Guest guest Posted August 15, 2007 Report Share Posted August 15, 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) Loggers stopped for the first time ever, 2) Great Marmot scam, --Oregon: 3) Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB), 4) MPB reply, 5) Logger town recovery, --Idaho: 6) Thinning for fire, is it working? --Montana: 7) Helena National Forest and bugs, 8) ATVs and Wildlands CPR, --Pennsylvania: 9) Forest history and stats --Kentucky: 10) Save Robinson Forest --South Carolina: 11) Save the Riverstone tract for Congaree National Park --Maine: 12) Biofuel industry --Eastern Forests: 13) Timber giants sell land and 5% bought by conservationists --USA: 14) Climate undoubtedly influences forests, 15) GE trees, --UK: 16) Horse Logger wins award, 17) Millennium trees threatened by condos --EU: 18) Increase in populations for protected birds --Brazil: 19) Leaders gloat of 3,700 sq. miles of annual clearcutting is an improvement, --Argentina: 20) BP busted and fined is one of 17 corporations --India: 21) Environmentalist Jai Prakash Dabral --Cambodia: 22) Ancient city of Angkor was world's largest and deforestation ended it, --Philippines: 23) Save the Sierra Madres, 24) Lifting of logging ban, --Thailand: 25) Queen Sirikit says save the forest, 26) government officials implicated, --Malaysia: 27) Illegal logging in Sabah seizes 1000 logs, 28) buzz of outlaw chainsaws, --Indonesia: 29) Arson and treespiking makes an eco-hero, 30) Friends of the Earth Indonesia, 31) Asia Pulp and Paper, 32) major contributor to climate change, --Australia: 33) Save Cape York, 34) environmental protest in southern Tasmania, 35) Appeal of logging ban, 36) Koala Park rescues Koalas, --World-wide: 37) Current Carbon market encourages deforestation, British Columbia: 1) For the first time in British Columbia, perhaps in Canada, logging has been ordered stopped in a watershed because it poses a potential " health hazard " to downstream communities. In an unusual move, the Sunshine Coast Regional District used the Health Act to protect its drinking water by ordering Western Forest Products Inc. to stop logging on steep slopes in the Chapman Creek watershed. The mountainous, thickly forested watershed provides drinking water to about 21,000 residents on the Sunshine Coast, between Langdale and Earl's Cove, north of Vancouver. Although logging, the mainstay of the provincial economy for more than a century, has been halted for environmental reasons in the past, it hasn't been labelled by any government as hazardous to human health before. Patricia Chew, executive director of West Coast Environmental Law, hailed the order as a precedent-setting decision that could spill over into other B.C. communities where there are concerns about the impact of logging on the quality of drinking water. " The Sunshine Coast Regional District is a trailblazer for other local governments across B.C. seeking to restrict logging and other industrial activity that threatens drinking water, " said Ms. Chew, whose non-profit organization helped fund citizen submissions to the regional district. Barry Janyk, who is both the mayor of the town of Gibsons and a member of the regional district board that approved the order in a vote Saturday, said the public response to the decision has been overwhelmingly positive. " We've heard nothing but praise, without exception. ... There's a sense justice has been upheld, " Mr. Janyk said from Gibsons. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070814.BCWATER14/TPStory/TPNa\ tional/BritishC olumbia/ 2) " It remains unclear why the Vancouver Island marmot disappeared from this area decades ago, " said MRF executive director Victoria Jackson. " The habitat remains largely untouched and there are plenty of sub-alpine bowls with suitable vegetation for the marmots to eat. Released animals will be closely monitored to help understand what may have gone wrong in the past. " The Marmot Recovery Foundation's ultimate goal is to have 300 to 600 marmots surviving in three populations on Vancouver Island. The program is a unique partnership between provincial and federal governments, Island Timberlands, TimberWest, Mount Washington Alpine Resort, Mountainview Conservation and Breeding Centre, the Tony Barrett Mount Washington Captive Breeding Centre and the Calgary and Toronto zoos. " We are very pleased to recognize BC Hydro as a new recovery partner for this uniquely Canadian species, " said Jackson. Additionally, more than 11,000 members of the public have contributed to the charitable organization since its inception. " It's very encouraging to see Vancouver Island marmots coming back into this beautiful habitat, " said Penner. " Strathcona Park will celebrate its 100th birthday in 2011. Let's hope the marmots can ring in that milestone for us with a healthy, robust colony or two. " http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/ Oregon: 3) The mountain pine beetle outbreak is only the latest assault on the forest in Santiam Pass, which has been battered in recent years by a series of natural calamities. In the 1990s, a spruce budworm epidemic defoliated fir trees over a 150,000-acre area on the Willamette and Deschutes national forests. And in 2003, the lightning-caused Booth and Bear Butte fires merged into the massive B & B Complex, which torched 91,000 acres and threatened the resort areas of Camp Sherman and Suttle Lake. The result looks more like a graveyard than a forest, an eerie landscape of standing snags charred black by the flames or weathered to a lifeless gray. It will be decades before full-grown trees clothe the pass in green once more — and in the meantime, the beetle outbreak is storing up fuel for another potential wildfire. Fire is relatively rare in moist westside forests, but historically it's been an important component of the ecology of the pass, particularly on the drier east side around Black Butte and Sisters. Ponderosa pine is the dominant tree in that area, but westside species such as Douglas and grand fir would sometimes build up in the understory. Those species would be kept under control by periodic blazes caused by summer lightning strikes, which would kill off the young firs but leave the more fire-resistant mature ponderosa behind. For the last 100 years or so, though, humans have largely taken fire out of the equation, allowing the fir to grow in thick under the pines. The whole Santiam Pass area is on federal land, where the timber harvest has been sharply curtailed since the late 1980s, and much of the region is designated wilderness, where no logging is allowed at all. But the Forest Service has been doing some thinning projects lately, especially on the Deschutes side of the pass. Andy Eglitis, an entomologist in the agency's Bend Forest Health Protection Office, thinks that approach has promise for reducing fire danger and protecting against insect outbreaks. " We could use thinning to mimic fire by taking out trees fire would have taken out, " Eglitis said. " If you've done some fuel-reduction treatments, when a fire comes through it drops to the ground and acts more like a natural fire. It becomes a ground fire and not a crown fire. " http://gazettetimes.com/articles/2007/08/12/news/top_story/1aaa01_forest.txt 4) Response to above: This FS guy doesn't understand fire ecology. If he is talking about fir forests at higher elevations, natural fires don't fall to the ground. Natural fires in these high elevations forests are stand replacement blazes. Even in ponderosa pine ecosystems there is an exaggerated view that all p. pine once burned in low intensity blazes. Increasingly researchers are questioning that assumption. Thus management based upon the assumption that somehow big stand replacement fires are abnormal are ecologically suspect. Furthermore, there's nothing wrong with bug killed trees. The FS has to get out o f the mentality that a " healthy " forest is one without dead trees (unless they kill them with chainsaws). A healthy forest has lots of dead trees at some periods of time. It's not " abnormal " . Bugs are part of the natural thinning process. -- George