323 – Earth’s Tree News
Today for you 34 new articles about earth’s trees! (323rd edition)
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–USA: 1) Japan’s Cherry blossom festival in Nation’s Capitol, 2) Forest Ethics is a Fraud, 3) PBS TV series called: Return to the Amazon,
–Canada: 4) Expand Waterton Lakes National Park, 5) But recycled TP!
–UK: 6) Save Littleworth Common, 7) Manifesto on London’s Trees, 8) Coppiced wood,
–Spain: 9) History of Logging and Mining
–Bulgaria: 10) Belasitsa mountain to become a park, 11) Reforestation,
–Finland: 12) Tax issue delays logging,
–Lebanon: 13) Every Tree Has A Story to Tell
–Haiti: 14) Dusty brown and devoid of any vegetation
–Ecuador: 15) Chevron lies to Shareholders about $16 Billion dollar fine
–Suriname: 16) The New Orleans of the Amazon
–Brazil: 17) Industry claims a ban on new soy production areas, 18) Science of deforestation caused climate change, 19) Forest peoples organize themselves, 20) Story of Marina Silva, 21) Resident to be paid NOT to cut trees,
–Madagascar: 22) Save the Baobab
–China: 23) Certification irrelevant: environmental awareness is weak, 24) Rubber trees,
–Bangladesh: 25) Save Bhawal forest
–India: 26) Kukrail Vatika is a first-of-its-kind park, 27) Metro to fell 29,360 trees,
–Thailand: 28) Impoverished Patrols officers of Khlong Wang Chao national park
–Philippines: 29) SouthKorea invades rainforest and builds illegal hotel, 30) Senate will investigate South Korea’s alleged invasion, 31) Seeking its return to being a line agency, 32) Maasim is source of illegally cut lumber and CBFM is the solution,
–Indonesia: 33) Bali represents paradise, 34) Earthbeat travels to heart of timber country,
USA:
1) In Washington, D.C., these last days of winter are tinged with just that little bit of extra excitement — the region goes under a “Bloom Watch” and waits for the National Park Service to announce exactly when the 3,000-odd cherry blossom trees in the city are expected to bloom. Over a period of two weeks around the end of March and the beginning of April, delicate flowers burst out of these trees in a profusion of pink and white petals. Most of the cherry blossom trees (these are the non fruit-bearing kind) are located near and around the Tidal Basin, close to the monuments on the National Mall, their concentrated presence creating a dramatic sensory overload. Forecasting peak blossom time is far from being an exact science, of course, with the finicky weather having the final word, but the yearly ritual gets its due attention as everyone — from the Mayor of Washington to the media to the local businesses with an eye on the tourism dollars — gets into the act. Reporters camp out near the trees, zoom in on the buds, and, year after year, recount the story of how the trees came to Washington. This year, luckily for the locals and tourists alike, the blossoms are expected to peak during the two-week Cherry Blossom Festival, Washington’s annual springtime celebration commemorating the arrival of the cherry blossom trees to Washington from Japan almost a century ago. A gift from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo to the people of the United States — following a few failed attempts by local residents to transplant and grow cherry trees in the Washington region — that first gesture paved the way for more exchanges between two countries intent on building and solidifying a relationship. World War II promptly put an end to the niceties, but the Festival returned to its rightful place on Washington’s social calendar in 1947. In a poignant twist to the story, Japanese horticulturists arrived in Washington in the early 1980s and returned home with precious cargo — cuttings from the trees that comprised their original gift — to replace their own trees that were lost to a flood. The hundreds of thousands of tourists that are expected to arrive in Washington during the two weeks of the Festival (between March 29 and April 13 this year) will find a whole host of events clamouring for their attention. http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/04/06/stories/2008040650220700.htm
2) Forest Ethics-type environmental organizations are created and operated largely to manufacture consent for industrial priorities. Without these organizations functioning to lead public opinion the developers would have a much more difficult job selling the environmental consequences of their initiatives. They function to relieve the government regulator from having to diligently and dispassionately assess the initiative and defend the public interest. Once Forest Ethics-type organizations have become convinced that the “development” is inevitable, it then finds its operational utility in negotiating capitulation in return for concessions which it then markets to the public as the best environmental result or effect that could have been achieved. They even go so far as to lie to the public and claim victory as if capitulation has allowed a place to be “saved.” To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail, and to a Forest Ethics-type professional staffers every industrial initiative looks like an opportunity to negotiate capitulation, concessions and most important: more funds. To me it seems that Forest Ethics-type organizations are a very important part of any industrial project’s public relations business. It means great PR and terrible environmentalism, the two essential elements that ensures profits are high and costs are low. (Author’s name withheld do to Forest Ethics’ threat of slander lawsuits)
3) Twenty-five years ago, famed oceanographer Jacques Costeau gathered up his family for a 22-month expedition of the Amazon. Now, his son Jean-Michel, grandson Fabien and granddaughter Celine are carrying on the tradition in the two part episode “Return To The Amazon” of the PBS series “Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures,” premiering April 2. Fabien told The ShowBuzz that he and his sister were able to go on part of the original expedition “during school breaks,” and now they’ve returned to the world’s most powerful river to see how it’s changed. It’s changed all right, and not necessarily for the better. During the 10-month expedition for the new special, the Cousteaus and their team explored the 4,000-mile river and surrounding rainforest, both underwater and on land. “Although the program exposes the toll illegal logging, expansive soy farming, trafficking of animals, and rampant deforestation has taken on the environment and its people, it does introduce signs of hope and offer solutions. They investigate techniques that native people have used to sustain the land, as well as new business models like ecotourism, marketing of rainforest products, development of new medicines from indigenous plants, and fish farming. Above all, “Beyond The Amazon” is an adventure story, telling the tale of a group of passionate scientists and explorers traveling through one of the Earth’s great natural wonders. Fabien said his thirst for adventure has always been in his blood. “It’s something that is instilled in me from two generations ago,” he said. “It’s something that I was taught, and that curiosity is the drive. Every day is a new discovery. Whether the experience is a sad one or a happy one, it’s always a good one. With knowledge comes the power to be able to hopefully empower and impassion others into caring about our planet.” http://www.wibw.com/nationalnews/headlines/17326699.html
Canada:
4) The Alberta government appears to be presently ignoring a massive groundswell of support to establish a 1,040-sq.km of the Castle region in southwest corner of Alberta as an integrated wildland and provincial park to restore the damaged wilderness. The proposed Andy Russell-I’tai sah kop Park is a proposed extension of Waterton Lakes National Park, to be managed under provincial legislation. It is being sought in memory of Andy and Kay Russell and in recognition of the Piikani First Nation. Prominent conservationist Dianne Pachal said there is a pressing need to protect the wilderness and watershed, as well as the area’s rich natural and cultural heritage from the cumulative effects of industrial development and more recent recreation pressures. “The ecosystem in the Castle has been seriously degraded and if the status quo continues we will continue to see increasing degradation,” said Pachal at a presentation at a Bow Valley Naturalists’ meeting in Banff on Wednesday (March 26). “There are still some very magical places intact in the Castle, but it would be nice to have that sanctuary away from all that industrial development. This is an area that needs protection.” The proposed park in the Castle region is one of breathtaking beauty and important ecological significance, covering approximately 1,040-sq.km of mountains, valleys, rivers, waterfalls, forests and grasslands. It is considered to be the most biologically diverse region of the province, with 187 rare plants within six plant communities, 14 mammal species, 44 bird species, three reptiles, five amphibians, two fish species and 10 butterfly species. It is also the main water source for much of the southern reaches of the province. The provincial government first talked about making the area a park as far back as 1974, and since then, provincial hearings on developments in the area have twice recommended that activities in the Castle are not environmentally sustainable. The Castle region has been named a ‘Special Place’ by the provincial government, however it is the only one of all 81 ‘Special Places’ that has yet to be established as some type of park. But with the death in 2005 of Andy Russell, a true champion of conservation whose ranch overlooked the Castle, a groundswell of public support renewed calls for a park to be created once and for all, given that existing policy is proving sadly inadequate. http://www.rockymountainoutlook.ca/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=128&cat=23&id=1188169&more=0
5) Of all the things to obsess about, toilet paper has never been at the top of my list. Or the bottom. Then I met Jeff Wells, a pleasant, earnest ornithologist who lives in Maine and was visiting Philly. Wells and a few environmental groups say I should buy paper products made from recycled paper – not trees. Now, Wells obsesses about birds, billions of which breed in Canada’s boreal forest, which he also obsesses about because he’s a scientist with the International Boreal Conservation Campaign. The boreal stretches nearly from Alaska to the Atlantic; it absorbs tons of carbon dioxide and it’s a major summer nesting ground for birds that winter in backyards like mine. But the boreal forest is being logged at the rate of 2.5 million acres a year, Wells says. Some is for lumber, sure. But also for paper. Toilet paper. Paper giant Kimberly-Clark says all the leading consumer tissue brands in North America contain primarily virgin fiber. In a longstanding dispute, the company says it mainly uses leftover tree pulp, but environmentalists insist that entire trees are being given over to toilet tissue. The company said about 11 percent of its virgin pulp comes from the boreal – which is then reforested. Still, environmentalists wonder why we are, in effect, flushing virgin wood pulp of any sort down the toilet when at the same time we’re sending nearly half of all the perfectly good paper left over from home and office use to landfills. “It’s one of those things that just doesn’t make sense in today’s world,” Wells said. At least half a dozen companies now make TP from recycled paper. I took a field trip to area grocery stores to investigate. OK, then, talk about obsessed. In one paper goods aisle, there were 18 kinds of toilet paper – including one aimed specifically at children. Every store also had at least one eco brand. I bought seven. Back home, I piled my loot onto the dining room table and took stock. The eco-packages had pictures of trees and cute slogans: “Soft on Nature, Soft on You.”And in case anyone should miss the “100 percent recycled” label, they had names such as Nature’s Balance, Earth First, Sunrise, Earth Friendly and Seventh Generation. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/sandy_bauers/20080407_GreenSpace__On_a_roll__Dead_tre
es_go_down_the_toilet.html
UK:
6) Organizers behind a scheme to remove hundreds of mature trees from a picturesque common have forced residents to set up a protection society. They fear a mass felling of trees at Littleworth Common, near Burnham Beeches, will turn the area into a barren wasteland. But the project, part of a programme by South Bucks District Council (SBDC) to return the area of Special Scientific Interest to heathland, has the backing of some environmentalists. Publicans, Rob and Marianne Hancox, moved into their pub, The Jolly Woodman, on the common last August. Mr Hancox, a retired butcher, said: “We feel very strongly about it. It was not what we were led to believe. We believed the ten year plan to be a cull on the dead trees leaving a ten metre perimeter around the outside so we wouldn’t get anyone driving in and fly-tipping. That’s what they are doing now.” He added: “I’ve likened it to Vietnam – it looks like there has been napalm in the area.” Mr Hancox has joined a society which has been set up to try to protect the area, collecting 600 signatures in a petition against the action. Spokesman for SBDC, Kate Murray, said the council and English Nature (now Natural England) signed on October 1, 2000. She said: “This agreement sees the controlled felling and bracken rolling as part of a ten year plan to return the area to heathland including some restoration work in a large pond. Future work on the site will continue to support the enhancement of the heathland vegetation to improve the habitat further. http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/localnews/display.var.2171296.0.woodland_looks_like_its_bee
n_napalmed.php
7) A Manifesto for London’s Trees and Woods which contains eight key recommendations – all key issues for the future of trees in the capital. They want to be sure that those in power support the protection and enhancement of the capital’s wonderful trees and woodland. So, they are sending this Manifesto to all those with the potential to influence the capital’s trees and woods – a vital resource that makes a very tangible impact on the quality of life for Londoners and everyone that visits the capital. They ask for your help to encourage all the London Mayoral and Assembly candidates to give their support to the Manifesto and to ensure that once in power they do all they can to deliver on its recommendations. http://barkingside21.blogspot.com/2008/04/londons-trees.html http://www.woodland-trust.org.uk/campaigns/london/images/manifestohighres.pdf
8) “When we use products made from coppiced wood, such as hazel beanpoles, we help protect the environment, wildlife and our ancient traditions,” said Judy Walker, Executive Director of the Small Woods Association. People in Britain have been using products made from coppiced wood for thousands of years. However, despite their impressive quality, these products have been largely displaced by alternatives, like imported bamboo beanpoles. As a result, the amount of managed coppiced woodland in Britain has fallen by around 90% during the 20th century, from around 230,000 hectares in 1905 to an estimated 23,000 hectares in 1997. National Beanpole Week aims to help reverse this drastic decline by increasing the demand for products made from coppiced wood. Organisers are calling on everyone to do their bit to support Britain’s coppiced woodlands by going along to a special Beanpole Week event, or simply by buying hazel beanpoles made from coppiced wood. “Hazel poles make the best and most handsome beanpoles for any garden or allotment. They are also part of an ancient tradition of sustainable production in coppice woodlands which are one of the great wildlife treasures of Britain. By using hazel beansticks you are buying local, buying sustainable and buying beautiful,” said celebrity gardener Monty Don, in support of National Beanpole Week. Coppicing is an ancient method of sustainable woodland management. The most commonly coppiced trees are hazel, alder, ash, birch, oak, field maple, hornbeam, small-leaved lime, sweet chestnut, sycamore and wych elm. Coppiced trees are harvested by having their stems cut down close to ground level. When new shoots emerge, they are allowed to grow for a few years before being harvested again. Woodland near Westonbirt in Gloucestershire includes a coppiced lime tree which is 48ft in diameter and at least 2000 years old. In order to be of maximum benefit to the countryside, coppiced woodland needs to be carefully managed. “The ongoing management of coppiced woodland is really important because if they’re not maintained, coppiced woodlands become derelict and less valuable to the countryside and environment in general,” said Richard Thomason, a project manager with the Small Woods Association. http://www.forestry.gov.uk/newsrele.nsf/AllByUNID/8658746C36C794FB802574200037E7F6
