258 - Earth's Tree News

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Today for you 36 new articles about earth's trees! (258th edition)

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Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com

 

--British Columbia: 1) Living in plundered ruins, 2) Land Swindle

investigation widens, 3) Sea to Sky Greenbelt campaign, 4) Inland wet

rainforest conference, --Oregon: 5) Salvage logging in the Umatilla

--California: 6) Log it all, then blame lack of logs on enviros, 7)

New wildfire regs,

--Montana: 8) Salish and Kootenai Tribes on forest management

--Utah: 9) Introduced Tamarisk leaf beetle is starting to do our killing

--UK: 10) Save Sprucedale Woods, 11) New fad: Woodland preservation,

12) Pits and mounds restoration, 13) Biofuels is fool's gold,

--Ireland: 14) Save Prehen Woods

--Switzerland: 15) Oldest Larch tree in Europe?

--Uganda: 16) Biomass briquettes from farm waste

--Honduras: 17) As long as trees are worth more dead than alive…

--Guyana: 18) Seeing past forest protection hype

--Argentina: 19) New law to stop 40 football fields of logging every hour

--Brazil: 20) Protest at Tres Poderes square, 21) Lou gold defending

the Amazon, 22) Amazon Conservation Team (ACT),

--Latin America: 23) How government bribes define land use

--Nepal: 24) Thick hardwood jungle not so thick anymore

--India: 25) Merabu, 26) Armed Sandalwood theft at zoo, 27) Protect

Cauvery river catchment, 28) Giants of jungle under serious threat,

29) They can log every five years?

--Kashmir: 30) Machipora forest are vanishing

--Vietnam: 31) 7,000 households living off cajeput forests

--Philippines: 32) Video of illegal logging is stirring things up

--Borneo: 33) Oil Palmers to clear it all away

--Indonesia: 34) 3,000 illegally logs seized, 35) Last stand for the forest,

--Sumatra: 36) Kampar peninsula and global carbon conference

 

British Columbia:

 

1) Wayne Crowley's world is changing and he says it's TimberWest's

fault. Since 2005, Crowley, 66, has been fighting to hold the company

– the largest owner of private forest lands in western Canada –

responsible for the devastation that greets him whenever he ventures

into his own backyard. Standing on a great bank of muddy gravel that

cuts a lifeless swath through the heart of his 65 hectares Wednesday,

Crowley said there are two others just like it on his parcel, and they

are the product of seven separate slides over two years. The most

recent, he said, happened just weeks ago. Behind him the stark, bald

slopes of the Beaufort Mountain range stretch out for kilometres in

either direction. " I believe this is the year they're going to have to

admit liability, " said Crowley. There's no doubt that mudslides in

recent years have compromised forest land along the Beaufort Range.

Crowley's neighbour had his house damaged by a slide last year, and

1,000 Beaver Creek area residents have faced weeks of boil water

advisories, caused by turbidity that was a rare thing previously.

" There's been lots of looks at the area, " said Steve Lorimer, " and I

guess there is a difference between what they've found and what Mr.

Crowley thinks. " Besides, said Lorimer, TimberWest's activities

stopped on the Beaufort Range after the last of the marketable timber

was removed from clearcuts last spring. A little road deactivation

work and stabilization took place this fall, he added, to ensure the

area would weather the winter well, and all the harvest areas,

including the Beaufort Range, have been promptly reforested. " Other

than that there's been maybe a wee bit of salvaging, " Lorimer said.

TimberWest acquired the right to log the Beaufort Range land when the

B.C. government allowed private lands to be removed from Tree Farm

Licences in 2004. Crowley, who refers to himself as a " dumb ol'

logger, " said the thick forest that stood on the mountain range until

the spring of 2005 was nature's way of protecting the land and

waterways below. With nothing to hold it back, water rushes down the

barren slopes, carrying rocks and gravel with it. Now the gravel

deposits in Crowley's three stream beds are two-and-a-half metres high

in places, and 10 metres wide. And this year's first heavy rain on

Nov. 12 brought another deluge down off the nearby mountainside – the

seventh time in two years.

http://www.westcoaster.ca/modules/AMS/article.php?storyid=3077

 

2) The auditor general's office is considering widening its

investigation of the province's decision to allow private land to be

removed from three tree-farm licences on Vancouver Island. That means

the 2004 decision to allow Weyerhaeuser to pull 77,000 hectares of

private land from TFL 44 near Port Alberni could be included. " We have

had a number of requests to consider it as part of the review and we

are certainly are looking at it, " assistant auditor general Morris

Sydor said yesterday. " We are trying to develop an audit plan and part

of that is to decide ... whether we should look at previous decisions.

Consistency in decision-making and whether expansion of the review

will give a better context will be among the considerations, Sydor

said.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=8be248c9-1ed4-4aa\

d-b4ab-17138d41

0805 & k=4541

 

3) A coalition of environmental groups and smart-growth advocates last

week launched an initiative to establish a greenbelt that will " be a

cornerstone for better land-use planning " and the preservation of

green spaces in the Sea to Sky corridor. About 35 people, including

municipal councillors and staff from both Whistler and Squamish, as

well as Squamish-Lillooet Regional District Director John Turner,

attended a meeting to launch the Sea to Sky Greenbelt Initiative last

Thursday (Nov. 15) at the Brackendale Art Gallery. Ione Smith of Smart

Growth B.C. said the aim is to foster cooperation among government

officials, First Nations and ordinary citizens in the long-term

preservation of a connected string of green spaces from Horseshoe Bay

to Pemberton. Later, an attendee suggested that the northern boundary

be extended to D'Arcy. Most in the room nodded their approval. In

addition to Smart Growth B.C., the initiative's founding partners

include the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, the Canadian Parks

and Wilderness Society, The Land Conservancy and the Get Bear Smart

Society. The first sentence of the initiative's draft vision statement

reads, " The Sea-to-Sky Greenbelt will be a world-renowned example of

what can be accomplished by respecting our spectacular natural

resources while enhancing community livability. " Smith said the goal

over the next two years is to stage a series of meetings and workshops

in the corridor to gather input and build understanding, with the aim

of having the B.C. Legislature enact the " greenbelt " designation in

time for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Smith said the proponents recognize

that a wide variety of land-use initiatives - including the

soon-to-be-enacted Sea to Sky Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP)

as well as land-use agreements involving the B.C. government and First

Nations - have been ongoing for some time.

http://www.squamishchief.com/madison/WQuestion.nsf/WQallstories?OpenView

 

