265 - Earth's Tree News

December 12, 2007

Today for you 35 new articles about earth's trees! (265th edition)

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Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com

--British Columbia: 1) Save Pacific Spirit Park

--Washington: 2) FSC promo material

--Oregon: 3) Logging recreation areas on Deschutes NF, 4) Reflecting

on a lost tree,

--Montana: 5) WildWest Institute

--New Mexico: 6) Forest Service sued by Forest Guardians again

--USA: 7) FS strategy to preserve open spaces, 8) Killing use fees,

--Canada: 8) Oil sands scandal, 9) More on oil / tar sands, 10)

Protesting Sears,

--Northern Europe: 11) Last Yoik in Saami Forests?

--Norway: 12) 3-billion kroner a year to prevent deforestation in

developing countries

--Russia: 13) Head of lenders to loggers found dead

--Kashmir: 14) Too scared to enforce the law, 15) The results of it,

--Laos: 16) Foreigners buying up the landscape

--Malaysia: 17) Deforestation and reforestation

--Indonesia: 18) Protests in Bali, 19) difficult to put into practice,

20) Haji Gambut oil palm plantation, 21) Reject the new World Bank

initiative, 22) Peat swamp forests, 23) Global Environment Facility

(GEF),

--Papua: 24) Latest schemes call for more plantations, 25) Governor

explains ban plan,

--Australia: 26) Logging industry represent the Aussies in Bali, 27)

Gumnut babies and women dressed as trees, 28) East Gippsland coup shut

down by protest, 29) Brown calls for ban in Native forests, 30)

Logging shut down by Protests in Styx, 31) Gunns begins building a

Pulp Mill town, 32) Kyoto signing may help trees, 33) Tassie

mountain-top railway tourism plan killed, 34) Leaders Disappointed by

Forestry Tasmania profits, 35) Tribes make return back to Daintree

forest, 36) East Gippsland shutdown continues,

British Columbia:

1) I had an opportunity to listen to speakers at a Rally against the

Musqueam land deal in Pacific Spirit Park today. The rally was

organized by the Friends of Pacific Spirit Park. About 250 to 300

people attend the rally. A range of speakers addressed concerns about

'giving' away 'our precious park.' Many of the speakers emphasized

that they had no problem with settling aboriginal claims; but not with

'their' park. After the speeches a few protesters made there way over

to one of the blocks being returned to Musqueam to stake a claim on

the land with signs saying don't give away our park and save our park.

As a researcher who works closely with First Nations, as well as a

community member who values park space, it was interesting listening

to the speakers express their upset at losing something they valued.

For many of the speakers aboriginal title and rights appeared to be an

abstract value that they appreciated intellectually. However, they

experienced the park personally and emotionally. The combination of

intellectual acceptance with emotional attachment lends itself to

people feeling aggrieved with the reality of aboriginal title and

rights. One theme that wound itself through many of the talks was the

outrage that they had not been consulted. This sentiment reveals a

serious lack of understanding of the basis of government-to-government

talks that are at the core of all aboriginal-government relations

today. And, in this process, it is the provincial and federal

governments who represent the the interests of the crown. At the end

of the day the first step will have to be an acceptance by

non-aboriginal people that First Nations are here to stay. If the

friends of the park are worried about development and conservation,

perhaps it would be appropriate for them to approach Musqueam as the

rightful owner of the land and to enter into discussions rather acting

as though Musqueam has no inherent rights or title to this land. I

would be interested in any comments about this. The issues around

aboriginal title and rights are ones that I explore through my

professional practice. I have written about these issues in the past

(see, Stories from home) and am considering a project focused on the

park and golf course issues. Any comments on the issue would be

appreciated. http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/ecoknow/archives/043941.html

Washington:

2) Industry news on local FSC products: Welcome to another edition of

Northwest Certified Wood Source, brought to you by Northwest Natural

Resource Group. This quarter's theme - community forestry and small

scale manufacturers - stems from a conversation with a colleague a few

months back. A sawmill owner from Forks turned leading researcher at

UW, he summed up a much longer conversation by saying " We've done a

pretty good job at understanding the importance of diversity in forest

ecosystems, but we have a long way to go in understanding the

importance of diversity in forestry economic systems. " The trends

we're experiencing today unfortunately go in the opposite direction,

with both forest management and manufacturing infrastructure getting

increasingly simplified and legions of smaller manufacturers calling

it quits. The trends we're experiencing today unfortunately go in the

opposite direction, with both forest management and manufacturing

infrastructure getting increasingly simplified and legions of smaller

manufacturers calling it quits. One of the biggest challenges in

supporting an emerging market like FSC is navigating new business

channels to find the products you need. You need quality information

and you need it quickly.

http://www.nnrg.org/news-events/news/web-resources-for-sourcing-fsc-products/

Oregon:

3) Logging activity is scheduled to begin this Thursday on the

1,360-acre Net Timber Sale in the vicinity of Phil's Trailhead near

Skyliner Road and Century Drive west of Bend, Deschutes National

Forest officials said Monday. To improve forest health and reduce

catastrophic wildfire risk to the local community, timber stand

enhancement operations will be ongoing near lower portions of Phil's

Trail and Deschutes River trails until March 31, 2008. While the

general area remains open to the public, specific trail sections may

be temporarily closed during operations for public safety. The Net

Timber Sale is a fuel reduction project of the Bend/Fort Rock Ranger

District of the Deschutes National Forest, located within the East

Tumble Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project. The action was proposed and

public involvement began in late 2004. Collaboration around this

Forest Service project occurred with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Klamath Tribes,

Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Burns Paiute Tribe, the

communities of Sunriver, Inn of the Seventh Mountain, Bend, Highlands

at Broken Top Subdivision, Oregon Natural Resources Council, The

Nature Conservancy, the Central Oregon Trail Alliance and other

interested individuals in 2004 and 2005. Approximately 4.2 million

board feet of timber was sold to Interfor Pacific Inc. of Gilchrist as

part of this project. The sale is located from Skyliner Road to Aspen

Trailhead. It consists of 13 treatment units across 1,360 acres to

thin lodgepole and Ponderosa pine. The winter timing of the sale is

slated to minimize exposure of the recreating public to timber sale

operations. http://www.ktvz.com/Global/story.asp?S=7478705

4) They might be dwarfed by architecture, but nothing we've built has

transcended time the way big trees have. The " Klootchy Creek Giant "

lived long and large. It took a record-setting windstorm to bring it

down. In the exhibit gallery at the top of the Space Needle, there's a

graphic of the relative heights of the tallest structures in the

world. We're perennially fascinated with records and record-breaking,

and the tallest-in-the-world designation is an important one. Perhaps

the impulse to hold the title is best captured in the story of the

Tower of Babel, which functions mainly as a cautionary tale to keep

our hubris in check. Warnings against ascending to the heights of the

creator seem to be largely ignored here on the ground, for there is an

undeniable human urge to build, build, build as high as we possibly

can without having the thing topple like a stack of Jenga blocks. Up

until recently, when the record began to break faster than our ability

to keep up with it, most people could name the tallest building in the

world. For much of human history, it was the Great Pyramid in Egypt

(481 feet). Then, for a time it was the Eiffel Tower (1,000 feet).

Next it was the Empire State Building (1,239 feet), the World Trade

Center Towers (1,350 feet), and the Sears Tower (1,454 feet). They're

building a hotel in Dubai right now that when completed will rise to a

height of 2,625 feet. By comparison, Seattle's tallest building, the

Columbia Tower, is only 937 feet tall. In last week's triple-digit

windstorm, a great Sitka spruce tree in Oregon — once recognized as

the largest of its kind in the nation — snapped at a height of 75 feet

and fell to the forest floor. Unlike so many other big trees, it died

a natural death. http://www.crosscut.com/science-environment/9780/

Montana:

5) The WildWest Institute continues to be involved in a number of

collaborative groups revolving around specific national forests

(Salmon-Challis N.F. in Lemhi County, ID and the Kootenai N.F. in

Lincoln County, Lolo N.F. in Sanders and Mineral counties) and on

community-oriented fuel reduction projects (Debaugan on the Superior

District of the Lolo N.F.). However, the one that we're participating

in that has received the least attention but which has the greatest

potential for restoring Montana's forests is called the Montana Forest

Restoration Working Group (http://montanarestoration.org/restoration).

Started in January 2007 with support and facilitation from the

National Forest Foundation, a diverse set of participants began a

dialogue on forest restoration and spent time probing where and what

kind of common ground existed. Unlike the more talked about but less

collaborative Beaverhead-Deerlodge Forest Partnership, the Montana

Forest Restoration Working Group spanned a wide spectrum of interests

ranging from conservationists and motorized users to outfitters,

loggers and employees of forest products companies to representatives

from state and federal agencies. Aside from the broader range of

conservation groups represented, this process also included forest

recreation groups, both motorized and non-motorized, wildlife

conservation groups as well as plenty of representatives from the wood

product's sector.

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/WildWest/blog/comments.jsp?bl\

og_entry_KEY=23

023 & t=

New Mexico:

6) An environmental group sued the U.S. Forest Service on Wednesday,

claiming the agency's fire management plans for certain forests in the

Southwest are inadequate and produced without enough public input.

Forest Guardians accused the agency of developing fire plans for a

pair of forests in New Mexico and two others in Arizona without

studying the potential impact on the environment as required by the

National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. The

group filed its lawsuit in federal court in Phoenix. It wants the

court to order the Forest Service to open its plans to public and

scientific review. ''The system is broken as it is and it's not

working,'' said Bryan Bird, public lands director for Santa Fe-based

Forest Guardians. ''... We need to get out our pencils and erasers and

work at it.'' Art Morrison, a spokesman for the Forest Service's

regional office in Albuquerque, said Wednesday he had not seen the

lawsuit and could not comment. But he noted that any time individual

forests develop management plans federal laws are followed and the

public is given a chance to comment. Specifically, the suit targets

fire management plans for the Carson and Lincoln forests in New Mexico

and the Apache-Sitgreaves and Tonto forests in Arizona. However,

Forest Guardians believes the agency failed to consider NEPA and the

ESA in other cases, as well. Bird said the fire plans which spell out

how and where prescribed and natural fires can be used should be

reviewed and updated each year. He contends that's not happening. He

also complains that the plans call for putting out fires even when

letting them burn would be better for the landscape and for the

agency's budget. ''The Apache-Sitgreaves, Tonto, Carson and Lincoln

national forests require suppression of all non-prescribed,

human-caused fires,'' the lawsuit reads. ''The (fire management plans)

also restrict the Forest Service's authority to use naturally ignited

wildfires to accomplish management goals by limiting wildland fire use

to certain wilderness areas and fire management units that make up a

small fraction of the forests.''

http://www.alamogordonews.com/news/ci_7646484

USA:

7) Now the Forest Service is developing a national strategy to protect

and conserve open space. The plan, announced Thursday, will use

partnerships with private landowners and state and local governments

to identify areas most in need of protection, said Forest Service

Chief Gail Kimbell. The Forest Service also will work with Congress to

create tax breaks and other incentives to promote conservation and

reduce development in ecologically sensitive areas, she said. The

conservation plan takes effect immediately and does not require

congressional approval. The agency's vision stretches far beyond the

193 million acres of national forests, Kimbell said, noting that more

than half the nation's 800 million acres of forest land is privately

owned. " If people have an incentive to hold on to wildlands (rather

than develop them), we as a society benefit from that, " she said in an

interview. " We all benefit from keeping wildlands wild. " Kimbell said

she was " not looking to turn that world green on a map, " but said

private landowners, local governments and others look to the Forest

Service for expertise to preserve forests and other wildlands. " Our

vision for the 21st century is an interconnected network of open space

across the landscape - one that supports healthy ecosystems, renewable

resources and high quality of life for Americans, " she said. National

forests and grasslands provide the largest single source of fresh

water in the United States, habitat for a third of all federally

listed threatened or endangered species and millions of recreation

opportunities, Kimbell said. About 205 million visits are made

annually to national forests. Preserving open space is one of her top

four goals, Kimbell said. The others are improving forest health to

reduce the risk of wildfire, controlling invasive species and managing

outdoor recreation. The Forest Service calls those the " Four Threats "

and devotes most of its resources to address them. The agency predicts

that more than 21 million acres of rural private lands near national

forests and 44 million acres of private forest land will be developed

by 2030. " Growth and development in wildlands increases the risk of

wildfire for people and property, affects the Forest Service's ability

to manage the public lands ... and reduces the capacity of privately

owned land to provide water, recreation and habitat, " Kimbell said.

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/12/369728.shtml

8) U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) today joined Finance Committee

Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) in introducing the much-anticipated Fee

Repeal and Expanded Access Act of 2007. The bill would revoke

authority given federal agencies, with the exception of the National

Park Service, in 2004 to institute new fees and increase existing fees

at campgrounds, trailheads, and other public areas. Specifically, the

bill repeals the 2004-passed Federal Lands Recreational Enhancement

Act, sometimes called the recreational access tax, and reinstates

legislation dating back to 1965 that limits the use of fees on public

lands. Baucus, a long-time critic of the fees, said the current system

amounts to double taxation. " Americans already pay to use their public

lands on April 15, " Baucus said. " We shouldn't be taxed twice to go

fishing, hiking, or camping on OUR public lands. It just doesn't make

any sense. That's why Mike and I are going to fight like the dickens

to get this bill passed. " The senators noted that both the Montana and

Idaho State Legislatures passed resolutions to repeal FLREA. Crapo

said, " As an outdoorsman and legislator, I have always supported fair

and reasonable access to our nation's public lands. Mandatory user

fees for access to many of those lands limits accessibility to those

who can afford the cost and results in a 'pay-to-play' system that is

unacceptable. I also fully recognize that we need to adequately fund

recreation activities on federal lands and will continue to fight in

Congress to make sure the funding needs of our public lands management

agencies are met. " Debates have flared up in communities across the

West as fees began to rise after the 2004 bill was passed. Baucus said

he hopes his bill will help resolve those disputes. Kitty Benzar,

president of the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition, hailed the bill.

Baucus worked closely with Benzar as well as the late Robert

Funkhouser, who recently passed away, in crafting the legislation.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104 & STORY=/www/story/12-10-200\

7/0004720186 & ED

ATE=

Canada:

9) BP, the British oil giant that pledged to move " Beyond Petroleum "

by finding cleaner ways to produce fossil fuels, is being accused of

abandoning its " green sheen " by investing nearly £1.5bn to extract oil

from the Canadian wilderness using methods which environmentalists say

are part of the " biggest global warming crime " in history. Producing

crude oil from the tar sands - a heavy mixture of bitumen, water, sand

and clay - found beneath more than 54,000 square miles of prime forest

in northern Alberta - an area the size of England and Wales combined -

generates up to four times more carbon dioxide, the principal global

warming gas, than conventional drilling. The booming oil sands

industry will produce 100 million tonnes of CO2 (equivalent to a fifth

of the UK's entire annual emissions) a year by 2012, ensuring that

Canada will miss its emission targets under the Kyoto treaty,

according to environmentalist activists. The oil rush is also scarring

a wilderness landscape: millions of tonnes of plant life and top soil

is scooped away in vast open-pit mines and millions of litres of water

are diverted from rivers - up to five barrels of water are needed to

produce a single barrel of crude and the process requires huge amounts

of natural gas. The industry, which now includes all the major oil

multinationals, including the Anglo-Dutch Shell and American combine

Exxon-Mobil, boasts that it takes two tonnes of the raw sands to

produce a single barrel of oil. BP insists it will use a less damaging

extraction method, but it accepts that its investment will increase

its carbon footprint. Mike Hudema, the climate and energy campaigner

for Greenpeace in Canada, told The Independent: " BP has done a very

good job in recent years of promoting its green objectives. By jumping

into tar sands extraction it is taking part in the biggest global

warming crime ever seen and BP's green sheen is gone.

