Guest guest Posted December 9, 2007 Report Share Posted December 9, 2007 Today for you 35 new articles about earth's trees! (264th edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com --British Columbia: 1) Now their an educational intervention? 2) Queen Charlotte logs, --Washington: 3) SDS Lumber, 4) Rampant logging of second growth creates floods, --Oregon: 5) Words from a fire researcher --California: 6) Fire safety means more tree cutting --Montana: 7) Greenies sell out on B-D NF, 8) More on B-D, --Canada: 9) Boreal Leadership Council? 10) Ontario leadership changes, --UK: 11) Mass demonstrations world-wide about Bali, 12) Industry news, --Portugal: 13) Greenpeace action at Africa conference --Germany: 14) Logging rates in Germany increase --Guyana: 15) Barama starts to lack logs, --Paraguay: 16) Soya barons of Germany stealing land and ruining lives --Brazil: 17) Nicholas Locke's Atlantic Eden, 18) Destruction faster than thought, 19) Biofuel industry upset about Tariff cuts, 20) highest average annual loss of forest, --China: 21) $90-billion forestry reform program --Sumatra: 22) Everything is burning here, 23) Taking on illegal loggers, 24) Harapan, --Indonesia: 25) Conference issue is deforestation, 26) Indigeous protest exclusion from UN meeting, 27) Bali Breakthrough? 28) Kuala Cenaku forest, 29) Aceh logging ban, 30) To foster reforestation, 31) Greenpeace proposes stopping deforestation, --New Zealand: 32) Leader supports REDD --Australia: 33) Peter Garret doesn't care about eco-issues anymore, --World-wide: 34) Governors from Brazil and Indonesia sign historic agreement, 35) Growth rates require resources we don't have, British Columbia: 1) This policy brief, prepared by ForestEthics, is intended as an educational intervention to assist international policy makers in better understanding the crucial role British Columbia's forests play in both mitigating and adapting to climate change, and to provide an accurate prospectus of the value of the carbon storage capabilities of this globally significant region. The brief complements a series of policy and technical briefs designed to help policy makers at home and abroad qualify and quantify the climate change mitigation capabilities of Canada's forests, and will enable the international community to hold British Columbia and Canada to account when it comes to making one of the simplest and most powerful contributions to the fight against global warming: protecting our remaining intact forests. http://www.forestethics.org/downloads/Carbon_in_the_Bank.pdf 2) A new proposal to log in the Queen Charlotte's community watershed adds one more potential disturbance to the area. Queen Charlotte Mayor Carol Kulesha told councillors at the Dec. 3 council meeting that Western Forest Products contacted her about logging in the watershed. When the Observer phoned Hyland Fraser of Western Forest Products to clarify, he confirmed the company has plans to harvest within an area defined as the Honna Community Watershed. These plans are part of their Forest Stewardship Plan for TFL 39 and would not begin until summer 2008. He has no specific volumes to report and added that a private land company has access to timber in the watershed as well. He said letting Queen Charlotte know of the company's plans was done informally as he is only required to inform the Ministry of Forests and the Council of the Haida Nation. He offered no further details but he committed to getting more information to the council after the holidays. The Honna Community Watershed includes the catchment of the Honna. Mr. Fraser said the watershed continues to kilometer 11 on the QC Mainline. This area includes Stanley Lake and all tributaries of the Honna River Sandspit-based J.S. Jones also has plans to log in the Queen Charlotte watershed, but these plans are on hold, awaiting approval of a licence renewal by the regional manager. Brian Fraser of J.S. Jones said part of the reason for the hold up is the pending Land Use Plan. Some portions of some blocks are protected by the draft plan. The J.S. Jones blocks are not within the area defined as the Honna River Community Watershed, but are directly above the communities of Queen Charlotte and Skidegate. http://www.qciobserver.com/Article.aspx?Id=3024 Washington: 3) From a remote ridge at 2,200 feet elevation behind Underwood Mountain, Jason Spadaro surveys a clear-cut landscape. The wind is blowing, hard. Bonneville Power Administration transmission towers march across the slopes. Connecting the dots, Spadaro imagines a day when dozens of giant wind turbines planted on these ridges will harness the gusts that blow through the Columbia River Gorge. Spadaro is the top executive of both SDS Lumber Co. and Broughton Lumber Co. The two companies, mainstays of the gorge timber economy for decades, now are proposing to combine their lands and build a 44-turbine wind project here. " To my knowledge, we will be the first company in the country to do wind projects on commercial forest land, " said Spadaro. Despite some local opposition, they hope to apply for county permits to build the project by year's end. Four miles away near the Columbia River, the rusting buildings of the old Broughton mill site spread over 60 acres just across Highway 14 from a world-class windsurfing site. Broughton Lumber wants to invest $70 million to turn this industrial eyesore into a 245-unit destination resort. Broughton Landing would be the largest rural development ever allowed in the scenic area. But public comment is running five-to-one against the project, and action by the Columbia River Gorge Commission on the project has been delayed several times.SDS and Broughton are entering uncharted territory. So far, both SDS and Broughton have chosen to hold most of their commercial timberland rather than sell it to investors or real estate speculators. That makes them anomalies in the Northwest, where commercial timberland is increasingly a commodity to be bought and sold and managed for maximum profit, says Forest Service research economist Richard Haynes, an expert on the Northwest timber economy. " We've seen an enormous sell-off of timberland to timber investment management organizations, mostly owned by pension funds, " Haynes said. " The industry here, outside of Weyerhaeuser, has already shifted to depending on private timber they don't own. What the companies then get are timber supply agreements. It's being forced mostly by the stockholders, who want to get a higher rate of return. " SDS employs more than 300 loggers and millworkers throughout the mid-gorge region. Today, it is the second-largest private timberland owner and one of the largest private employers in the gorge. http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/2007/12/12092007_SDS-Broughton-profile.c\ fm 4) In 1996, the worst flood Lewis County had ever known blew through, drowning communities in muddy water high enough to close Interstate 5. Since then, the county has granted more than 100 permits for new development in the floodplain. The cities of Centralia and Chehalis added to the rush. Big-box stores, restaurants and strip malls galore. A railroad line extension, parking lots for a church. A coal-unloading facility, a new natural-gas pipeline, a mine expansion. And barns, homes, carports and shops. All built in the floodplain. Then last Monday, heavy rain punched into the watershed from the southwest. Faster than anyone had ever seen before, torrents of water gouged hillsides, broke levees and overtopped dikes as flood gauges reached record highs and some blew out altogether. At the worst of it, some 10 feet of water covered parts of Chehalis, and hundreds of people watched their homes and belongings go under. One man was