230 – Earth’s Tree News

Today for you 35 new articles about earth’s trees! (230th edition)
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–Alaska: 1) Save the Tongass
–British Columbia: 2) Nootka island in ruins, 3) Exports destroy local economy, 4) Put owls in zoo and cut their homes down, 5) Save Bear Mountain
–California: 6) UC Forestry Field Camp, 7) Feinstein Ultimatum, 8) Save the Oak trees,
–Wisconsin: 9) Lots of Greenhouse gas at 38-acre experimental forest
–Michigan: 10) Use of Poisons and FSC certification
–Texas: 11) Save the Trinity trees, 12) Timber thief finally gets caught,
–Massachusetts: 13) Losing 72 acres per day to urbanization
–Canada: 14) A new era of logging moratoriums
–Scotland: 15) Forests along the banks of the Clyde
–UK: 16) Cadzow Oaks
–Poland: 17) Another visit to Bialowieza forest
–Congo: 18) Mountain Gorilla habitat taken over by rebels
–Ghana: 19) Forests are underexploited?
–Uganda: 20) Sugarcane or forests, government wants more of both?
–South Africa: 21) 84,000 hectares of plantations burned into nothing
–Honduras: 22) Forest are best defense from hurricanes
–Brazil: 23) Save last of the Atlantic forests, 24) He bought and saved 400,000 acres,
–India: 25) No more encroachments, 26) 250km stretch of Sahyadri range, 27) Greed tries to usurp court’s authority at every turn,
–Japan: 28) Bear’s destroying tree harvest? 29) Plantation imperialism,
–Papua New Guinea: 30) Court receives claim against PNG Forest Authority
–Philippines: 31) “Logger” a dirty word
–Malaysia: 32) Loggers scam reforestation funds
–Indonesia: 33) Only Eight of 59 illegal logging cases brought to court?
–World-wide: 34) Click to save a rainforest, 35) ADM, Cargill and Bunge on notice,

Alaska:

1) For more than 50 years, timber companies have had access to some of the biggest and best trees in America’s rainforest, the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. In addition, the timber program wastes millions of tax dollars each year, leaving American taxpayers to foot the bill for destroying a national asset. I’m joining Earthjustice, the law firm for the environment, in urging Congress to stand behind a recent House vote that will safeguard the forest, in the face of a Senate effort that seeks to undermine this victory and the future of the Tongass. I’m standing up to fight for the Tongass because I believe America’s temperate rainforest is worth protecting not only for our generation, but also for those to come. I hope you’ll join me. Click on the link below to take action today. http://action.earthjustice.org/campaign/Tongass_Alert_Sept_2007?rk=MdAW9G71nJz4W

British Columbia:

2) In March 1778, Captain James Cook became the first European to set foot in what is now British Columbia when he dropped anchor off Nootka Island near Friendly Cove. What he encountered there was a lushly forested landscape of unsurpassed richness, a land whose trees, particularly red cedar, and fisheries resources had sustained members of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht people for millennia. Cook’s arrival came long before the words ‘sustainable development’ lodged in the modern lexicon. Yet, there is little doubt that the brilliant naval captain grasped the concept that if you take too much today it is future generations that will pay the price. Nor can we doubt that were he alive today, Cook would conclude that some collective madness had gripped our land. Pictures of present-day logging activities at Nootka reveal clear-cuts marching up one side of steep, slide-prone hillsides and down the other. Magnificent trees rivaling the legendary spruces of the Carmanah Valley are being felled as soils erode, water courses degrade, and fisheries losses mount. This is exactly the kind of logging that produced such dramatic conflict, more than fifteen years ago, in Clayoquot Sound. That “war of the woods” resulted in the protection of some of that region’s last remaining old-growth forests. It also prompted promises of “ecosystem-based” forestry. Wholesale clearcutting remains a common fixture today on Nootka Island. Yet unlike Clayoquot Sound, few ask what the future holds here, for the island’s forests, and for nearby First Nation and non First Nation communities. Over the last seven months of 2007 Western Forest Products – coastal BC’s largest forest company – has logged 59,000 cubic metres of Nootka’s rapidly disappearing old-growth trees (a cubic metre equals a telephone pole), Forests Ministry data reveals. Only one small valley on the island – the Callicum – remains untouched. This year alone, the number of “merchantable” logs that WFP left behind rather than transport to sawmills amounted to more than 5,500 cubic metres of timber. One in 10 usable logs, therefore, was left to litter the ground. Not only is the landscape being wrecked, but precious, publicly owned old-growth trees are being squandered as well. http://freepage.twoday.net/stories/4236200/

3) Flying 200 metres over this Vancouver Island resource town in a vintage Martin Mars waterbomber brings the tangle of issues dragging down the coastal forest industry into remarkably sharp focus. Below, there’s nothing coming from the stacks of Catalyst Paper’s mill, which employed over 1,500 people in its heyday. This day, Aug. 30, marked the last day one of the mill’s two football field-long paper machines will operate. Catalyst is laying off 185 workers, leaving just over 200 people to run the remaining machine. A third machine, shut down last year, is being taken apart and shipped to India. When it is re-assembled, it will emerge as yet another low-cost competitor. Nearby, Western Forest Products’ two sawmills are also silent. From this height you can see the Steelworkers Union pickets outside the gates, in their desperate effort to restore in a new contract some of the benefits, like regular shifts, that forest workers once took for granted. On Highway 4, snaking through town and up the steep incline known locally as the Hump, two trucks weighted with freshly cut logs make the journey to the Island’s east coast, likely non-union drivers hauling a load of timber cut by non-union loggers. Forestry is still the largest employer, accounting for 23 per cent of all jobs compared to five per cent provincewide, but McRae can see that its importance is dwindling. A former millworker and union activist, McRae says that outside pressures are changing his town. If a paper machine can be taken apart and shipped to India, where will it end? Town council is attempting to accommodate large industrial players by lowering taxes but, McRae says, it can’t be done all at once. “There’s always going to be a future for forestry here,” he says, but then adds he is not so confident that the pulp and paper industry will remain. Today, there are fewer trees to cut, reduced processing capacity and fewer jobs — and the trend is downward,” says the Macauley report. “It’s sad. You can see the raw log exports. You can see that the companies are not putting any new money into their mills. And you can also see the writing on the wall: When are they going to shut it down?” In a nutshell, the policy changes shifted the flow of logs that had at one time supplied the MacMillan Bloedel mills and destabilized long-term relationships between licensees and their contractors. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=b89d5500-3028-45f2-bd06-f29c07e6
aab8&k=41078

