[LUM#21] The Call of the Wild
Tropical, boreal, or temperate, forests cover 31% of the land on our planet. That's enough to devote 31 pages to them in the 21st issue of Lum magazine, published in February 2024.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) defines forests as "land covering an area of more than 0.5 hectares, with trees reaching a height of more than 5 meters and a forest cover of more than 10%." They are found on every continent, in both the north and south, on small Pacific islands and in the vast steppes of Central Asia.
In the first part of this magazine, we invite you to discover these rich and fragile ecosystems, from the cold forests of Canada threatened by megafires to the lush mangroves of French Guiana and the island forests battered by cyclones. We will also examine how our expanding French forests are resisting climate change. Forests are also complete ecosystems that are home to most of the Earth's biodiversity, a topic we will explore in the second part of this magazine. This biodiversity is made visible through iconic species such as the Pyrenean bear. Critically endangered, it is now the subject of extensive monitoring, with modelers participating to facilitate censuses and better understand their distribution.
At the other end of the spectrum is the wild boar, whose population is constantly increasing. The subject of conflict and an easy target for hunters, who kill 800,000 of them each year compared to 50,000 in the 1980s, researchers are now working to facilitate the integrated management of this extremely social animal. Another hunt is that of viruses, which scientists are tracking down with the help of valuable allies: ants. Finally, and most importantly, the forest is still home to men and women, such as the Baka people of Cameroon, who seek refuge there when everything conspires to drive them out.
Despite all these services, forests are paying the price for decades of human activity: between 1990 and 2020, deforestation caused the loss of 420 million hectares of forest, according to a report published in 2022 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). To help protect these essential spaces, the Green Climate Fund and the European Green Deal are mobilizing a wide range of political and legal instruments. In particular, new strict criteria will be applied to prevent unsustainable exploitation of forests and protect areas of high biological diversity. In our third part, ecologists, soil specialists, tax experts, and economists share the results of their research, which contributes to preserving the green lungs of our planet.
Explore these forests by reading the 21st issue of Lum magazine, now available in an enhanced version, which gives you access to UM podcasts: A l’UM la science and Lumlu.
(If you would like to receive a paper copy ofLum, please send an email to the communications department with your contact details and mailbox number.)
Articles in this issue
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