Guest guest Posted June 7, 2007 Report Share Posted June 7, 2007 Today for you 39 news items about Earth's trees. Location, number and subject listed below. Condensed / abbreviated article is listed further below. Can be viewed on the web at http://www.livejournal.com/users/olyecology or by sending a blank email message to earthtreenews- --British Columbia: 1) Save Blackwater Forest, 2) Response to new coast forest industry plan, 3) Ancient Forest Campout, 4) 42 Biologists for Caribou, 5) 21 endangered species share forest with Caribou, 6) BC is the new green Saudi Arabia, --Washington: 7) Saving Camp Kilworth --California: 8) Giant cut down, 9) Rampant clear-cutting, 10) Oaks' failure to regrow, --Pennsylvania: 11) Wind turbines planned for state forest and parks --Canada 12) 77% of Algonquin Park is open to logging --UK: 13) Daintree rainforest rescue efforts --Hungary: 14) KlimaFa will restore upwards of 100,000 hectares --Sweden: 15) Seeking countries who can meet its rising demand for biofuels, --Mexico: 16) residents detain 45 soldiers and state / federal police --Suriname: 17) 24 previously unknown species found --Colombia: 18) Biofuel gangsters murder landowners to steal their land --Brazil; 19) Lost tribe makes first contact, 20) Dr. Daniel Nepstad, 21) First law to fight global warming, 22) Pink Dolphin, 23) Cool Earth's adopt-an-acre, --Peru: 24) How loggers dismantle a village --South America: 25) Save Spanish Cedars, 26) Reforestation not due to urbanization, --India: 27) Protest of tree fellings, --Cambodia: 28) Leaders ban report about how corrupt they are --Indonesia: 29) Forest cutting interval, 30) Palm Oil Limitations? 31) logging estimates, 32) Life as a forest defender, 33) Transparency, 34) Reduction in illegal logging? --Australia: 35) Save Strzelecki rainforest reserve, 36) Global Warming Forest Group, --World-wide: 37) 80,000 acres of forest vanish every day, 38) An educational resource, 39) Wilderness is self-willed land British Columbia: 1) Our Peaceful Protest is in its 5th week; still no logging. We are here to protect this unique ecosystem: an " Active Spotted Owl Habitat " , the watershed, fish bearing streams, prime gathering grounds for Pine mushrooms and medicinal plants within N'Quatqua Traditional Territory of the St'at'imc Nation. No meaningful consultation took place regarding the 'sold' cutblock BL #002 for timber harvesting. Blackwater Stewardship Group recently submitted a Formal 'Notice of Complaint' to the Forest Practises Board in Victoria, B.C., requesting that BPMMA (Blackwater Pine Mushroom Management Area - only one in BC) be permanently and completely protected from future logging. This Thursday, June 7th, we are having a Youth and Community Hike through the Blackwater Forest from 4 pm - 6 pm starting at the 'cutblock' near 3 km up Blackwater Valley Road (follow sign to Birkenhead Lake Provincial Park), followed by Potluck and a Community Drumming at our Protest Camp starting at 7 pm. 700 signatures collected in petitions; this issue received various media coverage and support from near and far. We extend our invitation to media and supporters to visit Blackwater Day and night; Bring your drums and your friends... Coffee is on! We also welcome food and donations to continue our movement. http://www.saveblackwaterbc.org 2) Very soon, the British Columbia government will be announcing a new coastal forest industry plan. The government has indicated that the plan will entail shifting the timber industry away from logging old-growth forests and instead into logging second-growth forests. This is the first time the BC Liberal government has recognized that we need to get away from logging the last old-growth forests on our coast. However, so far they haven't committed to fully ending old-growth logging in any particular region, only general reductions, nor have they released any timelines for the reductions. Just as many governments around the world have announced a timeline of targets to reduce and phase-out greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, the BC government needs to establish a timeline of targets to reduce and quickly end the logging of old-growth forests in places like Vancouver Island and the Southwest Mainland where old-growth forests are scarce. Without any timelines and specific targets (ie. logging reductions in hectares or in cubic meters or old-growth wood) - that apply soon enough so that we'll still have productive old-growth forests left on Vancouver Island and the Southwest Mainland by the time the full transition to second-growth is completed - the BC government's announcement will simply be a public relations ploy. http://www.wcwcvictoria.org 3) July 21-22 - Upper Walbran Valley " Ancient Forest Campout " . Come for a weekend camping trip to Canada's most impressive, unprotected ancient rainforest. See the magnificent Castle Grove of endangered ancient red cedars, the giant Alvarez, Big Lonely, and Grandma Betty Douglas firs, and record-sized Sitka spruce trees, and the Emerald Pool and Fletcher Falls. Find out what you can do to help save these ancient forests. You can see some Walbran Valley images at: http://www.wildernesscommitteevictoria.org/gallery_walbran3.php and also by clicking on the " March 2007 Newsletter " link on the top right side of http://www.viforest.org You'll need your own food, water, and tent. We'll be arranging the ride situation soon. Minimum $30 donation. Difficult personalities will be left behind for the wolves, bears, and sasquatch to play with. http://www.wcwcvictoria.org 4) Forty-two biologists and botanists have signed a petition urging British Columbia and Canada to fully protect old-growth forest across the range of the endangered mountain caribou. The scientists say that protecting old-growth forests should be the first priority of the recovery plan to save the mountain caribou. The protected old growth will also help save many other endangered species, as well as help reduce global warming by carbon sequestration. The scientists have submitted the petition to a joint federal-provincial recovery process under Canada's Species at Risk Act. By law, the recovery plan must be posted on the federal government's Species at Risk registry by June 2007. The petition states that the draft strategy released by BC's Species at Risk Coordination Office (SaRCO) in 2006 puts too much emphasis on killing the mountain caribou's predators, and not enough on protecting habitat for the caribou. Biologist Paul Paquet says: " One can kill animals quickly with a gun, or slowly by destroying their habitat. The mountain caribou are on the slow road to extinction and we are killing them. Their best chance and only chance of survival is to protect the last remaining old growth. " The mountain caribou is a globally unique ecotype of caribou that is dependent on old-growth forest at both low and high elevations. In recent decades the population has declined to less than 2,000 animals, largely because of extensive clearcut logging of old-growth critical habitats. Over hunting, poaching and uncontrolled motorized recreation are other causal factors. The petition can be viewed on the website of the Valhalla Wilderness Society at http://www.vws.org 5) A study has found that 21 endangered species share forest range that is home to a dwindling population of mountain caribou in British Columbia. A range-overlap assessment of at-risk species, to be released today by the environmental group ForestEthics, shows that a coming government decision on the use of that forest land will affect more than just mountain caribou. " This raises the stakes for successful mountain caribou recovery because it illustrates that by protecting habitat for mountain caribou, you can protect ecosystems for 21 other species, " said Candace Batycki, director of the endangered forest program at ForestEthics. The provincial government is currently trying to come up with a plan to save the endangered mountain caribou population, which is spread over a sprawling forest zone just west of the Rocky Mountains in central and southern B.C. The mountain caribou population in B.C. - which has dropped to an estimated 1,200 animals from a historical level of about 10,000 - is spread over about six million hectares of forest land, much of it in prime logging, mining and tourism areas. " The significance of this [study] is that it illustrates the importance of protecting ecosystems, " Ms. Batycki said. The non-profit group used information from the B.C. Conservation Data Centre and the federal committee on the status of endangered wildlife in Canada to determine how many species at risk depend on habitat that overlaps with the mountain caribou range. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070605.BCCARIBOU05/TPStory/Na\ tional 6) Calling timber-rich B.C. the new, green Saudi Arabia without its polluting fossil fuels and gushing oil wells isn't just wild fantasy. All over the world, scientists, businesses and governments are looking for ways to produce energy without increasing greenhouse gas emissions that are contributing to global warming. Governments are already spending billions of dollars on clean coal research, on ramped-up nuclear energy programs, on hydro power, on energy efficiency and power-saving strategies to put the breaks on climate change caused by greenhouse gases. In British Columbia, there is no more obvious source of green energy than wood. Radical shifts in thinking about the value of wood are underway that could transform this province's antiquated pulp mills into bio-refineries, producing carbon-neutral fuel and chemicals in the same way that oil refineries break down crude. This focus on bio-energy and biofuel is one of the first visible responses in the British Columbia economy to something that is becoming increasingly clear: our province is getting warmer and climate models tell us the warming is accelerating. http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=faf0abe4-369c-4f1\ 9-93c2-74219cb10116 & k=0 Washington: 7) FEDERAL WAY -- West of the freeway, past the fast-food pit stops, the vast shopping mall parking lots and manicured cul-de-sacs, a narrow dirt road peels off the blacktop into a 25-acre swath of unkempt ferns, big leaf maples and evergreens that somehow escaped the suburban expansion that continues to put the squeeze on most of Western Washington. Step out of the car and into air that feels about 15 degrees cooler in the shade under the dense canopy above the winding path that wraps along the ravine and you'll hear songbirds (and an occasional jet) and smell nearby Puget Sound. Welcome to Camp Kilworth. Since 1932, it's been a place for young Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to step out of the city and hone their skills for the big woods. Now it's one of the 135 places on which the state is spending $100 million to protect for public recreation and wildlife. This year, the Legislature doubled the amount it is spending on land acquisition and development for wildlife habitat and recreational access. The money is going to Washington Wildlife and Recreation grant program projects, ranging from $4.7 million expenditure in the Methow Valley watershed in Okanogan County to $236,000 for a 50-acre natural area along the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River near North Bend. Joanna Grist, executive director of the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition, said that since 1990, the state's capital budget has included about $50 million each biennium for the program, for a total of $450 million invested so far. The capital budget passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate. Grist said the program originally was set up because of declining federal appropriations for habitat and recreation. She said the organization does not select the projects, only advocates for the appropriations. In the case of Camp Kilworth, for example, the city of Federal Way will contribute $2 million for the project to preserve the section of Puget Sound shoreline that is habitat for chinook salmon and other wildlife. The state has provided $1 million for the project. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/318389_habitat04.html California: 8) Leaning tree on Highway 101 gets another chance. Early Sunday morning, oldgrowth enthusiast Nate Madsen, was cited for climbing a tree in the state park over 10 feet. Nate had climbed into " The Leaner " , a tree that leans over highway 101, near Founders Grove.CALTRANS had intended on cutting the tree that morning, and had prepared to do so by stopping traffic on the highway from 6 to 7 a.m. When they arrived, a small group of people who are concerned about the reasoning behind cutting the tree, had gathered near the tree. Another small group of onlookers gathered to see the tree felled. Best known for his tree-sit in Freshwater, in which he graduated from HSU, Nate Madsen is concerned about the effects of logging in our community, and has watched the oldgrowth trees rapidly disappear. According to CALTRANS and Humboldt Redwoods State PArk in an article by the Times Standard dated 12/24/06, the did not pose any more threat than the rest of the trees in the area. Now, after just 5 months, CALTRANS and the state park are singing a different tune. This article (also in the Times Standard), written June 2nd, says that stress cracks were found in the tree. Nate was unable to verify the claim, as he did not see any stress cracks.After a discussion with a state park employee, Richerd Bergstresser, 1 Humboldt Co. Sheriff, 3-4 California Highway Patrol officers, and a handful of CALTRANSemployees, Nate agreed to descend the big redwood, and recieved a citation for climbing the tree. The tree was cut down the next day. http://wesavetrees.org 9) California is losing more and more of its forests due to rampant clear-cutting, and I am concerned that the public is not getting an accurate picture. The " Speak Your Piece " by Mark Pawlicki, director of government affairs for Sierra Pacific Industries (April 15), misleads the public into believing that our forests are being " managed " in a healthy manner when in fact they're being clear-cut and essentially destroyed, while producing potentially very harmful consequences. More and more people are seeing the devastation that clear-cutting entails and expressing their outrage. Apparently Sierra Pacific Industries can't make enough money through selective harvesting of a forest. So Sierra Pacific cuts wide swaths of a forest to the ground, leaving only tree stumps, thereby destroying the basic concept of a forest. A denuded forest allows for extreme erosion that can send massive quantities of silt into waterways. Authentic forests serve as natural reservoirs, one of their most importation functions. With clear-cutting, people have to look at devastation, while animals, birds, insects, and all other forms of life have to seek life-supporting habitat elsewhere in an ever-diminishing natural world. Contrary to Mr. Pawlicki's letter, there is nothing " measured " or " gradual " about Sierra Pacific's methods. Sierra Pacific's practice is to remove almost every tree in large areas, followed by liberal dousing of herbicides and fertilizers. According to the state's database, Sierra Pacific and other timber companies used 57,355 pounds of herbicides for forestry in 2005 in Shasta County alone. That is the highest anywhere in California and way ahead of second place Humboldt County, with 31,920 pounds. Lassen County was a distant third with 15,112. Where do all of these chemicals wind up and what damage do they do to humans and other living organisms? The argument that if we don't cut down the forests they will just burn anyway is simply wrong. If that were true, there would have been no forests when the pioneers came to California. Yes, Sierra Pacific does plant a lot of small trees to replace the larger and older specimens it cuts down, but the forests that return someday will not be the diverse natural forests we are losing. They will instead be Sierra Pacific tree farms. Moreover, immature tree farms are more susceptible to catastrophic fires than older forests. http://www.redding.com/news/2007/jun/03/clear-cutting-leaves-californias-forests\ -a-shell/ 10) There are many reasons for oaks' failure to regrow ranging from weed