190 - Earth's Tree News

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Today for you 39 news items about Earth's trees. Location, number and

subject listed below. Condensed / abbreviated article is listed further

below.Can be viewed on the web at http://www.livejournal.com/users/olyecology or by sending a blank email message to

earthtreenews---British Columbia: 1) Save Caribou, 2) Caribou threats, 3) Park expansion proposal, 4) Cathedral grove expansion proposal,--Washington: 5) Direct Action on Weyco, 6) $100 Million for parks,

--Oregon: 7) Industry not fires destroy the forest landscape--California: 8) Sierra Pacific protests, 9) Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch,--Montana: 10) Molloy lifts another injunction, 11) local newspaper is pro-timber,

--Louisiana: 12) Save the coastal Cypress forests,--Florida: 13) Panthers threatened with extinction--Eastern US: 14) The Great Eastern Trail--USA: 15) Courts are helping to stop Bush, 16) Climate change to hurt industry?

--Canada: 17) Ancient Hemlock discovered--North America: 18) Y2Y corridor, 19) Wood pellet race, --Uganda: 20) More details on tree protest riot, 21) Even more details,--India: 22) Green cover of Delhi, 23) Forest Burning festival, 24) Flood the Sundarbans,

--Philippines: 25) Logging Moratorium will help deal with global warming,--Malaysia: 26) Penan Tribal blockade torn down again, 27) Native sickness is a protest,--Indonesia: 28) World's highest logging rates set to increase significantly

--Sumatra: 29) More on Harapan forest--Laos: 30) Deforestation history--Australia:

31) Climate friendly burials, 32) Gunns in Tasmania, 33) Save Cape

York, 34) Bio-prospecting, 35) Direct Action in Tasmania,--World-wide: 36) Global deforestation book, 37) deforest stats, 38) UN forum on forests, 39) Illegal logging issues,British Columbia:1)

In the remote, rugged terrain of eastern British Columbia, herds of

majestic mountain caribou found nowhere else are clinging to a

precarious existence, as logging companies and backcountry enthusiasts

steadily erode their wilderness habitat. Despite numerous studies and

several plans to preserve the unique subspecies of the more plentiful

woodland caribou, their numbers continue to dwindle. Recent figures

estimate that only about 1,700 mountain caribou remain, most in the

northernmost reaches of their territory where there has been less human

intrusion. In the southeast of the province, some herds barely exist.

Now, in a bold proposal to prevent the mountain caribou from

disappearing completely from the region, a prominent environmental

group is calling for a large swath of the caribou's critical habitat

area to be preserved in a 251,000-hectare provincial park. The Valhalla

Wilderness Society, in the forefront of many campaigns to preserve

endangered species, including the mountain caribou, also wants another

150,000 hectares of heavily logged land set aside as habitat recovery

areas. Further logging would be banned. " These protection measures are

urgent and critical to the survival of the[area's] mountain

caribou, " said Colleen McCrory, the wilderness society's veteran

executive director. " It's the last opportunity in this area to capture

some intact old-growth forest for wildlife and future generations. " The

proposed new park, more than three times as large as the adjacent Goat

Range Provincial Park, would be located in the southeast corner of

B.C., sandwiched between Nakusp and Revelstoke in the Selkirk

Mountains. It contains many low-lying valleys with large, ancient trees

that grow hair-like lichens, critical to the caribou's winter diet.

Indeed, the entire region is considered the world's only inland

temperate rain forest, containing towering cedars up to 1,500 years

old. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070418.BCCARIBOU18/TPStory/EnvironmentWEST

KOOTENAYS - The last remaining habitat for a herd of 100 endangered

mountain caribou in the Central Selkirk Mountains is open for continued

logging in the coming year. Although the provincial and federal

governments are conducting a recovery process for the mountain caribou,

they have done nothing to prevent another year of destruction that will

take the animals' life support out from under them. The Valhalla

Wilderness Society has put the area on a map and proposed an end to

further logging in it. The 251,016-hectare area, called the Selkirk

Mountain Caribou Park Proposal, would connect the Goat Range Provincial

Park and Glacier National Park. " So much of the Central Selkirk herd's

habitat has been clearcut that what's left of it is very limited and

identifiable, " says Craig Pettitt, a director of the Society. " The

government knows about it. Either they protect it or they're killing

the most viable of the southern mountain caribou herds." An extensive

part of the area, north of Nakusp and west and north of the Goat Range

Provincial Park, is already designated for 100% forest retention under

the Kootenay-Boundary Higher Level Plan. But the area set aside is very

high elevation forest that is largely worthless to the timber industry.

" What's killing the caribou is that they're logging the low- and

mid-elevation forest to shreds, " says Pettitt. " This forest is

essential to the survival of the mountain caribou. " " BC's Species at

Risk Coordination Office (SaRCO) and its Mountain Caribou Science Team

are proposing a substantial increase in habitat protection in the

northern part of the mountain caribou range, but very little real

change in the Central Selkirks, " says Colleen McCrory, Executive of the Society. " Their solution is predominantly to shoot

bears, wolverines, cougars, wolves, moose, and deer. When the logging

companies come to log in the Westfall, in the Halfway River and other

key mountain caribou areas this year, we'll see that this recovery

process is just killing our predators while it kills our caribou too.

We are asking for an immediate logging moratorium on this proposed park

and habitat recovery area so its fate can be decided in a rational way

rather than logging it under the false excuse that killing predators

will save the caribou. " http://www.vws.org3)

Five days before Earth Day, Environment Minister Barry Penner

introduced legislation Tuesday that will establish 41 new conservancies

and three Class A parks in B.C. It also will add territory to 16

existing parks and three conservancies. The announcement is the result

in large part of an agreement reached among first nations, government

and industry on the fate of the Great Bear Rainforest. The 41

conservancies protect about 165,030 hectares -- 161,618 hectares of

land and 3,412 hectares of marine foreshore. Twenty-four conservancies

were established in the area in 2006 bringing to 65 the number of

conservancies established along the north and central coasts. Penner

said the province has already surpassed its goal of ensuring that at

least 12 per cent of B.C.'s land base is being protected. He said the

figure is now closer to 14 per cent. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=07230655-81f9-4eba-8aff-236

1d777e7274)

Nearly 370 hectares of land will be formally added to four Island parks

as a result of provincial legislation introduced yesterday. MacMillan

Park, the site of Cathedral Grove, will be increased by 144 hectares to

a total of 301 hectares through the acquisition of private land from

Weyerhaeuser and a lease with The Nature Trust. Ruckle Park and

Burgoyne Bay Park on Saltspring Island will grow by 35 and 190 hectares

respectively. And Gowlland Tod Park on the Saanich Inlet will be

increased by almost three quarters of a hectare. Yesterday's

legislation also created three new Class A parks -- two in the West

Kootenays and one in the Skeena region -- that encompass more than 900

hectares in total, and added to 12 other provincial parks. As well, it

created 41 new conservancies on the mid- and North Coast of B.C.,

protecting another 165,030 hectares. Many of the changes have been

announced previously by the government. Bill 24 formalizes the land

transfer into park, protected area or conservancy status. Environment

Minister Barry Penner said the province has already surpassed its goal

of ensuring that at least 12 per cent of B.C.'s land base is protected.

