196 - Earth's Tree News

[Guest guest]

Today for you 38 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---Alaska: 1) Mental Health Trust sells land, 2) Heart of Tongass already lost,--British Columbia: 3) Buying off natives, 4) Warnings of war, 5) Roading the Beauforts, --Washington: 6) Oak Creek bought from Plum creek, 7) FSC for tiny bit of state forests,--Oregon: 8) Planting survivor trees, 9) Wild Rogue Wilderness,--Idaho: 10) Nez Perce and carbon credits--Arizona: 11) Statewide Strategy for Restoring Arizona's Forests--Alabama: 12) GE Eucalyptus--Canada: 13) Vast carbon reservoirs, 14) Climate and environment now number one,--Sweden: 15) Climate Beatles ruin tree choppers dreams--Malta: 16) Maltese biodiversity at risk--Angola: 17) A project of combat to deforestation--Senegal: 18) Local control of resources--Sierra Leone: 19) Forest laws rewritten with each new leader, 20) 5 million trees,--Uganda: 21) Buganda region is hit the hardest--South Africa: 22) public land sale's outrageous contradiction--Zimbabwe: 23) losing an area of green belt equal to two football fields a day--Cuba: 24) planting 150 million trees in one year--Brazil: 25) measuring above ground biomass, --Peru: 26) Protesting ConocoPhillips in Houston--India: 27) Adverse effects of Mysore Paper Mills--China: 28) APP corruption--Thailand: 29) 10 million forest dwellers lose rights under Surayud government --Vietnam: 30) gold at the cost of the forest, 31) how the coastal forests are lost, --Malaysia: 32) five million hectares protection promises--Papua New Guinea: 33) Coconut fuel--Indonesia: 34) $4 billion biofuel refinery expansion--Austalia: 35) Trials of a new method of logging, --World-wide: 36) Measuring drought tolerance in the tropics, 37) Convention to Combat Desertification, 38) Forest a part of climate solution,Alaska:1) After almost two years the Mental Health Trust Land Office has made a semi-permanent decision on whether or not to log the land above South Mitkof Highway. The MHTLO has made the decision to do a land sale instead of logging the land.. According to Executive Director of the TLO, Wendy Woolf, they have made this decision and are simultaneously working with the US Forest Service on a land exchange. "We had absolutely no idea, we have been blindsided by this decision, it's something they decided to do on their own," said Ed Wood, a member of the Mitkof Highway Homeowners Association. Wood doesn't really know why the decision was made but thinks it's likely to expedite disposal of the property for their own reasons. "If they sell they will pull the property off of the land exchange of course," said Wood. According to Wood, above his home at mile 6.5, there are grades at excess of 150%, twice the Forest Service maximum of 72% for logging. "There's active ground movement, slipping, mass movement of soils naturally and in my mind I would have to be the village idiot to willingly accept logging above my home," Wood said. "The land sale is the preferred method of disposal because a land exchange could take three to five years," Woolf added. A land sale has no restrictions, is competitive and anybody can bid on it. "People can bid who don't want to cut, people can bid who want to cut," she said. "It doesn't matter ultimately what the land is used for, what matters is that we get the principal fund invested into the permanent fund corpus account and starts earning interest." http://www.petersburgpilot.com/www/stories/051007mhtlo_decision.htm

 

2) Environmentalists say the heart has been cut out of the Tongass; that timber sales are subsidies; that logging has hurt fish and game; that road building is detrimental to recreation and other industries; and that round logs are exported to Asia. First, let's go to the only people who actually go out and count trees, the staff of the U.S. Forest Service. They tell us that 9.5 million acres of the 16.8 million-acre Tongass are timbered. More than one-half of that timber is in roadless reserves. Of 5.4 million acres of commercial-size old growth, only 7 percent (400,000 acres) has been harvested in the past 100 years. " About 15 percent of the very highest high volume stands have been harvested, while 85 percent of the forest's highest volume old-growth remains unharvested. Over the next 100 years, the forest plan permits harvest of less than 10 percent more of the high-volume old-growth. " So say the tree counters. And that should allow a cut of 360 million to 420 million board feet a year that the timber industry says it needs. The Forest Service provides no subsidy to the timber industry. If anything, timber subsidizes other forest users and communities. " Recent work suggests that certain types of partial cutting conserves deer habitat and old-growth structure, while maintaining the health of the forest, " a Forest Service report states. It also states that only between 46 and 69 percent of timber harvesting is clear cut. Who do we believe, the anti-development experts or state and federal agents who actually go out and count the trees, the wildlife and the fish? The Forest Service received thousands of comments on its Tongass Land Management Plan by its April 30 deadline. Comments citing opinions contrary to the facts should be tossed out. http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/050807/opi_20070508017.shtmlBritish Columbia:

3) British Columbia struck a deal yesterday to give a large quantity of land in and around Whistler to the Squamish and Lil'wat First Nations as part of a deal to host the 2010 Winter Games and expand the municipality's boundaries. The deal includes a 13-hectare parcel called Alpine North, zoned for residential use, that could be worth approximately $90-million once developed. In exchange for the town's support of the agreement, the two Nations agreed to Whistler's boundary expansion application, a Community Land Bank, a waste transfer station site, the acquisition of day-skier parking lots, and the acquisition of Crown land in south Whistler for a satellite parking lot/potential ski staging area. " It is a day of celebration, " said Lil'wat chief Leonard Andrew. " It's been three years in the making and it will bring great economic benefit to my people. " The Squamish and The Lil'wat people consider the Whistler area shared traditional territory. Both Nations have been deeply involved in the planning and the development taking place for the Games. In 2002, they signed the Shared Legacies Agreement with Games stakeholders and agreed to work toward the handover of 121 hectares of land along with other benefits. The deal sees the province and Whistler hand over 452 " bed units " - the measure Whistler uses to allow development. That means the First Nations could build 75 single-family homes. The average price of a single-family home in the resort is $1.2-million. " We are very excited. It has been a dream a long time in coming for a lot of our people and we will be sustainable again within our traditional lands, " said Squamish Chief Gibby Jacob. http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=e5e6160c-7929-4ae7-b40e-4a09998f248b & k=85

