292 – Earth’s Tree News

Today for you 32 new articles about earth’s trees! (292nd edition)
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–Ghana: 1) GDP and decline in biodiversity, 2) wildfires depleting reserves,
–Zimbabwe: 3) Deforestation and water quality
–Costa Rica: 4) Disease vectors increase in human near deforestation
–Guyana: 5) Gov recovering a sense of its responsibilities
–Brazil: 6) Blaming Mato Grosso, 7) We cannot ignore deforestation, 8) Increased deforestation near 36 small Amazon, 9) New monkey species found, 10) Fish plant seeds,
–Argentina: 11) Save the “El Impenetrable” forest, 12) Studying the Alerce, –French Guiana: 13) Gold mine bordering the Kaw wetland is refused
–India: 14) 70 mines in Goa, 15) Bill to stop felling of coconut trees, 16) Save the Ghats, 17) 3 new areas under Protected Area Network,
–Philippines: 18) More than 30 chainsaws were sneaked into the mountain
–Borneo: 19) A losing battle to save his culture
–Thailand: 20) Politics of Environmental Knowledge in Northern Thailand
–Cambodia: 21) Prosecution of villager leads to protest
–Fiji: 22) Future Forest Fiji Limited puts bread and butter on their table
–Papua New Guinea: 23) Kokoda Trail threatened by miners
–Indonesia: 24) Rich nations must control wood consumption, 25) $26 million in carbon credits for Aceh? 26) What can we possibly do to stop this?
–New Zealand: 27) Block the import of illegal lumber project, 28) State forestry company shut down,
–Australia: 29) Neighbors rally to save a 1000 year-old tree by watering it, 30) Save the Bornemissza’s stag beetle, 31) Garret approves first stages of Gunns mill, 32) Don’t log water catchments,

Ghana:

1) The country’s rich forests contribute about five to eight per cent of GDP and it is 15% of merchandise exports. Ghana’s forest products, especially timber are the third highest foreign exchange earner for Ghana’s economy after cocoa and gold. Every year Ghana earns some US$300 million from timber products. The country’s largest importers are Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Britain. The need for decisive action to restore Ghana’s forests is even the more desirable in the face of the challenges of global warming and its associated risks. There is the fear that as a result of the high rate of deforestation in the country, an enormous amount of greenhouse gases would be emitted into the atmosphere and that would severely impair the country’s climatic conditions. Indeed studies have shown that tropical forests have a great deal of interactions with the atmosphere with consequential effects on the climate. For instance, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are released into the atmosphere and these modify the climate. What this means is that if a greater proportion of forests are lost, these gases would saturate the atmosphere leading to alteration of the climate. There is also the reality of loss of habitat of rich biodiversity, human settlements and diminishing rare species of flora and fauna culminating in the loss of long held traditional modes of forest preservation and the delicate use of specific forest products for medicinal purposes and other uses that in the past have sustained indigenous people and preserved their rich cultures. http://www.myjoyonline.com/features/200802/13322.asp

2) The Deputy Minister for Minister for Lands, Forestry and Mines, Andrew Adjei-Yeboah yesterday told Parliament that wildfires are one of the greatest contributors to the depletion of Ghana’s forest reserve. Responding to a question by Evans Paul Aidoo (NDC, Sefwi-Wiawso) who wanted to know the extent of depletion of Forest Reserves and to find out whether this country can boast of forest reserves by 2020 if the trend of depletion continues, he said between 2000 to 2005 the forest cover reduced from 1,738,978 ha to 1,607,705 ha. He said, an annual deforestation rate of about 1.5%. is recorded annually adding that “This is with particular reference to timber production from permanent protection areas in forest reserves”. According to him, wildfires, particularly in the transitional and savannah zones, have been the most important cause of deforestation and forest degradation in Ghana, responsible for an estimated annual loss of about 3% of GDP over the last fifteen years.He however indicated that government and donor supported interventions such as Wildfire Management Project among other programmes have helped to check further deforestation to some extent. “Recent satellite imagery, covering forest zones has revealed improved vegetation cover in the forest areas where Wildfire Projects are operational”. http://www.thestatesmanonline.com/pages/news_detail.php?newsid=5705&section=1

Zimbabwe:

3) Massive deforestation and poor land use have had negative long-term effects on Harare’s water quality, quantity and supply, the Zimbabwe National Water Authority said yesterday. In an interview, Zinwa spokesperson Mrs Marjory Munyonga said while the water authority was currently maintaining the water demand management strategy meant to ration and ensure equitable distribution of water in the city, there were other underlying factors currently posing threats to the sustainable water supply and quality. “The rate of deforestation on the upstream of our major water sources is alarming and a major cause for concern. The illegal cutting down of trees causes soil to be washed down stream and cause siltation of our rivers and dams. “Vandalised manholes and the heavy rains currently being experienced in Harare have increased the load of sand in the water pipes and it is costing us dearly to de-sludge the soil,” she said. Mrs Munyonga said the degradation of the watershed or river basin, which is an area on which surface water runs off through a common point, negatively affects the resource base. “It is our mandate to raise awareness and let people understand that the protection of water sources underpins their long-term utilisation to ensure we maintain sufficient water quality and quantity to meet basic human and economic needs,” said Mrs Munyonga. She said Zimbabwe as a whole was experiencing human induced watershed degradation due to various natural factors that include poor land use. Mrs Munyonga said despite efforts by the Environmental Management Agency to nip in the bud environmental related offenders, some people continued cutting down trees, practising massive stream bank cultivation and water pollution, which causes the flourishing of alien plants. Some conservationists have also indicated that immense pressure on land transforms soil structure and decreases the growth and flourishing of grasses and other shrubs that holds the soil together and reduce soil erosion. It is estimated that in Zimbabwe’s communal lands, under grazing results in the loss of at least 75 tonnes of soil per hectare every year. http://allafrica.com/stories/200802070067.html

Costa Rica:

4) A new study published February 6 in the open access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases suggests that socioeconomic factors best explain patterns of the infectious disease American Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ACL) in Costa Rica. Contrary to the established belief that deforestation reduces the risk of infection, the research shows that deforestation may actually make socially marginalized human populations more vulnerable to infection. “The classical idea has been that people working or living close to the forest were at risk for the disease, but that view failed to consider such factors as quality of life and general level of health,” said co-author Luis Fernando Chaves of the University of Michigan. “Contrary to what was previously believed, the more forest you have, even in a marginal population, the more protected you are against the disease.” The researchers examined county-level ACL case data from 1996 through 2000 for Costa Rica, a country in which approximately 20,000 acres of land are deforested annually to make way for cattle ranching and banana, mango and citrus fruit plantations. In addition to examining such factors as forest cover, rainfall, elevation, and percent of the population living less than five kilometers from the forest edge, the researchers also incorporated an index of social marginalization into their analysis. This index, which takes into account income, literacy, level of education, average distance to health centers, health insurance coverage and other indicators of life at the margins of mainstream society, provides a single measure of quality of life. The researchers found a strong geographic overlap between disease incidence and social marginalization that was not found between disease incidence and the other ecological variables. “When we looked just at factors such as climate and the physical environment, we found no specific patterns with respect to the disease,” Chaves said. “But when we looked at the social data, we found clear patterns according to marginality.” Putting everything together, the researchers discovered that in fact there is a relationship between ACL and deforestation. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-02/plos-dbt013108.php

Guyana:

5) I would like to clarify some of the arguments between the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) and the wood processing industry. After five years of minimal effective activity the GFC appears to be recovering a sense of its responsibilities for administration of the 13.7 million hectares of State Forests and the economic products from those forests as shown in its responses to letters in the newspapers. The GFC website contains some documents but not others which the industry should be able to access readily. Now available are the Code of Practice on Timber Harvesting (second edition 2002) and a sufficient set of guidelines for pre-harvest inventories and all required forest management and annual operational plans, all important for the logging concessionaires. The processors are served by the Wood Processing Standards and Procedures (September 2007). Missing from that website are the existing forest law and regulations (from 1953), the forestry chapter 14 of the National Development Strategy (1996), the national forest policy (1997) or the national forest plan (2001). Also missing is any background document to explain and rationalise the new standards for “sawmills, sawpits, lumberyards and timber depots”. The claim by the Minister for Forestry of public consultation appears to mean only set presentations to GFC-selected stakeholders without meaningful feedback and revision from non-government stakeholders. The absence of record of such public consultations is also disappointing, as the GFC’s claim to have responded cannot be demonstrated. http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_letters?id=56538616

Brazil:

6) Brazil’s Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciales (INPE) again blamed the state of Mato Grosso on Wednesday for 53.7 percent of the destruction of 1,195 square miles of Amazon rainforest. Governor Blario Maggi questioned the data, but INPE meteorologist Carlos Nobre confirmed the accuracy of information supplied by Real Time Deforestation Detection system (DETER) DETER monitors affected areas and visits sites, and supplies the data every 15 days to the Brazilian Environment and Natural Resources Institute (IBAMA) and state environmental institutions. The number of tools used are trustworthy enough to give an idea of trends, which causes real alarm, particularly with photos of the regions’ vegetation density. A flyover Mato Grosso last week revealed unusual devastation and the dead area no longer plays a biological role as a forest; it no longer stores carbon and biodiversity cannot be maintained. http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7BF9A30CC9-60D8-4939-A67E-A7FAD01087A3%7D)&language=EN

7) A senior Roman Catholic bishop criticized Brazil’s government on Wednesday for energy and agriculture policies that he said were destroying the Amazon forest and threatening the livelihood of local populations. “We cannot ignore deforestation by loggers who violate the country’s laws and … threaten tribal Indians and others who depend on (the Amazon),” said Bishop Guilherme Antonio Werlang in launching the church’s annual Lent campaign to mobilize followers on issues of social concern. The comments are likely to increase pressure on Brazil’s government to rein in deforestation. Brazil is the world’s largest Catholic country and the church remains highly influential despite falling membership. Werlang’s warning follows disagreement within the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva over increasing Amazon deforestation rates. The environment ministry has blamed farmers and cattle ranchers for moving deeper into the forest in search of cheap land, while Lula and the agriculture ministry reject the charges. Between August and December an estimated 2,703 square miles (7,000 square km), or two-thirds the annual rate for the 12 months ending in July 2007, were chopped down. Increased sugar cane production, the raw material for the country’s much-touted ethanol program, also drives crops and cattle further north into the Amazon, environmentalists say. “We have to question the energy programs that deteriorate our rivers and land with the construction of ever more hydroelectric plants and monoculture farm production,” said Werlang, member of the Brazilian Bishops Conference CNBB. Part of its campaign this year in defense of life aims to raise environmental awareness. The Lula government tendered in December the right to build a $5 billion hydroelectric plant, the first of two along the Madeira river in the western Amazon. Friends of the Earth, an environmental advocacy group, estimates that the project could attract as many as 100,000 settlers to the region, increasing pressure on land and natural resources. http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN06440916

8) After three years of decline in Amazon rainforest loss, satellite images revealed increased deforestation near 36 small Amazon cities and towns in the last four months of 2007, and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva held an emergency cabinet meeting to launch counter-measures, with Environment Minister Marina Silva attributing the new illegal forest clearing round to higher prices of corn, soy and cattle, and announcing not only expanded police and environmental control in the affected areas, but also possible fines for purchase of products from the cleared land. Data as yet inconclusive, reports the Associated Press, indicate a loss of 2,700 square miles (nearly 1.73 million acres) of rainforest from last August through December, a rate whose continuation could mean destruction of a total of 5,791 square miles (some 3.71 million acres) of jungle by August 2008, a 34 percent increase over the previous 12-month period. Officials are still analyzing the satellite imagery, but Minister Silva warned that should the counter-measures fail, Brazil would suffer ”an environmental and an economic” setback. http://www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=6470&res=1024

9) A previously unknown species of uakari monkey was discovered in the Brazilian Amazon, reports National Geographic News. The primate was identified after it was killed by Yanomamo Indians near the Brazil-Venezuela border. “They told us about this black uakari monkey, which was slightly different to the one we knew from Pico de Neblina National Park, where I’d worked earlier,” Jean-Phillipe Boubli, the University of Auckland researcher who described the monkey, told National Geographic News. “I searched for that monkey for at least five years. The reason I couldn’t find it was because the place where they were was sort of unexpected.”
Uakari monkeys are generally found in igapó and várzea (flooded river) forests, but the new species is found in a mountainous region. The monkey is named Cacajao ayresii after José Márcio Ayres, a Brazilian biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society who died in 2003. Boubli says that because the new species is found in an unprotected area conservationists will lobby for the creation of a new park. “The population is quite small, so they are quite vulnerable. I’m a bit concerned,” he was quoted as saying. The formal description of the species has been submitted to the International Journal of Primatology. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0205-monkey.html

