Guest guest Posted May 11, 2008 Report Share Posted May 11, 2008 Today for you 37 new articles about earth's trees! (338th edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com --British Columbia: 1) Coleman Blunders ahead, 2) Creditors dance on ruins of always unsustainable industry, 3) Gov's lack of oversight makes beetle problem worse, 4) Klinaklini River, 5) Caribou extinction proceedings, 6) Hupacasath Nation says crown is an actor in bad faith, 7) Murrelet surveys never acted on, 8) Industry-wide shutdown, --Canada: 9) Big trouble caused by overharvesting, 10) Save the Oak Ridges Moraine, 11) 19th century clear cutting practices still 94% of all logging, 12) Save the Warblers, --UK: 13) 40,000 street trees lost in 5 years, 14) Last of Lee Hill Oaks cut for bridge, 15) Memorial trees to be dug up by developers, --Finland: 16) Palm oil fuel protested by Greenpeace Orangutans --Turkey: 17) Paper industry wants gov to give them their forests… --Estonia: 18) 50,000 volunteers pick up garbage in forests --Azerbaijan: 19) Thousand of oaks cut down and exported in occupied territories --Africa: 20) Solve poverty by addressing droughts and deforestation --Western Mali: 21) This is the land of the sacred tree, Chinese say otherwise --Kenya: 22) Enviro minister decries forest destruction in Mau --Puerto Rico: 23) Decline in rainfall correlates to deforestation --Dominican Republic: 24) Ecologist warn of need to protect forests --Guyana: 25) Save a little rainforest and give most of what remains to S & S --Costa Rica: 26) Local seed gathering turns barren land into diverse ecosystem --Brazil: 27) Yet another sustainable development plan for the Amazon, 28) Trees in amazon grow slower than previously thought, 29) Lack of sulfur dioxide emissions is drying rainforest, 30) New Gov claim that Amazon destruction has slowed, --Ecuador: 31) Illegal logger speared to death & 15 indigenous beheaded --Colombia: 32) Still no leadership for forest protection surveys --Chile: 33) Canada's largest retirement plan invests in destruction of " eco-gem " --Latin America: 34) Carbon Market development --India: 35) Rally to save old Banyan tree, 36) 35,000 trees cut down for hydro in Kullu, --Pakistan: 37) New projects needed to develop forest: Parks and Zoos British Columbia: 1) " Traditionally the AAC [annual allowable cut] has been based on saw logs. In reality, the AAC could be sustained at a higher level than it is now with a parallel industry to use some of the timber. " This roundtable is to get people thinking about the future. " Coleman said there are some aspects of the problems facing the forest industry which neither the roundtable or the whole B.C. forest industry could fix on their own. " The whole country, for instance, has to change its attitude to solid waste in all forms, not just wood waste. " He said the market system in place would insure that if people came up with uses for the beetle-kill wood, it would be harvested. " The way they'll get the wood out faster is if someone is willing to pay for it. " Coleman also made it very clear the government was not using the roundtable as a way to find alternatives to the forest industry. http://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_north/ominecaexpress/news/18673024.html 2) " This is very disappointing but not unexpected, " said Bob Smiley, of the Pulp Paper and Woodworkers of Canada, who watched Wednesday while lawyers representing creditors Ableco Finance and Wells Fargo argued over who would advance the money to complete the shutdown of the mills. Smiley, who represents the Harmac employees, said workers were taking the shutdown hard. " Some are leaving town; some are in shock, " he said. Pope & Talbot is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, but most of its assets are in B.C. It has already sold most of its sawmills to Vancouver forest company Interfor but was unable to close a deal to sell its pulp mills, two in B.C. and one at Halsey, Oregon, to Asia Pulp & Paper. The Halsey mill already has a bidder but the B.C. mills pose more of a problem. With so few sawmills operating, fibre supplies are tight and both mills have resorted to chipping more costly whole logs. The resource town of Mackenzie has been hit hardest by the collapse of Pope & Talbot. The town of 4,000 is still reeling from the closure Jan. 31 of two sawmills and a paper mill run by AbitibiBowater. " This is a crisis but most people are still in shock. What are we going to do? " said Berry. " This is people's lives. This is probably the worst day you are going to see for most people here. If this happened in Vancouver where you lost 300 jobs, it's not a big deal. But this is a whole community. It's gone. " http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=e2fcac87-2004-446d-8f14-1a\ b6790584ef 3) Instead of cutting down the infected forests whole-scale, the B.C. government must ensure that the response to the crisis doesn't make a bad problem worse. Non-pine species shouldn't be killed, and large areas need to be set aside to protect the habitat of species that are vulnerable to logging, and to preserve sensitive sites such as wetlands, lakes, and rivers. We should also learn everything we can from this epidemic, as it likely won't be the last. Other insects, such as the spruce budworm, are threatening forests in Eastern Canada, and the pine beetle itself has already leapt over the barrier of the Rocky Mountains to threaten the boreal forest that covers most of Northern Canada. The mountain pine beetle outbreak is a clear example of how our actions can create ripple effects throughout the environment. Let's hope that by the time the pine beetle runs out of trees to attack in B.C., we will have learned enough to prevent even greater bug-related disasters. We must also see this as a wake-up call about the dangers of climate change and the need for industry, citizens, and governments at all levels to do everything possible to address the problem. Just because the beetles are small doesn't mean they are insignificant; it's not a matter of size. http://www.straight.com/article-144643/david-suzuki-little-bug-big-problem 4) The Klinaklini River flows through ranchlands and scenic mountains near Kleena Kleene in the Chilcotin, on its way to the ocean. The Klinaklini River, approximately 200 Km long, passes between some of the tallest and most remote peaks in the Coastal Mountain Range. With a mean annual discharge of close to 200 cubic meters per second (cms) and peak flows reaching as high as 18,000 cms the Klinaklini River is one of the largest rivers in the province. Home to large populations of threatened Grizzly Bear and Marbled Murrelet, this drainage currently encompasses some of least fragmented habitat on the Canadian West Coast. With recorded Salmon, Steelhead and Eulachon runs in the lower river found to be some of the largest in the Georgia Basin. Kleana Power Corp, a junior energy corporation without any currently successful projects, has recently proposed to develop the largest private Run-of-River generating facility in BC’s history with an average generating capacity of 280 MW and a peak capacity of 700 MW. Pristine Power Inc. quotes annual generated power to be 2400 GWh. This equals approximately to 50% of the power expected from Site C. In order to create a generating capacity this large, generating and transmission infrastructure of large proportion will be necessary. http://www.klinaklini.info 5) MoE has finally been allowed to contribute to the Mtn.Caribou Recovery Plan options under consideration for the Central Selkirks Herd, and even working within the localized 1% political cap on slow-downs to the cut which is all that government and industry are willing to allow for caribou recovery, the 11th hour MoE option released on Friday appears