swept away in the deluge. Now as the water recedes and residents of Lewis County take stock, many are looking back in time, wondering how much the legacy of development in the floodplain, and clear-cut logging in the upriver drainages, contributed to their woes. Logging has declined overall in Western Washington in the past 15 years. But the most intensive cutting is still happening on the type of industrial forestlands that dominate the Chehalis watershed. Since 2002 alone, about 230,972 acres of the watershed — up to 14 percent of the forestland there — have been logged, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. It's only about 2.3 percent of the watershed a year. But the effects of clear-cuts and logging roads stick around for years, potential ticking time bombs for large landslides, said Gordon Grant, a hydrologist for the federal Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corvallis, Ore. Landslides can happen anywhere, including on forested ground. But forestland that has been clear-cut is up to five times more likely to slide in flood conditions, and forestland with logging roads is even more vulnerable, Grant said. Those landslides can bring down logs, creating debris flows that stop up streams, culverts and even rivers. That means even more flooding when the big rains finally come. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004061504_flood09m.html Oregon: 5) Olyecology, I like what you are doing with forestry news on this journal. I hope this is a successful venture for you and that you have lots of readers and other users. My PhD research was on the catastrophic forest fire history of western Oregon, although my timeline ended with the 1951 Tillamook Fire, and thus preceded both the Biscuit and the B & B. I have, however, done a subsequent amount of research on each of these complexes and I can assure you with all certainty: it most certainly IS the fuels (which can be controlled) and NOT the climate (controlled by light bulbs?) that is responsible for the extent, severity, and intensity of catastrophic wildfires. The Biscuit Complex, for example, fed on the dry, pitchy, invasive conifer snags killed in the 1987 Silver Complex Fire in the same Kalmiopsis Wilderness location. Seasonal " Mediterranean-type " (two seasons: wet and dry) weather patterns ARE responsible for the types of vegetation ( " fuels " ) that grow in a given area. --Bob Zybach California: 6) The lingering edginess and increased sensitivity to this threat is a lot like the way Californians feel about earthquakes. It would be nice to put the wineglasses up there on a shelf over the sink, but in a quake those glasses would be dangerous missiles. Similarly, it would be lovely to have that oak tree at the corner of the house shading the deck, but fire could race up the tree trunk to the roof. Now, in fact, wooden decks are strongly discouraged, and should be replaced by stone or cement patios. A rose-covered cottage is now perceived as a firetrap. When your biggest investment is a house in fire country, every green thing that could turn brown starts to look like " flammable material, " in the terminology of firefighters. Indeed, a relatively new law requires Californians to remove dead, brown flammable material and to severely thin out even potentially flammable green material. Property owners must maintain a lean, clean relatively bare zone in an area of 30 feet immediately surrounding a house, plus a " reduced fuel zone " in the remaining 70 feet or to the property line. It's quite a precedent. On the positive side, the clear space makes the house less likely to ignite, though in a high wind all bets are off. The bare area makes defending a home less dangerous for firefighters. But this cleanup also means no more picturesque tall grasses; no more woody trumpet vine or wisteria winding up the front porch pillar; no more paths carpeted with pine needles or wood chips; no groves or tall hedges, since under the law, trees must be at least 10 feet apart, 30 feet apart on a slope. Home gardeners are advised to space shrubs as well as trees far apart to prevent fire from jumping from bush to bush. A disconcerting passage on this topic from one University of California advisory (PDF) reads, " The actual between-plant spacing depends on one's aversion to the risk of fire spreading to one's home, and the associated chance of losing it. " We presume that all those property owners not averse to collecting insurance (and not worrying about losing the photo albums, CD collection, and the family cat) can go ahead and put their azaleas in close formation. http://www.slate.com/id/2178805/pagenum/all/ Montana: 7) " Meanwhile, the usual tiny band of humorless environmental alarmists, predictably, are hyperventilating, wagging their fingers and issuing grave pronouncements that because the accord accommodates some logging, we should expect environmental cataclysm not unlike an asteroid hitting the Earth. " -- Bruce Farling of Trout Unlimited about Beaverhead Deerlodge Partnership on Montana NPR -- Bruce you are minimizing the impacts of logging and ignoring its full geographical footprint. In that regard you are doing a disservice to all environmentalists who are fighting to get a full accounting of the real costs of things like logging. Logging affects more than the mere acres that are actually being cut. By framing the issue by suggesting that only 70,000 acres of a 3.3 million acre forest will be logged over ten years is disingenuous. First most of the BDNF acreage would never be logged because it's rocks, ice, or non-forested grassland. What remains and has any trees at all is high elevation steep terrain that would never be logged in a million years. So using the 3.3 million to inflate the total and make the amount affected by logging seem inconsequential seems to be a calculated deception. Furthermore, you know or should know that the logging activities are going to be focused on the most productive low elevation sites, and the effects will not be limited just to the acres logged. Wildlife avoids disturbance in a wide swath beyond roads. Sediment from logging roads travels beyond the logged acres. Weeds that invade on logging sites, spread beyond the roads and landings. Finally the total area being logged will include up to 200,000 acres of roadless country that even your parent organization TU has made a major national campaign to protect and for good reason. Maybe you should read their materials more closely and you wouldn't be so blithe about pooh poohing concerns about loss of roadless lands. You had better watch out--you're sounding a lot like Bush. --wuerthner 8) Straddling the Continental Divide, most of the B-DNF is a fragmented mix of high-elevation, semi-arid sagebrush, grasslands and low-productivity forest. Lodgepole pine, dry-site Douglas fir and whitebark pine are common, with scattered pockets of spruce, fir, aspen and juniper. Annual average growth capability is low, estimated at 45 cubic feet per acre per year. A merchantable tree takes over 100 years to grow. The B-D NF has always been a classic " timber mining " operation. The B-D NF is predominantly a (cow/calf) national forest sanctuary for livestock. Grazing is maximized on most public grassland-sagebrush acres, causing incremental harm to fish and wildlife habitat, and undermining important multiple-use/sustained-yield principles Congress established in 1960. Despite decades of red-line management to benefit timber and grazing interests, a majority of B-D NF lands still include outstanding public values of national significance. Most importantly, the B-D NF is a hub of biological connecting corridors that link core habitat areas of the Glacier-Bob Marshall, Greater Yellowstone and