4) B.C.'s inland wet temperate rainforest is a globally rare ecosystem

which exhibits tremendous ecological diversity, including lush

riparian zones adjacent to salmon streams, and impressive groves of

western redcedar. Portions of this ecosystem provide important habitat

for many threatened or endangered species, ranging from mountain

caribou to canopy lichens. Since the last Inland rainforest conference

at UNBC in fall 2000, ongoing research has yielded many new insights

into the ecology, conservation biology, and management needs of BC's

inland rainforest and the perception of these values in local,

national, and international communities. The University of Northern

British Columbia in partnership with FORREX Forest Research Extension

Partnership invite you to attend a conference which will highlight the

results of the latest research with the aim of improving sustainable

management of this ecologically important ecosystem. The conference

will also examine the social and community values associated with

these ecosystems and discuss the various perspectives and visions for

the future of B.C.'s inland temperate rainforest. As a result of this

conference participants will gain increased knowledge of: 1) research

results on the ecology and dynamics of B.C.'s inland temperate

rainforests (e.g. climate change and biodiversity, natural disturbance

ecology, threatened ecosystems and species, wildlife habitat); 2) the

social and community values associated with this ecosystem (e.g.

recreation and tourism alternatives, sustainable forest products, land

use planning, First Nations knowledge, art and literature); 3) the

silvicultural systems and management practices that can be used in

this ecosystem; and 4) the various perspectives and visions for the

future of this ecosystem. http://wetbelt.unbc.ca/2008-conference.html

 

Oregon:

 

5) The U.S. Forest Service is proposing two salvage logging projects

on parts of the Umatilla National Forest burned by wildfires last

summer. The areas - each less than 250 acres - include one on the

Sugar Bowl Fire and another on the Otter Creek Fire. Both blazes

started after a lightning storm moved through the area near Ukiah in

mid-August. The Sugar Bowl Fire burned about 500 acres, while the

Otter Creek Fire burned about 3,000 acres. Rangers planning the

logging said they are in the very first stages of completing a salvage

project. So far, they have sent out notifications to parties who have

told the Forest Service they are interested in potential salvage

projects. At the same time, they are completing an environmental

assessment required for the salvages. Both fit into what is called a

" categorical exclusion, " said Craig Smith-Dixon, district ranger for

the North Fork Ranger District in Ukiah. Because the proposed salvage

operations are small, they fit into this special category and allow a

simpler environmental analysis rather than what a larger logging

operation would require under the law. " Depending on what we find, the

evaluation could take a couple weeks or a couple months, " Smith-Dixon

said. The Forest Service will look at the biological and ecological

effects salvage logging would have on the areas as part of the

evaluation. Once this process is complete, Smith-Dixon will sign off

on the projects and they will go through an appeal process during

which the public can challenge the project. At that time, Smith-Dixon

said he anticipates hearing from some environmental groups protesting

the logging.

http://www.eastoregonian.info/main.asp?SectionID=13 & SubSectionID=48 & ArticleID=69\

685 & TM=71014.91

 

California:

 

6) Here we go again, John Campbell, former PL president, current

Fortuna Mayor, and henchman to the Maxxam corporation is trying to

blame environmentalists for Pacific Lumbers mismanagement. He's saying

that somehow enviro's are to blame for the 120 layoffs at PL and that

it's not due to a lack of trees. Well, since PL has not disclosed

their current inventory of standing timber there's nothing to

substanitiate that claim. But take a look at PL's own reorganization

plan map. They have logged the majority of the green on that map aside

from the " Headwaters Forest Reserve " and the relatively narrow buffer

strips next to the watercourses. They even partially logged the

so-called " Ancient Redwood Groves " before setting them aside. The

logging plans that they filed since 1984 cover just about all of PL

property. The least-logged areas are Tanoak forests, Second growth and

Oldgrowth Douglas Fir in the Mattole River and Bear River. Since I

don't have a fancy GIS program like PL I can't produce a map to depict

that but I'm hoping the numbers will come out in the bankruptcy

proceedings soon. The amount of timber left standing due to forest

conservation sales pales in comparison to what has been logged

already. If you consider that Hurwitz directed his lackeys like John

Campbell to log most of PL land in the last 23 years and then look at

what was left, it looks like they could have breezed through the

remainder of valuable trees in another year or two tops. Then they

still would have busted and had to layoff most workers for who knows

how long until the next generation of trees were big enough to log.

http://saveancientforests.blogspot.com/2007/11/john-campbell-scapegoating.html

 

 

7) Town councils in Fairfax and San Anselmo are ready to debate new

laws that would restrict building in forested hillside regions and

require property owners to clear brush and trees from the area

surrounding their homes. Fire officials say the laws, which mirror

those already in place in Novato and the unincorporated county, are

necessary to help prevent wildfires from devastating both towns. San

Rafael went a step further, adopting a tough set of rules in July for

brush clearing in the city's highest-risk neighborhoods. " The threat

of wildfire in Marin County is extremely high, " said Ross Valley Fire

Chief Roger Meagor, who heads the fire department in both towns. San

Anselmo's council will address the issue Tuesday and the Fairfax

council will vote on the matter Dec. 5. " What the adoption of these

ordinances does is two things, " Meagor said. " Identify the areas where

the danger exists, and develop stricter building and vegetation

management standards to address those risks. " But builders and

environmental groups say the councils should temper the demands of

public safety with a concern for both towns' trees and historic

architecture. The drive to limit the damage caused by wildfires in

residential areas began in 2003, when fires in Southern California

burned hundreds of thousands of acres, destroying thousands of homes

and killing more than 14 people. Based on the recommendation of the

Governor's Blue Ribbon Fire Commission, which investigated the

response to the fires, the state revised its fire laws this year to

include provisions of the 2006 International Wildland-Urban Interface

Code, which regulates fire safety in woodland areas. Cities and towns

must review and adopt revisions to the fire code every three years in

order to stay current with the minimum requirements of state building

and fire standards as determined by the California Building Standards

Commission. http://www.marinij.com/marin/ci_7541719

 

Montana:

 

8) In 2000, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes adopted a new

forest management plan that immediately cut the annual timber harvest

on tribal lands on the Flathead Reservation almost in half, from 32

million board feet a year to 18.1 million. What changed? For one

thing, a plan that spoke of cultural and spiritual values in the same

breath as economic ones. For another, a plan whose intent was to use

logging in an attempt to mimic the role wildfire played in a forest's

ecosystem prior to the major fire suppression efforts of the last

century. " The forest management plan is based on the natural process

of fire, " James Durglo, head of CSKT's forestry department, says. " I

don't think many have been developed that way. " The forestry

department is one of the oldest tribal programs on the reservation. It

was started by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the early 1900s, which

ran things until the tribes compacted to do so in 1996. Durglo's

department oversees 459,000 acres of forested land on the reservation,

236,000 of which are managed as commercial forestland. The

seven-year-old forest management plan " is a new approach that is more

of an ecosystem management of multiple resources, " Durglo says. " It

has a cultural, traditional flavor to it. " The tribes and their

forests are subject to the same federal laws that apply to public

forests. They must follow the National Environmental Policy Act, the

Endangered Species Act, and are members of an airshed quality group

that monitors and regulates prescribed burns. Tribal timber sales are

open to public comment and review and are also subject to appeals, but

Durglo says it's been about a quarter-century since one was. " There

was a timber sale in the Yellow Bay area in the early 1980s and an

environmental group appealed the (BIA's) decision, " Durglo says. " When

the courts required them to post a bond to continue the appeal, they

pulled it back. "