10) In Brazil’s Pantanal, the largest freshwater wetlands in the world, fish have been found to have a remarkable role in distributing the seeds of tropical plants. Fishing practices are not only threatening the fish, say the researchers who report the find, but the forests as well. In the usual methods of animal seed dispersal, primates, rodents and birds either eat fruit and ingest seeds contained inside or get seeds from the plant stuck to their bodies. Later, the seeds are either defecated intact, or fall off. But in recent years ecologists have found seeds in the digestive tracts of more than a hundred fish species as well. In the Pantanal, plants including palms and legumes tend to release their fruits during a time of year when massive flooding is common, and waters encroach over thousands of square kilometres. The fruits fall from the trees into water and the pacu (Piaractus mesopotamicus ), one of the most common fish in the Pantanal, migrate deep inland during such floods and munch on the fruit; local fishermen often catch them by putting fruit on their lures. Mauro Galetti, at São Paulo State University in Brazil, and his team looked to see whether these fish were carrying intact seeds, which they could defecate in areas that dry out when the floodwaters recede. The team explored the guts of 70 fish collected at Fazenda Rio Negro, a ranch run by Conservation International in the Nhecolândia region, an ecologically diverse area of the Pantanal that teems with wildlife. They report in Biotropica that there was a positive correlation between fish size and the number of intact seeds in the stomach: more than 141 seeds from the tucum palm were found in the largest individuals1. Galetti and his team also conducted a four-year study of 54 vertebrate fruit eaters, ranging from tapirs and monkeys to toucans and pacus, and watched 23 fruiting plants for hundreds of hours, to determine which animals ate what. They then collected the faeces of all these animals and tested whether the seeds found would germinate under natural conditions. From the data collected, Galetti says, it seems that the tucum palm relies almost entirely on pacu services for seed dispersal. “[It is] amazing that for some plant species, pacu appear to be the main dispersers,” says Galetti. http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080205/full/news.2008.555.html

Argentina:

11) The “El Impenetrable” forest, which covers nearly four million hectares in northern Argentina, could finally be protected thanks to a new forestry law, after decades of deforestation which have plunged impoverished indigenous people in the area into a grave humanitarian crisis. After a campaign that managed to collect 1.5 million signatures, the forestry law finished winding its way slowly through Congress and was passed late last year. The law declared a one-year ban on logging in native forests and requires the national and provincial authorities to draw up land-use plans clearly defining protected areas and sustainable forestry zones. Each new logging permit issued after the ban is lifted will depend on approval of an environmental impact study and will only be issued after public hearings are held. The dense El Impenetrable forest, which covered 8.2 million hectares in the northern provinces of Chaco, Santiago del Estero and Salta 95 years ago, has shrunk over the years as livestock breeders and soy farmers have moved in. The area, the poorest part of Argentina’s poorest province, is now rife with corruption, drug trafficking and the smuggling of contraband cigarettes. The deforestation picked up speed over the last decade. The Environment Ministry estimates that Argentina lost 1.1 million hectares of native forest between 1998 and 2006. El Impenetrable represented more than 60 percent of that total, according to environmental organizations.
http://dosmundos.com/welcome/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1374&Itemid=69

12) On the shores of lake Nahuel Huapi, in the wild mountains of Argentina’s Patagonia, live some of the world’s most ancient trees. Known in Spanish as the alerce, the Patagonian cypress grows extremely slowly, but can reach heights over 50 meters (165 feet) and live for 2,000 years or more, putting some of them among the oldest living things on earth. For scientists who come from around the world to study them, the alerces give an exciting snapshot of years past. Argentine geoscientist Ricardo Villalba, a contributor to the Nobel Prize-winning United Nations report on climate change last year, studies what the ancient trees say about changing weather patterns. Like other trees, alerces form a new layer of wood under their bark every year. So samples taken straight through the trunk can help gauge what the weather was like in each year of the tree’s life. “This has allowed us to see that in some sectors of Patagonia, the year 1998 was the hottest in the last 400 years,” Villalba said during a recent expedition. “The marked tendencies that have occurred over the last few decades have no precedent in the last 400 or 500 years, which is as far as the registers in Patagonia have permitted us to analyze up until now.” The tree rings show that temperatures in the 20th Century were “anomalously warm” across the southern Andes. At their worst, mean temperatures over the last century went up 0.86 degree Celsius (1.5 degrees Fahrenheit) when compared to temperatures in the previous 260 years. At the nearby Puerto Blest Biological Research Station, Villalba has been able to compare his results with those of other leading scientists. Evidence from tree rings is what scientists call proxy data, meaning they know the data is not exact but if it corroborates other proxy data — like evidence of glacier retreat — it can be used to draw real conclusions. The scientists have also been able to use their proxy data to test computer models used for predicting climate changes in the future. “In this part of the world there is a decrease in precipitation in the last decade and a very marked increase in temperature, which is entirely what the computer models predict for global change,” said researcher Brian Luckman of the University of Western Ontario and the InterAmerican Research Institute. “So we can use some of the results that we have to verify and to test some of the computer models and to see if they really give realistic pictures of what has happened in the past or what will happen in the future.” The more scientists learn about those natural cycles and about weather patterns in the past, the more they are able to answer that question. And the alerces still have a lot more information to provide. http://www.flickr.com/groups/349459@N25/discuss/72157603869842608/

French Guiana:

13) Environmentalists declared victory after the French government blocked approval of a controversial gold mine bordering the Kaw wetland, an ecologically rich site in French Guiana. The decision was handed down last week following an environmental assessment by the Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development [Ministère de l’Ecologie du Développement et Aménagement Durables – MEDAD] based on work by local scientists. IAMGOLD, a Toronto based mining and exploration company, had been seeking to develop gold deposits in the Kaw Mountain region of French Guiana, an overseas department of France located on the northeastern coast of South America. The proposed concession bordered Trésor — a rainforest reserve that houses protected wildlife — and is close to Kaw swamp, a Ramsar-listed wetland. The Kaw Mountain area is home to 700 plant species, almost 100 species of mammals and 254 species of birds, according to the IUCN. Mine opponents — including a coalition of environmentalists, indigenous rights’ groups, and some scientists said the project could result in forest clearing, contamination of groundwater and soils with heavy metals and other toxic substances, and erosion and sedimentation of local waterways. The project also threatened the area’s high levels of biodiversity — a risk highlighted in a report by French scientists. “We clearly highlighted and presented data showing that the previous pre-project environmental survey was weak as the flora was not correctly inventoried and that there was no adequate tree census,” Forget told mongabay.com. “The open pit mine would have threatened key forest habitat of Kaw… there was also some uncertainty on whether cyanide-laced waste water could flood the Kaw swamp during exceptionally heavy rainfall during the wet season.” http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0205-french_guiana.html

