303 – Earth’s Tree News

Today for you 34 new articles about earth’s trees! (303rd edition)
Subscribe / unsubscribe send blank email to: earthtreenews-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com
To Donate: Click Paypal link in the upper left corner of: http://www.peacefromtrees.org

–British Columbia: 1) Bear Mtn – Langford actions continue, 2) Rainforest Wolf Project,
–Washington: 3) Scouts to log Seattle neighborhood, 4) Dr. Nalini Nadkarni,
–California: 5) Last days of Hurwitz, 6) State-wide harvests up, 7) Giant Sequoia petition, 8) PG&E funds Sempervirens Fund,
–Montana: 9) Big Timber Canyon timber sale challenged, 100 Columbia Falls owns almost 38,000 acres, 11) BDNF plan doesn’t even know what forest health is,
–South Dakota: 12) Industrializing a 19,369 acre infestation,
–Tennessee: 13) Adelgid blues
–USA: 14) Save the Forest is a real-time strategy game, 15) This week’s tree is juniper,
–Mexico: 16) Journey to the Butterfly sanctuary
–Costa Rica: 17) Journey to the cloud forest
–Brazil: 18) Operation Arc of fire, 19) Tailandia was established 19 years ago,
–Guyana: 20) consequences of environmental damage too obvious to ignore
–India: 21) Indigenous compared to imperialist, 22) Taj Mahal size clearcut,
–Laos: 23) Phongsaly to ordain coniferous forest
–Philippines: 24) Ban on cutting coconut trees
–Malaysia: 25) How Batek preserved their culture, 26) Mangium Industries turns forestland to real estate,
–Indonesia: 27) Wood processing in Riau on the brink, 28) New estimates of deforestation, 29) Illegal logging continues, 30) Small scale wood sellers,
–Papua New Guinea: 31) Greenpeace & indigenous log trees, 32) Export ban update, –New Zealand: 33) Flexible Land Use Alliance, 34) Forest minister on carbon budget,

British Columbia:

1) Two dear friends, Nancy and Lurch, ~both very conscientious, devoted, peaceful long-term local forest-protection activists were arrested today out at the Bear Mountain Interchange disaster site. Lurch, apparently is still in jail. They attempted to protect a beautiful Garry oak tree which was in full bud and was just about to release its leaves from being destroyed by chainsaws. The oak could not be felled from the ground because of its proximity to powerlines and had already been severely damaged by fallers who had climbed up its central limb and top-roped down to cut off all its lateral branches. Nancy had been protesting the voracious destruction of the forest every day along the Trans-Canada Highway since the massive RCMP bust of the Bear Mountain treesit, but was finally overwhelmed when she saw them cutting into a beautiful stand of mature Garry oak which grew alongside a little tarn at the south end of Florence Lake. Lurch stayed up in the damaged tree all day, but when he finally climbed down, two undercover RCMP officers ran out and tackled him. The vulturous corporate media had their cameras there all day, lusting for the take-down and they utterly distorted the story in an attempt to villify these valiant conscientious objectors. Nevertheless, today, Langford Mayor Stew Young announced that he was going to sue the treesitters for the cost of his several hundred thousand dollar RCMP SWAT-team take-down of the Bear Mountain treesit last week. Judging by the massive on-line written response to the front-page Times Colonist article, in one single day, Stew Young has done more to damage the name of Bear Mountain than the treesit did in a year. ingmarz@gmail.com

2) What is the Rainforest Wolf Project? Chris Darimont: It’s conservation/science fusion at its finest. The Raincoast Conservation Foundation, university scientists, countless volunteers and local first nations have teamed up to learn all we can about wolves, their prey and their ancient rainforest habitat. We have found that wolves of the Great Bear Rainforest are like none other, swimming among islands in a rainforest archipelago, hunting salmon and other marine prey and giving us rare insight into a predator-prey system undisturbed by humanity. What’s it like up there? Chris Darimont: Entering the Great Bear Rainforest is like stepping back in time. I feel so honored to be able to explore trails made by wolves, bears and other large mammals that have sadly disappeared from much of the world. These trails meander through 1,000-year-old cedar trees that, if they could, would tell amazing stories. I also get to bear witness—pun intended—to the planet’s last stronghold of spawning salmon, which feed not only large beasts but also the entire forest. Monday: What was the most valuable lesson taught by your mentor, Lone Wolf? CD: In addition to his contributions as a respected colleague and a dear friend, “Lone Wolf”—a.k.a. Chester Starr of the Heiltsuk Nation—also mentored me in the art of observation. As a scientist, I was trained to observe nature within a valuable, but relatively narrow, framework. What Lone Wolf and his people have taught me is to open my eyes to a broader reality—and what I find particularly amazing is the concordance between what we have learned through the scientific process and what indigenous people have learned by living with wildlife for millennia. In many respects, western science is really just starting to emerge with information that first nations have known for a very long time. http://web.bcnewsgroup.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=117&cat=23&id=1164513&more=0

Washington:

3) Near the Maple Leaf Reservoir, about 104 trees, mostly Douglas firs, are marked with splotches of spray paint indicating that they are to be cut down and sold for timber. They are massive, bushy trees, some nearly 100 feet tall, and sit just a few blocks north of Lake City Way, from which they’re visible. The land they are on is home to Camp Fire USA, a nonprofit boys and girls group. For decades now, neighbors have walked their dogs through the trees, but in a few months, all but the 26 farthest from view will be removed to make way for a gated cluster of 24 town homes, 15 single-family residences, and 50 parking spaces. “The developer gets to say, ‘Oh, look, but we’re saving these 26 trees,'” says Michael Oxman, a local certified arborist. Oxman is the sort who, as a rule, doesn’t like to see trees come down when unnecessary. But he’s especially upset because, according to the Seattle Department of Planning and Development code, these Douglas firs should be saved, he says. “The rule states that ‘exceptional’ trees must be spared from the bulldozer during development,” says Oxman. Well, Doug firs are only sometimes considered exceptional. Anyone familiar with Seattle’s tree politics knows that regulations for species protection are fairly weak. So weak, in fact, that as one employee of the DPD (who did not want to be named) said: “These regulations…you could drive a truck through them.” In the case of the coast Douglas fir, a type of evergreen native to the Northwest, exceptionalness is based on height, health, location, likelihood of surviving construction damage, and likelihood of remaining a safe specimen in the years to come. In short, old trees get the boot. The city can sometimes require that these trees be replaced by one or two smaller, younger trees, but that’s hardly a fair exchange in Oxman’s view. “It’s the older trees that provide the shade and ecological benefits,” he says. Replacement trees don’t even have to go into the ground; sometimes, they can be contained in planters. Glancing at the city from a good vantage point—driving north on the Aurora Bridge, say—it would seem trees have been dealt a fair hand. Plenty of homes sit in the shade of shaggy firs. But over the past 30 years, the boom in human population has resulted in the city’s tree canopy—that is, the percentage of the ground that has tree cover overhead—being reduced by more than half, from 40 percent to 18 percent. The mayor himself has called for “regreening” Seattle to keep it from becoming “the city formerly known as emerald.” And the City Council is currently overseeing the review process for updating the DPD’s tree regulations. http://www.seattleweekly.com/2008-02-27/news/want-to-know-why-seattle-s-tree-canopy-is-disappear
ing.php

