OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - RESEARCH - SOY MORATORIUM GREENPEACE ARTICLE

Came across this article the other day and found it really interesting and relevant to the research I've undertook for this brief. It shows how actions are being made today to maintain the slowing down of the deforestation, and how the publics outcry can initiate changes.

Article

OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - RESEARCH - SADDLE STITCH VS STAPLE BOUND

Now that the guide is printed, it needs to be bound, and the two simplest methods are staple and saddle stitch binding, however I must find out which is more environmentally friendly than the other as this will determine which one I go for, to optimise sustainability.


I wasn't able to find any actual articles on sustainable binding methods, however from what I have read (in Sustainable: Graphic Design Google Book) staples have to be removed in the recycling process as they can't be recycled, whereas I presume thread can be recycled, especially if it's cotton or natural, as it is biodegradable.
Therefore I will saddle stitch my guide, so that everything can be recycled in it.

OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - THE APP IDEA GENERATION, RESEARCH & LOGO DESIGN

What can you use the app for?
- Measure how sustainable you've been
- It keeps a log and you can track your progress
- Daily tips to improving sustainability based on weakest areas
- Rewards? For week of certain improvements (not a good idea, you could input false information to win)
- Syncs up to your utility bills to track how much energy and money you're saving
- Set your own goals/targets for the week
INPUT:
- Travel ( walk, car, carshare, bus etc)
- How long the lights are on for (at home)???
- Screen time (phone, laptop, tv etc)
- Purchases (bought clothes, appliances etc)
- Printing (at work e.g)
- Appliances used (washing machine, dishwasher etc)
- Waste vs recycled

Name dilema
I had no idea where to begin finding a name for the App, so I did a bit of research into fitness app names and current sustainability app names as well. I went for fitness apps as you input what you've done in your day in a similar way as you'd input exercise and what you've eaten into a fitness app.

Fitness app names:
Charity miles
Cycle Meter
Digifit iCardio
Endomondo
FitBit
Strava
Pact
May my Fitness
The Walk
Rock my Run
(and many others0

Sustainability app names:
JouleBug
HowGood
PaperKarma
Rippl
iRecycle

Name generation:
After researching different names for apps I was really inspired by how simple and short they were, and decided a one word name would have much more impact. I brainstormed ideas along with a few peers. The last three names are made up words, as one of my peers suggested I should come up with a cool new word for the app, that has no previous connotations.

Sustain
Sustain & Save
Save
Nourish (too foody)
Flourish
Leafy
Leafee (sounds like lea fee, a charge or fine)
Canopy
Trunk (trunk sounds slightly sexual)
Cuteux
Nafe
Nare (last three are too bizarre, tried combining nature and life, only it didn't work)

After a fair amount of thought, Flourish was decided on for the name of the app, as it has a great sound to it, and represents what the rainforest could do if people would stop destroying it.

Sustainability app research:
Before I started designing the app I undertook a short bit of research into sustainability apps which I found when researching for names, and which gave me a few ideas as to the content of the app which could help it be more useful and expand it. Also, all these apps below are free, which is an incentive to use it as you don't have to pay for anything.

JouleBug allows you to see what your friends (who also have the app) are doing to cut down their carbon footprint. This is a great way of involving social media and your contacts in keeping green, and is a great way of sharing ideas that everyone can benefit from. JouleBug also connects to your utility bills so you can track how much you are saving each month, which is a great way to actually see the real benefits of living greener.

Rippl (which I love the name, has a great punch and is really relevant to the organisation who set it up) give you simple tips on how to be more sustainable, which is great if you don't know where to start. You can also set goals for yourself and track how you're doing, which is a real incentive when you can see your progress, and the own goal setting means you can make them as realistic and simple as you like, giving you a greater chance of achieving them. 

iRecycle is great as it shows you the recycling and proper disposal locations for over 200 products, which is great for dangerous or more obscure items which you didn't realise could be recycled. 

PaperKarma is an app I think will really kick off soon, as everyone hates junk mail. This app allows you to scan your junk mail, and it contacts the mailers and removes your name from the distribution list. This not only stops all the unwanted junk mail which just ends up in the bin or recycling anyway, but this also saves trees as there isn't so much wasted paper. It was named one of Apple's top apps in 2012.

Logo designs:
Simple, minimal, green, contemporary, no flowers or leaves, take the colours from the sketches.

