270 - Earth's Tree News

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Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com

 

--British Columbia: 1) Mass development planned for saved forest, 2)

Pacific Spirit Park research, 3) Save Okanagan / Similkameen, 4)More

logging please, 5)Bankrupt loggers

--Washington: 6) Logging isn't stewardship, 7) Weyco thievery, 8)

Weyco Tax loophole,

--Oregon: 9) Loggers not to blame for landslides because more studies are needed

--California: 10) First stage of treesit eviction at UC Santa Cruz

--Michigan: 11) Gardening revival re-greens Detroit

--Canada: 12) Cemetery cuts down neighborhood trees

--Israel: 13) Largest ancient oak in Israel struck by lightning

--Russia: 14) Selling their forest for a higher added-value price

--Guatemala: 15) The Maya forest spans across three countries

--Peru: 16) Evil oil baron prepares to destroy rainforest

--India: 17) Supreme Court allows Bauxite mine, 18) Tigers forced to

higher ground,

--Bangladesh: 19) Eco-cottage building will save the forest

--Laos: 20) Nam Theun 2 dam project to affect 28 indigenous tribes

--Thailand: 21) Countries park system could support 2,000 tigers

--Malayasia: 22) Tree growth is slowing, 23) Save forests and tigers,

--West Papua: 24) Knasaimos people ruined by logging

--Borneo: 25) Our blockade is a last resort, 26) Penan tribesman, 27)

People of the forest,

--Indonesia: 28) Big rat and pygmy possum discovered in forest, 29)

Deforestation emissions more than all cars and trucks in the world,

30) bringing 'em to there knees,

--New Zealand: 31) Ernslaw One buying much of New Zealand

--Australia: 32) Locking down to a log truck in the middle of the city

--World-wide: 33) Tropical forest soils not suited for farms, 34)

Deforestation is not subsistence driven, 35) Gender and Climate Change

Network, 36) 15 million years ago forests turned to grasslands,

 

 

British Columbia:

 

1) Massive commercial power developments are being considered for

existing and planned conservancy areas on the B.C. coast, raising

doubts about a landmark multi-stakeholder agreement designed to bring

peace and economic certainty to an area known as the Great Bear

Rainforest. " Premier Gordon Campbell is completely going back on his

promise to protect this coast, " charged Ian McAllister, the

award-winning author and conservationist who coined the term Great

Bear Rainforest and who now works under the banner of Conservation

Pacific. " This isn't world-class, this isn't a model we'd want to have

any other region on the planet follow. " Campbell did not agree to The

Vancouver Sun's request for an interview. When the province announced

the Great Bear Rainforest agreement in February 2006, it promised that

commercial logging, mining and hydro-electric power generation would

be banned in the conservancies aside from " low impact ... local

run-of-river projects " designed to provide power for nearby

communities not on the power grid. Campbell described the agreement --

supported by the province, aboriginals, industry and certain

environmental groups -- as an " example the world can follow, " putting

an end to a decade of confrontation on the coast. The province

formally established 24 conservancies in July 2006 and another 41 in

May 2007 spanning more than 706,000 hectares in total on the central

and north coast. The province is still working on the final touches to

another 48 conservancies totalling more than 590,000 hectares, due for

completion in 2008. But The Sun has learned the province's

Environmental Assessment Office is reviewing a private proposal on

Banks Island for what is billed as the world's largest wind farm --

234 wind turbines generating 700 megawatts of energy, with an

expansion to 3,000 megawatts in the coming years -- that would intrude

upon three existing conservancies. The assessment office is also

considering four applications for commercial run-of-the-river hydro

developments -- on the Nascall River, the Klinaklini River, Crab Creek

and and Europa Creek -- that would connect to the BC Hydro power grid

and intrude upon four other conservancies soon to be designated.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=b77b4b7d-614\

9-4852-aa09-

d5f168b2531a

 

2) This is an ethnographic (anthropological) research project designed

to examine the social construction of place amongst non-aboriginal

residents of Point Grey -specifically users of the UBC Golf Course and

Pacific Spirit Park. This project seeks to explore how non-aboriginal

residents construct a sense of place and attachment to place. Key foci

will be the use of language, metaphor, story in personal accounts of

using places such as the golf course and the park. Anyone interested

in learning more about this project is invited to contact Charles

Menzies Given the recent media attention to the BC/Musqueam

Reconciliation agreement (in which Musqueam ownership of the Golf

Course and portions of Pacific Spirit Park has been affirmed by the

government of BC) and given the creation of a Friends of the Golf

Course and a Friends of Pacific Spirit Park this provides an excellent

opportunity to explore how non-aboriginal peoples construct their

sense of the importance of places such as the UBC Golf Course and

Pacific Spirit Park. A subsidiary focus is on the discourse used by

golf course and park supporters as they construct a sense of ownership

over and sense of belonging to these places. Research methods include

anthropological participant observation (essentially participating in

public meetings, rallies, joining people on walks through the park and

-perhaps- as they play golf on the golf course. Unstructured research

conversations will be held with non-aboriginal people who use and

identify with the places identified above. Classic anthropological

methods do not involve 'sampling' in the sense that other social

sciences might deploy. While appreciating that there are many

anthropologies, the approach that I am using is one that traces the

construction of meaning through networks of people who interact in a

common social space. This means building linkages with people and

spending time with them through the course of their daily life.

http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/ecoknow/archives/044084.html

 

3) Currently, Canadians are being presented with one of the most

exceptional conservation opportunities in our history. The BC and

federal governments have agreed to undertake a Feasibility Study for a

potential national park reserve to protect the desert, grasslands, and

Ponderosa pine ecosystems of the South Okanagan and Similkameen

Valleys in southern British Columbia. The local residents and the

millions of Canadians who've visited the area know it is perhaps the

most beautiful region of the country. Whether the national park

reserve becomes a reality - or a lost opportunity - depends on YOUR

input and the input of all Canadians. This region, around the towns of

Osoyoos, Oliver, Keremeos and Cawston, has more species at risk than

any other region of BC. Canyon wrens, white-headed woodpeckers,

badgers, California bighorn sheep, tiger salamanders, spadefoot toads,

pallid bats, spotted bats, scorpions, and rattlesnakes all inhabit the

area. A national park here would encompass a greater diversity of

ecosystems than any national park in Canada - 6 of BC's 14 major

ecosystem types ( " biogeoclimatic zones " ) are found in this little

region. National parks are very rare - there are only 7 national parks

in BC, in contrast to over 1000 provincial parks and protected areas

here. National parks tend to be much larger than provincial parks and

have the highest standards of environmental protection. A national

park reserve in the South Okanagan-Similkameen region would be the

greatest conservation opportunity for an area that is the greatest

conservation priority in Canada. http://www.okanaganpetition.org/

 