4) On January 11th, Dr. Nalini Nadkarni, faculty member in environmental studies at The Evergreen State College, treated members of the Seattle Science & Technology Discovery Series to a fascinating and inspirational look at life at the top – treetop, that is – in temperate and tropical forests. Dr. Nadkarni spoke about efforts to “explore, connect and reflect” – explore the forest canopy ecosystem, connect people to the forests, and encourage reflection on the importance of the canopy to our natural world. Innovations in non-destructive methods of accessing the canopy have enabled researchers to explore the diversity of wildlife among the trees and analyze the impact of disturbances – both natural and man-made – on the canopy ecosystem. Dr. Nadkarni’s research examines the role of canopy-dwelling plants and how nutrients cycle through the ecosystem, with a particular focus on how the canopy draws nutrients from atmospheric inputs like rain and mist. Calling the plants that dwell in the canopy “the canary in the coalmine,” Dr. Nadkarni noted that these organisms are an early warning system for large-scale environmental changes. Did you know? 1) The canopy has its own soil. Called arboreal soil, it is very acidic, experiences severe dry-downs, has a slow decomposition rate, and harbors very different microbial populations than terrestrial soil. 2) Moss harvesting for horticultural use is a $265 million-per-year industry and growing, a grave concern to researchers due to the key role it plays in the canopy in drawing nutrients from the atmosphere and the fragility of the canopy ecosystem. For example, in one experiment researchers removed a quantity of moss to gauge how well it recovered; 35 years later, only 25% of the missing moss had returned. 3) The International Canopy Network was formed to communicate the importance of preserving the canopy and connect people to the forests. Among the novel ways in which ICAN is reaching out to a larger audience: the introduction of TreeTop Barbie. http://www.technology-alliance.com/about/blogger/2008/02/seeing-forest-for-trees.html

California:

5) When John D. Rockefeller visited the redwoods nearly 80 years ago, he saw a natural treasure. He put up $2 million to spare 10,000 acres. Wheeler-dealer Charles Hurwitz saw a different kind of treasure. In a 1986 hostile takeover — financial-speak for date rape — his firm, Maxxam, got Pacific Lumber for nearly $900 million, financed by junk bonds. Just to make interest payments, he had to cut down twice as many trees. Redwoods formerly chosen one by one for the chain saw were measured by computer coordinates and felled by the swath. The thunder of clear-cutting roused enviros and politicians. Twelve years of wrangling ended in 1999 with the Headwaters forest — 7,500 acres of ancient redwood “cathedrals” in public hands — new rules on logging the other 210,000 acres and a government check for nearly half a billion bucks in Hurwitz’s corporate wallet. Did he use it to pay down Pacific Lumber’s humongous debt? No. He still owes almost as much on it as he did 22 years ago. Back in 1981, according to David Harris’ book, “The Last Stand,” Pacific Lumber told shareholders that companies “have a duty to use [their] resources wisely.” In 1986, the new owner, Hurwitz, was “joking” with employees that his golden rule is: “He who has the gold, rules.” When the rules don’t suit him, he’s found ways around them. When Rancho Mirage didn’t cotton to his development plan in the area — Frank Sinatra wrote an ad denouncing it — Hurwitz’s lawyers sued the city, then threatened to sue City Council members personally. Pacific Lumber tried and failed to recall the Humboldt County district attorney for alleging that the company used fake data to get a better deal in the Headwaters negotiations. The Headwaters deal evidently wasn’t good enough. Pacific Lumber went crying to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that if California didn’t lighten up on logging rules — rules Pacific Lumber had broken so often that its timber license was briefly yanked — the company would go bust. Sure enough, last year, Pacific Lumber filed for Chapter 11. Today’s court date is in the Texas Gulf Coast and not California’s North Coast because Pacific Lumber, now calling itself Palco, opened a snug little office in Corpus Christi — “a phone booth,” California officials called it. That planted the flag for jurisdiction in Hurwitz’s home state, not the home of the redwoods. That’s how big, bad business plays. Put the loopholes and fine print and asterisks into law. And when you can’t make the rules, break them — or break the rule makers. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-morrison28feb28,0,7723255.column

6) Harvesting of trees in forests in California increased by 1.1 percent in 2005 as efforts to thin overcrowded government-owned forests accelerated, the California Forest Products Commission said today in its third annual State of the Industry report. While harvesting on government-owned forests increased, the overall harvesting in those forests remains at just 17 percent of what it was in 1990. The trend of diminishing harvests over the past decade and a half has helped result in California importing more than 70 percent of the wood used by Californians and a buildup of flammable forest conditions. According to statistics complied by the California Board of Equalization, a total of 1.72 billion board feet of wood was harvested in 2005, up from 1.7 billion board feet of wood in 2004. The total value of the harvested logs was $547 million, up from $500 million in 2004. The Commission noted the wood harvested in 2005 was enough to build nearly 115,000 homes. Of the total harvested, about 230 million board feet of wood was harvested on government-owned lands. As recently as the late 1970s, private forestry companies were able to produce as much wood as Californians consumed. For most of the 1990s, federal policies and court challenges discouraged harvesting on government-owned land. The cost and restrictions of increased regulations also spurred declines in harvesting on private lands. “While some of these policies were purported to benefit the forests and the environment, in fact they have led to overcrowded forests on government-owned land that are more susceptible to catastrophic wildfire and killer insect infestations,” Mr. Zea said. “An unintended consequence of these policies is that we’ve dramatically increased wood imports from places with less protection for forests and the environment.” On privately owned lands, two recent studies by Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo show that California’s regulations” intended to protect the environment” are instead pushing privately owned forestland toward development. A California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection report also indicates that regulations and economic pressures are contributing to increased conversion of forestland to non-forest uses. “California forestry companies practice sustainable forestry that ensures forests for future generations,” Mr. Zea said. “Californians needs to support policies that encourage investment in forestry infrastructure and conservation of the forest resources with which we have been entrusted. http://calforests.org/whats_new-494-State_of_the_Industry,_2006.htm

