012OEC’s This Week in Trees
012
012OEC’s This Week in Trees
This week we have 28 items from forests in: British Columbia, Oregon, Nevada, Texas, Vermont, Oklahoma, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Arizona, USA, Canada, Russia, Ecuador, Vietnam, Australia, Ghana, Cameroon, and Tanzania.
British Columbia:
1) The problem is that wild marmots are hardly reproducing out there in the marmot meadows, which are now completely surrounded by the voracious clearcutting which has denuded all of their connectivity habitat. In fact, as was confirmed by Bryant, the Green Mountain marmot site, which as recently as 2000 supported the largest colony of Vancouver Island marmots, is now officially extinct. Meanwhile, clearcutting of old growth at the top of Green Mountain continues apace, while 30-year-old second growth is simultaneously stripped off at the bottom. Last week I spoke to the new American Exec. Dir. of the Marmot Recovery Foundation, Robert Huber, who said that “loggers working in the vicinity of marmot habitat had been told to stop work if they happened to see a marmot,” and he added that he “had never heard of a marmot being killed or injured by falling trees.” Basically, the BC Government and Logging industry’s conservation vision for Vancouver Island marmot habitat is: perpetual logging. Although the planet’s final 22 remaining wild V.I. marmots are having great difficulty reproducing and continue on their steady march to oblivion, Weyerhaeuser and TimberWest’s captive breeding laboratories are working overtime to pump out marmots. Every year, a new crop of marmot pups is dutifully spread out over the extinction zones, in the hope that somehow, the lab-bred marmots will ‘take. The management vision the logging industry uses for their clearcut-conversion, chemical-plantation, fibre-per-year-per-hectare scheme for BC’s forests, is that annual ‘replants’ are required when the original broadcast of cloned seedlings fails to ‘take.’ Similarly, when successive annual releases of lab-bred marmot pups don’t survive the winter, empty marmot meadows are simply classified NSR, or “not sufficiently restocked,” and are slated for a repeat distribution. Although everyone involved with the Marmot Recovery project will tacitly admit that logging is the primary cause for the extinction of the marmots, nothing is being done to protect that landbase. The Campbell government is only interested in propagating species which generate income from being killed by sport hunters and fishers. There are, regrettably, no revenue prospects for Vancouver Island’s beleaguered marmots. I’m off to India tomorrow to do graduate studies at Pondicherry University. I’ve tried to do what I could to help the marmot, but it has been a lonely battle.ingkhai@uvic.ca
Oregon:
2) Last Sunday, the Ken Ann Maru, a 561-foot ship, pulled away from the Ocean Terminals dock in Coos Bay, slipped through the channel and headed out to the Pacific Ocean, bound for Japan. That isn’t out of the ordinary in a place where for the last 100 years log ships have been coming and going routinely. However, onboard the vessel was more than just 5.3 million board feet of Douglas fir. It was the last shipment of logs that local timber officials plan to export from Coos Bay. In the heyday of log exporting – during the 1980s – 300 million board feet of logs were exported annually. Those numbers dropped by 90 percent to about 30 million board feet per year, over the last decade or so – to the point that, for the last five years, Chugoku Mokuzai, the largest sawmill in Japan where the Ken Ann Maru is headed – had become the lone international buyer of local logs. And now, they don’t want them anymore – at least not from Coos Bay. So what’s changed? Prices. According to Starkey, the Japanese found cheaper wood from Finland and the Eastern European countries of Austria, Bulgaria and Romania. “They have an excess of product that they are selling to Japan – which is actually undercutting the value of our Douglas fir,” Starkey said. http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/2005/07/16/news/news01.txt
3) Two months into the implementation of a revised management plan, the director of the OSU College Forests says he hasn’t heard any complaints about harvesting. The locations of this summer’s timber sales — northeast of the Lewisburg Saddle; northwest of Peavy Arboretum; northwest of where Oak Hill Road intersects with McDonald Forest; and along Berry Creek Road on the north edge of Dunn Forest — aren’t exactly remote. Symons acknowledges the operations are, to the public, of an “in-your-face” variety that not everyone is comfortable with. And he says the next few years will bring more of the same. That’s because of the management plan the College of Forestry adopted last spring. Among other things, the revised plan means between 6 million and 6.5 million board feet of timber will be harvested each year. While that’s a significant increase from the old plan, it’s only about half of the research forests’ maximum sustainable level, Lysne says. That may be of little consolation to those who got used to the old, comparatively low logging levels and would rather hike in, bike in or simply look at a forest that’s not a patchwork of clearcuts. Whether you support the plan or not — it can be viewed in its entirety online at www.cof.orst.edu/resforhttp://www.dhonline.com/articles/2005/07/17/news/opinion/edit01.txt
