Guest guest Posted December 3, 2007 Report Share Posted December 3, 2007 Today for you 30 new articles about earth's trees! (261st edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com --British Columbia: 1) Loggers protesting logging? 2) First Nations head to Bali, --Oregon: 3) Book on owls, 4) Improper political influence, --Montana: 5) Grizzly Bear extinction --Southwest: 6) Drought, climate change and forest change --New Hampshire: 7) Conservation commission hires logger? --Appalachia: 8) Diversity management and restoration --Canada: 9) Beetle droppings restore forest soils after fires, 10) Beetle kill, --UK: 10) Old trees, 11) Coppicing, --Africa: 12) China and Brazil offer satellite help, 13) forest stats, --Gambia: 14) Recent logging history --Angola: 15) Role of poverty through improved forest management --Congo: 16) Draft law aimed at protecting indigenous people --Ghana: 17) Forest at less than 1 million hectares, 18) GTA wants more logs, --Kenya: 18) Endangered birds --Ecuador: 19) If we protest they send the military in --India: 20) Fate of the Forest Rights Bill --Madagascar: 21) Lemurs and deforestation --China: 22) Measuring Methane from trees --Papua New Guinea: 23) Loggers spend half million to enforce themselves --Borneo: 24) Illegal loggers and Palm oil go hand in hand --Kalimantan: 25) New threatened Orangutan population found, --Indonesia: 26) Rapacious business interests destroying our forests, 27) Tangkit Tebak forest community, 28) We must stop issuing logging permits, 29) Photo documentation --Australia: 30) Losing money while logging the last public forests, British Columbia: 1) Never in his wildest dreams did Wayne James expect to see himself demonstrating in front of the legislature asking government for tougher forest-industry regulation. The 54-year-old, born and bred in Port Alberni, followed the usual pattern for young men living in a town built on forestry. In 1970, as a teenager, he signed on at the Somass mill, then worked on log booms, yarding and as a heavy-duty mechanic. During the Clayoquot Sound battles, he stood firmly with the loggers and forest companies and still refers to the demonstrators as " preservationists. " " Then the NDP brought in a whole bunch of changes to the forest industry. They heavily regulated it and I thought at that time it would be really detrimental to the industry, " said James, who now works on log booms for a firm contracted by a major Island forestry company. How times change, he said, with a wry smile, as he stood on the legislature steps yesterday in support of the Save Our Valley Alliance. The group, which includes business, labour and First Nations, wants auditor general John Doyle to expand his investigation of the province's decision to allow Western Forest Products to remove large tracts of private land between Sooke and Port Renfrew from tree-farm licences, which require certain logging practices in exchange for access to timber on Crown land. They want Doyle's probe to include the 2004 removal of 77,000 hectares of private land from TFL 44 around Port Alberni. The Alliance says the steep slopes of the Beaufort Range are being unsustainably stripped of trees, while watersheds are damaged. Then the logs are exported, along with jobs. http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/capital_van_isl/story.html?id=3\ 5ff9963-f0fa-4d4 5-8f65-9914863abaf7 & k=37542 2) Canadian First Nations, who are already on the front lines of the devastation being caused by climate change, will be asserting their voice at meetings being held during the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP 13) talks in Bali next month. Dave Porter, a member of the First Nations Summit political executive and BC First Nations Leadership Council has been invited to attend and deliver a presentation at a major side meeting on the state of the Boreal forest. He will use the opportunity to talk about the climate-change induced pine-beetle crisis in BC's interior and Boreal forest. This threatens to rival disasters in other major forested areas of the world, such as the rapid destruction of Amazon rain forests, but has yet to gain the same level of international awareness. " As stewards of the land, First Nations have a leading role to play in responding to the global climate change crisis that they had no hand in creating, but for which they are now among the first to be paying the price, " Mr. Porter said. " The COP 13 talks in Bali and the side meetings on forests are a chance for us to share our experience and ideas with delegations from around the world, to learn from others, and to establish ourselves clearly as participants in the battle to respond to climate change. " Mr. Porter, who leaves for the Bali conference on Monday, will take to the international audience the story of the devastation now being caused to BC's interior and Boreal forests by climate change. His presentation will include a report of the rapid colonization of the BC Interior by the mountain pine beetle which has flourished because of climate change and has already destroyed more than ten million hectares of old-growth pine - an area that would swallow countries like Portugal or South Korea. It has created a natural disaster that dwarfs any seen before in the province and is growing worse by the day. The BC Interior is now filled with immense regions of dead and dying forest, creating a massive tinderbox just waiting for a spark to literally set it ablaze. It has now crossed eastward over the Rocky Mountains, infesting more pine, and this devastation is poised to spread through Canada's boreal forests from coast to coast. http://relativenewz.ca Oregon: 3) Most of the pictures are of owls themselves - flying, perching, eating, and doing other things owls do - but some are habitat shots that tell their own story. A full-page glossy photograph showing the breathtaking beauty of an Oregon old-growth forest with moss-draped trees has a fairy tale look about it. The text, which discusses the controversy and clashes between environmentalists and loggers, is told within the context of the northern spotted owl. Lynch points out that 17 years ago, across the border from Oregon's old-growth forests, an estimated 100 pairs of spotted owls were " lurking in the shadowed coastal forests. " Today, only six pairs are left in British Columbia. " In Canada, the owl is doomed--the result of greed and the irresponsible logging ... of old-growth forests. " Lynch's words coupled with a look at the primeval forest and the solemn looking spotted owl on a following page make for a simple decision - we should vigorously protect the forest and the owl. The captions accompanying the photographs not only identify which owl is depicted but also provide other tidbits of fascinating information. So even readers who just want to look at the pictures can learn something about these remarkable animals. For example, a barred owl staring out from the page is noted for being one of only four owls, of the 19 species that live in the United States and Canada, that has black eyes. The other 15 species have yellow eyes. Another barred owl photo shows two nestlings preparing to eat a headless red squirrel. The caption notes that " adult male owls often decapitate prey before bringing it to the nest " - a behavior that scientists have yet to explain. An important feature of the book for those who think categorically is a 10-page section in which each species is identified by photograph, distribution map, and basic natural history information. http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20071202/NEWS/712020336/-1/finish 4) In a letter Friday to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who requested the investigation, Inspector General Earl Devaney said he will