He said the figure is now closer to 14 per cent. At MacMillan Park,

near Port Alberni, the additional land was acquired through a

$2-million purchase by the province from Weyerhaeuser, a $2.8-million

gift from Weyerhaeuser and a lease of 28.3 hectares owned by The Nature

Trust.The government said the additions nearly double the size of the

park " and provide some mature second-growth timber next to Cathedral

Grove itself. 'http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/capital_van_isl/story.html?id=c6df0f2a-9b65-40

36-99fc-f18df2095437Washington:5)

Video from the scene shows two people with ropes and harnesses hanging

off the side of the building at 14725 SE 36th Street. They unfurled a

banner covering part of the building that read " Weyerhaeuser: Human

Rights Abuser. " The group, called the Rainforest Action Network claims

Weyerhaeuser committed human rights abuses because it would not stop

sourcing wood from a clear-cut logging operation in Ontario, Canada.

The group says the operation is in the ancestral homeland of a native

community. Police or security officers and some people wearing orange

construction-type vest could be seen on the roof. About an hour later,

the demonstators had come down voluntarily. Four people were arrested

by Bellevue Police. There is no response yet from Weyerhaeuser on the

claims by the group. http://www.nwcn.com/statenews/washington/stories/NW_041807WABweyerhaeuserquadrantprotest.20289

5c2.html6)

Both the State House and Senate have voted to approve a two-year

capital construction budget that doubles funding for Washington

Wildlife and Recreation Program (WWRP) grants to $100 million. The

legislature is expected to vote on a final budget by the end of the

week. See our media release or the Olympian's recent editorial for

more. The WWRP provides grants to protect Washington's special places.

Learn what projects are in your community by visiting the Washington

Wildlife and Recreation Coalition's website. The House and Senate

construction budgets both include $100 million for WWRP grants, and the

Governor now supports $100 million (vs. $70 million in her original

budget). As we near the end of the legislative session, we're working

to make sure $100 million is included in the final budget. This week's

vote marks the end of our campaign to double funding for WWRP grants to

$100 million in the state's capital construction budget. This is the

largest budget request Washington's environmental community has ever

made. WWRP funding hasn't increased since 1990--inflation and real

estate prices have eroded the program's buying power! http://www.wildliferecreation.org/Oregon:7)

Well, I am not a lawyer, a judge or an isolated interest group, but I

was chairman of the Forests Subcommittee of the U.S. House of

Representatives for 10 years and observed close at hand the devastation

wreaked on both federal and private forests in Oregon and elsewhere.

Prendergast wails at the thought of fires destroying forest habitat,

and this brought to mind the time I flew over a number of national

forests with the chief of the U.S. Forest Service to observe their

efforts at replanting. The lack of decent growth was pitiful. It became

so embarrassing that I tried to cheer up the chief by pointing out

thriving young stands when we spotted one. Each and every time I did so

the chief would say, " that's a recovering burn. " Prendergast scoffs at

the very idea of a " cut and get out " mentality of the timber industry.

But as surely as God made Douglas firs, that is exactly what they did.

The vast private forests of Weyerhaeuser, Georgia Pacific and others

have been mowed down (with much of them shipped to Japan along with the

lumber mill jobs) and those companies have pretty much left our state.

The great lumber union halls in Coos Bay are all closed down now, and

the huge Weyerhaeuser mill where I used to shake hands with thousands

of workers as they came off shift is now an Indian casino. After the

private timber disappeared, the industry tried to do the same thing

with the federal forests. In 1982, the Reagan administration issued a

regulation doubling the cut on federal forests, and only with the help

of Southern foresters (whose industry did not want all that timber

dumped on the market) was I able to stop that gambit. Where were the

Northwest foresters? Not a peep. But the overcutting proceeded apace,

and the plywood mills are gone now, along with the big peeler logs.

When I retired from Congress in 1987 there was only 9 percent of the

old growth timber left on the national forests. There would be none at

all today if the spotted owl lawsuits had not intervened. As for

Prendergast's call for " professional management, " I cannot think of

anything worse for our forest lands than applying poisons to stifle

competing growth. They are taught to be chemical foresters in college,

but their brand of management should be outlawed. I tried to do just

that and met with some success (I got 2,4,5,T - a component of Agent

Orange - banned). The foresters did not like that. Once in a speech in

Ashland to Northwest foresters I was booed off the dais. Give me wild

and natural growth of our forests. Recent studies have shown " God's

management " produces more trees and better forests. Jim Weaver of

Eugene represented Oregon's 4th District in the U.S. House from 1975 to

1987. http://www.registerguard.com/news/2007/04/18/ed.col.weaver.0418.p1.php?section=opinionCalifornia:

7)

They gathered at Sierra Pacific Windows, the logging giant's lone Bay

Area division, at 4897 Hotchkiss St. The horror-movie theme employed by

Bridges and his colleagues was drenched in irony, but they are

combating a serious ecological problem, the activists said. " I saw the

destruction firsthand in my community, " said Bridges, who grew up in

Arnold, a Sierra Nevada town. Bridges said Sierra Pacific Industries,

which is the state's largest logging corporation, destroys habitats and

is polluting the environment by using pesticides that drain into the

water supply. " Also, rather than practicing sustainable or selective

logging, they clear-cut hundreds of thousands of acres in the Sierra,

which clears out the entire area, " said Tom O'Leary, spokesman for

ForestEthics, the San Francisco organization that planned the protest.