Greater Salmon-Selway-Frank Church Ecosystems. This landscape literally holds the Wild Rockies bioregion together. Failure by the FS and Congress (and " neo-liberal greens " ) to defend, regulate and control " pop " western culture and corporate special-interests has created a multiple-abuse nightmare on one of the most spectacular and ecologically sensitive forests in America. Neo-liberal greens have given industry exactly what it has wanted for years: an admission on the part of the " conservation community " that road-building and logging is needed to restore the out-of-whack environment. " Ecologically driven timber harvest " is a false premise that has failed repeatedly in the past. From a conservation biology perspective, there is no rational reason to sacrifice nationally significant wildlife habitat, world-class trout fisheries, and spectacular undeveloped backcountry for little or no net public gain. The truly valuable assets on the B-DNF should be protected, not sold-off for pennies on the dollar. This is a very special place where fragments of America's once-great wilderness ecosystems come together. Apparently, it is where the next great battle for the future of the Wild Rockies bioregion will be fought. It is not a fight we wanted, but one we surely must win for future generations of indigenous fish, wildlife, and people who value wilderness and freedom. --Steve Kelly botanica Canada: 9) What do Aboriginal communities, teen rap musicians and a US company, best known for its lingerie, have in common? According to the Boreal Leadership Council (BLC) - plenty; they have all been instrumental in helping to conserve Canada's Boreal Forest and in raising awareness of its global importance. The Boreal Awards recognize leadership, innovation, cooperation and excellence among stakeholders who live and work in Canada's Boreal Forest region, along with those who have made an outstanding contribution to protection of the Boreal Forest and the advancement of the principles outlined in the Boreal Forest Conservation Framework. Individual Achievement Award: Student GEORGE WOODHOUSE, with Blake Godward and David Lawless, for creatively spreading insightful messages among youth about the importance of Canada's Boreal Forest through video and song. Corporate Award; LIMITED BRANDS, INC. (parent company of Victoria's Secret) for significantly advancing sustainable conservation in the Boreal Forest by changing their purchasing policy and actively advocating for Boreal Forest conservation. Community Award; POPLAR RIVER FIRST NATION for their unwavering support to protect their traditional homelands on the eastern side of Lake Winnipeg, and their leadership in advancing, with the Province of Manitoba, a proposal to have a significant area of Canada's Boreal Forest in Manitoba and Ontario declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Community Award: LUTSEL K'E DENE FIRST NATION for their vision and leadership in advancing the designation of the East Arm National Park on the Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories. Together with the Governments of Canada and the Northwest Territories and the other Akaitcho communities, Lutsel'Ke has been at the forefront of accomplishing the largest single land withdrawal for conservation in Canadian history. http://www.borealcanada.ca 10) That said, on the face of it, Northern Ontario has nothing to complain about in terms of its representation at the Cabinet table. McGuinty's decisions for the North were tough and deliberate. He took a Minister of Northern Development and Mines who loved his job, and who was immensely popular in his riding and who brought with him supporters who raised large amounts of money for the provincial Liberal party and moved him to Safety something. He won't be heard from again outside of his riding. Then he turfed a long time northern cabinet Minister, David Ramsay, the Minister of Natural Resources who struggled to cope with the crisis in the forestry industry and gave him early retirement without warning or political cover. Next, he gave the Ministry of Patronage, (Northern Development and Mines) to Michael Gravelle, from Thunder Bay riding where the government is in need of some good news. Thunder Bay is ground zero in the collapse of the forestry industry and Michael is well known and well loved in Thunder Bay and the Northwest. My guess is he will be in Sudbury about as often as Rick Bartolucci was in Thunder Bay the last four years. Like Rick, Michael is a constituency man and a formidable campaigner. Happily the Premier has matched David Orazietti from the Sault as Michael's parliamentary assistant. David is interested in policy and long term vision. Michael and David could be a good combination. The next chip he played was brilliant. Natural Resources is a disaster area. It is a battered Ministry, and has failed miserably to be a catalyst for strategic planning for our resources and deserves a shake up. Enter Donna Cansfield from Etobicoke with no experience in Northern Ontario at all. She can afford to look at problems as they present themselves without having to worry about getting elected by forestry workers who want to send logs to Quebec. She can make tough decisions and still get elected in Toronto. She is smart and if not fearless, open minded. This is where the action is going to be over the next four years. http://www.nob.on.ca/columns/Atkins/12-07-deck.asp UK: 11) Mass demonstrations have taken place across the UK and worldwide to coincide with UN climate change talks in Bali. Marches were held in 50 cities globally, including London, Cardiff, Glasgow and Belfast. In London protesters delivered a letter to Downing St calling for climate change measures to be a priority. The rallies come midway through the summit, which is considering how to cut greenhouse gas emissions after current Kyoto Protocol targets expire in 2012. Thousands of delegates from almost 200 nations are attending the two-week UN Framework Convention on Climate Change on the Indonesian island of Bali. They are seeking progress towards a " Kyoto II " deal - a new global climate treaty. Talks will also focus on how to help poor nations cope in a warming world. Organisers said 10,000 turned out for the London march and rally outside the US embassy. The letter delivered to Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: " We feel that dealing with this threat should be the number one priority of the British government, a priority for all areas of policy and across all departments of government. " The letter also urged the government " to secure an equitable emissions treaty that is effective in preventing the catastrophic destabilisation of global climate and which minimises dangerous climate change. " Friends of the Earth director Tony Juniper said: " It is essential our politicians show the leadership required and ensure that the climate talks in Bali speed the world towards a low-carbon future and ensure the long-term security of generations to come. " http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7134060.stm 12) Despite the 'pause' in demand, there has been no lessening of concerns about log supply. There are questions about the volume that will be available from public forests, and a belief that the private sector will have to play an increasing role. Above all, there is a need for reliable and continuous supply and the challenge is how to work with private growers to achieve this. Falling prices for the mills inevitably mean harder negotiating on logs, and if growers aren't happy with the return they may simply withdraw. Until the third quarter, private growers had seen a better year than any could have imagined, with a definite reversal of the previous downward