look into whether " improper political influence " by department officials led to reduced protections for those key Northwest species and others. For example, Bush officials in 2004 overruled federal scientists, determining that marbled murrelets in the Northwest need no protection because plenty of the seabirds remain in Canada and Alaska. Wyden said Friday that he supports sound logging and forest management, but that wildlife protections " have to be based on sensible science, not sleazy politics. " Devaney agreed to start his investigation immediately after Wyden sent a letter Friday asking him to. That's a sign Devaney is primed to dig deeper into the activities of Julie MacDonald, a former deputy assistant secretary of fish, wildlife and parks who was found to have bullied biologists and altered scientific findings. MacDonald resigned in May after a report by Devaney's office said she leaked government information to industry groups trying to undercut Endangered Species Act protections. " It has been one example after another of improper political influence and, in some cases, out and out corruption, " said Wyden, who heads the Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests. In his letter to Devaney, who works independently from the Interior Department leadership, Wyden said he " has reason to believe, " based on documents and other evidence, that MacDonald improperly influenced decisions on many species and interfered with scientific findings in the 2004 conclusion affecting marbled murrelets. Wyden pushed Kempthorne, a former Senate colleague, to look more thoroughly into those decisions. Wyden blocked the appointment of MacDonald's replacement, demanding that Kempthorne first take corrective action. But Senate leaders pushed the appointment through when Wyden was out of town for the birth of his twins. Kempthorne did ask his officials to review MacDonald's activities but focused his request too narrowly, Wyden said. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ultimately reviewed only eight decisions, largely involving species more obscure than the spotted owl and marbled murrelet, which are central in debates over Northwest logging. Wyden criticized that review as cursory and unreliable and said it was " regrettable " Kempthorne had not done more. http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/11/probe_widens_in_interior_misco.h\ tml Montana: 5) Thirty years ago, the mighty grizzly bear of the American Rocky Mountains landed on the Endangered Species list. It was one of the first animals honored with this dubious citation. By 1973, the giant bears, which once ruled the great plains and Rocky Mountains from the Dakotas to California and struck terror into the Lewis and Clark expedition and many who followed, existed only in a few patches of isolated and still wild land in Montana and Wyoming: greater Yellowstone, Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness, the Cabinet Mountains, the Selkirks and the Swan Range. Even in these last remote refuges, the bear was hardly thriving. Perhaps 350 bears remained in Yellowstone. Then the Park Service closed the open dump, a stable source of food, and the population dropped. The Cabinet-Yaak, Selkirk and Swan populations totaled less than 200 bears combined. The healthiest population existed in the chunks of wilderness in and around Glacier National Park, which tallied perhaps 500 bears in the early 1970s. But this was something of an illusion, since the Glacier population was being buffeted by Canadian bears crossing the border to escape the merciless hunting campaigns to the north. Grizzly refugees. From the time the bear was listed, the State of Montana clamored to have the bear removed, particularly in the Glacier area, where it wanted to auction off lucrative grizzly bear hunts. The Forest Service, which manages most of the bear's habitat in the region, griped that if taken literally the Endangered Species Act protections would put a serious dent in its annual timber sale offerings. The agency refused to interpret the act literally. Then beginning the late 1970s two things happened. The Forest Service began building roads into these lands, thus reducing the logging costs for Plum Creek and Champion. And the price of timber soared. The timber companies struck while the iron was hot. Over the next 10 years, Plum Creek and Champion went on a logging frenzy, cutting without restraint. By the end of the 1980s, more than 2 million acres of forest, most of it prime grizzly habitat, had been liquidated. Internal memos from executives at both companies unearthed by reporter Richard Manning revealed that each company had logged off more than 90 percent of its holdings. So much for sustainable forestry. http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair12012007.html Southwest: 6) A time sequence of aerial photographs shows that the ecotone between semiarid ponderosa pine forest and piñon-juniper woodland shifted upslope extensively (2 km or more) and rapidly (< 5 years) due to the death of most ponderosa pine across the lower fringes of that forest type (Figure 1). This vegetation shift has been persistent since the 1950s, as little ponderosa pine reestablishment has occurred in the ecotone shift zone. Over the past decade, many portions of the Western US have been subject to significant drought, with associated increases in tree mortality evident. GIS compilations of US Forest Service aerial surveys of insect-related forest dieback since 1997 show widespread mortality in many areas. For example the cumulative effect of multi-year drought since 1996 in the Southwest has resulted in the emergence of extensive bark beetle outbreaks and tree mortality across the region. In the Four Corners area piñon (Pinus edulis) has been particularly hard hit since 2002, with mortality exceeding 90% of mature individuals across broad areas (Figure 1), shifting stand compositions strongly toward juniper dominance. Across the montane forests of the West substantial dieback has been recently observed in many tree species, including Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmanni), Douglas-fir, lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta), ponderosa pine, piñon, junipers, and even aspen (Populus tremuloides). A number of major scientific uncertainties are associated with forest dieback phenomena. Quantitative knowledge of the thresholds of mortality for various tree species is a key knowledge gap – we basically don't know how much climatic stress forests can withstand before massive dieback kicks in. Thus the scientific community currently cannot accurately model forest dieback in response to projected climate changes, nor assess associated ecological and societal effects. Feedbacks between forest dieback and fire activity (ignition probabilities, rate of spread, severity, controllability) need more work. By Allen, Craig D. U.S. Geological Survey, Jemez Mountains Field Station, Los Alamos, NM 87544 New Hampshire: 7) STRATHAM — Logging is expected to begin on Saturday in the Town Forest and is the first phase of a Conservation Commission project to help improve the overall health of the forest and its inhabitants. The Conservation Commission contracted with David Dodds, a logger of Newmarket, to begin thinning selected trees on a " test site. " Conservation Commission Chairwoman Pat Elwell, described the test site as " a triangle of about 20 acres at the far end of the forest and the trails. " Signs will be posted to notify the public of areas being worked on and trails will be closed while the logger is working on the site. Affected trails will remain open on days when the logger is not working on the site, but Elwell advised finding an alternate route. " The best thing to do would be to avoid