Guest guest Posted October 17, 2007 Report Share Posted October 17, 2007 Today for you 35 new articles about earth's trees! (244th edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com . --British Columbia: 1) Caribou extinction agreement, 2) Betty speaking out again, --Washington: 3) GE rabbit trees will take over a toxic world by asorbing our toxins --Oregon: 4) Horse logging for wildlife --California: 5) Tens of thousands of mining claims filed in beautiful wild places, --Montana: 6) Landowners team up for Conservation --Colorado: 7) Setbacks for giant Wolf creek development --Wisconsin: 8) There's been a shift in the entire ecosystem --Florida: 9) Forest defender opposes wetland restoration --Canada: 10) More on Grassy Narrows, --Bulgaria: 11) Eco-activist's tie people to trees to protest treecutting --Hungary: 12) Saving eight-million year-old cypress trees --Congo: 13) Pygmies go to Washington DC, 14) Virunga National is a World Heritage Site, 15) Massive logging in Congo, 16) Illiterate now use GPS to save forests, --Namibia: 17) Sustainably develop and utilize our forest? --Guyana: 18) President call for forest protection? --Brazil: 19) Deforestation begins on a much larger scale with this year's fires --Costa Rica: 20) Debt for Nature with USA and Nature Conservancy --Jamaica: 21) Heavy flooding due to deforestation is killing and evicting people --Chile: 22) Annual Mapuche protests --India: 23) Forest officers stealing trees, 24) Ban on Green Felling, --Brunei: 25) committing 75% of its rainforest to the Heart of Borneo Project --Philippines: 26) Suspending the cutting of trees in mining areas --Sarawak: 27) Timber is scarce while villagers restore forests --Malaysia: 28) Creating plantations in the 1.5 million hectare Bakun Catchment --Sumatra: 29) Last undisturbed forest --Indonesia: 30) Illegal logging in Riau, 31) Orphaned by Palm Oil, 32) Aceh thieves, --New Zealand: 33) Land at the center of anti-terror raids, 34) Convicted of cutting the wrong trees on his own land, 35) Sustainable logging means eliminating ¼ of the forest, British Columbia: 1) Of the 2.2 million hectares, 380,000 hectares, or 17%, will be newly protected forest. " Spread over the mountain caribou range of about 14.3 million hectares, that isn't a lot of improvement, " says Craig Pettitt, a director of Valhalla Wilderness Watch. " It means a whole lot of mountain caribou forest can be logged. And where is the new protection located? " Until a detailed map showing the location of newly protected forest is released, we don't know what the mountain caribou is getting. It could be one of the biggest green hoaxes in the history of planning in BC. " The plan contains $136,000 in subsidies to snowmobile clubs to do public education and monitoring so they can keep roaring around in mountain caribou habitat in a more educated way. " The previous draft of the plan was based mostly upon killing nine different species of wildlife, including all the large carnivore species in the planning area " says Anne Sherrod, a director of Valhalla Wilderness Watch. " This is still in the plan. Killing off predator populations causes terrible damage to ecosystems; and once again, where are the details? Are they still planning to increase killing of other species at risk -the grizzly bears and wolverines? " - " The government's announcement focuses on protection of winter mountain caribou habitat, " says Pettitt. " That means high-elevation forest of little worth to logging companies. This suggests that a large amount of lush low- and mid-elevation old-growth forest may have been traded off to the logging companies in return for preserving forest that the caribou can use only one season of the year. Without four-season habitat, the mountain caribou will continue to disappear. The mountain caribou has been a victim of planning hoaxes for years, " says Sherrod. " That's why Valhalla Wilderness Watch and many other environmental groups need to see the details of this plan, to scrutinize exactly what it means for the caribou. The ten environmental groups that are now in partnership with the government and these collaborating vested interests can't very well provide that scrutiny. " This has come as a real shock because this is the first time that a BC government has decided who will represent the environmental movement. " http://wildernesswatch (AT) netidea (DOT) com 2) It's the same kind of legalities that are used to toss poor people out of substandard housing. " Krawczyk draws a connection between the endangered species being displaced at Eagleridge Bluffs, and street people in Vancouver being denied social housing in favour of new condominium construction projects. " It's like the homeless people on the downtown eastside. We're destroying their habitat. Where are they going to live? They're like the spotted owl, an endangered species. It's all the same, " she says. I ask her why she thinks she was put in jail, and for so long. " Because I challenged a judge's order. It's about the judges -- they can do whatever they want. " The arrest of Krawczyk and others at Eagleridge Bluffs followed a pattern becoming quite familiar to protesters in B.C. The penalties for disobeying a court injunction are much heavier than for misdemeanour crimes like trespassing. Once a firm has wrangled a court injunction against direct action protest methods such as blocking a road or swarming a bulldozer, activists who disobey the injunction are seen by judges to be directly challenging the very authority of the courts. That is why Krawczyk served more time for her protesting than do many criminals who steal or assault. Krawczyk wants to argue in Supreme Court that use of commercial injunctions is an unconstitutional method of squelching dissent. If she wins, the decision would change the way protests are carried out, and snuffed out, in British Columbia. Krawczyk has a long history of activism that has spanned over decades and across borders. She is an American by birth, and first got involved with the fight to desegregate her children's school in Louisiana in the '60s, and was an outspoken agitator during the civil rights movement. She became an avid protester during the Vietnam War, and her list of complaints against her government grew even longer when she saw the Southern Wetlands become desecrated by commercial development. She was married three times, and had eight children. After her third marriage " bit the dust, " she headed north to Canada, where she purchased land near Tofino, and one of sons built her an A-frame house, where she lived happily until the logging began at Clayoquot. " You could only get there by boat, " she says nostalgically. " I had always craved the wilderness, I was raised in the wilderness. I feel an affinity. " She started to write a book about what she described as the " wildly beautiful, " and began to meditate on all her prior activism. http://thetyee.ca/News/2007/10/11/BettyKrawczyk/ Washington: 3) In the UW project, a gene from a rabbit is added to the poplar's DNA. The gene contains the instructions for an enzyme that breaks down pollutants. A very similar enzyme naturally exists in the plant, but scientists have not been able to isolate the poplar's version in order to boost its production. " It's a beautiful thing that a rabbit gene is perfectly readable by a plant. Look at how connected life is, " said Sharon Doty, a professor with the UW's College of Forest Resources. She's the lead author of the poplar research published Monday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. " It's a beautiful thing, " she said. " I don't think it's something to fear. " Others are not so smitten. The trees could prevent the need for digging up tons of soil or pumping out millions of gallons of water for treatment and disposal. They naturally render a list of cancer-causing pollutants -- benzene, trichloroethylene (TCE), vinyl chloride, chloroform -- non-toxic. But while the poplars could benefit cleanup projects, they raise a multitude of ecological and ethical concerns. Many people are worried about transgenic organisms, in which a gene from one species is inserted into another, whether it's corn that produces a pig vaccine or a soybean that makes its own pesticide. There are concerns that mutant plants could spread, entering the food supply and threatening human health. Or they could interbreed with normal plants, transferring herbicide resistance to weeds, for example. No one can predict all of the potential side effects of a new gene on the host plant or other plants and animals. When it comes to the pollution-consuming poplars, " it's really a question of trading some of the unknown risks of planting genetically modified trees with the positive environmental benefits, " said Andrew Light, a UW professor of philosophy and public affairs. " It's commendable to be thinking about finding ways to reverse some of the pollution that has been caused in the past, but in doing so we have to make sure we don't cause new problems at the same time, " said Doug Gurian-Sherman, a Washington, D.C.