trend in standing timber values. But the shuddering halt to sawmill sales in August/September affected demand for logs and the hope now is that this will prove a short, sharp reversal of fortunes rather than the beginning of a long slide. However, while growers are concerned about current prices the full impact has barely been felt. That is because it coincides with the time of year when log sales traditionally slow down as the attention of the private sector turns to the shooting season, which runs from October to January. http://www.ttjonline.com/story.asp?sectioncode=15 & storycode=53456 & c=2 Portugal: 13) Six activists from the environmental pressure group Greenpeace scaled a tower close to the Lisbon venue of a weekend EU-Africa summit where they unveiled a giant banner to denounce deforestation. The giant red and green-lettered banner, which read " Save the Climate -- Save the African Forests " , was unfurled at the Vasco da Gama tower next to a giant exhibition hall where the two-day heads of state gathering begins on Saturday. It took the activists some two hours to scale the 145-metre (475-ft) tower and then unfurl the banner measuring nine by 30 metres. Greenpeace spokesman Stephan Van Praet said the leaders meeting in Lisbon should commit themselves to measures to put an end to deforestation in Africa, arguing that it is a major factor in climate change. http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=africa & item=07120721300\ 3.iugqwiom.php Germany: 14) There has been a substantial increase in German production as new mills have come on stream, and the thinking is that the country could become a regular supplier. Germany and Austria are reported still to have a considerable amount of windblow easily accessible – perhaps enough to last another six to nine months although the quality of these logs will be deteriorating, so how long they will remain suitable is uncertain.What is clear is that the strength of global demand and firming prices has allowed these countries, as well as Canada - there are reports of volumes of Canadian material on the water – to find it economically viable to sell to the UK. After the euphoria of the first seven or eight months of rising demand and prices, it took just four to six weeks for everything to change, and the mood now is one of caution and confusion. Prices have inevitably weakened as a result of the slowdown in demand, although it is not known by how much, and some UK mills took the unusual step of curtailing production for periods during October and November. http://www.ttjonline.com/story.asp?sectioncode=15 & storycode=53456 & c=2 Guyana: 15) A Malaysian timber company that was recently fined for underreporting the number of trees it cut has temporarily closed a plywood plant in Guyana after exhausting a portion of its logging concessions. Barama Company Limited Guyana's largest timber export company will transfer workers to its second major plant until stocks are replenished. It will also ask local companies to help supply logs, Barama's top executive in Guyana, Peter Ho, said in a statement released Tuesday night. " It is very difficult to sustain our business at such low production levels coupled with high operating costs, " he said. About 150 workers would be affected, but it is unclear how much money the company would lose. Ho could not be immediately reached for comment. Last month, Barama suspended five employees and agreed to pay $470,000 _ one of the largest fines ever for a forestry violation here _ after Guyana's Forestry Commission said it underreported the number of logs harvested. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5354024.html Paraguay: 16) In 1989, when the dictatorship [of General Alfredo Stroessner] fell, I decided to move back to the countryside. Under the Agrarian Reform, the government is supposed to redistribute the land to people like us, but they never have. So, together with 31 families from Ciudad del Este, we came to occupy the land here in San Isidro [Alto Paraná province]. The land was previously owned by a German company, Transatlántica Alemana, whose owners were friends with Stroessner. Their ownership was illegal under the Rural Reform and the distribution of land should have been for landless Paraguayans like us, but the government took their side. The repression against us after we occupied San Isidro was terrible. We were thrown off the land by the police several times. On one occasion they came and arrested 94 men, locking them up up for 60 days. Another time, they destroyed 30 houses. Even though the land did not legally belong to the company, they sold it to another German company. I think they are called IVP. I don't know what they do, but I think they represent a group of pensioners in Germany. They sent a representative here once. He went back and told them that the land was full of mountains and animals, and that no one lived here. At the moment, the government is discussing giving us all free titles to our land, but in my opinion it would be a disaster. With legal papers, the land is worth more and the temptation to sell will be even greater. Since around the year 2000, the big soya growers have all been using genetically-modified seeds. They are made by Monsanto, a huge company in the US. The seeds are designed to be resistant to toxic herbicides, so the soya farmers just pour as much veneno [poison] on them as they like. The land is ruined now. The trees don't bare fruit, for example, and the animals die from the contamination in the water. Last year one of my neighbours saw 18 of his cows die in the space of just two months. The pressure to expand into new areas is also causing woods and forests to be cut down across Paraguay. Deforestation rates were so high that the government recently put a temporary ban on cutting down more trees, but the big soya farmers carry on just the same. We are campesinos. We might be poor, but as long as we have our land and can grow our crops without contamination, we can have a good life. We know the poverty waiting for us in the cities if the soya barons force us to move.http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/?page=editorial & id=171 & catID=4 Brazil: 17) I was in Brazil, two hours north-east of Rio de Janeiro, looking across the head of a valley bounded by the cocked hat mountains of the Serra do Mar. The sun tickled their peaks with its first orange rays and then dragged the shadow from the throng of hills crowded in front of them. Their slopes were fleecy with a pelt of trees. Only the highest and sheerest rock faces were not dark with forest. At their feet, on the valley floor, a glistening marsh threw off an early morning mist. And the demonstration? Look to the left and you'll see what this view used to be. There the land is shorn of trees, the hilltops skin-headed, bald and brutish. What was spread in front of me was man-made landscape or, rather, reconditioned landscape, a landscape first violated and now revivified by man. It is a landscape that shows not only that it is possible to stop cutting down forests, but that forests can be recreated. It is a demonstration of how trees can be replaced and of the Elysian pleasures that are returned with them. Here is a tiny remnant of our tattered earth - a patch of Brazil, where trees have been destroyed on the scale of bacteria - that is having its forest restored and with it a smidgeon of faith and hope. Charity comes into it too. The story is one of renewal, if not redemption. Nicholas Locke, a 47-year-old Brit with joint Brazilian nationality, is re-assembling Eden 50 miles from Copacabana. It is he who has organised the planting of the trees - 18,000 last year; 20,000 this and, he intends, every year from now on. He too is an environmental activist. It was Locke's great-grandfather who cut down a lot of the trees in the first place. Hilmer Werner, a German immigrant who owned a silk factory near Rio, came to the Guapiassu Valley 100 years ago when a debt was paid with land there. Locke's plantations are in no way atonement for Hilmer's tree felling. 