229 - Earth's Tree News

[Guest guest]

Today for you 35 new articles about earth's trees! (229th edition)

Subscribe / send blank email to:

earthtreenews-

Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com .

 

--British Columbia: 1) Protest for the last spotted owl,

--Oregon: 2) Willamette River restoration, 3) Talks on BLM's big bummer,

--California 4) Nanning Creek raided, 5) Klamath harvest money, 6) Redwoods

--Southwest US 7) Support Forest Guardians by buying beer

--Montana: 8) Forest fire conundrums

--Colorado: 9) Save the aspen by clearcutting, 10) 80,000 acres of

beetle projects,

--Minnesota: 11) Forest decline

--Texas: 12) Spiders spin giant web

--Louisiana: 13) Rare cypress made into mulch, 14) Cypress loggers complain,

--New York: 15) Leftover wood from logging into a biomass fuel

--Canada: 16) Grassy Narrows demand moratorium on logging,

--EU: 17) Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe

--Austria: 18) Rare forest Leech may have gone extinct

--Central America: 19) 250 ecosystems and 350 protected areas

--Peru: 20) Deforestation leads to one of worst droughts ever

--Guyana: 21) Transfer pricing fraud

--Columbia: 22) Stop oil palm plantations

--Chile: 23) New native forest law has few teeth

--Mynamar: 24) Animal trade and logging trade stripping the land bare

--Sumatra: 25) Orangutans

--Borneo: 26) Staying in Borneo to give knowledge back, 27) Palm

clearings still going,

--Indonesia: 28) Save the Maleo bird,

--Australia: 29) Murray River water wars, 30) Weld's Angel sued, 31)

Tasmania is like Siberia, 32) Training other countries to be

greenhouse friendly,

--World-wide: 33) Soil erosion, 34) Biodiversity offsets market, 35)

illegal logging,

 

British Columbia:

 

1) Volunteers needed! Starting tonight (Wednesday Sept 5), the Western

Canada Wilderness Committee and other volunteers are setting up a camp

near Pemberton BC where the BC Government is attempting to capture one

of the last spotted owls in Canada. At the same time, BC Timber Sales

is logging the owl's old growth forest habitat. Activist Conrad

Schmidt visited the site this week and he has promised to join in a

protest aimed at stopping the destruction. Watch the video on Youtube

here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTwzPGLcmpY (2 min.) BC announced

a new experimental program of captive breeding for spotted owls this

summer. In August, government biologists captured two owls from the

wild and transferred them to cages in Langley and North Vancouver.

Miller says only one pair of owls is still breeding in the wild, and

the single chick that hatched this year is one of the birds now

captured and caged. He also notes the captive breeding and release

program can only succeed if owl habitat is protected. Instead, the

government is capturing the owls and clearcutting their habitat. A

previous attempt to keep a young spotted owl in captivity over the

winter failed three years ago when the female, named Hope, starved to

death after her release. The logging of spotted owl habitat is managed

by the BC Timber Sales program, which granted a license to Squamish

Mills and the Mount Currie Indian Band for the old growth forest near

Pemberton. For information about the protest camp, phone Andy Miller

at 604-992-3099 zoeblunt

 

 

Oregon:

 

2) Fly over the Willamette River near Corvallis, and it's easy for

anyone to see what ails the river system today. From 2,000 feet the

ribbon of vegetation along the Willamette is thin, in some places

nonexistent. That's a far cry from the forests that once provided

shade to the river and its tributaries. The river's historic weave of

channels from Eugene to Corvallis has been largely relegated to one

main stem, too often held in place by sterile banks of riprap. And the

river's long-standing connection to its historic floodplain has been

greatly diminished. The result of this diminishing habitat is water

that's too warm, in addition to the other water quality issues that

persist from one end of the Willamette Basin to the other. Gone with

the historic habitat are the high numbers of native spring chinook

that once ran the river in the hundreds of thousands. There's no

question that what's needed for the Willamette River is a large-scale

restoration. As part of this effort, the Oregon Watershed Enhancement

Board and the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, along with city

governments, are making a difference as well. And, of course, local

landowners are a huge part of this story, facilitating restoration or

acquisition of their lands. Today, all of these organizations and

people are poised to do much more. In the next several years there is

a very real opportunity to restore significant aspects of the

Willamette's habitat that will enable the river to function more

naturally, thereby supporting native species, clean water and

community health. There is a real effort afoot to strategically invest

public funds from state and federal sources as well as private money

from foundations and businesses. Federal legislation is also poised to

give a great boost to the Willamette's overall health, with Rep.

Darlene Hooley and others demonstrating a keen understanding of the

river's needs.

http://www.oregonlive.com/commentary/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1188600\

97611380.xml & co

ll=7

 

 

3) The 90-minute session featured speakers such as Lane County

Commissioner Peter Sorenson, Jackson County Commissioner Dennis C.W.

Smith, Cascadia Wildlands Project Executive Director Jay Lininger and

Bureau of Land Management Eugene district Manager Ginnie Grilley.

About 70 people attended. Since the Northwest Forest Plan in 1994

drastically reduced the amount of logging on public lands, counties in

heavily forested areas have relied on payments from the federal

government to make up for lost revenue. But those payments may be at

an end unless Congress renews them next year, and many people are

looking for rescue from a new management plan currently under review

at the BLM that would triple the amount of logging on more than 2

million acres. The session wrapped up with no conclusions, but Grilley

invited people to get more informed about the BLM's proposal. The

90-day public comment period on it ends Nov. 10. The agency expects to

finalize its plans at the end of 2008. While the discussion was long

on problems and short on solutions, it was a good initial airing,

Lininger said. And that was the goal, said Michael Smith, a community

organizer who set up the meeting with Sorenson and former local radio

host Brian Shaw, who moderated. " We wanted to help frame the debate at

a local level, " Smith said.

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2007/08/31/d1.cr.blmmeeting.0831.p2.php?sectio\

n=cityregion

 

California:

 

4) Tree-sitters in the Nanning Creek tree village sent a text message

today saying that Pacific Lumber climbers were raiding the tree-sits.

Also two forest defenders were arrested on the ground for trespassing.

Activists are heading to the gate to protest against Palco's actions.

Some activists have raised concerns that the company is violating the

law by cutting branches during Marbled Murrelet nesting season, which

ends on September 15. Much of the tree-sitter's gear has been taken or

destroyed. Spooner is a huge, ancient redwood tree that is almost 300

feet tall and is estimated to be as much as 2,000 years old. Marked to

be cut down by Pacific Lumber Company, Spooner is located in the

Nanning Creek watershed, near Scotia, Ca. Activists began sitting in

Spooner two summers ago and have set traverse lines to protect the

surrounding grove of trees. Sitters are in the trees, but need ground

support, which have already sustained multiple arrests. Come down

right now to Scotia, CA. to save one of the last stands of old growth

redwoods left on commercial property. This is an emergency call to all

activists! Call 707-845-9046. Please help us! Please help the trees!