http://environment.independent.co.uk/article3239364.ece

9) Tar sands extraction causes enormous ecological destruction. The

process begins with clearcutting the boreal forest, destroying habitat

and soil. The trees are either milled into lumber, which releases some

of the carbon into the atmosphere, or the trees are burned as slash,

which releases nearly all of the carbon into the atmosphere. The

carbon reserves locked up in the forest soils are also released into

the atmosphere. After the land is cleared, the " overburden " subsoils

and rock are strip mined using enormous dump trucks the size of a

house. Eventually, the mine reaches the layer where the tar sands

congealed eons ago, and then the tar sands are mined. It is possible

that the tar sands are the single largest strip mine anywhere on

Earth. The waste " tailings " left over when the mining is finished are

a toxic slurry that is poisonous to life. In addition to huge amounts

of energy, vast quantities of water are also needed in the tar sands

industry. While Canada has more water than any other country -- it is

the Saudi Arabia of water -- polluting the planet's largest supply of

fresh water for a short term burst of energy production is one of the

most insane behaviors imaginable. After the era of fossil fuels winds

down, and the era of climate change starts up, access to clean

drinking water will be unbelievably important. Tar sands production

threatens to turn much of central Canada's water reserves into oily

wastes unfit for consumption. Perhaps the saddest aspect of the rise

of the tar sands industry is that all of this destruction is only

expected to supply a small amount of the demand for oil. In 2007,

about one million barrels per day of tar sands is produced in Alberta

-- about one percent of the global consumption of about 85 million

barrels per day. It is predicted that with considerable investment,

Canadian tar sands production might reach a couple million barrels per

day within a decade. This means that an area the size of Florida will

be totally deforested, strip mined, drained of clean water, and doused

with toxic effluent to meet a small percentage of global oil demand

for a couple of decades (at best). http://www.oilsandstruth.org

10) Shoppers heading into Sears stores this afternoon are being

greeted by protesters wearing reindeer antlers. They are targeting 70

locations across Canada and the US. Neil Monckton with the group

Forestethics says 425-million Sears catalogues have been printed on

paper coming from the Boreal forest. " Well, Sears is the largest

catalogue producer in North America. In Canada, 162-thousand trees are

pulped every year to produce their wish book and much of this pulp is

coming from the Boreal forest which is fast becoming an endangered

forest. " Officials from Sears have not been available for comment, but

today's protest isn't the only one targeting the retail giant. The BC

federation of labour is also asking shoppers to boycott Sears in

support of the international brotherhood of electrical workers union.

About 70 IBEW members at the Underhill Service Centre in Burnaby have

been locked out since October 1st.

http://www.cknw.com/news/news_local.cfm?cat=7428218912 & rem=80864 & red=80121823aPB\

Iny & wids=410 & g

i=1 & gm=news_local.cfm

Northern Europe:

11) Indigenous Peoples' Secretariat in collaboration with Elonmerkki

and the Saami Council are proud to announce that the documentary " Last

Yoik in Saami Forests? " now is available on DVD and for download. The

DVDs will be distributed to interested Universities in the Arctic

Region and/or with a special interest in Arctic Indigenous Issues. To

get a copy for use at your University, contact us at

ips, and specify the format (NTSC for North America,

PAL for Europe/Russia). For individual requests for a copy of the DVD

we ask you to contact the producer at www.elonmerkki.net. If you just

want to see it online, and maybe download a compressed copy of it for

your iPod, continue reading…

http://www.arcticpeoples.org/2007/12/10/last-yoik-in-saami-forests-movie-availab\

le/

Norway:

12) Norway will spend three billion kroner a year to help prevent

deforestation in developing countries, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg

said on Sunday. " Norway is ready to increase its part in fighting

deforestation in developing countries to some three billion kroner

(375 million euros, 548 million dollars) a year, " Stoltenberg said in

a statement. " This could yield significant and rapid reductions in

carbon dioxide emissions at a low cost, " he said, adding that

deforestation in developing countries was responsible for about 20

percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. The Norwegian

initiative is due to be announced this week at the climate change

conference underway in Bali. Government officials from about 190

nations are in Bali to lay the groundwork for a new international

initiative that will help combat the threat posed by climate change

after the current phase of the existing treaty, the Kyoto Protocol,

expires in 2012.

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Norway_gives_375_million_euros_a_year_to_halt_\

deforestation_

999.html

Russia:

Oleg Zhukovsky, who headed state-run VTB's lending operations in

Russia's lucrative $19 billion a year logging industry, was found dead

on Thursday in a pool near his luxury home with his limbs bound, said

police officer Oleg Krasnoshyokov. " It looked like he was drowned, "

said Krasnoshyokov, who serves in the town of Odyntsovo near Moscow

where Zhukovsky owned a house in a gated community. But Russian

television said police were also probing a possible suicide. In

Zhukovsky's home, police found a note which said " I am very tired of

life. It is nobody's fault, " Kommersant reported. Handwriting experts

were examining the note to determine who had written it, the state-run

RIA agency said. Analysts said Russia's logging industry is going

through a tumultuous period that has made it a magnet for criminals.

All of Russia's forest leasing contracts must be annulled and

rewritten by the end of next year in accordance with new regulations

that came into effect at the start of this year. " The regulations

themselves are very murky, and all this is being done at least

partially outside the law, " said Alexei Yaroshchenko, forestry analyst

at Greenpeace Russia. " This has indeed helped to make it a very

criminalised business as groups compete over these leases, "

Yaroshchenko said.

Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov on Wednesday told an industry conference

that the logging business was going through a difficult time and

needed to be " renewed from the roots " .

http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7134672

Kashmir:

14) Though government had established a check post here to check

timber smuggling, it has made little difference as the scared

officials say they're helpless before the powerful smugglers, many of

whom have managed to get propriety rights over forest land in

connivance with Revenue officials. In a single-storey check post, the

officials usually remain inside with doors bolted. Whenever somebody

enters its premises, the officials peep through a window and then open

the door. " We've been witness to extensive felling of trees here.