978 4) The environmental group ForestEthics warned forest products buyers Tuesday to avoid anything originating from a swath of Canadian forest stretching from B.C. to Quebec unless government and industry adopt stringent environmental standards now in place in the " Great Bear Rainforest. " The expanded eco-agenda warning of a new war with the forest industry coincides with an international environmental award B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell is to receive this evening. Campbell is to share the podium with ForestEthics. To reinforce the environmentalists' demand, a campaign was launched Tuesday identifying huge regions of this province and of the Canadian boreal forest as " off-limits " to companies that buy paper products. Limited Brands, owners of catalgue sales company Victoria's Secret, have already supported the ForestEthics agenda. " Why, if this [Great Bear Rainforest] is a ground-breaking model and success, are we not applying the same logic, process, rigourous science and conservation to other areas of our province? " Berman said. " Do we need to have another war in the woods, region-by-region, to ensure meaningful stewardship of our resources? " She said she intends to deliver the same message today at a forestry conference. B.C. Forests Minister Rich Coleman accused the environmental group of using the WWF award to further its own agenda. " It's all about timing with these folks. I'll put our forest management up against anyone else in the world, " he said Tuesday. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=2f1fb327-6063-4673-afe7-95aff575

5ea75) Todd Thompson is building a new road in the Beauforts to access the woodlot that his family has held since 1952. He has the green light from the Ministry of Forests and Range, and he says he is exceeding environmental standards to protect sensitive areas. Save Our Valley Alliance chair Keith Wyton supports him. But some of his neighbors are worried about the impact on their water supply, which they feel has already been compromised by extensive logging. They say there has been no environmental impact study, that Thompson is not respecting the environment, and that he should be using the Log Train Trail to access his woodlot. They held a protest Monday. "The road is going through our watershed," said Wayne Crowley, who hosted the rally and demonstration against the new road. "It's environmentally wrong, and all they're doing is expanding on damage TimberWest has done." Reid Robinson, who is a self-taught expert on karst systems, agrees. "The new access road is parallel to an existing road, the Log Train Trail – the more ground being broken there, the higher the risk of water contamination," said Robinson. "Roads are the most destructive thing they could do across a steep slope. "It weakens the structure of the talus – which is the debris that's fallen off the mountain, volcanic rock with glacial till so all that moves to the bottom. "To get that whole hillside stable needs trees and vegetation. Now it's flashy, nothing to hold it. http://www.westcoaster.ca/modules/AMS/article.php?storyid=2054Washington:6) Geologists say it was the longest known andesite magma flow on Earth, and today it is manifested in many impressive shapes of basalt: vertical towers, horizontal ribs, twisted columns, wavy forms and pillow shapes. These provide aeries for golden eagles, spires for rock climbers, prime habitat for bighorn sheep, a scenic setting for hikers and campers and a dramatic backdrop for stunning spring wildflower displays. You now are assured of experiencing much of it in its natural state, unfettered by development, thanks to a four-year effort to preserve and add 10,000 acres of private land to the state's Oak Creek Wildlife Area. " You can really see the Earth's bones out here, " says Betsy Bloomfield, the Yakima-based program manager for The Nature Conservancy, who, with Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Ken Bevis, spearheaded the campaign. " This is the most interesting place on the planet, I think. We're right on the border between the Great Basin deserts and the forest lands of the eastern Cascades. We go from forest to the desert right here at this hinge point. " Plum Creek Timber Co. had owned about 10,000 acres in a checkerboard pattern among state and federal lands on the southeast corner of the wildlife area. It put up for sale parcels in the canyon bottoms that were not productive timberlands, but prime real estate -- including the trailhead and access site for one of the maintained trails, Bear Canyon. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/314822_tieton10.html

7) The Washington Department of Natural Resources took an important step forward in announcing its intent to seek Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for 141,000 acres of state forests in the Puget Sound region. FSC is the global standard-setter for responsible forest management. FSC provides a seal of approval for wood products that come from forests where fish and wildlife are protected and worker and community rights are respected. The department's decision was spurred on by the efforts of several regional conservation organizations and by rapidly developing markets for wood products that are harvested and manufactured with the environment in mind. While it's important to acknowledge and applaud the decision to move forward, it's also important to consider it in the larger context of logging in the state and region. There are now over 50 FSC-certified businesses in Washington state alone, including forest landowners, mills and lumber retailers. On a global scale, the amount of FSC-certified forestlands has grown quickly in recent years, from 118 million acres in 2004 to an incredible 215 million acres today. These changes — both locally and globally — signal a significant shift in the world of logging and how consumers' values can change the world. As the public begins to understand that not all two-by-fours are alike, the demand for FSC-certified wood products grows. However, much of the timber industry in Washington state has not kept pace with this trend toward FSC certification. This failure makes the industry vulnerable to being left behind in global wood markets and leaves our local forests open to harmful logging practices. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003698749_forests09.htmlOregon:

8) In 1995 when the Oklahoma City bombing occured, an 80-year old American Elm tree was growing near the bombing site. The tree survived the bombing, and was almost cut down so evidence in the tree's trunk and branches could be recovered. The tree was saved due to hundreds of citizens, survivors, family members of victims, and rescue workers drafting a Memorial Mission Statement that included a resolution to keep the tree as a memorial to the victims. Cuttings from that tree, deemed the "Survivor Tree," have since been distributed across the country. In April of last year, College of the Siskiyous received six of those trees. The college is currently the only place in California that has received cuttings from the Survivor Tree. Three trees will be planted this month, and the other three will follow, pending plans for a peace garden to be built in the future. The dedication ceremony will be held on the lawn between the theatre and McCloud Hall at the COS campus in Weed. Oklahoma City bombing survivor Betty Robins will be present at the ceremony, along with Steven San Filippo, a New York City Fire Department Battalion Chief. http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/articles/2007/05/07/news/doc463f846c982b5482623507.txt

