–Russia: 10) Cathay gets to forever destroy another 722,000 hectares
–India: 11) 3,000 hectares of mangrove declared protected, 12) Spider diversity are an ideal indicator of forest health, 13) Citizen’s work together & protect 60,000 Sq. Km,
–Vietnam: 14) Where logging is so fierce rivers become floating log roads
–Myanmar: 15) Storm-made tree scraps being sold as art to raise funds
–Philippines: 16) 13 timber poachers arrested in N. Negros park, 17) Reforestation,
–Malaysia: 18) 19 NGOs oppose Kedah’s logging in Hulu Muda, 19) Belum-Temengor rainforest needs more protection, 20) More on Hulu Muda,
–Papua New Guinea: 21) Leaders claim illegal logging is non-existent,
–Indonesia: 22) 2/3 of all logging concessions are poorly managed, 23) Forest ranger has arrested more than 60 in order to protect trees, 24) #1 in world coal & log exports & no way to reduce emissions? 25) All of country’s forests will be recovered in 10-15 years,
–New Zealand: 26) loggers can’t keep bicyclists and motorcycles away from the action
–Australia: 27) Flying foxes return to forests, 28) Once thought extinct Foxglove is found in a forest, 29) What the heck is silvopastoralism? 30) Gov. defies request for UN heritage site expansion, 31) Video out saving Strzelecki’s forest,

Russia:

10) Cathay Forest Products Corp. a Toronto company which operates forestry businesses in China and Russia, says it has received government approval to expand its timber holdings in Russia. The company said Monday its 51 per cent owned Russian joint venture, DalEuroles L.L.C., has final received approval from the Russian regional government of Khabarovsk for its 49 year land lease concession over 721,198 hectares of new timberland. This concession brings Cathay’s current holdings in the Kharbarovsk region of Russia to 992,198 hectares with a total annual allowable cut of 731,000 cubic metres, the company said. Cathay Forest manages more than one million hectares of standing timber properties and fast-growth, high-yield poplar plantations in China and Russia. The company’s customers include the domestic Chinese pulp and paper industry and other wood products customers in the Japanese market. http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iZ7-eQMBhaDrblwgg3blx7ZMOiCA

India:

11) The state government has notified over 3,000 hectares of mangroves in and around Mumbai as ‘protected forests’. The new notification, issued last week, covers the mangroves in the Borivali, Andheri and Kurla talukas as well as parts of Colaba, a senior official from the Forest Department said. Vivek Kulkarni, mangrove expert and member of NGO Conservation Action Trust (CAT), said: “This was a long pending issue and the new notification is a welcome move. With this, nearly 90 per cent of the mangroves in the extended city have been notified. However, the ruling was for the protection of mangroves in the entire state and that mammoth job is still pending.” Kulkarni pointed out that not notifying mangroves along the state’s coastline has already caused much harm to the valuable mangroves. “Along the Malvan coast, mangrove land is being sold by builders at Rs 7-8 lakh per acre today. A few years ago it was barely Rs 7,000-8,000 per acre,” he said. In October 2005, in response to a PIL filed by Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG), the High Court had ordered “a total freeze on the destruction and cutting of mangroves in Maharashtra”. The court ruled that the mangroves be mapped and notified as “protected forests” within a deadline of eight months. The government was asked to hand over its land to the Forest Department by August 2006. Confirming the notification, Dr P N Munde, Conservator of Forests, Sanjay Gandhi National Park, said, “All these government-owned mangrove lands will now be protected by the forest department.” http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Mangroves-3-000-hectares-notified-as-protected-forests/
333121/

