Guest guest Posted September 6, 2006 Report Share Posted September 6, 2006 Today for you we 38 news items. Number, location and subject listed below. Condensed article is further below.--British Columbia: 1) Bears in the Great Bear Rainforest, 2) A corrupt industry--Oregon: 3) Arborsculpture --California: 4) Eco impacts of Biofuels, 5) YMCA wants to log Redwoods--Montana: 6) Judge rejects Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk defenders, 7) Logging rates--Minnesota: 8) Slash harvesting--New Hampshire: 9) Enviros win delay in White Mountain National Forest challenge --Virginia: 10) Lots of logging in the dry times before the hurricane rain--Georgia: 11) Save Cumberland Island--South Carolina: 12) Connecting corridors proven effective for species dispersal--USA: 13) Wilderness protection by giving away public land --North America: 14) Paleocene research--Lebanon: 15) Forest fire threats--Africa: 16) 12,000 square kilometers of dry lands forest lost each year--Ghana: 17) Alarming deforestation of the catchment areas of water --Kenya: 18) Destruction goes on under the noses of those charged to preserve--Liberia: 19) New draft of National Forestry Law--Uganda: 20) Authorities to expedite change of land use for three forest reserves, 21) Mabira forest reserve that SCOUL wants for expansion,--South Africa: 22) Kosi palm and Wild pomegranate named trees of the year--Brazil: 23) deforestation proven for crops instead of cattle, 24) rate of deforestation slowed, 24) Portuguese doctoral student murdered--Uruguay: 25) Pulp mill battle is over--India: 26) Illegal road and home built in Kharjet--Bangladesh: 27) Elephants and people battle for the trees --Philippines: 28) Illegal logs on ship set free--Solomon Islands: 29) Another ship with illegal logs--Indonesia: 30) 10 % by 2020, 31) 100 logging and plantation companies involved in forest fires, 32) Government plans to sue oil palm plantation companies for fires, 33) Loggers do PR to deny responsibility for fires--Australia: 34) Calling for a logging moratorium, 35) High-profile pre-election battle--Tropical Rainforests: 36) remaining forests and nature reserves severely degraded --World-wide: 37) Plantations: green cancer, green soldiers, green deserts, 38) Global; warming caused mostly by deforestationBritish Columbia:1) At the end of a long, dry summer, the salmon streams in the Great Bear Rainforest are so low the fish are reluctant, or unable, to enter. The bears are mostly in the forest feeding on berries. But you just never know when one will step out from behind a tree, or wander out onto the open sedge flats. In the Great Bear Rainforest, which covers some six million hectares, there are 499 salmon watersheds. Only a few of them are used by the white bears, which native legend says were created to remind the people of the Ice Age. As a child, Mr. Robinson said he heard little about the bears, which were only killed by native hunters in self-defence. " They were sacred, and they were pretty much kept secret, " he said. About 15 years ago he bumped into Wayne McCrory, a B.C. bear biologist, who was exploring the area. " He told me about all the white bears he was seeing and I didn't believe him, until he brought me down here and showed me. " Since then, Mr. Robinson said he has become a passionate defender of the white bears, which were named Spirit Bears during an international campaign by environmentalists to preserve the area. That name has been put under trademark by the B.C. government, which last spring set aside 1.3 million hectares in the Great Bear Rainforest as parkland. The Raincoast Conservation Society has since complained that less than 20 per cent of salmon watersheds have full protection, however, raising concerns about the bears' future. Legalized hunting for coastal black bears also raises questions about how that will affect white-bear population, because the parents of white bears often have black fur. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060904.BEARTRACKING04/TPStory/National 2) It is amazing too that the disappeared 50,000 well paid forest industry workers now missing from the scenario are totally voiceless other than to be celebrated and inversely recorded in their absence as the world class 0.4 jobs per thousand cubic metres of timber logged. Anywhere that we see industrial capital in control of an expendable resource we see a similar phenomenon. Productivity is maximized at the expense of sustainability in order to concentrate the capacity to generate rent for capital. We see the same phenomenom in municipal real estate development, fisheries, mining, manufacturing etc etc. In municipal development such as occurs near me in Victoria West, we see the city supporting exploitative development to generate new tax base to build development infrastructure to support and subsidize further development. The exploitative development undermines existing community and added-value developments that were begun in response to community needs and wishes. The newer exploitative developments deprive capital from the added-value developments essentially forcing them to lower expectations for quality of life at even higher prices which inevitably cause people to become homeless or unsustainably maximize their rented capital for mortgages. The average house owning 40 year old spends more on mortgages in Victoria than on all other expenditures other than taxes. Michael Major mbmajorOregon:3) A commissioned arborsculptor, Reames is the author of the recently released " Arbor sculpture: Solutions for a Small Planet, " published by Arborsmith Studios of Williams, Ore. Arborsculpture is the practice of shaping live tree trunks into works of art of construction. Live trees can be shaped into useful, everyday items like chairs, gazebos and tool handles, as well as sculptures such as spirals, boxes and peace signs. " The book primarily describes the power contained within trees and how they are being used as a medium for art and contruction today, " Reames said. Reames coined the term " arborsculpture " in his 1995 book " How to Grow a Chair, " because " there was no one word to describe the practice, " Reames said. In his latest book, Reames uncovers the evolution of trees, and provides descriptions and pictures of samples of work from arborsculptors around the world. The photographs and diagrams in the book describe the techniques behind planting, bending, framing and grafting trees into useful items. Reames travels the world creating head-turning constructions in back yards, parks and tourist sites. Most recently, Reames worked to help create " The Growing Villiage Pavilion " at the World Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan. He has also lectured to diverse groups, such as the Master Gardeners State Convention in Alaska and the High Wycombe College of Furniture Design in England. http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2005/July/14/style/stories/09style.htmCalifornia:4) I spoke yesterday to a forest friend in N Calif timber country and he was proudly telling me how they have reduced a biomass burner to a sustainable 4.5 megawatts that takes only 6.5 truckloads of wood a day; how their watershed project is funded by the Ford Fndtn; and how their forest is dangerously fire prone and needs thinning beyond the ability of prescribed burning to fix it. Danger exists in the movement all around us. Pew & Ford are winning. Scary. A 4.5 MW tree burner would need about 4.5 tons/hour. Depending on thinning techniques or clean up of clearcuts or commercial clearcutting, this could impact 