Guest guest Posted July 28, 2007 Report Share Posted July 28, 2007 Today for you 35 new articles about earth's trees! (216th edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com . --British Columbia: 1) Big fines for mudboggers, 2) Wood waste complaints, 3) Elaho saved, 4) on strike, 5) Hupacasath First Nation's park agreements, --Oregon: 6) Logging the park before it becomes a park, 7) Clear-cutting is the problem, 8) Timbered rock timber sale still illegal, 9) BLM boom bust, --California: 10) climate legislation for forests --Idaho: 11) 9th circuit feud of logging shut down --Montana: 12) Madison Valley logging and burning moves ahead --Wyoming: 13) Wolves grow aspen trees --Pennsylvania: 14) Subsurface mineral rights beneath the Allegheny --Maine: 15) Mountain Club purchased 37,000 acres of land --USA: 16) enviro groups file suit on USFS management plans, 17) Carbon Capital Fund, --Canada: 18) Greenpeace action on Abitibi-Consolidated, 19) ForestEthics catalog campaign, 20) Global Forestry Coalition monitors UN conventions, --UK: 21) Logging is fun and educational --Norway: 22) Government rejects certification, seeks total ban on illegal wood --Russia: 23) Satellite protection program and opposition to 2012 Olympic clearcuts --Uganda: 24) Male Sexual potency drives Omuboro tree to extinction --Tanzania: 25) corruption in the issuance of logs, 26) Butterfly catching saves forest, --Brazil: 27) Green Mafia to eliminate loggers, 28) Progress report on Soya ban, 29) last river in São Paulo free of dams to be dammed, 30) long-term forest research threatened, --Argentina: 31) bill seeking to limit illegal logging is stuck in the Senate --Thailand: 32) Mass arrest of grass root conservationists --Borneo: 33) Coal mining is the biggest threat --Indonesia: 34) Center for Orangutan Protection --Australia: 35) Precariousness of Tasmanian economy British Columbia: 1) Effective immediately, people who cause environmental damage to public forest and range lands through recreational activities such as mudbogging will be subject to financial penalties and prosecution, Forests and Range Minister Rich Coleman announced today. " I hope this new legislation will stop people from harming the environment by mudbogging or recklessly driving ATVs through sensitive alpine terrain and range lands, " said Coleman. " We want to encourage the public to act responsibly on Crown land when they go out and enjoy the great outdoors. " On May 31, the Forests and Range Statutes Amendment Act received royal assent. The act introduced a provision that makes it illegal for individuals to cause environmental damage. Previously, only industrial users of Crown land were subject to these prohibitions. Regulations deposited this week bring the law into effect, and update the definition of environmental damage to include any change to soil that adversely alters an ecosystem. Under the new provision, individuals found to have caused environmental damage may face penalties of up to $100,000. Criminal convictions carry maximum fines of $100,000, up to one year in jail, or both. www.for.gov.bc.ca/hen/reports/index.htm. 2) The provincial New Democratic Party is taking a Hinton pulp mill to task for laying off 100 workers and indulging in what is being called an " appalling waste " of wood. According to the NDP, since shutting down a pulp machine at its Hinton mill last year, Vancouver-based West Fraser Timber has been " creaming " —that is, cutting down entire swaths of forest but only removing the best logs while burning the remainder. This less-desirable wood would have been destined to be processed into wood chips before the pulp machine's closure, according to members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada Local 855. The union contacted the party about the closure, which also eliminated 100 unionized jobs. " The thing that annoyed the workers the most was that [West Fraser] was leaving a lot more deadfall out in the bush, " NDP MLA David Eggan told Vue. " Over the course of the year, I kept getting reports and pictures [from the union] of all this wood that was going to waste out in the bush. " http://www.vueweekly.com/articles/default.aspx?i=6860 3) The new agreement designates new protected areas in one of BC's most famous " War in the Woods " battlegrounds. Conflicts between logging companies and environmentalists in the upper Elaho and Sims Valleys started in 1995 when the then-NDP Regional Protected Areas Committee failed to protect these key wild valleys. Located just west to the resort community of Whistler, these are the largest remaining unprotected old-growth forested valleys in the region and are home to most southerly portion of coastal grizzly bears and moose as well as the oldest known living Douglas-fir trees in Canada. Since 1995, the Wilderness Committee has produced and distributed over a million copies of seven different educational reports on the area; created five separate videos; held almost 100 rallies and marches around the province; held the longest ever campout on the lawn of the Legislature in Victoria; and built a 28 km trail in the region that attracted thousands of hikers and which allowed the Wilderness Committee to bring local, regional, provincial, national and international politicians and media into the area. Thousands more visited the area through the efforts of the late BC mountaineer and conservationist, John Clarke, Nancy Bleck and Squamish Hereditary Chief Bill Williams, who together ran the Uts'am Witness Program. Confrontations in the area reached their peak in the late 1990s when blockades – and counter-blockades by loggers – were erected and dozens of local environmentalists were arrested and jailed for peaceful protest. Two of them, Barney Kern and Betty Krawczyk were given the harshest sentences seen to date for peaceful environmental protests, one year in jail. These sentences were reduced to 4 months in appeal. In 1999, several environmentalists were also beaten in the Elaho Valley by an angry mob of loggers. Since 2000 all has been quiet in the upper Elaho and Sims Valleys, with no logging or protesting. In December of 2005 the Squamish Nation bought TFL 38 from Interfor and began negotiations with the BC government aimed at getting legislation that grants official recognition of the Squamish Nation's land use plan. The announcement today is a result of those negotiations. http://media.wildernesscommittee.org/news/2007/07/12426.php 4) At a bend in the road near Jordan River on Vancouver Island, three men are on a picket line, waving from camp chairs to passersby and trying to keep their " On Strike " signs from blowing over in the ocean breeze. They are members of a much-diminished army, the logging and sawmilling workers who toil in British Columbia's coastal forests, and they have gone from being among the loudest and most powerful economic forces in the province to fighting for their survival. " They probably take more wood out of here than they used to, " says picket Will Lionas, who has spent more than 30 years working in and around the forests of southern Vancouver Island and runs a grapple yarder, a machine that picks up and hauls felled logs. " But there's not as many employees. " The numbers bear him out. About 7,000 workers went on strike last week after the United Steelworkers and employers at four separate tables were unable to reach a deal. That's down from about 8,800 who worked in the coastal industry four years ago and more than 15,000 in the early 1990s. The sector, which is smaller than the lumber industry in B.C.'s Interior, still accounts for some $2-billion worth of exports every year, but has been in crisis for so long that some wonder whether this strike is akin to a death rattle. Things are so tough for the industry that on this particularly scenic stretch of coast, some companies have concluded there's more money to be made in subdividing and selling land than in perpetually logging it. Vancouver-based TimberWest Forest Corp., for example, a major landholder on the island, has transformed itself over the past few years, contracting out nearly all of its logging operations and stepping up real estate sales to capitalize on the ravenous appetite for lots with a view. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070727.RBCFORESTS27/TPStory/N\ ational 5) The government of British Columbia and the Hupacasath First Nation have signed a government-to-government agreement to collaboratively manage parks and protected areas within the Hupacasath traditional territory, Environment Minister Barry Penner announced today. " This agreement marks an important step towards more effective management of parks and protected areas in Hupacasath territory, " said Penner. " It will allow British Columbia and the Hupacasath government to better protect the natural resources of these areas, while preserving their link to First Nations' heritage and culture. " The Collaborative Agreement for the Management of Parks and Protected Areas in Hupacasath First Nation Traditional Territory focuses on park planning and capacity building, and on creating a forum for both parties to discuss issues of common interest. Through agreements like this, B.C. is able to work together with First Nations to ensure the long-term ecological and cultural integrity of the lands and resources in First Nations' traditional territories. The Hupacasath traditional territory is located in the Alberni Valley on central Vancouver Island. It encompasses approximately 229,000 hectares, from Mt. Chief Frank in the north to 5040 Peak and Hannah Mountain in the south, and from Mt. Arrowsmith and Mt. Spencer in the east to Big Interior Mountain in the west. There are six provincial parks and one ecological reserve within Hupacasath territory. " Of course not everything that we had hoped for was protected in the announcement today, " said Foy. " In the coming days and years we will work for improvements – but today is for celebrating great progress made on protecting some amazing and much loved wilderness areas, thanks to the Squamish Nation and the BC government. " http://www.mediaroom.gov.bc.ca/DisplayEventDetails.aspx?eventId=382 Oregon: 6) Had negotiations gone more smoothly between state parks officials and land baron Jim Smejkal, hikers on nearby trails might be contemplating the warble of a songbird instead of the buzz of a chain saw. Instead, Smejkal, 73, of Banks got tired of waiting for the state to come up with what he considered a satisfactory land swap or, failing that, cold, hard cash. Two months before the July 8 grand opening of the park, Smejkal (SMEK-el)filed for a logging permit. Crews moved out the first load of timber in early June and won't stop until they've clear-cut about 25 acres. " Time will tell if they're going to come up with the money or not, " Smejkal said. " Or if I'm going to keep logging. " A state parks official, meanwhile, says he's confident they can work something out, with a deal sealed by next spring at the latest. They want to preserve as many trees as possible, especially in the south end of Smejkal's property near the $39-a-night rustic cabin village. First conceived as Washington County State Park and announced as Hare's Canyon State Park, the place was renamed after the January 2005 death of Stub Stewart, a longtime state parks commission member. Stewart, a philanthropist, also co-owned Bohemia Lumber in Lane County. Most of the site was owned by Longview Fibre. It became a park of 1,654 acres after complex land swaps involving Oregon Parks and Recreation, the timber company, the Oregon Department of Forestry and Washington and Tillamook counties. He said he is sentimentally attached to the 113 acres on which he retained logging rights. His father, a Czechoslovakian immigrant, was just 14 when he worked on a logging crew on the property, chopping wood to fuel the steam-powered machinery used to move the virgin timber. In 1952, when Smejkal was 18, he bought the acreage for $5,250 -- half of it borrowed from his father and repaid the next summer after a harvest. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1185506729175050.x\ ml & coll=7 7) Clear-cutting is the problem. It represents the greatest good for the fewest number for the shortest time, in direct contradiction to the mission of the Forest Service stated 100 years ago. Conservation is the wise use of natural resources to provide the greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time. Economically, it manifests boom-then-bust rural communities as the Oregon map of distressed communities identifying three-fourths of the state (2002) shows. Socially, the results are equally devastating as crime, abuse and poverty follow the trends of economically busted communities. Environmentally, the externalities and unintended consequences show up in the form of restoration needs from soil erosion, declining fisheries and increased cataclysmic fire in even-age plantations, which provide significant fuel while excluding the beneficial form of ground fire and producing structurally inferior products. These disconnects create the context of an economic death spiral - increasing liabilities following a decreasing ability to pay. The Faustian assumptions that underline and beguile modern society and the industrial paradigm include the marketplace setting value while giving no value to the perceived limitless ecosystems that provide the foundations of our society and our wealth. CRAIG PATTERSON, Eugene http://www.registerguard.com 8) The 2-1 ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling by U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken in Eugene that stopped the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from logging 23.4 million board feet of timber from 961 acres burned by the Timbered Rock fire outside Medford in 2002. The appeals court found that BLM's plan to harvest dead and dying trees violated its own management plans and a mandate to maintain and preserve old growth forest ecosystems, including trees killed by fire, under the Northwest Forest Plan, which was adopted in 1994 to protect habitat for northern spotted owls, salmon, and other species. George Sexton, conservation director for the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, one of the conservation groups that won the injunction stopping the salvage logging, said BLM's project was part of a pattern of efforts to cut corners politically, legally and ecologically to promote logging in old growth forests. However, the appeals court ruling " resets the bar for post-fire logging in old growth reserves back to what the authors of the Northwest Forest Plan intended, particularly for BLM lands, " he added. The court also found that BLM violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to adequately analyze the cumulative environmental damage from scraping 33 miles of fire line and dropping 40,000 gallons of chemical retardant on the area to put out the fire, and the harvest of 6,000 acres of dead trees on neighboring private timberlands owned by Boise Corp. The Northwest Forest Plan " clearly states that salvaging should be minimal, that environmental concerns ought to take priority over potential commercial benefits, and that large (dead trees) should be retained so as to ensure the development and preservation of (old growth) habitat, " Judge Dorothy W. Nelson wrote for the majority. " Despite these numerous mandates emphasizing that logging snags should not harm (old growth forest reserves), the BLM neglects to explain how the Timbered Rock Project avoids doing just that, " Nelson wrote. In a dissenting opinion, Judge Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain wrote that he felt the court was substituting it's own " best vision " for forest management for the specific language of the law and the professional expertise of the federal agency. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WST_LOGGING_RULING_OROL-?SITE=OREUG & SECTI\ ON=HOME & TEMPLA TE=DEFAULT 9) When the implementation of the Northwest Forest Plan failed to produce even a fraction of the timber harvest volume that all parties had agreed to, local government, civic and business interests spoke up to register their grievances. A few years ago, some of those concerns congealed into litigation, and a federal district court determined they were valid. The BLM was not managing the O & C lands according to the requirements of the 1937 federal law that gave 50 percent of timber receipts to the 18 Oregon counties where federally managed lands once belonged to the defunct O & C Railroad. That failure had profound negative repercussions for the economic and social well-being of our communities, and the courts understood those repercussions. As part of a settlement of that dispute, the BLM and the other local stakeholders agreed to collaborate on a process for revising the agency's management practices in the O & C forests. The settlement anticipates that new plans will be implemented by 2008 that fulfill the statutory obligations that have been in place for seven decades. Unfortunately, this brief summary of the Western Oregon Plan Revisions for the O & C lands falls short of illuminating what's at stake for local communities and families as the BLM decides a new management regime for the forests it manages on their behalf. The extraction of natural resources from these lands has everything to do with generating wealth from harvested timber and creating family-wage jobs, with benefits. It has to do with generating tax revenue for local governments, and revenue sharing provided for public health and public safety. Most importantly, it has to do with how too many local communities have become anemic, and too many families have been deprived, since the O & C land management practices deviated from the original intent of Congress. http://www.registerguard.com/news/2007/07/25/ed.col.morrison.0725.p1.php?section\ =opinion California: 10) Six years ago, I authored legislation to ensure that the climate benefits of California's vital forests were recognized by the California Climate Action Registry, the pioneering program that preceded the state's law to reduce greenhouse gases. This legislation was and remains critically important because forests are essential to reaching our goals of stabilizing and reducing carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming - the goal of Assembly Bill 32. When properly managed and protected, forests can absorb and store vast quantities of carbon dioxide. When they are degraded or converted to other uses, carbon dioxide is released to the atmosphere. If we are to meet the goals we have set in AB 32 to reduce California's emissions, we must include the management and protection of our forests. Working closely with the Pacific Forest Trust, I developed legislation to establish accounting standards that exceed the Kyoto protocols. Senate Bill 812 and the subsequent forest protocols established by the climate registry guarantee this integrity. The forest protocols were developed with the participation of scientists, foresters and other stakeholders. AB 32 requires that, to the maximum extent feasible, the standards and protocols developed by the climate registry be incorporated into the regulations of the California Air Resources Board, which is charged with implementing AB 32. Given this legislative mandate, the air board should adopt the forest protocols as a means of providing voluntary emissions reductions as soon as possible. The board should resist the behind-the-scenes efforts of special interests to undermine and corrupt the forest protocols. Eliminating these protocols as part of the state's climate strategy would be a huge mistake, not only for our climate goals, but also for the missed opportunity for private landowners to participate in the burgeoning carbon market. http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/292098.html Idaho: 11) In an unusually blunt and wide-ranging opinion on a lawsuit over a small Idaho timber sale, Milan D. Smith Jr. blamed his own court for taking the law too far and causing much of " the decimation of the logging industry in the Pacific Northwest " and the loss of legions of timber jobs. He said his fellow judges have erected so many legal hurdles they have made logging in national forests nearly impossible. His wrath, in turn, provoked a scathing rebuke from two other judges. His opinion expanded on the main ruling in the case and carries no direct weight, but drew a sharp rebuttal from two other judges on his court. The three went beyond anything lawyers discussed, looking up their own newspaper and magazine stories, Wikipedia entries and timber company Web sites to make their points. Court watchers said Smith's extraordinary argument could lead higher courts to examine how deeply courts should pry into the details of federal logging decisions. President Bush appointed Smith last year to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the highest Western court and one known for its liberal tilt and tendency to stymie logging. They said Smith, " with no evidence whatsoever, assigns to the courts of our circuit culpability for the status of the timber industry and impugns the last several decades of our circuit's environmental law jurisprudence. " Both Ferguson and Reinhardt were appointed to the bench by President Carter. They said Smith " commits a textbook logical fallacy " by blaming court actions for timber job losses without evidence. It's up to the courts to stop the U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies from violating environmental laws with their logging projects, they said. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1185333947158750.x\ ml & coll=7 Montana: 12) ENNIS - Logging and controlled burning will move forward in the South Meadow Creek area of the Madison Valley after environmental groups decided not to appeal a recent court decision. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council did not appeal a May court decision that threw out the groups' challenge of the project. That means logging will proceed this summer in the drainage about six miles northwest of Ennis. The work will be followed by controlled burns as soon as that's possible, said Mark Petroni, Ennis district ranger for the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. " We're going to offer the timber sale probably as early as next week, " he told the Montana Standard newspaper in Butte. The groups had sued to halt the project, saying it was an excuse to log public land to make more grass for cattle grazing. After the lawsuit was thrown out in May by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy, Alliance for the Wild Rockies spokesman Michael Garrity said they planned to appeal. But after reviewing the case, their attorney determined it wasn't worth challenging further, Garrity told the Standard in a story published Thursday. Part of their appeal was based on whether the Forest Service had adequately notified the groups about the project within the required 30-day timeframe. " He said we would have no chance of winning, " Garrity said of their attorney. Forest Service officials said the South Meadow Creek project is aimed at reducing the risk of a large scale, catastrophic wildfire in an area that has homes nearby. Workers had already begun removing brush and cutting down smaller trees because the environmental groups' challenge did not include a restraining order. But Petroni said they chose to hold off removing larger trees. " We didn't want to commit to any of the major portions of the project until we were sure we'd cleared that lawsuit, " he said. The plan calls for removing up to 40 percent of the trees in some areas to open up the forest and make it less prone to large scale fires. http://www.mtstandard.com Wyoming: 13) The wolves are back, and for the first time in more than 50 years, young aspen trees are growing again in the northern range of Yellowstone National Park. The findings of a new study, just published in Biological Conservation, show that a process called " the ecology of fear " is at work, a balance has been restored to an important natural ecosystem, and aspen trees are surviving elk browsing for the first time in decades. The research, done by forestry researchers at Oregon State University, supports theories about " trophic cascades " of ecological damage that can be caused when key predators -- in this case, wolves -- are removed from an ecosystem, and show that recovery is possible when the predators are returned. The results are especially encouraging for the health of America's first national park, but may also have implications for other areas of the West and other important predators. After an absence of 70 years, wolves were re-introduced to Yellowstone Park in 1995, and elk populations began a steady decline, cut in half over the past decade. Also, the presence of a natural predator appears to have altered the behavior of the remaining elk, which in their fear of wolves tend to avoid browsing in certain areas where they feel most vulnerable. The two factors together have caused a significant reduction in elk browsing on young aspen shoots, allowing them to survive to heights where some are now above the animal browsing level. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070726150904.htm Pennsylvania: 14) It is bad enough that the Forest Service only owns 7% of the subsurface mineral rights beneath the Allegheny National Forest. Private companies and individuals own the other 93%. This is the main reason there is so much oil and gas drilling in the Allegheny, though the Forest Service does have significant regulatory authority to control how oil companies access the national forest. Unfortunately, even though oil and gas drilling has increased nearly 1,000% since 2003 over much of the rest of the Allegheny where the Forest Service does not own the mineral rights, now the Forest Service is proposing to lease the mineral rights it does own. To make matters worse, the proposed lease area is in a location the Forest Service itself identified as one of the " most threatened landscapes " in the Allegheny National Forest just two years ago because of oil and gas drilling. Contact the Forest Service and tell them that this lease agreement is invalid as it was made under the now invalid 1986 Forest Plan and the public was not given adequate opportunity to comment on oil and gas leasing issues during the revision of the new Forest Plan because the Forest Service failed to consider oil and gas drilling a major revision issue. http://www.heartwood.org/action.html -- http://www.alleghenydefense.org Maine: 15) TOWNSHIP 7 RANGE 9, Maine -- Four years ago, the Appalachian Mountain Club purchased 37,000 acres of land in the woods of northern Maine to protect and preserve, but that doesn't mean one won't hear the roar of logging crews. In Part 3 of his series, " Northern Exposure, " News 8's Steve Minich examines reserve logging. It sounds like an oxymoron: preserving the forest while cutting down the forest. Yet that is part of the Appalachian Mountain Club's plan. Of the AMC's 37,000 acres near Moosehead Lake, at least 10,000 -- watershed land the AMC has set aside to preserve -- will not be logged. It's land that's still open to recreation but closed to motor vehicles and which, centuries from now, the AMC hopes will look as it did centuries ago. The reserve also protects acres of small ponds and the west branch of the Pleasant River, home to some of the country's finest fly fishing. " It's very rare in the continental United States to find an entire valley like this that's wild native brook trout, " said AMC Property Manager Bob LeRoy. Many of the AMC's new trails run directly through the ecological preserve. But unlike years past when a swath would simply be cut through the woods, it's now a science. According to trail supervisor Mike Cooper, " What a lot of trail people are trying to do right now is limit the impact to the environment. So you're looking at grades or how steep the trail is -- being able to move water from the trail efficiently and effectively. " But even with all the talk of conservation, loggers are harvesting AMC's forest just a few miles from the trails. AMC Deputy Director Walter Graff explained, " Logging is part of the heritage of the north country. Its part of the mainstay of the economy. " So the AMC will continue logging its land, having developed a long-range plan of selective cutting. The challenge for loggers is to cut the trees but leave the area looking as though no trees have been taken. http://www.wmtw.com/news/13746023/detail.html USA: 16) A coalition of 14 conservation groups filed suit today in federal court to block the U.S. Forest Service from implementing rules a federal court previously found had been adopted illegally. The agency's actions follow a recent federal court decision that the agency also illegally adopted new regulations in 2005. At stake is the protection, throughout America's national forest system, of wildlife and natural resources. Regulations prepared by the Forest Service in 1982, pursuant to the National Forest Management Act, provided substantive, mandatory protection for forest resources on national forests such as fish, wildlife, and water quality. With the 2000 and 2005 revisions of these rules, however, the Forest Service has attempted to substantially weaken or eliminate such protection. " The Forest Service keeps digging itself further into a hole, " said Marc Fink, attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, a plaintiff in the suit. " If the agency wants to plan and implement projects on national forests, it must do so legally, under the 1982 regulations. While it may not like it, even the Bush administration must abide by the law. " The Forest Service relied on its 1982 version of the National Forest Management Act regulations for two decades in preparing regional forest plans and implementing individual projects - such as timber sales and road construction - throughout the national forest system. The agency substantially revised the regulations in 2000, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that it had violated the National Environmental Policy Act in developing those regulations. (Please see Citizens for Better Forestry v. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 341 F.3d 961 (9th Cir. 2003)). The Forest Service again revised the regulations in 2005, but a federal court recently found that in doing so the agency had violated the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, and Administrative Procedures Act. (Citizens for Better Forestry v. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 481 F.Supp. 2d 1059 (N.D. Cal. 2007)). The court therefore issued a nationwide injunction prohibiting the Forest Service from implementing the 2005 regulations. http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/ 17) Under the agreement to be announced Wednesday, the Forest Service and the National Forest Foundation will allow individuals or groups to make charitable contributions that will be used to plant trees and do other work to improve national forests. The Forest Service estimates that the nation's 155 national forests offset about 10 percent of carbon emissions in the United States. Forest Service scientists believe that figure can be raised to as much as 25 percent by doing such things as planting more trees in urban areas or reforesting old cropland. Under the new program, known as the Carbon Capital Fund, consumers can " offset " their carbon emissions by investing in projects on national forests to plant trees and improve water quality, increase wildlife habitat and help restore public lands damaged by natural disasters such as wildfires. Forest Service Chief Gail Kimbell hailed the program, the first of its kind for the federal government. It will allow Americans to learn more about their carbon footprint while helping trees be planted on national forests, she said. " People have an opportunity to contribute to the health, diversity and productivity of the nation's forests, not only by countering climate