12) While much research has been done to link animals like tigers and elephants to judge the condition of reserve forests and protected areas in India, a new study focuses on these arachnids with eight legs and how their presence or absence can help judge habitat conditions. Conducted over a five-year period by scientist Dr V.P. Uniyal and senior researcher Upamanyu Hore of the Doon-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) at Dudhwa National Park, the study was conducted to evaluate changes in forest areas in the Terai Conservation Area. Results of the research published recently states that spiders are the best species, which can be used as bio-indicators for monitoring and management of various kinds of forest areas in Terai. “As they are highly sensitive to minor changes in their environment, we found that prevalence or non-prevalence of different species of spiders as vital signs to indicate the health of an eco-system,” said Dr Uniyal. Apart from being predators, spiders are also an important food source and a valuable component of an eco-system. And since they react to changes in habitat structure, the study showed how spiders might be useful indicators of the effects of land management on local biodiversity. Having arrived at that conclusion after studying thousands of spiders belonging to over 150 species, the WII team is now working on ways to extend the utility of field data for conservation and management of reserve forests and protected areas. “If the findings of the study lead to more interaction between conservationists and researchers on spiders, the arachnids can be assessed for usefulness as conservation tools,” said Dr Uniyal. The team had conducted another study on the effect of forest management techniques like burning of trees in Terai and are now studying spiders and their role as bio-indicators in the high-altitude Nandadevi National Park in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. http://forests.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=102504

13) Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has sought active participation of people in deforestation and planting trees. In his message on the eve of ‘Van Mahotsav 2008’, the Chief Minister said it was the duty of every body to protect forests and appealed that people should assist forest department in this regard, an official release on Monday said. He recalled how villagers have been made part of the forest management through 14,000 Joint Forest Management Committees in the state. He said that these Committees were managing over 60,000 square kms of land in the state and expressed hope that this year van mahotsav would accelerate the pace of forest conservation and movement for planting new trees. Inviting people participation in making Van Mahotsav 2008 a success, Ministerfor Forest Kunwar Vijay Shah has appealed Panchayats, Educsational and Voliuntary Organisations to come forward in protecting and preserving forests in the state. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200807080169.htm

Vietnam:

14) The forest destruction has been so blatant that the Vu Gia River, which at times is choked with floating logs, has earned another name, “wood road.” Local officials say they once found a man riding down the river on a raft of logs as large as a football field. The man, Mai Hong, said he was paid VND600,000 (US$38) by a stranger to take the raft down to the delta. Since measures to stop the “free for all” stepped up last month, everyone from police officials, soldiers and forest rangers to the head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development had to arm themselves with guns. “Without guns, don’t even think about facing illegal loggers,” a police officer of Dai Loc District, Truong Quang Vinh, said. Vinh said, however, he had fired two warning shots in the air to stop an illegal logging gang but they just turned and challenged him to shoot them. He decided to let them go rather than risk killing them. Since February this year, smugglers have assaulted dozens of wardens and even killed some. A quiet wharf named Mo O between Dai Loc and its neighboring districts seemed completely normal, but under the water smugglers concealed large amounts of wood. Local officials had to run long poles into the water to find it. “The pole will bounce when it meets something hard like a log,” said Phan Tuan, deputy head of Quang Nam Forest Management. In that way, hundreds of cubic meters of submerged wood were found in just one morning – a whole section of a nearby forest had been cut down. Mo O Wharf on the Vu Gia River was favored by wood smugglers because officials rarely inspected it due to a bureaucratic breakdown in communication, Nguyen Thanh Quang, head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said. The wharf belongs to both Dai Loc and Nam Giang districts but its management has not been designated clearly, he explained. In March this year, Dai Loc Forest Management established a special unit to fight the smugglers. Within two months of operation, the unit seized 500 cubic meters of wood hidden under the river. They are now focusing their patrols in Dai Hong Commune, Dai Loc District, because a number of timber mills opened there to saw wood day and night. There are eight mills in a 200-meter stretch of river. Quang said locals called him almost every day with information on illegal timber milling. Smuggling was everywhere and you must be blind not to see it, the locals said. http://www.thanhniennews.com/features/?catid=10&newsid=39977

Myanmar:

15) A cyclone storm, that swept Myanmar in early May, blew down over 13,000 old-aged trees and shade-providing ones. Some of these downed trees and debris pressed and rested on houses, while some dragged down lamp-posts and blocked roads in the city. So far after the disaster, almost all of the downed trees and debris on the roads had been cleared and accumulated on vacant plots in the city from where stem roots and branches are being sorted out for making sculpture products to be auctioned to domestic and foreign business entrepreneurs. These stem roots and branches of downed trees are of 30 to 100 years of ageMeanwhile, the Myanmar authorities have been planting 30,000 shade-providing trees to replace collapsed ones and so far 6,000 downed trees have been put upright in the Yangon municipal areas. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/10/content_8523124.htm