Caution! Contact Humboldt forest defense before attempting to locate

the treesit village! Cops are in the woods! As most of you are

probably already aware, an action camp has been scheduled beginning

Sept. 6th. For information on the location of the action camp, please

continue to check the URL below.

http://humboldtforestdefense.blogspot.com

http://www.pscelebrities.com/whitelightblacklight/2007/09/california-pacific-lum\

ber-raids-tre

e.htm

 

 

5) A handsome tribal headquarters and a crisp new gas station anchor

the reservation. And slot machines are on their way, 99 of them

approved by the state, expected to be housed in a new building near

tribal headquarters. But in many ways, the Yurok people have already

hit the jackpot. This spring, the Department of the Interior paid the

tribe $92.6 million in logging proceeds, a figure roughly six times

the tribe's annual budget. Yet even the silver cloud, it seems, has a

dark lining. The money, which had been held in trust by the government

for nearly two decades, has sharply divided the Yurok people, pushing

them into two passionate camps: those who prefer long-term community

projects and social programs and those who want the money handed up

now. The settlement was a result of a 1988 act of Congress that

established the Yurok reservation. The law provided payment for the

pre-1988 sale of logs on their land, some 63,000 acres about 325 miles

north of San Francisco that snake along the fog-shrouded, and once

salmon-rich, Klamath River. To gain the timber payment, the Yurok

leadership only recently agreed not to sue the government in regards

to the 1988 law, said Douglas Wheeler, a lawyer with Hogan & Hartson

in Washington who is representing the tribe. Logging has also suffered

over the years, even as the tribe has been victim to other sorts of

bad luck and policy. A 1964 flood devastated Klamath, as did a period

of relocations after World War II. The tribe was not officially

organized until 1992; it split from the neighboring Hoopa tribe as

part of the 1988 act. " Day to day, there are no jobs here, " Ms. Tripp

said. " Fishing is bad. We have a lot of methamphetamine on the

reservation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/us/02yurok.html

 

 

6) What's amazing about the redwoods is how much remains unknown,

particularly about the biggest trees. The forest was never fully

" described " - akin to John James Audubon's description of North

America's birds in the early 1800s or Charles Darwin's

characterization of the Galapagos in the 1830s - until Humboldt State

University Professor Steve Sillett and colleagues started publishing

their systematic map of the redwood canopy in 1999. Scientists have

since discovered a vast and rich ecosystem aloft in the gnarled,

complex old growth crowns: soil, ferns, bushes and trees, lichens and

amphibians. In complexity and animal species, an old-growth redwood

forest rivals and possibly exceeds an old-growth Amazon rain forest.

Ninety-five percent of the old-growth trees have been felled. Young

redwoods have far simpler tops, and the trees growing now -

replacements for what was harvested from Big Sur to southern Oregon in

the span of a century - won't grow canopies capable of sustaining that

diversity until 2500 to 2800, scientists suspect. But some spots may

be developing that necessary complexity, while others may be

stagnating. LiDAR's ability to penetrate the canopy can point

scientists in the right direction. " You can do that by going into the

forest, but LiDAR will tell you much more quickly, " said Malcolm

North, a research scientist with the U.S. Forest Service who also

serves as an associate professor at University of California-Davis.

" For people like me who like to get away from the computer, that's

just a bad situation. But LiDAR definitely has that potential. "

Save-the-Redwoods hopes to use the tool to create an " objective "

assessment of the forest's needs. The group has already removed 14

miles of logging roads and restored 1,080 acres in the Mill Creek

parcel since 2003; it hopes to remove 20 more miles and restore 600

acres this summer. The project marks an evolution in the

organization's mission. The league was founded in 1918 to put the best

of the remaining redwood groves into public ownership, and that

remains a priority. Save-the-Redwoods has purchased six of every 10

acres of ancient redwood forest protected today in public parks. But

even in the '20s the league's founders wondered if these forests

rejuvenated. With with most of the remnant old-growth protected, the

league's attention is shifting to the second-growth stands, said

Hartley, the group's executive director.

http://www.mercurynews.com/lifestyle/ci_6796133

 

 

Southwest US:

 

7) Forest Guardians works to preserve and restore the forests, streams

and grasslands of the American southwest, particularly New Mexico.

Most of their work is aimed at improving management of government land

as they own so much of the land in the Southwest. Of partcular

interest are getting the forest service and Bureau of Land Management

to reconsider policies that are destroying the southwest's forests.

Beyond simply discouraging excessive logging and overgrazing, they

also lobby to change overall policies. One of their current projects

is to encourage the forest service to sometimes let the forest burn.

Studies by the forest service itself indicate that for the health of

southwestern forests they MUST burn occasionally. Thousands of years

of evolution have adapted these trees to need fire to open their seed

pods. No burn, no new growth. Yet the forest service continues to

extinguish fires, even those burning in the backcountry roadless areas

nowhere near human habitation. They are also working to protect the

roadless status of many federally managed areas. Once the roads come,

it makes the area accessible... and exploitable. Logging, grazing, and

pollution soon follow. As the Bush Administration has made it

difficult to enforce roadless status anymore. Instead they have found

a way around by protecting the rivers that run through New Mexico

under the Clean Water Act. Once it it receives a designation of

Outstanding National Resource Waters (the highest level of

protection), road building, logging, gas drilling, and mining are

strictly prohibited. As 75% of New Mexico native species depend on the

1% of the landscape occupied by streams and rivers, they can maximize

their protection. Only a little protection makes a big differance! As

part of getting the maximum effect out of the smallest effort, Forest

Guardians also leases grazing lands near from the government and

plants natives trees along the rivers and streams in them as part of

its Stream Team program. Taking the land out of the hands of ranchers

and restoring the native habitat benefits not just the local area, but

everything downstream too. In the Southwest? Buy Santa Fe Brewing

Company's beer with the Stream Team logo on it and you support Forest

Guardians stream restoration efforts. Buy beer, plant a native tree!

http://fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com/299915.html

 

Montana:

 

8) Montana has been suffering an enormously bad wildfire season -- the

legacy of a century of timber industry-driven forest mismanagement and

global warming. For the past five years, ever since President Bush

flew to Portland, Oregon to announce his " Healthy Forests " initiative,

the threat of fire has been used as the timber industry's chief

argument for continuing to cut down fire-resistant old-growth forests.

The Administration -- and Congress, which passed Healthy Forests --

have failed abysmally in their proclaimed mission of prioritizing the

protection of homes and communities in the urban-wildland interface.