Spain:
9) In the movie Elizabeth, Phillip II remarks that he has sacrificed Spain’s forests in order to build his fleet. That’s an interesting remark, and I wonder how accurate it is. Perhaps someone knows. While I was looking on the Internet for substantiation, I found A History of the Precious Metals, by Alexander Del Mar, in which he notes that Spain was to the ancients what Mexico and Central and South America became in later ages to Spain, the Dorado, the richest mining country of the world, the place where gold and silver were found in greatest abundance. The fate of its aboriginal inhabitants, the subsequent struggles among leading nations for the mastery of its precious metals, the destruction of its forests for the purposes of the mines and the consequent exposure of its soil to drought and devastation, the neglect of agriculture in the absorbing pursuit of metallic wealth, and the resulting poverty and backwardness of its population, both aboriginal and colonial — can all be read by the nearer pictures which are accessible to us of Mexico and Peru. http://www.coxesroost.net/journal/2008/04/04/spains-forests
Bulgaria:
10) Bulgaria’s Belasitsa Mountain located in the southwest corner of the country will be declared a natural park, the regional news website sandanski1.com reported. The formal ceremony will take place in the town of Petrich in southwest Bulgaria on April 19, and will be followed by a concert. The ceremony is expected to be attended by the Petrich Mayor, Bulgaria’s Minister of Environment and Waters, the Chair of the State Forest Agency, MPs, and representatives of NGOs. Local eco-activists have stated that a number of working projects and programs for the development of environmental tourism in the region. The Biodiversity Foundation has pledged to work for the restraining of the deforestation and the haphazard construction in the mountain. Belasitsa is 63 km long and 7-9 km wide. Some 20% of it are located on Bulgarian territory. The rest of the mountain is in Greece (45%), and in Macedonia (35%). http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=91919
11) 10, 000 acres will be forested in 2008, Rosen Baltasarov, vice-executive director of State Agency of Forests (SAF) announced. To the moment 7,000 acres have been executed to the moment. More than 100,000 acres forests have been damaged by fires in 2007, as big part of them have already been rehabilitated. Another 15,000 acres land should be forested. The expending over the foresting of 1 acre are round 2,000 BGN (1000 EUR), the chairman of SAF doc. Stefan Yurukov. 2, 5 million BGN (1, 25 million EUR) for protection from fires are shared from the budget. What about the reviewed at the moment changes in the Forest law and introducing of state taxes for the forest fund infrastructure, Yurukov pointed out, such paying will bring to fund ‘Bulgarian forest’ incomes of 8-9 million BGN (4 – 4,5 EUR) and will raise the foresting with 20-30 %. http://international.ibox.bg/news/id_1336190301
Finland:
12) Forest owners are unwilling to sell trees before they know exactly how income from selling wood felled in the first thinning of a young forest is to be taxed. The working group, led by former Prime Minister Esko Aho, who is currently the President of the Finnish Innovation Fund (SITRA), proposed that wood from the first thinning could be sold as raw material for pulp and paper without taxes. Other types of wood sales incur a tax of 28 per cent. The working group was appointed by Prime Minister Vanhanen to deal with the problems being caused by Russia’s export duties on raw timber, which is set to cause considerable hardship for the Finnish forest industry. A plan to increase the duty to EUR 50 per cubic metre next year would effectively end wood imports from Russia. Wood from the first thinning accounts for about ten per cent of all felling. Although the amount is not large, it has an impact on other felling. If a forest owner sells wood, he or she usually offers the buyer both young trees, and older ones at the end of their effective life cycle. If the taxation of wood from initial thinning is unclear, even the larger logs can easily be left unsold. Forest companies used to shun wood from initial felling for thinning, because the harvesting methods are cumbersome, and the yield per hectare is small. Currently, the industry has been threatened with stoppages in production if the availability of raw material is not structurally secured. The working group was not able to evaluate the impact of the taxation proposal, even though the team includes some of Finland’s leading experts in the forest sector, including the CEO of UPM, Jussi Pesonen, Chairman of the Federation of Finnish Forest Industries, Anne Brunila, the federation’s managing director, and Antti Sahi head of forest affairs for the Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners. The working group had six experts at its disposal, including tax expert Veli-Pekka Nummikoski, a high official at the Ministry of Finance. The idea of Aho’s working group was to implement the tax break quickly. However, this did not work out, as the proposal first needs to be examined by the European Commission, as the Ministry of Finance wants to make sure that Finland is not accused later of improper business subsidies. http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Tax+proposal+of+forest+group+stalls+over+wood+trade/1135235243
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Lebanon:
13) Under the title “Every Tree Has A Story to Tell,” the Association for Forests, Development and Conservation (AFDC) held a closing ceremony to highlight the main accomplishments of the “Restoration and Conservation of Sensitive Forest Areas in South Lebanon” project which it implemented in collaboration with WWF Italy and with the financial support of the ROSS Emergency Program of the Italian Cooperation. The ceremony was held on Friday at Le Meridien Hotel in Hamra. Sawsan Bou Fakhreddine, the general director of AFDC, opened the ceremony and stressed the importance of the project in providing baseline information that would serve as a reference for the evaluation and monitoring of the general status of Lebanese forests. “Here, it is quite important to stress that the best way to fight forest fires is through their prevention,” Fakhreddine said, adding that efforts ought to be doubled on all levels, “especially since the forest fire season for this year is around the corner and preparations for firefighting on the national and local level are still under preparation.” WWF Italy representative Ennio Merlini said the major threats for forest fires are human activities. “Of course this is the basic finding everywhere in the world and it doesn’t sound strange considering that human communities have always interacted with natural resources for their livelihood,” he said. “It is worth considering, given this easy conclusion, that human activities and behavior should become the most effective allies for forests and nature conservation,” Merlini added. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=90697
Haiti:
14) It’s evident when I take a small five-seater plane from the capital to Hinche, a city on the Central Plateau in Haiti’s interior. Most of the mountains that surround Port au Prince — and that I am crossing to get to the Central Plateau — look dusty brown from above and devoid of any vegetation. Many have deep white gashes running from their peaks, where limestone quarrying and erosion have left gaping wounds. Rivers (this is the dry season) are wide and dry, speckled intermittently with shallow pools of water. Haiti’s deforestation began centuries ago, when the French herded African slaves to Haiti to work in the sugar cane plantations. Then they filled the slave ships returning to France with Haiti’s precious tropical timber. Today, Haitians told me, they don’t feel that France has done enough to repay the country, where the land is largely brown and barren. Hinche, however, is awash in color — an explosion of red and green on the dry brown landscape. Flags, T-shirts, bandanas, and posters proclaim the convention of the Peasant Movement of Papaye (MMP), which I’ll be attending. The MPP, Haiti’s largest and oldest peasant organization, works in the Central Plateau to organize peasant farmers and farm workers to be strong advocates for social and environmental change — to have a powerful voice in Haiti’s development. What is encouraging is that all of the major regional peasant organizations in Haiti are working to build a national coalition to protect the land and food needs of rural residents. In Jacmel, the capital of Haiti’s southeast, the offices of KROS (Kordinasyon Rejyonal Oganysasyon Sides), one of the organizations working to build this national coalition of peasant organizations, are located within a large complex of local cooperatives that produce honey, coffee, natural fertilizers, and products based on sugar cane and other crops. Gerald Mathurin, a KROS member, says that one of their most important goals is to strengthen the image of peasants in the national consciousness as valued and productive members of society. http://www.boston.com/news/world/blog/2008/04/haiti_blue_helm.html
Ecuador:
15) Chevron Corp.’s management is lying to shareholders about the finding by a court expert that it faces up to $16 billion in liability for a major human rights catastrophe in the Amazon rainforest by dumping billions of gallons of toxic waste, said representatives of the Amazon Defense Coalition, a group representing 80 communities and five indigenous groups in the class-action lawsuit. Early this week, an independent court-appointed expert, Professor Richard Cabrera, a prominent Ecuadorean geologist and leading environmental consultant for various oil companies, concluded that Chevron owed a minimum of $7 billion and up to $16 billion to compensate for damages to Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest during the operation of a large oil concession from 1964 to 1990.Chevron was found by the expert to have abandoned 916 open-air toxic waste pits and dumped more than 18 billion gallons of toxic waste into Amazon waterways. A summary report of the findings indicated that the company’s practices have caused 428 excess deaths from cancer, for which it proposed $2.9 billion in compensation.
“What the expert found is that Chevron has hoisted itself by its own petard, and with its own evidence, proven the claims in the lawsuit alleged by the indigenous groups,” said Steven Donziger, an American legal advisor on the case. “It’s rather extraordinary to see a defendant like Chevron helping to make the case against itself.”
After details of the report became public on Wednesday, Chevron released a press statement that “lies on its face in fundamental ways” and hides the fact that the company’s primary spokesman on the issue has been under criminal investigation in Ecuador for his actions relating to the very legal problem at issue, said Pablo Fajardo, the lead Ecuadorean lawyer on the case. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/chevron-accused-of-lying-to,339025.shtml
Suriname:
16) “Suriname is the New Orleans of the Amazon,” he says. “You have all these cultures jammed together, living side by side. “Very few places in America have the kind of cultural diversity you have in New Orleans. It’s not like in New York where you have the Colombian section of Brooklyn and the Jamaican section of Brooklyn. It strikes me as more of a salt-and-pepper place than these others. In Omaha or Oklahoma City, you don’t see the mix you see here — in the streets, in the stores, at weddings. “Well, guess what: It’s like that in Suriname. The same kind of checkerboard, salt-and-pepper mix.” Plotkin even sees a similarity to New Orleans in Suriname’s food and music. “Just like New Orleans — this crazy mix of culture and cuisine,” he says. But since he moved away from his hometown 35 years ago, Plotkin — who returned this week to speak at Tulane University on the impact of climate change on shamans and the rainforest — has spent his life in search of the exotic. First he got a Ph.D. in ethnobotany from Tufts University. Then he began traveling to the jungles of South America, to study the traditional medicine practiced by the shamans there. And ultimately he set up a foundation for the preservation of the Amazon rainforest culture. Every year for the 30 years, Plotkin has visited Suriname, a small country just north of Brazil. And the more time he spends there, the more the place reminds him of New Orleans. In the music, he hears some of the African roots of traditional jazz. “If you want to see what Congo Square looked like 200 years ago, visit Central Suriname,” he says. The mission of Plotkin’s foundation, called the Amazon Conservation Team, is to work in partnership with indigenous people in the American tropics to conserve biodiversity, health and culture. Current projects include ethnographic mapping, traditional medicine clinics and the preservation of rare plants, particularly medicinal ones. All of the foundation’s projects are undertaken in partnership with the native Indians. The years he has spent with the shamans of the Amazon rainforest have taught him a profound respect for their work. He defines the term broadly: “A shaman is a man or a woman who combines different skills — doctor, philosopher, singer of songs, keeper of legends, even the person who conveys souls to the underworld.” The plants in the jungle have yielded several important medicines, he says. And there are many more to be discovered. http://blog.nola.com/elizabethmullener/2008/04/botanist_from_broadmoor_shares.html
Brazil:
17) An industry-led ban on soy production in the Amazon appears to be proving effective at reducing new clearing for explicit soy production, according to a survey published Monday by Greenpeace and the Brazilian Vegetable Oils Industry Association. The moratorium, which was signed by some of the largest soy crushers in the Amazon in response to a campaign by environmental group Greenpeace, went into effect in October 2006. While soy is believed to be having an indirect impact on deforestation by driving up land prices and competing with the dominant form of land use in the Amazon — cattle ranching — the news is a hopeful sign for conservationists. “Without a doubt the results show that soy moratorium is being respected and that is good news,” Paulo Adario, coordinator of Greenpeace’s Amazon campaign, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. The report found no new soybean plantations in any of the 193 areas that showed deforestation of 100 hectares (250 acres) or more between August 2006 and August 2007. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0403-amazon_soy_ban.html
18) I read an interesting article about how solar rays and correlated low cloud cover are not the cause of climate change, at least according to the latest study. An idea struck me. if lower atmosphere clouds (or the lack thereof) cause global warming, then the source of these clouds is pretty important. more than anything else, forests create clouds. sure, oceans and lakes create clouds along the coastlines, but virtually every molecule of water in the atmosphere more than about 100 miles inland has passed through a plant since it last saw the ocean. This was my most important take away from my brief environmental science studies in university: if you cut down the fist 100 miles of the Amazon rain forest, the rest would slowly dry up an die. So, if forest create clouds, enhance evaporation, reduce heat absorption (vs bare ground), could they not be an important factor in determining the global temperature? How could they not be? http://vboring.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-much-is-deforestation-is-causing.html
