Guest guest Posted December 5, 2007 Report Share Posted December 5, 2007 Today for you 30 new articles about earth's trees! (260th edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com --British Columbia: 1) Save Cameron river giants, 2) The Tzeporah Berman era, 3) Blewett Watershed Committee to stop logging, --Arizona: 4) Mark Rey says enviros don't fight back much anymore --USA: 5) Impacts of OHVs, 6) Logging used to be for homes, 7) Catalog campaign, 8) Planting seeds instead of trees, --Canada: 9) Northern migration of Forest species, 10) Stupid to the Last Drop, --UK: 11) Trees or housing? 12) Coppicing justified? 13) Hoisted above Sherwood, --Scotland: 14) Bagpipe makers threaten rare African tree, 15) Scottish Forest Alliance, --Congo: 16) Reducing CO2 emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, --Cameroon: 17) Creation of Mt. Cameroon Park, 18)Embezzlement and mismanagement --Paraguay: 19) Most important tract of Atlantic Forest remaining, --Guyana; 20) Carbon Conference news item, 21) BBC science expedition, --Brazil: 22) Carbon Conference news item --China: 23) Guangzhao Forest Biotechnology has 18,600 hectares of plantations --India: 24) Tadoba Tiger Reserve killing tigers, 25) Officials are doing illegal logging, --Bangladesh: 26) Sunderbands forests damaged by cyclones --Singapore: 27) Palm Oil empire keeps building and building --Sumatra: 28) Bentayan Wildlife Reserves threatened by industrial scale logging, --Philippines: 29) Planting fruit bat habitat, 30) Seizing what's sourced illegally, 31) $300K in Central Luzon lost to private corporations, --Borneo: 32) Save Borneo Save The World, --Malaysia: 33) Those who love our forests, --Indonesia: 34) 15 trees planted per divorce, 35) Defenders of the Tribal Boundaries, --Australia: 36) Land leased to farmers who improve habitat, --World-wide: 37) What is REDD? 38) Perverse economics, 39) Illegal logging stats. British Columbia: 1) We turned down a disused logging road, then on to an even less-used spur, following it uphill for a couple of kilometres, then down again until it petered out in the underbrush. Now we continued by easing our way over deadfalls and through tangles of salal. The trail stopped abruptly. Before us was a precipice. In the slippery conditions, I stayed well back from the edge but I got close enough to look into the abyss. Far below, maybe the height of a 50-storey building down, I glimpsed the icy river roaring among a grove of immense trees. " That's it, " Tanner said. " Cameron River Canyon. Old growth doesn't get any older than that. This is about as pristine as pristine can be. " Then he turned to follow Murdock through a notch in the rock and down a narrow, barely defined path. Footing was treacherous but I managed to traverse the slopes hanging onto saplings and exposed roots. After half an hour the path brought us back to the cliff face. We worked our way aslant down the steeply inclined piles of mossy rubble, past cave openings and undercuts until we came to one of the wonders we were looking for. A massive western yew, its ancient, slow-growing trunk bigger around than my arm span, twisted away from the cliff. I pushed on to where the river raced past. Here some of the biggest red cedars and Douglas fir I've seen soared up toward the thin ribbon of sky. They were huge, magnificent, probably 800, perhaps 1,000 years old. Imagine that, trees already growing when Ethelred the Unready was king of England. I paused and listened to the wind shaking snow from the branches, the white noise of the river strangely muffled by the forest. Then my three guides showed me the blue paint, the fluorescent pink marking tape. Incredibly, all these trees are marked for cutting, some within a stride of the river's edge. " This remnant of the old forest survived because they couldn't get the timber out if they cut it, " Murdock told me. " Not any more. These are all planned for helicopter logging. " http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=0537c661-a781-42\ 91-b161-45a110446d4a 2) November finds Tzeporah Berman spending a few quiet weeks with her family at their home on Cortes Island, near the haunting Desolation Sound on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast. She is pleased about the haphazard cellphone reception and reflects on a busy, successful year for ForestEthics, the non-profit forest protection group she co-founded in 2000. First, there was her appearance in the lauded Leonardo DiCaprio-narrated environment documentary The 11th Hour, which opened in August. In it, she describes the perilous state of the world's forest system, 80 per cent of which has already disappeared. Then there was October's announcement by B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell about the province's plan to protect 2.2 million hectares of old-growth forests to help the dwindling numbers of mountain caribou rally from an all-time population low of about 1,900 animals. Saving this globally unique inland temperate rainforest had been a ForestEthics cornerstone project for the past five years. ForestEthics sprang from the Clayoquot Sound anti-logging protests on Vancouver Island in the 1990s, which she took part in. With staff in Canada, the United States and Chile, the organization aims to protect endangered forests by determining which are endangered and approaching companies that buy the products made from logged trees in those forests. ForestEthics asks the companies to stop purchasing those products; if the firms refuse, they are met with protests on websites and in advertisements. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20071204.SRSOCIALBERMAN04/TPSto\ ry/Environment 3) The Kootenay Lake Forest District requested that Atco Wood Products salvage mountain pine beetle attacked pine in the Eagle Creek drainage area. The Blewett Watershed Committee thought direction to log there was not reasonable until previously logged cutblocks had been given sufficient time to recover, as it may affect water quality. This investigation examines whether it was reasonable for the district manager to approve the harvesting, and whether or not it is the Ministry of Forests and Range's responsibility to monitor water quality. Click here to read the full report http://www.fpb.gov.bc.ca/complaints/IRC130/IRC130ml.pdf Arizona: 4) Recently, those groups have been more open to working with federal officials on developing plans to trim and to thin overgrown areas, rather than see these forests erupt with out-of-control wildfires that do far more harm to the environment than responsible logging ever could. My impression was confirmed last week during a visit to the Tribune last week by Mark Rey, an undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture who oversees the Forest Service. Rey is well-known in environmental and forest management circles simply because he's been on the job throughout President Bush's time in office. He has become one of the administration's leading spokesmen on national forest policies, frequently testifying before Congress. Rey confirmed in our meeting that environmental groups have been less confrontational lately, at least in Arizona. This is partly because of forest science expert Wally Convington at Northern Arizona University, whose research have proven that forests which are actively logged, or at least cleared of small saplings, limit the spread of wildfires. Forests left untouched by human hands that never receive the " cleansing " treatment of natural brush fires are the areas that explode into raging infernos, destroying hundreds of thousands of acres. Ironically, the previous collapse and disappearance of Arizona's logging industry also has played a role. Rey said those areas of the country where logging still exists are far more likely to try to block every effort at forest restoration. These areas haven't suffered the worst effects of wildfires (because logging has kept the forests in relatively better health) and so residents and local special-interest groups still haven't made the connection between