This summer, when the Angora fire swept through the Tahoe Basin, we

learned that the Forest Service had done only half as much thinning

and brush clearing as it had promised a few years earlier. The Montana

legislature has been similarly irresponsible. When Governor Brian

Schweitzer asked for $25 million to fund the state's fire-fighting

needs, Republicans in the legislature blocked his request on a

party-line vote. Now Schweitzer has called a special session of the

legislature because Montana has had to spend the money fighting this

summer's fires. In response, as David Sirota passes along, the

Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator John Sinrud,

attacked the Administration for spending the money to defend people's

houses, saying, literally (and you can hear it on YouTube), " Why not

just let 'em burn? " At the same time, the reactionaries claim that

Schweitzer never asked for the money in the first place -- a claim the

Helena Independent Record refutes.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-pope/why-not-let-them-burn_b_63205.html

 

Colorado:

 

9) There are about 130,687 acres of aspen in the San Juan National

Forest's Mancos-Dolores Ranger District, and in 2007 about 12 percent

are considered dead or diseased. A few stands inventoried, mainly the

lower elevation ones, have a mortality rate as high as 60 percent.

Just two years ago, the average aspen tree mortality rate was 9

percent and the lower elevation stands saw as much as 40 percent

mortality rate. In hopes of stopping the die-off in its tracks,

foresters have been preparing about 700 acres of diseased stands for

logging operations next year that will essentially clear-cut stands

and hopefully give the trees a chance to rejuvenate. Loggers who do

the clear-cutting will be required to leave about 10 percent to 15

percent of the trees in " wildlife clumps, " Krabath said. " When you cut

an aspen it releases an auxin, something similar to a hormone, that

tells the roots the trees have been severed and to send up shoots, "

Krabath said. Aspen trees are unique in that they have a lateral root

system and can send up shoots, or clones, across the distance of the

system. A stand of aspen trees in Utah is said to be the largest clone

in the world with nearly 47,000 trees. Cloned stands tend to leaf out

at the exact same time and change colors at the same time too. If the

clear-cutting works, the stands should regenerate and have trees about

6 feet tall in less than six years, Krabath said. Although they don't

know exactly what is causing the death of aspen trees, it is likely a

variety of factors, one of which is drought and fire suppression. Jim

Worrall, United States Forest Service Forest Health Manager, wrote in

a paper recently that the aspen trees need to be managed more

effectively. " Because of fire suppression, coupled with lack of aspen

management until recently, the age structure regionally is strongly

skewed to old stands, " Worrall wrote. " Unless aspen stands are managed

or subjected to natural disturbance regime, they will continue to

deteriorate gradually and in most cases be replaced by conifers. "

While those things might contribute to the trees' demise, three things

seem to be finishing them off, Worrall pointed out. Those are a canker

or fungus that invades and kills the bark of weakened trees, the

poplar borer and the aspen bark beetle.

http://radio.weblogs.com/0101170/2007/09/01.html#a8929

 

10) The U.S. Forest Service has proposed a plan to mitigate the bark

beetle epidemic in three national forests, including the

Arapahoe-Roosevelt. The plan covers more than 80,000 acres of bark

beetle mitigation projects over the next five years using a variety of

treatments. The current epidemic was triggered by drought in 1997. The

infestation has occurred on 755,000 acres in northern Colorado and

southeastern Wyoming. More than 1.5 million acres of lodgepole pine in

northern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming could be affected by the

time the epidemic ends. The plan focuses treatments on portions of the

White River, Arapahoe-Roosevelt, and Medicine Bow-Routt National

Forests in Summit, Eagle, Grand, Jackson, and Routt counties and

Albany and Carbon counties in southeastern Wyoming. Other counties in

Colorado maybe included as the strategic analysis continues. None of

the proposed treatments are in wilderness areas or inventoried

roadless areas. The Arapahoe-Roosevelt is west of Fort Collins, though

the portions to be treated for bark beetle are not in Larimer County.

The Colorado congressional delegation provided an additional $2

million in 2007 to address the bark beetle issue. These funds,

combined with regional efforts, will help accelerate Forest Service

work on the beetle. To see the Seven-county Bark Beetle Mitigation

Plan go to www.fs.fed.us/r2 and click on Regional Bark Beetle

Information and see the links to the plan and maps.

http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070831/UPDATES01/70831013

 

Minnesota:

 

11) First, it was logging more than half the BWCAW, allowing aspen to

become a dominant species where pines once ruled. Then it was Smoky

Bear and the end of fires that regenerate naturally. Now exotic plant

species are creeping in. So are European earthworms, reducing leaves

on the forest floor and pushing out native wildflowers. Whitetail deer

have replaced native caribou and are growing in number, munching on

white pine faster than the trees can grow in some places. New tree

diseases and insects, most brought here by people, are taking their

toll. Global climate change may seal the deal, pushing some of the

species we associate with trips through the Boundary Waters out of the

area. Suddenly, the federal definition of wilderness, " untrammeled by

man, " loses some meaning. " We're changing it so much that you really

need to question what wilderness means, " said Frelich, who will speak

on the subject tonight at Vermilion Community College in Ely. " The

Boundary Waters (forest) as we've known it won't be here 50 years from

now. " Frelich said it's time to reconsider the official federal

" hands-off " policy of wilderness management and begin taking a

proactive role in reducing humans' impact. " What's more of a

wilderness, to have an exotic species like buckthorn take over for the

native species, or to go in there and start fires and regenerate

species that belong there? " Frelich asked. " What the wilderness is

going to look like from now on is more of a social choice than a

biological choice. Humans are impacting it every day whether they

admit it or not. "

http://boundarycountry.blogspot.com/2007/09/expert-rues-humanitys-effect-on-bwca\

w.html

 

Texas:

 

12) Most spiders are solitary creatures. So the discovery of a vast

web crawling with millions of spiders that is spreading across several

acres of a North Texas park is causing a stir among scientists, and

park visitors. Sheets of web have encased several mature oak trees and

are thick enough in places to block out the sun along a nature trail

at Lake Tawakoni State Park, near this town about 50 miles east of

Dallas. The gossamer strands, slowly overtaking a lakefront peninsula,

emit a fetid odor, perhaps from the dead insects entwined in the silk.

The web whines with the sound of countless mosquitoes and flies

trapped in its folds. Allen Dean, a spider expert at Texas A & M

University, has seen a lot of webs, but even he described this one as

" rather spooky, kind of like Halloween. " Mr. Dean and several other

scientists said they had never seen a web of this size outside of the

tropics, where the relatively few species of " social " spiders that

build communal webs are most active. Norman Horner, emeritus professor

of biology at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Tex., was

one of a number of spider experts to whom a Texas Parks and Wildlife

Department biologist sent online photos of the web. " It is amazing,

absolutely amazing, " said Dr. Horner, who at first thought it an

e-mail hoax. The web may be a combined effort of social cobweb

spiders. But their large communal webs generally take years to build,

experts say, and this web was formed in just a few months. Or it could

be a striking example of what is known as ballooning, in which

lightweight spiders throw out silk filaments to ride the air currents.