7) In 1999, President Clinton stood in the shade of a giant sequoia grove and signed a proclamation creating Giant Sequoia National Monument, carving it out of Sequoia National Forest. With the current administration, things have been quite different. In the past few years there have been numerous attempts by the Bush administration to open the Giant Sequoia National Monument to logging. It’s time this area was truly protected so these attacks will stop for good. The Sierra Club has listed the Giant Sequoia National Monument as one of the 52 most important places to protect in the next 10 years. These magnificent forests provide essential habitat for the California spotted owl, Pacific fisher, and myriad other plants and animals. But the Forest Service has periodically called for extensive logging of this natural cathedral, under the guise of fire protection. Please sign the petition today to bring real protection to the Giant Sequoia National Monument. http://newsblaze.com/story/20080226111656tsop.nb/newsblaze/TOPSTORY/Top-Stories.html

8) Sempervirens Fund and Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s ClimateSmartÔ program today announced a first-ever purchase of verifiable greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions under California’s rigorous forest carbon sequestration project protocols. With this landmark purchase, PG&E’s ClimateSmart program will purchase 14,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emission reductions from Sempervirens Fund’s Lompico Headwaters Forest, located in Santa Cruz County. “This project sets significant precedent by establishing an economic value for redwood forestland other than timber harvest or development potential. Forest lands have traditionally been given a value based on what can be extracted from them. Our project is groundbreaking in that it places an economic value on preserved forests without sending them to the lumberyard.” said Brian Steen, Executive Director of Sempervirens Fund. Following an extensive competitive bidding process, PG&E selected two projects, Sempervirens Lompico Headwaters and the Conservation Fund’s Garcia Forest, because they met the stringent verification protocols set both by the California Climate Action Registry and PG&E. Through this contract, PG&E permanently retires the reductions on behalf of its enrolled ClimateSmart customers. Using the competitive bidding process, PG&E plans to invest ClimateSmart funds to preserve more of California’s native forests. “These investments mark a major milestone in the use of high quality forest sequestration offsets as an effective mechanism to address climate change,” said Nancy McFadden, senior vice president of public affairs for PG&E. “We’re honored to be making these purchases on behalf of our ClimateSmart customers. Through these groups long standing commitment to the environment, we’ve been able to sequester a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions and protect some of California’s most precious resources.” Lompico Headwaters is a 425-acre redwood forest owned and operated by the Sempervirens Fund. Scientific evidence indicates redwood forests have the highest carbon density per acre of any ecosystem in the world. Older redwood forests, under a management regime of preservation, sequester much higher amounts of carbon than younger forests that are often subject to regular timber harvests. This makes redwood forest protection even more key to any overall strategy to stabilize atmospheric CO2 concentrations. http://www.sempervirens.org

Montana:

9) Two conservation groups have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service to stop a logging project northwest of Big Timber that they say would harm bird habitat and violate water quality laws. The suit was filed today in federal court in Helena. It seeks to halt the Gallatin National Forest’s Big Timber Canyon timber sale, which authorizes logging on 180 acres of old growth forest in the Crazy Mountains. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Native Ecosystems Council contend the project would violate the Clean Water Act and Montana water quality laws by putting sediment into Big Timber Creek. They say the creek already is polluted and on the state’s list of impaired water bodies. The groups also claim the project would destroy critical northern goshawk habitat, and violate the National Environmental Policy Act. Marna Daley is spokeswoman for the Gallatin National Forest. She says the Forest Service is “very confident” in the analysis it did and feels the project will stand up to a “rigorous court test.” http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?S=7930455&nav=menu227_7

10) Columbia Falls – In this valley of change, with a new generation of land-use laws emerging and a population growing distant from the area’s timber tradition, the F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Company looks to the future through the eyes of a new manager. Chuck Roady, who replaced retired Ron Buentemeier as general manager at the beginning of this year, takes over at a delicate and difficult time for Stoltze, the second largest private landowner in Northwest Montana. The timber industry is struggling. Lumber market prices are at a 30-year low, prompting Roady to proclaim: “There’s no log anywhere you can make money off even if they gave it to you.” A population boom is bringing in newcomers unfamiliar with the give-and-take relationship between the public and logging community. Throw in a series of regulatory laws and policies, and you have the modern Stoltze dilemma. “It’s really, really tough,” said Paul McKenzie, Stoltze’s lands and resource manager. “It’s hard to convey how tough it is right now.” Stoltze Land and Lumber, Montana’s oldest family-owned lumber company located outside of Columbia Falls, owns almost 38,000 acres. Roady is in his second month at the helm of the big lumber company. There’s a lot on his plate. In the past year alone, both Flathead County and the city of Whitefish adopted growth policies. Recently, Whitefish approved a critical areas ordinance, a controversial storm water management law, and the county board of health is working on an air quality law that could limit Stoltze’s activities because of dust concerns. The list goes on. “(Local governments) can make something cart blanche and have no idea how it affects us,” Roady said. “If we didn’t catch it, it would cost us a fortune. (Land) can be devalued in a heartbeat.” Or as McKenzie said: “The trees are the easy part. It’s the people that’s the challenge.” http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/main/print/stoltze_lumber_new_manager_surveys_new_economy/

11) I just read through a portion of the Beaverhead Deerlodge National Forest (BDNF) revised plan. Among the major components of the plan is support for “vegetation management,” a euphemism for logging. The BDNF plan calls for “treating” its forests by logging to “restore” its ecological health. It has become commonplace for the Forest Service to justify logging for forest health reasons instead of timber production. We no longer log just to get the raw material for lumber and profits for timber companies. We log the forest to restore ecological health, or so the agency suggests. I personally don’t believe that the BDNF staff is purposefully using “forest health” as an excuse to log. There is a wide-spread assumption among many forest ecologists that past forest management, including past logging, along with fire suppression, has radically altered our forests. However, the agency may be unaware of more recent research that calls into question many of these previous assumptions about forest condition and health. Even if the assumptions about forest condition are correct, that doesn’t mean that logging can actually restore the presumed “historic range of variability.” One could restore ecological health by permitting more fires to burn, and by the use of more prescribed burning. Since this doesn’t produce profits for the timber industry, the agency is under a lot of pressure to cut trees instead of using less intrusive means like prescribed burning and wildfire as a means of restoring the presumed forest conditions. To its credit, in its Alternative 3 of the forest plan the BDNF does recommend exactly that prescription—more wildfire and prescribed burning and limited logging. Unfortunately, for the public, Alternative 3 is not selected by the agency as its preferred alternative. The problem for anyone advocating “restoration” is that we have few references about how the forest looked a hundred years ago. There are some historic photographs that provide a valuable perspective, but whether these represent just a point in time and at a particular spot, or are characteristic of the forest as a whole is unknown. Furthermore, there is always the potential for a selective bias in the choice of photographs by the researcher seeking to find evidence for a change in forest condition and composition. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/rethinking_forest_health/C73/L38/

