394 EU-Africa-Mid-East

–Norway: 1) Caterpillar attack is largest forest ecology change in modern history?
–Cyprus: 2) “Protected” hazelnut forest of Pitsilia suffering from drought
–Libya: 3) Massive destruction of forests due to human activities
–Kenya: 4) 700 fake title deeds to land given out as bribes in weeks prior to the election, 5) Most efficacious way of removing and resettling those who had invaded, 6) Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum, 7) Rivers and lake Victoria fed by the vanishing forest’s giant moisture reservoir, 8) Saving the forest is likely to be painful and may be violent, 9) Town of Narok drying up,
–Uganda: 10) National Social Security Fund (NSSF) to invest in forest development, 11) Fracas with forest reserve encroachers in Hoima,
–Zimbabawe: 12) Chihota is one of the country’s districts hardest hit by deforestation
–Ghana: 13) Windstorms, decreased rainfall and increased solar intensity consequences
–Congo: 14) Chief Warden for the Virunga National Park, 15) Forest elephant distribution and abundance, 16) New chip plant uses 2,000 tonnes of eucalyptus per day,
–Sierra Leone: 17) Decision by minister of forestry to lift the ban will be disastrous
–Madagascar: 18) Agreements to protect unique forests
–Pakistan: 18) New Army Housing on 10,000 hectares of forest land in Bhakkar

Norway:

1) Researcher and ecologist Snorre Hagen at the University in Tromsø, says to NRK that the birch caterpillar attack on forests in northern Norway is the largest ecosystem change in Norway in modern history. Several thousand square kilometres of birch forests have been totally stripped of green leaves by these small caterpillars, and nothing seems to stop their spreading. When the caterpillar is finished eating all the leaves, it starts consuming the under shrub. Hagen believes many of the birches which have been attacked by the caterpillar also will die within the next years to come. Since year 2000 birch caterpillars have attacked 1/3 of birch forests in northern Norway and many of the attacked trees will die. The caterpillars is still moving east, and have destroyed forests also in the municipality of Sør-Varanger, bordering to Russia. When the attack started the researcher thought it would last for 4 or 5 years. Now it has lasted for eight years, and it doesn’t seem to stop yet. Instead the attack has spread to an even wider territory, both to the east and west. There are a lot of speculations to whether the extent of the attack is due to climate change. Hagen says that there are many indications that warmer climate in the north the last 10 years has had strong impact on the caterpillar attack. http://www.barentsobserver.com/caterpillars-killing-norwegian-forests.4505254-16176.html

Cyprus:

2) The “protected” hazelnut forest of Pitsilia (villages of Alona, Platanistasa, Polustupos and others) now show signs of drying out due to the drought problem. The whole green area of the brooks that was full of adult hazelnut trees is now dried up. After many years of neglect and before the Cyprus government implemented their plans to rejuvenate and maintain the natural habitat of the area, the last few years drought now comes to strike the final blow. The responsible authorities do not seem to have any plan to protect the traditional hazelnut forest despite the efforts the local authorities and concerned residents and the submission of good suggestions. http://www.famagusta-gazette.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=81&twindow=Default&mad=No&sdetail=4957&wpage=&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=2350&hn=famagusta-gazette&he=.com

Libya:

3) One of the most worrying factors today is the massive destruction of forests in Libya due to human activities, which are chopping down trees for construction purposes and clearing forests in order to accommodate expanding urban areas. For example, most people use wood to build their houses in order to support their ceilings during the construction of the houses. In addition, wood is renewed for making various kinds of furniture. Regarding paper products, wood is the most important factor in the paper industry. Furthermore, the quality of the wood reflects the quality of the paper in almost all its uses. Farmers try to clear forests in order to accommodate expanding urban areas. It’s obvious to me that there are two benefits, which are growing seeds for agricultural activities or useful kinds of trees such as olive trees and palm trees because they have good benefits for farmers to sell their fruits and products. The other benefit for farmers is to sell to the urban areas to become rich because nowadays one square meter costs from 100 dollars up to 2000 dollars, and this has been reflecting badly by disappearing forests. Why some people in our country have logged trees? I know that for a number of reasons, which include the need for timber and space for agriculture. If human beings continue logging the trees for their own purposes, this will become a disaster for all the people who live in my country and animals as well. Therefore, my country will become difficult to live in because all the requirements of our lives become unavailable. I hope this will not happen in my country or any other place. http://ucrsr500.blogspot.com/2008/08/causes-of-deforestation-in-libya.html

