Guest guest Posted July 13, 2007 Report Share Posted July 13, 2007 Today for you 36 new articles about earth's trees! (211th edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com . --British Columbia: 1) A very liberal plunder, 2) Certainty of species extinction, --Oregon: 3) Truth is written on the land, --California: 4) Uncontrolled experiments in logging, 5) Bohemian grove, 6) Maxxam/PL logging continues, --Montana: 7) Value of federal appeals process --Michigan: 8) Housing development, 9) Impacts of Corporate Timberland Ownership, --Pennsylvania: 10) Save Blackwater Canyon, --New England: 11) Upsurge in Summer camp attendance --Virginia: 12) Management plan revisions for George Washington NF --Georgia: 13) Fools destroy refuge and claim it's the Pine Beetle's fault --South Carolina: 14) GM pine trees for sale --USA: 15) Baseball players love Ash trees! 16) Public land Proclamation, 17) Toxic fire retardant, 18) Forest carbon sequestration data, --UK: 19) Save Clovenside hill, 20) Ian's Wood protected, --Turkey: 21) Five square kilometers of forest for international real estate, --Guyana: 22) Illegally managed by Barama, --Ecuador: 23) Sea Shepherd flies the flag of Ecuador, --Brazil: 24) Citizens reject steel plant proposal, 25) Cargill, Greenpeace and Nature Conservancy sell each other out, 26) A different kind of Kayapo, --Honduras: 27) Intimidation and death threats from illegal " lumber barons " --India: 28) Monsoon is mangrove planting time --Australia: 29) A massive sell-off of publicly owned Crown lease land, 30) 'National Tree Chop Day' 31) Five arrests in Styx Valley, 32) Wildlife corridor spanning the continent, 33) Chance to object to new plantation forests, --World-wide: 34) domesticating nature can be seen everywhere, 35) Destruction of mangrove forests, 36) Small print on tree-planting offsets, British Columbia: 1) Since the BC Liberals came to power in 2001, they've tripled the export of raw, unprocessed logs from the province, allowing logging companies to ship their logs to foreign mills instead of processing them here in BC mills. Over 25 million cubic meters of raw logs have been exported over the past 6 years from BC, which is the equivalent of losing several thousand BC milling jobs to foreign mills. If we are to establish sustainable harvest levels and forestry practices in BC, while maintaining forestry employment levels at the same time, we need to process every log here in BC. The BC government is expected to come up with a new coastal forest industry plan sometime soon. They've indicated that they will increase the taxes on raw logs coming from public lands by 15% (which is still inadequate, ie. too low, to deter companies from exporting raw logs to foreign mills - if the government was serious, they could simply stop issuing permits for companies to export raw logs from public lands) and have indicated that they will be pushing the federal government to relax the already inadequate restrictions that currently exist against raw log exports coming from private lands. Private forest lands owned by TimberWest and Island Timberlands on Vancouver Island are the source of most raw log exports leaving BC. We must Ban Raw Log Exports and Promote Sustainable Forestry!! Organized by the Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada Union (PPWC) Co-Sponsored by the Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC), United Steelworkers Union, Communication, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP), BC Federation of Labour, Save Our Valley Alliance (SOVA). WCWCAction 2) Over the course of many years of local hiking I have sighted many of the endangered and threatened animal species on Vancouver Island including: Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Trumpeter Swan, Brant, Surf Scoter, Bald Eagle, Red-legged Frog, Turkey Vulture, Northern Goshawk, Western Screech-Owl, Vancouver Island Pygmy-Owl, Vancouver Island Marmot, Sea Otter, Humpback Whale, Killer Whale, Gray Whale, Roosevelt Elk, Vancouver Island White-tailed Ptarmigan, and Marbled Murrelet. While some of these species may be sighted regularly in the Oceanside area, their numbers are none-the-less dwindling. The fact that they still exist in numbers in this region makes it all the more important for local residents to become aware of these species' vulnerabilities and work towards protecting them. Almost all of these vertebrates are endangered due to increased human activities such as logging and housing developments. The federal government through Environment Canada established the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) This committee of experts assesses and designates which wild species are in some danger of disappearing from Canada. These species are protected by the Species at Risk Act (SARA), which was brought into effect in 2001. The website allows easy identification of species that residents have concerns about: www.speciesatrisk.gc.ca Here in British Columbia the provincial government does not provide a great deal of protection for endangered species, in fact the Wildlife Act reads more like a directory for hunters and fishers. This act has not seen major amendments in the past 25 years. Today the BC government, under the leadership of Minister of Environment Barry Penner, is working on a new Wildlife Act for introduction in the Legislature in 2008. Currently the Wildlife Act is under review and the deadline for public input has been extended until July 15, 2007. Input has been requested by Minister of Environment Barry Penner env.minister and the Wildlife Act Review Project, Fish & Wildlife Branch, Ministry of Environment PO Box 9374 STN PROV GOVT Victoria, B.C. V8W 9M4 Fax: (250) 387-0239 E-Mail: WildlifeActReview Oregon: 3) The truth is written on the land stripped of its natural assets by an industry condemned and damned by no less than President Teddy Roosevelt who called them liars, cheats and thieves and worse. Nearly all, if not all, they've said to justify logging has been a lie. It was not renewable, it was not sustainable, it was not economically or ecologically harmless, let alone beneficial. It was industrial liquidation of Nature on which we all depend for our lives (soil, air & water, climate & weather, fish & wildlife) and using fraudulent, dishonest accounting and buying our politicians , agencies and legal system (even many of our green groups), to get away with it. But the big lie, repeated often, works in a nation of sheep. Tim Hermach zerocut1 California: 4) The Tahoe Basin, like many National Forest lands, has been subject to an uncontrolled experiment in using logging to reduce fire risk. However, research shows that logging makes forests more likely to burn, results in growth of brush fuels and results in drying out the forest. Common sense says that permitting wooden houses and recreation within these forests also increases the risk of fire damage. The answer to the problem of the Angora fire is not to blame the regulatory agencies, or people for being frustrated at the lack of easy answers. The answer lies in recognizing that these forests will eventually burn and that living within them brings risk. Cutting down the forest, which will harm the lake, makes the whole point of living near formerly blue Lake Tahoe seem moot.