserving its biodiversity, any government has to ensure that no other sectorial changes will counteract, or potentially undermine, the efforts to protect the environment. Stocks management will be on agenda at the upcoming COP18 in Geneva, 17–28 August 2019.

We use the global rate of Mw ≥ 9.0 earthquakes, and standard Bayesian procedures, to estimate the probability of such mega events in the Aleutian Islands, where they pose a significant risk to Hawaii. We find that the probability of such an earthquake along the Aleutians island arc is 6.5% to 12% over the next 50 years (50% credibility interval) and that the annualized risk to Hawai'i is about $30 M. Our method (the regionally scaled global rate method or RSGR) is to scale the global rate of Mw 9.0+ events in proportion to the fraction of global subduction (units of area per year) that takes place in the Aleutians. The RSGR method assumes that Mw 9.0+ events are a Poisson process with a rate that is both globally and regionally stationary on the time scale of centuries, and it follows the principle of Burbidge et al. (2008) who used the product of fault length and convergence rate, i.e., the area being subducted per annum, to scale the Poisson rate for the GSS to sections of the Indonesian subduction zone. Before applying RSGR to the Aleutians, we first apply it to five other regions of the global subduction system where its rate predictions can be compared with those from paleotsunami, paleoseismic, and geoarcheology data. To obtain regional rates from paleodata, we give a closed-form solution for the probability density function of the Poisson rate when event count and observation time are both uncertain.

The Earth's Inner Core may rotate at a different speed than Earth's crust–mantle. We use observations for antipodal earthquake and station pairs to examine the arrival time shift of the whispering-gallery wave which propagates tangentially along the top of the Inner Core. Observations of these waves for earthquakes which occurred at the same location reveal that travel times vary by ≥0.2 s over the past 20 years. We propose that these time shifts are caused by the interaction of a zero rigidity patch (lateral heterogeneity) at the Inner Core surface with the Inner Core differential rotation. The simplest interpretation infers a rotation rate of 0.05°/year, which is one order of magnitude smaller than those reported by previous studies. Our result may also give constraint to the provenance of a zero rigidity patch at the Inner Core surface. The Fresnel zone coverage of whispering-gallery PKIIKP+… antipodal measurements beneath the Inner Core boundary extend over ~60% of the boundary surface, in contrast to PKiKP–PKP paths which individually measure specular reflections (~1 Hz) from the top of the ICB over Fresnel zones each encompassing 0.002% of the Inner–Outer Core boundary.

Deep seafloor (~5000 m) observations of seismoacoustic arrivals are presented from the Aloha Cabled Observatory (ACO), Hawaii-2 Observatory (H20), and Ocean Seismic Network-1 (OSN1). Acoustic observations of local earthquakes from the ACO 24 kHz hydrophone show extraordinarily high frequencies up to 165 Hz at distances to ~200 km—a unique window into earthquake source dynamics. Combined seismic and hydrophone observations show that the traditional T wave propagates as a seismoacoustic polarized interface wave “Ti” coupled to the seafloor. Seismoacoustic Ti waves propagating at the sound speed of water are routinely observed over megameter distances at H2O between Hawaii and California, even though the seafloor site is within the shadow zone for acoustic wave propagation. Internal waves or thermohaline covariation may or may not be sufficient to scatter acoustic energy from the SOFAR channel to the deep seafloor. Ti has also been observed on seismometers SSW of Oahu at the OSN1 site at the seafloor and within an ODP borehole 242 m into the basalt basement. The observation of Ti from an earthquake in Guatemala at OSN1, whose path is blocked by the Island of Hawaii, is consistent with scattering from the vicinity of the Cross Seamount.

Recording of forest soundscapes can help monitor animal biodiversity for conservation

The Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine medical education curriculum includes a series of supplemental online pharmacology modules (“PharmWeb”) that run concurrently with the standard curriculum to introduce first-year students to fundamental principles of pharmacology. Although this voluntary online pharmacology curriculum correlated with higher test scores during the formal, required portion of pharmacology learning in the curriculum, the utilization among medical students of the PharmWeb resource was low. We hypothesized that improving the design and accessibility of the online curriculum using commercial design principles could promote adoption of this voluntary curriculum. The modules were redesigned with a cleaner interface, and convenience of access to each module was enhanced by adding links to relevant modules within required, formative weekly pharmacology multiple choice questions. We report here an increased use of this optional online introduction to pharmacological principles and increased satisfaction in learning pharmacology that correlates with the design intervention.

