203 – Earth’s Tree News

Today for you 37 news items about Earth’s trees. Location, number and subject listed below. Condensed / abbreviated article is listed further below.

Can be viewed on the web at http://www.livejournal.com/users/olyecology or
by sending a blank email message to earthtreenews-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

–British Columbia: 1) Development threatens old trees, 2) Treesit update, 3) Aligning private and Crown land logging rules, 4) at-risk species, 5)from forestry to recreation and tourism,
–Oregon: 6) Wilderness history, 7) ‘new’ logging ‘experiment,’ 8) State lands needs more logging, 9) Humongous fungus, 10) We’re the cause of extinctions,
–Montana: 11) Plum Creek tax scams and REIT adventures catch up to ‘em
–Kentucky: 12) State forest land expansion
–UK: 13) Sennybridge protest continues on after one year
–Zimbabwe: 14) Stumps in the heart of Mukuvisi Woodlands
–South Africa: 15) All the wrong reason to log
–Congo: 16) Logging road research
–Burundi: 17) Save Kibira Forest
–Niger: 18) Poor farmers reforest on the cheap
–Mumbai: 19) Save the precious mangroves and salts pans
–Mexico: 20) Forest defender murder still unnoticed, 21) Sierra Gorda Biosphere
–Trinidad and Tobago: 22) Slash and Burn reversing aforestation again
–Jamaica: 23) Charcoal demands in Daniel Town causing deforestation,
–Honduras: 24) Traffickers of illegal wood overpower and outspend government
–Caribbean Island: 25) Giant log rafts brought frogs to the island
–South America: 26) Spanish Cedar left unprotected
–Peru: 27) Sign on for peoples and forests of Tahuamanu region of Madre de Dios
–Brazil: 28) Hydro in Rondonia, 29) Decline in Deforestation, 30) Google saves trees,
–Ecuador: 31) Yasuni National Park has huge untapped oil fields,
–Indonesia: 32) Permai Rainforest Resort, 33) Community Forest Program, 34) community logging pilot program, 35) Aceh declares a logging moratorium,
–Australia: 36) Wilderness Society sues feds and Gunns Ltd., 37)Beth Schultz honored,

British Columbia:

1) On the Western edge of the city, there’s a stand of 500-year-old trees and mossy old growth forest Ray Zimmerman wants me to see. To get there, he leads me on a hike straight uphill from the Trans-Canada Highway, past a railway trestle, across a cold creek, through waist-high ferns and salal into a deepening silence. We’re on a ridge above Niagara Creek in the Sooke Hills Wilderness Regional Park, which borders Goldstream Provincial Park, where we left Zimmerman’s old blue Toyota wagon. It’s the best stand of old growth on southern Vancouver Island that I know, he says. The forest feels like Cathedral Grove near Parksville, except you can get to it on city transit. On the way up, you can look back across the highway to Mount Finlayson and the crane adding the next layer to Langford’s Bear Mountain development. This kind of area should have the highest protection, says Zimmerman. There’s no more of it around down here. But lately he’s noticed some ill winds. The first gust came on January 31 this year when the province’s forest ministry released 12,000 hectares of Western Forest Products Ltd.’s private lands in the area from management under the Tree Farm Licence system. First nation leaders and environmentalists quickly condemned the move, which was widely seen as a gift to a large B.C. Liberal Party donor with the public gaining nothing in exchange. The second breeze to catch Zimmerman’s attention was a quiet decision on April 18 by the Regional Water Supply Commission to greatly increase the amount of water it pipes to Sooke. The CRD is borrowing $26 million to replace an aging water line that most accept needs attention. But the replacement will be a modern, larger pipe down the Galloping Goose right of way that will be capable of providing water for many, many more people. The increase will serve Sooke, but it will also be available if and when the sprawling forest lands sprout houses. And in what may well be the biggest blow of all, the province’s transportation ministry is looking at the Malahat corridor to see how the highway can be improved at large public expense that will inevitably increase the number of people commuting into Victoria from Mill Bay, Cobble Hill, Duncan and beyond. The government has eliminated the possibility of building a bridge across Finlayson Arm, but at least two of the remaining proposals involve blazing a route right through the old growth forest Zimmerman has brought me to see. http://web.bcnewsgroup.com/portals/monday/

2) In Victoria, where the rate of “development” is eclipsed nowhere, save the manic building booms of China, what is left of our urban, and suburban wild spaces is disappearing fast. The next step, logically is up-island. Langford council and its mayor have bent to the notion of unrestricted expansion in the name of increased tax revenues. They’re encouraged by the Provincial Capital Commission, a quasi-governmental body filled with Chamber of Commerce denizens, determined that making your pile is the preeminent order of existence, regardless if you must do so by scrambling over the bodies of the remainder of the wilds. They are currently behind the expansion plans of the Bear Mountain development that will, if unchecked, swallow whole the lands abutting the Highlands, severing the long-touted “sea-to-sea greenbelt” ambitions of the TLC (The Land Conservancy society). This expansion naturally requires millions of tax-payer dollars to build the second clover leaf highway exchange to facilitate the driving needs of the anticipated thousands of wealthy retirees who will pay the millions for monster homes next to the acres of golf courses cut into the mountains and valleys of the priceless wild lands. But there is a small glitch, a fly in the proverbial butter of Bear Mountain’s idyll. Perched on a small platform in the tree canopy of a small patch of strategically chosen forest land in the path of the proposed highway interchange sits a dedicated defender. Working together in shifts, the tree-sit has been occupied these last two months (at time of writing), and those there vow to maintain the position in the path of the bulldozers and chainsaws. http://www.pacificfreepress.com/content/view/1293/81/

3) An organization that manages B.C.’s private forest lands has stopped short of supporting a regional district initiative that would see private and Crown lands logged to the same environmental standards. Wednesday in Port Alberni, Rod Davis, a member of the Private Managed Forest Land Council, said his organization is interested in working with the regional district, but there are limits to what it can do. “It’s very political,” he said. “We are not a political body.” Representative of the PMFLC were in Port Alberni Wednesday to speak to the regional district’s committee of the whole. The regional district invited the organization because it was concerned about logging practices on private land. The PMFLC, established as an independent agency under the Private Managed Forest Land Act, consists of two government and two company representatives who choose a chair. The council is involved in strategic planning, sets and monitors forest practices, and enforces standards. It has no authority over the size of cut-blocks, their design or even a company’s rate of harvest. Tony Bennett, director for Area C, Long Beach, said the regional district has one bottom line, and directors want one standard for logging on public and private lands. He asked how much different would the Beaufort Range now look had forest companies logged according to public standards. “It would have probably looked different,” said Trevor Swan, chair of the council. Mayor Ken McRae, Port Alberni, also asked if the PMFLC encourages member companies to meet forestry standards set by ISO and CSA. Davis said while his organization morally encourages those standards, it can’t do anything to enforce them. http://www.westcoaster.ca/modules/AMS/article.php?storyid=2185

