Guest guest Posted March 17, 2008 Report Share Posted March 17, 2008 PLEASE SUBMIT ORIGINAL TREE NEWS ARTICLES TO: deane Today for you 35 new articles about earth's trees! (311th edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com To Donate: Click Paypal link in the upper left corner of: http://www.peacefromtrees.org --Canada: 1) End clearcutting, 2) Tembec lacks logs, 3) Tembec no longer recycling, --UK: 4) Value of woodland surges by 40%, --EU: 5) Reacting to problems about Biofuels --Kenya: 6) Leopard on a street light? 7) Bad month for the 400,000-ha Mau Complex, --Malawi: 8) Forest destruction continues at wildfire pace --Latin America: 9) Have you come across the Giant? --Belize: 10) Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area --Panama: 11) Biodiversity experiment conducted in a tropical tree plantation --Guyana: 12) Simon and Shock to start logging next month, --Peru: 13) RIP forest defender Don Julio García Agapito: shot dead for saving trees --Brazil: 14) Film: They Killed Sister Dorothy Grand Prize, 15) Road-building drives deforestation, 16) Snakes are invading the city, 17) Dispersal mechanisms of neotropical fleshy-fruited plants, 18) Going beyond a simple police raid, --Pakistan: 19) Cantonment boards and corrupt forest department drive deforestation --India: 20) Campaign to save the wild cat, 21) Officers are conniving with local prawn mafias, 22) Gateway of India makeover cuts too many, 23) 6,000 sq km of the precious Nilgiris forests threatened by fire, 24) More on fires, 25) Sonia Gandhi said country should concentrate on stopping deforestation, --China: 26) 2.27 billion trees were planted last year, 27) Snowstorm details, --Honk Kong: 28) Axing eight venerable and previously protected trees --Laos: 29) Long live the Elephant? --South East Asia: 30) Regional project to protect the shrinking seas and rainforests --Malaysia: 31) One of the best-managed forestry schemes? --Indonesia: 32) Denunciation comes from a few groups --Papua New Guinea: 33) 1st Aussie business to import ecologically harvested timber --Australia: 34) CSIRO is collaborating in a NASA-funded project, 35) Upper Lachlan Shire Council has rejected a bid by firewood entrepreneur, Canada: 1) Is clearcutting the best way to stop the pine beetle? Experts, such as Dr. Cartar, an entomologist from the University of Calgary and head of the Bragg Creek Environmental Coalition (BCEC), say that clearcutting will infact cause more problems than it will solve, and further maintains that trees in the Kananaskis area are simply not at high risk from the beetle. Cartar notes that the beetles won't survive in the Kananaskis forest where trees are small and dry. Pine beetles infest trees based on the diameter and age of the tree, preferring lodgepole pines that are at least 80 years old. They cannot use trees smaller than 10cm dbh (diameter at breast height), and seldom (10-25% probability) infest trees of 15cm dbh. Dr. Cartar observes that the majority of trees in Kananaskis Country are significantly smaller than those of British Colombia, and have an average dbh of 20 cm (which gives them only a 20-40% probability of infestation). [5]Allan Carroll, a research scientist for the Canadian Forest Service, supports an additional claim of Dr. Morton, who notes that a result of the massive numbers of beetles and a dwindling supply of pine trees of the proper size has resulted in the beetles attacking smaller trees as well as spruce trees.[6] Such claims are true, but are not cause for alarm, for as Carroll notes, the chemical composition of the spruce tree is not conducive to pine beetle reproduction, and that therefore, spruce trees represent a reproductive dead-end. Paul Jay, a reporter with the CBC adds that, smaller pine also prohibit beetle reproduction, as they are more capable than their more mature counterparts of secreting a highly toxic resin similar to pitch, which kills the beetles.[7] These factors suggest that the trees in Kananaskis Country are much less susceptible to pine beetle than those of British Colombia and call to question drastic measures, such as clearcutting, and declarations of states of disaster. Clearcutting has ramifications which render it an undesirable option for fighting the beetles. As Cartar states " essentially what you are doing is creating a solution that is worse than the problem. " [8] Grave concerns have been raised about increased run off from clearcut areas, which will adversly effect the quality of water for downstream riparians, including Calgarians, and greatly increase the chance of downstream flooding. Clearcutting would wreak havoc on the watershed.[9] Furthermore, forests with high percentages of affected trees still provide habitat for wildlife, whereas clearcut areas do not.[10] http://greenroots.wordpress.com/2008/03/14/a-clear-cut-case-of-poor-resource-man\ agement/ 2) Tembec is temporarily closing its sawmill in Béarn, Quebec for 3 months starting on March 31st. The shutdown decision was based on the lack of reasonably priced logs in the region and the overall depressed lumber market. " This shutdown is a reflection of the severe decline in overall market conditions, driven primarily by the dramatic fall in the number of housing starts in the United States and the related impact on lumber pricing. The continued high value of the Canadian dollar against the US dollar further aggravates these conditions, " said Dennis Rounsville, Executive Vice President and President of Tembec's Forest Products Group. The Béarn sawmill has an annual production capacity of 110,000 Mfbm of SPF lumber and employs approximately 150 people. http://foresttalk.com/index.php/2008/03/13/tembec_temporarily_closes_bearn_sawmi\ ll 3)The Tembec paper mill in Pine Falls has been using recycled newspaper stock to make new newsprint, de-inking about 100 tonnes of old newspaper every day. But this week, Tembec sent a memo to suppliers saying it won't accept any more recycled paper. As more people read their news online, the price of newsprint to make papers has plummeted, Tembec spokesman Richard Fahey said Friday, and it's cheaper to use new trees to make paper. " Obviously the cost of the input is so high it doesn't make economic sense to use the de-ink plant in order to produce paper that will wind up on the market at a depressed price, " he said. The de-inking facility will close at the beginning of April, the memo said. Twelve jobs at the mill in Pine Falls will be lost in the closure. Fahey would not say exactly how many trees will be cut down each year, but it's estimated Tembec could consume 200,000 more trees each year by not recycling old newspaper. The news came as a shock to recyclers in Manitoba. " That certainly would seem to be a step in the wrong direction if we're trying to be a greener or more environmentally conscious province, " said Randall McQuaker with Resource Conservation Manitoba. http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2008/03/14/tembec.html UK: 4) The value of woodland has surged by up to 40% in the past year as it has become a new and unexpected investment hotspot. Forest owners have seen the value of their plots more than double in the past four years, according to Savills, the estate agents, and UPM Tilhill, a forestry-management company. Timber prices have surged partly because of growing demand from China and India as well as the constraints on supply and high transportation costs due to rising oil prices. Nearly 16,000 hectares of woodland were sold in the UK last year, at an average price of about £4,250 per hectare – an increase of about 80% in value compared with 2006. An attractive feature of woodland investments are the tax breaks they offer investors. Normally, your heirs would pay inheritance tax (IHT) on the value of your estate above the annual exemption, currently £300,000. But if you manage woodland commercially, the land and trees become exempt from IHT after two years. Income derived from any type of woodland is free from income and corporation tax. And any increase in the value of the timber is exempt from capital-gains tax (CGT). This doesn't apply to the land, however. Woodlands also qualify for CGT roll-over relief. You can avoid CGT that has arisen following the sale of a business by reinvesting the proceeds in forestry. If you hold the woodland until death, the CGT bill is forgotten. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/money/investment/article3558727.e\ ce EU: 5) While no decision was taken at this year's summit, Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said: " We're not excluding the possibility that we'll have to amend or revise our goals. " The target of raising the share of biofuels in transport from current levels of 2% to 10% by 2020 was agreed this time last year by EU leaders themselves. It was initially considered a good means of incentivising governments and industry to invest in biofuels, in order to reduce Europe's dependency on imported oil and contribute to the fight against climate change.Yet a plethora of studies and impact assessments produced by various sources in the past year have raised the alarm, namely that increasing biofuel production to these levels based on current technologies – which mainly involve transforming food and feed crops into fuels – could have more negative consequences for the environment than positive ones. Among others, the concern is that the agricultural sector would be deprived of the arable land it needs to meet rising food demand at a time when global warming is already causing desertification in many areas. What's more, many question biofuels' ability to deliver any significant greenhouse gas emission cuts compared to conventional fuels (see EurActiv 18/01/08; 11/12/07; 11/09/07; 27/07/07). Kenya: 6) One might be forgiven for seeing 'things' when they see a leopard perched up high on a street light. This is in fact an innovative campaign meant to sensitize the public on the impact of deforestation in the country. The rationale behind the campaign is inspired by the fact that the rate at which trees are being felled in the country is quite alarming, therefore the poor leopard chooses the next best home — a street light. " We want the public to stop and think and feel sorry for having deprived the leopard of its natural home, " says Mr Inam Kazimi, creative director with McCann, the advertising firm that's behind the project. The advertising campaign was done on behalf of Sarova Group of Hotels' corporate social responsibility initiative. " We are really excited about this campaign as it cuts through the clutter because every corporate is trying to do something on the environment, and so there is a lot of noise out there. But this campaign sets us apart from everybody else, because it gets us noticed and what we are doing is actually revolutionary, " says Eve Onduru, Sarova Group marketing manager. The location of the advertisement is also unique as it is adjacent to the Nairobi National Park, home to leopards and many other wild animals. KWS corporate communications manager, Mr Paul Udoto, says the campaign will focus the country's attention on the plight of the leopard and other wild animals whose habitat has been destroyed through deforestation. Mr Kazimi said they had to think out of the box for a message that delivered shock, as well as empathy because after you recover from the initial shock of seeing a leopard on a street light, your heart goes out to the animal. Mr Kazimi reckons that public service advertising has been overdone making important campaigns such as the ones targeting the environment to be seen as mere wallpaper. " Normally, to create impact, you use either shock or empathy. How do we shock the public into noticing a tepid subject like saving trees. " http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content & task=view & id=6429 & Itemid=58\ 43 7) January was a particularly bad month for the 400,000-ha Mau Complex, one of the key water sources in Kenya. Taking advatage of the post-election violence, hordes of people invaded the forest and hived off land for themselves. Others cut down the threatened Podo tree species to burn charcoal. Conservationists who have mapped the extent of the destruction have warned that the forest could be destroyed by invaders. " There has been trouble there over the last two months, " says Mr D.S. Mbugua, the director of Kenya Forest Services. He is worried by the human encroachment of three of Mau Complex's 12 forests – South West Mau, Trans Mara, ol Pusimoru and Maasai Mau. According to him, the situation is serious. The post-election violence displaced numerous Forest Department workers from Narok and Trans Mara districts. The lapse created an opportunity for groups of people to raid the forest either for wood or farm land. An aerial survey of Mau Complex carried out last January stunned Kenya's conservation fraternity. " The western side of Maasai Mau Forest is heavily settled, " says Mr Michael Gachanjah, coordinator of Kenya Forest Working Group, which brings together parastatals such as the Kenya Forest Services and the Kenya Wildlife Service among other conservation groups. " They are clearing trees to create farms, even as they mine the Podo. " Authorities are yet to quantify the loss. But conservationists are talking about " serious " encroachment on a key component of the environment which is not just an ordinary forest. Mau is the largest remaining canopy forest block in eastern Africa. It is the catchment for all rivers that drain west of Lake Victoria except one. Rivers like Nzoia, Yala, Nyando, Sondu and Mara originate in the complex. That side, the Mau is also a key catchment for critical lakes and wetlands in the Rift Valley, such as Baringo, Nakuru, Naivasha, Natron and Turkana. The forest is critical to the livelihoods of thousands of people in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan, and Egypt. Even the Kenya Wildlife Service is also concerned about the sad happenings in Mau. This nature component has unique trees and wildlife which KWS is keen to protect, says Amanda Koech, a communications officer at the institution. http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=39 & newsid\ =118713 Malawi: 8) Forests and mountains in Malawi are now in a desperate situation. Forest destruction across the country continues at a wildfire pace, seemingly uncontrolled and ignored. Sadly, there is little concerted political or governmental response to this loss. Short-term gains of fuel-wood and charcoal availability are soon overshadowed by the complete deprivation of an extensive range of resources and services that our mountains traditionally offered. Bare hills stand stark testament to a tragic irresponsibility that we are all accountable for if we do not choose now to actively work together to counter and then reverse this process of destruction. The Mulanje Mountain Forest Reserve is currently facing serious problems ranging from uncontrolled and illegal harvesting of forest resources, encroachment and annual bush fires. Deforestation is on an increase, a situation that would lead to serious problems if not checked. It is behind this observation that the Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust (MMCT) through its Environmental Education, Awareness and Communications Programme organized and facilitated a two-day educational visit for chiefs from Mulanje and Phalombe to Thyolo Mountain. This trip was meant for the chiefs to appreciate the current sorry situation that Thyolo Mountain is in and for them to have a developmental interaction with their colleagues (chiefs) from Thyolo district. Many people, just as the chiefs and local leaders, view the Mulanje Mountain Forest Reserve as solely a source of natural resources to benefit from; they rarely question the aftermath effects of overuse or abuse of such resources. It is therefore imperative that