change, but also by replanting forests for the benefit of future generations, " Kimbell said. The forest foundation said the new program would include independent verification of projects that have a " specific and measurable " reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. For every $6 donated, one metric ton of CO2 emissions can be offset, the foundation said. The Forest Service has identified several reforestation projects to kick off the new program, including one in the Custer National Forest in Montana and South Dakota and another in the Payette National Forest in Idaho. http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=13196 Canada: 18) Greenpeace is demanding that Abitibi-Consolidated - a manufacturer of lumber and specialty papers such as copy, book and newspaper - stop logging in intact areas of the Boreal Forest and immediately move to more sustainable logging practices. The situation in the Boreal Forest requires immediate action: 1) Less than 20 per cent of the forested land managed by Abitibi-Consolidated in Ontario and less than 28 per cent of the forested land managed by the company in Quebec remains intact. Intact forests are the most valuable forests for conserving biodiversity and slowing global warming. 2) Abitibi-Consolidated logs in woodland caribou habitat in Ontario and Quebec, despite the fact that the woodland caribou is a federally listed threatened species in Canada . 3) Abitibi-Consolidated has license to log in 16.8 million hectares of forest in Canada 4) Abitibi-Consolidated has the logging rights to a larger volume of wood in Ontario and Quebec than any other company. 5) An area three times the size of France has already been degraded and fragmented by development in the Boreal Forest region (175 million hectares). http://write-a-letter.greenpeace.org/262 http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/campaigns/boreal/what-we-do/frequently-asked\ -questions-abo 19) Over the past three years, ForestEthics has worked with companies like Dell and Williams-Sonoma to develop industry-leading environmentally-sound practices. In late 2006, ForestEthics announced an end to its two-year campaign against Victoria's Secret, marking the transition of the former environmental offender to an environmental leader. The companies that 'Candace the Caribou' will be visiting this summer have thus far refused to change their ways. " Companies like Dell, Williams-Sonoma and Victoria's Secret have set a new environmental standard, " said Shana Ortman of ForestEthics. " The rest of the catalog industry can no longer pretend this is not an issue. They will have to meet or exceed these standards to stay competitive and avoid public outcry about their participation in Global Warming and Endangered Forest destruction. " Catalog retailers send out 20 billion catalogs a year. Almost none of the paper contains any recycled content. This means over 8 million tons of trees are logged annually just for catalogs. Because the industry's response rate to their catalogs is less than 3 percent, the result is a staggering amount of forest destruction for minimal returns. Deforestation was the second-largest contributor of global warming emissions in 2000, creating more than other industry sources or transportation, and surpassed only by power production. The pulp and paper industry is the fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases among U.S. manufacturing industries. The catalog industry is causing the destruction of forests such as North America's Boreal Forest. Stretching from Alaska to Canada's Atlantic coast, the Boreal is the size of thirteen Californias and provides one of our planet's first lines of defense against global warming. The Boreal is home to hundreds of First Nations Indigenous communities, and provides critical habitat for a diverse range of species, including endangered caribou and half of North America's songbirds._ " The catalog industry is destroying Endangered Forests, causing environmental damage, air and water pollution, human rights violations, and habitat loss for species, " said PJ McCosky, a local activist. " We're letting them know as citizens, customers, and dedicated activists that they can't get away with their reckless practices any more. " http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/07/24/18437118.php 20) I am conducting an independent monitoring for the international forestry coalition Global Forest Coalition (GFC) to assess Canada's progress in meeting our commitment to implement the Expanded Programme of Work (POW) on Forest Biological Diversity of the the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). This is part of a project to independently monitor 20 countries in their similar committments. The independent monitoring involves distributing surveys to a wide range of Canadian organizations including NGOs, FNs, government, academia and any others who work in or have an interest in forest biodiversity in Canada. Global Forestry Coalition is particularly interested in the perspective and concerns of indigenous and other forest-dependent people with regard to forests and forest biodiversity. In addition to the surveys, one or more workshops will be held to consult directly with representatives or organizations with knowledge about the status of forest biodiversity in Canada. The results will be compiled in a report that will be presented at a special session of the CBD in Bonn, Germany in May 2008 along with reports from the other 19 countries.The intention is to influence the progress on forest biodiversity conservation worldwide and associated concerns of indigenous and forest-dependent peoples. This is a request to complete the survey. This can be done simply by going online via the following link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=tA12xIhdzLPbAYyrlKZ_2feg_3d_3d UK: 21) LEARNING TO CUT IT IN FUN FOREST EVENT A Special event will give a rare glimpse of wood cutting equipment in action at a North-east forest. Residents and visitors are being invited to watch some cutting-edge tree felling and logging machinery at work. Tomorrow's Monster Machines event near Banchory is being organised by Forestry Commission Scotland rangers. All ages are welcome at the 2pm event, but children must be accompanied by an adult. Transport will be provided to take people from Banchory's town centre car park to the location, with people asked to wear suitable outdoor clothing and sturdy footwear. http://www.thisisaberdeen.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=148800 & command=displayCon\ tent & sourceNode =148796 & contentPK=17907913 & folderPk=85352 & pNodeId=148787 Norway: 22) The Norwegian government has decided that it it cannot rely on any certification system, not even the FSC, to help implement it's newly announced 'ethical procurement' policy. The Norwegian authorities instead decided to ban all use of tropical timber in public buildings, stating that " The government wants to stop all trade with unsustainably or illegally logged tropical forest products. Today there is no international or national certification that can guarantee in a reliable manner that imported wood is legally and sustainably logged " . This damning decision follows earlier concerns which the Oslo authorities had raised about the FSC's reliability as long ago as 2002. Then, following an investigation into a FSC 'mixed-label' product, the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman ruled that the use of such labels was " misleading " and illegal. Since this time, FSC's rules on the labelling of products with non-certified components have been weakened further still. However, the new announcement acknowledges growing concerns about the FSC system as a whole. It is likely to increase pressure on other governments - such as that of the UK - to drop FSC from it's procurement policy, because of increasingly serious, and visible, gaps in the FSC's reliability. FSC's members and funders will no doubt be questioning why the organisation's leadership is