South Dakota:

12) Logging and prescribed burns would reduce hazardous fuels and the risk of mountain pine beetle infestation over a 19,369 acre area in the Bear Lodge Mountains north of Sundance, Wyo., under a U.S. Forest Service proposal. Foresters propose to reduce fire hazard and the risk of mountain pine beetle infestation through a combination of commercial logging (3,256 acres) and prescribed burning (4,808 acres)in the Snyder project area. The Forest Service also proposes to close 10,897 acres to off-road motorized use and to take other measures, including treating noxious weeds, according to the Black Hills National Forest Web site. The proposal would produce a sustainable supply of timber, diversify forest structure, improve wildlife habitat and manage motorized use, according to a Forest Service news release. A draft environmental assessment describes the proposed action, three alternatives to the proposed action and the effects of these actions. After considering public comments on the draft environmental assessment, Bearlodge District Ranger Steven Kozel will decide which course of action to take, according to the news release. Work on the project is scheduled to begin in 2010. For more information about the project or to obtain a copy of the Environmental Assessment (hard copy or on CD), call Elizabeth Krueger at the Bearlodge Ranger District, at 1-307-283-1361. The environmental assessment is also available at: http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/blackhills/projects/nepa/

Tennessee:

13) Adelgids originated in Virginia, quickly spread into North Carolina, and were first found in Carter County five years ago. Since then, the insects have been spreading throughout the Southern Appalachians and the Cherokee National Forest. There are now about 80 insect sites being monitored in the Cherokee National Forest, with 6-8 in Unicoi County alone. The threat continues to rise, and the problem must be faced as soon as possible. The Cherokee National Forest is helping to relieve the problem by releasing “predator beetles” that feed on the adelgids and do not affect the hemlock tree. These beetles will help reduce the population of the adelgids to save the hemlocks in our area. If adelgids are found on personal property, there are two types of treatment: a soap or horticulture oil spray or systematic treatment. An insecticidal soap spray is available in hardware stores, and systematic treatments involve chemicals that smother the insect by directly affecting the trunk o roots of the tree. The presence of hemlocks affects the entire ecosystem. Hemlocks are oft en near streams, and help keep the water cool, which is ideal for trout. The hemlocks provide shade in the forest and a habitat for wildlife. The quality of the water in the county is dependent upon the existence of hemlocks. With the loss of hemlocks, the ecosystem is unbalanced. The hemlock woolly adelgids must be identified and treated in order to restore the equilibrium of the forests. http://www.vbbeacon.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2008/02/27/47c5700f3deea

USA:

14) Eco Creatures: Save the Forest is a real-time strategy game in which players use the Touch Screen to control units of woodland creatures—named Ecolis, Ecoby and Ecomon—that will protect the naturally beautiful Mana Woods and recover the polluted land. All creature types have unique skills that must be strategically managed. With proper nurturing, they can evolve to learn new abilities that help a player complete the game’s more than 40 environmental missions. As players grow their woodland army, they must also plant new trees to prevent deforestation and revitalize the woodlands. In addition, Eco Creatures includes a creative Land Make feature that lets players build and play their own maps. This eco-friendly RTS also supports two-player play via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, and up to four players via single card download play or ad-hoc multi-card play. Eco Creatures: Save the Forest is expected to launch in early 2008 for the Nintendo DS. Headquartered in Edison, NJ, with an international office based in Bristol, UK, Majesco Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: COOL) is an innovative provider of video games and digital entertainment products for the mass market, with a focus on publishing video games for leading portable systems and the Wii console. Product highlights include Nancy Drew, Cooking Mama and Zoo Hospital for the Nintendo DS and Cooking Mama: Cook Off for the Wii console. http://www.majescoentertainment.com http://www.gamerevolution.com/screen/ds/eco_creatures_forest

15) So this week’s tree, Juniperus virginiana, the Eastern Redcedar, always appears to me as a piece of vital nourishment during these long months of long nights. Not only is it an evergreen tree, but it is a particularly charming and even fanciful one. Its spiraling and scaly foliage adorns the tree in impressionistic masses , sometimes sharp and jagged , and sometimes softer and gentler . At the same time, its bark has a rich red-brown color , and it oftentimes peels off in narrow strips. Between the foliage, which is so different from that of trees we are more used to, whether broadleafs or needled conifers, and the fibrous bark, J. virginiana adds a great deal of texture and charm to a winter scene. Really, it does this all the year long, for it looks as out of place in an urban landscape as Queequeg did, but it is in winter, when the taller trees of the city are shorn of leaves, and when its vibrant leaves and bark are set off by the whiteness of the snow and the alternating dim grey or shining pale blue of the sky, that its charms become the most noticeable. Now, you may have noticed that I earlier mentioned that other urban trees are generally taller than this redcedar. This is true not only of urban trees, but of trees in general. J. virginiana is not, typically, a very tall tree. True, in the Southlands, on good soil, it can reach heroic proportions – the recordholder Eastern Redcedar, in East Texas (according to the Gymnosperm Database , anyway), is 27 m (?95 ft) tall – but in general, even in those warmer climes where the growing season lasts throughout the year, the redcedar is typically a more humble tree of perhaps ten meters. It is habitually a tree of the understory, though its relegation to such conditions is in large part due to the bullying competition of other trees. J. virginiana is a particularly light-hungry tree, and so in the shade of an established forest it grows but slowly. Still, despite the tree’s thirst for light, it is oftentimes found, stunted but surviving, in the shade of bigger trees. http://eyeharvester.livejournal.com/9955.html

Mexico:

16) The 2.5 hour drive to the sanctuary was amazing, with mountains that are actually dormant volcanoes hovering above you. Some of them reach as high as 12,000 feet above sea level. Remember, here in NJ we are at sea level. About halfway up the mountain we saw our first monarchs, a breath-taking sight since none of the teachers on the trip had seen monarchs since last fall, when we released them in the US and Canada. As we drove up toward the mountaintop, we could see the effects that years of mining and logging have had on the oyamel fir forests that blanket the area. For years the local Ejidos have cut down the forest to meet their everyday basic needs for shelter and wood for heating and cooking. More recently, the forests have also fallen prey to illegal logging because the wood from the oyamel trees is extremely valuable and can be cut down and sold for a very large profit in some parts of Mexico (especially Mexico City). If this illegal logging continues, then the migration of the monarch butterfly will become extinct. Thankfully, the Mexican government has begun to work with the local Ejidos and number of local non-profit organizations to restore parts of the de-forested areas and educate the locals about taking better care of their environment. A big part of this is the designation of the Monarch Biospere Reserve in this part of Mexico. In this reserve the Monarchs’ homes are now protected by the government and the local people who live here. El Rosario is one of these reserves. As we drove, Marcos took the time to explain the background of the Mayan and Aztec calendar. The MesoAmerican cultures used an anthropomorphic calendar. This means that it is based on the humans and not on the sun. There are 260 days in a year because the average amount of time that a woman spends in the womb is 260 days. It is absolutely fascinating! Finally, we arrived at approximately 8,000 ft above sea level, to the parking lot of the El Rosario Sanctuary. We de-bussed and headed toward the mountain path. As we kept climbing we saw more and more monarchs. More than I ever imagined possible. We came across hundreds of them puddling in small streams. We spent about 45 minutes just sitting at the peak, surrounded by orange sunbursts flitting through the sky. It was serene and tranquil, like a silent snowfall. The only sounds were the wind blowing through the trees and the flapping of millions of butterfly wings. http://thereadingzone.wordpress.com/2008/02/27/monarch-teacher-network-day-3-in-mexico/

Costa Rica:

17) This is Peru’s Kosñipata River Valley. Kosñipata is a Quechua Indian word that means “the place with smoke.” It refers not to fires but rather to the clouds that smother the mountaintops, race through the valleys, drift like giant hot-air balloons across the landscape. Here, and in hundreds of mountainous forests around the globe, are where clouds live when they are on earth. I am in the Kosñipata, one of the most biologically fecund places on the planet, to explore firsthand how this unique tropical-montane ecosystem works and to find out what impact climate change is having on cloud-shrouded preserves. Sixty percent of them are concentrated in Asia (mostly in Indonesia); a quarter are in southern Mexico, Central America, and the South American Andes; and the remaining fifteen percent are in Africa, including Rwanda’s Volcanoes and Uganda’s Bwindi national parks, home to the planet’s last mountain gorillas. Cloud forests are among the most imperiled ecosystems, and should they be diminished, the loss would be incalculable. Global warming is causing the mists that blanket these mountains to rise in elevation, leaving the forests open to the ravages of direct sunlight. In 2002, the United Nations and the World Conservation Union and other groups launched the Mountain Cloud Forest Initiative to raise the profile of these regions and to advocate for their protection. Critical because of the superabundance of species they harbor (there are as many types of trees in this one valley as in all of North America), cloud forests are also a reliable source of clean water for many developing nations. Those of Honduras’s La Tigra National Park, for example, furnish forty percent of the water for the city of Tegucigalpa, and Dar es Salaam, in Tanzania, gets one hundred percent of its water from the cloud-shrouded peaks of the Uluguru Mountains. While global warming is the chief threat to cloud forests, changes on the ground also pose hazards. The so-called death-by-a-thousand-cuts scenario is common in developing countries—the result of logging concessions, subsistence farms, new roads, oil pipelines. Cloud forests are giving way to coffee plantations in Colombia and cardamom farms in Sri Lanka. The mountain forests of the eastern escarpment of Madagascar have been reduced from 27,000 square miles in 1950 to fewer than 4,000 today because of clearing for subsistence agriculture. And in Vietnam’s Tam Dao Mountains, logging has destroyed canopy cover for butterflies and other species. http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/articles/detail?articleId=11933

Brazil:

18) “Operation Arc of Fire” was started Tuesday in the Amazon town of Tailandia, 250 kilometers (150 miles) from the city of Belem, the head of the state environmental agency Ibama, Flavio Montiel, told AFP by telephone. He said the police, rangers and environmental ministry agents were inspecting forest exploitations for signs of illegal tree-felling, which is rife in the region. The operation would last up to three weeks, he said. In April, a second-phase operation will kick in when 1,000 agents will be deployed to widen the crackdown into other regions in the states of Para, Mato Grosso and Rondonia. “In all, 36 areas will be inspected in the Operation Arc of Fire,” which was mandated under a 2004 preservation plan for the Amazon, Montiel said. He estimated that the beefed up security presence had already cut logging by 59 percent. A previous, shorter operation was carried out early this month in Para. In three days, 15,000 cubic meters of illegally cut wood were seized in Tailandia mills. That initiative was halted when 10,000 people mobbed the officers doing the inspections, complaining that their livelihoods were being threatened. http://lushhomemedia.com/2008/02/27/a-place-for-residents-and-birds-and-trees/

19) Tailandia was established 19 years ago. Since then, an estimated 60% of the area’s forest has been destroyed. Brazilian authorities said they do not want further confrontations, but the operations against illegal logging will continue. The decision to deploy the troops to Tailandia to support police and environmental inspectors indicates the determination of federal authorities to continue its efforts against illegal deforestation, which increased markedly during the second half of 2007. With 160 timber yards in the area providing jobs for 2,000 to 3,000 people, the logging industry is a major employer in the region. However, it is thought that over 70% of wood felled in the area is of illegal origin according to BBC News reports. Over 530,000 cubic feet of wood has already been seized by authorities. The clashes in Tailandia have been a stark reminder of the conflict between economic development and environmental protection, a conflict that has long defined the debate about the Amazon’s future. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1270344/brazil_deploys_troops_to_reduce_rainforest_destruc
tion/

Guyana:

20) Even though we live on the periphery of a rain forest, few Guyanese appreciate the economic potential of our hinterland. We tend to think of the interior as something that ought to be exploited – deforested, opened up with highways and developed into villages and towns – if it is to generate revenue. But as the international response to global climate change gathers force, that paradigm may soon become defunct. The consequences of environmental damage are now too obvious to ignore. In the next few years developed countries will have little alternative but to expand existing carbon offset arrangements, and to purchase pollution credits at competitive, market-driven prices, even though no mechanisms now exist to pay compensation for preservation of standing forests. preserving what is already there. In the latest edition of the New Yorker magazine, Michael Specter observes that: “when forests disappear, the earth loses one of its two essential carbon sponges (the other is the ocean). The results are visible even from space… According to the latest figures, deforestation pushes nearly six billion tons of [carbon dioxide] into the atmosphere every year. Obviously, a great deal more still needs to be done. If the recent stalemate at the climate conference in Bali is anything to go by, there will be no quick solutions to the many national and corporate interests which exist in the current carbon economy. Even so, we should all make ourselves more aware of the opportunities which the emerging carbon exchanges are already making possible, and collectively we should be getting ready to take full advantage of them. http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_editorial?id=56540027

India:

21) Language springs from land. Land is not mere soil. Land, in addition, include the people of the land, the language they speak, the technologies they use for production, the different tools they utilize in their work, songs, music, art, literature and traditions. These emerge only in association with land. The trees, plants, creepers, grass and all other things, living and non-living in nature carry out the wonderful act of making land fertile. If these are destroyed, all living beings including humans cannot exist in peace. The lands become desolate turning into a desert! The mountain ranges play a prime role as far as forests are concerned. Precipitation into copious rainfall is aided by these mountain ranges. They store water below ground to be released as streams, rivulets and rivers to the plains, turning the plains rich and fertile. They form the source of major rivers as the Cauvery. The natural forests are the source of a nation’s wealth. People use the forest for their livelihood as naturally as possible. The forests and the lands adjoining the forests are considered the commons of the community and therefore their right. These were not the property of private persons. The British imperialist, in the process of conquering our country, converted the forests for the first time as property for exploitation. Forests and the lands that were protected by people for the first time became commodity for trade. A historic injustice unfolded when virgin thick forests that cannot be reproduced were destroyed and lorry loads of timber were smuggled out, when people’s lands were grabbed. To cover up this looting, the people who collected firewood and the Adivasis who revered the forests were squarely blamed for forest destruction. This was just to divert attention. It is grossly unjust and terrible to describe the people who protect and depend on the forest as `encroachers’ after the forest was departmentalized by the forest department. It is necessary to understand that large tracts of the mountainous region are under the tight control of rich forest mafias and big companies. And these are people who are not related to the region. These are the people who are the real encroachers. The lands that they grabbed are today the big plantations. This fact is camouflaged when the forest department destroys crops and properties threatening lives of the Adivasis who are the traditional inhabitants of the region as well as other poor and marginal farmers- all in the name of forest eviction and forest protection. http://www.ahrc.com/new/index.php/src/news/sub/article/action/ShowMedia/id/4269

22) More than 2,000 trees have been axed around hotels near the Taj Mahal to facilitate widening of roads, according to a monitoring committee appointed by the Supreme Court. The felling of trees is apparently in violation of an undertaking given by the Uttar Pradesh Government before the special environment bench of the Supreme Court. Asking where the 2,232 trees had disappeared, the monitoring committee said the government could not have gone ahead with the project in 2006 because its application seeking permission to axe the trees is still pending with the court. The committee members, advocate Kishan Mahajan, R C Trivedi, additional director, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), and C S Sharma, senior scientist with the CPCB made the startling revelation in their recent report. The members said they had personally visited the area on January 19 and found just 100 trees left on the 14 kilometres of roads. The roads have been widened from two lanes to four lanes at some points and to six lanes in other places. The monitoring committee had brought the issue to the court’s notice in October 2006. Objections were raised on the ground that the project was started without prior permission from the court for extensive destruction of the green belt around the Taj. A month later, after the court was informed about the road-widening project, the state government moved an application seeking the special bench’s approval for felling about 2,332 trees. During the hearing, when Mahajan requested a stay, the UP Government counsel gave an undertaking in the court that no tree had been felled and that none would be axed till its application was disposed of. On January 9, 2008 the special bench directed the UP government to approach the Central Government and Taj Trapezium Authority for an environment assessment certificate. http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=15b44c43-c9e8-4f21-b58f-f85a3e3d9499
&&Headline=UP+axed+2%2c000+trees+near+Taj

Laos:

23) Phongsaly Women’s Union plans to ordain a section of coniferous forest near Phiengxay village in Bounneua district next month to encourage natural resource preservation. This is an objective of the Women’s Economic Empowerment Project to preserve the wildlife, biodiversity and water resources in the area for future generations. “At the ceremony, there will be an alms offering in the village in the morning, followed by a baci ceremony in the forest and celebrations in the evening,” said the head of the provincial Women’s Union , Ms Pang Or-rakhan yesterday. She said that there will also be a fair and displays of traditional art from the province’s many ethnic groups. This forest is important for village life as it is rich in natural resources, but these resources are being depleted due to over hunting and illegal logging, she said. Ms Pang claimed that the ceremony will help revitalise the forest by teaching the local people to respect the land and maintain their Buddhist respect for all forms of life. ”During the ceremony we will invite all the monks, authorities and members involved with the project to participate, and afterwards organise a committee to establish guidelines for the people to better manage their forests,” she said. http://rspas.anu.edu.au/rmap/newmandala/2008/02/27/tree-huggers-on-the-move/
Philippines:

24) The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) has issued a moratorium on the issuance of permits to cut coconut trees amid alarming cutting of these trees that may endanger coconut production. PCA Administrator Oscar G. Garin signed PCA a board resolution which effectively stops coconut tree cutting effective March 10, 2008. “We will implement this moratorium once and for all to arrest the ever increasing and unabated incidence of illegal cutting of coconut trees,” said Garin in a statement. The board resolution upholds Republic Act 8048 which governs illegal cutting of coconut trees. The moratorium is effective on March 10 yet in consideration of traders who would be displaced. This will “give them ample time to seek alternate livelihood sources.” PCA issued memorandum circular 02-2008 last Feb. 12 which suspended issuance of all Permit to Cut Coconut Trees (PCCTs) and Transport/Transshipment clearances (TTCs). http://www.mb.com.ph/BSNS20080228118112.html

Malaysia:

25) Unlike many other indigenous peoples, the Batek have been able to hang on to their traditional way of life. This people’s story is the subject of a new book by a Dartmouth College husband-and-wife team, Kirk and Karen Endicott, who are among the leading authorities on this group. The Headman was a Woman: The Gender Egalitarian Batek of Malaysia (2008, Waveland Press, Inc), recounts ethnographic observations the Endicotts made during stints of fieldwork spanning nearly four decades. The book is accompanied by a 37-minute DVD, The Batek: Rainforest Foragers of Kelantan, Malaysia. In their fieldwork, Kirk focused on the Batek’s economy, social groups, and religion, while Karen focused on gender relations and roles and childrearing. In all these aspects, Batek culture displays striking characteristics, the Endicotts say. The people acquire few possessions – possessions are a nuisance for nomads – and are expected to share food, regardless of who obtained it. Violence, aggression and physical coercion are abhorred, considered offenses not only against humans but against the superhuman beings who are the Batek gods. The Malaysian government began selling off the rainforest to logging companies, turning the stripped land into plantations and establishing posts at which the Batek and other indigenous people (Orang Asli in Malay) were expected to farm and make permanent homes. The Endicotts returned to Malaysia in 1990 for what they thought would be a six-month stay in a village. “We went back assuming we would be studying the Batek’s transition to a sedentary way of life because of all the logging,” Kirk said. “We got to the post and found there was hardly anyone there.” They found that the Batek had retreated to the one part of their traditional land that hadn’t been logged, the area lying in and around the Taman Nagara National Park, and were living as they had before. This cultural continuity surprised the Endicotts. “Our hypothesis was that the Batek would have had to settle down and would have had many changes in their lives because of it, including a lot of changes in gender relations,” said Karen. “It turned out that they were managing to do a mix of economic activities, but they weren’t abandoning their approach to life and their core values.” http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2008/02/26.html
26) KUALA LUMPUR: Mangium Industries Bhd will discard timber as its core business and may focus on property development, said its executive director Mohd Silahuddin Jamaluddin. The company is planning to acquire property development outfit Ramajuta Properties Sdn Bhd but has yet to sign a definitive agreement. It may issue RM240 million worth of shares for the acquisition. Ramajuta is the property developer for the Warisan Square shopping mall located in Kota Kinabalu and was also the joint developer for 1Borneo through its wholly-owned subsidiary Sagajuta (Sabah) Sdn Bhd. The pending acquisition of Ramajuta is one of three strategies Mangium is undertaking to turn itself around. “We are in the midst of negotiations,” Mangium chairman Chris Kulasegram said. The company officials were speaking to reporters after its EGM here yesterday. Bursa has extended the time for Mangium to submit its regularisation plans, which include the Ramajuta acquisition, by another three months to May 26 this year. Mangium’s shares have not been traded since July 16, 2007 and, with the Bursa Malaysia Practice Note 17, risk being delisted from the Second Board of the stock exchange. At the EGM, its shareholders approved the proposed disposal of its subsidiary Mangium Plantations Sdn Bhd to US-based Global Emerging Markets Forestry Investors LLc for US$6 million. Mangium Plantation holds a 60-year concession from the Sabah Forest Development Authority for the right to harvest logs from a 17,000ha acacia mangium plantation located in Sabah. http://www.theedgedaily.com/cms/content.jsp?id=com.tms.cms.article.Article_5f345c23-cb73c03a-1
d7b2220-de940a67

Indonesia:

27) The wood processing industry in Riau, including sawmills and molding firms, is on the brink of collapse due to a scarcity of raw material supplies, said the head of Riau’s Indonesian Wood Community (MPI), Hotman Butar-Butar. Hotman said on Wednesday that wood supplies were falling because many forest concession holders were involved in rampant illegal logging practices in the province. “The (illegal logging) cases involving a number of forest concession holders are being investigated by the Riau Police,” he said. “There is no clear information as to when the investigation will be completed. The problem is that we depend heavily on them.” Hotman said nearly half of the 150 sawmills registered at MPI had stopped operations and “similar hardships” were affecting 35 registered molding firms in the province. Nearly 30 percent of 35,000 workers employed at the wood processing industry had been laid off, he said. “If the log scarcity prevails until next month, more companies will go bankrupt and thousands of other workers will be jobless.” http://wildsingaporenews.blogspot.com/2008/02/wood-industry-in-riau-on-brink-of.html

28) The study found that in central Sumatra’s Riau Province nearly 10.5 million acres of tropical forests and peat swamp have been cleared in the last 25 years. Forest loss and degradation and peat decomposition and fires are behind average annual carbon emissions equivalent to 122 percent of the Netherlands total annual emissions, 58 percent of Australia’s annual emissions, 39 percent of annual UK emissions and 26 percent of annual German emissions. Riau was chosen for the study because it is home to vast peatlands estimated to hold Southeast Asia’s largest store of carbon, and contains some of the most critical habitat for Sumatran elephants and tigers. It also has Indonesia’s highest deforestation rate, substantially driven by the operations of global paper giants Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) and Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Limited (APRIL). At last December’s Bali Climate Change Conference, the Indonesian minister of Forestry pledged to provide incentives to stop unsustainable forestry practices and protect Indonesia’s forests. The governor of Riau province has also made a public commitment to protect the province’s remaining forest. “The loss of Sumatra’s carbon-rich forest ecosystems is not just Indonesia’s problem – this affects the environmental health of the entire planet,” said Adam Tomasek, managing director of the Borneo and Sumatra program at WWF-US. The report by WWF, Remote Sensing Solution GmbH and Hokkaido University breaks new ground by analyzing for the first time the connection between deforestation and forest degradation, global climate change, and population declines of tigers and elephants. The province has lost 65 percent of its forests over the last 25 years and in recent years has suffered Indonesia’s fastest deforestation rates. In the same period there was an 84 percent decline in elephant populations, down to only 210 individuals, while tiger populations are estimated to have declined by 70 percent to perhaps just 192 individuals. As part of its efforts to save Sumatra’s remaining natural forests, WWF is working urgently with the Indonesian government and the pulp and palm oil industries to identify and protect the forests that are home to elephants, tigers, orang-utans and rhinos. Sumatra is the only place on Earth where all four species co-exists. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Destruction_Of_Sumatran_Forests_Driving_Global_Climate_Change
_And_Species_Extinction_999.html