chiefs, as leaders and to a certain degree owners of the people and land, develop a genuine appreciation for the mountain and the reserve so that they can understand what implications their actions may have on it. http://hastingsmaloya.blogspot.com/2008/03/chiefs-educational-visit-to-thyolo.ht\ ml Latin America: 9) If you have ever walked through a tropical rainforest - whether it be in Costa Rica, the Amazon, Southeast Asia or Africa - I'm sure you have come across the Giant. I know what you're thinking - no, it is not a tropical version of the Bigfoot but the Giant I am referring to is one of the largest and most spectacular trees in the rainforest - the Kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra). Native to Tropical America, the kapok can reach a height of over 200 feet. Also known as Ceiba among the indigenous people of the Americas, the kapok is considered to be sacred and is often associated with the supernatural. To the Mayans in particular, the kapok was considered to be a very holy tree and has a special place in their mythology. The kapok has many medicinal uses among native people and it is harvested for a variety of purposes – fertilizer, fuel, down filling for mattresses and pillows etc. One of the highlights of my trip to Peru was encountering a giant kapok tree in the Amazon basin. I took a group photograph of members in my small tour group against this giant to show how enormously wide the buttressed root system. http://www.calypsoislandtours.com/blog/index.php/costa-rica/the-giant-of-the-rai\ nforest/ Belize: 10) All rainforest is fabulous. But I have a special thing about the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area, because I bought it. I have saved this piece of forest in Belize. In a world full of troubles, where destruction rules and rainforests are always the first places to get demolished, it is wonderful to know that this hefty little bit of forest is all right: and that it's all right because it's mine. I went there to visit it: to gloat, if you like, over the beauty of my work. It was a wonderful trip: well it could hardly be anything else. It was worth it just to view the absurd keel-billed toucans looking shiftily around camp: birds with an enormous beak of green picked out with red, blue and salmon pink. Though for my money some of the best of the birds were to be seen, when the day's birding was done: sitting around camp with a beer in the last light of the day while the humming birds whizzed around us and between us and before us: wedge-tailed sabre-wing, white-bellied emerald and the rest. I never really got the hang of breaking them down into species to tell the truth: I was always mesmerised by their fizzing, whirring, slurping existence. My humming-birds: I gave them that existence, or at least, I am part of it. I thought it was my roommate snoring, but I soon grew accustomed to it: one of the processes of visiting a new place is to acquire new eyes and new ears. Soon my new ears were telling me that this was howler monkey, monkeys that sing like birds, if less beautifully, to claim and maintain territories. There were spider monkeys out there too, using the tail as a fifth limb, and they really do look like giant arachnids. Some place, then. And all because of me. Well, not entirely me. The place is owned and managed by a Belizean organisation called, not inappropriately, Programme for Belize. Much of the funds were supplied by a British-based organisation called the World Land Trust, which continues to back Programme for Belize with funds and management advice. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/related_features/love_nature/art\ icle3539135.ece Panama: 11) We developed an analytical method that quantifies the relative contributions of mortality and individual growth to ecosystem function and analysed the results from the first biodiversity experiment conducted in a tropical tree plantation. In Sardinilla, central Panama, over 5000 tree seedlings were planted in monoculture and mixedspecies plots. After 5 years of growth, mixed-species plots yielded, on average, 30–58% higher summed tree basal area than did monocultures. Simulation models revealed that the increased yield of mixed-species plots was due mostly to enhancement of individual tree growth. Although c. 1500 trees died during the experiment, mortality was highly species-specific and did not differ consistently between biodiversity treatments. Our results show that the effects of biodiversity on growth and mortality are uncoupled and that biodiversity affects total biomass and potentially self-thinning. The Sardinilla experiment suggests that mixed-species plantings may be a viable strategy for increasing timber yields and preserving biodiversity in tropical tree plantations. -- Potvin & Gotelli Ecol Lett 08 Guyana: 12) US saw milling company Simon and Shock Incorporated (SSI) hopes to get its US$26 million investment in Guyana started next month. It is in the process of working out some aspects of its agreement in the light of changes owing to problems in the industry with land-lording of small concessionaires. Speaking to this newspaper on Tuesday, CEO Kelly Simon said that with the new measures in place to prevent land-lording by companies on other concessions, the newly tailored arrangements for the use of equipment in these concessions were in their end stages. He said that the company proposes to lease its equipment to the concession holders and train them in the safe and proper use of the equipment, which he described as brand new. According to Simon, someone on the government side asked whether the company was willing to give the equipment to the concessionaires, to which he said no way, since his investors wouldn't allow US$4 million in equipment to be handed over just like that. After months of due diligence and some tension between the company and the Guyana Office for Invest-ment (Go-Invest) last year, government through the Guyana Forestry Commis-sion (GFC) granted a State Forest Exploratory Permit to SSI about two and a half months ago. The company has been awarded concessions totalling 391,892 hectares in Regions Six and Nine and expects total employment to exceed 112 with at least 85 per cent local hire, ranging from senior management to starting positions. The company plans to invest over US$26 million in three years. http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_general_news?id=56541146 Peru: 13) After reporting a truck loaded with mahogany illegally logged from the Amazon rainforest, Don Julio García Agapito, a Peruvian authority who worked to protect forests, was gunned down by Amancion Jacinto Maque, an illegal timber operator, on February 26, 2008. He is survived by his wife and children. As Lieutenant Governor (Teniente Gobernador) of the town Alerta in the Tahuamanu Province of Madre de Dios in Peru, Don Julio dedicated his life to conservation and building sustainable livelihoods for the people of southwestern Peru. Himself a castañero, or Brazil nut collector, whose livelihood depended on the health of the forest, Don Julio worked to understand the changes occurring in Madre de Dios. Development pressures are mounting in the region due to the improvement of the Carretera Transoceanica or Trans-Oceanic highway, which links the heart of the Amazon to the Pacific. The highway will soon serve as an artery for transporting soy and other agricultural products to Pacific ports — the gateway to China. While many see the Carretera Transoceanica as an opportunity to bring development to a remote region, conservationists are concerned that its paving could turn one of the most biodiverse parts of the Amazon into a sea of soy fields, cattle pasture, and logged forests. Already a network of " unofficial " roads, built by loggers and developers of other extractive industries, is expanding in the region, facilitating illegal logging and agricultural conversion of forest. Accordingly the area's deforestation rate is rising — a 2007 study found that Madre de Dios is one of the two provinces in Peru that account for 86 percent of the country's forest degradation and deforestation. About 75 percent of the damage occurs within 12.5 miles (20 km) of roads. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0314-don_julio.html Brazil: 14) The tragic and powerful story behind a nun's murder in the Amazon claimed big honers at Tuesday night's SXSW film awards. They Killed Sister Dorothy won both the Grand Jury Prize and The Audience Award for best documentary. " To win one award would be great and two we're overwhelmed, " said director Daniel Junge. The film follows the courtroom drama at the trials of Sister Dorothy's killers and explores her life's work in the Brazilian rainforest. " We know that there were issues of rainforest preservation and human justice behind it and when we got into it we found this - like this drama of Shakespearean level, these amazing things happening in the Amazon. Essentially, the film reveals the story behind the brutal murder of this nun, " said Junge. http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/default.asp?ArID=202600 15) Unofficial road-building will be a major driver of deforestation and land-use change in the Amazon rainforest, according to an analysis published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Improved governance, as exemplified by the innovative MAP Initiative in the southwestern Amazon, could help reduce the future impact of roads, without diminishing economic prospects in the region. Road-building spurs forest development in the Amazon by providing access for loggers, land speculators, ranchers, farmers, and colonists to otherwise remote wooded areas. Beyond facilitating deforestation, roads affect forests and biodiversity by fragmentation, which increases vulnerability to forest fires and has other negative ecological consequences. Still, roads are seen as an expedient way to expand extractive industries and promote agricultural expansion in the Amazon. As such, roads are increasingly funded and built by interest groups, especially the agroindustry and logging sectors. These " unofficial " roads complement existing government-sanctioned roads originally built under economic development schemes in the 1970s and 1980s. Industry also exerts pressure on lawmakers to fund road improvement projects, like the paving of highways. These improvements further promote the expansion of unofficial road networks, which improve the economic viability of resource extraction and agricultural production in once inaccessible areas. Improved economic viability provides greater incentive for more road-building and the cycle continues. Reviewing the economic drivers of road-building in the Amazon, Stephen Perz and colleagues conclude that breaking the road-building feedback cycle will require improved governance. The authors cite the MAP Initiative in the southwestern Amazon as a model that could be used elsewhere in the Amazon to rein in and reduce the negative environmental impact of the unofficial roads, which are presently expanding at a significantly faster rate than official road networks in the region. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0312-perz_amazon.html 16) An official with Brazil's environmental protection agency Ibama claims that snakes are invading the city of Belem due to deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. Interviewed by the Associated Press, Ibama press officer Luciana Almeida said the agency has been called out to capture 21 snakes this year in the Amazonian city of 1.5 million. She said Ibama gets no more than one or two calls a month in most years. Almeida said Ibama blames the increase in snakes on deforestation by loggers, ranchers and developers in the forest surrounding the city. Deforestation has more than doubled in the state of Para since last year. " Deforestation destroys their habitat, so they come to the city, " she was quoted as saying. Ibama disptachs a veterinary team to capture snakes and release them. No poisonous snakes were reported, she said. But the captured snakes included a 10-foot (3-meter) anaconda, usually a jungle recluse. " People are scared, " she said. " Imagine finding a 3-meter snake in your plumbing. " Almeida said Ibama believes the increase in snakes is a result of rising deforestation by loggers, ranchers and developers in the Amazon jungle surrounding the Belem urban area. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/11/america/LA-GEN-Brazil-Snake-Invasion.p\ hp 17) An interesting perspective on the possible effects of loss of wild animals on the plants they disperse comes from an open access paper published on PloS on 5 March by Guimarãe et al. This paper looks at the dispersal mechanisms of some neotropical fleshy-fruited plants in South America, and suggests that these plants may have evolved their fruit and seed traits for dispersal by large mammals which have long been extinct. While the survival of the plant species shows that other dispersal mechanisms can in some cases take over, they show impaired dispersal, with consequences for ecology and plant diversity. The dispersal patterns of 'megafaunal fruits' can give insights into the consequences of ongoing loss of wildlife on which other plant species depend. The paper examines anachronistic seed dispersal patterns, which are described as interactions between animal frugivores and plants involving traits that are unfit for the current fauna. Megafaunal fruits are defined as fruits 4–10 cm in diameter with up to five large seeds, and fruits >10 cm diameter with numerous small seeds. It is suggested that present-day seed dispersal by scatter-hoarding rodents, introduced livestock, runoff, flooding, gravity, and human-mediated dispersal allowed survival of megafauna-dependent fruit species after extinction of the major seed dispersers. However, consequences for the species which have to rely on seed dispersal mechanisms other than those for which they evolved can include reduced dispersal distances, clumped spatial patterns, reduced geographic range, and limited genetic variation. By studying the effects of past extinctions on the population structure of living plants, the authors suggest that we can better predict the ecological effects of todays ongoing extinction of seed dispersers. http://cabiblog.typepad.com/hand_picked/2008/03/coping-with-ext.html 18) Matthew Perl, who handles an Amazon conservation program for the WWF in Washington DC, credits Lula's administration with going beyond a simple police raid — a tactic that has failed many times in the past — and actually conducting a legal review of land holdings. This might seem easy and obvious, but simple questions about land ownership, zoning and management facilitate illegal activities across the board — precisely because much of the public land has not been through any kind of formal planning process. Perl offers some rough figures: 20% of the Amazon is in some sort of federal or state-protected area; 21% is administered as indigenous territories, occupied by a quarter of a million people; and 24% is nominally private, keeping in mind that many holdings may be illegal. The remaining 35% — roughly 38.5 million hectares, an area larger than Germany — is in an 'open-access' category that has no formal zoning plan. Going through existing land registrations, as the government has proposed, is different from designating the remaining land. The logging follows in waves, starting with specialty hard woods such as mahogany and teak and ending with construction-quality timber. Eventually the land is burned and cleared and grazed with cattle, or sown with soya beans. By this time, the squatters have moved deeper into the forest. By some estimates, this process has devoured some 18% of the Amazon. The Amazon Protected Areas Programme (ARPA), a partnership between the WWF, the Brazilian