Kenya:

Kenya: 4) Kamungei village is nicknamed “Sierra Leone” because the land was first bought by Kalenjin soldiers who had served in Kenya’s peacekeeping force in that country a decade ago. Lambrechts said about 700 fake title deeds to land in protected forest were issued five weeks before the 1997 election. The process was extended and formalized in 2001. Encroachment has continued ever since, including in last year’s election. Locals say Kibaki told people previously burned out of their houses by authorities to return to the land. “This has been a campaign tool. That is why people are suffering here,” said Daniel Koskei, another “Sierra Leone” inhabitant. But despite resistance, most of those living in the forest seem sure to be removed. “We must bite the bullet as a nation,” Nkako said. “People must understand that this is not their property. We must secure the national good, the international good.” http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL246908720080903?pageNumber=6&virtualBrandChannel=0

5) The issue of the Mau forest was bound to be politicized. Already, some legislators from the area have declared they would not co-operate with the task force set up to study the most efficacious way of removing and resettling those who had invaded and nearly destroyed the Mau. When the evictions do actually begin, the yells of protest by political leaders, some of whom grabbed parcels of the forest, will be begin in earnest. There is nothing more saddening than to hear political leaders who should know better vehemently opposing moves to protect that water tower. There is absolutely nothing political about halting the wanton destruction of a forest that constitutes the basis of livelihoods of tens of millions of Kenyans, not to mention neighbouring countries. Mau forest is not any different from similar water catchment areas such as those of Mt Kenya, the Aberdare range or Mt Elgon which, to its credit, the Government has in the last few years moved to salvage. Private corporations, local and international NGOs, as well as environmentalists have done wonders to restore the Aberdares. This mountain range is the source of rivers, which are in turn the source of life for millions. The Mau Forest is unique. This complex is made up of the South, Western, Eastern, and Southern Mau, Transmara, Mau Narok and Maasai Mara. It is the source of 12 major rivers that span the western and eastern parts of Kenya. They are the ones that drain the Mara Game Reserve, Lake Nakuru (whose famous flamingoes have taken to flight in droves), Sondu Miriu, Lake Naivasha, Lakes Baringo and Elementaita, and as far north as Lake Turkana. Rivers Yala, Nyando, Sondu and Nzoia continue to receive depleted water volumes. Experts from Kenya Wildlife Service, Kenya Forest Working Group, Forest Department, and environmentalists paint a picture that is extremely grim: one of creeping desertification, depleted rivers and lakes, not to mention debilitating climate change. It is, therefore, difficult to understand what our ‘representatives take to be their national duties. Destroying the environment for quick pecuniary or political gains cannot be what they are supposed to defend. If anything, the country should be galvanised into expanding forest and vegetation cover from a paltry two per cent to the internationally accepted 10 per cent. http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/-/440808/466198/-/3la41v/-/

6) Mr Kiptanui, who was addressing the 22nd Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum at a Nairobi Hotel yesterday, termed it unfortunate that the country’s water catchment areas were being invaded by illegal settlers. This, he said, resulted in deforestation and land degradation, which reduced the flow of water in stream, affecting millions of people downstream. Professor Richard Odingo from the University of Nairobi’s Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, warned that global warming was a real threat in Kenya and could lead to reduced food production. In Kenya, losses for three crops — mangoes, cashew nuts and coconuts — could cost almost Sh32 billion with each one metre sea level rise. The don urged the Government to consider the effects of global warming in its planning strategy. He said that the sea level was rising fast, following rapid melting of ice from the world’s mountains. http://asksomenewquestions.blogspot.com/2008/08/look-whos-taking-climate-change-and.html