allowing the FSC's reliability and credibility to continue to slide rapidly downhill. http://www.fsc-watch.org/archives/2007/07/25/Norwegian_government___FSC_not_good\ _enough_for_pro curement_policy_ Russia: 23) Ancient taiga woodlands which cover much of Siberia are protected by Russian law, but since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union illegal loggers have cut down millions of trees, mainly for sale in neighboring China. " From January 1 2008 we will have continual protection, " Vladimir Kresnov, head of the Russian forestry agency, said at a news briefing. " The government has to know everything about its rich forests and has to have correct information about the state of its forest resources. " Scientists often refer to the taiga forest, which stretches across Siberia from the Urals on the boundary of Europe to the Pacific in the Far East, as the " green lungs of the planet " . Ecologists welcomed the satellite protection plan. " It will definitely help defend parts of the forest, " Yevgeny Shvarts, conservation policy director at WWF Russia, said. The announcement by the agency, which is controlled by the Ministry of Natural Resources, comes as environmentalists fight to save forests around the 2014 Winter Olympics venue in Sochi on the Black Sea coast in southern Russia. The Russian Ministry for Economic Development, which is controlling construction for the Games, wants to concrete over woodland to build the Olympic village and a bobsleigh track on the edge of a protected natural park. http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL2526301720070725 Uganda: 24) Soaring demand from Ugandan men seeking to restore their sexual potency is driving a species of tree known as the Omuboro to extinction. " It [the tree] is like a natural Viagra, " said Hannington Oryem-Orida, a professor of botany at Makerere University. " Because of its enormous medicinal properties, the tree is being harvested faster than it can reproduce, thus threatening its long-term survival. " The " sex tree " , or Citropsis articulata, is popular among Ugandans for its aphrodisiac properties, said Professor Oryem-Orida, who was part of the team that carried out a research study on medicinal plants in Mabira Forest, one of Uganda's most important natural forests. The results of the study were published by both the Uganda Journal in 2005 and the African Academy of Sciences in 2002. Researchers spent months in Mabira forest documenting medicinal plants commonly used in the treatment of various ailments. The Omuboro grows naturally in tropical forests where locals uproot it to extract the roots, its most valuable part. " Locals strip the tree of all its roots, leaving it with no chance of survival, " said Professor Oryem-Orida. " It is hard to recover lost stock because of its slow growth. " The roots are either chewed while fresh or dried and pounded into powder, which is then mixed with water to form an aphrodisiac concoction. Although there have not been any chemical tests by the National Chemotherapeutics Laboratory to determine the effectiveness of the aphrodisiac, local people maintain that they have been using the extraction for ages to boost their sexual prowess. " I take it whenever I feel that my energies have gone down, " said Edward Katumba, a resident of the area. But scientists fear that the tree's medicinal benefits, other than treating sexual impotence, may be lost if the stock is depleted too quickly. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2809200.ece Tanzania: 25) ``Trees are recklessly cut like nobody's business. The government is losing billions of shillings through dubious deals. I am quite sure that the motto of better life for all will remain a pipe dream if the trend persists, " said shadow minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Alif Seif (Mkoani, CUF). He said despite interventions, corruption in the issuance of logs and timber business permits continued through a chain of people. ``The racket involves foreign and local timber traders, Natural Resources and Tourism ministry's officials from the grassroots to national levels,`` he said. The government has already banned exportation of raw forest products, including logs and timber, and directed dealers to process them locally before exportation. Foreign companies most of them from Japan, China and India are involved in the exportation of logs and related products. They are evading taxes amounting to billions of shillings, opposition MPs said. MPs also queried the government`s decision to allow foreign companies to penetrate into the villages to harvest trees, something they said was contrary to general standards. How can you allow foreigners to harvest trees in villages? " These people (foreign companies) should be encouraged to invest in timber and log-processing factories to add value to the products only and leave harvesting activities to the locals, " said Seif. " Some of these foreign firms collude with local banks to evade taxes, " he said, citing a case of an India-based company, which had been using a Dubai-based company to export the products through a local bank. http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2007/07/26/95155.html 26) Beating the air with her homemade net, Aicha Ali chases a swirling black and turquoise butterfly. Far from indulging in a frivolous pastime, this Kenyan mother is earning crucial family income. " I like capturing butterflies, it's fun because I make some money, " she says, puffing as she wipes the sweat pearling on her nose after a frantic chase in the forest's sandy trails. Arabuko Sokoke on the Kenyan coast is known for its rare species of butterflies, which a development project called Kipepeo (butterfly in Swahili) is helping export to exhibits and museums in Europe and North America. Forest dwellers in neighbouring Tanzania have also benefited from such butterfly farming initatives, which not only increase the local community's economic wealth but helps protect the environment. " I need the forest to feed the butterflies, " Aicha explains. Only a few years ago, she and most of the 100,000 villagers living around Arabuko Sokoke " had a negative perception of the forest, " says Kenyan scientist Maria Fungomeli. They saw the forest as little more than a refuge for the monkeys and elephants attacking their farms and a hostile growth that should be cut down to harvest timber, says Fungomeli, assistant director at Kipepeo project. Deforestation is threatening what is the largest block of coastal forest remaining in East Africa as well as the rare animal species it sheltered, such as the golden-rumped elephant shrew. But what conservationists call " the butterfly effect " has started to pay off, both for Arabuko Sokoke and its inhabitants. Some 800 families now live thanks to the sale of butterflies. " Flying handkerchiefs, " " Emperor Swallowtails " and " African Blue Tigers " are some of the rare species collected at Kipepeo, fetching between one and three dollars (70 cents to two euros) a piece for visiting tourists " I would be foolish to cut trees, " says Suleiman Kachuma, a 42-year-old villager, who earns between 15 and 23 dollars a month from his work with Kipepeo, double what he used to make selling timber. http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/administration/afp-news.html?id=070726\ 034546.xj7drs8y & cat=null Brazil: 27) Depending on one's point of view, the World Wildlife Fund's financial support of a nature reserve here on the Rio Negro is either part of a laudable attempt to conserve the Amazon jungle — or the leading edge of a nefarious plot by foreign environmental groups to wrest control of the world's largest rain forest from Brazil and replace it with international rule. In 2003, after signing an agreement with the WWF and the World Bank, the Brazilian government created the Amazon Region Protected Areas program. Since then, more than a score of national parks and reserves covering an area larger than New York, New Jersey and Connecticut combined have been brought into that network and provided with an infusion of new funds. The program's objective is to set up " a core system to anchor bio-diversity protection for the Amazon, " Matthew Perl, the WWF's Amazon coordinator, said during a June visit to the area, a sparsely populated archipelago of 400 islands northwest of Manaus. " It's part of a strategy to buy time, bring each protected area up to certain standards of management and pool resources for monitoring and enforcement. " But that effort has aroused the suspicions of powerful business and political groups in Brazil that want to integrate the Amazon into the country's economy through dams, mining projects, highways, ports, logging and agricultural exports. " This is a new form of colonialism, an open conspiracy in which economic and financial interests act through nongovernmental organizations, " said Lorenzo Carrasco, editor and co-author of " The Green Mafia, " a widely circulated anti-environmentalist polemic. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/world/americas/27amazon.html?_r=1 & oref=slogin 28) Memories of the giant chickens that invaded branches of McDonald's last year might be fading fast, but it's one year since a moratorium was agreed on buying soya from the Amazon rainforest. It was our chicken-led campaign that helped spur McDonald's and UK supermarkets into putting pressure on the soya traders in Brazil, who were trading in beans grown in newly deforested areas of the rainforest. As part of the two-year moratorium, the traders are now working with us and other campaigning groups (from both environmental and social justice backgrounds) to make sure no more forest is lost as a result of soya farming. The group of traders and non governmental organisations - called the Soya Working Group, which is working closely with the Brazilian government - has been in place since October collaborating on the practical aspects of keeping the moratorium afloat, and results are already coming through. In the state of Mato Grosso - on the frontline of soya-related deforestation - there has been a 40 per cent reduction in deforestation between August 2006 and May 2007. To make sure those deforestation rates keep dropping, two big areas of work have been pegged as vital for the success of the project. First, making accurate maps of the rainforest, farm boundaries and existing deforested areas is essential. Without these, it would be impossible to monitor the soya farms and check they're not expanding into new areas of forest. http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/forests/amazon-soya-moratorium-celebrates-firs\ t-anniversary-2 0070724 29) The impacts of the UHE project would be immense. It would be enough just considering that the Ribeira de Iguape River is the last river in São Paulo free of dams. Further, in 1999, the Ribeira Valley was named " Natural Patrimony of Humanity, " as it is home to 21% of the remaining Atlantic Rainforest. The dam would flood 11,0000 hectares and cause enormous damage to vegetation and fauna in the valley. But there is yet another factor to consider. In the past, one of the principal economic activities of the Ribeira Valley was the mining and extraction of lead. The residuals of this activity still remain, and if the dam were to be constructed and flood the area, the river could be contaminated, putting at risk the health of river-dwellers, animals and fish. Besides this, the project would cause damage to the Iguape-Cananéia-Paranaguá estuary. The cities of this region receive a large quantity of sediment and nutrients from the rivers of the region, in particular from the Ribeira de Iguape River. Finally, CBA's plans do not restrict themselves to just one plant - three more are in the workings. The Ribeira Valley is one of the poorest regions in the state of Sao Paulo. Its population is made up of descendents of runaway slaves, indigenous peoples, fishermen, and river-dwellers, all who have a subsistent lifestyle. The construction of the plant will not bring one benefit to the people of this region. Not one watt of energy will be available for their use. On the other hand, thousands will be expelled from their lands. They will be forced to move to the shantytowns of nearby cities where not only will they live in precarious conditions, but will have no way of sustaining themselves through traditional practices. There are already cases where this is reality, as mentioned in the public hearings. Angela Biagioni, a coordinator for Moab, explained that in one of the hearings, residents from Juquiá (Sao Paulo) testified that after a dam was built in their region, poverty and misery only increased. " This shows that when CBA says that the dam will bring progress to the region, they are lying. In other hearings in Paraná, various testimonies were given in which inhabitants said the company forced them to sell their lands. Many of these people ended up in the shantytowns, " said Biagioni. Further, the plants generate very few new jobs, contrary to the claims of the company. http://www.irn.org/support. 30) One of the world's most important and longest-running scientific experiments is under threat by new colonization proposed by the Brazilian government, warn researchers writing in the journal Nature. The Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, an experiment launched outside the Brazilian city of Manaus more than 25 years, has helped researchers understand the impacts of deforestation and fragmentation on the complex ecology of the world's largest and most biodiverse rainforest: the Amazon. But now a colonization scheme sanctioned by the Brazilian federal agency SUFRAMA threatens to undermine the basis for decades of critical research. " It's not just the fragmentation project that's threatened but also other scientific sites operated by Brazilian and other organizations, as well as critical conservation areas in the region. " Laurance and his colleague Regina Luizão of Brazil's National Institute for Amazonian Research warn that hunters have already invaded the area and research camps have been raided and equipment has been stolen. Several study sites were burned by colonists last year. " There is really not much to be gained economically from these colonization projects, and there is so much to lose, " said Thomas Lovejoy, President of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment in Washington, D.C., who conceived and helped to establish the fragmentation project more than 25 years ago. " In fact, the results of the science we're doing could be more profitable for Brazil. Intact forests could have great economic value in the long term for the purpose of stabilizing global climate and for conserving biodiversity. " The scientists say Brazil's Ministry for the Environment and IBAMA, the national environmental agency, have been helpful and sympathetic to the plight of the project, but " they have struggled to get the attention of SUFRAMA, despite years of behind-the-scenes negotiations, " according to a statement from STRI. " We appreciate that SUFRAMA is mainly concerned with economic development, " said Laurance, " but the economic benefit of the colonization projects is very low. The forest is just being burned to make charcoal or low-quality cattle pasture. And it's a notoriously hard life for the colonists, who struggle to eke out a living in an area with many diseases but far from any medical services. " http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0725-amazon.html Argentina: 31) A virgin forests has been stuck in the country's Senate for more than four months. Following a strong campaign that included street demonstrations, the bill's supporters cheered the lower house's decision to approve the initiative in mid-March, sending it to senators for a debate and vote. According to Greenpeace, deforestation in Argentina totals more than 250,000 hectares (620,000 areas) a year, equal to 1 hectare (2.4 acres) every two minutes. On June 5, World Environment Day, Greenpeace activists protested in front of