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/11/24/news/local/news04.txt

 

Utah:

 

9) Bean and Dudley are searching for Diorhabda elongata, familiarly

known as the tamarisk leaf beetle, newly arrived here from Kazakhstan

by way of Utah, and, as it happens, stenciled in larger-than-life size

on Dudley's T-shirt. First released in the United States in 2001, the

beetles were set free in Utah, about 20 miles from this spot, in 2005,

and recently began to march along the muddy waters of the Dolores

River. Their target, as their name indicates, is the riverside shrub

known as tamarisk or saltcedar, one of the most infamous invasive

weeds in the West. Six weeks ago, Bean says, there were no beetles in

this particularly thick stand of tamarisk, cottonwood, and willow, but

now, the tamarisk - which towers, treelike, over the scientists' heads

- displays light brown tips, one of the first signs of beetle attack.

" The natives are already here, " Dudley observes, looking at the native

cottonwoods, some tall enough to form a canopy over the weeds. " They

just need to be freed up. " " And the beetles are going to free them, "

says Bean. When and exactly how it arrived here is a matter of some

debate, but the usual story is that tamarisk, a Eurasian species, was

first planted in the West in the mid-1800s, both as an ornament and

for erosion control on railroad beds and elsewhere. By the late 1800s,

it had naturalized, and by the 1960s, it dominated vegetation along

the Colorado, Rio Grande and Pecos rivers. Today, its Western range

stretches from northern Mexico to Montana, and from Kansas to

California, and covers over 1 million acres. Since the 1960s,

Westerners have worked to rid the region's rivers of tamarisk, hoping

to salvage scarce water, protect wildlife, or fend off wildfire.

http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=17368 & utm_source=newsletter1 & \

utm_medium=email

 

UK:

 

10) The fight to save a north London woodland from a developer's axe

and a future as a driving range took a major turn this week when city

council voted behind doors to offer $700,000-plus to the developer,

The Free Press has learned. Sources say council directed staff, who

earlier valued the land at about $100,000, to boost the offer to

developer Vito Frijia. He paid $700,000 last year for a 7.7-hectare

parcel east of Adelaide Street North and north of Windermere Road. The

offer comes as time is running out for the city's general manager of

planning to decide whether to approve or deny Frijia's application to

clear most of the woodland, known by neighbours as Sprucedale Woods.

Frijia's lawyer, Allan Patton, threatened to go to the Ontario

Municipal Board if the application wasn't approved by Nov. 30. It

remains to be seem if Frijia will be receptive to the offer. Patton

couldn't be reached yesterday for comment. But word of the offer

overjoyed a community leader who has lobbied council to do something.

" Wow! Oh my God! That's incredible. That's just awesome, " said Ann

Hutchison. http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2007/11/23/4678307-sun.html

 

11) To walk among ancient trees is to slip into a charmed

timelessness, redolent of childhood picnics in clearings and bluebell

walks that glint on the edge of memory. For a growing band of people,

a bid to recapture the magic has led them to buy their very own patch

of woodland. Prices start from around £5,000 per acre for smaller

woods. Larger sites (several hundred acres) sell from £2,500 per acre.

The past two years have seen an explosion of enthusiasm for woods,

which a combination of factors has made affordable. " They buy for

love, " says John Jackson, chief executive of the Royal Forestry

Society (RFS). " People like to feel they own a part of the great

British countryside. " Love was certainly in the mix for Laura Hawken.

She made her marriage to Joel Arnstein conditional on the purchase of

woodland, in exchange for relinquishing her own dream of buying land

in her adopted home of New Zealand. Six months after their wedding,

the bluebell carpets of Honeyfield Wood, near Bethersden in Kent, were

theirs. Such woods are estimated to host twice as many species as any

other habitat in Britain. But the bluebells and nightingales depend on

old-style management and, with the demise of a traditional wood

industry, new owners have no incentive to continue. The subject was at

the heart of a recent conference held by the Small Woods Association

(SWA). It focused on a phenomenon that has done most to bring the

dream of ownership within reach of the ordinary purse: the subdivision

of large woods for resale as small plots.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/11/24/eawoods124.xml

 

12) BELMONT -- From a distance, it doesn't look like much. Up close,

it doesn't look like much either. In fact, you might think this uneven

patch of ground, dotted with heaps of dirt and gouged by giant divots,

resembles a testing track at a bulldozer-driving school. Or maybe a

trail for off-road vehicles (which is exactly what some neighbours

thought). It's called " pits and mounds, " and it's an innovative forest

naturalization technique employed by the Upper Thames River

Conservation Authority (UTRCA) to mimic the manner in which mature

forests regenerate. This demonstration site, which sits on the eastern

edge of about 50 acres of property owned and farmed by Andrew and

Christine (Chris) Brown, is barren now. But in the next 10 years or

so, local experts predict it will develop into a richly diverse

ecosystem. The idea is simple. When a large tree falls in a forest,

its roots rip up the surrounding soil and create a pit, while the

fallen tree gradually becomes a mound. Led by the work of Mathis

Natvik, an ecological consultant based in Muirkirk, researchers have

learned these pits and mounds play a crucial role in regenerating

forests. Here's how it works. The pits, or vernal pools, gradually

fill with leaves and water. These pits not only retain moisture needed

by nearby trees, but they help create new soil by speeding up the

decomposition process. The pits also provide a haven for frogs,

salamanders and other wildlife. The mounds, meanwhile, provide a

slightly elevated site that helps germinate the seeds of trees -- such

as red oak, black cherry and butternut -- that prefer higher, drier

conditions. " Instead of having a flat mono-culture type habitat, we're

trying to mimic what a natural woodlot would be like, " says Brenda

Gallagher, forestry and vegetation assessment technician with UTRCA.

" With the pits and mounds you get more diversity of tree species. You

also get more diversity as far as the herbaceous layer underneath, "

she says. " Your trilliums, for instance, prefer the high, dry mounds.