7) The rivers fed by the forest’s giant moisture reservoir and generation of rain also supply Lake Victoria, source of the Nile, and two other Kenyan lakes. “This is ecological rape… taking the national capital to make money,” Nkako said. “These contested resources are the epicenter of conflict in this country.” Revenue from tea, Kenya’s third biggest export earner, has declined while the second biggest, tourism, is also under threat, after already suffering a 23 percent fall because of a bloody post-election crisis in January and February. The Mara river, lifeblood of the famous Maasai Mara game park which draws thousands of tourists every year, is falling. Tanzanian officials, whose own Serengeti park is under threat, are among those pressing for urgent action. “This is destabilizing the environment to such an extent that it has a huge impact on economic development at a national level… it is basically a suicide process,” Christian Lambrechts, a UNEP forestry expert, told Reuters. The government stance changed dramatically earlier this year when first Environment Minister John Michuki and then Odinga were flown over the forest. Officials say they were shocked by the huge scars in once densely wooded areas. “The prime minister could not believe what he saw,” said Northern Narok District Commissioner Andrew Rukaria. Officials say Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki — bitter rivals until their power-sharing deal ended the political crisis — are united on the issue. http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL246908720080903?pageNumber=3&virtualBrandChannel=0

8) Saving the forest is likely to be painful and may be violent: Lambrechts estimates there are 25,000 squatters in the forest. “We don’t count out the possibility of some physical resistance,” said Professor Fredrick Owino, chairman of the task force, which was ordered by Odinga to report by February after auditing forest boundaries and legal claims. Owino told Reuters 250 armed forest guards, park rangers and police had already been drafted in to seal the forest and prevent further logging. The task force will recommend who should be relocated and who compensated. This sparked a brief rush into the forest in recent weeks by hundreds of people hoping to cash in. A task force member of the small Ogiek ethnic group, the original hunter-gatherers of the forest, was recently assaulted in his home after being accused of betraying their interests. Experts say only a few Ogiek still pursue traditional activities like honey-gathering while the rest clear land and farm like other Kenyans. “The rights of the indigenous people should be respected, but if you find they are armed with chain saws you have to treat them differently,” Owino said. In an indication of how charged the issue is, members from the Maasai and Kipsigis ethnic groups were sacked from the task force after repeatedly arguing. “WHEN GOD DESCENDS” “We are not going to go anywhere. When God descends he will find us here,” said Nicodemus Yegon, one of thousands of people living in the southern Maasai Mau block who say they have title deeds to land in what officials say is protected forest. http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL246908720080903?pageNumber=4&virtualBrandChannel=0

9) NAROK – Maasai goatherd Joseph Nkolia points dismissively at two shallow pools, the only water in a parched stream west of the Kenyan town of Narok. “It rained yesterday and look at it,” he says. “Two years ago it used to flow strongly through here. Now I often have to get a lorry to bring water from Narok for us and our animals, and it costs a lot.” His flock wanders past without bothering to drink the scant brown water. The stream is a tributary of the Ewaso Ngiro, one of 12 rivers fed from the Mau Complex, Kenya’s biggest forest and a vital water catchment in the west of the country. Destruction of the woodland by rampant illegal settlement, logging and charcoal burning threatens severe damage to Kenya’s economy with an impact on energy, tourism, agriculture and water supply to cities and industry. A familiar Kenyan saga of corruption, illegal landgrabs and the use of state resources to buy votes has destroyed a quarter of the 400,000 hectare forest in the last decade, with an impact that may be felt as far away as Egypt. The Mau was broken into 22 blocks by human settlement over the last century but the real destruction began in 1997, when large plots were given away by the government of former President Daniel arap Moi to win votes in an election. “My life will be completely ruined if I cannot get water for us and our livestock, our land will turn into a desert. We will all die,” said another Maasai, Moses Mundati, standing on sunbaked ground where the Ewaso Ngiro no longer extends. As he spoke, people brought yellow containers to gather water from the narrowed river beside him. But if the saga is familiar, the recent reaction is not. Kenya’s new coalition government set up a task force in July to reverse the destruction of the forest, which the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) says could cost the tourism, tea and energy sectors alone at least $300 million. “Such an extensive and ongoing destruction of a key natural asset for the country is nothing less than a national emergency,” said Prime Minister Raila Odinga. http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL246908720080903