encroachment, development, grazing, rodents, and climatic change. Public policy and conservation plans are beginning to require oak mitigation, but regeneration takes time. Heritage trees and oak woodlands require decades and more to regrow. HERITAGE OAKS ARE CENTURIES OLD. A Blue Oak that is two feet in diameter may be 200 years old; one that is three feet may well have survived 300 years, requiring at best ten years to increase an inch in thickness. Every part of these oaks provides shelter and a cornucopia of food for wildlife—from the roots, branches, and bark, to the bushels of acorns produced in a good year. Humans benefit not only from an oak's wildlife contributions, beauty, and shade, but monetarily as well. Texas A & M University estimates that a single 18-inch Live Oak increases the value of a residential lot by $3,185. University of California research estimates that native oaks on rural subdivisions contribute as much as 27 percent to the value of the property and, according to the U.S. Forest Service, can reduce air conditioning by 30 percent. OAK WOODLANDS ARE HOME TO MANY. Over 300 vertebrate species use oak woodlands, (defined as five or more trees per acre for most oaks) including 80 mammal species and 170 kinds of birds. Scores of these creatures are completely dependant on the woodlands. As many as 30,000 acres of oak woodlands are converted for residential and commercial use each year. The resulting fragmented habitats restrict wild species' movement and ability to locate mates and sites for raising families. Mate selection is then limited and the gene pool reduced. It is believed that more than 75% of woodland wildlife fails to adapt to urban pressures—noise, light pollution, road and foot traffic, off-road vehicles, and domestic animal intrusion. THE REGENERATION CHALLENGE. Gravity and water conspire to move acorns downhill. Rodents and birds contribute to uphill movement by burying (and frequently forgetting) acorns for future meals. Jays are stars of this process, conducting an enthusiastic acorn airlift to new, widely spread sites, stashing acorns in soft soil where they are most likely to root. Even so, it is a daunting challenge for acorns to survive to seedlings and saplings. Insects, fungi, drought, and trampling, hungry animals all take heavy toll over a seedling's life. http://www.mymotherlode.com/News/article/kvml/1180042753 Pennsylvania: 11) A document on the DCNR Web site, " Using GIS for Preliminary Wind Power Planning, " suggests the agency believed in June 2006 that 17 of 20 state forests and 16 of 116 (now 117) state parks contained " large wind potential " areas. The agency has backed off that position and will seek to place the windmills only on state forests. The percentage of state forest eyed for wind development is small -- 3 percent of the acreage. The document used Tuscarora State Forest on Tuscarora Mountain -- located roughly west of Carlisle and New Bloomfield and south of Lewistown -- as a planning example. While the forest contains " large wind potential " areas in its central portion, it also contains old-growth forest, wilderness areas and so-called Important Bird Areas. These were labeled " potential conflicts. " Novak said the document was prepared to show how geo-spatial technology could be used to plan for wind development on public lands. She said the numbers in the report were never considered " final, " and she would not pinpoint the current number of state forests with wind-development potential. " We think it is a very small area, " Novak said. Jeff Schmidt of the Sierra Club of Pennsylvania, who has participated in DCNR's Wind-Wildlife Collaboration, said yesterday that the Rendell administration has been cool to suggestions that the state ought to have rules on protecting sensitive sites from wind development. He said the Rendell administration was unreceptive to a suggestion that utilities be required to purchase " low-impact wind power " to meet their requirements under the state's alternative energy portfolio standards. That would be wind power produced on non-sensitive sites. http://www.pennlive.com/business/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/business/1180747543\ 303640.xml & coll=1 Canada: 12) A staggering 77% of Algonquin Park is open to logging. A government report now recommends the protection of an additional 2,500 square kilometres) from the ravages of logging. The province needs to know you care. Your voice counts in turning these recommendations into a reality. Just follow the links to send an email now. It will only take a couple of minutes of your time. Act now to help save Algonquin Park. http://www.savealgonquin.ca/ You do the math: 5,900 km2 of Algonquin Park are currently open to logging (9 times the size of Toronto). Over 8,000 kilometres of logging roads have already been cut through the park. Algonquin Park is home to over 5,000 unique species of plants and animals. A park is a park, not a place for industry. Help protect it now! http://www.savealgonquin.ca/ UK: 13) Growing public support for a rainforest charity has seen a ninth property in the Daintree rainforest area saved from development. Not-for-profit organisation Rainforest Rescue on Wednesday said an increased awareness of environmental issues such as climate change had increased its public donations, used to buy parcels of land in the Daintree. " The increasing awareness of environmental issues such as climate change and the critical role that rainforests play in creating a healthy environment is helping save the Daintree, " Rainforest Rescue Executive Officer Kelvin Davies said. " The level of interest and the number of donations has risen as more Australians are concerned about the future of our planet and want to do something practical to help. " A survey of the 2.12 hectare Cape Tribulation property bought by Rainforest Rescue revealed two species of non-flowering plants, 24 species of ferns and 185 species of flowering plants, Mr Davies said. http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Daintree-land-saved-rainforest-charity/20\ 07/06/06/1181089144894.html Hungary: 14) KlimaFa is a registered Hungarian company, co-owned by Planktos, Inc., which is a subsidiary of Solar Energy Limited (SLRE.OB). Over the next decade KlimaFa will restore upwards of 100,000 hectares of Hungarian lands to native mixed forests. These forests will regenerate the ancient forest grandeur and environmental health of Hungary and will be incorporated into the Hungarian National Park System as strictly protected lands. Scientific planting patterns, species selection, and measurements of project area growth rates will allow KlimaFa to accurately calculate the total volume of forest biomass produced at any given time. This in turn will reveal the total quantity of sequestered CO2 available for trade or sale as carbon offsets. KlimaFa will earn revenue via the sale of these greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation credits on the European environmental marketplace. Advantages of this enterprise include the creation of local employment opportunities, enhanced wildlife habitat, improved water quality, supply, and flood control, increased eco-tourism revenues, and substantial contributions to global atmospheric health. Given Hungary's extensive land base, climate-protecting forest creation can generate a widely beneficial new eco-forest industry which will last for many decades and profit generations yet unborn. Currently, KlimaFa has partnered with Hungary's federal government, National Park Service, and Academy of Sciences to conduct a scientific and business feasibility study. This demonstration project will pioneer indigenous species climate forestry and is scheduled to begin this summer. http://www.klimafa.com/ Sweden: 15) An ambitious goal to halve Sweden's dependence on fossil fuels by 2020 has prompted it to actively seek out countries that can meet its rising demand for biofuels – an increasingly viable fuel alternative to pricey crude oil. Sweden already imports 75% of its ethanol from Brazil (earlier post). Now it is looking for biodiesel supplies from the South. Indonesia is primed to benefit, as the tropical archipelago