1000-10,000 acres per year. The damage done to root systems and surviving trees bark, would cause further forest health decline and precipitate a perpetual harvest cycle of dead and dying trees, till the forest is gone or ultimately replaced with a biomass energy plantation. Fixing a forest with chainsaws and tree burners is like fixing a broken arm with a chainsaw...a bit too much and too crude....the forests will die. zerocut15) La Honda residents and local environmentalists are teaming up to fight a timber-harvesting plan at a popular YMCA camp nestled in 900 acres of woodland. The YMCA of San Francisco submitted a plan last year to the California Department of Forestry asking that it be allowed to cut trees at its Camp Jones Gulch nature camp about five miles south of La Honda. Calling it a ``long-term maintenance plan'' and a way to reduce fire hazards, YMCA Vice President Bill Worthington said the organization's intent is to make the forest healthier by thinning trees and creating a forest of ``uneven'' ages and sizes. ``Those trees get very dry in the summer and create a fire hazard in the underbrush,'' he said. La Honda residents and representatives of two environmental groups, however, say the plan is open-ended, has too many loopholes and would allow ``inappropriate'' practices such as herbicide spraying. As written, opponents say, the plan would let the YMCA cut 60 percent of redwood and fir trees 18 inches in diameter or larger on very steep slopes, which could cause erosion. Lenny Roberts, legislative advocate for the Committee for Green Foothills, said she would like to see the YMCA take another approach. ``We'd really like them to withdraw the plan and work with the community to come up with a more sustainable plan for the property,'' she said. Patty Mayall, a La Honda resident who visited the camp as a child and later as a counselor, has joined the opposition, circulating a petition that asks the YMCA to withdraw the plan because it ``will severely impact surrounding properties, public roads and the local watershed.'' She and other residents fear removal of trees from hillsides could cause erosion resulting in mudslides and sediment in streams. She also worries about a steady troop of logging trucks on rural roads. Opponents say a better plan would be to create a ``conservation easement'' in which a government agency or non-profit group could buy part of the land from the YMCA to protect trees from commercial timber harvests, while addressing concerns of fire risk. Worthington said the YMCA would be interested in looking into that kind of arrangement but is wary of losing control of the site. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/peninsula/15441707.htm Montana:6) It was clear from the outset that the plans were not intended to provide comprehensive protection for grizzlies, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula said last week.He rejected all eight major claims in a lawsuit filed by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Lands Council. The groups challenged forest-plan amendments, adopted in 2004, as inadequate for protection of bears in the Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk bear recovery areas. The Kootenai forest includes the Cabinet-Yaak area and the Idaho Panhandle forest the Selkirk area. Molly's ruling will be appealed, said Michael Garrity, Alliance for the Wild Rockies executive director. " If this decision isn't reversed, the grizzly bears in the Cabinet-Yaak are doomed to extinction, " Garrity said. " That's the bottom line, and that's why we have to appeal." Molloy wrote that the environmental impact statement provided in support of the amendments " explains that grizzly bears are in trouble and it explains that the plan amendments will slightly improve their habitat conditions. The EIS does not state that all problems for the bears will be solved by these amendments. " The Forest Service has maintained the amendments will improve bear habitat by reducing road densities. The alliance and the Lands Council said the amendments " only barely improve the status quo. " The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates there are 30 to 40 grizzly bears in the Cabinet-Yaak area. http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2006/09/05/bnews/br25.txt7) In recent years, Stoltze barely touched federal timber. Since 2000, Stoltze did not handle any federal timber for four years, and only salvage wood from fires on federal land in 2003 and 2005. In the past six years, 65 percent to 99 percent of Stoltze's annual timber supply came from private lands owned by itself and others. Stoltze bids on federal timber lands, but usually loses to the broad and intense competition for each plot of forest. The company's private forests can supply about 25 percent of its needs for the next several years, said Stoltze's general manager Ron Buentemeier. "We need to get back to the national forests," Buentemeier said. However, now is a time when national forests have been providing less and less of Montana's timber — supplying 20 percent in 2003. Buentemeier declined to say how much timber is earmarked for Stoltze's mill, but the mill is operating at 60 percent of its maximum capacity. Buentemeier said it needs at least 35 million board feet annually to stay afloat. http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2006/09/05/news/news01.txtMinnesota:8) ALONG THE CARIBOU TRAIL - Joel Frizzell maneuvered the big machine like a Tonka truck, finessing joysticks to pick up trees and branches and pack them into the Timberjack slash bundler. With a twist of his wrist, Frizzell scooped up the wood, packed it into bundles, wrapped it with twine and cut it to uniform packages weighing about 800 pounds each -- all while moving through standing trees and over boulders. Folks say he's the best Timberjack slash bundler operator in North America. " That's not saying much. I'm the only one in North America, " Frizzell said with a hint of a smile. The $500,000 machine is the only one of its kind on this side of the ocean. Made in Finland, it's designed to pluck woody materials called biomass off the forest floor. Some say those bundles of twigs and little trees could be the fuel of Minnesota's future. That's why Frizzell's efforts are part of a new study to see if large-scale cutting of biomass is economically and environmentally worthwhile. It's being heralded as nearly limitless, cheap and renewable energy that literally grows on trees. Biomass is a fancy word for natural stuff that can be used as fuel. Just about anything organic will burn, including cornstalks and straw, turkey manure, garbage, hybrid aspen trees from plantations and bug-infested balsams. In the Northland, biomass generally means the stuff left behind at logging sites, or trees and brush too small for loggers to bother cutting. Promoters say biomass can help wean Minnesota off polluting coal, help make the state energy self-sufficient and create jobs in the north woods. A study being conducted on plots across the Superior National Forest should help shed light on how far biomass can go in Minnesota. The study compares the cost of new harvesting techniques, prototype bundling equipment such as the Timberjack and even hand-cutting trees at 12 sites totaling about 180 acres. Scientists also are studying the plots before and after the cuts to gauge environmental effects. Don Arnosti, project manager for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, said the study should put real numbers behind claims that biomass is Minnesota's