But you'll get some wetland plants, like skunk cabbage, that will grow

into those pits. "

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/CityandRegion/2007/11/23/4678291-sun.html

 

13) Expanding biofuel crop plantations through deforestation worsens

global warming and harms local livelihoods and the environment, says

the International Institute for Environment and Development in a new

report. The report, " Up In Smoke? Asia and the Pacific " , presents new

evidence that biofuels could turn into a rush for " fools gold " across

Asia as huge social and environmental costs outweigh the benefits. The

report cites one example, as farmers in Indonesia have expanded the

development of oil palm plantations and deforested an estimated six

million hectares of land. As a result of deforestation, some of which

is for palm oil plantations, Indonesia is now the third-largest global

emitter of carbon dioxide, after the U.S. and China. Deforestation is

already the second-largest contributor to rising levels of carbon

dioxide in the atmosphere. " Deforestation to make way for large-scale

mono-cropping obliterates the green credentials of biofuels by

actually increasing the amount of emissions rather than reducing

them, " the report explained. Sprucedale Woods is part of a larger

swath of trees and green space along waterways in north London that

serve as habitat to animals and a sanctuary to residents, say those

who pushed for protection. Patton has countered, saying most of the

trees on the woodland are invasive imports. Staff have said that for

what Frijia paid, the city could expect to buy and protect 50 hectares

of woodlands. http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7009221849

 

Ireland:

 

14) Baffled residents, who have fought with developers for more than

two years, say they can't understand a decision to allow houses to be

built near Derry's diminishing ancient woodland. Despite efforts by

the Prehen community to protect the area, which contains trees of more

than 200 years old, planning permission to begin work on four houses

was confirmed this week. The wood at Prehen, acquired by the Woodland

Trust in 2003, is predominately beech with an oak canopy and

hazel/holly understorey. There is good beech and oak regeneration.

Prehen Wood is home to at least 60 different types of plants,

including bluebells, lesser celandines and wood anemones which bloom

in profusion each year. Birds such as sparrowhawk and long-eared owl

live in the wood, as does the endangered red squirrel (every day local

volunteers put food out in special feeders to make sure they stay).

The entire wood has Tree Preservation Order status and was designated

a Site of Local Conservation Nature Importance in the 1990s. The wood

has terrific views overlooking the city and River Foyle with free

public access across all of the site and waymarked routes. Although

the Derry City Council has voted against this development and the

local people have made it clear they did not want it approved,

Environmental Minister, Arlene Foster has overruled their decision and

sided with the developers. This is very suspect. We need protest

emails sent to: private.office There is a likelihood that

only the subject heading of the mail may be read, therefore we ask

that both your location and reference to the Prehen Woods are marked

clearly in the e-mail Subject Heading area. For example: " Stop

Destruction of Prehen Woods -protest from Belfast, N.Ireland " or " Save

the Prehen Woods Now - sent from Londonderry, N.Ireland " " Save Prehen

Woods Wildlife - Derry,

N.Ireland " http://cyberscroll.blogspot.com/2007/11/so-i-cannot-be-accused-of-buyi\

ng-time.html

 

Switzerland:

 

15) Experts are debating whether a larch in the Valais mountains,

estimated at 1,500 years old, is indeed Switzerland's oldest tree. If

it proves to be as old as thought, the tree in the Goms Valley would

have first cast down its roots at the end of Roman times. But whatever

the outcome, public interest in the discovery shows that ancient trees

continue to fascinate. Drills, wood samples, and huge slices of tree

trunks adorn the walls of Patrick Gassmann's offices at the Latenium

museum of archaeology in Neuchâtel, in western Switzerland. Gassmann

is an expert in dendrochronology – the science of dating trees through

their ring patterns. He is well placed to consider the current

conundrum over the Goms larch. According to the expert, for the

moment, the official oldest trees in the country are also larches, but

situated elsewhere in Valais. " The oldest trees are in the Hittuwald

forest near the Simplon Pass - larches up to 1,000 years old, "

Gassmann told swissinfo. He said that more tests are needed before the

Goms tree – the discovery of which was recently announced - can truly

receive the oldest tree accolade. Larches are the right candidates

because they often survive to a great age, he said. Hardy trees, they

live at high altitude, braving extremes of temperature. " But they are

rare because many of them were cut down in the high mountain pastures

for cheesemaking, " said Gassmann. If the Goms tree is indeed 1,500

years old then it will be as old as the larches that currently hold

the European age record in the Ulten Valley in northern Italy.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/science_technology/detail/Ancient_trees_stir_modern_\

passions.html?s

iteSect=511 & sid=8320352 & cKey=1195837720000 & ty=st

 

 

Uganda:

 

16) Biomass briquettes, which can be used instead of charcoal, have

been developed to stem environmental degradation caused by

deforestation. Briquettes are manufactured using agricultural wastes

such as husks of coffee, rice, wheat, groundnuts and sawdust. The

wastes are put in a machine that mixes and compresses them to produce

briquettes. Abasi Kazibwe, the proprietor of Kampala Jellitone

Suppliers who produces the briquettes, says they can only be used in

briquette stoves. The stoves are either portable or fixed, depending

on the customer. They are insulated, so there is no heat and smoke

emission, making them environmentally friendly. A kilogramme of

briquettes costs sh200 while 40kg cost sh8,000 compared to a 30kg sack

of charcoal that costs sh20,000. " When briquettes are properly used,

one can save up to 25% and 40% of the money spent on firewood and

charcoal respectively and above 50%with gas and electricity, " Kazibwe

says. Using briquettes saves the environment in two ways. First, they

are an alternative to firewood and charcoal. Secondly, the technology

has increased agricultural waste utilisation, hence a cleaner

environment. The garbage is collected from Bwaise, Kalerwe and Nakawa,

while the husks are collected wherever agricultural produce is grown.

Kazibwe was prompted to try other fuel alternatives after his

processing plant, which produces Nguvu coffee, faced challenges.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200711190098.html

 

Honduras:

 

17) The blunt economic truth is clear: deforestation can never be

stopped as long as trees are worth more dead than alive. The two

environmentalists never stood a chance. As they drove into the small

Honduran town of Guarizama on 20 December last year, armed men forced

Heraldo Zúñiga and Roger Iván Cartagena to the side of the road,

dragged them from their car, stood them against a wall next to the

municipal building in full view of passers-by, and shot them. Although

at least 40 shots were fired, Zúñiga survived long enough to denounce

those who had hired the assassins - the timber barons who are making a

fortune by razing the region's pine forests and exporting wood to the

United States. Such is the price of taking on the power of the illegal

timber trade. But almost as shocking as the murders of those who try

to protect the forests in countries such as Honduras is that neither

the US nor the EU has any enforceable means of stopping illegal timber

imports. Now, after a long campaign, the Environmental Investigation

Agency is supporting a rare bipartisan legislative effort in the US

Congress to choke off domestic demand for imported illegal wood

products. Promoted by Republicans and Democrats alike, as well as by

an unusual coalition of environmental and industry groups, the Legal

Timber Protection Act would make it a crime to import or sell

illegally sourced timber. The EU is also on the way to similar

legislation. http://www.newstatesman.com/200711220028

 

 

Guyana:

 

18) Before the Government and the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC)

become too excited about recent nominal fines on serially-offending

logging concession holders, let me suggest a review of some facts: 1)

