162 – Earth’s Tree News

Today for you 41 news items about Mama 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) Year review, 2) Carmanah, 3) Cathedral Canyon, 4) Stanley Park,
–Pacific Northwest: 5) Atlantic Multi-Decadal Oscillation makes region more dry
–Washington: 6) Urban Forest Stakeholders issued a manifesto
–Oregon: 7) Cascadia Forest Defender protest, 8) Battling urban sprawl, 9) Bull Run water ruined by logging, 10) Wallowa-Whitman logging SW of Unity, 11) Biscuit
–Montana: 12) Big Swan Valley logging project targets Old Growth
–New Mexico: 13) State Land Office plans to lease 43,000 acres for Biomass
–Wisconsin: 14) Climate change will eliminate certain tree species
–Vermont: 15) Logging the Hinesburg Town Forest
–North Carolina: 16) Forest Service is ignorant of historic forest conditions
–USA: 17) Two methods perfected by the Bush administration
–Czechoslovakia: 18) Less & Forest awarded tenders for logger work
–Guyana: 19) All forests now go to China
–Uganda: 20) Against Bugala rainforests in Kalangala going to oil firm Bidco
–Cuba: 21) Forest coverage goal is nearly 30%
–Costa Rica: 22) Rain Forest Alliance’s Monitoring and Evaluation Methodology Award
–Chile: 23) Gold miners swindle land, get caught
–Brazil: 23) Diamond miner murders by natives makes mining more difficult
–India: 24) Kendu trees absorb chromium and nickel
–China: 25) Dead husband saves Osmanthus trees via wife, 26) Oaks and climate change, 27) leading foreign-owned commercial forest plantation operator,
–Thailand: 28) Prime Minister builds illegal home in nature reserve
–Philippines: 29) Near-extinct type of forestry operator
–Borneo: 30) Heart of Kalimantan, 31) Penan road blockade continues
–Malaysia: 32) Finding the mastermind behind illegal logging, 33) gazette all sea mangrove areas, 34) Forest foods,
–Indonesia: 35) Landslides caused by logging, 36) Shrimp farms fail from forest damage,
–Australia: 37) halting logging in Wielangta State Forest, 38) Climbing the honey tree,
–World-wide: 39) Indigenous and plantation forestry, 40) Planting trees not pointless, 41) FSC and remote sensing technology,

British Columbia:

1) More trees were cut down in 2006 than in any year in the past. Raw Log Exports have increased, the annual allowable cut has increased, and the number of forestry job has been cut dramatically. BC Ministry of Forests sells our trees at extremely low prices to logging companies. Low stumpage fees allow for the price of exported wood to be considerably lower than competitors south of the border. Ironically Timber companies continue to post massive profits. The soft-wood lumber agreement, being signed and negotiated by provincial and federal Forest Ministers, does not include raw logs. The closing of many saw mills through-out BC is directly related to the disagreement and has allowed for the increase in raw log exports. http://www.pej.org/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=6313&mode=thread&ord
er=0&thold=0

2) East Creek, Carmanah Valley, and three watersheds in Clayoquot Sound are all that remains of the intact ancient rainforest on Vancouver Island. This year logging began in East Creek and the Clayoquot Sound watersheds, despite the fact that most people believe that these areas are protected by the BC government. Logging licenses on these publicly owned lands have been granted by the BC Ministry of Forests. http://www.pej.org/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=6313&mode=thread&orde
r=0&thold=0

3) Timberwest has logged to the banks of the Englishman River across from Morrison Creek and the Salmon Enhancement Canals. Island Timberlands Helicopters have logged the narrow steep banks of the Cameron Rivers, in an area know as Cathedral Canyon. Island Timberlands also plans to log the steep slopes directly above Englishman River Falls Provincial Park. The logging of Hamilton Marsh has been put on hold while the RDN negotiates with Island TImberlands (owned by Brookfield formerly Brascan)
http://www.pej.org/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=6313&mode=thread&ord
er=0&thold=0

4) The forest around him, his home for 15 years, lay in chaos. Some giant trees were ripped up by the roots; others had snapped off halfway up and some were simply shattered, as if they had been torn apart by an explosion. The man, who wouldn’t give his name but who just might know Stanley Park better than any member of the parks department, looked at the damage and shook his head. “It shouldn’t have been this bad.” The reason the park suffered so much, he argues, is because of the way the forest has been managed since the 1800s, when it was set aside as a park after extensive logging altered the landscape. While large parts of the park were allowed to grow in a wild and natural state, many areas were carefully managed to create space for commercial buildings, open green lawns and gardens, or to build pathways, highways and scenic drives. “They won’t like me saying this,” he said of the park staffers he knows well, “but 50 per cent of it [the storm damage] is because of the cutting practices. They opened up holes in the forest.” When hurricane-force winds raced in from Georgia Strait on Dec. 15, gusts fell into those openings, he says, caught the tallest trees and knocked them flat, creating a domino effect. “Looking back on it, I would say it would have been better to leave the park on its own, rather than do all that manicuring and forest silviculture,” he said. “There would still have been lots of damage, but nothing like this.” The man who calls Stanley Park home said he’s now worried about what will happen in the cleanup. Will the forest managers use the damage as an excuse to make the park more manicured than ever? “First they will want to log it. Then they will say, ‘Get all the deadfall off the ground because of forest fires,’ “ he said, shaking his head. The storm damage, he thinks, should be left alone as much as possible. “It’s nature,” he said, gesturing to a nearby swath of trees in a jumble near Third Beach. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061227.BCHUME27/TPStory/National

Pacific Northwest:

5) A new tree-ring study led by the University of Comahue in Argentina and involving the University of Colorado at Boulder that links episodic fire outbreaks in the past five centuries with periods of warming sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic. States like Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and South Dakota all had an increased prevalence of wildfires in recent centuries when a phenomenon known as the Atlantic Multi-Decadal Oscillation — similar but longer in duration than the
better known El Nino-Southern Oscillation — periodically shifted from a cool to a warm mode that lasted roughly 60 years each time, said the study authors. Warmer waters in the North Atlantic correspond with episodes of drought and subsequent fires in the West as shown by fire scars in annual tree rings studied by the researchers, said Thomas Kitzberger of the University of Comahue, who led the study with researchers from CU-Boulder, the University of Arizona, the U.S. Forest Service and Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research Inc., a private lab in Fort Collins, Colo. University of Colorado at Boulder
Public release date: 26-Dec-2006 Contact: Thomas.Veblen@colorado.edu 303-492-8528