the congressional building in Buenos Aires shouting, " Senators, Wake Up! Forest law, now! " Similar protests took place around the country, but their demands were not heeded. " While this bill has been shelved, there has been an uncontrolled number of [logging] permits that would mean the destruction of virgin forests in provinces like Salta, which in the last four months have called assemblies to authorize the felling of 155,855 hectares (385,000 acres) of forest, double of what was permitted last year, and more than half of what is cut down per year in the whole country, " warned Hernán Giardini, coordinator of a forest campaign for Greenpeace Argentina. In June, the provincial government of Salta granted permission for the clearing of 1,670 hectares (4,120 acres) in the Yungas forest, which the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared a world biosphere reserve in 2000. " The senators look the other way, the loggers don't stop and keep destroying our last virgin forests, displacing campesino and indigenous communities. " said Giardini. " The forests play a fundamental role in the regulation of the climate, the maintenance of water sources and soil conservation. When we lose the forests we become very vulnerable to rains and we run the risk of floods. " He said lawmakers must take the situation facing campesino and indigenous communities into account, adding that they are " expelled by a new oligarchy of sectors concentrating on the production of wood and soy. " Before the bill was approved in the lower chamber, representatives of these rural communities camped out in front of the door of President Néstor Kirchner's summer retreat in El Calafate, in the southern Santa Cruz province. Their protest was effective as they later went to the Casa Rosada presidential palace to discuss the issue with government representatives. http://www.latinamericapress.org/article.asp?lanCode=1 & artCode=5246 Thailand: 32) Kam Bootsri of Pakam is hailed as a grass root conservationist. But as far as the authorities are concerned, he is the number-one man on the wanted list. In a pre-dawn lightning attack in January 1991, more than 100 policemen stormed villages in Pakam District. They rounded up 67 leaders of the Pakam Forest Conservation Group. Kam Bootsri's name was at the top of the list, underlined in red ink. Pra Prajak was also on the list. Kam, who was 43 in 1991, narrowly escaped. " The people who are trying to protect the forest are being treated like criminals. Fully armed, they at- tacked us as if we were guilty of serious crimes, " said Kam who was facing eleven charges. " Just 15 years ago, when the military wanted to destroy the insurgents' strongholds, villagers were encouraged to move in and cut down trees and clear the forests and grow cassava, following the government's cash crop promotion for exports. So we did, but now they want us to get out to make way for concessionaires and their eucalyptus trees, " said Kam. When the Communist party of Thailand collapsed, only 20,000 rais of rain catchment forest remained. About 40,000 rais have become farmland for 5,000 families in 25 villages at the fringe of the forest. Thailand's forests have rapidly dwindled from 62 per cent in 1950 to 25 per cent today. It is estimated that only about 15 per cent of our rich rain forest remains. The Japanese were eager to import logs, woodchips and pulp from Thailand, and investors were in a rush to establish a pulp and paper industry here, resulting in the need for vast areas of land where fast growing trees could be planted. In Esarn alone, 250,000 families were moved out of the 'de-graded' forests to make way for eucalyptus plantation companies which had obtained the leases from the Forestry Department. http://www.pattayadailynews.com/showfeature.php?FeatureID=0000000520 Borneo: 33) Located right next door to Malaysia is Borneo with it's vastly forested land. The forested lands of Borneo is now slowly shrinking. The biggest threat that the forests of Borneo face today is coal mining. BHP Billiton, world's largest coal mining company is planning on developing forest mines in the so called hear of Borneo. The coal mining industry sort of undermine the steps taken to protect these forested lands. The best part is that BHP Billiton has already assured BBC's Saving planet earth that, the mining company will do whatever it needs to protect apes like orangutans. However, instead of protecting them, it seems like the coal mining company is going to raze some of the rainforest, which is the dwelling grounds of orangutans. All this is happening just because of greedy industrialists and investors trying to utilize all of Borneo's coal resources which are located deep in the rainforests. Even though coal mining is strictly prohibited in this region as per the 'Forestry law No. 41 of the statute book of the Republic of Indonesia, an investment of $40 million has already been made. http://www.greendiary.com/entry/coal-mining-endangers-borneo-rainforest-bhp-bill\ iton-fails-to-pr otect-apes/ Indonesia: 34) " We demand the government, in this case the Forestry Ministry, re-evaluate and stop forest deforestation and conversion to oil palm plantations, " chairman of the Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) Hardi Baktiantoro said Wednesday. " They are a threat to the existence of orangutans. " Hardi said at a press conference on orangutan protection that the species was mostly seen by plantation companies as a pest because it ate palm oil buds. " Our organization is not anti the palm oil industry, which produces green energy or biofuel. However, many of their workers will cruelly do anything to the primates to protect their crops, " he said. " This is a violation of the 1990 Conservation Law. Violators may face up to five years in prison or a fine of Rp 100 million. " Also present at the press conference were chairman of the Orang Utan Republik Education Initiative of Indonesia, Barita O. Manullang, and Harvard University anthropologist Cheryl D. Knott, who is also chairman of the Palung Foundation in West Kalimantan. The COP estimates that at least 1,500 orangutans were killed in Central Kalimantan alone last year as a direct result of forest conversion to oil palm plantation. http://www.savetheorangutan.co.uk/?p=514 Australia: 35) Short-termism in Tassy: One of the things that strikes me about the argument over logging in Tasmania and Kevin Rudd's decision to support it and the proposed new Gunns' paper mill is the sheer precariousness of the Tasmanian economy. For so much to turn on this one project and this single industry underlines how vulnerable that economy is. That this has disproportionate flow-on effects not just for state but also for federal politics is therefore inevitable. Gary Sauer-Thompson: Well, we have seen the implications in Rudd's me tooism forest policy when in Tasmania. The bare bones are a $20 million support package for the forestry industry, including a $9 million national fund to increase forestry exports and no more protection for Tasmanian old-growth forests outside the existing Regional Forests Agreement and Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement, if Labor won the next election. This firmly severs any links to the Latham forest policy. In order to win two seats of Bass and Baddon in Tasmania the technocratic Rudd Labor has sacrificed conservation for the sake of propping up a woodchipping industry that Australia no longer needs; one poised to double the volume of native forest woodchip exports. Rudd's policy, like the Coalition's, is all about jobs. The Greens yesterday said Labor would not get its preferences in the marginal Tasmanian timber seats of Bass and Braddon, and leader Bob Brown warned Mr Rudd was making a strategic error if he believed the Greens would simply give preferences to Labor across Australia. http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2007/07/the_forest_wars.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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