I started off using Soleil typeface, a minimal sans serif that was used for the body copy in the guide, so it all has a similar identity. I like the circle idea from the posters, so tried to simulate this in a logo, however it looks kind of like the facebook logo modified, especially with the "f" on it's own. On the left is the finalised app advert to go in the guide. Simple but you get all the key information.

One of my peers suggested I should use a leaf in the logo, so I traced round the most leafy leaf I had painted so it is a flat shape. This makes it look very tropical, however it looks too block colour on block text, there's no depth to it. So instead I image traced the original leaf sketch to give it more pop and definition, but no matter how I tried placing it nothing really stood out.

Attempted a different angle with a branch leaf underneath the name, however this looks way too weddingy and forced. One of my peers suggested to have an outline of a leaf and it's stem in a heart shape with the word or "fl" in the middle, making it as an app icon which could be shown on in iPhone menu for example. However as you can see this doesn't look great, and the scripted typeface I chose, although is readable in full word, in two letters you can't really tell what it's supposed to mean. The scripted typeface also makes it look kind of feminine as well, especially when combined with the heart leaf.

All of this research and idea and design generation has been really helpful in the development of this brief, as things are starting to get nailed out. The next stage will be to finalise the logo and the guide advert as well ready for printing.

OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - RESEARCH - TASMANIA RENEWABLE ENERGY

This was a post I came across on Facebook by Earth Hour Australia which states that according to Hydro Tasmania, Tasmania was powered by 100% renewable energy for the first time in 2016 on 12 May after a recent downfall of rain. This shows the start of the world adopting renewable energy as their main source of energy, and the fact that a state was fully powered by renewable energy is amazing, and shows the start of change happening in the way we source our energy as a world.

OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - RESEARCH - FUN FACTS ABOUT THE RAINFOREST

The rainforest canopy is so dense it can take up to 10 minutes for rainfall to reach the ground once it hits the top of the canopy.

There are more than 2000 species of butterflies in the South American rainforests.

80% of flowers found in the Australian rainforests aren’t found anywhere else in the world.

Learning about rainforests

In Central American rainforests, rival strawberry poison dart frogs can wrestle for up to 20 minutes

The Korowai people of New Guinea live in tree houses as high as 45m off the ground

1/4 of ingredients found in modern medicines come from rainforest plants

A rainforest lake in Dominica is at around 88 degrees Celsius.

National Geographic

The Amazon rainforest forest floor is almost completely dark, with only 1% of sunlight breaking through the canopy.

On the Go Tours

Reasoning:

These facts will feature in a the guide as a little added information about the rainforest without starting off all doom and gloom.

OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - RESEARCH - ECO FRIENDLY TYPEFACES

I was just merrily going about making the publication as aesthetically pleasing but as efficient and clear as possible, when it occurred to me the typeface choices I have used, specifically Soleil for the body copy, really isn't that environmentally friendly as it's quite a bold, heavy weighted typeface and would therefore use a lot of ink when printed on a mass scale.

So, I did a bit of research into the most eco-friendly typefaces out there....

According to a BBC article, out of Garamond, Brush Script, Comic Sans, Helvetica, Courier, Times New Roman, Cooper Black and Impact, Garamond uses the least amount of ink, and Impact uses the most ink.

The more ink left in the pen, the less is needed to print the typeface.

Of course, this is only comparing specific typefaces, granted there is a good range to the choices in this experiment, but it'd be good to know what typeface is the most eco friendly in the world.
Although having seen this experiment, I know that Soleil is not very environmentally friendly, having an appearance between Helvetica and Impact. It would be interesting to see where FreightBig Pro would appear, as it has similar properties to Times New Roman and Garamond.

However, I also discovered whilst reading this article that there's a programme called EcoFont which you can download that puts 'holes' in the typeface so that when it prints it uses less ink but still looks good. The article also points out however, that although Garamond may use the least amount of ink in comparison, it's letter sizes are smaller compared to the rest, whilst still being at the size point size, which in turn makes it harder to read.

Ryman Eco is a typeface produced in conjunction with Monotype to be the 'world's most beautiful sustainable font', whilst still being functional and legible. And free, so the world can benefit. Ryman Eco claims to use 33% less ink than 'normal' typefaces such as Arial, Times New Roman, Georgia and Verdana. Ryman Eco uses ink bleeding when printed to it's advantage with the typeface being made of fine outlines rather than solid forms.

Ryman Eco typeface.