can be one of the leading contenders to meet Sweden's need for green fuel for motor vehicles, Swedish Minister for Foreign Trade Sten Tolgfors said during a tour of the country. The minister also called for the removal of trade barriers for biofuels. The island state has launched a massive bioenergy plan, which it wants to use as a lever to revitalise its agricultural sector and increase its energy security. The country plans to inject a total of US$ 12.4 billion into the sector over the coming 3 years (overview), and so hopes to generate some 2.5 million jobs (earlier post). So far US$1.42 billion has been invested, with more than 67 projects for the production of liquid biofuels signed so far, and with 114 biomass power plants under construction across the archipelago (earlier post). More than 11 biodiesel plants are under construction. A considerable amount of the output is destined for exports. Along with palm oil, Sweden is also looking at other feedstocks to produce biofuel. Swedish company Scanoil is already in the process of acquiring vast tracts of land in Indonesia to grow jatropha. The investment, which is estimated in the millions, could be the single largest Swedish investment in Indonesia, according to Swedish officials. Due in part to plantation expansion, Indonesia's forests are disappearing at an estimated 2.8 million hectares a year, one of the world's highest deforestation rates - and increasing demand for biofuel feedstocks could increase that rate. Tolgfors raised such concerns Sunday during a meeting with Indonesia's Trade Minister, Mari Elka Pangestu, saying biofuel's potential environmental risks have to be addressed to prevent a backlash from consumers in the future. " There needs to be a process of quality control that ensures each step, from the planting of trees, right up to biofuel production, has been carried out with minimal destruction to the environment, " said Tolgfors. http://biopact.com/2007/06/sweden-looks-to-indonesia-for-green.html Mexico: 16) Over 300 residents of San Pedro Nexapa, a community in Amecameca, Mexico (State) frustrated a joint police-military operation meant to combat illegal logging. For three hours yesterday, residents detained 45 persons, including soldiers, state police and federal inspectors.. About noon yesterday, the Federal Prosecutor for the Environment (Profepa, for its abbreviation in Spanish), the Forestry Service (Probosque), 10 soldiers, AFI (Agencia Federal de Investigación – federal police) and ASE (Agencia de Securidad Estatal, State Police) detained six presumed illegal loggers and seized a light truck filled with wood in the mountain forests around San Pedro Nexapa and the nearby community of San Juan Tehuixtitlán. However, upon returning to San Pedro Nexapa, a community near Popocatépl volcano, they were met by over a hundred residents, who were joined about another two hundred people. Following two hours of negotiations, the authorities agreed to set the six loggers free and return the truck and its cardo. About 16:30, the residents freed the Profepa and Probosque inspectors, along with the 10 soliders from Zona Miliar 37-B and the AFI and ASE agents. Meanwhile, the mayor of Ocuilan, Félix Alberto Linares González, announced that military patrols would continue indefinitely in the forests to stop clandestine logging. The official was joined by the Secretary of National Defense, Guillermo Galván Galván. Illegal logging over the last 15 years has led to the deforestation of 1,500 of the 6000 hectares of forest in Paraje La Piedra, which lies in both Mexico and Morelos states. Those who depend on communal goods in San Juan Atzingo and Ocuilan have warned federal and state authorities that the damage is severe enough to affect the aquifers which the Federal District, as well as the local communities depend upon for their water. http://mexfiles.wordpress.com/2007/05/31/logging-out/ Suriname: 17) Scientists have found at least 24 previously unknown species in the dense tropical rainforests of Suriname. According to conservationists, the tremendous discovery which includes a frog with spectacular florescent purple markings and other amphibians, fish, and insects, could be just a chunk of yet to be explored animal world. The findings were detailed in a report handed to government officials warning about the threat posed by the illegal mining practices to the biodiversity of Suriname. The species were discovered during a survey of the Nassau plateau, 80 miles south of the Suriname capital of Paramaribo, in mid 2006. The expedition was led by scientists from Conservation International (CI) along with other partner agencies. Besides the rare atelopus frog and other amphibian species, the expedition team recorded a total of 467 species. Among them, there were 27 species which scientists believe are unique to Suriname and live nowhere else on Earth. They also discovered a rare armored catfish (Harttiella crassicauda) that was thought to be extinct and had not been seen for more than 50 years. " This is a totally unexplored area: lots of new species, with many more still to be found, " Leeanne Alonso, vice president of CI, who also headed the Suriname expedition, said in a statement. " Our study will be a vital component in determining how to promote economic development in Suriname while protecting the nation's most valuable natural assets, " she said. http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7007544318 Colombia: 18) A surge in demand for biofuels derived from agricultural products has unleashed a chaotic land grab by a new breed of gangster entrepreneurs hoping to cash in on the world's thirst for palm oil and related bioproducts. Vast areas of Colombia's tropical forest are being cleared for palm tree plantations. Charities working with local peasants claim that paramilitary forces in league with biofuel conglomerates -- some of them financed by US government subsidies -- are forcing families off their land with death threats and bogus purchase offers. " The paramilitaries are not subtle when it comes to taking land, " said Dominic Nutt, a British specialist with Christian Aid who recently visited Colombia. " They simply visit a community and tell landowners, 'If you don't sell to us, we will negotiate with your widow'. " Dias was one of several landowners around the remote settlement of Llano Rico who decided not to abandon his property when the paramilitaries first moved into the area. " My father felt protected because he had a local government position, " said his daughter, Milvia Dias, 29. Even when paramilitaries warned the villagers that if they stayed they would be considered left-wing guerrilla sympathisers, Dias refused to be bullied. " He had cattle and land and one day, after all this happened, he went out to fix a hole in one of the farm's fences, " his daughter said. He never came back. A search party found him with his throat cut and seven stab wounds in his torso. " We held the funeral at 5pm the same day and we ran away the next morning, " said Dias. The land is now covered in palm trees owned by Urapalma, a Colombian enterprise that has repeatedly been accused in court proceedings of improperly invading private property. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1875709.ece Brazil: 19) An Indian tribe that has had no formal contact with Western civilization has been located in a remote Amazon region, federal authorities said on Friday. The Metyktire tribe, with about 87 members, was found last week in an area that is difficult to reach because of thick jungle and a lack of nearby rivers some 2,000km northwest of Rio de Janeiro, said Mario Moura, a spokesman for the Federal Indian Bureau, or Funai. The tribe is a subgroup of the Kayapo tribe, and lives on its 4.9 million hectare Menkregnoti Indian reservation, Moura said. The Kayapo had no significant contact with the Metyktire until two tribe members inexplicably appeared at a Kayapo village last week, he said. " We don't know why they decided to make contact now ... only time will tell. This is a very slow process, " Moura said. Uncontacted tribes are usually discovered when loggers and ranchers encroach on their territories. Patrick Cunningham of the London-based Indigenous People's Cultural Support Trust, which is involved in an unrelated expedition in the region, said in an e-mail that the tribe speaks an archaic version of the Kayapo language and goes naked. Like many less-assimilated members of the Kayapo, the men wear penis sheaths and several have plates in their lower lips, he said. The women shave the tops of their heads. Cunningham, who has not met the tribe, said the Kayapo believe it is was formed by a group of families who fled deeper into the forest when the pioneering Indian defender Orlando Villas Boas appeared in the area in the 1950s. About 700,000 Indians live in Brazil, mostly in the Amazon region. Some 400,000 live on reservations where they try to maintain their traditional culture, language and lifestyle. Indians were pushed deeper into the jungle by settlers and it is relatively uncommon for the Indian Bureau to come across previously uncontacted native groups. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2007/06/03/2003363643 20) Few people understand these impacts better than Dr. Daniel Nepstad, one of the world's foremost experts on the Amazon rainforest. Now head of the Woods Hole Research Center's Amazon program in Belém, Brazil, Nepstad has spent more than 23 years in the Amazon, studying subjects ranging from forest fires and forest management policy to sustainable development. Nepstad says the Amazon is presently at a point unlike any he's ever seen, one where there are unparalleled risks and opportunities. While he's hopeful about some of the trends, he knows the Amazon faces difficult and immediate challenges. Nepstad notes that since the beginning of 2004, Brazil has created more than 20 million hectares of protected areas in the Amazon region. If effectively enforced, his group estimates, this action will prevent one billion tons of carbon from being transferred to the atmosphere through deforestation by the year 2015. With the economic damage of carbon emissions presently estimated at $75-$150 a ton, Brazil's measures could be worth more than $100 billion. And while it will put out tens of millions in direct payments and forgo tens of millions more in lost opportunity costs, Brazil will see nothing from the international community for its efforts. It may get polite thank-yous from foreign diplomats and perhaps some press in National Geographic, but it will see no financial rewards for its substantial emissions savings. But this could soon change. Under a widely supported international initiative, Brazil and other tropical forest countries may see compensation for measures to reduce deforestation that would otherwise occur. While Brazil has moved slowly on the concept, there is a real possibility that industrialized countries will support what has been termed the " Reducing Emissions from Deforestation " (RED) initiative. Nepstad believes that if adopted, RED could trigger the largest flow of money into tropical forest conservation that the world has ever seen. Besides climate benefits, the plan would help maintain critical ecosystem services while safeguarding biological diversity. While these developments are hopeful, Nepstad warns that the Amazon is not out of danger yet, with surging demand for biofuels and climate change on the horizon. Nepstad is especially concerned about the " positive feedback " loops between Amazon forest fires and drought; climate change and increased deforestation will only worsen the multiplier effect of these threats. http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0604-nepstad_interview.html 21) Brazil's sprawling Amazon state has enacted the country's first law to fight global warming by selling carbon credits from communities that limit deforestation and environmental degradation. The law creates a " jungle fund " or " forest scholarship " that " rewards jungle communities for protecting their habitat and reducing deforestation, " said Amazon Governor Edouardo Braga. Under the scheme, countries and businesses with high levels of pollution can invest in the fund and receive carbon credits from local communities that agree to curb deforestation, Amazon Environmental Secretary Virgilio Viana told reporters. He said the state, which accounts for one third of Brazil's vast Amazon jungle, hopes to build the fund to 300 million dollars, with 30 million a year going to some 60,000 families in the region by 2010. Currently 8,500 families are listed to benefit. The law was welcomed by environmental groups who hoped it will " set a vital example " for Brazil's federal government to follow, said Greenpeace's regional director Paulo Adario. Brazil is the world's fourth leading producer of carbon dioxide — the main greenhouse gas contributing to global warming — with the problem exacerbated by deforestation due to logging, farming, livestock breeding and slash-and-burn farming by poor communities. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=271448 22) The Pink Dolphin lives in the Amazon Rainforest. It is usually found in the tributaries and main rivers of the Orinoco River systems in South America. This animal can stay summerged up to fifteen minutes in the rivers. Males sleep just below the surface and they come up to breathe as the reflex. The Pink Dolphin's body has adapted to the rivers of the Amazon. The Pink Dolphin looks almost like the gray dolphin, but they have differences. It measures 2.5 to 3 meters long. Although males are generally larger. The color of its body is pale pink. Instead of having a dorsal fin like the gray dolphin, it has a hump on its back. The Pink Dolphin's tale is bigger and it has 2 flippers that look like big leaves. The Pink Dolphin's neck is kind of long and his head has a little hump in the forehead. His beak is long and has tiny hairs on top. This animal has tiny eyes. The Pink Dolphin can turn its head 180 degrees, all the way around since it has an unfused vertebrae. It weighs approximately 90 kilograms. The Pink Dolphin got its amazing pink color from the kind of water it lives in, and the kind of food it eats. http://fisherwy.blogspot.com/2007/06/amazon-pink-dolphin.html 23) UK charity Cool Earth rolled out some high-profile backers for its launch this week. Sir David Attenborough tells today's Sun: " The idea behind Cool Earth is that if we each help pay to conserve an acre, or part of an acre, then we can make a real difference – perhaps the biggest difference we will make in our whole lives. Of course, it is not easy for any of us as individuals to buy areas of rainforest. " But Cool Earth, with its local partners in Brazil and elsewhere, have a system set up, right now, working together with experienced conservation group Fauna & Flora International, of which I am proud to be vice president, with Her Majesty the Queen as its patron. " Admitting to a rather less noble motivation for lending their support, comedienne Ruby Wax and TV director Ed Bye explain on Cool Earth's website: " We have always wanted to become friends with Sting and Trudie Styler and we reckon this might improve our chances. That's why we joined Cool Earth. " It's simple enough. You " buy " half an acre or an acre - the latter going out at between £70 and £100 - and the 260 tonnes of carbon therein are permantly locked away. Today's Sun has a field report from a hack and a snapper the paper dispatched to Brazil* to see Cool Earth's plan in action. Suitably impressed, El Reg chipped in for an acre close to the Madeira river, and soon got a username and password which enabled us to log in and have a shufti at our new holding on Google Maps. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/05/cool_earth/ Peru: 24) Alberto Pizango Chota saw loggers come to his Indian village in the northern Amazon when he was 7 years old. First they felled the mahogany. Then they returned to cut the cedars. By the time they came back for other hardwoods, there was little left of the forest. Conservationists say illegal logging threatens the commercial survival of valuable timber species. But Pizango, now 42, says it also endangers his Indian people -- and the survival of primitive tribes who avoid all contact with other humans. Dozens of violent encounters with the tribesmen have been documented in the last five years. " Sometimes they run away'' from the loggers, said Pizango. " Some stay and defend their rights to the forest,'' pitting their arrows against 16-gauge shotguns. Peru, the world's largest mahogany exporter, came under sharp attack this week at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, for setting unsustainable export quotas and for failing to rein in poachers in its national parks and forest reserves where Indians live. " This wood has been dirtied with the blood of indigenous people,'' said Pizango, the chairman of the National Association of Amazon Indians in Peru, who appealed to CITES for help. Fearing a total trade suspension, Peru agreed on Saturday to reduce its quota from 13,000 cubic meters of mahogany to less than 5,000, or about 1,200 trees per year. It also reaffirmed its pledge to protect indigenous tribes. But environmentalists said Peru's assurances should be treated with caution. " There have been problems of verification,'' said Cliona O'Brien, senior policy analyst for the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, or WWF. " We need to keep a very close eye over the next year.'' http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/6/5/apworld/20070605082329 & sec=a\ pworld South America: 25) The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species is expected to call for new limitations on commercial fisheries and timber, particularly certain species of sharks and cedar trees which are extensively used for furniture and humidors. At the meeting in The Hague of the 171-nation organization, Willem Wijnstekers secretary general of CITE said he had hopes of intervening before species` survival reaches a serious level of risk. Until now, CITES has stepped in " at a far too late stage, when the species were already or almost commercially extinct, " he said, referring specially to timber like mahogany. The conference also will consider listing the Spanish cedar, a tropical hardwood from South America prized for its salmon-colored wood used in cabinets, musical instruments and the aromatic lining of cigar boxes. Conservationists say loggers are stripping that and other hardwood trees from national parks and protected areas in several countries, especially Peru. Other proposals would limit trade in the wood of the pau Bazil tree, used to make high-end bows for stringed instruments. Protection also would be increased for several species of gazelles. CITES lists more than 7,000 animals and 32,000 plants whose trade is regulated, including about 800 highly threatened species that are banned from commercial trade without special licenses. http://www.mercopress.com/vernoticia.do?id=10638 & formato=HTML 26) Writing in the July issue of the journal Biotropica, Sean Sloan, a researcher from McGill University in Montreal, argues that anticipated declines in rural populations via urbanization will not necessarily result in reforestation--a scenario put forth in a controversial paper published in Biotropica last year by Joseph Wright of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and Helene Muller-Landau of the University of Minnesota. Wright and Muller-Landau (WLM) said that deforestation rates will likely slow, then reverse, due to declining rural population density in developing countries. Drawing on research from Panama and the Amazon, Sloan says that Wright and Muller-Landau fail to account for land-use " extensification " resulting from population decline as well as new drivers--notably large-scale agriculture--that are " increasingly diminishing the role of local population " in deforestation. Sloan cites examples in the Darien region of Panama where peasant colonists abandoned their lands for agriculture only to have a small population remain and convert their land to pasture, thereby " extensifying " land use. " 30 percent or more of an agricultural population may abandon their lands while those who remain suppress regrowth by expanding over the formers' lands and into surrounding forest, " he writes. " In the southern Bayano Region, the Darién's most populous front, this stage has been underway since 1990; between 1990 and 2000, the population decreased by nearly 20 percent, but pasture area increased by nearly 50 percent and the number of cattle by 100 percent " Sloan says that increasing demand for meat and grains for animal feed will further drive forest conversion. " The growing influence of non-local drivers of land-cover change is expected to perpetuate such a dynamic in coming years, " he explains. http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0603-stri.html India: 27) Udupi: Some citizens here staged a protest her on Sunday June 3 afternoon, against the felling of of trees to make way for footpaths. Hundreds of protesters, led by the Swamiji of Shirur Math, joined together at the spots where the trees were being felled and registered their opposition to cutting of trees. As a sequel the authorities stopped cutting the trees temporarily. At the same time, Shriram Divana, district president, Karnataka Communal Harmony Forum and Premananda of Dakshina Kannada Parisarasaktara Okkuta were arrested by the police here for staging the protest. http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=34192 & n_tit=Udupi%3A+Shirur+Sw\ amiji+Leads+Protest+against+Felling+of+Trees Cambodia: 28) Cambodia ordered the banning on Sunday of a stinging report which accuses senior government officials and relatives of the prime minister of illegally stripping the country's forests. Information Minister Khieu Kanharith, who is also the chief government spokesman, issued a statement calling on the Ministry of Interior, which controls the police force, to ban and confiscate the report by the London-based environmental watchdog group Global Witness. Khieu Kanharith did not specifically reject the report's allegations but said they were politically motivated. " The report centers its accusations on the government leader (Prime Minister Hun Sen) with an aim to provoke political animosity in the country, which exceeds the business of this organization, " said Khieu Kanharith. Global Witness released the 95-page report titled " Cambodia's Family Trees " Friday. It came ahead of the June 19-20 meeting of international donors to pledge new aid for Cambodia. It was not clear yet if Global Witness plans to distribute the report in Cambodia. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/03/asia/AS-GEN-Cambodia-Illegal-Logging.p\ hp Indonesia: 29) The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) is urging the central government and all regional administrations in Indonesia to implement a " forest cutting interval " to protect the country from total deforestation, a local Walhi executive said. " Walhi has been proposing the measure since 2002 and is repeating it now on the occasion of World Environment Day on June 5, " Khalid Syaifullah, executive director of Walhi`s West Sumatra branch, said here Tuesday. Until now, only the Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) provincial administration had heeded the call and was planning to impose a ban on forest cutting later this month, he said. Walhi was hoping the NAD administration`s action would prompt all other regional governments in the country to follow suit, Khalid said. According to data collected by Walhi, only 62 percent of the country`s land territory was still covered by forests but the pressures of developments and economic interests were causing forest degradation to occur at an ever increasing rate. " Something must be done about this situation if we don`t want the country to become completely deforested and meet a greater disaster in the future, " he said. Walhi was therefore proposing the declaration of a forest cutting interval of 15 years during which no new forest concessions would be issued and no forest concession would be extended, Khalid said. To overcome the shortages in wood supply to industries that would happen as a consequence of the forest cutting interval, the country should import