4) The province needs to ensure harvest levels of beetle-killed timber

stay high as long as possible, which would help generate more wealth

and ensure forests are replanted sooner, says a report commissioned by

B.C. business and forest sector interests. A key to doing that is

stretching out the shelf life of beetle-killed timber, says the

report, a discussion paper of the B.C. Business Council and B.C.'s

Council of Forest Industries. The council represents major forest

companies like Canfor and West Fraser, as well as smaller players like

Dunkley Lumber, Carrier Lumber, Lakeland Mills and Brink Forest

Products. In order to prolong the shelf life of beetle-killed timber

the provincial government needs to continue to reduce logging costs,

ensure timber pricing reflects reduced value of dead timber (which

would lower costs), invest in research and be careful the existing

pulp sector is not hurt by B.C.'s new bio-energy policies to utilize

wood waste, said the 43-page report.

http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/index.php?option=com_content & task=view & id=108\

733 & Itemid=557

 

5) Ted LeRoy Trucking is the third large coastal contractor to

voluntarily seek bankruptcy protection or to be forced into

receivership this year. The sad truth today about the industry -- the

driving force in the coastal economy -- is that its economic pulse is

now being measured not through productivity gains but through

affidavits filed in bankruptcy court by contractors such as Ted LeRoy.

" There will be more, " said Dave Lewis, executive director of the Truck

Loggers Association. " They are not the first; they won't be the last.

" Most companies are operating right now -- licensees, mills and

loggers -- because they have a perceived asset that they are trying to

protect. If you have harvesting rights that you perceive are worth $5

million, are you going to work this year for a $500,000 loss if you

can sustain that asset? You probably are. " Lewis said loggers see no

long-term commitment by either government or the major licensees to

the industry. " Market forces are impacting things right now and you

can't blame anyone for that. There's nothing you can do to fix those

right now. But this problem took a long time to develop and it's not

going to be solved easily. " We collectively as an industry need to

clearly map out where we want this industry to be in 15 years. "

Contractors are feeling the economic pain now as a result of changes

introduced by both government and major licensees. In 2004, the

province introduced its Forest Revitalization Plan, a bundle of

market-based policy changes that were intended to strengthen the

industry and encourage new investment. It didn't happen. Instead,

major companies, faced with market crises of their own, started

reducing investments in logging equipment to preserve capital. They

consolidated and cut costs by getting out of the logging business. In

turn, the contractors expanded their operations, hiring the licensees'

former employees and buying equipment, going deep into debt with the

expectation that they would have secure contracts into the future.

Then the U.S. housing crisis hit, leading to plummeting lumber sales

and prices. The major companies said they had to cut costs further to

be globally competitive. But loggers' fuel, labour and supply costs

kept going up.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=0dd53ea3-9f28-497\

1-8c2f-ab08fa3a

e56a

 

Washington:

 

6) Pine Creek Stewardship Project - In the name of stewardship they

are going to log 179 acres and in return they will decommision .6 of a

mile of one road. The road is already used as a trail but has some

culverts. This road is where you park when you hike the Upper South

Fork Skokomish trail. I'm glad they are going to convert it to trail

but I don't think its worth the price of 179 acres of trees. I don't

think logging should be called stewardship.

http://mosswalks.blogspot.com/2007/12/usda-forest-service-stewardship.html

 

7) Steve Ringman's photos lay bare the hypocrisy of Weyerhaeuser's

stewardship claims. It's a public-relations tactic common to corporate

timber interests: parade a few visible " green " programs and " scenic "

set-asides from their vast holdings in the media, then go on with a

scorched-earth policy where no one notices. For a lesson in serious

sustainable forestry, I suggest Weyerhaeuser consult the Army. They've

been admirably managing 43,000 acres of working forest at Fort Lewis

for decades. Needing to maintain the forest environment for military

training operations, the Army practices selective thinning. When their

forest was designated critical habitat by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife

Service, they tweaked their management program to conform with best

practices for maximizing biological diversity. Now, they're certified

sustainable. Given what we know about the relationship between the

clear-cutting of mature forests and erosion, flooding, degraded water

quality, declining fish populations and climate change, why does the

state continue to allow it?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2004078979_tuelets18.html

 

8) The company and its investors are watching the so-called Tree Act

closely because the Federal Way, Wash., company has said it believes

getting tax relief for timberlands holders is a better way to maximize

value than restructuring into a real estate investment trust, as some

investors have urged. The Tree Act has now been attached to the Farm

Bill, which was passed last week in the Senate by a vote of 79 to 14,

Amundson said. The Tree Act, however, was not in the version of the

Farm Bill passed by the House of Representatives, Amundson said. House

and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders will now negotiate a

compromise between the bills passed by the House and Senate, leaving

Weyerhaeuser hopeful that the Tree Act will still be included. To the

extent that the bill continues to move forward, that's helpful for

Weyerhaeuser, said Paul Latta, an analyst for McAdams Wright Ragen.

" The Tree Act would certainly be a positive for the company,

especially if the tax break is a lasting tax break and something that

would be the equivalent of the taxes that a timber REIT would pay,

Latta said. Weyerhaeuser has been under pressure of late to " unlock "

the value stored in the company by selling assets or restructuring

into a REIT, a move that typically holds tax advantages for investors,

although possibly not in Weyerhaeuser's case. International Paper (IP)

and Temple-Inland Inc. (TIN) have restructured or are in the process

of restructuring by selling assets, while companies like Potlatch

Corp. (PCH) and Rayonier Inc. (RYN) have converted to REITs.

Weyerhaeuser has resisted converting into a REIT so far, in part

because it could potentially trigger a large tax liability, depending

on how the Internal Revenue Service viewed the transaction. If the IRS

deemed the conversion primarily a strategy to avoid taxes, it could

trigger an estimated $3 billion to $4 billion tax liability.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200712191955DOWJONESDJONLINE\

001032_FORTUNE5

..htm

 

Oregon:

 

