178 – Earth’s Tree News
Today for you 40 news items about Earth’s trees. Location, number and subject listed below. Condensed / abbreviated article is listed further below.
Can be viewed on the web at http://www.livejournal.com/users/olyecology or
by sending a blank email message to earthtreenews-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
–British Columbia:1) RIP Harriet Nahanee, 2) Government skips public planning process, 3) Log-salvage on rugged Nootka Island, –Oregon: 4) pro-forest biomass is crass, –Wisconsin: 5) Plant a tree go to jail –Virginia: 6) George Washington NF needs your help –New Hampshire: 7) How climate change affects the timber industry –Massachusetts: 8) Consultancies and stewardship of town-owned forests
–USA: 9) Honest Ed Campaign, 10) US Selling 270,000 acres, 11) Stouder WAS a logger, 12) New old Wilderness bills, 13) bringing nature into the marketplace
–North America: 14) Geotourism
–Canada: 15) Grassy Narrows Marches to WA., 16) Six Nations Land Reclamation,
–Congo: 17) Widespread illegal logging,
–Uganda: 18) Illegal logging in Budongo Forest Reserve
–Cameroon: 19) Illegal forest activities (IFA)
–Malwi: 20) highest deforestation rate in southern Africa
–Ghana: 21) The state of Ghana’s forest
–Mexico: 22) “zero tolerance” policy against logging butterfly habitat
–Chile: 23) New private protected areas in Chile’s Nahuelbuta region
–Brazil: 24) Growing alternatives to hardwood, 25) large-scale monitored harvesting,
–Ecuador: 26) Raising money to buy 100 acres of rainforest
–India: 27) Rapid loss of dense forests à 26,245 sq km in two years
–Nepal: 28) Maoist rebels still destroying forest
–Malaysia: 29) Dealing of timber giant Ta Ann Holdings,
–Indonesia: 30) Groups have criticized the World Bank for a forest management plan
–New Zealand: 31) Deforestation is increasing
–Australia: 32) Illegal harvesting of log timber in the South-West, 33) Pressure on Europeans to ban imports of SW logs, 34) Moving swiftly to change eco-protection laws to allow unrestrained logging, 35) logging in Buloke woodlands, 36) Logging of the Weld, Florentine and other wilderness valleys, –World-wide: 37) Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, 38) Carbon offset scams, 39) Tropical dry forests, 40) Statistics paint a grim picture,
British Columbia:
1) Some time after 7 pm on Saturday February 24, 2007, Native Elder and Eagleridge Protester Harriet Nahanee died from pneumonia (complicated by previously undiagnosed lung cancer) in St. Paul’s Hospital. She was 71. On January 24, 2007, despite her frail health, Harriet was sentenced to 14 days in the Surrey Pretrial Centre, a men’s prison and a notorious hell hole for women. It is believed she developed pneumonia during her incarceration and was admitted to St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver a week after her release. In a letter to Justice Brenda Brown prior to the sentencing of Ms. Nahanee, Betty Krawcyzk urged compassion: “I am very worried about Mrs. Harriet Nahanee. Mrs. Nahanee is not well. She has asthma and is suffering the after effects of a recent bout of flu that has left her very weak”. On February 23, 2007, The Indigenous Action Movement held a rally and prayer vigil for Harriet (photo’s are available compliments of Isabelle Groc at: http://members.shaw.ca/idoumenc/harriet/ . Approximately 80-100 people gathered at the Supreme Court Building for a ceremonial walk to and around St. Paul’s Hospital. A prayer vigil was held outside Harriets’ hospital room, with drumming and the Women’s Warrior Song to give Harriet support and strength. A large signed picture of the Larsen Creek Wetlands at Eagleridge Bluffs (as they were) was taken up to Harriet following the ceremony along with flowers and cards. Further information about Harriet Nahanee’s struggle at Eagleridge:
http://www.firstnations.de/development.htm
2) They took years to write and cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars. Yet locally developed sustainable-forest plans aren’t enforceable under a new provincial law, the Clayoquot Sound Central Region Board has learned. The provincial government didn’t include the Clayoquot Sound Scientific Panel or recently approved Clayoquot Sound watershed plans as objectives in the new Forest and Range Practices Act. Those plans were developed after more than 800 demonstrators were arrested while protesting against logging in the pristine sound in 1993. The issue, which arose during a presentation by Ministry of Forests representatives, angered even the province’s own representatives on the board. “It feels like a slap in the face,” said Dianne St. Jacques, Ucluelet’s mayor and a provincial representative on the board.”Why were we left out? Why wasn’t this region set aside?” The board voted to tell Forests Minister Rich Coleman about its concerns. It also asked ministry representatives to discuss what options the board may have if a forest company submits logging plans in the coming months. The board allows natives and non-natives to manage resources and lands jointly until treaty negotiations are completed. The board, consisting of natives and local representatives of the provincial government, must approve all industrial or commercial activities on Clayoquot Sound Crown land. At the heart of the issue is what’s known as Forest Stewardship Plans, a new planning requirement that will replace Forest Development Plans on March 31. The Clayoquot Sound Scientific Panel, written by a 19-member panel over two years, consists of five reports and 170 recommendations. Jim Lornie, the board’s provincial co-chairman, said the Forests Ministry is putting the board in a very “awkward situation.” He said the board will face a dilemma if a forest company asks for exemptions to the scientific panel and watershed plans. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070227.BCCLAYOQUOT27/TPStory/TPNational/Brit
ishColumbia/
3) VICTORIA — A massive log-salvage operation off rugged Nootka Island has a leading environmentalist sounding alarm bells. “The area is one of the jewels of our coast,” Vicky Husband said. “Nobody is happy. This is a pristine area.” Nootka Island is about 100 kilometres north of Tofino and is the largest island on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Thousands of people from around the world visit each year, drawn to the remote and wild beauty of the Nootka Trail and Sound. But the landscape has changed. On the morning of Jan. 8, in three-metre seas, a barge carrying $1.2-million worth (20,000 cubic metres) of Western Forest Products hemlock sawlogs lost its cargo about 12 kilometres southwest of Nootka Island. It was a major spill, said Dave Trytko, general manager of the B.C. Log Spill Recovery Co-operative Association. Now, an area of Crown land stretching eight kilometres along the west coast of Nootka Island is littered with four times the amount of beached wood. On Wednesday, B.C. Log Spill expects to begin salvaging the estimated 14,000 cubic metres of wood (8,000 logs) that washed ashore. Mr. Trytko, who has 25 years of experience in the logging industry, expects the operation will take two to three weeks and cost between $400,000 and $500,000. The salvaged logs, 10 per cent of them still in 40-cubic-metre bundles, are worth about $600,000. At least one rubber-tired skidder, one wheel loader and one excavator will work on the sandy and rocky beach, below the high-water mark, to move the logs down to the water and then onto a barge, which will deliver them farther north to Port Alice to be milled into pulp. “You can’t put heavy equipment on beaches and not think you’re not going to have an impact,” said Ms. Husband, a former high-profile Sierra Club spokesperson. Heavy equipment can spill oil and gas. Tidal pools can be run over. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070224.BCSPILL24/TPStory/Environment