India:

14) The foundation petitioned the Supreme Court in 2004 that 70 mines in Goa (in addition to several industries) were being operated without environment clearances required under the provisions of the Environment Protection Act, 1986. After the Supreme Court ordered closing down of these mines, the lease-holders approached the Ministry for environmental clearances. Instead of using the opportunity to enforce its environment regulations and impose conditions on mining, the Ministry sought to support the mining lobby by speeding up the process of granting clearances, Dr. Alvares said. Practically, all the mines were granted environment clearances within two years. Committees appointed to evaluate mining proposals were not permitted to visit any of the mines, he added. According to Dr. Alvares, Goa’s iron ore mines had been implicated over the past several decades in large-scale destruction of forests in the ecologically sensitive area of the Western Ghats, degradation of agricultural fields, widespread pollution of water bodies and rivers and sedimentation of Mandovi and Zuari estuarine ecosystems. Mining activities were responsible for the damage to wildlife sanctuaries, disruption of water sheds, generation of dust and noise pollution, destruction of roads and increase in the number of recklessly driven overloaded trucks on Goan village roads, he said. Despite this, not a single mining project was halted or stopped by the Ministry. On the contrary, mines with the worst environment records, those close to wildlife sanctuaries, those with criminal records, were able to get environment clearances and temporary working permits ahead of others, Dr. Alvares alleged. http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/05/stories/2008020553240300.htm

15) The Government has planned to introduce a new Bill to stop felling of coconut trees on lands less than five acres in extent. In the event a coconut tree has to be cut, a tax of Rs. 3 lakhs will be levied. If a coconut tree is in a dangerous place, and needs to be cut, a team will have to inspect it headed by the District Secretary who will issue a permit accordingly. According to a survey conducted by the Coconut Development Authority, over 1,275,000 coconut trees have been felled within 10 years and no arrangements have been made for replanting. About 4,027 million coconuts are required for consumption annually. However, last year, a target of 2,990 million coconuts was achieved. Seventy per cent of the coconut crop is used annually for local consumption. The remaining 30 per cent is used for related products earning Rs. 23 billion in foreign exchange annually. About 35 per cent of the produce goes waste from local consumption and this amounts to 500 million nuts. Minister of Plantation Industries D. M. Jayaratne said, “since the percentage of cultivation is low, cultivation will be stepped up under the National Coconut Cultivation Project Program, and we have targeted to plant 10 million seedlings”. http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=15703

16) “We have to get together again to stop the ecological degradation that is now taking place in the western ghats,’’ says Pandurang Hegde, leader of the ‘appiko’ (hug the trees) movement of the 1980s, which forced the government to ban tree-felling inside the protected area. The ‘Save Western Ghats’ movement of the 1980s involved over 20 local and regional people’s movements who got together to march the length of the sector between November 1987 and February 1988, in an awareness-building protest against the construction of dams and power stations that destroy one of the world’s richest habitats. Movements under this banner influenced government policy to stop the felling of trees in Karnataka and cancel plans for a dam in the Silent Valley which was declared a patch of undisturbed tropical forest and converted into a national park in 1984. The Indian government also set up the Western Ghats Development Programme in 1981 to ensure policies maintained ecological balance, preserved genetic diversity and created awareness for eco-restoration for the damage already done. But those successful environmental movements of the 1980s had, in subsequent decades, died down. The western ghats cover 159,000 sq.km, traverse 1,600 km through six west coast states — Gujarat, Goa, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamilnadu — and house an incredible diversity of species and some of the finest examples of moist deciduous and tropical forests. The ghats in Maharashtra alone have 5,000 species of flowering plants, 139 mammal species, 508 bird species and 179 amphibian species. At least 325 of these are globally threatened. Its complex network of 22 rivers provides nearly 40 percent of India’s water-catchment systems. New Delhi-based environmental writer Sudhirendar Sharma likens the western ghats to the Amazon forests in its environmental importance. “The stakes for saving the western ghats are much higher than previously envisaged and the scope much higher”, says Sharma, “The entire region stands to gain as it is the gateway to life-saving monsoons that provide water-security in the subcontinent.” But, in recent years, a fresh spate of construction activity encouraged by the government has re-appeared in these hills. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41115

17) The Punjab Government on Monday issued a notification to bring three new areas under Protected Area Network, including Kathlaur-Kaushalyan Wildlife Sanctuary of 1550 Acres in Gurdaspur District, Keshopur Chhamb Community Reserve of 799 Acres (Gurdaspur District) and Lalwan Community Reserve of 3167 Acres in District Hoshiarpur. Disclosing this here in a release on Monday Tikshan Sud, Forest and Wildlife Minister, Punjab said that in a major step for protection and conservation of wildlife and biodiversity in Punjab three more areas have been declared protected areas and added to already existing 11 protected areas in Punjab. He said that previously, there were 11 Protected Areas in Punjab namely, Bir Moti Bagh, Bir Bhunerhari, Bir Dosanjh, Bir Bhadson, Bir Mehas and Bir Gurdialpura in Patiala District, Bir Aishwan in Sangrur District, Harike and Abohar (Ferozepur District) Takhni Rehmapur (Hoshiarpur District) and Jhajjar Bacholi (District Ropar) that were declared wildlife sanctuaries under Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The total area of these sanctuaries was 31612.24 acres which comes to only 0.63 per cent of the total geographical area of the State. Sud said that declaring three more Protected Areas in the State, there is an increase of 5515 Acres in Protected Area Network of Punjab. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200802041831.htm

Philippines:

18) On Monday evening, Eric Avellaneda, vice chairman of mountain tribe association called “Adhikain ng mga Grupong Taong Katutubo na Nagtatanggol” (Agta), sent a text message to the Philippine Daily Inquirer and reported that more than 30 chainsaws were sneaked into the mountain and were now being used by unidentified groups in their renewed unlawful cutting of trees. In a follow-up phone interview, Avellaneda said he just borrowed the mobile phone from a lowlander to contact the media to ask for help to stop the illegal activities. “The media is our only hope to stop and prevent the further destruction of Sierra Madre. Illegal logging stops every time it was reported in the media,” he said in Filipino. Avellaneda said the illegal loggers were cutting more than 60 trees of hardwood species per day in the mountain villages of General Nakar, particularly in Barangay (village) Maligaya. He said the felled logs were being transported out of the Sierra Madre by floating them downstream via Umiray River, and would eventually land on the coastline of General Nakar. The logs are later pulled by boats towards Dinggalan, Aurora and Dinahican village in Infanta, Quezon. Some of the logs also exit the mountain through the backdoor leading to Tanay, Rizal, Avellaneda said. The tribal leader said the groups of illegal loggers and their “agents” originated from Aurora province, Tanay and Infanta. The “agents” handles the business transaction to prospective buyers of hot logs and flitches. Avellaneda said the forest guards from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) assigned in the area were not doing anything to stop the rape of Sierra Madre. “[Are] they in cahoots with the illegal loggers because they were simply closing their eyes?” Avellaneda said. When contacted through his mobile phone, Antonio Diwa, community environment and natural resources officer based in Real, Quezon, vehemently denied that his office was in connivance with illegal loggers for not doing anything to stop the unlawful forest activities. “On the contrary, we are doing everything to protect the environment despite our limited resources. The accusation was unfair,” he said. Diwa said he would immediately dispatch a group of forest rangers to check on the veracity of the report. In his New Year’s message, Environment Secretary Joselito Atienza admitted that corrupt DENR men were behind the massive deforestation in the country. He vowed to establish a “corruption-free and transparent” DENR. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20080205-116874/Help-save-Sierra-Madre-t
ribe-leader-urges-media

Borneo:

19) As the roar of heavy chainsaws echoes in the distance, 54-year-old Ajang Kiew, once a nomadic Penan tribesman, wages a losing battle to save his culture in Borneo’s rainforests. The environmental damage wrought by the timber companies that are cutting swathes through Penan territory is not the only challenge faced by his people who now mostly live in villages. As the loggers build roads through the once-impenetrable jungle to enable them to extract the timber, they also open up access to the modern world — including television, junk food and new ideas. At the timber camps and in Penan settlements, satellite televisions are now commonplace, powered by electricity supplied through diesel generators or mini hydro-electric pumps. And Ajang says that as the forest shield is cleared, the young Penans no longer have an appetite for the natural environment or their ancient cultural traditions and ways of life. They prefer pop music to the sounds of wild animals and insects, and crave for McDonalds and Coke rather than the pulp of a sago palm, the staple diet of the Penan which is eaten with meat from wild boar or barking deer. “Yes I want a school, a clinic, but we need the jungle to preserve our culture,” Ajang says in the Long San region about 200 kilometres (124 miles) southeast of Miri, an oil-rich coastal town in Malaysia’s Sarawak state. “In my village in Long Sayan, logging has destroyed the forest, including my ancestral graves,” continues Ajang, chairman of the Penan Association in Sarawak, on Malaysia’s half of Borneo island which it shares with Indonesia. “If the habitats and the jungle products disappear, our culture will also disappear.” But 21-year-old Roland Allen, a Penan undergraduate student who attends university in Sarawak, says he has no love for the forest or his culture. “I like to live in the town. I want to enjoy a modern lifestyle,” he tells AFP during a visit to his ancestral home of Long Main village, half an hour’s helicopter flight from Long San. “We need to sacrifice the forest to move on. Education is a powerful weapon. We need roads. We need schools. We need medical clinics,” he insisted. Just behind Allen’s house is a mini-hydroelectric pump sponsored by timber giant Samling which generates electricity and powers a huge satellite dish. Some 20 children from Long Main attend boarding school, trekking four hours through the jungle to reach the nearest timber road near the town of Long Benalih. Samling’s plans to build a new road to Long Main have been halted by a blockade mounted by Penans aimed at protecting their forest. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h9QWMShS5E089rJt8OxQ95jt0uIA

Thailand:

20) Forest Guardians, Forest Destroyers: The Politics of Environmental Knowledge in Northern Thailand. The book is a critical discussion of debates about deforestation, hydrology, erosion, chemical use and biodiversity in northern Thailand. Here is a brief extract from the Conclusion (pp. 226-227). This book has sought to illustrate how environmental politics in [northern Thailand] has become dominated by environmental beliefs that are simplistic, misleading, and highly selective. Since at least the 1960s, a variety of observers have claimed that the upland zones of northern Thailand are in a state of urgent environmental crisis. While environmental problems do exist, and interventions are required, the common belief that upland agriculture is causing immense damage to uplands and lowlands is simply not supported by available evidence. Yet, despite this lack of evidence, the narrative of upland crisis is widely popular and highly persistent. In Thailand, newspapers, television, government statements, and books regularly refer to the belief that population growth, deforestation, and commercialization are causing water shortages, soil erosion, declining biodiversity, and agrochemical contamination. The message is underlined by roadside signs in the north, installed by the government, which report in matter-of-fact terms that deforestation causes drought and undermines agricultural livelihoods. In the streets of Bangkok, colorful murals outside schools repeat this message with stark images of deforested hillsides, desperate farmers, threatened wildlife, and contaminated streams. This vision of upland crisis is used to support very different approaches to the management of the uplands. On the one hand, conservationists and state regulators have used the language of rigorous science and uncontested certainty to argue that urgent steps are required to protect fragile upland catchments from further degradation. On the other hand, people-oriented proponents of community development have drawn on the language of indigenous knowledge to argue that local residents have the traditional skills to manage this fragile landscape, provided they are shielded from the disruption of both state regulation and commercialization. What makes this debate unproductive is that, ultimately, it is based on a shared assumption of upland crisis, born of a series of questionable beliefs about environmental processes in the uplands. http://rspas.anu.edu.au/rmap/newmandala/2008/02/07/forest-guardians-forest-destroyers/

Cambodia:

21) A source indicated that Srun Korb, the representative of the villagers, was accused of illegally encroaching and grabbing state forest lands in the Romchek village area, Anlong Veng commune, and the court held a hearing in his case in the morning of 04 February stemming from a complaint brought up by Tea Kim Soth, the deputy director of the Siem Reap district forest administration. The hearing was presided by judges Yon Kosal, Suos La and Nguon Nara. After questioning Srun Korb for almost 3-hour, the court sentenced him to 6-year in jail and accused him of encroaching and grabbing state forest lands, and sent him to Siem Reap prison for detention. Report from the location of the incident indicated that, after the villagers’ representative was sent to jail, the villagers who were waiting to hear the results of their representative from morning till noon time, became irritated and angry. They then armed themselves with bamboo sticks and rocks, and they stood in front of the courthouse to shout their protest to demand the release of their representative. They all shouted in unison: the court handed an unfair sentence. Those who were very angry wanted to conduct a raid inside the court fence perimeter, but a number of cops were brought in and they were spread in front of the court. 56-year-old Or Somarith said that she came from Romchek village to support and to demand the court to release Srun Korb, she said that the sentence handed down by the court is very unfair because the accused did not cut down tress in the Romchek village area, in fact, those who cut down the trees are members of the Handicap Smile Association, and she does not understand why a different person is arrested instead. Tea Kim Soth, the deputy director of the Siem Reap district forest administration and also the plaintiff in the case, told Koh Santepehap that the forest in the Romchek village was logged and destroyed by the Handicap Smile Association which illegally distributed the lands, up to 800-hectare of lands were thus logged. Tea Kim Soth added that regarding the forest logging to grab lands, his department sued 4 persons at the Siem Reap-Oddar Meanchey court, and the court handed down its sentences on 20 June 2006, by sending to jail the 4 persons involved: Sing Samrith, the president of the Handicap Smile Association, Sok Sak, Kan Samnang, and Chan Soroeun. Each of the accused was sentenced to 5-year of jail, and they were also fined. http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2008/02/villagers-armed-with-sticks-and-rocks.html

Fiji:

22) Future Forest Fiji Limited might not be well known to most of us. But for a group of about 10 people in Nakorotubu, it is the company that puts bread and butter on their table. Future Forest in Tova, Nakorotubu grows teak a hardwood that can be harvested in about four to five years. And the company also has plans to process the wood before selling it. Teak trees are a familiar sight when driving down Nakorotubu Road. Nursery manager Reshmi Chand, said she started working for Future Forest in December 2006. From being a wife of a sugarcane farmer, Mrs Chand said the switch to teak was worth it. She said it began when her husband was approached to harrow the land for the company. “So from there we started working for this company,” she said. Her husband looks after the field where the teak trees are planted. Mrs Chand so working for the company was hard at first, with only the two of them doing everything that needed to be done. “It is also hard work like sugarcane farming, but this is good money,” she said. Ms Chand said with the decrease in sugar prices, teak was gold to them. “A lot of work was required from the two of us, so after discussing with my boss, I began to recruit some labourers,” she said. Ms Chand said she employed a total of 10 permanent staff while she gets casual labourers when the need arises. And they had planted about 600,000 teak trees ever since they began two years ago. Employee Adi Soata of Nakorovou, a nearby village said working at the nursery was good money. “I’m being paid $15, at least that’s something compared to earning nothing when staying at the village.” For Nanise Curu, life was hard having to fend for seven children. “But my husband and I are both employed here, so we are getting a reliable source of income.” Sulita Livema said the money she earned weekly always helped her family. http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=80464
Papua New Guinea:

23) The Government has vowed to fight mining exploration on Papua New Guinea’s historic Kokoda Trail in defiance of local villagers who want it to go ahead. Villagers have blockaded the jungle track — which has become increasingly popular with Australian trekkers — in protest against the PNG Government’s delay in renewing an exploration licence for mining company Frontier Resources. The company has been exploring a $A6.7 billion coper and gold deposit along the track and villagers have been offered a 5% stake if it goes ahead. “Australia has a very strong view that the Kokoda Trail needs to be protected,” said Foreign Minister Stephen Smith yesterday. The trail for Australians, he said, was iconic. The PNG Government’s delays in renewing Frontier Resources’ licence have continued after the Howard government committed $15.9 million last year to preserve the trail and get it listed as a World Heritage site, which would preclude it being mined. The Rudd Government has since backed the financial pledge. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who walked the trail on Anzac Day in 2006, discussed it with PNG Prime Minister Michael Somare at UN climate change talks in Bali in December. “Australia is determined to preserve the track,” a spokesman for Mr Rudd said yesterday. Local leader Barney Jack said the Australian Government had no right to interfere and said the trail will remain closed until the licence is issued. “We want development and we will do anything for development,” said Mr Jack, who hopes mining revenues will alleviate villagers’ poverty. “The Australian Government has no right to interfere with this. Papua New Guinea is a sovereign nation, it has its own laws and jurisdiction. We should make our own decisions and see what is best for us,” he said. “If you want to stop it, if you want us to stay in the old primitive ways — it means our independence is meaningless.” Major-General Bill Crews, national president of the Returned and Services League of Australia, said he hoped a mine could go ahead without the trail being damaged or seriously diverted. “Obviously we would prefer that there would be no mining, but I think we’re in the real world and mining does present a significant economic boost for the PNG economy,” he said. http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=92606

Indonesia:

24) Efforts to curb deforestation will not work if rich nations fail to control their wood consumption, forest watchdog Greenomics Indonesia has warned. Greenomics director Elfian Effendi said Thursday that high demand for wood products mostly from the United States, European Union and Japan had given a boost to deforestation in the world’s tropical nations, including Indonesia. “The rich nations often blame us for the speedy deforestation rate. They seem unaware that their consumption contributes much to the deforestation,” Elfian said. Greenomics was commenting on the latest report on the wood market between 2004 and 2007 from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The report said the U.S., the EU and Japan were the world’s three largest importers of wood products, amounting to US$71.2 billion per year. The U.S. alone spent $23.3 billion per year on wood products, while the EU $13.2 billion and Japan $11.8 billion. According to Elfian, China and Malaysia are the world’s biggest exporters of wood products, with material coming mainly from Indonesia in the form of illegally cut logs. “It means deforestation in our country is linked to export-import transactions of wood products to rich nations,” he said. Indonesia is home to 120 million hectares of tropical forest, the world’s third largest after Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Between 1985 and 1997, deforestation occurred at a rate of 1.8 million hectares per year. It rose to 2.8 million hectares per year until 2000, but slowed between 2000 and 2006 to 1.08 million hectares per year. http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20080208.H04&irec=3