9) Oregon State University on Wednesday disputed the findings of state

geologists who said landslides from recently logged clearcuts on OSU

land set in motion the mud-and-debris flow that deluged U.S. 30 and

nearby homes. University officials asked the state Department of

Forestry to review its logging practices on the tract of land owned

and managed by OSU's College of Forestry west of Clatskanie. The

College of Forestry will conduct its own examination of slides from

clearcuts on the OSU land to tell how much they contributed to the

later landslide last week. But the Oregon Department of Geology and

Mineral Industries released on its Web site a step-by-step diagram of

events that led to the landslide. It shows that two small landslides

from OSU clearcuts during heavy rains two weeks ago clogged a culvert

just downstream. That allowed mud and water to back up for a week

behind an old railroad berm that finally burst, unleashing a much more

catastrophic torrent below. Aerial photos in the diagrams show that

the railroad berm was much closer to the initial slides than

identified earlier, and that, when it broke, mud and water cascaded

more than a mile to reach the highway. But OSU officials Wednesday

questioned the conclusions, issuing a press release downplaying the

possibility that their logging activities played a role. The question

highlights the long-running controversy surrounding the role of

logging in landslides and the difficulty of unraveling exactly why

landslides happen. The clearcuts involved were within the Blodgett

Tract, 2,440 acres donated to the College of Forestry in 1929 and now

logged to produce revenue for the college. One of the clearcuts

involved 58 acres and was logged in 1992, and now has young trees

growing on it. The other involved 19 acres and was logged in 2004,

state records show. The ages are important because studies by the

state Department of Forestry suggest that clear-cutting increases the

risk of landslides within the 10 years after logging. OSU officials

now argue that no debris from the slide off the most recent clearcut -

young enough that logging could have boosted slide risk - reached the

culvert downstream. They say that indicates their logging probably had

no bearing on the more catastrophic landslide that reached the homes

and highway.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/pdxgreen/2007/12/osu_foresters_question_finding.html

 

 

California:

 

10) Police and a clean-up crew arrived at the tree sit this morning

and removed branches, lean-tos, supplies and other things from under

the tree sit area. It was all put into a dumpster and hauled away.

Then a street cleaner swept the parking lot. A cherry picker showed up

and took one of the banners down from trees. They demolished several

stick forts on the site, they destroyed the raised garden, they

removed all the rocks / sticks / stumps from the area, and then swept

all of the duff away. Protesters re claimed and then re-duffed the

site. The sitters are safe in the trees and still being supported for

now, but this is being viewed as an expiriment on the part of the pigs

and the admin to test the response and clear the way for eviction.

I've got to get to a meeting so thats all for now,About 30-40

protestors showed up to try to stop them. Protesters were not able to

recover any items but have reclaimed the space. Police took photos of

all the protesters that were there. The clean-up has made it easier to

get vehicles under the trees and it may be the first step in trying to

remove the tree sitters. Protesters have been concerned that the lack

of students on campus over the holidays would leave the area

vulnerable.

http://lrdpresistance.org/ - http://humboldtforestdefense.blogspot.com/

 

Michigan:

 

11) Driving through the city this summer, I saw family gardens, a 4H

club and well-tended parks. I also saw a tree growing inside a vacant

house, long grass overtaking a sidewalk on East 7 Mile Road and weird

mounds that dot the landscape, the result of old dumps alchemizing

with weeds and soil. Across the city, you can see the work of the

nonprofit Greening of Detroit, which has planted more than 50,000

trees, reclaimed vacant lots, removed debris, beautified buildings and

reached out to residents with help and education. You can taste the

results of the urban gardening movement, which has taken off in recent

years in backyards, lots and community gardens. There's a 4H Community

Center on McClellan, and a growing army of locavores -- advocates of

locally grown food -- plus gardeners selling their produce under a new

Grown in Detroit label. You can visit Detroit's numerous parks. Many

of the bigger ones appeared to be in good condition, though some of

the smaller installations needed the grass trimmed or new equipment.

On East Ferry, fed-up residents erected a sign on a play lot they said

was ignored by the city and Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. The sign said:

" Kwame Park. Closed Due to Neglect. " There's another side to nature in

Detroit, though, that is quite different, quite unruly and quite

remarkable. In many parts of the city, you can see aggressive trees,

bushes and weeds that have surged through soil, wood and cracks in the

concrete to reclaim empty lots, garages, alleys and even some streets,

such as Hawthorne, west of I-75 East McNichols; and Legrand, near Mt.

Elliot and I-94; and West Jefferson around 16th Street.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071219/NEWS05/312250001 & theme=\

DRIVINGDETROIT

122007

 

 

Canada:

 

12) About two dozen people watched in horror as " tree after tree after

tree " was dropped into a wood chipper, said Margot Boyd, a member of

the Moore Park Residents Association executive. She said she believed

39 trees were to be knocked down to accommodate a 2,400-square-metre

visitation centre and a parking lot. A spokesman for the Mount

Pleasant Group Cemetery has said 97 trees will be planted as part of

the project. Josh Matlow, a public school board trustee who lives in

the area, said workers yesterday were " dismissive and rude " to

protesting residents. He said they were warned to stay off private

property, or face arrest by police who were on scene. No one

trespassed, he said. " The objection the community has is the cemetery

was, in spirit and practice, built to provide a greenspace for people

in the city, " Mr. Matlow said.

Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries describes itself on its Web site as

a " not-for-profit, non-share capital corporation " that exists " to

provide a service to the community. " In the National Post last year,

president and CEO Norris Zucchet said government legislation deems

MPGC a private corporation, and it has " abided by the rules of

incorporation. " The city rejected the project, but the Ontario

Municipal Board approved it.

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2007/12/18/residents-pr\

otest-tree-clear

ing-at-mount-pleasant-cemetery.aspx

 

Israel:

 

13) An ancient oak tree in Taibeh, struck by lightning two weeks ago,

has been declared Israel's largest oak. Walid Sadek, a former Meretz

Knesset member and deputy minister of agriculture, says that the tree

has been part of his family's life for generations, adding that he

started crying when he first saw the tree had been damaged by

lightning. " It was a stormy night, and in the morning, they called me

to look at the tree. I walked the length of a guava orchard and, when

I got to the end, I looked forward. I froze on the spot and started

crying. I saw that the tree was burned. " Jewish National Fund

officials Monday promised to restore the tree. Amikam Riklin, director

director of the JNF Inspection Unit, said that originally he did not

believe reports that the largest oak in Israel was located in the

Taibeh area, because most of Israel's oaks are now found in the North.

In recent years, Riklin, Suheil Zidan, and ecologist and botanist

Yoram Goldring have been mapping Israel's giant trees for the JNF;

documented giant trees are treated to professional care to ensure that

they will exist for many years to come. Until the discovery of the

tree in Taibeh, in the Sadek family's fields, an oak with a trunk

circumference of 530 centimeters, located in the Aloni Forest between

Kiryat Tivon and Kibbutz Alonim, was believed to be the largest in

Israel. But since Sadek showed that the circumference of the Taibeh

oak is 690 centimeters, Riklin has returned to look at the tree every

day, noting that " we have not uncovered all of the giant trees. I

believe that there are still a number of impressive trees that are

hidden. " http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/935495.html

 

Russia:

 

14) " We've announced our rules of the game, now it's time for them to

think, " Valery Roshchupkin, head of the Federal Forestry Agency, told

reporters. " Finland should hurry to create joint ventures while

resources are available in accessible areas of Russia. " Export tariffs

for unprocessed timber rose in July, and will jump to as much as 80

percent of the value of exported timber in 2009, doubling the cost of

wood for Finnish companies. Finland buys about 20 percent of its wood

from Russia. If foreign companies do " at least minimal processing " of

wood here, they will be exempt from the tariff hike, Roshchupkin said.

