Guest guest Posted August 12, 2007 Report Share Posted August 12, 2007 Today for you 37 new articles about earth's trees! (221st edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com . --British Columbia: 1) Timber West is huge, 2) Timber West sells 10,000 hectares, 3) Petition for South Okanagan, 4) Friends of Egmont want to save their watershed, --Oregon: 5) Northwest Ecosystem Survey Team, 6) BLM's outrageous scheme, 7) Eightmile Meadow Timber Sale, --USA: 8) Swindles of Dirk Kempthorne --Canada: 9) Leave beetle killed trees standing, 10) Hands off restoration of Jackpine, --Ghana: 11) Make use of every available volume of lumber --Nigeria: 12) We need N30 million to conduct a survey of forest resources --Jamaica: 13) Save the Butterflies --Guyana: 14) Logging costs in Malaysia are the same as in Guyana --Brazil: 15) Patanal a more natural cattle landscape, 16) Damming the Madeira River, 17) Rainforest destruction dropped by nearly a third this year, --Peru: 18) Efforts to protect forests are working --China: 19) Plants more GE trees than anyone --India: 20) Judges demand UPA government protect its mangroves --North Korea: 21) Flooding related to deforestation --Papua New Guinea: 22) lowland rainforest of the Sepik and Ramu river basins --Malysia: 23) zero logging in forest reserves by 2030, 24) Pygmy elephants, 25) No more logging licenses will be given out, --Indonesia: 26) Carbon credits for forest protection, 27) Elephant's protest, 28) Pulp plant that illegally logs is sustainable, 29) War in Aceh protects forest --Australia: 30) No sizable protected areas of red gum exist, 31) Pulp challenge loses, --Tropical forests, 32) rising temperatures have reduced growth rates by 50% --World-wide: 33) FRECL economics, 34) INGO's ste the agenda? 35) Rainforest Alliance Eco-Index, 36) Logging is the easiest climate change problem to solve, 37) Climate-driven deforestation, British Columbia: 1) TimberWest Forest Corp. is uniquely positioned as the largest owner of private forest lands in western Canada. The Company owns in fee simple approximately 334,000 hectares or 825,000 acres of private timberland that, over the previous five years, have provided an annual average harvest of 2.594 million m3 of logs and have an approximate annual growth rate of 8.0 m3 per hectare per year on the productive land base. These timberlands are located on Vancouver Island and the majority of the land base supports the growth of Douglas fir, a premium tree species sought after for structural purposes. TimberWest also owns renewable Crown harvest rights to 0.7 million m3 of logs per year and operates a sawmill located near Campbell River, BC. In addition, approximately 38,000 hectares or 94,000 acres of the Company's private forest lands have been identified as having greater value as real estate properties and will progressively be made available for higher uses over the next ten to fifteen years. The Company reviews its land base on a periodic basis to update the size of its portfolio of higher use properties. http://www.timberwest.com 2) The Capital Regional District (CRD) is purchasing more than 9,700 hectares of land from TimberWest Forest Corp. to protect the future of the region's drinking water supply and to substantially add to the region's park system. The agreement involves two separate parcels of land. The land for the water supply is located west of the existing Sooke water supply lands. At 8,791 hectares, the Leech River watershed nearly doubles the CRD's water supply area. The second parcel, 932 hectares for new regional park land, is located east of the Sooke Potholes Regional Park and is being purchased with support from The Land Conservancy of British Columbia (TLC). " This is one of the largest, most important land acquisitions in recent BC history. The addition of the Leech River watershed, which can be connected to the CRD's water supply reservoirs, is a prudent strategic acquisition that secures and protects our future water source, " said Nils Jensen, Chair of the CRD Regional Water Supply Commission. The new park land is a significant addition to the 7,400 hectares already dedicated to the Sea-to-Sea Green Blue Belt, southern Vancouver Island's ecological highway of protected, park wilderness connecting Sooke Basin to Saanich Inlet, " said John Ranns, Vice Chair of CRD Parks Committee. " I would like to thank The Land Conservancy of British Columbia for their financial contribution to this project and its ongoing commitment to help achieve the vision for the regional park system in the capital region. " http://www.timberwest.com 3) This region, around the towns of Osoyoos, Oliver, Keremeos and Cawston, has more species at risk than any other region of BC. Canyon wrens, white-headed woodpeckers, badgers, California bighorn sheep, tiger salamanders, spadefoot toads, pallid bats, spotted bats, scorpions, and rattlesnakes all inhabit the area. A national park here would encompass a greater diversity of ecosystems than any national park in Canada - 6 of BC's 14 major ecosystem types ( " biogeoclimatic zones " ) are found in this little region. The BC and federal governments have agreed to undertake a Feasibility Study for a potential national park reserve to protect the desert, grasslands, and Ponderosa pine ecosystems of the South Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys in southern British Columbia. The local residents and the millions of Canadians who've visited the area know it is perhaps the most beautiful region of the country. Whether the national park reserve becomes a reality - or a lost opportunity - depends on YOUR input and the input of all Canadians. National parks are very rare - there are only 7 national parks in BC, in contrast to 1000 provincial parks and protected areas here. National parks tend to be much larger than provincial parks and have the highest standards of environmental protection. A national park reserve in the South Okanagan-Similkameen region would be the greatest conservation opportunity for a region that is the greatest conservation priority in Canada right now. Anyone who lives in North America knows that national parks greatly enhance local economies by increasing tourism revenues and providing local jobs, not to mention increasing the environmental quality of life for local people and all Canadians. This proposed park - a once in a lifetime opportunity - will only become a reality if enough Canadians speak up to the political decision-makers! PETITION DRIVE needs YOUR help!! http://www.okanaganpetition.org 4) After this hike, I have a greater appreciation of some of our long term resident's grave concern over the proposed road activation and building in this part of the watershed. Above all, the fact that it is being proposed that this should be a permanent road through the watershed boggles the mind. As mentioned earlier, once the road skirts North Lake it enters and travels through the very heart of the Waugh Lake Watershed. I would like to repost the last two points of pathologist Dr. Lee Hutton's comment to this blog: Logging roads increase human access which is a well known risk to watersheds used for human consumption. This is why Seattle, Vancouver, and Portland legally prohibit public trespass into their watersheds. Logging causes compaction of the soils and so that the forest floor no longer absorbs and filters water as it does in an undisturbed area. Roads where compaction is worst, are used for travel by animals and people which often leave their wastes which now wash off the road unfiltered, into a culvert and directly into drinking water sources. " http://www.saveourwatershed.com/2007/08/hike-into-waugh-lake-watershed-part-4.ht\ ml Oregon: 5) In the old growth forests of the Illinois and Rogue Valleys, researchers with the Northwest Ecosystem Survey Team, climb high up into the canopy to locate nests of the elusive Oregon red tree vole. The Oregon red tree vole is an important indicator species for forest health that provides food for a host of old-growth dependent