4) Work at the Hobson timber sale near Galice continued on schedule Monday after a log barricade built on a road by protesters was dismantled, U.S. Forest Service officials said. “Logging was never impacted because loggers took the weekend off,” said Forest Service spokesman Tom Lavagnino. About 40 activists constructed the barricade — made to resemble a cabin — this past weekend in the middle of Road 2411, the only access to the sale in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, said Laurel Sutherlin, a spokeswoman for the protesters. One protester was cited for interfering with an agricultural operation, a Class A misdemeanor. “This is public land meant to be held in trust for future generations,” Sutherlin said. “When we see public agencies selling it off to corporations for short-term profit, people get upset and feel it’s a crisis situation.” The sale includes 7.3 million board feet on 577 acres of late successional reserve burned by the 2002 Biscuit fire. Late-successional reserve includes trees 40 to 80 years old with certain characteristics such as a full canopy. A tree sitter remains in one corner of the sale held up in the treetops by a network of ropes, Lavagnino said. “If they fall a tree it could hit another rope and endanger the tree sitter,” he said. “We are prioritizing that area for last.” http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2005/0719/local/stories/13local.htm
Nevada:
5) Several timber salvage companies have expressed interest in removing burned trees from Carson City’s Waterfall Fire sites but are having trouble finding available helicopters, says a U.S. Forest Service official. Carson District Ranger Gary Schiff said this week a major revision in sale terms over the past two months for singed timber on Forest Service land has spurred interest among large salvage operators. “But the helicopters they need for operations are busy fighting fires throughout the West,” Schiff said. “We need to get as much of this burned and downed timber off the land as possible by fall,” Schiff said on the one-year anniversary of the 8,723-acre fire that started July 14, 2004. Schiff said 5.7 million board feet of timber covering 707 acres was first offered for sale May 17. No bids were received. Agency officials again sought bids June 15 on 1.5 million board feet covering 337 acres, and only for trees 22 inches or more in diameter. Still, no bids were received. On June 24, Schiff said a sale on 337 acres was offered, but the price was lowered from $16 a ton to $3 a ton. At that price, Schiff said the agency would realize about $20,000. “This is as cheap as we are allowed to offer,” Schiff said. http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2005/07/15/104244.php?sps=rgj.com&sch=LocalNews&sp1=rgj&sp2=News&sp3=Local+News&sp5=RGJ.com&sp6=news&sp7=local_news
Texas:
6) A member of the Dallas Caddo Club said Monday that though his organization recently cleared 65 acres of timber at Caddo Lake, it will not repeat its mistake at other land it owns. Dr. Martin Clark told the Cypress Valley board on Monday that most Dallas Caddo Club members did not know the club’s board was going to harvest the timber on the property off Cypress Drive East until it was too late. Clark said it is his understanding a general membership meeting will soon be held so members can discuss any future logging. “I guarantee you that a lot of people will show up at the next meeting,” he said. Clark said he is also upset at the logging. “What did we need with $65,000?” the approximate amount the club made on the old forest hardwood and pine that was logged, he asked, adding “no need” existed. “It was just a bad deal, I hated it,” he said. Caddo Lake residents have been upset with the logging and rumors that club board members plan to also clear cut Pine Island, a lake peninsula adjacent to their headquarters on the lake. http://www.news-journal.com/news/content/news/stories/2005/07/19/20050719LNJcaddo.html
Vermont:
7) A recent global study of biotechnology in forestry conducted by FAO shows the United States, France and Canada as being the most active players. India and China are the most active of the developing countries and countries in transition. According to the study, While forest biotechnology activities have spread to at least 140 tree genera, the great majority of activities (around 60 percent) has been focused on only six (Pinus, Eucalyptus, Picea, Populus, Quercus and Acacia). Of the over 2700 biotechnology activities reported in the world over the past 10 years, genetic modification accounts for around 19 percent only. Overall, genetic modification activities in forestry are taking place in at least 35 countries, with the vast majority apparently restricted to the laboratory, with some supporting field trials, FAO said. Worldwide, more than 210 field trials of genetically modified (GM) trees are currently under way in 16 countries; most of the trials are being conducted in the United States and are restricted largely to Populus, Pinus, Liquidambar and Eucalyptus. Only China has reported the commercial release of GM trees: around 1.4 million plants on 300-500 hectares in 2002. “The economic value of forest products in global trade is far less than that of agricultural products, and the economic rationale for employing biotechnology in forestry has not yet been clearly demonstrated,” Sigaud said. “It is not possible yet to reach conclusions on the potential impacts of genetically modified forests because of the lack of reliable information.” http://allafrica.com/stories/200507190727.html For the latest news regarding GE trees, you can join the “Frankentrees” listserve: Please send email to frankentrees-subscribe@yahoogroups.com STOP GE Trees Campaign P.O. Box 412 Hinesburg, VT 05461 U.S. +1.802.482.2689 langelle@sover.net http://www.globaljusticeecology.org