'I don't feel guilty about the past,' he told me. 'I have an understanding that they were wrong in their outlook on nature but it's much more important for me to be doing something that I feel is right, which discharges my responsibility towards nature, as well as showing others it can be done.' http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/12/08/sm_worldlandtr\ ust.xml 18) The international conservation group WWF is warning that climate change and deforestation are combining to destroy the Amazon rainforest far more quickly than previously thought. The WWF says almost 60 per cent of the rainforest could be lost or severely damaged by 2030. The group says destruction of the Amazon would release billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, exacerbating temperature rises. If much of the Amazon was gone, the earth would also lack " one of the key stabilisers of the global climate system " . The report's author, scientist Dan Nepstad, says the Amazon forest is vitally important for the globe's climate. " It's not only essential for cooling the world's temperature but also such a large source of freshwater that it may be enough to influence some of the great ocean currents, and on top of that it's a massive store of carbon, " he said in a media release on the WWF website. WWF's managing director for the Amazon, Dr Meg Symington, says the Amazon must be conserved if the world is to combat climate change. " Up to 60 per cent of the Amazon could be either destroyed or severely degraded by the year 2030, given current trends with agricultural and livestock expansion, combined with the effects of forest fires and logging and drought, " she said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/06/2111958.htm?section=justin 19) The EU and United States on Friday proposed that all 151 WTO members cut tariffs on at least 43 types of environmentally-friendly goods and services in order to boost their use worldwide. Brazil said the measure was " essentially protectionist, " and took issue with the definition of " green " products, not least the absence of biofuels. " The exclusion of biofuels is particularly striking, " Azevedo said. Brazil is a key exporter of this alternative fuel source. " The approach of the proponents ignores high tariffs and other barriers they impose on goods they do not produce, " he added. " Anything they don't produce is not on the list, " he claimed, concluding: " We don't think this is a basis for negotiation on environmental products. " WTO member states have yet to arrive at a common definition of what should be classified as environmental products, within the wider framework of the Doha Development Round, which remains stalled over differences between developed and developing countries. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Brazil_slams_EU-US_green_WTO_proposals_as_prot\ ectionist_999.ht ml 20) Brazil is home to the bulk of the world's remaining tropical forest cover but has had the world's highest average annual loss of forest for more than three decades. Nevertheless, Brazil's forests contain more carbon (38-56 billion tons in the Amazon alone) in tropical forest trees than any other country. Study finds that more than 90 percent of the opportunity costs of Amazon forest conservation could be compensated for a per-ton carbon value of $3. Simply eliminating deforestation would cost about $1.2 per ton of carbon. The Amazon rainforest could play a major part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions that result from deforestation, reports a new study published by scientists at the Woods Hole Research Center, the Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia, and the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. At a carbon price of $3 per ton, protecting the Amazon for its carbon value could outweigh the opportunity costs of forgoing logging, cattle ranching, and soy expansion in the region. 2008 certified emission-reduction credits for carbon currently trade at more than $90 per ton ($25 per ton of CO2). The report, published as more than 10,000 policymakers and scientists meet for UN climate talks on the Indonesian island of Bali, presents a conceptual framework for estimating the costs to tropical nations of implementing programs to reduce emissions by reducing deforestation (REDD). During the 1990s, tropical deforestation and forest degradation contributed 7 to 28% of global, human-induced carbon emissions to the atmosphere. Cutting deforestation would reduce these emissions as well as provide other ecosystem services. http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1204-amazon_whrc.html China: 21) One of the largest forestry projects in the world, China's $90-billion forestry reform program, is dramatically changing that country's forest management, a joint University of B.C.-Chinese research team reports in this week's edition of Science magazine. The joint team, headed by UBC forestry professor John Innes, has been working for three years evaluating China's six key forestry programs, introduced in 2000 in response to concerns over deforestation. The aim of the reform program is to encourage sustainability in balance with land-use, economic growth and the growing Chinese demand for wood products. The sweeping scope of the Chinese reforms not only provides a window into the new direction of Chinese forest policies but also offers lessons for B.C., undergoing its own policy reforms, one of the UBC researchers, Guangyu Wang, said in an interview. China has been targeted as a market for B.C. forest products but current strategies have had limited success, Wang said. B.C.'s $110 million worth of wood products exports to China in 2005 represented less than one per cent of that country's $15 billion in wood imports that year. B.C. has been focusing on introducing two-by-four construction technologies in China. Wang said many of the new plantation forests being developed in China produce lower-quality fibre while B.C. produces higher-quality fibre. He said one key to developing a more successful export economy here could be integrating the two qualities into product lines. The Canadian members of the team are all part of UBC's sustainable forest management laboratory at the faculty of forestry. During three-year study, they have assessed progress on the reforms, pointing out successes, such as bringing 98 million hectares of forestland into protection. They also report on obstacles: a booming economy that has yet to balance growth in wood demand with environmental needs and social justice, they say. The Science article, a summary of the research, notes that the reforms are in response to growing pressure on the environment and natural resources. " Past government policies have favoured economic growth over the environment but the central government has now proposed a science-based approach to development designed to realize balanced sustainable development, " the team states in the article. " However, in practice, local governments continue to put economic growth ahead of any concern for the environment, which has led some critics to call for stronger central government control. " http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=d552ea4e-543c-43d\ 5-98e2-753c7b132 96c Sumatra: 22) Muymunah is 75 and has seen a lot in her long life, but she's never experienced anything like the burning of tropical forests