Five years ago, in just that way, a mass dispersal of millions of tiny

spiders covered 60 acres of clover field in British Columbia with

thick webbing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/31/us/31spider.html?em & ex=1188705600 & en=fbf002a0b\

b300d1f & ei=508

7%0A

 

Louisiana:

 

13) As the nation looks to invest billions in restoring coastal

Louisiana, endangered cypress stands are being clear-cut to feed an

unsustainable and unnecessary cypress mulch industry. Promoting other

effective gardening choices, like pine straw and eucalyptus mulch,

will help stop destruction of irreplaceable cypress wetlands that

provide important habitat for endangered species and valuable barriers

to flooding and hurricanes. Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Lowe's have the

ability to save endangered cypress forests. Leveraging their massive

purchasing power, they can reign in the logging operations that are

grinding the Gulf coast's natural storm protection into mulch. You can

help right now by sending a request to decision-makers at Wal-Mart,

Home Depot, and Lowe's asking them to immediately stop selling cypress

mulch products. http://www.shiftingheat.com/?p=548

 

14) Most of the 800,000 acres of cypress today are overstocked with

more trees than the site will support. Studies by the U.S. Forest

Service show that more of these trees die than are harvested annually.

Technology has improved equipment to harvest trees in swamp conditions

with minimum impact to land. Under the Louisiana Forestry Association,

best management practices that ensure sustainability have been

developed for cypress logging. In modern times, private landowners

have cared for their land and produced lumber and by-products in a

sustainable manner. By-products such as mulch are produced. Forest

operations in wetlands have been exempt from regulation under the

Clean Water Act. But a few years ago, the Corps of Engineers made

harvesting prohibitive within areas periodically flooded by a

navigable stream unless an 1899 Rivers and Harbors Act permit is

obtained. That means no matter how far from a stream a forest may be,

if it drains into a stream and falls below an unknown high-water mark,

it is considered in navigable waters. The only permit request made to

the Corps two years ago has not been acted upon yet. To understand

this, one must understand the environmental agenda intent on

" preserving " our forest. Their core belief is that, no matter the

cost, our forests should only be managed for certain abstract reasons.

They completely reject the fact that to keep a forest healthy and

productive, it is possible and necessary to harvest trees. Mortality

of cypress has been attributed to water diversion projects and

development, not timber harvesting. Look at the lower Atchafalaya for

proof. Landowners now have little incentive to keep their cypress when

regulators remove incentives to grow trees. Selling their land for

development may seem a better choice. Private landowners, not large

companies, own the majority of this land. Stopping cypress management

means encouraging a stagnant, unhealthy cypress forest. For those who

truly love the forest, beware the dangers.

http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070904/OPINION/7090403\

01/1014

 

 

New York:

 

15) The state Department of Environmental Conservation is studying

ways to convert leftover wood from logging into a biomass fuel. The

agency has a $64,000 grant from the U.S. Forest Service for a 1-year

project to evaluate whether there'd be enough potential users in and

around the Adirondack Park to make woody biomass a worthwhile energy

source. DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis says the state is looking for

innovative ways to enhance the economic and environmental health of

North Country communities. Harnessing locally grown energy sources

such as low-grade wood might be part of the answer. The program also

could help private forest land owners in the Adirondacks find new

markets for low-grade wood, contributing to a sustainable economy. The

study would focus only on private lands.

http://www.wstm.com/Global/story.asp?S=7014545

 

Canada:

 

16) Today, Grassy Narrows First Nation's Chief and community leaders

declared a moratorium on all industrial activity within their

traditional territory without community consent. The moratorium

rebukes a Provincial plan to increase clear-cut logging and asserts

that any development proposals must gain community consent and

participation. The moratorium was issued to government and industry

leaders responsible for the ongoing destruction of Grassy Narrows

traditional territory, including Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty,

Ontario Minister of Natural Resources and Aboriginal Affairs David

Ramsay, Prime Minister Steven Harper, Abitibi Consolidated,

Weyerhaeuser Corporation, and companies sourcing from the Grassy

Narrows Traditional Territory. Citing continued land management

crises, environmental destruction and human rights violations, Grassy

Narrows is the tenth Northwestern Ontario First Nation to call for a

moratorium on its traditional lands, and the first such community

located within existing logging tenures. " We have been seeking for

many years a constructive solution to this untenable situation, but

the response has always been to talk and log. We cannot sit back and

watch the demise of our way of life which disappears every time more

cutting areas are extended to Abitibi and Weyerhaeuser, " said Grassy

Narrows Council Chief Simon Fobister. The letter criticizes industry

and government officials for a pattern of broken promises. On July 13,

prompted by a one-day blockade of log trucks on the TransCanada

Highway, Ontario Aboriginal Affairs Minister David Ramsay told the CBC

that he was " certainly committed to deal with the issues that Grassy

Narrows is bringing up. " Instead, the Ministry of Natural Resources

unilaterally invited proposals for the construction or expansion of

mills that would result in increased logging within Grassy Narrows'

Ancestral Traditional Territory. " For decades the Ontario government

has assisted the corporations in annihilating the land-base which we

depend on as Aboriginal people, " explained Steve Fobister, Grassy

Narrows Band Councilor with Forests

Portfolio.http://thechristianradical.blogspot.com/2007/09/grassy-narrows-declare\

s-moratorium-an

d.html

 

EU:

 

17) Over 80 participants are taking part in the Expert Level Meeting

of the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe

opened by the Polish Minister of the Environment, Prof. Jan Szyszko.

It is the last meeting before the 5th Ministerial Conference to be

held on 5 - 7 November, 2007 in Warsaw. During the two-day debates,

the experts are to agree on the final content of the documents for the

Warsaw Ministerial Summit and the draft Ministerial Declaration and

the two theme resolutions are to be endorsed. First Warsaw Resolution

" Forests, Wood and Energy " invokes the essence of timber as en energy

resource emphasizing that energy and biomass are the issues to

dominate the political discourse on forests. During the press

conference accompanying the sessions, the Counsellor of the Mission of

Norway to the EU, Knut Oistad, emphasized that maintaining balance in

the delivery of timber and biomass by the forests with the

simultaneous protection of their resources and biodiversity will be

the main objective of European forest policy. Second Warsaw Resolution

" Forests and Water " will serve to emphasise the role of cooperation

between the forest and water sector. As highlighted by the Polish

Minister of Environment, it is necessary to gain a deeper insight in

forest water interactions, especially in terms of quality and quantity

of drinking water. The Ministerial Declaration that will be an

integral document of the November summit contains provisions

underlining the role of forests in sustainable development, combating

adverse effects of climate change and the significance of forests in

the preservation of biodiversity, their role in the increasing demand

for renewable energy and the impact of the forest management on the

protection of water resources. " I believe that it is time for the 5th

MCPFE to increase the contribution of forests in the quality of life

of the contemporary European societies and future generations " , said

Mr. Szyszko. The Report on State of Europe's Forests 2007 prepared by

the Economic Commission for Europe and the MCPFE Liaison Unit will be

presented during the 5th MCPFE. Christopher Prins of the United

Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN ECE) presented the

structure of the report during the press conference and informed of

the increase of forest areas in Europe and the employment of about 4.3

million Europeans in the forest sector.