Enough is enough. We won't sit silent now. Cruel villagers have

vandalized the forests here. Felling of trees takes place round the

clock here. We have been apprising the higher authorities about the

matter, but there is no response, " the officials told Greater Kashmir.

Wishing not to be named, they said that to stop the illicit trade they

had even filed cases against some smugglers. Over 50,000 trees,

according to the officials, have been felled in Sedaw block only

during past 17 years. " Forests have been completely devastated here.

We are helplessly watching vandalization of our forests. But what can

we do? We don't have police protection or enough manpower to stop the

felling of trees. As a result, the smugglers work according to their

will and whim. There is no rule of law here. Smugglers rule the

roost, " they said. Accusing some officials of the Revenue Department

of being hand-in-glove with the smugglers, they said a large chunk of

forestland has been transferred to them. " Over five thousand kanals of

forest land including compartment 2C and V2C has been encroached by

the smugglers. Property of the nation has been encroached. Some

smugglers have managed transfer of land in their name in connivance

with Revenue officials. They have felled the trees and undertake

agricultural activities on the land, " a forest guard said.

http://www.greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?Date=10_12_2007 & ItemID=36 & cat=1

15) The entire village wore a deserted look during the day. To know

the reason we spotted a villager clearing snow on way to his hut.

" You're late. The trees are gone now. Whom will you blame? As

authorities are watching as mute spectators to vandalization of

forests, the smugglers in connivance with officials are having a free

run in knocking the prized deodar and kail trees down. On way to

famous tourist spot, Aharbal, from hilly and serpentine Sedaw route,

monkeys atop kail trees attract the visitors by jumping from one tree

to another. After a few miles the tree line, however, gradually

disappears, and more and more stumps become visible. As our driver

carefully negotiated the curvy road, some persons, probably smugglers

riding horses, fled from the spot. Who felled these trees? " Not us, "

replied an aged woman in a low tone. " In the Nineties, the trees were

extensively felled despite our stiff resistance, and ferried in

trucks. Forests here were turned into a timber factory with civilians,

officials and even policemen having a field day. The trees were felled

and sold without fear or hindrance, " she said. On reaching Sedaw,

we're shocked to see not hundreds but thousands of tree stems behind

the muddy houses. " Oh my God! It looks as if trees have been

massacred, " shouted angry Malik Abdus Salam, GK's south Kashmir

reporter on seeing empty stretches of forests there. " Before '90s,

Sedaw possessed lush forests and attracted a large number of tourists.

But everything is gone now, " Salam said, with eyes moist. You will

find a smuggler in every house here. They sleep during the day and

carry felling of trees during the night. The timber is cut into small

pieces and ferried on horses. Nobody has dared to stop them. Be

cautions while treading through mountains, " the villager advised. As

our lensman focused his camera on a large stretch of tree stumps, he

spotted a bunker, with soldiers moving atop a hill en-route Aharbal.

Fearing that the troops might open fire, we advised him not to shoot

the pictures. " The troops definitely help in timber smuggling, " said a

middle-aged man, without revealing his name for fear of reprisal.

http://www.greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?Date=9_12_2007 & ItemID=36 & cat=1

Laos:

16) The Lao government has said that a surge in foreign buyers

snapping up land in the country is having a negative impact on the

nation´s national forests. Officials in the Asian state said that land

concessions sold to overseas buyers have encroaching on private

properties and protected areas and have led to an increase in illegal

logging and the shrinking of forests. The authorities have admitted

that a number ´improper´ land concessions have taken place, often due

to inaccurate land surveys or double allocations by central or

provincial authorities. One example cited in the country´s press was

the land concession for the Se Kaman 1 dam project in Attapeu

province, which provided no clear-cut boundaries which led to massive

over-deforestation. 60 years ago some 70 per cent of Lao´s territory

was covered in forest, a figure that has dropped to its current level

of 35 per cent.

http://www.property-report.com/aprarchives.php?id=982 & date=061207

Malaysia:

17) On a muddy track in the tropical heat of Malaysian Borneo, the

dilemma of how a poor nation should handle its globally-important

rainforest becomes painfully clear. Just beside the track, in a

spectacular landscape of mist woven among the towering trees, a team

of forestry workers is busy planting a sapling, one of thousands in a

project to rehabilitate woodland ravaged by decades of logging. A

young tree is gingerly lowered into the soil amid hopes that it will

grow to a majestic height, absorbing carbon dioxide as it soars and

locking away the carbon for centuries to come. Yet no sooner have the

workers finished then a loud rumbling can be heard. A huge truck

approaches carrying a vast load of freshly-felled timber. It is the

first in a convoy. In the space of a few minutes, I see at least

twenty massive tree trunks hauled past us, each representing a tidy

profit - and another loss in the rainforest's ability to soak up

greenhouse gases. It is because the rainforests are seen as key to the

future course of climate change that their fate is now centre-stage in

negotiations on tackling global warming. Deforestation is estimated to

be responsible for around 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions - more

than all forms of transport put together. Proposals to reward the

rainforest nations for leaving their trees intact will be discussed

during this week's UN climate conference in Bali.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7136301.stm

Indonesia:

18) Non-governmental organizations, indigenous peoples organizations

and social movements staged a protest today outside of a press

conference where World Bank President and former US Trade

Representative Robert Zoellick announced the launch of the World

Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility. " This Facility is merely

the World Bank up to their old tricks, " stated Anne Petermann,

Co-Director of Global Justice Ecology Project. " They've packaged up

their carbon trading agenda under the guise of forest protection, when

in fact this Facility will result in more forest destruction, more

displacement of indigenous peoples and more carbon emissions. It's a

lose-lose-lose proposition for everyone but big business, " she added.