proper forest treatment and preventing disasters. http://whatiknow.freedomblogging.com/2007/12/03/some-environmentalists-feds-mend\ -fences-over-forest-management/ USA: 5) Those who have embraced riding off-highway vehicles are wont to say that any problems are caused by " a few bad apples. " But this book graphically shows that it is the technology embodied in these vehicles plus, most importantly, the consciousness of their riders - their attitude towards the natural world - which demolishes the " bad apple " self-serving mythology. This book gives examples of successful struggles by environmentalists to severely restrict thrillcraft use, e.g. in the Adirondack Forest Preserve and in the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire. The use of off-highway vehicles in a work-related capacity is not opposed. But overwhelmingly with thrillcraft, we have a journey that begins ostensibly with recreation but ends up as wreckreation. These machines provide thrills, not transportation. There are essays in _Thrillcraft_ by 26 authors. These include people like James Kunstler, " The Twilight of Mechanized Lumpenleisure: An Elegy for Bread, Circuses, and Jet Skis " and Brian Horejsi " A Wicked Conflict: The Impacts of Motorized Encroachment on Grizzly Bears. " The book was published by the Foundation for Deep Ecology and is distributed by the Chelsea Green Publishing Company in Vermont. If you look at the Chelsea Green web site at http://www.chelseagreen.com/2007/items/thrillcraft 6) In one of the most ironic twists of logging booms over the past couple decades, many people still believe that the end result was construction of homes to satisfy the needs and dreams of ordinary people. There's only one problem. The popular perception is wrong. The consequences of this mistaken perception are still not widely reported. But they're certainly no secret. By 1995, for example, Winton Pitcoff could write a penetrating analysis of America's housing crisis for March/April issue of Dollars & Sense. Pitcoff reported that, " Thirty years ago the nation boasted a surplus of housing affordable to low income people. Today there is a shortage of more than four million units. " This loss was a matter of public record. By 1995, the U.S. Census Bureau's American Housing Survey would report a " 43 percent decline over the last two decades in the number of low-rent units in the private housing market. " At the same time, out in the forests, many species were seeing their own homes wrecked by reckless logging that fed a boom in building bigger, more energy-guzzling, and more un-affordable houses. This mutual decline continued under Democrats as well as Republicans. Pitcoff explained that the supply of affordable housing declined by 900,000 units just from 1996-1998 alone. " http://www.counterpunch.org/olsen12012007.html 7) Right now activists across North America are gathering for a Day of Action to tell one of the catalog industry's worst offenders -- Sears -- that they've made Santa's naughty list! With 70-plus actions taking place today across the United States and Canada, Sears is hearing loud and clear that it's time to end their senseless destruction of Endangered Forests for catalogs and to adopt a sustainable paper policy. Every year Sears Holdings Corporation sends out an estimated 425 million catalogs! They also just released their holiday Wish Book, nearly 200 pages long in the US, and over 1000 pages in the Canadian version. Sears catalogs are made from some of the world's most threatened Endangered Forests, including North America's Boreal Forest, which is home to threatened caribou. Our wish is for Sears to stop destroying Endangered Forests! Sears has been using the same old forest practices to make their catalogs since the 1880s. Other catalog companies like Victoria's Secret and Patagonia have made huge steps to improve their paper policies, and it's time for Sears to enter the 21st century and adopt sustainable business practices. Send 'em a letter: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/281/t/3931/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=13412 8) I spent an hour in late November planting two acres of bottom land to trees. If that sounds like a prodigious task to accomplish in such a short time, not to worry. All I had to do was walk back and forth across the plot, dropping black walnuts on the ground in rows about 25 feet apart. I dropped one about every two feet— too thick really but to take into account the possibility that some won't germinate and that squirrels might eat a few. I had gathered the nuts, still in their husks, from under a mature tree along our creek. When finished, I drove my tractor's tires over the walnuts to squish them into the soft ground a little so that they would have good contact with the soil. That was all the planting necessary. Next spring, the walnuts will swell and crack open and a root sprout will burrow into the soil so quickly you can almost see it in motion. I admire people who are busting their guts and their backs transplanting thousands of little seedling trees to renew woodland, backyard plantings or urban forests, but it is so much easier to just plant the seeds, and invariably they will surpass the transplants in growth. In nature, all seeds, including weed seeds, grass seed, etc. fall on the surface of the earth in winter and sprout when weather conditions are right. In the grove of trees our house sits, thousands of maple seedlings that have fallen on the forest floor come up every spring without any help from anybody. Along our creek, black walnut and ash seedlings sprout and grow like weeds from a few old mother trees, also without any help. All oaks, hickories and just about any tree will do the same in their proper climate. Squirrels do bury acorns and nuts, but trees don't need squirrels to increase and multiply. In a natural situation, where seed-producing trees are present, seedlings grow thick enough that they will self-prune and prune each other into a stand of nice, clear trunks. Without human labor, they shade out smaller seedlings, their own and each other's lower limbs and eventually competing weeds and bushes. All that pruning advice that forestry handbooks wax so earnestly about will only gain you about three years, hardly worth the labor for trees that need 50 years to grow to marketable maturity. http://organictobe.org/ Canada: 9) The most extensive and detailed study to date of 130 North American tree species concludes that expected climate change this century could shift their ranges northward by hundreds of kilometers and shrink the ranges by more than half. The study is by Daniel W. McKenney of the Canadian Forest Service and his colleagues. Ranges may decrease sharply if trees cannot disperse in altered conditions. McKenney's study is based on an extensive data-gathering effort and thus more comprehensive than studies based on published range maps. It includes data from Canada as well as from the United States. Observations of where trees are found are used to define the " climate envelope " of each species. If the trees were assumed to respond to climate change by dispersing their progeny to more favorable locations, McKenney and colleagues found, ranges of the studied species would move northward by some 700 kilometers and decrease in size by an average of 12 percent (with some increasing while others decreased). If the species were assumed unable to disperse, the average expected range shift was 320 kilometers, and " drastic " range reductions of 58 percent were projected. The authors believe that most species will probably fall somewhere between these two extremes of ability to disperse. The climate measures studied were chosen to represent important gradients for plants: heat and moisture. Two climate change scenarios were modeled. One assumed that carbon dioxide emissions would start to decrease during the coming century, the other that they would continue to increase. Each scenario was investigated with three well-known models of global climate, with broadly similar results. The authors note that their study investigated only a sample of the 700 or so tree species in North America, and that under climate change, new species might colonize the southern part of the continent from tropical regions. A companion article by the same authors provides more detail about their climate envelope method as applied to one species, the sugar maple. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071203090131.htm 10) ForestEthics co-founder Tzeporah Berman is hand-delivering 100 copies of Stupid to the Last Drop - donated by publisher Random House Canada - to heads of state and environmental ministers meeting in Bali. " It's unbelievable that Canada continues to develop the largest fossil fuel project in the world and isolate itself internationally, " said Tzeporah Berman of ForestEthics. " My hope is that by delivering copies of Stupid to the Last Drop to government delegates in Bali that a few lightbulbs might go off. If ever there's a time for eye popping bedtime reading, it's now. " Stupid To The Last Drop, by Canadian investigative reporter William Marsden, reports how Alberta is drilling itself to death, impacting the environment in an ongoing bid to feed the US hunger for oil with no thought to conservation or Canada's long-term needs. The book looks at the increasingly violent geopolitical forces that are gathering as the world's gas and oil resources dwindle and the Age of Oil begins its inevitable slide. Louise Dennys, Executive Publisher of Knopf Canada and Random House Canada, says, " William Marsden has revealed just how shocking and urgent the situation is-and the degree to which Canada is right now responsible for wreaking colossal, uncontrolled environmental damage-leveling the northern Boreal forest to get at the oil sands, digging, drilling and blasting our way to oblivion for the sake of greed and the energy business. " With books in hand, Tzeporah Berman is also in Bali speaking about the climate change impacts of logging Canada's Boreal forest - the world's largest terrestrial carbon storehouse - during the weeklong meeting. " Canada has an opportunity to change course and be a climate leader by committing to absolute emission reduction targets and supporting new UN forest rules that recognize the importance of conserving the planet's major carbon storehouses, Canada's very own boreal and temperate forests. " http://www.forestethics.org/article.php?id=1970 UK: 11) There are many old trees in Corfe Mullen, and part of the area due for housing development includes an ancient copse. Trees are such great habitats for wildlife and play such an important part in all our lives that it seems only reasonable to want to protect them. Luckily lots of other people feel the same way, and this year the Woodland Trust launched the Ancient Tree Hunt, Mapping a Future for Ancient Trees. In the words of The Woodland Trust " The Ancient Tree Hunt (ATH) involves thousands of people in finding and mapping all the fat, old trees across the UK and is right at the heart of the Woodland Trust's ancient tree conservation work. It will create a comprehensive living database of ancient trees and it's the first step towards cherishing and caring for them " . So if you think you have any ancient trees near to where you live, how about recording them on the Ancient Tree Hunt website. I've started to do this in my " patch " and it's surprising how many you can find and how attached you get to them. I have even started going back and looking at them in the different seasons, and checking they are OK. It's also very good for your health to hug a tree on a regular basis! http://urbanextension.wordpress.com/2007/12/02/ancient-oaks/ 12) A volunteer group has moved to allay residents' fears over the chopping down of oak trees in ancient woodland. Members of the Castle Point Wildlife Group told a public meeting that cutting down selected trees in West Wood, Hadleigh, would help boost the flora and fauna. The group was granted a licence to manage the woodland, off Rayleigh Road, a year ago. The 80-acre site is owned by the Church Commission and leased by Castle Point Council. In the past month, coppicing work has got under way in the wood, guided by the Forestry Commission, but the move sparked worries from some residents. Stella Stewart, secretary of the wildlife group, said: " There were some concerns about oak trees being taken down and the meeting was to help allay their fears. " We are coppicing to reduce the tree canopy and create glades. When the light hits the floor, we should end up with grass, allowing birds, butterflies and insects to flourish. " Mrs Stewart, of Prittle Close, Hadleigh, which backs onto the woodland, said the removal of dying trees and dense woodland had also made the area safer for walkers and encouraged more families to use it. http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/local/display.var.1871804.0.helping_woodlands_fl\ ourish.php 13) Robin Hood never did this, I think, as I clamber onto the steel platform of one of those hoists known in the trade as cherrypickers, in what used to be Sherwood Forest. The crooked steel limb begins to straighten and we make a jerky ascent. Up we go, past birds' nests and bat roosts. Controlling my ascension is Gordon Hodgkinson, a woodsman of 40 years' experience, whose long grey beard would give him an unsporting advantage in an Ancient Mariner lookalike contest. We have left the lower branches of a spreading sweet chestnut behind and – jolt, bump – here we are looking down on its crown. I am a bird sailing above the tree tops. Or I would be if both sets of knuckles weren't clutched convulsively around the bar of the cage to prevent myself ending it all by jumping out. The cherrypicker reaches the limit of its extent and we stop, like a couple of medieval anchorites at the top of a pole. " It's beautiful, " rhapsodises Gordon, gazing through saucer-sized spectacles. " I never tire of it. All the different trees, the different colours. Beautiful. " If we were to rise further (and I am glad Gordon hasn't hired the 100ft version, because there is one) it would give us a view of the whole forest, miles and miles of it. Part of it can be visited: the Sherwood Forest Country Park, which contains some of the country's most famous oak trees. But covering 450 acres, this is only a tiny fraction of the forest known to King John. The original Sherwood stretched from just south of Sheffield to Nottingham. Over the centuries, what was originally a royal hunting preserve has been carved up and served out. In the 18th century, Sherwood turned into the Dukeries, the name inspired by the landed estates and country houses that lie cheek by jowl on land parcelled out from the forest. The noble families grew rich on the coal that lay under their feet. Sherwood Living Legend's ambition is to scrap the existing visitor centre at Sherwood Forest Country Park and replace it with a spectacular 100ft-tall structure in the form of a tree on a new site. This will not only provide a viewing platform, to save people like me going up in a cherrypicker, but will also reduce the footfall around the ancient oaks. It is, they say, part of a 500-year plan to preserve the forest, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2961455.ece Scotland: 14) They were once outlawed for being used as seditious weapons of war. Now, bagpipes have been blasted as an environmental menace. Over-intensive logging means that the African wood used to make Scotland's national instrument faces being wiped out. Conservation groups are letting out skirls of protest, urging musicians and instrument manufacturers to make sure their pipes come from eco-friendly sources. As part of the campaign, Scots are being asked to fund the planting of " bagpipe trees " in a bid to atone for the environmental damage. Traditionally the chanter on the bottom of Highland pipes, which is used to create the melody, was made from native woods such as bog oak. But Scottish mariners who travelled to Africa in the 18th century