Oklahoma:
8) A group of very dedicated and organized citizens of Oklahoma City and elsewhere, calling themselves Save Lake Atoka, are fighting a decision by the mayor and city council of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to commercially log the old growth forest around Lake Atoka, near Oklahoma City. The decision was made in March, 2005 and the logging is suppose to begin in October, 2005. They are asking that everyone help them protect this forest. A very diverse coalition of groups, including Native American tribes, the National Park Trust, environmental organizations, and academics, have joined together in this campaign. Please use our easy action alert to let the Oklahoma City Mayor and City Council know that we support Save Lake Atoka. THANKS! Your friends at Heartwood For more information: http://www.savelakeatoka.com/index.html http://www.heartwood.org/alerts.php?id=48
Indiana:
9) The Indiana State Forests got caught red-handed by a forest loving, astute Heartwood member a couple autumns ago getting ready to log the Harrison-Crawford state forest in extreme south Indiana. This beautiful forest is around the Wyandotte Cave complex, which contains one of the major hibernaculum for the endangered Indiana bat, housing 10s of thousands of the bats during the late fall, early spring, and winter months. There is so much evidence about the importance of the forest immediately around the hibernaculum to the Indiana bat that when Heartwood confronted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Indiana State Forests about this, they had no choice but to tell the Indiana State Forests that they needed to apply for an “incidental take permit,” or official federal authorization to harm, injure or kill the species if they wanted to log in the Harrison-Crawford state forest near the cave. For a state agency to receive an incidental take permit, they must submit an acceptable “Habitat Conservation Plan” or HCP, for the species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s acceptance of this HCP is a major federal action which requires the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS. This comment period begins this process. This is the first such HCP prepared by a state forest for Indiana bats within the range of the species to the best of our knowledge. We need to let the agencies know that we demand the strictest protection under the law for the critically endangered Indiana bat. http://www.heartwood.org/alerts.php
Pennsylvania:
10) You probably haven’t heard of the Indiana bat. That’s the critter that environmental activists hoped would be Pennsylvania’s answer to the spotted owl. The bat is an endangered species that may reside in the Allegheny National Forest, 513,000 acres of woodland spanning four counties in northwestern Pennsylvania. In 1998, researchers discovered one of the bats in the forest, and activists sought an injunction to shut down 44 logging projects in order to protect the flying mammal. The Forest Service, however, made adjustments, as Samuel A. MacDonald explains in this book. Loggers were required “to leave a number of live, dying, and dead trees … to serve as roosting areas.” The injunction was denied. But operations were shut down for six months and loggers took a beating. Compared with the fire set by the Earth Liberation Front in August 2002, which destroyed the U.S. Forestry Service Sciences Laboratory in Irvine, Pa., the fight over the bat was but a skirmish in what has become a bitter conflict. The author does not put forth “legislative or judicial elixirs.” He says that “anyone who claims to have such a surefire solution is either a charlatan or a fool.” His aim is to “change the tone and direction of the debate.” He certainly tries. His account is about as evenhanded as one could imagine. A native of the region, MacDonald goes to great lengths to be fair. He quotes the principals on both sides extensively and examines claims and counterclaims dispassionately. Many of the key activists are what the locals call “flatlanders.” Jim Kleissler, a founder of the Allegheny Defense Project, hails from New Jersey. For the locals, the dispute has to do with more than the forest. They resent the activists not only because they are outsiders, but also because they don’t think the activists know what they’re talking about. “They’re not foresters,” says Jack Hedlund, executive director of the Allegheny Forest Alliance. “They don’t understand the science of forests.” http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/opinion/12158569.htm
Arizona:
11) The Kaibab National Forest has reaffirmed its intention to cut some trees larger than 16 inches in diameter in what would be the largest thinning project on that forest in recent history. This is a way of preparing for an expected lawsuit from environmental groups, Williams said Wednesday. The goal of the project is to thin the forest near the Arizona Strip community of Jacob Lake to make the area less prone to really large wildfires, and to provide habitat for wildlife, Williams said. A Tucson environmental group, the Center For Biological Diversity, which successfully appealed the original plans, is preparing to sue over what it sees as a timber giveaway. Members of local environmental groups like the Southwest Forest Alliance have also been involved. The center doesn’t want trees larger than 16 inches in diameter to be cut, and it says doing so would harm wildlife, particularly the northern goshawk.”We’re not going to go to court over a couple of 24-inch or even 40-inch trees,” said Erik Ryberg, of the center. “What we’re concerned about is 80,000 big trees…. Obviously we’re going to challenge something like that.” The Forest Service plans call for thinning one to two trees per acre larger than 18 inches in diameter across the 22,000 acres, according to the written plan.”The goshawks and their prey species need a mosaic of trees and tree species … sometimes to create good habitat we need to cut a few ‘big’ trees,” North Kaibab spokesman Scott Clemans said. http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=112138
USA:
12) On Tuesday of this week, the USFS released a new presentation in conjunction
with their Off-Highway Vehicle Program and their evolving OHV Rule. The
presentation is titled “Emerging Policies – FS Recreation” and it should
serve as a final wake up call to anyone who may still doubt that the Forest
Service’s current focus upon “Managed Recreation” is part-and-parcel of the
recreation industry’s long-term strategy to use recreation user-fees,
volunteerism and outsourcing as mechanisms for ensuring a vibrant future for
motorized recreation upon America’s public lands. I implore environmental activists who are now engaged in this collaborative process to never forget that it was the American Recreation Coalition and the motorized recreation industry who created this ‘Managed Recreation’ paradigm in the mid-80s (Reagan’s PCAO) and more recently brought it to the table. Environmentalists were introduced into this ongoing process for the purpose of legitimizing an agenda that was long-ago pre-determined by the USFS and their wreckreation industry partners. We in the environmental community are NOT players. We are bystanders and we are going to get shafted –because that is how the system was crafted. http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/07/321756.shtml
Canada:
13) More than 300 Dryden-area residents attended the launch of the city’s Forest Industry Crisis — We Care campaign Tuesday evening. The community meeting, hosted by Dryden city council, Weyerhaeuser and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, was held to inform residents about the “crisis” state of the forest industry in the Northwest, and to encourage them to get involved in the debate by contacting Premier Dalton McGuinty and provincial cabinet ministers about the urgency of restoring the industry. Speakers included CEP national representative Cecil Makowski, Dryden mill manager Norm Bush and Dryden Mayor Anne Krassilowsky. Forest industry unions and Northern Ontario mayors have called for a meeting with McGuinty to discuss the crisis; and have called on the province to lobby other levels of government for money for a comprehensive investment strategy; to reduce electricity rates for the industry; and to make sure wood products are being processed in Northern Ontario. http://www.chroniclejournal.com/story.shtml?id=28143
14) The Quebec government faces a bitter confrontation with a group of Quebec natives that could jeopardize the fragile peace negotiated in recent years with the province’s first nations. Quebec’s Innu Council of Pessamit is asking the Supreme Court of Canada to stop all logging on the René-Levasseur Island, in the northern sector of Quebec’s vast North Shore region. The Innu also put more than 50 forest companies on notice yesterday that the natives might also ask the court to bar logging on 250,000 square kilometres of ancestral land, a territory the size of Great Britain. Innu Chief Raphael Picard said the legal battle against the province would continue until the government agrees to negotiate “nation to nation” with the Innu the terms and conditions of the development of natural resources on their land. “From now on, the development of natural resources cannot take place without respecting the rights and entitlements of Quebec’s first nations,” Mr. Picard said yesterday. Two weeks ago, Mr. Justice Andre Rochon of the Quebec Court of Appeal lifted a temporary court order prohibiting forestry company Kruger Inc. from logging on René-Levasseur Island. In June, the Quebec Superior Court had issued an order halting logging on the island until December when the merits of the case will be heard. A recent forest fire convinced Judge Rochon that the company should be allowed to return to the island to harvest the trees damaged by the blaze and remove the logs left over from last year’s logging season. Mr. Picard argued these limited forestry activities would nonetheless involve building roads and cutting down undamaged trees in environmentally sensitive areas. The Quebec government requested the partial lifting of the logging ban on behalf of Kruger Inc. That triggered the legal battle with the Innu, who said the government refused to negotiate a special plan to restrict the logging to 150,000 cubic metres of salvageable wood. Ghislain Picard, head of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador, said the Quebec government can’t say it recognizes aboriginal rights while using the courts to deny them. “There is a major contradiction in the way Quebec is doing things.” Quebec Minister of Natural Resources Pierre Corbeil said logging on the island would be closely monitored. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050719/INNU19/TPNational/Canada