4) The last habitat of Canada’s critically endangered Northern spotted owls is being logged in a government-approved operation, conservationists have discovered. Canada’s largest membership-based wilderness preservation organization, the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, is demanding that the government of British Columbia follow its own owl management policy and call a halt to the logging. A total of just 17 spotted owls remain in Canada – all in British Columbia. A federally listed endangered species at risk, these owls rely on old-growth forests to roost, nest and forage. Six single spotted owls and four pairs still live in the wild, down from an estimated population of 500 pairs before commercial logging began in the last century. Three single owls have been captured for a government captive breeding program. Western Canada Wilderness Committee staff scientist Andy Miller discovered the ongoing logging operation while investigating one of the province’s few remaining spotted owl sites at S&M Creek near Pemberton. The first of 14 government-approved cutblocks at S&M Creek has recently been felled and a network of new logging roads has been built through critical spotted owl habitat, Miller says. All of the logging is taking place within a Spotted Owl Management Zone designated by the BC government. To publicize the government’s violation of its own owl management policy, the Western Canada Wilderness Committee today established a research camp along the Green River logging road, in a small meadow directly adjacent to the owl’s forest home. “We are setting up the research camp to attract public attention to this BC government-approved logging operation which is damaging this endangered species site,” said Miller. “We will also be photographing and documenting on video the destruction caused by the road construction and tree felling, and each one of the planned cutblocks so we can show the world the spotted owl habitat that is at risk. Our aim is to get this logging stopped,” he said. http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2007/2007-09-07-04.asp

5) Fed up with asking the City of Langford to consult with the community about the proposed Bear Mountain Interchange, local residents and area environmental groups are sponsoring their own consultation starting this week. Comments are welcome by mail, email, and web, plus the public and the media are invited to an Open House at the Juan de Fuca Library on Wednesday, September 19 from 6:30 to 9 pm. The consultation runs through December 6, 2007. The City of Langford plans to build a controversial interchange on the TransCanada Highway just west of Spencer Road in Langford, in a sensitive area that includes the legendary Langford Cave, a flourishing Garry Oak meadow, a vernal pond, rare and endangered species, and important wildlife habitat. The independent consultation will gather opinions and information relating to wildlife, the cave,rare species, hydrology, transportation, cultural values, affordable housing and impacts on quality of life. “This interchange is an enormous project with the potential to seriously damage unique and irreplaceable habitat and natural features,” said Zoe Blunt, spokesperson for the Vancouver Island Community Forest Action Network (VIC FAN). “I find it disturbing that city staff are rolling ahead with submitting engineering plans to the Ministry of Highways before completing an environmental assessment.” http://interchangeconsultation.blogspot.com

California:

6) The idea of learning forestry in a forest, from soil to canopy, was an idea with legs, as the 48 students just home from UC Berkeley Forestry Field Camp — and generations of Cal forestry grads before them — can attest. “One of the exciting things about CNR is that there are these wildly divergent views,” notes Louise Fortmann, professor of natural-resource sociology in the college’s environmental science, policy and management department. There are molecular biologists jazzed about bioengineering as well as students dead set against GMO “Frankenfoods,” students who aspire to careers in the timber industry and those who categorically reject commercial tree harvesting, particularly on public land. When students on opposing sides of such questions engage with each other, Fortmann says, their debates can be ferocious, and yet useful — “if people are actually dealing with data, and not just saying ‘I take this position; you’re an idiot, or a sinner.’ ” Some students have a “very rhetorical view of the world; the phrase ‘capitalist pig’ comes naturally to their lips,” she notes. “We can make lots of critiques of capitalist business. But I say ‘you shouldn’t let your rhetoric outrun your data.” Gilless puts it this way: An aspiring timber operator, say, eats breakfast all summer next to an environmental activist. “On campus those two students might have difficulty finding each other and becoming friends.” But life at camp tends to shatter stereotypes, leaving many with “a richer understanding of people who look at forests from very different perspectives.” As it happens, he notes, respectful dialogue between warring factions is precisely what’s needed if we’re to restore our troubled and much-contested forests. http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/09/06_forestry.shtml

7) On Thursday, Aug. 16, Senator Dianne Feinstein hosted a private Lake Tahoe luncheon at the West Shore Caf where she reportedly issued an ultimatum: find a way to compromise on nine timber projects currently in litigation or she would decide the issues in Washington, D.C., at the national level. Also participating was Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey, in charge of resources and the environment and a key writer of the Herger-Feinstein QLG legislation. Present was a staff member of the Senate Interior Appropriations Committee of which Feinstein is a member, as well as attorneys for all sides. “A variety of lawsuits, appeals and injunctions have stymied the QLG cause,” said Sheehan, referring to the Herger Feinstein Forest Recovery Act of 1998. “Even though half of the acres under the program have been accomplished, we haven’t seen enough of the economic revenues that would offset the cost of the work and allow the project to expand.” Sheehan explained that the design behind the QLG legislation was that revenues brought in during the projects would then fund further work. Instead, most of the areas treated have been for fire protection and haven’t brought in the kind of timber that keeps the mills and co-generation electric plants running and stimulates a robust local economy. According to Sheehan, few of the QLG projects that have been accomplished thus far have broken even. The goal had been for the projects to generate $3 for every $1 spent. Craig Thomas, director of Sierra Forest Legacy, a coalition of 100 environmental groups with a focus on federal forest policy and management, and also present at the senator’s meeting, said he believed that the funding of the QLG projects needs to be revisited. In a phone conversation, Thomas explained that the QLG project area has received between $26 and $31 million more than any other national forest for the past seven years. http://www.plumasnews.com/news_story.edi?sid=5404