9) A coalition of conservationists and business owners are moving forward with a proposal to create additional Wilderness and Wild and Scenic rivers adjacent to the existing Wild Rogue Wilderness. The Rogue River, located in the heart of the Siskiyou Mountains in southwest Oregon, is a stronghold for wild salmon runs and is an unparalleled recreational destination. People from around the world come to fish its waters, hike its 40-mile riverside trail, and raft its rapids. Sadly, the Medford Bureau of Land Management has for years been pushing forward reckless logging proposals above the river corridor on our public lands. The most egregious, called the Kelsey Whisky timber sale, would log the heart out of the 46,464 acre Zane Grey roadless area-the largest forested roadless area the BLM administers in the country. Although we have stalled this project out through a series of lawsuits over the years, the BLM is intent on pushing it through. Our Wild Rogue proposal would permanently safeguard the old-growth forests at issue in the Kelsey Whisky timber sale. To view the proposal, visit http://www.savethewildrogue.org/ Your help is needed NOW to move our proposal forward. Contact Representative Peter DeFazio's district staff Karmen.Fore and his natural resources staff in DC SusanJane.Brown. Tell them we need Rep. DeFazio's leadership to ensure lasting protections for the Wild Rogue through additional Wilderness and Wild and Scenic river designations. Feel free to personalize your message. http://www.cascwild.orgIdaho:10) On the Nez Perce reservation here, land that was cleared in the 19th century for farming is being converted back to forest, in part to sell the trees' ability to sequester carbon. "These forests are a carbon crop," Brian Kummett, a forester for the Nez Perce tribal forestry division, said as he surveyed a vast field studded with recently planted ponderosa pine, Douglas fir and larch saplings. "We can sell the rights from the time the forest is planted to the time it's harvested, 80 or 120 years down the road." The market for carbon credits promises to be a boon for some land-rich but cash-poor tribes. Selling carbon sequestration credits early in the growth of a forest lets the tribe realize some money more quickly, rather than waiting for decades for the harvest. Carbon is a constituent of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide. Trees can pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store the carbon in their tissue. Companies may be able to offset the carbon dioxide they send into the atmosphere by paying for projects that pull carbon out of the atmosphere. The Nez Perce are participating in an Indian tribe "carbon portfolio" being created by the National Carbon Offset Coalition in Butte, Mont., an organization supported largely by the Energy Department. "They have a long-term management, large acreage and trained staff," said Ted Dodge, executive director of the coalition. Bob Gruenig, senior policy analyst for the National Tribal Environmental Council in Albuquerque, said the tribes "see climate change as a really big issue.They are seeing changes in the land, changes in plants and changes in the migration of wildlife," he said. New forests are just part of the carbon credits that are being sold on reservations and at other places. In the last few weeks, the Chicago Carbon Exchange has approved selling carbon sequestration credits on rangeland and no-till agricultural fields. An acre of pine forest captures and holds one to two metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, which it uses for photosynthesis. Untilled cropland holds a third of a ton of carbon per acre, and rangeland holds up to a fifth of a ton. The sequestered carbon dioxide is measured by soil tests before and after the planting. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/08/science/earth/08carb.html

Arizona:11) The Statewide Strategy for Restoring Arizona's Forest is planning for the prevention and suppression of wildfires on state and private lands. The Statewide Strategy is a 20 year road map for restoring forest health, building sustainable forest based businesses, and protecting our rural communities from wildlife. In 2005, a subcommittee of the Governor's Forest Health Advisory and oversight Councils initiated a collaborative process to identify the steps required to restore our forests. To view the statewide plan and find out information about Arizona's forests, log on to www.azforests.info. The site provides an e-mail address to send comments. The public is welcome to provide input until May 28, 2007. http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=6486840 & nav=menu86_2

Alabama:12) APHIS has conducted an inadequate Environmental Assessment (EA) for public comment in which they recommend approval to extend the GE Eucalyptus field trials by ArborGen to allow this unprecedented flowering and seed formation of a genetically engineered tree species. Approval of this field trial represents precedent setting approval for the first outdoor field trial release on the mainland US of GE Eucalyptus trees that allow flowering and seed formation in young trees. Reasons to comment and oppose extending the Alabama GE Eucalyptus tree field trials: 1) APHIS failed to conduct and prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to comprehensively address all relevant issues related to the proposed GE Eucalyptus field trials. 2) Eucalyptus species are introduced organisms into the US and grow well in certain warm climates such as the southern and southeast US regions. 3) Escape of GE Eucalyptus hybrids through seeds and vegetative plant material are quite likely due to severe wind and rain events which APHIS failed to assess in the EA. In other countries where eucalyptus have been introduced, they are well known for escaping and colonizing native ecosystems. 4) ArborGen's Baldwin County, Alabama field trial site is prone to impacts from severe storm events such as tornadoes and hurricanes that could blow GE eucalyptus seeds over long distances. 5) APHIS failed to evaluate these severe storm events in the EA and should have performed an EIS to fully review regional weather phenomena on the field trials location and document high potential for escape of the seeds and vegetative material of GE Eucalyptus hybrids. 6) Global warming and climate change will allow more extensive southern and southeast regions of the US to have weather patterns conducive to the introduction and propagation of escaped GE Eucalyptus hybrids, which APHIS failed to consider in the EA. 7) In regions where droughts occur, eucalyptus are known to be at high risk of catching fire. The Southeast US is currently in the midst of such a drought. Additionally, eucalyptus plantations have been documented to deplete ground water and cause or exacerbate drought situations. None of these potential impacts were evaluated in the EA. 8) With recent federal court decisions on genetically engineered perennial organisms like the GE bentgrass and GE alfalfa, for example, there is a growing legal foundation around the potential escape of perennial GE organisms even in field trials. --To sign onto the petition to APHIS and the USDA, go to http://www.petitiononline.com/sgetc/petition.html

http://www.stopgetrees.orgCanada:13) Canada's forests are vast carbon reservoirs that store 12 times more carbon than the entire world emits annually from fossil fuels, says a report that calls for a new green business model for the Canadian forest industry. The report, released Wednesday by the environmental group ForestEthics, says the carbon stored in Canadian forests totals 84.4 billion tons. Of that, 47.5 billion tons is stored in the country's boreal forests alone, which stretch from Yukon to Labrador in a band almost 1,000 kilometres wide. The report says natural, intact forests store up to 50 per cent more carbon than managed forests planted after logging. And old forests can store significantly more carbon than young forests, it says. Protecting Canada's intact forests is an essential part of a national strategy to counter the impact of climate change, ForestEthics says. Yet at present, Canadian logging removes 33.4 million megatons of forest carbon stores every year -- more than is emitted annually by all passenger vehicles in the country. As part of the new business model ForestEthics is proposing, the allowable cut would be dramatically reduced. A working group of scientists, NGOs and government should determine the sustainable level, it says. The report calls the woodland caribou a modern-day " canary in the coal mine " whose fate is intertwined with that of Canada's forests. Logging, it says, has been a factor in the decline of the caribou, which has disappeared from half of its historic range and is now listed as a threatened species. The report proposes the creation of " off-limit areas " to protect the habitat of umbrella species such as caribou. To be effective, the entire range of a herd -- typically 9,000 square kilometres -- must be protected, the report says. Those off-limit areas vary in size by province. But in Ontario and Quebec, the proposal would put about a third of the two provinces' forested area beyond the reach of loggers. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=fbaa0876-ff7f-49ca-aca6-36c8b1099d79

