Do we know enough to effectively conserve tropical forests? That was the topic of my pre-conference workshop, where we debated to find an answer to this question. Do we really need more and more research on conservation to make a change and answer society’s questions, or we just after satisfying our own curiosity? Continue...

After got introduced to the palm oil production potential in Tanzania by Anna Segerstedt from the Institut for Environetal Economics and World Trade at the Leibnitz University Hannover with respect to sustainability standards the point was clear: there is no chance under the assumed conditions to produce palm oil for the export market as well as for label production due to export barriers and costs linked to certification respectively. Ms Segerstedt found however, that according to her results the palm oil production for the local market is competitive. Zora Lea Urech from the Department of Environmental Sciences at ETH Zurich outlined in her interesting presentation possible drivers leading to further deforestation in the eastern part of Madagascar taking into consideration the main components of the livelihood strategies of small farm-households. The complex land tenure system, next to other factors, hinders a sustainable use of the forest ecosystems and need to be further investigated.