From what I can find, Ryman Eco is the most sustainable typeface there is, so I will give it a go and apply it to the guide to see it's effect.

Something to bear in mind is that typeface choices only really make a difference when it comes to cost of printing when something is printed on a really large scale, so for most cases it wouldn't make a difference to cost.

OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - RESEARCH WHAT DO YOU SEE? VIDEO

This was a video I found on Facebook posted by Survival International, which highlights what different people see things as in relation to the rainforest and it's resources. I found it a really interesting perspective to look at this as, as it takes a different approach which makes you think about your own opinions.

OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - RESEARCH - STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW: TIMBER! HOW TIMBER WORKS PODCAAST

This is a podcast it was suggested I listen to by my tutor.

Notes:
- North America had a lot of trees when settlers first came arrived. It was overrun with pigeons as native Americans all died off due to an illness carried by the pigeons. There were a lot of pigeons as there was no one to hunt them. Same goes for the forest, it was so foresty because there was no one to cut it down.
- In the 1600's 40% of land north of Mexico was trees.
- Russia and Brasil have 30% forest land, and are at the top of this list.
- Europe has the most dense 1001,000,000 hectares of forest
- 1.58 billion hectares of forest in the world
- Built several new nations out of wood
- 1 acre of land at least 10% tree cover classes as a cover. 758 million in US, 766 million Canada.
- Timberland is a type of forest - certain amount of usable timber to call it Timberland. 20 cubic foot of commercial wood per acre per year.
- 2/3 of USA is forest land
- 502,000,000 acres of Timberland in USA.
- Timberland is good and easy but it's important to reproduce. What you grow must be more than you cut down.
- USA since 1920's haven't made anything worse in deforestation, but since 1950's they've gotten better with growing more trees than they cut down.
- We've been using wood since 1.5 million years ago (clubs, fives etc)
- Tree's have 70% of the organic carbon locked into the earth.
- Forests soak up rainfall. Keep soil in good shape soaking water.
- Timber is used for firewood a lot still today.
- 7% of timber used for heating and cooking in the USA.
- Lumber 53% in USA for constructing new houses.
- Pulp and paper 32%
- Plywood and vanier 7%
- Lumber is wood squared/rectangular.
- Construction 50:50 Structure, palates, crates, furniture, lumber split in USA.
- Palette thieves and counterfeit in USA
- Paper: fibre board made from paper pulp.
- MDF: medium density fireboard
- Hard board is stronger than fireboard - it's more dense and is pressed harder
- Clear cutting - cut down all the trees - over 5 acres amount
- Increases erosion, aesthetics - looks like a wasteland. Sets stage for weeds to take over from tree seedlings.
- Shelter wood cuttings - partial cuttings over time where trees can regenerate.
- Sea tree harvesting and selection harvesting are types of selecting trees to cut down. Unfair selection.
- Cut all the limbs off the tree (bucking) cut into logs and skid logs down the trails to landing area and are sorted and graded for different purposes and products.
- Logging is the 1st/2nd most dangerous profession in USA, close with commercial fishing (based off deaths in the previous year)
- Bark represents one of 3 organs of a tree - it transfers energy around the tree.
- 30% forestland cut down in the 17th century - mid 19th century, about a billion acres originally there in USA. The government got behind conservationists to protect forests.

Comments:
This was a really interesting podcast to listen to, and with it being an hour long they made jokes and had breaks so it didn't get too boring, however a lot of it was facts about wood itself rather than deforestation which I am focusing on. However it was still really useful as I got bits of information that is related which I wouldn't of it I hadn't listened to this podcast.

OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - RESEARCH - HOW TO GUIDES

Not Just Another Guide to Cologne by Raoul Doring & Jacqueline Diedam

The Visual Concept
To create more interest in the guide, the visual concept took a different direction to that found in the ordinary tourist guide. Leaving the two dimensional, digital world, we decided to visualise the cover, as well as the title pages for each of the twelve sections of the guide, with photographs of detailed scenes from Cologne constructed from coloured paper. These colourful paper models took about three hundred working hours to complete and, in the end, around a hundred meters of tape was used to fix 120 square meters of cardboard and paper together. The layout was kept visually simple and clean, to provide an easy-reading experience and to enable the reader to quickly take in the content.