8) After listening to two hours of comments from the public – including tree-sitters, Old Blues and students – the council voted 7-1, with one abstention, to not accept the university’s offer to settle a city lawsuit that aims to block Cal’s plans to build a $125 million sports training center next to Memorial Stadium, where tree-sitters now occupy part of an oak grove. “The council felt very strongly that this offer doesn’t address the city’s concerns,” said Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates. “In fact, it’s not even at a standard for which we should even respond.” UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor Nathan Brostrom said he was very disappointed with the council’s vote. “They seem to have closed the door to an honest discussion,” Brostrom said. “We would like to collaborate and cooperate on this. They’ve chosen the winner-take-all environment of the courtroom. I’m honestly baffled.” The university had offered to halve a proposed 900-space parking garage, to ask its governing Board of Regents for money to retrofit the 84-year-old stadium and to plant three trees for every one that would be removed to build the state-of-the-art facility. The city wants the training center moved farther from the Hayward Fault, which bisects Memorial Stadium, and wants seismic retrofit work to begin immediately. In addition to the city, two other groups have filed suit to stop the renovation plans for the southeast corner of campus. The California Oak Foundation, loosely affiliated with a half-dozen protesters dwelling in the trees next to the stadium, wants the oak grove to be preserved, while the Panoramic Hill neighborhood association wants the training facility moved elsewhere and use of the stadium greatly curtailed. If settlements can’t be reached, all three suits will be heard in Alameda County Superior Court on Sept. 19. Earlier Tuesday, a new community group, called Stand Up for Berkeley, held a rally outside City Hall to urge the council not to settle with UC. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/05/BAFKRV1TR.DTL

Wisconsin:

9) At a 38-acre experimental forest in northeastern Wisconsin, U-M microbial ecologist Donald Zak and his colleagues have been pumping extra carbon dioxide into the tree canopies since 1997 to simulate atmospheric conditions expected in the latter half of this century. The forest contains several thousand trembling aspen, paper birch and sugar maple trees. Mixed aspen-and-birch stands bathed in extra carbon dioxide grow about 45 percent faster than their untreated neighbors. To sustain that speedy growth, the experimental trees had to find a way to extract more of the essential nutrient nitrogen from the soil. It appears that the extra carbon dioxide (CO2) helps the trees do just that, by allowing them to grow more roots and “forage” more successfully for nitrogen, said Zak, a professor at the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. The birch trees seem better at nitrogen foraging than aspens, said Zak, one of the lead scientists at the federally funded experiment in Rhinelander, Wis. In mixed stands of aspen and birch subjected to elevated carbon dioxide levels, birch trees increased recent nitrogen acquisition by 68 percent, compared to a 19 percent increase among the aspens. “The implication from that experiment is that it could alter the abundance of birch and aspen—in places like Michigan—by favoring birch,” Zak said. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070905151422.htm

Michigan:

10) Dennis Nezich, who works in the Marquette office of the DNR’s Forestry, Minerals and Fire Control division, said the chemicals are needed to control the growth of brush, invasive species and a tree-damaging insect. The reason the state must seek public input is that three years ago the DNR had its forestry program certified by an international body called the Forest Stewardship Council, and the FSC must approve the use of the chemicals. Part of that approval process requires a chance for stakeholders and members of the public to comment. Michigan has 3.9 million acres of state forests, and the forestry programs are overseen by both the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the FSC. The latter organization is especially concerned with things such as the use of chemicals. “This is an opportunity to take a closer look and ensure that there isn’t an undue risk in using the chemicals this way,” Nezich said. “The plan will be to use them on a limited basis if it’s approved by the FSC.” The DNR didn’t join the Forest Stewardship Council just for the cachet. Companies around the world are thinking greener, and many of them won’t buy forest products unless they have the FSC seal of approval. “It’s not just in Europe,” Nezich said. “A good example is Time Warner. They demand FSC certification,” and Time Warner buys a lot of pulpwood to make paper. Three of the five chemicals will be used to kill invasive species such as knapweed, garlic mustard and autumn olive, and although the chemicals are approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the FSC sets a tougher standard. But it allows the testing to be done by for-profit private agencies, and Marvin Roberson, a forest ecologist for the Sierra Club who lives in Marquette, said that’s the suspect link in the chain of protection. “The Forest Stewardship Council was formed in response to deforestation in the rain forests. It’s a good organization. But it hires third-party people to do the certifications. Some of them boast that they’ve had 100% success in getting (clients certified). That makes you wonder. http://blog.lib.msu.edu/redtape/?p=2925

Texas:

11) I know I’ve been sounding like a broken record lately, but today’s topic is — once again — the Trinity Trees. Two men who are part of the driving force behind Save The Trinity Trees, Jim Marshall and Rick Collins, granted me an interview about their efforts to save the grove that is home to some of the biggest and oldest trees in Fort Worth. Jim and Rick are long-time Fort Worth residents and literally lifelong friends. We grew up together in the Meadowbrook Drive area of Fort Worth’s historic East Side. You might know Jim better as the former owner of Marshall Grain Company. Jim has actively been involved in trying to save the Trinity Trees since the day he first learned of Chesapeake Energy’s plans to bulldoze the 2.5 acre grove. His army of one gradually gained some supporters, one of whom was his childhood buddy, Rickey. They are both in this to win one for the environment, as well as for the thousands of Fort Worth residents who have literally grown up walking through this magnificent tree grove. Many other volunteers have joined along the way. Among the most devoted are Jenny Conn, Don Young and Melissa Kohout. A list of numerous other volunteers and supporters can be found at http://www.trinitytrees.org http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2007/sep/06/save-trinity-trees/

12) A Texas logging contractor charged with the theft of timber from landowners in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana has been brought to justice, according to the Texas Forest Service. Allen Clay Sprayberry of Texarkana is to pay $346,235 in restitution, according to the terms of a plea bargain agreement reached with federal prosecutors on Wednesday, according to TFS. Sprayberry will pay restitution to the 32 landowners he defrauded while serving five years probation, according to TFS. Sprayberry’s federal indictment included 39 charges of federal crimes from mail and wire fraud to interstate transportation of stolen property. A two-year investigation by Texas Forest Service into the timber theft began with a call to the Texas Forest Service toll-free timber theft Hot line, 1-800-364-3470, according to Gary Parton, TFS law enforcement investigator in Henderson. “The resulting investigation led to enough evidence to obtain a search warrant for the logging contractor’s home and business, during which all logging documents and computers were confiscated,” Parton said. “The investigation ultimately yielded nearly 2,000 pages of documents related to the case.” Strayberry’s victims included landowners who own property in northeast Texas, southwest Oklahoma, southern Arkansas and northwestern Louisiana. “Most of Strayberry’s victims entered into contracts to sell their timber, but then the trees were subsequently cut, and landowners received either partial or no payments of the agreed amounts,” Parton said. “Our primary goal in this case was, as in other timber theft cases, to obtain restitution for the landowner or landowners involved. Of course, we also want to help ensure that timber thieves won’t victimize other landowners in the future.” http://www.lufkindailynews.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/09/07/Timber_theft.html