19) Dozens of “forest peoples” who descended on this capital of Amazonas State last week had a common goal of becoming bigger players in global climate talks. A conference here that ended last Friday drew leaders of hundreds of indigenous groups in 11 Latin American countries and observers from Indonesia and Congo, the largest gathering of its kind, organizers said. They came to build a consensus for a plan in which wealthier countries would compensate developing countries for conserving tropical forests like the Amazon. Such an international carbon-trading plan has been gaining momentum and was a central topic last December at a climate conference in Bali, Indonesia. Scientists generally agree that tropical deforestation accounts for 20 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. “There is a real sense that this potentially represents a huge opportunity for forest peoples to influence climate change negotiations and create larger-scale incentives to stop deforestation and improve their living conditions,” said Stephan Schwartzman of the Environmental Defense Fund in New York, who attended the discussions here. On Friday, representatives from the 11 Latin American countries signed a declaration establishing the International Alliance of Forest Peoples and vowed to continue to push for a place at the table of climate change talks. Unlike Southeast Asia, where land is more tightly controlled by national governments, Brazil has set aside huge swaths of the Amazon for native groups, who now have permanent rights to 12 percent of the country’s territory and 21 percent of the Amazon. Some 49 million acres of “extractive reserves” were set aside for the rubber tappers, Brazil nut gatherers and river communities that live there. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/world/americas/06brazil.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
20) When Marina Silva was 16, she was illiterate. So how, then, did Marina Silva rise to become the Brazilian minister of environment and share the UN’s highest environmental prize with the likes of Al Gore, former US vice-president and Noble Peace Prize winner? The story of Marina Silva is well known in Brazil. It is a remarkable rise for a woman who now is considered by many in the environmental movement as an unlikely “trailblazer”. Silva was born deep inside the Brazilian Amazon. Her father worked as a rubber tapper, extracting liquid from trees that is then a main ingredient of rubber. Life was tough, her two sisters died six months before her mother, Silva’s brother passed away when he was just seven days old. “When I was growing up … people that worked in the government belonged to traditional families, families that owned some kind of property,”Silva told Al Jazeera in at her home in the capital Brasilia. “I was the daughter of a man who worked in a semi-slavery regime, so it was unimaginable to think of having a public job. My dream was to become literate.” “My father knew how to read and I was fascinated when I saw him looking at a piece of paper and then speaking about what that paper said. “My dream was to learn how to read and to become a nun and to be able to help others as a teacher, to take care of others.” To fulfill that dream Silva moved to Rio Branco, the state capital. “When I got to Rio Branco, I started to take literacy classes in a programme for young people and adults,” she said. “I learned how to read and write in 15 days.” Silva was then able to work her way into university, where she graduated with a degree in history. She briefly became a teacher, before meeting Chico Mendes, a famous Brazilian environmental and labour rights activist. Shortly after meeting Mendes, Silva decided to dedicate her life to saving the Amazon rainforest. She became the youngest woman ever elected to the Brazilian senate, where she distinguished herself as someone who fought at all costs for environmental rights. Six years ago Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, the president, himself famous for working as a shoe shine boy as a child, named Silva as the head of the ministry of environment. It is a position which oversees the Amazon, the world’s largest forest. Silva immediately confronted powerful logging, agriculture and corporate interests responsible for deforestation – a task few of her predecessors had dared take on. “I cannot see my life separated from my fight,” Silva said. During her first year almost 600,000 miles of illegal highways were discovered in the middle of the Amazon. http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D9C60E9F-6536-4FDE-8658-304D4B8931E7.htm
21) Brazil’s government is to pay residents of the Amazon money and credits for their “eco-services” in helping to preserve the vast forested area sometimes called the “lungs of the Earth” for its role its converting carbon dioxide. Environment Minister Marina Silva has presented the measure as a priority and said “keeping the forest going is an important environmental service” for the entire planet. Under the scheme, farmers, ranchers and woodsman who use small-scale traditional techniques in the Amazon will be rewarded with public funds, special credits and a market that will pay more for environmentally sustainable products. The initiative’s goal is to reinforce methods seen as doing less damage than the the large-scale mechanical and chemical methods of big commercial businesses, the director for Brazil’s Agency for Sustainable Rural Development, Paulo Guilherme Cabral, told AFP. The compensation should help rural workers making a subsistence living off the land while providing a disincentive for profitable “destructive activities” such as cultivating soya, clearing land for cattle and illegal logging, said Raul do Vale, coordinator of the Socioenvironmental Institute, a non-governmental organization. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva recently admitted that an economic carrot had to accompany the sticks the government was employing to preserve the Amazon. “Nobody will convince a poor person not to cut down a tree if he doesn’t get in exchange the right to work, to eat,” he said. One Amazon farmer who has signed on to a pilot project for sustainable development involving 4,000 families, Angelino Moreira, hailed the logic behind the new scheme. “If I do like the others, cut down trees, burn the land and use herbicides, I will have great harvests. But when you respect the trees and don’t use chemicals, production falls dramatically — this is why it has to be compensated, so we can get by,” he said. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hhsx8MBbBewQVtc_HeZgu2RsLuoQ
Madagascar:
22) Madagascar hosts a rich biodiversity of plant and animal life that is indigenous to the area and, unfortunately, highly threatened. Among the endangered in Madagascar is the Baobab Tree – Adansonia grandidieri. The Adansonia grandidieri is the largest and grandest of the Baobab family. It has a massive cylindrical trunk covered with smooth, reddish-grey bark. When in bloom, the flat crowns of the trees bear bluish-green palm-like leaves and dark brown floral buds or spectacular flowers with white petals. It produces leaves from October to May and flowers from May to August. The flowers open around dusk and they all pollinate on the same night they flower. Nocturnal animals pollinate the trees by licking the nectar from the flowers and repeating this process from tree to tree. Scientists believe only lemurs are now capable of pollinating these trees. Before the colonization of Madagascar, other nocturnal animals and the elephant bird also were seed dispersers, but these species have long gone extinct. Humans have not only affected the number of animals that can pollinate the tree, they have changed the tree’s environment and exploited its various parts. These trees historically prospered in dry, deciduous forest, especially near seasonal river or lakes. Today, they are mainly found in open, agricultural land because of the increased demand for farming. Many trees are scarred from pegs hammered into the bark by humans, who use them to climb up the trunk to collect seeds. The bark is stripped to make rope and the wood is carted away to use for thatch. Because of the changes made to their environment and the exploitation of their resources, there are few young baobab trees, which could seriously hinder species survival. Numerous organizations and researchers, like those at the Academy, along with the Malagasy government, have realized the importance of conserving the unique biodiversity of Madagascar and are working to protect this hotspot. One measure, which will help the Grandidier’s baobab, is the 2003 pledge from the President of Madagascar to triple the number of protected areas in the region. This will not only help restore an incredible area of biodiversity but also help the Malagasy people. Their livelihoods depend on the continued preservation of their watersheds and forests. http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2008/04/02/an-upside-down-tree/
China:
23) Only 0.3 percent of Chinese forests, or about 1.48 million acres, are certified as sustainable according to international standards, said Lu Wenming, chief of international cooperation at the Chinese Academy of Forestry. Additi onally, only 501 Chinese companies purchase their timber from internationally certified sources, Lu said. “Our domestic demand for certified logs and timber products is quite low because our public environmental awareness is very weak,” he said on the sidelines of a forest products conference. “People don’t care about this.” China is th e second-largest importer of forestry products in the world and the largest importer of timber from tropical countries. It imported 1.3 billion cubic feet of logs in 2007, a 15.4 percent increase from the previous year, according to the China Timber Circulation Association. Environmental groups say China’s demand for wood and the developed world’s desire for cheap Chinese-made products are fueling an illegal timber trade and the destruction of ancient forests in the Asia-Pacific region. The Chinese government introduced policies five years ago governing its own procurement of timber, said Lu, whose academy is affiliated with the State Forestry Administration. If the government strengthened those policies to focus on buying supplies only from certified sustainable forests, then commercial buyers in China would follow suit, he said. “Certification is a market-based instrument to promote sustainable forest management. It’s very, very effective in some countries, especially Europe, but seems not very effective in China,” Lu said. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5668189.html
24) XISHUANGBANNA – On a map on ecologist Liu Wenjie’s computer, the subtropical southern tip of China’s Yunnan province is slowly turning from green to red. Rubber plantations — shown in red on Liu’s computer screen — have supplanted nearly all the low-lying forest in the prefecture of Xishuangbanna and are now starting to encroach on the highlands. Liu and other scientists are worried that the expansion of rubber plantations to feed China’s voracious tire industry, the world’s largest, will destroy the ecosystem of Xishuangbanna. The province is home to China’s richest variety of flora and fauna. Three decades ago, jungles and high mountain forests covered about 70 percent of Xishuangbanna, tucked between China’s borders with Laos and Myanmar. By 2003, that proportion had shrunk to less than 50 percent. “With rubber prices rising like crazy, any tree that can be cut down has been cut down to make way for rubber,” said Liu, a professor at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, run by the Chinese Academy of Science. Rainforests have been reduced to patches of protected zones in Xishuangbanna, one of the top rubber producing regions in China, as double-digit economic growth has caused increasing encroachment on China’s last remnants of uncultivated land. The official figure for Yunnan Province’s rubber acreage is 334,000 hectares, about 43 percent of the country’s total acreage, but the real figure may be much higher. China consumed 2.35 million tonnes of natural rubber in 2007. About 70 percent of that was imported from abroad, mainly from Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, Southeast Asian countries that are also facing deforestation from expanding rubber plantations. http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSSHA7974020080407
Bangladesh:
25) Once upon a time Bhawal Garh was so rich and transitional zone of floral composition because of its geographical settings and climatic characteristics. Sal was the special but recently Bahera, Amloki, Gandhi gazari, Karoi Palash, Dhaki-jaam, Chambal, Bajna, Haritaki, Sonalu, Mango, Jack-fruit trees are planted here. This forest also includes lower amounts of Herbs, Shrubs, Grasses, Creepers and Vines. Deer, Owl, Wild cock, Cobra, Frog, Cockroach, Monkey, Rat, Python, Doeal, Cuckoo etc are naturally found in this Bhawal forest This forest has many kinds of insects, apes, reptiles and its wetlands contain different types of endemic fishes. But at present most of these distinct flora and fauna species are in danger and struggling for existence. To control ecological balance any country needs 25 percent forest. We have no sufficient forest in our country. We have only 9% (17% in official record). Furthermore, our forests are being destroyed day by day. We should take proper step to check deforestation. Government should impose some policies and law to protect forests. Already government has take some steps such as, extension and development of existing facilities for Bhawal National Park, creation of recreational facilities, improvement and extension of existing wildlife breeding centre, conservation and development of endangered wild animals, afforestation of degraded Sal forest and upon fallow land. Government can utilize the lower lands which are used by the local people, increase opportunities for eco-tourism, education and research. By increasing awareness of the local people near the Bhawal National Park we can protect this forest from deforestation, by training the employer who are engaged with the forest department. Biological resources and biological diversity form the basis of both the ecology and economy of Bangladesh. The agricultural activities, fisheries and livestock along with a number of other sections are heavily dependent directly or indirectly on biological resources.Bhawal forest is our biological resource. So we must protect this forest for our survival and development. http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=30786
India:
26) Called the “Kukrail Vatika”, this first-of-its-kind park will be spread across five-and-a-half hectares of land. Talking to reporters, forest official Mukesh Kumar said that the park would have trees that find a mention in the Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian Buddhist and Jain scriptures. The park will also have a “Nakshatra Vatika” with 27 plants and trees that are related to various planets. “The ‘Qurani Vatika’, for instance will have trees and plants like mehndi, figs, olive, dates, berries and pomegranate that find a mention in the Holy Quran. In the ‘Buddha Vatika’, you will find trees like peepul, pakad and blackberry whereas the ‘Guru Vatika’, based on the Sikh religion, will have trees like peepul and reetha. The ‘Masih Vatika’ will be dedicated to the Christian religion and the ‘Hari Shankar Vatika’ will have tress and plant related to the Hindu religion. Apart from this, there will also be a ‘Dhanvantri Vatika’ where plants with medicinal properties will be planted and visitors can learn about the benefits of the plants and trees. The forest department plans to prepare literature informing people about the religious significance of the various trees and mythological stories, if any, surrounding them. “We will be providing literature that will give necessary information about the plant and the conditions needed for its growth,” the official said. The park will also have a sale counter to enable visitors to purchase trees and plants of their choice. The entire park will be lit up with solar energy. The idea behind this theme park is to promote forestry by linking it to religion and culture. The Kukrail Park, incidentally, was once famous for its lake that was believed to cure persons suffering from dog bites and prevent rabies. Every Tuesday and Sunday, people suffering from dog bites, would travel to Kukrail for a dip in its waters. Even the nullah leading to the Kukrail Lake was said to have curative powers. Over the years, the nullah dried up and the Kukrail Park turned into a crocodile breeding and rehabilitation centre. It continues to remain a favourite picnic spot for Lucknowites. http://howrah.org/india_news/8786.html