First Printed Edition
After great interest in the final  product, a first-edition print run of 1,000 guides was printed, published and financed in cooperation with the Cologne University of Applied Sciences and KISD. Officially introduced in the winter semester of 2014 to all new incoming international students, the guide comes as a three-piece welcome gift with the guide book, a fold out map for navigation and a postcard to send home.

The guide itself.

It comes with an easy to use map to help guide you through Cologne and so you can pinpoint where different places are.

It also has a website showing what the guide is about, photographs of it, how it was made, if you're interesting in buying or receiving one, and how to get in contact as well.

Example spread from the guide. Simple layout, easy to read, informative, but quite text heavy.

The title pages for the guide were produced using paper models, giving each chapter a start off looking 3D and funky, a different style that what you're used to.

This shows the front cover paper model, you can see the detail they've gone into. 

This guide was really useful to look at, as it takes on a very graphic designer-y approach to a publication, whilst still being informative and clear. The paper models for each chapter and the front cover are what make this guide so unique, as they took hundreds of hours to produce, and make the page pop, almost come alive. It is so much more dynamic that a flat vector image. The idea of making a big deal out of the title pages could be something I look into, as it starts the chapter off on a positive and inspiring note. I should however be careful to use sustainable products if I create anything physical though.


Food for Thought: A Man's Guide to Love & Food by Ronan McIntyre

This project was based on the ISTD brief Food For Thought. The brief asked to investigate food with a new view point, using whatever means appropriate to convey your solution and to identify a target market.
My solution to the creation of a new view point was to create The Mans Guide To Food and Love. This book is a novelty book targeted at men between 20- 30. The content of the book uses an exaggerated chauvinistic humorous tone as it explains how to overcome relationship obstacles with the use of food. While exploiting male stereotypical views and stereotypical view of men. This happens through dating, creating your own meal and dealing with relationship problems. I used a minimalist approach to the visual language to express the truthfulness behind this book, this book is about being open and clear and forming a relationship.

Front cover.

Example spread, you notice it's quite text heavy, as in the description McIntyre calls in a 'book'.

There's even food recipes to win the woman's heart. This could be applied to my guide by a step by step guide to planting your own veggie patch perhaps.

More abstract content spread, where tips are included almost as if they're quotes.

This is a very different kind of guide, for a different target audience and purpose. It has a much cleaner, simpler aesthetic, sticking to two key colours per page or scenario, which also helps you differentiate between the chapters as well. It is also quite text heavy as well, there aren't many images or illustrations either, which make it not as fun as it could be.

Four Elements and Two Goats: A Tour Guide for Children by Sylwia Maja Bartkowska

My debut book "Four Elements & Two Goats" is a creative tour guide for children.
The book is black and white, so a child can colour it the way it likes. The idea is to feel like an artist and make this book your very own. I carefully picked the paper so the book can be coloured with many different mediums.
It shows five possible sightseeing routes around Old Market Square in Poznań, Poland. Each route is themed by one of the Four Elements and led by an adequate elemental guide - Mr. Drop, Mr. Flame, Ms. Cloud & Mr. Earth. Two Goats are one of the symbols of Poznań and are very well known in Poland. In the book they are very playful, run around the pages and hide everywhere they can. The goal is to count and find them all. To make it even more fun, book is packed with dozens of different tasks and puzzles connected with the spots.

Front cover. 

Example page. Even though it's a kids book, it still has a fairly minimal layout, especially colour wise, and has body copy text in fairly small point size in a block, which you don't often find in children's books, unless it was aimed at older children perhaps.

This is a much more fun page, with illustrations and animals and more of an infographic, with hand written text instead of standard typed text, giving it more of a personal feel. The title is also hand rendered, which adds to the childlike feel.

Map page so you can find your way around safely. This is the only shown section that is printed in colour, as this isn't meant to be coloured in.

This is a great idea which in principle works really effectively, however it could be a little more child friendly, perhaps in not so complex illustrations to colour in, and not be so text heavy, or at least make the text more readable. However it doesn't state the age range of the children, so it could be aimed at older kids who this would be the right level of difficulty and text for. It's a great idea to have the whole guide as interactive, by colouring in, as this engages the reader a lot more and gets them more involved and therefore interested so they learn more.

Take Care by Shadz XIII

Grow Your Own Food Campaign
My idea was to create a campaign to educate society about the benefits and simplicity of growing their own food. Encourage and challenge them to find new ways to grow, ways that fit their lifestyle.
Growing food is about trying, is hard to create specific guides for which different places. People have different sizes of houses, flats, gardens, windows. More or less space. Too sunny or too cloudy. Nevertheless is always possible to find a prosperity spot.