15) If the Mi’kmaq win a landmark logging rights decision before the nation’s top court this week, aboriginals could become big players in Atlantic Canada’s lucrative forest industry. But Bruce Wildsmith, the lawyer for two native men charged with illegally taking Crown wood, said yesterday that any entry into the multibillion-dollar sector would be gradual and negotiated. “You won’t see Mi’kmaq going in indiscriminately to harvest everything in sight, but you’ll see integration into the harvesting regime,” he said. If the court rules in favor of the two men, Mr. Wildsmith said it would probably take at least a year to hammer out a deal between native leaders and the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Mr. Wildsmith, who has shepherded the case through three levels of courts over seven years, said he’s optimistic the Supreme Court of Canada will uphold lower court decisions acquitting his clients when it hands down its rulings tomorrow. If it does so, the court will also set in motion big changes in the region’s forest industry, similar to those that occurred in the fishery after the 1999 decision in the case of Donald Marshall Jr. That ruling opened the commercial fishery to native people in the Maritimes, allowing them to earn a moderate livelihood from fishing. It also led to high-profile “lobster wars” on Miramichi Bay between native and non-native fishermen over what regulations would govern the native fishery. Mr. Wildsmith said a logging victory would be just as important, but the results would be more gradual and likely more peaceful. “All of this may require displacement of some of the harvesting resources that the big players have, and that may require financial compensation both to the Mi’kmaq who wait and those [in industry] who move aside,” he said.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050719/MIKMAQ19/TPNational/Canada
16) Update: The Supreme Court of Canada has rejected native logging rights in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. In two unanimous decisions handed down Wednesday, the high court said 250-year-old treaties do not include Mi’kmaq rights to log contrary to provincial law. The treaties only granted a Mi’Kmaq the right to continue trade in items traditionally traded in 1760-61, the judgment said. The judges said the two natives charged in the separate cases did not prove aboriginal title to the lands they logged. In the main judgment, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote that the right conferred is the right to trade. The emphasis of the treaties is not on the goods traded, but on trading activities contemplated by the signatories at the time. It says only those trading activities are protected. The court acknowledged that ancestral trading activities are not frozen in time, but it said commercial logging is not the logical evolution of a traditional Mi’kmaq trading activity. http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=7ac6ff26-9ef9-4ec4-b1e9-230f478358ca
17) Recent documents from Canada provide clear-cut evidence that Weyerhaeuser has grossly violated the legal, social and ecological commitments that allow them to log on public lands in the province of Saskatchewan. In the Pasquia-Porcupine forest area, Weyerhaeuser’s own documents show that the company has exceeded its legal 20-year all-season road building allowance by 70% in just 5 years. Now the company is requesting an increase of 250km in road-building that would more than triple the impacts of road construction. Meanwhile, in Saskatchewan’s Prince Albert forest area, Weyerhaeuser has chronically ignored concerns of a community board representing area residents. In spite of this illegal and destructive behavior, the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) still certifies Weyerhaeuser’s operations as “sustainable forestry”. Local citizens are outraged, This week, our first “Clearcut Case Study” profiles illegal logging by Weyerhaeuser in the sensitive Boreal forest of northern Saskatchewan. http://www.ran.org/blog/2005/07/15/corporate-crime-in-the-forest/
Russia:
18) Illegal logging has doubled in Russia since 1992 with Moscow going on the offensive and implementing more effective law enforcement methods including satellite surveillance of its massive forest resources. The pillage of the largest forested country in the world is now around 7,000 cubic metres (9,000 cubic yards) per year, according to official figures. Head of the federal forestry resources agency Valery Roshchupkine told journalists the real level of illegal logging was probably higher on Russian territory, two-thirds of which is covered by forests, representing 22 percent of the world’s forests.