timber. http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2007/6/6/walhi-calls-for-forest-cutting-interval-\ to-save-indonesia-forests/ 30) Indonesian Minister for Environment Rachmat Witoelar said Indonesia will not allow palm oil producers to clear primary forests for establishing plantations, reports Bloomberg. " Expansion of palm oil plantations will not be allowed to sacrifice natural forests, " Witoelar said in an interview yesterday. " They will be planted in lots that are already empty. There are plenty of these, 18 million hectares of them. " While Witoelar's remarks may seem encouraging to green groups, the Indonesian government has a poor track record of enforcing its regulations at the local level. District and regional governments often ignore federal government pronouncements while corruption can undermine law enforcement efforts. Indonesia is expected to surpass Malaysia as the world largest producer of palm oil this year. The government hopes to add 7 million hectares of plantations by 2011. Environmentalists say oil palm plantations are destroying virgin rainforest and producing large-scale emissions of greenhouse gases. A study by Wetlands International found that the country is the third largest emitter of climate warming gases, about 85 percent of which result from deforestation and land use change, especially peatlands degradation. Indonesia's carbon dioxide emissions are rising at 4 percent annually, faster than India and China, according to a World Bank report released today. The report warned that Indonesia is at particular risk from the effects of global warming. http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0605-indonesia.html 31) Indonesia's rainforests -- especially those on Borneo island -- are being stripped so rapidly because of illegal logging and palm oil plantations for bio-fuels, they could be wiped out altogether within the next 15 years, some environmentalists say. " Sixty percent of the protected and conservation areas are already badly damaged due to illegal logging and palm oil plantations, " Rully Sumada, a forestry expert with Indonesian environmental group Walhi, told Reuters. " The deforestation speed is 2.8 million hectares a year. At this rate, by 2012 the forests in Sumatra, Borneo and Sulawesi will be gone, only the forests in Papua will be left. And if cutting of trees carries on, no forest will be left by 2022. " Indonesia has a total forest area of more than 225 million acres, or about 10 percent of the world's remaining tropical forest, according to Rainforestweb.org, a portal on rainforests http://www.rainforestweb.org 32) " I was originally a civil servant " , read the opening of Bestari Raden's statement to the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations in Geneva, where he stood defending his cause. Bestari, 52, was a physical education teacher at a public school in Tapaktuan, South Aceh. He also trained local athletes, running with them in the mountains and wilderness of Tapaktuan. " That was when I began to see the destruction of Tapaktuan forests. I saw many felled trees. Then I came to realize that the destruction of the forests may have caused two immense floods which destroyed our homes and paddy fields in 1986 and 1988, " Bestari, like his neighbors, was not bothered by the logging operation until floods kept occurring and after discovering the forests were dwindling. " Toting a camera I borrowed from a friend, I began taking photographs of the degradation of forests from 1986 to 1998. For years, he could only document the destruction of the forest. During the Soeharto administration, civil servants were not in a position to announce such findings, unless they wanted to put their job -- or even their life -- at risk. After Soeharto was ousted in 1998, Bestari organized protests against the logging operations in South Aceh. His life changed from being quite peaceful to being rather unsettled by bouts of intimidation, abductions and beatings. " I was in Jakarta to attend AMAN's annual congress in 1999. I was walking to a nearby pay phone to call my wife, when all of a sudden I was dragged into a van by several men. They beat me while the car was still running. " In 1999, some protests in South Aceh began to turn violent -- stones were thrown and logging facilities were burned. South Aceh was rife with bloody conflicts between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). Bestari was included in a wanted list by South Aceh Police. " I was the first named on a list of 15 wanted people. He was brought to South Aceh court under on the charges of being an alleged GAM member and inciting a violent protest. The court acquitted him of being a GAM member but convicted him of burning down a timber mill. He was sentenced to two years and six months in jail. " The whole court process was a farce. I had proof that I was in Jakarta when the violent protests erupted in South Aceh. On Aug. 31, 2005, after a peace agreement was signed between GAM and the Indonesian government, Bestari was released along with a number of other political prisoners. " My wife tells me that I have changed. She says I don't act and think like a civil servant anymore. http://www.thejakartapost.com/misc/PrinterFriendly.asp 33) Its deputy chief, Christina Liew, said the general public is interested to know about the ongoing logging activities in Ulu Segama. She noted that the government did not practice what was preached about transparency in its action, adding that Sabahans have the right to know under whose chief ministership the contracts were entered into. It was reported that the badly logged area was in northern Ulu Segama, involving only 12,000 hectares, and became part of the Sabah Foundation concession only in 1977. Liew was commenting on Forestry Sam Manan's disclosure that the agreement to log in Ulu Segama and Malua were entered long ago, but all logging in the areas would be phased out by December 31 this year. Last Friday, after presenting a talk to the Sabah Society on Sustainable Forest Management, Manan said the department had no choice but to allow logging contracts at Ulu Segama and Malua to run their full course before these areas could be earmarked for sustainable forest management. According to him, the Sabah Foundation could not force the contractors to stop felling activities as it could involve legal actions, including the department being sued for RM1 billion, and Manan, as the director, RM500 million. " So, who is going to pay for that? It is wasting time... so we just have to wait until the contracts end at the end of this year, " he said. http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0605-indonesia.html 34) There has been a reduction in the number of illegal logging incidents in the country through various efforts and approaches, the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities said. " Malaysia has made much progress and this is reflected by the considerable decline in illegal logging incidents, " the ministry said in a statement here today. On trans-boundary movement of illegal logs, Malaysia has been cooperating to stem inflow of the materials and is willing to further enhance this cooperation. It has also been transparent in promoting legally and sustainably sourced timber, the ministry said. Malaysia has also embarked on negotiations with the European Union on the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) for a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA), the ministry said, adding that its deputy minister Datuk Anifah Haji Aman had attended the recent G8 Illegal Logging Dialogue in Berlin, Germany. The dialogue organised by GLOBE International was to discuss and agree on practical policies as well as actions to address the global problem of illegal logging and poor forest management. During the dialogue, Anifah highlighted that Malaysia does not condone any illegal logging and associated timber trade in the region. Malaysian legislators also participated in the G8 dialogue to ensure that any decision made will be fair and will not jeopadise Malaysia's interest as one of the main timber producing countries in the world. http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news_business.php?id=266059 