them, " she said. " There are so many other trails that it shouldn't be a problem. " Another concern is for those who walk their dogs on the trails, and again, Elwell recommends using caution so dogs do not run ahead into the construction area. Timing of the project is largely dependent on weather conditions and there is a possibility it may continue through the winter. The area of the logging is frequented less than other areas and this was a consideration in choosing it as the test site. Care was taken to tag specific trees to be removed, and Stan Knowles, a licensed forester of North Hampton, assisted with the process. Elwell said the funds receive by the town from Dodds once logging is complete will cover cost of the forester. Improving the health of the forest, maintaining the diversity of hard and soft wood trees, and protecting the woodland habitats are goals of the Conservation Commission. The thinning will also allow more white oak trees to grow. These trees produce acorns that are more nutritious for wildlife. Benefits of the thinning will not be immediately apparent. http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071130/NEWS/711300372\ /-1/news11 & sfad= 1 Appalachia: 8) The forests in the Southern Appalachian Mountains have the highest level of diversity in all of the United States. They are home to a rich species mixture of trees, herbaceous plants, and animals. They also provide a home for recreation and enjoyment, and a livelihood for many in the area. They are beautiful, valuable, and unique forests. Over 70% of these forests are privately owned, family forests. With proper, sustainable management, they will remain a healthy ecological and economic component of the larger Southeastern landscape. Without proper management, these forests face numerous challenges. If current trends continue, the South will lose 12 million acres of forest land to development by 2020 and another 19 million acres by 2040. Yearly, 5.3 million acres in the South are heavily logged, representing 60% of all logging in the United States. The threat of development and the high percentage of logging concentrated in the South create a great need to ensure that any timber harvests that occur on private southern forest lands are carried out in a manner that maintains forest cover and healthy economies. Appalachian Voices believes that sustainable forestry on private lands can: 1) Provide a sustainable income for landowners and a steady supply of jobs in forest products industries while not compromising the needs of other industries such as tourism. 2) Protect ecosystem services such as clean water, wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities on which the health and wealth of communities ultimately depend. 3) Produce raw materials required by local value-added industries. 4) Involve the community, particularly landowners, in all aspects of the planning and implementation of the solution. http://www.appvoices.org/index.php?/site/forests_overview/ Canada: 9) Beetle droppings - known in the scientific world as frass - are crucial to forests recovering from fire. The tiny piles of droppings, found at the bases of trees, resemble cones of sawdust, and they help nourish the forest floor by increasing microbial activity in the soil. Armed with a pair of tweezers and a handful of beetle droppings, University of Alberta forestry graduate Tyler Cobb has discovered why the bug-sized dung is so important to areas ravaged by fire. This process can also determine which kinds of trees grow back. " This means that rather than being considered a pest or a nuisance, these beetles are in fact very important to helping burned forests recover, " Cobb said. He is concerned, though, because salvage logging is taking the beetles out of the forest before they can do their job. The insects lay their eggs in the dead trees, and the larvae are subsequently destroyed when the wood is processed at sawmills. " That population is being removed from the salvage site and that takes away the mechanism by which the nutrients are returned to the soil. " Salvage logging should be delayed after a fire to allow the beetles to complete their life cycle, Cobb said. " In theory, if you delayed logging for two years, these beetle populations could survive. " Another option, he added, is to leave some burned timber - perhaps 10 to 25 per cent - as-is. Though he intensively studied the frass of only one beetle species, Cobb says that dead wood-associated beetles are found throughout the world, and that without their valuable back-end contributions, forests damaged by fire and other disturbances will be worse off. " Forest management activities that threaten these species could have widespread ecological impacts. Wherever you've got forest you've got a beetle community essentially dedicated to this decomposition process, which is critical to the overall health of the forest. " http://www.physorg.com/news115570755.html 10) We flew down the Alsek Valley in Kluane National Park toward the Lowell Glacier, a magnificent river of ice that winds out of the St. Elias Mountain Range. " Have a look, anywhere you want, " said pilot Doug Makkonen as he slowly did a 360-degree spin in the helicopter. " What you see here is what we have in almost every valley of this park. It's all dead wood from mountaintop to riverside. It's just sitting there waiting for lightning to fire it up. " In the long history of the Arctic, climatic variability has produced both winners and losers. And so it may be in the next century as greenhouse gas emissions put an extra layer of insulation into a rapidly warming atmosphere. But here in the southwest corner of the Yukon and Alaska, it's difficult to see any upside to the changes taking place to the landscape. Seventeen years ago when the spruce beetle began to seriously bore into the trees of the southwest corner of the Yukon and Alaska, for example, no one thought much of it. The six-legged, quarter-inch-long bug has been feeding on small patches of trees in this part of the world for thousands of years. Traditionally, several weeks of intense, cold winter keeps the bugs in check. But every once in a while, the beetles get the upper hand and the spruce forests suffer. No one, however, has seen the kind of devastation now taking place. At least 40 million trees are dead or dying in the Yukon. Tens of million more in Alaska are kindling. The voracious feeding cycle that used to play itself out after three or four years has now gone on for 17. http://www.thestar.com/ArcticInPeril/article/281497 UK: 10) The late Duke of Buccleuch, who had a passion for trees, made a pilgrimage to see it shortly before his death. " I never cease to marvel at the fact that there is something living today that was three thousand or more years old at the time of the first Christmas, " he told me. The Duke's feeling for trees owed something to the large number on his estates in Scotland and Northamptonshire. They include the Tinnis Ash, a low-growing, wind-blasted ash tree, its tortured branches as stiff and grey as a witch's hair. It has, the Duke reflected, " witnessed history since about 1200 " . Which makes it considerably younger than the Fortingall Yew, but incredibly old for an ash, a species that is not generally long-lived. The Silton Oak, or Wyndham's Oak, in Dorset, was already famous enough to be the subject of an engraving when George III was on the throne. Ancient trees are to be celebrated. You do not have to be a New Age traveller or Prince Charles to revere them. Visiting a tree such as the Bowthorpe Oak in Lincolnshire, so hospitably big that the hollow trunk was used as a dining room in the 18th century, makes me reach for the dictionary. Numinous is the best word I can come up with. Old Knobbley in Essex, its name a true reflection of its appearance, has moved someone sufficiently to create a website about it ( www.oldknobbley.com ). Trees have always seemed sacred (think of the tree of Calvary, as the cross of the crucifixion is sometimes called); their redemptive quality appears all the greater in the age of climate change. Now, here is the really fabulous thing: we have far more ancient trees in this country than anywhere else in northern Europe. " Basically they stop at Dover, " says Ted Green, the force behind the Ancient Tree Forum, which documents the phenomenon. Just as Trinity College, Cambridge, is supposed to be home to more Nobel Prize winners than the whole of France, so Richmond Park supports more 500-year-old trees than France and Germany combined. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/12/01/eatrees101.xml 11) Three volunteers and two members of the trust have been coppicing, laying trees and hedges to increase the range of habitats, and also removing litter and clearing ponds. Stuart Baker is a countryside management student and has volunteered his time for work experience. He said: " It's hard work but it certainly keeps you warm. " Historically, the forest was coppiced so we are trying to return it to coppiced woodland and how it would have been managed. " At the end of the day you can see what you have cleared and know when you come back next year you will see the growth that has come through. " At the moment it looks like a bomb site but next year it will look like a woodland glade. " Lisa Adams, reserve officer at the Northamptonshire Wildlife Trust, is also working at the site. She said: " Coppicing is a traditional managing method for woodland. You cut back strands of trees and it provides a mosaic of habitats. " It reinvigorates and prolongs the life of lots of old trees and various species. " The King's Wood remains one of the best examples of the medieval Rockingham Forest, which is initially thought to have survived so long because of its value as a preserve for the king's deer and later because of the expansion of Corby around it. http://www.northantset.co.uk/corby/Ancient-woodland-gets-chopped-down.3540606.jp Africa: 12) China and Brazil will give Africa free satellite imaging of its landmass to help the continent respond to threats like deforestation, desertification and drought, the two countries said Wednesday. A land imaging satellite launched by the two governments at a cost of some 100 million dollars in September, would relay images, updated monthly, to four ground stations for dissemination to African states. " How much is it worth for (Africa) to have an up-to-date mapping of its agricultural areas? It is priceless, " Gilberto Camara, director general of Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, told AFP. He was attending a gathering in Cape Town arranged by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) on new ways to monitor and share information on the Earth's ailing health. China and Brazil announced their plan on the sidelines of the conference, saying they wished to contribute to sustainable development and risk management in Africa. " This (mapping) will empower governments and organisations in Africa to use satellite imagery to monitor and respond to emerging natural disasters, deforestation, desertification and droughts, threats to agricultural production and food security and emerging health risks, " a statement said. The data would be made available to environmental and research institutions, as well as public and private bodies responsible for land management. " Does anyone know how much rain forest exist in Africa? " asked Camara. " No. Does anybody know the total area used for crops in the whole of Africa? This is all about forward planning. " And what do Brazil and China get in return? " A better world, " he said. " If there is one lesson in the history of humanity, it is that generosity pays itself in the long run. " Everybody needs to manage the planet. Everything we do, each one of us, has consequences. " http://www.spacemart.com/reports/China_Brazil_give_Africa_free_satellite_land_im\ ages_999.html 13) The forests of Africa cover 520 million hectares and constitute more than 17 per cent of the world's forests. They are largely concentrated in the tropical zones of Western and Central, Eastern and Southern Africa. With more than 109 million hectares of forests, Congo Kinshasa alone has more than 20 per cent of the region's forest cover, while Northern Africa has little more than 9%, principally along the coast of the western Mediterranean countries, according to FAO. This still, however, makes Africa on of the continents with the lowest forest cover rate. African forests include dry tropical forests in the Sahel, Eastern and Southern Africa, humid tropical forests in Western and Central Africa montane forests, diverse sub-tropical forest and woodland formations in Northern Africa and the southern tip of the continent, as well as mangroves in the coastal zones. Some basic facts about deforestation in Africa: 1) Almost 6.8 million square kilometers of Africa were originally forested. 2) Over 90% of West Africa's original forest has been lost; only a small part of what remains qualifies as frontier forest. 3) Within the Congo Basin, between 1980 and 1995, an area about the size of Jamaica was cleared each year (1.1 million ha). 4) During 1990-95 the annual rate of total deforestation in Africa was about 0.7 per cent. 5) In Africa, for every 28 trees cut down, only one tree is replanted. 6) Large blocks of intact natural forest only remain in Central Africa, particularly in Congo Kinshasa, Gabon, and Congo Brazzaville. 7) Since 1957, two thirds of Gabon's forests have been logged, are currently being logged, or were slated for logging as logging concessions in 1997. http://www.afrol.com/features/10278 Gambia: 14) He said the department was sponsored by Germany to conduct an inventory in1980 with the use of satellite and the objective was to determine the quality of wood in The Gambia, including medicine, firewood and timber. He noted that after the inventory they came out with a proposal to ban the production of charcoal in The Gambia in 1980 but allowed importation. Mr. Cham said the licensing and permitting also came to regulate the use of the forest. Mr. Cham said that only individuals with valid permit and license are allowed to chop down trees in limited numbers and even there it is only for local consumption but not export. He said individuals are issued license through the Alkalolu, chiefs and the regional officer of the region who made the final stamp on the permit. Mr. Cham noted that on leased lands the individual is free to chop down trees. He said that the Department of State for Local Government and Lands sometimes overpower them and lease certain areas of land where there are important species of trees for forestry. Mr. Cham added that sometimes too certain individuals issued licenses to people to export wood but now there is a total ban of that which is supported by the government. Group presentations were done by the participants and a group presented on the past, present and future access to forest resources. They said that in the past, there was easy access to water but now, as a result of deforestation, as a result of deforestation there is low rainfall. He said there was also easy access to firewood and enough trees in the forest. They added that the present situation is there are few big trees and the only available ones are ironwood, mahogany, rosewood (keno) and bush mango. They indicated that there is the possibilities of diversifying to bony tree and if deforestation is not controlled, no tree will be available in future and that can lead to poor qualities of products. They