The regions most affected were those in export zones, next to Europe, Finland, and in the Far East, near China and Japan. “Russia is now putting a very high priority on the fight against illegal logging,” said Roshchupkine. “We are moving to concrete action and we not hiding it: we are now moving on to the offensive in this area.” The country, which covers 11 time zones and forests covering 1,162 billion hectares, is progressively implementing satellite detection and aerial surveillance in the battle against illegal logging. The objective is to establish satellite detection for 100 percent of forests by 2006 from the current 60 percent coverage, providing high resolution photographs twice per day similar to those used by the military. “We aren’t in France or Finland and each forest officer is responsible for more than 100,000 hectares on average, it is utopian to think you can reach proper levels of surveillance without using satellite detection,” said an natural resources ministry official. Roshchupkine said the new satellite detection system was expected to improve the current low conviction rate for illegal logging. Last year only seven convictions were made from 8,000 breaches of the forestry laws last year, due mainly to lack of evidence. http://www.ran.org/blog/2005/07/15/corporate-crime-in-the-forest/
Ecuador:
19) Indians and environmental protesters marched through Ecuador’s capital on Tuesday to demand that Brazilian state oil firm Petrobras suspend operations in an oil block located in one of the Andean nation’s most important Amazon national parks. More than 150 members of the Huaorani tribe joined representatives from other indigenous and ecological groups in Quito to press Petrobras to stop activity they said was damaging the Yasuni National Park’s fragile ecosystem. “We are saying Petrobras should leave, because Yasuni is the future of our children,” said Alicia Ehuenguime Enqueri, vice president of the National Huaorani Organization of Ecuador. The Huaorani tribe, which has little contact with western culture, lives in part of the park, a UNESCO biosphere reserve that covers 982,000 hectares (2.4 million acres) and is home to 90 species of frogs and toads and more than 500 kinds of birds. Petrobras last year was awarded an environmental license to build oil drilling infrastructure for Block 31, an area that shares land in Yasuni. The permit allows Petrobras to build a highway, dock, and bridge on 200 hectares (490 acres) of Yasuni land. http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/31623/story.htm
India:
20) We just do not know how to build futures in forest lands. Economic progress, to us, has nothing to do with hugging our forests to ourselves. The profit is in destroying them: for mining, for industries. Similarly, for the poor, managing forests as forests does not bring them wealth. They can only survive if they clear forests to cultivate marginal and degraded lands, eke out an ever-meagre return. The land degrades, the people become more destitute: so turns the vicious cycle of poverty…This issue of Down To Earth examines a crisis forest-rich states in India find themselves in: conserving forests is a burden states are no longer able — or willing — to afford. This has happened because in India, as concern for natural resources grew, the harvesting of forests stopped. For these states, revenue has dried up, but the establishment costs of maintaining forest departments — intent on protection — continues to climb. Now the state spends more than it can earn. Today, Arunachal Pradesh’s spending on forestry is as high as its revenue used to be in the mid-1990s. 80 per cent of the state is forested, but today it makes practically nothing from its vast forest wealth. The situation is such that India today has become a major importer of wood from other countries. From forests cut elsewhere. By 2001, India’s export of forest based products stood at Rs 4,459 crore. But imports were over Rs 12,000 crore — 3 times higher. That year, the country spent over Rs 2,000 crore simply on importing wood. You might argue: so what? After all, this is merely a cost the nation is paying for a higher good. It is saving its forests, vital for ecological and water security. But the picture becomes more complex when other questions are also asked. For instance: who really pays the cost for protecting our forests? Who bears the brunt of protection? …understand that it is the poorest that bear the burden of conservation. Forest areas in India are enormously rich lands, but people who live there are the poorest. They live lives crucially linked to using the many resources a forest provides. They exist in a forest economy. But nobody is interested in building a future, economically speaking, on these resources. So it is no wonder, or accident, that the poor in such areas get poorer. http://www.downtoearth.org.in/editor.asp?foldername=20050731&filename=Editor&sec_id=2&sid=1
21) India is unlikely to meet a target of increasing forest cover to one-third of its territory by 2012 because some trees will be cut for industrial activity to meet the needs of economic development. The environment and forests ministry said in its 2003 forest report released on Tuesday that 23.68 percent or 778,229 sq km (300,373 sq miles) of the nation’s area was covered by forests, which included trees in non-forested areas, up a marginal 0.65 percent from 2001. “To reach the 2012 target is a herculean task. We may face hurdles,” Andimuthu Raja, the environment and forests minister, told a news conference.
“If we do not give some (forest) land to industrial and mining sectors, we would jeopardise economic growth.” The ministry’s forest report said while the overall forest cover increased marginally in 2003, the area under dense forests — which have a canopy density of above 40 percent — was down by 26,245 sq km from 416,089 sq km in 2001 due to deforestation. But the area under open forests — which have less than 40 percent canopy density — rose 29,040 sq km in 2003 to 287,769 sq km from the 2001 figure.