Massachusetts:

13) States like Massachusetts are losing 72 acres per day to urbanization. “The window for conserving forests is closing,” says Andy Swinton, director of field science with The Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit habitat conservation organization. But “there’s really an opportunity here, because the next 20 years will determine the character of New England forests. This is a race against time, and the time to act is now.” The region’s forests had made quite a comeback in the past two centuries: As agriculture declined, fields went back to wooded land. Now, however, those forests are under threat – from homeowners, this time. In their push to create more housing in an area where home prices are already through the roof, developers are moving into wooded land. The numbers are stark, particularly in southern New England. By 2050, 70 percent of Rhode Island and 61 percent of Connecticut will be urbanized, according to a recent report in the Journal of Forestry by two researchers with the US Agriculture Department’s Forest Service. Massachusetts is already losing 40 acres a day to development, estimates Mass Audubon. These three states will lose the highest percentage of forest of any state by mid-century, the Forest Service researchers say. Part of the reason for the region’s forest loss is its population density. Its urban areas are already so developed that they’re pushing out, often into surrounding forests. The other factor is New England’s development pattern and lifestyle.Take long-distance commuting. The Southwest may be famous for its vast metropolises, but the trend is actually more pronounced in New England, says Kathy Sferra, a land protection expert at Mass Audubon. For example: To be able to afford the cost of living, many workers live in less expensive housing far from the urban centers where they work. That leads to more crowded highways. In addition to the 40 acres the state loses every day to sprawling development, it loses an additional 38 acres to the “hidden” cost of development, such as road construction. And, as in the rest of New England, most of Massachusetts’ residential developments are low density, meaning few people living in large houses on big lots. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0906/p01s02-usgn.html

Canada:

14) A new Leger Marketing poll commissioned by Greenpeace reveals that 86 per cent of Quebecers support the suspension of logging in the last remaining intact areas of Boreal Forest in the province. Additionally, only 18% per cent of respondents believe that forest companies and the government of Quebec are managing forests in a way that serves the public interest and forest workers. “The public’s lack of confidence in the government and logging companies is significant,” said Melissa Filion, a forest campaigner with Greenpeace. “Without taking quick and concrete action to protect the forest, the government and logging companies will not regain the public’s trust.” The Boreal Forest covers the northern surface of Canada, from Newfoundland to the Yukon. It represents a quarter of the world’s remaining ancient forests and stores 47.5 billion tonnes of carbon in its soils and trees. Currently, less than five per cent of the entire province of Quebec is protected from industrial development and less than 15 per cent of commercially allocated forest areas remain intact. The government-mandated Coulombe Commission recommended three years ago that eight per cent of the Boreal Forest be protected by 2006, and 12 per cent by 2010. The government of Quebec has taken little action in this regard. “This is a poorly managed industry that leaves communities economically
impoverished, as evidenced by the thousands of jobs lost in Quebec recently,” said Filion. “Inept forestry management on the part of the government and logging companies has pushed public opinion to the breaking point. That’s why Greenpeace is pursuing solutions within the marketplace here in Canada and abroad to protect these communities and the Boreal Forest.” http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2007/07/c6447.html

Scotland:

15) Planted nearly seven centuries ago – when Robert the Bruce was still alive hunting deer and the wild, white Cadzow cattle along the banks of the River Clyde – the tree has stood resolutely as human relations with forests have slowly deteriorated. Several hundred of its fellow ancients, in Chatelherault Country Park near Hamilton, made it through the years and are now considered so special that each one has been bar-coded to help with monitoring. But Scotland’s aged woods have rarely been so highly prized. Cleared for farmland and cut for timber, they shrank to a tiny fraction of their former size as the people that the Romans called Caledonians, meaning people of the wooded hills, appeared to lose interest. The forests along the banks of the Clyde survived largely because the sides of the gorge carved by the river were too steep to allow easy access to remove the timber. Yesterday saw six woodland areas along about 15 miles of the river declared a “national treasure” with the launching of the Clyde Valley Woodlands Nature Reserve. Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) and South Lanarkshire Council hope to attract some of the two million people living within 25 miles to the reserves to reconnect with their ancient roots and relearn the value of our native woodland. http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1420392007

UK:

16) They are head-turners. Six feet wide, their great trunks riven with deep, hard veins like weathered skin, the 800-year-old Cadzow oaks of Hamilton High Parks prove that youth and beauty don’t always go together. Set in a clearing above the gorge in Chatelherault Country Park, they are not particularly tall, but their mighty limbs stretch out for metres on all sides. They make an arresting sight: if there were a Dove Real Beauty campaign for trees, they’d have a starring role. Yesterday, the trees presided at the launch of Scotland’s newest national nature reserve, Clyde Valley woodlands, which is intended to give people in central Scotland access to an outstanding natural habitat. The managment team hope visitors will be drawn by the chance to see the oaks, of which there are about 200, some dating from the 1140s when the woods were planted, others from the 1320s and the reign of Robert the Bruce. The trees are safe from the feller’s axe thanks to a barrage of acronyms protecting the habitat, including an SSSI (special site of scientific interest), an SAC (special area of conservation) and now an NNR (national nature reserve). But many important and ancient trees in Scotland have no such protection. In fact, we don’t actually know for sure where they all are. There might be one in your back garden. There might be one in your local woods. There might be one near you that’s about to get chopped down to make way for flats. Earlier this week, the actor Robert Carlyle came out fighting for condemned mature trees in Glasgow’s west end. Carlyle, who starred in Trainspotting, Hamish Macbeth and The Full Monty, attacked Glasgow City Council for allowing a developer to cut down nearly 100 chestnut, lime and ash trees in the west end to make way for housing, a move that has already brought many local residents out in protest. Carlyle, who lives with his family in the area, described it as “unbelievable, shocking and disgusting and an act of mindless vandalism”. The firm responded that it had carried out a tree survey and that saplings would be planted, a plan Carlyle described as “just patronising”. http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/features/display.var.1667866.0.0.php

Poland:

17) The Palace Park was built by the Russian Tsars as they used to come to Bialowieza for their autumn hunt each year. It had originally had a Polish hunting lodge on it for the Polish kings but that had long since been abandoned. The Tsars didn’t do it by halves and built an 134 room palace number with 47 hectares of English style gardens around it. They also built a series of other houses and buildings in the gardens. Even the stables were fancy. Unfortunately only one gate remains of the palace. After the Tsars abandoned it in the early 20th century, the Polish government used it as offices. The Nazis used it as a headquarters on the Eastern Front and when they retreated attempted to burn it down. The interior was badly damaged in the fire but the outside was fairly intact. The Polish government decided to pull it down in 1961 and now the modern museum and park offices stand on the site of the palace. The national park actually goes over into Belarus and they have a similar area on their side. You have to walk for a couple of km to get to the entrance to the area and then you get to walk for about 4km within the park. It’s truly beautiful. It’s never had any of the trees cut down and the managers of the park just leave everything alone. If a tree falls across a path they will cut a section out of the middle of it (using hand saws because you aren’t allowed to use machinery of any kind in the park) but leave the rest of the tree where it has fallen. It’s really green in the park at the moment because it’s the end of summer. There are several very rare species of fungi growing quite abundantly in the park. They have identified over 3000 species of fungus all up and think they have more to go. It’s quite an easy walk and the whole way is flat. I had a wonderful time in Bialowieza. It’s not the easiest place to get to and it does take time but it was wonderful to be in the fresh air after so many cities. It’s definitely worth the effort if you have the time and it’s nice to be somewhere that isn’t over-run with tourists. http://realtravel.com/bialowieza-journals-j5479860.html

Congo:

18) Rebels in eastern Congo have occupied part of a reserve protecting rare mountain gorillas, putting the endangered primates in the crossfire of an escalating political and ethnic conflict, conservationists say. Congolese government soldiers have fought renegade soldiers loyal to dissident Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda for several days in North Kivu province, which is home to Africa’s oldest national park, Virunga, and its population of rare gorillas. Nkunda’s fighters surrounded ranger stations at the heart of Virunga at Jomba and Bikenge, 80 km (50 miles) north of North Kivu’s provincial capital Goma, early on Monday, conservationists said. The rebels seized about 30 rifles, looted communications equipment, and forced the evacuation of around 300 rangers, park workers, and their families, leaving the area’s gorilla population unprotected, they said. Park authorities said fighting broke out in the park on Tuesday when government forces attempted to dislodge the rebels, but few details were available. “Clashes started this morning,” Norbert Mushenzi, director of the park’s southern sector, told Reuters by phone on Tuesday. In a statement late on Monday Mushenzi said his rangers — more than 150 of whom have been killed protecting eastern Congo’s national parks during 10 years of violence — were no longer able to protect Virunga’s gorillas. “If anything happens to the mountain gorillas now there is nothing we can do … As of today the sector is no longer under my control, and we have been rendered powerless,” he said. Nine gorillas have been killed in Congo since the beginning of the year, including two slain and eaten by Nkunda loyalists in January. “The fate of the mountain gorillas now lies in the hands of Nkunda. And last time the park was occupied by his men we lost two silverbacks (adult males),” Robert Muir of the Frankfurt Zoological Society, which supports the management of Virunga, told Reuters from Goma. http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=83455

Ghana:

19) Ghana’s quest to build a strong economy and vibrant business market requires the exploitation of all potential business avenues to create employment and prosperity. One such area which has lots of business potential is the forestry industry which the government, private sector and all stakeholders have not been able to maximize its value.
Vice-President Alhaji Aliu Mahama reiterated the underperformance of the forestry industry when he opened the West and Central Africa Tropical Forest Investment Forum in Accra. He said the industry has not been able to make the expected contribution to the economy in the form of increased value added processing, revenue mobilization and rent revenue to landowners as well as opportunities for employment generation. Alhaji Aliu Mahama attributed the sector’s underperformance to the loss of forest cover in Africa which is also the result of constant world wide conflicts of interest associated with the management and utilization of forest reserves. He also blamed it on the rapid increase in illegal logging due to the low level of efficiency of primary wood processing which has resulted in the demand for higher rates of harvesting by the informal and formal sectors.
http://www.modernghana.com/GhanaHome/NewsArchive/news_details.asp?menu_id=1&id=VFZSUmVVMTZaekU9

Uganda:

20) The conservation of Mabira forest and other protected areas remains a dodgy matter given the fact that government is sending out ambiguous signals. While a recent report from Cabinet indicated that government would consider the possibility of alienating part of Mabira for sugarcane growing, in the far off beautiful Murchison Falls National Park, President Yoweri Museni was busy assuring a conference on Leadership for Conservation Africa that national parks and gazetted forests would be protected at all costs. The question then is; who is telling the truth? The contradictory statements coming out of government circles cast doubt on the ability of our national leaders to apply the law with honesty. One thing remains clear though – that threats of global warming to the survival of mankind are real. Just this year Uganda has experienced unprecedented weather patterns with the dry season spanning unusually long periods. The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that this century, global temperatures will rise between 1.8 and 4 degrees Celsius and that they might rise up to an alarming 6.4 degrees Celsius. It’s only natural resources like forests that can mitigate the emerging dangers of global warming. There has been too much finger-pointing at State House and Parliament and the ping-pong games about saving what is left of the country’s forest cover and protected areas must come to an end. It was only after sustained public pressure and court actions, that the managers of Bidco developed cold feet and, in the interim, they seem to have abandoned the idea of encroaching on the virgin Bugala tropical rain forests on Kalangala Island. The law demands that the present generation should ensure that the health , diversity and productivity of the environment are maintained for the benefit of present and future generations.Therefore Parliament and civil society should not rest on their laurels. Parliament’s intervention is crucial in the Mabira saga because it’s clear the President and his Cabinet have not made up their minds yet, about conservation and optimal utilisaion of the country’s limited natural resources and the environment in a broader sense. http://allafrica.com/stories/200709040102.html

South Africa:

21) The raging fires that in recent weeks devastated vast swathes of the country’s plantations and forests have been called “forestry’s own 9 /11”. Sawmillers, land owners and lumber analysts say that the fires, which destroyed timber plantations in parts of the Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and, most notably, areas around Sabie and Graskop, the main timber-growing areas of Mpumalanga, were the worst conflagrations in the industry’s history – “and the fire season is not over yet”. “Over the past 25 years, we have lost an average of 14 000ha of trees a year to fires,” said Lance Cooper, of Nelspruit’s York Timbers. “This year we have lost 84 000ha. It’s been catastrophic for both forestry – we lost 20-year-old trees – and for the sawmilling industry.” http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=14&art_id=vn20070902085012529C718879