The Hawaiian Islands' location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is threatened by tsunamis from great earthquakes in nearly all directions. Historical great earthquakes Mw > 8.5 in the last 100 years have produced large inundations and loss of life in the islands but cannot account for a substantial (≤ 600 m3) paleotsunami deposit in the Makauwahi sinkhole on the Island of Kaua‘i. Using high-resolution bathymetry and topography we model tsunami inundation of the sinkhole caused by an earthquake with a moment magnitude of Mw ~9.25 located in the eastern Aleutians. A preponderance of evidence indicates that a giant earthquake in the eastern Aleutian Islands circa 1425–1665 A.D.—located between the source regions of the 1946 and 1957 great tsunamigenic earthquakes—created the paleotsunami deposit in Kaua‘i. A tsunami deposit in the Aleutians dated circa 1530–1660 A.D. is consistent with this eastern Aleutian source region.

Workshop on SMART Cable Applications in Earthquake and Tsunami Science and Early Warning; Potsdam, Germany, 3–4 November 2016

Tropical forests and their biodiversity are disappearing, despite decades of conservation efforts. Are we now in a position to understand whether some conservation strategies work better while others consistently fail in protecting tropical forests? We searched the literature to evaluate four mainstream strategies (forest certification and reduced impact logging, payments for ecosystem services, protected areas, community forest management) in terms of 35 environmental, social, and economic metrics. We evaluated whether applying the strategy improved, left unchanged, or worsened the conservation metrics and we created an interactive platform to view the data. We concluded that (a) the scientific literature on the effectiveness of conservation strategies in tropical forests is still vastly inadequate, due to poor design, lack of scope, and too few examples; (b) the effects of conservation on biodiversity and the economic outcomes of conservation are particularly understudied; and (c) all strategies fail at least some of the times, but all of them succeed at least some times. Our recommendation is that each new instance of implementing a given strategy should consider in detail, at the very least, the negative evidence on the given strategy, in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes. We introduce an interactive, dynamic platform to host various types of conservation effectiveness evidence.

Fluoride concentrations in drinking water in excess of 1.5 mg L-1 are unsafe for human consumption. To reduce excess fluoride intake, developing countries must use low-cost, point-of-use defluoridation techniques. Although previous work has extensively assessed defluoridation using bone char (BC), most of the advanced studies have been based on the use of fluoridated distilled water as a feed solution. In the present study, BC columns were challenged with a range of model solutions, mimicking various pretreatment options. As a result, the relative impact of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and suspended solids (SS) on the performance of BC filters was assessed. In addition, the performance of a gravity-driven, hollow fibre ultrafiltration (UF) module was examined with regards to the potential for use as a pretreatment option. SS were observed to severely clog the columns and cause the complete cessation of flow. The subsequent removal of SS by UF improved the general filter performance as well as increasing the BC lifetime by 50 %. The UF module achieved a reduction in DOC of 34 ± 6 %, resulting in an additional 30 % increase in the lifetime of the BC column.

Hawaii is threatened by tsunamis from circum-Pacific earthquakes and has been hit by major tsunamis from great earthquakes in the prior century in Kamchatka (1952), the Aleutians (1946 and 1957), Chile (1960), and Alaska (1964). Of these, tsunamis generated from great earthquakes along the Alaska-Aleutian Island arc are of particular concern due to their short (4.5–hour) propagation time to Hawaii, which presents the most limited time for coastal evacuation. Historically, the Aleutian earthquakes of 1946 and 1957 produced the largest tele-tsunamis observed in Hawaii (Lander and Lockridge 1989). The 1946 event ( Mw 8.6) killed 159 people with waves reaching up to 16 m height on Molokai. Even though the 1957 event ( Mw 8.6) caused no deaths in Hawaii, a maximum run-up of 16 m was observed on Kauai. Although these two great earthquakes in the Aleutians had substantial tsunami impacts in Hawaii, they are not among the largest seismic events to have occurred globally in the last century. To evaluate the extent of the tsunami threat to Hawaii from the Aleutian Islands, we need to consider the potential for even larger earthquakes in light of the analysis of more than a century of data measuring the Aleutian seismic zone. The motivation for this review is the great Tohoku earthquake of 2011, which occurred in the active seismic region off the coast of East Honshu, Japan, and caused a deadly tsunami in Japan that was felt on shorelines across the Pacific. This magnitude Mw 9.0 event surprised the seismological community with respect to its unexpectedly large magnitude and the size of the generated tsunami ( e.g. , Normile 2011; Monastersky 2011; Showstack 2011). Since the great Sanriku earthquake of 1896 there have been nine damaging earthquakes (magnitude M 7.3 to about 8.6) in the area of the Tohoku earthquake rupture …

The close passage of Hurricane Lester near the Hawaiian Islands in September 2016 afforded an in-depth, close-up study of storm generation of the largest background vibrations observed planet wide. The observations at the ALOHA Cabled Observatory on the seafloor below the Hurricane, coupled with seismic sensors on Oahu, and ocean wave buoys off shore, present a detailed picture connecting the storm to the ocean and Earth. Wave interactions from a distant typhoon near Japan play an important role. Vibration energy levels observed on Oahu closely match those on the sea floor 100 km north of Oahu, where ALOHA Cabled Observatory is the world’s deepest seafloor observatory at 4,728 m depth. Characteristic vibrations generated radially from the Hurricane were observed, along with unexpected transverse motions perpendicular to the radial waves. This latter observation is consistent with a broad source region extending from Hurricane Lester and generating the vibrations. Evidence for substantial scattering of the...