O'Leary also accused the logging company of replanting cleared forests

in unsafe ways. " When the trees are the same age and height, it

increases the fire risk, because the tree branches are spaced perfectly

to catch fire next to each other, " O'Leary said. Sierra Pacific

Industries spokesman Mark Pawlicki said the environmentalists'

accusations are not true. http://origin.insidebayarea.com/dailyreview/localnews/ci_56677238)

The Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch is taking a stand against Sierra Pacific

Industries' plans to heavily log more than 1,700 acres in northeastern

Calaveras County. Group members say documents filed with the California

Department of Forestry and Fire Protection show Sierra Pacific intends

to clear-cut more than two-thirds of the 74,000 acres it owns in

Calaveras County over the next 80 years. The most recent timber harvest

application Sierra Pacific filed with CDF details 231 acres of proposed

clear-cutting and 1,275 acres of commercial thinning, with another 262

acres subject to other selective methods of tree removal. The varying

logging would cover a total of 1,768 acres. The acreage is on the north

fork of the Mokleumne River, northeast of West Point, near Salt Springs

Road. About 100 acres cross over into Amador County. Sierra Pacific

first submitted plans to log the site in October 2006, but the state

forestry department returned them because some information was missing

or unclear, said Steve Hollett, CDF unit forester for Calaveras and

Tuolumne counties. The Redding-based logging company re-submitted plans

March 13, and a pre-harvest inspection is slated for later this month,

Hollett said. " It's been pretty controversial because it's a big cut, "

he said. http://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=23237Montana;10)

BUTTE - A U.S. district judge has lifted an injunction on logging

beetle-killed trees on 2,600 acres in and around the Basin Creek

watershed south of here. U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy of

Missoula issued the order Tuesday, saying a U.S. Forest Service

analysis showed the project would not significantly impact soils. Three

environmental groups vowed to appeal the case Thursday. " The project is

a bad idea, " said Jeff Juel of the Wild West Institute, formerly the

Ecology Center, in Missoula. " We're committed to following our legal

options to bring some good management to the area. " The Ecology Center,

the Native Ecosystems Council and the Alliance for the Wild Rockies

sued the Forest Service over its Basin Creek Hazardous Fuels Reduction

Project in 2005. The groups said they oppose the project because it

included clear-cutting 1,100 acres and building 14 miles of new roads.

Juel said he also believes that claims that the dead trees create a

fire hazard are greatly exaggerated. " It's a fiction that there is any

elevated fire risk, and the Forest Service folks realize that, " he

said. " When you have this agenda to log and you're looking for any

reason you can, propaganda is often the tool used by the agency. It's

easy to scare people with the specter of fire. " Forest Service

officials have said logging the dead timber will reduce the chance that

a major wildfire will ravage the basin 20 years from now, when the

forest floor is thick with deadfall. Project supporters also argue that

Basin Creek reservoir is the source of roughly 40 percent of Butte's

water and needs to be protected from pollution caused by wildfire. The

Forest Service applauds Molloy's ruling but doesn't expect the legal

battle to end soon, said Jack de Golia, public affairs officer for the

Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/04/14/news/state/54-dead.txt11)

I've been working on forest and public land issues here in the Northern

Rockies for the past 10 years and over that time I've had my share of

opportunities to work with media outlets – large and small – all around

the country, and even internationally. Without a doubt, the Missoulian

has done a remarkable job – particularly over the past few years – of

setting itself apart from the rest of the media world when it comes to

consistently misleading and biased news coverage and editorializing on

forest and public lands issues. This is seen in not only what the

Missoulian chooses to cover in the paper, but also by what the

Missoulian chooses not to put in the paper. I can guarantee you that if

our organization was to file a lawsuit against the Forest Service today

for failure to follow the law or apply the best science when managing

our public lands that the next day's paper would have a superficial

news article about the lawsuit on the front page, above the fold. This

would likely be followed by an official editorial from the paper

blasting us for being " obstructionists " and for filing " frivolous

lawsuits. " How do I know this would happen? Because it's happened time

and again over the years. You can imagine my surprise when, on March

11, I opened up my front door and picked up the Missoulian and right on

the front page was an article titled, "Forest Service struggles to

finish restoration" Nothing in the article talked about how the Forest

Service on the Bitterroot is still missing $7.1 million in restoration

funding that the agency itself took from the forest. Apparently the

paper felt that this fact has nothing to do with the Forest Service

struggling to finish restoration work. Instead, the basic premise of

the article was that the Forest Service struggles to complete

restoration work solely because when the government is found guilty of

violating the law they sometimes pay attorney's fees through the Equal

Access to Justice Act (EAJA). http://www.newwest.net/index.php/citjo/article/whys_the_missoulian_misleading_the_public/C33/L

33/Louisiana:12)

The state's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority accepted a

list of recommendations on coastal cypress management during a meeting

Thursday. For almost two years, a governor-appointed Coastal Wetland

Forest Conservation and Use Advisory Panel has met to make policy

recommendations based on a science report on cypress forests. That

report concluded that some coastal cypress forests are in danger of

disappearing because of problems with coastal erosion, subsidence and

other factors that have caused prolonged flooding in some areas.

Although cypress can tolerate standing water, the tree still needs a

certain amount of dry land in order to grow from seeds. Recommendations

given to the authority include developing an incentive program to

promote conservation of cypress forests and to survey the condition of

cypress forests in the state. Sidney Coffee, chairwoman of the Coastal

Protection and Restoration Authority, asked that the state form a

working group to continue to examine the issues surrounding coastal

cypress forests. http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/7003772.htmlFlorida:13)

Three Florida panthers have been killed by motor vehicles in the last

week, raising serious questions about the conservation of this iconic

species in south Florida. Defenders of Wildlife attributes these

accidents to overdevelopment of the endangered panther's prime habitat,

leading to more vehicle traffic and more panther fatalities as panthers

look for new territory in ever-smaller patches of habitat. The growing

number of panther deaths caused by vehicles indicates how vulnerable

the panthers are in rapidly developing south Florida. New figures from

the U.S. Census Bureau rank Collier and Lee counties among the nation's

top ten fastest growing metro areas. " Much of the panthers' habitat has

been degraded, fragmented or destroyed by development and road

construction, " said Elizabeth Fleming, Florida representative with

Defenders of Wildlife. " The panthers' habitat is disappearing, forcing

them to cross dangerous roadways in search of suitable options

elsewhere. " The panther is a protected endangered species under the

federal Endangered Species Act, which prohibits anyone from killing a

panther and prohibits federal agencies from authorizing, funding, or

carrying out any action that could jeopardize the continued existence

of the panther. Panthers once roamed much of the southeastern United

States, but development has restricted them to just five percent of

their historic range, and scientists estimate that there are only about

100 panthers left in southern Florida. Six panthers have been killed by

vehicles since the beginning of 2007. Nearly 10 percent of the known

panther population has been killed by vehicles in the last 12 months. http://www.defenders.org/releases/pr2007/pr040607.htmlEastern US:

14)

The Great Eastern Trail is born, 1700 miles from Florida to New York. A

project of the American Hiking Society linking together a vast network

of existing trails, an alternative to The Appalachian Trail. " The Great

Eastern Trail would start at the Florida-Alabama line, rolling through

gentle forest before climbing up clifftop vistas as the path edges

north. A ring of old logging roads would stretch the trail through

Georgia to Tennessee, where the trail would pass Chattanooga and border

river gorges and rocky outcroppings on its way to the mid-Atlantic

states. Through caves and crags, ridges and overlooks, the trail would

then scamper through Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia. It crosses

the narrow width of Maryland next, piggybacking on a historic towpath

that's probably the trail's easiest segment. In Pennsylvania, it

wanders through thick, dark forests using old logging roads, etching a

path through Paddy Mountain on the trail's only tunnel before ending a

few miles north just across the New York border. " Sue Turner a.k.a.