Wuerthner wuerthner 5) At dawn, Oakridge looks like any one of the dozens of Oregon timber towns left for dead. Twenty years ago, around the time lawsuits to protect the spotted owl's old-growth habitat led the federal government to limit logging, the last lumber mill in Oakridge closed. Today the town is typical of the communities once at the heart of the timber wars. The morning sun still spills over the Cascade mountains that ring the town 45 miles southeast of Eugene. The sun still spreads down the main thoroughfare, where weeds grow in the gutters and one of the liveliest buildings is a 1961 City Hall the size of a branch bank. Entire blocks on First Street sit boarded up with For Sale signs on dusty windows. The car dealership, the clothing store, the furniture store, the shoe store, the theater, the appliance store, the hardware store; all have closed. Even the town's lone mortician has left this world. The only thing missing from what could be any Western ghost town is tumbleweeds. If Oakridge is a ghost town, the ghosts are up and stirring. Across town, on the other side of the railroad tracks that gave birth to this outpost, Oregon 58 buzzes with activity. A government-funded program has brought 10 small service-type businesses, from a laundromat to a frame shop, within the last year. A new amphitheater draws concertgoers to a spruced-up park along the Middle Fork of the Willamette River, which flows beside the highway. Cycle Oregon will deposit 2,500 people one weekend soon, and a longtime push to promote Oakridge as the destination for mountain bikers thrives. There's even talk of a " mystery " company coming to the Oakridge Industrial Park, home of the old Pope & Talbot lumber mill, and a promise to bring the kind of good-paying jobs the mill took away two decades ago. If the town's 3,700 residents got a little giddy over the opening of a gas station on the highway last year, who can blame them? The jury is out on whether the changes will deliver a new future, but if there is hope in an old mill town like Oakridge, it's an optimism grounded in the past. Wasn't this, after all, the way the West was won? http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/stories/index.ssf?/base/living/1186773932102\ 020.xml & coll=7 Idaho: 6) As about a dozen large fires rage through Idaho, Idaho City has remained virtually unscathed in this year's tough fire season. Knock on wood. While some attribute it to luck, there's also good reason for Idaho City's lack of fires — mainly, more than a decade of prescribed burning and thinning of the Boise National Forest. " You can't fire-proof a forest, " said John McCarthy, a campaign manager with The Wilderness Society. " But you can improve the chances of the forest being resilient to fire and take actions to protect people. " The area has seen a number of small fires and starts this year, but none that matches the magnitude of blazes burning elsewhere in the state, many that have threatened homes and prompted evacuations. Idaho City began thinning and prescribed burning sooner than other parts of the state and now demonstrates the advantages, McCarthy said. In the 1990s, U.S. Forest Service officials began thinning along Idaho 21 leading to Idaho City. While controversial at first, conservationists, state officials and private landowners soon supported the fuel treatments, which include thinning the forest of small trees and underbrush and burning during spring and fall when the ground is wet. Last spring, Idaho City forest officials burned an area of about 3,000 acres to rid the ground of small trees and brush that become " ladder fuels " for flames to climb. Keeping fires low and on the ground makes it easier for firefighters to contain them. Nearly 20 fires have started in Idaho City this summer, but none of them burned more than 11 acres. In a typical year, 40 to 50 fires start near Idaho City, but very few become large fires. http://www.idahostatesman.com/localnews/story/130593.html Montana: 7) Cancroft, a HOLMAC member, said he's also observed signs of the attack scattered throughout the city's 2,000 acres of open land, including the slopes of Mount Ascension. The beetles, along with the western spruce budworm, are native in the Montana landscape, but years of dry summers and mild winters - following decades of fire suppression, which has increased woodland densities - have weakened trees and allowed the bugs to go into overdrive. " It's a natural part of the ecosystem, but it's an epidemic in this area now, " Cancroft said. Helena National Forest officials estimate the critters have affected about 100,000 acres, or one-tenth of the forest. Helena Parks and Recreation Director Randy Lilje said the city has received a $55,000 federal grant for fuel reduction, which it will match with funds from the new open space maintenance fee. The thinning work is set for about 100 acres on the west side of Mount Helena City Park. The city's also applied for Federal Emergency Management Agency funds for thinning work on the east side of the mountain and at other sites throughout Helena's publicly owned open lands. Cancroft said the city and HOLMAC will ask county officials for about $20,000 in locally distributed federal funds to do additional thinning and purchase pheromones. Beetles prefer stands with higher densities to protect them from the sun and wind, Cancroft said, so thinning the canopy makes the area less attractive to the bugs. Healthy trees have mechanisms to repel the bugs, but sustained drought has weakened the plants near here, and recent mild winters have allowed beetles' numbers to grow. http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/08/12/helena_top/a01081207_01.txt 8) A report released earlier this summer by Wildlands CPR, a Montana-based group that aims to stop off-road vehicle abuse, encourages stiffer patrols, tougher penalties and electronic monitoring to deter ATV drivers. It also suggests encouraging more self-policing by closing the legal off-road areas hit by repeat offenders. " Everyone has a right to access our public lands, but no one has the right to abuse these lands or ruin the experience of others enjoying America's great outdoors, " said Jason Kiely, one of the group's leaders. ATVs and other off-road vehicles had almost unfettered access to federal lands until 1972, when President Nixon issued an executive order that required agency heads to develop regulations. President Carter expanded it five years later to allow agencies to ban ATVs and other off-road vehicles on trails if they're damaging the forests. Since then, illegal trails have exploded. Rangers say that thousands of miles of trails now crisscross federal forestland. Many are disused logging trails, but in some cases ATV drivers armed with axes, machetes and other tools carve out their own paths. The U.S. Forest Service has tried to sate the demand by setting aside vast tracts of land for ATV use, but they're often seeing those areas turned into a hub for more illegal trails. The agency now lists this type of " unmanaged recreation " as one of the greatest threats to the federal forests. They say the renegade drivers disrupt wildlife, expose terrain to invasive species, and endanger hikers and others who use the trails legally. " If the general public decides they're going to ride their ATVs across the forest, there's nothing anyone can do about it, " said Mitch Cohen, a spokesman with the Forest Service. " If the people don't see the damage they're causing and don't value they're national resources enough, there's no amount of law enforcement we can put out there to stop it. " http://www.ajc.com/travel/content/travel/southeast/ga_stories/2007/08/13/Roadles\ s_0813.html Pennsylvania: 9) Today, after more than 300 years of European settlement, about 60 percent of the commonwealth remains forested. This vast forest resource is largely in private ownership – about 12.5 million acres of the state's 17 million acres of forest is held by nearly 700,000 owners who daily make decisions about the future of their forestland. Since private individuals, and not state, federal or