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation (REDD) aims to curb carbon emissions from deforestation by financially compensating forest owners. However, compensation based on the opportunity costs of REDD might underestimate true costs by failing to account for downstream economic values of current land uses, including employment and wealth generated by processing and service industries. A comprehensive analysis of REDD impacts should also include sociopolitical impacts. REDD might exclude people from forest land, causing demographic shifts, and the declining tax revenues from commodity production and associated industries might be a disincentive to government investment in forested regions to the detriment of forest communities and regional development. We argue for the need to recognize and appropriately compensate the full range of economic, social and political net costs of REDD.

Oil palm (Elaeis spp.) is one of the world’s most rapidly expanding crops. Especially prevalent in Malaysia and Indonesia, oil-palm plantations are also increasing rapidly across tropical regions as diverse as New Guinea, Equatorial Africa, Central America, and the Amazon (Butler & Laurance 2009; Koh & Wilcove 2009). Oil palm is an important driver of tropical deforestation, in part, because plantation owners often use timber revenues from old-growth forests to subsidize the initial costs of plantation establishment and maintenance (Fitzherbert et al. 2008). Expansion of oil palm imperils both lowland rainforests and peat-swamp forests, which are, respectively, among the biologically richest and most carbon-dense ecosystems on Earth (Butler & Laurance 2009; Koh et al. 2009a). The rapid expansion of oil palm seems likely to continue for many years because of its high profitability and the growing global demands for edible oils and biofuel feedstocks. Proponents of palm oil emphasize that its main alternatives, including soy, sunflower, and canola (rapeseed) oils, have production efficiencies just 10–20% as high as palm oil on a per-hectare basis and would therefore require much larger areas of cultivated land to have a similar benefit (Basiron 2009). Nevertheless, from climate-change and biodiversity perspectives, the advantages of palm-oil production are greatly diminished when it contributes either directly or indirectly to deforestation (Gibbs et al. 2008; Danielsen et al. 2009). Growing concerns about the environmental impacts of palm oil helped initiate the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a nonprofit, industry-led trade organization whose stated mission is to “provide RSPO-certified palm oil to the market in a clear and transparent manner” and to “promote the growth and use of sustainable palm oil” (www.rspo.org/What_is_RSPO@.aspx). As implied by the word roundtable, the RSPO professes to advocate a balanced, multistakeholder approach, with considerable emphasis on environmental sustainability. According to the RSPO, this is evidenced by the fact that four of the 16 members of its executive board are from conservation or social-developmental organizations. The RSPO also takes pains to draw a distinction between itself and industry-advocacy groups, such as the Malaysian Palm Oil Council and Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association, by emphasizing its efforts to improve the industry’s sustainability and transparency (V. Rao, personal communication). The RSPO has considerable potential to improve the environmental performance of producers and users of palm oil. Although established only in 2004, it is strategically positioned within the palm-oil industry and is particularly influential in Malaysia. The growing membership of RSPO already accounts for approximately 35% of the global production of palm oil, although only about one tenth of this oil is currently certified as sustainable (RSPO 2008). To define sustainability in the oil-palm sector, the RSPO has developed 39 sustainability criteria, organized under eight general principles, which are designed to limit environmental impacts of growing and processing palm oil. These criteria focus on issues, such as reducing herbicide impacts, air pollution, and losses of biodiversity as well as on social and legal concerns (RSPO 2006). Nevertheless, some environmental organizations have repeatedly criticized the RSPO and its members, particularly for enabling tropical deforestation and atmospheric carbon emissions under the guise of stated, but unfulfilled, sustainability criteria (e.g., Down to Earth 2004; Greenpeace 2008; Maitar 2009). Here, we critique the RSPO from an environmental perspective and identify some specific ways it can become more effective in reducing threats to tropical ecosystems.