-- Fraser Shilling, Davis http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/266233.html 5) As about 2,000 members of the Bohemian Club start arriving this week for the famously secret annual encampment of relaxation, high jinks and male bonding, the club's board is fighting for an ambitious logging plan for its Bohemian Grove on the Russian River. The high-powered club is seeking a special logging permit that would allow it to cut more than 1 million board feet each year in perpetuity without strict environmental review. That's enough to build 70 houses a year from the mature redwood forest -- the closest unprotected one to San Francisco. Dozens of " Bohos " have written to the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in support of the logging plan, saying that it would reduce the risk of wildfire. They're battling scientists and environmentalists who worry that the plan would allow the club to double the amount of logging it does and would require little oversight. The next public hearing on the plan is expected in late summer. The controversy exemplifies a nationwide clash over the best ways to prevent forest fires. The Bohemian Club's board says it wants to reduce the risk of fire in its storied grove, but scientists at the state Department of Fish and Game, the UC Extension Service, UCLA and the Sierra Club argue that acceleration of logging in the remaining patches of old coastal redwoods and Douglas fir won't accomplish that goal. Instead, the plan might contribute to fire risk as well as degrade the rare habitat, they say. The idyllic grove in the little town of Monte Rio is always off limits to Sonoma County neighbors, but that's particularly so from today until the last Sunday in July. Corporate heads, political bosses, legal and financial figures, and artists -- members of the club -- are leaving behind their workaday world to bask in the beauty of giant redwoods, some of them 300 feet high and 1,000 years old. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/12/MNGK0QV7HK1.DTL & feed\ =rss.news 6) Though Maxxam/PL is in bankruptcy, the liquidation logging has not stopped. In Bear Creek and Jordan Creek where logging was halted over a year ago by the local Water Quality Control Board, PL has continued to file new logging plans. Water Quality is demanding a plan be in place to clean up and protect streams from logging future activities. There are now many logging plans stacked up and ready to cut as soon as Water Quality gives the go-ahead. This is a growing problem that needs to be addressed but is beyond the scope of this update. 1) Plan Name Golden Bear THP was approved on June 28th. 2) Plan Name: " More Shade " THP #1-07-070 Unit 3, a 38 acre portion of this logging plan, contains " sporadically spaced " trees " left over from the initial harvest in the early 1940's " . These trees are up to " about 100 inches " in diameter at breast height (DBH). 100 inches= 8.3 ft. 3) Plan Name: " Hog Wild " THP #1-07-094 This plan encompasses 114.75 acres in Bear River just over the ridge from the Mattole River watershed. Unit 3 ( 20.5 acres) is un-entered oldgrowth Douglas Fir. Unit 4 (38.5 acres) is residual Oldgrowth Douglas Fir. http://thpmonitor.blogspot.com/2007/07/maxxampalco-goes-hog-wild.html Montana: 7) I can't think of a more instructive case about appeals than the Frenchtown Face project, just west of Missoula. It was proposed by the Lolo National Forest and highly promoted as restoration. And for good reasons-the forested watersheds near Frenchtown were mightily abused, partly from intense logging many years ago when the land was owned by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. But other factors led to the lost integrity of the ecosystem, so the list of things the Forest Service proposed to restore included a mine site, roadways that bleed sediment into the streams, and native vegetation under press from noxious weeds. The Forest Service also wanted to restore more natural fire regimes by logging and prescribed burning, which troubled our group since unsustainable logging had caused so much previous damage. Yet until the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was published along with the decision, the agency hadn't fully told the public about what we came to see as the highest restoration priority-the soils. The previous logging, along with livestock grazing, excessive roads, and all-terrain vehicle use, had compacted so much soil in the Frenchtown Face area that vegetation growth, including trees, was stunted. Compaction also makes the soil vulnerable to noxious weed invasion and erosion. Each of these factors reduces the long-term productivity of the forest. The Frenchtown Face EIS did include plans to restore soils, however to us the plans were not well-grounded in science. But by then the final decision had been made, so the only avenue left for bringing better science to the table was to appeal. This kind of appeal involves asking a higher level official within the Forest Service to undertake a formal review of the appeal issues. To make a long story short, after we appealed the Lolo Forest Supervisor's decision, the Forest Service's Regional Office reversed it, agreeing with us that the soils analysis was inadequate. Our successful appeal triggered the agency to initiate a scientific study of the soils in Frenchtown Face, one that involved wider perspectives on soils and soil restoration than were contained in the original EIS. What the soil experts mostly recommended was to leave more large pieces of wood on the ground in areas where soils were compacted. This would increase soil moisture and biological activity, allowing natural soil recovery over time. http://www.newwest.net/index.php/topic/article/forest_services_public_appeals_pr\ ocess_works_fo r_everyone/C38/L38/ Michigan: 8) ROYAL OAK -- Residents are mobilizing to save part of a three-acre woodland in the city's northeast corner that will be cut down for a 52-unit housing development proposed for the former Mark Twain Elementary School site. Diversified Property Group LLC bought the 12-acre parcel from the school district for $2 million and its subsidiary, Pinnacle Homes, submitted plans to City Hall for a detached condominium subdivision called Campbell Crossings on Campbell Road near 14 Mile Road. The latest proposal does spare a thin line of trees behind the school, which is slated for demolition, but not enough to satisfy neighbors. As far as resident Ann Steffy is concerned, " This is total destruction of the woods, and we've seen deer tracks back there. " Steffy and her neighbors are passing out fliers to boost attendance -- and opposition -- to the development at the Plan Commission meeting scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. " We hope the people are heard at City Hall because the school board didn't listen, " Steffy said. " It breaks your heart to see the plans for the 52 cramped condos and all the trees that will be gone. This is a tacky development, and we're not snobs. It will ruin the quality of our neighborhood. " http://www.dailytribune.com/stories/070807/loc_woods001.shtml 9) The presentation, " Impacts of Corporate Timberland Ownership Change in the Upper Peninsula, " highlighted recent research along with corporate landowners' perspectives. In 2005, the Plum Creek Timber Company purchased 650,000 acres in the U.P. from Escanaba Timber LLC, formerly Mead paper. In 2006, International Paper sold 440,000 acres to GMO Renewable Resources LLC. The presentation looked at the what happens when vertically integrated timber product companies, like Mead, who produce paper products, sell property to real estate investment trusts, like Plum Creek and other companies. REITs invest almost exclusively in real estate according to the report. " Money is in the land, " said Robert Froese, a professor at Michigan Technological University. " We see increases in liquidity, people can move in and out of investments easily with the new ownership. " Froese talked about the U.P.'s transition from the old to the new owners. Larry Leefers from the Michigan State University department of forestry discussed the role of the forest products industry in the U.P economy. Leefers talked about current economic issues in tourism, sawmilling, logging and other industries. According to the report, the forest products industry in Michigan had sales of $11.2 billion in 2003. The U.P contributed $2.5 billion; totaling 22 percent of the state's final sales. Leefers touched on tourism in the U.P. — questioning the industry's strength. " Tourism is really important in the