Take Care
The name chosen for the campaign is "Take Care" matches the idea of attachment between people and their food. It is a relationship of mutual care. They need to protect and feed their seeds until they grow. At the end they will receive all the benefits from nature.

Sketches
Some concepts I had in the beginning of the project. I decided to pick the logotype idea and refined it. Used as visual reference BillyBop Regular typeface.

Campaign Kick Off
Giving away Organic compost was the best choice I found for Take Care.
The sack would come with the Leaflet. This visual guide would give quick tips and a brief idea of the campaign. With the Organic Compost the target audience can experiment with different seeds and pots that fits their life style. Is about giving a simple start for people who are interested in small and big challenges.

Seeds' Packaging
Take Care is a non-profit company on the other hand is still necessary fund to maintain website, app, etc. This seeds can be purchased via Website. Some specials editions may be created to be used as awards in App Challenges. Ton of voice used is kind and playful.

App Campaign
Creating an app for the campaign would be a fast way to spread the idea. People could share their challenges, accomplishments, fails and success. As result we get a big variety of containers, possibilities and fast feedback. Big community helping each other for the same cause.

Website Campaign
For users who look for advance information, contact, participate or help the campaign. Is it possible to find Tips, Photo Gallery, Download, Shop, Statistics and Support.

Leaflet/flyer and seed packets.

Leaflet/flyer spread.

Seed packets.

The App.

Campaign website.

This turned out to be a really useful guide to find, as it was not only a guide by expanded to seed packets, an app and a website as well, showing how this campaign will spread across different platforms and hit home from different angles. This can quite easily be applied to the guide that I'm producing, or anything really. It's interesting to see how something green is illustrated, what kind of style it takes on and the colours that are used. 

Usefulness

This research has been really useful to see what different guides contain, their style, and whether they come alongside other collateral as well. I think I should be careful not to make it look too text heavy, but just get the key points across, otherwise people will be daunted by the amount of text to read. I should also consider the other outcomes I should produce to go alongside and support the guide, such as a campaign website, app, posters etc, as this will help to fill out and make this project a lot mroe developed.

OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - RESEARCH - FUTURISM: AERIAL REFORESTATION

This is a succinct video about how we can rebuild our rainforests. If we were to hand plant each new tree, this would take forever, however with this method of "seed-bombing" 100,000 trees can be planted in one flight. This is massively more efficient and the seeds can be dropped anywhere, which will avoid problems of difficult access in remote parts of the rainforest.




This is a great solution to deforestation, however it doesn't stop people from digging up the trees or destroying the pods when they land on the ground. Solutions to deforestation is something I should perhaps look into further, what is already being done to tackle it.

OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - RESEARCH - GOOD: EARTH IS A MIRACLE

This is a short video I found on Facebook posted by GOOD, which shows photographs of the earth at different times of the year, and plays them quickly so it looks as if the Earth is breathing. The photographs were captured by NASA.




This is a really effective way of communicating that the Earth is a living object, and breathes just the same as plants and animals and humans do. This also suggests that we should treat it as a living thing, not an unfeeling object, lump of soil.

OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - RESEARCH - THE AMAZON & CLIMATE CHANGE (WWF)

If current trends in deforestation, droughts, forest fires global greenhouse gas emissions continue, then most of the Amazon rainforest could be lost of severely destroyed by 2030.
Global warming is having an effect on the Amazon rainforest, and if actions aren't taken soon to tackle climate change, then the Amazon could dry up and die, which will in turn have a catastrophic affect on the global climate.
Carbon dioxide is stored in the canopies of the Amazon rainforest, and when trees are cut down, burnt or left to rot, this carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. Global deforestation is to blame for 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Regional rainfall is also effected by the deforestation of the Amazon, as the trees transform the sun's energy into water vapour and generate clouds and rain, and when the trees are destroyed, less water is released into the atmosphere, and fewer clouds form, which could lead to more droughts and crop failures across the world. Scientists predict that deforestation of the Amazon could impact grain belts of South and North America, and potentially Europe as well.
The severe droughts in the Amazon in 2005 and 2010 show the extent to which the climate could become, with communities living in the Amazon isolated by low water levels, unable to get to schools, markets and hospitals. Dead fish contaminated river water supplies and crops failed.