recommended that reforestation, caring and nurturing of plants, proper supervision by the Forestry Department and encouragement of community participation in forestry should be enhanced. http://allafrica.com/stories/200711280293.html Angola: 15) The purpose of this forest project management is to find effective manager role of poverty through improved forest management, with community participation, specifically, by tribal forest-dependent communities (regions), to assume full responsibility for the development of forest project management. The three main components include: 1) the establishment of an enabling environment for community forest management, by supporting policy, and institutional changes, as well as capacity building, both of the government, community organizations, and nongovernmental organizations. The Government's institutional framework will be strengthened, to allow the implementation of community-based forest management, while project management support will be provided, to include monitoring and evaluation, consulting services and studies, and operational costs; 2) forest management, focused on improving the productivity management duties, manager power and politics, the way for conservation of forest and wildlife and environment and, 3) forest project management, to improve forest model measures for adverse impacts. Future Forest project: Condition Modeling - Projection of forest landscape conditions based on land management and policy scenarios. Evaluation of the extent of change between current forest conditions and possible future conditions and the implications to wildlife habitat and other forest resources Managers and planners need better information about historical and potential future fire regimes and their effects on vegetation patterns to increase the likelihood of success of forest planning efforts. Under altered climatic regimes, shifts in potential vegetation types and modifications to new form of insects and fire regimes may have dramatic effects on potential future old forest amounts and their distribution across landscapes. For scenarios of potential futures () plan to simulate changes resulting from current and altered climate regimes and various levels of management, using a dynamic vegetation model to describe potential future shifts in the fire regime and vegetation patterns under altered climate regimes. Results will be useful to managers and policymakers involved in forest plan revision and project-level planning in fire-prone landscapes.http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/11/369100.shtml Congo: 16) NGOs in the Republic of Congo have urged the country's president to adopt a draft law aimed at protecting indigenous people, who, they say, are often discriminated against and whose rights are violated. The appeal was made at news conference on 27 November by the Congolese human rights watchdog Observatoire Congolais des Droits de l'Homme (OCDH) and its partners, a few days after the launch of an international petition to the president to initiate a process of adopting legislation on the rights of indigenous people. The petition was initiated by the Rainforest Foundation, a global organisation which supports people living in and around the world's rainforests, with support from the University of Arizona, and was signed by more than 1,500 people. In July, OCDH called for the swift adoption of a law drafted in 2006 to guard against abuses suffered by indigenous peoples. The draft of the law, a first in Africa, was developed with input from OCDH and forest communities with the Rainforest Foundation. According to official statistics, about 700,000 indigenous people live in central Africa, mainly in the Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Cameroon and the Central African Republic. In August, a national network to promote their interests was formed in Congo. The Réseau National des Peuples autochtones du Congo (RENAPAC) was formed after the first forum for central Africa's indigenous people, held in August 2007. " Like our foreign partners, we launch a call to the president of the republic to adopt this law, " said Roch Euloge Nzobo, in charge of the programmes at the OCDH. Congo's President Denis Sassou Nguesso has expressed willingness to facilitate the adoption of the draft law. Human rights campaigners have, however, said the process seems to have stalled. http://allafrica.com/stories/200711280958.html Ghana: 17) Current estimates of Ghana's Forest Cover stands at less than 1 million hectares, the Forestry Commission has said. The country's forests are said to be depleting at an alarming rate and affecting forest dependant communities and the nation at large. " At the beginning of the twentieth century, Ghana had an estimated forest cover of 8.2 million hectares. By independence, the forest cover had shrunk to about four million hectares, " the commission said. It is estimated that since the country's independence from Britain in 1957 the annual deforestation rate has been averaging 65,000 hectares per year. Deputy Minister of Lands and Forestry, Clement Eledi once attributed the problem to the failure of Ghana's Forestry and Wildlife policies and strategies to ensure that forest and wildlife resources were managed on economically viable, socially beneficial and environmentally sound principles. Mining alone is said to deplete two million acres of forested land each year. Currently very little closed forest is said to remain outside the forest reserve network with much of it in small-scattered patches in swamps and sacred groves. Environmentalists say that granting the miners permits to enable them operate in the reserves will result in the decimation of the remaining forest tucked away in the reserve. http://allafrica.com/stories/200711300831.html The Ghana Timer Association (GTA) has appealed to the minister of Lands and Forestry, Madam Esther Obeng Dapaah to consider members of the association when it comes to the allocation of timber concessions for extraction of logs for export. Mr. Isaac Kofi Nketiah, the national treasurer of the GTA who made the appeal after swearing in of the newly elected executives of the association in Kumasi last week Friday noted that as an indigenous group one would have expected that they would be giving priority when it comes to distribution of timber concessions but the opposite is the case. Nketiah regretted that priority attention is rather giving to foreigners especially Lebanese and Syrian nationals who are operating in the sector whilst members of the GTA are relegated to the background. According to him the GTA was also making contributions towards the growth of the economy therefore it is unfair for them to be treated in such a way. He noted that they had raised issue several times but nothing concrete has been done about it. He was therefore hopeful that Madam Obeng Dapaah as a new sector minister would this time round listen to their plight. http://allafrica.com/stories/200711261560.html Kenya: 18) The study cites birds like the Sokoke scops owl, only found in Coast forests, the Taita white-eye and east coast akalat are some of the endangered species. " The species prefer undisturbed habitats. Endangered birds like the Sokoke scops owl is only found in Coastal forests composed of dense cynometra trees, preferring the denser habitat structure with no selective logging, " says the study conducted by Nature Kenya with the help of the Ornithology department of the National Museums of Kenya. It says many of the endangered species, like the Taita white-eye and east coast akalat prefer natural forests to plantations. " The Taita white-eye is absent in forest plantations but abundant in undisturbed indigenous forest fragments and the east coast akalat is absent in areas devoid