government, the Global Environment Facility — an organization that funds projects in developing countries — and others, was designed to expand legal protection and ultimately administration of public lands in the Amazon. In many cases, says Gustavo Fonseca, who handles the programme for the Global Environment Facility, a simple registration process has been sufficient to prevent deforestation. ARPA was established in 2002 and so far it has registered 14.5 million hectares under strict protections and another 9 million hectares under sustainable-use rules that allow for certain commercial activities such as fishing and rubber extraction and the collection of oils and seeds. Once these communities have a vested interest — sometimes with some training — they can help to enforce their own protections. http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080312/full/452134a.html Pakistan: 19) The cantonment boards, corrupt forest department officials and contractors are major contributors to deforestation of 39,000 hectare to 55,000 hectare per annum, resulting into depletion of forests rapidly all over Pakistan. This startling disclosure was made during the concluding session of Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) conference on 'impact of forest degradation' here on Friday. The conference was arranged under the theme of 'Environment and Natural Resource Management' in which many international economists participated. Answering a query regarding exact deforestation area caused by the cantonment boards, Lubna Hassan, a PIDE expert replied that she did not know exact affected area in this regard. However, the total deforested area stands from 39,000 hectare to 55,000 hectare at the moment. To another question regarding negative impacts caused by the mega projects on deforestation, she said that the compensating investment policy could be applied by increasing tree plantation to other places to mitigate the negative impacts owing to mega projects that resulted into cutting down a large number of trees in some cases. She added that it could not be ascertained how much the government was applying standardised criteria to compensate deforestation. Lubna Hassan further said the government itself was involved in deforestation, as establishment of cantonment boards, lying railway lines and other mega projects caused major deforestation in the country. " The soaring timber prices also resulted into creating huge price differential between community and market prices where the role of timber mafia increases, " she added. Total forest area, she said, stands at 4.8 per cent in all over Pakistan with major share of AJK by 20.7 per cent, Balochistan 1.7 per cent, Northern Areas 9.5 per cent, NWFP 16.6 per cent, Punjab 2.9 per cent and Sindh 2.8 per cent. According to some other experts, total area having forest in Pakistan has further declined in accordance with the latest survey and stood at 4.2 per cent instead of 4.8 per cent. She said the objective of the paper was to document instances of state failure in the forest sector of Pakistan and to build an argument that these failures are the primary cause of deforestation in Pakistan. http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=101489 India: 20) Baripada (Orissa) - Showing their concern over sharp decline in the tiger population, tribals in Orissa's Mayurbhanj district on Saturday took out a procession as part of the campaigna to save the wild cat, particularly in Simipal forests. Raising slogans 'Save tiger' and 'Save Similipal', the tribals including women and children marched through the steets of this district headquarters town on the second day of 'jungle mahotsav' programme aimed at preservation of forests. The campaign has been waged under the banner of Mayurbhanj Swechasebi Samukshya and Mayurbhanj Jungle Surakshya Mahasangha. Attired in their traditional outfits the tribals, swaying to the beat of traditional musical instruments, urged people to actively participate in the endeavour to protect and preserve the forests. " The purpose is to make people aware of the importance of forests for our survival. Everyone should realise that the mankind will perish without forests and their resources " , Mohan Murmu of Nabara forest protection committee under Udala block said. Representatives of 840 forest protection committees from all over the district participated in the programme. Senior forest officials, members of leading NGOs, social activists and educationists addressed the processionists highlighting the need for maintaining ecological balance. Mayurbhanj happens to be one of the districts to have started joint forest protection committees for preservation of the eco-system. The district has the distinction of having highest number of such committees in the state. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200803160921.htm 21) " Unscrupulous officers are conniving with local prawn mafias in handing over the prime mangrove forest land to prawn farmers. Since top bureaucrats and politicians have heavily invested in this money-spinning trade, they ensure that files move at snail's pace, thereby paving the way for encroachers to make hay, " Mohanty charged. Declining to name the bureaucrats and politicians who have dabbled in unlawful prawn trade, Mohanty said that elaborate details on this nefarious and environment-damaging activity would be submitted to the Orissa High Court. The influential sections have played a dominant role that has led to the fast disappearance of country's second largest mangrove forest in Bhitarkanika. The forest blocks still enriched with mangrove are yet be conferred reserved forest status. Bureaucrats are dragging their feet over the issue because it would come in the way of illegal prawn farming, he alleged. Since long, 26 forest blocks comprising of mangrove forests in Mahanadi delta and Bhitarkanika have been proposed for declaration as reserved forests u/s 4 and u/s 21 of the Orissa Forest Act, 1972. The total area is 12,638 hectares. Without declaration of the exiting forests as forests under the OFA, these forests can be diverted easily for prawn cultivation and other non-forest use. These forests are located in Rajnagar, Mahakalpada and Kanika Range of Rajnagar Mangrove Forests (Wildlife) Division. Even though the proposals are pending since 2002, the district administration for strange reasons has done little to complete the process of settlement of claims before final declaration as forests. Some of the forest blocks like Kalibhhanjadia, North Mahisamada, Kantiakhai, Ragadapatia do not have any human settlements and can be easily declared as " forests " without delay. Apart from these 26 forest blocks, 15 forest blocks that are declared as proposed reserve forests and protected forest have been heavily encroached by prawn farm cultivators. The forest department officials carried out the eviction exercise during the period 2004-2006 within five-forest blocks. The official claim was that 1,140 hectares of forestland was made encroachment free. 610 hectares had been taken up for mangrove regeneration activity. But the present scenario is indicative of the fact that the acquired land has been taken over by the prawn farmers. http://www.kalingatimes.com/orissa_news/news2/20080314-prawn-farming.htm 22) The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's Gardens Department will inspect the Gateway of India precinct to assess if the Rs 6-crore beautification project currently underway has claimed a larger portion of the site's greenery than was permitted. Following the public hue and cry last year surrounding a proposal to fell 115 of the 144 trees at the site for the Gateway of India makeover, the BMC — it is undertaking the revamp — submitted a revised plan to the Tree Authority. Last July, the Tree Authority gave the go-ahead to the proposal that said that 78 trees would be transplanted in the surrounding area while 66 trees would be retained