returned with supplies of African Blackwood, which proved to be far more resilient and produced a sweeter sound. Since then the species, known as Mpingo in Swahili, has been a staple component of most quality pipes. Conservation group Fauna & Flora International (FFI) said urgent action is needed to prevent the species being lost. " With its beauty, fine grain, durable structure and natural oils no other wood looks - or sounds - the same as African Blackwood, " said its campaign co-ordinator Georgina Magin. http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1883502007 15) The Scottish Forest Alliance (SFA), which includes the Forestry Commission, the Woodland Trust, the RSPB and oil giant BP, wants to restore the area to what it was around 500 years ago, before large-scale deforestation took place. The first stage in the transformation will take place next summer with the planting of the first of millions of seedlings. By 2027, a mosaic of new forest will stretch along the northern and southern banks of Loch Katrine and westwards towards Loch Arklet. Russell Lamont, the Forestry Commission district project manager, said Scottish Water no longer wanted to manage the land around the Loch Katrine catchment, so had agreed to lease it to the Alliance. The sheep were moved from the land about five years ago. " This land is a superb acquisition and we now have a massive opportunity to return it to what it would have looked liked like more than 500 years ago, " Lamont said. " Unless you stand at one end of the loch and look up, it is difficult to comprehend the scale. We will only be planting native species, and by 2027 we will want to see a relatively mature woodland with open spaces and a thriving wildlife. We want it to be an asset for everyone in Scotland to enjoy. " The Forestry Commission has in recent years started moving away from a strictly commercial role to providing more recreational woodlands. In Scotland, it intends to increase forestry cover from 17% to 25% by the end of the century. http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/glasgow.cfm?id=1883792007 Congo: 16) In " Reducing CO2 emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, " prepared by the WHRC, a very different forest is analyzed. CO2 emissions from the DRC are low and driven primarily by small-scale farmers, but emissions could escalate rapidly in the future as political stability opens the door to foreign investments and migration. A nationwide assessment of forest carbon stocks and farm family density provides the basis for preliminary estimates of the costs of cutting deforestation by half. When semi-subsistence farmers clear a half-hectare of forest each year to grow the crops that sustain their families, the costs of slowing deforestation must provide for alternative incomes. It will be more expensive to slow emissions from the DRC than from the Brazilian Amazon. However, investments in the management of the timber concession program could provide an important economic incentive to maintain forests standing while generating important revenues. PDF copies of the reports are available at: http://whrc.org/BaliReports http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-12/whrc-wr4113007.php Cameroon: 17) The program consists in the creation and management of a national park around the Mt. Cameroon region, the Korup and Takamanda Parks and the development of 65 villages within the project area. The PSMNR-SW, which cost FCFA 8 billion, is largely financed by the Federal Republic of Germany through the German Development Bank, KFW, the German Technical Cooperation, GTZ, and the Government of Cameroon through the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, MINFOF. Although a majority of people were enthused about the creation of the park, a defiant group of youths, who claimed they were representing the people of Bomboko Village and other dissenting villages, raised a huge placard demanding the isolation of one of their secret shrines, Isuma, from the park. The placard read: " Fako Division is entitled to ancestral lineage. When the roots of a tree are taken away, the branches cannot survive. Take all not Isuma. Carve Isuma out of the proposed Mt. Cameroon National Park. " One of the youths, Kombe Monono, from Bomboko Efolofo Village, revealed to The Post that the Mountain has special spots for the Bakweris.According to him, the Mountain is the first home for the Bakweri people, that is, the home of Na Molombe, the King of all the Bakweris. http://www.postnewsline.com/2007/12/minister-launch.html 18) Northwest Governor, Koumpa Issa, has accused community forest management leaders of Kilum- Ijim and others of embezzlement and mismanagement of funds derived from forest and non-forest products. The Governor's speech was read at a one-day workshop Tuesday, November 28 by the Secretary General at the Governor's office, Peter Tieh Ndeh, at a workshop on the mechanisms for generating and distributing benefits from the Kilum-Ijim Forest. Other ills that have been contributing to the unsustainable management of community forests, especially the Kilum-Ijim Forest, are conflicts of roles and interests between stakeholders, non-commitment by some relevant authorities and misinterpretation of ownership of the forest, confiscation of devolved powers from forest management institutions, greed, complicity and ignorance. The Governor expressed the hope to see good governance principles reinstated when the leaders return to their various stations, since they have been empowered with indispensable tools for the success of community forestry. Koumpa also expressed indignation that the communities where these forests are located have not been doing enough to keep the confidence the government entrusted in them to manage their forests. Looking back, he recalled how tedious and expensive it took government to establish the community forests. " It took great sacrifice from the Birdlife's Kilum-Ijim Forest Project and other stakeholders to facilitate the establishment of these community forests, " said Koumpa. http://www.postnewsline.com/2007/12/forest-manageme.html Paraguay: 19) San Rafael, located in southeastern Paraguay, is considered to be the most important tract of Atlantic Forest remaining in Paraguay. More than 310 bird species have been recorded there, 11 of which are globally threatened and 17 of which are near threatened. In addition, the forests of San Rafael protect the watershed of a major tributary of the Paraguay-Paranáriver system and are of great importance for the survival of the indigenous cultures remaining in the Paraguayan Atlantic Forest. While San Rafael is a national park in name, the Paraguayan government lacks the funding to support its conservation. The park is still almost entirely privately-owned land, with inadequate resources for protection. For example, from 1992-1997, while a national park, forest cover at San Rafael decreased. It will continue to slowly decrease unless we can buy the lands, which are available at reasonable prices. Guyra Paraguay helped create the San Rafael Conservation Alliance to halt the deforestation. In September 2002, with support from World Land Trust, Guyra made the first purchase of conservation lands at San Rafael - a large 5,000 acre tract that has been set aside for strict protection. Subsequently in 2005, Guyra Paraguay purchased an additional 3,750 acres, to which WLT contributed, and in 2006 WLT funded the purchase of an additional 1,000 acres. In total, Guyra Paraguay has declared for conservation in perpetuity a total of 15,320 acres of pristine habitats within San Rafael. Guyra has negotiated favorable terms for added land purchases, and can purchase more properties if it can raise the necessary funds at $130 per acre for beautiful forested lands and natural savannahs. Eventually, Guyra Paraguay and partner organizations hope to purchase and protect 40,000 acres as a core private reserve and place conservation easements or other protective devices on another 25,000 