in Sumatra. " Everything is burning here. Everything, " said the Indonesian woman who farms land along Indragiri River on Sumatra. She gestures to a field, saying two years ago it was a lush forest. Now there's nothing there but charred stumps. When she notices one smoldering, she calls her daughter, who brings a bucket of water and puts out the flames. In this region of Indonesia as elsewhere in the country, the forest is disappearing at a breathtaking rate. The environmental organization Greenpeace estimates 300 football fields are destroyed every hour. The reason is palm oil, which is in demand in part because it is added to diesel fuel to make it more environmentally friendly. Along the Indragiri River the tropical forest grows on a layer of thick turf. In order to ease the transport of valuable timber after it is felled, loggers dig canals. As a result the water level drops and the turf dries out. " When the trees are gone, the ground temperature increases to as high as 70 degrees " Celsius, said Indonesian forestry worker Jonotoro. The slightest spark is enough to cause a huge fire. " It burns like a pile of matches, " said Michael Stuewe of the environmental organization World Wildlife Fund. And it has emerged as an enormous climate issue for Indonesia. Because of the destruction of the forests Indonesia has become the third-largest source of carbon dioxide emissions caused by human activity, behind the US and China. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/155186.html 23) Less than 900 miles from Bali, where United Nations talks on climate change are taking place, Sean Marron is taking on the illegal loggers whose activities are leading to a big increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Mr Marron is head of the Harapan Rainforest project, a logging concession bought by a conservation consortium involving Burung Indonesia, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Birdlife International. Eighty per cent of Sumatra's rich lowland forest is estimated to have been destroyed in the past 30 years. Deforestation in Indonesia accounts for about two thirds of its greenhouse gas emissions, making it the world's third largest carbon dioxide polluter. Between 2000 and 2005, an area of forest equivalent to 300 soccer pitches was destroyed every hour. Harapan, which straddles the border of two provinces near Jambi in central Sumatra, is 250,000 acres, roughly the size of Greater London. It is the first logged concession to be taken over with the explicit aim of ecosystem restoration. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/12/08/eaforest108.xm\ l 24) Harapan Forest: To Alfred Russel Wallace, who spent eight years in Malaysia and Indonesia between 1854 and 1862, Sumatra was a " forest " country, " except a few small and unimportant tracts, due perhaps, in some cases, to ancient cultivation or accidental fires " . But during the 20th century, in its lowland parts, Sumatra become an island of plantations, with a few, relatively small tracts of its forests left. From around 16 million hectares in 1900, Sumatra's lowland rainforests were reduced to 2.2 million by 1997. Clearance has continued, and some observers have suggested that only 300,000 hectares remain. Plant diversity of Sumatra lowland rainforests rivals the Amazon. Within the Indonesian archipelago, Sumatra is second only to Papua in bird diversity, with 582 species, 14 of them endemic, and a majority of them forest-dependent. But as the forest has shrunk, the number of threatened birds, and the rate at which Sumatra's birds are becoming threatened, have both dramatically increased. In 1994, 17 Sumatran species were regarded as globally threatened, with 27 Near Threatened. Just ten years later this figure had risen to 21 threatened and 85 Near Threatened species. Hopeless? So it seemed in 2002, when the World Resources Institute predicted that without immediate and fundamental changes in policies and management, virtually all Sumatra's lowland rainforest would be cleared by 2010. But also in 2002, BirdLife Partner Burung Indonesia floated the idea of acquiring management rights for a large block of Sumatra's surviving lowland rainforest. It was, as Burung Indonesia CEO Sukianto Lusli admits, " nothing more than a dream sketched on a flipchart " . It was also against the law, as it stood at that time. Almost all the remaining Sumatran lowland rainforest had been designated " production forest " , set aside for private companies to exploit by logging. With the support of the BirdLife Secretariat and the RSPB, Burung Indonesia set out to persuade the government to change the forestry law to embrace the concept of " restoration forest " , logged-over forest that would be allowed to re-grow, not only providing a home for an incredibly rich biodiversity, but also restoring the array of ecosystem services that these rainforests are able to provide, from timber and other forest products, to regulation of precipitations and local climate, carbon sequestration, and many more. http://www.birdlife.org/news/features/2007/12/harapan.html Indonesia: 25) The host sets the tone: last year's climate change talks, held in Nairobi, revolved around adaptation. This year, with Indonesia hosting the UN climate change conference, the prevalent issue is deforestation. The malaise here in Indonesia is clear. Rising commodity prices and a boom in biofuels have led to uncontrolled deforestation. To improve its image and to offset the conference, Indonesia has just been on a planting spree with 79 million new trees in the ground. The word is that the conference, as a result, is " carbon positive. " The question is: what measures, if any, will flip the current incentive scheme and will make it financially more interesting to keep the forests standing. In a new report CIFOR suggests payments to land users for environmental services. The report, however, does not mention how high those payments should be to represent a real alternative, nor where those payments would come from, nor where local people previously employed on these lands would find a new job. A little while ago, when offered to be paid as custodians of the country's landscapes, French farmers vehemently declined the idea. A real job and their dignity, that's what they wanted. http://psdblog.worldbank.org/psdblog/2007/12/money-on-trees.html 26) Indigenous peoples representing regions from around the world protested outside the climate negotiations today wearing symbolic gags that read UNFCCC, the acronym of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, symbolizing their systematic exclusion from the UN meeting. Yesterday a delegation of indigenous peoples was forcibly barred from entering the meeting between UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer and civil society representatives, despite the fact that the indigenous delegation was invited to attend. This act is representative of the systematic exclusion of indigenous peoples in the UNFCCC process. " There is no seat or name plate for indigenous peoples in the plenary, nor for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the highest level body in the United Nations that addresses indigenous peoples rights, " stated Hubertus Samangun, the Focal Point of the Indigenous Peoples delegation to the UNFCCC and the Focal Point for English Speaking Indigenous Peoples of the Global Forest Coalition. " Indigenous peoples are not only marginalized from the discussion, but there is virtually no mention of indigenous peoples in the more that 5 million words of UNFCCC documents, " argued Alfred Ilenre of the Edo People of Nigeria. This is occurring despite the fact that indigenous peoples are suffering the most from climate change and climate