Hammock Hanger is the first person to attempt the entire through-hike

of the new trail, she is pictured here at the starting kiosk on April

1, 2007. Her online journal is here, click on last to read the latest

entry. USA:15) A little over four years ago, when the

forces of deregulation were riding high, this page observed that the

federal courts could turn out to be the last, best hope for slowing the

Bush administration's assault on the body of bipartisan environmental

law established over the last four decades and, by extension, on the

environment itself. As things have turned out, this is pretty much what

has happened. In the last few weeks alone, federal judges at the

district or appellate level have: 1) Rejected efforts to weaken

protections for the national forests, including the old-growth forests

of the Pacific Northwest. 2) Overturned a government plan that would

have hastened the decline of endangered salmon in the Pacific

Northwest. 3) Rebuffed challenges to clean air laws governing pollution

from older power plants. 4) Invoked the Clean Water Act to prevent

mining companies from laying waste to streams and valleys in

Appalachia. -- In some cases the courts have done more than just play

defense. In the Supreme Court ruling on global warming two weeks ago,

the court not only protected existing law but aggressively enlarged its

reach, ruling that the Clean Air Act all but required the Environmental

Protection Agency to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases. The

courts, of course, have hardly been alone in this struggle. When the

history of this administration's endless tussles with environmental law

and practice is written, the various advocacy groups that challenged

the administration in court at nearly every step of the way will occupy

a major role. So, too, will an often underappreciated group, the

states' attorneys general, particularly those from California and the

Northeast. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/14/opinion/14sat1.html?_r=1 & hp & oref=slogin16)

Climate change will exact a major cost on North America's timber

industry and could drive as much as 40 percent of its plant and animal

species extinct in a matter of decades, according to a new report from

an international panel. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change (IPCC), which released its summary report on global warming's

overall impact earlier this month, provided a more detailed assessment

Monday of the effects on North America. The report, written and edited

by dozens of scientists, looks at how global warming has begun to

transform the continent and how it will likely affect it in the future.

The 67-page report, which examines everything from freshwater

ecosystems to tourism, said North America has suffered severe

environmental and economic damage because of extreme weather events

including hurricanes, heat waves and forest fires. Without " increased

investments in countermeasures, " the authors wrote that they are at

least 90 percent sure that " hot temperatures and extreme weather are

likely to cause increased adverse health impacts from heat-related

mortality, pollution, storm-related fatalities and injuries, and

infectious diseases. " Kristi Ebi, a public-health and global-warming

consultant who worked on a different chapter of the IPCC report, said

at a news conference that " human health is already being affected by

climate change, and the impacts will only increase. " North American

forests also will suffer from a warming climate, the report states, and

increases in wildfires, insect infestations and disease could cost wood

and timber producers $1 billion to $2 billion by the end of the

century. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003669257_warming17.htmlCanada:17)

When she first counted and measured the rings of the tree sample under

a microscope, she couldn't believe her eyes. So she measured it a

second time, and then, just to make sure her eyes weren't deceiving

her, she followed the whole process once more. She then called in her

supervisor to make sure what she had seen was accurate. " He was in

disbelief too, " said Ms. Hart, adding that the two immediately rifled

through the record books to look up the ages of other old eastern

hemlocks. The tree ranks as the 11th-oldest eastern hemlock to be found

in the world, and the third-oldest found in Canada. The two other older

Canadian eastern hemlock trees are in Southern Ontario. Despite its

age, the tree is smaller and thinner than others in the forest. From

the centre of the tree to the bark, it is only 26.5 centimetres,

shorter than a common ruler. Ms. Hart couldn't reveal her find until

this week because the Nova Scotia government was negotiating with a

company to secure the land she and others were surveying -- 29 parcels

in total -- for conservation. But her discovery both surprised and

delighted government officials. " We knew there were old trees there. We

didn't realize how old they were, " said Robert Cameron, an ecologist

with the protected areas branch of the Ministry of Environment and

Labour. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070414.TREE14/TPStory/NationalNorth America:18)

Wildlife corridors are areas of land used to connect suitable habitat

for a species or group of species. The most impressive effort to date

to create one of these wildlife superhighways is occurring in the Rocky

Mountains of Canada and the US. The Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation

Initiative (Y2Y), begun in 1997, has evolved into a coalition of over

280 conservation and scientific organizations working to manage the

land for both animals and people. To do this they began by defining

wildlife core areas (where the habitat protection is a high priority to

ensure the survival of the local flora and fauna), wildlife movement

corridors (where the large carnivores can travel safely between

disconnected habitat) and transition areas (which allow for intense

human activity). http://www.y2y.net/19)

A North American wood pellet race has begun, with its eyes on exports

to Europe. There regulations designed to combat global climate change

have created incentives for power companies to boost their use of

biomass. Europe already consumes nearly 8 million tons of wood pellets

a year, to run factories and power plants (see the International Energy

Agency's Bioenergy Task 32 on biomass co-firing with coal), and to heat

entire neighborhoods (combined heat-and-power biomass systems with

district heating). In 2005, the EU witnessed a 16% growth of

electricity produced from biomass (earlier post). This continued growth

is leading entrepreneurs in timber-growing regions from Florida to

Maine and Canada to build or expand pellet mills. Biofuel pellets are

made by compressing sawdust and other dried wood waste, such as forest

thinnings, into a dense, high-combustion fuel source. The fuel can then

be used as an alternative to or in combination with coal in

utility-scale power plants, as a dedicated fuel source in smaller but

highly efficient CHP plants, or as an alternative to heating oil used

by households who burn pellets in stoves. Woody biomass, converted into

fuel briquettes or pellets, is rapidly becoming competitive with fossil

fuels, even with coal. http://www.biopact.com/2007/04/us-wood-pellet-industry-eyes-exports-to.htmlUganda: 20)