hectares. http://www.worldlandtrust-us.org/projects/san-rafael.html Guyana: 20) The rain forest here is so dense and this village so isolated that when Russell Mittermeier arrived by bush plane, it seemed for a moment like a step back into an era before worries about global warming. In a thatched hut lit by kerosene lanterns, the local leader, wearing a headdress of iridescent macaw feathers, listened as Mittermeier, an American environmentalist, described climate change in apocalyptic but distant terms: melting icebergs, parched savannas, flooded cities. Then he explained the connection to Kwamala, and how the Amazonian jungle here, if preserved, would help reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. " Lots of people in America, in Europe, in the big countries, we believe that if we don't want you to cut down the forest, we should pay. We should pay you something to protect the forest, " Mittermeier told the tribal leader, or granman, Ashonko Alalaparoe. The granman, his bare chest draped in bright red, yellow and blue beads, quickly absorbed the message. " You come to me with this new idea, this carbon issue, " Granman Alalaparoe said. " This sounds good to me. " For Mittermeier, for the world and, indeed, for this tiny South American jungle outpost, the clock is ticking. Despite its remoteness, the same forces that have slashed and burned some 20 percent of the Amazonian rain forest are closing in on Kwamala. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-mon_credits_1203dec03,0,24791\ 88.story 21) After a while, the 200-foot trees all start to look alike. The British Broadcasting Corp. has set up a huge encampment here, and they're filming scientists from around the world doing field research. One woman spends all day atop a tree, observing monkeys. A rodent specialist catches bats in nets at night and dissects them by day. The bug man's arms are loaded with red welts--bites from the subjects of his study. The BBC encampment has made almost no footprint on the jungle. The network's first one did, though. Workers slashed and burned several acres of old-growth rain forest, erecting luxurious thatched huts with a commanding view of the river. We happened across the charred stumps and ghost-town camp during our first walk through the forest. Someone from the Beeb must have decided this forest carnage wouldn't be suitable as the backdrop for a nature series. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-071126forest-journal-greising,0,47155\ 85,full.story Brazil: 22) In " The Costs and Benefits of Reducing Carbon Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in the Brazilian Amazon, " prepared by the WHRC, the the Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia, and the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, one of the region's with the world's largest carbon emission is evaluated. Economic models of potential profits from the expansion of soybeans, cattle, and logging are used to estimate the opportunity costs of bringing deforestation to zero over a ten year period. These economic analyses are compared with a cost accounting of what it would take for Brazil to achieve this deforestation reduction through compensation of forest people, private land forest stewards, and greater institutional capacity to govern the vast Amazon forest region. More than 90 percent of the opportunity costs of forest maintenance could be compensated for a per-ton carbon value of $3, while actually achieving the reduction would be much cheaper: about $1.2 per ton. In the proposed program, all of the region's forest people would double their incomes, and $10 to 80 million per year in fire-related damages would be avoided. These results show that REDD programs will bring substantial benefits to tropical countries that need to be included in evaluations of the economics. " For the first time, we have fundamental information and analyses to demonstrate that it is feasible to end carbon emissions from deforestation in Brazilian Amazonia, contributing to climate change mitigation and forest conservation while distributing benefits for local people, " according to Paulo Moutinho, a scientist from IPAM. He adds, " Brazilian society is ready and waiting to adopt a REDD program. " http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-12/whrc-wr4113007.php PDF copies of the reports are available at: http://whrc.org/BaliReports China: 23) Guangzhao Industrial Forest Biotechnology Group has been awarded a license to harvest poplar from its plantations in Jiangxi Province. The forestry bureau of the province has permitted Guangzhao to start logging and harvesting about 55,000 cubic metres of poplar timber across 480 hectares of its plantations in Jiangxi province. Harvesting will take about two to three months to complete. Guangzhao's main product is its tissue-cultured poplar tree, which is able to grow at twice the normal rate and can also thrive in arid or saline soil. The company has over 18,600 hectares of plantations spread across eight provinces in China. It will continue to apply for harvesting licenses from the respective forestry bureaus as part of its plans to begin harvesting its biological assets late this year or early FY2008. http://www.investorcentral.sg/text_report.php?textid=4178 India: 24) Tadoba Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra's Chandrapur district: Mob fury reigned after a boy was mauled to death in these fields. The 20-year-old is the 22nd victim in as many months and forest officers were under pressure to produce results. Thursday saw a brutal victory being handed over to them on a platter. ''After the tiger was hit by the first bullet, it turned and tried to attack the shooter. At the same time, the other 3 shooters fired at the tiger,'' said Rishikesh Ranjan, Assistant Conservator of Forests. But the Forest Department has been under fire for what is seen as a vengeful attack on endangered species. Shoot at sight orders were issued two weeks ago, when another life was taken. Here, forest guards and policemen are armed with rifles, they don't know how to use, making them armed and dangerous. And now confusion surrounding pugmarks, thought to belong to a tigress, believed to have struck on Wednesday. But this is what they came up with instead, a tiger! Justifying the kill, forest officers now claim the tracks were distorted in the wet sand and hence the gender mix-up ensued. It was a tiger - not a tigress - that had struck. The disturbing visuals of the tiger being skinned in full view of the villagers, during what the forest department passes off as a post-mortem, are shocking to say the least. http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070034614 & ch=12/2/2007\ %208:07:00%20AM 25) Lucknow - Even as the state forest department tries hard to curb the forest mafia in the state, it's own officials seem to be involved in the illegal cutting of trees. On November 27, the villagers of Bicchiya, under the Kataniyaghat forest range in Behraich, caught a bullock cart carrying wood cut from 51 green trees of sagaun and eucalyptus, barely 30 metres from the Bicchiya forest barrier. When questioned, the cart driver said the forest department had hired him and the wood was cut with their permission. An FIR (case number 206) was lodged at the Sujauli Police Station, after the villagers staged a protest, on November 28 against four forest officials. The five accused are Paikarmadeen Kannaujiya (forest guard), Kabirul Hasan (forest guard), Ramesh Chandra Maurya (forester) and Ramnath (forest watcher) as well as Kallu, driver of the cart. No arrests have been made yet. The police said the accused were absconding. Jitendra Dwivedi of the Vangram Adhikar Manch said, " Such incidents are a regular affair here. But this is the first time that an FIR has been lodged by the police against the forest officials. " The villagers also sent a memorandum to the Prime Minister, giving details about all such incidents in the last one year. According to the villagers, this is not the first such incident where they have caught forest