The government raised tariffs to shore up industries such as wood

processing and manufacturing as it tries to reduce the economy's

dependence on oil and gas exports. Russia exports about 30 percent of

the 186 million cubic tons of timber it logs annually. The government

is offering to build roads to logging sites for companies that build

sawmills in the country as well as a 50 percent discount on logging

rights and tax benefits. Building projects must have a minimum value

of about 300 million rubles ($12.2 million) and receive government

approval to qualify, Roshchupkin said.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/12/19/047.html

 

Guatemala:

 

15) Stretching from Mexico across northern Guatemala to the southern

half of coastal Belize, the Maya Forest is the largest block of

contiguous forest left in Central America. It is the second largest

rainforest in the Americas after the Amazon. Rich in biodiversity and

cultural heritage, the Maya Forest is also a treasure-trove of

economically valuable natural resources. Currently, the Maya Forest is

being cleared at the rate of about 200,000 acres per year due to

forest fires, illegal logging and cattle ranching. The Alliance to

Conserve the Maya Forest has the goal of conserving the Maya Forest by

sustainable growth so the entire ecological system even beyond its

boundaries remains viable. Contributions from Pfizer through the World

Environment Center to The Nature Conservancy and Rainforest Alliance

have aided in the conservation of the Maya Forest while creating

sustainable livelihoods. " The unique value of this partnership to

conserve the Maya Forest is that it has advanced sustainable

livelihoods for people in this region. The success of this type of

partnership can be replicated by other global leaders, leading to

simultaneous improvements in sustainable livelihoods and

conservation, " stated Terry F. Yosie, President & CEO of the World

Environment Center. The support of Pfizer has been instrumental in

generating specific measurable results in the Maya Forest such as: 1)

Developing a tri-national ecoregional plan and conservation agenda to

highlight the forest sites most at risk and the consequent strategies

needed to protect them. The information from these activities

generated 18 scientific reports, eight databases and more than 500

maps, compiled and distributed to over 3,000 partners and

stakeholders. 2) Generating gross sales of $4.2 million in certified

Mexican coffee and $7.3 million in certified Guatemalan coffee; sales

of more than 9.5 million boxes of certified Guatemalan bananas; and

over $4.8 million of certified sustainable wood through Rainforest

Alliance's Certified Sustainable Product's Alliance partnership with

the U S. Agency for International Development and local growers. 3)

Enhancing a foresting community, Carmelita, in Guatemala's Biosphere

reserve that has been able to increase its profits through certified

sustainable forestry and invest more than a third of the earnings into

community development, improved technology and sustainable management.

http://www.csrwire.com/News/10533.html

 

Peru:

 

16) Juggling three wives and 15 children, he headed a legendary family

whose soap-opera quality rivaled the one on TV's " Dallas. " Now

Dallas-based Hunt Oil Co., the family-run company he founded, is

playing another high-stakes hand -- betting it can make money on

projects in Iraq and other spots that big oil companies won't touch.

The company's biggest wager is on Peru. Royal Dutch Shell spent nearly

20 years and $450 million to develop a natural-gas project in the

Amazon before pulling out empty-handed in 1998. Hunt took Shell's

place in this volatile country two years later. Amid protests from

international environmental groups and local Indian activists, Hunt

soon plans to pump gas from Amazon wells and pipe it over 14,000-foot

Andean peaks where alpacas graze. The company is building a massive

plant overlooking the Pacific Ocean to export liquefied natural gas.

" The things that have worked out well for us are often the things that

on Day One, people said, 'You must have lost your mind,' " says Ray

Hunt, the company's 64-year-old chief executive officer. The company's

$3 billion or so in annual revenue is just a few days work for Shell

or Exxon Mobil. Because Hunt doesn't have the cash or technological

prowess to compete with the major oil firms for the largest projects,

it must troll for profits in regions marked by dicey politics. Mr.

Hunt compares his 2,500 employees to a commando outfit. His privately

held company can move quickly because it isn't second-guessed by

shareholders or Wall Street analysts. But such projects are also a

gamble. Two years ago, the Yemeni government seized Hunt's main oil

operations. Afterward, Hunt's global oil production plummeted by 30%

in 2006, according to Moody's Investors Service. Moody's downgraded

the company's credit rating a notch. The Yemeni setback makes Hunt's

bet on Peru even more important. The company doesn't expect much

growth in its oil and natural-gas fields in Texas, the Gulf of Mexico

and Canada, industry analysts say. In Peru, though, it owns 50% of a

$3.8 billion consortium set to start exports of liquefied natural gas

in 2010, and it is also searching for oil elsewhere in the country. If

Hunt succeeds in Peru, it figures it can expand elsewhere in Latin

America. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119808938080039931.html

 

India:

 

17) In a public speech on Tuesday in Bhubaneswar, senior Supreme Court

judge and member of the Environment and Forest Bench, Justice Arijit

Pasayat has come down heavily on those who focus too much on

protection of forest and wildlife and harm the society at large.

Justice Pasayat, who was inaugurating a three-day seminar on

environmental laws also seemed to favour their liberal application.

Justice Pasayat was in the three-member apex court bench that recently

set aside the adverse remarks by its own expert committee and allowed

the mining of bauxite in the ecologically sensitive Niyamgiri Hills in

Kalahandi district. ''We were told two weeks back that out of more

than 300 Reserve Forests in the country, hardly 20 or 25 deserve to be

called as reserve forests. In more than hundred of them, the only

animals to be protected are probably a few stray cattle and a few

dogs,'' said Justice Arijit Pasayat, Judge, Supreme Court of India.

''Green cover versus green currency. We have to choose between the two

and strike a balance. We can not also enforce the laws in a way that

they become Draconian, otherwise, in the name of protecting forests we

will cause damage to the society at large,'' said Justice Pasayat. But

not everyone agreed with the judge's views. Top legal experts felt

such an approach can never offer environmental justice. ''The

adversarial system is ill-suited for environmental justice. We need to

think differently from one being part of the problem and the other

being part of the solution,'' said Ramesh, Professor, National Law

School, Bangalore. ''Human being is both the protector and the

predator. His predatory instincts are far more now than his protective

instincts. I think we need to rekindle his protective instincts,'' he

added.

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070036403 & ch=12/20/200\

7%207:57:00%20AM

 

 

18) Habitat destruction is forcing India's endangered tigers to new

grounds, including high mountains which have a sufficient prey base

but are not known to be the natural home of the big cats. With forests

in the foothills being built over and cleared for farming, wildlife

experts say tigers are being increasingly spotted in high altitudes in

India's northeast and west. But they say tigers could still be as

endangered in their new environment and are not as adaptable as

leopards. " Tigers can feel the effect of villages on the bio-diversity

from miles, and move away, " said Belinda Wright of the Wildlife

Protection Society of India. " But they are not as adaptable as

leopards in mountains. " India's wildlife crisis, highlighted best by

the dwindling tiger and lion population, has caused huge national

concern, pushing authorities to declare new measures to save the cats.