local governments, own most of the forest, private citizens make decisions that impact the sustainability of the commonwealth's overall forest. An interesting and challenging goal for these owners and the natural resource professionals in Pennsylvania is to keep our forests green and growing and to do so in a sustainable manner. While you may appreciate our state's forests, it is often difficult to witness a commitment to forests; one most often sees this tremendous natural resource treated apathetically. The histories of people and forests in Pennsylvania are intimately interwoven. How we treated the forest in the past established the forest we have today – both its benefits and limitations. Did you know that from early in the 1700s through the 1860s great areas of the state were repeatedly cleared of trees to produce charcoal to fuel the state's iron industry that lead to Pennsylvania's industrial development? Around the same time, extensive areas of forest were cleared for agriculture and much of this area remains in farms or is being converted to development. Then from the 1860s to the 1920s, the rest of the state's forests were felled to produce lumber to build the nation's cities and homes. It was a period of exploitation and, except for a few patches that were too hard to reach, most of the state was cleared and the current forest started regrowing across the state about 80 to 140 years ago. http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?show=localnews & pnpID=541 & NewsID=828337\ & CategoryID=1 441 & on=1 Kentucky: 10) We, the undersigned, represent scientists and natural resource managers with expertise in plant and animal ecology, wildland management, conservation biology, and other biological disciplines. We are writing the Board of Trustees of the University of Kentucky (the Board) to express our opposition to the large-scale logging project proposed for Robinson Forest by faculty members in the Department of Forestry at the University. In sum, faculty members propose to log 800 acres of Robinson Forest to measure the effects of various streamside vegetative buffer widths on water quality after clear-cut logging. Robinson Forest is one of the largest (~14,000+ acres) unfragmented (e.g., no roads, no logging, no surface mining), relatively undisturbed forests left on the entire Cumberland Plateau. The plant community in Robinson Forest is virtually indistinguishable from old-growth forest communities that once were typical and common on the Cumberland Plateau but no longer exist because of extensive strip-mining for coal and poor logging and other landuse practices. We oppose the project as an unsound use of a large, intact forest and as an unsuitable environment for the experiments. The watersheds are much too steep to log without destroying the high-quality, late successional forest ecosystems and the streams that traverse it. Logging will entail extensive road-building which results in increased erosion and sediment delivery to streams. Road-building will also increase forest fragmentation and make the forest more susceptible to invasion by exotic and weedy plants and animals that will degrade the area indefinitely. Robinson Forest need not be degraded by logging when ample industrial forestry lands, which are designated for logging, could be used to examine the efficacy of various streamside buffer widths. The forests to which the logging experiment might apply are generally younger, fragmented, and disturbed by mining or logging activities. From that perspective, we question the applicability of the results that might be obtained in Robinson Forest to logging practices on the Cumberland Plateau. Clearly, the value of the forest as an exemplar of Kentucky's rich natural heritage and reference for what a forest on the Cumberland Plateau can be is much greater than the information that might be gleaned from a 800-acre logging experiment. Robinson Forest is held in trust by the University of Kentucky but ultimately it is owned by the citizens of Kentucky. We urge you to take action to stop the large-scale logging proposed by forestry faculty and protect one of the crown jewels of Kentucky's natural heritage. The citizens of the Commonwealth deserve no less. Sincerely, M. Ann Phillippi, Ph.D. ann South Carolina: 11) The 25-foot tape measure ran out before it encircled the cypress tree buttress. One of the knees growing from the massive tree's roots towered over grown men. And the rotting stumps nearby are evidence larger trees were cut for timber sometime in the past century. This one small patch of swamp by itself would make the Riverstone tract an important addition to Congaree National Park, and the 1,840-acre tract offers much more. The Trust For Public Land is poised to announce it has an option to buy the tract for $5.6 million from Riverstone Properties, with the intention of selling the land to the National Park Service, said Chris Deming, a project manager for the trust. The inclusion of the Riverstone tract would increase the park's acreage to nearly 26,500. Combined with neighboring Manchester State Forest and wetlands protected by Santee Cooper in the Upper Santee Swamp, it would give wildlife an open corridor along nearly 30 miles of rivers. Congress approved the inclusion of the property in the park boundary in 2003, and the state's congressional delegation is working to include funds for the purchase in the Department of the Interior budget. In recent years, the property has been managed for timber and used by a hunt club. Wildlife advocates pushed for the expansion to link the park's longtime core property along the Congaree River with the Wateree River and the Upper Santee Swamp. The new tract also could open new doors, literally, to the park. Busy U.S. 601 cuts through the property, and a system of dirt roads leads from the highway to the Congaree River. Park superintendent Tracy Swartout is excited about the possibilities from canoe trails to biking on the roads to maybe even driving to the river's edge. It could be appealing to a wider range of visitors, Swartout said. We could get the message of the park out to more people. http://www.thestate.com/news/story/141204.html Maine: 12) It may seem like a surreal roadtrip to travel from a muddy logging operation deep in Maine's woodlands to the floor of the U.S. Senate and back to a climate controlled laboratory in Orono, where wood is sheared into tiny nanofibers, eaten by experimental enzymes or cooked down into sugars that will re-emerge as new wood bioproducts. The logging site, Congress and the lab may offer the most creative partnerships for sustaining forest lands in Maine as well as forests throughout the world. For many generations of Maine residents and visitors, the woods, waters and wildlife of Maine's forests are its defining cultural and economic heartland. Because new products made from wood fiber (bioproducts) have the potential to ensure Maine's forest values for future generations, a partnership between Congress, the forest and the laboratory may prove essential. Maine is the most forested state in our country; over 90 percent is forested, hosting a great biodiversity of tree and plant species, thousands of rivers, lakes and ponds, a diverse (but struggling) forest products sector and an essential recreation economy where wildlife-related activity alone contributes more than $900 million in state revenue. Most Maine forests that provide these values are owned by private landowners who seek opportunities to earn income for shareholders and investors. Recent economic recommendations from the Brookings report are clear that retention of " place " and our state's natural resources are essential economic tools. The fast evolving field of wood bioproducts offers new economic formulas to support the retention of Maine's forests as undeveloped landscapes, but only if the science also includes sustainable strategies and technologies that will ensure an intact and healthy forest. People in Maine will not accept biomass harvesting strategies that sacrifice forest health or displace current forest-based