Article

OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - RESEARCH - DESTRUCTION OF THE AMAZON COULD ALTER GLOBAL WEATHER

Weather patterns and the climate can be affected by the increasing loss of the Amazon rainforest. With the Amazon rainforest being so large, it has effects on not only the continental weather but also global weather due to it's sheer scale.
The World Bank released a report in 2011 discussing how the deforestation of the Amazon could turn it from a carbon sink to a carbon source, as the density of the trees in the Amazon absorb a lot of the carbon dioxide, however as the ecosystem changes and trees are destroyed, it could start to release more carbon dioxide than it absorbs, which would in turn affect global temperatures.
If the deforestation of the Amazon goes on for much longer, the rainforest could go from a moist, tropical forest system, to something much drier, savanna system. If this occurred it would have a massive impact on the species living in the rainforest.
Also, around 20% of fresh river water in the world comes from the Amazon River, and the drying up of the rainforest will have a negative impact on this water source. Changes to the Amazon River would affect the entire current off the coast of South America, which could affect the jet stream, which would then create a knock on effect of changing weather patterns across the globe.
The Amazon River is also home to the most fish species in the world. If deforestation goes beyond a certain point then the terrestrial species would be lost, and the hydrological system would be completely changed as well, causing flooding within the Amazon as the river already rises up several metres in the rainy season, and with forests cut back this would increase the change of widespread flooding, as there would be no trees to soak up the water.
A lot of Brasil's energy comes from hydropower, and a change to the flow of the river would affect the amount of energy that would be produced.
Too much change to an ecosystem such as the Amazon can create a chain reaction affecting it's special and general environment, and at the moment we don't know exactly what this chain reaction will result in.

Article

OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - RESEARCH - ILLEGAL LOGGERS THREATEN INDIGENOUS TRIBES

The Awa Tribe has only 450 members, however their territory has attracted thousands of loggers and settlers. In 2012 a judge ordered all outside people to leave the area, however a year later when the date had passed, no evictions were made, according to Survival International (indigenous rights group).
The Awa's territory is in the northeast area of the Brasilian Amazon, and they survive as hunter-gatherers in remote areas of the rainforest. Out of the 450 people in the tribe, around 100 of them have not had contact with the outside world.
Over the year's the tribes territory has been slowly destroyed by settlers and loggers, who now outnumber the Awa 10:1.
The Awa have four territories, and one of those territories of 120,000 hectares has 30% of it's forest destroyed, with logging trucks reported leaving the area day and night.
"The Awa talk about hearing chainsaws and their game being scared away. They find when they go to hunt there are less animals there because of all the noise. We're very worried, more and more, that the Awa are going to find less food in the forest and become dependant on government handouts in the end, if their forest is being destroyed they will end up living on handouts and lose their way of life." Alice Bayer, Survival International.
In the late 1960's geologists discovered the world's richest resource of iron ore in the area where the Awa live, and in the 1980's a railway line was developed to transport the iron ore from it's mine. This development brought outsiders who exposed the Awa to disease and violence, and their population was decimated.
Brasil's National Indian Foundation estimates there are 77 uncontacted tribes in the Amazon, with only 30 being located so far.

Article

OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - RESEARCH - SUSTAINABLE CATTLE RANCHING IN THE AMAZON

In a remote corner of the Amazon, farmer Lacir Soares is promoting sustainable cattle rearing that doesn't affect deforestation, and follows the new forestry laws environmental regulations.
Cattle ranching has driven deforestation, and many consumers of meat were concerned the meat they were buying and eating from supermarkets was helping to fuel the deforestation of the Amazon.
Field rotation and genetic improvement of cattle as well as better pastures help Soares produce more in his farm without damaging the forest.
Brasil is the worlds largest beef exporter, with 20% of beef exports coming from the Amazon region. However it also leads in low productivity, with one cow per hectare. Soares has managed to feed 2.3 head per hectare due to more sustainable methods.
A large portion of the rainforest either cannot be accessed or access is difficult, so it is relied upon satellite maps updated almost in real time to monitor where illegal logging is happening.
Marfrig (Brasil's 2nd biggest meat processor and distributor) has also made the jump to sustainability. It has joined forces with Walmart and The Nature Conservancy to turn local farms into environmental and economic models of meat production, which can then be applied across the Amazon. Soares farm is an example of this plan working effectively.
Gucci has also launched a bag made from leather from the Amazon, but which has the environmental sustainability certification.