to offer a much greater advantage to caribou than previous proposals from SARCO's special team. The big important question is what would the local MoE recovery option look like if it was allowed to reflect the honest best case scenario left for caribou, and not required to conform to government's promise of " no net loss to the timber industry " .Then we could overlay the options, and see what is being lost. Here's what would be most helpful --- challenge government to allow MoE to present the science based truth rather than the twisted reductive socio-economic deceit that SARCO seems forced to turn out. And then, if government's appointed enviros would just stop shooting themselves in the foot by declaring each successively worse caribou plan the best thing since mom and apple pie (this has been going on since the first Higher Level Plan some 15 years ago), the caribou might have half a chance. Glada McIntyre, Executive Director, Applied Ecological Stewardship Council of B.C. glada888 6) The Hupacasath First Nation today presented evidence that the Crown has acted in bad faith during two years of court ordered negotiations over the management of forest lands on Hupacasath traditional territory. The allegations arise out of the discovery that BC Investment Management Corp, an agent of the BC government, owns an estimated 25% share in Island Timberlands, the company harvesting timber and developing real estate on the contested lands. " It is a clear conflict of interest, " states Will Horter, Lawyer and Executive of Dogwood Initiative. " The BC government can't carry out negotiations in good faith when it has a commercial interest in stymieing the process. " During the two years of negotiations the Hupacasath and BC Government were unable to reach any accommodation. In 2005 the BC Supreme Court found that the Crown had failed in it's duty to consult the Hupacasath regarding the privatization of land from tree farm licenses on First Nation territory. As a remedy the court ordered a two year consultation period during which the Hupacasath and BC Government were to negotiate and reach reasonable accommodation. This is the latest in a series of controversies over TFL deletions on Vancouver Island . The January 2007 decision by Forest Minister Rich Coleman to allow Western Forest Products to remove 28,000 hectares from its TFLs on Vancouver Island has met with broad public opposition. First Nations affected by this decision are also considering suing the BC government for lack of consultation. Brookfield Asset Management owns 70% of Western Forest Products and 50% of Island Timberlands. The Brookfield group of companies have donated $232,315 to the BC Liberal Party between 2004 and 2007. http://www.dogwoodinitiative.org 7) Through helicopter surveys conducted between 2005 and 2007, Interfor identified 35,000 hectares of marbled murrelet habitat within the Sunshine Coast Forest District, most of it located within old growth areas. In 2004, Interfor submitted their forest stewardship plan pursuant to the Ministry of Environment's " section 7 notice " — a mechanism that requires forest licensees to set legal targets for amount and distribution of conservation habitat. The mechanism is essentially the province's response, under the Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA), to the 2003 federal Species at Risk Act (SARA), said Blatler. Interfor's plan outlined 23,000 hectares to be protected for the marbled murrelet within what's called their non-contributing land base (NCLB) — usually steeper slopes that don't often provide the best habitat for the marbled murrelet. This is the problem with the province's approach, says the Forest Practices Board — it's encouraging licensees to create conservation areas largely outside their timber harvesting land base (THLB), beyond where the best habitat is found. Within the THLB, the province has set a cap of just one per cent to be set aside for species at risk, notes Sunshine Coast Conservation Association executive director Dan Bouman. " If federal guidelines were applied, we'd have a much larger impact to the harvestable land base, " he said. The report echoes his sentiment and berates the province for failing to respond to the draft plan now being pitched by the federal marbled murrelet recovery team — a plan that would see 29,750 hectares, or 85 per cent, of the seabird's habitat protected on the Sunshine Coast. It's up to the provincial integrated land management bureau (ILMB) to make final conservation decisions for the province to carry out, and so far they haven't. To force the province to comply, the federal government would have to " invoke extraordinary powers " under the SARA, says the report. Ultimately, the ILMB is overseen by Minister of Agriculture and Lands Pat Bell, who said the marbled murrelet's recovery is going so well it could be removed from B.C.'s " red list " of species qualifying for special protection. A report by B.C.'s independent forestry watchdog is levelling criticism at the Ministry of Forests for failing to develop an adequate strategy to conserve habitat for a threatened seabird. http://www.coastreporter.net/madison/WQuestion.nsf/ff1265d9ca9a674688256bb900543\ 458/84d40b138 5d7ca6088257436001cc8c9?OpenDocument 8) WFP, the West Coast's largest forest company, announced on Tuesday, April 29 that it was shutting down most of its logging operations and laying off more than 800 loggers and contractors so it can bring its log inventories in line with its lumber orders. " What this is all about is matching production to market demand and operations, " said Ley. " The expectation certainly is that the operation and others will be back up, as identified right now. " Most of the layoffs impact operations on the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island. Log harvesting curtailments range between one and six weeks. In a notice to employees and contractors, Trevor Boniface, vice president, Timberlands, stated the company is curtailing operations in those areas which are heavily weighted to providing logs for its commodity grade lumber program, or are still being operationally hampered with snow pack levels. " While we knew 2008 was going to be one of the most difficult years in recent history for the forest industry, the continued reduction in United States housing starts due to the subprime mortgage fiasco, extremely depressed commodity lumber prices, continued strong Canadian dollar, lumber border tax to the United States, challenging Japanese market and the high cost of harvesting on the coast are all contributing to a profoundly negative impact on our business, " Boniface stated. " We must continue to adjust Timberlands log production to align with products we can manufacture and sell. " According to another company statement, the reduction in logging represents about one third of normal harvesting undertaken during this period. " These curtailments are intended to align log harvesting with Western's reduced sawmill requirements, including the impact of an indefinite shutdown of the sawmill located at Ladysmith on Vancouver Island, " the release stated. http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19670877 & BRD=1998 & PAG=461 & dept_id=4995\ 99 & rfi=6 Canada: 9) HALIFAX — Nova Scotia's forests are in big trouble and clearcutting, overharvesting and bad management practices have cut into their ability to help preserve the environment, GPIAtlantic said in a report. " If we allow the status quo, if we allow the forest to continue to degrade, we will see more flooding, our forests' ability to store carbon will be lessened, there will be more soil erosion and the plants and animals who rely on the forests will suffer, " said Linda Pannozzo, who co-authored the report. A new report says measures intended