of dead wood, " the document titled: Kenya's Important Bird Areas Status and Trend, says. The problem is that some of the important birds, which are under threat, are the ones that attract many bird watchers. Bird species decrease with the interference of the ecological balance in forests and all studies point a finger to human activities. This is because the activities, be they economic or social, affect population densities and distribution patterns of key bird species. The report shows a worrying trend, which must be reversed if the country is to reap from bird tourism. The study funded by BirdLife International and the UK-based Royal Society for Protection of Birds, says that from 2004 to last year, agricultural encroachment on bird habitats increased from 22 per cent to 62 and over-grazing, due to increased animal population, from 43 per cent to 62. http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=39 & newsid\ =111474 Ecuador: 19) " Every step we take is watched, and if we voice a protest, Repsol turns the military on us, " says Cahuiya. " If we do not comply, they threaten or beat us. There have even been cases where the military have killed Waorani people and thrown the bodies in the river. " No one except the Waoranis, whose territory includes the land on which the oil field is located, may pass the military roadblocks surrounding the operations without permission from the oil company. This prevents human rights organizations and sometimes even provincial authorities from investigating the conditions under which the indigenous people are forced to live with the oil fields right in their homes. The Waorani people's constant cries for help, and attempts to report the injustices suffered from the companies and the military in recent years have been relatively fruitless, since outsiders are systematically stopped by the military controls. Anthropologist José Proano from Acción Ecológica has worked with indigenous peoples in the oil region of the Ecuadorian Amazon for several years. He relates that human rights and environmental activists working with indigenous people are often persecuted and sometimes murdered, as was the fate of the well-know environmental activist Angel Shingre in the oil town of Coca, where Skanska has its regional base. " In Ecuador, those who oppose the oil industry are terrorized to the extent that many are forced to flee and give up the fight, " says Proano. " The oil regions in the Amazon are like corporate colonies, where the national defense forces are just another of the industry's own paramilitary bandit forces. " Repsol-YPF, however, is not the only one of Skanska's customers that employs military protection. The Brazilian oil company Petrobras, which also operates in Ecuador's Amazon region, is another company known for its dubious contracts with the national forces. In another part of the Yasuni National Park (in what is called Block 31) and area where Petrobras and Skanska had their permits revoked in 2005 due to illegal operations, Petrobras had a secret contact with the military that remains classified to this day. http://ecuador-rising.blogspot.com/2007/11/ecuador-oil-and-militarized-corporate\ ..html India: 20) Ms Karat brought up the issue of " fate of the Forest Rights Bill " and said that a large number of tribals were being " evicted " from forests. She charged the Centre with " subverting the will of Parliament " by not notifying the rules of the Act even a year after it had been unanimously been passed and took objection to one portion of the act — relating to the identification of critical wildlife habitats — being implemented without the rules being brought into effect. " Instead of recognising the rights of adivasis in all forests areas, as mandated by the Act, the Government of India is changing the sequencing the Act by these actions, " she said. She said that it was " shocking " and " completely violative of Parliamentary procedures " that for one year after the act was passed unanimously by Parliament, the rules had not been notified. " As a result all over the country in many states a large number of Adivasis are being evicted from their homes and lands in the forests, " she said. The Forest Rights Act, which was passed by Parliament during the Winter session of Parliament past year, has not been notified and its rules not implemented due opposition from a powerful section of the Congress led by the arguments of the wildlife lobby. This lobby argues that tribals must be evicted from critical wildlife habitats before the Forest Rights Act, which confers land rights on tribals, is brought into effect to protect endangered animals such as tigers. However, another section of the Congress, made up of leaders from states with significant tribal populations and going to the polls in the near future, have asked for the notification of the Act first — that is handing over of land rights to tribals — before getting them to leave 'inviolate' zones in forests. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/PoliticsNation/Oppn_takes_on_govt_over_Fores\ ts_Rights_Act _logjam/articleshow/2576527.cms Madagascar: 21) Madagascar ranks as one of the world's top extinction hotspots because of its high endemism and high rate of habitat degradation. Global climate phenomena such as El Niño Southern Oscillations may have confounding impacts on the island's threatened biota but these effects are less well known. We performed a demographic study of Propithecus edwardsi, a lemur inhabiting the eastern rainforest of Madagascar, to evaluate the impact of deforestation, hunting, and El Niño on its population and to re-evaluate present endangerment categorization under the IUCN. Over 18 years of demographic data, including survival and fecundity rates were used to parameterize a stochastic population model structured with three stage classes (yearlings, juveniles, and adults). Results demonstrate that hunting and deforestation are the most significant threats to the population. Analysis of several plausible scenarios and combinations of threat revealed that a 50% population decline within three generations was very likely, supporting current IUCN classification. However, the analysis also suggested that changing global cycles may pose further threat. The average fecundity of lemurs was over 65% lower during El Niño years. While not as severe as deforestation or hunting, if El Niño events remain at the current high frequency there may be negative consequences for the population. We suggest that it is most critical for this species continued survival to create more protected areas, not only to thwart hunting and deforestation, but also to give this endangered lemur a better chance to recover from and adapt to altered climate cycles in the future. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL & _udi=B6V5X-4R71DTH-1 & _user=1\ 0 & _coverDate=11 %2F26%2F2007 & _rdoc=1 & _fmt= & _orig=search & _sort=d & view=c & _acct=C000050221 & _version\ =1 & _urlVersion= 0 & _userid=10 & md5=c14cf3ddcf094360092488eb8844ccc9 China: 22) Methane (CH4), the main component in natural gas, is a simple hydrocarbon and a potent greenhouse gas. It is most commonly released by organic matter decaying in oxygen-free environments, such as swamps and animal guts. The original finding, published in January 2006, that green plants emit methane in the presence of atmospheric oxygen1 seemed to turn upside down textbook knowledge. It was clear that if global vegetation does release substantial amounts of the gas, one or more of the known methane sources must have been considerably overestimated (see The methane mystery). But those initial measurements, by Frank Keppler of the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg Physics, Germany, have proven hard to verify. Using a different experimental approach, other researchers failed to find evidence for any significant 'aerobic' methane emissions by plants. However, a Chinese–American team has now confirmed, with a very precise carbon-isotope method, that at least some plants do indeed emit measurable, if small, amounts of methane under aerobic conditions3. But the results suggest that the effect is not universal among plants. Zhi-Ping Wang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Botany in Nanxincun and his colleagues tested 44 different plant species which they had randomly collected around the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Ecosystem Research Station in Inner Mongolia. They put leaves or stems in gas-tight bottles, flushed the bottles with methane-free air (or alternatively with air containing small initial methane concentrations), and then let them rest in the dark at room temperature. When 10-20 hours later they determined methane concentration, they found that 7 out of 9 woody species — most notably the shrub Achillea frigida — had emitted aerobically produced methane. Herbaceous plants and grasses had not, they report in Environmental Science and Technology 3. Nature: published online 28 November 2007 Papua New Guinea: 23) The International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) has allocated US$473,000 (K1.2 million) to enhance forest law enforcement in Papua New Guinea. This will be done by addressing recommendations from the Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) seminar held in Port Moresby in October last year. The US$473,000 was part of US$10.1 million (K29.53 million) which the ITTO governing body, the International Tropical Timber Council (ITTC) committed for new projects and activities for the conservation, sustainable management, use and trade of tropical forest resources at the 43rd ITTC session held in Yokohama, Japan last Nov 5 to 10. Apart from the FLEG project funding, other projects also approved and funded by ITTO for implementation in 2008 are US$105,000 (K276, 534) to assist PNG to undertake forest inventory, US$79, 920 (K210,482) for reforestation of tropical savannah grassland with high value teak in PNG and US$54, 450 (K143, 403) for training to promote the adoption of reduced impact logging. Dike Kari, director of policy at the National Forest Service (NFS), said the funding by ITTO was the first time for an international organisation to assist PNG to address alleged illegal activities in the forestry sector. PNG's forestry sector was often controversial with allegations of illegal logging levelled against the Government which regulates the country's forestry sector. Facts from this study would help the Government correct where necessary and for all stakeholders to resolve issues. " With the funding from ITTO, we can now clear allegations of poor monitoring, logging companies failure to abide by set terms and conditions, and other allegations made against the government on illegal logging activities. http://www.thenational.com.pg/112707/Business1.htm Borneo: 24) Lashed together four abreast, a raft of illegal logs seems to take forever to snake down a winding, peat-stained stream in Borneo. More than 100 metres wide and guided with a pole by a sullen logger, it drifts through a tropical peat forest, past ramshackle logging camps, the silence broken by a distant chainsaw buzz and occasional tree fall. Here is the dark heart of the plunder of Indonesia's forests. Loggers have ravaged the trees, farmers have fire-cleared, and palm-oil companies now want to drain most of the remaining Sungai Putri ( " daughter of the river " ) forest to plant their lucrative crop. Police and officials pocket bribes, unconcerned at the fate of this environmental treasure trove. It is populated by endangered orang-utans, who swing above and make their massive nests in the treetops - but those who have to walk its paths sink in the sodden peat-mire below. Palm oil will bring quick wealth, with promises of greater riches as 57,000 hectares are drained to enable villagers to burn and plant. They know little of global warming here and cannot comprehend that the forest's peat - rich decayed trees and organic matter between four and 13 metres deep - holds masses of carbon, potentially worth millions of dollars if protected under proposed changes to the Kyoto Protocol. Scientists calculate that clearing Sungai Putri could release 55 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually. Such forest-related emissions from Indonesia have already made it the world's third-largest greenhouse gas emitter. Over the next two weeks in Bali the world's leaders will begin to forge a new strategy to reduce the growing threat of global warming. They will consider a radical expansion of the Kyoto Protocol to pay countries and companies that exploit forests to protect them instead. Researchers, environmentalists and developing nations argue that without stopping forest destruction - which accounts for a fifth of all greenhouse emissions - the battle to halt climate change is doomed. http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/for-peats-sake--stopping-the-rot-in-logging-ind\ ustry/2007/11/3 0/1196394619054.html Kalimantan: 25) The boss drapes across a branch, languidly extending a massive bronze-fringed arm to bend a 15-metre tall tree close and stuff a handful of leaves in his mouth. Unperturbed, the baleful brown eyes of this dominant male orangutan stare down. It is our Indonesian illegal logger guides who appear awestruck - " besar (big) " , they whisper, " he the boss " . One of more than 500 endangered orangutans in a newly-discovered population in Indonesian Borneo, West Kalimantan, the boss is blissfully unaware of plans to clear this tropical peat forest for a palm oil plantation. Unaware that his territory sits at the centre of a pivotal global debate at next week's climate change conference in Bali. Global warming might just save the boss and his ecosystem. Not only are environmentalists outraged by the possible destruction, but these trees spring from carbon-rich, metres-deep peat - potentially worth millions under a proposed post-Kyoto Protocol deal to pay for the preservation of forests. Clearing peat forests has made Indonesia the world's third largest greenhouse gas emitter, sending more than 3000 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere a year. It is driven by greed, with palm oil and timber barons lining the pockets of officials from Kalimantan to Jakarta - even Indonesia's Forestry Minister has blocked prosecution of illegal loggers. http://redapes.org/news-updates/one-last-chance-for-the-boss/ Indonesia: 26) If it is rapacious business interests that are destroying our forests, then perhaps it might be ingenious business responses that could help save them -- especially if such " commercial conservation " can generate as much money as exploiting the forests. In the Indonesian context, there may be up to US$2 billion in potential annual revenues that could be generated just by preserving the country's forests and offering them as a carbon-dioxide (CO2) " sinks " on the global carbon-trading market. " We should think of forests beyond timber, rattan and minerals. The most valuable aspect of a forest is actually its ability to retain and absorb carbon (CO2). That's what many people don't quite grasp yet, " Laode M. Kamaluddin, regional director of the non-profit Borneo Tropical Rainforest Foundation (BTRF), said during a workshop on forest carbon-trading Thursday. " So, our forests should be seen as manageable and durable asset, and no longer just as an exhaustible commodity. " Building on this " business-like mind-set " regarding the carbon value of forests, Laode said Indonesia should not miss