Article

OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - RESEARCH - HOW INDIGENOUS TRIBES PROTECT THE AMAZON

Deforestation of the Amazon has slowed down in recent years, starting from 2004. Where it mainly stopped was at the borders of the indigenous tribes land. The destruction goes all around this area, but doesn't penetrate it. This green oasis is made up of 10 indigenous territories, and is home to around 7,000 Kayapo Indians and 5,500 other Indians from 14 different groups.
The Kayapo fought for an won official recognition of their land in the 1980's and 90's, which stops ranchers, loggers and miners from destroying their homeland. However this area of the rainforest lacks proper governance, and there are often violent conflicts over land, illegal logging, and gold mining to name a few. The laws that stand aren't enough to protect the indigenous people and their land.
To win the right to their land, indigenous tribes have staged protests, pressured the government and fought on the ground. Others formed alliances with environmental and indigenous-rights organisations, which helped them form their own nongovernmental organisations, so they can enlist further outside backing.
Nongovernmental organisations have helped the Kayapo become more economically sufficient, such as by starting a program to help them harvest and sell Brasil nuts, giving families income and reducing pressure to allow in loggers and miners in exchange for money.
Agriculture, mining and logging lobbies in Brasil are challenging amendments to the 1988 constitution that would remove legal protections from indigenous land.

Nongovernment organisations protecting the Amazon and indigenous rights in Brasil:
- The Kayapo Project
- Instituto Socioambiental
- Planete Amazone

International nongovernment organisations working to save the Amazon rainforest in various countries:
- Amazon conservation team
- Amazon watch
- Conservation International
- Greenpeace
- World Wildlife Fund
- Survival International

Article

OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - RESEARCH - EFFECTS OF LOGGING ON THE AMAZON RAINFOREST

The Amazon rainforest provides the Earth with 20% of it's oxygen, and 2/3 of it's fresh water.
Around 20% of the Amazon rainforest has been lost over the past 40 years due to logging, cattle ranching, and agricultural farming.
Such loggers are responsible for 105,000 miles of illegal roadway in the depths of the forest, allowing squatters and land developers to damage the land. Brasil does limit logging, however illegal documentation is common, which makes it hard to track the level of logging and deforestation.
As the trees are cut down, this released more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that was being stored in the canopies. This then leads to the contribution to global warming. Areas of land without trees are also more prone to erosion, and once enough soil has eroded, the land can no longer sustain any other life such as plants and trees. Trees also play a vital role in the regulation of the water cycle, and with the destruction of them this affects the rainfall and river levels. Cutting down trees also destroys the habitats of many species.
There is a new method to logging that's being attempted, to help reduce the damage to other plant species. This is by removing the vines from the trees and guiding the tree down in a specific direction so as to disturb as little wildlife and animals as possible. By not damaging surrounding trees, this also helps to maintain the canopy, to avoid excess leaking of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This method of logging was attempted for one year, and it was shown that carbon dioxide pollution levels returned to pre-logging levels.
Opportunities are starting to present themselves for people interesting in exploring the untouched Amazon. A few companies are building hotels within the jungle and offering boat cruises. World Wildlife Federation says this might help to slow down deforestation, as if locals can earn more by offering accommodation and tours, they may be less likely to cut down trees to earn money. WWF-Brasil is sponsoring research on tourism potential within the Amazon to try and preserve the Amazon.

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OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - RESEARCH - LOGGING IN THE AMAZON

It's gotten to a point in the Brasilian Amazon that illegal logging is accepted as the norm, with 60-80% of all logging in the Brasilian Amazon thought to be done illegally.
With forests in Southeast Asia and Central Africa depleting, more larger companies are turning to the Amazon for their supply of wood, for example, Samauma is being exploited to make cheap plywood for constructions industries in the US, Japan and also Europe.
As logging occurs in the depth of the rainforest, workers often use false permits, ignoring the limitations of legal permits, cutting down species which are protected by the law, and also stealing from protected and indigenous land. Often these things go unnoticed as they are only ever small to medium operations and being so deep in the rainforest they go unnoticed by IBAMA.
Sometimes, legal logging organisations provide a cover for the illegal, with wood being cut illegally upstream, and then floated downstream to the organisations. When they pass a certain point, they are then 'legalised' with forged documents and claim to of been cut from the legal organisation site.
Greenpeace has developed a way to track the illegal logs back to the exporting companies using ultraviolet paint.
The largest IBAMA team in the Amazon basin only has one inspector for an area around the size of Switzerland, and can therefore only detect around 10% of illegal logging in the Amazon because of this lack of operatives and funding.
Transnational logging giant WTK has also recently bought 313,000 hectares of land, and 150,000 of this land illegally overlapped with indigenous territory.
Selecting valuable trees to cut down also changes the structure of the forest, as in cutting them down other trees are damaged in the process. Logging companies cut down 10-40% of live biomass of a forest area, and therefore open up the canopy from 14-50%. This in turn makes the rainforest more susceptible to forest fires. Opening up the forest also leads to more destruction taking place such as hunting, road building, and clearing for agriculture.
However, despite the high rate of illegal logging, important timber importing countries such as the US, UK, Spain, France and Japan have taken few measures to ensure their timber isn't illegally sourced.