http://www.happynews.com/news/952007/ministerial-conference-protection-european-\

forests-agrees-d

ocuments.htm

 

Austria:

 

18) Researchers at German and Austrian universities found only one

juvenile leech in birch forests near Graz, Austria, in searches from

2001-2005. Scientists had found 20 specimens, up to 4 cms (1.6 inches)

long, in the same forests in the 1960s. " Recent human-induced warming

may have led over past decades to the almost complete extinction of a

local population of this rare animal species, " they wrote in a study

to be published in the journal Naturwissenschaften. A rise in average

summer temperatures in the region of 3 Celsius (5 Fahrenheit) since

the 1960s, widely blamed on greenhouse gases from burning fossil

fuels, had apparently dried out the forests where leeches lived on

moist bark and leaves. The leeches, formally known as Xerobdella

lecomtei, were first found only in 1868 and feed on earthworms. More

studies would be needed to see if the leeches were managing to survive

in a cooler, higher region. U.N. studies say that the world may be

facing the worst wave of extinctions since the dinosaurs vanished 65

million years ago because of threats such as climate change and a loss

of habitats to cities, roads and farms. The scientists said that it

was a rare example of a species in trouble even though its habitat was

broadly intact. The one leech found died after about 10 months in a

laboratory. http://uk.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUKL0588199720070905

 

Central America:

 

19) Central America loses more than a thousand acres of woodlands per

year due to the absence of laws and coordination among entities in

charge of preserving them, ecologists stated. Marco Pastora, general

secretary of the Central American and Caribbean Environment

Commission, urged for the protection of the ecosystem in the regional

countries' constitutions, including the Dominican Republic. The

deterioration of biodiversity in the world is due to the lack of clear

policies but also the absence of consciousness on the problem, noted

the expert. Pastora recalled that Panama was the first country to

include the issue in the 1972 Constitution. According to the

ecologist, the importance of Central America in the regional

environmental balance is that it has 12 percent of biodiversity, over

250 ecosystems and 350 protected areas.

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B0B07FD73-D3C3-4917-B610-F1F0D4A84DE7%\

7D & language=EN

 

Peru:

 

20) In 2005 Peruvian officials blamed deforestation of the upper

reaches of the Amazon in the Andes for the fall in river levels, but

scientists say that larger forces are at least equally important.

Specifically, climate change is expected to melt all of Peru's

glaciers -- which are the source for as much as 50% of the water in

the upper Amazon -- by 2040 while warming and heating the Amazon

basin. Large-scale clearing of forests could worsen these effects.

Declining river levels may be an early indication of these changes.

" There are several other factors that are pushing the Amazon towards a

drier future, including fresh evidence that cattle ranches and

pastures are less capable of generating rain than the forests they

replace because they put less water vapor into the air, " said Dr.

Daniel Nepstad, a researcher at the Woods Hole Research Center and one

of the world's foremost experts on the Amazon rainforest. " On top of

these changes in the vegetation itself we have rainfall-inhibiting

smoke and the prospect of sea temperature changes--not just el Niño

which we have always known creates drought in the Amazon--but the

North Atlantic tropical anomaly like we saw in 2005 when we had record

drought and record fires in the Amazon. The likelihood of that type of

anomaly will increase with global warming. If we start to see sea

surface temperature anomalies more frequently--either el Niño or the

warming of the tropical North Atlantic (that occurred in 2005)--then

the area of tropical forest that burns could explode. " " The nightmare

scenario is one where we have a 2005-like year that extended for a

couple years, coupled with a high deforestation where we get huge

areas of burning, which would produce smoke that would further reduce

rainfall, worsening the cycle, " Nepstad continued. " A situation like

this is very possible. While some climate modelers point to the end of

the century for such a scenario, our own field evidence coupled with

aggregated modeling suggests there could be such a dieback within two

decades. " http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0904-amazon.html

 

Guyana:

 

21) Guyana, one of the most corrupt countries in Latin America, is

noted especially for links to the illegal drug trade. Guyana has a

particular reputation for money laundering and, given that trade in

timber accounts for much of Guyana's official export earnings, it is

likely that at least some of that trade is associated with money

laundering. The unit prices cited in the ITTO's fortnightly " Tropical

Timber Market Report " indicate that the difference between the unit

prices for Guyana's log exports are remarkably small relative to unit

prices for equivalent products exported from other producer countries.

The difference might well be attributable to transfer pricing fraud.

Given that, during 2005, logs account for almost all India's (and half

of China's) timber imports from Guyana, and that India and China

(primarily India) account for more than half of Guyana's log exports,

India and China may well be complicit in such fraud. The loss of

export revenue attributable to transfer pricing fraud might amount to

US$ 10mi during 2005. That amount represents some 2% of Guyana's

export revenue (of US$ 500 million, roughly half of which was then

attributable to gold, diamonds and sugar, and a further 10% to

timber). One might expect that such a large percentage in lost revenue

would prompt donors to at least claim to be applying effective

pressure on the government of Guyana to substantially reduce those

losses. Logs, sawn wood, and plywood accounted for approximately 40%,

30%, and 20% of the RWE volume of Guyana's timber exports during 2005.

During early 2006, Guyana's largest timber enterprise, Barama,

received an FSC certificate pertaining to the management of 570,000ha

of its forest concessions. This FSC certificate was withdrawn later in

2006 after it became apparent that Barama had failed to comply with

improvements required to maintain that certificate.

http://guyanaforestryblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/guyana-one-of-most-corrupt-countr\

ies-in.html

 

Columbia:

 

22) The Colombian government is embarking on a massive expansion of

oil palms, sugar cane and other monocultures for agrofuels and other

markets at the expense of rainforests, biodiverse grasslands and local

communities... Palm oil expansion is linked to large-scale rainforest

destruction and to serious violence and human rights abuses. NGOs have

documented 113 killings in the river basin of Curvaradó and

Jiguamiandó, in Chocó region at the hands of paramilitaries who are

working with plantation companies to take over land which legally

belongs to Afro-Colombian communities... The Chocó forests which are

being destroyed by palm oil expansion are some of the largest

remaining coastal lowland rainforests on the Earth and are amongst the

most biodiverse forests on Earth. They are home to 7,000 to 8,000

species, including 2,000 endemic plant species and 100 endemic bird

species. Even before the current palm oil and agrofuel expansion, 66%

had been destroyed. Please write to the Colombian government and ask

them to protect the rights of indigenous, Afro-Colombian and peasant

communities affected by large-scale monoculture plantations, to stop

further deforestation for oil palm plantations, impose a moratorium on

further palm oil expansion and on the country's biofuel programme,

which is a major cause of monoculture expansion, and to protect the

land rights, the food sovereignty and the environment on which local

communities depend. This email alert is supported by the Inter-Church

Commission for Justice and Peace (Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y