14) Climate change and the environment is now a number one issue for Canadians - and the forest products sector is feeling the heat. Global warming is changing the way the industry does business and will only intensify in the coming years. However, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), there are a number of steps forest, paper and packaging (FPP) companies can take today to manage their changing business dynamics and satisfy consumer demands. " Environmental sustainability is a business and consumer issue. Companies that do not adequately address environmental challenges could face limits on growth and suffer serious, negative reputation consequences. Those who ignore environmental issues do so at their peril, " says Bruce McIntyre, leader of PwC's Forest, Paper and Packaging industry practice in Canada and who is also the Chair of PwC's 20th Annual Global Forest and Paper Conference being held today in Vancouver. " Yet there are opportunities to grow with the changing environmental and business climate through sound practices, better communication and bioenergy use. The key is to take action now. " According to a previous PwC report, CEO Perspectives: Viewpoints of CEOs in the forest, paper & packaging industry worldwide executives said that sustainability is a critical factor to ensuring long-term success for companies. CEOs agreed that good forest management and a sustainable business model make sound business sense for companies in the sector. http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2007/10/c7043.html

Sweden:15) For Goran Samuelsson, the proud owner of 70 hectares of majestic spruce trees here in southeastern Sweden, the forest is no place for fairy tales or fauns. It is his economic security -- " a bank where you don't have to bow to get what you need, " as he puts it. But recently, due to events that many scientists consider the result of global warming, Samuelsson has started seeing a part of his prized forest in a much darker light. He now calls it " hell. " " It is sad, " he said as he stood among about 50 dead or dying trees, pointing out the clearing where he, while hunting for moose last November, saw the first three trees with red and dry tops. They proved to be the unmistakable signs of attacks by Samuelsson's tiny new nemesis, the European spruce bark beetle. " I'm not really worried about these, " he said, indicating the dead 70-year-old trees with their bark peeling, exposing the characteristic tree-shaped egg galleries of the insects. " I'm worried about what will happen if we fail to stop the beetles. " Samuelsson, a blunt 62-year-old dairy farmer, is not alone in this fear. Sweden is 60 percent covered by forests. In 2005, timber and paper products accounted for 12 percent of the country's exports, for a value of 114 billion kronor, or $17 billion. For many years, it has been an immensely profitable business, both for the forest owners and for the big paper and timber producers, and in recent decades more and more land, especially in southern Sweden, has been claimed by planted spruce. http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2007/05/08/warmth_boosts_a_beetle_ruining_swed

ens_spruce_forests/Malta:16) On the occasion of the International Forest Week, the Biological Conservation Research Foundation (BICREF) identifies numerous factors that are putting Maltese biodiversity at risk. "Introduction of new species from abroad can dominate and alter the genetic identity of the local flora. In addition, these species need protection from the fires, pollution, vandalism, and cutting for firewood". The foundation also highlights the clearing of trees and shrubs for land development "that so often go uncontrolled". The regulations that demand replanting of endemic trees removed from their natural location are a step in the right direction, BICREF says, "but it can be difficult to find another suitable place for these trees, and it does not compensate for the wildlife community that is uprooted along with the tree". In its efforts to promote the conservation of biodiversity, BICREF stresses the need to protect typical local green, coastal areas and our seas. During the International Forest Week, BICREF is emphasising the importance of trees and shrubs that have evolved and adapted to live on these islands, and in particular those listed as endangered or protected by law. http://www.maltastar.com/pages/msFullArt.asp?an=11969

Angola;17) The Angolan NGO Development Aid of People to People (ADPP) holds in the northern Cabinda province a project of combat to deforestation, which focuses on tree planting at places where they are often cut, sometimes in an unnecessary manners. According to the official of partnerships of ADPP, Evaristo Waya, the action, to start in the second fortnight of May, is funded by the European Union at the amount of 400,000 Euros and consists on the mobilising of people in not cutting down trees or plant one each time others are cut down. The activity will be mainly executed in rural areas, where the population depends of wood to cook, as well as in urban zones, an activity to be carried out by people trained by ADPP. With this project, the organisation wishes to curb the deforestation that intensifies each time in the Cabinda region, since trees are protectors of nature and at the same time they are a source of releasing oxygen, essential for life. With various projects in Angola in the fields of education, health, agriculture and training, ADPP helps the needy, as well as contributes for the improvement of the population's living conditions. http://allafrica.com/stories/200705080874.htmlSenegal:18) More than a decade ago, villagers in rural southeastern Senegal watched helplessly as their native forests were clear cut to feed the cities' growing hunger for energy-producing charcoal. As city-based charcoal traders got richer through shipping thousands of tons of inefficiently processed charcoal to Dakar and other urban areas that use the fuel for cooking purposes, the poor in the countryside got poorer, and so did the environment. Tambacounda and Kolda regions lost about 30,000 hectares of forest each year. And many feared deforestation would encroach on Niokolo-Koba National Park, an international biosphere reserve and UNESCO World Heritage site with 350 bird species and 80 mammal species such as lions, leopards, elephants, antelopes, monkeys, baboons, warthogs, buffaloes, hippopotamus, and crocodiles. Ten years later, deforestation has slowed and better forest management practices are helping to create a buffer for the national park. The change is largely due to 1998 forestry regulations giving local communities the authority to manage forests outside of the state's own forest lands, says Bank Senior Energy Economist Boris Utria. "Before, entrepreneurs would come in, cut the trees, with no benefit to the local population. They would be totally disenfranchised, with no rights over those resources," he says. "Now, they're the ones selling at the farm gate. They're managing the resources sustainably, protecting their environment and generating income out of it. And they're reinvesting it in economic diversification through the introduction of new crops, animal herds, bee-keeping, and artisanal actvities and in social assests, education and cultural activities." http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21328328~pagePK:64257043~piPK:43737