U.P. " said Leefers. " But vehicles crossing the (Mackinac) bridge went down in the last seven years. The U.P. has to get more money out of tourists while they're here. " http://www.miningjournal.net/stories/articles.asp?articleID=17215 Pennsylvania: 10) In June 2002, timber operator John Crites of Allegheny Wood Products filed a request with the US Forest Service for permission to use the scenic Blackwater Canyon public hiking/biking trail as a logging road and possible access to a proposed condominium project. This dangerous plan would degrade the scenic, historic, and ecological values of the wild Blackwater Canyon. The ten-mile-long Blackwater Canyon Trail winds along the wild and scenic Blackwater River, through the heart of the Blackwater Canyon. The Trail is home to rare and endangered species. Dramatic coke ovens that produced heating fuel and cut-stone archways, from the 1890 railroad era, make the Trail a historically protected site. It would be a terrible wrong for the US Forest Service to allow this precious and historic public land to be degraded into a commercial logging road. The first comment period in February 2003 brought in 10,000 comments opposed to the road conversion and forced the Forest Service to study the impacts of this project utilizing the full environmental impact statement (EIS) process. Send your comments today! Tell the US Forest Service to withdrawal their proposal to ruin the famous Blackwater Canyon Trail. Click here http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/americanlandsalliance/campaig\ n.jsp?campaign _KEY=12146 to send your letter. Deadline for comments is July 23, 2007. New England: 11) There are no TVs, video games, or computers, and counselors keep the only cellphone on the island hidden away for emergencies. Six weeks of this might sound like punishment for the average boy today, who lives with his iPod in his ear and talks to his friends in text messages. Yet this year, for the first time in recent memory, Pine Island sold out for the season six months before it opened. It is one of a number of rustic wilderness camps in New England that are seeing a surge in their popularity, at a time when parents and educators are increasingly concerned that children do not spend enough time in the natural world. For the 86 boys on Pine Island, there is no escape from nature, and no choice but to learn to entertain themselves. Every night of the summer, campers and counselors dance, sing, and role-play for an hour at the evening campfire. One recent evening, as sparks crackled and flames shot into the pink twilight, they sang a song about a " crazy moose " who " drank a lot of juice, " cheered wildly as campers and counselors danced the limbo under a wooden oar on the beach, and laughed at a skit in which one shaggy-haired counselor with a fake Australian accent imitated the late wildlife expert Steve Irwin. Finally, everyone stood and gathered close around the fire, their faces orange in the light, to sing a last song quietly, together. " We entertain ourselves every night, and it becomes more amazing all the time, because people don't know how to entertain themselves anymore, " said Ben Swan , the camp's director, whose father and grandfather ran the camp before him. Traditional summer camps in the woods became popular a century ago, in response to concerns about urbanization and the effects of city life on children. They thrived in the 1920s, offering youngsters from cities and suburbs a chance to experience nature and develop wilderness skills: building a fire; reading a compass; paddling a canoe. But beginning in the 1970s, the rise of technology, more protective parenting, and other societal changes threatened traditional camps. When Swan took over as director in 1989, enrollment at Pine Island had dwindled from 85 to 45 boys. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/07/07/nature_makes_a_comeback/ Virginia: 12) The Forest Service recently held public meetings regarding revising the management plan for George Washington National Forest. Many at the meetings appeared to be cheerleaders for big government masquerading as conservatives. Calls for more logging, more roads, and more corporate welfare reflect a strange sense of entitlement. The overall focus of the plan needs to change, from indulging those who want to take from the forest to taking care of the forest. The aim should be self-sustaining ecosystems of healthy forests with as little management intervention as possible; in other words, significantly reducing expenditure of tax dollars. The majority of Americans want to maintain the beauty of the few wild places we have left. But this won't be possible without strong protection measures and mandates for the National Forest. These include designation of wilderness and other special areas; full protection of all old-growth tracts, roadless areas, and rare species; and plan standards that bureaucrats are required to follow. Those who disrespect wildlife and wild lands have political connections, deep pockets, and loud voices. The effect of pandering to their interests is to lock out many of us from enjoying our national forests. If you care about our natural heritage, get involved with the GWNF plan revision. Express your convictions for strong protection to the Forest Service and to your local, state, and federal elected officials. http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007/072007/07082007/296296 Georgia: 13) Parts of the Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge in Jones County look like a logging site, and it's all because of a little insect smaller than a grain of rice. Pine beetles are native to this area but forester Carl Schmitt says conditions this year are making them worse. The beetle has already ruined about 300 of the refuge's 35,000 acres. Now, they're marking and cutting down infected trees and also cutting down a 150-foot barrier of healthy trees to try to stop the beetles from spreading. A lumber company hauls away and sells the infected trees. Schmitt says cutting down so many trees is bad for animals that live in the forest. " You're going to take what's moderate- to high-quality habitat and turn it into low- quality habitat, " Schmitt says. He says even though they're trying hard to stop this problem, he's not optimistic. " The reality is a fair number of them, even though we try to cut and stop them, they're still spreading, " says Schmitt. " It just slows them down some. " If the pine beetles continue to spread through summer and into fall, they should die down during winter. http://www.13wmaz.com/news/local_story.aspx?storyid=40808 South Carolina: 14) COLUMBIA - A new line of genetically improved pine trees could change the health of South Carolina's forests in the years to come. An improved loblolly pine is among the dozens of tree species for sale right now by the South Carolina Forestry Commission. Officials say these pines are more resistant to the fungi and insects that eat away at South Carolina timber. Landowners wanting to invest in their land can buy as few as ten trees or they can buy them by the tens of thousands! http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6775569 USA: 15) Careers at stake with each swing, baseball players leave little to sport when it comes to their bats. They weigh them. They count their grains. They talk to them. But in towns like this one, in the heart of the mountain forests that supply the nation's finest baseball bats, the future of the ash tree is in doubt because of a killer beetle and a warming climate, and with it, the complicated relationship of the baseball player to his bat. " No more ash? " said Juan Uribe, a Chicago White Sox shortstop, whose batting coach says he speaks to his ash bats every day. Uribe is so finicky about his bats, teammates say, that he stores them separately in the team's dugout and complains bitterly if anyone else touches them. At a baseball bat factory tucked into the lush tree country here in northwestern Pennsylvania, the operators have drawn up a three-to-five-year emergency plan if the white ash tree, which has been used for decades to make the bat of choice, is compromised. In Michigan, the authorities have begun collecting the seeds of ash trees for storage in case the species is wiped out, a possibility some experts now consider inevitable. As early as this summer, federal officials hope to set loose Asian wasps never seen in this country with the purpose of attacking the emerald ash borer, an Asian beetle accused of killing 25 million ash trees in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Maryland since it was spotted in the United States five years ago. In late June, officials found signs of the ash borer's arrival in Pennsylvania, setting off a new alarm for the makers of baseball bats, most of which come from this rocky, cool range on the New York border. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/us/11ashbat.html?ex=1341806400 & en=0625ab664479\ 5b6e & ei=5088 & pa rtner=rssnyt & emc=rss 16) Citizen advocacy is critical to preserving our public land heritage. Public lands will only be protected through a unified and committed public land movement. In that spirit we, the undersigned, present the following principles for public lands: 1) Our public lands are a public good that must be protected in perpetuity for the benefit of each new generation. 2) Public lands must remain in public ownership, overseen by the federal government on behalf of, and with the input of, all citizens. 3) Protecting public lands requires strong and enforceable laws. Efforts to circumvent the protections in existing environmental laws must be resisted. 4)The public has a right to know how our shared lands are being managed, and to participate in open, transparent planning and decision-making. 5) Control of public lands must never be ceded to local interests, advisory boards, panels, or groups, but should remain with the federal government and, by extension, the public at large. 6) Precedence shall be given to ecological and other public purposes. The biological health of public lands, waters, and wildlife have intrinsic value and should be given the highest priority in public land management. 7) Public use shall take precedence over commercial use. In situations where access is restricted or allocated, the needs of the self-guided public shall take precedence over the wants of commercial service providers. The potential for revenue generation or other commercial outputs must never unduly influence management decisions. 8) Public lands are not a form of currency to be bartered for political favors. They are not to be sold for revenue generation or for administrative cost reduction. Protecting one area must not be accomplished by supporting degradation of another. In these regards, public lands are non-fungible. 9) Citizens and visitors alike should not be charged a fee merely for walking, riding or floating upon public lands and waters. Enterprises engaged in commerce should, at a minimum, be required to pay full cost recovery for anything they do upon, and pay fair market value for anything they remove from, public lands and waters. 10) Nearly 20 percent of public lands are congressionally designated as Wilderness. The wilderness character of all designated Wilderness should be preserved and not diminished in any way. 11) Legislation to designate new wilderness should fully reflect and uphold the spirit, intent, and provisions of the 1964 Wilderness Act, and contain no special exceptions that would lessen the protective provisions of the Wilderness Act. 12) Congress must appropriate adequate funding to the federal land management agencies, both to ensure that the agencies are able to carry out their obligations and to forestall any real or perceived need for private funding of public land management. Please review the Preamble and Principles and let me, blaeloch, know whether your organization will join us. 17) The agency's July 28, 2006, summary of " Key Points " strongly emphasized the benefits of using fire retardant, although the agency said that, beginning in 2007, it would no longer use retardant that contained one chemical, sodium ferrocyanide, that has long been found to cause some environmental problems. The agency also notes that pilots try to avoid spreading retardant near waterways. However, doing so is extremely challenging in the chaotic conditions of a fire. In the past five years, a total of 409,721 fires have burned 18,382,397 acres, and an average of more than 20 million gallons of retardant have been used each of the past 10 years. This year, more than 30 million gallons of retardant, plus an unknown quantity of foam, likely will be used. Susan Finger, Environmental and Contaminants Research Center, 573-876-1850. Diane Larson, U.S.G.S. Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, 612-625-9271. Cecilia Johnson, U.S. Forest Service, 406-329-4819. Jeff Bass, National Interagency Fire Center, 208-387-5459. " Ecological Effects of Fire Fighting Foams and Retardants, " Robyn Adams and Dianne Simmons. While slurry mixes stifle forest fires, researchers have found in limited studies that the retardants and foams also have a dark side. The most commonly used mixtures can be toxic to fish, aquatic invertebrates, and algae, can harm rabbits, birds, and humans, and can reduce vegetative diversity and boost the growth of weeds. Slurries and foams are mostly water, but they also include ammonium fertilizer, detergent, and other ingredients. Current studies are showing that a corrosion inhibitor (sodium ferrocyanide) in some formulas becomes more toxic when exposed to sunlight. Very little study has been done on chronic effects. http://life.csu.edu.au/bushfire99/papers/adams/index.htm 18) When considering ways to address the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and potential climate change, we must look toward the important role the world's forests can play. Forests are better at storing carbon than any other land cover. Forests in the United States sequester about 200 million to 280 million tons of carbon per year, offsetting as much as 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States - the equivalent to the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by about 235 million cars annually. It is, therefore, critically important to stabilize, or even increase, the world's forestland base. Unfortunately, the world is facing a net loss of about 45 million acres of forest per year. Even in the United States, we lose about 1 million acres per year to development, although some of this loss is offset by reforestation. Another major problem is wildfire. Although already at catastrophic levels, if the climate becomes warmer, wildfires will become more frequent and intense. However, if we focus on forests only in their role of storing carbon, we overlook an even bigger benefit of our forests. Forests have added value because they provide a renewable source of wood products. Use of wood should be enhanced because assessments show that using wood for construction and housing uses far less energy and has a much lower " carbon footprint " than structures built with steel, plastic, or aluminum. Despite our abundant forests, the United States imports 36 percent of its wood consumption from other countries, some of which have far lower environmental standards and often may incorporate illegal logging. Our excessive restriction of harvesting on national forests may very well promote excessive harvesting elsewhere. http://www.redbluffdailynews.com/ci_6322242?source=most_viewed UK: 19) The site, which is known as " Clovenside or R6 " , extends to approximately 1.9 hectares. It has been identified by Moray Council as suitable for a low-density development of up to 15 houses. However, it is set within a conservation area and is colonised by young birch woodland