Oregon:
4) Behind closed doors, the biomass energy and timber industries have been lobbying Gov. Kulongoski, legislators like Sen. Vicki Walker, and Oregon members of Congress, assuring them that all Oregon’s public’s forests (nearly 17 million acres) need to be thinned or logged to reduce the occurrence and severity of forest fires while at the same time promoting the fringe benefit of extracting forest biomass as a “green and renewable energy source.” Here is what the pro-forest biomass people are asking for: “minimum 20 year contracts on a minimum of 150,000 acre tracts with no size limits to the trees to be taken.” While fire fuels thinning within 100-200 feet of homes and structures is necessary in fire prone ecosystems, sound science does not agree that removing fire fuels beyond 200 feet has any beneficial effect on lessening the occurrences or consequences of wildfire. Biomass fuels sources like that garnered from agricultural and urban waste, as well as bio-gas from landfills, wastewater treatment and animal manure maybe acceptable as “renewable” fuel sources. However, the stripping of forest biomass from public forest lands, federal or state, is not ecologically acceptable. Define a forest, you ask. A tree farm or plantation is not a forest. It is “managed” by the timber industry and government agencies like a crop of corn. With continued “even aged management,” it may not be allowed to function like a complex forest ecosystem ever again. A natural forest is a highly evolved and extremely complex functioning ecosystem which human hands have not been able to recreate. Industrial logging and biomass extraction have not been shown to improve on the complex function of these forests. –Shannon Wilson of Eugene is co-director of Cascadia’s Ecosystem Advocates. He grew up in Southern Oregon’s Siskiyou Mountains and is a forester, energy conservation consultant and biological technician out of Eugene. He can be reached at tsuga@efn.org. http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070226/OPINION/70223023/1049
Wisconsin:
5) TOWN OF CARLTON – If you plant too many trees in one Kewaunee County town, you could find yourself in trouble with the law. A 30-year-old ordinance prohibits property owners from planting more than five acres of trees on their land. If you do, you could be fined. And, if you don’t pay, you could go to jail. Longtime resident Stanley LaCrosse was town chairman when the ordinance was drawn up back in the late 1970s. LaCrosse says it was created to preserve farm land. Dustin Smidle is the local zoning administrator, who just happens to be in violation of the law. He has 55 acres of woods, trees that were planted after the ordinance was in effect. Smidle says the town is the only one in Kewaunee County and perhaps the state that has such an ordinance. Town leaders plan to meet next month to talk about the ordinance. http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/breaking_news/16768113.htm
Virginia:
6) Imagine your alarm clock buzzes and red lights flash across its screen announcing: “Time to get moving. The next 10 to 15 years of the George Washington National Forest are at stake.” The Forest Service’s Feb. 15 Federal Register notice announcing the beginning of the George Washington National Forest Plan Revision process is such a wakeup call. If you really care about the forest and its amazing fishing, hunting and recreation spots, you already know how important this 1.1 million-acre national forest is. But many people are not aware of the fact that this forest supplies clean water to communities throughout the commonwealth, including Staunton, Harrisonburg, Strasburg and Lynchburg. Or that Virginia and the George Washington National Forest is a stronghold for native brook trout, black bear and unique salamanders. Virginia Forest Watch, the Sierra Club and seven other groups will soon be releasing a Citizens’ Action Plan for the forest, “Our Land, Our Water, Our Home: Ensuring a Healthy Future for Our George Washington National Forest.” The citizens’ plan will highlight the important values of the forest, the threats to them and specific recommendations for the long-term direction of this vital forest. This new vision calls for an ecologically sound restoration approach that will heal and renew the forest. We are working to protect 65 Virginia Mountain Treasure areas across the forest, safeguard the places where wildlife live and raise their young and places where rare plants are found, and ensure that sources of clean water are strictly protected. http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/commentary/wb/wb/xp-106101
New Hampshire:
7) A conference this week in New Hampshire looks at how climate change affects the timber industry in the Northern Forest stretching from New York state to Maine. Laurie Wayburn of San Francisco-based Pacific Forest Trust is one of the scheduled speakers. She says climate change experts have been focusing on fossil fuel’s contribution of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, but it’s just as important to look at the ability of forests to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it. She says that the Northeast, perhaps more than any other region of the country, has tried to protect working forests through conservation easements and public preservation. But it also faces accelerating deforestation because of residential and commercial development. That’s worrisome because harvesting trees faster than they grow back reduces the amount of carbon dioxide forests can pull from the air. And it adds to global warming because as the wood is processed or burned, it releases most of its carbon into the atmosphere. http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=6140289&nav=4QcS
Massachusetts:
8) WARE – During an appearance before the Ware Finance Committee to discuss the fiscal 2008 budget, two members of the town’s Conservation Commission last night cited their panel’s interest in creating revolving accounts for consultancies and stewardship of town-owned forests. Commission Chairman David P. Kopacz and Commissioner Martha S. Klassanos described to the committee, which met at the High School, a plan by which the forests could become self-sustaining. Klassanos said that by logging the forests and selling their wood products, revenues could help pay for signage and herbicides that curb invasive plant species. In a similar self-sustaining way, a revolving account could lend itself to peer reviews and consulting, she said. There are three forested parcels – a landlocked piece on Muddy Brook and two properties along Greenwich Road, near Upper North Street and Walker Road – that total about 115 acres and for which the commission has oversight. The commission is developing a stewardship plan that also will help with watershed and habitat protection and recreational opportunities. http://www.masslive.com/chicopeeholyoke/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-7/1172308227297560.xml&
coll=1
USA:
9) Native Forest Council is at an exciting stage in the development of our “Honest Education Campaign.” The campaign lays groundwork for environmental science curriculum for K-12 that speaks to the importance of natural ecosystems and addresses the consequences of their destruction. “Honest Ed” is the grassroots alternative to corporate curriculum. Attending this year’s National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) conference will be a vital step forward for development and distribution of the curriculum as well as an invaluable networking opportunity with our nation’s educators. The conference brings science teachers together from across the U.S. to stay current on educational strategies, network with other educators and stock up on classroom curriculum.These teachers mold the minds of our nation’s future voters and decision makers, our children, so the information they communicate must be honest and objective. Yet corporate industries (particularly logging, oil and other extractive industries) have a stranglehold on environmental science curriculum, intentionally omitting mention of the life-sustaining values of natural ecosystems, such as native forests, wetlands and watersheds. Native Forest Council will attend the NSTA conference in St. Louis on March 29-April 1 for the sixth time. Native Forest Council needs your generous financial support to make this visit another success! http://www.forestcouncil.org/join/
10) For the second year in a row, the President’s Forest Service budget includes a proposal to sell off nearly 270,000 acres of national forest lands in 35 states. You helped stop a similar scheme proposed last year. Thankfully, Reps. Ben Chandler (D-KY) and Ric Keller (R-FL) have written a letter to the Budget Committee opposing the land sale. But they need more co-signers. Ask your Representative to sign on in opposition to this ill-considered scheme. The deadline to sign-on is Wednesday, February 28. The President’s budget, delivered to Congress last week, presents a vision for America’s public lands that is badly out of touch with America’s conservation values. One case in point: It proposes to sell off up to $800 million of national forest lands. Fortunately, Reps. Ben Chandler (D-KY) and Ric Keller (R-FL) have taken the lead to stop this misguided plan. They’ve written a letter to the Budget Committee expressing their strong opposition to selling off our national forests. Please contact your Representative and urge them to sign on to the Chandler/Keller letter by Wednesday, February 28. http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/americanlandsalliance/campaign.jsp?camp
aign_KEY=6802
11) Stouder grew up in Idaho looking at forests the way farm boys view corn: They were a crop to be harvested. “I’m from a fourth-generation logging family, and I was running a D7 CAT when I was 11,” Stouder says. “I cut timber for 21 years.” And when he wasn’t cutting trees, he was hunting elk and deer and fishing for steelhead. “I take a backseat to no man when it comes to knowing what it means to make your living off the land. That’s the reason I’m so passionate about saving our roadless areas. I know how important they are to fish and wildlife. And I know just how much damage can be done if we open them to logging and mining. “I know, because I used to be part of destroying them-until I learned better.” Does the Roadless Rule Close More Land to Hunting and Fishing? Absolutely not. About 58 million acres in 39 states are covered by roadless designation. Twice as many acres are open to roads. But won’t opening roadless areas to road building increase opportunities for hunters and anglers? Let’s go back to Scott Stouder for that answer. He left logging “When I was finally educated about the damage our forestry policy was doing to the future of what I felt so passionate about-hunting and fishing.” He became a writer and joined Trout Unlimited as its western field coordinator. And he hates efforts to end the roadless rule for the false promise being sold to sportsmen who don’t visit roadless areas today. “The reason these places are attractive is because they do produce the biggest bulls and bucks and trout and salmon,” Stouder says. “But if we push roads into these areas, productivity will begin to drop. We’ll degrade the habitat through erosion and fragmentation and the development that comes with that. So there may be an initial surge in opportunity, but in a few years, people will stop coming because the rewards won’t be there. We’ll have destroyed these precious remaining areas for nothing.” http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/0,13202,,00.html
12) Even with Democratic leadership, there is, no guarantee the new generation of wilderness bills will please all environmentalists. For instance, Senate Public Lands and Forests Subcommittee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) introduced S. 674, which would create 128,600 acres surrounding Mount Hood as well as Wild and Scenic River designations to nearly 80 miles of river. The Government Accountability Office last year criticized two appraisals used to justify a land trade between the Forest Service and an Oregon ski resort. Other bills with land exchanges are not disappearing. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) has already reintroduced his Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act, which the House passed last year. H.R. 222 would create three wilderness areas in Central Idaho totaling almost 315,215 acres but also release 130,000 acres of land from wilderness study areas, create a motorized state park and cede over 5,000 acres for housing developments. In the Senate, Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), along with Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.), introduced legislation that would set 2.4 million acres of the Golden State aside as wilderness. S. 493 and H.R. 860 would create new wilderness areas in pockets of national forest, national parks and other Interior Department-managed lands across the state. S. 520 and H.R. 886 would protect low-elevation, old-growth stands of the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. “We’re very excited about our prospects,” sponsor Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) told E&E Daily recently. “We now have a committee in the House that will consider wilderness bills.” Also in the first two months, bills for Georgia, Virginia and a long-shot in Alaska have popped up. Rep. Nathan Deal’s (R-Ga.) H.R. 707 would establish the 13,382-acre Mountaintown National Scenic Area in Georgia’s Chattahoochee National Forest. The bill would designate an additional 8,448 acres of wilderness elsewhere in the Chattahoochee. In Virginia, Sens. John Warner (R) and Jim Webb (D), along with Rep. Rick Boucher (D), introduced the Virginia Ridge and Valley Act (S. 570 and H.R. 1011) to create six wilderness areas totaling 55,000 acres in the Jefferson National Forest. blaeloch@westernlands.org
13) It costs $5 to walk in your local National Forest or $25 to enter a National Park BECAUSE ideologues have succeeded in bringing nature into the marketplace and turning recreational access into a priced commodity. Timber companies, such as the Potlatch Corporation, are now able to charge for recreational access BECAUSE citizens can no longer access their public lands without paying a fee-for-use. http://www.wildwilderness.org/content/view/263/113/ One of the primary motivations for transforming public lands from a publicly funded good into a privately funded commodity (accessible only by those willing and/or able to pay-to-play) was to create for industrial landholders such as the Potlatch Corporation opportunities to cash in on outdoor recreation. By pricing the traditionally free public alternative and creating scarcity of access, private recreation alternatives would become increasing valuable and profitable, or so the Libertarians and Free-Marketeers have long said. Have a close look at what the Potlatch Corporation has planned and know that the management of public lands is actively being manipulated so as to blur and eventually eliminate the differences between recreational opportunities on public and private lands. In the “Ownership Society” towards which we are rapidly falling, there will only be fee-for-use. Every use of every conceivable resource –from the air we breath to the water we drink– will be priced and offered for sale. For the rich, life will be one happy potlatch. Welcome to the Land of the Fee. http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=5537