4) The report says the at-risk species are found throughout the province, but most are clustered in four main “hot spots” on southern Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland, the Rocky Mountain Trench and the Okanagan Valley. “These areas of high species endangerment coincide with intense human population density, expansion and development, resulting in a number of proximate threats to biodiversity; including habitat loss and fragmentation, pollution, invasive species and the threat of over-exploitation [from hunting and fishing],” the report states. The study, to be published next week in the scientific journal Biodiversity, is critical of the provincial government for not adequately protecting key habitat, and for failing to bring in endangered-species legislation, as Ontario did recently. “Successive governments have not put a priority on protecting biodiversity, but have relied on the natural riches of B.C. to attract tourists and new residents and build communities,” the report says. “The cost of losing B.C.’s rich biodiversity is immeasurable. B.C. has a domestic and an international responsibility to stop squandering its remaining biological wealth and ecological integrity.” The report recommends the government create endangered-species legislation, adopt a conservation approach for land-use planning, complete a provincewide protected-areas strategy and provide funding to fully monitor species at risk. The study coincides with the release yesterday of a petition by 52 biologists and botanists calling on the B.C. government to protect an endangered population of mountain caribou. The signatories include internationally known author and biologist Farley Mowat, Bristol Foster, who helped to establish the first ecological reserves in B.C., and Steve Herrero, one of the world’s top bear experts. The group called for a moratorium on all logging in old-growth forest that is current or potential habitat for mountain caribou. The mountain caribou population in B.C. has dropped from a historic level of about 10,000 to less than 2,000. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070607.BCENDANGERED07/TPStory/Environment

5) A report for the B.C. government says the economy of Vancouver Island’s west coast should shift from forestry to recreation and tourism. Forests and Range Minister Rich Coleman says the 19 recommendations from the report are aimed at diversifying the Port Alberni region’s economy. The consultant’s report by Macauley and Associates Consulting Inc. says Port Alberni did not receive the same benefits from 2003 forestry-policy changes as the rest of the province, that forestry in the region has been in decline for 20 years and that the trend will continue. Among the recommendations are suggestions that the Port Alberni area be marketed as a retirement destination. Coleman says he will be discussing the recommendations with stakeholders in the Port Alberni area, which is home to a large paper mill as well as a number of sawmills and lumber mills. The report says the impact on the Alberni Valley has been particularly marked owing to the relative past prosperity of its forest industry and workers. http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=fda89791-057b-4de1-b1cd-a7512a27f3b0
Oregon:

6) The Cascade Mountains create a thin band of rugged, spectacularly wrinkled geography from northern California to southern British Columbia. It is the dominant geographical feature in the Northwest, a region often referred to as “Cascadia.” Most of the range is national forest land, and debates over designating wilderness areas in those federal lands have been continuous since 1950. In southern Oregon, the range sprawls across the landscape like a discarded towel, with a maze of deeply eroded river valleys. The ridges do not reach high elevations in this region, but the slopes are extremely steep and densely covered with a thick mat of brush and forests. Rich stands of Douglas fir dominate the vegetation here, providing valuable sources of timber even to this day. Partly due to the value of these forests to the timber industry, the wilderness areas in this part of the Cascades tend to be quite small. Although debated for decades, many of these were not established until 1984, after much effort on the part of wilderness advocates to protect these forests, such as those around Waldo Lake, with legislation. The volcanic legacy of the Cascades is clear as one heads north toward the Three Sisters of central Oregon, site of the first major postwar wilderness debate in the Northwest, 1950-64. These relatively young volcanic cones rise to 10,000 feet and sit atop the “Old Cascades,” the broad, ancient lava flows that form the base of the Oregon Cascades. The Three Sisters support a series of glaciers, and their aprons of lava and pumice create a mostly treeless barrier around their bases. The Old Cascades, with their steep slopes and dense forests, spread far to the west, until they settle into the Willamette Valley. Drier forests of ponderosa pine and lodgepole pine reach up shorter slopes from the east out of the Deschutes River basin. These lower forests, especially on the west side, were the focus of wilderness debates beginning in the 1950s. This article is adapted from a new book, Drawing Lines in the Forest: Creating Wilderness Areas in the Pacific Northwest http://www.crosscut.com/history/3976/

7) The idea behind the U.S. Forest Service experiment is to determine whether treated areas would be able to change the direction of a wildfire, or slow it down, making it easier for firefighters to tackle. The agency decided Friday to log or thin out trees in areas specifically selected to influence fire behavior on a 160,000-acre stretch of mixed conifer forest. After more than two years of analysis and computer modeling about what would work best on the landscape, the Forest Service came up with three options. The alternative that will be used involves conducting commercial logging on about 4,300 acres, while removing smaller fuels on more than 3,500 acres out of the 160,000-acre project area.”What we’re doing is kind of the minimum amount of treatments that we can to reduce risk,” Boehme said. “We don’t want to modify late successional habitat if we can help it, but we do want to avoid having it just go.” The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Fire Learning Network, an association of groups and agencies that includes the conservancy, have not yet taken a stand on activities in the late successional reserves, Waltz said. http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-19/1181426083258520.xml&storyl
ist=orlocal

8) Pressed by coastal counties hard up for timber dollars, Oregon’s Board of Forestry on Wednesday reopened the question of whether to increase logging in the Tillamook and Clatsop state forests that blanket the Coast Range. If the counties get their way, that could mean more clear-cutting and a shift closer to industrial logging strategies with shorter cycles of cutting than the more conservative approach in place now. But environmental groups also hope they can join the fray and win better protection for essential salmon streams and other wildlife habitat. Close to a dozen county commissioners attended the meeting Wednesday to show support for higher logging rates. They said they are especially worried because of uncertainties about federal money intended to offset reduced logging rates on federal lands. “If it wasn’t for state timber revenue, we’d be in big trouble in Tillamook County right now,” said Tillamook County Commissioner Tim Josi. Rural wages in Oregon are about 30 percent behind those in the Portland metro area, he said, with logging one of the few sources of good jobs. Counties aren’t the only ones upset with what’s happening in the state forests. Environmental groups also said the plan didn’t set aside enough of the landscape for fish and wildlife. Instead, state foresters pursued an experimental strategy to use logging to sculpt a diverse blend of forest ages and sizes to satisfy wildlife needs. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1181183129203550.xml&coll=7