Experts say increasing human interference such as development,

encroachment and destruction of habitat, as well as poaching, are the

main threats to animals across India, from the Himalayas to Indian

Ocean islands. India is thought to be home to half the world's

surviving tigers, but according to a census in 2001 and 2002, their

numbers have dwindled to between 1,300 and 1,500 from 40,000 a century

ago. In an example of the tiger adapting to the threat to their

natural habitat, experts have found at least 20 of them in the high

mountains of Neora, tucked between Bhutan and India's eastern state of

West Bengal. " Until 1998, we found one or two tigers straying into the

Neora from the foothills, but now they live there, " said Pranabes

Sanyal of World Conservation Union, who conducted a study on tiger

migration. The tigers moved to the dense cover of bamboo and oak at

Neora from the Gorumara reserve in the foothills, their original

habitat. In September, experts sighted up to 20 tigers in a hilly

tropical rainforest in the western Maharashtra state, almost three

decades after it was thought that poaching had wiped them out there.

Tigers have also moved into the lower Himalayan range in Bhutan from

the Buxa and Manas tiger reserves on the plains of adjacent India

which have a large human population. Some conservationists have called

for a proper study to find out how tigers were surviving in the

unfamiliar terrain.

http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=90247

 

Bangladesh:

 

19) The work on setting up the Nishorgo eco-cottages in the reserved

forests across the country is going on in full swing as part of the

government program to protect forest resources through public-private

collaboration. The forest department has already set up one such

cottage in Rema Kalenga Wildlife sanctuary in Habiganj, one of the

largest tracts of natural tropical forest remaining in the country.

The cottage in the sanctuary has been named as Nishorgo Tarafhill

Eco-cottage. It has two bedrooms with modern attached bathrooms and

dining facilities. Divisional Forest Officer Abdul Mabud told BSS

yesterday that the main objective of the programme is to evolve a

model of public- private management of the protected areas and create

income- generating opportunities for the poor living in the vicinity

of forests. Under the programme, the cottages are being erected at

Chuntai Wild Life Sanctuary in Chittagong, Sanctuary National Park in

Habiganj and Teknaf Game Reserve in Cox's Bazar which will be

completed by the end of this month. Experts are imparting necessary

training to a 55-member co- management council (CMC) to run the

cottage project. Nishorgo Support Project (NSP) under the Ministry of

Environment and Forests is implementing the pilot project with the

financial support of the US Agency for International Development

(USAID). NSP Communications Coordinator Mehrin A Mahbub said the

forest department has geared up its action plan for the expansion of

the Protected Area (PA) system to increase the reserved forest land by

10 percent by the year 2015 as per the Forest Policy of 1994. To

ensure the livelihood of the distressed people in the forest, the

government has already took a decision of launching ticket system for

entering the Kema Kalenga Park where the Nishorgo Eco-cottage has been

set up with a view to collecting entry fee. Of the total entry fee, 50

percent will be given to the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and

remaining 50 percent to the CMC for their capacity building, Mehrin A

Mahbub said. The specialty of this park is that endangered Hoolock

Gibbons (Ullock) live in this forest. Bangladesh is one of the four

countries including Myanmar, India, and China where the rare animal is

being natured. Malayan giant squirrel, capped langur, slow loris,

oriental pied hornbill, barking deer, and masked civet are available

in the park. http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2007/12/20/news0433.htm

 

Laos:

 

20) In the heart of a dense tropical jungle that is the home to wild

elephants and 28 indigenous groups, heavy machinery shudders from the

depths of a vast mountain while hammers pound on steel tunnel walls.

Teams of workers clad in rubber boots, threadbare shirts and hard hats

are digging a 2-mile hole in the remote Nakai Plateau that will soon

serve as a reservoir drainpipe. It is part of the largest

infrastructure plan ever attempted in this impoverished Southeast

Asian nation. The Nam Theun 2 project is a $1.45 billion,

1,070-megawatt dam that is expected to earn $2 billion in revenue for

Laos over the next 25 years by selling more than 90 percent of

generated electricity to energy-hungry Thailand, beginning in 2009.

The profits will be divided among investment companies from France,

Thailand, Laos and Italy. After 2034, all revenue will go to the

cash-strapped government - one of the world's few remaining communist

states. The dam is the largest of a series of hydropower projects

designed to spark development in landlocked Laos. Ten dams are under

construction, backed by foreign investors, with 70 more under

consideration. The World Bank, which has put $130 million into the

scheme, says the dams will help develop a nation where 80 percent of

its 6 million inhabitants eke out a living as subsistence farmers and

live on less than $2 a day. Laos has no railroads, limited

telecommunications and a rudimentary road network; electricity in

rural areas is rare. Environmentalists say it will force the

relocation of 6,200 people and destroy one of the most biologically

and ethnically diverse regions in the world - the Nakai Plateau - as

well as fisheries and agricultural fields of more than 120,000 people

downstream after almost completely drying up one river and swelling

another. " This is not going to be the panacea to Laos' development

woes, the one golden ticket that gets them off foreign aid and makes

them a self-sustaining economy, " said Shannon Lawrence, Laos program

director for the Berkeley-based International Rivers, a nonprofit

group that studies the impact of large hydroelectric projects.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/17/MNE4TMAV9.DTL & hw=lao\

s & sn=001 & sc=1000

 

Thailand:

 

21) Thailand's network of parks could support 2,000 tigers, reports a

new study by Thailand's Department of National Park, Wildlife, and

Plant Conservation and the New York-based Wildlife Conservation

Society. The research, published in the journal Oryx, is based on

surveys of tiger habitat in Thailand's Western Forest Complex — a

6,900 square mile (18,000 square kilometers) network of parks and

wildlife reserves. Presently about 720 tigers are found in the region,

but the authors say better enforcement to safeguard both tigers and

their prey from poachers could nearly triple tiger density. " Thailand

has the potential to be a global centerpiece for tiger conservation, "

said Dr. Anak Pattanavibool of the Wildlife Conservation Society's

Thailand Program and a coauthor of the study. " This study underscores

that there is an opportunity for tigers to thrive in Thailand —

provided tigers and their major prey species are protected from

poachers. " Tiger populations have plummeted from 100,000 to around

5,000 in the past century due to habitat loss and poaching. The trade

in tiger parts and skins still takes a toll on the great cats.

http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1219-tigers.html

 

Malaysia:

 

22) The impacts of global change on tropical forests remain poorly

understood. We examined changes in tree growth rates over the past two

decades for all species occurring in large (50-ha) forest dynamics

plots in Panama and Malaysia. Stem growth rates declined significantly

at both forests regardless of initial size or organizational level

(species, community or stand). Decreasing growth rates were

widespread, occurring in 24-71% of species at Barro Colorado Island,

Panama (BCI) and in 58-95% of species at Pasoh, Malaysia (depending on

the sizes of stems included). Changes in growth were not consistently

associated with initial growth rate, adult stature, or wood density.