Honduras:

22) There is no way to stop hurricanes, but two fierce storms that slammed ashore recently on the Caribbean coast of Mexico and Central America show the importance of forests and mangrove swamps in slowing them and lessening their human toll. “The trees secure the ground and offer a buffer from the storms,” said the Rev. José Andrés Tamayo, a Roman Catholic priest and leading Honduran environmental advocate. Forested areas are shrinking, particularly in Central America, and the environmental degradation is one of the reasons that even what would be a run-of-the-mill rainstorm elsewhere can cause deadly floods and mudslides here. Hurricane Felix, with 160 mile-an-hour winds, burst ashore on Tuesday in one of the most forested areas of northern Nicaragua and southern Honduras. Although the storm devastated coastal communities, authorities were crediting the trees with sapping it of some of its strength. “The forests are obstacles for the advance of hurricanes,” said President Manuel Zelaya Rosales of Honduras. The bodies of 24 Miskitos, whose fishing boat had capsized, were found Thursday near the coast of Honduras, said a federal lawmaker for the Honduran region, Carolina Echeverría. Dozens of people were missing. Damage reports have yet to come from at least 70 percent of the villages and towns along the Nicaraguan coast, said a federal disaster official, Jorge Ramón Arnesto Soza. The hurricane has killed at least 71 people. In Honduras, Mr. Zelaya acknowledged that hurricanes had become more dangerous with the deforestation that has ravaged the countryside. “We’re trying to correct this, but it will take a decade or more.” In fact, Honduras has suffered the greatest percentage of forest loss of any country in Latin America. Studies show that it has lost more than a third of its forest cover since 1990. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/07/world/americas/07hurricane.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

Brazil:

23) During the last glaciation, which ended about 10 000 years Before Present (BP), the Brazilian Atlantic forest extended over all the eastern side of the country, covering more than 1 200 000 km², 15% of Brazil’s territory. Now only 95 000 km² of this natural habitat survives, just 8% of its initial extent. It is still a large biodiversity reservoir in Brazil, second only to the Amazonian forest. On one hectare of Atlantic forest the biologists recorded over 450 different tree species. But deforestation and intensive farming methods make this tropical forest one of Earth’s most seriously threatened ecosystems. In the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, regions where agriculture has developed strongly in recent years, the forest is largely fragmented, represented only as small blocks situated on the abrupt slopes which plunge down towards the Atlantic. With the objective of analysing the changes that have taken place in this ecosystem over the Quaternary era, IRD researchers and counterparts from the University of São Paulo put together the results from three scientific disciplines (botany, palynology, genetics) applied to three species of the tree genus Podocarpus: P. sellowii, P. lambertii and P. brasiliensis. These tropical trees belong to the conifer family. They are good indicators of geographical evolution of the Atlantic forest with time, seeing that the Brazilian species are endemic to this natural habitat. Moreover, pollen grains from the genus Podocarpus have a typical small bladder-like morphology and stay intact for a long time in sediments. These two characteristics make them good candidates for palynological studies. The team recorded and then collected available plant material from different sites where Atlantic forest stands are still present. This involved 26 sampling points spread over a rectangle 4000 km long by 500 km wide corresponding to the whole of the area of distribution of this ecosystem. They corresponded to 26 different populations of Podocarpus. http://vinnysa1store.blogspot.com/2007/09/refugia-of-brazilian-atlantic.html

24) His grandfather was a wealthy industrialist, but Mr Eliasch has made his own way and his own fortune in business, principally by buying and turning around failing companies. Since 1995 he has been chief executive of Head, the Austrian sportswear firm, which was losing £36 million per year when he acquired it but is now a successful worldwide brand. With his fortune secure, Mr Eliasch turned his attention increasingly to political concerns. “Like so many people, I despair of debate ever leading to effective action. This prompted me to leapfrog a debate with action.” That leap was to buy 400,000 acres of land – an area larger than Greater London – in the Amazon rainforest, on which he has banned logging. The move led to accusations of “green colonialism” when it transpired that a thousand people had lost their jobs, but Mr Eliasch was unrepentant. He says that many of those jobs have been replaced, sometimes by the employment of security staff to prevent illegal logging. In any case, he says, the preservation of the forest is paramount. “The Amazon is the lung of the world,” he said. “It provides 20 per cent of the world’s oxygen and 30 per cent of the fresh water.” Mr Eliasch has subsequently donated £20 million to environmental projects and causes, putting him in 10th place on the Sunday Times Giving Index 2007. His personal fortune is assessed by the newspaper’s Rich List at £360 million. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2374043.ece

India:

25) Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said that from now onwards no encroachments would be allowed on forest land. His intention is clear that wherever the same is continuing it would be stopped. However, it is a matter to ponder over as to who is the person encroaching the land? Forest people, staying inside the forest, are not being brought under its purview as they are living inside the forests. Their needs and aspirations are also not big; their life and living is based on forest produce. Even though they could also be accused for some encroachments inside the forests yet they do not have that mind of making money through it. Mostly the encroachments being done on forest lands are the handiwork of land mafia. These mafia are responsible for cutting down the forests for making huge profits. Also there are poachers who wield enough power over the forest officials through muscle and money power. They have no concern for the upkeep of the forests, whereas the Adivasis take due care of the forests as it is their bread and butter. The government is keeping mum on encroachments by the land mafia and is also helpless in removing them. Likewise in the city areas, the old encroachments have not been removed and new ones are cropping up. There may be many reasons for the increasing encroachments. The government would have to study the matter in detail and with the help of experts formulate policies which would solve this never going problem. Creating awareness among the people against the dangers of encroachments would, besides educating them, lead to a permanent solution of the problem. Encroachments in cities take away their beauty. Besides it encourages lawlessness. At later stages, the local administrations have to spend huge money for rehabilitating the oustees. The government should go to the root of the problem and chalk out plans accordingly. The political leaders, on their part, should never create hurdles in removing encroachments from government lands. http://www.centralchronicle.com/20070907/0709282.htm