Uganda:

10) The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) plans to invest sh49b in forest development. NSSF board chairman Edward Gaamuwa on Thursday told the commissions and state enterprises committee that the forest project is categorised as an agricultural investment, with a project life of 24 years. The Fund intends to plant 10,000 hectares of eucalyptus and pine over a five-year period in central, Bunyoro, western, northern and eastern regions. According to documents submitted to the MPs, the project was approved by the finance ministry. Gaamuwa said the investment would generate a net income of sh550b over the 24 years. He said to implement the project this financial year, the board budgeted sh8.7b to buy 10,000 hectares of land, sh3.4b for establishment costs and acquire land in Gomba and Wakiso not exceeding sh870,000 per hectare. The Fund will also acquire land at Bweyale in Masindi district, currently registered as a ranch at a price not exceeding sh870,000 per hectare. However, Gaamuwa did not give the total acreage, the Fund intends to purchase. Currently, NSSF is under probe by the MPs over purchase of land in Temangalo, Wakiso district, at sh11b, which was above the valuer’s price. Gaamuwa told MPs that the board had also approved the acquisition of land in Gayaza at a price not exceeding sh4m per acre. The MPs were further informed that the finance minister had not yet approved the NSSF plan to invest sh20b in a Crane Bank mortgage-backed bond at a fixed interest of 14% per year. NSSF managing director David Chandi Jamwa told the MPs that the board had approved the investment. The crane bank deal was one of the four long-term investments that NSSF had submitted to the minister for approval. http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/647411

11) The National Forestry Authority (NFA) has been involved in a fracas with forest reserve encroachers in Hoima. NFA staff were replanting trees in Wambabya forest where encroachers had taken over 2,000 hectares out of the 9,000 hectares the forest covers. Wambabya forest is a catchment area for River Wambabya on which a hydro-power dam is to be built. However, because of the destruction of the forest, the river has been heavily silted. This is one of the many examples where destruction of environment has severe economic and ecological effects. Wambabya forest is not the only forest that has been destroyed. Many people do not seem to understand the importance of forests and wetlands to the environment. Continued destruction of these invaluable natural resources has started exhibiting adverse effects on the seasons in the country. Rain no longer comes when it is expected and floods have wreaked havoc in some parts of the country. The fact that the encroachers could attack the NFA team proves that the officials are perceived as intruders who have no business interfering with their livelihood. NFA must not be intimidated because it is doing the right thing even for the encroachers. However, NFA needs to take a tougher stand against all forest encroachers countrywide. For the past years, NFA has not been vigilant as massive swathes of forests have been cleared. Forest cover has drastically reduced from the original 24% to about 10% and the encroachment still continues. The contribution of forests to the economy and environment cannot be overstated, but people who encroach on them contribute very little in terms of taxes. The global economy is shifting to strategies that conform to standards of good environmental governance for the survival of mankind. We must not live as if we are the last generation and must conserve our resources for posterity. http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/14/646486

Zimbabwe:

12) Voice of America English to Africa Service reporter Safari Njema visited the area and says Chihota is one of the country’s districts hardest hit by deforestation and environmental degradation. Only a few indigenous trees remain, while the vegetation includes mostly scattered thorn bushes and short grass. Erosion has set in and gulleys dot the landscape. Residents now travel long distances to resettled farms to fetch firewood; others use cow dung for cooking. Cutting down trees, including indigenous species, incurs heavy penalties. But locals avoid fines by felling trees under the cover of darkness. Thirty-two-year-old Sandra Tunha from Materera village says locals are aware the area’s threatened by desertification. The mother of two says politicians have focused on flimsy issues rather than tackling more serious issues like solar energy. She says she’s convinced officials believe rural communities don’t have the capacity to contribute to the national energy debate. She says “They must provide us with solar panels rather than lie to us. I think we can use solar, since in Africa we have got a lot of sunshine. We can use that sun as an alternative rather than lying to us telling us about other political issues.” Seventy-two-year old Dasbom Chadya is a retired school teacher from Samuriwo. He says rural residents obtain information on solar-powered energy when they travel to towns, adding they’re aware it can transform their lives. Dasbom — who now grows tomatoes and other vegetables for sale in Chitungwiza – explains many can no longer afford paraffin or candles. http://voanews.com/english/Africa/2008-09-01-voa36.cfm