Environmental groups said that wasn’t enough. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DEL127895.htm
Vietnam:
22) In April 2002, as the entire country anxiously followed daily reports revealing the catastrophic extent of the damage wreaked by the worst forest fire Kien Giang Province had ever seen, I decided to visit and witness the furious blaze for myself. For over a month, U Minh’s mangrove forest burned, destroying thousands of hectares of Viet Nam’s last remaining reserve of virgin cajeput trees, and leaving the region with scars that may remain for centuries. From the town of Rach Gia, I watched the smoke rising over the Cai Lon River each day, as U Minh’s 8,000ha of virgin forest diminished week by week, to 6,000, then 5,000, then 4,000ha. The destruction tortured local people, and hundreds joined the firefighters and soldiers recruited from ten provinces in the region to battle against the blaze, using whatever resources were available. Now and then, a stranger sound could be heard amidst the raging inferno. It was not the wind or the crackling leaves, but a mournful, reproachful call echoing through the forest, quiet but crystal clear, like the pitiful, desperate cries of a person facing death. Although they could only be heard for a few brief seconds before dying out in the thick smoke, the haunting power of those cries has stayed with me. The harder I listened, the more apparent they became, distinct from the sounds of the roaring blaze and clear above the cries of the terrified animals fleeing the sea of fire. But despite their clarity, to this day I don’t know what was making those noises as U Minh’s forest burned. Hidden by the trees, generations of resistance fighters conducted prolonged operations to defy the French colonisers, and the forests stood as a historical witness to the bravery and sacrifice of the nation’s revolutionary soldiers. Then came the American war. Despite their tireless efforts to defoliate the area, US forces struggled to penetrate the lush canopy of the forest, and their methods became increasingly heavy-handed. In early 1960, a mass bombing and chemical-spraying operation was conducted in co-ordination with the mobilisation of over 3,000 troops between Thu Bay and Vinh Thuan, in a desperate attempt to destroy the Vietnamese forces in the area, but U Minh’s forest withstood the onslaught. In fact, it almost seemed that the trees became greener as the war progressed, as though the flourishing spirit of revolution was embodied in the very soil of the region. Under the protection of the forest, the local Party headquarters, printing facilities and military hospitals remained intact, and resistance leaders continued to use the area as a strategic regional base. I returned to U Minh two years after the fire, during the dry season. We walked silently along a snaking path through the forest, running alongside a stream, and looked at the new cajeput trees growing out of the ravaged land, providing hope that the forest could one day regain its former glory. http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=05SUN170705
Australia:
23) A logging company’s attempt to sue environmentalists for campaigning against its tree-felling operations on a picturesque Australian island was branded by a judge yesterday as so vague that the environmentalists would not know how to launch a defense. Supreme Court Justice Bernard Bongiorno rejected the company’s redrafted 360-page statement of claim and gave its lawyers 28 days to redraw the document or have the case thrown out of court. Gunns is seeking a total of $6.3 million from 20 individuals and groups, claiming it has suffered losses as a result of anti-logging campaigns. The company claims the defendants, including Tasmanian Greens senator Bob Brown, Tasmanian Greens leader Peg Putt, the Wilderness Society and the Huon Valley Environment Centre, interfered with the company’s business by unlawful means including protests, sabotage, trespass, blockades and lobbying customers and bankers. The civil claim has been criticised by environmentalists and civil libertarians as having a chilling effect on free speech and legitimate public protest. Justice Bongiorno said that seven months into the case Gunns had so far failed to provide the court with a proper, coherent and intelligible statement of claim. “Vague allegations on very significant matters may conceal claims which are merely speculative.” Describing aspects of the claim as “embarrassing”, Justice Bongiorno warned Gunns to resubmit a coherent version or risk the claim being struck out. “It would be a singularly unprofitable exercise to attempt to describe every defect in it which needs correction,” he said. Defendants including the Wilderness Society hailed the decision. “This judgment will give forest defenders everywhere a real boost,” said society spokeswoman Virginia Young. Senator Brown attended the hearing along with a number of co-defendants. “The court ruling has imbued us with a new optimism,” he said. He said the company’s claim document was “just as incoherent and unintelligible (as) what they are doing to the forests … they should be ashamed.” http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Judge-hits-Gunns-bid-to-sue-green-groups/2005/07/18/1121538912622.html?oneclick=true
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/07/19/2003264123
24) The strength of timber company Gunns Ltd’s contracts with logging contractors could soon be tested in court. Struggling contractors are eyeing legal action to stave off the effects of quota cutbacks. Tasmanian Forest Contractors Association executive officer David Hazell confirmed yesterday that several contractors had engaged lawyers to examine their contracts after the harvesting quotas were cut by Gunns. He said while legal action was considered a last resort, contractors who had suffered quota reductions due to apparent softening in demand for woodchips could be forced into the courtroom. “Some of these contractors have financed their business on the basis of these contracts, which have now been reduced. As a result many are fighting to keep their personal assets, which have been significantly used as borrowing security for equipment purchases” he said. Contractors will take a further hit next month when Gunns shuts its Longreach woodchip mill for a fortnight. Mr Hazell could not confirm speculation that quotas will be cut again from August, and a possible longer shutdown at Christmas. He said rising fuel prices were also hitting members hard. http://www.themercury.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,15975935%255E3462,00.html
25) The Member for Collie-Wellington has urged protesters at a local forest block not to let tensions boil over as preparations to log the area begin.The Forest Products Commission is logging the Palmer One block near Collie as part of this year’s harvest plan to supply local sawmills. The Collie Conservation Group says the area contains old growth jarrah trees and it has gathered 500 signatures protesting against the logging. The Member for Collie-Wellington, Mick Murray, says the protesters’ anger should not be taken out on forest workers. “They’re probably the meat in the sandwich. The Government’s made a decision, they’re out there to administer that decision and I just hope that the two parties don’t get to out and out confrontation,” he said. The commission says the block has already been harvested twice and almost half of the area has been set aside for a fauna habitat zone. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200507/s1418276.htm
Ghana:
26) Badu Students Union has accused some sub-chiefs in the area of spearheading the illegal felling of trees in Tain district of Brong-Ahafo, causing excessive damage to the environment. The union alleged in a statement on Tuesday signed by Mr. Ben Akrosumah and Mr. Michael Yaw Okrah, President and Secretary respectively that the chiefs had on their own accord awarded numerous contracts to some timber firms.