-based senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists. " There are a lot of unknowns here, " he said. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/335572_transgenic16.html?source=mypi Oregon: 4) Hoffman Horse Works, owned by Blake Hoffman, and Kingfisher Natural Resource Contractors LLC, owned by Russell Macal, have been hired to help thin out several patches of crowded forest at the William L. Finley Wildlife Refuge south of Corvallis. Wildlife biologists overseeing the project chose a horse-logging operation because the animals do far less damage in the woods than heavy logging machinery, which can seriously compact the soil and rip up vegetation. On Thursday, they were working on a patch of Douglas fir crowding out a stand of ancient oaks near the Fiechter House on the property. " It's real low impact, " said refuge wildlife biologist Jock Beall. " The way we're extracting them is finessing the trees out so as to not damage the oak crowns. " Biologists want to keep the land relatively undamaged and hope to restore oak woodlands and savannah on the refuge. The long-term project at the refuge may take years to complete, as crowded smaller firs and other trees are removed to give more sunlight to century-old oaks that dot the property. The logs taken from the current operation are going to be used by the Marys River Watershed Council for stream habitat restoration near Wren. Macal has been working with Hoffman for more than two years, and although it's physically tougher to work with horses rather than operating big machines to move logs, it's worth the effort. " We're just an alternative, a way that you can do a selective harvest and try to keep the sustaining forest, " Macal said. " A lot of people like that it's low impact. You'll hear saws but you won't hear heavy equipment back here. " Many of Hoffman's horses are rescues, considered problem horses by previous owners. http://www.dailytidings.com/2007/1016/stories/1016_valley_logging.php California; 5) Claims are even being sold on EBay - More than 21,300 mining claims have been staked within 10 miles of California's national parks and monuments and federal wilderness and roadless areas, according to an analysis of U.S. Bureau of Land Management records released Monday. The claims, which have risen by more than one-third in the last four years. Nearly 11,400 claims have been staked within 10 miles of roadless areas in the Tahoe, Stanislaus and Humboldt-Toiyabe national forests, with more than 4,600 in the last four years. Nearly 1,500 of the claims are located within the boundaries of roadless areas. There are also 41 near the Giant Sequoia National Monument. In California and across the West, mining claims have skyrocketed in the last five years, driven by a boom in the global price of gold, copper, uranium and other metals. The rising demand, particularly from China and other developing nations, has spurred interest in reopening abandoned mining sites. With its open pits, acid drainage, and air and water pollution, mining is the dirtiest of all resource developments, accounting for more Superfund toxic cleanup sites than any other industry. It also requires vast amounts of water for the processing of metal ore at a time when shortages are plaguing California and other western states. The revival of hard rock mining also comes at a time when Congress is grappling with how to revise the General Mining Law of 1872 -- a statute virtually unchanged since it was signed by President Grant. " If just a handful of these thousands of claims already staked turn into major mines, it could have devastating impacts on California's national treasures, " said Dusty Horwitt, public lands analyst at the Environmental Working Group, the Washington-based nonprofit that issued the report. Federally designated roadless areas, including the watersheds that replenish the drinking water in many California cities, are also affected. Most of the claims will never become mines, Horwitt acknowledged. " But with the price of gold rising so rapidly, deposits that might not have been economically mined could become much more attractive, " he said. " Once a claim is staked, there is very little land managers can do to prevent mining. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-mining16oct16,1,5150053.sto\ ry?ctrack=1 & cse t=true Montana: 6) Houses have marched up the hillside west of the Rimel place. Just across the way from the gate that marks the entrance to the Line Ranch, the countryside has sprouted big fine homes in a subdivision called Mansion Heights. Some call it progress. And it looked like that progress would surely someday swallow up the pastures and timber that had been home to the Line and Rimel families for decades. But something happened along the way. These two families didn't forget their long history with the land. They didn't forget the friendships that went back a generation. They didn't forget their roots. For years now, they've talked about the future of their land with each other. They wondered if their small ranching operations could survive against the urban pressures that were knocking on their doors. They understood their fate was tied together, one family to the other. " The families have been together up here for a very long time, " Rimel said. " We've had our differences, but we've always cooperated with each other. It didn't make sense for one to preserve their property and not the other. " On Monday, Five Valleys Land Trust announced that the Line Family Partnership and John Rimel and his sister, Whitney, had decided to seek bargain-sale conservation easements that would forever protect their properties from development. Last week, Dick and Joyce M. Hayden donated a conservation easement to Five Valleys Land Trust on 425 acres that lie between the Line and Rimel properties. Put all of the properties together and they effectively draw a nearly two-mile-long line - 1,000 acres - across Missoula's South Hills that would be off-limits to subdivision and sprawl. " It's up to the community now, " said Five Valleys executive director Wendy Ninteman. " Do we want to draw a line for open space, agriculture and wildlife in the South Hills? From our perspective, this is it. It's now or never for the South Hills. " Ninteman said the proposal is the best example of neighborhood conservation she's ever seen. Late last week, Missoula's City Open Space Advisory Committee toured the properties. On Thursday, it will make its recommendation on whether the city should allocate about $1.16 million of funds from the 2006 open space bond. http://missoulian.com/articles/2007/10/16/news/top/news01.txt Colorado: 7) Separate Court Rulings Go Against Massive Development in Wolf Creek - Development that