species. Through their efforts the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is required to protect all-known locations with a 10 acre buffer, designed under the survey & manage protocol to protect some of the last remaining old growth habitat. Less than 5 % of native old growth forests still exists. The BLM plans to log much of this last remaining old growth habitat within the Rogue & Illinois Valleys, despite public opposition. Learn about recent changes to the Northwest Forest Plan, court challenges, and updates on local logging sales. Listen to a recent MP3 interview on JPR with NEST organizer Laura Beaton. (Tree Vole 7-16-07.mp3) http://www.ijpr.org/audio/Red 6) This outrageous scheme was unveiled yesterday, when the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released details of a new management plan for these forestlands, which stretch from the Clackamas River south to the Siskiyou Mountains -- including much of the spectacular Wild Rogue Wilderness Proposal. Called the Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR), this plan aims to reward the Bush administration's political supporters in the logging industry while sacrificing Oregon's old-growth heritage forests. How bad is it? According to The Oregonian, the " ...plan would boost logging of trees 200 years and older sevenfold over the next decade... " Yes, you read that correctly, a 700 percent increase in clear cutting of Oregon's last old-growth forests! This logging would destroy habit for wild salmon, send mudslides and silt into Oregon rivers and streams, and scar the landscape with hundreds of new clear cuts. Who can stop this destruction? Oregon Wild and supporters like you. As an Oregon Wild supporter, we know you value old-growth forests, clean water, salmon, and wildlife. The Bush administration's plan to return to old-growth clear cutting is an attack on our children's natural heritage, but with your support, we can stop it. We've done it before. Oregon Wild worked closely with Governor Kulongoski to block Bush's repeal of the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. Our legal challenges stopped a plan to eliminate rules that protect salmon and other fish from reckless logging. And over the years our work has forced the Forest Service to drop dozens of old-growth logging projects, from Mount Hood to the Klamath Basin. And there is good news - Oregon Wild will soon launch a groundbreaking new campaign aimed at winning federal legislation to permanently protect all old-growth forests on Oregon's public lands. Our goal is to ensure that these special places are protected as a legacy for future generations, and never again put at risk by the Bush administration or any future President. Will you help us protect our old-growth forests, wildlands and wildlife? It's easy to make a tax-deductible online donation right now: https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1780/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=2669 7) Logging has begun at the Eightmile Meadow Timber Sale. Despite public outcry over the proposal to clearcut 222 acres of forest adjacent to the popular Eightmile Trail, the Forest Service has demonstrated once again that timber comes first. Eightmile Meadow Timber Sale is a " Categorical Exclusion, " meaning that it did not go through an environmental analysis. More " logging without looking " is planned for Mt. Hood with the increased funding. 1) Over 2,200 clearcuts already scar Mt. Hood. 2) Enough is enough! Logging Mt. Hood National Forest needs to stop, not be increased. 3) 4,000 miles of old logging roads crisscross Mt. Hood, damaging our drinking water and wildlife habitat. 4) Removing unnecessary roads should be a priority. 5) The Forest Service is spending our money on the Eightmile Timber Sale and nearly 10,000 more acres of logging. Right now trails like Ramona Falls and Salmon River are inaccessible due to road failures and thousands of miles of unnecessary logging roads are damaging our watersheds -- yet the Forest Service is spending more money on logging! This backwards approach to managing our public forests was exposed in back-to-back articles in the Oregonian, " Cash infusion accelerates NW logging " and " BLM proposes major upswing in logging. " For more information about Eightmile Meadow and the tragic loss of these forests, please visit Bark's Timber Sale Database and click on Eightmile Meadow. http://bark-out.org/tsdb/index.php USA: 8) On a bright day in late June, Dirk Kempthorne took the steps of the Jefferson Memorial to trumpet the resurrection of America's symbol, the bald eagle. His agency had worked for weeks to produce inspiring tales about the eagle's comeback, cute shots of eaglets and their protective parents, and stunning TV footage of the soaring bird. It paid off. The announcement that the bald eagle was being removed from the endangered-species list was Washington, D.C.'s good-news story of the month. The eagle's recovery likely wasn't the only accomplishment on Kempthorne's mind. After more than a year on the job, Kempthorne, the former Idaho governor and U.S. senator, may be the Bush administration's most popular Cabinet member on Capitol Hill. At the same time, he has continued Bush's controversial policies that favor oil and gas development on public lands, and his department has added no species to the endangered-species list since he became Interior secretary. Kempthorne, 55, served one term in the Senate and was finishing his second term as Idaho governor when President Bush tapped him to replace Norton, who resigned. He immediately promised money and attention for the national parks, stricter ethics policies and better cooperation with Congress. In September, on the 90th anniversary of the National Park Service, Kempthorne announced the Centennial Project to improve and restore national parks. He vowed that the agency would raise $3 billion in public and private money by 2016 for the effort. Kempthorne didn't stop with parks in his efforts to burnish Interior's image. The department sometimes issues three or four press releases a day on its accomplishments and goals. Interior promised $4 million to help save elephants and tigers as part of an international push to stop the trade in endangered species. He praised conservation efforts in Guam and American Samoa, whose federal policies his department coordinates. Recently, the agency hosted a publicity-garnering exhibit on the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington; Interior oversees The Capitol Mall. And, of course, there's the bald eagle soaring off the endangered-species list. " In the last year, we've seen proposals from his agency to slash protections for old-growth forests that are home to marbled murrelets and spotted owls, and we continue to see politics trumping scientific decisions, " said Kristen Boyles, an attorney for the environmental group Earth Justice. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003828208_kempthorne09m.html Canada: 9) " They'd be better off just to leave the standing trees, " said David Schindler, an ecologist at the University of Alberta. Mountain pine beetles have infected millions of hectares of forests in British Columbia, severely damaging the forestry industry, and seemed poised to inflict the same devastation in Alberta. Last summer, the number of beetle-infected trees, with their sickly reddish hue, jumped to about three million from about 19,000, said Duncan MacDonnell, spokesman for Alberta Sustainable Resource Development. But scientists have found last winter was a lot harder on the bark-boring bugs than they thought because of a timely cold snap. Previously, it was thought thermometers had to drop to -40 C to kill off the beetles. But a spell of -20 weather in November, before the beetles had a chance to produce the antifreeze-like substance that keeps them alive, may have done the trick. Very few beetles higher than a metre or so up the tree trunk survived, said Mr. Carroll, who works with the Canadian Forest Service. Alberta so far has escaped freak winds that brought millions of bugs over the mountains from B.C. last year. The few weeks when the critters are migrating are half gone, so the chances of another such massive influx are quickly dropping. Foresters - and the towns that depend on the industry - are hoping that westerly winds stay light for the next couple of weeks and the B.C. beetles remain at home. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070810.wbeetles10/BNStory/N\ ational/home 10) The Ontario government has no immediate plans to restore 1,500 hectares of jackpine forest consumed by a research fire that went out of control north of Thessalon three months ago. " The long and short of it is there is no formal rehabilitation planned, " said Barry Radford, a spokesperson with the Ministry of Natural Resources. Crews have assessed the damage — " The ground cover is pretty well scorched, " Radford said — and trees in danger of falling across Highway 129 and on power lines have been removed, but for now the area will be left to regenerate naturally. " It's always a tradeoff. " He added a decision will be made in the fall as to whether and how much of the 60-year-old stands will be replanted. The expense of replanting 1,500 hectares means " you wouldn't replant the whole area, " he said. As well, jackpine " recovers remarkably well after a fire like that, " he added. " Jackpine requires fire to regenerate. The heat of the fire opens the cones, allows the seeds to drop and regeneration naturally occurs. " On May 13 the MNR set alight two one-hectare portions of the North Shore Forest 90 kilometres north of Thessalon on behalf of the Canadian Forest Service, which was testing an infrared camera that measures the rate of spread, intensity and the amount of fuel consumed. Flames jumped their boundaries and eventually destroyed some 18 square kilometres. No property was damaged, although traffic was disrupted for several days and two business operations, the Trading Post general store and a resort, were threatened. While the MNR decides what to do with the Crown land, the sustainable forestry licence holder that logs on the North Shore Forest would conduct the rehabilitation. " We kind of have to look at the area first and see what treatments would be needed and at what cost, " said William Moryto, management forester for Espanola-based North Shore Forest Inc., which contracts Domtar Nairn Centre to manage its 1.25 million hectares. http://www.saultstar.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=646646 & catname=L\ ocal%20News & cla ssif=News%20Live Ghana: 11) Following the ban on export of round logs in 1992, LLL, one of three leading exporters of timber products over the last four years, has decided to keep the company alive by ensuring sufficient yield from sawn timber. It has since 2005, embarked on a four-year expansion programme with the establishment of a recovery department which expansion is estimated to cost 5 million euros. The second phase of the expansion programme is expected to be completed by December this year. The expansion programme is to make use of every available volume of lumber and add value to it. Actually, the vision of the expansion is meant to reduce loss and increase output against the background that the forest is being depleted at an alarming rate. LLL owns 100,000 hectares of forest inhabited by multi tropical hard and soft woods which are logged by a fleet of modern equipment and trucks which in turn reduce waste in processing. Since 1999, an area of 583 hectares out of a total of 63,455 has been planted with over 300,000 indigenous species. The Tain II Reforestation Teak Plantation project in the Brong Ahafo covers a total land area of 482 hectares. LLL has as well planted exotic and indigenous species over an area of 182 hectares of land in Barekese Dam catchment area since 1994. Two permanent nurseries over a three-acre parcel of land have been established to supply seedlings to the plantations. The company has eight slicers and intends to install additional four by close of December to bring total production capacity to 30 million square metres of sliced veneer per year. The Sawmill department, which boasts, of six bandmills has a total output capacity of 15,000 cubic metres of lumber per year. The 16 chambers of kiln dryers can contain 1,400 cubic metres. The Finger-joint and Lamination department has modern machinery to produce fully automated wooden products. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708100734.html Nigeria: 12) Rivers State Government requires N30 million to conduct a survey of its forest resources. The Director of Forestry, Mr. Chiawula Nwokocha, who made this known in Port Harcourt, told newsmen that the data would contribute to the development of the state. Nwokocha, who said that such data did not exist in the ministry at present, added that the exercise would involve hiring of consultants, casual staff, river crafts and vehicles. He said the ministry was collaborating with NGOs to ascertain the potential and challenges in the forests. More than 26 per cent of the state consists of mangrove forests while the remaining 74 per cent is shared by coastal ridges barrier, fresh water swamp forest and lowland rain forest, he said. Nwokocha noted that the forests were depleted daily through human activities and taken over by water hyacinth and 'nypa' palm trees, a specie of wild unproductive palm trees. Urban growth, industrial development and oil exploration activities had also taken a serious toll on the forests in the region, he said. He said that although human activities such as tree felling and construction were rampant, the most perceived environmental nuisance was the Nypa palm, which, he noted, had invaded parts of the mangrove forests. " Nypa palm is gradually replacing the mangrove forests in some parts of this state, it is an invasion that is destroying our forest potentials, " Nwokocha said. He said that high cost of kerosene and the fear of its explosion occasioned by the adulteration, had forced many families to resort to firewood, further depleting the forests in the region. http://www.thetidenews.com/article.aspx?qrDate=08/10/2007 & qrTitle=Rivers%20requi\ res%20N30m%20to %20survey%20forests & qrColumn=NIGER%20DELTA Jamaica: 13) The Homerus swallowtail is the Western Hemisphere's largest butterfly, but University of Florida researchers say its numbers are so small that conservation and captive breeding efforts are needed to save the insect, found only in two parts of Jamaica. A UF study published last month in The Journal of Insect Conservation was the first to estimate the population found in western Jamaica's remote " Cockpit Country. " Author Matt Lehnert, a graduate student with UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, found about 50 adults in the area. The good news is the population was larger than expected, said Tom Emmel, a UF entomology professor who has helped rescue the endangered Schaus swallowtail and Miami blue butterflies native to Florida. Emmel is Lehnert's graduate adviser. " From a conservation standpoint, it shows there's more than one viable population left for this magnificent swallowtail, " said Emmel, who directs UF's McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at the Florida Museum of Natural History. But the population isn't large enough to withstand illegal collection or rampant development, he said. With a 6-inch wingspan, only a few butterflies in the world are bigger. The largest is Papua New Guinea's Queen Alexandra's birdwing, which has a 14-inch wingspan. The Homerus is black with yellow bands and red and blue spots. It once inhabited seven of Jamaica's 13 provinces, but as land was cleared for coffee plantations and farmland it disappeared from most. Few people live in the rugged Cockpit Country, but deforestation and bauxite mining could destroy the butterfly's habitat, said Lehnert, now pursuing a doctorate in entomology at UF. Jamaica adopted the butterfly as a symbol of its only