They charge that the focus of the World Bank on profit-oriented " false

solutions, " like carbon trading and carbon offset projects including

industrial tree plantations, is actually contributing to an

acceleration of climate change. " While pretending to be concerned

about climate change and poverty, The World Bank has continued to fund

fossil fuel exploitation to the tune of $8 billion since 2000, "

explained Janet Redman, a researcher with the Sustainable Energy and

Economy Network. " At the same time, they've done virtually nothing to

bring clean energy to the 1.6 billion people without electricity, " she

added. " The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility is merely more of the

same. It is also violating the rights of indigenous peoples to prior

and informed consent as laid out in the UN Declaration on the Rights

of Indigenous Peoples, " she concluded. The very vocal and empassioned

protest continued for 35 minutes with chants including " World Bank:

Hands Off! " " Robert Zoellick You Can't Hide: Carbon Trading is a

Crime, " " More Forest: Less Bank! " and " Land Rights Now! " Titi

Soentoro, of the Indonesian Civil Society Forum and the Gender Caucus

read a statement endorsed by dozens of groups demanding the rejection

of the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility

http://www.foei.org/en/campaigns/climate/bali/forests-declaration

http://www.globaljusticeecology.org

19) " Save the rainforests " is an easy slogan to agree with and a very

difficult one to put into practice, as delegates at the Bali climate

change conference are proving. Writing for the Guardian recently, Sir

Nicholas Stern put at the top of his wishlist for Bali an

" international programme to combat deforestation " , and noted the

problem could be halved at an annual cost of $10bn. Creating a

mechanism to do this is the goal of everyone who thinks markets are

the best way to mitigate climate change. But putting one into effect

has so far proved impossible; it was not even attempted at Kyoto. At

Bali, hopes are pinned on an ambitious proposal known as reduced

emissions from deforestation and degradation (Redd). This does not aim

to stop all destruction of tropical forests. But it does suggest a way

of reducing the rate of their loss, which already accounts for around

20% of current emissions, more than transport. Indonesia, host to the

Bali conference, was declared by controversial research last year to

be the world's third-biggest polluter almost entirely because of

deforestation and especially the destruction of deep peat beds which

are among the richest carbon sinks on the planet. Replacing these with

low-value palm oil plantations is ecological and economic madness,

especially when it is done in the name of supposedly green biofuels.

Countries should be able to earn more from keeping trees than chopping

them down. Estimates suggest the destruction of forests brings

economic benefits to countries such as Indonesia and Peru of between

$1-$5 per tonne of carbon released. The market price of carbon credits

in Europe last week was $32. The problem is that any market must be

both universal and enforced. It is no good paying Indonesia to save

forests in Kalimantan if loggers simply move on to untouched forests

in Papua New Guinea. More than that, the benefits from saving them

must be shared. It would be unjust to send carbon cheques to national

governments, who may keep the money, exploiting the poor who are often

at the forefront of deforestation while still doing nothing to protect

forests. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2224982,00.html

20) Haji Gambut oil palm plantation covers a sprawling 82,000ha in

Riau, Sumatra. The subsidiary of Tabung Haji Holdings is potentially

the biggest oil palm grower in the province; it has 200,000ha of oil

palm plantation. And it is also inevitably responsible for huge carbon

emissions from degraded and drained peatland on which its oil palm

trees grow. Plantation manager Peter Lim Kim Huan said due to a lack

of suitable mineral soil, the planting of oil palm on peat soil of

more than 1.5m in depth has been expand ing in the last 10 years.

Planting began in 1997 in logged-over forests and 80% of the peat soil

is more than 1.5m deep. " We set aside 10,000ha as a buffer, and

maintain the water table between 80cm and 100cm below the peat

surface, " he told a recent workshop to address the impact of palm oil

and biofuel production on peat lands, biodiversity and climate change.

Wetlands International (Indonesia) director Nyoman Suryadiputra

pointed out that a majority of peat in Riau is deep peat, which is

more than 3m in depth. The law in Indonesia stipulates that peat areas

deeper than 3m should not be developed but this decree has generally

not been enforced. In past years, poor water management system and the

use of fire to prepare the land for oil palm plantations resulted in

transboundary haze that engulfed Malaysia. Malaysian companies

investing in oil palm plantation in Sumatra and Kalimantan have been

implicated for such irresponsible practices.