27) The city government has so far given permission to the Delhi Metro to fell 29,360 trees for execution of its various projects in the capital. Delhi Metro Railways Corporation has sought felling of another 7,508 trees for its projects coming up in Phase II, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit told the Assembly today. She was replying to a question raised by BJP member Puran Chand Yogi. The chief minister said that the Metro has been planting ten trees for each felled tree as per government norms to restore the city’s green cover. To another query, she said efforts will be taken to ensure that minimum number of trees are grounded to roots while executing the project connecting New Delhi railway station to airport. The metro line will pass through the ridge area near Sardar Patel Marg in New Delhi area. Quoting the figures available from the Forest Department regarding illegal felling of trees, Dikshit said in the eleven months of fiscal year 2007-08, at least 99 cases have been registered against the offenders while 17 cases have been compounded. “We have collected Rs 3,72,300 as a fine from the offenders for illegal felling and not planting trees during the same period,” she said. In the previous year, the government had garnered Rs 1,50,383 as fine and registered 95 cases against the offenders. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Permission_given_to_Delhi_Metro_to_fell_
29360_trees/articleshow/2920974.cms
Thailand:
28) Patrolling the Khlong Wang Chao national park in Tak, Mr Manop, 37, said the three bullets and an old rifle loaned to each of the rangers who drive a 30-year-old pick-up truck was not enough to intimidate the well-armed encroachers, who are mostly Hmong highlanders. Mr Manop likened the rangers’ fragile defences to a “toothpick” compared with the modern, powerful war weapons carried by encroachers. Their plight came to national attention on March 23 when Viroj Chuakaopim, chief of the Ban Pha Phueng national park close to the Khlong Wang Chao park, was killed in a hail of bullets fired by forest intruders – illegal loggers and traffickers. They move through the forests in small groups to evade patrols. Mr Manop and seven other rangers were dispatched to the national park following Viroj’s death, which also scared two other rangers at Ban Pha Phueng into quitting their jobs. Mr Manop said his team was getting used to being sent out ill-equipped to protect themselves and suppress intruders. “But I don’t fear anything. They killed one of us. Of course, three bullets is not enough. We need war weapons to drive them out,” he said. He said he was prepared to put up with danger, even on his meagre salary of 7,000 baht a month. As a temporary worker, he is on a yearly contract with the government without any chance of promotion. He is also cut off from entitlements to state welfare and social security coverage. “Everything is short, from money, communication devices to personnel. And we have to take care of tens of millions of rai of forests. “The government should look at us and improve our welfare,” he said. Ranger Nimit Luekamlang, 33, also a temporary worker, said his salary has been frozen at 4,900 baht a month for the past eight years that he has been guarding the Khlong Wang Chao park. He eats at the base and some of the dried food he and other rangers live on is donated by Wat Pa Ban Tad temple in the northeastern province of Udon Thani. As if his meagre salary was not enough hardship, his paycheck is almost always late. As for the park’s patrol truck, the ride is bumpy and it is not because of the terrain. Rather, it is the chassis which has hardened from three decades of patrol trips. Thongbai Kamwayo, 47, head of the forest protection unit assisting the Ban Pha Phueng park team, said the living conditions of rangers were desperate. He has asked for a new rifle and more bullets for the team which is forced to rely on old rifles, some of which could not fire because the barrels were rusty. Mr Thongbai said he bought his own pistol and sometimes paid for the petrol for the patrol truck himself. “The rangers here are nearing the end of their rope,” he said.
Philippines:
29) The startling image of high-rise buildings in the middle of a rain forest could have been a scene from Burma (Myanmar) or North Korea, where secretive cabals of official live and luxuriate with impunity. But while the buildings are indeed owned by Koreans, they are being built in Subic. Are they a case of deceitful foreigners, diminishing a precious resource under the very nose of our government? No. The construction of the buildings has been made possible with the connivance of our officials. Hanjin Heavy Industries, which claims that the buildings are meant to house its workers, says it has an environmental compliance certificate. It probably does. And even if it doesn’t, the fact is, the buildings are already going up. Environmentalists can raise a howl, but the best they can hope for is for the buildings to be knocked down—which won’t bring the rainforest back. The rainforest in Subic has been touted as a tourist attraction, a great ecological resource. But obviously, even as the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority was bragging about its forests, it was handing out permits (with the help of the national government) to allow the planting of buildings where trees used to grow. And it took whistle-blowers from the citizenry to alert media: otherwise no one would be the wiser. But now that the public knows what’s taking place, what’s next? The usual finger-pointing will follow: Who are responsible for this depredation? And the foreign investors will be the target of criticism, though the real criticism should be aimed at the local and national officials who allowed the foreign investors to do what they pleased. http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/editorial/view/20080405-128634/Monument-to-deceit
30) The Senate will investigate the alleged invasion by the South Korean shipbuilder Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Ltd. of the Subic rainforest. This, after Senators Loren Legarda and Miguel Zubiri on Sunday separately said they would introduce Senate resolutions enabling the inquiry. “The clearing of trees that’s now a bald spot in the middle of lush forest released tons of carbon into the atmosphere that will speed up global warming. In case they have forgotten, the former Subic military base is part of the country’s patrimony, not a fiefdom of managers. They are the ones that should discern the proper use and stop the abuse of Subic’s resources,” he said in a press statement. The senator explained that Olongapo City’s old water source — the Sta. Rita River — has been destroyed and contaminated by this same type of activities that “started with wanton cutting of trees to make way for various constructions. Later on, untreated sewage flows and leaching from garbage dumps poisoned the river.” Zubiri, for his part, called the destruction of the lush rainforest for the condominiums “a dastardly act in this time of water crisis.” He also reminded responsible Hanjin officers that the company is still to be investigated on alleged labor violations and neglect of occupational safety measures in its $1.65 billion shipbuilding and port operations. The law requires Hanjin to resettle families displaced by their operations in the ecozone. Reports of substandard houses and schoolbuildings for the displaced families were also taken up by a non-government organization Task Force Hanjin. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080406-128750/Senate-to-probe-Hanjins-