9) The U.S. Forest Service has adopted an informal live-and-let-live policy for the enormous tree killer it calls the “humongous fungus.” The huge root-rot infestation underlies 2,200 acres east of Prairie City in a remote corner of eastern Oregon’s Blue Mountains at an elevation of about 6,500 feet near the Strawberry Mountain and Monument Rock wilderness areas. The Forest Service plans to publish a brochure about the gigantic fungus, Armillaria ostoyae, this summer. “There is no way to eliminate it,” said Malheur National Forest ecologist and tree expert Mike Tatum of John Day. Most people walking by would never know the fungus lurks just below the ground’s surface, occupying its time in the quiet business of sending out shoestring-like tentacles called rhizomorphs and wrapping them around tree roots. Its sheer mass — it’s roughly the size of 1,600 football fields — makes Herman Melville’s fictional white whale Moby Dick seem like a tadpole. And it could get bigger. In terms of age, Armillaria is a fungiform Methuselah. Researchers say it may have been 100 years old when Alexander the Great conquered the known world in 330 B.C. And some estimates suggest it could be 8,000 years old, said Forest Service researcher Catherine Parks, who has spent 10 years studying it. The fungus can be found worldwide, but prefers dense, closed-canopy forests — the kind that allow hikers to see little of the sky as they tramp along, Tatum said. The only obvious signs of its presence are the gaps created when it kills trees. Such openings aren’t necessarily bad because they allow fungus-resistant tree species and undergrowth to get a foothold, Parks said. And when a tree dies, it recycles its nutrients into the soil for trees that come after it, she said. “It looks like latex paint,” Parks said of the telltale mycelia. “You can peel it off in a layer.” From an aircraft, biologists see “little rings of dead trees” when Armillaria is present in a forest, Parks said. The fungus never kills all the trees, but the rings sometimes coalesce into larger patterns of mortality, she said. Tatum says a big, hot wildfire might someday cut the humongous fungus down to size. A 5,000-acre conflagration sideswiped it about four years ago, and the flames killed host trees and energized soil organisms hostile to the fungus, he said. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/118136685785140.xml&coll=7

10) How long ’til we get the hard fact that the indicator species that are disappearing are pointing a ghostly finger — tentacle, talon, hoof, claw — in our direction? A language we don’t understand or are incapable of hearing is whispering, “This will affect you.” Young people armed with Kryptonite locks and incendiary devices took to the logging roads and ski resorts to try to translate the message to the mainstream, who wrote them off because of their unsociable black hoodies, unkempt hair, and dangerous ways. The FBI’s Operation Backfire swept up the “eco-terrorists,” who are safely sequestered in jail for many years to come. Jails, zoos, hmm. Last month I was visiting my old home in rural Oregon. I stood outside around midnight, an umbrella of blackness punctuated by stars overhead. There was a stillness city dwellers can barely conceptualize. The adjacent 40 acres is Bureau of Land Management property, a steep hillside covered with great old trees that provide homes for hives of wild bees, for pileated woodpeckers and even for a pair of spotted owls, documented and certified. Those two birds of prey are the only things between that grove of Douglas firs and a chainsaw, the only reason the trees haven’t been transformed into board feet. As I stood in the darkness, I heard the distinct four-note call of the spotted owl, whoop … wo-hu … hoo. The sound of the wild. They may survive in zoos, the way I sometimes feel like I survive in the city, but will they live? If we scour the landscape of the Pacific Northwest, sweeping up the last few owls that have survived into this precarious future and cart them off to zoos and labs for a lifetime of forced procreation and artificial insemination, yet do nothing to address the systemic causes of extinction, we’ll be losing more than a species. We’ll be losing something we seem incapable of even recognizing, and there is no feel-good effect in that. http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/6/6/14649/11772

Montana:

11) The state of Montana’s largest landowner, visible across some 1.3 million forest-acres, is set to become even more noticeable in coming months, with a new public relations campaign already under way. The company is meeting with public relations and marketing professionals in Missoula, and with economists and demographers, too, to help better target its message. “We absolutely need to be more involved in the communities where we own land,” Budinick said. “We need to be more engaged.” That’s because “Plum Creek’s business model has changed.” The timber company is now firmly in the business of selling residential real estate, Budinick said, and sometimes of developing that real estate, too. The Plum Creek Land Co., a relatively new real estate division of the parent company, represents a fast-growing market for what were previously forestry professionals. That business change, however, also represents a fundamental land-use shift. When homes replace working forests, many are affected, Budinick said. Hunters and anglers can lose access. Communities can shoulder added tax burdens. Land values can increase. Wildlife habitat can be fragmented. Since 1999, Plum Creek has been organized as a Real Estate Investment Trust, which means it pays no corporate income taxes in Montana. Instead, REITs pass through, as dividends, some 90 percent of their earnings to shareholders, who then pay personal income taxes to the states in which they live. Many shareholders do not live in Montana, however, and some lawmakers complained that profits made in Montana were being exported for tax purposes. A proposal was made to end the tax exclusion those dividends now enjoy. To continue to allow the exclusion, lawmakers argued, would give REITs an unfair advantage over other Montana companies. In full-page newspaper ads, Plum Creek made much of its role as a good corporate neighbor, keying on jobs and benefits. “Imposing a special tax directed primarily at Plum Creek would make the company’s Montana operations less profitable and therefore less likely to continue to invest in the state,” the ads said. http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/06/11/news/local/news02.txt

Kentucky:

12) Last July, local, state and federal politicians helped celebrate Kentucky’s Division of Forestry’s adding the 1,110-acre tract to its bank of managed woodland, but aside from a the addition of a few parking areas and an unmarked stand of trees thinned for their health, Knobs State Forest has been relatively quiet. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Unlike the State Parks’ system, Kentucky’s six state forests are managed to provide sustainable, working woodlands. While state forests are open to the public, they don’t offer the groomed trails and playgrounds state parks often do. Instead, state forests offer trees, and in the case of Knobs State Forest, hills and trees. The land is managed and maintained to provide healthy timber stand that may one day be harvested for the wood industry. The land is also used as a training ground for woodland owners and foresters. Located between Interstate 65 and Boy Scouts of Amer-ica’s Camp Crooked Creek in southern Bullitt County, Knobs is the only state-owned forest in central Kentucky. The original 1,110-acre tract was purchased by the state last year from Dr. Greg Kuhns and his sister, Ann van de Steur. Funding for the $3 million purchase was made possible with federal dollars allotted to the state via the Forest Legacy Program — a program began in 1990 to help private landowners protect valuable natural resources by selling property to state forest agencies. In November, the Division of Forestry tapped FLP funds again to purchase a 429-acre tract adjoining the former Kuhns’ property from the estate of the late Stephen Aaron. The now 1,539-acre forest extends a swath of protected woodland from deep inside Hardin County to the interstate corridor — making a continuous forest of more than 16,000 acres. More property is being scoped out by forestry officials for acquisition. In a previous interview, Kentucky Division of Forestry’s Steve Gray said the tract could grow as large as 3,000 acres. http://www.newsenterpriseonline.com/articles/2007/06/10/news/news06.txt

UK:

13) “Tree people” from all over Britain have occupied land near Sennybridge, Brecon since January, trying to prevent a section of the 190-mile pipeline being built. But a High Court judge sitting in Cardiff yesterday granted the National Grid immediate possession of the occupied woodland. Local people living near the woodland had expressed concern at the effect the protesters were having on the site. One woman who asked not to be named said, “They have been burning logs and going to the toilet all over the place. It’s a mess at a time when a lot of tourists are coming to Brecon. “I’m glad they’ve been told to go. When the pipe is laid it will be covered over and we will not know any work has been done at all.” But one of the protesters, known only as Sam, said yesterday, “I don’t care what the National Grid says, this place is going to be permanently scarred.” He said the protesters knew the eviction order would come but that the aim was to highlight what the National Grid project was doing to the countryside. Another protester, Heather, indicated after the court case yesterday the occupation at Brecon might not be over. She said, “Some may go but others might stay until the bitter end.” Last night a number of protesters living in the trees were preparing themselves for yet another night among the branches. http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_headline=judge-allows-eviction-of-gas-pipel
ine-protesters&method=full&objectid=19263421&siteid=50082-name_page.html

Zimbabwe:

14) Israel Thebe points in despair to dozens of fresh stumps that have appeared overnight in the heart of Mukuvisi Woodlands, on the outskirts of Harare. “It takes a good 50 years for a tree to grow fully,” said the forestry manager. “This took place in just one night.” Mukuvisi has long been a popular destination for day trips by schoolchildren from the Zimbabwean capital who are able to catch a glimpse of wildlife such as giraffe, zebra and several antelope species on their doorstep. The woodlands however have also seen a recent upsurge in night-time visitors — axe-wielding poachers who make a bee-line for its forests in order to feed the demand for firewood in a country where power cuts have become perennial. Even though the authorities try to put a halt to the scalping, Thebe fears it is a losing battle as people become desperate to keep warm during winter. “We have had to hire night guards specifically to look at that but the wood poachers always find ways to evade detection. Give it another two years and most of this forest will be gone,” he said. Even the saplings are not spared as the poachers strip the bark from the tender shrubs to weave into rope to tie bundles of stolen firewood. Residents from Harare’s townships unfazed by prospects of arrest for breaching forestry laws, are often seen carrying bundles of firewood or pushing cartfuls of chopped wood from neighbouring farms. Their sense of impunity is not surprising given that anyone convicted of cutting down trees protected under the forestry act pays a fine of Z$2500 — the equivalent of five US cents at black market rates. http://business.iafrica.com/features/940196.htm

South Africa:

15) White Township supervisors said they have a plan to log out many of the old, dying trees in Whites Woods to preserve the land and keep the forest clean. “The township wants to make sure the forest is in healthy condition and there for a long time to come. The plan we have prepared will help manage that forest area.” White Township Supervisor Larry Garner said. A local group, who call themselves “The Friends of Whites Woods” disagree with the plan, they said the forest is better off without any logging because logged forests are more prone to forest fires. The group is organizing petitions and public hikes against the logging plan, and they hope the township makes a decision against any logging after a public meeting scheduled for Monday night. http://www.wjactv.com/news/13470567/detail.html

Congo:

16) Logging roads are rapidly expanding in the Congo rainforest, report researchers who have constructed the first satellite-based maps of road construction in Central Africa. The authors say the work will help conservation agencies, governments, and scientists better understand how the expansion of logging is impacting the forest, its inhabitants, and global climate. Analyzing Landsat satellite images of 4 million square miles of Central African rainforest acquired between 1976 and 2003, a team of researchers led by Dr. Nadine Laporte of the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC) mapped nearly 52,000 km of logging roads in the forests of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo, and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). They found that road density has increased dramatically since the 1970s and that around 29 percent of the remaining Congo rainforest was “likely to have increased wildlife hunting pressure because of easier access and local market opportunities” offered by new logging towns and roads. “Roads provide access, and this research provides clear evidence that the rainforests of Central Africa are not as remote as they once were….a bad thing for many of the species that call it home,” said Jared Stabach, a researcher at WHRC and a co-author of the paper. The authors report that the highest logging road densities were in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, while the most rapidly changing area was in northern Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), where the rate of road construction more than quadrupled–from 156 kilometers per year to over 660 kilometers–between 1976 and 2003. The scientists found evidence of new frontier of logging expansion in DRC, which has just emerged from nearly a decade of civil war. The authors note that more than 600,000 square kilometers of forest are presently under logging concessions, while just 12% of the area is protected. Most logging in the area is focused on selective harvesting of high-value tree species, like African mahoganies, for export, rather than clear-cutting. http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0607-congo.html

Burundi:

17) The destruction of the natural ecosystem of Kibira Forest – the country’s largest, for example, has contributed to the adverse effects of climate change in the country, according to Sabushimike. This had subsequently led to the degradation of agricultural land, because of the intense usage of soil in many areas. The other major environmental concern was the degradation of marshlands and lakes, due to the adverse climatic conditions experienced in such areas. As a result, drought and desertification have led to a drastic drop in water levels in the lakes and the drying-up of marshlands. Mining has also contributed to the destruction of the environment, Sabushimike said. The consequence of all this environmental degradation has been increased poverty, especially among rural communities; food insecurity arising from poor agricultural practices; diminishing waters resources; a reduction in activities in the agricultural, forest, energy and health sectors. Burundi is one of several African countries to have signed conventions such as the National Plan of Action for Adaptation to Climate Changes and the Framework Convention for National Communication on Climate Change. The first aims to improve seasonal climate forecasts for early warning purposes; rehabilitating degraded agricultural areas; protecting natural ecosystems; capacity-building in the prevention and management of natural disasters due to climate change; and, community sensitisation. To mark World Environment Day on 5 June, the government has organised weeklong activities. These include rubbish collection and tree-planting in the city as well as in all the provinces, and clean-up exercises in rural and urban areas. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/ca1b26aaf79978f5ba80bfe2fe3c8c5f.htm

Niger:

18) GUIDAN BAKOYE: In this dust-choked region, long seen as an increasingly barren wasteland decaying into desert, millions of trees are flourishing, thanks in part to poor farmers whose simple methods cost little or nothing at all. Better conservation and improved rainfall have led to at least 3 million newly tree-covered hectares, or 7.4 million acres, in Niger, researchers have found. And this has been achieved largely without relying on the large- scale planting of trees or other expensive methods often advocated by African politicians and aid groups for halting desertification, the process by which soil loses its fertility. Recent studies of vegetation patterns, based on detailed satellite images and on-the-ground inventories of trees, have found that Niger, a place of persistent hunger and deprivation, has recently added millions of new trees and is now far greener than it was 30 years ago. These gains, moreover, have come at a time when the population of Niger has exploded, confounding the conventional wisdom that population growth leads to the loss of trees and accelerates land degradation, scientists studying Niger say. The vegetation is densest, researchers have found, in some of the most densely populated regions of the country. “The general picture of the Sahel is much less bleak than we tend to assume,” said Chris Reij, a soil conservationist who has been working for more than 30 years in the Sahel, a semiarid belt that spans Africa just below the Sahara and is home to some of the poorest people on Earth. Reij, who helped lead a study on Niger’s vegetation patterns published last summer, said, “Niger was for us an enormous surprise.” About 20 years ago, farmers like Ibrahim Danjimo realized something terrible was happening to their fields. “We look around, all the trees were far from the village,” said Danjimo, a farmer in his 40s who has been working the rocky, sandy soil of this tiny village since he was a child. “Suddenly, the trees were all gone.” http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/11/news/niger.php

Mumbai:

19) There is a vast stretch of land consisting of precious mangroves and salts pans running parallel to the eastern express highway of Mumbai. These lands so far were left untouched because it was protected under the coastal regulation zone. There is not much land available in Mumbai for the builders to exploit for construction of buildings. In the eighties the prime upmarket Nariman Point came up after much of the land near to the Arabian Sea was reclaimed for constructing huge skyscrapers for accommodating offices. Today the market prices of these offices are the most expensive compared to those in New York and Tokyo. Since then the construction activity in Mumbai has become a booming and thriving industry. The Maharashtra government is attempting to replicate Mumbai city in line with Shanghai, China by constructing a number of flyovers and undertaking road widening projects. The politicians and the builders are raking in the moolah out of the construction boom. Mumbai also houses one of Asia’s largest slums and is nicknamed Slumbai. Slums are a dent in the image of Mumbai city being projected as another Shanghai. The previous government came up with idea of slum rehabilitation programs, which is followed by the present regime. The slums holding up the prime land in the city are demolished and sold to the builders. They have to construct free houses for the slum dwellers and construction cost is recovered by allotting them free hold land to be sold to private parties. Mumbai was once known for having several textile mills in central Mumbai. Today the mills have been replaced by swanky apartments and malls. The builders have consumed most lands in Mumbai and are now eying the mangroves and salt pans located near eastern express highway. These mangroves act as a protective barrier against the high tides, floods and tsunami. Besides it is a natural holding pond for rainwater, allowing water to drain into the sea. http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=77670

Mexico:

20) “It has been 24 days since the murder and they still haven’t arrested anyone. The people of San Juan Atzingo are desperate. They are worried about their safety, they’re scared,” said Greenpeace activist Hector Magallon. Zamora, 21, was with three uncles and a brother when he was attacked on May 15. His brother Misael, 16, was injured. Illegal logging destroys some 26,000 hectares (64,000 acres) of Mexican forest each year, the government says, putting Mexico near the top of a UN list of nations losing primary forest fastest. Environmental activists say the figure is far higher. Mexico’s justice system is famously ineffective, thanks to a mix of corruption and incompetence. President Felipe Calderon pledged “zero tolerance” against illegal loggers earlier this year, but environmentalists say the gangs enjoy ever greater protection. “This gang knows it has people looking after it. They have protectors,” Ildefonso Zamora said. An anti-logging activist himself, he has received death threats since 2005, when he reported the men now suspected of killing his son. Chopping down trees is a lucrative source of cash for impoverished indigenous communities in rural central Mexico. In San Juan Atzingo, some 3,000 of a total 10,800 hectares of forest have been cleared or thinned by illegal logging. http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Americas&month=J
une2007&file=World_News2007060984255.xml

21) Pressure on natural resources and biodiversity in Mexico’s Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve has been reduced as a result of the emigration of half its human inhabitants — some 50,000 people — to the United States. The local authorities of the reserve, which covers 384,000 hectares in the central-eastern state of Querétaro, recognise this fact. Meeting here are the extremes of desert, semi-tropical and lower mountain ecosystems, which are the habitat of unique species — many of which have yet to be studied. With emigration, farming, ranching and logging activities have seen a decline. But the landscape has changed also as a result of the money the emigrants send home to their families here: showy new homes made from more expensive materials like concrete, and a growing number of large trucks with U.S. license plates — the most prized object among young people, say local residents. The latest data on population density — 25 inhabitants per square kilometre — is from 2000 and does not include the flood of emigration of young people in recent years. Those who have stayed use little firewood, and their main source of energy is propane from small tanks. But there are several garbage dumps in different municipalities that are overflowing. The local authorities assure that by the end of the year there will be several sanitary landfills ready for operation, and that 70 percent of plastic and cardboard will be collected for recycling. “Those who remain in Sierra Gorda are that critical mass who get by here (with the remittances sent by relatives abroad), reforesting, collecting carbon and protecting watersheds. For others, it is not an option faced with the craze of becoming ‘gringos’,” says Martha Ruiz, director of the reserve, referring to the nickname given to Mexico’s neighbours to the north. “This going to the United States weighs heavily on my soul because of the loss of identity, but I completely recognise that has allowed us to restore the reserve,” she adds in an interview for this report. http://latinamericanow.blogspot.com/2007/06/emigration-blessing-for-biosphere.html