of between 10 and 15 years old, which consultants have claimed is of no real importance, which has angered residents who claim wildlife flourish in there. The area was formerly zoned as an environmental greenfield site, but planners have earmarked it for change in the new version of the Local Plan which would pave the way for a housing development. Although there is no planning application lodged for the site, the " Forres Gazette " believes that developers Robertson Homes have already shown an interest in the land which is believed to be privately owned, with proposals to build 12 executive bungalows. Residents whose homes back onto the site have objected in their droves to the new plans, claiming that it would rob them of an area of woodland of amenity value, which is providing a home for species of plantlife, birds and other animals. Chairman of the FCWT (Forres Community Woodland Trust), Chris Piper challenged the council's assessment that the landscape was of no amenity value, and said it was just another example of woodland being eroded to make way for housing. " This is an area of predominantly young native birch woodland which although of no commercial value and currently under-managed, is nonetheless an important element of Forres's green fabric and a natural extension of the town's environmental jewel in the crown – Cluny Woodlands, " he said. Meantime, residents are unhappy with safety and flooding issues arising from the proposed development. Local couple Andy and Joanne Scott, who live on Clovenside Road, are worried about the proposed access onto the site which would be next to their home near a blind corner, with a build-up in traffic from new residents and construction likely to cause problems. The only other access could be from the back of the site, which would mean taking down a stone wall and a row of other more mature trees. " What would the people of Forres think about this? " she said. " A lot of people come up this road and would be horrified if they knew they were going to put a housing development in there. " http://www.forres-gazette.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/1668/Residents_up_in_arms\ _over_woodland _housing.html 20) AN OFFENHAM couple who planted 2,000 trees in memory of their son have officially handed over the area of woodland to the Vale Landscape Heritage Trust. Lionel and Margaret Wilkes met with members from the Trust at Ian's Wood in Bishampton, which contains native species of trees and shrubs and makes a valuable contribution to the Vale landscape, in a ceremony on Monday and unveiled a plaque stating the new owners of the land. The couple, who are aged 80 and 75 respectively, planted Ian's Wood behind Ivy House Farm in the 1980s with the help of activists from Friends of the Earth after their son, Ian, died. He was autistic, epileptic and suffered from brain damage. But now they have donated it to the trust to ensure it is well looked after. Mr Wilkes said: " We wanted to make sure it is looked after in a respectful and wildlife friendly manner and we know the trust will do that. " Andy Davies, manager of the trust, said it was a great occasion. " We are going to try keep it in the same manner as Lionel and Margaret have done, as a memorial to their son. It is such a beautiful piece of woodland and hopefully it will become an important nature reserve, especially for butterflies, " he said. http://www.eveshamjournal.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1537162.mostviewed.ians_wood_giv\ en_to_landscape _trust.php Turkey: 21) In Milas the culprit is the international real estate investment company Capital Partners, currently set to open five square kilometers of forest for human settlement. Undertaking the project is Bodrum A.Ş., the Turkish representative of Capital Partners, which bought the forested area for YTL 80 million. The company asserts that the land's status as a forest was removed based on a court ruling, issued on the grounds of a disputed expert report. Casting more doubt on the case was a recent fire in the forested land and the Forestry Generalate's reluctance to appeal the initial court ruling removing the forest status of the area. B Legal experts say the forest can only be saved by a criminal complaint filed by public prosecutors. Surrounding Bozbük Bay with a five-and-a-half-kilometer-long beach, the area in question is home to 14 villages and its story dates back as far as 1967. During that year villagers applied to court to annul an 1882 Land Registry record listing the land as a forest. The Generalate of Forestry filed an appeal and the court process continued for years. In 1991 four individuals claiming rights on five kilometer square area became an intervening party in the case. However a new court process was launched for the entire forest, which the four said they had bought. In 1999 forestry engineers Doğan Bozkurt, Aydın Yükselmiş and Yakup Dündar, in an expert report prepared for the court, wrote that the entire area was 25 square kilometers with five square kilometers of this total area having the character of a " non-forested " area. In 2006 a report from the Milas branch of the Muğla Regional Forestry Directorate stated that the every square meter of the five square kilometer area was forested, contrary to what the expert report had suggested. http://voicesnewspaper.com/modules.php?name=News & file=article & sid=921 Guyana: 22) I had calculated partly from the Initial Public Offering (IPO) prospectus of the parent company, Samling Global Ltd., in March 2007 that about 408,000 ha were illegally managed by Barama. The conformity assessment body, SGS Qualifor, has at last put on its website the public summary of the report of its surveillance mission of November 2006 (url = ). This shows that the Amerindian areas under " bad faith " logging agreements (illegal under the Amerindian Act 2006, Article 55 (1) (d) cover 72,000 hectares, instead of my previous estimate of 7,978 ha. So Barama is even more illegal than I had suggested and even more than is revealed in its IPO prospectus. The SGS report is explicit on the matter of Barama control over harvesting in the landlorded areas: " BCL has a few other areas in Guyana (through joint ventures or own) where it has control over its management " (page 63 in SGS document AD 36-A-01). Barama's IPO confirms that Barama has no interest in sustainable management of these landlorded concessions (VI-68 and VI-69 in the IPO prospectus). Let us recapitulate the legal and policy requirements of Guyana which Barama is infringing through these illegal acquisitions. http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_letters?id=56524259 Ecuador: 23) We are now officially allied with the Ecuadorian government in the effort to protect not just the Galapagos but the Amazonian Rainforest. It means that we can solicit materials and financial support in the name of the Ecuadorian government and the Ecuadorian National Police and we can use their logos to promote our activities in the Galapagos. It means we can do patrols, set up surveillance positions and we can make arrests. It means we are officially an environmental law enforcement agency. This week we met with the Ecuadorian Vice-President, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Prime Minister, and the Director General of the National Police. All of the meetings were extremely positive. On the evening of July 5th, I was awarded the Amazon Peace Prize from the Latin American Association for human rights I signed an agreement with the National Police that we would work in partnership to protect the Galapagos National Park and the Amazonian National Parks. The Director General of the National Police came directly from a meeting with the President of Ecuador where the President authorized the Director General to sign the agreement with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The United States Embassy sent a representative to attend the ceremony. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society maintains a permanent office in the Galapagos and has provided a full time patrol boat to the National Park. We are now seeking to secure a patrol boat to operate in partnership with the Federal Environmental Police. http://www.seashepherd.org " Sail forth - steer for the deep waters only, Reckless O soul, exploring, I with thee and thou with me, For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go, And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all. " - Walt Whitman Brazil: 24) Brazil's Environment Ministry entered a minefield when it proposed a sustainable forest district to contain deforestation in the steel-making centre of Carajás, one of the most devastated and violent areas in the Amazon. With a resounding " 'No' to projects that involve destruction and death, " local social and environmental movements rejected the idea, which they see as a continuation of the deforestation process of the eastern Amazon, aggravated by promotion of eucalyptus monoculture to obtain charcoal to fuel the steel factories. Meanwhile, the industry executives want to change the legislation that requires preserving up to 80 percent of the forests of existing properties within the boundaries of the " Legal Amazon " , encompassing nine Brazilian states. The local companies " will only sustain themselves if there is a 50-percent reduction " in the forest coverage quota, because there are too many agricultural problems and previous deforestation, says Ricardo Nascimento, president of the Iron Industrial Syndicate, of the north-eastern state of Maranhão. But that move would trigger protests from a world increasingly mobilised against climate change, one of whose principal causes is precisely the deforestation of the vast Amazon region. The Carajás sustainable forest district (DFS - Distrito Florestal Sustentável), proposed by the government's newly created Forest Service and still under public debate, has inflamed the environmental, agrarian and social battles being fought in the region for five decades. Highway construction and incentive policies to settle the region have fomented deforestation, especially for lumber and livestock. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38470 25) In Brazil, a rich carpet of green rolled over the Amazon River city of Santarem thirty years ago, a vibrant virgin forest. But satellite images of the area of Santarem, 600 miles from the mouth of the Amazon River, show that where carbon-storing trees once stood, cattle ranches and soy farms now proliferate. Greenpeace estimates that between 2002 and 2005 deforestation in the Amazon has claimed an area twice the size of Switzerland. An unlikely alliance is working to stop to the destruction: The corporate colossus Cargill has teamed up with the non-profit environmental group The Nature Conservancy in a bid to reduce the footprint of soy farming on land that has been illegally cleared around Santarem. Environmental experts from The Nature Conservancy are trying to teach soy farmers in Santarem to be good stewards of the land. " The first thing, " says agronomist Jose Benito Guerrero, " is to restore vegetation cover, after that the animals, then bio-diversity … will come back. " Cargill's Assistant Vice President for Corporate Affairs Lori Johnson says the farmers don't want to be " the international pariahs. " Government officials concede, however, that not a single farmer in the area is in compliance with Brazil's Forest Code, which is aimed at preserving the world's largest rainforest. http://www.csrwire.com/PressRelease.php?id=9097 26) The four unclothed visitors were a different kind of Kayapo. They spoke in an antiquated tongue that seemed a precursor to the language spoken in the village, located in the Capoto-Jarina Indian Reserve in central Brazil. The four men had come from a tribe that had remained in the forest, the brothers said, untouched by the modern world. Over the next seven days, the doubt expressed by the villagers evaporated when they saw more than 60 of the Indians emerge from the forest, sleeping in huts on the edge of the village. Then as quickly as they had come, the Indians disappeared. They haven't been seen since. The Indians' brief appearance this spring was enough to put them into the center of a debate that is increasingly challenging governments throughout the Amazon region: How should the rights and territories of isolated populations be protected when the locations of those groups remain largely unknown? Why couldn't anyone get a picture? Why was no one except the Kayapo allowed into the village? How could a group of people remain uncontacted in the 21st century? Could someone be making this whole story up for some sort of personal or political gain? " I don't believe it -- this is an area with lots of loggers and farmers who are always going out into the forest, making studies, " said Albeni de Souza, 22, a university student who works in a hotel in Colider. " Even the Indians from the tribes on reservations walk around the forest all the time. Someone would have seen them before. " In recent months, Brazil and Peru have set aside protected areas for so-called uncontacted groups, which have never been spoken to and rarely -- if ever -- glimpsed. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/07/AR2007070701312.\ html Honduras: 27) A villager who just wanted to protect a small nature reserve in the forest faced intimidation and death threats from illegal " lumber barons " . With his wife and seven children, Victor lives in a small village in Olancho, an area of Honduras covered by 2.5 million hectares of rich forest. More than half has already been cut down. And, despite a presidential ban last year on logging from many parts of Olancho, it continues apace. Victor started work on environmental issues in 2000, when he and other villagers in his municipality joined together to try to protect a small nature reserve called " La Picoña " - which he describes as " the lungs of the village " - from being razed to the ground to make way for new construction. Over the past four years, he and his family have received numerous death threats by phone. In March this year, unknown individuals drove past his home at ten in the evening and fired gunshots outside the house. These are not idle threats. On 20 December 2006, Heraldo Zúñiga and Roger Iván Cartagena, members of the Environmentalist Movement of Olancho (MAO), the organisation to which Victor belongs, were murdered. Reports say they were stopped by four policemen, who lined them up against a wall and fired 40 shots at them. The MAO has complained of persistent intimidation and death threats against its members over the past year. Only its leader, Father José Andrés Tamayo, has received any real protection, after he was warned to leave the country or be killed. For activists such as Victor, " protection " comes in the form of the occasional visit to his home by the police, whom he has good reason to fear. The rationale behind the threats, and these murders, is obvious. MAO members campaign against deforestation, logging and mining activity in Olancho. And there is big money in these businesses. " Lumber barons " have great wealth and political power. And so the MAO finds itself threatened by criminal elements connected to the timber trade and by people in positions of power. The pattern spreads across Olancho, where six environmentalists have been killed since 1997, and across the whole of Honduras, where the timber industry is worth an estimated $50m (£25.1m) a year. Numerous village communities have faced threats and intimidation after they highlighted the damage done by commercial interests to their local environment. Victor and his colleagues have been forced to divert their attention from environmental campaigning to speaking out publicly against the murder of their colleagues and the authorities' failure