Changes in growth were significantly associated with regional climate

changes: at both sites growth was negatively correlated with annual

mean daily minimum temperatures, and at BCI growth was positively

correlated with annual precipitation and number of rainfree days (a

measure of relative insolation). While the underlying cause(s) of

decelerating growth is still unresolved, these patterns strongly

contradict the hypothesized pantropical increase in tree growth rates

caused by carbon fertilization. Decelerating tree growth will have

important economic and environmental implications. Kenneth J. Feeley,

S. Joseph Wright, M. N. Nur Supardi, Abd Rahman Kassim and Stuart J.

Davies. Decelerating growth in tropical forest trees. Ecology Letters

(2007) 10: 461-469

 

23) " Save the forests and jungles to save the tigers, " she said at the

event, which is part of the Race Against Time campaign, an urban

outreach component of the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers

(MYCAT). The campaign aims to raise awareness and concern among

Malaysians on the critical status of tigers. There are less than 3,000

tigers worldwide and Malaysia has only an estimated 500 of the

animals. It was reported that over the last 70 years, three of the

nine tiger sub-species have become extinct and Malaysia has one of the

remaining six sub-species, the Malayan tiger. Actress Susan Lankester

said: " Tigers deserve to live in the world just like human beings.

Imagine coming home and not finding your house there and feeling

desperate to find food. " The next thing you know, you get shot for

trying to survive. It is the same with tigers. " Actress and TV host

Aishah Sinclair hoped that more people would come forward and join the

cause. She urged people to stop hunting tigers for traditional

medicine and their meat. Local celebrities like Maple Loo, Chelsia Ng,

Rina Omar, Yasin, Corinne Adrienne, Vince Chong and Xandria Ooi were

also present.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/12/17/nation/19785767 & sec=nation

West Papua:

 

24) The Knasaimos people in West Papua have suffered for many years

from the negative impacts of illegal logging. A documentary from

Handcrafted Films, the Environmental Investigation Agency and Telapak

has brought international attention to the plight of these local

communities and their efforts to protect the ancestral forests. In

many respects, the story in West Papau has similarities with the

problems faced by the Tlahuican community in the Chichinautzin

corridor, outside of Mexico City. The new documentary from the UNU,

Voices of the Chichinautzin, looks at the issue of illegal logging

inside a natural protected area and in the communal forests belong to

the Tlahuica. We will keep you posted on other films that touch upon

the issue of illegal logging from around the world. For now, if you

want to get a good understanding of the extent of the problem, we

suggest you take a look at: http://www.illegal-logging.info/

http://www.mediastudio.unu.edu/2007/12/19/film-exposes-deforestation-in-papua/

 

Borneo:

 

25) Like a slithering red snake, the dirt road cuts through the

jungles shrouding an endless row of hills. At the first sign of

humanity, the logging road stops abruptly: a crude barrier of branches

tied together by dry palm fronds and a handwritten warning: " When We

Say No, We Mean No. " In the middle of the ancient rainforest in

Borneo, this simple blockade erected by a jungle tribe has become the

symbolic frontline in the battle to protect forests from a logging

industry eager to harvest the bounty that feeds much of the world's

thirst for timber. " Logging has been the biggest disaster for the

forests, and its indigenous people, " said Raymond Abin of the Borneo

Resources Institute in Sarawak, Malaysia's biggest state that occupies

a part of Borneo island. The blockade " is the last resort of the

natives after all processes of negotiations and consultations failed, "

he said. Protection of forests is not just a Sarawak issue. It is part

of UN negotiations for a replacement to the Kyoto Protocol, amid new

evidence that deforestation contributes to about 20 percent of global

warming. Leading the campaign in Sarawak are former headhunting

tribes, who say logging is destroying their ancestral lands and

snatching their customary rights over the forests. There are other

concerns that logging has damaged Borneo's ancient ecosystem and is

pushing rare plant and animal species such as wild orchids and the

clouded leopard toward extinction. The forests are " what you inherited

from your ancestors. During the headhunting days they sacrificed their

lives to defend it, " said Harrison Ngau Laing, a lands rights lawyers

who represents some of the tribes. Laing, himself a tribesman, said

some 100 legal cases have been filed by the tribes against logging

companies and the government. None has been resolved. But opinion is

divided among the impoverished tribes, some of whom live in

settlements so remote they can be reached only on foot after days of

walking through jungle trails. To them, the logging roads are a

lifeline to civilization. In the absence of development, they see the

logging companies as the bearer of basic needs such as clean water,

electricity, toilets, schools and transportation.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2007/12/16/2003392764

 

26) Deep in the Borneo jungle, 70-year-old Ara Potong stiches a rattan

mat and wonders how much longer he can continue to survive on the

bounty of the fast-disappearing forest. The grey-haired Penan

tribesman, with the stretched earlobes distinctive to his people,

deftly slices the thin rattan to fashion a mat that will be traded for

basic goods like rice, sugar, salt and oil. " Logging has damaged the

jungles. Now it is difficult to find rattan. We need it to make mats, "

says Ding Liang, another elderly resident of the Penan settlement, as

he watches Ara work. " Even wild boars and monkeys are becoming rare.

We do not have enough to eat. Our river is murky. Please tell the

world our plight, " he tells AFP. Data Bila is located 150 kilometres

(95 miles) southeast of Miri, an oil-rich coastal town in Malaysia's

Sarawak state which borders Brunei to the north and Indonesia's

Kalimantan to the south. Data Bila is part of the Ulu Baram region

that was famous for its teeming flora and fauna, but where many

species are now becoming threatened. It is also home to an indigenous

population comprising the Penans, Kelabit, Kenyah and Kayans -- yet as

the logging firms encroach ever further, their way of life is also in

jeopardy. The Penan were traditionally a nomadic people but many have

now established settlements along the Baram river. Once it brought

them fresh water and fish, but logging operations upstream have now

turned it dark and silted. By the 1980s they had had enough, and began

erecting blockades to highlight the damage the timber business caused.