national park, established partly to protect its other Homerus population, on the island's east side, Emmel said. The eastern population, which has fewer than 50 adults, is more accessible and more widely studied. Emmel believes Cockpit Country should house a second national park. http://news.ufl.edu/2007/08/09/swallowtail/ Guyana: 14) Malaysian-owned Barama and Chinese-owned JaLing concur in their IPO prospectuses on the Hong Kong stock exchange that logging costs in Malaysia are the same as in Guyana, US$80 per m3. Our own shippers note that ocean freight to Asia is not more than US$ 120 per m3. So the undeclared profit on log exports from Guyana to Asia has increased in seven months from US$ 320 per m3 to US$ 400 per m3 (low range estimated as merbau CIF Guangzhou City of 674, minus insurance and ocean freight of 13`0, minus prime sawmill quality logs of purpleheart FOB Georgetown of 150, = US$ 394 per m3; and high range estimated as merbau CIF Guangzhou City of 740, minus insurance and ocean freight of 130, minus purpleheart FOB Georgetown 200, = US$ 410 per m3). The Forest Products Marketing Council reports that over 70,000 m3 of our prime timber logs were exported in the first half of 2007, say 12,000 m3 per month. How do the GFC, FPA and the President Minister of Forestry, not to mention the Customs Administration in the Guyana Revenue Authority, explain the increasing price difference between merbau and purpleheart logs when they are used for the same products in Chinese timber mills? Surely not a combination of under-measurement, mis-declaration, under-declaration and transfer pricing in Georgetown? It is little wonder that Barama is seeking shipping for one thousand containers per month (@ 12 m3 of logs per 20' container) while the excess profits are so gigantic (12 m3 x 1000 containers x excess profit of US$ 400 per m3 = US$ 4.8 million per month). Coincidentally, this was my estimate for all Guyana's log exports to Asia last November but is now the aim of Barama alone. Is this what the Government means by " Guyana is open for business " ? http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_letters?id=56526442 Brazil: 15) " The Middle Rio Negro region of the Brazilian Pantanal, where this research takes place, is a relatively pristine area with high conservation status. Deforestation has been minimal, access via roads is difficult and the main commercial activity is low-impact cattle ranching using native pastures. " I don't find that description entirely accurate. Although the Panatal is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is considered the world's largest tropical wetland, it is not what most of us would deem " pristine. " Cattle are ubiquitous, and although the Pantaneiros, the longtime residents and cowboys of the Pantanal, have restricted their cattle-related deforestation, the large herds have a visible impact on the ecology of the wetlands. There are 55 cattle for every person in the Pantanal and an estimated 4.5 million cattle in all. Prior to traveling to Brazil, I imagined the Pantanal to be a relatively virgin area, with few visible human marks. In fact it more closely resembles a Texas ranch. Barbed wire fences are never far - fortunately, excepting some large deer, all wildlife species can pass through them without problem - and sandy roads crosshatch the landscape when viewed from above. Horses and canoes are still used as primary modes of transport on the fazendas, but trucks, tractors and motorboats are just as, if not more, popular. But the impacts of ranching are not all negative. Because 95% of the Pantanal, which covers an area comparable to the state of Nebraska, is privately owned - the land is divided among the various ranchers - the fazendas may serve to protect the ecology of the region. Industry can not so easily move in on private holdings and, better still, some landowners are now opting to set aside small portions of their land for conservation (in return for tax credits and stipends from the Brazilian government). A more serious threat is the growing global demand for ethanol. David Pimentel, professor of ecology and agriculture at Cornell University, explains, " Ethanol production requires large fossil energy input...Further, its production and use contribute to air, water and soil pollution and global warming. " The Sierra Club's Mr. Green adds emphasis, " If you think the industrialized monoculture that fattens livestock is scary, ponder the gloomy prospect of a couple hundred million automobiles feeding off the land. " http://hungryhyaena.blogspot.com/2007/08/back-from-pantanal.html 16) The Madeira River in western Brazil is the Amazon's longest tributary and one of the best-preserved tropical waterways and jungle corridors in the world. A project for two massive dams on its remote upper reaches has long been a matter of controversy, not only among environmentalists, but also among Brazilian technocrats unsure of the risks. Nonetheless, faced with an energy squeeze and intent on faster economic growth, the Brazilian government this month gave preliminary approval to the Madeira dams project. The cry of opposition to the project has been immediate-and one of the loudest complaints has come from neighboring Bolivia, concerned about spillover effects. Brazil's government is prepared to spend a huge sum of money on the Madeira dams. The estimated cost of the project is around $13 billion. The Brazilian government would like to complete them by 2012 and says they could supply up to 8% of the country's total energy needs. http://nacla.newsvine.com/_news/2007/07/26/860182-mega-dams-in-the-amazon-brazil\ s-three-gorges- 17) Destruction of the Amazon rainforest dropped by nearly a third during the last year, reaching the lowest rate since Brazil's space research agency began keeping track in 1988, according to preliminary figures released Friday. The government credited increased enforcement of environmental regulations for the drop. But environmentalists say deforestation has slowed largely because of a drop in the price of soybeans and the strengthening of Brazil's currency, making it less profitable to clear forest to grow the crop. The rainforest lost about 3,700 square miles during the 12 months ending in August, compared with 5,400 square miles in the same period the previous year, Environment Ministry Executive Secretary Joao Paul Coapobianco said. The National Institute of Space Research said in a statement that the final figures would be ready in November. Brazil is home to the bulk of the world's largest remaining tropical wilderness, the Amazon, which covers about 1.6 million square miles. The Amazon rainforest is thought to contain at least 30 percent of all plant and animal species on the planet, most of them uncatalogued. About 20 percent of the Amazon has already been cut down, and while the rate of destruction has slowed in recent years, environmentalists say it remains alarmingly high. http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/08/10/ap4010058.html Peru: 18) In South America, satellite monitoring indicates that the rate of deforestation is declining in the Peruvian rain forest. Researchers led by Paulo J. Oliveira of the Carnegie Institution report that while deforestation is continuing, it is occurring mostly in designated logging areas and not in protected regions set aside by the government. They concluded that the government's program intended to set aside land for indigenous people is also having an effect in protecting the forest. The European bird research was supported by the European Bird Census Council and the European Union. The Peruvian forest analysis was funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/10/healthscience/NA-SCI-US-Environment-Go\ od-News.php China: 19) In China, over a million poplar trees have been planted since 2002 to combat deforestation. But the move has not been widely applauded by everyone. The poplars, which are genetically engineered, are China's first foray into the world of transgenic forestry -- or " frankenforests " -- and other countries are not far behind. As the biotech industry continues to lay the groundwork for genetically engineered crops -- poorly tested, widely debated and yet plugged as a technological wonder -- a potentially greater threat to biodiversity has begun to emerge. Pushed forward by biotech and the multibillion- dollar timber industry, genetically engineered trees are the latest invention. " The industry has tried very hard to keep it quiet, or tout the technology as benign and beneficial to the environment, " says Anne Petermann, co-founder of the Global Justice Ecology Project, a nonprofit established to advance global justice through ecological awareness. GE trees are planted in monoculture forests, which look more like plantations, and pose serious risks to the ecosystem. Trees live decades or centuries longer than plants, and their seeds can travel hundreds of miles, increasing the likelihood of gene contamination to wild species. The technology was created to optimize the manufacturing process, but environmentalists worry that it will open an ecological Pandora's Box and threaten the health of the forests we depend on for survival. GE forestry research is already alarmingly prevalent across the globe. The United States leads the world in research projects, with 150 tree test plots -- two-thirds of the world's known research areas -- and they are joined by Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. Despite the prevelance of the practice, GE forestry has remained somewhat obscured by GE crops, which have raised more immediate health concerns, as forestry " doesn't seem to affect the daily shopping trip -- or at least, less visibly, " according to Larry Lohmann, a researcher with U.K.-based Corner House, a nonprofit that fights for social and environmental justice. http://www.alternet.org/story/58477 India: 20) NEW DELHI: The full-blown confrontation between the UPA government and the Supreme Court on forest and wildlife issues may just turn nastier. The environment ministry has proposed definitions of 'forests' that undermine the apex court's order which defined which lands should be classified as forest and therefore be off-bounds for development and mega projects. In its haste, the ministry has not even waited for the final report of its consultant, hired to generate a new definition. A 1996 apex court order had greatly increased the area that came under the ambit of a very stringent Forest Conservation Act, 1980, which regulates use or transfer of 'forest' for non-forest activities, such as mining, hydropower and other mega-projects. The apex court had instructed that any patch of land having some forest on it should be regulated by the Forest Act regardless of the status granted to it in government records. This had become a major grouse of the pro-industry lobby, which had to seek clearance for use of such 'forests' and of the tribals as well for curtailing their rights. With the government putting up three draft definitions of 'forests' for comments on its website, all challenging the apex court's definition, the move to legally enforce a new definition has picked up speed. What has raised eyebrows is that the entire exercise of consulting outsiders has gone on even as the ministry quietly devised a definition along with a new Forest Act. " The definition the ministry had generated earlier while drafting the new forest legislation could end up being a fait accompli despite this exercise of consultation, " a well-placed source told TOI. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Definition_of_forests_may_spark_fresh_g\ ovt-SC_ro w/articleshow/2269740.cms North Korea: 21) Heavy downpours battered western and eastern coastal areas between Tuesday and Thursday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. " The deluge of rain has inflicted heavy damage to agriculture and other sectors of the national economy and people's living in the relevant areas, " the news agency said. Koksan county in North Hwanghae province had 431 millimetres (17 inches) of rain during the week, it said, without saying if there were any casualties. Experts say decades of reckless deforestation have stripped North Korea of tree cover that provides natural protection from catastrophic flooding. Energy-starved residents have used every scrap of wood from the countryside to cook food or heat homes through the bitter winters, leaving the country vulnerable to flooding and landslides on a massive scale. Government officials have worsened the problem by encouraging residents to expand farmland into the hillsides in a bid to grow more food. Last year monsoon rains swept through much of the nation, killing hundreds of people and causing severe property damage. http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1114564 Papua New Guinea: 22) An international group of entomologists and botanists, including Smithsonian researchers, has assembled data representing 500 species of caterpillars, ambrosia beetles and fruit flies in the undisturbed lowland rainforest of the Sepik and Ramu river basins in Papua New Guinea. The team collected insects and plants from eight study sites across 75,000 square kilometers of contiguous forest--an area the size of South Carolina--and noted the variation in species makeup among the different sites. The data showed low beta diversity across the study area for all three groups of insects as well as for plants, indicating that species tend to be widespread and the biological communities change very little even across large distances. The widespread distribution of insect species was a surprise, given the sedentary lifestyles of many species. " Some spend their entire lives on a single plant, but they've got wings. They may not want to fly, but they can if they need to, " said Smithsonian scientist Scott Miller, an author of the Nature paper. The insects also showed limited specialization in the plant species they feed upon, in contrast to the common assumption that tropical species tend to be highly specialized. For the types of insects studied, study sites separated by as much as 500 kilometers shared more than half of their species. For fruit flies, the species makeup remained virtually constant for distances up to 950 kilometers. In contrast, upland rainforests sites at different elevations may share less than a fifth of their species, even if the plant species on which they live are constant. The low beta diversity seen in this study has implications for biological conservation. The homogeneity of the lowland forests suggests that the total diversity of species in tropical rainforests globally may be lower than previously thought. The study's results also may help shape strategies for preserving rainforest species. " There are some philosophical questions that our data should be useful to address, " Miller said. " If you can preserve 10,000 hectares of forest, is it better to preserve it as 10 small 1,000 hectare plots or one large 10,000 hectare plot? " http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070808132022.htm Malaysia: 23) The Peninsular Malaysia Forestry Department (JPSM) is targetting to achieve zero logging in permanent forest reserves in the peninsula by 2030. Its Deputy Director-General (Planning and Development) Datuk Dahlan Taha was confident the target could be achieved as the rate of felling of trees in them had dropped drastically over the years and with the government introducing forestry as a plantation sector. " Since the Fourth Malaysia Plan until the Ninth Malaysia Plan, records show a sharp drop in tree felling, from 74,869 hectares to 36,940 hectares. " With this trend, we expect to reach zero logging in permanent forest reserve areas within 23 years, " he said when contacted by Bernama here Wednesday. He said that as of 2005, there were 4.75 million hectares of permanent forest reserve areas in the peninsula with 3.18 million hectares designated as production forests and the remaining protected forests to ensure climatic and