6~theSitePK:4607,00.html Sierra Leone:19) As early as 1987, the President of Sierra Leone, Joseph Saidu Momoh had outlawed the cutting down of trees around the peninsula and at the Hill Cut Road for many good reasons. President Momoh argued at the time that the cutting of trees would complicate the lives of animals, birds and insects residing in those bushes, who were considered as agents of stability and beauty in our forests and bushes. President Momoh even forbade the building of houses along the Hill Cut Road for other reasons such as the degradation of the landscape and the risks of soil erosion, which was already evidenced as early as 1987, twenty years back. President Momoh tried to put in place modalities to stop the practice of tree cutting but also agreed that where it was necessary, those who cut down trees, should be made to plant replacement for the ones they cut down. It was agreed that to preserve the ecology and the beauty of Sierra Leone every tree cut down must be replace by two trees planted. From 1987 to now, barely twenty years earlier, the Hill Cut Road and other places in the peninsula which the government sought to protect and secure for posterity have become eyesores as large numbers of trees have been fell on the Hill Cut Road and many ugly structures have sprung up in their places. One of the problems we have in Sierra Leone is the problem of continuity, which explains our precarious situation. One would expect that laws or regulations put in place by previous governments would be upheld by succeeding governments, especially if their content is well meaning and patriotic. Since that declaration in 1987 by President Momoh, the SLPP government, through the Ministry of Lands has intimated that they understand the logic behind the ban on cutting down trees and building of houses on the slopes of Hill Cut Road. The Ministry of Lands has done a lot in educating the masses about the dangers of deforestation and building of houses on the slopes of Hill Cut Road and other areas surrounding the city. http://www.christiantrede.com/webdesign/clients/newcitizen/commentary.php?subaction=showfull & id

=1178800258 & archive= & start_from= & ucat=320) Executive Director for Friends of the Earth Sierra Leone, Olatunde Johnson has said that 5 million trees would be planted to support the climate change campaign. He made this statement in his welcome address at the launching ceremony of their Climate Change Campaign " Plant a Tree Today " on Friday at 33 Robert Street in Freetown. Johnson said climate change is due to the negative activities like cutting of trees and filthy environment which are all contributors to the global warming. He said they have planned strategies for education, sensitization and mobilization for the change. He went on to say that they are planning to celebrate the World Environmental Day and also to organize fund raising programmes that would help the planting of trees on June 5th. He called on all to support climate change campaign as trees are part of life and very important for our livelihood. Launching the campaign, Emma Parke said climate change issues are very important as it affects industries and agriculture. She called on schools, colleges, councilors, parliamentarians and the government to be part of the planting and advised all to stop cutting trees for us to have enough oxygen. http://allafrica.com/stories/200705071479.htmlUganda:21) SIXTY percent of degraded forests in Uganda are in Buganda region. Edward Lutaaya Mukomazi, the Buganda government minister of agriculture, forestry and the environment, revealed this recently. He said officials of the National Environment Management Authority recently told Buganda county chiefs at Colline Hotel in Mukono that forests in Buganda are getting depleted at a faster rate than those in other parts of the country. " Because of severe degradation, we agreed at the end of the workshop to work closely with the central government. It is a collective responsibility if we are to curb the rate of forest degradation, " Mukomazi said. He said that Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi was not only worried about the proposed give away of Mabira Forest, but also about the takeover of forests in Ssese Islands by BIDCO. " You have seen what is happening with the declining water levels. We do not know the next effect on the climate change as a result of rampant forest degradation. " Mukomazi said the Kabaka does not want issues to be settled with violence but amicably. " His majesty is appealing to the authorities responsible for Mabira forest not to give it away for sugarcane growing. " We offered Mehta 10 square miles of land at Kasawo previously earmarked for sugarcane growing which is far much bigger than the Mabira piece of land. The land has a few squatters scattered on it and they are willing to be compensated, " said Mukomazi. http://allafrica.com/stories/200705070206.htmlSouth Africa:22) The government would take care that there was no disruption of the sawlog industry when it disposed of the Komatiland Forests (KLF) assets of the state-owned South African Forestry Company (Safcol), Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said last week. KLF has about 116000ha of forests in Mpumalanga and Limpopo, representing 3% of SA's total forests and contributing about 30% of sawlog production. Erwin told Parliament's public enterprises committee that the government would not want the saw log industry to collapse. The lease and licence agreements with the successful bidders would take account of the particular nature of KLF assets and would be designed to protect the sawlog industry and ensure that no major shifts in the production of those assets took place, Erwin said. " We would not like to see a major distortion in our timber supplies, " he said. However, there would have to be some rationalisation of the sawmill industry. The department has reversed its previous decision to retain KLF on the grounds that it is not large enough to play a strategic role in the timber industry. There is therefore no need for it to be state-owned. Erwin also said consideration would have to be given in designing the deals to the satisfaction of the Competition Tribunal, which refused to allow a previous attempt to sell 75% of KLF assets to the Bonheur consortium for R396m, on the grounds that it would contribute to concentration in the industry. http://allafrica.com/stories/200705070243.htmlZimbabwe:23) The country is losing an area of green belt equal to two football fields a day in the wake of massive electricity shortages, Newsreel learned on Thursday. Since the beginning of the year the country's urban areas have experienced rampant deforestation as a result of persistent power cuts by the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority. Harare resident and environmentalist Brian Ndlovu said the unavailability of paraffin has also seen a rise in deforestation in areas adjacent to urban centres as people resort to firewood for cooking. Deforestation is the permanent destruction of indigenous forests and woodlands. 'The government last year laid down laws that helped curb the wanton cutting down of tress but I believe they have been forced to look the other way because firewood is the only fuel left for millions of Zimbabweans to use for cooking,' Ndlovu said. Ndlovu added; 'I remember quite well Environment and Tourism Minister Francis Nhema launching an awareness campaign last year to educate people about the dangers of deforestation, including its impact on the climate. But what can he do now. There's no electricity and there's no paraffin and this would have a negative impact on the country's environment.' The country's economic woes have also resulted in the over-exploitation of forests by humans and this has continued unabated in the last six years. Increased urbanisation is also responsible for the deforestation. Indiscriminate felling of trees for converting forestlands into agricultural fields and for building houses in undesignated areas have all contributed to the loss of this exhaustible natural resource.Cuba: 24) National forestry director Elías Linares announced that Cuba is to plant 150 million trees this year as part of the worldwide campaign "Plant for the Planet", an idea inspired by Professor Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya. Linares commented that the reforestation plan for 2007 – which includes the participation of the Ministries of Agriculture and Sugar, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the National Institute for Hydraulic Resources and campesinos – is responding to the international call put out by the UN Environment Program (UNEP) to plant one billion trees throughout the world this year, reported Prensa Latina. The UNEP initiative involves governments and companies, as well as community groups and individuals, said Achim Steiner, executive director of this UN agency. HAVANA HAS INCREASED ITS FORESTED AREAS MORE THAN THREE-FOLD In a conference on urban forestry, Cuban specialist Isabel Russó reported that this year there are plans to plant 2.5 million trees in the Cuban capital alone. According to the expert, the Havana metropolis has increased its forested areas more than three-fold over the last 10 years, from a coverage of 1,277 square hectares in 1997 to 4,000 in 2007. Cuba is hoping to achieve a figure of 3.2 million hectares of forested areas – an area equivalent to 29.3% of the island's surface – by the year 2015. http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2007/mayo/lun7/150-million-trees-to.htmlBrazil:25) The amount and distribution of above ground biomass (or the amount of carbon contained in vegetation) in the Amazon basin is largely unknown, making it difficult to estimate how much carbon dioxide is produced through deforestation and how much is sequestered through forest regrowth. To address this uncertainty, a team of scientists from Caltech, the Woods Hole Institute, and INPE (Brazil's space agency), have developed a new method to determine forest biomass using remote sensing and field plot measurements. The researchers say the work will help them better understand the role of Amazon rainforest in global climate change. Writing in Global Change Biology, carbon cycle scientists led by Dr. Sassan Saatchi of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) report a new method for estimating the distribution of biomass over the Amazon basin. " By collecting data from a large number of biomass plots in a variety of forest types distributed over the basin, and by using remote sensing data sensitive to forest characteristics and environmental variables, we develop a series of metrics for extrapolating the plot data to the basin, " they write. " The approach combines the strengths of both forest plots (limited in spatial coverage but providing accurate measurement of biomass) and remote sensing data (less accurate in measuring biomass directly but covering the entire region). " The new method helps overcome some of the sources of ambiguity for estimates of biomass in the region, including " uncertainties associated with measurements at individual plots and... uncertainties in extrapolating data from individual plots to the entire basin. " Surprising, the researchers found little correlation between vegetation type and forest biomass. " Biomass is extremely variable, and to a large extent independent of vegetation types found in the Amazon basin. Therefore, extrapolation approaches that assign vegetation types an average biomass value are unlikely to capture this variability, " Dr. Saatchi told mongabay.com. Unsurprisingly, they found that secondary forest and deforested areas have lower levels of above ground biomass. Remaining forests appear to lock up larger amounts of carbon and interact closely with the climate. Clearing these forests, not only would release some of their stored carbon into the atmosphere as greenhouse gases, but may adversely impact the regional or global climate. http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0508-amazon.htmlPeru:26) With help from Amazon Watch, Achuar and Kichwa leaders arrived in Houston on Tuesday to tell an audience at the Artery about the latest on-the-ground developments in their countries. Disturbingly, ConocoPhillips has declared it will push forward with drilling plans against the wishes of remote Achuar peoples and has acquired yet another oil block in Peru's pristine Amazon rainforest. On Wednesday, Houstonians stood in solidarity outside Conoco's annual general meeting at the OMNI Houston Hotel. The leaders then went inside the meeting to directly tell ConocoPhillips: Basta ya! The indigenous leaders included Tomas Maynas Carijano and Andres Sandi the visionary elder of the Achuar people and president of FECONACO, who together led the 2006 peaceful protest that led to a groundbreaking accord with the Peruvian government, and Petronila Nakaim Chumpi Rosales, the secretary of FECONACO and women's affairs chair. Joning them, was Patricia Gualinga is from the Kichwa community of Sarayaku, in Ecuador's southeastern Amazon rainforest. http://houston.indymedia.org/archives/archive_by_id.php?id=891 & category_id=1