green answer to dirty coal. http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/15436653.htmNew Hampshire:9) JACKSON, N.H. Environmental groups have won a delay in a plan to cut timber in a roadless area of New Hampshire's White Mountain National Forest. The U.S. Forest Service approved the Than Brook logging project in May. It would allow harvesting of lumber on 933 acres in the Wildcat River watershed, including 473 acres in the Wild River Inventoried Roadless Area. The plan also includes building about 200 feet of logging road in the roadless area. The Forest Service said the plan would improve wildlife habitat, the watershed and recreational opportunities near Jackson and allow reconstruction of roads. The Sierra Club and four other groups appealed, and last month, forest Supervisor Tom Wagner upheld the appeal on one point _ halting the plan because it is unclear how construction of a temporary logging bridge over the Ellis River would affect the river's future designation as a " recreational river. " http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=5365981 & nav=4QcSVirginia:10) MATHEWS -- A recent logging surge in Mathews is likely to prove no match for the torrent of rain dumped by Tropical Depression Ernesto. Clear cut operations - several of which have been visible along the Route 14 corridor since July - have felled about 500 acres of timber so far this year, state forestry officials on the Middle Peninsula said. The total acreage cut is not unusual for Mathews, but a drier-than-normal summer opened a window of opportunity for loggers who descended en-masse, leading to a perception that logging activity had increased in Mathews, said Rob Farrell, a state forester in Gloucester. With Ernesto's heavy rains, that window may have closed. Farrell said the area would need about two months without rain to dry out the now soggy timber tracts - an unlikely prospect before fall rains arrive. Soil saturated by the storm would mire heavy equipment used for logging, so timber cutting has effectively been cut short this year, Farrell said. But he emphasized that decision would be up to loggers and landowners. http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/middlepeninsula/dp-16091sy0sep05,0,1676593.story?coll=dp- news-local-mpGeorgia:11) I have never thought of myself as a tree hugger or an environmental nut. However, egregious situations call for those who care to speak up. Georgia is blessed to have many natural resources. Cumberland Island is one of them. It is the largest undeveloped barrier island on the east coast, some say in the world. In speaking of Cumberland Island, I believe the key word here is undeveloped. I have only been there one time, for dinner at the Greyfield Inn. However, with a flotilla of my river-running buddies, I have been by Cumberland many times on the Intracoastal Waterway. I have experienced Cumberland up close and personal while running the Brickhill River, which meanders along the marsh and the banks of the island. I stand in awe and respect of this island for its pristine and tranquil beauty. To me, the island, still in its natural state, is hallowed ground and a national treasure. Two years ago, Congress took the island's Main Road out of the designated wilderness area. At the time, I predicted this would be a foot in the door to other change. With the increased vehicular traffic and more people coming to the island, there would be a slow metamorphosis toward commercialization. It only makes sense that with the increase in the number of tourists, there must also be an increase in support services to accommodate them. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Aug. 31 that the National Park Service is considering offering guided tours of Cumberland's historic sites in minibuses or SUVs. The Park Service is also considering construction of additional restroom and tour facilities, the AJC reported. The bottom line is, the Cumberland we have grown to know and love will eventually go the way of other barrier islands and only have the distinction of being the last to fall. Keeping parts of Cumberland accessible only by foot makes for an undeveloped ecosystem that gives the island its unique and natural charm. The powerful key word is undeveloped. Is nothing sacred anymore? Why not? http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2006/09/04/0905edcumberland.htmlSouth Carolina: 12) The researchers, who report their findings in the current issue of the journal Science, surveyed dozens of test plots in forested areas of the Savannah River Site, a 310-square-mile swath of southeastern South Carolina originally set aside to produce nuclear weapons for the military. (The plots are now managed by the federal Forest Service for pine production.) The researchers surveyed their sites regularly starting in 2000 and found that, over time, there was more plant diversity in patches connected by corridors than in other patches, even if they had the same total area or the same amount of "edge" space between cleared and wooded areas. Patches connected by landscape corridors "had 20 percent more species of plants than unconnected patches," said Ellen Damschen, the lead author of the report and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The finding is important, ecologists say, because the fragmentation of wild land by human activities is one of the most important threats to biodiversity. More and more, landscape managers are incorporating corridors into their plans, but there is relatively little data on effectiveness. "People have done corridor experiments with fruit flies in bottles, but that's hardly the sort of thing that is going to be very compelling to a wildlife manager," said Stuart L. Pimm, a professor of conservation ecology at Duke University, who is familiar with the new study. "Were the results surprising? No," he said. "But it's the kind of example that's going to go into a textbook because this shows that corridors work instead of us just thinking that they work." http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/science/earth/05wild.htmlUSA:13) Under the radar, Congress has been quietly adding to the nation's inventory of protected wilderness. In three bills approved by both houses and signed by President Bush, the 109th Congress has awarded wilderness designation to 11,000 acres of canyonland and desert in New Mexico, 10,000 acres of rain forest in Puerto Rico and 100,000 acres in the Cedar Mountains of Utah. Four more wilderness bills have cleared one house or the other, and when approved will add another 750,000 acres of wilderness in California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. More such bills are waiting in the Congressional wings. One particularly distasteful example is a bill introduced by Senator Robert Bennett and Representative Jim Matheson of Utah. It would sell off 40 square miles of federal land to private developers in Washington County, the fifth-fastest-growing county in the country and already something of a monument to suburban sprawl and strip development. In exchange, it offers wilderness protection to about 220,000 acres. http://www.nytimes.com (they charge $$$ for articles now!)North America: 14) "If there are few plants, there are few insects, and that is what we expected to see and mostly found throughout the 10-million-year Paleocene. However, we looked extremely hard to test this conventional wisdom and found some shocking exceptions that have given us new ideas about how food webs recover from mass extinction, " he added. The researchers analyzed