ecological stability. Dahlan said the department's zero logging target would not adversely affect Malaysia's timber industry as 310,553 hectares of forest plantations would be opened up, which was capable of meeting the country's demand for timber. Under the 9MP, the government is targetting to open 375,000 hectares of forest plantations nationwide. http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=278211 24) Satellite tracking of pygmy elephants has found that the endangered animals—unique to Borneo island—are under threat due to logging and commercial plantations encroaching on their habitat, conservationists said Thursday. A World Wildlife Fund study, based on two years of satellite tracking, found that pygmy elephants thrive best in forests on flat lowlands and in river valleys—the same terrain preferred by loggers and oil palm plantations. About 40 percent of forest in the Malaysian state of Sabah, where most pygmy elephants live, has been lost to logging, conversion for plantations and human settlement over the last four decades, WWF said. Very little was known about pygmy elephants until a chance DNA analysis in 2003 revealed them to be a distinct subspecies of Asian elephants, which triggered a new effort to conserve them. In June 2005, the WWF set in motion a landmark project to track pygmy elephants in the rain forests of Sabah by placing collars fitted with transmitters around the necks of five elephants, known to be leaders of their herds. The collars beamed their locations via satellite to a WWF-Malaysia computer as often as once a day in the first study of its kind, providing valuable information about the elephants' grazing habits and movement patterns. Data gathered so far reveals there are probably not more than 1,000 pygmy elephants left in Sabah—less than the 1,600 or so estimated previously. http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_6575327?nclick_check=1 25) SANDAKAN: No more logging licences will be given out as far as the Prime Minister is concerned. " I will turn down anyone who comes to me asking for logging licences. If I want to make them happy, I will tell them to ask Musa (Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman), knowing that he will say no too, " said Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Cautioning forest custodians to not simply give out logging licences when opening the RM9.2mil Rainforest Discovery centre about 30km from here, Abdullah said he would not entertain people requesting for logging licences from the states. He said it was important to maintain the current natural forests as they were important to the eco-system. Malaysia's commitment was reflected in its participation in the Heart of Borneo conservation initiative involving 240,000 sq km of forest conservation covering Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei and Kalimantan in Indonesia, he said. " We should use more timber obtained from replanted areas, " he said. He noted that although in the early years of independence, the country allowed the opening up of forest land for settlers under Felda and other schemes, Abdullah said they could maintain 60% or 19.52 million hectares as forest reserves with about 14.39 million hectares gazetted as permanent forest reserves. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/8/11/nation/18564778 & sec=nation Indonesia: 26) The governor of Papua--the Indonesian half of the large island of New Guinea--is examining a program in which the state would preserve old forests so the island could sell carbon credits to companies in developed nations, according to the Wall Street Journal. (subscription required.) Barnabas Suebu, the first democratically elected governor of the state, became interested in getting westerners to preserve rainforests for money after serving as a representative for Indonesia in Latin America. Under the plan, westerners would buy carbon credits, and the money would then be distributed to villages on the island. A lot of research--how much carbon dioxide do the forests consume? What is the compensation scheme--remains to be completed. Still, if it works, the plan would slow down deforestation (The acres of old growth forest lost to logging and planting every year in the country would cover Belgium) and also put a dent in carbon dioxide getting into the atmosphere from clearing land. http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9758468-7.html 27) " I'd never imagined that elephants, which are usually so gentle, could do such brutal things. I don't know who I should be angry at, " a grief-stricken Mujarianto said later. Driven from their natural habitat by illegal logging, herds of starving Sumatran elephants have in recent years begun terrorizing farming families and devouring crops. So far they have killed about 30 villagers and crushed hundreds of cabins and huts. The central and local governments and NGOs are doing what they can to expel them from residential areas, but with little success. Frequent visits to farming villages by herds of angry elephants are most commonly the result of illegal land clearing in the forests where they live. Several farming communities have been encroaching into the precious tropical rain forests in spite of the fact they are collectively designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage site. The villagers of Ulu Semong, an 8-hour car and motorbike ride from Bandar Lampung, capital of Lampung province in southern Sumatra, are no strangers to raids by the desperate herds. On an evening in mid-June, the tranquility that usually hangs over the sleepy settlement of about 1,800 households was shattered when local men began screaming, " Elephants! Elephants are coming! " http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200708090094.html 28) Despite allegations of illegal logging, a local pulp and paper company's proven performance in sustainably managing its industrial forests in Riau has been seen it maintain a much sort-after eco-friendly stamp of approval. But Indonesian Greenomics said PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (Riaupulp) had been less than transparent with the supply source of its raw materials, prompting the civil society to become suspicious of the company's involvement in Indonesia's rampant illegal logging business. " The company's supply of logs as raw material to its mills has drastically increased to 9 million tons in 2006 from four million tons in 2005, " Greenomics coordinator Vanda Meutia said. " But it has never been transparent about from where its mills (received) its logs. " Vanda said illegal logging was rampant throughout the province, with at least two pulp and paper mills smuggling timber to Europe, China and India through Singapore. But Riaupulp underwent a surveillance audit conducted by foreign agencies and came out holding on to a certificate the paper industry refers to as an eco-label. http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070809.H02 & irec=1 29) War in Indonesia's Aceh province has been a blessing in disguise for the orangutan, preventing logging firms and palm oil estates from entering one of the world's richest expanses of rainforest. This has helped the critically endangered mammals flourish, at least for now. " If the civil war hadn't happened and they all operate and clear the forest, we'll be dealing with a few hundred orangutans now, " said Ian Singleton, scientific director of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme. " And if they clear these extra bits of forests here in the near future, then the same thing will happen again. All the orangutan will die. They don't sort of like pack their bags and move somewhere else. They stay and die, " he told Reuters in North Sumatra's provincial capital, Medan. The war in Aceh in on the tip of Sumatra had prevented logging concessions and palm oil estates, which had been granted permits during the 1990s, from operating around the so-called Leuser Ecosystem -- the last place on Earth where orangutans, tigers, rhinos, leopards