26) The 250-km-long stretch of Sahyadri, a hill range in Belgaum and Karwar districts, includes Western slopes, crest hills and around 150 villages. The forests in this stretch harbour many endangered species comprising Black Panther, Tiger, Gaur, Elephant, Leopard, Sloth Bear Dhole, etc. The Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary, Anashi National Park, Katigao and Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary of Goa come under this belt. The Sahyadri range is also a rich repository of some rare species of plants that are of great ecological and medicinal value. Unfortunately, large scale destruction of forests and the establishment of projects and industries in this region has been dangerously affecting the ecology of this range. Tiger population has drastically come down and though there are stringent laws against poaching, villagers continue to hunt wildlife.With its limited staff, the Forest Department is struggling hard to control poaching. Anti-poaching camps have also been set up in areas where poaching was rampant. However, naturalists who have become the guardians of our natural heritage are striving hard to preserve nature. Meet Mr Gangadhar Kallur, a trained mountaineer from the Himalayan Institute of Mountaineering at Darjeeling and a well-known trekker in the Western Ghats and Himalayan regions. He is on his mission to save the Sahyadri for the last two decades. He taught English for 10 years in various degree colleges. A heroic son of a police officer, he has the distinction of having gone on 700 treks in the Western Ghats and 43 in the Himalayan region. Impressed by the writings of Jim Corbett and Henri Cherrarrie’s Papillion, he took upon himself the task of saving the Western Ghats. He often stays with the villagers in forests to know their opinion on wildlife conservation. http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Sep42007/spectrum2007090323148.asp

27) About a month ago, the government had questioned the court’s jurisdiction to have a special bench on forests. The ministry “is capable of ensuring implementation of the orders of the court in the fields of forests, wildlife and environment, as well as appropriately redressing the grievances of any private or public authority arising out of orders of the court or any other authority”, the affidavit said. In 2002, the court had appointed the panel to ensure its orders are implemented and give expert advice when called to do so. The government has been at loggerheads with the apex court for the past six months, claiming that over 200 big projects are stuck because of objections from the panel. “This is hampering development,” it says. The panel holds that these projects involve massive diversion of forest land for non-forest uses and need to be carefully examined. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070907/asp/nation/story_8287024.asp

Japan:

28) Loggers are facing competition from an unlikely source: the Japanese black bear. In recent years, forestry workers have encountered increased incidences of bears stripping off bark from trees intended to be felled for profit. The damage lowers the value of the wood to be shipped. Local residents are racking their brains to devise countermeasures. But it’s proving costly. “Bears scratch the bark right when we are about to cut down the tree for the lumber industry,” says Susumu Kidowaki, 72, sighing. Kidowaki said he began noticing the damage in woods just a few kilometers from his home several years ago. The bears tend to target Japanese white pine and cypress trees that are about 50 to 60 years old, the age when trees are ripe for logging. When the bark is stripped off, the tree trunk can rot. Kidowaki spends about 100 days a year in the mountains to either thin forests or to log trees for money. He doesn’t rely solely on forestry for a living. Still, the bear problem has dealt a blow to his income. According to the Gifu prefectural government’s forestry management section, some 5 to 10 hectares of land have been damaged from bear scratching each year since 2000 in privately owned or prefecturally owned forests. In fiscal 2004, the figure jumped to a total of about 59 hectares in Motosu, Hida and other cities. In fiscal 2005, the number was about 9 hectares. But, the fiscal 2006 figure is expected to exceed the damage inflicted by bears in fiscal 2004. According to Makoto Asano, associate professor of veterinary medicine at Gifu University’s Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences, bears scratch off bark and eat the outside layers of tree trunks. But there is no evidence to suggest they do this to make up for a lack of food elsewhere. http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200709040058.html

29) According to the Japan Overseas Plantation for Pulpwood (JOPP) at the end of 2005, 33 forest plantation projects were conducted overseas by Japanese connected with papermaking. These were located in nine countries, particularly South America and Australia, with a total area of 570,000 hectares. Companies involved in these projects included electric power plants, publishers and printers, automobile manufacturers, manufacturers of office automation equipment and mail-order retailers. An increasing number of companies that do not directly use timber as raw material for paper are joining these projects. This reflects the priority given to forests as absorbers of carbon dioxide as a means to addressing global warming. Japanese overseas forest plantation projects start with a search for suitable sites beginning with a multifaceted preliminary survey to assess the feasibility of afforestation that includes checks on whether the natural conditions are conducive for raising trees and whether socioeconomic conditions are suitable for conducting such a project. An environmental impact assessment is also conducted. The term “overseas industrial plantation” may conjure up images of vast tracts of land covered with trees, but majority of the locations chosen for industrial afforestation by Japanese companies are former pastures and abandoned farmland. As a result, the forest plantations consist of relatively small areas of woodland dotted over a wide area. JOPP says that in setting up a forest plantation, Japanese companies not only comply with the laws and regulations of the host country but also pay attention to environmental protection issues, such as naturally forested areas and land lying along rivers and on steep slopes. For more than 30 years, Japan’s overseas forest plantation projects steadily expanded in size but it is now necessary to tackle a variety of issues that affect their future. With the global population growth, there is a tendency for fertile land to be used preferentially for agriculture aimed at producing food. Consequently, it is expected that in the future, Japan will be forced to use denuded and relatively unproductive land for forest plantations. Thus, researchers working for Japan’s paper¬making companies are concentrating on developing species resistant to disease and pests, as well as cultivating trees that can withstand aridity, low temperatures, acid soils and saline conditions. http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2007/sept/08/yehey/opinion/20070908opi4.html

Papua New Guinea:

30) A K170 million environmental damage claim has been lodged against the PNG Forest Authority before the Lae National Court. The claim was filed by the Tuandi Land Group Inc, comprising Eec and Busong villagers of Bukawa, Morobe province. The suit claiming K169,915,000 in damage compensation was filed last Tuesday. It names PNG Forests Authority as first defendant, Low Impact Logging Ltd as second defendant, Everwell Ltd as third defendant, and Paul Itama and Kipu Nawi and the Bugang Walu clan of Bugang village, Bukawa as fourth defendants. The State has been named as fifth defendant. The lawsuit proponents are claiming K13.3 million for the alleged loss of 53,200 cubic metres of harvested logs, K17.95 million for the alleged loss of revenue from the harvested logs, K133.3 million for alleged destruction and damage caused to 3,800ha of land, environment and river systems, K5.365million for the alleged mental distress and frustration sustained by the Tuandi land group members, and for the alleged destruction and damage caused to customary sites on their land. The statement of claim alleges that the PNGFA authorised Low Impact Logging and Everwell to enter the Tuandi land group’s customary land and conduct logging operations without including the landowners as party to the forest management agreement (FMA). The statement of claim also asserted the PNGFA had the duty to consult the Tuandi land group and secure its rights through a FMA before engaging or allowing the second and third defendants to enter and cut timber on their land. The land group also alleged that the PNGFA had not complied with procedures and thus, showed negligence in discharging its duties. The Tuandi land group alleges the PNGFA did not acquire the timber rights from them under the Forestry Act 2005. http://www.thenational.com.pg/090407/nation4.htm