Philippines:

16) The arrest of 13 suspected timber poachers here has led to the discovery of massive illegal cutting of trees of banned species within the Northern Negros Natural Park . Ka Joseph, a squad leader of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade, yesterday said an estimated 14 hectares of the forest reserve in this hinterland barangay, have been damaged by timber poaching activities. The 13 timber poachers allegedly behind the forest destruction in two adjacent areas of the park, were chanced upon by patrolling RPA-ABB members led by Ka Joseph, while cutting lauan trees and making charcoal in the forest reserve area, Saturday. Three two-man saws, 11 bolos, a cane cutter, an axe, hammer and four carabaos with sledges used in hauling round timber and logs were also recovered from the arrested suspects, who are now detained at the Cadiz City Police Station. Citing confessions of the arrested suspects, Ka Joseph identified the alleged financier of the illegal cutting of trees, who bought the lumber at P7 per board foot, as a certain Carling Veloso. He also identified the Jaruda Funeral Parlor in Manapla as among the customers of the timber poachers, which use the lumber bought for caskets. DENR Forest Ranger Renato Sabinian yesterday said 1,507 board feet of lauan round timber and lumber with a market value of P75,536, and an estimated 60 sacks of charcoal were recovered by the RPA-ABB from the tree cutting sites, which were turned over yesterday to the Cadiz City Police Station. Initial investigations of TFI showed that the timber poaching activities started three months ago, and were only discovered after the RPA-ABB conducted foot patrols Saturday. Ka Joseph said the suspects may have taken advantage of their absence in the area for several months, as they were focusing their operations in the first district of Negros Occidental. The RPA-ABB red fighters also discovered two makeshift huts used as temporary shelters by the timber poachers, and four charcoal pits, which could produce an estimated 80 sacks of charcoal. Wives of the arrested timber poachers who trooped to the Cadiz City Police Station, vehemently denied claims of the RPA-ABB that their husbands engaged in illegal cutting of trees. http://www.visayandailystar.com/2008/July/08/index.htm

17) This is the final installment in a three-part series focusing on global environmental problems expected to be taken up at the G-8 meeting. In the mountain town of Penablanca on the Philippines’ northeast Luzon Island, 500 kilometers north of Manila, young mango and Indian rosewood trees were planted a few meters apart on stony slopes. Ernest Simon, a 74-year-old town elder, said with a smile, “We should see large forests here in 10 years.” The reforestation project started last autumn. It aims to turn 1,772 hectares of land–an area 15 times the size of Tokyo’s Imperial Palace grounds–into greenery in three years. Conservation International (CI), a U.S.-based nongovernmental environmental protection organization, has provided technical assistance for the project. Toyota Motor Corp. is financing it with a 170 million yen donation. In the Philippines, a large number of trees were felled in the 1970s and ’80s to export mahogany wood to Japan. During that period, 200,000 hectares of forest–the same size as that of greater Tokyo–disappeared every year. The country’s forest area, which accounted for about half of all the land 50 years ago, decreased to 24 percent of the total in 2003. The percentage of virgin forests in 2003 fell to 8 percent. As a result, naked and brown deforested mountain surfaces can be seen near villages in the upstream zone of the 520-kilometer-long Cagayan River. A CI member said, “Soil on deforested mountains is easily washed away by rain.” In addition to the shrinking forests, the Philippines is experiencing worsening flood damage due to prolonged rainy seasons attributable to climate change and more powerful typhoons. In the Philippines, many government- and private sector-led reforestation projects failed. A Philippine government reforestation site next to CI’s was not maintained regularly, with trees still thin 15 years after being planted. There were many cases of arson across the region committed by locals who were displaced from their homes by the reforestation projects. http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/summit/20080707TDY01302.htm

Malaysia:

18) Nineteen non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have voiced their protest against the state government’s proposal to carry out logging in the Hulu Muda forest reserve. Calling themseles the Coaltion of Friends of Hulu Muda, the NGOs said logging in the forest reserve would only destroy the environment there, including the water catchments which supplied water to Kedah, Penang and Perlis. Kedah Menteri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak recently announced that the state government planned to carry out logging worth RM100 million in revenue a year at the Hulu Muda forest reserve, Pedu, and the permanent forest estates of Bukit Keramat and Bukit Siong in the Padang Terap district if the federal government failed to pay compensation to the state government. Coalition coordinator Nizam Mahshar urged Azizan not to proceed with the plan as the state government had other sources of revenue. He said even if the logging company used a helicopter to extract timber from the area, the method would still cause damage the environment. “Based on the Environmental Impact Assessment report of 2003, more than four million trees were logged and 404km of logging tracks of 10 metres to 24 metres in width created,” he told reporters here today. Nizam said the coalition wanted the federal government to make the 160,000ha Hulu Muda forest reserve free from logging activities and to gazette it as a national park. He hoped the federal government would pay the compensation as requested by the state government as soon as possible and set up a fund to protect the forest reserve. http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=102654

19) MALAYSIA’S 130 million-year-old Belum-Temengor rainforest complex in northern Perak, located 330km north of Kuala Lumpur, is one of the world’s oldest tropical rainforests that needs protection as it is rich with biodiversity. The Belum-Temenggor complex, four times the size of Singapore, comprises the Royal Belum State Park (117,500ha), Gerik Forest Reserve (34,995ha), Temengor forest reserve (147,505ha) and 45000ha of waterbodies, managed by Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB). It is the largest area under forest cover in Peninsular Malaysia after Taman Negara. However, its proximity to the border of Thailand and the presence of guerrillas in its jungles after the Second World War made it a security area right up to the mid-80s. After the Communist Party of Malaya laid down their weapons in 1989, Belum started opening up to fishing and trekking enthusiasts. The Royal Belum, which is still protected by police and military, has a good combination of virgin rainforests, a wealth of wildlife and cultural heritage of the indigenous community to apply for World Heritage. In the last decade, Malaysia Nature Society (MNS) has been proposing to the Perak state government to declare the Belum- Temengor complex as a national park. Royal Belum was gazetted as a state park in 2005. In the age of dwindling natural forest, a group of local authorities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), such as Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM), WWF and MNS with Tan Sri Mustapha Kamal’s Emkay Group, are planning to put together a proper integrated management plan (IMP) to promote sustainable development of the Belum-Temengor rainforest ecosystem. The objective of the IMP is to get all related organisations and authorities who are stakeholders in the area to observe standard procedures related to the activities to be conducted in the forest for sustainability. In pushing for the adoption of the IMP, a consultative IMP symposium, led by Pulau Banding Foundation (PBF), will be held at the Belum Rainforest Resort in Pulau Banding, Perak, in October. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1470700/pulau_banding_meet_to_promote_belumtemengor_biodi
versity/

20) So far only one company has shown interest in logging in the Hulu Muda Forest Reserve, said Kedah Menteri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak. “I met WTK Holdings last week where I was briefed on the methods which could be used for logging in the area. “Not all (methods) are acceptable and we have to study them before making any decision,” he told reporters after attending the state secretariat’s monthly assembly at Wisma Darul Aman here Monday. Azizan said the study was important to ensure that the environment would not be destroyed by the proposed logging activities. He said although only WTK Holdings had shown interest in the proposal, the state government had not approved the application yet. Azizan said the Sarawakian logger had proposed logging by helicopter to the previous state government. http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/state_news/news.php?id=344509&cat=nt

Papua New Guinea:

21) Papua New Guinea’s Ministry of Forestry says illegal logging is largely non-existent in the country. The Ministry is under mounting pressure to reduce the rate of deforestation which many environmental groups and development agencies describe as unsustainable and attribute largely to illegal logging practices. A recent study by the University of PNG warned that most of PNG’s forests could be lost by 2021 due to the current wasteful rate of logging. However the Forestry Ministry’s first secretary, Alistair Endose, says illegal logging is a broad term. He says the term may cover logging entities operating without a license, prohibited logs being exported, and improper declarations on timber species. But Mr Endose says the PNG Forest Authority has full control over these: “There’s no illegal logging as far as we’re concerned except these areas where maybe violations of certain conditions of the logging agreement etc… I don’t know if it constitutes illegal logging. But otherwise all operators here are licensed and they’re monitored and controlled.” http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=40845

Indonesia:

22) According to a recently unveiled assessment by independent bodies, approximately two-thirds of concessionaires in Papua are poorly managing the region’s forests. This heightens the widespread perception of failure on the part of Indonesia’s forest management services. Even as some forests have been exploited at a far greater rate than they can regenerate, many of the forests that remain face further pressure from logging. One therefore has to wonder about the effectiveness of existing forest stewardship programs, of both the regulatory and market-based variety. With respect to the former, Indonesia’s government has promulgated various laws and regulations, supposedly to ensure the wise use of forest resources. The government has also prescribed standards and guidelines for use in managing forests as well as sanctions and penalties for noncompliance. Unfortunately, such a regulatory approach requires both resources and enforcement capacity, both of which are argued to be clearly lacking in this country. Various policies introduced have been under heavy criticism, the strongest claim being that the governmental regulatory approach remains a “paper tiger”. http://old.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20080709.F04&irec=3

23) As a 45-year-old forest ranger, his job has been to ensure the forest remains free from illegal loggers and trespassers who collect firewood and grow crops inside the reserve. Throughout his career, the native of Pringgarata in Central Lombok has arrested some 60 people involved in illegal logging. Assigned to Dompu after graduating as a forest ranger in 1987, Lalu recalled that at the time there were only 22 forest rangers including himself to watch over a 114-hectare forest area in Dompu. They divided their tasks, with Lalu and a friend assigned to watch over a forested area in Soromandi in Kilo district. After three years, he was transferred to Manggalewa district where he married and settled down with his family of five children. “At that time, there were only two forest rangers in Manggalewa, including me. Many times we had to fight illegal loggers and seize their axes even though we were unarmed,” he told The Jakarta Post in his home in Manggalewa hamlet, Manggalewa district, about 30 kilometers east of Dompu regency town center. Once they even had to flee to safety after being chased by illegal loggers. “One night, a mob came to our house after my husband foiled an illegal logging attempt. Luckily, nothing happened,” said Suryanti, Lalu’s wife. In 1996 Lalu started thinking about changing the way his community uses forest resources. The thought occurred to him after some locals were caught conducting illegal logging, taking wood from the forest to build their houses or places of worship. “Once I met residents collecting wood to build a mosque. I was moved. But I’m a forest ranger and I must prevent illegal logging,” he said, adding that the law punishes anyone found illegally collecting timber from protected forest, regardless of whether it may be sold or used for housing or mosque construction. He then started to think of ways to provide wood for residents without sacrificing the forest or violating the law. In early 1997, aside from planting forest areas in a regreening program, he also started planting dormant land outside the forest preserve, preparing tree seedlings by himself. “I began by planting two hectares of dormant land. Many residents then asked me why I had planted the trees. So I told them I had some other young trees and asked them to plant them in their own yard or land if they wanted to find out why,” he said. http://old.thejakartapost.com/detailfeatures.asp?fileid=20080708.W05&irec=4

24) Indonesia, the world’s number one coal exporter and a major greenhouse gas emitter, is struggling with conflicting green and growth aims. It wants to increase coal-fired electricity generation by over 40 percent in the next decade, cut emissions and preserve rainforests at the same time. Analysts doubt it can manage all three. “Indonesia is not in a position to be reducing greenhouse emissions at all,” said Brian Ricketts, coal analyst at the Paris-based International Energy Agency. “Their coal-fired power plant construction programme is already under way and Indonesia is quickly expanding coal production to be able to supply its own growing domestic demand and exports,” he said. Indonesia’s energy-related CO2 emissions must rise because, according to government figures, its coal consumption is going to at least quadruple to 90-100 million tonnes a year by 2017. The world’s fourth-most populous country, with 226 million people spread across 17,500 islands, needs a substantial growth in electricity production to fuel economic growth. But while poised to boost its own emissions, in addition to exporting its own polluting coal, Indonesia is attempting to add a new income stream as a high earner of carbon credits if it agrees to be paid to preserve its forests. http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL0344788620080707