officials cutting wood illegally. Dwivedi added, " In this area, one cannot even pick up drifted wood and here, 51 trees were simply cut down. No cutting or felling of trees is allowed, as this is part of a wildlife sanctuary. " http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Cutting-trees-FIR-against-forest-staff/2\ 46237/ Bangladesh: 26) A quarter of Bangladesh's Sunderbans forest has been damaged by a deadly cyclone that left a trail of devastation in the vast mangrove swamp, a top forestry official said Saturday. The world's largest mangrove forest bore the brunt of the cyclone that smashed into Bangladesh on November 15, killing more than 3,200 people and wiping out thousands of villages. " The cyclone has left huge devastation in the Sunderbans unseen for decades. Some 1,500 square kilometres (600 square miles) of the forest was damaged, " chief government forest conservation official A.K.M. Shamsuddin said. " At least seven percent of the (Bangladeshi portion of the) forest was severely damaged... while another 17 to 18 percent was partially damaged, " he told AFP, adding initial satellite images showed the extent of the destruction. The 10,000 square kilometre forest straddles the borders of Bangladesh and India's West Bengal state and lies on the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta. The Bangladesh portion comprises 60 percent of the total area. The Indian side was untouched by the cyclone. A UNESCO team was visiting the delta of lush forested islands, separated by a complex network of tidal rivers and creeks, to survey the destruction, Shamsuddin said. " We're figuring out how we will tackle the damage, " he added. " If necessary, we may have to opt for assisted natural regeneration in some areas and planting in others, " he said. Under assisted regeneration, workers clear away fallen trees and other storm debris to allow new saplings to grow. But environmentalists said they believed the forest would regenerate on its own and warned that human tampering with the rare ecosystem could prove disastrous. " This is not the first time that the Sunderbans has been hit by a huge cyclone, " said Niaz Ahmed Siddiqui, known as a world expert on the Sunderbans. " We have recorded history of such cyclones hitting the forest in the last 200 to 300 years, " he said. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Worlds_largest_mangrove_badly_hit_by_cyclone_o\ fficial_999.html Singapore: 27) Greenpeace Finland said Friday that Neste Oil's decision to build the world's largest biodiesel refinery in Singapore showed that the Finnish company was bent on building its future diesel fuel production on unsustainable palm oil. " Building the refinery near palm plantations in Singapore indicates that the company is casting its earlier signals aside and not even trying to build its biodiesel production on the basis of more sustainable raw materials, " Harri Lammi, a program director at Greenpeace, said in a statement.Neste Oil said it would start using certified palm oil once it became available. " But certification does not stop the rainforests from disappearing, for there is no doubt that the increase in demand for palm oil will lead to further destruction of rainforest. There is absolutely no way to grow enough sustainable palm oil for all the producers, " Lammi said. Neste Oil said it would spend 550 million euros ($814 million) to build the Singapore plant to meet the growing but controversial demand for biodiesel. Neste, which last year supplied about 14 million tons of conventional fuel products, said the plant would have a design capacity of 800,000 tons a year, and use mostly palm oil as its raw material. " The investment forms part of Neste Oil's strategic goal of becoming the world's leading renewable diesel producer, " the firm said. Greenpeace has blocked Neste from selling palm-based biodiesel in Sweden. The organization has also tried to prevent a tanker from bringing palm oil to Neste's first biodiesel plant, which started earlier this year and is running at full capacity of 170,000 tons in Porvoo, Finland. Neste's second biodiesel unit is due to start operations in 2009. http://chinaconfidential.blogspot.com/2007/12/greenpeace-blasts-finnish-firms-pl\ an-to.html Sumatra: 28) The Bentayan Wildlife Reserve covers, on paper, 23,220 hectares. But it is an hour's drive through the conservation area to the start of the natural forest. Locals have cultivated some of the intervening land, but the vast majority has been turned into a wasteland by illegal loggers. An occasional tree in this corner of south Sumatra province has escaped the plunder. Otherwise all that is visible for kilometre after kilometre are stumps and rough grassland. Locals say the illegal logging is on an industrial scale, with dozens of truckloads of wood being extracted every day. The myriad signs of recent activity lend credence to the reports of illegal logging on an industrial scale. But officers at the nearest forestry department police post, about five kilometres outside the reserve, insist that no illegal logging is taking place. They are also adamant that no oil palm plantation companies are encroaching into the reserve, although locals say that tens of thousands of trees have been planted on land that forestry officials have told them is included. Some recent attempts to clamp down on illegal logging do appear to be succeeding. Almost half the country's plywood companies have had to close in the last two years as a result of a raw materials shortage, the industry's association chief said this week. Indonesia is also the first country in the world to make forest crimes a money laundering offence. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/569677f6-a0e4-11dc-9f34-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check\ =1 Philippines: SAN JUAN, BATANGAS—With slash-and-burn farming wiping out the habitat of giant fruit bats in the mountains of San Juan, residents planted on Sunday 2,000 fruit seedlings in order to restore the bats' homes. The project is part of the Green Philippines program of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, which aims to plant around 20 million trees during the year nationwide. Fruit bats live only in the tropical and subtropical regions of the Eastern Hemisphere—particularly in Africa, Asia, Australasia and Oceania. They feed either by eating fruits or licking nectar from flowers. Residents of Barangay Laiya Aplaya in San Juan usually observe fruit bats flying in the night sky at 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Councilor Noel Pasco, however, said in an interview that slash-and-burn farming, or " kaingin, " in the mountains had effectively destroyed fruit trees, which are habitats of the bats. He claimed that based on municipal records, the giant fruit bat population in the San Juan–Lobo Mountain Range had already diminished to only 1,000 today from around 10,000 in the 1900s. Planted within the mountains and riverbanks in Laiya Aplaya were seedlings of guava, langka (breadfruit), atis and casuy. http://sports.inquirer.net/inquirersports/inquirersports/view_article.php?articl\ e_id=104692 30) Joint government operatives in South Cotabato recently seized an estimated volume of 15,553 board feet of yemane (Gmelina arborea) logs and lumber believed to have been sourced illegally in violation of the pertinent provisions of Presidential Decree No. 705 otherwise known as the Revised Forestry Code of the Philippines. The said forest products, valued close to P300,000, were apprehended in three separate occasions in the upper valley of South Cotabato. This was reported by OIC-Community Environment and Natural Resources Officer (CENRO) Dirie P. Macabaning of the DENR in the second district of South Cotabato now based in Banga town. The DENR – Banga has jurisdiction over the City of Koronadal and the municipalities of Tantangan, Banga, Surallah, Norala, Sto. Niño, Lake Sebu, and T'boli. On November 16, 2007 according to the report, the personnel of the T'boli Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office