Trinidad and Tobago:

22) Slash and burn farming and other reckless activities caused most of the major forest fires which occurred during the recent dry season. The result, according to local environmentalists, was fast depletion and serious degradation of Trinidad and Tobago’s natural resource. This has reversed gains made over several years by local NGOs and personnel on numerous Government-funded programmes, who had successfully protected and guarded state forests, conserving TT’s rich bio-diversity and wildlife habitat and food chains. ead of POE, Peter “Barry” Rampersad, took Sunday’s Newsday on a tour of the Lopinot forest to show the effects and ecological damage of the recent fires. He showed the destruction caused by a farmer who used the slash and burn method to prepare land for the planting of crops. “Because of this farmer’s careless behaviour this part of the mountain has been left blackened and bare. This has stripped our critical watershed of vegetable cover,” Rampersad said. Although the rainy season has begun, logs could still be seen burning on the hillsides, threatening to start another fire. “The rain has somewhat dampened the forest floor but looking underneath it you can still see dry leaves, so even though rain has fallen, a serious fire could occur,” he explained. Rampersad pointed to scores of towering pine trees that had been horribly burnt in a fire he and members of his team fought from five am till midnight. “It was a big fire and we suppressed it as much as we could to save them because some of these trees have been here for so many years,” he said. According to Rampersad, members of POE have fought approximately 60 fires in the Lopinot Valley. “Approximately 938 acres of land have been destroyed in areas such as Guadeloupe Valley, La Resource and Cabargrand hills,” he said. http://www.newsday.co.tt/features/0,58255.html

Jamaica:

23) The felling of trees on enormous areas of land – to feed the vast appetite for charcoal – in Daniel Town, Trelawny, is of great concern to the Trelawny Gun Club. The purpose of the club, headed by managing director of Lascelles, and Wray and Nephew, the Honourable William ‘Billy’ McConnell, is the preservation of wildlife and the sport-shooting of game birds. As part of the club’s Labour Day project, the members, in collaboration with several residents in the community and the Long Pond Sugar Estate, planted 400 saplings in the area, with the hope of reclaiming a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of trees being axed regularly for coal burning. In the past, the making of charcoal was limited to a small group of cutters, who used axes and responded to an internal – and much localised – demand. In those days, many households used coal for cooking. But, since it became a lucrative trade, battery-powered chainsaws have taken the place of axes and are rapidly depleting the woodlands. Chopping down trees, setting fire to a densely stacked pile of branches and trunks, and covering it with dirt, so that oxygen is limited, thus making charcoal, transforms a process that would otherwise take years to achieve naturally. “The chainsaw is the preferred tool being used, and not the axe, and this is having a more devastating impact on the community; the absence of the trees is having an adverse effect on the climatic conditions in the area, in particular, the rainfall,” stated McConnell. Checks made with the Jamaican Forestry Department revealed that the rate of the deforestation in the country is about one per cent, or 350 hectares per annum. Director of technical services at the organisation, Alli Morgan, told The Sunday Gleaner that this was bad for such a small island, but with public awareness in the island’s schools and the private planting programme aimed at encouraging the planting of trees by residents, he is hoping that the current situation will be alleviated. Less thantwo per cent of Haiti’s once-lush forests remain, compared with 20 per cent in the Dominican Republic, with which it shares the island of Hispaniola, research has shown. As coal burning threatens to denude the hills of Daniel Town and its environs, McConnell and his members said they would continue to educate the people through public campaigns. http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20070603/lead/lead2.html

Honduras:

24) BRUS LAGUNA, Honduras – Traffickers of illegal wood overpower and outspend the government while damaging Honduran forests, according to Spanish-language newspaper El Diario-La Prensa. Ranger Snyder Paisano, 35, a Miskito Indian, and other indigenous leaders say that in the last four years they have watched helplessly the growth of mahogany poachers and drug traffickers. The intruders destroy the forests of Central America, considered a World Heritage Site by the United Nations and where more than 40,000 indigenous people live. Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya dispatched 100 troops to the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve last year to slow the traffickers. He has spent $5.3 million in the last two years in the effort to fight wood trafficking, according to an advisor to the president. But indigenous leaders say the government’s presence is insufficient. Paisano and other indigenous leaders tried unsuccessfully to meet President Zelaya recently when he visited their community to inaugurate a canal. Prosecutors from the Ministry of the Environment say they lack resources to investigate traffickers, especially considering the threats posed by the violent, technologically advanced poachers. http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=bfa4eba452e207814268fc517e5d
a1a2&from=rss

Caribbean Islands:

25) The original frogs that successfully colonized the Caribbean islands likely hitched a ride on floating mats of vegetation called flotsam, which is the method typically used by land animals to travel across salt water. “Some rafts of flotsam, if they are washed out of rivers during storms and caught in ocean currents, can be more than a mile across and could include plants that trap fresh water and insect food for frogs,” Hedges said. It is not likely that the frog species dispersed simply by swimming because frogs dry easily and are not very tolerant of salt water. In addition to the study’s discoveries about Caribbean and Central American frogs, the research also revealed and defined an unusually large and unpredicted group of species in South America. “The South American group may have more than 400 species and is mostly associated with the large Andes mountains of South America,” Hedges said. “Until now, the entire group of these terrestrial, tropical frog species — the eleutherodactylines — have been considered a “black hole” in frog biology because of the poor understanding of their evolutionary history,” explained Hedges. Scientists consider the knowledge of evolutionary relationships, also called “phylogeny,” to be fundamental to many fields of biology, including medicine, anatomy, physiology, ecology, and conservation. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation’s Biotic Surveys and Inventories Program, Systematic Biology Program, and Assembling the Tree of Life (AToL) Program. The latter program is an effort to understand the “tree of life,” or the relationships among all organisms. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070606235308.htm

South America:

26) A bid to curb logging of South and Central American cedar trees, the source of some of the world’s most valuable timber, failed on Thursday at a United Nations wildlife meeting. Germany, acting on behalf of the European Union, withdrew a proposal requesting the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) regulate trade in cedar, after strong opposition from central and south American countries. The EU and conservationists have argued the cedar, used in the building trade and to make furniture and musical instruments, needs protection due to a significant depletion in numbers resulting from too much logging, some of it illegal. But Mexico and south American countries, where cedar is a lucrative business, said there was not enough evidence to suggest the trees were in danger and more data was needed. “In this situation after getting this clear message from the range states, the EU feels that there is no point to put the proposal to vote,” said the delegate, representing Germany at the CITES June 3-15 meeting in The Hague. The Spanish cedar or cedrela, which has been harvested for at least 250 years, is esteemed for its aromatic and pink-tinged timber which is resistant to insects and rots. The EU had sought to have cedar listed on CITES Appendix II that regulates international trade in animal and plant species. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=nw20070607174548901C526218

Peru:

27) Sign on to this sign on letter: I am writing to express my concern for the protection of the rainforest and indigenous peoples of the Tahuamanu region of Madre de Dios, Peru. Illegal logging of mahogany and other timber species in Peru is taking a tremendous toll on the rainforest and on indigenous people living in voluntary isolation. Effective controls on this illegal trade are still lacking, despite continued evidence of illegal logging, and repeated requests from indigenous communities in Peru. International trade is driving this illicit activity: more than 90 percent of the mahogany from Peru is exported to the United States. As many independent investigations have shown, the official documentation accompanying much of this wood is obtained by false or fraudulent means. We urge your government to halt this illegal trade by prohibiting timber exports without independent third-party verification of their legal origin. http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/biogems_tahuamanu_0407

Brazil:

28) PORTO VELHO — The eternal tension between Brazil’s need for economic growth and the damage that can cause to the environment are nowhere more visible than here in this corner of the western Amazon region. More than one-quarter of this rugged frontier state, Rondônia, has been deforested, the highest rate in the Amazon. Over the years, ranchers, miners and loggers have routinely invaded nature reserves and Indian reservations. Now a proposal to build an $11 billion hydroelectric project here on a river that may have the world’s most diverse fish stocks has set off a new controversy. How that dispute is resolved, advocates on both sides say, could determine nothing less than Brazil’s vision of its future at a moment when it is simultaneously facing energy and environmental pressures and casting envious glances at faster-growing developing countries, like India and China. Unhappy with Brazil’s anemic rate of growth, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has made the economy the top priority of his second term, which began in January. Large public works projects, including the dams here on the Madeira River, are envisioned as one of the best ways to stimulate growth. “Who dumped this catfish in my lap?” was the president’s irate complaint when he learned recently that the government’s environmental agency had refused to license the dam projects, according to Brazilian news reports. But the proposal is far from dead, and continues to have Mr. da Silva’s support. Additional environmental impact studies are under way, but the dispute now raging in Rondônia appears to have more to do with politics and economics than science and nature. “My impression is that some environmental groups see the authorization of construction as opening the door to unrestricted entry to the Amazon,” said Antônio Alves da Silva Marrocos, a leader of the Pro-Dam Committee, financed by business groups and the state government. “But if they are able to block this,” he added, “then every other Amazon hydroelectric energy project is doomed as well.” http://www.irn.org/support

29) Deforestation rates fell by 89 percent in the Brazilian Amazon state of Mato Grosso for April 2007 compared with April 2006, according to the System Alert for Deforestation, an innovative deforestation monitoring program backed from Brazilian NGO Imazon with support from the Moore Foundation, USAID, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and Avina. Mato Grosso, which has suffered some of the highest rates of deforestation of any state in the Brazilian Amazon, lost 2,268 square kilometers of forest between August 2006 and April 2007, a decline of 62 percent from the year earlier period when 5,968 square kilometers were cleared. Imazon says it is likely that deforestation for the August 2006-July 2007, the dry season when large areas are typically burned, will likely be lower than last year’s 6,086 square kilometers. http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0608-mato_grosso.html

30) Google is working with an indigenous tribe deep in the Amazon rainforest to protect their native lands from illegal encroachment, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
For the first time, Google has confirmed details of the project. “The Amazon rain forest and its indigenous peoples are disappearing rapidly, which has serious consequences both locally and globally,” Google Earth spokeswoman Megan Quinn told the San Francisco Chronicle. “This project can raise global awareness of the Surui people’s struggle to preserve their land and culture by reaching more than 200 million Google Earth users around the world.” Working in conjuction with the Amazon Conservation Team, Google Earth’s technology is being used to monitor illegal mining and logging that threaten the lands of the Surui tribe in Brazil. Google is working with satellite providers to significantly improve image resolution in some of the most remote parts of the Amazon basin. “Google Earth is used primarily for vigilance. Indians log on to Google Earth and study images, inch by inch, looking to see where new gold mines are popping up or where invasions are occurring,” he continued. “With the newly updated, high-resolution images of the region, they can see river discoloration which could be the product of sedimentation and pollution from a nearby mine. They are able to use these images to find the smallest gold mine.” http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0610-google.html

Ecuador:

31) Yasuni National Park – 2.5 million acres in the Ecuadorian Amazon – is home to some of the world’s most diverse communities of birds, amphibians, insects, and trees. There are nearly as many species of trees in a single hectare (2.5 acres) of the Yasuni as in the entire United States and Canada combined. But it’s also home to some of Ecuador’s largest untapped oil fields. A friend of mine is pouring his heart and soul into efforts to save this biodiversity hotspot; he is currently preparing to return to Ecuador to battle it out on the ground in the coming months. While other countries have been compensated for leaving forests undeveloped, this is the first situation where a country has considered leaving oil in the ground, in turn leaving the forest alone, if it is partially compensated. I hope that this gets more media coverage soon. While Yasuni National Park is technically protected right now, I learned that it is only really protected until further notice, as many areas of Ecuador that were once protected had their status changed in order to make room for oil companies. http://globalclimatechange.wordpress.com/2007/06/07/ecuador-invites-world-to-save-its-forests/

Indonesia:

32) As a self-confessed city slicker too dependent on her mod-cons, I was intrigued by the idea of spending the night in a treehouse at the Permai Rainforest Resort in Damai Beach, Santubong, Sarawak. Originally set up as an Outward Bound School in 1990, the resort lies on 18ha, close to the popular Damai Beach and the legendary Mt Santubong about 35km south of Kuching. The drive down is in itself a treat for the senses! You cannot help but stare at the expansive greens, dotted with the vibrant colours of local flora and makeshift stalls selling iced drinks, fresh coconuts and fish. The view ahead is dominated by the majestic Mt Santubong, which starts off as a tiny anthill in the distance and rapidly dominates the skyline as you approach Damai Beach. Santubong is not only beautiful but also full of history. Local legend tells the tale of two sisters, Puteri Santubong and Puteri Sejinjang, who died after a bitter feud and turned into the two mountains – Mt Santubong and Mt Sejinjang. At a certain angle, Mt Santubong resembles the profile of a lady lying on her side. British explorer Sir Alfred Wallace made an expedition to Santubong in 1854 and it is his findings that are the basis of Darwin’s theory of evolution. http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2007/6/9/lifetravel/17465203&sec=lifetravel