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2007/12/11/lifefocus/20071210200\

346 & sec=lifefocu

s

21) Environmental groups at the United Nations climate talks in Bali

today urged governments to reject a new World Bank initiative

promoting the inclusion of forests in carbon markets. The World Bank

initiative, known as the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) is

set to be launched on Tuesday 11th December in Bali as part of the

discussions on 'Reducing Emissions through Deforestation in Developing

countries' (REDD). The initiative, which would allow tropical forests

to be included in carbon offsetting schemes, fails to combat climate

change, the groups said, because it allows industrialised countries

and companies to buy their way out of emissions' reductions. Between

18-20 percent of annual global carbon emissions are caused by

deforestation, and Indonesia is the world's third largest greenhouse

gas emitter as a result of deforestation. The World Bank has a

particularly appalling track record in relation to funding forests and

carbon projects, not least because it provides substantial funding to

oil, gas and mining projects; and as a broker, has a vested interest

in promoting carbon trading. Its planned Forest Carbon Partnership

Facility would have serious negative social and environmental impacts,

the groups said. Torry Kuswardhono, Energy Campaigner at Friends of

the Earth Indonesia (WALHI): said: " Carbon offsetting is extremely

unfair. Forests provide livelihoods for over one billion Indigenous

and other forests peoples. Wealthy companies and countries are able to

buy the right to continue to pollute, while poor communities in

developing countries can find themselves locked into unfavourable,

long-term commercial contracts over forest management " . Sandy

Gauntlett, Pacific focal point of the Global Forest Coalition and

chairman of the Pacific Indigenous Peoples Environment Coalition said:

" Indigenous Peoples and local communities will bear the real costs of

forest-related climate mitigation projects based on carbon finance

because they will increase the pressure on their lands and territories

and undermine land rights claims. With this proposal, the World Bank

is violating the principle of Prior Informed Consent, which is

enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Indigenous Peoples should not just be consulted on this facility.

Without their full and prior informed consent this facility should be

disbanded. "

http://www.foei.org/en/media/archive/2007/world-bank-hands-off-forests

22) Peat swamp forests, a feature of lowland forests, especially in

Sarawak and the Riau, Jambi and Kalimantan provinces of Indonesia, are

prime targets. Although the industry has set up the voluntary

compliance body called the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)

to tackle the harmful effects of their activities which include

clearing, burning and draining of the water-logged forest that spew

carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, there remain some quarters within

the industry that are reluctant to assume responsibility for their

actions. At a recent workshop addressing the sustainability issue of

oil palm plantations, certain parties – notably plantation companies

from Sarawak, such as Sarawak Oil Palm Bhd (SOPB) – questioned the

accuracy of a widely referred study associating peatland destruction

with climate change. The Wetlands International report entitled

Peat-CO2: Assessment of CO2 emissions from drained peatlands in

South-East Asia estimates that 1,400 million tonnes of carbon dioxide

(CO2) were emitted by peatland fires across the region each year

between 1997 and 2006, with an additional 600 million tonnes per year

being emitted from peatland decomposition caused by drainage.

Detractors were sceptical of the 632 tonnes per ha per year used as

the emission average, considering it " too high " . The researchers

reckoned the figure was " fairly conservative " , given that the emission

range was between 355 tonnes and 874 tonnes in 2006.

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2007/12/11/lifefocus/19387085 & se\

c=lifefocus

23) The Global Environment Facility (GEF) here on Saturday launched

the Tropical Forest Account Initiative which will help safeguard

forest ecosystems while strengthening sustainable financing for

protected areas and for sustainable forest management. " The window to

save the last remaining functioning expanses of tropical forests,

which are responsible for the delivery of crucial global environmental

services, is closing fast, " said Monique Barbut, the chief executive

officer (CEO) and chairperson of the world's largest environmental

funding body. " GEF is teaming up with its partner agencies,

governments, business and civil society to address this challenge head

on. GEF's investments are also expected to encourage more robust

financing from private investors looking to build

environmentally-friendly forest markets. " GEF would fund projects to

stop deforestation in 17 countries of the Amazon, Congo Basin, New

Guinea and Borneo. Tropical deforestation is on the rise, and is now

responsible for over 20 percent of global CO2 emissions. Habitat loss

in tropical forests threatens 74 percent of endangered mammals, 44

percent of endangered birds, 57 percent of endangered amphibians, and

67 percent of endangered reptiles. Eachof the GEF-targeted areas has

over 8 million hectares of wet broadleaf forests, and they

collectively harbor an astonishing 54 percent of tropical forest cover

and 68 percent of tropical forest carbon. More than 70 percent of the

forest remains intact, but man-made threats are mounting quickly. By

focusing on large, intact tropical forest, the GEF can invest in

relatively low cost, proactive ways to prevent deforestation in

countries where forest cover is high. Intervening in these areas now

is much more cost effective than trying to reverse damage in already

deforested areas. " GEF's investment will fund the strengthening and

sustainable financing of protected area networks, the introduction of

effective policy and regulatory frameworks for mainstreaming forest

conservation in development sectors, and also the fostering of markets

for forest goods and services, " Barbut said.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/08/content_7218675.htm

Papua:

24) The latest schemes being talked about for Papua are a major

expansion in oil palm plantations and setting aside forests for

international carbon markets. The first of these appears to be very

much in the mould of previous schemes (top-down, export-orientated,

involves overseas companies, takes over indigenous-owned lands and is

being promoted by Jakarta). The second is different in two main ways:

it aims to create income by protecting a resource, rather than

directly exploiting (and exhausting) it, and it is being promoted not

by Jakarta, but by Papua's governor, Barnabas Suebu. From a purely

environmental perspective, the idea of protecting forests for carbon

credits may be attractive, but there are serious questions over how

effectively such schemes will protect the forests at all, and what

implications they will have for local forest-dependent communities

whose forests are targeted -see also DTE 74:1,

http://dte.gn.apc.org/74acl.htm The BKPM data states that land already

taken for oil palm schemes covers around 90,000 hectares in Papua, and

around 30,000 in West Papua. According to Department of Agriculture

data, Papua has three oil palm production units with a processing

capacity of 120 tonnes of fresh palm oil fruits per hour7. Sawit

Watch, the Indonesian NGO network working on oil palm issues, puts oil

palm expansion plans for Papua at the higher figure of 3 million

hectares, but has lower estimates for existing plantation cover at

40,889 hectares. According to these figures, Papua's expansion plans

are second only to West Kalimantan (5 million hectares) and are the

same as those of Riau province in Sumatra8. Exactly how much Papuan

land is being set aside for oil palm plantations is not clear, but

recent announcements range from one million hectares to be developed

very soon, to four or even five million hectares in the next ten

years4.

http://cambridgeforecast.wordpress.com/2007/12/09/ecology-research-indonesia/

25) In Bali, Papua's Governor Barnabas Suebu, one of Time's Hero of

the Environment awardees, talked to The Jakarta Post contributor I.