Ghana:

13) “We used to cut down many trees for agricultural use, which brought us a lot of hardship including windstorms, decreased rainfall and increased solar intensity,” said Nana Opare Ababio III, the traditional chief of a 620-member village. But with conservation efforts, “the amount of rainfall has dramatically increased in the last five years and heat from the sun has reduced and we now have better yield,” he said through an interpreter. In recent decades, the forests in this west African state have been severely depleted, raising “serious concern for future economic development and sustained rural livelihoods,” said Daniel Kwamena Ewur, manager of Kakum National Park which lies 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of the capital Accra. In 1960, Ghana’s tropical rain forests covered 63,400 square kilometres (24,500 square miles) but human activity has shrunk them down to about 13,500 square kilometres, or 25 percent of their original size. Logging, slash-and-burn agriculture, poaching, mining and quarrying as well as wood collection for fuel have mainly been responsible for decimating the country’s primary forests, Ewur said. The current forest area includes seven national parks, six resource reserves, two wildlife sanctuaries and five coastal wetlands. According to an official 1992 survey on national living standards, more than 33 percent of all the people in rural forest regions lived in abject poverty, hence their reliance on depleting the forests to make ends meet. With deforestation having already transformed the north of Ghana into savannah lands and the central region facing a similar fate, the government took a radical turn in forest and wildlife management. Until 1994, the central government had handled everything itself but that year changed tack to actively involve local communities living on the fringe of the country’s forests. “We were doing everything by ourselves but we realised that we were not achieving much and we now involve local communities around the forests, without whose help we would fail in our conservation efforts,” said Ewur. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iq2Wkhg8jAsyMI5aP74jwA4CUqrA

Congo:

14) I faced across from Jobogo Mirindi, the Chief Warden for the Virunga National Park. There is little romance in the challenges his Rangers face daily. Armed militia-men stealthily poach the game on this World Heritage site and should a Ranger patrol happen upon the poachers, it turns into armed conflict which the rangers seldom win, due to lack of munitions. The Democratic Republic of Congo, located in equatorial central Africa was called Zaire until 1997 and formerly known as the Belgian Congo, is the continent’s third-largest country, three times the size of Texas. It shares borders with nine other countries. In the past 40 years it has been overrun by various dictators, armies and militias. A civil war was sparked off in 1994 by a massive inflow of refugees following political unrest in neighbouring Rwanda and Burundi. The Congolese government of former president Mobutu Sese Seko was toppled by rebel leader Laurent Kabila in 1997, who was subsequently assassinated and replaced by his son, Joseph Kabila in 2001. At the height of the civil war, nine African countries and at least three rebel groups were part of a latter day scramble for the Congo’s rich resources. During which time (the UN estimates) four million plus people died from massacre, famine and disease – this is equivalent to a Tsunami every six months. “Rebels don’t consider Park Rangers as neutral. They think that as we work for the Government we must support everything the Government stands for. Therefore Bang! You’re dead,” he said, blowing at the end of two extended fingers and then holstering them in his belt. When recollecting events from the past, Mirindi’s broad shoulders stiffened. Through a clenched jaw he managed, “In the past ten years 65% of my Rangers have been killed by militia-men”. His chiseled features hardened, “… but to commemorate my men”, Mirindi continued, “… we do things the African way. Each man that was lost in the line of duty is remembered every day because we give a fallen comrade’s name to a mountain gorilla. That way, they live on in memory and their spirits live on to care for our animals.” Land invasions and intense poaching has challenged the Park authorities to the limit. “Large settlements have established themselves within this Park, which is largely responsible for the de-forestation happening all around us,” said Mirindi, shaking his head in disbelief. “They cut down trees for fuel and create grazing land for their large herbs of cattle.” The resultant effect being vast numbers of displaced game; and those animals not ousted are caught in poaching snares. http://www.intheknowtraveler.com/2805