India:27) It all began when Mysore Paper Mills (MPM) began raising the plantation of acacia and eucalyptus way back in 1989 for pulp wood. At that point in time nobody realised the adverse effects this plantation could have on natural forest. Following MPM's attack on natural forest, local species started disappearing from the forest. At this juncture, Samaja Parivartana Samudaya, an NGO in Dharwad, played a crucial role in motivating people as well as creating awareness about the importance of preserving natural forest. Inspired by this awakening, the Malnad Jagriti Samudaya (MJS) was established in 1991, which strove to create awareness about the adverse effects of MPM's plantation. But, as people were benefiting from the plantation, nobody spoke against MPM. A deputy conservator of forest was also appointed to look after the plantation. Shocked by the damage done to local species and the fertility of the soil, MJS filed a case against MPM. The crux of their argument was that MPM had begun their work in revenue land, considered illegal, and that MPM had mortgaged the forest land to Commonwealth Development Corporation, London, to get a loan. But, MPM submitted documents which showed that the forest land was free from encumbrances as MPM had settled the CDC loan. However, it has come to light that MPM has violated certain conditions mentioned in the management plan approved by the High Court of Karnataka and cut down trees where it was not supposed to. http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/may82007/spectrum204736200757.aspChina:

28) Greenpeace today published "The Investigative Report into Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) in South China's Hainan Province ," and condemned the company for logging natural forests. Greenpeace has identified a raw material shortfall for the newly founded Jinhai Pulp & Paper Plant. Greenpeace is calling for APP to guarantee the protection of China's natural forests, to fully comply with the legal procedures and authorizations as required by the Chinese government, and to develop a time-bound action plan to implement these commitments. The investigation report reveals that due to a shortfall in the supply of raw materials, APP purchased timber across the province including timber logged in natural forests. APP has only established 100,000 mu of eucalyptus plantations in Hainan which is a vast shortfall of the necessary amount required to feed the needs of the new mill. Greenpeace also published the video tape taken in the course of the investigations in Hainan. Several interviewees (including local farmers and governmental officials) have provided evidence that APP destroyed natural forests while ignoring farmers' interests. According to Greenpeace, commencing APP's operations in Hainan without a guaranteed environmentally sustainable supply is extremely irresponsible and should be rectified immediately. APP's purchase of timber in Hainan is deforestation in a disguised form. APP is trying to shirk its legal responsibilities. http://www.greenpeace.org/china/en/news/illegal-logging-continues-in-c