to mount an adequate investigation. http://www.newstatesman.com/200707050031 India: 28) KANNUR - Against the deep grey monsoon clouds looming large over the sparkling greenery of northern Kerala, Kallan Pokkudan stood like a hero, bearing his canoe's oar, a pole and a water bottle. " I am going to inspect the mangrove,'' said the stocky, middle-aged farmer. Monsoon is mangrove planting time and Pokkudan has planted 100,000 saplings with his own hands. Inspired by his work, the local youth and the forest department have coved several acres along the backwaters and estuaries here, making it the most lush stretch on this coastal belt -- and Pokkudan a celebrity. There is a 22-species mangrove forest that grows over a man's height around Pokkudan's village nestled in a wetland. It is advancing now and even devouring unsown paddy fields, but nobody minds. " It protects the villages here from wind, storms and the water that gushes down from the mountains when it rains. And gives us enough fish,'' said Pokkudan. Amid resort construction, sand mining and other assaults on the delicate coast, it is local conservation initiatives, such as restoring the mangrove forests, that offer any hope that the natural contours of Kerala, a rain-washed coastal strip, will stay intact. Besides mangrove, locals are now recognising the value of sand bars that offer protection to the coasts against the ravages of man and nature, but these have fallen prey to sand miners who supply the construction industry. In the southern district of Thiruvananthapuram, that houses the state capital with the same name, T. Peter, president of the state's independent fish workers' union, has been spending nights with his colleagues guarding a strip of sand between the Veli backwaters and the Arabian sea to save it from being carried away by sand miners and sold to the construction industry. " Thanks to the thick sand bar that the waves have created there, our village was saved from the sea attacks this monsoon, " Peter said. Last year, sea water had entered the village through a gouged out estuarine sand bar, devouring houses, flooding the churchyard famous for the annual feast of St Anthony and the open air theatre performances associated with it. " Studies indicate that the warming of the troposphere (the lowest portion of the atmosphere) increases moisture content of the atmosphere and is associated with an increase in heavy rainfall events, " V. Venugopal of the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, told IPS. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38466 Australia: 29) The NSW Government is poised to begin a massive sell-off of publicly owned Crown lease land including 1.5 million hectares of vegetated properties, much of which contains high conservation values, threatened species and ecosystems underrepresented in reserves. Environment groups have slammed the NSW Government for proceeding with the sell-off in the absence of adequate safeguards that environmental values will not be protected. The State Government has repeatedly promised that, '... in circumstances where environmental values on perpetual leases cannot be adequately protected by covenants and restrictions, the lands will be retained in public ownership'. " As the proposal stands, environment groups do not accept that this promise can be delivered " said Andrew Cox, Executive Officer of the National Parks Association. The mass sell-off of Crown leases, including tens of thousands of hectares of Identified Wilderness, old-growth forest, and endangered woodlands was due to commence on 1st July 2007. NPA claims that the Government cannot ensure the protection of these valuable ecological areas once in private hands. NPA can reveal today that environmental protection of converted leases will not be possible using the covenanting regime proposed by the Department of Lands under a law written in 1919. http://www.wilderness.org.au/campaigns/landclearing/iemma-to-sell-off-million-he\ ctares/ 30) Environment groups today described the actions by farmers involved in so-called 'National Tree Chop Day' as self destructive and urged the NSW Government not to give into environmental vandalism and blackmail. The groups will also support community demands for even stronger tree protection laws as a result of these actions. In response to media reports that irresponsible landholders have chopped down 4,000 trees and will double efforts every day, NSW Minister for the Environment, Phil Koperberg said on ABC Radio this morning that he would prefer to talk with the organisers in preference to taking strong legal action. The NSW Farmers Association has failed to condemn the vandalism and industry lobby groups like the Australian Beef Association are actively supporting it. " This minority of farmers are destroying their own properties and are a perfect example of why we need the tree protection laws. They are also destroying the reputation of the majority of farmers and their associations who claim farmers are environmentally responsible, " said Reece Turner, New South Wales Campaigner with The Wilderness Society. " The NSW and Queensland Governments promised to enforce and retain the tree clearing laws at recent state elections, and we expect them to do just that. " Jeff Angel, Director of Total Environment Centre, said farmers were misled if they believed these actions would affect politicians in their favour. " Environment groups have vowed to investigate all legal options to protect the environment and make the general community aware and active on this issue. If these farmers think this stunt is a free ride to exert political pressure, then they should think again. We expect the community will be demanding even more stringent laws as a consequence of this episode. " Land clearing remains the number one cause of wildlife extinctions, the number one cause of dryland salinity, and a significant cause of global warming, " said Mr Angel. http://www.wilderness.org.au/campaigns/landclearing/vandals/ 31) Five people have been arrested after blockading forestry operations in the Styx Valley, in Tasmania's south-west. Protesters used a car wreck to block the Styx Valley Bridge and the Maydena end of the Styx Road, to try to stop loggers from accessing the area. One man, who had his arm inside a steel pipe which was concreted into the road, became stuck and had to be freed. Two women and three men, all in their twenties, have been charged with several offences including committing a nuisance and obstructing police. Protest spokesman, Peter Firth, says about 15 people remain in the forest. " This is a very significant area and we need to make greater steps to see that it's protected,'' said Mr Firth. Forestry Tasmania's Ken Jeffreys says the protesters' actions are frustrating. " Not that many months ago we negotiated a memorandum of understanding to prevent these sort of illegal and dangerous protests from taking place, " he said. The protesters say they will stay as long as possible. http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/09/1974054.htm 32) Australia will create a wildlife corridor spanning the continent to allow animals and plants to flee the effects of global warming, scientists said on Monday. The 2,800-kilometer (1,740 mile) climate " spine, " approved by state and national governments, will link the country's entire east coast, from the snow-capped Australian alps in the south to the tropical north -- the distance from London to Romania. " A lot of that forest and vegetation spine is already there. But there are still blockages, " David Lindenmayer, a professor of conservation biology, told Reuters of the plan. " The effects of climate change will likely to be less severe in systems that have some resilience and that we haven't gone in and buggered-up. " The creation of the corridor was agreed by state and federal governments this year amid international warnings that the country -- already the