to save the severely degraded forests in Nova Scotia are too little, too late. The Halifax-based research group GPI Atlantic says much more needs to be done to counteract decades of over-harvesting, clear cutting and other bad practices. GPI says there has been some progress in forestry practices, but it's a " far cry " from what's needed to deal with a massive increase in logging and clear cutting over the last 25 years. The report says there has been a marginal increase in selection harvesting and a small drop in clear cutting, along with more land being placed under protection. But the group makes eight main recommendations it says are necessary to begin to restore and protect the value of Nova Scotia's forest wealth. They include more incentives to woodlot owners to improve forest management, a sharp reduction in clear cutting, and development of a value-added forest strategy. http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1054446.html http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iiSI7K1r2Wq-2sVjC1RGziS3z4Jw 10) " Extensive stands of hard and softwood trees cover many hectares of land on the sandy Oak Ridges Moraine in northern Whitchurch-Stouffville. The forest is operated by the Region of York and encompasses over 5000 acres on 18 tracts within the boundaries of Georgina, Whitchurch-Stouffville and East Gwillimbury. With 2000 acres of trails it is the perfect year-round destination for hiking, cycling, horseback riding, cross country skiing, snowmobiling and other recreational activities. " (Reference: http://www.yorkregion.com ) In the past five years, this area been subject to constant clearcutting. Our government has seen fit to outsource logging, and has brought in a team of people to 'tree farm'. In reality, the forest is being clear cut, with timber being hauled away and sold, with remaining branches stewn in the forest. Although No Smoking' signs are posted at the entrance to the forest, we've come across numerous groups of people smoking, and in remote riding areas, have seen remains of campfires. Unlike natural reforestation these trees do not decompose, but dry out, and in our hot July temperatures (90 -105 degrees) - this is a forest fire just waiting to happen. Complaining to local officials seems to get absolutely no response - York Region maintains they are merely " farming the forest, not clearcutting " Not sure if they've actually had a look at the forest in the past five years. Do you have any suggestions on what we can do here? Thank you Jane Blake -- Jane.Blake 11) The " good " news: selection harvesting, which removes trees selectively to maintain the integrity, age and species diversity, health, and value of the forest as a whole, grew marginally from 0.9% of logging in 2000 to 1.5% in 2005-06, while clearcutting declined from 97% to 94% in the same period. But... All that is good, says GPI report author, Linda Pannozzo, but it's a far cry from what's needed to repair the huge damage caused by the massive increase in logging and clearcutting in the last 25 years. Since the early 1980s, timber harvest volumes have increased by nearly 60%—from 3.3 million cubic metres annually to 5.2 million in 2006, after peaking at nearly 7 million cubic metres in 2004. As a result, the average age of Nova Scotia's forests has never been younger. In the 1970s only 4% of the province's forests were under 20 years of age, compared to 16% in the 1990s and 24% today. While the percentage of forests over 80 years old has declined by 94% in the last half century, the proportion of very young forests up to age 20 increased by a remarkable 327%. Older forests (aged more than 80 years) declined from 25% of forests 50 years ago to just 1.5% in the latest forest inventory. True old-growth forest, which dominated the province's forests prior to European colonization, has virtually disappeared from Nova Scotia. Only 0.3% of the province's forests are now more than 100 years old, down from 9% fifty years ago. Not surprisingly, there has also been a marked decline in forest-dependent species of flora and fauna. http://thecoast.ca/Blog-3828.113118-3850.113118_Nova%20Scotia's%20forests.html 12) Sault Ste. Marie is home to one of the largest concentrations of Canada Warblers. That's a wonderful feather in our cap, but one we shouldn't take lightly. In April, the Canada warbler was listed as a threatened species. " It's declined by 46 per cent between 1966 and 2005, " said Jennifer Baker, with Ontario Nature, the federation of Ontario naturalists. That's a shocking decline. If those numbers reflected the stock market, we'd be long past the panic stage. If they reflected high-school drop-out rates we'd call a public inquiry. When it comes to endangered species we often don't notice until its too late. Perhaps one reason we don't notice the decline is that the threat to song birds doesn't come from a dramatic source like overhunting or some instant calamity. The decline is caused by the gradual destruction of habitat here and in their winter homes. From forestry to mining to construction we are altering the landscape. Nearly one in every three birds on the continent was born in the boreal forest. It's therefore critical that we manage the forest responsibly. With this in mind, Baker visited Sault Ste. Marie to raise awareness about more than 200 species of songbirds that migrate to Northern Ontario. David Euler, Sault Naturalist club president, said birds form an integral part of those ecosystems, and losing even one species, such as the Canada Warbler, would hurt the whole chain. http://www.saultstar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1020809 UK: 13) As Judge Simon Brown pointed out (Letters, May 3), the felling of 40,000 of London's street trees in the past five years is tragic. Intimidation of tree owners by the bully-boy tactics of insurers and loss-adjusters causes many trees to be taken down unnecessarily. Like many tree surgeons, I am appalled by the pressure put on tree owners to remove trees when such drastic action is not backed by sound evidence. The threat of punitive costs and legal action panics the average person into compliance. Buildings on London clay will move seasonally, as the water table fluctuates. In dry periods (such as autumn 2004 to autumn 2006) the clay will shrink considerably and many buildings will have cracks opening, but these usually close again upon the onset of wet weather. If a tree has the misfortune to be in the vicinity of such house movement it will carry the blame, a convenient scapegoat for the insurance industry. A more robust defence of trees must be mounted by those, like local authorities, who have the muscle to take on insurers. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/05/07/nosplit/dt\ 0701.xml 14) When the beacons were lit to signal the arrival of the Spanish Armada, some of the Lees Hall oaks were already hundreds of years old. And one, the oldest dated tree in the city, says William, was recently cut down so the access bridge to the new school at Newfield could be dual rather than single carriageway. " We weren't very happy, " he says. " We tried all sorts, but they said they couldn't cope with a single span. We were sad to see it go. " The loss of the 700-year-old tree was 'offset' with a compensation grant of 10,000 pounds, which is now being used for conservation work elsewhere in the valley, he adds. Experts from Sheffield Hallam University came up with the 700 plus age of the departed tree by studying its remains after it was felled, and together with the recent 'Heritage Tree Project' carried out in the valley by landscape archeologist Dr Paul Ardron, a fuller picture is now emerging, says William Fairhead, of " the ancient landscape around a modern housing estate. " " It's a unique situation, with an area of social deprivation with a very rich environment around it. I'd go so far as to say that the Gleadless Valley is a richer environment and has more interest than the average bit of Derbyshire countryside. " Dr Ardron's Heritage Lottery Funded surveys found a wide range of interesting old trees in the valley, including 16 'veterans' of 3-400 years old and 15 others likely to have been acorns before the 16th century. Another group of coppiced oaks is even more ancient, possibly more than 1000 years old. http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk/features/Treasures-of-the-Valley.4067078.jp 15) Scores of trees planted in Enham Alamein to commemorate the lives of people who have lived in the village over the years are to be moved - to the anguish of some residents. The trees, mostly native deciduous specimens, have been planted over many decades at the northern edge of the community and each is marked with the name of the person commemorated. But notices have appeared on the trees saying that there are plans to move them to make way for unspecified developments that will benefit the disabled. The land in question belongs to the trust that runs the village, known simply as Enham. Parish councillor David Hayward, lives near the area earmarked for change. " I have been told that a lot of these trees won't survive being moved and I have already heard from people who are not very happy about the whole thing, " he said. " They haven't submitted a planning application for the area but by putting up these notices it looks like a foregone conclusion. " I would like the area to be left as park land and known as North Park as it makes a nice entrance to the village. " http://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/news/aroundhampshire/andover/display.var.225\ 4149.0.memorial _trees_get_in_the_way_of_development.php Finland: 17) Greenpeace demonstrators dressed as orangutans converged on the Neste Oil filling station in the Eläintarha district of Helsinki on Wednesday morning, protesting the use of tropical palm oil in Neste's new diesel fuel. At about ten in the morning, the simian-clad protesters placed locks on the nozzles of the fuel pumps at the Neste station dispensing the new Green-diesel fuel, putting them temporarily out of service. They also distributed leaflets to customers arriving at the station. Greenpeace claims that the biofuel is not as green an option as it is claimed to be, as its widespread use encourages the clearing of rain forests in Indonesia and Malaysia. " We launched the protest because Neste has not given up on the use of palm oil in the production of its Green-diesel, in spite of demands " , said Greenpeace representative Sini Saarela. The protest lasted about an hour. The police first cordoned off the area, broke the locks that had been placed on the fuel nozzles, and detained 11 demonstrators. Four people were still detained at 6:00 PM. Police say that there was no intention of placing anyone under arrest. Neste Oil says that it will issue a criminal complaint and demand compensation for lost sales revenues over the protest. http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Neste+filling+station+closed+by+anti-palm+oil+d\ emonstration/1 135236177302 Turkey: 18) Turkey's paper sector representatives, who used effective lobbying to benefit from the incentive law , are working hard to open forests to the private sector following rapid increases in imports last year. Paper sector representatives came together at the end of 2007 and submitted a report to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, Forestry Minister Veysel EroÄŸlu and Forestry General Directorate. Paper producers ask in their report for an alteration of the existing forest law and adoption of Finland model, the world leader in the forestry sector. Home to the same amount of forests as Turkey, Finland has 50 times higher value-added income in forestry when compared to Turkey. Finland is the world leader in paper products. The Finnish state is permitted to rent lands available for agroforestry to forest villagers and industrial enterprises. For each tree that is cut down, two saplings are planted. Therefore, forest products are put to maximum use and forest growth is assured. Estonia: 18) Estonia's inhabitants have taken to the forests as part of a major clean-up operation. A national effort to clean up the country came about after an internet campaign, with more than 50,000 volunteers taking part. Entitled Let's Do It! 2008, the event was the brainchild of Skype founder and Estonian, Ahti Heinla and founder of Microlink, Rainer Nolvak. An estimated three per cent of the population were sent to clean the forest, roadside and other public areas, with dozens of waste management companies supporting the initiative. The organisers said up to 80 per cent of the collected waste is being recycled, with the clean-up purporting to be the biggest civic event since the singing revolution ushered in independence to the country almost 20 years ago. Forests cover over 2.3 million acres in Estonia. This news item is brought to you by KMS Baltics in conjunction with Fest-Forest and EST KINNISVARA. Baltic forestry and property specialists. http://www.kms.ee/index.php?Estonians_clean_up_the_forests & page=12 & article_id=18\ 585779 & action =article Azerbaijan: 19) Around 1,500-2,000 permanent oak trees were cut down and exported from the occupied territories in the Khacha yal zone of Shusha region of Azerbaijan by Armenians, Irada Ibrahimova, Head of the the Ministry news-service, stated to TrendNews on 8 May. On 8 May, it is the 16th anniversary of the occupation of Shusha by the Armenians. The city is 29,356 hectares and about 20% of the territory is a woodland area. There are medicinal mineral water sources like Turshsu and Shirlan in the city, which can be compared with the well-known water sources of Yessentuki, with daily debit 70,000 and 342,000 cu m. Medicinal herbs are widely grown in the region. There are facing stone fields with reserves 1,143 cu m, as well as Kechaldag clay fields with 397,000 cu m reserves suitable for use as construction materials. In 1988, the State natural reserve Dashalti was set up in Shusha and Askaran regions with an area of 450 hectares. Since 1992, the territory has been under occupation and the reserve was completely destroyed. Ibrahimova stated that the Operative Centre at the Ecology Ministry, which investigates the influence of destruction to the environment and natural resources in the occupied territories, disclosed a mass destruction of natural resources in the Azerbaijani occupied territories. Many permanent trees were cut and used as fuel from Shusha, as well as about 200 trees being cut on the Lachin road near Dordyol, Zarasli village being completely destroyed, two local schools were pulled down, many trees were also cut down near the Agziyasti cave and different buildings erected in its place. http://news.trend.az/index.shtml?show=news & newsid=1194754〈=EN Africa: 20) Drought and deforestation are the greatest environmental challenges which pose a threat to poverty alleviation efforts in Africa and the rest of the developing world. Yet, they are neglected by many governments. This came out of a United Nations commission on sustainable development currently underway at the world body's headquarters in New York. Representatives of governments, business and civil society are gathered to examine strategies to mitigate the impact of drought, deforestation and climate change. Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for most poor rural people. It is said that deforestation will affect them significantly because it causes land degradation and drought. This increases poverty and hunger which then forces poor people to migrate or starve. These challenges also pose threats to global security as people fight over scarce resources. The UN conference seeks to persuade governments to adopt pro-active measures to avoid deforestation. Echo-Agriculture's Sara Scherr encourages Governments to work together to develop better land management systems, to control overgrazing and to predict the impact of rising temperatures. Programmes to restore the fertility of the land have also been suggested. Bakary Kante of the Environmental Law Conventions, fears that climate change will make it more difficult for many developing countries to achieve the millennium development goals. Western Mali: 21) In the heart of the Mandinka territory in western Mali, the Mandinka believe that cutting down a tree is a sacrilege. This is the land of the sacred tree, the tree of life, the tree of words, the one that protects from evil spirits. So what has been going on here these past few weeks has left people with a bitter taste and belief that the land of their ancestors is being desecrated. In two months a Chinese company lumbered 243 tonnes of wood, in what is one of the country's last forest natural reserves. And it's not just any wood but Vene Wood, a precious wood which resembles teak and whose leaves are used to feed livestock. Mandinka hunters are firing guns into the air to show their anger. The Minister of Environment had visited the region earlier that day to try to calm things down. Around the negotiation table are angry residents and two very ill-at-ease Chinese representatives of the logging company. People want to know more about this contract. The debate is fueled by a rumour: Chinese authorities may have promised they would build a modern hospital in the capital city of Bamako in exchange for a five-year logging contract. The Malian government have temporarily suspended the logging contract due to the anger of the locals. But suspended doesn't mean terminated. The Mandinka people remain determined to save their sacred forest. http://www.france24.com/en/20080509-report-mali-mandinka-forest-tree-environment\ -vene-wood-c hina-chinese Kenya: 22) Environment minister John Michuki has decried the wanton destruction of forests at the Mau complex as a result of illegal logging and human encroachment. Michuki said the extent of destruction through depletion of forests was a clear manifestation that Kenyans were not bothered with environmental conservation and its importance. Addressing the press at Naishi airstrip in Lake Nakuru National Park after making an extensive aerial tour of the May Water Tower, one of the countries five water pillars, Michuki said Kenyans value for the environment was limited to precious stones. " Since I took over as the minister for environment, I found out with sadness that issues concerning the environment were those dealing with precious stones but those concerning conservation of forests, alerts on rivers drying up, looming drought and others were largely ignored " , he said. " The destruction of Mau complex has even attracted international concern, " he noted. The minister was accompanied by the Environment ministry PS Prof Jacob Ole Kiyiapi, NEMA Director General Muasya Mwinzi and KWS director Julius Kipng'etich. Michuki said following his fact finding mission, he was now in agreement with his cabinet colleague William Ole Ntimama that those encroaching on forests should be evicted. " Those who have invaded the forest for timber and farming are like people who have lost hope for their country and want to grab anything at their disposal, " he said. He said Njoro river whose source is the Mau and empties its water into the world famous Lake Nakuru, home to millions of lesser and greater flamingoes and other bird species was now a seasonal river. " Other rivers, which originate from the Mau are similarly affected by the destruction and their future is now uncertain " , the minister observed. One of the recommendations to end this destruction and save the forest, Michuki said was to bring to an immediate end, to illegal logging, track down and bring to book the buyers of the timber. The government, he added should look for alternative land for those people who were duped and bought part of the forest land while the rest should be evicted. Michuki said it was saddening to note that more than 80 per-cent of the country's land mass was arid and yet some greedy people wanted to destroy the remaining 20 per-cent which was agriculturally viable. http://www.kbc.co.ke/story.asp?ID=49938 Puerto Rico: 23) " Annual precipitation on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico decreased steadily during the 20th century, on average by 16 %. The reduced rainfall manifested itself in the form of regular water rationings during the 1990s which hit millions of inhabitants. Simultaneous with the reduction in rainfall there was widespread deforestation, notably in the coastal lowlands. This paper examines the link between the reduction in precipitation and the land cover change using a combination of energy balance measurements and mesoscale atmospheric modelling. The explanation of the reduction in precipitation appears to be quite different than expected. Based on measurements made earlier over rainforest and pasture in the Amazon, a forest covered island would be expected to be cooler because the higher transpiration -of the forest compared to grassland- tends to cool the surface. During an intensive measurement campaign on Puerto Rico, the opposite appeared to be the case: transpiration by a coastal wetland forest proved to be less than that for a grassland. In addition, the forest albedo was 8 % lower than that for grassland. Together, these two factors caused the sensible heat flux over the forest to be twice as high as that over the grassland, whereas forest evaporation was lower. The surface energy balance observations over forest and grassland were used to derive proper land surface parameterizations, which were implemented in a mesoscale atmospheric circulation model (RAMS) to simulate the meteorological effects of island wide deforestation. The model simulations indicated that the development of a sea breeze during the day dominates climate on the island. Sea breezes develop when the land surface is warmer than the surrounding ocean. In model runs, where the island was assumed to be completely covered with forest, the sea breeze was considerably stronger than in model runs where the vegetation had been transformed to grassland. Along the sea breeze front, convergence caused upward air motions. As this happens more strongly over a forested island, more clouds are formed but at a higher elevation, with an estimated 10-20 % enhancement of precipitation compared to a deforested island. In the deforested scenario the cloud base was typically lowered by 200 m. http://climatesci.org/2008/05/09/another-paper-on-the-role-of-landscape-change-o\ n-the-climate- system-van-der-molen-et-al/ Dominican Republic: 24) Two prestigious ecologists yesterday warned that Dominican Republic must protect its forests to prevent droughts and the extinction of many endemic species, threatened by the high depredation levels. Biologist and National District Environmental Information Center director MilcÃades MejÃa, and Botanical Garden director Ricardo Garcia, in a ceremony to mark Arbor Day, said there's a need to face the danger of extinction of Dominican Republic's different species. The municipal authorities celebrated Arbor Day with the participation of hundreds of students from Santo Domingo public and private schools. MejÃa, a former director of the Botanical Gardens, urged the citizens to protect the biodiversity and together with the entire population, create awareness on the need to preserve the environment. MejÃa and Garcia headed the event aimed at protecting forests. http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2008/5/8/27910/As-Dominican-forests-are-r\ avaging-of-end emic-special-vanish-ecologist-warn Guyana: 25) GEORGETOWN — A U.S. logging company has won the rights to harvest trees in a large portion of Guyana's Amazon rainforest, the company said Tuesday. The timber concession, awarded to Simon & Shock International, is one of Guyana's five largest, covering 988,400 acres near the Brazilian border. The South Haven, Mich.