North America:
14) The National Geographic Society has a question that only those of us living in the Crown of Continent can answer. The idea is to create a “MapGuide” and interactive Web site that will help launch something the society is calling geotourism throughout northern Montana, southwestern Alberta and southeastern British Columbia. What’s geotourism? According the society, it is “tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place – its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage and the well-being of its residents.” There are plenty of people wanting to do just that. A 2002 study by National Geographic Traveler magazine and the Travel Industry Association of America found that at least 55 million American adults could be classified as “geotourists.” And there may be no better place in North America for geotourism than the Rocky Mountain region known as the Crown of the Continent. A recent National Geographic survey of World Heritage Sites found that the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park is one of North America’s best-kept destinations. It scored high for the integrity of its natural and cultural resources. “This region has maintained its distinctive character when many other places haven’t,” said Jonathan Tourtellot, director of National Geographic’s Center for Sustainable Destinations. “We’d like to help local communities and visitors sustain these values well into the future.” The society is currently accepting nominations from local residents about the places or events that capture the region’s beauty, diversity and unique feel. Recommendations could run the gamut from favorite wildlife viewing spots and recreational trails to historic districts or unique local businesses. http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/02/26/news/local/news03.txt
Canada:
15) On Friday, Feb. 23, community members from the Grassy Narrows First Nation will begin a journey from their traditional territory in Northwest Ontario to the headquarters of logging giant Weyerhaeuser in Federal Way, Wash. Despite years of community opposition, Weyerhaeuser continues to produce and sell building materials made from wood clear-cut and taken without community consent from Grassy Narrows land. The “Road to Seattle” tour will feature presentations from community members and organizing workshops hosted by activists working locally and nationally to defend forests and promote Indigenous rights. Stops on the tour include Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina, Edmonton, Vancouver and Victoria before culminating in Washington state. The tour is being organized by U.S.-based NGO Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and local environmental and human rights organizations and includes events coordinated with recording artists Propagandhi. As the tour concludes, tour members plan to demand that Weyerhaeuser CEO Steve Rogel develop an exit strategy for his company to leave Grassy Narrows and stop marketing homes made with wood clear-cut from Grassy Narrows as “Built Green.” http://www.FreeGrassy.org
16) The people of Kanohnstaton have asked for support demos and rallies for the one year anniversary. Local actions that can exert political pressure on our government are needed and encouraged. If you can organize locally, please let the people at the Six Nations Land Reclamation know. You can organize a delegation to a governmental body to deliver a letter, hold rallies and demonstrations, or simply participate in the week-long pressure campaign. February 28th, 2007 marks the one-year anniversary of the Six Nations Land Reclamation. One year ago, a group of people from Six Nations took back a piece of their land that was under construction by developers and demanded an end to the destruction of their land and to settler encroachment on their territory. Now, one year later, the Canadian government has yet to recognize the truth: that this land is not owned by them nor can it be sold by them. It is Haudonausaunee (Iroquois) territory, stolen and sold by the colonial authorities illegally. The people of Kanohnstaton, formerly “Douglas Creek Estates”, have asked for and encouraged solidarity actions and a pressure campaign in support of the Reclamation. The Six Nations Land Reclamation needs your support and solidarity to make the Canadian government understand that Six Nations is not alone. We must speak out against the injustices of colonial land theft and genocide and take a stand for dignity, indigenous land rights, justice and autonomy. Despite the disinterest of the mainstream media, the Six Nations Land Reclamation represents a pivotal example in the history of indigenous decolonization in Turtle Island. We, as people living on stolen land, have a responsibility to support and demand that Haudenosaunee land rights and sovereignty be recognized. We must also demand that the government immediately cease the criminalization of those who have been involved in the Reclamation, as over 32 people continue to face bogus charges for defending their rights. Montreal Rally and Speak-Out, please contact: 6nationssolidarite@gmail.com
Congo:
17) Greenpeace released evidence Friday of widespread illegal logging in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), part of the second largest tropical forest in the world after the Amazon. The environmental organisation has documented logging operations in violation of a moratorium, which since 2002 should have stopped the allocation of logging titles. While delegates from the Congolese Government, donor community and civil society prepare for the Brussels conference on ‘The sustainable management of the forests of the DRC’ next week, more than 21 million hectares of rainforest are now allocated to the logging industry, an area nearly seven times the size of Belgium.’ The DRC Government introduced a moratorium on the allocation, extension and renewal of logging titles in May 2002, yet it has been widely violated. With evidence of ongoing illegal forest operations and with a new urgency to fund alternatives to deforestation in the face of climate change, Greenpeace International demands that the DRC government, World Bank and other donors take urgent action to stop the expansion of the logging industry in the DRC’s rainforests. Greenpeace today highlights a particular example of one company who has breached the 2002 moratorium. ITB (Industrie de transformation de bois) is actively logging in the region of Lac Tumba, with two logging permits covering 294,000 ha of forests. Both permits were issued after May 2002 in breach of the 2002 moratorium. The company logs with no forest management plan as it extracts high value species such as Wenge for export to the European market. The area being logged, near Bikoro, Equator province, is part of the Lake Tumba region, identified by international donors as a priority region for conservation. The forests of the region are a critical habitat for the endangered bonobo and other threatened species such as forest elephants and hippopotamus. The area is also home to numerous communities of Twa ‘pygmies’ and Bantus. http://www.africasciencenews.org/_disc1/00000025.htm
Uganda:
18) The National Forestry Authority has implicated the RDC of Bulisa, Kato Matanda, in illegal logging in Budongo Forest Reserve. This followed the discovery of a large consignment of illegal timber in his former residence in Masindi. According to Samwiri rwabwogo, the head of the law enforcement unit of the forestry authority, over 200 illegal pieces of various species of timber were recovered at the Masindi house. Matanda denied involvement. He claims that the timber was not his. He said he had vacated the Government house in Masindi, where he used to be deputy RDC (resident district commissioner) before he was posted to Bulisa. “I don’t know who is occupying that house. It is true that I deal in timber and I had a license from the National Forestry Authority. But I have nothing to do with the impounded timber,’’ he responded. Five suspected illegal loggers were arrested at Kanyege village in Bulisa a week ago and taken to Masindi Police Station. The arrest took a dramatic turn when the suspects confessed working for the RDC of Bulisa. http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/550036
Cameroon:
19) This paper addresses the state of illegal forest activities (IFA) in Cameroon with particular attention to environmental outcomes and implications for livelihoods. It provides suggestion to the government and the donor community about priority areas for intervention related to IFAs, sustainability and livelihoods. The authors argue that the focus should be on IFAs, and not just on illegal harvest. They find that in Cameroon small-scale logging operations provide the largest contribution to the illegal log harvest, and argue that the level of illegal log harvests in Cameroon is likely to have been lower if the government had not illegally suspending all small-scale logging activities in 1999-2006. Suspension adds to the historical pattern of marginalisation of the local population. Further adding to this marginalisation are the limited and poorly stocked areas allocated to community forests and the misuse of tax revenues from the area that is earmarked for the local people. The authors argue that in order for forest activities to improve livelihoods in Cameroon, the marginalisation of the local people must be addressed. On a national level, the report calls for more transparent allocation of forest concessions and an improvement in the auction system. On an international level, the authors recommend that forest initiatives take into account the nuanced nature of illegal logging and give priority to the integration of small-scale operators in a transparent and well-structured domestic and international market. They should further address the misuse of the area tax, and ensure that the forest in permanent forest domain is managed sustainably. http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/DocDisplay.cfm?Doc=DOC23795
Malawi:
20) Malawi, which has the highest deforestation rate in southern Africa, has roped in its army to save the trees, environmental officials said Monday. The natural resources ministry over the weekend inked a deal with the Malawi army for soldiers to be deployed to protect 16 of the country’s prime forest reserves and step up re-afforestation. “After trying all these years to protect our forest reserves and failed, we have decided to seek the assistance of the army to provide deterrence to encroachment in forests and replant trees in some reserves,” Energy Minister Henry Chimunthu Banda said at a signing ceremony held in Lilongwe. The government often admits it has been fighting a losing battle to save its trees, which are hacked down for charcoal and firewood by many of its 12 million citizens who cannot afford electricity. About 50,000 hectares (124,000 acres) of forest are destroyed every year for charcoal production, the leading environmental group Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi said. The country’s tobacco industry, which uses a lot of trees for curing tobacco, the country’s top export, also shares the blame for the disappearing forests. Officials quoted Defence Minister Davies Katsonga as saying: “We feel the army are better placed to protect our forests because the reserves used by the army for training purposes had all its trees still intact.” http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Malawi_Ropes_In_Army_To_Save_Its_Forests_999.html
Ghana:
21) The Agenda was, among other things, the state of Ghana’s forest, institutional crisis, institutional projects, community activism, traditional institutions and forest reforms; moving forward objectives, 2007 work plan, new institutional arrangements and new leadership. At the meeting, which was the Coalition’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), members observed the challenges forest dependent communities, civil society organizations and networks that support their struggles for socio-economic justice faced in pursuit of the interests of the broader mass of the people. The meeting offered member organizations a chance to discuss the rapid depletion of Ghana’s Forest Wealth and the Social Catastrophe it was driving, and to renew their commitment to reversing that. The coalition’s members were enabled to review their campaign work over the last three years. Several failures and weaknesses as well as threats that require greater dedication, clarity and commitment from activists if they were to achieve social justice in forestry were identified. It must be noted that Ghana’s deforestation continues to accelerate towards ecological catastrophe. This is largely because farming communities, the stakeholder group with the greatest capacity for, and structural interest in sustainable forest use, remain marginalized in forest policy-making in management. http://allafrica.com/stories/200702220650.html
Mexico:
22) Mexico will enforce a “zero tolerance” policy against logging that threatens to wipe out the monarch butterfly and will act to stop a rare and ancient oasis from drying up, President Felipe Calderon said on Saturday. Calderon said soldiers will be deployed to clamp down on illegal logging in a protected forest where monarch butterflies winter after migrating thousands of miles from Canada and the United States. “We will work intensively to establish a zero tolerance policy to illegal logging in the monarch zone,” he told villagers in the region at the launch of a five-year conservation plan. He said 10 million trees would be planted in the butterfly reserve, part of a goal to plant 250 million trees across Mexico in 2007. Calderon said soldiers and federal police would patrol the zone looking for loggers, while the number of personnel in the zone and in other wildlife sanctuaries would increase by 15 percent. Every autumn, millions of monarch butterflies leave Canada and the United States, flying distances of 2,800 miles (4,500 km) to the oyamel fir forests of Mexico’s Sierra Madre Mountains. Experts say the butterfly will become extinct unless illegal logging is stopped soon. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N24222440.htm
Chile:
Concepción – Led by ForestEthics, environmentalists from the U.S. and Chile joined Chilean companies Arauco and CMPC to announce the creation of new private protected areas in Chile’s Nahuelbuta region, home to the world’s oldest surviving tree species (araucaria araucana) and its most endangered fox species (pseudalopex fulvipes). The new protected areas will quadruple the existing protection in Nahuelbuta, adding more than 80,000 acres to the current 17,000 acres protected. It will be managed through an innovative model involving collaboration among the landowners, the Chilean government, indigenous communities, scientists and environmentalists. Linked to other araucaria or “monkey puzzle” forest reserves in the Nahuelbuta region, the new system of connected, protected areas announced today will connect fragments of the ancient Nahuelbuta ecosystem to form a “biological corridor” for endangered species. The new system is the first of its kind in Chile’s history where forests, wildlife and ecosystems are often cut off from each other, isolated by clearcuts in massive single-species tree farms that are among the largest in the world. This isolation dooms certain species to extinction.