The GFC has had an obligation since its 1993 concessions policy to

audit loggers at not more than two-year intervals. 2) In relation to

the conversion of some short-term (2-year) State Forest Permissions

which greatly exceeded the upper size limit of 20,000 acres into

long-term concessions (TSAs), GFC reports from 2001 have recommended

an increase in field monitoring while the conversion assessments were

in progress. 3) Instead, the Commissioner of Forests informed the

public by way of newspaper advertisements (SN, 27 March 2006) that he

was reducing monitoring at the Linden Forest Station from April 1,

2006. 4) Holders of large-scale/long-term concessions owed more than

US$1.4 million in 2001 to the GFC and were neither penalized nor

charged interest on these debts. 5) Improperly declared exports of

fine timber logs to Asia were probably earning US$3-5 million per

month in 2006. 6) Barama has one legally-awarded concession of 1.61

million hectares, ran its plymill at 25 percent capacity and its

sawmills at 7-8 percent capacity in 2005/6, receives tax concessions

from the Government of Guyana worth US$800,000 per year to aid

in-country milling, but exported at least 119,000 cubic metres of fine

furniture logs worth about US$60 million CIF China in the same period.

7) Barama has recently been fined US$470,000 for a variety of forest

crimes. In terms of national accounting, this is just over half of the

annual tax concessions given to Barama. In other words, Barama

continues to win, and Guyana to lose. 8) The GFC is said to have used

the " compounding of forest offences " procedure (Section 29 of the

Forests Act 1953) but this requires an admission of guilt by the

offender, which Barama continues to deny. The GFC is either

technically incapable of marshalling a court case during which forest

criminals can be exposed through cross-examination, or it is using

illegal or undocumented procedures to cut under-the-table deals with

forest criminals (SN, Friday, October 26th, 2007. The Guyana Forestry

Commission should take major offenders to court. 9) The President, as

Minister of Forestry, has claimed that Guyana's log harvesting

procedures are among the best in the world 10) However, the ITTO's

Status of Tropical Management 2005 Report stated for Guyana that " the

national forest policy 1997 is widely accepted as a sound guide for

the forest sector but is yet to be fully

implemented.

http://guyanaforestryblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/is-it-true-that-guyana-s-log-harv\

esting.html

 

Argentina:

 

19) The forests of Argentina are being cleared at a rate of 40

football fields every hour. To stop the destruction we took to the

trees - and to the streets. While our activists protested in the

forest, we joined forces with other environmental groups, got 1.5

million signatures of support and pushed through Argentina's first

federal forest protection law. The new law includes a nationwide

one-year moratorium on clearing of native forests - to avoid a rush of

deforestation while forest management regulations are put in place.

After a year, any jurisdiction still lacking regulations will continue

to be prohibited from issuing new logging and land clearing permits.

The Forest Law also establishes environmental impact studies and

public hearings - measures that will help protect forests where

indigenous people live and small scale farmers. To pay for

implementation, the law allocates funds from the national budget, plus

income from a new export tax on genetically engineered soy. Forest

clearing to plant genetically engineered soy beans destroys 300,000

hectares of native forest per year. " Without those 1,500,000

signatures and the thousands of phone calls which the senators

received, this law would never have been approved, " said Hernan

Giardini, Forest Campaign Coordinator for Greenpeace Argentina. " It is

a real victory for the people and for the entire country. " Now we are

only waiting for the approval of Congress, which we believe will

happen before the end of the year.

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/argentina-forest-law

 

Brazil:

 

20) Greenpeace held a protest against the deforestation of the Amazon

rainforest on Wednesday in the federal capital of Brasilia,

mid-western Brazil. At Tres Poderes square, the environmentalists of

the non-governmental organization Greenpeace asked for a " concrete

commitment " from President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the battle

against global warming and the deforestation in the Amazon forest, the

largest rainforest in the planet. The signs " Save the Amazon, save the

planet's climate, " and the balloons carrying the symbol for carbon

dioxide, CO2, the gas mainly responsible for the greenhouse effect,

which affects the world's climate. The environmentalists also took a

box with ashes representing the vegetation destroyed by illegal fires

lit to expand the agricultural area in the Amazon region that have

contributed to climate change.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/22/content_7125335.htm

 

 

21) Would you like to hear a fascinating story on how indigenous

tribes in Brazil have managed to make extremely fertile dark earth

from nutrient-poor yellowish soils, and thus may represent the ability

to save the rainforest and feed more people? " The result of such a

system would mean better soil, more food, cleaner fuel, less

deforestation and, if Kyoto is revised to include payment for carbon

negative sequestration in the soil, developing countries like Brazil

and poor farmers everywhere will be paid to save the earth, while

growing both food and fuel " . Head to Lou Gold's blog: Lou Gold

American in Brazil  I was born in 1938 and I still wonder: " what will

I be when I grow up? " I know that I love the Queen of the Forest,

Amazônia and the path of the Santo Daime. I believe that Heaven is NOW

and that WE are the ONE we've been waiting for. In Brazil, where I

spend most of my time, there's a saying for when someone or some place

is very special. They say that he/she/it is a picture. Brazil is full

of pictures and that's why I'm here and doing this blog.

http://lougold.blogspot.com/2007/11/what-we-do-in-next-two-to-three-years_18.htm\

l

 

 

22) The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) -- a group using innovative

approaches to preserving culture and improving health among Amazonian

rainforest tribes -- has been awarded a $100,000 grant from Nature's

Path, an organic cereal manufacturer. The funds will allow ACT to

address one of the most pressing social concerns for Amazon forest

dwellers by expanding its educational and cultural " Shamans and

Apprentice " program for indigenous children in the region. The Amazon

rainforest houses tens of thousands of plant species, many of which

hold promise for warding off pests and fighting human disease. No one

understands the secrets of these plants better than indigenous shamans

-- medicine men and women -- who have astounding knowledge of this

botanical library. But like the forests themselves, this floral genius

is fast-disappearing due to deforestation and profound cultural

transformation among younger generations. The combined loss of this

knowledge and these forests irreplaceably impoverishes the world of

cultural and biological diversity.

http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1121-act.html

 

Latin America:

 

23) We present a new explanation and empirical evidence showing that

rural subsidies to large farmers tend to be associated with low land

productivity and excessive deforestation. We develop a lobbying model

where wealthy farmers trade bribes or political contributions to

government politicians in exchange for subsidies; farmers are able to

tilt the terms of the bargaining game with policy makers in their

favor by pre-committing to an inefficient choice of semi-fixed inputs.