-based company will invest at least $26 million to develop the area, Chief Executive Kelly Simon said. A harvesting license will be granted once the company completes an environmental impact study and inventories the trees, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Robert Persaud said. Guyana, a former British and Dutch colony, has offered to ban commercial development of its rainforest if compensated by the international community and already has preserved some areas. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5754869.html Costa Rica: 26) Half a century after most of Costa Rica's rain forests were cut down, researchers from the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Sciences (BTI) on the Cornell campus are attempting what many thought was impossible -- restoring a tropical rain forest ecosystem. When the researchers planted worn-out cattle pastures in Costa Rica with a sampling of local trees in the early 1990s, native species of plants began to move in and flourish, raising the hope that destroyed rain forests could one day be replaced. Ten years after the tree plantings, Cornell graduate student Jackeline Salazar counted the species of plants that took up residence in the shade of the new planted areas. She found remarkably high numbers of species -- more than 100 in each plot. And many of the new arrivals were also to be found in nearby remnants of the original forests. " By restoring forests we hope not only to be improving the native forests, but we are helping to control erosion and helping the quality of life of the local people, " said Carl Leopold, the William H. Crocker Scientist Emeritus at BTI. He pointed out that drinking water becomes more readily available when forests thrive because tree roots act as a sort of sponge, favoring rainwater seepage and preventing water running off hills and draining away. Fully rescuing a rain forest may take hundreds of years, but Leopold, whose findings are published with Salazar in the March 2008 issue of Ecological Restoration, said the study's results are promising. " I'm surprised, " he said. " We're getting impressive growth rates in the new forest trees. " The project started when Leopold partnered with colleagues at the Ithaca-based Tropical Forestry Initiative; in 1993 they began by planting mixtures of trees on worn-out pasture land. For 50 years the soil had been compacted under countless hooves, and its nutrients washed away. When it rained, Leopold said, the red soil appeared to bleed from the hillsides. The group chose local rain forest trees for planting, collecting seeds from native trees in the community. " You can't buy [these] seeds, " Leopold said. " So we passed the word around among our farmer neighbors. " When a farmer reported a tree producing seeds, Leopold and his wife would ride out on horses to collect the seeds before hungry monkeys beat them to it. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080428133928.htm Brazil: 27) Brazil on Thursday launched an ambitious sustainable development plan for the Amazon that aims to lay down a new model for the vast jungle area balancing economic and environmental priorities, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said. " We all understand that the Amazon needs to develop, but we also understand that there had to be a development model that is well thought-out, and not predatory, just like we have in other regions of the country, " he said. The initiative aims at laying down infrastructure works in nine Brazilian states that are within the Amazon, opening credit lines to small farmers, and adopting new criteria for the registration of people in the area. It provides for various methods to fight deforestation and the illegal occupation of public land. " There are people who think the Amazon should belong to mankind. And we think that way, too. We think that it needs to benefit everyone. But we also have to say loudly and clearly that it is Brazil that is in charge of looking after the Amazon, " Lula said. That was seen as a shot across the bow of foreign governments and groups that want to pressure Brazil in terms of limitations on Amazon development. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Brazil_launches_sustainable_development_plan_f\ or_Amazon_999. html 28) Radiocarbon dating shows that trees in Amazon forests grow very slowly compared to their temperate climate counterparts and can live to be surprisingly old. As the world's largest tropical rainforest, the Amazon plays a major part in the Earth's changing climate. Susan Trumbore will discuss her studies of Amazon forest dynamics, including the consequences of slow growth rates for forest management and the degree to which these forests might soak up fossil fuel carbon dioxide. Trumbore, chair of the Department of Earth System Science, is the founding director of the Center for Global Environmental Change Research and the UCI Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics. Together with Ellen Druffel and John Southon, Trumbore established the W.M. Keck Carbon Cycle Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility at UCI in 2002. She served as the first elected president of the Biogeosciences Section of the American Geophysical Union and has been elected a fellow of the AGU and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. http://media-newswire.com/release_1066128.html 29) The new study identifies a link between red ucing sulphur dioxide emissions from burning coal and increasing sea surface temperatures in the tropical north Atlantic, resulting in a heightened risk of drought in the Amazon rainforest. The Amazon rainforest contains about one tenth of the total carbon stored in land ecosystems and recycles a large fraction of the rainfall that falls upon it. So any major change to its vegetation, brought about by events like deforestation or drought, has an impact on the global climate system. Co-Author Dr Carlos Nobre of the Brazilian Institute for Space Research adds: " Global warming, deforestation and increased forest fires are all acting in synergy to reduce the resilience of the Amazonian forests. " Sulphate aerosol particles arising from the burning of coal in power stations in the 1970s and 1980s have partially reduced global warming by reflecting sunlight and making clouds brighter. This pollution has been predominantly in the northern hemisphere and has acted to limit warming in the tropical north Atlantic, keeping the Amazon wetter than it would otherwise be. Chris Huntingford of CEH, another of the co-authors, explains: " Reduced sulphur emissions in North America and Europe will see tropical rain-bands move northwards as the north Atlantic warms, resulting in a sharp increase in the risk of Amazonian drought. " Lead author Professor Peter Cox of the University of Exeter sums-up the consequences of the study: " These findings are another reminder of the complex nature of environmental change. To improve air quality and safeguard public health, we must continue to reduce aerosol pollution, but our study suggests that this needs to be accompanied by urgent reductions in carbon dioxide emissions to minimize the risk of Amazon forest dieback. " http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080507133259.htm 30) Satellite photos show that Amazon destruction has dropped sharply since the onset of a massive crackdown on illegal logging by Brazil's government. Brazil's National Space Research Institute says the region's deforestation rate dropped by 80% in March over February, when federal police launched a massive operation shutting down clandestine sawmills. Police inspector Alvaro Palharini told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper Wednesday that 4,000 trucks, 19 chain saws, 10 guns and 95 vehicles have been seized in the operation. Still, environmentalists question month-to-month comparisons, preferring to compare monthly data to the same period of the previous year. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/environment/2008-05-07-brazil-logging_N.htm Ecuador: 31) An illegal logger has been speared to death by Amazon natives in Ecuador's Yasunà National Park, officials say. The killing, which occurred March 4, reflects mounting tensions between natives and illegal loggers working in one of South America's most prized parks. It also follows allegations made in February that as many as 15 Amazonian tribal members were beheaded by timber poachers in the region. The death of the logger was confirmed by a spokesperson at the Orellana provincial police headquarters in Coca, Ecuador (see Ecuador map). The Ecuadorian newspaper El Comercio published a photograph of the scene, showing the body of the logger, Luis Mariano Castellano Espinosa, riddled with wooden spears protruding from his chest and legs. The killing appeared to be the work of members of the Taromenane tribe, judging from the type of spear used, police captain Edwin Ruiz told the newspaper. The attack took place in the rain forest of 1.9-million-acre (758,000-hectare) Yasunà park, which has been designated as a biosphere reserve by the United Nations. Yasunà is rich in marketable trees such as cedar and contains a quarter of Ecuador's untapped oil reserves. The park is also home to Amazon natives such as the Taromenane and Tagaeri, two tribes living in voluntary isolation within the park's " untouchable zone, " where logging and oil exploration are prohibited. But loggers operate with impunity in parts of the park due to lack of enforcement, critics have charged, and violent clashes have resulted. The murder is the most recent confrontation in YasunÃ, where the government has now established a permanent military presence to stop illegal logging, a move that natives and rights groups had long demanded. " [There] are powerful economic interests " involved in the park's future, said Diego Falconi, a top advisor to the Ecuadorian police. " [but the government] is committed to resolve it. " The recent killing comes on the heels of a government probe into an alleged massacre of natives in YasunÃ. On February 6 native groups reported that witnesses in the area had said that between 5 and 15 Taromenani and Tagaeri tribesmen had been killed, possibly beheaded, by illegal loggers when the tribal members raided a logging camp. A team of Ecuadorian police, soldiers, and officials from the Ministry of the Environment were dispatched to the zone to investigate but said it came up empty-handed. " No evidence was found of the incident in question, " according to the government's official report, provided to National Geographic News by the environment ministry. http://ecuador-rising.blogspot.com/2008/05/spearing-beheadings-reported-in-ecuad\ or.html Colombia: 32) On Jan. 23, the Constitutional Court declared the Forest Law of 2006 unconstitutional for " having omitted in its expedition the requisite of consulting indigenous and tribal communities, as stated in Article 6 of Convention 169 in the International Labor Organization (ILO). Indeed, this 53-article law was not discussed with the indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities who are collectively owners of between 43 and 53 million hectares (106 and 131 million acres) that comprise the greater part of the 65 million hectares (161 million acres) Colombia is estimated to have in natural forests, but for experts this political decision really saved Colombia's native forests. Attorney General Edgardo Maya had already warned about the serious consequences that the Forest Law would bring to the Colombian ecosystem because " it revokes norms established in 1959 on the creation of national parks that protect water-producing glaciers and hydrographic basins in [Colombia], considered one of the greatest water potentials in the world. " In turn, Senator Jorge Enrique Robledo, of the Independent Democratic Pole party, hit the nail on the head when he stressed that the principal purpose of the law was to exploit timber: " The project does not intend to do anything besides handing over management of forest reserves and natural forests to multi-national loggers, introducing elements today outside of relevant legislation, such as the concession and association to manage forest areas, which it puts in reach of the multi-national companies' financial interests, " Robledo said before Congress. But the law's inability to be enforced not only saved the native forests, but also managed to put the tremendous crisis — which forests have been suffering for decades — back on the table. " The greatest deforester is not coca, but rather the very government that legalizes deforestation, naming illegal settlers owners of the land, " claimed Professor Orlando Rangel of the Natural Sciences Institute in the National University of Colombia. " The country's deforestation rate, according to government statistics, for illicit cultivation is approximately 3,000 hectares (7,410 acres) annually. The other cause of deforestation is the yearly introduction of 320,000 hectares (790,400 acres) of new land to agriculture and the annual use of 257,000 hectares (617,500 acres) of native forest for wood. This means 580,000 hectares (1,432,600 acres) are deforested each year, " Rangel claims, according to his own calculations. " The most serious issue, " he adds, " is that Colombia does not have a natural vegetation map and we are always talking based on what we suppose exists. We urgently need a cartographic map. " http://www.latinamericapress.org/article.asp?lanCode=1 & artCode=5612 Chile: 33) AYSEN — The Patagonian region of southern Chile is considered one of the world's last, great wildernesses, dubbed an " eco-gem " for its rare fauna, ice-sculptured fjords and almost total absence of industrial development. But development is threatening this pristine wilderness, driven in part by money from two of Canada's largest public-sector retirement funds. The CPP Investment Board and British Columbia Investment Management Corp. have stakes in a vast electricity project planned for this natural area, putting the organizations on a collision course with Chilean and North American environmentalists, and into the middle of a heated national debate over energy development in the Latin American country. The two funds, along with Toronto conglomerate Brookfield Asset Management Inc., are the controlling shareholders of Transelec Chile SA, a power-grid operator considering a 2,300-kilometre transmission line that would require one of the world's longest clear-cuts, a logged corridor 80 metres wide, much of it set to slice through temperate forests of a type found nowhere outside Patagonia. Ecologists reel off a lengthy rap sheet of the damage the dam project is likely to cause, including the flooding of 60 square kilometres in the river basins, fertility loss in downstream soil and habitat destruction of endemic plant and animal species, including the huemul, an Andean deer so rare that its population has dropped below 3,000. But activists believe the power lines, which could have an impact on 14 national parks or nature reserves, could prove even