“To save the world’s last remaining Endangered Forests, we need new models like the one we have announced for Nahuelbuta today,” said Aaron Sanger, Chile Program Director for ForestEthics. ForestEthics led an international markets campaign in 2002 and 2003 to protect endangered forests in Chile, which culminated in commitments from Arauco and CPMC to stop logging in one million acres of native Chilean forests. Since 2003, ForestEthics has led a Joint Solution Project that has become a strong example of environmentalists working with industry to protect endangered forests. It has also changed its focus to the Chilean government’s policies that discriminate against endangered native forests in favor of the non-native trees that dominate Chile’s industrial tree farms. http://forestethics.org/article.php?id=1698%20
Brazil:
24) Rio de Janeiro – The production of alternative materials to hardwood in communities that plant banana and pupunha palm trees (from which the heart of palm is extracted) is the proposal of micro company Fibra Design Sustentável (Fibra Sustainable Design), established by students at the School of Industrial Design (Esdi) at the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). They developed with potential for replacing noble woods in the manufacturing of furniture and coatings – bananaplac and the pupunha plywood. The micro company is currently in a pre-incubation stage in the recently established Design Incubator at UERJ. The manager of the Incubator, Wagner Breta, told Agência Brasil yesterday (22) that this is a means for these communities, usually comprised of impoverished people, to have a new alternative for job and income generation. “There is a social work involved as well,” he said. The project “will take something that was considered as waste and expands the life cycle for the species, to a consumer market capable of generating income for the population, seeking an industrial application and straying away a bit from craftwork,” according to one of the founders of Fibra Design Sustentável, student Thiago Machado Maia. The project will include the installation of Model Production Units (UMPs) in the various banana- and pupunha-planting communities. Thiago Maia said that the Fibra company is negotiating with Fundação Odebrecht, in Bahia, to install the first unit for producing bananaplac in a banana-planting region assisted by the organisation. “The idea is to create production hubs.” According to Thiago, since this involves a fund-raising process, partnerships with private companies would be welcome. http://www.anba.com.br/ingles/noticia.php?id=13896
25) The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) reports the Brazilian government plans to allow large-scale monitored harvesting of the Amazon rainforest. The new plan expands on an initiative proposed last year by Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that would allow sustainable logging across 3 percent of the Amazon rain forest. “In an attempt to create the first coherent, efficient forest policy for the country, the government will start to auction rights of forest harvesting in large extensions of the Amazon rainforest,” states the ITTO in its bi-monthly newsletter, Tropical Timber Market Report. “Under the plan, successful bidders will not receive land rights or the right to explore other resources besides timber. The plan is also expected to help reducing pressure on land properties in the Amazon.” The government says that increased monitoring of the Amazon will make up for the exploitation of forest resources. Much of the Amazon is under little surveillance and illegal logging, mining, and land-clearing for cattle pasture and agriculture are important contributors to deforestation in the region. Critics of the plan say it will open up more of the Amazon to clearing, which already claims thousands of square kilometers (miles) of forest each year. In total, Brazil has lost more than 650,00 square kilometers (250,000 square miles) or 18 percent of the Amazon rainforest since the early 1970s, mostly as a result of cutting for cattle pasture, agriculture, infrastructure development, and resettlement initiatives. http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0225-amazon.html
Ecuador:
26) In celebration of Silwood Park’s Diamond Jubilee and the College’s Centenary year, students on the Silwood Park Campus are raising money to buy 100 acres of rainforest in Ecuador. The project is coordinated by the charity Rainforest Concern, which promotes the sponsorship of areas of rainforest for permanent protection. Through the charity, an acre of rainforest costs £25, meaning that 100 acres will cost £2,500, which the students plan to raise throughout 2007. Thanks to their fundraising efforts, part of the Choco-Andean Rainforest Corridor in North West Ecuador will become the ‘Silwood Park Centenary Reserve’. Natalie Cooper, a biology postgraduate student, is one of the leading organisers of the project. She explains: “Our acres will form part of a corridor in the rainforest. Corridors have been shown to increase plant species richness and this particular corridor will ensure continuity of forest between the three largest reserves in western Ecuador.” The students are organising a number of fundraising events including Silfest 2007 in June, an outdoors music festival, the Silwood Arts society concert and the Extinction Ball in the autumn.”We have already raised money for fifteen acres,” says Lizzie Jones, a biology postgraduate, “this is a subject Silwood park students are passionate about as most of us are studying subjects related to animal and plant conservation.” Ecuador is home to the largest number of species per unit area in the world. There are approximately 350 mammal species, 1600 species of bird and 2500 plant species. http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_26-2-2007-10-56-
26?newsid=6173
India:
27) NEW DELHI: If you felt it was summer in February, blame it on the rapid loss of dense forests — 26,245 sq km to be precise — in the last two years. This hair-raising information was given by amicus curiae Harish Salve to the Forest Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices Arijit Pasayat and S H Kapadia to buttress his argument that precious little was being done by governments to enforce the law to preserve environment and ecology by protecting forests. The depletion of forest cover was solely responsible for the freak weather conditions witnessed in the country at present, Salve said and detailed the efforts of the apex court in curbing the tendency of states to regard forests as revenue yielding assets. The present health of forests in the country was in stark contrast to the aims and objectives of the National Forest Policy-1988, which envisaged one-third of the land mass to be covered with forests, Salve said.
Only 11.88% of the area is covered at present with dense and moderately dense forest, which was estimated to cover 19% of the country’s geographic extent in 1988, he said. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Deforestation_to_blame_for_early_summer/articlesh
ow/1680433.cms
Nepal:
28) ILAM – Maoists have been rampantly felling trees in the areas adjoining Maoists’ temporary camps at Danabari in the district. Maoist combatants of Biplav-Srijan Memorial Brigade of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of its first division, fell nearly 300 trees in Namuna community forest to set up huts in the camp. Sushila Nembang, chairperson of the Federation of Community Forestry Users Group Nepal (FECOFON), Ilam, blamed the Maoists for felling trees indiscriminately without consulting FECOFON. “Maoist action has caused loss worth thousands of rupees and it will have adverse impact on the environment,” added Nembang. An employee of the District Forest Office (DFO), who went to the site to investigate, was prevented from entering the area by Maoists.However, the brigade commander of PLA division Himanchal, claimed they were compelled to do so as they badly needed a clearing to set up their camp. http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=101935
Malaysia:
29) Sarawak-based timber giant Ta Ann Holdings Bhd is allocating RM200mil this year in capital and development expenditure to strengthen the group’s core timber, oil palm plantation and forest planting-related operations. Managing director Wong Kuo Hea said the group would aggressively look at expansion of oil palm plantations and acquisitions of timber concessions, biomass power plants, veneer and plywood mill as well as forest planting. Ta Ann controls 408,366ha of timber concessions in Sarawak with a monthly production quota of 41,000 cu m of logs and plywood production capacity of 252,000 cu m. It also has 300,131ha of reforestation area and 39,000ha of plantation land. Of its total log production, 40% is exported while the remainder is manufactured into high-end plywood, mainly exported to Japan. Ta Ann has also entered into a wood supply agreement with Australia-based Forestry Tasmania to purchase eucalyptus logs at a fixed price from 2007 to 2026. http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/2/26/business/16963049&sec=business
Indonesia:
30) Environmental groups have criticized the World Bank for a forest management plan in Indonesia that they say will destroy farming communities, threaten endangered forests, and fuel conflicts in rural areas. As Chad Bouchard reports from Jakarta, World Bank officials say the plan will lead to a sustainable logging industry. Environmentalists lashed out at the World Bank for endorsing Indonesia’s plan to establish five million hectares of new timber plantations over the next three years. World Bank officials said in a report this week that the forestry initiative would create jobs and preserve endangered tropical forests. But Farah Sofa, campaign director for Indonesia’s largest environmental group, WALHI, says vast plantations in Sumatra and Borneo would erode biodiversity, pollute the soil, and displace people who depend on the forest for their livelihood. Sofa says similar plans supported by the World Bank from 1985 to 2004 resulted in a surplus of supply and an increase in corruption. “So I think if at that time it doesn’t work, I don’t see why it’ll work now,” said Sofa. “Actually the industrial plantation doesn’t create enough jobs. In fact, it makes more people lose their livelihoods. And those who lose their livelihoods are those who depend on forest resources.” Conservationists say at least 40 percent of Indonesia’s tropical forest has been cut over the past 50 years, and at the current rate of consumption the remaining lowland trees will disappear by 2010. At Indonesia’s request, the World Bank drafted a forestry plan in June 2006. This week’s report updated the strategic outline, but the World Bank will not fund implementation of the plan. http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-02-23-voa23.cfm
New Zealand:
31) “Deforestation is increasing, and new planting and replanting is steadily declining in the absence of Government intervention. We have to give serious consideration to taking action to address the environmental impacts of large-scale changes in land-use. “The information, released today by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, reinforces the need for serious and rational debate on the forestry options in the Government’s Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change discussion document. “We have to develop mechanisms to both manage deforestation and encourage new planting and replanting simultaneously. Options for this are being consulted upon at present,” said Jim Anderton. It is estimated that 12,800 hectares, mostly in Canterbury and the Central North Island, of the forest harvested in 2006 will be deforested (converted to another land-use). That represents a third of the 38,800 hectares of forest harvested in 2006. Predictions are that a high rate of deforestation will continue until 2020 unless something is done. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0702/S00488.htm
Australia:
32) Illegal harvesting of log timber in the South-West has just become a lot harder thanks to a combined State Government initiative announced today by Forestry Minister Kim Chance. Mr Chance welcomed the agreement between the Department of Environment and Conservation ( DEC ) and the Forest Products Commission ( FPC ) that would increase the total effort applied to checking the legalities of log deliveries and the efficiency of enforcement operations. “FPC officers are being provided with specialist law enforcement training by DEC to enable them to act on allegations of illegal activity or investigate logs in the sawmills that are unaccounted for as part of their regular duties,” the Minister said. In recent years, there have been allegations of illegal harvesting of log timber from both State forest and private property. Industry sources have been concerned by the perceived inability of officers to verify absolutely that logs on mill landings have been appropriately sourced. “While the extent of the problem is unknown, a combined and co-ordinated effort by both agencies should reduce the risk of illegal log timber harvesting activity in the South-West,” Mr Chance said. People suspicious of illegal logging operations should report their concerns to their local FPC or DEC office or headquarters in Perth. http://media-newswire.com/release_1044336.html
33) A Dutch research scientist studying south-west Western Australian forests has vowed to put pressure on European governments to ban imports of logs from the region. Dr Leonie van der Maesen was involved in anti-logging protests in the south-west during the 1990s and helped convince the Netherlands Government to suspend imports of jarrah and karri logs. Dr Van der Maesen visited a logging operation at the Arcadia forest near Collie at the weekend and says she was appalled at the state of the area’s environment. She says the operation has caused soil erosion and is harming native plants and animals. “I’m going to send letters to the Minister for the Environment in the EU [European Union] and I’m going to demand an immediate stop of the timber that comes in to Europe because jarrah is going in to Europe under the wrong pretence,” she said. The Forest Products Commission has rejected Dr Van der Maesen’s comments, saying its logging operation is not harming the forest. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200702/s1857890.htm
34) The Federal Government has joined with Tasmania in moving swiftly to change laws to remove all doubt about the legality of logging sensitive native forests. The move — widely flagged by Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon and federal Forestry Minister Eric Abetz — follows a Federal Court decision in December which found that the logging of the Wielangta Forest on Tasmania’s east coast was illegal. The historic court case was brought by Australian Greens leader Bob Brown, who questioned whether logging by organisations such as Forestry Tasmania was legal if it threatened the habitat of endangered and rare birds and animals. The court ruling threw into doubt most forestry activity in Tasmania and around Australia, where logging was approved under a Regional Forest Agreement. Federal Court judge, Justice Shane Marshall, found that the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act — which binds Australia to protect endangered and rare species overruled any forestry agreements between state and federal governments. Premier Paul Lennon announced yesterday that he and Prime Minister John Howard had reached agreement on amendments to the 1997 Regional Forest Agreement. “These amendments, while technical in nature . . . restore the original policy intent of the Regional Forest Agreement and the more recent Community Forest Agreement. “Conservation groups have queried if logging should be allowed to continue in sensitive southern Tasmanian forests such as the Weld Valley and Upper Florentine where endangered and rare animals live, until an appeal against Justice Marshall’s decision — brought by Forestry Tasmania — had been heard. http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,21277796-5007221,00.html