Government proneness to accept political contributions or bribes and

its willingness to provide subsidies cause farmers to adopt

inefficient modes of production as a mechanism to capture such

subsidies. Our predictions are consistent with stylized facts on land

use in Latin America, and suggest that subsidy schemes have been

counterproductive—distorting and constraining development, and

triggering excessive depletion of natural resources. We validate some

of the predictions of the model through econometric analyses using a

new data set for nine countries in Latin America. Journal of

Environmental Economics and Management via Elsevier Science Direct

www.ScienceDirect.com Volume 54, Issue 3; November, 2007; Pages

277-295 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2007.05.002

 

Nepal:

 

24) This used to be the famous char kose jhari, the thick hardwood

jungle that separated the mountains from the plains. Migration from

the hills and from across the border in the past 40 years hasdecimated

the trees. The worst destruction has always happened during periods of

political transition–the 1980 referendum, the post-1990 restoration of

democracy and this past year. Ironically, the forests were much better

protected during the ten conflict years. There has been a full-scale

plunder taking place since the ceasefire and the start of the peace

process. " They have SLRs, we don't even have .303s. They have pickups

we have to patrol on foot, " says Bhakta Bahadur Regmi, a forest guard

at the district forest office in Simara. The highway robbers and

smugglers in the Rautahat corridor are now fully engaged in trucking

the timber out of the tarai to India. Birendra Sah, the journalist who

was abducted and killed last month in Bara, had been investigating

these gangs. " The lawlessness in the tarai has encouraged the timber

mafia, and everyone is afraid of speaking out, " says a former DDC

member in Rautahat's Chandranigapur. In Dumriya, local officials say

up to 700 bicycles carrying small logs cross the border into India

every day. " Even if some tractors are caught, you can openly see the

driver paying off the guards, " says a farmer in Rautahat's Dhamura. In

his village, there is even a saw mill and a depot selling illegally

felled trees only 500m off the highway. Rautahat's DFO Mahendra

Chaudhari shrugs it all off: " What do you expect when the prime

minister, the ministers and parties are all busy looting the country?

The rot starts at the top. " Although community forestry has been a

notable success in the mountains, only 2.5 percent of the forests in

the tarai is managed and protected by local communities. " After 20

years of protection, most community forests now have large, mature

trees and the gangs are buying off greedy members of user

groups, " admits one district official in Udaypur's Gaighat. Earlier, a

user group would decide on a policy–what kind of timber to sell and

what to use the money for.

http://www.nepalitimes.com/issue/375/Nation/14210

 

India:

 

25) Manufacturers in India who supply the domestic and export markets

with wood-flooring, doors, windows and furniture are particularly fond

of merbau — an attractive, dark-red hardwood from lowland tropical

rainforests in Southeast Asia and Pacific islands. All one has to do

to find a network of Indian importers advertising to buy large volumes

of cheap, attractive tropical timber is to have Internet access — they

are all listed on the Net. Very often, their postings are inquiries

for containers of Indonesian logs or rough-sawn timber. This situation

continues even though log exports from Indonesia were banned in 2001,

and sawn timber exports were banned in 2004. There is an urgent need

for a thorough investigation to uncover the shadowy international

criminal gangs, and corrupt forestry, military, police and navy

officials in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, who are complicit in a

complex illegal timber supply chain. In 2005, investigations by the

Londonbased Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), into the illegal

timber trade and smuggling operations exposed how criminal gangs

supplying the Chinese and Indian markets were illegally exporting over

3,00,000 cubic metres of merbau logs from the Indonesia's Papuan

provinces every month. EIA's latest report reveals that despite a

recent crackdown by the Indonesian government, this illicit trade is

still thriving, with containers of illegal Indonesian merbau logs and

sawn timber being shipped from Indonesia and Malaysia to India. So,

how do container-loads of these illegally- sourced logs find their way

so easily to Calcutta and Tuticorin — the main points of import in

India? One trader who has been named and shamed by EIA, 'Prince'

Santhana Krishnan Elavarasan, director of Singaporeanbased company SPB

Cons Marine Import & Export Pte., explained how. He told undercover

EIA investigators how his " good connections " in Indonesia made it

possible for him to move illegal timber via Malaysia, a method typical

of many middlemen who " launder " shipments of illegal Indonesian timber

via Singapore, Malaysia, or the Philippines, and on to India. " Logs

come direct to me. I pay the log seller in Indonesia and he brings it

over directly… at night time, " he said.

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main36.asp?filename=hub011207LOST_IN.asp

 

 

26) Around fifteen persons sneaked into the Maharajbagh zoo in the wee

hours of Saturday and attacked three watchmen, before chopping down

two Sandalwood trees and escaping. The watchmen were locked in a

toilet till about 6 am. A colleague spotted them and came to their

rescue. It is said that this isn't the first incident in the area as

there have been many cases of sandalwood thefts in the zoo. The

problem is not just in the zoo but also in the neighbouring college -

Punjabrao Deshmukh Agriculture University. When contacted, a

university official said, " It is a serious problem and the Sitabuldi

police have been apprised of it. But the culprits, however, manage to

dodge the cops and such incidents keep recurring. " The official added

that there is a demand for sandalwood trees, each of which can fetch

around Rs 4,000. The police have questioned one of the watchmen, Moti

Shinde, and are trying to track down the suspects based on the

description provided by the eye-witnesses.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Nagpur/Sandalwood_trees_stolen_from_zoo/artic\

leshow/2568488.c

ms

 

 

27) Karnataka is yet to protect the sources and catchment areas of the

Cauvery river by bringing them under a single wildlife sanctuary. But,

this is needed to ensure it collects sufficient water in its dams to

be able to share it with the neighbouring state Tamil Nadu as directed

by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal's final verdict which came

nearly a year ago in February. The state is preparing for a protracted

legal battle with Tamil Nadu over the award but is not doing what it

can to ensure it at least continues to have as much water as in the

past, not to speak of raising the supply. The reason ¿ opposition from

a powerful timber lobby and local politicians. Approximately, 810 sq

km of virtually unprotected forests are the sources of the perennial

rivulets and streams which joins the Cauvery in Kodagu district. If

the government does not declare these forests (now reserve forests) as

wildlife sanctuary, the flow of water into the Krishna raja Sagar

(KRS) dam and Kabini reservoir and their ability to store it could

fall drastically over the next 10 years, according to Karnataka

government officials and irrigation experts. These unprotected forests

are contiguous to the existing Bramhagiri, Talacauvery and Pushpagiri

(a combined area of 388 sq km) of wildlife sanctuaries. " Linking all

the three wildlife sanctuaries into the proposed Greater Talacauvery

wildlife sanctuary is vital for the Cauvery and its other sources, "

said a senior official of the Karnataka's forest department, who has

worked on the project. The preservation regime in a wildlife sanctuary

is far more stringent than of a reserve forest. The act for the

latter, which was passed in 1980, allows earlier settlers to continue

to live there and fell timber for their livelihood. But those falling

under a wildlife sanctuary lose their residential and property rights

and have to be relocated. What is more, forest protection improves

greatly when separate patches of forests are made contiguous by

declaring areas in between as protected forest. This also helps

preserve animal habitats by protecting their seasonal migratory

routes.