Tropical deforestation is rampant (Bradshaw et al. 2009), and is increasingly being driven by industrial-scale logging, mining, and agricultural expansion, in addition to the subsistence activities of rural communities (Butler & Laurance 2008). As consumers, we ourselves shoulder some of the blame in that we are often the market that these industrial enterprises seek to satisfy. Recognizing this, we must balance our consumer demands with our environmental concerns. To do so, we need to be critical of information presented to us by either environmental or industrial interest groups before making our consumer, investment, or policy decisions. Both corporations and environmental organizations run sophisticated public relations campaigns, the credibility and objectivity of which are often difficult to verify. Corporations’ glossy brochures, slick websites, and cheerful videos serve to reassure consumers, undercut protests, and question the credibility of green activists (Munshi & Kurian 2005). When such promotional material has little basis in fact, or is at least disingenuous, companies are accused of ‘greenwashing’—a term coined by American environmentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986. We use the greenwashing term to define activities that misleadingly give the impression of environmentally sound management and which thereby deflect attention away from the continued pursuit of environmentally destructive activities. Yet environmental groups and activists sometimes make equally exaggerated claims in their campaigns—in effect engaging in environmental scaremongering and propaganda or what we term ‘blackwashing’—misleading and unverified accusations of avoidable environmental degradation by corporations. In the short term, blackwashing can focus attention, make headlines, raise the profile of environmental debates, and might ultimately increase donations to charitable concerns. In the longer term, blackwashing exposed for what it really is could diminish the trust invested in environmental groups and more generally undermine public support for conservation. In light of the current global economic recession, which is likely to increase competition for dwindling conservation funds in the face of continued tropical deforestation and other forms of environmental degradation, there is increasing need for the general public to hold both corporations and environmental groups to account in terms of delivering credible, well-substantiated, and documented evidence. Here we argue that greenwashing by some corporations and blackwashing by some environmental activists could hinder conservation outcomes through the erosion of positive public perception and the creation of consumer apathy. We as scientists have a particular responsibility to evaluate critically and objectively the claims made by both parties, while being mindful of our own personal biases.

contains a set of papers reporting on seed dispersal by primates in the Atlantic forests of Brazil, earthworm diversity and agriculture in central Vietnam, attitudes and perceptions towards conservation among coffee farmers in Mexico and exploitation and trade of freshwater turtles in India. Two additional papers assess species distribution modeling in the tropics and an apparent global mismatch of research effort and avian conservation.

The current issue of Tropical Conservation Science is the first special issue published by TCS and it focuses on a very important group of mammals, the ungulates, in a megadiverse country in the Neotropics, Mexico [1]. The guest editors for this issue are Dr. Sonia Gallina and Dr. Salvador Mandujano, research scientists at the Instituto de Ecologia, A.C. in Mexico. Drs. Gallina and Mandujano took the initiative in proposing, organizing and assembling the special issue. All papers in this special issue went through a peer-review process.

Mechanisms to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) have been gaining momentum as a way to combat global warming, fund forest conservation, and deliver economic benefits to rural populations. However, the economic viability of REDD schemes will depend on the profitability of alternative land uses. Oil palm agriculture has become a major driver of tropical deforestation over the last few decades. Here, we model and compare the profitability of converting forest to oil palm versus conserving it for an REDD project. We show that converting a hectare of forest for palm oil production will be more profitable (yielding net present values of $3,835–$9,630) to land owners than preserving it for carbon credits ($614–$994), which are currently restricted to voluntary carbon markets. Giving REDD credits price parity with carbon credits traded in compliance markets would boost the profitability of avoided deforestation (up to $6,605). Unless post-2012 global climate policies legitimize the trading of carbon credits from avoided deforestation, REDD will not be able to compete with oil palm agriculture or other similarly profitable human activities as an economically attractive land-use option, in which case REDD will not be able to fulfill its primary function of avoiding deforestation.

A Bacia Amazônica parece sofrer a experiencia da rápida expansão da agricultura de palmeiras de óleo. Quase metade da Amazonia é apropriada para o cultivo de palmeira de óleo, e corporações da Malásia estão agora se mudando para a região para estabelecer novas plantações enquanto o governo Brasileiro está considerando uma lei que contaria as plantações de palmeira de óleo como “florestas” em relação á exigencia de reserva florestal nas terras do proprietário. São prováveis fortes incentivos econômicos para uma grande industria de palmeira de óleo Amazonensse, dadas as crescentes demandas globais por óleos comestíveis, produtos baseados em óleo e combustiveis. Temos duas grandes preocupações. Primeira, as plantações de palmeira de óleo são ecologicamente pobres, suportanto pouquissima vida selvagem que depende da floresta. Segunda, nós desacreditamos em afirmações políticas e corporativas que sugerem que as plantações de palmeiras de óleo estarão concentradas em terras previamente desflorestadas da Amazônia. Na realidade, produtores de palmeiras de óleo sao fortemente a favor de desmatar florestas primárias para plantações porque assim eles podem obter lucros imediatos da produção de madeira. Esses lucros são vitais para compensar os gastos com custos do estabelecimento da plantação e manutenção dos 3–5 anos iniciais até que as plantações se tornem rentáveis. Portanto, a agricultura de palmeiras de óleo poderiam em breve emergir como uma nova grande ameaça para o meio ambiente da Amazônia.