insect-feeding damage on 14,999 fossil leaves from flowering plants found at 14 sites, 4 from latest Cretaceous, 9 from early and late Paleocene and 1 from early Eocene rocks in Wyoming, Colorado, Montana and North Dakota. Insects eat leaves in many different ways, including chewing, mining, galling, and piercing and sucking; their diverse feeding marks preserve well in the rock record, often when insect body fossils are absent, and give researchers a proxy for both plant and insect diversity from the same fossils. Through most of the intervening Paleocene, most floras have low richness of plants and insect damage. Typical numbers of species of plants in the Paleocene range between 15 and 20 at the sites, with many of the same species found throughout the Paleocene. Insect predation was low as well. In sharp contrast, the team also found two unusual early Paleocene sites. The first, a previously identified site in the Denver basin, in the town of Castle Rock, showed great plant diversity, especially when compared with the other Paleocene floras. The researchers found nearly 200 different species with thick leaves and drip tips, indicating a tropical rainforest completely unlike the other Paleocene floras. This site was on the eastern slope of the Paleocene Front Range, and Johnson and Ellis' work, as well as recent paleoclimate modeling simulations, has suggested that the local geography allowed high rainfall. While this site shows many different plant species 1.7 million years after the K-T extinction, predation by insects, as seen in preserved mines and galls on the fossil leaves unexpectedly was as low as in other Paleocene sites. The second site, known as Mexican Hat, in southeastern Montana was even more intriguing. " We looked at more than 2,000 specimens at Mexican Hat and found the usual 16 species of plants, " said Wilf. " But the insect mines were unlike anywhere else in North America. " The researchers found heavy and diverse insect damage; all abundant species were mined, and the four major species each showed more than one kind of mining. " The mines show great abundance and taxonomic breadth, " said Wilf. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Reweaving_The_Food_Web_999.htmlLebanon: 15) " In the South of Lebanon, several forests were burned down by fires resulting from Israeli bombing in the past month, " Mounir Abou Ghanem, the director general of the Association for Forest Development and Conservation, told The Daily Star. These fires were particularly damaging because they couldn't be stopped in time with firemen unable to access them, he said. Abou Ghanem said that it would be difficult to fight any fires in the South this fall because of the threat to firefighters from unexploded ordnance. The priority is to remove unexploded bombs from inhabited areas and not from forests, he said. " The main problem with forest fire fighting is the lack of civil defense personnel and capacity, " Abou Ghanem said. The war resulted in the killing of tens of civil defense members as well as the destruction of tens of their vehicles and centers in the South. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1 & categ_id=2 & article_id=75240 Africa:16) South Africa's ministry of environmental affairs and tourism says each year about 12 000 square kilometers of dry lands are lost through desertification and deforestation in Africa. Deputy minister for the ministry, Rejoice Mabudafhasi, said this on Monday during the opening of the 3rd Global Environment Facility (GEF) assembly while addressing a welcoming remark during a side event on Sustainable Land and Water Management to Benefit People and Their Environments: A GEF Action Agenda for the Future. The deputy minister said both desertification and deforestation have triggered ecosystem destruction and large-scale population movement, disrupted economic development prospects, aggravated regional conflicts and instability and threatened the lives of people living in affected areas Approximately 70% of Sub-Saharan Africa's households are engaged in food crop and non-food crop production for their livelihood while many urban poor rely on natural resource for their income. Mabudafhasi said women and the youth should be empowered to participate actively in the departmental programs. She said "women in rural areas are mostly vulnerable to the devastating effects of land degradation and desertification as this threatens food security for their families " . The youth are the future custodians of the environment and they must be tayght to take care of their environment as part of our culture, continued the deputy minister. She added that: "We all know that in addition to institutional and human resource limitations, insufficiency of substantial, adequate, timely and predictable funds for the implementation of the Convention remains the major obstacle for many affected developing countries. http://www.andnetwork.com/index?service=direct/0/Home/recent.fullStory & sp=l50963 Ghana:17) District Manager of the Forest Services Division (FSD) of the Forestry Commission (FC), has said that the alarming deforestation of the catchment areas of water bodies was a serious threat to sustainable development and human survival. He attributed the fall in the water level in the Volta Lake resulting in power rationing throughout the country to the indiscriminate felling of trees and burning of charcoal in forest reserves along the Lake. Mr Asem-Nyarko, who was speaking to the Ghana News Agency at Nkawie in the Atwima-Nwabiagya District, said the forest areas where rivers took their sources had been depleted and river banks also destroyed resulting in the drying of rivers and erratic rainfall pattern that had become the bane of the country agricultural production. He said the FSD had targeted illegal chainsaw operators, which he claimed, committed serious ecological, social and economic crimes against humanity. His outfit's efforts to combat the illegal chainsaw menace were, however, viewed by some communities and other unpatriotic citizens as cruel. Mr Asem-Nyarko was not happy that the FSD's efforts were being thwarted by some law enforcement agencies and communities, which he alleged condoned and connived with the perpetrators. He stressed the need for concerted efforts of all stakeholders and well-meaning Ghanaians to help protect the forests for sustainable development and survival. http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/regional/artikel.php?ID=109966Kenya:18) Over the years environmentalists have warned over forest destruction and degradation of the earth's cover. Little, if any, has been done, to bring to book the culprits, especially illegal loggers and indiscriminate charcoal burners. We feel that members of the provincial administration right from the assistant chiefs who are the closest to the people must get more involved in safeguarding the environment as a part of their core duties. The alarm bells over the depletion of forest cover must start to find resonance more widely otherwise we are doomed. And this can not be a job left to Greenbelt Movement founder and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof Wangari Maathai to crusade. Kenyans are fast and furiously eating away into the forest cover way beyond what is recommended for sustainable ecological balance. It hardly requires a rocket scientist to put across the point that a tree felled within minutes for charcoal and sold for as little as Sh200 takes years and years to replace. Indeed it is mockery that every April sees a "national enthusiasm" for tree