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OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - RESEARCH - EFFECTS OF DEFORESTATION (PACHAMAMA)

Environmental from above:
Lost habitat
Animal and plant species are being lost due to their habitat being destroyed by deforestation. Those species that we already know of are becoming extinct, but also those that we aren't aware of yet, and therefore never will know about.
The tree's occupying the rainforest not only provide shelter for such animals, but also help to regulate the temperature. The deforestation and removal of such canopies would result in a larger variation in temperature between day and night, which would be fatal for many species.
Increased greenhouse gasses
The loss of trees allows more greenhouse gasses to be released into the atmosphere. Currently, the tropical rainforests of South America account for 20% of the World's oxygen, and they're disappearing at 4 hectares a decade.
Water in the atmosphere
The trees in the rainforest also control the amount of water in the atmosphere, by helping to regulating the water cycle. With trees being destroyed in deforestation, there is less water in the air to be returned to soil, which causes drier soil and the inability to grow crops.

Environmental from below:
Soil erosion and flooding
One of trees often looked over functions is to retain water and topsoil, which provides the nutrients to sustain forest life. Without trees, the soil erodes and washes away, which results in farmers moving away and doing the same to another patch of land. This eroded land is more susceptible to flooding, especially in coastal areas.

On Indigenous people:
Destruction of homelands
As the rainforest is cleared away, exposed earth withers and dies, and the habitats of species is destroyed, the indigenous people who depend on these species and vegetation to sustain their way of life are also damaged. It effects their lifestyle in a way we will never know. Government nations with tropical rainforests often try (and succeed) to evict these indigenous tribes before the destruction occurs, which is a pre-emptive effect of deforestation.

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OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - RESEARCH - GREENPEACE "EATING UP THE AMAZON" REPORT

The Amazon rainforest is home to around 220,000 people from 180 indigenous nations who live deep in the rainforest, alongside many more forest reliant communities. The rainforest is a source of food, shelter, and provides tools and medicines to these people.
Between 2003-4 an area the size of Belgium was cleared in the Amazon rainforest, and almost 3/4 of this was done illegally. In 2004-5 1.2 million hectares of soya crops were planted in the Brasilian Amazon rainforest. Slave labour is used in the clearing of the rainforest, with Mato Grosso and Para (the two leading states in the soya frontier) responsible for more than half of all the slaves reported in Brasil. Between 2003-4 the Brasilian government reported nearly 8,700 slaves in the two states.
Up to 75% of Brasil's greenhouse gas emissions are a result of deforestation, with most coming from the clearing and burning of the Amazon rainforest. Brasil is the world's 4th largest climate polluter.
Three US-based agricultural giants (Daniel's Midland, Bunge, and Cargill) are responsible for about 60% of the total financing for soya production in Brasil. Together, these three companies control more than 3/4 of the soya crushing capacity in Europe that supplies soya meal and oil to the animal feed market. Cargill is the company invading the most into the Amazon, with an illegal port facility already built in the rainforest. This spurs on illegal deforestation and soya plantations, to deliver soya to international markets. Daniel's Midland and Bunge are following in Cargill's footsteps, with four and six silos respectively already in the Amazon.
80% of the world's soya production is fed to the livestock industry. Increasing demand for soya animal feed from the livestock industry is fuelling the expansion of the agricultural frontier far into the rainforest. Europe buys half the soya exported from Mato Grosso, where 90% of soya is grown. Meat fed with rainforest soya easily finds it's way onto supermarket shelves and fast food restaurants across Europe.

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