Paz) in Colombia.

http://www.rainforestportal.org/alerts/send.asp?id=colombia_biofuel

 

Chile:

 

23) After more than 15 years of delay and revision, a law offering

limited protection for Chile's native forests was finally approved by

the Senate Tuesday. The vote was unanimous, 35-0. " Never before has

legislation been pending for such a long time, " said Juan Antonio

Coloma, president of the Senate's Commission of Agriculture. Most

analysts attribute the 15-year delay to a strong lobby by Chile's

politically powerful forestry company lobby, led by the Matte and

Angelini business conglomerates. The new Forestry Law will now be

debated in the House of Deputies, and is likely to pass with little

modification by the end of the year. Critics like Sen. Alejandro

Navarro, however, say that the legislation is only a small step

forward, and that many amendments are needed to make the law stronger

and more complete. The current version of the law is divided into nine

chapters, with 66 permanent and five temporary articles. It contains

26 definitions, as basic as defining a tree or a forest. The

legislation also categorizes native species in terms of their possible

use: preservation, conservation and protection, and multiple use. The

law also addresses forest management plans, norms for environmental

protection, conservation funds, restoration and sustainable management

incentives, resources for further research, and the establishment of

an Advisory Council presided by the minister of agriculture. The law

was significantly shortened recently to expedite approval and fails to

address several important issues, including protection of sites where

biodiversity is particularly vulnerable. Sen. Navarro, who boycotted

the law's inaugural ceremony on Monday, said the current version of

the law is not good since it lacks strong environmental provisions and

enforcement mechanisms. " This is a law which should enforce the

preservation of native forests, but it is based on a weak penalty

system, " said Sen. Navarro. " Roughly 97 percent of the fines which

Conaf [the National Forestry Service] hands out are not paid … Conaf

does not have the capacity needed to maintain such a system. Passing

this law is the equivalent of putting cops on the streets with toy

guns. " http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/2904.cfm

 

 

Mynamar:

 

 

24) If the market of Mong La is anything to go by, the remaining wild

elephants, tigers and bears in Myanmar's forests are being hunted down

slowly and sold to China. Nestled in hills in a rebel-controlled

enclave on the Chinese border, the " Las Vegas in the jungle " casino

town is clearly branching out from narcotics and prostitution into the

illegal wildlife business. Besides row upon row of fruit, vegetables

and cheap plastic sandals, the market offers a grisly array of animal

parts, as well as many live specimens, to the hundreds of Chinese

tourists who flock across the border each day. Bear paws and gall

bladders, elephant tusks and chunks of hide, tiger and leopard skins,

as well as big cat teeth and deer horn are all openly on display next

to crudely welded cages of live macaques, cobras, Burmese star

tortoises and pangolins. The live creatures, some of them on the IUCN

Conservation Union's " Red List " of critically endangered species, are

destined for the cooking pots of exotic animal restaurants in China's

neighboring Yunnan province, or further afield. Food stalls in the

market openly advertise dishes of pangolin or black bear. The body

parts -- some of which will not be real, given the ease with which a

pig bladder can be passed off as that of a bear -- will either be

ground up for traditional medicine, worn as amulets or simply hung on

the wall as trophies. " Burma is being raped in terms of its natural

resources -- trees, plants and animals. They've got to get a hold of

the situation quickly before it becomes a barren ground, " said Steven

Galster, Bangkok-based director of the Wildlife Alliance.

http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=83309

 

Sumatra:

 

25) We choose Oil palm plantations instead of orangutans, quick bucks

over later losses. Even as their limited habitats are destroyed, they

cling precariously to life. From a once-mighty orange army of 300,000

their numbers have dwindled to 25,000 concentrated on the two

Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Conservationists fear that

without action, the orang-utans – one of the four great apes along

with gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos, have just 10 to 15 years left

in the wild. Their only home lies high above the ground in tropical

rainforest trees, where Illegal logging, fires and clearances are

competing to destroy their habitats. Almost totally dependent on

trees, the animals survive on a mostly fruit-based diet supplemented

by bark, flowers, leaves and insects. Extremely slow to breed, the

inter-birth cycle in orang-utans takes up to eight years, limiting

females to three or four offspring during their 45-year life span. The

Tanjung Putting Park, is a 410,000-hectare nature reserve that is home

to perhaps 6,000 orang-utans (nobody knows for sure) along with

proboscis monkeys, gibbons, macaques and crocodiles. Even its

sheltered area has been in filtered by illegal loggers. Incessant

human demand and greed is consuming most of the reserved forest areas.

Bald patches of cleared jungle can be seen recurrently, guards posted

along the river patrol for illegal logging and poaching even as some

are conspiring with the illegal loggers. Also valuable forest

hardwood, including teak and mahogany is often sold to finance the

plantations. The main culprit seems to be clearing land for palm oil

plantations.

http://www.greendiary.com/entry/are-we-looking-at-the-extinction-of-orangutans-i\

n-the-wild/

 

Borneo:

 

26) You would think Takeshi Arizono of Japan would have returned to

his country of origin upon completing his doctoral studies at

Mulawarman University (Unmul) in Samarinda, East Kalimantan. No.

Takeshi, who graduated from the doctoral program at Unmul's School of

Forestry in October 2006 wants to apply his knowledge within the

country, particularly in East Kalimantan. " I want to share my learning

with friends who want it, " said Takeshi, who is now a guest researcher

working at Borneo University in Tarakan, also in East Kalimantan.

" There are many pieces of equipment at Borneo University's laboratory,

but not too many people know how to use them, " said Takeshi in fluent

Bahasa Indonesia. " My research aims to prepare manuals on standard

operational procedures for analytical equipment, " he said. He said one

of the reasons he decided to study at Unmul was his interest in the

damage to the tropical forest in Indonesia, which has received wide

coverage in Japan. " It's also my wish to know more about the damage

done to tropical forests, especially in Kalimantan, and to learn how

to solve those problems, " he said. According to Takeshi, as Japan is

an importer of timber from Indonesia it has to share some

responsibility for the destruction of tropical forests here. For his

doctoral dissertation, Takeshi looked into various methods of forest

regeneration carried out by small communities in Kalimantan. Forests,

according to Takeshi, can't be restored just through the actions of

government or companies. Any reforestation work has to involve local

communities. He said more than 10 years ago there were many timber

companies, both legal and illegal, operating in Kalimantan's forests

and now that much of that forest had gone only legitimate operators

stayed on. " Consequently the prospects of maintaining a forestry

school are still bright, " he said. " Another reason why I took my

studies at Unmul was because Kalimantan is the center of the tropical

forest region. " The forestry faculty at Unmul should become an icon of

the university as it was some years ago. Kalimantan still needs

reliable forest technicians to develop the timber business and to help

forest conservation. "

http://www.thejakartapost.com/misc/PrinterFriendly.asp

 