change mitigation projects that directly impact their lands. Indigenous peoples are here in Bali to denounce the false solutions to climate change proposed by the United Nations such as carbon trading, agrofuels and so-called " avoided deforestation " that devastate their lands and cause human rights violations. " This process has become nothing but developed countries avoiding their responsibilities to cut emissions and pushing the responsibility onto developing countries, " stated Fiu Mata'ese Elisara-Laula, of the O Le Siosiomaga Society of Samoa. " Projects like REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing countries) sound very nice but they are trashing our indigenous lands. People are being relocated and even killed; my own people will soon be under water. That's why I call the money from the projects blood money, " he added. langelle 27) As the UNFCCC World Climate Change Conference crossed the 10,000-attendee mark, delegates braced themselves for what could be one most difficult and divisive issues of what could constitute " The Bali Breakthrough. " " The working group on Reduction of Emissions by Deforestation (and Degradation) in Developing Countries (REDD) was constituted and has begun work today, " stated UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer in his daily press briefing at the World Climate Change Summit on Thursday. The working group is tasked with arriving at a mechanism to incorporate deforestation reduction into the framework of the Kyoto Protocol and the carbon market. At present, forests store about 686 gigatonnes (GT) of carbon — about 50 per cent more than the atmosphere — and are being cleared at an average rate of about 13 million hectares per annum. This makes deforestation responsible for between 20 and 25 per cent of global green house gas emissions. The risks of exacerbation, and opportunities presented by the possible control of deforestation, has led delegates to propose several possible models. The debate revolves around the fact that governments across the world have been largely incapable of or are unwilling to tackle the problem. http://www.hindu.com/2007/12/07/stories/2007120761221800.htm 28) Cutting timber from forests like the one in Kuala Cenaku, Indonesia, accounts for 20 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. A look at this vast wasteland of charred stumps and dried-out peat makes the fight to save Indonesia's forests seem nearly impossible. " What can we possibly do to stop this? " said Pak Helman, 28, a villager here in Riau Province, surveying the scene from his leaking wooden longboat. " I feel lost. I feel abandoned. " In recent years, dozens of pulp and paper companies have descended on Riau, which is roughly the size of Switzerland, snatching up generous government concessions to log and establish palm oil plantations. The results have caused villagers to feel panic. Only five years ago, Mr. Helman said, he earned nearly $100 a week catching shrimp. Now, he said, logging has poisoned the rivers snaking through the heart of Riau, and he is lucky to find enough shrimp to earn $5 a month. Responding to global demand for palm oil, which is used in cooking and cosmetics and, lately, in an increasingly popular biodiesel, companies have been claiming any land they can. Fortunately, from Mr. Helman's point of view, the issue of Riau's disappearing forests has become a global one. He is now a volunteer for Greenpeace, which has established a camp in his village to monitor what it calls an impending Indonesian " carbon bomb. " Within Indonesia, the situation is most critical in Riau. In the past 10 years, nearly 60 percent of the province's forests have been logged, burned and pulped, according to Jikalahari, a local environmental group. " This is very serious — the world needs to act now, " said Susanto Kurniawan, a coordinator for Jikalahari who regularly makes the arduous trip into the forest from the nearby city of Pekanbaru, passing long lines of trucks carting palm oil and wood. " In a few years it will be too late. " The rate of this deforestation is rising as oil prices reach new highs, leading more industries to turn to biodiesel made from palm oil, which, in theory, is earth-friendly. But its use is causing more harm than good, environmental groups say, because companies slash and burn huge swaths of trees to make way for palm oil plantations. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/world/asia/06indo.html 29) For years Irwandi Yusuf fought for the independence of Aceh province. But now he's at the forefront of another struggle: trying to persuade wealthy nations and companies to offset their carbon emissions by saving his homeland's forests. Yusuf, who was elected governor after the 2004 tsunami ushered in an era of peace in the province, has traveled the world hawking the innovative plan to potential investors, including Starbucks and Goldman Sachs. Indonesia is one of several tropical countries, including Brazil, pushing proposals at the ongoing U.N. climate talks in Bali that offer up their forests as stocks of carbon for wealthy nations or companies to buy to offset their emissions of greenhouse gases. In effect, it means they get paid to stop chopping down their trees. " The world needs the forests of Aceh, " said Yusuf, who was in jail when the tsunami hit but managed to escape seconds before it engulfed the facility. In total, some 160,000 people in Aceh were killed. The 47-year-old said he had no firm offers yet, but hoped to announce prospective investors at Bali along with his counterpart from the eastern Indonesian region of Papua, which is also home to vast stretches of rainforest. He is pledging to spend future proceeds — projected to be several million dollars — on more forest rangers and creating jobs for people who live close to the protected areas. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gKwwScHSBbTepBaIAZhlhlpuPRcAD8TBG6V80 30) Experts' aims are to examine the implementation of the report on national emissions of greenhouse gases from 1990 to 2005, and analyze reduction of carbon emissions from deforestation in developing countries. Also on the list is to tackle implications of changing the Mechanism of Clean Development to foster reforestation activities in those nations, and the scientific, technical and sociological aspects on mitigation of climate change. According to sources, several regional groups are also holding meetings behind closed doors, like those from Asia, East Europe, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries and representatives from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The Greenpeace ecologist organization gives a talk on vulnerability to the climate change and possibilities of adaptation, and several Non-Governmental Organizations will present their proposals. The World Meteorology Organization (WMO) requested from this conference in Bali that governments invest more in mechanisms to adapt to associated risks with rise in temperature and not only in mitigating effects. WMO general secretary Michel Jarrauden said that we must reinforce measures that support people and companies to adapt to lack of water, extreme climate and other dangers. http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7BA9FB7FEE-C20B-4BD0-9816-B80A65250695%\ 7D) & language=EN 31) Greenpeace today launched a landmark proposal for reducing, and ultimately stopping, tropical deforestation. The initiative was launched at a side event of the Bali Climate Conference, featuring the Governors of Papua and Papua Barat, the provinces with the largest intact tropical forests in Indonesia. Greenpeace believes that finding solutions to ending deforestation must be a key objective of the conference