would threaten critical wildlife habitat, watersheds, and existing local businesses in Wolf Creek, Colorado has been staved off in two key legal victories. On September 20, the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld a ruling by the District Court that threw out zoning approval for the project. The Court stated that the Mineral County Board of Commissioners " abused its discretion in granting final approval, because the record contains no evidence of year-around access to the state highway system at the time of final approval. " Currently, the area's only connection to the state highway system is a one-lane gravel road maintained by the Forest Service that is closed for most of the year because of snow, which can pile ten feet high during the winter. The $1 billion " Village " as the developers, Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture (LMJV), have called it, would include 2,100 residential and commercial buildings, house approximately 10,000 people, provide parking for 4,500 vehicles and require the creation of two power plants and a wastewater treatment plant. A separate ruling on October 4 by Colorado's District Court extended the Preliminary Injunction that has prevented road construction in the area since last fall. The roads would have been created through the Rio Grande National Forest, which surrounds the land proposed for development. The Judges Order found various inconsistencies with the Forest Service's decision to grant permission to build roads for the development. The Court also addressed the plaintiff's dual claims that an improper relationship developed between the Forest Service's environmental impact statement (EIS) contractor and the developers, and that the Forest Service failed to properly investigate the relationship or include evidence of it in the administrative record. http://www.friendsofwolfcreek.org or http://www.coloradowild.org Wisconsin: 8) " There's been a shift in the entire ecosystem, " said Schulte, whose research has recently been published in the journal Landscape Ecology. For the study, Schulte, along with Laura Merrick of Iowa State; David Mladenoff of the University of Wisconsin, Madison; and Thomas Crow and David Cleland of the U.S. Forest Service, took forest composition information as described in the Public Land Survey from the mid-1800s and compared it with today's forests. She found that none of the areas surveyed _ from Minnesota to Wisconsin to Michigan _ have the same tree species makeup as they did 200 years ago. " This system was made up of largely conifers with some deciduous trees, and now we have the opposite, " she said. Conifers -- mostly pines and other evergreens -- have gotten more scarce while deciduous trees such as aspen, birch and maple have taken their place. Trees in today's forests also tend to be smaller. " Our analysis shows a distinct and rapid trajectory of vegetation change toward historically unprecedented and simplified conditions, " Schulte's published paper says. " In addition to overall loss of forestland, current forests are marked by lower species diversity, functional diversity and structural complexity compared with pre-Euro-American forests. " The changes have come from several stresses on the ecosystem including pests, diseases, timber harvest and high populations of white-tailed deer, which feed on young trees, according to Schulte. The effect of humans may be the most important factor in the shift. " Human land use of forested regions has intensified worldwide in recent decades, threatening long-term sustainability, " the report says. http://www.physorg.com/news111775271.html Florida: 9) WEST PALM BEACH — The state owes 40,000 Palm Beach County residents fair compensation after it cut down more than 66,000 citrus trees from their yards in a failed decade-long effort to eradicate a harmful bacteria, an attorney said Monday during opening statements in a class-action lawsuit. The Palm Beach County case is the first of five pending lawsuits against the state to go to trial over efforts to stop the spread of canker. The disease can be transferred by birds, humans and wind, makes fruit blemish and prompts it to drop prematurely. It does not harm humans but threatened the state's citrus industry. The program to eradicate canker through the removal of citrus trees began in 1995. " This case is about the deprivation of private property in violation of our state constitution, " plaintiffs' attorney Robert Gilbert said. " Regrettably, the state refuses to accept financial responsibility. " All citrus trees within a 1,900 foot radius of one infected with canker were ordered destroyed _ even those in yards that appeared to be healthy. About 16.5 million residential, nursery and commercial trees were destroyed statewide, including more than 800,000 from the yards of homeowners. The program compensated residents with $100 vouchers for the first tree cut down and $55 for each tree after, but has spawned lawsuits from angry homeowners who feel that wasn't enough. The eradication effort ended in January 2006 after state officials and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which was helping pay for the program, determined that that the state's spate of hurricanes had spread the disease beyond containment. Gilbert said none of the trees removed from the plaintiffs' yards were infected with canker. " All of these trees were needlessly destroyed, " Gilbert said. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5214978.html Canada: 10) Asubpeeschoseewagong, the indigenous or Ojibway name for Grassy Narrows, is situated 80 kilometres north of Kenora, Ontario. The band membership is approximately 1,000, and their traditional land use area spans some 4,000 kilometres. About half of the community still follows a subsistence way of life that relies on hunting, trapping, and gathering berries and medicines from the land. The community says that 50 percent of their traditional lands have already been clear-cut by multinational logging companies, and the current licenses issued by Ontario authorities will permit continued clear-cutting for more than 25 more years. " Mining issues continue and permits are handed out despite the Supreme Court decision around native land rights, " John Cutfeet of the nearby Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nations near Grassy Narrows told IPS. The Grassy Narrows First Nation is within an 1873 treaty that recognises the right of the Anishnaabe peoples " to pursue their avocations of hunting and fishing throughout the tract. " Recent Supreme Court decisions have upheld the government's duty to conduct meaningful discussions with native groups before carrying out projects that impact their lands. In early September, the Ontario government appointed former Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci to facilitate a negotiated process and make recommendations to solve the impasse. Talks are expected to begin in November. The Grassy Narrows community has suffered many traumas over the years, including forced attendance in Canada's notorious and now-defunct boarding schools, forced relocation away from their traditional living areas, flooding of sacred grounds and burial sites by hydroelectric dam projects, and clear-cut logging of their forests. Mercury waste from a paper mill constructed in the 1970s contaminated local rivers and created devastating long-term health problems. Compared to other racial and cultural groups in Canada, indigenous people have the lowest life expectancies, highest infant mortality rates, most substandard and overcrowded housing, lower education and employment levels, and the highest incarceration rates. Native people lead in the statistics of suicide, alcoholism, and family abuse. http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=30 & ItemID=14050 Bulgaria: 11) Eco activists tied people to trees on Sunday to mark the official start of the Green Bulgaria party campaign against the cutting down of the country's forests. In addition, the eco activists tied posters on the trees on major Sofia boulevards, urging the society to save Bulgaria's forests.The campaign goes under the motto " Leave the trees alone " and is aimed also to raise awareness of the pollution of the country. The campaign is part of the party's initiative " Apathy kills " , which has to inform the society for the crimes against nature. The campaign symbolizes the natural connection of the people with trees, which are the lung of our planet and it was provoked by the new Sofia urban development plan. " No human being will give its lung, which is a vitally important organ in the name of another hotel, " activists say. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=86437 Hungary: 12) European scientists want to help Hungary preserve 16 cypress trees, estimated to be 8 million years old, Hungarian media said Monday. The trees, uncovered in a water-soaked lignite mine in Bukkabrany in northeastern Hungary in August, are unique because they have not turned into fossils and thus could lead to clues to plant life in prehistoric times, the Hungarian news agency MTI reported. A group of Danish researchers, experienced in restoring old Viking sailing boats they found underwater, offered their assistance in conserving the Hungarian cypress trees, the Eszak Magyarorszag newspaper said. Experts from Italy, Norway and Sweden said they are ready to provide whatever help they can. Officials from Finland and its ambassador in Budapest inspected the trees during the weekend. A Finnish firm is to provide steel tanks to store the four trees that will be dipped in a special glucose solution to strengthen the trees' barks. The process of soaking is to last up to four years, the newspaper said. http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/10/15/europe_helps_hungary_save_ancie\ nt_trees/8342/ Congo: 13) " We are going to Washington to tell the World Bank that they must not allow any expansion of the logging industry, " pygmy spokesman Adrian Sinafasi said in a statement released by the Rainforest Foundation, which is accompanying the delegation. " We have been stewards of these forests for many generations and to lose them now would be utterly devastating. " The delegation hopes to meet new World Bank President Robert Zoellick, who has said that protecting the environment and indigenous peoples will be two of his main priorities. Since the restoration of peace in most of the former Zaire after a 1998-2003 war, the World Bank has promoted logging as a way of quickly rebuilding the country's shattered economy. Last week's leaked report -- prompted by a complaint from the pygmies -- criticised the bank for failing to follow its own guidelines on environmental impact assessments, on the verification of logging areas, and on policing. It also accused it of hugely overestimating the potential benefits to the pygmies. The Rainforest Foundation, a charity whose mission is to support indigenous peoples in the world's rainforests, said more than 40 million Congolese depended on the rainforests for their livelihood. " The indigenous `Pygmy' people of the Congo have fought hard to have their voices heard. The recent Inspection Panel report was instigated by these people and the findings have shamed the World Bank, " said director Simon Counsell. " Now the `Pygmies' have the chance to meet face to face with the organisation that risked devastating their forests. Hopefully President Zoellick and his colleagues will listen to what we have to say and commit to working with them to protect Congo's forests in the future. " http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL16113873.html 14) Virunga National is a World Heritage Site in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DCR) that contains within 790,000 hectares the greatest diversity of habitats of any park in Africa: from steppes, savannas and lava plains, swamps, lowland and montane forests to volcanoes and the unique giant herbs and snowfields of Rwenzori over 5,000 meters (m) high. It is. Thousands of hippopotamuses lived in its rivers, its mountains are a critical area for the survival of mountain and lowland gorillas, and birds from Siberia overwinter there. The Park was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 1994 after civil war in Rwanda and the influx of 1.5 - 2 million refugees into Kivu province. This led to massive uncontrollable poaching and deforestation: 9,000 hippopotamus were killed; fuelwood cut for refugee camps was estimated at 600 metric tons/day, depleting and erasing the lowland forests. Most of the staff were unpaid and lacked means to patrol the 650 kilometer-long boundary. The north and center of the park were successively abandoned; many guards were killed. Protective soldiery also turned to poaching. The fishing village near Lake Rutanzige grew to threaten the integrity of the Park. Most of the gorillas living higher up the mountains have survived but tourism ceased. The park has become a threatened island in a sea of subsistence cultivation. In 1996, the World Heritage Committee recognized that major effort would be needed for at least ten years after this tragedy to rehabilitate and restore management of the Park and regain local support for its conservation. http://www.eoearth.org/article/Virunga_National_Park,_Democratic_Republic_of_Con\ go 15) The rumble of giant machinery heralds the arrival of loggers deep in the heart of the Congo rainforest. For the pygmy tribes which have inhabited this thick jungle for millennia, the sound of the advancing column is the sound of encroaching hunger and the loss of a way of life stretching back hundreds of generations. " They bring with them huge machines which go deep into the forest and make noise which frightens all the game animals away, " says Adrian Sinafasi, the man seeking to alert the outside world to the plight of central Africa's pygmies. " When the loggers arrive, they bring with them many workers who are needed to fell the trees. They also need to eat and start hunting but, rather than use traditional weapons in the right season, they hunt with firearms and don't care about seasons or how much food they take. " Mr Sinafasi, who was displaced from his ancestral home in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, is leading a delegation of pygmies to meet the new head of the World Bank in Washington this week. He hopes the talks could lead to deal to safeguard the world's second-largest rainforest. There is mounting optimism that when the representatives of some of Africa's most remote tribes arrive in the US capital today, they can capitalise on international outrage over the bank's plan to turn 60,000 sq km of pristine forest over to European logging companies. Forty million people in the Congo depend on the rainforests for survival. Among them are up to 600,000 pygmies who are engaged in a David and Goliath battle over plans to allow millions of hardwood trees to be felled, many to make garden furniture and flooring for European homes. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article3061147.ece 16) Illiterate villagers who do not understand maps choose an icon on the screen of the Global Positioning System handsets whenever they reach a treasured area of the forest. The location is then beamed to a satellite. This information is downloaded into a map used by the logging firm running the scheme, Congolaise Industrielle des Bois (CIB). It is the first time a logging company has linked with groups representing local tribes to stop the destruction of their sacred sites. " It may seem an unlikely alliance, " said Scott Poynton, director of the Tropical Forest Trust, a Hampshire-based charity working to promote responsible forestry worldwide. " But the company deserves credit for setting a benchmark for the sustainable use of forests which recognises rights of the indigenous people. " The Mbendjele Yaka tribe, who inhabit the world's second largest rainforest in the Congo River Basin, had taken to the scheme " like kids with a computer game " , he said. " They may be unable to recognise much on a traditional map, but they understood pretty quick how to use the new technology. " http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/13/wpygmy113.xml Namibia: 17) The aim of this Strategic Plan is to streamline, in accordance with the Vision 2030, our forestry operations in such a way that we sustainably develop and utilise our forest resources for the economic benefit of the country. It makes provisions for our citizens to generate income through forestry-based projects while at the same time preserving the environmental functions of our forest resources. It must be noted that the uncontrolled use of our forest resources simultaneously leads to the depletion of the forests environmental functions. Therefore, while we strive to use our forest resources to derive financial gain, we must at the same time realise that our forestry sector is primarily an " environmental service sector " , and hence strive to conserve the forest resources for environmental protection for the benefit of both our present and future generations. We are also confronted with a high level of illegal activities that are difficult to control given our limited capacity in terms of transport and personnel. Last but not least we are still very much concerned about widespread annual wild fires in many parts of our country that pose a threat no only to our natural environment but also to human life. Especially with regard to illegal activities and wild fires we therefore very much depend on the co-operation and assistance of our partners and stakeholders. At the same time, the community forest programme has become an important component for community-based wildlife and tourism management in conservancies as it helps to safeguard attractive landscapes and habitats. With our regional tree nurseries we are able to provide various indigenous and exotic tree species to interested individuals and institutions. http://allafrica.com/stories/200710110415.html Guyana: 18) " We must square up to this reality and recognize that the way to stop deforestation is to ensure that there is an economically viable alternative, " President Jagdeo told ministers of the 53-nation Commonwealth at the official opening of the three-day meeting. The meeting is being held one week before board meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, and ahead of the December 3-14 UN conference on climate change in Bali, Indonesia. Jagdeo urged his audience to push for incentives at the Bali conference to reward not only re-planting of tropical forest trees but also preservation of pristine forests. " This is not only morally right because countries like Guyana ... deserve to be rewarded, " but also " because to not do so would result in economic leakages across national borders in the Amazon region and elsewhere, " he said. Jagdeo called on the Commonwealth to work with the United States and Australia, which have not ratified the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that sets limits on carbon emissions. He also urged them to engage developing countries like China and India " in a way which recognizes that on a per-capita basis, they are far lower emitters of greenhouse gases than much of the world. " Also at the event was Finance Minister Niko Lee Hang of Samoa, who described how climate changed has resulted in what was the island's main export -- tuna -- migrating away from their region. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gJ50hIiA0_sjI_DkaIB2YvFsRcoA Brazil: 19) Veteran Amazon pilots such as Fernando Galvao Bezerra are hard men to shock. During 20 years in aviation Mr Bezerra, 45, has ferried prostitutes and wildcat miners to remote, lawless goldmines. He has taxied wealthy loggers between ranches, lost countless colleagues to malaria and once survived when his plane plummeted out of the sky. But as his 10-seater Cessna banked over a vast expanse of burning rainforest in the state of Mato Grosso, the pilot, who now works for the environmental group Greenpeace, was virtually speechless. " Holy shit, " he blurted over the plane's PA system, as the plane swung sharply to the right towards an image of destruction which owed more to a scene from Apocalypse Now than the Amazon rainforest. " Just look at the size of what this guy is burning. " It is burning season in Brazil, and across the Amazon region, where illegal loggers, cattle ranchers and a growing number of soy producers continue their advance into their world's largest tropical forest, similar scenes are taking place. In August government satellites registered 16,592 fires across Brazil, the overwhelming majority in the Amazon. For environmentalists the fires are one of the first indications that deforestation is once again on the rise. Over the last two years fears for the future of the Amazon have been tempered by news of a reduction in deforestation. In August the Brazilian government heralded a 30% drop in rainforest destruction - the result, it said, of a government deforestation plan launched in March 2004. The plan outlined the creation of conservation units and 19 anti-deforestation units in deforestation hotspots such as Novo Progresso and Apui. http://www.guardian.co.uk/brazil/story/0,,2191877,00.html?feed=12 & gusrc=rss Costa Rica: 20) The Bush administration, Costa Rica, Conservation International, and The Nature Conservancy will today announce a " debt-for-nature " swap that could herald something bigger in the future. The United States will write off $12.6 million in debt owed it by Costa Rica. In exchange, Costa Rica will protect some of the most valuable rainforest wildlife habitat in the world. This follows the Bush administration's support for an even bigger swap with Guatemala. Of course, the sums involved and the area conserved are relatively puny compared to the global forest destruction caused by the Bush administration, especially through its support for tropically grown biofuels that require deforestation to be grown. But the Bush administration has always had two sides to its tropical forest policy. Although it's happy to help Cargill, ADM, and other agrigiants despoil the last remaining tropical forests, it's also expressed quiet backing for carbon ranching -- allowing polluters to get global warming credit for protecting forests instead of cleaning up pollution at their own facilities. They like it because saving carbon through protecting forests is generally a lot cheaper than cleaning up industrial pollution, and we should like it because that means we can keep a lot more carbon out of the atmosphere a lot quicker -- and save the forests, their wildlife, and their indigenous people at the same time.Of course, the Bush administration's quiet backing of this concept is completely worthless right now until the Bush administration backs strict, mandatory limits on greenhouse-gas pollution. Until they do, polluters will have no incentive to actually go ahead and protect those forests (or clean up their own pollution). But that support -- and today's forest conservation actions -- signals that forest conservation may provide some common ground between Democrats and the White House on stopping the climate crisis. http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/10/17/61942/428/?source=daily Jamaica: 21) Heavy flooding caused by five days of rain has killed at least three children in Haiti. A civil defence official said rising waters have flooded roughly 4,000 homes across the country since the start of the month. Widespread deforestation has left much of the Haitian countryside unable to absorb rainfall, while poor drainage and shabby home construction