and elephants can be found in one area. The 2.6-million hectare (6.5 million acres) Leuser Ecosystem, roughly the size of Belgium and the largest protected rainforest area in Southeast Asia, covers parts of Aceh and adjacent North Sumatra province. " By preventing them from operating has given us a second chance to save the orangutan. We may have lost around 5,000 orangutans between 1995 and 2000, and then that suddenly stabilised because of the civil war, " said Singleton. There are about 7,300 Sumatran orangutans left in the wild. The number has been relatively steady in recent years but is half as many as the early 1990s, when there were estimated to be about 15,000. http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=81501 Australia: 30) There are almost no substantial protected areas in Victoria's red gum forests, many of which are internationally recognised wetlands under the Ramsar and other treaties. These wetland-forest complexes are home to over 300 threatened or near-threatened species, including the last Victorian breeding site of the nationally endangered Superb Parrot. Logging and grazing are major threats to many of these species. Protected areas (such as national parks) are the only practical way we have to protect this critical habitat. There is no evidence that national parks are any more fire-prone than logged state forests, and grazing is not considered an effective fire-prevention tool by either the state government or the significant body of scientific literature on the subject. National parks are managed for biodiversity conservation and other public uses, and prevention of wildfire is one the goals of this management. Wildfire prevention techniques include ecological (and fuel reduction) burns. It is worth noting that almost every ecosystem in Australia evolved over the past 10,00-100,000 years under complex burning regimes by Indigenous peoples, and coservation biologists today recognise the value of adapting such techniques into contemporary management systems. Furthermore, whilst the build-up of light fuel on the forest floor needs to managed and kept within a reasonable threshold to prevent wildfire, there is also an urgent need in red gum forests to increase the amount of heavy groundwood which is crucial habitat and foraging ground for a multitude of species, both terrestrial and aquatic (when these areas flood, it is groundwood that provides protected spawning locations for native fish such as the threatened Murray Cod). If readers are interested in looking after the ecological and cultural heritage of Murray River Red Gum ecosystems, I would urge them to show their support for new national parks. How you can help is identified on numerous environmental websites such as http://www.redgum.org.au http://www.saveredgum.org http://www.melbourne.foe.org.au 31) The Federal Court has dismissed a legal challenge by environmental and business groups to the development of a pulp mill in the Tamar Valley. The court rejected the attempt by the Wilderness Society and the business group, Investors for the Future of Tasmania, to challenge the Federal Government's environmental assessment of the proposed $2 billion mill to be built by Gunns. They alleged the process did not allow enough time for public comment. But Justice Shane Marshall rejected all grounds and dismissed the applications. The Wilderness Society said was considering an appeal. " There's a lot of water to go under the bridge yet, " society spokesman Sean Cadman said. " If this dreadful proposal goes ahead to suck four and a half million tonnes of Tasmanian forest into the mill and the pollution associated with processing that wood ... that's a ghastly proposition for Tasmania, " he said. http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22215733-31037,00.html Tropical Forests: 32) The study shows that rising average temperatures have reduced growth rates by up to 50% in the two rainforests, which have both experienced climate warming above the world average over the past few decades. Feeley and his colleagues analysed data on climate and tree growth for 50-hectare plots in each of the two rainforests, at Barro Colorado Island in Panama, and Pasoh in Malaysia. Both have witnessed temperature rises of more than 1ºC over the past 30 years, and both showed dramatic decreases in rates of tree growth. At Pasoh, as many as 95% of tree species were affected, Feeley and his colleagues report. The trend is shown by data stretching back to 1981 collected from hundreds of thousands of individual trees. If other rainforests follow suit as world temperatures rise, important carbon stores such as the pristine old-growth forests of the Amazon could conceivably stop storing as much carbon, says Ken Feeley of Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum in Boston, who presented the research at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in San Jose, California. The amount of carbon that a forest stores depends on the balance between the rate at which it draws carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and the rate at which it gives carbon dioxide back through respiration. In carbon sinks, which are mostly found at high latitudes, photosynthesis outstrips respiration and the amount of carbon stored increases. In general, tropical forests are today thought to act as stable stores of carbon, with their photosynthetic input and their respiratory output more or less in balance. Some scientists and environmentalists have suggested that, given the way carbon dioxide spurs plant growth, tropical forests could in time come to act as a sink, offsetting some of the man-made carbon dioxide build-up. That optimism will have to be reassessed, though, if photosynthesis becomes less productive in the tropics. http://news.nature.com//news/2007/070806/070806-13.html World-wide: 33) As controversies over logging sweep through the forests of the West, and anxieties sweep through the global finance industry, many can be forgiven for treating the crises of forest and finance as separate stories. They are not. Instead, they were and are well-woven enough by the circulation of logs, money, and political communications to make them a single transPacific boom. Although this widespread boom is huge in scale, it is largely structured around a simple four-step sequence : F → RE → C → L. This sequence is a blueprint, framework, or script that can be expressed in a simple and memorable acronym, FRECL (pronounced " freckle " ). This script, often rowdy, often slapstick, sometimes grimly bloody, is basic to understanding what drives the planet's most aggressive logging schemes. Any freckle kicks into gear when the finance (F) industry, including not only banks but also pension funds and insurance companies, lends money to the real estate (RE) industry. With its hands full of borrowed money, the real estate industry then turns to the construction © industry with orders to start building gated communities, apartment complexes, office towers, shopping malls, time-shares at ski resorts, and occasionally even some affordable single-family housing. Orders in hand, the construction industry then turns to the logging (L) industry for raw materials. At this stage of a FRECL's sequential script, the logging industry starts another kind of borrowing from another kind of bank; it borrows trees from the forests. When these withdrawals begin, scientists and conservationists can actually begin to record the predictable trouble for wildlife. A little later, anyone worried about sprawl will see the fallen forest showing up in the form of 2x4s and plywood -- even the paper covering on sheetrock. But most of us only see piecemeal reports, making it difficult for the public at large to connect the dots of any ongoing FRECL; newspapers typically put stories of logging, housing sprawl, and the finance industry under separate headlines, separate pages, and even in separate publications. It seems very difficult for journalists to do otherwise, and that difficulty is likely to persist for the simplest of all possible reasons. Like anyone else, journalists' perception is often wrapped in immediacy, captured in what some psychologists have called " stimulus bound " thinking. http://www.newwest.net/index.php/citjo/article/when_forests_fall_on_banks/C33/L3\ 3/ 34) Large international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) are increasingly setting the global conservation agenda. These INGOs have developed a range of tools, e.g., Biodiversity Hot Spots (1), Global 200 Ecoregions (2), and others (3) to set priorities and to compete with each other. They often use a corporate " branding " strategy to help raise funds and to define and communicate their niches in a crowded and competitive market. This corporate model has been very successful for fundraising: Conservation International's " Hot Spots " strategy accompanied an increase in overall annual expenditures from U.S.