for the following reasons: Tropical deforestation accounts for approximately a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than those produced by the world's entire transport sector. Indonesia and Brazil are the third and fourth largest emitters in the world largely due to deforestation. In order to help prevent dangerous climate change, Greenpeace believes that deforestation should be stopped globally within a decade. The peat swamp forests of Indonesia alone are responsible for 4 per cent of the world's annual greenhouse gas emissions. Mitigating these emissions represents one of the quickest and easiest ways of tackling climate change. Since 1997 about 13 million hectares of forest (mostly tropical) have been destroyed per year - an area the size of Greece lost every year. " We want the issue of deforestation to be a central part of the negotiations here in Bali. The world has the resources to stop this problem - what's needed now is the political will. Governors from Papua and Brazil's Amazonas State have shown that they have the desire to do this, the world's governments in Bali must now follow. No money, no forests, no future, " said Greenpeace Brazil's Amazon campaign coordinator, Paulo Adario. The Greenpeace proposal has the potential to raise funding in the range of several billion US$ per year to finance urgent action to cut emissions from deforestation. http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/press-releases/greenpeace-launches-landmark-p\ roposal-for-red ucing-tropical-deforestation-20071204 New Zealand: 32) Pacific Islanders and other rainforest nations should be compensated by the international community for not chopping down their trees, New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. On a visit to Port Moresby, Peters commended Papua New Guinea for taking a lead in advancing the idea of an international carbon credit scheme to reward rainforest nations for protecting or growing their forests to reduce carbon emissions. PNG Prime Minister Michael Somare has been vigorously promoting the idea on the world stage as a leading figure in the Coalition of Rainforest Nations. He has called for developing nations to be given incentives to reduce their carbon emissions in a way that did not hinder economic growth. Peters told a meeting of the Port Moresby Chamber of Commerce that New Zealand was very interested in the concept of an international financial mechanism to encourage indigenous people not to engage in deforestation. " If we want Niue to stop cutting its timber down, we're going to have to pay a bit of money to ensure that they don't, in their interests and ours. " It was all very well to demand an end to logging but no-one in PNG or elsewhere should be asked to be public benefactors without compensation, Peters said. http://news.theage.com.au/nz-backs-incentives-to-preserve-forests/20071207-1fla.\ html Australia: 33) Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has ruled out taking action under environment laws to stop logging going ahead in the Wielangta forest on Tasmania's east coast. His decision places the Rudd Government on a rapid collision course with the Greens over protection of Australia's forests, as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Mr Garrett and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong prepare to attend the United Nations climate change summit in Bali next week. Cutting greenhouse emissions from clearing of native forests is a key issue on the Bali agenda, and Greens leader Bob Brown has warned the Government " cannot expect to bask in applause for signing on to Kyoto in Bali, while continuing to bulldoze and burn Australia's native forests at home " . Senator Brown said the " absurdity of this contradictory stance would ring down the years " and undermine the Government's credibility on climate change. He also called for Labor to " show a little grace " in acknowledging the role Green preferences and public concern for the environment played in securing more than 20 new seats for the Government. Mr Garrett's refusal to intervene to protect the Wielangta forest follows a decision last week by the appeal bench of the Federal Court to overturn a previous ruling that logging in the 10,000 ha forest was illegal because it destroyed the habitat of endangered wildlife. The Court unanimously upheld an appeal by Forestry Tasmania against the decision, allowing logging to go ahead in the old growth eucalypt forest. The previous Federal Court win last year by Senator Brown was hailed by environmentalists as a landmark decision upholding protection of Australia's native forests. Mr Garrett has snubbed Senator Brown, ignoring a letter asking him to use his ministerial powers to intervene to protect the habitat of endangered species in the old growth eucalypt forest. Senator Brown wrote to the minister last Friday, asking him to take " urgent action to protect Wielangta and other native forests in Australia. " http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/news/local/general/govt-rules-out-action-to-pro\ tect-tas-fores t/1101138.html World-wide: 34) Governors from the Brazilian state of Amazonas and the Indonesian provinces of Aceh, Papua and West Papua signed a historic agreement to protect threatened rainforests. The pact, which imposes a logging moratorium in their states and provinces, was signed in Bali, Indonesia, where more than 10,000 policymakers and scientists are meeting to discuss measures to reign in greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming. With talks making little progress -- both the U.S. and Brazil are opposing measures to limit action on climate -- environmentalists welcomed the declaration as a step in the right direction. " They are acting because nations aren't, " Greenpeace spokesman Marcelo Furtado told The Age. " I hope it serves as a jump-start for national and international action. " The agreement was fostered by Carbon Conservation, an Australian firm that is seeking to push carbon credits for forest conservation as a means to reducing carbon dioxide emissions. During the moratorium, the forests in Amazonas, Aceh, Papua and West Papua will be mapped and reassessed for their carbon finance value. When a REDD (reduce emissions by reducing deforestation) framework is established, the carbon credits will be sold in the open market. http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1207-governors.html 35) In a lecture to the Royal Academy of Engineering in May, Professor Rod Smith of Imperial College explained that a growth rate of 3% means economic activity doubles in 23 years(24). At 10% it takes just 7 years. This we knew. But Smith takes it further. With a series of equations he shows that " each successive doubling period consumes as much resource as all the previous doubling periods combined. " In other words, if our economy grows at 3% between now and 2030, we will consume in that period economic resources equivalent to all those we have consumed since humans first stood on two legs. Then, between 2030 and 2053, we must double our total consumption again. Reading that paper I realised for the first time what we are up against. But I am not advocating despair. We must confront a challenge which is as great and as pressing as the rise of the Axis powers. Had we thrown up our hands then, as many people are tempted to do today, you would be reading this paper in German. Though the war often seemed impossible to win, when the political will was mobilised strange and implausible things began to happen. http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2007/12/04/what-is-progress/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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