where they are. " Not a single tree was to be cut. But as of today some of the trees that have been transplanted have not survived while we have no clue where the rest have disappeared,'' said Remo Zaveri from the Colaba Tourists Welfare (CTW) Association. According to Zaveri, the rest of the Gateway precinct has ample paved pathways for pedestrians. He questioned the need to concretise the only oasis in the spot. When questioned, Municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak said he was not aware of the complaint. " I will find out, " he said. As per the approved plans, trees like Peltoforum, banyan, rubber, almond, jambool, mango, ashoka, tabubia were to be mostly retained at site. Others like peepal tree, fishtail palm, fan palm, chafa, areca palm, sitaphal, bottle palm, tamarind, jackfruit and gulmohur were the ones that could be transplanted. According to BMC's Garden Superintendent V H Dande, the BMC will now take stock of the trees that have survived the transplantation. " One banyan tree has been weakened as its boughs had to be chopped while demolishing the toilet block on Friday, " he said. " I will ask my officers to submit a report on the status of the trees in the precinct,'' said Dande. A few months ago, the CTW association along with the Oval maidan trust had physically inspected the site. They claim that only 45 trees of the 66 trees that were meant to be retained could be found at the site. In a letter to the BMC, they also claimed that of the 78 trees meant to be transplanted, only 15 bottle palms were actually transplanted. " The area looks extremely barren now with a few trees scattered here and there. Some of the trees in the garden were no doubt planted incongruously but in a tree-starved city we cannot afford to cut any more trees, " said Nayana Kathpalia from NGO Citispace. http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/BMC-to-inspect-Gateway-site-count-how-ma\ ny-trees-surviv e/284728/ 23) Over 6,000 sq km of the precious Nilgiris forests, a heritage ecosystem, is threatened by forest fires that are still blazing, wildlife department officials said here Thursday. The biosphere straddles three south Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala and holds the reserve forests of Nagarhole and Bandipur (Karnataka), Mudumalai (Tamil Nadu) and the unique Silent Valley (Kerala). The forest department has arrested six people in the Gudalur reserve forest for lighting fires and destroying at least two acres of grassland. The men worked for a private estate in the area, sources said. Large fires are still raging in the Nagarhole forest too and more than a 100 people have been deployed in " backfire operations " , by which a controlled ring of fire is lit to restrict large fires from spreading to new areas. A large number of wild animals, among them elephants, tigers and deer are reported to be on the move across the Mudumalai and Muthanga (Kerala) ranges, fleeing the fires and also in search of food. Kerala Forest Minister Benoy Viswam has sought " joint monitoring and concerted action for prevention and control of forest fires " , between the three southern states. In Palakkad district of Kerala, Mannarkkad forest is affected, as is Thrissur district, which is open to hot dry winds from mainland Tamil Nadu. There have been reports of fires at Moolahalla and in the Silent Valley (SV), one very close to the SV core area, and in Muthanga. Fires have also broken out in Tamil Nadu forests close to the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary and Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary. Last Sunday fires were reported from Agasthyakoodam biosphere in Tamil Nadu and Wayanad biosphere in Kerala. Fires were also reported in the forests near Thiruvananthapuram, in the Upper Sanatorium, Kambimoodu and Ponmudi regions. http://www.freshnews.in/blazing-fires-still-threaten-nilgiris-forests-22996 24) Fire maps from the satellite-based MODIS Rapid Response System of the United States showed that a number of fires occurred in the core areas of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala during the 24-hour period that ended on Sunday. According to reports reaching here, several hundred acres of forests were damaged in fires at Moolahalla in the Biosphere Reserve. A few fires occurred in the buffer area of the Silent Valley and one was very close to the core area. During the last two months, fires occurred in Tamil Nadu forests close to the Kerala border. One of those fires was just some kilometres away from the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary of Kerala. The Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary of Kerala and the Bandipur Wildlife Sanctuary of Karnataka were under threat from fires caused by people traversing the Kerala-Karnataka border. Degradation of forests affects the forests in the neighbouring State too. The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve was constituted in 1986 under the UNESCO's Man and Biosphere Programme. " The Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary and the National Park, the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, the Bandipur National Park, the Nagarhole National Park, the Mukurthi National Park and the Silent Valley National Park fall within the Reserve. The Biosphere harbours 3.187 species of flowering plants. Of 185 taxa that are recorded as threatened species from Southern Western Ghats, 53 are found in the Nilgiris. " http://www.hindu.com/2008/03/12/stories/2008031255471400.htm 25) Pitching strongly for protection of the environment, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said the country should concentrate on stopping deforestation and controlling the effects of growing human population. " While we won't be able to turn around the effects of global warming now, we should concentrate on stopping deforestation, effects of growing human population and infrastructure building, " Gandhi said at the 80th anniversary celebrations of the Himalayan Mountaineering club here. " We need to be aware that people in large numbers whether pilgrims, soldiers or visitors all have contributed to environmental degradation, " she said. Gandhi sought public-private partnerships to help save the environment and asked NGOs to contribute towards improving the lives of people living in hilly areas. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200803152064.htm China: 26) 2.27 billion trees were planted last year by 58 percent of the population, lifting the urban forestry coverage to 35.11 percent, up 2.57 percentage points, figures with the State Forestry Administration (SFA) showed. Administration director Jia Zhibang said people's awareness of preserving ecological balances has been enhanced greatly as the campaign is moving forward. The nationwide restoration effort helped fuel the fastest expansion of man-made forest area in China, taking up 53.2 percent of the global annual increase, or one third of the world's total, said the SFA. The man-made forest area now totals more than 53.33 million hectares, the largest on the planet, Jia Zhibang said. He said snow-ravaged south China has moved to restore forests. This year's severe winter has cost China's forestry sector 57.3 billion yuan (about 8 billion U.S. dollars) in losses and has damaged 20.86 million hectares of forests, or 10 percent of the total. Heavy losses would set back efforts to meet a national 20-percent forest-cover target by 2020, the administration said. China's forest acreage reached 175 million hectares last year, raising the country's forest coverage to 18.21 percent, compared with 12 percent in 1981. The per capital public green areas edged up 0.41 to 8.3 square meters last year, which is still much lower than the international average. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/11/content_7767691.htm 27) Nanling National Nature Reserve is considered so precious that ecologists call the reserve " a treasure trove of species. " But winter storms have reduced the biological hot spot to a splintered ruin. Snow, sleet, and ice laid waste to 90% of the 58,000 hectare reserve's forests, says He Kejun, director of the Guangdong Forestry Administration in Guangzhou. Nanling Reserve is one of scores of fragile ecosystems, from Anhui Province in the east to Guangdong Province in the south, that took a beating from storms in late January and early February that set records for snowfall and low temperatures in some areas. Last week, China's State Forestry Administration (SFA) announced that the storms damaged 20.86 million hectares—one-tenth of China's forests and plantations—roughly equivalent to the number of hectares that were reforested between 2003 and 2006. SFA pegs the losses at $8 billion. " The severe storms did a massive amount of harm, " says Li Jianqiang, a plant taxonomist at Wuhan Botanical Garden. For broadleaf evergreen forests, " this is bigger than the Yangtze disaster. It's unique in the history of south China, " says Ren Hai, an ecologist with the South China Botanical Garden (SCBG) in Guangzhou. SFA and other agencies have dispatched scientists to take stock and formulate restoration plans. " The government is acting very, very fast, " says Ren. In southeastern China's worst winter in 5 decades, snow and ice knocked out power and paralyzed roads and rail lines at the height of the year's busiest travel season—the Spring Festival, when many Chinese return to their hometowns. The storms pummeled 21 of 33 provinces and regions, claiming 129 lives. Some 485,000 homes were destroyed and another 1.6 million damaged, displacing nearly 1.7 million people, according to central government statistics. Meanwhile, outside the spotlight, an ecological calamity was unfolding. In Jiangxi Province, for example, entire bamboo forests were reduced to matchsticks; fast growing bamboo can regenerate in several years. In Guangdong, officials estimate that more than 700,000 hectares of forest and plantations are damaged severely, with losses approaching $1 billion. Other provinces enduring extensive forest damage are Anhui, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, and Sichuan SCIENCE VOL 319, 7 MARCH 2008 Hong Kong: 28) She has taken the government to task for suddenly axing eight venerable and previously protected trees. The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong legislator accused the government of negligence when the trees were struck off the Register of Old and Valuable Trees. Choy rejected the government's explanation that the trees, aged up to 100 years, were dying from natural damage such as pests and the weather. A banyan tree, to her knowledge, can grow under healthy conditions for up to 600 years. " So if it's being taken off the list after 100 years, it has not lived up to its natural life span and cannot have died naturally, " she said. Trees that now face the axe include a Chinese banyan, coral tree, Norfolk Island pine, and pink and white shower. Standing between 12 and 30 meters and with their ages ranging from 50 to 100 years, the trees are located in Central and Western, Southern and Yau Tsim Mong districts. But Secretary for Development Carrie Lam Cheung Yuet-ngor insisted that trees can be attacked and damaged by pests or knocked down by natural disasters. Axing the eight trees from the protected list, she said, had nothing to do with human negligence. Choy has been pushing for a private bill for five years to make sure developers do not move in on land where trees have been felled. She wants new trees to replace those chopped down to avoid land being snapped up for development. http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=11 & art_id=62967 & sid=1803275\ 2 & con_type=1 Laos: 29) VIENTIANE — Connie Speight has swayed on elephant-back through unforgiving jungle and has adopted nine of the high-maintenance beasts. At 83, the retired American teacher is back in this Southeast Asian country to help save what remains of the once mighty herds. Once so famous for its herds that it was called Prathet Lane Xane, or Land of a Million Elephants, Laos is thought to have only 700 left in the wild. " Lots of people in Asia tell you how elephants are their proud national heritage, " Speight says. " But I tell them, 'It was your heritage, and what are you doing to bring it back?' Often precious little. " Elephants in Laos are better off than in most of the 12 other nations that are home to the animals. The country has extensive forest cover and a sparse population. But like elsewhere, it's a race against time. Poachers, dam builders, loggers and farmers are taking a deadly toll on the endangered species. " The situation will become very dramatic in about 10 years if nothing changes, " says Sebastien Duffillot, co-founder of France-based ElefantAsia. At their current rate of decline, Laos' wild elephants could be extinct within 50 years, he warns. Domesticated elephants number about 570, a 20 percent drop over the last decade. In all, the World Wide Fund for Nature estimates, as few as 25,000 wild and 15,000 captive Asian elephants may be left. A century ago, Thailand alone harbored some 100,000. Speight attended a recent elephant festival organized by Duffillot's conservation group " to pay tribute to the emblematic animal of Laos. " One of several elephant conservation efforts under way, the three-day fair featured some 60 elephants. They demonstrated skills in logging, took part in Buddhist ceremonies and walked in stirring processions. In their heyday, elephants served as the country's trucks, taxis and battle tanks. Laos is communist-ruled today, but it used to be a kingdom that kept its independence by sending elephants as tribute to neighboring China and Vietnam. Organizers said they hoped the annual festival, first held in 2007, might persuade elephant keepers to use their beasts in the fast-growing tourism business rather than logging. For many youngsters in the dusty, Mekong River town of Paklay, the morning offering of fruit and snacks to the pachyderms was the first time they had touched an elephant's trunk. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jxwEibRx_bCTjg27W4KtVIqdOzVgD8VELCCG0 South East Asia: 30) The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Friday said it would fund a regional project to protect the shrinking seas and rainforests in Southeast Asia. The region is home to the Coral Triangle, which has the highest marine biodiversity in the world, as well as the heart of Borneo, rainforests covering 22 million hectares that are some of the last refuges for orangutans, Asian elephants, and Sumatran rhinos, the regional bank said. Each year logging, mining and farming destroy millions of hectares of forests. Global warming also had its shares of damage, the ADB said. The ADB grant, amounting to $1.5 million, will provide funding for the World Wide Fund for Nature to undertake an environmental and socio-economic profile of the region, GIS (geographic information system) mapping and stakeholder consultations. The grant will also allow the countries to assess policies and institutional capabilities in managing natural resources, address cross-border environmental issues and implement policies through the setting of minimum standards, monitoring and self-regulation. The programme will then work with the four governments, donors, private sector and NGOs to foster support for the programme and forge partnerships for action. http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/adb-funds-asias-sea-rainforest-pr\ eservation-pr oject_10027470.html Malaysia: 31) Touted as one of the best-managed forestry schemes in the country, Deramakot Forest Reserve caught the attention of HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad when it was looking for a deserving reforestation project to support. The 55,083ha commercial forest reserve in Sabah became one of the