27) An Associated Press team spent several days touring Borneo's palm

oil heartland in central Kalimantan province, visiting areas where

workers were opening up thick jungle land to extend existing

plantations or create new ones. The status of the land was not clear,

but massive trees were among those being cut, in some cases workers

had piled up the valuable timber by the side of the road, presumably

awaiting transport to sell them. At one plantation owned by a

subsidiary of Singapore-based Wilmar International Ltd. police had

taped off several large logs, suggesting they were being used as part

of an investigation. The company, which has been accused by Friends of

the Earth of bad environmental practice on Borneo, said it does not

clear " high value rain forests " for development but will sometimes

clear trees on degraded land. Environmentalists say the booming

biofuels market -- oil palm is presently the world's most productive

energy crop -- is driving the rapid destruction of Indonesia's

dwindling rainforests. The UN estimates that agricultural expansion

and logging could destroy 98 percent of orangutan habitat by 2022.

While the Indonesian government says it prohibits plantations in

virgin forests, it has had little success reigning in developers.

Corruption at the provincial and village level is also rampant. Oil

palm can be grown in degraded forest areas, but developers prefer to

clear forest because the logging revenue can offset the costs of

establishing a plantation. Because oil palms take 2-4 years to start

producing oilseed used for palm oil biodiesel, plantations have

relatively large up-front costs. Western governments are increasingly

wary about the unsustainably of oil palm cultivation in peatlands --

carbon-rich wetlands -- and biodiverse forest lands. Early this year

the Dutch government issued a set of guidelines for " greener " palm oil

production. Industry groups are also responding, developing their own

certification standards for " sustainable " biofuels.

http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0902-oil_palm.html

 

Indonesia:

 

28) Luwuk, Central Sulawesi - The habitat of the endangered

macrocephalon maleo (maleo bird) in Banggai district has been reduced

to 625 hectares of the 12,500 ha wildlife reserve set by the Forest

Ministry in 1982, an official has said. " Rampant illegal logging in

the past two decades had caused a e significant decrease in the

habitat of the bird which is on the brink of extinction, " Banggai

district forestr and plantation office head Djalal Yunus said here

Sunday. Irresponsible people opened forests in Bakiriang area

recklessly for cacao, coffee and other food crop plantations and sold

logs to people outside Bakiriang forests, he said. To make thing

worse, around 1,000 people have lived in the Bakiriang wildlife

reserve in the past years. " According to an investigation by the

Banggai district administration, in 2003 the number of people living

in the protected reached only 300, " Djalal said. He criticised the

local administration for letting an oil palm plantation company PT

Kurnia Luwuk Sejati to operate in 600 ha of land. Meanwhile, Banggai

customary people forum head Hideo Amir asked the forestry ministry to

take precautionary steps to save the Bakiriang wildlife reserve from

total distruction as well as take stern action against tree fellers

and irresponsible people including officials who had been selling

plots of land since the United Nations Educational, Scientific and

Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has given special attention to the

wildlife reserve.

http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2007/9/3/habitat-of-endangered-maleo-bird-in-c-su\

lawesi-rapidly-s

hrinking/

 

Australia:

 

29) The desperate fight to save Victoria's Murray River red gums has

opened a new battle front in increasingly bitter water wars. On one

side are the thirsty giants that line the river from Lake Hume to the

South Australian border and those who would save them. On the other

are farmers, irrigators and small timber communities that co-exist

with the forests but compete with them for water. A win for the

environmentalists will see much of the riverfront declared national

park and those who make their livelihoods there locked out. Several

small communities in the state's north are predicted to collapse as a

result. But, if the farmers and communities win, hundreds of thousands

of trees may be left to die. With winter rains failing to reach

average falls across most of the state, La Nina weather patterns in

retreat and a bleak outlook for spring rains, the fight for red gums

has suddenly intensified. In a draft report released last month, the

council recommended the State Government increase the national parks

on the Victorian side of the Murray by 100,000 hectares. It wants

cattle grazing, timber felling, camping and firewood collection within

the reserves banned or regulated. " The benefits of the proposed

recommendations would accrue mostly to people outside the area,

especially in Melbourne, while the costs would be largely borne within

the area, particularly near where public-land timber harvesting and

grazing are focused, " the report noted. " The towns of Cohuna,

Koondrook, Nathalia and Picola are likely to be most sensitive to

these effects. " The report also recommends that riverine wetlands be

flooded every five years with 4000 gigalitres of water bought by the

State Government from the irrigation system.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/warring-parties-turn-their-sights-on-rive\

r-red-gums/2007/

09/01/1188067438628.html The New South Wales National Parks

Association is launching a legal challenge to the logging of state

forests along the Murray River. Red gum forests attract more than

20,000 water birds and include extensive wetland areas down the Murray

River. The executive Officer of the NSW National Parks Association

(NPA), Andrew Cox, says the trees are crucial to the health of the

Murray and its wildlife.

http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/04/2023228.htm

 

30) A young performance artist who appeared high in the trees of an

old-growth forest as an angel is being prosecuted for damages. With

feathered wings outstretched and long white robes flowing, Allana

Beltran's performance had her perched high on a tripod at the entrance

to Forestry Tasmania's tourist attraction, Tahune Airwalk, for 10

hours in March. She was later found guilty of trespass and released on

a good behaviour bond. Her character, the Weld Angel, is named after a

nearby valley where protests against old-growth logging have continued

for three years. The Weld Angel's fame spread when she was used as the

illustration for novelist Richard Flanagan's recent article on the

forests and the timber company Gunns Ltd in The Monthly magazine. The

article is credited with sparking the conversion of businessman

Geoffrey Cousins, who started a campaign against the approval of Gunns

pulp mill. But police yesterday served the Hobart-based former Sydney

College of the Arts student with a writ, claiming compensation on

behalf of it and Forestry Tasmania. Ms Beltran said the writ sought

police wage costs of $2870, and $6198 in lost revenue for the state

timber agency. It called for the matter to be heard in the Hobart

Court of Petty Sessions on October 4.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/police-sue-angel-of-the-trees/2007/09/04/\

1188783237588.h

tml

 

31) Managed. A tricky word. Particularly in Tasmania, where the

stunning trees that peer down on the visitor are often just a façade,

forestry rarely means looking after forests. The façade cheers and

appeases the tourist. But behind lies a battlefield. 'Look carefully

behind the tree line', the bus driver advised me. A field of ruins

just a few metres from the glorious canopy on the side of the road.