Washington

6) A group calling itself the Seattle’s Urban Forest Stakeholders issued a manifesto this summer calling for “protection of what we already have. Our first goal should be, as it is in San Francisco’s 2006 Urban Forest Plan, to maintain and conserve the existing urban forest.” Local landscape consultants also have pointed out that the mayor’s plan is undermined by an absence of adequate staffing. But what makes Nickel’s Urban Forest Management Plan the worst sort of greenwashing is that his own policies aggravate the loss of tree cover in Seattle. Upzoning the city – trumpeted as a way of preventing urban sprawl – in reality creates irresistible pressures to cover every square foot of lots with buildings. Much of our urban forest exists in the back yards of single-family residential zones, which are coming increasingly under attack for occupying land that could go to denser development. But what makes Nickel’s Urban Forest Management Plan the worst sort of greenwashing is that his own policies aggravate the loss of tree cover in Seattle. Upzoning the city – trumpeted as a way of preventing urban sprawl – in reality creates irresistible pressures to cover every square foot of lots with buildings. Much of our urban forest exists in the back yards of single-family residential zones, which are coming increasingly under attack for occupying land that could go to denser development. http://www.zwire.com/site/tab3.cfm?newsid=17650803&BRD=855&PAG=461&dept_id=515262&rfi=6

Oregon:

7) On Saturday December 23, Sunday December 24, and Monday December 25, Cascadia Forest Defenders and UO’s Forest Action held a candlelight vigil in front of the Crest Neighborhood home of Seneca Jones Lumber CEO, Aaron Jones, who continues to log native forests in the McKenzie River watershed, Eugene’s source of drinking water. CFD and Forest Action set up at dusk in front of Jones’ sprawling home and his massive display of Christmas lights (which have been attracting hundreds of visitors a night) with a large green and red banner reading: “Pray 4 Aaron Jones to see the light – stop logging our drinking H20 source” and several signs. A spotted owl with a megaphone read from Book Three of the “Essene Gospels of Peace” which included such relevant passages as “Hail be unto Thee! / O good living Tree / made by the Creator” ; “Now the desert sweeps the earth with burning sand / the giant trees are dust and ashes / and the wide river is a pool of mud” ; “He who doth destroy a tree / hath cut off his own limbs” ; “For the trees are our brothers / and as brothers / we shall guard and love one another.” Forest defenders also sang a new version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” Hundreds of people drove by, several stopping to speak with defenders, a few yelling threats. Unlike the previous rally, Aaron Jones didn’t come out to greet CFD, but forest defenders briefly conversed with the teenaged granddaughter of Aaron Jones as she drove up in her bright yellow, brand new Hummer. Cascadia Forest Defenders and Forest Action believe it to be a sacred duty to wake up the sleeping masses and alert them to the importance of protecting the forests that sustain our life on this planet. http://www.forestdefenders.org/

8) Leading the charge are the Southeast Neighbors – a city-recognized neighborhood association that has hired experts to build cases against a series of recent development requests in its neck of the urban woods. Some might view the group’s relentless brand of opposition as an over-the-top example of the NIMBY (not in my backyard) principle at work. But organizers say their concerns extend well past the neighborhood association’s boundaries. “There is a global crisis of biodiversity, and we recognize these (development-threatened properties) are key links in the ecosystem of the upper Amazon watershed,” said Kevin Matthews, president of Southeast Neighbors. “The people in this neighborhood know and appreciate these remaining wild areas, and they have a genuine feeling of stewardship for the community,” he said. “There’s a real commitment to getting the right thing done with this area.” In recent months, group members have held community fundraising events and dug deep into their pockets to hire attorneys, scientists and other land use consultants to testify against a pair of subdivision proposals in forested areas off Dillard Road. http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/12/29/a1.southeugene.1229.p1.php?section=cityregion

9) Bull Run has been such a reliable source of clean drinking water that it wasn’t until the 1996 floods, more than 100 years after Bull Run first began providing water to Portland, that city officials were for the first time forced to temporarily shut down water intakes and turn to an alternate source. Since that first shutdown in 1996, Bull Run has been shut down several more times, including 14 days this November. What is causing the shutdowns? Is increased rainfall causing more erosion? It turns out we can’t blame it entirely on the rain. Rainfall patterns have remained relatively steady over the years. And while Bull Run did receive a couple days of intense rain in early November, monthly rainfall was 8.5 inches below the record set in 1942. What has changed is not the weather, but Bull Run’s forest landscape. Between 1960 and 1990, nearly one-third of the once-pristine Bull Run watershed was clear-cut, leaving behind thousands of stumps and 300 miles of logging roads. These damaging activities, conducted illegally until 1976, reduced Bull Run’s capacity to handle the Pacific Northwest rain. Bull Run serves as an important lesson for Eugene, which gets its drinking water from the McKenzie River watershed. Like Bull Run, much of the McKenzie watershed is public forest land. And, even though McKenzie water is filtered (unlike Bull Run), it remains important to safeguard water quality. Why? Because health risks and costs increase when filtration operators are forced to treat waters muddied by a logged landscape. In order to ensure safe, clean drinking water in the future, it is important to act today to protect unspoiled roadless and old-growth forests within the McKenzie watershed. All logging proposals should be carefully scrutinized and damaging projects like the Willamette National Forest’s Trapper and Two-Bee timber sales should be halted. Crumbling logging roads should either be fixed or decommissioned. http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/12/29/ed.col.heiken.1229.p1.php?section=opinion