$27.8 million in 1998 to U.S.$89.3 million by 2004, and World Wildlife Fund U.S.A.'s " Ecoregions " program accompanied a rise in expenditures from U.S.$80 million to U.S.$121.7 million between 1997 and 2005 (4). This helped offset declines of ~50% in government and multilateral agency investment in biodiversity conservation over the past decade (5) while expanding the influence of these INGOs globally. These factors have led some to equate the operations of large INGOs with transnational corporations (6). Although these brands are derived from conservation science, they are vulnerable to scientific criticism (7). For example, priority-setting plans that target fixed areas for conservation (e.g., Hot Spots and Ecoregions) are insufficient to deal with fast-moving threats such as pathogens or invasive species (8), the alteration of species' ranges due to climate change (9), or spatially dynamic marine ecosystems (10). Furthermore, large-scale international development initiatives, designed centrally and top-down, have rarely met expectations (11). This does not bode well for globalized conservation approaches, which require that the often inadequately evaluated strategies of developed country INGOs be adopted by developing countries (12, 13). Such top-down approaches can fail to link agendas of a broad constituency of local communities, scientists, conservation practitioners, and policy-makers (14, 15). In some cases, the investments of foreign conservationists are seen as a threat to sovereignty and an imposition on local peoples. http://www.sciencemag.org/ 35) The Eco-Index, an online database of conservation projects in the Americas created by the Rainforest Alliance, now features more than 1,000 projects in English and Spanish. The site also recently started including projects in the United States and Canada, making it the premiere vehicle for the conservation community to share information about initiatives in the Americas. " As the number of projects to conserve tropical ecosystems continues to grow and the pinch on our natural resources tightens, it is crucial to share information and learn from each others lessons, " said Diane Jukofsky, director of communications, marketing and education at the Rainforest Alliance. " Researchers in the Americas can use the Eco-Index to learn from others who have worked on similar projects and avoid duplicating efforts and missteps. " The Eco-Index has grown steadily since it was launched in January 2001 with 70 projects. Now, the 1,000 plus projects in the database represent the work of more than 700 non-governmental organizations, research institutions, and government ministries in the Americas. Project profiles outline contact information, summaries, objectives, funders, budget, accomplishments, lessons learned, methodology, links and reports. The Eco-Index is sponsored by the US Fish and Wildlife Service's International Division and Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Coral Reef Conservation Fund the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund the Inter-American Development Bank the Spray Foundation and the Global Environment Facility's Small Grants Program of Costa Rica. For sponsorship information, visit www.eco-index.org/sponsors http://www.ewire.com/display.cfm/Wire_ID/4111 36) " If you really look at the arithmetic, essential a quarter of global CO2 emissions accumulating every year come from deforestation, " Dr Lovejoy said. " It's almost the easiest part of the greenhouse gas problem to fix. " Dr Lovejoy is considered one of the world's experts on rainforests and is the former chief biodiversity adviser to the World Bank president. He is also nominated for this year's United Nations environment prize. Leading economist and environmentalist Thomas Lovejoy has come to Australia to spruik his 'debt for carbon' brainchild, which would wipe huge debt from developing countries in return for them keeping and protecting their forests. Most of the carbon emissions of developing nations come from deforestation. A key example is Indonesia, which accounts for more than 2.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide gases. Up for discussion is the 'debt for carbon' scheme, which he believes will help solve the planet's climate woes. " Debt for carbon' is basically making a deal with a debtor country that some of their debt is forgiven if they will devote an equivalent amount in their own currency to conservation, " he said. " 'Debt for carbon' would be just emphasising the carbon value of that. " That could translate to protecting the remaining rainforests. Dr Lovejoy is critical of the Kyoto protocol and its failure to include natural forests, but he believes a scheme like 'debt for carbon' could be the key and he wants countries like Australia to come on board. " In my view, it would be a logical thing for Australia to do. We've done it for 20-odd years in the United States, " he said. " Basically, it's just a matter of moving beyond thinking of debt as just part of a financial structure and thinking about its validity as a foreign policy instrument. " If nations will turn around and forgive debt for political reasons, why can't you do it for environmental reasons? You're looking at getting added value for the carbon kept in the natural system. " http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/06/1997395.htm 37) I'm increasingly persuaded that will match and then exceed deforestation from all other human causes. It's seeming increasingly mandatory that logging must stop. Forests will be dying from four consequences of rising global temperatures, and of course from interactions of the four. In no particular order of importance, they are insects, water stress, heat stress, and fire. Any one alone is capable of killing trees, each is increasingly likely, and combinations will be the order of the day. For example, while prolonged drought is capable of killing trees, Breshears et al cite evidence that recent SW North American drought that was less severe than droughts of the '30s and '50s killed many more trees because of extreme high temperatures. And while rising temps are known to make trees more susceptible to death from insects, fire from increased temps will be enjoying a fuel boom as those trees die. For now, forests are clearly expanding in some areas. But that may soon become yesterday's story. For example, the U of Alberta's Danby cites conspicuous poleward expansion of trees in Northern Canada. But forests at the high latitufes only have so far to expand, and I see no reason to reject an hypothesis that the heat will be catching up them too, and little reason to expect that southern species can make the leap to the Arctic quickly enough to fill the vacuum. I may be ahead of the evidence here. That is, extensive global death of forests is not yet an accomplished fact. But I don't think it's too early to warn that that's where we're headed, and that logging has become an increasingly reckless thing to contemplate. lancolsn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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