A suspected looter was shot dead by security guards and a passer-by hit

by a stray bullet, say the police, who have fired live bullets and tear

gas. There have been several attacks on Asians, leaving two people in

hospital. The sugar company is Asian-owned. A third of the Mabira

forest reserve has been earmarked to grow sugar. Environmentalists say

the move threatens existence of rare species of trees and birds in the

30,000-hectare forest. President Yoweri Museveni was re-elected for a

third term in office last year and reports say plans to de-gazette the

forest land have sparked divisions in the government. The march began

quietly, with about 500 people marching through central Kampala,

carrying placards and tree branches. Sugar Corporation of Uganda

(Scoul), part of the Asian-owned Mehta group, wants to expand its

plantations in central Uganda. Campaigners are now calling on Ugandans

to boycott its sugar products to step up pressure against the

government plans to hive off part of the reserve. Media reports say

public protests over the government plans have heightened in the

capital and car bumper stickers urging people to save Mabira forest

have become very popular. There has also been a text message campaign,

urging people to take part in the protests. http://www.kbc.co.ke/story.asp?ID=4204021)

Age-old racial tensions flared up in Uganda this week when Africans

demonstrated against Asians. The demonstration turned ugly when

Africans - carrying banners with slogans like " Asians should go " and

" For one tree cut, five Indians dead " - started attacking Asians and

their property, stoning one to death, smashing a Hindu temple, and

setting vehicles alight. According to Uganda's The New Vision

newspaper, the rioting was the result of the government's plan to give

away part of the Mabira Forest to the Sugar Corporation of Uganda,

which forms part of the Indian-owned Mehta Group. Opposition MPs were

allegedly part of the protest march on Thursday, which was meant to be

peaceful, but flared into violence when the police blocked protesters

from marching on to Kampala Road. While police chief Kale Kayihura gave

permission for the demonstration, he mapped out a route which should be

followed. When the protesters tried to take a different course,

anti-riot police sealed off Kampala Road. The demonstrators pelted them

with stones and in response the police fired teargas. According to The

New Vision, one of the MPs, Jimmy Akena, managed to calm the crowds and

led them along the designated route. However, some demonstrators

grabbed an Indian man, passing by on a motorcycle, and beat him up. He

managed to escape but his scooter was set ablaze. The crowd then ran

amok when another Indian man drove through them with his car, hitting

two children, who were part of the Royal Brass Band at the head of the

procession. The driver sped off amid a barrage of stones, and his car

is believed to be the same vehicle which drove over one of Uganda's

radio journalists, Simon Kaggwa, who was dragged away by colleagues. An

Indian sales representative, Devang Rawal, took the full wrath of the

crowd who stoned him to death. Demonstrators turned their attentions to

a Hindu temple - with an estimated 40 Indians trapped inside - and

smashed its windows, then attempted to burn down a mosque. A trailer

loaded with sugar, belonging to a city tycoon with links to prominent

Indians, was set ablaze, while the driver fled. Anti-riot police

managed to rescue several Indians, some of whom were admitted to

Kampala International Hospital. http://southafricasucks.blogspot.com/2007/04/restless-natives-launch-race-attack-on.html

India:22)

A week after 'Trees for Delhi', a forum of citizens and

environmentalists, took out a silent protest march to express their

concern over the disappearing green cover of Delhi, Chief Minister

Sheila Dikshit has invited them for a meeting Wednesday. The forum,

which is only six-months-old, has been raising alarm by initiating

several campaigns, taking out peace protests, distributing flyers and

staging plays, in a bid to sensitise people about the huge amount of

deforestation that has been taking place in the capital. The forum

initiated a signature campaign about a month and a half back, which is

still going on, and submitted a petition to Dikshit with the signatures

of a 1,000 people. The forum's main concern is the rampant destruction

of trees for various constructions without any re-plantation. " We are

not against construction of roads, highways and buildings. But what we

are asking is that does development always have to be so

anti-greenery? " asks Nanni Singh, executive director of Trees for

Delhi. http://www.playfuls.com/news_006356_Save_Trees_Campaign_Reaches_Chief_Ministers_Ears.html23)

Come 'Chaitra Parva', the annual festival of the tribals, forests would

be on fire in this tribal district. As per tradition, hunting of wild

animals is a must during the festival and for this the tribals ablaze

the forests to compel the wild animals to come out of their hideouts

for easy catching. This year, for the last few days' fire had been

raging in several reserved forest areas and over hundreds of hillocks

and hills of Koraput, Malkangiri and Rayagada districts. With the

authorities failing to prevent the tribals from setting forests ablaze

there is huge loss of forest resources. " Tribals have a tradition of

hunting during their festival but not to ablaze the forests for

hunting. Each year crores of rupees are being spent for plantation and

to regenerate forests but during this festival season huge patches of

forest lands and ground flora are destroyed by fire. Small animals are

killed in fire. Though it is a bit difficult to control it due to vast

forest area but the concerned authorities should take the tribal

community heads into confidence to create awareness among the tribals, "

said Susil Roy centre director, RCDC, a voluntary organisation.

According to official sources, more than 100 acres of forest lands have

been destroyed during the past one month after tribals set the forests

on fire to hunt animals. The inferno has damaged thousands of small and

big trees in these districts. " As the festival is going to continue for

some more days the total damage of forest resources may increase and

the exact loss figure will be known after an assessment is done, "

sources added. http://www.kalingatimes.com/orissa_news/news/20070406_Tribals_set_forests_on_fire.htm24)

In front of his small mud house lies the wreckage of what was once his

village. Half of it has sunk into the sea. Only a handful of families

cling on so close to the water today, surrounded as they are by

reminders of inexorable destruction: a half-broken canoe left by

someone who moved away; a coconut palm teetering on a cliff; the

gouged-out remnants of a family's fish pond. All that stands between

Mandal's home and the water is a rudimentary mud embankment, and there

is no telling, he confessed, when it, too, might fall away. " What will

happen next we don't know, " he said, summing up his only certainty. The

sinking of Ghoramara Island can be attributed to a confluence of

disasters, both natural and human, not least the rising sea. In concert

with global warming, the rivers that pour down from the Himalayas and

empty into the Bay of Bengal have swelled and shifted In recent

decades, placing these already fragile islands, known as the

Sundarbans, in the mouth of daily danger. A recent study by Sugata

Hazra, an oceanographer at Jadavpur University in nearby Calcutta,

found that during the last 30 years, roughly 80 square kilometers, or

31 square miles, of the Sundarbans have disappeared. More than 600

families have been displaced, according to the local government

authorities. Fields and ponds have been submerged. Ghoramara alone has

shrunk to under five square kilometers, about half its size in 1969,

Hazra's study concluded. In the last 20 years, two other islands have

vanished entirely. The Sundarbans are among the world's largest

collection of river delta islands. In geological terms, they are young

and still under formation, cut by an intricate network of streams and

tributaries that straddle the border between India and Bangladesh. Ever

since the British settled the Sundarbans 150 years ago in pursuit of

timber, the mangroves have been steadily depleted, half of the islands

have lost their forest cover and the population has grown. Today, sea

rise and deforestation threaten the Sundarbans' most storied

inhabitant, the Royal Bengal tiger, which drinks these salty waters and

has a peculiar appetite for human flesh. Environmental degradation also

threatens the unsung human residents: Four million people live here on

the Indian side of the border alone. http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/10/asia/india.phpPhilippines25)