Most were demolished -- some violently -- but the protest goes on. A

few weeks ago, Penans in the settlement of Long Benalih erected a new

blockade across a proposed logging trail to prevent Malaysia timber

giant Samling Global constructing a road into its concession area. The

structure is only flimsy and could easily be swept aside, but it is a

potent symbolic gesture, and one which can jeopardise certification

needed to prove timber was obtained legally and sustainably. " We have

the blockade to preserve and prevent damage to the land, " Long

Benalih's headman Saun Bujang said in a statement posted on the

blockade, first set up in 2003 and periodically demolished and

rebuilt. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iCi_xnIy85il6NIbtopUQdzGcMyA

 

27) At dawn in the rainforest of the Indonesian island of Borneo, an

orangutan named Niko begins his day. Niko rustles about in his nest of

leaves, then sets out through the trees in search of breakfast. Niko

doesn't know it, but far below, from the forest floor, someone is

watching. Erin Vogel '95 slipped through the forest while it still was

shrouded in darkness. With mosquitoes swarming around her and ambient

sounds of the jungle as a soundtrack, Vogel has been waiting patiently

for Niko to wake up. Her mission: to follow Niko and carefully

document what he eats and how he spends his day. An anthropologist,

Vogel studies the impact of social learning on diet selection of

orangutans—how and what the great apes decide to eat. Niko is not

impressed. " He's the most dominant male in the forest, and he shows

it, " Vogel said later. " Once, I had to lie on the forest floor on my

stomach, covering my head for two hours while he stood six feet above

me, shaking branches and making vocalizations. " An associate

researcher in the department of anthropology at University of

California-Santa Cruz, Vogel spends half the year at the million-acre

Mawas Reserve in central Kalimantan with its resident population of

orangutans ( " people of the forest " in Malay).

http://redapes.org/news-updates/erin-vogel-tracking-the-forest-people/

 

 

Indonesia:

 

28) Scientists believe they have found two new undocumented mammals --

a pygmy possum and a giant rat -- in the jungles of a remote mountain

range in Indonesia's Papua province, a conservation group said. During

an expedition to Papua's Foja Mountains in June, Conservation

International (CI) and Indonesian scientists documented the two

mammals -- a Cercartetus pygmy possum, one of the world's smallest

marsupials, and a Mallomys giant rat, the conservation group said in a

statement. Both mammals are currently under study and are apparently

new to science, it said. The scientists, accompanied by a film crew,

also recorded the mating displays of several rare and little-known

birds for the first time. Scientists from the Indonesian Institute of

Sciences and CI discovered dozens of new plants and animals on their

first trip to the region, described as a " Lost World " , in late 2005.

The giant rat is about five times the size of a typical city rat,

Kristofer Helgen, a scientist with the Smithsonian Institution in

Washington, said in the statement. " With no fear of humans, it

apparently came into the camp several times during the trip, " he said.

The Foja Wilderness is part of the great Mamberamo Basin, the largest

unroaded tropical forest in the Asia Pacific region. With 42 million

hectares (104 million acres) of tropical forests and some of the

richest bio-diversity in the world, Papua is considered the country's

last rainforest frontier. But it is under threat from increased

cutting and clearing for palm oil plantations as well as rampant

illegal logging. http://africa.reuters.com/odd/news/usnJAK102632.html

 

29) Deforestation actually accounts for more greenhouse gas emissions

than all the cars and trucks in the world, an issue the Bali

conference finally addressed. I interviewed Barnabas Suebu, the

governor of the Indonesian province of Papua, home to some of its

richest forests. He waxed eloquent about how difficult it is to create

jobs that will give his villagers anything close to the income they

can get from chopping down a tree and selling it to smugglers, who

will ship it to Malaysia or China to be made into furniture for

Americans or Europeans. He said his motto was, " Think big, start

small, act now — before everything becomes too late. " Ditto for all of

us. If you want to help preserve the Indonesian forests, think fast,

start quick, act now. Just don't say later.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/opinion/16friedman.html?_r=1 & ref=opinion & oref=\

slogin

 

30) The famous lines from an unknown 19th century poet lamenting the

loss of Ireland's great oak forests came to mind yesterday when

reading through various reports of the World climate change talks in

Bali. The sentiments of the poem were that Britain had denuded Ireland

of its forests and its greatest resources thus bringing the country to

its knees. It is a familiar and perennial feature of the divisions of

power throughout the centuries – the manner in which the powerful

exploit the weak by robbing them of their resources – both natural and

human. As you read this column this morning, the likelihood is that an

agreement has been reached between the 190 countries participating in

the crucial talks in the Indonesian resort. But don't let the fact

that there are so many countries participating or that fact that it's

under the auspices of the United Nations fool you into thinking that

it's a family of nations kind of thing. The debate is about the

relationship of the powerful to the weak – and particularly about

their respective responsibilities to the others with which they share

this globe. And has often happened under the blinkered administration

that has held power there since 2000, the focus has fallen

unremittingly on the United States. The purpose of the talks in Bali

have been to reach agreement on new measures to combat global warming

that will take effect once the Kyoto Agreement comes to an end in

2012. Until the middle of this decade, there were a handful of

powerful countries in the awkward squad, who were unprepared to meet

Kyoto commitments and targets; who also refused to set targets and

timetables for reductions (on the basis that if others weren't doing

it; it would hurt their economies). But little by little, that number

has been whittled down so that the refuseniks can be counted on the

fingers of one hand. They are primarily the US; and then Canada and

Japan. Of course, China (developing at a frightening rate) is also a

huge problem but at least it is now beginning to talk the talk.

http://www.harrymcgee.com/2007/12/inside-politics-bali-conference.html

 

 

New Zealand:

 

31) Malaysian company Ernslaw One is buying the New Zealand forestry

company Winstone Pulp International, for an undisclosed amount of

money. The deal is subject to Overseas Investment Office approval. At

present, Winstone is controlled by offshore companies, registered in

Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands. The company owns about

16,500 hectares of forest in the central North Island, a sawmill at

Tangiwai and a pulp mill nearby at Karioi, and employs about 300

staff. By the fiscal results at September 30, 2006, company's forest

crop was valued at US$83 mln, and its fixed assets were evaluated at

US$38.7 mln. For the same period, company had revenue of US$131 mln,

but made a US$10.1 mln loss. The purchase took forestry plantation of

Ernslaw One to 100,000 hectares, making it the fourth largest forest

owner in New Zealand. As at June 30, Ernslaw One's forest estate was

valued at US$254 mln. Managing director of the BVI- and Hong

Kong-controlled company David Anderson said the sale would not affect

staff levels.

http://bvi-company-news.offshore-journals.com/malaysian-ernslaw-one-to-purchase-\

bvi-and-hong-ko

ng-controlled-winstone-pulp/199/

 

Australia:

 

32) A group protesting against logging in old growth forest areas have

taken their message to the main street of Bridgetown in a dramatic

operation to hijack and disable a truck loaded with jarrah logs. In

the process they have angered local residents, business owners, police

and representatives of the timber industry, who say the protesters'

actions were dangerous and irresponsible. It will be alleged the group

were waiting for a log truck to travel through town. They allegedly

used two cars to block both lanes of Hampton Street and bring the

truck to a stop. Once the truck had stopped at least two of the

protestors allegedly climbed onto its bulbar while a third ran around

the back to the rear trailer and chained himself to the rear axle.