put many residents at further risk during sustained rain.The rain in Haiti stems from the same system that has been affecting Jamaica's weather for the past few days. http://www.radiojamaica.com/content/view/1987/88/ Chile: 22) The annual march has been held since 1990 to call attention to the issues of concern for the Mapuche rights movement in Chile. Organizers said the purpose of this year's march is to highlight the failures of the current government to recognize the territorial rights of the Mapuche to land in southern and central Chile, and the government's refusal to grant Mapuche communities some degree of self-determination. " The government is denying the existence of a people. They are denying one of the most fundamental rights of life, and we are demonstrating against this, " Felipe Curivil of the Mapuche organization Meli Wixan Mapu told the Santiago Times. " We have had no response from the state at all, and this confirms how the repressive Chilean state is denying Mapuche rights. " Under Chile's current constitution, indigenous groups such as the Mapuche have no official recognition or status, and none of the nation's legislators are of indigenous origin although most official estimates suggest the Mapuche and other indigenous groups account for about 10 percent of Chile's population. Meanwhile, much of the land originally belonging to the Mapuche is owned by large-scale businesses or threatened by energy development. The continued plight of the Mapuche and the mistreatment of their ancestral lands, say activists, is a blight on the nation's history. " There has been 500 years of denial and 500 years of the confiscation of our land and the abuse of our people. We want to condemn this and we want to condemn the Chilean state which represses our communities, " said Jorge Huenchullan of Meli Wixan Mapu. " The Chilean state continues to repress the communities that are struggling and fighting legitimately. " http://www.tcgnews.com/santiagotimes/index.php?nav=story & story_id=14938 & topic_id\ =1 India: 23) The deputy director FPF vide his letter dated March 14 had furnished a detailed enquiry report to the chief conservator of forests, Jammu. The then range officer, Gandhri, Mohammed Iqbal Sohail had 'engineered' a cloudburst showing that 560 trees (37,000 cubic feet) in compartment numbers 55, 56, 57 and 58 were washed away in the natural calamity, which according to him happened on August 11, 2002. Abusing his official position, Sohail prevailed over his subordinates to prepare a false joint inspection report of the cloudburst and then without reporting the matter to divisional forest officer, Batote, the range officer issued a certificate that 560 trees were lost in the incident. Subsequently, he made direct correspondence with the Divisional Manager (DM), SFC (State Financial Corporation) Ramban on his own without seeking any authorisation. The then range officer had also directed his subordinates for handing / taking over the compartments without seeking any authorisation. The enquiry committee headed by deputy director, Forest Protection Force, Doda had also visited the spot and much to its chagrin, found no trace of any cloudburst in any of the compartments numbered 55 to 58. In the detailed report, enquiry committee clearly stated that no cloudburst occurred in any of the four compartments and the contractor axed the green gold (560 Deodar trees) in connivance with Batote forest officials and SFC. " Had there been a cloudburst, there would have been widespread damage to human lives and their cattle as well. But nothing had happened, " said an SFC official. " This scam was just a tip of the iceberg as several reports continue to gather dust, " he added. The entire timber was allegedly smuggled and the contractor managed withdrawal of payment for extraction of timber from these compartments, including charges of transportation and damages as well. The committee fixed responsibility on the range officer, two foresters, four forest guards, some SFC officials and the contractor. http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=127001 24) The forests in Himachal Pradesh not only contribute in maintaining the ecological balance but also play a significant role in the economic development of the state. In Himachal Pradesh forests provide physical sustenance to the fragile Eco-system and also act as a source of precious raw material for rural and industrial application. According to the forest policy of the state, till yesterday the forests were no more a source of revenue and supply of raw material. The government was lying emphasis on the protection and conservation of forests. The state government has imposed complete ban on the green felling in the state. Besides, the state government had made forest laws more stringent to check the illicit felling , deal with smugglers and poachers in the state. The state government had allowed only the removal of dead, diseased and decaying trees and had salvaged lots from the forests to meet the requirements the masses. However, the extraction of herbs had been allowed only on selective basis But the setting of cement plants and execution of over two dozen major power projects in the state have posed serious threats to the existence of many forest lands. According to a recent survey conducted by a NGO dealing with the " protection of environment " has termed the situation in the state alarming, it has revealed that Himachal Pradesh is fast loosing its forest cover and in past five years over ten thousands precious trees were axed in the state for the setting up of power projects and other construction activities. Survey revealed that Kulu, Solan, Bilaspur and Shimla districts of state are the worst affected where hundreds of acres of land has gone barren because of reckless felling of trees by power projects and cement plants. State government has failed to understand that the growing population has led to disastrous over use of forests for fuel wood and timber under TD in past two decades. There has been manifold increase in the requirement of fuel wood in the state, it has increased to the tune of two lakh tons valued at RS 160 crore per year.Today the flash floods, land slides and sinking of land has become quite common. Every year thousands of persons are being killed because of flash floods and land slides in the state. http://himachal.us/2007/10/14/alarming-rise-in-flash-floods-and-deforestation-in\ -himachal/3303/a ctivism/rsood Brunei: 25) " Brunei takes sustainable development most seriously. For a small nation, we are proud of our efforts to protect and conserve our environment while we progress and grow. His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam is leading the way in ensuring that our nation's development is in line with an environmentally sound policy. Brunei has committed 75 per cent of its rainforest to the Heart of Borneo Project. " The Deputy Minister went on to explain the Heart of Borneo Project. It is a joint project by Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia to set aside 220,000 square kilometres of rainforest that possess a staggeringly high number of unique plant and animal species. " Investment in eco-tourism and its infrastructure are among some of the business opportunities available in Brunei, " he told the Hainanese community. Brunei will also be developing a world class Industrial Park in Sungai Liang which will house a methanol plant and is also looking to develop deep water port in Pulau Muara Besar that will link China to the Middle East and beyond. The Sultanate's stable economy with strong financial backing, strategic geographical location, excellent international relations and a highly educated and young workforce, Dato Hamdillah said he was certain that Brunei would make an excellent business partner. " Forest enrichment is important as the villagers can live off the forest again in