Environmental activists urge leading candidates: Curb climate change by

protecting Philippine forests. National and district-level candidates

and partylists in the 2007 elections should lay the foundation for

managing extreme weather conditions expected to result from climate

change by immediately supporting an urgent moratorium on commercial

logging operations rampant in the Philippines, Kalikasan Peoples

Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) said today. "There are many

significant ways to contribute to the international campaign against

global warming, and instituting an urgent commercial logging moratorium

in the Philippines is one of them," Kalikasan PNE National Coordinator

Clemente Bautista, Jr. said."Forests, next to oceans, act as a carbon

sink. They help generate a liveable air environment by absorbing carbon

dioxide emissions, pollutive chemicals in the atmosphere and

particulates and release oxygen back into the atmosphere. Forests play

a significant role in moderating the movement of greenhouse gases

(GHGs) between land and the atmosphere. By supporting policies that

protect, preserve, and increase the Philippine's forest cover, we will

be able to partially but significantly mitigate the threats posed by

climate change and extreme weather occurrences in this part of the

region," Bautista explained. "Saving the Philippine forests from wanton

plunder is not just an issue of climate change," Bautista clarified,

"The Philippines has an ecosystem that is archipelagic, generally

mountainous and sloping, so we really should maintain an ideal forest

cover of around 54% of the total land area or more to help prevent

occurrences of flash floods, exacerbated landslides, and biodiversity

loss," he said. "However, this isn't what's happening in the country.

According to the last credible inventory of the Forest Management

Bureau in 2002, forest cover has dipped to only 16% of the Philippine's

land area. 124 out of 154 watershed areas designated by the DENR are

already in critical state. http://davaotoday.com/2007/04/18/environmental-activists-urge-candidates-curb-climate-change-by

-protecting-philippines-forests/Malaysia:26)

Malaysian police in Sarawak have for a second time dismantled a

blockade set up by members of the Penan tribe to protect their

rainforest land from logging by Malaysian company Samling. 'The police

and the company workers were very rude and did not negotiate with us,'

a Penan spokesman said. 'We couldn't do anything because we heard the

police firing gunshots which made the situation really dangerous to

us.' The Penan had been blockading a logging road to prevent Samling

from destroying one of the last remaining areas of pristine rainforest

left in Sarawak. The Penan rely on this forest for their food and all

their needs; without it they cannot survive as an independent and

self-sufficient people. Police dismantled the blockade on 4 April using

chainsaws. The Malaysian authorities had announced in June 2006 that

they would remove the blockade, near the community of Long Benali, and

arrest four Penan leaders. However, after protests by Survival

supporters and others around the world, they took no action. The

blockade was first dismantled on 7 February this year, but the Penan

rebuilt it in mid-March. http://www.survivalfrance.org/news.php?id=234527)

BIDOR - In the thick rainforest outside this town, about 150 km north

of the national capital, the guileless Semai aborigines, famous to

anthropologists for their for non-aggressiveness, are falling sick from

stress brought about by sudden land development that threatens to

uproot them. One day in March, tractors and earthmovers suddenly

appeared in their settlement near this town and began mowing down fruit

trees and rubber plants the Semai people had planted for a livelihood.

" It was sudden and without any warning, " Tijah Yok Chopil, said a Semai

woman talking in Malay during a meeting with IPS at their Kampung Chang

village. " We were told to tally our trees, fruits and animals because

all these had to make way for a new project. " " Our people are rapidly

being stressed-out and are falling sick. They get fever, stomach aches

and cramps, " Tijah said. " These are the symptoms of our people when we

feel threatened. " " Falling sick is our way of protesting, " she told

IPS. The Semai people, numbering just 15,000 in the world, are all

settled in the central highlands of the country. They have been studied

by European and American scholars who are invariably attracted to what

one American scholar described as a " total lack of violence " in

traditional Semai society. However human right activists and opposition

lawmakers say while lack of violence is admirable, such values are

taken advantage of by greedy " outsiders " who dupe the Semai and take

away what rightly belongs to them. Today the Semai are semi-settled

with some surviving as hunter gatherers while others subsist on the

cultivation of manioc and rice, fishing, hunting, and trading jungle

produce like rattan. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37373Indonesia: 28)

Already having the highest deforestation rate in the world, Indonesia's

Minister of Forestry announced the country would increase its harvest

quota for natural timber for 2007 by 12 percent to 9.1 million cubic

meters according to the International Tropical Timber Organization

(ITTO). ITTO said the target quota may actually be 12.4 million cubic

meters (53 percent higher than 2006) for the year. In recent years

Indonesia's timber industry has shrunken dramatically due to declining

forest cover. As a result, the wood processing industry has been

plagued with over-capacity. The shortfall in legal wood supplies for

processors in both Indonesia and Malaysia has driven widespread illegal

logging in the country--more than 70 percent of logging in Indonesia is

said to be illicit. Much of this harvesting has taken place in Borneo,

Sumatra, and the Papua province of New Guinea where the bulk of

Indonesia's forest cover remains. Logging, combined with large-scale

clearing for oil palm plantations and other forms of agriculture,

caused the loss of around 3 million hectares (30,000 square kilometers)

of forest in Indonesia for 2006, giving the country the world's highest

deforestation rate, well ahead of Brazil. Between 1990 and 2005

Indonesia lost more than 28 million hectares of forest, including 21.7

million hectares of virgin forest according to U.N. figures. http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0409-indonesia.htmlSumatra:29)

BirdLife International today announced that 101,000 hectares of

Sumatra's dry lowland rainforest are to be protected and restored by a

coalition of conservation organizations. The area, recently named the

'Harapan Rainforest', is home to the critically endangered Sumatran

tiger whose numbers have fallen to between 100 and 300 individuals. The

forest also provides habitat for Asian elephants, Malayan tapirs,

gibbons, sun bears, and more than 267 species of birds (71 of which are

endangered). http://animals.about.com/b/a/256991.htmLaos:30)