http://www.business-standard.com/economy/storypage.php?leftnm=lmnu2 & subLeft=1 & au\

tono=305280 & tab

=r

 

28) Shillong - The irony is inescapable. In a state that has 75 per

cent of the land under forest cover, the giants of the jungle are

under serious threat. If the recent electrocution of 10 elephants

within a span of one month is not enough to gauge the gravity of the

problem, a look at the elephant population estimates of the state will

make the picture more stark. In the year 1993, there were around 2,872

wild elephants in the state but in 1997, the number came down to 1,840

which further slid down to 1868 in the year 2002, forest department

sources said here Friday. The number was estimated to be around 1600

in 2006, the sources said, adding the exact latest figure was still

being compiled. Besides natural death, electrocution, falling into

traps, poaching and accidents like falling from cliffs accounted for

the dwindling number, forest department sources said. " There are vast

inaccessible tracts through which high-tension wires pass. In some

places, the electricity towers are close to ground while in some the

wires are sagging or the poles not firmly rooted, " Principal Chief

Conservator of Forests, V K Nautiyal, said. The forest department has

been pursuing the matter with the State Electricity Board, but without

much success. What caused worry among the widlife circles was the

electrocution of four wild elephants in Ri Bhoi district on November

20 last, one month after six pachyderms died similarly in the Garo

Hills region. The four elephants, which included three females and one

male calf, were part of a herd from the reserve forests of

neighbouring Assam, forest officials said. Since January 2004, at

least 16 elephants have died due to electrocution alone even as

reports of man-elephant conflict continued to pour in from various

corners of the state, especially the Garo Hills region having the

highest concentration of the pachyderms in the state.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200711231320.htm

 

29) Giving the details of the plan, the forest Minister said that

under the new plans the trees harvesting by the farmers from private

forests in future would be allowed every five years instead of ten

years. The tree marking will be done by the Forest Department under

" Selection System " which would ensure that trees selected for harvest

are " silviculturally available " and no permanent gap is created in the

tree canopy. The Minister said that in the new plan the overall

procedure has been decentralized so that the public is not put to

inconvenience. The provisions and measures included in these plans

would go a long way in mitigating the problems of the poor people of

Kandi area. Focusing on involvement of local community the Minister

said that as a part of rationalization communities have been empowered

through Joint Forest Management Committees to actively protect the

forest during the harvesting operations, in lieu of which these

committees would be getting certain cash compensation through the

local DFO. Emphasizing on holistic approach to conserve forest, the

Minister said that in the new plan Soil Conservation, water

harvesting, income generation activities through value addition to

forest produce and ecotourism will be encouraged, Explaining the

measure taken to de-weed the forests, the Forests Minister said that

to protect the forests from Lantana weed, its harvest rules and forest

ground storey management through plantation of grasses and other

appropriate species have been strongly focused upon in these plans so

that people could augment their income from the forest resources owned

by them. http://www.punjabnewsline.com/content/view/6679/38/

 

Kashmir:

 

30) Machipora - The beautiful forests, known for its pyramidal

structure and rich flora and fauna in this frontier district are fast

vanishing, as smugglers in past 18 years have gone on a looting spree.

According to the residents, smugglers are carrying out of the plunder

of green gold " in connivance with the officials. " " Together forest

officials and smugglers chop off the trees in broad daylight and in

the evening they transport these to their respective places, " a group

of villagers at Machipora told Greater Kashmir. As one enters this

Jungle, the damaged fence and partially burnt stumps of precious

Deodar trees are visible everywhere marring its beauty. Here the

saplings also not been spared by the looters. Smuggling in compartment

no, 1, 2, 5 and 6 here in this Jungle is going on for past 18 years,

but till date no one has bothered to put a check on it. A villager

while pointing towards the Raida stretch leading towards the forests

said, " This is the route being used by smugglers to ferry the timber.

After chopping off 15 to 20 trees daily, officials and smugglers bring

wood through these fields in handcarts and later load the trees into

trucks. " Deforestation affects are visible on the ground here, as wild

animals have killed seven children and scores of people in past six

months in villages of Badraher, Nagarnar and Machipora. " Before 17

years there were hardly any incidents of this kind here, but today we

are living under constant fear and our children remain confined in

their houses, " said Ghulam Muhammad. A forest official blamed

villagers for the devastation of forests. " Smuggling without help of

locals is not possible, " he said. However, villagers rebuff the claims

of the official. " Few days ago police caught forest officials red

handed cutting trees. Later officials greased the palms of the

policemen and they (police) implicated a poor villager who had gone to

forests to collect firewood for marriage of his daughter, " the

villagers said.

http://www.greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?Date=25_11_2007 & ItemID=23 & cat=1

 

 

Vietnam:

 

31) Over 7,000 households living off cajeput forests in southernmost

Vietnam's Ca Mau Province toil in extreme hardship, often earning less

than US$100 in return for spending over a decade tending to hectares

of forests. In 1992, the local government assigned the Ho Dinh Phuong

family 2.2 hectares to grow cajeput in the famous U Minh Ha Forest.

When the harvest season finally arrived recently-given that the life

cycle of cajeput trees is decades long-the family of 11 only profited

a mere VND1 million (US$62.5), averaging out to a little over three

cents a month per person for 15 years of labor. Pitifully, the

miniscule amount does not cover the VND50 million ($3,100) loan the

family borrowed to cover expenses to tend the forest. Five years ago,

Ha Thi Hong invested all her fortune valued at 6.5 taels of gold to

buy 5.5 hectares of cajeput in U Minh Ha.Last year, she harvested two

hectares and grossed less than VND6 million ($375), which is not

enough to buy half a tael of gold.This year, she cropped another two

hectares but earned even less.Similar to the first case, all the

earnings could not pay off her debts for dredging canals and other

forest-related costs.In another instance, Thanh Nien met Nguyen Thi

Hue and her children hunching over a pile of firewood.Hue said she

switched from cajeput to trading firewood and has netted over VND1

million ($62.5) in three months.In contrast, she tended over 3.7 ha of

cajeput for over 10 years but reaped less than VND3 million ($185) in

total, she added.The U Minh Ha Forest, once famous for its cajeputs

and dubbed " the forest of gold, " is now nothing more than a " pocket of

poverty " as a local leader wryly dubbed it. With increased competition

and consumers' shift towards concrete pilings, cajeput prices have

been falling sharply since 2004. In late 2004, one stake made from

cajeput trees serving as foundation piles fetched VND25,000 ($1.56),

but currently it marks less than VND12,000. A cajeput tree requires

12-15 years before it can be harvested for a mere VND5-6 million per

ha, said a local businessman in the field.