out on the already existing -- and growing -- carbon trading market to raise funds for better managing and conserving its forests, and doing so in a " business-like manner " . This includes establishing professionally managed bodies for forest conservation projects, which could work closely with local communities, and ensure that the projects turned out as profitable as if the forests were used for commercial purposes. http://www.thejakartapost.com/misc/PrinterFriendly.asp 27) Since 2000, 6,537 households near Rigil hill and Tangkit Tebak forest in West Lampung municipality have taken part in the " Forest Community " program, regreening the 12-hectare forest which was damaged by illegal logging. As an incentive, the villagers -- who work in groups -- are allowed to cultivate a part of the damaged forest for a five year term. Now, not only do they enjoy the harvests from their crops, but also benefit from the restored forest. " We're glad we have land to work on ... so that we can support ourselves, while protecting the environment, " a farmer, Erfan, said. The team responsible for the program consists of the village chief, officials from the environmental management board and forest conservation supervision unit, environmentalists and farmer organizations. The team supervises farmers in groups of 50 and manages land use, distribution, planning and licensing, which is required by people wishing to cultivate land in the area. The team also evaluates the performance of farmer groups each year. Farmers are not allowed to build houses or even shacks in the forest near their crops or to sell the land, or they will lose permission to use the land in the coming year. Rama said community-based forest management was the best way to prevent the forest from being damaged. " Farmers until now ... witness forest destruction but can do nothing. Now, with the forest management based in the community they can participate to protect it, and even bust the illegal loggers. " Rama said even though the Forest Community pilot project has gone well, there were still many obstacles in repairing damaged forests in other parts of the province, particularly in two national parks and one protected forest. He said Lampung faces rampant illegal logging activities which have damaged 60 percent of the 125,000-ha Way Kambas national park in East Lampung, 40 percent of the 365,000-ha Bukit Barisan Selatan national park and 40 percent of the 22,000-ha Wan Abdur Rahman protected forest in Bandar Lampung. http://cempaka-green.blogspot.com/2007/11/lampung-finds-community-solution-to.ht\ ml 28) " The heads of provinces, districts and mayors should no longer irresponsibly issue permits, " Media Indonesia quoted Yudhoyono as saying. Officials should also tighten monitoring and supervision of existing concessions and take firm action against violators, he added. " If they violate (their permits), especially when the violation is over the top, we can take legal steps, " the daily reported him as saying. Rapid deforestation of Indonesia's equatorial forests, which include carbon-rich peatland swamps, has made the country one of the worst emitters of greenhouse gases in the world. Deforestation has also been blamed for a series of floods and landslides that have struck the nation in recent years. " We see that the current condition comes from what took place in the past. We apologise, perhaps the issuance of permits was made without caution, " Yudhoyono said. His call comes as Indonesia prepares to host a UN climate change conference where nations will try to lay down the groundwork for an agreement to continue work of the Kyoto Protocol in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Reduce_forest_concessions_says_Indonesian_pres\ ident_report_99 9.html 29) They were given digital camera equipment and taught how to use it by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), which investigates and exposes environmental and wildlife crime, working with the Jakarta-based NGO Telapak. The two conservation groups have been working with tribal communities in Papua to help them protect their forests from unsustainable exploitation and illegal logging. A series of films released simultaneously in London and Jakarta, show the scale of destruction being caused to the forests which the villagers rely on almost entirely for food and shelter. One was shot by the Mooi people who live in the Sorong regency of West Papua. It shows the relationship between the Mooi and their dependence on the forest lands and features undercover filming of logging. Once a stretch of forest has been stripped bare it is replaced with palm oil plantations but in the process much of the wildlife - pigs, deer and birds which the villagers rely on for food - is driven out. The film questions whether the logging began even before a licence was granted for 32,000 hectares of Mooi land to be turned over for plantation in 2006. The film shows workers clearing the ancient forests with chain saws before bulldozers move in to level it for palm trees to be planted. Mooi women in the film say the destruction of vast swathes of their forest make it more difficult for them to continue with their traditional weaving crafts making household items and sleeping mats from tree bark. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/11/28/eaindo128.xml Australia: 30) The State Government sold the equivalent of 4745 MCGs of native forests to private timber companies last year for less than it cost the Government to fell the trees and ship them to the buyers. Despite selling the timber for $99 million, and other revenue of $4 million, VicForests ended in the red with a $17,000 loss once expenses such as haulage were taken out, according to the agency's annual report. VicForests is the quasi-government body charged with commercialising the state's forests. Most of the timber sold at a loss went into pulp. " We have got a situation where the three south-eastern state governments are underpricing the forest resources, " said Judith Ajani, an economist at the Australian National University who managed Victoria's forest policy in the 1980s. " This will favour those companies exporting native forest-based chip against those who have invested in plantations. " In an emailed response to The Sunday Age, VicForests chief executive David Pollard defended the result: " A loss of $17,000 is because the incurred expenses were greater than the revenue derived. " He added: " We expected to sell more wood during this period but our operations were disrupted because of the 2006-07 Great Divide bushfires. " He did not clarify whether greater sales would have led to a proportional increase in haulage and harvest costs. The timber take this year was 1.59 million cubic metres, down 243,000 cubic metres from the previous year. In a bid to improve profits, VicForests underwent a shake-up this year, taking on all harvesting and haulage. The agency sold about two-thirds of the trees, including 100-year-old mountain and alpine ash, for pulp. It charged mills $9.97 a cubic metre, or $8.52 a tonne, plus delivery, Mr Pollard said. Plantation pulp, largely owned by management investment schemes, on average sells for about $35 a cubic metre, not including delivery, according to a survey of prospectuses. Once the timber is processed, the pulp sells for about $US860 ($A971) a tonne. Mr Pollard said Victorian native-forest pulp was cheaper than pulp from other states because of the haulage distances and its poorer quality, particularly compared with plantations. http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/how-to-turn-99-million-worth-of-trees-int\ o-a-17000-loss /2007/12/01/1196394689058.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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