Thailand:29) For more than 10 million people who live in the forests, their struggle for community rights to stay and conserve the forests for sustainable use is far from over. And if you think the Surayud administration will be more open-minded with the grassroots movement to manage local natural resources, you are totally wrong. Although community rights are fundamental to political decentralisation and democratisation, all previous governments were under the hypnotic spell of the Forestry bureaucrats to resist the locals' say on forest management. The Surayud government is no different. While a group of National Legislative Assembly members led by environmentalist Tuenjai Deetes tried to give a new lease of life to the people-sponsored community forest draft bill which failed miserably under the Thaksin regime, the Surayud government's draft bill for parallel deliberation is nothing but a channel for the Forestry authorities to keep an iron grip on forest policy and management. During the Thaksin government, the Forestry authorities defeated the community forests movement by drumming on the false belief that forest dwellers are the main destroyers of the dwindling jungles. With the strengthening of bureaucratic power under the Surayud regime, they certainly will not settle for less than another win. The government's draft bill prohibits community forest efforts in any areas demarcated by state authorities for " other purposes " . This " other purposes " phrase is quite telling. It must be noted that the Forestry Department is revising forest and wildlife laws to allow tourism business to make money from their national parks. This means that should the Forestry Department demarcate any particular forest areas for tourism, the villagers' forest conservation efforts will have to take a back seat. Worse, the villagers might even be evicted since they are just illegal forest encroachers according to forestry laws, although they had lived in the forests long before the areas were declared national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. To defeat the purpose of community forests altogether, the government's draft bill also prohibits the forest dwellers from making any use of their community forests. http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/10May2007_news23.php

Vietnam:30) Nguyen Huu Tan, deputy chairman of Vinh Thinh Commune People's Committee, said mining gold at the cost of the forest is a pressing concern for local authorities. The treasure hunters arrived in February and there seems to be no end to their numbers, he said. The most popular place to find the treasure is at the head of Hon Lap Lake in Vinh Thinh Commune. The site has been literally gutted and now features a series of holes and heaps of stones instead of thick vegetation and trees. Nguyen Dac Lac, one of the region's forest rangers, said: " The area possesses gold, which is located at about 1m deep and spread everywhere. Therefore gold seekers usually dig around a fairly large area. " " Although the situation is less dire since a group was mobilised to protect the forest in April, the miners are now more cunning and often hide until the coast is clear, " Tan added. Another problem is policing such a large space. Nguyen Van Ninh, deputy chairman of Vinh Thanh District's People's Committee, said the team's efforts are hindered by the site's huge breadth. It's impossible to stop every illegal miner when there's so much area to cover, said the five-person group's leader Dang Van Luom. http://english.vietnamnet.vn/social/2007/05/691188/31) A diurnal tide rises and falls twice each day in the Red River Delta, ranging from two to four meters across the coastal zone. At high tide, these dwellings, serving as watchtowers and homes for aquaculture plantation workers, look more like regular shacks. Powell River Peak reporter Luke Brocki travelled to Cambodia and Vietnam after winning a fellowship administered by the Jack Webster Foundation and funded by the Canadian International Development Agency. The final installment in his series of development-related stories explores the impacts of aquaculture on coastal communities and mangrove forests in Vietnam's Xuan Thuy National Park in Giao Thuy district, Nam Dinh province, about 150 kilometres southeast of Hanoi. The people of this coastal area, like much of the population of Vietnam, rely on the marine environment for food and livelihood, but a classic tragedy of the commons is leading to environmental degradation and exploitation of resources at speeds that outpace conservation efforts. The tragedy unfolds thusly: A coastline is shared by local clam farmers. The farmers wish to maximize their yield and so will increase the size of their farm whenever possible. Of course, each farmer receives all the proceeds from each additional clam they harvest, while the coastline is slightly degraded by each additional clam. Since all farmers share the disadvantages, the sensible course of action seems to be the further addition of clams. Economically speaking, this seems rational no matter how degraded the coastline gets, since the gain is always greater to each farmer than the individual share of the distributed environmental costs. But 20 years after doi moi, employment opportunities in the 15,000-hectare park and surrounding areas are limited, forest and wetland areas are greatly reduced due to unsustainable environmental practices and fish stocks are on the decline. Still, aquaculture continues to rise. The exploitation doesn't end with clams. The area is home to 46,000 people, many of them farmers eager to cash in on the area's crops, including oysters, crab and shrimp. It all comes at the expense of the park's mangrove forests, as farmers living around the park enter the core zone to farm. Vietnamese mangroves have been under assault for years, starting with the Agent Orange defoliation during the American war. The agent has since been discovered to contain cancer-causing dioxin and is again making headlines after a Canadian environmental company's recent findings that contamination levels in the city of Da Nang continue to exceed concentrations by 300 to 400 times higher than what is considered acceptable. The assaults on the forests continued in the forms of logging, expansion of rice farming and most recently, aquaculture. http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18292978 & BRD=1998 & PAG=461 & dept_id=221583 & rfi=6

Malaysia:32) According to Deputy Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk S. Sothinathan, the government will gazette in stages the balance of five million hectares of forests as permanent reserves to protect the country's flora and fauna heritage and water catchment resources. Apparently the federal and state governments were 'working closely' together in taking steps so that sensitive areas were gazetted as forest reserves. On the face of it this should be considered wonderful news. But we have a knack of saying one thing and then systematically backtracking without qualm or conscience. The very mention of state governments should set alarm bells ringing in every environmentalist. Asking these avaricious state governments and especially their monumentally greedy and environment-unfriendly Menteris Besar and Chief Ministers to discuss steps in gazetting forests is akin to requesting a buaya to protect the mouse deer! As if taking into consideration the horrendous environmental track record of our rapacious state pemimpin2 and anticipating their reflex objection to any thing resembling green preservation, Sothinathan added that " the move, however, depends on the state governments' land requirements for development first because our country is a developing country that requires new land for industry. " Therein my friends, lies the problem. http://the-malaysian.blogspot.com/2007/05/govt-to-gazette-another-5-million.html