planting in this country organised by environmentalists and the Ministry of Environment and millions of tree seedlings have been planted in recent years during such occasions. The message that we must nurture mother nature for it to reciprocate has never sank in. Charcoal burning and illegal logging are the leading culprits. Inexplicably, the mayhem and wanton destructive go on under the very noses of those charged to preserve forests. The medium to long term consequence of forests destruction has been radically changing rain patterns as water catchment areas have suffered intense pressure. But perhaps we have not been acting smart in our one -size- fits -all approach to re-afforestation endeavours. Different trees need different soil types, weather and take varied time to adjust to the natural environment. http://www.timesnews.co.ke/05sep06/editorials/edtorial1.htmlLiberia:19) The new draft National Forestry Law, which is currently under scrutiny by the Liberian Senate and House of Representatives, has allotted several benefits to rural dwellers that are expected to sign what is called, " Social Contract " with logging companies. Under this contract, logging companies will be mandated to provide basic social services including education, health, road network, and employment opportunities for the residents whose areas will be used by the logging company. The law will also provide that companies compensate the locals for the use of their land.The draft bill when enacted into law will consider and respect the right of privately owned lands and forests, and will also give residents the opportunity to participate in the vetting process of all concessions agreements. Tuesday of this week, members of the House of Representatives voted, setting aside 40 percent of what they termed as " Commercial Forests " exclusively for Liberians. Maryland County Representative, David Saydee during Tuesday's plenary, argued that 15 percent of the total forest revenue coming to the national government should be used for development of the community where logs have been abstracted. http://www.theliberiantimes.com/article_2006_08_31_0419.htmlUganda: 20) PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has ordered environment authorities to expedite the proposed change of land use for three forest reserves in Kalangala to pave way for BIDCO to grow palm trees. Government officials were opposed to the de-gazetting of the forest reserves and suggested that instead a permit for 99 years is issued. Earlier, Cabinet had approved the licensing of the forest reserves for palm oil production following a resolution passed by Kalangala District Council to take over the reserves. BIDCO wants three fully-stocked forests: Mugoye, Banga (184 hectares) and Towa (1,506 hectares) some of which have been reserved as strict nature reserves. But Cabinet had approved the change of land use of different forest reserves. http://allafrica.com/stories/200609010696.html21) PART of Mabira forest reserve that SCOUL wants for expansion is still stocked with valuable trees, some of which have been allocated to a private investor Nile Ply, to harvest for timber. Speaking over the weekend, Gaster Kiyingi, the spokesperson of the National Forestry Authority (NFA), said a running concession worth sh300m was allocated to Nile Ply, a private company, to fell trees in part of the forest near Ntunda. "How can we give a logging concession to a company if the forest does not have timber valuable trees?'' asked Kiyingi. "The report by Mehta's company is misleading,'' he added. The Sugar Corporation of Uganda Limited (SCOUL) two weeks ago submitted a report to the environment ministry claiming part of Mabira forest, which it wants degazetted, is heavily encroached. The report indicated there was a lot of burning charcoal and that most of timber trees consisted paper mulberry, Kirundu, nnongo and Mubajangalabi, which have low timber value. However, Kiyingi said Mabira has been regenerating from the time encroachers were evicted about a decade ago. "The land reserved for forestry activities even if encroached should not be converted to sugarcane plantation,'' said Kiyingi. Kiyingi's explanation was backed by a recent report of an inventory taken by NFA, showing the production zone of the forest has more than three million trees. "This gives an impression that if well protected, the forest will become more productive,'' he said. http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/518289South Africa:22) Kosi palm and Wild pomegranate have been named the trees of the year for 2006. The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry has been identifying trees of the year since 2002, in celebration of Arbor Week. Arbor Week is celebrated annually from 1-7 September to highlight the important role that forestry plays in the country's economy, especially in the rural areas.The Wild pomegranate is widely propagated as an ornamental garden tree as it is attractive at all times. Although slow growing, it is easily propagated from seed or cuttings. The showy flowers of the tree (which appear from September to December) contain copious amounts of nectar, and are pollinated by birds. The genus Burchellia was named after the traveller and botanist, William Burchell. The roots provide an infusion which is taken as an emetic and used as a body-wash. The wood is used for hut-building and the making of agricultural implements. Kosi palm is a massive palm growing up to 24m high. It has an erect stem usually with breathing roots growing up from the soil below the tree. It flowers once after about 30 years, grows fruit and then dies. The bark is thick and contains overlapping scales, while the leaves are pinnate and feather shaped. They are very large, up to 10m long and dark green to bluish green. The leaves of the Kosi palm are used as thatch material, and the petioles for hut construction. The outriggers are used for canoes, fences and rafts. Government uses Arbor week to promote a better knowledge of trees, particularly indigenous trees and raise awareness of the dangers of veld and forest fires. http://www.buanews.gov.za/view.php?ID=06090411451010 & coll=buanew06Brazil:23) Over the course of a three-year study led by Ruth DeFries of the University of Maryland in the United States, clearing for cropland accounted for nearly one fifth of deforestation in one state of the Brazilian Amazon. The results are published this week by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Using deforestation maps, field surveys and satellite data to follow what happened to large pieces of land cleared of rainforest in the state of Mato Grosso, the team found that an area over one third the size of Jordan — about 36,000 square kilometres — was cleared between 2001 and 2004 for large-scale mechanised agriculture. They say this contradicts previous claims that Brazil's expanding crop production is met by converting land previously cleared for cattle ranching. Their findings define a " new paradigm of forest loss in Amazonia " , although cattle pasture still remains the dominant land use, say the researchers. http://www.scidev.net/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=readnews & itemid=3081 & language=1 24) Huge tracts of Brazil's Amazon rainforest were cleared legally and illegally in the past year, but the rate of deforestation slowed, the country's environment minister said on Tuesday. It was the second year in a row that the pace of the destruction of the world's largest tropical rainforest declined. Booming demand for farm exports caused