condos-in-Subic-forest
31) MANILA — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources Forest Management Bureau (DENR-FMB) is continuously seeking its return to being a line agency of government. She noted that FMB is currently a staff bureau which can only recommend policies for DENR’s approval, thus it aims to be transformed into the Philippine Forest Administration (PFA) that will operate as a government line agency. “PFA’s establishment is part of the proposed sustainable forest management act which we hope will become a law soon,” said Austria. If this happens, she said, FMB will regain its power to independently decide on and issue orders concerning forestry-related matters. “With our system now, we can’t do what must be done since DENR must first approve guidelines FMB prepared,” she said. FMB was a line bureau until government relegated it some 20 years ago to being a mere staff agency. “This set-up must be changed as about 70 percent of DENR’s expenditures are forestry-related,” FMB planning officer Roderico Tan said, noting that forest land covers over half of the Philippines’ total estimated area. He recalled that when FMB was a line agency, professional foresters were the ones who implemented government’s multiple use policy for land subdivided into district forest management units nationwide. The situation is different now since local environment officers are not required to be professionally trained foresters and different sectors move to oppose some government forestry initiatives, he noted. http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1313336/
32) Maasim Mayor Aniceto Lopez Jr. said transport of illegally cut lumber coming from his town and other areas has been rampant. Lopez thought, it’s time to do something to solve this kind of problem within his turf. The mayor devised a strategy to stop illegal logging activities and allow local communities, through legal means, to benefit from whatever available forest products in his area. He tapped the help of Lupa cooperative to achieve his goal. Lopez and Eduardo B. Paras Sr., coop chair, sought the help of Sarangani Governor Miguel Dominguez in asking then DENR Secretary Angelo T. Reyes to lift the suspension of the coop’s resource use permit. “We have to give the CBFM holder another chance. Instead of allowing illegal loggers to operate and exhaust available forest products in the area, why not let the local community members do it, themselves. We’re giving them livelihood through legal means, at the same time, we’re protecting and rehabilitating the forest,” Dominguez said. The governor believes that these people only need guidance, adding: “we should closely monitor their activities to ensure strict compliance of CBFM guidelines.” On November 6, 2006, Reyes issued a memorandum order allowing Lupa coop to resume operation and harvest 500 cubic meters of lumber and 100,000 lineal meters of rattan poles. This time, the coop wanted to try something new through the help of their local leaders. Dominguez facilitated the meeting between the coop officials and Roger Lim, financier of tuna handline fishing and exporter of big tuna based in General Santos. The meeting ended up in the signing of a lumber supply agreement between both parties. Under the agreement, coop will supply the lumber requirement of Gensan Aqua Traders in constructing tuna handline boats. The construction site was just along the shoreline of Crossing Lubo, Barangay Lumasal, Maasim to provide jobs for coop members with skills in boat making. This is the first time in the history of CBFM project that a beneficiary shifted from the traditional practice of selling raw lumber to value addition. Aside from having a captured buyer for its lumber product, its members earned income from building boats and those qualified were eventually hired as crewmembers. Based on its statement of income, the coop, in just a seven-month operation, posted a total gross income of about P2.4 million, most of which was derived from supplying lumber for the construction of three fishing boats. http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/gen/2008/04/07/feat/from.raw.lumber.to.value.addition.html
Indonesia:
33) For many, Bali represents paradise, a slice of heaven on earth. Visitors are overwhelmed by the beauty of the black volcanic sand beaches, the enchanting Hindu culture, and the intricately sculpted rice terraces. Few visitors to Bali are aware that just beyond the hustle and bustle of the main tourist attractions there is a natural paradise of astounding beauty protected by the Bali Barat National Park and Marine Reserve (Bali Barat). The national park is a sanctuary for Bali’s diverse native flora and fauna, designated to protect Bali’s unique biodiversity from the impacts of development. Bali Barat was first established as a game reserve in 1947, extended in 1978 and given national park status in 1982. This signalled the Indonesian government’s decision to protect this part of the island for nature preservation, with watershed conservation for irrigation and nurseries for commercial fisheries as added benefits. Twenty-five years on, Bali Barat is recognised for its social and economic value, with the park’s future plans directed toward environmental education, research and tourism. Situated in Bali’s northwest corner and spanning the districts of Buleleng and Negara, Bali Barat covers 19,558 hectares which represents around 10 per cent of Bali’s total land area. A majority of the national park is zoned for wilderness and allows for only limited visitor use. All visitors must pay an entry fee and be accompanied by an official guide. Much of the park remains off limits. Eight wild rivers flow through the park; like arteries they support a profusion of plant and animal species. Many are endemic to Bali, especially the endangered Bali starling (Lecuopsar rotschildi). Five distinct yet interconnected vegetation habitats flourish along Bali Barat’s north and west coasts, including tropical savanna, lush rainforest, seasonal forest and coastal forest, fringed by mangroves. One of the park’s major regional conservation achievements is the protection of over 3000 hectares of mangrove forest, particularly important in Indonesia, where mangroves are often cleared to make way for agriculture, fish and prawn farms, and urban development. National park status has buffered Bali Barat from human impact to some extent. But park managers still struggle against budgetary constraints and pressures to commercialise access to the park . Hunting and firewood collection continue within the park even though both are illegal. http://insideindonesia.org/content/view/1064/47/
34) This week on Earthbeat we travel to the heart of Indonesian timber country to explore the issue. It’s an election year in Indonesia, and environmental groups have accused the government of being too focused on that issue of illegal logging, largely ignoring the problems caused by the country’s unsustainable levels of legal timber harvesting. The legal trade is currently stripping Indonesia of millions of cubic metres of timber each and every year. Despite the political changes of the past four years, the forests of Indonesia remain afflicted by the corruption and poor planning of the past. And many are worried that recent and continuing democratic changes are only making things worse. Critics claim the problems caused by unsustainable levels of legal timber harvesting are being ignored as a result. http://30blogs.com/travelvideos/2008/04/02/forest-and-election-in-indonesia/