Police and emergency services were called to the scene and it took

them nearly six hours to free the man. Police have arrested six

people. Five of them, a woman from Dardanup and four men from Bunbury,

Dardanup and Bridgetown, have been charged with disorderly conduct.

They are due to appear in the Bridgetown Magistrates Court tomorrow. A

second woman from Bridgetown will be summonsed to appear in the

Bridgetown Magistrates Court next month to face a traffic offence

charge. At the scene of the hijack, one of the protestors said they

were not from any environmental action group, but they were just a

group of concerned independent activists. Ric Evans from Timber

Communities Australia (TCA) has condemned the way the group went about

making its views known. He said the conservationists had spoken about

irresponsible acts committed by the timber industry, however he

witnessed an irresponsible act committed by the conservationists

themselves. " I witnessed this morning a log truck dragged to a halt in

the main street of Bridgetown, " Mr Evans said. " A group of people

representing this movement endangered the life of a truck driver and

other road users in an already controversial section of the South West

Highway. "

http://donnybrook.yourguide.com.au/news/local/general/antilogging-activists-make\

-a-bold-stateme

nt/1149251.html

 

World-wide:

 

33) The benefits of cutting down tropical forests in order to convert

the nutrient-rich soil into farmland are only short-lived, scientists

suggest. US researchers studied deforested land in Mexico and found

that soil levels of phosphorus, a key nutrient for plants, fell by 44%

after three growing cycles. In the long-term, the land risked becoming

so degraded that it would be uneconomic to farm, they added.The

findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of

Sciences. Downward spiral The researchers from the University of

Virginia examined the disruption to the phosphorus (P) cycle in

southern Yucatan, where a dry tropical forest had been felled to

become farmland. " After three cultivation-fallow cycles, available

soil P declines by 44%, and one-time P inputs from biomass burning

decline by 76% from mature forest levels, " they wrote. The team added

that the lack of a forest's canopy also resulted in hampering an

area's ability to replenish phosphorus levels. " The decline in new P

from atmospheric deposition creates a long-term negative ecosystem

balance. " The ongoing decline of the nutrient, which is a key

component in the growth of organisms, triggered a " feedback " effect,

they explained. It could affect the growth of plants in the study

area, and " may induce a shift to sparser vegetation " , they warned. As

well as the area's ecosystem, the researchers added that local farmers

were likely to be affected. " Without financial support to encourage

the use of fertilisers, farmers could increase the fallow period,

clear new land, or abandon agriculture for off-farm employment, " they

wrote. " [The farmers'] response will determine the regional balance

between forest loss and forest regrowth. "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/7148278.stm

 

 

34) Tropical deforestation is increasingly enterprise-driven rather

than the result of subsistence agriculture, a trend that has critical

implications for the future of the world's forests, says Dr. Thomas

Rudel, a researcher from Rutgers University. As urbanization and

government-sponsored development programs dwindle in the tropics,

industrial logging and conversion for large-scale agriculture --

including oil palm plantations, soy farms, and cattle ranches -- are

ever more important causes of forest destruction. Globally the U.N.

estimates some 13 million hectares of forest are cleared each year, a

figure only slightly changed from recent decades. But these numbers

mask an insidious transition from government- and subsistence-driven

deforestation to corporate-driven forest destruction. From the 1960s

through the 1980s, a large proportion of deforestation was the result

of government policies promoting rural development, including

agricultural loans and road construction. These initiatives,

particularly in Brazil and Indonesia — the countries with the most

extensive tropical forest cover — drove large-scale deforestation by

small landholders. Today, economic stability, a reduction in guerilla

movements, an increasing global financial market, and a worldwide

commodity boom are conspiring to create a ripe environment for

development by the private sector, says Rudel.

http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1218-interview_rudel.html

 

 

35) The Gender and Climate Change Network argues that forestry is not

only about trees and their carbon content, but also about the

ecosystem in a broader sense and the people who live in and from the

forest. It is therefore necessary that social issues to a larger

extent are considered in the current climate change debate. The real

direct and underlying causes of deforestation such as overconsumption,

agrofuel expansion, fossil fuel extraction, the replacement of natural

forests by monoculture tree plantations, and the lack of respect for

indigenous peoples' rights must also be addressed. Recommendations

include: 1) establish a close link to relevant international

conventions and processes, in particular CBD, MDG, and the

International Labour Organisation (ILO) when addressing deforestation.

2) acknowledge the contribution of women to forest preservation.

Within community programmes, empower women to participate in planning

and decision-making. In formal forestry, increase the share of women

and develop and implement gender-sensitive policies and programmes, 3)

a compensation and carbon trading system is not the solution,

solutions which address the root causes and the complexity of the

problem need to be developed, 4) prior informed consent of forest and

indigenous peoples needs to be established ensuring participation of

women, 5) priority should be put on community based programmes,

including gender sensitive approaches and empowering of women, 6) a

proper balance is needed between legislation, funding and capacity

building. http://www.eldis.org/go/display & type=Document & id=34707

 

 

36) Earth literally turned over a new leaf 15 million years ago when

an earlier version of global warming changed large parts of the planet

from lush forests to open grasslands, a new study by scientists at the

University of Florida and other institutions shows. In a portent of

today's global warming, fossilized leaves tell the story of a carbon

dioxide induced warm-up at the end of the Miocene age that melted much

of the polar icecaps and led to the spread of animals that thrive in

the wide open spaces, such as horses, camels and other grazers, said

David Dilcher, a UF paleobotanist and one of the study's authors. " Our

findings clearly demonstrate that past climate changes were tied to

carbon dioxide fluctuations in the atmosphere, which influenced the

major vegetation patterns occurring on earth and in turn affected the

evolution of major animal groups, " Dilcher said. The work by Dilcher,

Wolfram Kurschner, a paleobotanist at Utrecht University in the

Netherlands, and Zlatko Kvacek, a paleobotanist at Charles University

in the Czech Republic, appears in a paper published this week in the

online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

" The relevance for today is that the Antarctic ice sheets are

reversing again, " said Dilcher, who works at the Florida Museum of

Natural History. " As carbon dioxide and other gasses increase in the

atmosphere, we're emerging from a cooler or icehouse-type period into

a greenhouse-type period with ice-free poles. The Earth is gradually

going to undergo major changes just as we saw major changes in the

upper Miocene Epoch. " The Miocene Epoch is characterized by weather

extremes, from the Earth plunging into its present " icehouse " state

with glaciers at the north and south poles to periods of tropical

temperatures. While use of fossil fuels has been blamed for today's

global warming, the likely source of this ancient episode was carbon

dioxide belched from widespread volcanic eruptions in the Columbia

River Flood Basalt region of the United States and in Central Europe,

Dilcher said. http://news.ufl.edu/2007/12/17/golbal-warming/