economies. http://bangordailynews.com/news/t/viewpoints.aspx?articleid=153009 & zoneid=35 Eastern Forests: 13) Nearly 6.8 million acres of some of the best-managed timberlands in the country were headed for the auction block, including dozens of ecological jewels. " The scale of the announcement was just stunning, " recalls Ginn, who directs The Nature Conservancy's forest conservation programs. When all is done, the deals will help protect 700,000 acres of forestland—an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. Despite the conservation records being set, there is a sobering side to these huge deals: The land they protect is only a tiny fraction of the forests that have been put up for sale in recent years as the forest-products industry has divested itself of its extensive U.S. landholdings. " The Nature Conservancy did a great job, but 95 percent got away, " says Kim Elliman, chief executive officer of the Open Space Institute, a land trust that has helped protect more than 90,000 acres in New York and has assisted in the protection of 1.4 million acres elsewhere in the Northeast. In the past decade, more than half of the nation's timber-company lands have been sold. In 2004, for example, Boise Cascade sold all of its 2.3 million acres of forestland. The company now operates under the name of its subsidiary, the office supplier OfficeMax. " What it's boiled down to is that these properties are worth more to other buyers than they are to us, " says Sharon Haines, IP's director for sustainable forestry and forest policy. That's due in part to a shift in the source of paper pulp in the United States: More than one-third is now generated from recycled sources, and new supplies of cheap pulp are rolling in from Brazil and Canada. But another reason is a shift in the paper industry itself. Until the 1990s, forestry companies owned the woods that supplied the grist for their mills and wood-turning plants. But as prices for wood pulp stagnated, and their real estate holdings grew in value, paper companies realized that it made more sense to sell their forests, invest the proceeds in core operations, and buy the wood and pulp they needed on the open market. Much of the land has been purchased by timber investment management organizations, or TIMOs, and real estate investment trusts, called REITs. These investment vehicles have become the largest private timberland holders in the country. Plum Creek, a REIT, is the largest of all. www.nature.org/magazine/autumn2006/forests/index.html# USA: 14) Forests undoubtedly influence climate. Climate undoubtedly influences forest. My quick reading of the TWS paper leads me to conclude that it sets out a lot of information on the first relationship, and excludes the second. From my perch, what the TWS paper does not say may be more important than what it does say. My conclusion is based on what I see as a growing body of evidence that the new climate has gained the upper hand in forest-climate interactions and that we'll be seeing a lot of forested acreage converted to grasslands as heat, drought, insects and fire respond to increasing greenhouse gas content in the atmosphere. So there seems (to me) to be some wishful thinking in this paper. Lance Olsen, lancolsn – " US Forest Carbon and Climate Change: Controversies and Win-Win Policy Approaches " This report explains the role of forests in the global carbon cycle ¬ both as a source of carbon dioxide emissions when forests are depleted and as a source of sequestration when they are restored. It explains some of the challenges of accurately measuring forest carbon pools and flows, and examines proposed policies to increase forest carbon stores. http://www.wilderness.org/Library/Documents/upload/ForestCarbon-ClimateChange.pd\ f 15) USDA Approves 1st Flowering GE Tree (Eucalyptus): As published in the GJEP April-May E-Newsletter, we issued an urgent action alert against ArborGen's request for a USDA permit for a test plot of flowering GE eucalyptus trees that generated hundreds of comments to the USDA. In July the USDA approved this permit, we are now investigating legal action with our allies at the Sierra Club. -- USDA Legalizes GE Plum: You may recall last summer our campaign against the approval of the commercial release of a genetically engineered " Honeysweet " plum tree. We garnered large numbers of comments against this plum tree from all over the country raising the impacts this plum could have on everything from wild plums to pollinators (like bees and birds) to human health. As expected, the USDA recently approved this permit, (although comments against the GE Plum being legalized outnumbered industry's pro-GE comments by 100 to 1! We are communicating with our allies at the Center for Food Safety about a plan of action to stop this Franken-plum. -- Proposed Controlled Field Release of GE Clones of Poplar: There is also a permit pending for a test plot of flowering GE poplar trees in Oregon. This test plot is especially dangerous because it threatens to contaminate wild poplar trees, which are an important part of forest ecosystems all over the U.S. and Canada. The effects of such contamination include impacts on soils, wildlife and forest-dependent species, as well as nearby human communities. -- We will be hosting a national strategy retreat with members of the STOP GE Trees Campaign from all over the U.S. later this month. At this meeting we will be discussing these fast-moving developments regarding the GE trees issue and laying plans for countering them in the coming year and beyond.http://globaljusticeecology.org/support.php. UK: 16) Prince Charles presented the specially crafted award, worth £600, to the family at a ceremony in Herefordshire. Mr Lenihan, who has been a horse logger for 17 years, said he and his three sons, Simon, Keith and Ian, were delighted to win the award. He said: " Judging was stringent and the work was evaluated from start to finish. " The award recognises the quality of woodland care and woodland management that can be achieved by the use of horses, resulting in minimal impact on the ground, causing no soil compaction or pollution. It is very physical work. " He told the Evening Mail Prince Charles was quick to offer him work. Mr Lenihan said: " The Prince is a really down-to-earth chap. We are looking forward to going down — he was amazed there are only a handful of people logging with horses in the British Isles. " He wants to promote logging with horses more — there's only one horse logging business left in Scotland. There are only four or five in England. " We are hoping to meet him again later. The Lenihans, who use five Ardennes horses from Belgium, were recognised for woodland extraction work at the environmentally sensitive site of Tarn Hows.The work involved the selective felling of trees to reopen some long lost vistas and views as part of the Tarn Hows and Monk Coniston Project. The Lenihans are currently working on projects at Lakeside and Thirlmere. The National Trust team at Coniston has been working with Simon Lenihan Snr and his horses in their forestry operations for the last four years. It sees horse logging as more environmentally-friendly than using machines. The horses can pull up to one and a half tonnes of wood at any one time. http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=530762 17) A wood planted by schoolchildren to mark the new millenium could be ripped down, residents fear. Developer Elite Homes wants to build homes on an area that includes the Millenium Woodland, off Longsight Lane, Harwood. Pupils planted 1,800 trees in November, 2000, in a project funded by bodies including Red Rose Forest which aims to create new green spaces in Greater Manchester. Residents say youngsters would be devastated if the trees are replaced with homes - and have formed an action group to fight any plans which come forward. It is thought around 100 homes could be built. Bolton Council owns the wood, which is popular with walkers, and has confirmed it has received an approach from the developer about buying the land. The land is classed as protected open space in Bolton's development blueprint. Residents also claim a previous owner placed a covenant on the site reserving it for use by the public. The chairman of newly-formed Millenium Woodland Committee, Barbara Herriot, said: " We feel the council could be about to backtrack on a commitment it made to those children. http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/display.var.1613064.0.save_our_wood.php EU: 18) Researchers led by Paul F. Donald, of Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, report that European Union policies designed to protect vulnerable species and their habitat seem to be working. In 15 European countries studied, there was a significant increase in population trends for protected birds between 1990 and 2000, compared to 1970-1990, the team found. They said the protected birds also showed an increase compared to birds not on the list. Species doing particularly well include the barnacle goose, white stork, spoonbill, little egret Slavonian grebe and white-tailed eagle. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/10/healthscience/NA-SCI-US-Environment-Go\ od-News.php Brazil: 19) Brazil's recent success in slowing the pace of Amazon destruction shows that preserving the environment need not slow economic growth, President Luiz Inacio da Silva said Monday. In his weekly radio address, Silva said the 25 percent drop in the rate of Amazon deforestation in the 12-month period that ended in July 2006 should improve Brazil's credibility abroad. The government expects data to show a further drop in the deforestation rate for the year that ended this July. " I am plainly convinced that it is possible to grow while preserving the environment, " Silva said. " The challenge that we face is how to use the forest and environmental preservation to improve the lives of people. " On Friday, the Environment Ministry announced the Amazon lost a total of 14,000 square kilometers (5,400 square miles) of forest cover between August 2005 and July 2006, 25 percent less than the same period the year before. Environmental officials said they expect deforestation to drop by about a third in the August 2006-July 2007 period, to about 9,600 square kilometers (3,700 sq. miles). Brazil's economy grew by 3.7 percent last year. Environment Minister Marina Silva, who is not related to the president, joined Silva on his radio address and attributed the drop largely to increased government enforcement of Brazil's strict environmental laws. Environmental groups concede that the government has advanced in the fight against deforestation. But they said much of the reduction was due to 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. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/13/america/LA-GEN-Brazil-Amazon-Destructi\ on.php Argentina: 20) A BP-owned oil company is among 17 international corporations facing demands to pay £385m for ecological damage across a region in Patagonia six times the size of England The Argentine government claims Pan American Energy, in which BP has 60 per cent control, has increased deforestation by building roads and facilities for 10,000 rigs in the 900,000 sq km area. The wastage is allegedly spreading disease through water contamination. Ombudsman Eduardo Mondino, who has taken the oil companies to court, says: 'Many of these companies are well aware of the environmental rules they must comply with, but in Argentina it is cheaper for them to pay the fines.' It is now up to the Supreme Court of Justice to decide on what amount, if any, these companies should pay. It will be months before a decision. Mario Calafell, a spokesman for Pan American Energy, said: 'We do not have any responsibility for environmental damages... In fact, we have certificates that ensure our excellence in environment management.' Other companies involved in the allegation are Spanish Repsol, Brazilian Petrobras and the American oil companies Total and Exxon. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2146849,00.html India: 21) Rudraprayag (Uttaranchal): Environmentalist Jai Prakash Dabral waged one of the biggest environmental battles at ground zero by motivating people in Tadkeshwar at Rudraprayag to start a Chipko-style campaign which he called the Raksha Sutra. But Dabral knew that the villager's peaceful protest would only provide for a temporary solution. And therefore he decided to move Supreme Court and file a PIL against the proposed chopping of trees by the Powergrid Corporation of India. " The Powergrid Corporation had taken a sanction from the Ministry of Environment for 90,000 trees. After our intervention after they had already cut more than 5,000 trees. We intervened, and were able to save most of the trees. The entire number of tree felling on the entire transmission line has now been reduced from 90,000 to just about 10,000, " says Dabral. Though the Supreme Court's directive was remarkable, things only got tougher for Dabral after that. He started receiving death threats from Tehri's local timber mafia. But an undeterred Dabral decided to expose the nexus to the SC and the Media. " Each tree is valued at around Rs 30,000. For 90,000 trees the value would have been Rs 270 crore. Right from the chief minister, the forest minister, the forest department officials, the DFO, the ranger, everybody is getting a share in this, " informs Dabral. The Environmentalist, who stepped out of the corporate boardroom to keep a promise 12 years ago, has been his motivation till date. " It was the promise which I had given to my grandmother. I had promised her that when I have done something in life I would positively come back to the hills and contribute to the development of the hills. This is ambition for me. Whatever life I have left, I am going to devote entirely to the hills, " says Dabral. http://www.ibnlive.com/news/man-battles-timber-mafia-govt-to-save-90000-trees/46\ 713-3.html Cambodia: 22) The ancient Khmer city of Angkor in Cambodia was the largest preindustrial metropolis in the world, with a population near 1 million and an urban sprawl that stretched over an area similar to modern-day Los Angeles, researchers reported Monday. The city's spread over an area of more than 115 square miles was made possible by a sophisticated technology for managing and harvesting water for use during the dry season -- including diverting a major river through the heart of the city. But that reliance on water led to the city's collapse in the 1500s as overpopulation and deforestation filled the canals with sediment, overwhelming the city's ability to maintain the system, according to the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The hydraulic system became " not manageable, no matter how many resources were thrown at it, " said archeologist Damian Evans of the University of Sydney in Australia, the lead author of the paper. But during the six centuries that the city thrived, it was unparalleled, particularly because it was one of the very few civilizations that sprang up in a tropical setting, said archeologist Vernon L. Scarborough of the University of Cincinnati, who was not involved in the research. Just one section of the city, called West Baray, was many times " larger than the entire 9-square-kilometer hillock on which sat Tikal, the largest city in Central America, " he said. " The scale is truly unparalleled, " added archeologist William A. Saturno of Boston University, who also was not involved. " Forest environments are not good ones for civilizations . . . because they require intensively manipulating the environment, " he said. " Angkor is the epitome of this, and it is going to be the model for how tropical civilizations are interpreted. " http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-sci-angkor14aug14,1,7010378.s\ tory?coll=la-ne ws-environment Philippines: 23) LUCENA CITY-- Northern Quezon Catholic bishop Rolando Tria Tirona has condemned the resurgence of illegal logging in the Sierra Madre mountain ranges and assailed the failure of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to stop the forest destruction. " The Prelature of Infanta and I are very much concerned with the glaring apathy of the caretakers and defenders of our environment to the rampant cutting of trees in the Sierra Madre, " Tirona, head of the prelature, said in a text message to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net. Tirona called on newly-designated Environment Secretary Jose " Lito " Atienza to finally put an end to the destruction of forests in the longest mountain ranges in the country. According to Fr. Pete Montallana, chair of Church-backed environmentalist group Task Force Sierra Madre (TFSM), massive illegal logging in the Sierra Madre has returned. " The national government could always initiate the planting of millions of trees to help rehabilitate the country's denuded forest but the fact will still remain that illegal logging syndicates continue to operate with impunity because of the indifference of DENR personnel, " the priest said. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view_article.php?article_id=82\ 280 24) In a bid to create new job opportunities as well as augment the raw materials for wood-based industries, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) recently lifted the suspension of harvesting and transport of planted trees in plantation forests covered by forestry tenure instruments. The lifting order, issued by then DENR Secretary Angelo T. Reyes on July 12, 2007, has a nationwide application except in the provinces of Aurora and Lanao del Norte and municipalities of Infanta, Real, and General Nakar in Quezon. Only holders of existing DENR-issued tenurial instruments who have satisfactorily met all the requirements set in the performance evaluation to be conducted by the DENR shall be qualified. Moreover, holders of existing tenurial instruments must have no pending case or violation on the terms and conditions of their agreements, as well as existing laws, rules and regulations, to qualify. Examples of tenurial instruments issued by the DENR are Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) Agreement, Industrial Forest Management Agreement (IFMA), Socialized Industrial Forest Management Agreement (SIFMA) and Certificate of Stewardship Contract (CSC), among others. The harvesting of trees must be covered by an approved and/or existing long-term plan and/or duly approved operations plan, whichever is applicable, under existing DENR regulations. The plan should specify the area with maps using the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) blocking and the volume to be harvested by species. Meanwhile, Secretary Reyes, now head of the Department of Energy, earlier lifted the moratorium on new wood processing plants (WPPs) such as sawmills. The directive was contained in DENR Administrative Order No. 2007-13, dated July 03, 2007. http://www.pia.gov.ph/default.asp?m=12 & fi=p070813.htm & no=25 Thailand: 25) Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, who celebrates her 75th birthday today, has urged the Thais to unite and expressed her concern over varied environmental problems, including continued deforestation in the country. In her speech Saturday on the occasion of her birthday, the Queen said that the Thai people should unite to enable the country to continue to prosper, as well as to preserve the kingdom's forests, water resources and environment. In her lengthy address she also spoke about the role of Buddhism, that every monarch is sworn to protect Buddhism with his life, that she believed religion should be separate from politics, and that the status of Buddhism should not be defined in the constitution. Expressing her concern over the contamination of the Chao Phraya Riverwhich passes through the Thai capital, Her Majesty the Queen said that freshwater fish and other life life in the river could become extinct because the river had been fouled bychemical discharges from factories and rubbish. She called on concerned government agencies and people to restore the river to its former state as a source of food for Thais. http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=31009 26) Four government officials in three agencies are implicated in a forest encroachment case in Sopkok forest reserve in Chiang Saen district, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Kasem Snidvongs said yesterday. Mr Kasem said 10 owners of trailer trucks seized last month from the encroached forest have been questioned by the police. They pointed to four officials in three state agencies as being behind the deforestation in the forest reserve. The officials worked at an operation level in Chiang Rai province under the Agriculture and Cooperatives and the Interior ministries. Speaking at a briefing on progress of the investigation, Mr Kasem said those implicated worked for higher-ranking officials who supported them. Earlier, a joint police-forestry team raided the Sopkok forest reserve near Ban Huay Koyroy on July 9 and found 918 rai of forest land had been cleared, causing damage to the state of about 62 million baht. Police seized 13 trailer trucks, processed logs, and tree-cutting equipment in the raid. However, investigators had been unable to identify the owners of the trucks, nor businessmen believed to be involved in the case. Later, the truck owners turned themselves in and were questioned by authorities. The raid followed reports that a kamnan with close links to a national politician had illegally occupied nearly 1,000 rai of forest land. The politician was a minister in the ousted Thaksin Shinawatra government. Mr Kasem said the implicated officials would be investigated. He also said authorities must be alerted if any influential figure was found to be behind the encroachment in other areas or have obstructed the investigation process. A a source said some members of the forest encroachment group, who worked as brokers obtaining the forest land in the Sopkok forest reserve for the businessmen, have said they wanted to hand over 400,000 baht of brokerage commission to the police investigators. They also wished to give statements to the police. http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=81811 Malaysia: 27) A high-level Anti-Corruption Agency team of investigators has uncovered a major illegal logging operation in interior Sabah. Over 1,000 illegally felled logs, loaded on 22 lorries, were seized by the 18-member team headed by ACA's senior investigator Senior Asst Comm I Mohd Jamidan Abdullah during a 48-hour sting at the Sook-Keningau road, about 150km from here. No arrests were made yet, but investigators also discovered that the transporters did not have the necessary permits, valid road tax and or safety features. Some of the drivers were in possession of expired driving licences, he told reporters after the operations ended late Sunday. The logs, making up what is believed to be one of the largest seizures by the ACA, is suspected to have been illegally felled from forest areas in Pensiangan, Kalabakan, Nabawan and Sook in the interior of the state, close to the Kalimantan border. Jamidan said those involved are being investigated under Section 5(a) and 11(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1993 which provides for a jail term of 14 days and up to 20 years and a fine RM10,000 or five times the bribe amount. Jamidan said they will meet Forestry officials to get to the bottom of the logging operation. Jamidan warned local sawmill operators not to buy such stolen logs, adding that they were liable to lose their licences. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/8/13/nation/20070813141839 & sec=n\ ation 28) SINCE 1993, when the National Forestry Act was amended to tighten the screws on illegal logging, the buzz of outlaw chainsaws scything down Malaysia's jungles has quieted considerably. The number of forest crimes plummeted in the late half of the decade and was probably kept low by the Asian financial crisis of 1997, which sank the prices of tropical hardwoods into the new century. Demand has recovered, however, particularly in fast-growing China. And as with any other illegal traffic supplying to ravenous markets, from drugs to endangered animal species, the more the countries clamp down on the timber trade, the greater the incentives for loggers to risk ducking the law. Not surprisingly, trails have started to appear in the greenery, leading to bald patches in once verdant terrain. There are other signs, particularly in Borneo, one of the last major tracts left of the planet's primeval rainforests. In June, Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said gangsters were behind the illicit tree-cutting in the state, against which enforcement was unable to cope. In Sabah, murmurs of chugging machinery deep in the interior perhaps prompted the prime minister on Friday to once again call for a halt to the issuing of logging licences. Timber marauding, usually disguised as the clearing of land for development or agriculture, goes on in the peninsula, too. http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/Columns/20070812073229/Article/ind\ ex_html Indonesia: 29) Agusdin speaks at length and in great detail about forests and their biological diversity, and becomes more impassioned when it comes to the Sungai Wain Forest Reserve in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, a 9,872.80-hectare conservation area. It was Agusdin who spearheaded action to prevent the primary rain forest's total devastation when it was engulfed in flames from 1997 to 1998. It was the most widespread forest fire during the worst drought of the period, which triggered blazes in coal deposits. Agusdin, acting as community facilitator and coordinator in the Sungai Wain fire-fighting drive, managed with the aid of locals to block the fire's advance for three months until it was finally extinguished, minimizing damage and saving 4,000 ha of the reserve from destruction. From 1999 to 2002, Agusdin coordinated local villagers and nature-lover groups to build fire barriers along 32 kilometers of the reserve's borders and to maintain their vigilance against fires, so they would not spread to undamaged forest areas. With his active campaigns for forest conservation over the last 11 years, Agusdin has deservedly been dubbed the region's environmental savior and forest protector. Illegal logging and poaching were rife in Sungai Wain until 2002. Agusdin, armed with his determination and courage, reported the illegal activities to the Balikpapan Forestry office. Along with Balikpapan rangers, he helped capture several poachers. But the poachers remained undeterred, so at the end of 2001 Agusdin took the initiative to spike trees with the help of local residents. Apart from contributing his time and efforts to conservation, Agusdin was also prepared to cover the costs -- pending funds disbursement -- of monitoring, hot spot control, illegal logging raids, fire-fighting, building fire barriers and tree spiking. " This forest is like my second home. Its rescue mission will never end, " he said.http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailfeatures.asp?fileid=20070814.W05 & irec=4 30) Indonesia's most prominent environment group, WALHI (Friends of the Earth Indonesia) has repeated its call for a logging moratorium across the country. The NGO says that annual deforestation is running at 2.72 million hectares - an area the size of Bali. With only 41.25 million hectares of good quality production forests remaining, a higher demand for timber than supply and with the demand for biofuel driving the expansion of oil palm plantations, WALHI estimates that natural forests in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi will be extinct by 2012. Timber prices will escalate as supply diminishes and most timber is sourced from Papua. In 2022, says WALHI, all natural forests in Indonesia will be gone and prices will climb higher as the country becomes reliant on imports. The NGO says the moratorium - on logging and forest conversion activities - must be applied for at least 15 years. The period is considered sufficient to resolve management and policy conflicts and formulate 1) a protocol for conflict resolution, 2) a standard for ecological services in plantations and 3) the drawing up of a community forestry system as the standard policy for forests in Indonesia. WALHI calculates that Indonesia's forestry industry contributed Rp 1.484 trillion (US$160 million) to the national foreign account deficit in 2006. This sum is reached by taking losses in revenues of Rp22.862 trillion from illegal logging (over 19 million m3) plus direct losses from flooding and landslides of Rp 8.158 trillion against foreign exchange income from forestry exports, which totalled Rp 29,536 trillion. The calculation does not include losses from timber smuggling, the costs of conflict or the loss in ecological value of forest resources. http://cambridgeforecast.wordpress.com/2007/08/14/indonesia-ecology-logging/ 31) Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) is one of the world's largest pulp and paper companies. The company is responsible for large-scale deforestation of Indonesia's forests. APP has also generated a number of not-yet-settled conflicts with local communities in Indonesia. Forthcoming research by Rully Syumanda, Friends of the Earth Indonesia/WALHI's forest campaigner and Rivani Noor of the Community Alliance for Pulp Paper Advocacy (CAPPA) documents the company's grim record in Sumatra. " We in Indonesia are facing so many battles about forest destruction, including tree plantations and the oil palm industry, " said Syumanda at the start of his presentation. There are seven pulp mills, 65 paper mills and 10 pulp and paper mills in Indonesia. We are focussing on the biggest - APP's pulp and paper mill in Riau. " We face problems because of APP's plans to become the world's biggest pulp and paper exporter, " said Syumanda. " The Indonesian government supports the growth of this industry. " Foresters working in APP argue that the company is rapidly developing plantations in order to supply its pulp mills without continuing to cut down old-growth forests. " APP is the golden boy of the Forest Department, " said Syumanda, " because logging, plantations, pulp and paper dominate all. " But this industry is not serious about developing plantations. Plantations still supply only 30 per cent of the raw material needed. Destructive logging and/or illegal logging provides much of the rest. APP is converting forest to plantations. The company has used subsidies from the rehabilitation fund, which should have been used for recovering forest areas. Vast areas of APP's concessions overlap with community lands. http://rullysyumandainenglish.wordpress.com/2007/08/13/indonesia-the-insatiable-\ appetite-of-th e-pulp-industry/ 32) A new study has now highlighted the global picture, which shows Indonesia both as a major contributor to climate change, as well as highly vulnerable to its impacts. Forest destruction, peatland degradation and forest fires are mostly to blame for Indonesia's ranking as third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after the USA and China. Based on data from 2000, Indonesia's annual emissions from forestry and land use change are calculated at 2,563 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e), dwarfing the yearly amount from energy, agriculture and waste which amount to 451 MtCO2e. The total emissions - 3,014 MtCO2e compare with China's total of 5,017 and the US' of 6,005 MtCO2e. The study, Indonesia and Climate Change: Current Status and Policies, was sponsored by the World Bank and the UK's Department for International Development to inform the next world summit on climate change in December in Bali. Following on from a Wetlands International alert in November 2006 and Sir Nicholas Stern's visit to Indonesia in March 2007 (see box, below), the report highlights the important role that peatland destruction plays in the total emission figures: on average, around 600 Mt of CO2e are released from the decomposition of dry peat each year, with a further 1,400 Mt released in peatland forests fires that may burn for months at a time. The report, launched in May 2007, also points out that emissions from Indonesia's energy sector are small, but growing very rapidly and that its emissions