FW: RAINFOREST RELEASE & VICTORY! VICTORY! Madagascar Reinstates Rainforest Protections Following EI Led Global Public Outcry

[Guest guest]

EI PRESS/SOCIAL MEDIA RELEASE

VICTORY! Madagascar Reinstates Rainforest Protections Following EI Led

Global Public Outcry

 

March 29, 2010

From Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet (EI)

http://www.ecoearth.info/newsdesk/

 

Madagascar's transitional government last week reinstated a ban on rosewood

logging and exports, following prolonged and growing pressure over illegal

logging of its national parks spearheaded by Ecological Internet. As

reported by Mongabay, the decree (no. 2010-141) prohibits all exports of

rosewood and precious timber for two to five years. With the export ban in

place, the fate of 10,000-15,000 metric tons of already illegally logged

rosewood awaiting export remains uncertain. It is also unclear whether

illegal loggers and traders will be prosecuted [1].

 

" These issues, getting this moratorium to be permanent, and working to

demonstrate community development from standing primary and restored

rainforests will require continued vigilance and campaigning. Yet, two

important points have been made. It is again demonstrated that it is

possible to end rainforest logging. And the emergence of an empowered global

movement committed to protecting and restoring old forests - and other

ecologically sufficient policy necessary to achieve global ecological

sustainability - is again powerfully demonstrated, " says Dr. Glen Barry, EI

President.

 

Over the past year, Ecological Internet conceived and led an international

protest campaign seeking to emphasize the importance of keeping Madagascar's

dwindling primary forests standing and intact as the basis for national

advancement [2]. Some 7674 EI network participants from 102 countries sent

over 1/2 million protest emails. The result comes just days after EI

blasted President Sarkozy of France, a country with deep historical ties to

Madagascar, as being " guilty of dangerous hypocrisy " for condemning

deforestation as a French company company continued to threaten Madagascar's

rainforests.

 

Other groups such as Regenwald, Global Witness and the Environmental

Investigation Agency (EIA) that have been protesting the resumption in

exports of illegally logged timber cautiously welcomed the move as well. The

logging crisis began in March of 2009 when destabilization following a

government coup allowed loggers to enter several of Madagascar's

world-renowned parks and illegally log rosewood and other valuable trees.

Tens of thousands of hectares were logged in Madagascar's most biodiverse

rainforests, which also sparked a rise in bushmeat trafficking of lemurs.

Madagascar's transitional government then sanctioned timber exports at the

end of 2009 despite a long-standing ban on rosewood logging.

 

[1] Madagascar bans rainforest timber exports following global outcry,

http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0325-madagascar_rosewood_ban.html

More Information can be found at Mongabay which has broken and continues to

cover the story.

 

[2] Action Alert: Protest Madagascar's Legalization of Rosewood Log Export

from National Parks

http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=madagascar_landgr

ab

 

DISCUSS RELEASE:

http://www.rainforestportal.org/issues/

 

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