land-clearing to peak in 2004. A slowdown in farming-driven deforestation and a crackdown on illegal logging may have contributed to the reduction in the rate. The effort, however, was hampered in part by corruption within the ranks of the Brazilian environmental agency IBAMA, where some employees have been arrested in illegal logging raids.Preliminary figures show that deforestation slowed 11 percent this year from last year, when 7,255 square miles (18,790 square km) of rainforest were cleared. Officials estimate 6,450 square miles (16,700 square km) of forest -- an area about the size of Hawaii or somewhat smaller than Kuwait -- could have been lost legally or illegally in the 2006 season, which runs from August 2005 through July 2006. " This shows it wasn't just a cyclical reduction, " Environment Minister Marina Silva told a news conference.The official deforestation report, based on a more detailed satellite reading, will be ready by year's end. Brazil's chaotic legal system and its large informal economy have not helped the fight against deforestation. Illegal loggers often use fake permits and land titles to harvest trees and then sell the cleared land to farmers or ranchers. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N05359880.htm25) A Portuguese doctoral student researching sustainable development in the Amazon rain forest was found beaten to death in western Brazil, police said Tuesday. Ex-convict Raimundo Nonato Rocha de Lima, 30, has been charged in the killing of Vanessa Schaffer Sequeira, 36, in the western Amazon state of Acre near Brazil's border with Peru, said Inspector Joao Augusto Fernandes. Fernandes said police found Sequeira's body on Sunday near a creek outside the remote town of Sena Madureira, some 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) northwest of Rio de Janeiro, after friends reported her missing. Lima recently completed an 11-year prison sentence for homicide in the neighboring town of Boca do Acre, Fernandes said. " She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, " Fernandes said by telephone from Sena Madureira, home to about 40,000 people. " This town is usually very quiet. We haven't had a homicide in six months. " Sequeira was working on a doctorate for Costa Rica's Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center in conjunction with the University of Wales in the United Kingdom when she was killed. Her research centered on helping poor residents harvest the rain forest's bounty without logging. " Her focus was to see how people could live in the forest without tearing everything down, " said Nathalie Sequeira, the victim's sister, from Innsbruck, Austria. " She spent many years trying to get people to give value to their traditions and things that have worked for many years. " http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/05/america/LA_GEN_Brazil_Researcher_Killed.php Uruguay:25) Leaders of two Argentine civic groups came to Helsinki early in the week to explain their views on the construction of a pulp mill that Metsä-Botnia is building in Uruguay. The organisations oppose the mill. The leaders wasted their efforts, because the organisations have already lost. The struggle over the factory was decided in the spring when the Argentine government resolved to bring the dispute before the International Court in The Hague. In July the judges in The Hague ruled that there would be no need to stop the construction. A final ruling is expected in three years. By that time the civic organisations will have found other targets for their energy. When the ruling eventually comes, the plant in Uruguay will have been churning out pulp for a couple of years. Then people will know on a practical level whether or not the plant is dangerous. The Uruguay plant is owned by UPM and the Metsäliitto Group. The plant gets raw material from its own plantations, but timber is also bought from local private forest owners. http://www.hs.fi/english/article/COMMENT+Argentine+activists+lose+pulp+plant+battle/1135221428721 India:26) THE axing of a large number of pine trees for the construction of a link road by some persons in violation of the Land Preservation Act on private land of Khajret village has raised serious questions over the functioning of the officials of the district's Kunihar Forest Division. The violation came to light after some villagers and public representatives of the area including the president of the Khajret Mahila Mandal Daya Sharma, secretary Satya Sharma, and block development committee member Shanti Sharma informed the Pradhan of the Gram Panchayat Gaungri Anand Kishore about the massive destruction of trees taking place in the village on Saturday. The villagers also informed the forest officials including range forest officer of Kuthar Forest Range Bali Ram. They said that the land in question was purchased after obtaining general power of attorneys from the co-sharers. The land was still in the name of those villagers who were agriculturists and domiciles of the state, in revenue records. As per the HP Tenancy Act a non-Himachali can buy only 500 square metres of land in the state for the construction of a house and 300 square metres of land for commercial purposes with the permission of the government. However, this non-Himachali has allegedly constructed a sprawling house in the area. Admitting the violation of the Land Preservation Act, Range Forest Officer Kuthar Bali Ram told The Indian Express that since the construction had been made on private land, the department officials could not notice the violation immediately. As soon as the violation came to notice, the Beat Forest Guard had slapped a fine of Rs 8,000 on the violators for axing seven trees on August 30, he said. The villagers said that the number of trees including small and half grown was much higher as several trees had been buried under the road debris. http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=199997Bangladesh:27) UKHIA - Deep in the forests of southeastern Bangladesh, a battle rages between herds of endangered elephants and villagers whose livelihoods depend on felling trees that provide the elephants' habitat. Every year, about 30 people and five elephants die in this struggle in the hills where humans are encroaching on the forests to rebuild their lowland villages washed away by seasonal floods. " Sometimes we win. Sometimes the elephants win. This is an ongoing battle, " said Abdus Shukur, a 45-year-old father of three. The migration of humans displaced by natural disasters has added to the damaging pace of deforestation in southeastern Bangladesh, near the border with India and Myanmar. Elephants are being squeezed into an increasingly small part of the forest, greatly raising the risk of confrontation. The new residents chop down trees to rebuild their villages and log the forests to earn money. They also clear forest areas for their homes and to create adjacent farmland for cultivation. The encroachment has led to sometimes nightly battles between villagers and elephants that come in search of food. Last May, elephants stormed the village of Kalirchhara, killing three people, including a child, and injuring 10 others. " I woke up at night hearing a sudden noise, opened the door and saw a few elephants ramming my hut, " Shukur said. " Within minutes, the shanty collapsed and we ran for our lives. " A series of severe floods in recent years have left thousands of people homeless and many flood survivors have moved to high ground in the Ukhia province, 430 km (270 miles) from the capital Dhaka. Elephants are an endangered species in Bangladesh and killing them is a punishable offence. So the vigilante squads of villagers try to keep the wild elephants away from their wooden shacks by waving flaming torches and blowing trumpets. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DHA178260.htmPhilippines:28) DAVAO CITY -- Local officials in the municipality of Glan in Sarangani province raised a howl after the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) released a vessel laden with suspected illegal logs earlier seized by Maritime police, the Sarangani provincial information office (PIO) reported. The ocean-going vessel M/V Edago Expedition left the port in Glan at 1 a.m. this morning after the DENR issued papers clearing the ship to sail, the Sarangani PIO said in a statement. A Maritime police patrol reportedly seized the M/V Edago Expedition last Sunday when the boat sought shelter in the cove of Glan after it developed engine trouble. Police said they found 1,500 lauan logs with "fictitious papers" aboard the vessel. Environment officer Wilfredo Manipon, DENR representative in Glan, overruled that finding saying that the papers carried by the ship to transport the logs were not fictitious. He said the cursory check made by the DENR personnel in Glan was not enough to determine the veracity of the papers. "A thorough investigation should have been made," said Lizada who rushed to confer with Yap after he heard of the mayor's complaint. Yap is demanding a full-scale investigation on the matter. Southern Philippines is a major transshipment point for smuggled logs from Papua New Guinea. Many of these logs are eventually shipped to China, Japan and the US where these are highly prized. http://mindanews.com/index.php?option=com_content & task=view & id=774 & Itemid=50 Solomon Islands:29) A ship carrying logs worth thousands of dollars belonging to the the Solomon Islands North New Georgia Timber Corporation has been released after earlier being detained under the provisions of the Timber and Forestry Acts. Forestry Department officials have declined to explain why the ship was detained or why it was subsequently released The ship's release was ordered by acting Forestry Minister, Samuel Manetoali. The current Forestry minister, Job Dudley Tausinga, is a director of the logging company. Mr Manetoali says he ordered the release because the logs were already cut and the options were either to stop the export of the logs and let them rot and waste or proceed with the export Proceeds of the sale will be held in trust while a court examines the circumstances of the ships detention and release. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/bulletins/rnzi/200609011407/c86ea3d Indonesian:30) Forested land in Indonesia would be reduced to 10 % by 2020, a forestry ministry official said here. The director of forest protection and examination, Noor Hidayat, said it was predicted that by 2020 the country`s forests would cover only 10 % of land. He said " following the implementation of regional autonomy the authority to issue forestry licenses is in the hands of district heads who often do not implement it correctly making it frequently being exploited by certain parties affecting forest sustainability. " He said out of 120.35 million hectares of forests, at present around 59.6 million hectares had been damaged and could not function optimally. He said the high rate of deforestation followed the increasing illegal loggings, conversion of forest land, forest destruction and forest fires. " If the activities continue our forestland will be smaller and its effect will be on various sectors, " he said. He said his office had taken various efforts to reduce the rate of deforestation such as fighting illegal logging and campaigning about the importance of managing the forests sustainably. " We have also developed industrial forests to promote sustainable forest management efforts, " he said. http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=1919631) Jakarta - An Indonesian environmentalist group has accused more than 100 logging and plantation companies of being involved in forest fires that have sent choking smoke and haze across parts of the South-East Asia, local media reports said Wednesday. The Indonesian Forum of Environment (Walhi) listed logging companies, industrial timber estates and palm-oil plantations, including Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper, as being behind the annual widespread forest fires in the country. " They should be held responsible because every year fires occur in their concessions, " The Jakarta Post quoted Chalid Muhammad, Walhi's executive director, as saying. Muhammad said the annual forest fires had destroyed up to 27 million hectares of forests in the country in the past five years. Thick haze from the fires and cropland burnings have blanketed cities in Sumatra and West Kalimantan province on the Indonesian part of Borneo for the past several weeks, delaying airline flights and causing a health hazard to residents. Walhi strongly denied claims by senior government officials that nomadic farmers were behind the haze, saying that only 19 percent of the fires occur on privately owned land and outside the firms' concessions. " The problem is how to get tough with the companies, not to arrest farmers, " Muhammad argued. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1 & click_id=143 & art_id=qw115692048257S535 32) The Indonesian government plans to sue three oil palm plantation firms and one oil palm entrepreneur for allegedly starting fires in their concessions that grew into massive forest fires in Riau province, a newspaper said Saturday. The State Ministry for the Environment identified the companies Friday as PT Subur Arum Makmur, PT Riau Andalan Sentosa and PT Agro Sarimas Indonesia. The individual is identified as Deden. The country's environment, forestry and plantation laws, as well as its criminal code, ban burning land to clear it. The offense carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and billions of rupiah in fines, reported The Jakarta Post.. The ministry is probing three other companies, including State Plantation V, which manages oil palm, rubber and cacao plantations in Sumatra. It is also investigating two firms in Kalminantan, PT Mitra Aneka Rezeki and PT Wilmar Sambas Plantation, as well as a foreign investment firm referred to only as PT BCP. " We will file criminal and civil lawsuits. We're compiling their offenses now, " said Hoetomo, the state ministry's deputy for environmental law enforcement. 33) Brad Sanders is the Fire, Health and Safety Manager of Asia Pacific Resources International (APRIL), one of the world's leading pulp and paper manufacturers. As its estate extends over 96,000 hectares - most of which is for growing acacia trees for wood to make pulp - detecting such fires is no mean feat. Although APRIL does not practice slash and burn practices, the company says that more than 100 fires had been detected on its land since the beginning of the year. But most of these fires were started by sparks from fires in neighbouring land, caused by farmers who clear the land illegally. APRIL however, acknowledges that about 40 percent of fires on its land are started by cigarette butts thrown carelessly by its workers and trespassers, or cooking fires that were not properly extinguished by its workers on the plantation. The practice of slash and burn to clear land is illegal in Indonesia but small farmers usually carry out this technique to prepare for the cultivation of palm trees, which can be lucrative business as they can be harvested within 6 months of being grown. Burning is the cheapest and quickest way to clear the land. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/228760/1/.htmlAustralia: 34) President of the North Coast Environment Council, Jim Morrison, is calling for a logging moratorium as the NSW Government goes back to the drawing board on its Private Native Forestry Draft Code of Practice – effectively shelving it until after the state election. The draft code placed restrictions on native forest logging on private land to protect biodiversity, keep sediment out of waterways and ensure sustainability into the future. Mr Morrison said delays in adopting the code in the name of further consultation would lead to open slather on high conservation value forests, as "panic logging" continued. He said paid timber lobbyists had been whipping up a fear campaign about what the code of practice would mean, with talk of a 60 per cent reduction in the amount of trees that could be logged. A government report had found that the real figure was around 11 per cent. He said he personally knew of one farmer who had undertaken extensive and intensive logging in the last few months because he had been told the code would prevent all logging in the future. "The signal being sent is – if you want to clear sensitive areas you've got another 12 months," he said. "Everything we lose between now and then is gone for good." http://www.echonews.com/index.php?page=View%20Article & article=8498 & issue=145 35) ENVIRONMENT groups are planning a high-profile pre-election battle to have logging banned in vast tracts of Victorian forest. A coalition of environment groups will launch its campaign shortly. They will focus on important marginal seats held by both the Liberal and Labor parties in an effort to have their message heard. Areas in Gippsland are shaping up as the next forest battleground. Environmental groups are concerned about wood-chipping in old-growth forests, logging in water catchments, and the impact of the loss of habitat on 12 endangered species of birds, animals and frogs. The group wants clear-felling banned in all Victorian forests and all logging ended in areas worthy of conservation. The move could set the scene for a repetition of the conflict in the Otways forests in the lead-up to the 2002 election. This eventually led Premier Steve Bracks to agree to phase out logging in the Otways by 2008. Campaign spokesman Luke Chamberlain, from Environment East Gippsland, said two years had been spent mapping significant areas of forest that he said should be protected from logging. He said Victoria's state-owned forests were being turned over to woodchips, which were mainly sent for export and were no longer providing a great number of jobs. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20318665-2862,00.htmlTropical Forests: 36) " It's not just that tropical forests are being rapidly destroyed, but also that most of the remaining forests and nature reserves are being severely degraded, " said William Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, who co-edited the book along with Carlos Peres, a Brazilian biologist with the University of East Anglia, U.K. " It's astonishing how insidious many of the threats are, " said Peres. " We rely on satellite images or aerial photos to tell us how fast tropical forests are disappearing, but many of the new and emerging threats are virtually invisible, unless you're on the ground. " The editors define four categories of emerging threats to tropical forests: (1) Those that have only recently appeared, such as the virulent chytrid-fungus pathogen that is decimating rainforest amphibians throughout the tropical world. (2) Those that are growing rapidly in importance, such as destructive surface fires in tropical forests. (3) Those that are poorly understood, such as the impacts of global warming and other growing atmospheric alterations on tropical ecosystems. (4) Environmental synergisms, where two or more simultaneous threats—such as habitat fragmentation and wildfires, or logging and over hunting—dramatically increase local extinctions of tropical species. " Many of the emerging threats to tropical forests become apparent only after exhaustive, long-term field studies, " said Peres. " That's one of the reasons they're so universally underestimated. Even big parks and nature reserves are suffering in many important ways. " http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-09/stri-tso090506.phpWorld-wide: 37) Around the world people are rising up in opposition to the rampant spread of industrial monoculture tree plantations. In Brazil, plantations are referred to as " green deserts " , owing to their reputation for destroying biological diversity. In South Africa they are known as " green cancer, " because of the tendency of the non-native eucalyptus trees to escape the plantations, spread wildly into other areas and wreak ecological havoc, and in Chile plantations are called " green soldiers " , because they are destructive, stand in straight lines and advance steadily forward. In November 2005, representatives from organisations and social movements from Australia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Thailand, Uruguay, Europe and North America gathered in Vitoria, Brazil to advance the international movement against timber plantations and to strengthen the campaign against genetically engineered trees. The four day meeting was co-sponsored by World Rainforest Movement, Global Justice Ecology Project and the Federation of Social and Educational Assistance (FASE). Issues, strategies and common experiences were discussed in depth. A common theme that emerged from the meetings was the historical establishment and expansion of timber plantations under authoritarian regimes - for example, in Chile under Pinochet, in Brazil and Indonesia under their military dictatorships, and in South Africa under apartheid. Also common were corporate strategies to continue the expansion of plantations in the neoliberal economies that have flourished in the post-authoritarian years. In some areas, corporations have begun making " deals " with local communities and small poor rural landowners to increase the area covered by plantations without having to purchase land. Because fast-growing plantations rapidly deplete soils and groundwater, this strategy enables the companies to easily abandon the land after it is no longer productive. http://grain.org/seedling/?id=42838) Most people assume that global warming is caused by burning oil and gas. But in fact between 25 and 30 percent of the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere each year - 1.6 billion tonnes - is caused by deforestation. About 200 experts, mostly from developing countries, met in Rome last week to address this issue in a workshop organized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and hosted by FAO. " We are working to solve two of the key environmental issues - deforestation and global warming - at the same time, " said FAO Senior Forestry Officer Dieter Schoene. Trees are 50 percent carbon. When they are felled or burned, the C02 they store escapes back into the air. According to FAO figures, some 13 million ha of forests worldwide are lost every year, almost entirely in the tropics. Deforestation remains high in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. http://allafrica.com/stories/200609050583.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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