Papua New Guinea:33) Residents of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea have found an indigenous solution to high-energy prices, the ubiquitous tropical fruit, coconut. The islanders are developing mini-refineries to produce a coconut oil that can eventually replace diesel. Residents say, coconut oil has not only made them less dependant on expensive fuel, which had to be imported onto the island, enquiries about the fuel have even come from overseas, including Iran and Europe. Matthias Horn, a German migrant and an engineer, who is operating one the several coconut oil refineries on the island, said, the oil is not only cheap but also environment friendly. " They sometimes refer to me as the Mad German because how can you do that to your car... filling it with some coconut juice that you normally fry your fish in, " he said. " The coconut tree is a beautiful tree. Doesn't it sound good if you really run your car on something which falls off a tree and that's the good thing about it; you run your car and it smells nice and it's environmentally friendly and that's the main thing, " the BBC quoted him as saying. http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/Papua_New_Guinea_Islanders_Drive_Their_Cars_On_Coconut_Power

_999.htmlIndonesia:34) Sukanto Tanoto, Indonesia's richest man, said his unlisted group RGM International has begun a $4 billion expansion of its pulp and paper, palm oil, energy, and other interests to increase its size by 70 percent by 2009. Tanoto, whose fortune is estimated at $2.8 billion by Forbes magazine, told Reuters that RGM's five key business units had embarked on new projects in China, Indonesia, and Brazil to build up capacity on the back on a global commodities boom. "We have just over $4 billion in expansion activity under way," Tanoto, 57, said in an interview. Revenue at privately held RGM exceeded $3 billion in 2006 and has risen at a compound annual growth rate of 17 percent since 2002, he said. Tanoto, RGM's chief executive and chairman, declined to give profit figures or a breakdown of how much each new project would cost. RGM's Asian Agri unit has production capacity of about 1 million metric tonnes of crude palm oil, the price of which has shot up to around an eight-year high in recent weeks. Its palm oil is used for food production now, but as high crude oil prices spur interest in biofuels, Tanoto said he plans to build a biodiesel plant in Sumatra to process palm oil. "Palm oil is like green gold now," he said. "This is a global issue, the balance between food production and fuel production. As long as the (crude) oil price is above $60 and there are concerns about global warming, it will be big." http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C05%5C08%5Cstory_8-5-2007_pg5_32

Australia:35) Forestry Tasmania is sticking with trials of a new method of logging designed to replace clear-felling. The Tasmanian Greens want Forestry to abandon the aggregated retention method, otherwise known as clump clear-felling, claiming it is destroying the biodiversity it is supposed to protect. Forestry says the harvesting and regeneration burning of aggregated retention coupes is designed to mimic a natural wildfire. The district forest manager for Derwent, Steve Whiteley, says habitat for wildlife across the whole forest is retained, with some species actually benefiting from burnt forest. Mr Whiteley says the trial results are pleasing, and the introduction of aggregated retention remains part of a long-term research program. " There's a commitment under the Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement to move away from clear-felling and that's by 2010, so that's why we're starting now. " Mr Whiteley said. " We need to learn some things about how we operate, what are some of the things we need to do, in this case how to regenerate the forests effectively, but also the positive effects on biodiversity above and beyond clear-fell. " http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200705/s1920017.htm

World-wide:36) Measuring the drought tolerance of 48 plant species across 122 tropical forest plots in Panama, a team of researchers led by Dr. Bettina Engelbrecht of the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) found that drought tolerance was key factor in the distribution of rainforest plant species. " Drought tolerance was a stronger predictor of species distributions for saplings and adult trees than for seedlings, implying that plant community composition adjusts in accordance to environmental constraints, " explained a release from STRI. The results not only help forecast the impact of climate change in the tropics, but provide insight on what drives plant diversity in the rainforest, says Engelbrecht. " Our data show, that dramatic shifts in species distributions, community composition, forest diversity and ecosystem functioning have to be expected, even with relatively small changes in dry season lengths' (of about one month). Such an understanding provides the basis for modeling the consequences of future climate change, and also is important for making informed decisions about forest conservation and management, " Engelbrecht concluded. http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0502-stri.html37) This is to give you a brief information/report about the Fifth session of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC5) which took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 12-21 March, 2007. The CRIC5 considered reports on implementation of the Convention submitted by affected country Parties in the regions under review, namely Asia, Latin America and Caribbean, North Mediterranean and, Central and Eastern Europe, as well as relevant sub regional reports and regional information; reports by developed country parties on measures taken to assist in the preparation and implementation of national action programmes (NAPs) of affected country parties in the regions under review including on financial resources they have provided or are providing under the convention. Also considered were information provided by relevant organs and funds and programmes of the United Nations system, intergovernmental organisations and non governmental organisations, on their activities in support of the preparation and implementation of NAPs under the Convention. The CRIC was established as a subsidiary body of the Conference of Parties (COP) to the UNCCD by decision 1 COP5. The CRIC was to assist the COP in regularly reviewing the implementation of the Convention, in the light of experience gained at the national, sub regional, regional and international levels, and to facilitate exchange of information on measures adopted by the Parties, in order to draw conclusions, and propose concrete recommendations to the COP on further implementation steps. scope_pakistan scope 38) "Reforestation, new energy sources and technologies, and a substantial improvement in energy efficiency can be crucial elements in a worldwide campaign to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stall global warming, environment experts say. 'At present annual rates, deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia alone would equal 80 percent of the emissions reductions gained by implementing the Kyoto Protocol in its first commitment period (until 2012),' Federica Bietta, director of finance and administration at the Coalition of Rainforest Nations told IPS. Brazil and Indonesia were the two countries with the largest annual loss in forest area 2000-2005. Africa is the continent with the largest loss — almost 5.3 million hectares of forest lost per year since 1990. The Coalition for Rainforest Nations is an alliance of 40 countries who take on collaborative programmes for environmental sustainability in tropical forests. The coalition functions as an intergovernmental organisation with a secretariat at Columbia University in New York City… Greenhouse gases emissions caused by degradation of tropical forests represented up to a quarter of global emissions during the 1990s - in all some five billion tonnes of carbon dioxide." http://www.climatecrisiscoalition.org/blog/?p=428