33) The Community Forest Program (HKM), which bears the motto “people prosper with preserved forests”, began in 2000 and has since involved more than 6,500 rural families living near preserved and commercial forests in West Lampung regency. The residents are committed to the conservation and revival of the forests, which are in a critical condition due to illegal logging. In barren areas they have planted fast-yielding shrubs that produce cooking spices, medium-yielding crops like cacao and coffee, and long-yielding plants like palm and durian. A 12,000-hectare preserved area in Tangkit Tebak, which was previously barren, has been transformed into a green space and now provides a source of income for the farmers. Under the program, the community organized a forest conservation group, which has been entrusted to manage the preservation of the forests for five years. A team consisting of village heads, natural resource operators, environmentalists, forest authorities and farming groups will supervise and evaluate the group’s performance annually. “Members of the group are permitted to operate farms in and around the forest, but they are not allowed to build homes. The group is somewhat relieved as West Lampung Regent Erwin Nizar has issued lease-rights licenses, which are valid for 25 years,” said executive director of the Watala environmental group, Rama Zakaria. The farmers must pass four stages to obtain the licenses — form a group; establish a work area; issue regulations and work-group plans; and complete a license application. Each group consists of about 50 farmers and works a different plot of land. The groups have the right to manage the land, but not to sell it. Licenses are revoked if a group fails an annual monitoring and evaluation, does not uphold conservation efforts or violates the regulations. http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=77580

34) Communities based in and around forestlands will be supervised under a cooperative to ensure they are no longer exploited by local mafia groups, who task villagers with cutting trees without informing them that the activity is illegal. To prevent this, Telapak has launched the “From Illegal Logging to Community Logging” program, which will promote forestland conservation and the participation of local communities. “Community logging can be defined as forest management in woods and forest reserves and constitutes an environmental service. It is conducted in accordance with any government regulation under the Forestry Ministry. Therefore, it is legal,” Telapak chairman Ambrosius Ruwindrijarto said Thursday at a ceremony marking the agreement with IPB. Community logging can take any one of the many forms allowed by forestry laws and other regulations such as under social, community and tribal forestry schemes. The community logging pilot program has already proven successful in South Konawea, Southeast Sulawesi, where 8,000 illegal loggers have become community loggers under a cooperative. “I believe that this program can eliminate illegal logging 100 percent,” Ruwindrijarto said optimistically. Didik Suharjito, forestry management department head at IPB, said Indonesia requires the contribution of local communities to manage its forests. “That is why IPB wants to build a strong foundation that will enable communities to manage forests well,” Didik said, adding that the institute would send academicians and students to aid local communities. http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070609.H06&irec=5

35) The new governor of Indonesia’s tsunami-ravaged Aceh province declared a moratorium on logging Wednesday as part of efforts to develop a new long-term forest management strategy. Irwandi Yusuf said all logging would be banned indefinitely. Aceh’s decades-long separatist insurgency meant logging was limited to rebels and rogue elements within the military. But a recent peace deal opened up previously inaccessible virgin forests. And with nearly 130,000 homes destroyed by the 2004 tsunami, demand for timber has been almost insatiable. Some international and local aid organizations have even been accused of buying illegal logs. “This is part of our long-term plan to come up with a durable and fair forestry management plan,” said Yusuf, adding he hoped the move would minimize natural disasters. It was not immediately clear what penalties violators face. Environmental groups say Indonesia, with the world’s third-largest tropical forest reserves behind the Amazon and the Congo basin, loses more than 2 million hectares of trees every year. Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, loses an equivalent of two soccer fields of forest daily, or 20 hectares (49 acres), according to the local environmental group WALHI. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/6/6/apworld/20070606214007&sec=apworld
Australia:

36) The Wilderness Society is taking the Federal Government and Gunns Ltd to court to challenge the approval process for the pulp mill in Tasmania. We have not taken this step lightly. We have done it because we believe the Federal Government is not abiding by its own environment laws. The process to approve the pulp mill has been perverted by the Tasmanian and Federal Governments and contributions from dozens of experts critical of the pulp mill’s impacts on the environment are being ignored. You can help by making a tax-deductible donation today. Your donation will help as we pull together a well-resourced legal team and continue our campaign to protect Tasmania’s old-growth forests. http://www.wilderness.org.au/campaigns/forests/tasmania/gunns_proposed_pulp_mill/pulp-mill-leg
al-challenge/?nid=20

37) A RETIRED farmer and a conservationist have been honored for their respective battles against salinity and old-growth logging in Western Australia. Beth Schultz, 71, has been appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for her service to conservation and the environment, for helping ensure the protection of old growth forests in WA’s south-west in 2001. Dr Schultz, who began campaigning for forest protection in 1975, has served as the Conservation Council of WA’s president from 1992 to 1995 and vice-president from 1995 until now. She describes herself as a conservative for whom the battle to save forests is not yet over because companies continue to source native timber for industrial use. “I’m about as conservative as they come,” Dr Schultz said. “I don’t think anyone would ever mistake me for a tree-hugging feral.” Former Jerramungup farmer George Edmondson has been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his landcare efforts, encouraging fellow farmers to adopt sustainable agricultural systems. Mr Edmondson, also appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), was the inaugural chairman of the Jerramungup Land Conservation District Committee in 1982 and has been active on several state and national landcare related committees ever since. He said every farmer was now aware of their landcare obligations. “Some practise the efforts better than others but all farmers are keen to practise landcare in some way, shape or form,” Mr Edmondson said. Mr Edmondson said climate change was the last thing farmers were thinking about in 1982 when he embarked on his landcare efforts. Farmers now recognised mistakes made when they were obliged to clear their land under commonwealth government policy, he said. “We awoke a sleeping giant in dryland salinity when we cleared the land. “Younger farmers pick up sustainability much faster,” he said. “They quickly understand the damage that we had done in the past.” http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21884582-1702,00.html