from agriculture and waste are small. http://cambridgeforecast.wordpress.com/2007/08/13/indonesia-ecology/ Australia: 33) The campaign for the protection of the rivers and wildlife of Cape York Peninsula was given a significant boost in June when the Queensland Government unveiled a comprehensive plan to protect Cape York's superlative natural environment. Cape York is one of the last great wild places on Earth. The centrepiece of the plan is the Cape York Peninsula Heritage Bill 2007 which was introduced into the Queensland Parliament on the 7th of June 2007. The draft legislation outlines a series of steps to identify and protect the World Heritage values of the region, facilitates protection of the wild rivers of Cape York and ensures the shared management of National Parks between indigenous traditional owners and the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service. The Cape York Peninsula Heritage Bill 2007 was developed following months of sometimes heated discussions and negotiations between the Queensland Government, Cape York Aboriginal organisations, The Wilderness Society, the Australian Conservation Foundation, the peak Queensland lobby group for farmers, Agforce, and the Queensland Resources Council. It expected to be debated in the Queensland Parliament in August 2007. The Queensland Government's Cape York package provides a 12 month timeline for the identification of World Heritage values and opens the way for the protection of Cape York's wild rivers through the State's wild rivers legislation. https://www.wilderness.org.au/cyberactivist/cyberactions/07_07_capeyork_cyberact\ ion.php?email= deane & u=129739 & nid=22 34) Prime Minister John Howard has presented legislation to the Parliament which he plans to ram through this week, which will authorise the Federal Government to seize control of all of the water of the Murray-Darling Basin from the states, and to put it under a new Federal agency with intended dictatorial powers. Just before Victorian Premier Steve Bracks and his Water Minister John Thwaites suddenly resigned on Friday, July 27, Bracks charged that Howard's actual intent was to privatise all of the Basin's water. Caught, Howard bellowed that Bracks was " desperate, stupid, inaccurate and just totally wrong. " It is Howard who is desperate. The global financial system is now crashing down, and the financial oligarchy that owns Howard is attempting to grab control over such vital assets as raw materials, food, and water, so as to maintain their political power when their paper, and even their banks vaporise. Howard's legislation will give his owners control over the Basin's water, for which they will charge whatever they want, and, by bankrupting most of the farmers there, in Australia's food bowl—as this legislation assuredly will—will make us dependent on multinational agribusiness for our food. Spearheaded by its Murray-Darling Basin candidates, including farmers with firsthand knowledge of what Howard plans, the Citizens Electoral Council has produced a devastating exposé of the plot to privatise the Murray-Darling. http://cecaust.com.au/main.asp?sub=ausnews & id=2007_08_13.htm 34) Police are attending an environmental protest in southern Tasmania. The Huon Valley Environmental Centre says two protestors are in tree-sits attached to logging machinery in the Arve Valley. Forestry Tasmania says the protesters have illegally entered an exclusion zone, endangering themselves. Jenny Weber from the Huon Valley Environment Centre defends the tactics being used. " Definately, every day we're seeing large scale land clearing in Tasmania, that's robbing Tasmania of it's natural landscape, " she said. " These non-violent, peaceful defenders are standing up in defence of habitat which is for certain species and areas that are just disappearing at a rapid rate. " http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/13/2003389.htm 35) A court appeal has begun into a Federal Court ruling that banned logging in a Tasmanian forest. The state-owned company, Forestry Tasmania is seeking to overturn the land-mark case. The Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown won last year's court battle to end logging in the Wielangta forest in Tasmania's south east. The Federal Court ruled that Forestry Tasmania's logging in the forest was illegal because the company had failed to protect three endangered species, including the wedge tailed eagle and the stag beetle. The company is appealing against the decision, saying it creates enormous uncertainty for the state's forestry and farming industries. The hearing today before the full bench of the Federal Court in Hobart is expected to go for several days. Both sides have said they're confident of winning the appeal. http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/13/2003299.htm?section=business 36) Located in the northern suburbs of Sydney, Koala Park was basically a bush property owned by a man who turned it into a sanctuary for koalas wounded by the growing traffic of the suburbs, cut off by the new roads from the eucalypt groves they need to survive, and sometimes shot by idiotic humans who thought them a pest or even wanted their fur. It's still a privately-run sanctuary, owned by his family. As suburban sprawl encroached, the green West Pennant Hills area to this day has a big open blotch of greenery in it, fenced off and full of cool native animals. Reading that many were so acclimated to humans that you could wander among them, I was determined to see the place and Die Of Cute. http://yhospodar.blogspot.com/2007/08/first-flight-3-koala-park-sanctuary.html World-wide: 37) The current carbon market actually encourages cutting down some of the world's biggest forests, which would unleash tonnes of climate-warming carbon into the atmosphere, a new study reported on Monday. Under the Kyoto Protocol aimed at stemming climate change, there is no profitable reason for the 10 countries and one French territory with 20 percent of Earth's intact tropical forest to maintain this resource, according to a study in the journal Public Library of Science Biology. The Kyoto treaty and other talks on global warming focus on so-called carbon credits for countries and companies that plant new trees where forests have been destroyed. Trees and other plants absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas emitted by petroleum-fuelled vehicles, coal-fired power plants and humans. At this point, there is no credit for countries that keep the forests they have, the study said. " The countries that haven't really been the target of deforestation have nothing to sell because they haven't deforested anything, " said Gustavo Fonseca, one of the study's authors. " So that creates a perverse incentive for them to actually start deforesting, so that in the future, they might be allowed to actually cap-and-trade, as they call it: you put a cap on your deforestation and you trade that piece that hasn't been deforested, " Fonseca said in a telephone interview. The countries most at risk for this kind of deforestation, because they all have more than half their original forests intact, are Panama, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Peru, Belize, Gabon, Guyana, Suriname, Bhutan and Zambia, along with the French territory of French Guiana. These places need a system of credits to involve them in the " global deforestation avoidance market, " said Fonseca, of the World Bank's Global Environment Facility. The countries most at risk for this kind of deforestation, because they all have more than half their original forests intact, are Panama, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Peru, Belize, Gabon, Guyana, Suriname, Bhutan and Zambia, along with the French territory of French Guiana. These places need a system of credits to involve them in the " global deforestation avoidance market, " said Fonseca, of the World Bank's Global Environment Facility. http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/43669/story.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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