10) The Wallowa-Whitman National Forest wants to cut about 12 million board-feet of timber in the mountains southwest of Unity during the next few years, a project that would rank as one of the forest’s larger logging jobs in the past 15 years. Wallowa-Whitman officials recently released the 273-page environmental study for the Mile 9 project. It encompasses 19,000 acres of public land along the South Fork of the Burnt River, about seven air miles from Unity. The Wallowa-Whitman’s proposal calls for commercial logging on about 4,400 of those acres. The Wallowa-Whitman will accept comments from the public about the Mile 9 project through Jan. 19, 2007. The estimated 12 million board-feet figure is almost half as much timber as the 2.3-million-acre Wallowa-Whitman sold during the past fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. In that fiscal year the Wallowa-Whitman sold 25 million board-feet. The goal is the same as with commercial logging — removing the smaller trees to alleviate crowding — except in precommercial thinning the trees are so small that mills won’t buy them. Instead, workers cut, pile and then burn the trees. After the commercial logging and precommercial thinning is finished, Wallowa-Whitman officials intend to ignite prescribed fires, which are supposed to mimic the historic lightning-sparked blazes, on about 4,900 acres. The idea, Gilsdorf said, is to replicate the natural fire cycle by lighting prescribed fires every 20 years or so. Wallowa-Whitman officials also want to preserve groves of aspen trees (about five acres) and mountain mahogany (about 340 acres) by cutting conifers that are encroaching on the coniferous trees. http://www.bakercityherald.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=4408

11) Are Oregon’s roadless forests being sent overseas and certified as sustainable forest products by Oregon Overseas? This is a late final report back on Biscuit roadless logging. Biscuit Logging is mostly done now, although Silver Creek may finish plundering the North Kalmiopsis roadless area this spring, and they may still log the massive live “hazard” trees the Forest Service has rewarded them. They call it an OSHA requirement to take out the biggest and best live old-growth trees along roadways. The photos show some of the last remaining green forest in the North Fork Indigo watershed being hacked apart by loggers who are outside of actual logging units. Mikes Gulch and Blackberry roadless logging sales [were] exempted under the roadless victory ruling. This afront on our forests is being done under the Biscuit FEIS, the Forest Service maintains that no green trees will be cut but stumps don’t lie and the green trees we photographed were still on the ground. Listen to this via: http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/12/350743.shtml

Montana:

12) The largest timber sale in the Swan Valley in recent years is poised for approval — a state project that will involve logging in old growth and new roads, mainly to meet a mandated annual timber target. A state study analyzes several approaches to the project, but Daniel Roberson, unit manager for the Swan Lake State Forest, announced that he intends to select an alternative that will involve harvesting 23.7 million board feet of timber during three years from 1,884 acres, including about 1,221 acres currently classified as old-growth forest. In November 2004, the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation completed a required recalculation of the “sustained yield” of timber that could be harvested from the state’s school trust lands. The annual sustained yield, generated through computer modeling, was increased statewide from 45 million board feet to 53.2 million board feet. The Swan Lake State Forest’s share of the statewide target increased to 6.7 million board feet annually. The project is bound to meet resistance from Friends of the Wild Swan, a group that has objected for years — often through lawsuits — to most major timber sales in the Swan Valley. The group submitted lengthy comments to the state with a laundry list of objections. The group’s spokeswoman, Arlene Montgomery, said the Three Creeks Project is the biggest timber sale she has seen in the Swan Valley since she started reviewing timber projects in the early 1990s. It easily exceeds the previous volume leader, the 14 million-board-foot Goat-Squeezer project. The study says that of the 1,222 acres of old growth where there would be timber harvest, 658 acres would “continue to be classified as old growth” once harvesting is complete. http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2006/12/29/news/news02.txt

New Mexico:

13) The state Land Office plans to lease 43,000 acres south of Mountainair as a source of fuel for a biomass plant. The proposal has raised questions about how many trees would be cut and what the impact would be on archaeological resources. Western Water and Power Production, which is expected to bid on the 25-year lease, wants to cut down brush and trees, largely juniper, from grazing land west of Gran Quivira National Monument. The material would be burned in the proposed $74 million, 35-megawatt electrical plant near Estancia. Biomass produces electricity by burning organic material. It’s becoming a popular alternative energy source, partly because it produces less pollution than coal-fired plants do. The lease will require environmental and archaeological studies before trees are cut, Jerry King, assistant land commissioner, said Tuesday. Bud Latven, who opposed a U.S. Forest Service project in the Manzano Mountains, said in a letter to the editor in the Albuquerque Journal that the project “is shaping up to be a major conflict between the maintenance of forest and rangeland health and the need for commercial products.” Former state Land Commissioner Jim Baca, who was defeated in an attempt to regain the office in November, said environmental studies should have been done beforehand. “Why are they leasing it if they haven’t done the science first?” Baca said Tuesday. “The Land Office has a responsibility to do that before they lease out the land.” King said the Land Office is “caught in the middle” between the need for energy and concerns about environmental protection. http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/54330.html

Wisconsin:

14) Species such as the balsam fir, white spruce, white birch and perhaps the red pine are likely to be lost from the state, he predicted. “They will be affected by drought more frequently or conditions too warm for reproducing,” Mladenoff said. “Wisconsin is in the southern limit of their range already, so if things warm as projected, these northern evergreen species may disappear. And that is our image of Wisconsin.” Other types, such as white pine, would not be so susceptible, if there is adequate moisture, he said. “But even something like aspen, which we think of as characterizing the north, could be reduced, so it only grows well into big trees and reproduces abundantly in a smaller area around Lake Superior,” Mladenoff added. “It might be reduced to a small scruffy thing in the rest of the state, such as it is now in Illinois. They’re not happy there.” http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/topstories//index.php?ntid=112973

Vermont:

15) HINESBURG — Michael Snyder has been busy for weeks, moving quickly through the with a can of blue spray paint. Snyder isn’t vandalizing each tree he carefully considers, then marks with streaks of paint. As the Chittenden County forester, Snyder is deciding which trees will stay and which will be removed this winter, when the ground is frozen solid. “Mostly, we’re removing trees that didn’t have very bright futures as trees,” Snyder said. “They were either on sort of the down-sides of their life curve or had mechanical problems — splits and seams and holes that may make them highly likely to fall over or break.” Snyder said removing some trees will allow the younger, healthier trees to flourish. They will produce more seedlings, he said, and promote the forest’s growth. The cut trees will provide wood for human purposes. Some trees slated for removal face ambiguous futures — they might become furniture or firewood. Certain white ash trees will be cut, milled and installed as flooring in the Hinesburg Town Hall. Town administrators expect the ash flooring to be installed in April. http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061228/NEWS02/61228008/1007&the
me=HINESBURG