future. Some 3,000 saplings of mostly timber species like kapor have been transplanted in secondary forests around the village, " said Octoris Lugan, who heads the project development and management committee. The 40 subsistence farming families have, since June, participated in the reforestation of 200ha of degraded forest and 20ha of fallow cultivated land. A total of 5,000 saplings, including fruit trees, agarwood and petai, were grown in a nursery. http://www.brudirect.com/DailyInfo/News/Archive/Oct07/161007/nite01.htm Philippines: 26) Residents of Sibuyan, Romblon have cheered Environment Secretary Lito Atienza's order suspending the cutting of trees in mining areas on the island, but said they would be doubly happy if he stopped mining altogether. " We are thankful for the suspension of the cutting of trees and mining in Sibuyan. However, what we need is the cancellation [of mining permits],'' Sibuyanon Rodne Galicha said. " Justice for Sibuyanons and Armin [Marin] is the pullout of all mining operations and applications in Sibuyan.'' Bayan Muna Representative Teodoro Casiño, who raised Sibuyanons' concern over mining during last Thursday's House deliberations on the environment department's budget, commended Atienza for his order. " I am glad he heeded the clamor for his department to intervene to prevent the escalation of the brewing conflict between Sibuyan residents and mining companies that has claimed one life,'' he said in a text message. The next step, the congressman added, would be for Atienza " to stop all mining operations in the ecologically fragile island as demanded by its residents. " Atienza, however, said he could not cancel the permits issued to at least three small-scale mining firms by the provincial government of Romblon in 1996, but said he expected them to eventually pull out. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view_article.php?article_id=94\ 854 Sarawak: 27) For many indigenous communities in Sarawak, years of commercial logging have depleted natural resources that are available for their basic needs. Timber for building traditional longhouses is scarce, medicinal plants have been destroyed, rattan for weaving has been depleted and the rivers are polluted. Some of these remote villages are now rehabilitating degraded forests, under a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) initiative with financial assistance from the European Commission (EC). Under the EC-UNDP Small Grants Programme for Operations to Promote Tropical Forests (SGP-PTF), eight villages have embarked on various activities to restore their communal forests since last year. One such village involves the Kenyah community in Belaga in Bintulu division, eastern Sarawak. Kampung Mudung Abun is a relatively new village with a population of 300. The families were relocated from Long Mejawa after their longhouses were gutted in a fire in 2001. The Kenyahs were familiar with the new site, 15km away, as they had set up swidden farms (shifting cultivation land) there since 1994, alongside logging activities which eventually stopped in 2002. http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2007/10/16/lifefocus/18941528 & se\ c=lifefocus Malaysia: 28) Establishing plantations in the 1.5 million hectares Bakun Catchment is likely to threaten the viability of the Bakun Dam and the Bakun HEP, warns Philip Khoo. The Sarawak state government must provide some answers quickly. To counter criticisms against the Bakun Hydroelectric Project, several federal ministers had promised that the 1.5 million-hectare Bakun catchment would be gazetted to conserve the forest and protect the investment in the dam. Indeed, the then deputy prime minister was quoted on 12 March 1996 as saying that " we should realise that we will be gazetting a catchment area covering 1.5 million hectares which may not have been created if the Bakun project is not implemented. " Until now, however, the catchment continues to be intensively logged. Worse, large parts of it are either in the process of being clear-felled for plantation or have been licensed out for the same purpose. In short, not only has the catchment not been gazetted, it is being actively undermined — with the approval of the Sarawak state government. Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) recently brought this to the attention of the public when they produced evidence that the Sarawak state government had approved at least three large plantation projects in the Bakun catchment between 1999 and 2002. None of the mainstream newspapers carried SAM's press statement and conference. The three plantation projects are: 1) the Shin Yang Forest Plantation covering almost 156,000 hectares, 2) the Bahau-Linau Forest Plantation covering over 108,000 hectares, and 3) the Merirai-Balui Forest Plantation on almost 56,000 hectares. http://www.aliran.com/content/view/325/10/ Sumatra: 29) The significance of Imbak is that it is the only large contiguous area of Class II forest in Sabah that remains undisturbed. This is largely due to its isolated location in the heart of the State, where it is protected on three sides by precipitous ridges up to 1500m high. The lost valley of Imbak is an area of outstanding beauty and biodiversity. Through some mystery of nature the lowland forest retains a higher density of enormous trees than nearby Danum Valley and Maliau Basin. To walk in the cool under-storey beneath the canopies of these giants is a humbling and uplifting experience. However unlike Danum and Maliau, Imbak is not safe from logging until it has been formally gazetted by the Government as a Class I Conservation Area. Just before we left for Imbak I learned from some NGO friends that although Imbak Canyon is safe for the time being, the surrounding area is due to be logged imminently. Unfortunately this logging will start at exactly the best spot for bird-watching – the Tampoi Basecamp. The heart of Imbak Canyon remains inaccessible except by foot so Yayasan Sabah have set up the Tampoi Basecamp and research station in logged over forest on the periphery of the Conservation Area. It is in this mixed habitat that we did most of our bird-watching both in 2004 and in 2007, taking advantage of old logging roads to provide vantage points on the forest canopy. During our 2007 trip the reality of the proposed logging became clear when we saw contractors marking out the 30m riparian reserve along the Imbak River right up to the Basecamp and beyond. I found it depressing to be surveying an area where our data may just become a record of what used to exist. In this context I'm not sure whether it is better to find more species or less. Of course it's better to find more but every memorable observation leaves a bittersweet taste. http://arkitrekker.blogspot.com/2007/10/imbak-bird-watching.html Indonesia: 30) The administration and the House of Representatives remain at loggerheads over illegal logging in Riau, causing legal and investment uncertainty in the country. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's decision to set up a joint team led by Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo A.S. to deal with the issue only seems to have complicated the issue. The joint team was formed following friction between the Forestry Ministry and the National Police over illegal logging in Riau. The ministry defended its decision to give forest concessions to Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP) and Indah Kiat Pulp and Paper (IKPP), while the police accused the two companies of getting illegal logs from partner companies. The issue heated up at the House when the environment commission and forestry commission summoned the management of the two pulp and paper companies on the eve of the Idul Fitri holiday. House Commission VII overseeing environmental affairs canceled a hearing with RAPP, which was seen as being uncooperative and because of the absence of its owner Sukanto Tanoto. Several field tours by the joint team have yet to result in any firm recommendations, while the two pulp and paper producers are facing shortages of raw materials because their partner companies supplying wood have stopped operations and areas of their timber forests have been fenced off by police. http://www.thejakartapost.com/misc/PrinterFriendly.asp 31) It is a sickening picture. A photograph of six soft-eyed baby orang-utans stamped with the words " Orphaned by Palm Oil companies " . The image, along with scores of others showing adult apes staring out through the bars of cages, has created a public relations disaster for global companies buying the oil that many hoped would fuel a green energy boom. This week, as Greenpeace International launched a " Forest Defenders Camp " in the Indonesian province of Riau, where swathes of orang-utan habitat have been cleared by felling and fire for lucrative palm oil plantations, the " oil for ape " scandal hit Australia. Caught in the middle is a quietly spoken Sydney businessman who walked away from the petroleum industry several years ago convinced that price, supply and climate change made it yesterday's game. Barry Murphy, a former Caltex Oil chief, plunged into the heady world of " clean " energy hoping to fuel Australian industry with diesel made from the world's second most popular edible oil. " It would be foolish to ignore the fact that people are anxious about fossil fuel and its effect on the environment and that it's not sustainable, " Murphy told the Herald last week. " People are naturally looking to palm oil. " Why? " It has the highest yield of any of the vegetable oils. You can get 4000 to 5000 litres of oil per hectare per year. " That is about 10 times more productive than soya beans. http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/green-fuel-gets-a-black-name/2007/10/12/1\ 191696173955.ht ml 32) Illegal logging in South Aceh`s western coastal area is still rampant and has triggered flash floods and damaged river basin areas, an environmental activist said here on Monday. " Local authorities must take firm actions to deal with the problem, " TAF Haikal, a spokesman of the South Aceh`s South Western Coast Caucus, said. Illegal logs from Aceh are mostly transported to neighboring North Sumatra province, he said. Data from the Aceh chapter of the Indonesian Environmental Forum (WALHI) showed that the deforestation rate in Aceh has reached 20,796 hectares annually. Up to 2006, a total of 374,327 hectares of Aceh`s forest areas were degraded. Due to the deforestation, 46.40 percent or 714.724 hectares of a total of 1,524,624,12 hectares of river basin land in Aceh, were damaged. The damaged river basin areas were located in South Aceh, West Aceh, Nagan Raya, Southwest Aceh and Aceh Jaya Districts. According to WALHI`s data, Aceh was hit by 39 disasters , mainly floods and landslides, in 2006. The disasters had killed 20 people, destroyed 249 houses and 12 bridges. Meanwhile, a local legislator of South Aceh, Azmir, called on the authorities to fight illegal logging activity and provide people living around forests with jobs to prevent them from cutting wood illegally. http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2007/10/15/illegal-logging-still-rampant-di-south\ -aceh/ New Zealand: 33) The area at the centre of police anti-terror raids is home to a strong and politically defiant tribe, reports Rebecca Todd. Mist-cloaked forests in a remote part of the central North Island have long spawned legends and the name given to its Tuhoe Maori people – Nga Tamariki o te Kohu – Children of the Mist. Now the tribe's traditional lands in Te Urewera and Te Urewera National Park in the eastern North Island are the focus of an unprecedented police operation, alleging the forests also hide military-style training camps. Tuhoe's powerful sense of injustice stems from Crown confiscation of their fertile lands after the battle of Orakau in 1864. Four years later, Tuhoe's crops and buildings were destroyed as part of the Government's " scorched earth policy " . Tuhoe have been fighting to have their lands returned ever since. Tuhoe Waikaremoana Trust manager Tama Nikora said his people had been struggling for years to have their voices heard. The tribe had a strong sense of cultural identity, but for the 19 per cent of members who still lived on their traditional lands there was little work and many people were beneficiaries. Nikora said the trust was trying to create some work in forestry, but their efforts were being thwarted by tribe radicals. " What they really want is work. If they were busy in employment they wouldn't be doing what they are doing, " he said. Nikora believed there was some truth in the reports of military training and guerilla-style camps. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4240168a8153.html 34) A Taumarunui man has been convicted and fined for illegally harvesting native timber from his property. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) yesterday welcomed the recent conviction and fine for harvesting native timber in excess of the amount legally permitted. Eric Grant Nutbeam, the owner of native forest in the North Island's National Park area, was fined $700 and ordered to pay a further $1260 in costs for contravening a " Personal Use " approval and taking more than the permitted volume of timber from his property. He pleaded guilty to the charge when he appeared in Taumaranui District Court last week. MAF Indigenous Forestry Unit manager Robert Miller said yesterday that under the Forests Act 1949, Nutbeam was permitted to harvest up to 50 cubic metres of rimu and matai for personal use. " On investigating the case, we found that an excess of the approved amount had been harvested and subsequently sold for timber, " Mr Miller said. " MAF's job is to promote and regulate the sustainable management of indigenous forests in New Zealand. " We take breaches of the Forests Act seriously and this prosecution sends the appropriate message that harvesting of timber in excess of the volume approved will not be tolerated, " Mr Miller said. " Likewise, the sale or trade of timber under such a provision is not permitted. " Other people have been charged in relation to the case and are yet to appear in court. Mr Miller said that the unit was happy to provide information and advice in relation to various harvesting and milling approvals available to landowners and others involved in the indigenous timber industry and was able to assist them in the approval process. http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4239865a12855.html 35) Sustainable logging of the West Coast Rimu forests will be achieved by clearfelling up to one-quarter of the forests within the next few decades and then leaving the cleared land free for new Rimu seedlings to propogate. At least, if paleoseismologists have interpreted the trace evidence from the Great Alpine Fault correctly, that is what will happen. Without these magnitude 8 quakes every few hundred years the Rimu forests would have been colonised by Beeches. You can't grow a Rimu in the shade at the forest floor the way you can with a Beech. The only way the Rimu defeats the Beech is by colonising the clearfelled clearings created by earthquake landslides. Sustainable logging of native hardwood means, in the case of Rimu, that Coasters can either wait for the quake then take advantage of it or they can imitate mother nature and clearfell pockets of forest themselves. Selective logging by helicopter would be the most unsustainable thing the Coasters could do. No logging at all is just delaying the inevitable until until mother nature shakes her rump. http://blog.greens.org.nz/index.php/2007/10/10/sustainable-west-coast/#comment-3\ 2098 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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