world's driest inhabited continent -- is suffering from an accelerated Greenhouse effect. Climate scientists have predicted temperatures rising by up to 6.7 degrees Celsius (12 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2080 in the country's vast outback interior. A 10-year drought is expected to slash one percent from the A$940 billion ($803 billion) economy. The corridor, under discussion since the 1990s as the argument in support of climate change strengthened, will link national parks, state forests and government land. It will help preserve scores of endangered species. " We are talking a very long-term vision, a land use that values keeping the eastern forests in place over past uses like landclearing, " said Graeme Worboys from the IUCN, the world conservation union. Lindenmayer, from the Australian National University, said governments would need also to work with private landholders to link the corridor through voluntary conservation agreements. " Given only 10 percent of Australia's landscapes are going to be in formal reserves, we are going to have to be far cleverer about how we manage the country outside, " he said. http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSSYD14547020070709 33) The Burnie City Council in Tasmania's north-west has passed a motion that will ensure its aldermen have the chance to object to new plantation forests in the area. Private timber reserves are approved under the Forest Practices Act, but councils have the right to object to plantations if they deem the developments are against the public interest. Burnie aldermen have said they want to be consulted each time an application for a private timber reserve comes to the council. The alderman who proposed the motion, Malcolm Ryan, says it's one of the few options available for people to have a say on the approval of plantations. " If they're taking over good farm land which is going to affect our beef production or our milk production or going to affect our water resources, " he said, " then the Burnie City Council has the right to object to a timber reserve under its 'against the public interest' provision. " http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/09/1974065.htm World wide: 34) A new study published in SCIENCE Magazine evaluates the ways that mankind has, over time, significantly altered its environment, resulting in increased vulnerability to natural disasters, species extinction, and disease transmission. The study, " Domesticated Nature: Shaping Landscapes and Ecosystems for Human Welfare, " was conducted by scientists at The Nature Conservancy, Santa Clara University, and Harvard University. It examines specific cases where such alterations — originally intended to increase food production, reduce risk, and enhance global commerce — have ultimately caused negative, unanticipated impacts on human well-being and natural systems. " The world is at a tipping point whereby the alterations of landscapes and oceans are causing a net decline in human well-being around the world, " said Peter Kareiva, chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy and lead author of the report. " The effects of domesticating nature can be seen everywhere, from noticeable problems like pollution to less apparent issues such as devastated coastal zones and deadly algae blooms caused by excessive nutrient run-off into watersheds and river basins. " In the report, researchers noted that throughout history, humans have successfully grazed and cultivated crops, suppressed wildfires, developed coastlines to protect against storm surges, hunted wild species and harvested oceans. These efforts have no doubt enhanced the well-being and quality of life for millions, and the success of global economies can be largely attributed to such alterations of our natural world. Yet researchers also found that the inadvertent consequences of these adaptations have been appearing with increased frequency in recent decades, and many of these unforeseen effects are negative. For example, the report notes that more than half of the world's forests have been destroyed as a result of land conversion, and today's experts estimate that deforestation accounts for nearly 25 percent of all carbon emissions worldwide. http://www.nature.org/tncscience/science/art21687.html 35) Destruction of mangrove forests could leave the world deprived of their important ecological services by the end of a century, warns an international team of scientists writing in the July 6th issue of the journal Science. Mangrove forests, which once covered more than 200,000 square kilometers of coastline, have been diminished by 35-86 percent in extent in locations around the world, according to the U.N. Food an Agriculture Organization, and are critically endangered or approaching extinction in 26 out of the 120 countries in which they are found. Further, mangrove forests are disappearing at a rate of 1-2 percent per year, a pace that surpasses the destruction of adjacent ecosystems, coral reefs and tropical rainforests. These losses, combined with increasing fragmentation of mangroves, reduces their viability and the quality of the services--including controlling coastal erosion, buffering against storm damage, and serving as a refuge for wildlife--they provide. " Effective governance structures, socioeconomic risk policies, and education strategies are needed now to enable societies around the world to reverse the trend of mangrove loss and ensure that future generations enjoy the ecosystem services provided by such valuable natural ecosystems, " they conclude. Mangrove forest is found in silt-rich, saline habitats worldwide, generally along large river deltas, estuaries, and coastal areas. It is characterized by low tree diversity, almost exclusively mangroves, with a low broken canopy. Mangroves are evergreen trees and shrubs that are well adapted to their salty and swampy habitat by having breathing roots (pneumatophores) that emerge from the oxygen-deficient mud to absorb oxygen. http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0705-mangroves.html 36) Unfortunately, trees grow rather slowly. And particularly when they're small, they don't sequester much carbon. The small print on tree-planting offsets typically indicate a 40-year maturity. If you buy a tree-based offset today, you're sponsoring a reduction that won't be complete until 2047, by which time we'll either be living in hurricane-proof seaside bunkers in the Rockies or flying around in hydrogen-fueled jet cars. A second concern with tree-based offsets is permanence. An offset is only an offset if the reduction is real and ongoing. Trees have an unfortunate habit of dying or being cut down. Particularly given the time frames involved, with all the attendant issues over land rights, it can be very tricky to say what will happen to an individual forest several decades down the road. Some offset companies claim to guard against this risk by padding their tree offset purchases, but such tactics don't seem to guard against large-scale deforestation. There are additional problems with tree-planting projects, which I catalog below. But before delivering the whole list, I want to provide some perspective to this downbeat picture. The first bit of perspective is that tree-planting projects make up an extremely small percentage of offsetting projects worldwide. For example, reforestation accounts for 6 out of 1,783 projects in the CDM pipeline. Consumers are disproportionately aware of trees because such projects make up a disproportionate share of the tiny voluntary market. As mentioned, marketers love these projects because they're cheap and consumer-friendly. I wish this weren't so, but it doesn't really affect the worldwide market very greatly. http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/7/10/84942/4328 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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