North Carolina:

16) I am a professional archeologist, having taught and researched both historic and prehistoric time periods as a professor at Appalachian. In recent years, I have noted a disturbing trend by forest managers to take what I consider to be a mistaken view of the degree that human hands might have “managed” the forests in prehistoric times. This mistaken view is that when Europeans first showed up in this area in any numbers in the last half of the 18th century, the Native people (Catawba, Cherokee) were practicing widespread and fairly heavy-handed management of the mountain forests. I see this misrepresentation as an attempt on the part of our own European culture to justify our undeniably heavy hand, especially the massive logging that occurred around the turn of the 19th 20th centuries. I also see this misrepresentation as an attempt on the part of the timber industry to justify the heavy hand of their management practices. While biologists such as the Delcourts of the University of Tennessee posit that prehistoric peoples intensively managed the forests before the Europeans arrived, I have found most of my archeological colleagues in the region dismissive of their ideas, instead suggesting that the Appalachian forests at the time of European colonization were substantially as they had been for millennia. While aboriginal demand for forest products was high in the vicinity of Late Woodland and especially Mississippian agricultural villages, the clearing of forests for palisade posts, housing beams and agricultural fields was minimal, especially in the non-riverine settings such as the Globe. While the hillsides and ridges were occasionally burned to control undergrowth around the valued and widespread Chestnut groves, trees in these two locations were not a significant source of wood for the people, and fires that were set were not canopy fires, but only affected the under-story, leaving the mature trees and maintaining the canopy. The only places in the Southeast where the Native Americans intensively harvested trees were in the large alluvial valleys that are not present in most mountain locations, certainly not in the Globe. Harvard Ayer, Professor Emeritus, Appalachian State College, Boone, NC http://www.appstate.edu/

USA:

17) The Forest Service is using two methods perfected by the Bush administration.The first is a classic: Avoid learning the facts yourself, and then there is nothing for the public to uncover. The Forest Service will simply quit looking for environmental impacts from its long-term plans for America’s forests and grasslands. The Forest Service’s second strategy also has been well practiced since 2001 – elimination of a potent legal tool citizens can use to intervene when we disagree with plans foisted upon us by politicians. No longer will the public be allowed to appeal long-term forest plans. Instead, it appears we will be granted the toothless privilege of objecting during an invited participation process. The distinction may seem subtle, but the end result is to make the public’s involvement something granted by the benevolent managers of our own national assets. But they are not our rulers. In America, we are supposed to be the bosses. In these last two years of a regime dedicated to transferring America’s wealth to corporate campaign contributors, there certainly will be a concerted race to strip citizens of any meaningful oversight role. Congress must steadfastly resist and reveal these shameful manipulations. The sad fact is that this is just the culmination of a lengthy plot to rob forest plans of any significance. “The public, including local communities, deserves a say in how their forest lands are managed. They’re not getting that say under this administration,” according to Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, probable next chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. http://www.dailyastorian.info/main.asp?SectionID=23&SubSectionID=392&ArticleID=39065&TM=29786.5

Czechoslovakia:

18) Less & Forest owned by entrepreneur Jan Micanek has won tenders for logger work on an area accounting for 43 percent of the forested area managed by LCS (278 territorial units), which is 119 units. Krusnohorske lesy came next with 44 units and the biggest logging company in the Czech Republic, CE Wood, is third with 13 units. Unless participants in the tenders appeal against their results LCR will start signing contracts with the companies in January, LCR spokesman Tomas Vysohlid has told CTK. More details about the tenders will be published by LCR later. A total of 113 companies have submitted 933 bids in the tenders worth more than CZK 6 billion. The companies will accomplish work in line with the signed contracts in 2007 when LCR wants to call new mid-term tenders for at least three years, with contracts to come into force in January 2008. The tenders are criticised by the association of forestry industry businesses (SPLH) and the new management of the Czech Association of Enterpreneurs in Forest Management (CAPLH). http://www.praguemonitor.com/ctk/?story_id=w48738i20061228;story=Less–Forest-wins-tenders-wor
th-billions-of-crowns

Guyana:

19) Dear Editor: I would like to share with your readers the following URL sent to me by a friend and which has informative articles on forestry and timber in Guyana – http://guyanaforestry.blogspot.com/ The site has four photographs of logs from Guyana being loaded on November 30, 2006 from a pontoon in the Demerara River onto a Chinese-registered ship named Rong Cheng. I was struck by the large quantity of logs on the pontoon and the lack of any GFC or Customs presence in the photograph. I called the Guyana Forestry Commission unsuccessfully on several consecutive days trying to get information on this shipment. Through your newspaper I wish to ask the Commissioner of Forests the name of the timber exporter(s) with cargo on the Rong Cheng, what timber species/volumes/values of logs were being exported, and the names of the consignees. Yours faithfully, Patrick Jackson

Uganda:

20) TWO members of Parliament have vowed to sue government over the giveaway of Bugala rainforests in Kalangala to oil firm Bidco to grow palm oil trees. The MPs argue that the venture is an environmental danger to the area. Mr Kikungwe said Bugala forest reserves have been categorised as core conservation forests critical for biodiversity conservation in Uganda because of their physical isolation in the middle of Lake Victoria. Bugala rainforests include Towa, Banga, Namatembe, Gala and Kubanda forests. But according to the duo, these forests belong to the National Forestry Authority and the National Environmental Management Authority and that the government decision to allocated them to Bidco for ‘investment’ was illegal. The threatened suit is a follow-up to a move by Mr Kikungwe and former Rubaga South MP Ken Lukyamuzi who first sued the government for signing an agreement with Bidco, guaranteeing the firm a $112 million fund. http://allafrica.com/stories/200612290891.html

Cuba:

21) Cuba has dramatically increased its forest and reduced pollution in its main bays and water sources. Vice Minister for Science, Technology and Environment, Dr. Jose A Diaz, said Cuba is among the few countries in the world to report annual forest expansion, by more than 83 thousand acres just in 2006. Cuban woods were plundered for over four centuries with a dramatic decline to 14 percent coverage from 1902 to 1959, which was reverted by the January 1, 1959 victory of the Revolution. The national forest program plans to enhance coverage to over 29.3 percent of national territory in barely ten years. Also pollution declined by 3.8 percent in all eight basins in the national territory, three percent in main bays and 17 percent in mountain ranges. Recent evaluation by Planeta Vivo 2006 project of the World Wild Fund says Cuba is the only country to progress towards sustainable productive development without affecting the environment. The report relied on human development rates of over 0.8 percent and a 1.5 percent ecological fingerprint based on average consumer rates and resources used to provide goods and services. http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B3B5C19B1-EF03-47F8-96CC-1A92AE7DFBF2%7D)&language=EN

Costa Rica:

22) BRODHEAD — Applied Ecological Services, Inc. recently received the 2006 Best Monitoring and Evaluation Methodology Award from the Rain Forest Alliance, an ecosystem defense nonprofit organization. The award was given for AES’s work in the restoration of mangrove (tropical, low-dwelling trees growing in marshes or tidal shores) and dry-tropical forests within the Andamojo Watershed in Costa Rica. The 25,000-acre Andamojo River watershed in Costa Rica was once a very important winter resting area for many neotropical migratory bird species, but over time, it had become seriously degraded from deforestation and agricultural activities. Through the ongoing restoration process, AES has acquired lands within the watershed, and in conjunction with the Universidad Nacional, The University of Vermont and local communities, will develop restoration plans for the area. With the guidance of AES, the project will cooperate with participating landowners and investors to educate other landowners about restoration techniques. The project will also measure the response of neotropical migratory bird species to the restored mangroves, dry-tropical forests and diversified-hardwood plantations that have replaced native dry-tropical forests. Follow-up monitoring will document changes in bird use of these habitats over time. http://www.themonroetimes.com/c1230aes.htm

Chile:

23) The mountainous terrain of northern Chile is studded with precious metals, a natural cache that for years has had investors angling for land rights. So when the world’s largest gold mining company targeted about 20,000 acres owned by Rodolfo Villar, a mineral speculator, he signed a contract. Only later, he said, did he realize how much the company had agreed to pay him: About $19. Villar, who regularly grabs local land rights if he thinks they might be worth something, said he thought the deal was worth $1 million, not an amount that proved to be less than the cost of a bus ticket from Santiago back to his house. Additionally, the finer points of the contract stipulated that he would be fined $95,000 if he tried to obtain rights to any other parcels in the surrounding area. Villar sued the company, Canada’s Barrick Gold Corp., arguing that he had been deceived. This year, a Chilean judge ruled in his favor, saying that the company had essentially swindled Villar, and ordered the lands returned to him. Barrick officials say the ruling, which they have appealed, is unlikely to derail the mining project. But the case has angered some Chileans and others who complain that foreign mining companies are exploiting local landholders. Much of Latin America has experienced a mineral boom in recent years, with metal prices climbing and governments eager to generate tax revenue and other income from large-scale mining projects. The region is home to more mineral exploration than anywhere else in the world, but a corresponding increase in scrutiny from nongovernmental organizations and public interest groups has heightened tensions. And although many companies have developed “social responsibility” policies to smooth relations with local landowners, such efforts rarely eliminate the problems. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/25/AR2006122500457.html

Brazil:

23) ROOSEVELT INDIGENOUS AREA — Some of the world’s most abundant deposits of diamonds are embedded in the reddish soil of the Amazon jungle here. But for the Cinta-Larga Indians who live on this remote reservation, that discovery has brought more misfortune than riches. Cinta-Larga means Broad Belt in Portuguese, a reference to the tribe’s former habit of wearing bark sashes around the waist. For generations, the Cinta-Largas chose to live in isolation here along the banks of the Roosevelt River, named for Theodore Roosevelt, who led an expedition through this region of the southwestern Amazon some 90 years ago. But in the 1960s, a highway was built west of here, opening the jungle to exploitation by loggers. The discovery of gold, tin and finally diamonds increased the opportunities for the Cinta-Largas but also their resentment of white encroachments on land that the Brazilian government had set aside for them. Two years ago, the tensions finally boiled over. In an episode that is still under investigation, and for reasons that remain unclear, the Cinta-Largas killed 29 miners who were working without their permission at the mine on the reservation. Since then, the Cinta-Largas have become the most notorious of Brazil’s hundreds of Indian tribes, reviled in the press as bloodthirsty savages who want the diamonds for themselves and insulted when they leave their reservation for nearby towns. In hopes of countering those negative portrayals, tribal leaders recently invited this reporter to visit. “We want it known that, despite what our enemies say, we are not mining diamonds,” Ita Cinta-Larga, another tribal leader, said as he inspected the mining pit and its collection of abandoned hoses and sluices. “We still catch miners trying to sneak in now and then, but it’s pretty calm here now, and that’s the way we want to keep it.” http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/29/world/americas/29diamonds.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

India:

24) Faculty member of marine department, CU, Abhijit Mitra said after extensive research for months at Sunderban and other forests of Bengal, they discovered that Kendu trees absorb chromium and nickel particles that leads to cancer in human beings. “If Kendu trees are planted strategically in the mining and industrial belt of Jharkhand, pollution can be controlled to a great extent naturally. This is the only tree that successfully absorbs contents of pollutants leading to air pollution,” Mitra said. “At the moment, the company gives a chemical treatment to these pollutants released by the manufacturing units. But if they plant Kendu trees, the pollutants will be naturally absorbed by the tree,” Mitra said. Around 800-900 parts (unit for measurement) per million of chromium and nickel are absorbed by a kilogram of Kendu leaves. He said, a meeting was scheduled with the environmental department of Tata Steel in the first week of January to show the findings. “We’ll recommend that the company plant a new species of trees to check air pollution. The Kendu tree will naturally clean the local environment,” Mitra said. Kendu trees are found in hilly forests. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1061226/asp/jamshedpur/story_7183048.asp

China:

25) According to the China Times daily and ETToday.com internet newspaper, an 80-year-old widow, named Cheng, planted two osmanthus trees on a hill in Hsichih, near Taipei, with her husband many years ago. After her husband’s death, Cheng transplanted the two-metre-tall trees to her husband’s tomb to “guard the tomb.” It is a Chinese tradition to plant trees around a tomb so that the tree can shield it from rain and shine and protect the dead person’s family. The osmanthus tree, which gives out a fragrant and sweet smell when its flowers are in bloom, is considered an auspicious tree. Last Friday, in Cheng’s dream, her husband complained that he was cold because the two osmanthus trees had been stolen. Cheng was shocked and went to check the tomb the next day, and found that both trees had been uprooted and removed, the news reports said. Cheng reported to police who arrested two men the same evening as they were selling the two osmanthus trees to a flower-and-tree vendor. Chinese believe the dead can send messages to the living through dreams. Taiwan press often reports cases of police solving murders after the victims had told their family members through dreams how they died. http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_6324-Dream-Helps-Taiwan-Widow-Recover-Stolen-Precious-Trees.html

26) Moving from agro-ecosystems to natural ones, Su et al. (2004) used an ecosystem process model to explore the sensitivity of the net primary productivity (NPP) of an oak forest near Beijing (China) to the global climate changes projected to result from a doubling of the atmosphere’s CO2 concentration from 355 to 710 ppm. The results of this work suggested that the aerial fertilization effect of the specified increase in the air’s CO2 content would raise the forest’s NPP by 14.0%, that a concomitant temperature increase of 2°C would boost the NPP increase to 15.7%, and that adding a 20% increase in precipitation would push the NPP increase all the way to 25.7%. Last of all, they calculated that a 20% increase in precipitation and a 4°C increase in temperature would also boost the forest’s NPP by 25.7%. In contrast to typical climate-alarmist contentions, therefore, it is clear that many projections of Asian ecosystem responses to potential increases in atmospheric CO2 and temperature are not catastrophically negative, even when the projected increases in air temperature are as large as the 4°C rise investigated by Su et al. In fact, as in the case of their analysis, many of the responses are positive, and strongly so. One of the reasons for this discrepancy between real-world fact and climate-alarmist fiction is that climate-alarmists typically disregard the many beneficial effects of concomitant atmospheric CO2 enrichment, including the ability of elevated levels of atmospheric CO2 to significantly increase plant growth and water use efficiency, as well as their tendency to alter the physiology of plants to where they actually prefer warmer temperatures, which phenomenon is expressed as a CO2-induced increase in the temperature at which plants photosynthesize most effectively. http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2ScienceB2C/subject/g/summaries/asiagreen.jsp

27) Sino-Forest is the leading foreign-owned commercial forest plantation operator in China with 365,000 hectares of trees in four provinces in the southern and southeastern part of the country. Brian Topp, an analyst with Maison Placements Canada Inc., says its shares “could grow at rates faster than the eucalyptus trees it harvests in China.” The shares of Sino-Forest closed yesterday at $7.58 on the S&P/TSX composite index, up 25 cents. Mr. Topp has a two-year price target on Sino-Forest of $15. However, investors will have to accept the risks associated with owning a timber company operating in China, he said. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061228.RBELL28-2/TPStory/Business

Thailand:

28) Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said yesterday he would resign if it was found he had illegally acquired the 20-rai for his home in a national forest reserve in Nakhon Ratchasima. He said his wife had paid the municipal tax correctly since 2002. People had been allowed to use the land – regarded as degraded forest – since 1998. Surayud said he would return the land on Khao Yai Tiang mountain if it was illegal. “If it’s wrong politically, I’m ready [to resign]. I don’t stick with anything. If I should be ousted, I’m ready,” he said. Surayud said officers from the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) had taken pictures of what was on the land and in the area. Any agencies that wanted to check the land should inform him, not just break into the property, as he had security officers patrolling it. Meanwhile, acting Thai Rak Thai Party executive Veera Musigapong said the members of the Council for National Security (CNS) should declare their assets to show their sincerity. Surayud said he acknowledged the ambiguous status of the land. He had no documentation for it, but had followed correct processes in acquiring it, including paying money to local people to use it. He had also developed the land by growing trees until they were large and capable of yielding fruit. He said the issue was a personal problem and had nothing to do with the government. He would not tell Land Department officials what they should do about it, for fear that it could be construed as interference in their work. However, they should know to clarify the controversial issue soon. http://nationmultimedia.com/2006/12/28/politics/politics_30022677.php

Philippines:

29) The reasons advanced by Nazario for the cancellation boggles the mind as they blithely ignore relevant facts. It points to an alleged failure of PICOP to submit a five-year forest protection plan and a seven-year reforestation plan. The fact is PICOP had submitted a 10-year protection and reforestation plan that was approved by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. It was the DENR, through then Secretary Fulgencio Factoran Jr., that specified the need for a 10-year plan. This is understandable since it does not seem logical to submit a five- and seven-year plan for a TLA that would expire less than a year after the 10-year plan had been implemented. Also, the SC decision blames PICOP for allegedly failing to pay forestry charges. This despite PICOP’s submitting evidence to the contrary by way of a certification from the DENR that no forestry charges are due from the paper firm. The fact is that PICOP is one of a near-extinct type of forestry operator in this country crawling with illegal loggers. It pays 80 percent of all forestry charges in the entire Caraga Region, the nation’s timber corridor. That 80 percent translates to 60 percent of total forestry charges collected by the DENR in the entire country! The firm has been cited here and abroad for its efficient operations and for being a good corporate citizen. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=60425

Borneo:

30) A new species of insect, animal or plant is discovered every month in Kalimantan, conservation group WWF said Tuesday as it warned that logging and plantations threatened the fragile “Heart of Kalimantan” ecosystem. “Between 1994 and 2004, at least 361 new species have been discovered in Kalimantan,” WWF Indonesia director Mubariq Ahmad told AFP. “In the past 10 years, there is discovery of new species every month. We had found 260 new insects, 50 plants, seven frogs, snakes, six lizards, 30 fresh water fish, five crabs, two snakes and a toad,” he added. Recent exotic discoveries include poisonous “sticky frogs,” “forest walking catfish” able to travel short distances out of water and the transparent “glass catfish”. Large animals have also yielded surprises, with the Kalimantan orang-utan found to be a distinct species to its Sumatran cousin and the island’s pygmy elephants recently reclassified as a separate sub-species. “The discoveries of the new species in the area proves that Kalimantan, one of the world’s last remaining rain forests, is among the most important biodiversity areas in the world,” he said. WWF International launched its “Heart of Kalimantan” program two years ago, covering a 22 million hectare rain forest shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and the
oil-rich kingdom of Brunei. Ahmad said Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei have agreed to protect the area and would ink a formal agreement early next year to ensure sustainable development of the forest. “There is political will by them to protect the ‘Heart of Kalimantan’ forest area,” he said. “Losing the ‘Heart of Kalimantan’ would be an unacceptable tragedy not only for Kalimantan, but for all Asia, and the planet,” the WWF said. http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=24962