Philippines:

31) “Logger” is a dirty word in this neck of the woods. Not us, snaps San Jose Timber Corporation (SJTC). Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile’s firm logs within a 95,770-hectare area that straddles protected zones of the country’s last old-growth forest in Samar. SJTC claims it works by “sustainable management.” Bought in 1977 by martial law Defense Minister Enrile, SJTC got the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to scrub a logging moratorium. This feat affects what World Wildlife Fund lists as “one of the top 200 endangered spaces in the (planet).” Catholic bishops, green groups and international foresters fret over threats to one of the world’s richest biodiversity pools. Some 406 of Samar’s 2,400 plus species of flowers bloom nowhere else. And it has 39 species of mammals and 197 birds. Many are endangered. “This genetic pool has incredible value,” marvels Food and Agriculture Organization forester Patrick Durst. To protect this critical resource, the United Nations Development Program, Global Environment Facility and the government launched the Samar Island Natural Park. But government often snitches with the left hand what it hands with its right. Here, DENR spiked the log ban – and stretched SJTC’s license by 16 years and five months. Environment Secretary Mike Defensor’s Aug.16, 2005 order tacked this rider for the SJTC: “extension of period of said TLA equivalent to the time lapsed from May 31, 1989 until promulgation of this order.” Extension constituted “restitution.” Onli in da Pilipins, retorted Samar Island Biodiversity Foundation in a letter to senators, church leaders and NGOs. “Extension of TLA as ‘restitution’ never happened in the Philippines before,” wrote foundation president Agustin Docena. http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/opinion/view_article.php?article_id=86596

Malaysia:

32) With a dozen timber firms set to receive new government soft loans to finance ‘reforestation’ projects, critics are saying that the money will translate into logging subsidies for the timber lobby. Six of these firms are from timber-rich Sarawak state in North Borneo. Five other firms have already signed up for loans making a total of over a dozen firms so far under a forest replanting programme that aims to create plantations of latex timber clone (LTC) rubber trees and acacia. The federal government has set an initial target of dispensing 200 million ringgit (57 million dollars) in loans to firms. These loans will support up to 12,000 ha of tree plantations for 2006 and a further 24,000 ha for 2007 and 2008. Over a billion ringgit (300 million dollars) has been allocated for financing tree plantation projects until 2011. Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Peter Chin said that Sarawak alone plans to increase its forest plantations to one million hectares by 2020. The plantations would produce the raw material for timber processing mills in the state. As part of this endeavour, private firms would plant 70,000 ha annually while the public sector would grow 2,400 ha. The minister said that plantation forests would reduce dependency on natural forests. “To the successful borrowers, it is my hope that all planting operations and activities be carried out in accordance with sound forestry practices and principles”, as well as existing rules and laws, said Chin at a loan-signing agreement in July. Under the replanting programme, soft loans of 3,200 ringgit (920 dollars) per ha are reportedly being provided to plant acacia mangium and 5,400 ringgit (1,550 dollars) per ha to replant rubber trees. Once the trees reach maturity, the firms will repay the soft loans at an interest rate of 3.5 percent. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39162

Indonesia:

33) Eight of 59 illegal logging and forest encroachment cases have been brought to court since 2002. Natural Resources and Environment Ministry’s Parliamentary Secretary Datuk Sazmi Miah said five of the cases had been completed while the rest were still being heard in court. “The government is serious about checking illegal logging and forest encroachment so that it would not adversely impact our sustainable management of forests,” he added in the Dewan Rakyat today. He was replying to Lau Yeng Peng (BN-Puchong) who questioned on the effectiveness of the National Forestry Act 1984 (amended 1993) and the number of cases brought to court. Sazmi said the relevant Act was amended in 1993 to give it more bite and was being applied by all the states in the peninsula. He said with the amendments, the fine for committing the offence was raised to RM500,000 and the jail term up to 20 years, with the mandatory jail sentence of not less than a year, compared with the RM10,000 fine and jail term of not more than three years previously. “The amended Act also provides for incentives to be given to informants,” he added. Sazmi said the Kelantan government had approved 25,000 hectares of land for vegetable farming since ruling the state in 1990. “However, the state has not become a major vegetable producer in the country. Instead, several highland areas have been left bare after the trees were logged, causing rivers to be polluted.” He said to curb environmental destruction, the government planned to limit the logging quota in each state over five years, besides implanting chips in the trees for monitoring purpose. http://web6.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news_lite.php?id=282898

World-wide:

34) The Rainforest Site is dedicated to the preservation of rainforests around the world. Your daily click funds the purchase of rainforest land by The Nature Conservancy, The Rainforest Conservation Fund, The World Parks Endowment, and Rainforest2Reef. These organizations work to preserve rainforest land in Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Paraguay and other locations worldwide. On average, over 35,500 individuals from around the world visit the site each day to click the green “Click Here to Give – it’s FREE” button. To date, more than 150 million visitors have preserved more than 40,500 acres of land. http://www.therainforestsite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=4

35) Last week, our soon-to-be-launched agribusiness campaign put Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) on notice that it needs to answer for its role in rainforest destruction. This week, we sent similar letters to agribusiness giants Cargill and Bunge, telling them they, too, must be held accountable for the environmental havoc and human rights violations associated with their soy and palm oil operations around the world. ADM was quick to respond, asking to meet with us. Could this be part of the company’s new strategy to beef up its PR efforts? We’ll see if ADM’s competitors are as eager to spin. Either way, while face-to-face meetings are a good first step, these companies have a long, long way to go on the road to environmentally and socially just practices. Stay tuned—this campaign is only just heating up. http://understory.ran.org/2007/09/06/ran%E2%80%99s-agribusiness-campaign-confronts-the-abcs-of-r
ainforest-destruction/