Logging roads pierced the forest, and it was then that I also noticed

the logging trucks. One, two, three of them. 'Sixty, seventy of them,

every day!', the driver was outraged. Yes, they were taking the forest

away. 'They normally don't touch the trees close to the highways', an

officer explained at a visitors' centre, with a smile that was half

embarrassment and half revelation. 'Yes', confirmed a parks officer,

'In the Styx Valley you see 400 year-old trees, up to 80 metres high,

being felled. It's heartbreaking'. 'And what about the Northern

forests, those that are threatened by the pulp mill in the Tamar

Valley?' I ask him. 'The Northern forests are stunning … so much

beauty,' he sighed. Tasmania's forests are being eaten away. A thought

started to haunt me. Tasmania is like Soviet Siberia. The comparison

might prompt a smile. And yet there is a deep and utterly disturbing

truth about it. For Tasmania today is a land without politics. No real

left or right, no Liberal or Labor parties. What one finds in Tasmania

is a powerful economic bureaucracy that lives off the destruction of

unique and priceless natural treasures. Apparatchiks are called

politicians. A careless administration with no vision and no mission

is engaged in politics. Short-sighted greed can be called public

interest. http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=3435

 

32) Australian scientists are training foresters in neighbouring APEC

countries to use the Australian Greenhouse Office's National Carbon

Accounting Toolbox (NCAT) to assess carbon sequestration in native and

plantation forests. Ensis scientist, Dr Trevor Booth, says that while

tree planting projects can offset some of the increasing carbon

dioxide emissions caused by human activity, measuring tree growth and

carbon storage require some skill – particularly where large

reforestation projects are involved. " The aim is to use the NCAT to

assist countries including; China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Papua New

Guinea and the Philippines, to establish forest-based carbon trading

or offset projects which should benefit their longer term national

economic outlook and their poor, " Dr Booth says. " Australia is largely

on track to meet its notional Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gas emissions

target almost entirely due to trees, " Dr Booth says. " Reducing

clearing of forests and woodlands for agriculture is offsetting most

of the increases in emissions from power stations, while increases in

plantation growth are largely offsetting increases in emissions due to

transport. We know this thanks to Australia's National Carbon

Accounting System (NCAS), which was developed by the Australian

Greenhouse Office (AGO) in collaboration with CSIRO. "

http://www.sciencealert.com.au/features/20070409-16297.html

 

World-wide:

 

33) In reviewing the literature on soil erosion, references to the

" loss of protective vegetation " occur again and again. Over the last

half-century, we have removed so much of that protective cover by

clearcutting, overgrazing, and overplowing that we are fast losing

soil accumulated over long stretches of geological time. Eliminating

these excesses and the resultant decline in the earth's biological

productivity depends on a worldwide effort to restore the earth's

vegetative cover, an effort that is now underway in some countries.

The 1930s " Dust Bowl " that threatened to turn the U.S. Great Plains

into a vast desert was a traumatic experience that led to

revolutionary changes in U.S. agricultural practices, including the

planting of tree shelterbelts -- rows of trees planted beside fields

to slow wind and thus reduce wind erosion -- and strip-cropping, the

planting of wheat on alternate strips with fallowed land each year.

Strip-cropping permits soil moisture to accumulate on the fallowed

strips, while the alternating planted strips reduce wind speed and

hence erosion on the idled land. In 1985, the U.S. Congress, with

strong support from the environmental community, created the

Conservation Reserve Programme (CRP) to reduce soil erosion and

control overproduction of basic commodities. By 1990 there were some

14 million hectares of highly erodible land in permanent vegetative

cover under 10-year contracts. Under this programme, farmers were paid

to plant fragile cropland to grass or trees. The retirement of 14

million hectares under the CRP, together with the use of conservation

practices on 37 percent of all cropland, reduced U.S. soil erosion

from 3.1 billion tonnes to 1.9 billion tonnes during the 15 years from

1982 to 1997. The U.S. approach to controlling soil erosion by both

converting highly erodible cropland back to grassland or trees and

adopting soil conservation practices offers a model for the rest of

the world. The conversion of cropland to non-farm uses is often beyond

the control of farmers, but the losses of soil and eroded land from

severe erosion are not. Lowering soil losses caused by wind and water

erosion below the gains in new soil formed by natural processes will

take an enormous worldwide effort. Preserving the biological

productivity of highly erodible cropland depends on planting it in

grass or trees before it becomes wasteland.

http://ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=38486

34) Goldman Sachs and other large financial firms are exploring the

feasibility of establishing elaborate biodiversity offset and banking

schemes. The basic idea is to develop a market-based approach to

addressing the impacts of expanding economic development on

biodiversity. Landowners would be able to earn credits for creating

sites that maintain or improve biodiversity. Developers would then

purchase those credits from a central register and use the credits to

offset the negative impact of development on biodiversity. Biobanking

is of great interest in Brazil and Peru, the world's two most

biodiverse countries. Slowing deforestation in the Amazon is an

enormous challenge for both countries. Obtaining credits for avoiding

deforestation and the corresponding reduction of greenhouse gas

emissions could help them to preserve biodiversity and slow climate

change. China is also showing interest in the concept, given its rich

biodiversity, extreme environmental degredation, and plans for yet

more massive urbanization--the creation of new cities at a rate and on

a scale never before seen.

http://chinaconfidential.blogspot.com/2007/08/is-biobanking-next-big-thing.html

 

35) Every day that we do nothing, overseas suppliers to our industry

will illegally strip more than 100,000 acres of old growth forest. By

not being familiar with the illegal practices of those suppliers,

primarily the ones in the Far East, you may be unwittingly doing

irreparable harm to the world's forest and supporting one of the

greatest environmental disasters of this or any other time. Ten

thousand years ago, half of the Earth's surface was covered with

trees. Today, there are only about 10 billion acres of forest left on

the planet. And, of those that remain, about 3 billion acres are

moderately to severely depleted. With illegal logging practices

becoming commonplace in many countries around the world, it is more

important than ever to find ways to bring equilibrium to an industry

wrought with chaos and corruption. Illegal harvesting procedures are

defined as those using corrupt means to gain access to area forests,

extraction without permission or from a protected area, the cutting of

protected species or the extraction of timber in excess of agreed

limits. In addition, most outlaw loggers do not make the necessary

attempts to regenerate the areas they pillage, damaging these sections

of land permanently. It is estimated that illegal timber trade

comprises over a tenth of the global timber market worth more than

$150 billion a year. It is likely that at least half of all logging

activities in particularly vulnerable regions—the Amazon Basin,

Central Africa, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Rim and the Russian

Federation—is illegal. Illegal logging represents a major loss of

revenue and a major cause of irreparable environmental damage.

Countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia and Congo report

billions of dollars in lost revenue each year due to illegal logging

practices. In many of these countries, illegal logging could destroy

all local forests in as early as 10 years.

http://www.floorbiz.com/BizNews/NPViewArticle.asp?cmd=view & articleid=2385