In the 1950s, forests covered 70 percent of the land area; yet, by

1992, according to government estimates, forest coverage had decreased

by nearly one-third, to just 47 percent of total land area. Despite the

dwindling expanse, timber–including ironwood, mahogany, pine, redwood,

and teak–and other forestry products– benzoin (resin), charcoal, and

sticklac – constitute a valuable supply of potential export goods. The

forest has also been an important source of wild foods, herbal

medicines, and timber for house construction and even into the 1990s

continues to be a valued reserve of natural products for noncommercial

household consumption. Since the mid-1980s, however, widespread

commercial harvesting of timber for the export market has disrupted the

traditional gathering of forest products in a number of locations and

contributed to extremely rapid deforestation throughout the country. So

I guess that guy knew what he was talking about. Deforestation here is

amazing and continuing to grow. Anyway, I'm in Vang Vieng which is

situated in a valley next to some truly amazing limestone mountains. http://dignifieddevil.wordpress.com/2007/04/08/vang-vieng-and-lao-notes-plus-vangvieng-hostels/

Australia:31)

An Australian scientist called Wednesday for an end to the age-old

tradition of cremation, saying the practice contributed to global

warming. Professor Roger Short said people could instead choose to help

the environment after death by being buried in a cardboard box under a

tree. The decomposing bodies would provide the tree with nutrients, and

the tree would convert carbon dioxide into life-giving oxygen for

decades, he said. " The important thing is, what a shame to be cremated

when you go up in a big bubble of carbon dioxide, " Short told AFP. " Why

waste all that carbon dioxide on your death? " Short said the cremation

of the average male in Australia, during which the body is heated to

850 degrees Celsius (1,562 degrees Fahrenheit) for 90 minutes, produced

more than 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of carbon dioxide. And that doesn't

include the carbon cost of fuel, or the cost of the emissions released

during the production and burning of the wooden casket. Short, a

reproductive biologist at the University of Melbourne, said the

contribution of cremation to harmful greenhouse gases was small, and he

did not wish to prevent people from choosing how their body was

disposed of according to their religion. But to bury the hatchet with

environmentalists, he suggested it would not be a bad idea to bequeath

one's body as food for a forest. " You can actually do, after your

death, an enormous amount of good for the planet, " he said. " The more

forests you plant, the better. " http://www.nationmultimedia.com/worldhotnews/read.php?newsid=3003212132)

I recently returned from Tasmania where I was reminded that the island

is home to some of the most magnificent old growth trees on Earth. In

the Styx valley, I walked among trees as large as Sequoias and as tall

as redwoods, feeling as though I was either in Lord of the Rings'

Middle Earth or the Jurassic Age. Sadly, I learned that the grove I was

in was scheduled to be logged shortly! If this pulp mill is approved,

Gunns will double its wave of clear-cuts and firebombing ancient

forests, but with your help, we could finally stop this project. Your

voice is vital to saving these forests. The Gunns pulp mill heads to

Australia's federal government after being fast-tracked through the

Tasmanian state government, just weeks after Gunns withdrew the pulp

mill project from the legal assessment process (the RPDC). Gunns knew

their pulp mill would never meet environmental standards and is now

seeking to bypass all legal requirements by pushing through legislation

that the media recently revealed was written by Gunns lawyers. Don't

let them get away with it! This is it - a chance to finally defeat

Gunns' destructive pulp mill once and for all. Australia's Federal

Environmental Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, will soon decide the process

by which he will either approve or reject the Gunns pulp mill; the

deadline for public comments is April 18th. Please help us send a

strong signal to Minister Turnbull that he should require a proper

assessment process and stop Gunns' attempt to push through a

destructive pulp mill with no environmental standards! Send in your

public comment and let your voice be heard!http://ga3.org/campaign/taz_publiccomment/iie3s3541x5mbn6?33)

Cape York Peninsula - the Northern tip of Australia - is one of the

last great wild places on earth. Covering an immense area of 14 million

hectares, it is one of the priority areas in our Northern Australia

WildCountry project. Cape York is a global stronghold for unique

animals, plants, wild river systems and wilderness landscapes and

deservedly stands alongside the world's other great tropical wilderness

areas such as the Amazon, the Serengeti and the Congo. Cape York

Peninsula should be a global priority for the highest category of

protection - World Heritage. Cape York encompasses the homelands of

many indigenous traditional owners, and ultimately a World Heritage

nomination will not succeed without their involvement and consent. In

December 2006, the whole of the Cape York region was nominated for

protection under the Australian National Heritage List, an important

stepping stone towards World Heritage recognition. This list is a

Commonwealth Government initiative overseen by the Australian Heritage

Council. The objective of the List is to identify and protect those

places with outstanding natural, indigenous or historic heritage value

to the nation. Although this listing does not provide binding

protection, it is considered by the Government to be a prerequisite to

the eventual protection of a region as part of the World Heritage.

Meanwhile, the Queensland Government has received an independent

scientific report identifying the World Heritage values of Cape York

Peninsula and the steps required to support World Heritage protection.

It is expected that this report will be released later this year. http://www.wilderness.org.au/HTML_emails/capeyork/updates/cape-york-update-apr07.php

34)

A north Queensland company hopes to develop treatments for cancer,

arthritis and Alzheimer's disease after being granted permission to

collect rainforest material under new biodiversity laws. The chief

executive officer of EcoBiotics, Dr Victoria Gordon, says the agreement

is an Australian first and will allow the company to replicate natural

rainforest resources for medicinal purposes by developing

pharmaceutical products from natural resources in rainforests. She says

the company is conducting pre-clinical trials on new drugs, but the

focus of the research is on treatment for solid cancerous tumours. " Our

focus area at the moment is anti-cancer, particularly solid tumour,

anti-inflammatory for applications in things like rheumatoid arthritis,

antibiotics, we have a number of new drugs in development at the

moment, " she said. Dr Gordon says the company will harvest plants and

fungi in a search for new chemicals that can be developed into drugs

used to treat solid tumours and central nervous system illnesses.