together with the Provincial Police Mobile Group apprehended a truck load of Gmelina logs on board Isuzu Canter with plate number LDV-330 registered in the name of a certain Mr. Bert Dabi. The said cargo of Gmelina round logs numbering 28 pieces were scaled by the DENR personnel and was found to have an equivalent volume of 2.1 cubic meters. While Gmelina is a planted species, the result of the initial investigation conducted by the DENR in Banga town points that the said yemane logs were cut from a government reforestation project allegedly by a certain Mr. Larry Guevarra of Barangay Eswards in T'boli. http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=12 & r= & y= & mo= & fi=p071204.htm & no=20 31) Nearly 300,000 hectares of forest land in Central Luzon are now in the hands of private corporations, cooperatives and individuals through various agreements, documents from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources showed. The figure represented about 38 percent of the 589,497 ha of forest land in the region, according to the DENR. Asked about the government's policy for the remaining forest land, DENR regional executive director Regidor de Leon said: " We welcome investors who would want to develop forest areas. If they qualify, we shall issue them tenurial agreements. " At least 550,922 ha of forest are within timberlands while 38,575 ha are within alienable or disposable lands, according to satellite mappings done by the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (Namria) and the Forest Management Bureau in 2003. Corporate forestry contracts represent the bulk of plantations as of Oct. 15. Two timber license agreements (TLAs) signed in Aurora during the administration of then President Ferdinand Marcos reached 36,688 ha. The 22 industrial forest management agreements (Ifmas) in Aurora, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac and Zambales covered 110,333 ha. The 287 socialized industrial forest management agreement (Sifmas) reached 8,620 ha, more than half of which are in Tarlac. http://sports.inquirer.net/inquirersports/inquirersports/view_article.php?articl\ e_id=104688 Borneo: 32) BTRF take part on CIFOR Forest Day Poster Session. The poster " Save Borneo Save The World " is BTRF's campaign to save the Borneo's rainforests' and its important role in response to climate change which has become a global issue. Since one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emission in Indonesia is land use and forest change, the protection of Borneo rainforest is vital. Forest function to absorb emissions of greenhouse gases e.g. carbon dioxide, and change them into oxygen which is important for all living things. Its location on the equator makes the Borneo rainforest more important for regulating global warming because it is relatively stable to absorb greenhouse gas emissions over the whole year. http://www.greenrenaissance.org/btrf/news/?p=33 Malaysia: 33) I wish to celebrate the men who love our forests. They teach us two things: what we once were and how we must continue to revere our natural world as our ancestors did. The men I am thinking of are all guides and teachers; four Malaysians and one Canadian. The first man to teach me the ways of the woods was a Canadian named Ivan Roy. In his young days, Ivan was what we call in Canada a " timber-runner " . His job was to explore the forest for stands of trees that could be profitably harvested in an economical way. He would mark such trees, plot their location on his maps and then explore further. This way, he grew to know every inch of woods for hundreds of kilometres about and to be completely at home there. To travel with Ivan was a joy. He was a vast fountain of information about the flora and fauna of Canada. He read terrain and water like a book. Time and time again, he would wander off and then re-appear with delicious handfuls of edible wild mushrooms or blueberries to flavour our bland camp food. I have met several men like Ivan here in Malaysia. One of the first was a guide called Kali, who lives in Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands. Although Kali worked for years in a bank, his first love was always the mountain trails of his home. He recalls to this day his excitement as a boy seeing the one and only wild tiger of his life. Kali is now 64 years old, but people one-third his age are hard pressed to keep up with him as he slips through the jungle, often on trails he has cut himself. Like Ivan, he is a wealth of knowledge and his keen eyes miss nothing that he might use to pique the interest of those he guides. He recalls one of his favourite jaunts with a young woman who kept up with him pace for pace. She had hundreds of questions it seemed and understood quickly what he told her. She was, it turned out, a Canadian forest ranger. Ah Lung moves at a much slower pace. His specialty is night walks in Taman Negara near Kuala Tahan, and he is the best there is at these nocturnal excursions. Moving slowly, eyes scanning continuously, he uncovers one marvel after another: long-legged centipedes, poisonous spiders in fragile webs, grazing deer in the darkness, hunting birds of prey and sleeping birds on the branches just over our heads, perhaps a solitary leopard cat or slow loris, and miracle of miracles, a cicada in metamorphosis, shucking its old beetle-like body to emerge in its glorious new winged form. http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/Columns/2098908/Article/index_html Indonesia: 34) Couples wanting to get married or divorced now have to spare a bit of love for the Earth under a compulsory tree-planting campaign in one Indonesian district, a report said on Monday. People planning to wed in Sragen district, on the main Indonesian island of Java, must contribute to the planting of five tree seedlings, district head Untung Wiyono was reported as saying by the state-run Antara news agency. They are required to hand over their own seedlings, or 25 000 rupiah ($3 or about R20) to buy some, to whoever officiates at their marriage. The seeds, of hardwood trees such as teak or mahogany, are then handed to the government to be planted, Wiyono reportedly said. Couples who are looking to divorce must donate 25 tree seedlings or hand over 40 000 rupiah, he added. " The money will then be used to buy tree seedlings which would have to be planted in the area where the couple live, " Wiyono said according to Antara, noting that the programme was aimed at helping combat global warming. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1 & click_id=29 & art_id=nw20071203081839137C6\ 80536 35) A new short film, " Defenders of the Tribal Boundaries " , tells how the arrival of a state-owned plantation company soon afterwards devastated Muit's community in the Arfak mountains of Papua's Bird's Head region. " 'Give us the land and we will give the money to plant,' they said. 'We will bring a palm oil plantation,' " Muit says, repeating the government's promise. Instead, the forests were cleared, but factory effluent polluted the local river, making the water supply unusable. " The promise was sweet, but now it is bitter, " he laments. " We were not compensated for our land or even thanked. Now we are really suffering, and we regret it. " The film, one of four locally-made shorts that highlight the shocking impact of deforestation in remote Papua, will be featured at a UN climate change conference on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, which begins next week. The 10-minute clips, shot by aid workers using handheld digital cameras over the past three months, demonstrate the impact expanding palm oil plantations and other destructive logging is having on local communities. Indonesia is losing its forests at the world's fastest rate, with some two million hectares (4.9 million acres) disappearing each year, according to environmental watchdog Greenpeace. Up to 80 percent of logging in Indonesia is estimated to be illegal -- due to a lack of political will to crack down as well as negligible law enforcement -- but the films demonstrate that even legal logging has far-reaching and negative consequences. In " Tears of Mother Mooi " , the people of Sorong issue an impassioned call to the government to revoke the licenses of two palm oil companies operating on their ancestral land. Startling images of the devastated remnants of formerly forested areas, clear-cut for plantations, hammer home their plea. Ronny Dimara, a resident in the community and director of Triton, a local non-governmental organisation that produced the film, said most of the footage had to be recorded secretly. Much of Papua is closely monitored by Indonesia's military, who stand accused by activists of human rights abuses. Journalists require special permission from the Jakarta government to visit the region. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gNymsizfKgAYVlni_MF7uE0X9dng Australia: 36) A new deal to extend leases to Queensland farmers and graziers if they improve the condition of their land could form part of a national emissions trading scheme, Premier Anna Bligh says. Under the $19 million State Rural Leasehold Land Strategy leases of up to 50 years will be offered to farmers who conserve high-value environmental areas and reach access agreements with local indigenous people. Ms Bligh said the strategy, to start in January, would have a global impact. " We are third behind China and Russia in the amount of state owned land we have, but we want to be first in looking after our land, " Ms Bligh said. " Our progressive environment focused strategy offers incentives that include allowing lease terms of 50, 40 and 30 years compared with the current maximum of 30 years. " When renewing a lease, 40 year terms will be granted if lessees kept or returned their land to good condition. " Fifty year terms will be offered to lessees who also conserve high value environmental areas and reach access agreements with local indigenous people. " Ms Bligh said the strategy would help combat climate change and could feed into a national carbon trading scheme. " Companies will be looking to invest in land rehabilitation as a way of offsetting other carbon use, so there is a fantastic opportunity for an intersection here between the leasehold strategy and the national emissions trading scheme and offsets, " she said. The definition of land in " good " condition will be determined in consultation with rural industry and technical and scientific experts. The government estimates about 65 per cent of the state's leases will be eligible for renewal over the next six years. http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/New-land-deal-for-Queensland-farmers/2007\ /12/03/1196530569471.html World-wide: 37) The key is to include reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) in the Kyoto Protocol so that developing countries can be compensated for saving their forests and woodlands. A recent paper in the African Journal of Ecology points out that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that 20-25% of current annual carbon emissions result from loss of tropical forest. This has prompted efforts to renegotiate climate change policy to include REDD so that tropical forest nations can claim compensation for sustainable management of their natural forest resources. But not all tropical countries are pushing for an agreement and many African countries do not appear to be participating in the discussion. Eliakimu Zahabu from the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania and lead author on the paper suggests that " The lack of African action might be partly because estimation of carbon emission from the forest sector has been based on forest areas cleared entirely, i.e. deforestation, but excludes the small-scale degradation processes common in African dry forests " .This means that the concepts for lowering carbon emissions from developing countries that have been worked out under the climate change agreements need rethinking. Dr Margaret Skutsch, from the University of Twente in the Netherlands, has been studying the problem for five years " Degradation is often a different process with different drivers and needs a different instrument in Kyoto " she says, and adds " for African countries to benefit from the new policy, they need to support the idea of reduced emissions from controlling degradation in a way that reflects African realities, and to do this they need to engage in the debate. " Taking Tanzania as an example, Zahabu estimates that the country could earn $630 million annually or $119 per rural household, from the REDD policy. Prof. Jon Lovett, an expert on Tanzania biodiversity and associate editor of the African Journal of Ecology, points out that " the biggest problem in tropical forest management is paying for it: to date the preferred option has been to remove the valuable timber without any post-logging care, and then the process of degradation starts. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Having_The_Climate_Cake_And_Eating_It_Too_999.\ html 38) Deforestation in tropical countries is often driven by the perverse economic reality that forests are worth more dead than alive. But a new study by an international consortium of researchers has found that the emerging market for carbon credits has the potential to radically alter that equation. The study, which was released this week at UNFCC Conference of Parties (COP-13) in Bali, compared the financial gains generated by deforestation over the last 10 to 20 years in areas of Southeast Asia, Central Africa and the Amazon Basin-most of it driven by a desire for farm land or timber-to the amount carbon that was released by the destruction. That comparison has become critically important because many industries in developed countries are set to spend billions of dollars to meet new requirements for curbing greenhouse gases by purchasing carbon " credits " tied to reductions elsewhere. The study was conducted by the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF), the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), four of the15 centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and their national partners. The researchers-who conducted the study under the Partnership for Tropical Forest Margins (ASB)-found that in most areas studied, the various ventures that prompted deforestation rarely generated more than $5 for every ton of carbon they released and frequently returned far less than US $1. Meanwhile, European buyers are currently paying 23 euros-about US $35-for an offset tied to a one-ton reduction in carbon. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Report_Finds_Deforestation_Offers_Very_Little_\ Money_Compared_To_Potential_Financial_Benefits_999.html 39) Illegal logging in places like Indonesia, the Russian Far East, Burma, the Amazon, and the Congo Basin is rampant. According to a recent report from Greenpeace: 1) Today 6 to 9 of each 10 exported logs are exported from Russia illegally. 2) In Indonesia it is estimated that between 76 and 80% of logging is illegal. 3) In the Brazilian Amazon 60% - 80% of logs were produced in 2004 without any authorization. 4) In Cameroon 50% of logging between 1999 and 2004 is estimated to have been illegal. --- Illegally-harvested wood is sometimes consumed in the country of origin, but it is often " laundered " through international trade and manufacturing and imported into Europe and North America as value-added products like lumber, decking, flooring, plywood, and furniture. The U.S. International Trade Commission has estimated that as much as 30% of hardwood products imported into the U.S. are from suspicious or illegal sources. And, it is widely recognized that illegal logging is often the first in a chain of tragic events whose end result is total deforestation. http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/community-news/sustainably-harve\ sted-wood-66120201 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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