31) The indigenous Penan tribe continues to blockade logging roads into a critically important rainforest, their ancestral forest. The EU has provided a grant to support better forest management, but more is needed. The EU’s envoy to Malaysia was set to give a speech in Sarawak calling for increased emphasis on preserving rainforests and the rights of forest people, and less emphasis on logging. The Penan are the guardians of a huge reserve of carbon. Every year, 13 million hectares of rainforests are cut down, an area the size of Greece. Deforestation is responsible for 20 percent of global carbon emissions, equivalent to that of the transportation sector. Why not give the Penan and people like them credit for keeping so much carbon out of our common atmosphere? At climate meetings last year, a group of tropical countries proposed that carbon credits be allowed for “avoided deforestation,” i.e., leaving the forests alone. Some progress on this idea was made at the recent Kyoto implementation talks in Nairobi, Kenya. More countries endorsed the idea, and mechanisms were discussed that could lead to a new protocol for the next round of climate accords in 2012. The Stern economic report on climate change confirms that paying tropical countries to keep their forests intact is a financially sound strategy. http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/45696/

Malaysia:

32) The Kedah Forestry Department is close to finding the mastermind behind the illegal logging at the Bukit Payung forest reserve in Kubang Pasu. Department director Kasim Osman said police had questioned a 52-year-old tractor driver who was detained on Dec 19. The man was released yesterday on a RM15,000 police bail after being remanded for 10 days. Kasim said the results of the investigation had been sent to the deputy public prosecutor’s office for further action, which could include a possible charge.Last week, the department sealed a consignment of newly-felled timber worth RM50,000, believed to have been from Bukit Payung. The consignment belonged to a local logger who had obtained a licence to remove the logs from a private lot bordering the Bukit Payung forest reserve. Kasim said investigations were carried out under Section 15 of the National Forestry Enactry 1985 for theft. If convicted, an offender can be fined up to RM500,000 and/or one-year jail term. http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Friday/National/20061229075647/Article/local1_html

33) Several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) want the authorities to gazette all sea mangrove areas in the country as forest reserves to stop their alarming decline. They also called for the speedy formulation of laws relating to shorelines management and river valleys. Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM), Penang Consumers Association (CAP), Peninsular Inshore Fishermen Network (Jaring) and Penang Inshore Fishermen’s Welfare Association (PIFWA) spokesman M. Nizam Mahshar said the existence of the mangrove areas is vital to maintain the shorelines and to restore the balance of ecosystem “Something have to be done fast as there are only 567,000ha of sea mangrove areas in the country and 130,142ha are yet to be gazetted and facing uncertain future,” he told a press conference today. “These areas which are owned by various state governments in the country could be facing near death as many of such areas had previously been used for development purposes. “The state governments’ record in gazetting mangrove areas is very discouraging. The vulnerable mangroves could be chopped down to make way for development any time.” All the four NGOs are also having similar functions to replant mangrove trees in Kuala Haji Ibrahim, Sungai Acheh here, Kuala Kurau in Perak, Taman Nilam and Kerpan in Kedah to commemorate the Dec 26, 2004, tsunami incident which devastated the country’s northen coastal area. http://www.oceanconserve.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=65490

34) At lunch, I initially thought they served mushroom stems only to be told I was eating rattan shoots! They tasted slightly bitter and smooth. Superb. Flowers? Stir-fried purple ginger flowers (called ubud sala) are fair enough since we eat bunga kantan in tomyam, too. But how about thinly sliced stir-fried orchid stems? These, called ubud aram in Kelabit, are slightly bitter and supposedly good for blood pressure. And for the ultimate delicacy, try kelatang – the larvae of a cicada – extracted from the barigulad tree and barbecued on a stick. It tastes like ginger flowers! In short, there is a complete organic food larder from the forest. If logging comes to Bario, much of this will be lost and locals will have to fork out hard cash to buy meat and vegetables, which would probably be laden with growth hormones and pesticides. http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2006/12/24/lifefocus/16400383&sec=lifefocus

Indonesia:

35) JAKARTA — At least 29 people have been dead and 5 other missing in flood and landslide in Indonesia’s provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra since Friday, Health Ministry official Rustam Pakaya said on Sunday. Heavy territorial rain sent streams overflowing their banks, with the effects of the downpours made worse by deforestation, said Pakaya. The rain has also caused landslide in Bener Meriang regency of Aceh province, he said. Four other regencies were hit by the flood, said Pakaya. Over 43 people have left their home in Langkat regency of NorthSumatra province and more than 500 in Aceh province, said Pakaya. The aids are underway from the local governments and Jakarta, he said.About two years ago, on Dec. 26, 2004, Aceh was struck by the Indian Ocean tsunami, which left some 170,000 dead or missing in the province. More than a half million people were internally displaced. The official said that deforestation was blamed for the cause of the disaster. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-12/24/content_5526601.htm