15) As expected, illegal killing and other human incursions played a profound role in shaping forest elephant distribution and abundance. Altogether, the researchers found 53 confirmed elephant poaching camps; they found poached elephant carcasses, with tusks removed, in every protected MIKE site. The probability of encountering elephants increased as one traveled away from the nearest major road, while the probability of detecting human signs decreased. The likelihood of discovering poached elephant carcasses also decreased with distance from the nearest road; no poached carcasses were found farther than 45 kilometers from the nearest road.” “With logging and road-building in the Congo Basin projected to increase dramatically, Blake et al. set out to chart the abundance and distribution of forest elephants across the Congo Basin. Working in conjunction with the CITES Monitoring of the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) program, the researchers systematically surveyed six protected MIKE sites, national parks expected to have significant forest elephant populations. Between 2003 and 2005, they walked through “some of the most remote and difficult terrain in forested Africa” to survey over 60,000 square kilometers for signs of elephants (dung piles) and humans (machete cuts, shotgun cartridges, snares, and hunting camps), to collect data on the abundance, distribution, and illegal killing of forest elephants (indicated by carcasses found with telltale signs such as gunshot holes in the skull and removed tusks, or by elephant meat on smoking racks in active camps). Their analysis included data collected during a “megatransect,” a continuous foot survey through 2,000 kilometers of “the most remote forest blocks in Africa,” between northeastern Congo and southwestern Gabon. http://wildeles.wordpress.com/2008/08/27/forest-elephants-at-risk-from-the-illegal-ivory-trade/

16) MagForestry is pleased to announce the successful operation of its recently commissioned wood chip plant located in the port of Pointe-Noire, Republic of Congo. Production has achieved a target rate of about 2,000 tonnes of eucalyptus chips per day with total production to date of approximately 70,000 tonnes. The annual production target is 500,000 tonnes of wood chips. De-barked eucalyptus logs are provided to the chip mill in six metre lengths from the forestry operations of Eucalyptus Fibre Congo SA (EFC) which is 100% owned by MagForestry. In addition, MagForestry is pleased to announce the successful delivery of its first FOB shipment of wood chips to a contract customer in Europe. The approximately 30,000 tonne shipment was successfully unloaded and payment received by MagForestry. A second 30,000 tonne ship is currently being loaded for delivery to a second customer in Europe on a delivered basis using a purpose-built Mitsiu ship, which has been contracted by MagForestry. Total contracted sales to large European pulp and paper customers are for 400,000 tonnes annually with additional volumes planned for the spot market. EFC is an established sustainable-renewable forestry operation based on the planting and harvesting of fast-growing clones of eucalyptus trees which reach 22 to 26 meters (70 to 85 feet) in seven years, at which point they are harvested and the area replanted. EFC currently holds an exclusive concession agreement with the Government of The Republic of Congo which expires in 2076. The plantation concession covers 68,000 hectares of which 42,000 hectares are currently planted with the balance expected to be planted from EFC’s expanded tree nursery over the next 18 months. http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/magforestry-completes-first-delivery-wood-chips/story.aspx?guid={BC9E43ED-8868-4392-BD3E-FF334ABE29C6}&dist=hppr

Sierra Leone:

17) The Environmental Forum for Action, one of the most influentual activist groups in Sierra Leone, called Monday on the government to reimpose the ban on timber exports that was lifted in July. “With less than five percent of forested areas left in the country, the decision by the minister of forestry (Sam Sesay) to lift the ban will be disastrous for the environment and will lead to severe scarcity of timber in the local market,” it said in a statement to local news media. It said the decision “threatens Sierra Leone’s rich biodiversity of 3,000 plants, 74 of which are endemic, and several species of mammals, reptiles and birds which can never be replaced”. It went on to express “concern over developments in the logging industry,” citing the presence in Sierra Leone of Taakor Tropical Hardwoods, a global timber operator, “despite the small area of forest remaining in the country”. Chinese and Southeast Asian outfits dominate the logging market in the west African state, squeezing out small-scale operators to an extent that has led to constant friction, environmental observers said. Although timber export data is disputed, trade ministry figures show that a total of 20,000,000 dollars worth of timber was exported to East Asia in 2007. Environmental bodies contend that twice that amount has been smuggled into neighbouring Guinea and Liberia and then re-exported. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Activists_seek_fresh_ban_on_Sierra_Leone_timber_exports_999.html

Madagascar:

18) Madagascar has signed a series of environment agreements to protect unique forests and support local communities as part of a commitment by the government to ramp up environmental protection on the Indian Ocean island. In its largest ever debt-for-nature swap, Madagascar signed a deal with France this month, in which US$20 million of debt owed to the former colonial power was put into a conservation fund, the Foundation for Protected Areas and Biodiversity (FPAB). “Thanks to this, the money will go into the protection… of the Malagasy environment instead of to France,” Nani Ratsifandrihamanana, the environment director of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) told IRIN. Her organisation played a crucial role in brokering the deal that will help protect Madagascar’s forests, home to many of the world’s most fascinating creatures. Nearly all the island’s land mammals, over 90 percent of its reptiles and 80 percent of its plants are found nowhere else. In a separate deal, Madagascar committed itself to selling nine million tons of carbon offsets to help protect its forests. The money will be used to protect the vast Makira forest, one of several under threat as a result of the poverty of the overwhelmingly rural population. Scientists say deforestation in the tropics contributes to about 20 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions and that reducing deforestation is one of the quickest ways to fight climate change. Deforestation in Africa is twice as high as anywhere else in the world, where some 13 million hectares of forest are cleared every year. Thanks to this, the money will go into the protection of the Malagasy environment. Conservation International (CI), a non-profit environmental group, said the main drivers of deforestation in Madagascar were slash-and-burn agriculture, charcoal production for use in towns and cities, mining, and the conversion of forest to plant maize. Reducing deforestation is a hard battle to win because more than 75 percent of the island’s 18 million people are rural and depend on land and natural resources. The new carbon credit deal, managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), based at the Bronx Zoo in the US, represents an innovative way to tackle the problem. http://boilingspot.blogspot.com/2008/08/madagascar-new-eco-deals-protect-unique.html

Pakistan

19) The government prevented initiation of work on Pakistan Army Housing Scheme on forest land measuring 10,000 hectares in Bhakkar. This was disclosed by Federal Minister for Environment Hameedullah Jan Afridi while responding to questions in the Senate during the question hour on Thursday. He said for the first time the environment ministry had gathered official information on non-forestry uses of forest land in all the four provinces, Northern Areas and Azad Kashmir. He said the ministry was in the process of putting up a summary to the cabinet to stop conversion of forest land for non-forestry uses. He said land measuring 155,915 hectares had been transferred for non-forestry uses in all the four provinces and Azad Kashmir since 1992. He said in Sindh alone 110,071 hectares out of a total of 1,087,000 hectares under the control of the forest department was transferred for non-forestry uses. He said the ministry was trying to get back the forest land currently in non-forest use. Acting Chairman of the Senate Jan Mohammad Jamali also observed that forest land must neither be used for housing schemes nor for any other non-forest purposes. Mr Afridi said the management and protection of forests was the responsibility of the provincial forest departments, but the environment ministry was taking a number of steps to protect forests in the country. He said the ministry was reviewing its policy on commercial harvesting of forests in consultation with all stakeholders. He said from time to time, the environment ministry issued guidelines and advices to the provincial forest departments to improve vigilance for stopping illegal cutting of forests and trade of wood. http://www.dawn.com/2008/08/29/top18.htm