international banking institution's corporate responsibility projects in January when a memorandum of understanding was signed between the bank and the Sabah government. The mixed dipterocarp lowland forest was picked to be a model for sustainable forest management in 1989, with 51,000ha set aside for production and 4,000ha for conservation. Bad logging practices in the past had undermined the regeneration ability of the forest. Only 20% of the area was well-stocked and more than 30% was very poor forest with no mature trees. Enrichment planting was carried out to rehabilitate the forest. Subsequently, it went on to gain the country's first timber certification under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) scheme and the first batch of FSC eco-friendly logs was auctioned in December 1995. To date, 61 auctions have been conducted with 128,525 sq m of logs sold at premium prices. Last May, a record price of RM1,350 was fetched for a square metre of a Shorea species – selangan batu. However, more money is needed to restore Deramakot forest to its previous glory. According to Sabah Forestry Department, wildlife in Deramakot has received little attention in the past as the primary objective was timber management. HSBC chief executive officer and deputy chairman Irene M. Dorner says Sabah Forestry Department had recommended the reforestation of Deramakot as it lacked funding. " The Forest Restoration Project is a programme that helps prepare 'new homes' for orang utans at the southern part of Deramakot covering about 500ha of degraded areas. With the restoration of the badly degraded areas in the forest, orang utans and other wildlife will have a greater chance of survival. " The bank has pledged RM200,000 to support the orang utan conservation area. Deramakot is part of the Kinabatangan north area that also comprises Segaliud Lokan and Tangkulap Forest Reserves, and supports some 1,700 orang utans. The two-year project will also create opportunities for locals to participate in the restoration and conservation of orang utan habitats in Deramakot. It involves the establishment of fruit orchards in degraded forests and studies on biodiversity within the habitat restoration sites. http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2008/3/11/lifefocus/20467853 & sec\ =lifefocus Indonesia: 32) The denunciation comes from a few groups for the protection of the environment. They accuse the recent presidential decree 2/2008, by which Jakarta concedes the exploitation of the forest areas for a ridiculous rental payment of about 200-265 dollars per hectare. According to the Mining Advocacy Community Network (Jatam), the Yudhoyono administration forgets that, between 2000 and 2005, the rate of deforestation in Indonesia was the highest in the world. 145 million hectares of Indonesian forest area were quickly cleared. According to a non-governmental report, every day 51 square kilometres of forest are destroyed, for a total of 1.8 million hectares each year. The role of the forests is fundamental for the absorption of carbon. But their destruction provokes a release of carbon that significantly increases emissions of carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming. The controversial decree concerns the 13 large mining companies that since 2004 have obtained permission to operate in the forest areas. It is calculated that their activities - concentrated in areas like Sumatra, Papua New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and Borneo - release between 125 and 251 million tons of carbon dioxide into the environment. The provisions also extend to energy resource companies. Indonesia is rich in coal, nickel, gold, tin, and copper, and the country intends to provide incentives for investment in the sector. Strong demand for these basic materials in India and China has helped cause a spike in their prices. http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en & art=11746 & size=A Papua New Guinea: 33) A Southern Highlands timber company has become the first Australian business to import ecologically harvested timber from Papua New Guinea, thanks to a former policeman who stopped illegal logging in his home village. Sep Galeva is an elder of the Kuni tribe's Catfish clan from Lake Murray in Papua New Guinea's remote Western Province. He woke up to the widespread devastation of his local forest when he returned to his village in 1997 to discover a foreign road-building company had illegally logged large areas under the guise of road clearing. At the time he was working as a police officer in Port Moresby. Having stopped human rights abuses in that line of work, he turned his attention to the rights of trees, villagers and tribal land owners. " I was inspired by a film about an American Indian who stood up and fought hard to protect his tribe during the Wild West days when commercial forces were ruining their hunting grounds, " he says. After organising a series of road blocks in 2003 preventing trucks transporting illegal logs, he hired a lawyer and persuaded the PNG National Court to outlaw the logging by 2004. Galeva did not care what happened to him while fighting big logging companies. As a Christian, he believed he would be protected because he was " fighting for righteousness. I am more than happy to spill my blood to save our forests and I am not afraid, " he says. Galeva now hopes to export his " green timber " around the world. He also wants to spread the strategy of community forestry throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Galeva, now the Lake Murray Resource Owners Association chairman, eventually teamed with Greenpeace which found him a market for his timber in NSW. http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/from-black-to-green-in-pngs-forests/2008/\ 03/11/12051259 11551.html Australia: 34) Australia's CSIRO is collaborating in a NASA-funded project, using a CSIRO-designed instrument, to help develop new methods of measuring forest carbon stores on a large scale. Forests are the world's main above-ground carbon store and are therefore critical in controlling the global carbon cycle. But estimating the amount of carbon stored in forests over a large scale is difficult. An American project is using the CSIRO-designed ECHIDNAr instrument, together with airborne sensors, to provide a practical technique for broad-scale structural mapping of forests. CSIRO carbon accounting expert, Dr Phil Polglase, says the project is important to international research efforts to provide improved estimates of carbon stored in forests. " Australia, along with other countries, reports on its greenhouse gas emissions from the land-use sector and this research offers a new method to improve our carbon estimates across large scales, " Polglase says. The ECHIDNA is a patented ground-based light detection and ranging (LiDAR) instrument which CSIRO began developing in 2001. CSIRO later worked closely with Forest and Wood Products Australia during development and validation. The ECHIDNA has been used extensively to assess the 3D structure of tree trunks, branches and leaves. These forest structural variables can be used to help estimate forest biomass. The NASA project is extending this work by integrating the ECHIDNA with other LiDAR technologies, says CSIRO Remote Sensing scientist, Dr Glenn Newnham. " We're meeting the challenge of providing reliable biomass estimates over large areas by combining the detail from the ECHIDNA on the ground with the broad-scale airborne LiDAR data. We're expecting that this method will lead to more accurate and efficient mapping and monitoring of forest biomass and, as a result, a better understanding of the influence of forest carbon stores on the global carbon cycle. " http://www.internationalforestindustries.com/2008/03/12/new-approach-to-structur\ al-mapping-of-f orests/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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