more damaging to Patagonia's fragile ecosystems. " The transmission line will have a bigger impact than the dams themselves, " said Peter Hartmann, Aysen-based director of Chile's National Committee for the Defence of Flora and Fauna. " Whatever route they take, it's simply not possible to avoid a great many national parks, nature reserves and conservation areas. " http://www.topix.com/ca/toronto-on/2008/05/canadian-pensioners-and-chiles-pristi\ ne-wilderness Latin America: 34) Latin America, home to some of the world's richest forest areas, is playing a critical role in developing viable carbon-based schemes to preserve and promote forest conservation. Emerging international carbon mechanisms are continually changing, however. Plantar, a Brazilian iron foundry company, epitomises the project and market complexities that such uncertainty brings. The pig iron producer, based in Minas Gerais, Brazil, was considering changing from charcoal from eucalyptus trees to coal in its production processes, a switch that would have resulted in greatly increased carbon emissions. To persuade it otherwise, the World Bank stepped in with its Prototype Carbon Fund to facilitate funding for a 23,100-hectare commercial eucalyptus plantation in 2001. It was hoped that the additional carbon sequestered by the planted trees would qualify the project for credits under the Kyoto Protocol's Carbon Development Mechanism (CDM). However, the Plantar initiative quickly became a flashpoint for critics of monoculture tree plantations inspired under the Kyoto Protocol mechanisms. A coalition of over 50 Brazilian non-profit groups, unions and other civil society movements have publicly condemned the 'carbon sink' project as " unsustainable " and " climatically worthless " . They cite long-standing claims that credits for the temporary storage of carbon by forests fail to counterbalance the permanent release of fossil-stored carbon (see SinksWatchs' report, 'Forest Fraud'). The World Rainforest Movement, a Uruguayan-based non-profit organisation, also draws attention to the absence of socio-economic development benefits from the Plantar project – a criticism echoed by indigenous groups and other forest-based communities in the region. Yet more evidence of the project's negative social and environmental impacts is provided in the recent 'Carbon Connection' documentary. Produced by the environmental group Carbon Trade Watch, the film finds evidence of water scarcity and a resultant reduction in native biodiversity. After three attempts, the Plantar project was approved by the CDM Executive board last August. However, the scheme is now registered under altered criteria based on methane sequestration during the eucalyptus-burning process. http://www.climatechangecorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=5305 India: 35) The socially conscious citizens in Hyderabad held a protest rally against the cutting of a centuries old Banyan Tree in front of Paigah palace, an heritage monument in the city and till recently it was the office of the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and now temporarily housing the US consulate, scheduled to start functioning soon. Promienst citizens like Dr. P.M. Bhargava, Narendra Luther, Dr.Kulsum Reddy, Prof. C Ramachandraiah, Mrs.Bharati Surya Rao and Sajjad Shahid were present in the protest. Forum for a Better Hyderabad (FBH) president M Vedkumar led them. Last Monday, a 200 years old huge banyan tree, was mercilessly axed except for its bare trunk, by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) authorities at the request of the U.S.Consulate for road widening. Along with that 32 Ashoka trees within the approach road were also chopped off for a price of Rs. 50 each were also axed. Road widening cannot be a valid reason for chopping the banyan tree. Road widening plan could provide for skirting around such an ancient tree, which gives a character to the location, as is done in the case of religious structures. With a little imagination and expertise, this could have been done. Unfortunately, these type of decisions not merely reflect a lack of these qualities, but also exhibit a dangerous trend toward insensitivity and violence toward nature. Further, the authorities never consult the civil society organizations on these difficult issues, they have enough time to do so as road widening plans are not made in a day but over months and years, and the planners would precisely know the blocks to road widening much in advance. Instead, they prefer unilateral action which is irretrievable. http://www.mynews.in/fullstory.aspx?storyid=4670 36) Kullu - Over 35,000 trees are being cut down to facilitate the construction of the 192 MV Allain Duhangan hydro power project in Kullu District of Himachal Pradesh. Villagers are protesting the massive deforestation. As such they are protesting against such power projects since a couple of others have also been planned elsewhere in the State. They allege that the Government did not inform them about the felling of trees. Around 1200 trees have already been illegally cut by the personnel associated with the Allain Duhangan project. " They did not give us any information or asked us our consent to build these power lines. They did it on their own with some middle men being involved in it. The environment department gave NOC to them and asked them to take suggestions and with a proper enquiry with the Panchayat and the villagers to set up the project. But they purposely have fitted power lines between the orchards and the fields which is not acceptable, " said Lal Chand, a farmer. The entire Kullu District, Nalagadh region and Mandi areas will be affected with the felling of trees. " Forest Department says that around 10,000 trees will be cut which itself is a huge lot. The Government should realise that the condition of the state, jungles would not exist at this rate of trees being chopped, " said Daulat Bharti, an environmentalist. There are other such projects on the pipeline, which will also require felling of trees in large numbers. On this score, Minister of Forests, Jagat Prakash Nadda said that the engineers of Allain Duhangan project did not evaluate the consequences. The Government will try to build a common transmission line for the other projects, which are also coming up. This common transmission will be beneficial to transmit electricity and there wouldn't be much loss. " http://www.dailyindia.com/show/238111.php/Deforestation-in-Kullu-for-the-Allain-\ Duhangan-hydr opower-project Pakistan: 37) Federal Minister for Environment, Mr. Hameed Ullah Jan Afridi said Government is committed to initiate new projects for development of the forests so as to mitigate the environmental threats in the area. He expressed these views while talking to the Provincial Minister for Irrigation and Power, Mr. Muhammad Humayun Khan along with Member Provincial Assembly Muhammad Ali Shah who called on the Federal Minister for Environment, Mr. Hameed Ullah Jan Afridi on Wednesday. They discussed matters pertaining to environmental issues of the province particularly Batkhela and Dargai areas, here today. The Provincial Minister said that there is a need to develop park and establish Zoo in the Kali toria Batkhela areas. Speaking on the occasion the Federal Minister said that Government is committed to initiate new projects for development of the forests so as to mitigate the environmental threats in the area. He assured the provincial minister for all possible support would be extended for tackling the environmental issues particularly fencing the Sawat canal to make it safer for humans and animals. http://www.onlinenews.com.pk/details.php?id=127754 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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