29) Even with so many laws and regulations already enacted to enforce the sustainable management of our forest resources, illegal logging has remained common throughout the country. So, we can only imagine what will happen with the broad license for the plundering of our protected forests as provided by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono through Government Regulation No. 2/2008. Yet, both the President and Forestry Minister M.S. Kaban last week stubbornly defended the regulation as an additional measure to protect forests, and blamed environmentalists and analysts for misreading the regulation. We cannot help but wonder how the government could have issued such a bad regulation that virtually allows companies to exploit protected forests as long as they are willing to pay annual rental fees ranging from Rp 1.2 million (US$125) to Rp 3 million per hectare. Is the government so strapped for additional revenue that it is willing to trample upon the principle of sustainable forest management? The presidential decree does take into account a previous regulation issued by then president Megawati Soekarnoputri in 2004 (Government Regulation No. 41/2004) that allowed 13 mining companies to conduct mining operations in designated protected forests under certain conditions. However, this newest regulation was not issued specifically to collect additional levies (rents) from the 13 mining companies, as the government claims. Nor does the regulation specifically name the 13 mining firms as the targets of the rental fees. Yet potentially more devastating to our forests is that Government Regulation No. 2/2008 further broadens the categories of business operations that can encroach on protected forests, to include the building of electricity transmission and distribution networks and turnpikes. http://www.thejakartapost.com/misc/PrinterFriendly.asp

30) Close to our home is a little shack that serves as a transit point for logs being processed into furniture. I’ve chatted with the owner, who’s a pretty cool guy just trying to make a living. Besides, when you buy his lumber, it comes with the proper paperwork saying the wood was not illegally cut. (Okay, sometimes such paperwork doesn’t mean a whole lot, but at least it is there). The tree picture below is suar, or the rain tree, a large ornamental tree that comes from South America and is used in landscaping the world over. It’s a fine grained hardwood, not as valuable as teak, but still pretty. This particular tree provided 7 slabs, each about 40 feet long, and each slab worth at this point about $1500. So the tree as a whole is some $10,000 — let’s say $5000 to the first owner. That’s about five times the average yearly income. So while rain trees, and this tree below, is not rainforest plunder, the economics would be pretty much the same. So you can see why there is such intense pressure on rainforests and protected preserves. It’s not just the major plywood and timber companies being rapacious — it’s also poor people trying to put food on the table and their children through school. http://novelistinparadise.com/?p=587

Papua New Guinea:

31) A shipping container filled with sawn timber from an eco-forestry project in Lake Murray, Papua New Guinea (PNG) has arrived in Sydney, Australia. As part of the eco-forestry project, we teamed up with the local people and set up the Global Forest Rescue Station on the shore of Lake Murray in 2006. The rescue station was used as the base for surveying the surrounding forest to determine traditional clan boundaries, and training for the local communities in land and business management, marketing and timber milling. Celebrating the arrival of the first shipment of taun, rosewood and red cedar to Australia, Lake Murray landowner, Sep Galeva said that while it had taken his people a lot of hard work over the last few years to get the timber exported, this was just the first of many containers to come. “What we have shown is that anybody can do this. Forest communities around PNG don’t have to rely on industrial logging for survival, they can do it themselves in a way that protects the environment and keeps the land for future generations,” Mr Galeva said. “Our bad experience with illegal and destructive logging from the Kiunga Aiambak road project, run by Concord Pacific, made my people choose eco-forestry instead so that we have control over our land.” Greenpeace Forest Campaigner Sam Moko added, “By doing this they will continue to enjoy all the benefits their forests traditionally provide them and get real income from cutting their timber for generations to come.” http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/eco-timber-australia-280208

32) The export of round logs will be phased by 2010 and downstream processing phased in by logging companies, Forest Minister Belden Namah has announced. This could mean the loss of K450 million worth of revenue from round log exports annually. Mr Namah announced that the K30 per cubic meter royalty to landowners will be effective as of the end of this week. This will be of benefit to landowners who will almost triple their income from the previous K10 per cubic metre royalty. Mr Namah stressed that downstream processing must take place in the forestry sector where logging of forests make way for viable agricultural projects such as oil palm. He said that logging projects must fund road and infrastructure projects and provide spin-off benefits for the forest communities and the country Mr Namah made the remarks on the NBC Talk Back Show on Monday evening. He also said that there had been numerous concerns raised by landowners over the non-compliance of logging laws by the forest authority. He said he would personally fly into the logging sites and investigate. If there’s proof of non-compliance, he said, he would revoke their timber permits. http://www.thenational.com.pg/022708/nation2.htm

New Zealand:

33) A body called the Flexible Land Use Alliance, to be launched in Wellington today, brings together Fonterra, Graeme Hart’s Carter Holt, Landcorp and the Forest Owners Association, among others. They are opposed to plans to devolve, to the owners of land under commercial forests which already existed in 1990, the deforestation liabilities which the country incurs under the Kyoto Protocol. Under Kyoto’s rules if such forests are harvested and not replanted the carbon stored in the trees is deemed to be emitted then and there. The amount varies with the species, age and geographical location of the forest but averages about 800 tonnes a hectare. At a carbon price of $25 a tonne the liability would be $20,000 a hectare. Small holdings would be exempt and there would be a partial offset in the form of a free allocation of credits. But if the allocation was done pro rata it would leave those deforesting needing to buy units to cover 95 per cent of their liability. The proposed regime is seen as potentially locking into forestry land that might be better suited for pastoral farming, especially dairying. The Business Herald understands the group’s first preference is for the Government to drop plans to devolve the liability altogether. That would leave the liability with the taxpayer. If the regime is imposed, they want to be fully compensated for the loss of value of their land. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10494992

34) Forestry Minister Jim Anderton said that it may seem pretty simple to cut down one forest and plant another one somewhere else, but, in climate terms, there is a period when we have lost carbon and it will take several decades to get it back. “This matters because while we are slowly recouping the carbon the lost carbon is having a warming effect on the planet. Furthermore, because agricultural emissions would increase as a result of this proposal, New Zealand would be increasing as opposed to decreasing its overall carbon footprint.” Jim Anderton said the Flexible Land Use Alliance’s ‘first preference’ of all pre-1990 forests being exempt from the Emissions Trading Scheme was a non-starter. “This is inconsistent with the Kyoto Protocol’s rules, it would create a huge liability for the taxpayer with no benefit for the environment, and would destroy any credibility for New Zealand in taking a leadership position on global deforestation.” Climate Change Minister David Parker said: “It is not true that the Government can give effect to Kyoto by any means it choose, we have to live within the rules. Rules negotiated by over 100 countries will always involve compromise and if every country refused to make commitments that didn’t suit them then we would never reach agreement on anything. “It is an inescapable fact that our plantation forests hold carbon that will be lost to the atmosphere if the land is deforested so at the very least we need to do something to remedy this. As such we reject the view that any controls on deforestation are retrospective and therefore unfair – the controls are not on the past practice of planting a forest, they are on future practice of changing land use. There is no liability for foresters who replant the same land after harvest,” David Parker said. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0802/S00468.htm