25) Villagers in Aceh, the Indonesian province that suffered through three decades of civil war and lost some 170,000 people to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, could soon see $26 million in carbon credits for protecting rainforests from logging under a deal announced today between conservationists, carbon traders, and the Aceh government. The project — backed by the Government of Aceh, Fauna & Flora International (FFI) and Carbon Conservation — will protect the 1.9 million-acre Ulu Masen forest, a tract of rainforest home to the Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus), the Clouded Leopard (Neofelis nebulusa), the Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), and the Sumatran Orangutan (Pongo abelii). By preventing logging and conversion of Ulu Masen forest for oil palm plantations, planners expect to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 100 million tons over 30 years. The proceeds — in the form of carbon credits — will help fund health and education projects in the local community. Critically, the project won the approval from the Rainforest Alliance’s Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Standards, criteria meant to ensure that land use projects are designed to mitigate climate change and deliver compelling community and biodiversity benefits. The Ulu Masen project is the first project for reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries (REDD) to be independently-approved as conforming to the CCB Standards. “The project shows how solid partnerships with local communities are likely to deliver real reductions of greenhouse gas emissions by conserving a globally-significant tract of rainforest,” said Dr. Joanna Durbin, Director of the CCBA. “We hope world leaders will adopt a policy framework that supports developing countries, forests, local and indigenous people and biodiversity to benefit from global climate change efforts.” http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0207-carbon_conservation.html

26) Cutting timber from forests like the one in Kuala Cenaku, Indonesia, accounts for 20 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. A look at this vast wasteland of charred stumps and dried-out peat makes the fight to save Indonesia’s forests seem nearly impossible. “What can we possibly do to stop this?” said Pak Helman, 28, a villager here in Riau Province, surveying the scene from his leaking wooden longboat. “I feel lost. I feel abandoned.” In recent years, dozens of pulp and paper companies have descended on Riau, which is roughly the size of Switzerland, snatching up generous government concessions to log and establish palm oil plantations. The results have caused villagers to feel panic. Only five years ago, Mr. Helman said, he earned nearly $100 a week catching shrimp. Now, he said, logging has poisoned the rivers snaking through the heart of Riau, and he is lucky to find enough shrimp to earn $5 a month. Responding to global demand for palm oil, which is used in cooking and cosmetics and, lately, in an increasingly popular biodiesel, companies have been claiming any land they can. Fortunately, from Mr. Helman’s point of view, the issue of Riau’s disappearing forests has become a global one. He is now a volunteer for Greenpeace, which has established a camp in his village to monitor what it calls an impending Indonesian “carbon bomb.” Deforestation, during which carbon stored in trees is released into the atmosphere, now accounts for 20 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to scientists. And Indonesia releases more carbon dioxide through deforestation than any other country. Within Indonesia, the situation is most critical in Riau. In the past 10 years, nearly 60 percent of the province’s forests have been logged, burned and pulped, according to Jikalahari, a local environmental group. “This is very serious — the world needs to act now,” said Susanto Kurniawan, a coordinator for Jikalahari who regularly makes the arduous trip into the forest from the nearby city of Pekanbaru, passing long lines of trucks carting palm oil and wood. “In a few years it will be too late.” http://chikkuykabekubik.blogspot.com/2008/02/part-of-indonesia.html

New Zealand:

27) The Greens are calling on the Government to show its commitment to sustainability by blocking the import of outdoor furniture and lumber made from trees taken illegally and unsustainably from the last of the rainforests of Asia and the Pacific. This follows the publication today of the Guide to Forest Friendly Outdoor Furniture Retailers by Greenpeace and the Indonesia Human Rights Committee. “The Guide released today shows that some retailers are doing the right thing but most of them are not. The Government needs to level the playing field by simply blocking the import of these illegally and unsustainably harvested wood products, especially kwila (also called ‘merbau’). “Consumer action and retailer action is important, and we congratulate those retailers like the Warehouse that are doing the right thing. But it would be so much simpler if the Government simply moved to block the import of this wood. “By buying this outdoor furniture we are contributing to the destruction of the last of the great rainforests. Indigenous people are losing their livelihoods and having their human rights abused, endangered species such as the orang-utan are losing their habitat, and rainforest destruction contributes 20% of all greenhouse emissions. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0802/S00081.htm

28) The Government has given state-owned forestry company Timberlands the axe. State-owned Enterprises Minister Trevor Mallard today announced the loss-making entity’s assets would be transferred to Crown Forestry. The SOE has hit the rocks in the past two years after reporting financial losses totalling $13.5 million. Last year the Government provided a “letter of comfort”, assuring the company adequate funding would be provided to meet any financial obligations until July 2008. Timberlands slashed jobs in December in an attempt to restructure. But Mr Mallard today said it was time for the curtain to be drawn on the SOE, which was failing as a business. A recent audit of the forestry estate, completed late last year, showed future harvest yields were much lower than previous estimates due to difficult growing conditions on the West Coast and high wind damage. Mr Mallard said as a result Timberlands was no longer able to fulfil its obligations under the State Owned Enterprises Act and would be wound up once its assets were transferred to Crown Forestry. Forestry Minister Jim Anderton said the transfer would create management efficiencies. “Crown Forestry intends to negotiate commercially sustainable supply contracts with West Coast timber mills once the current contracts have expired.” Future replanting would be determined after a further stocktake of the forestry estate over the next two years, he said. Timberlands hogged headlines in 1999 after investigative author Nicky Hager published a book, Secrets and Lies, detailing the public relations strategy it used to discourage opposition to native logging. After the election of that year the Labour-led Government imposed a ban on the logging of giant beech by Timberlands over 130,000ha of West Coast land. About 30,000ha of the land was added to national parks and reserves but 100,000ha went into the general conservation estate, with West Coasters paid $120 million as compensation. http://www.nbr.co.nz/print/print.asp?id=20098&cid=4&cname=Business+Today

Australia:

29) Over the last month the communities surrounding the Gunbower State Forest have rallied around a one thousand year old tree in an attempt to save it from decline. It’s called the Eagle Tree and it stands around 50 metres tall and takes about 5 people, finger to finger, to encircle it. With community support, The North Central Catchment Management Authority has been coordinating a watering plan in conjunction with the SES and some local businesses to keep the thirsty tree thriving through the drought. Murray Thorsen from the Mid Murray FMA explains the tree got its name from the series of eagles that in times past have taken up residence in its tallest branches. Heavy windstorms in recent years have evicted first a sea eagle and then a wedgetail eagle from the tree and currently none call the Eagle Tree home. It’s unusual for the CMA to focus their energies on one particular tree in a forest, says Melanie Tranter, Project Officer at the North Central CMA, but she sees this as a symbolic gesture to bring more awareness of the plight of the Red Gum forests. The tree is a victim of the drought on a wider level because of the overall lack of water coming into the area but also says Melanie, as a result of dams and weirs that have been constructed along the Murray. The initial idea came from a local landholder Paul Haw, who wanted to donate a megalitre of water towards keeping the Eagle Tree healthy. While it took Melanie by surprise to start with, as soon as she began to ask around, she realised the idea had really struck a chord with many local organisations. The local milk cooperative donated a milk tanker to truck the water to the remote site, a sand and gravel business at Cohuna donated ten cubic metres of sand to the project and the SES put up their hands for the heavy duty sandbagging that was required to keep the water pooling around the base of the tree. Four hundred sandbags were filled and placed in around three hours, which Shane sees as a “fair feat” and should be mostly maintenance free for the duration of the watering. After a month of regular attention, the Eagle Tree is beginning to show signs of thanks for its treat. Melanie Tranter is monitoring both the surrounding vegetation and the canopy of the tree itself. She says the whole forest in that area is looking a lot better than it did a month ago, explaining the foliage in the canopy is much more lush and green with young shoots beginning to show. She’s very positive about this result saying, “There’s probably almost 20 per cent more canopy than there was a month ago.” http://www.abc.net.au/milduraswanhill/stories/s2156356.htm?backyard

30) The Tasmanian Greens today have demanded that both the State and Federal governments must intervene to halt the imminent proposed logging in the state’s North East of core habitat for the endangered Bornemissza’s stag beetle, to allow for the completion of the assessment of the stag beetle which is underway for listing as threatened under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), and for the completion of the state’s draft recovery plan for the species. Greens Shadow Native Forestry spokesperson Tim Morris MP said that he had been informed that Forestry Tasmania contractors were about to start logging in the contentious coupe GC 148A in Goulds Country in the State’s North East, despite this coupe being an important remnant of the extremely limited habitat of the endangered Bornemissza’s stag beetle, and despite the Federal threatened species nomination process yet to be finalised. “I wrote to the Federal Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, in December last year to notify him of proposed logging plans in the vital Gould Country habitat of the endangered Bornemissza’s stag beetle since his department is assessing a nomination for the beetle to be listed under the EPBC Act, and have also notified his office this week that apparently Forestry contractors will be commencing that logging later this week,” Mr Morris said. “Forestry’s refusal to put on hold their logging plans, despite a significant threatened species assessment process being underway, exposes this move as a pre-emptive move to destroy this limited habitat to outmanoeuvre any potential logging restrictions that may be applied should the national listing of the species as threatened goes ahead.” “This is unacceptable environmental vandalism, and both Minister Garrett and Premier Lennon must intervene immediately and order Forestry Tasmania to back off, abide by due process, and actually allow the science to be done.” http://tas.greens.org.au/News/view_MR.php?ActionID=2787

31) Minister Peter Garrett has approved the first stages of the controversial Gunns pulp mill despite a recent report saying it is a high risk venture and may cost Tasmanians $300 million. Mr Garrett signed two site clearing approvals as part of a 16 stage environmental impact plan for the $1.7 billion Tamar Valley mill. If completed, the mill will be the largest infrastructure project in Tasmania’s history and one of the biggest pulp mills in the world. The approvals, announced from Mr Garret’s office late Friday February 1, coincided with the equally late release of five approvals from the Tasmanian State Government. The announcements came out of the blue and despite the release of a report earlier in the week that contradicted claims by Gunns and the Tasmanian Government that the mill will inject $3 billion into the community. The economic report, commissioned by the Wilderness Society and compiled by the National Institute of Economic and Industry Research (NIEIR), questioned the study used by Gunns to make their $3 billion claim, saying figures in the Gunns study were “implausible”. The NIEIR report also identified costs that had not been factored into the Gunns study including loss of revenue in tourism, and environmental and health costs as a result of chlorine and gas emissions from the mill. It also suggested that the pulp produced by the Gunns mill will struggle on the export market. The report estimated that at best the mill would boost the economy by $1.3 billion and at worst would cost Tasmania $3.3 billion. The most likely outcome, however, was a cost to Tasmania of $300 million until 2030. http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-2-5/65365.html

32) The state Labor MP last week called on the Brumby Government to put a hold on logging areas in the normally restricted and highly regulated water catchments. Speaking out against the Brumby Government’s policy to grant VicForests contracts in the Armstrong Creek catchment between Warburton and Marysville, Ms Lobato said she believed the logging should cease until a study into the relationship between logging and water being carried out by the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) is completed. “If that study is about the loss of water and its quality, I certainly believe we should wait until it is completed,” said Ms Lobato, who last year spoke out against the State Government’s decision to allow genetically modified crops. DSE’s director of public land policy, Nina Cullen, confirmed the four-year study was due for completion in September. She said the fundamental objective of the Wood and Water Project study was to assess options to increase water yield in Melbourne’s water supply catchments while meeting existing timber supply catchments. Ms Lobato is backing similar calls by the Shire of Yarra Ranges and a number of conservation and environment groups which have called on the government to ban logging in the catchments. “My main concerns are that this is a water catchment area which supplies the most pristine and high quality water for Melbourne’s drinking supply, and that it is home to some very significant flora and fauna including 100-year-old mountain ash and the endangered Victorian faunal emblem, Leadbeater’s Possum. “Logging in the water catchment area in a time when Victoria is experiencing the most severe drought in decades causes me great concern, as well as the threat it poses to the habitat of the Leadbeater’s Possum,” Ms Lobato said. Ms Lobato said she has had calls from constituents who are alarmed at the increased number of logging trucks coming down the Warburton Highway and has spoken with people from within the timber industry who are appalled at the destruction going on in the catchments. “There are signs up there saying keep out because this is pristine water catchment and I see it as a total contradiction that you have right now 11 bulldozers and workers in there logging it.” http://www.starnewsgroup.com.au/story/54332