Christianto about his efforts to combat poverty through the protection

of 31-million hectares of forest remaining in the province. Question:

You often mention Papua's forests are rich but the people are poor.

What are you trying to say? Answer: Papua is impoverished. The state

of people's health, their nutrition, education, housing and clean

water, to name a few, is still very poor. It will worsen if the forest

is destroyed. Therefore we are trying to protect our forest and stop

deforestation. There must be a funding mechanism from the

international community, an issue that we have discussed with some

parties like Greenpeace. The fund must go to the people to improve

their welfare. No single tree can be felled. The benefit of forest

exploitation for the local government and people is trivial, but the

impact is devastating, including the loss of rich biodiversity inside

the forest. There's no benefit at all to plunder the forest, as it is

the people who are then made to suffer. Logging activities, for

example, have impoverished the people. A timber log is valued at

US$10, but the price can climb to more than $10,000 after being

processed into wooden goods. That's why we have introduced a policy

aimed at benefiting both the government and people. What do you expect

from declaring a moratorium on deforestation in your province? There's

been a joint decree signed by the governors of Papua and West Papua,

which is scheduled to take effect next January. We are now preparing

details of the policy, which will involve various sectors. There will

be some supporting regulations to ensure legal certainty, in case of

violations.

http://westpapuafree.blogspot.com/2007/12/avoiding-deforestation-will-help.html

Australia:

26) Deputy CEO of the National Association of Forest Industries in the

Rudd government's delegation to Bali is asignal of no change from the

Howard years, Greens Leader Bob Brown said in Hobart late last week.

" The fastest way for Australia to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 10

percent is to stop logging and burning native forests. NAFI, which

fronts for Gunns and its pulp mill proposal, is there to agitate

against this prudent move by Australia, " Senator Brown said. " How can

Rudd join calls for Indonesia, Papua New Guinea or Brazil to end

logging when he has a loggers' lobby group in his own camp? " Senator

Brown asked. " Instead, Mr Rudd should show he means business by

announcing Australia will dump Gunns' pulp mill which will produce 100

million tonnes of greenhouse gases if it is built, " Senator Brown

said. http://crdunn.blogspot.com/2007/12/rudd-takes-loggers-to-bali.html

27) Office workers on their lunch break in the Sydney CBD have been

greeted by a gathering of gumnut babies and women dressed as trees at

the entrance of Governor Macquarie Tower. The strange assembly is a

protest by members of the National Parks Association and the

Wilderness Society against the logging of old growth red gums on the

banks of the Murray River in the Riverina region of NSW. The 30

protesters - who have attracted a crowd of curious lunchers - are

attempting to get the attention of the NSW Premier, Morris Iemma and

his Cabinet, the offices for which are located on the upper floors of

the Bent St building. While the logging of River Red gums in Victoria

is set to be protected through the creation of a series of national

parks, the NSW Government has so far rejected demands to do the same

in its jurisdiction. The association launched legal action against the

Government in the Land and Environment Court in a bid to stop the

logging and - with the aid of a blockade in the Moira State Forest -

has achieved a temporary halt in the highest conservation areas. " The

public forests in the Riverina have been logged for red gums and that

is having a devastating affect on the local ecosystem, " the

association's biodiversity protection officer, Georgina Wood, said.

" The Riverina is the only major forest district in NSW without a

forestry agreement. There is not one national park alongside the

Murray River in NSW, they need to start identifying which areas will

be protected. " The protesters say the red gum forests are home to a

number of threatened species, including the squirrel glider and the

grey-crowned babbler.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/gum-nut-babies-in-murray-protest/2007/12/10/\

1197135346935.h

tml

28) Environmental activists have forced a halt to logging in an

old-growth forest area of East Gippsland, in Victoria's southeast.

Organisers claimed 35 people early on Monday walked into the Cobon

forest block about 60km north of Cann River, near the Errinundra

National Park. At least two chained themselves to logging machinery

while another protester climbed on top of a tripod erected over a

bulldozer. Victoria's Department of Sustainability and Environment

(DSE) said the number of protesters was lower than organisers claimed,

with about 20 people occupying the site. A DSE spokeswoman said the

activists would be warned they were in a public safety zone, and

police had been called to the logging coupe to try to move the

protesters on. Monday's occupation follows a number of blockades last

week when up to 65 activists moved into three different coupes in the

area. Two people were later charged on summons with public order

offences, the DSE spokeswoman said.

http://news.smh.com.au/activists-blockade-logging-in-gippsland/20071210-1g3j.htm\

l

29) Bob Brown again calls for 10% cut in Australia's emissions by

ending native forest logging. The inclusion of the CEO and deputy CEO

of the National Association ofForest Industries in the Rudd

government's delegation to Bali is asignal of no change from the