" EcoBiotics is concentrating in the big problem areas with things like

prostate cancer, breast cancer, the multiple resistant bacteria, " she

said. " We're looking for some really new types of antibiotics and

moving into the central nervous system problems like Alzheimer's. " http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200704/s1892426.htm35)

The Upper Florentine Valley is surrounded on three sides by Tasmania's

World Heritage Area. Protesters have been camping here for months. One

man is living on a tree platform in a Eucalypt 55 metres high. Below

the Eucalyptus trees are an understorey of tree ferns, sassafras and

myrtle trees. Wilderness Society campaigner, Vica Bayley, wants this

old growth forest protected. Protecting these forests is extremely

important in combating climate change. These are also prime habitat for

Tasmania's rare and threatened species. These forests are of...

critical to the ongoing survival of such species as the Tasmanian

wedge-tailed eagle and the grey goshawk. So there are so many reasons

to protect these forests, not the least the fact that Prime Minister

John Howard actually promised to protect this area of forest back in

the 2004 election campaign. Now he failed to meet that promise, and

subsequently this area is scheduled for logging. The promises to

protect much of the Florentine Valley were made during the 2004 federal

election. The agreement was finalised the following year. But the final

deal protected less of the valley than had been promised. The Federal

Forestry Minister, Eric Abetz, says the decision to reduce the

conservation area was made to keep another election promise - the

protection of jobs. We also said not only were we concerned about

protecting old growth forests, there's also a human touch to us, unlike

the Greens. We were also concerned about protecting jobs and the

livelihood of those engaged in our sustainable forest industry. And

therefore, yes, some reconfiguration was done. http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2007/s1894832.htmWorld wide: 36)

I'm in graduate school and had to read a book on global deforestation

for a class called Social Justice and Business. Here is my book review.

" Deforestation, Environment, and Sustainable Development: A Comparative

Analysis " Edited by Dhirendra K. Vajpeyi Each chapter, written by

different authors, reviews the condition of the forests around the

globe. Individual chapters look at India, Bangladesh, China, Vietnam,

Laos and Cambodia, Thailand, Latin America, Nigeria, Democratic

Republic of Congo and Israel. The book was compiled in 2001 using both

historical data and recent studies to document the changes in global

forest health, its impact on the environment, and to assess the

potential for sustainable development. The book begins with a litany of

facts regarding the status, location and conditions of forests, as well

as their ecological and economic significance. Many of these facts are

familiar but having them all in one place at one time really brings a

new sense of awareness and concern to the situation. A few facts I

found particularly painful to read were the loss of half the world's

tropical forests between 1950 and 1999, the annual deforestation rate

of 0.9 percent, and the loss of 50,000 invertebrate species every year

(140/day) due solely to the chopping down of tropical forests. These

facts don't point to a rosy future. The continuing loss of forests at

the current rate would exhaust all of the world's tree cover in less

than a century. While this would be ominous at any time, it is

particularly alarming at present given the concern about climate change

and global warming, and the role the world's forests play as a vital

CO2 sink and to help cool the planet. http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/04/357472.shtml37)

Deforestation can be defined as the large scale removal of forests.

Deforestation occurs when forests are converted to non-forest areas for

urbanization, agriculture, and other reasons without sufficient

reforestation. It is the permanent destruction of forests and

woodlands. At present, forests are considered among the most endangered

on the planet. Everyday at least 80,000 acres of forest vanish from

Earth. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United

Nations show that the rates of deforestation has not abated and has

actually increased by 8.5% from 2000-2005 compared during the 1990s.

FAO has approximated that about 10.4 million hectares of tropical

forest have been permanently destroyed from 2000-2005 compared to 10.14

million hectares in the period of 1990-2000. The process of

deforestation is often a complex pattern of progressive fragmentation

of the forests. Mistakes of this sort could lead to forest destruction.

Along with this destruction is the extinction of many species, heavy

soil erosion, greenhouse effect, silting of rivers and dams, flooding,

landslides, denuded upland, degraded watershed, and even destruction of

corals along the coast. Extinction of Thousands of Species -

Destruction of the forests leads to a tragic loss of biodiversity.

Millions of plants and animal species are in danger of disappearing as

a result of deforestation. Tropical forests are much more biologically

diverse than other forest and a very serious effect of deforestation in

tropical countries is the loss of biodiversity. http://www.articlecodex.com/Articles/Health/Harmful-Effects-of-Deforestation-30457.htm

38)

The seventh session of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF7)

commences today at UN headquarters in New York. This session aims to

formulate and adopt a multi-year programme of work (MYPOW) that would

include a description and scheduling of the tasks for the period

2008-2015, and to conclude and adopt a non-legally binding instrument

(NLBI) on all types of forests. A multi-stakeholder dialogue is also

scheduled to present stakeholders' views on priority areas of action

with respect to the MYPOW and salient themes and perspectives on the he

NLBI. Other agenda items include consideration of enhanced cooperation

and policy and programme coordination, and provision of further

guidance to the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF). The UNFF

was established in 2000, following a five-year period of forest policy

dialogue facilitated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF)

and the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF). In October 2000, the

UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), in resolution E/2000/35,

established the UNFF as a subsidiary body, with the main objective

being to promote the management, conservation and sustainable

development of all types of forests. To achieve its main objective, the

UNFF's principal functions were identified to: facilitate

implementation of forest-related agreements and foster a common

understanding on sustainable forest management (SFM); provide for

continued policy development and dialogue among governments,

international organizations, and major groups, as identified in Agenda

21, as well as to address forest issues and emerging areas of concern

in a holistic, comprehensive and integrated manner; enhance cooperation

as well as policy and programme coordination on forest-related issues;

foster international cooperation and monitor, assess and report on

progress; and strengthen political commitment to the management,

conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests. The

IPF/IFF processes produced more than 270 proposals for action towards

SFM, and form the basis for the UNFF MYPOW and Plan of Action, which

have been discussed at annual sessions. Country- and organization-led

initiatives have also contributed to UNFF's work. http://www.iisd.ca/vol13/enb13152e.html39)

Lawmakers from timber-producing states have complained that as much as

30 percent of U.S. hardwood imports are from suspicious or illegal

sources. Industry groups and members of Congress says timber harvested

illegally in Honduras, Indonesia, Peru and elsewhere is sent to China,

where it is processed at low cost and then exported to the U.S. and

other countries, undercutting domestic producers. Illegal logging costs

U.S. companies as much as $1 billion ($740 million) a year in lost

exports and reduced prices for timber products, according to the

American Forest and Paper Association, a trade group that represents

the wood products industry. The commission, an independent federal

agency, said it will review U.S. markets for solid and engineered wood

flooring, as well as hardwood plywood. The investigation will look at

" principal countries that supply the U.S. market " and examine U.S.

trade patterns, including tariffs and other border measures, the agency

said in a news release. A report is due by June 2008. " I am hopeful

that the results of the ITC's investigation will help make sure that

China starts playing by the rules, " said Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon

Democrat. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/18/business/NA-FIN-US-Illegal-Logging.php