Such illegal activities are causing desertification in the area, the students said in the statement addressed to the Minister of Lands and Forestry through the Regional Minister.
The union said it had noted with concern that “with all the government efforts in sensitizing Ghanaians on the menace of desertification and the need to plant trees to preserve the environment,the direct opposite is happening here in Badu”. The statement expressed grave concern about the alarming rate of chainsaw operations in the area, allegedly authorized by perpetrators of the illegal felling of trees. http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=86153
Cameroon:
27) Just over a decade ago, Cameroon drafted a law that was intended to regulate commercial use of the country’s forests. In spite of this, corruption and uncontrolled exploitation are putting forest areas at risk, say non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The 1994 Law on the Regulation of Forests, Fauna and Fishing contains clauses that limit logging, with a view to protecting the environment. Those who wish to exploit Cameroon’s forests must obtain permits from the Ministry of Forests and Fauna. The forestry law also requires loggers to plant trees, to ensure that resources are not permanently depleted. Nonetheless, “The law opened the way for all sorts of logging schemes and racketeering,” Roland Bengono, an economist at the forests and fauna ministry, told IPS. He alleges that officials in charge of issuing permits extort money from loggers, a claim echoed by certain company representatives interviewed by IPS. “You have to spend a lot to get your license granted,” said one of the loggers. In addition, NGOs allege that permits are often granted to front companies controlled by public and military officials — this to allow them to circumvent constitutional provisions that prevent civil servants from doing business. The eagerness of government officials to profit from the logging industry is attributed to declining revenues in the cocoa and coffee sectors: these commodities used to be Cameroon’s main export products after petroleum. http://allafrica.com/stories/200507181277.html
Tanzania:
28) The government came under fire in Parliament yesterday over its failure to curb the wanton harvesting of forest products. Several MPs said when debating the 2005/6 budget estimates of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism that forests were being cut down at an alarming rate and called on the government to do more to reverse the trend.
Ereneus Ngwatura (Mbinga North, CCM) said between 200 and 500 hectares of forests were cut down each year. ’Forests are being cut down at an extraordinary rate which is far higher than that of planting new trees,’ he said. Ngwatura urged the ministry to put in place measures aimed at regulating the harvesting of forest products at the village and district levels with a view to curbing the destruction of forests. ’There is no supervision at all and our forests will be wiped out if urgent measures are not taken now’ the legislator said. Dr Thadeus Luoga (Mbinga West, CCM) said southern Tanzania had numerous tourist attractions which had been neglected and added that it was time the government put in place the required infrastructure with a view to attracting tourists to the areas. ’In the past, we could not develop tourism in the south of the country because of the liberation struggles in southern Africa but the situation is now calm. He said Turkey and Thailand earned about US$9bn and US$8bn respectively from tourism annually because the two countries had taken the trouble to publicise their attractions. Even neighbouring Kenya earned much more from tourism than Tanzania, Saggaf said. ’In Kenya, tourism is the top foreign exchange earner. Just what is wrong with us?’ he wondered. Presenting the opposition’s view, Philemon Ndesamburo (Moshi Rural, Chadema) told the House between 130,000 and 500,000 hectares of forests were laid bare annually through the illegal harvesting of forest products. He said the government was also losing tens of millions of shillings through the illegal export of logs.
http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2005/07/19/44796.html