36) According to Total E and P Indonesie president director Philippe Armand, the local population lived off small-scale aquaculture of fish farming and traditional fishing. The 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis that saw the Indonesian rupiah plunge to a quarter of its value overturned all that. The production of shrimp, sold in dollars, suddenly became very profitable. Investors without scruples flowed in, along with thousands of workers from Java and Sulawesi. “Since the economic crisis of the years 1997-1998 people have been cutting all the mangrove, opening new shrimp ponds, without any restrictions or law enforcement,” said Muhammad Najib, in charge of environmental problems for Total E and P Indonesie. However the mangrove swamps provide valuable nutrients for the aquaculture. To replace them, the shrimp pond owners have turned to artificial fertilisers, which themselves deteriorate the ecosystem. It is a vicious circle. In a study financed by Total, Cirad, the French institute of agronomic research, concluded that conversion of more than 800 square kilometres (300 square miles) of mangroves into shrimp ponds, “involved, in the short term, the degradation of the ecology of the delta, … the appearance of diseases, water pollution and an alarming salinisation of the ecosystem”. “The productivity of shrimp farming has fallen because of the damage caused to the natural environment,” Bahteramsyah, environmental official for Kutai Kartanegara district, told AFP. He estimates only 20 percent of the original mangrove swamp remains. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Borneo_Shrimp_Problem_Worries_Oil_Giant_Total_999.html

Australia:

37) PREMIER Paul Lennon claimed yesterday that the court injunction halting logging in the Wielangta State Forest would have serious consequences for Tasmania and, without redress, would play havoc with the forestry industry, the proposed pulp mill, the economy and the agriculture sector. But more moderate voices said large-scale effects were unlikely and the year ahead would be shaped by legal wrangling in the wake of the decision. Mr Lennon yesterday called Prime Minister John Howard seeking an urgent change to the Regional Forestry Agreement that he said was required to protect 10,000 Tasmanian timber jobs from the shockwaves of the decision. Mr Lennon also said that because endangered species, such as the wedge-tailed eagle, lived all over the State, the implications of the decision could extend “beyond forest harvesting to all activity in Tasmania’s environment”. “If you extend the findings of Justice Marshall, then I’m advised you can well conclude that activity outside the State forest could find itself in the same position as activity inside the Wielangta forest,” he said. http://www.examiner.com.au/story.asp?id=376613

38) BRAD LAW has climbed the honey tree. The crown of a tall, flowering forest gum is one of the last scientific frontiers, a dizzy ecosystem normally inhabited by insects, possums, birds, bats and the occasional protesting, tree-sitting environmentalist. It is also dripping with staggering quantities of sugar. For the first time, a team of scientists led by Mr Law, a Department of Primary Industries ecologist, has measured how much nectar can be produced by forests of spotted gums and ironbarks when they burst into bloom. Big flowering eucalypts are critical to the honey industry and apiarists have long worried that logging decreases the nectar resource in state forests. Large numbers of native creatures also depend on nectar, yet the triggers for flowering were not well understood, Mr Law said. The crown of a tree is full of life, Mr Law said. His team had unwittingly flushed out a sooty owl from one hollow and had seen insects that may have been unknown to science. “It’s another world up there,” said Mr Law. “You get a totally different perspective on the forest. It looks like there is a woven blanket rolling over the crown of the trees. The canopy is one of those last realms that we do not know much about.” http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/scientists-hit-dizzy-heights-in-hunt-for-hidden-nectar-of-the
-forest/2006/12/27/1166895361428.html

World-wide:

39) When tree plantations are established on land that indigenous people have rights to, the damage is compounded. Larry Lohman writes: “Like the enclosure movement of early modern Europe, through which common lands were taken away from the rural poor and broken up, privatized and traded into the hands of the better-off, the movement for carbon ‘offset’ plantations is in essence a movement to extend and normalize inequality.” The rural poor pay twice, once by suffering the effects of climate change caused by affluent countries, and again by having their land taken to offset the guilt of affluent people. Louis Verchon of the World Agroforestry Centre said that if the EU would implement a new scheme to credit farmers who capture carbon on their land, “millions of dollars in carbon credits could begin flowing to the world’s rural poor.” The World Agroforestry Centre, in conjunction with researchers from Michigan State University, has developed a method using satellite imagery and infrared sensing that measures carbon storage in African farmland. The Centre has completed a pilot program in western Kenya and is ready to encourage poor farmers to plant trees as soon as it can qualify for carbon credits under the Kyoto protocol. But Europe’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is not willing to recognize the new method of verifying carbon storage in farmland, questioning whether the program will result in additional carbon storage and whether the storage will be permanent. The ETS is the largest multi-country, multi-sector greenhouse gas emission trading scheme in the world. http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/45696/

40) I was aghast to see our study reported under the headline “Planting trees to save planet is pointless, say ecologists” http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1972648,00.html
Indeed, our study found that preserving and restoring tropical forests is doubly important, as they cool the earth both by removing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and by helping produce cooling clouds. We did find that preserving and restoring forests outside the tropics does little or nothing to help slow climate change, but nevertheless these forests are a critical component of Earth’s biosphere and great urgency should be placed on preserving them. Preventing the overheating of our planet will require a major revolution in our system of energy production, with the introduction of renewable and perhaps nuclear-energy sources and the elimination of carbon dioxide emissions. Such a step is necessary to preserve our natural environment. However, we must concurrently take action to protect our forests so that we have an environment worth preserving. Ken Caldeira Carnegie Institution, Stanford, California http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,1973331,00.html

41) The Forest Stewardship Council, the international standard setting organization for responsible forest management, has teamed up with the European Space Agency (ESA), Aon, Eyre Consulting, Sarmap and Ambiental Technical Solutions on the project which will develop remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) services. Three FSC-certified forestry companies, Global Forest Products (South Africa), CIB (Republic of Congo) and Orsa Group (Brazil) will participate in the trials, which will run through 2007. Charles Crosthwaite Eyre, project manager for Aon, says that improvements in remote sensing technology, including higher resolution imagery, have expanded the capabilities of remote forest monitoring. “New developments in remote sensing technology mean that a new breed of satellite, able to see through clouds and provide detailed imagery of forestry activities on the ground, can provide information the forestry sector needs to meet the sustainability challenges of the 21st Century – including the monitoring of illegal logging activities and deforestation,” he said. Mr. Eyre says that the project will also evaluate the remote sensing technology in relation to the FSC principles and criteria on sustainable forest management, to see if these can help to evaluate if the criteria are being met by foresters on the ground. For example, forest companies and the FSC will evaluate whether the remote sensing technologies can help pinpoint illegal logging activities and road construction, identify selected tree species in a diverse forest landscape, assess timber volume, and support monitoring of plantations for pest attack. http://news.mongabay.com/2006/1221-fsc.html