35) This week’s Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal decision to permit clearing of trees in the endangered buloke woodlands of western Victoria throws into question the adequacy of the new Victorian Native Vegetation Management Framework legislation for protecting our precious plants and animals, the Wilderness Society said today. ‘The decision, to allow clearing of endangered, extremely slow-growing old growth buloke trees and mature eucalypts near Edenhope, will destroy vital habitat and food for the endangered Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, mascot in last year’s Commonwealth Games’, said South-west campaigner for the Wilderness Society, Geraldine Ryan. ‘It also flies in the face of the threat from climate change which is already causing problems in Victoria’s west where the original forest, woodland and grassland communities are highly fragmented and over 86% cleared’. ‘More clearing is the opposite of what is needed. Scientists are suggesting we should be protecting and reconnecting ecosystems to give them their best chance to survive through climate changes’. ‘Queensland made it illegal to clear endangered habitats in 2001 and has now ended all broadscale clearing on private land. Yet new legislation loopholes in Victoria are allowing clearing to continue putting endangered habitat and species at risk’. ‘This is disheartening for those landholders who are already preserving their buloke trees and bushlands’ ‘Having taken the positive step of protecting the Cobboboonee Forest, it is vital that, in this time of climate change, we now protect the remaining forests and woodlands of western Victoria on public and private land. A protected public land link between the Lower Glenelg N.P. and the Little Desert will be a major contribution to the survival of the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo and the many other creatures that depend on these habitats for food and shelter. http://www.wilderness.org.au/campaigns/landclearing/buloke/
36) Logging of the Weld, Florentine and other wilderness valleys will be raised with the World Heritage Centre at a meeting in Hobart tomorrow afternoon, the Wilderness Society said today. “Logging in magnificent forested valleys that should be protected is threatening the integrity of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area,” said Geoff Law, Tasmanian Campaign Coordinator for the Wilderness Society. The Director of the World Heritage Centre, Mr Franceso Bandarin, and Mr Giovanni Boccardi, Head of the Asia-Pacific Unit at the Centre, are currently visiting Australia. They will meet with Tasmanian environment groups on Wednesday afternoon. The World Heritage Centre administers the World Heritage List, on which significant tracts of Tasmania’s wilderness were inscribed in 1982 and again in 1989. Mr Law said that national and international authorities have called for Tasmania’s World Heritage Area to be expanded to include valleys such as the Weld, Upper Florentine, upper Styx and Tarkine wilderness – but that the Australian Government has largely ignored these calls. “Logging and new roads in the eastern parts of Tasmania’s wilderness are eroding that wilderness, destroying the scenery, reducing biodiversity, threatening species and bringing threats of bushfires, diseases, weeds and feral animals,” said Mr Law. “The Tasmanian government is using taxpayers’ funds to build new logging roads into the Weld and Upper Florentine valleys while the federal government just looks on.” http://www.wilderness.org.au/campaigns/forests/tasmania/WHexperts/
World-wide:
37) The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute has gotten an $8 million grant from HSBC Holdings to fund research on the effects of global climate change on forests in 17 countries. The funding will create a new Global Earth Observatory system by expanding the Center for Tropical Forest Science in Panama, part of the Smithsonian’s only bureau outside the U.S. Research will begin in the Panama Canal watershed, where the Smithsonian has studied tropical forests for nearly 100 years. It will expand monitoring to cover all the major tropical rainforest areas of the world. http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007/022007/02252007/259508
38) Rock stars, multinational corporations and others keen to offset their climate-wrecking pollution by investing in a flagship Scottish forest have been misled, an investigation by the Sunday Herald can reveal. Bands such as the Rolling Stones, companies such as Volvo and numerous individuals have paid out thousands of pounds in the belief that the money would be used to plant trees on the Isle of Skye. But according to the forest’s managers and the contract governing the deal, that is not what the money was spent on. What people actually bought were the “carbon rights” to trees that were being planted anyway, thanks to government grants. And the amount they were charged per tree was 18 times more than the amount that was directly invested on their behalf. These revelations have raised new questions about carbon offsetting, now increasingly used by governments and the private sector to compensate for the pollution caused by flying or driving. Concerns about the credibility of such schemes have prompted the Department of the Environment in London to propose a voluntary code of practice. Some experts have advised against offsetting carbon emissions with forestry projects, while environmentalists have condemned them a “dangerous distraction”. The company behind the Skye forestry deal, however, insisted it was “delivered with integrity”. The forest on the Orbost estate on the shores of Loch Bracadale in northwest Skye was made famous by Joe Strummer, the singer with the punk band, The Clash. With the help of a company called Future Forests, he was one of the first to try and offset his carbon pollution by investing in trees. http://www.robedwards.com/2007/02/from_sunday_her.html
39) As you move about 10 to 25 degrees north and south of the equator, the unchanging wetness of the rain forest begins to dissipate, giving way to a more seasonal climate. The temperatures are still warm throughout the year, but precipitation in tropical dry forests comes in bursts of only five or six months. The rest of the year is dry and relatively bare; in some areas during the dry season, these forests may resemble savannas or even deserts.
The soils are often relics of the ancient continent Gondwana, especially in directly detached, isolated systems like New Caledonia. The soils are more fertile than that of the rain forests, but erosion is higher, especially in deforested areas. The dichotomous nature of the climate in the dry forest drives life to cope with the extreme seasonality of precipitation in different ways. The driest areas are dominated by deciduous trees that drop their moisture-exuding leaves once the rains stop, allowing sunlight to pass through the once-thick canopy, to reach the lower levels of the forest. Wetter areas, like Southeastern Indochina, are home to large forests of dipterocarps (pdf) and other evergreens, able to utilize the blessings of the monsoon rain season to keep growing throughout the year. And, unlike the plants of the rain forests, that rely almost entirely on animals to disperse seeds, seeds in the dry forest are swept through open areas by strong winds. Wildlife is diverse in the dry forests, but necessarily migratory in some areas due to the extreme seasons. During the dry season, many animals will travel to a certain area in the neighboring rain forest to subsist, waiting for the rains to return to their home. This extra level of complexity has given ecologists a new challenge: Tracing the migratory paths of animals reliant on both tropical dry and wet forests. How much do these species rely on each biome for subsistence? http://thevoltagegate.blogspot.com/2007/02/know-your-biomes-iii-tropical-dry.html
40) The statistics paint a grim picture. According to the World Resources Institute, more than 80 percent of the Earth’s natural forests already have been destroyed. Up to 90 percent of West Africa’s coastal rain forests have disappeared since 1900. Brazil and Indonesia, which contain the world’s two largest surviving regions of rain forest, are being stripped at an alarming rate by logging, fires, and land-clearing for agriculture and cattle-grazing. Among the obvious consequences of deforestation is the loss of living space. Seventy percent of the Earth’s land animals and plants reside in forests. But the harm doesn’t stop there. Rain forests help generate rainfall in drought-prone countries elsewhere. Studies have shown that destruction of rain forests in such West African countries as Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire may have caused two decades of droughts in the interior of Africa, with attendant hardship and famine. Deforestation may have catastrophic global effects as well. Trees are natural consumers of carbon dioxide—one of the greenhouse gases whose buildup in the atmosphere contributes to global warming. Destruction of trees not only removes these “carbon sinks,” but tree burning and decomposition pump into the atmosphere even more carbon dioxide, along with methane, another major greenhouse gas. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/eye/deforestation/effect.html