Australia: 35) Friends of the Earth in Australia is alarmed that Hancock Victorian Plantations, owned by the US John Hancock group has begun logging in a rainforest reserve in Victoria's Strzelecki Ranges. The reserve was announced by the State Government last year and involves a $7 million forest buyback currently under negotiation. Under the Memorandum of Understanding associated with the reserve, logging would be allowed in certain parts of the reserve, on the proviso that sensitive rainforest areas would be protected. Two of the most sensitive areas were nominated with buffer widths of 100m and 60m. Now the company is currently logging a coupe within 10-20 metres of cool temperate rainforest. According to Friends of the Earth researcher Anthony Amis " The Heads of Agreement clearly states that none of this coupe should have been logged at all. This is the second breach of the Heads of the Agreement that we have witnessed within 8 months of Hancock signing the agreement. " Further details are at http://www.hancock.forests.org.au/docs/07jun.htm 36) A community group in south-west Western Australia says the State Government has been negligent in protecting old-growth forests from logging. The Global Warming Forest Group says bushwalkers are identifying significant areas of old-growth forest in areas marked for logging. Spokesman Kim Redman says pockets of forests around Bridgetown and Northcliffe should have been protected by government agencies. " We have only inspected a handful of blocks because we are unpaid members of the public, yet we have found these old-growth areas so readily, " he said. But the acting deputy director-general of the Department of Environment and Conservation, Paul Jones, denies any negligence. " All of those areas were known to have old-growth in them, and now it's just a question of detailed mapping of it before logging is allowed to go ahead, " he said. The Government's old-growth forest policy has been in place since 2001. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200706/s1941346.htm World-wide: 37) Although the precise area is debated, each day at least 80,000 acres (32,300 ha) of forest disappear from Earth. At least another 80,000 acres (32,300 ha) of forest are degraded. Along with them, the planet loses as many as several hundred species to extinction, the vast majority of which have never been documented by science. As these forests fall, more carbon is added to the atmosphere, climactic conditions are further altered, and more topsoil is lost to erosion. Despite increased awareness of the importance of these forests, deforestation rates have not slowed. Analysis of figures from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) shows that tropical deforestation rates increased 8.5 percent from 2000-2005 when compared with the 1990s, while loss of primary forests may have expanded by 25 percent over the same period. Nigeria and Vietnam's rate of primary forest loss has doubled since the 1990s, while Peru's rate has tripled. Overall, FAO estimates that 10.4 million hectares of tropical forest were permanently destroyed each year in the period from 2000 to 2005, an increase since the 1990-2000 period, when around 10.16 million hectares of forest were lost. Among primary forests, annual deforestation rose to 6.26 million hectares from 5.41 million hectares in the same period. On a broader scale, FAO data shows that primary forests are being replaced by less biodiverse plantations and secondary forests. Due to a significant increase in plantation forests, forest cover has generally been expanding in North America, Europe, and China while diminishing in the tropics. Industrial logging, conversion for agriculture (commercial and subsistence), and forest fires—often purposely set by people—are responsible for the bulk of global deforestation today. http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0801.htm 38) Mongabay.com, a leading tropical rainforest information web site, today announced the availability of a rainforest educational resource in 19 languages at world.mongabay.com. The site explains what constitutes a tropical rainforest, why they are important, why they are threatened, and how they can be saved. " world.mongabay.com is geared towards children but is useful to people of all age, including ecotourism guides in tropical countries " said mongabay.com founder Rhett A. Butler. " The resource is also available in PDF form for free distribution. I hope to reach as broad an audience as possible with this information " The site is currently available in Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, Danish, Spanish, English, Farsi (Persian), French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Malay, Marathi, Polish, Russian, Swahili, andSwedish. " I plan to add more languages in the near future, though I'm always looking for native speakers to help with translation, " said Butler. " I believe a key part to rainforest conservation is education—both in local communities around forest areas and in industrialized countries where consumption decisions can drive deforestation. However, I also think that it is important to extend beyond rainforests, stimulating a greater appreciation of natural and wildlife in general. It's hard to miss something if you don't know it's there in the first place. " http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0605-mongabay.html 39) The founders' original vision of Dial House was twofold: it should exist to help artists, and it should give sanctuary to anyone who needed a roof over their head. The notion sounds unworkable, but to my surprise it appears to work. And something similar might be said of Griffiths' crazily ambitious book, for which she journeyed to the Amazon, the Arctic, the Australian desert, the mountains of West Papua and the islands of Indonesia. " I took seven years over this work, " she explains in the introduction to the book, " spent all I had, my time, money and energy . . . She was tired of Euro-American writers discussing wildernesses as if, by definition, they were devoid of people. Griffiths' examination of wildness grew out of her earlier book, Pip Pip: A Sideways Look at Time, published in 1999, in which she argued that linear time was obsessive, restrictive and essentially masculine - a tool of enslavement. In that book, she ended with a lament for the loss of " wild time " , and made a passing attack on the negative connotations of wilderness favoured by lexicographers; my dictionary gives " wild, uninhabited and uncultivated region " , " desolate tract or area " , " confused mass or collection " . She would disagree on every point. Wild time led her to think about wild land, and to begin making her journeys. How does she define wilderness now? " The best definition is that it is a self-willed land, " she says. " All definitions of wilderness that exclude people seem to me to be false. African 'wilderness' areas are racist because indigenous people are being cleared out of them so white people can go on holiday there. All of those definitions seem to me really, really wrong. The thing about self-willed land is that it's both a place and a whole way of being that has its own internal rules and habits. " By self-willed she means " the capacity to make its own choices in all senses. Something where there is not the will of any one species or any one kind of mind. Wild is a remarkably positive book. Griffiths is not bemoaning man's capacity to destroy the natural world, the west's subjugation of indigenous peoples, or the spurious triumph of " civilisation " . These she takes to be truisms - too banal to bear repetition. Instead, she celebrates wildness, and believes in its survival, because wildness is part of what we are. " Language is wild - you can't fence it or tell it what to do - and it's the same with people. Even under the worst excesses of Stalinism or consumerism, the human spirit will still express itself. http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/scienceandnature/story/0,,2096391,00.htm\ l#article_continue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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