http://www.thanhniennews.com/society/?catid=3 & newsid=33700

 

Philippines:

 

32) A video footage allegedly showing the cutting of illegal logs in

the forest of this town has once again raised concern over the massive

illegal logging activities. The the local office of the Department of

Environment and Natural Resources, however, dismisses the documents as

" scripted. " Community Environment officer Vicente Meliton of

DENR-Dingalan said the video of a piece of log being cut using a

chainsaw in a recent segment of the " Reporter's Notebook " over the

GMA-7 was clearly not an actual footage but was " arranged " by the TV

crew with the supposed illegal logger. A supposed illegal logger was

reportedly " caught in the act " of sawing off the logs in Sitio

Sumalapa, Barangay Ibuna. " Saan ka naman nakakita na kinukunan ka ng

media na namumutol ng kahoy sa halip tumakbo eh nag-posing pa, " DENR

officials said. The showing of the video came off the heels of reports

that illegal logging has gone full-blast in the town in the guise of

retrieval operations of logs recovered during the calamities in 2004.

http://luzon.wowphilippines.com/aurora/2007/11/24/video-on-illegal-logging-scrip\

ted/

 

Borneo:

 

33) Borneo, the third largest island in the world, was once clothed

with dense tropical rainforests. With swampy coastal areas fringed

with mangrove forests and a mountainous interior, much of the terrain

was virtually impassable and unexplored. Headhunters ruled the remote

parts of the island until a century ago. In the 1980s and 1990s Borneo

underwent a remarkable transition. Its forests were leveled at a rate

unparallel in human history. Borneo's rainforests went to

industrialized countries like Japan and the United States in the form

of garden furniture, paper pulp and chopsticks. Initially most of the

timber was taken from the Malaysian part of the island in the northern

states of Sabah and Sarawak. Later forests in the southern part of

Borneo, an area belonging to Indonesia and known as Kalimantan, became

the primary source for tropical timber. Though destruction was

extensive on parts of the island, Borneo still harbors large areas of

primary forests–many of which are officially protected–and enormous

areas of logged-over forests that, given time, could recover and even

today are important habitats for many species. But a new threat is

fast-rising: industrial oil palm plantations. The threat from oil palm

is driven by its status as the world's most productive oil seed. A

single hectare of oil palm may yield 5,000 kilograms of crude oil, or

nearly 6,000 liters of crude, making the crop remarkably profitable

when grown in large plantations, with net present values exceeding

$4500 per hectare in some areas. As such, vast swathes of land are

being converted for oil palm plantations. Oil palm cultivation has

expanded in Indonesia from 600,000 hectares in 1985 to more than 6

million hectares by early 2007, and with prices surging toward $1000

per metric ton, is expected to reach 10 million hectares by 2010.

http://redapes.org/news-updates/law-enforcement-key-to-saving-borneos-rainforest\

s/

 

Indonesia:

 

34) A team of officers from the Jambi Forestry Agency and forest

rangers seized about 3,000 illegally cut logs in Petaling village in

Sungaigelem district, Muarojambi regency, on Wednesday. " We found the

timber had already been loaded on rafts, " said team head Agung Widodo.

He said the owners of the illegal timber likely had prior knowledge of

the operation because they had left the area before the team's

arrival. Jambi Forestry Agency head Budi Daya said his officers were

investigating the case and searching for the owners of the timber. " If

nobody claims the timber -- with proper ownership documents -- we will

let the police auction it off, " he said. Earlier in the day, Jambi

Police auctioned off 212 cubic meters of confiscated timber, raising

Rp 125.5 million.

http://cempaka-nature.blogspot.com/2007/11/police-seize-illegal-logs.html

 

35) Elderly ethnic Dayak farmer Hussin sits on the raised timber floor

of his home, a shack on 6ha of mixed forest, itself nestled in

thousands of hectares of oil palm plantation. Hussin ( " I'm probably 65

or 70, I'd say " ) and his wife, Barnian, are holdouts against the

relentless march of Indonesia's new boom crop: they settled their

little plot in Central Kalimantan just before the surrounding forest's

annihilation a year ago. Each year, Indonesia loses an estimated two

million of its 90 million hectares of rainforest, much of it to palm

oil developments in Kalimantan, Sumatra, Riau, Sulawesi and Papua.

While official policy is to only allow new plantations on the vast

stretches of already degraded forest land from earlier timber booms,

in reality it's far cheaper to convert virgin rainforest for the extra

profit the timber attracts, which then helps defray the cost of

starting oil palm crops. The company wants him out: Hussin says

visiting agents have offered Rp425,000 (a little more than $50) a

hectare for his land, perched only a few kilometres from the largely

forest-surrounded Lake Sembuluh. Given that crude palm oil prices are

expected to hit $US1000 ($1140) a tonne soon and are increasingly

being linked to the spectacular rise in fossil-based crude oil prices,

Hussin, who doesn't exactly watch the world markets, gets the feeling

he probably is being duped. " I don't want to sell it. I want to think

of my grandchildren's welfare first, " he says, but then admits that

the company men don't bother him too much. " They know they can't take

it from me. " In many parts of densely forested Indonesia, land

ownership is a fluid thing: ask a Dayak how far his land extends,

people say, and he'll point casually in each direction without even

changing his gaze, repeating the indigenous language claim: " Ayung

kuh " (it's all mine).

http://climateandcapitalism.blogspot.com/2007/11/indonesia-biofuel-threatens-ind\

igenous.html

 

36) Viewed from the air, the vast, cool forests of the Kampar

peninsula on Indonesia's Sumatra island are a world away from China's

belching factories or America's clogged freeways. But appearances can

be deceptive. Most of this 400,000 hectare peninsula is peatland:

dense, swampy forest that, when healthy, efficiently soaks up

greenhouse gases from the world's worst polluters. When drained,

cleared or burned, however, this wilderness transforms into one of the

worst climate vandals, releasing six to nine times the amount of

carbon stored in regular equatorial forests. Swamps have not

traditionally held the same ecological sex appeal as, say, doe-eyed

wildlife. But as nations prepare for a major global conference on

climate change in Indonesia next month, the world's focus is changing.

The Dec. 3 to Dec. 14 UN summit on the resort island of Bali will see

international delegates thrash out a framework for negotiations on a

global regime to combat climate change when the current phase of the

Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012. A figure from the Indonesia-based Center

for International Forestry Research puts deforestation at around 25

percent of all man-made carbon dioxide emissions. Avoiding emissions

from deforestation has so far been left out of the Kyoto Protocol on

climate change, which focuses instead on reducing emissions from

sources such as industry and transport. Widespread deforestation has

made Indonesia the third largest emitter of carbon in the world, the

contribution coming most dramatically in the form of near-annual

forest fires on islands such as Sumatra and Borneo.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2007/11/25/2003389546