25) Indonesia is expected to recover its damaged forests in the next 10 to 15 years if the current reforestation programs continue to be implemented, Forestry Minister MS Kaban said. The minister made the remarks during the inauguration of The Colomadu Koran Reading and Interpretation Assembly here on Sunday. He said that many people nowadays had forgotten the importance of nature while in maintaining it there were many laws that had to be abode by. “The Indonesia`s territorial land that stretches from Papua in the east to Aceh in the west constitutes a green belt or tropical forests. I hope that all members of this assembly which are living in all parts of the country would also take part in preserving the country`s nature,” he said. He said that one of the problems being faced today was how to preserve the country`s tropical forests. The number of trees being cut down was still bigger than that being planted. “We should now plant trees more than we fell as we have set in the programs now being carried out throughout the country,” the minister said. The minister said that if the reforestation programs were carried out without constraints it was expected that in the next 10 to 15 years Indonesia would recover its normal nature conditions. http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2008/7/7/ri-to-recover-its-forests-in-15-years-minister/

New Zealand:

26) Dale Ewers, owner of Moutere Logging, said he was afraid someone would be killed. Last Saturday there were two incidents on Central Rd in the forest, in a closed area where trees were being felled close to the roadside. A motorcyclist almost hit a worker and then narrowly avoided being hit by a falling tree, and a mountainbiker entered the area despite signs and verbal warnings from workers. Mr Ewers said the land being logged was privately owned and had a locked gate and warning signs at the entrance. The area was closed on weekdays, and anyone entering the forest during the weekend needed a permit from Action Forest Management in Richmond, or else they would be trespassing, he said. Moutere Logging crew manager Rob Wooster said people had entered the forest during the week, and had also broken through tape marking off work areas. He was concerned about the safety of his workers and the public. Nelson Mountainbike Club president Emmett Mills said the club, in conjunction with Action Forest Management, would put up signs informing mountainbikers of the rules. http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/nelsonmail/4614285a6510.html

Australia:

27) Clarence Valley Council will today consider a report urging it to repel flying foxes from two patches of rainforest in Maclean. The flying fox colony was dispersed from the Maclean Rainforest Reserve in 1999 because of sanitation and noise problems at Maclean High School. But since then they have partially reoccupied the reserve and another patch of rainforest called the Gully. In his report, zoologist Dr John Nelson says the flying foxes could be successfully moved on from both areas and relocated to a nature reserve more than a kilometre away. He says they would move naturally to the reserve if it was turned into an attractive habitat. But he warns the longer council waits, the more difficult and costly it will become. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/08/2297118.htm?site=northcoast

28) The Euphrasia Arguta, a member of the foxglove family, was found by NSW Forests worker Graham Marshall in Nundle State Forest, in the state’s north-west, Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said on Sunday. The species was last recorded in June 1904 near Tamworth, Mr Macdonald said. “In botanical terms, this really is a blast from the past,” Mr Macdonald said. “This discovery is central to our aim of ensuring that we look after the flora and fauna in our forests.” bForests NSW will now develop a conservation management plan for the plant, which was discovered in an area that was affected by fire control activities last summer. http://news.smh.com.au/national/plant-thought-to-be-extinct-found-in-nsw-20080706-32gj.html

29) CSIRO research, underway in Central Queensland’s cattle country, is investigating whether the integration of trees, pasture and livestock into a single agricultural system will produce greater net returns for producers and the environment. The ’silvopastoralism’ system is gaining worldwide attention as a potentially profitable land-use practice, particularly following the emergence of new market opportunities such as carbon trading. CSIRO Livestock Industries’ (CLI) project leader and resource economist, Mick Stephens, says that since the 1960s a significant proportion of trees have been removed from the open woodland zones in northern Australia to support the pastoral and cropping industries. “In the Central Queensland region, over 4.5 million hectares of woodland vegetation has been cleared,” he advised. “Given the environmental/economic problems associated with climate change, we now have an opportunity to investigate whether silvopastoralism can provide some of the answers.” “The environmental benefits would include increased: soil and water retention, nutrient re-cycling and carbon sequestration. Emerging incentive schemes for the sequestration of carbon in forests, and forecast increases in the prices paid for forest products, may act as a driver for silvopastoralism,” Mr Stephens claimed. The project will utilize earlier research by the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Water into some of the competitive and stimulatory effects of wide rows of trees on pasture production. The designs being evaluated include planting well-spaced rows of high-yield eucalypt trees – and 20 to 100m wide rows of native woodland regrowth trees – on pasture lands. “It is a complex agro-ecological system so we need an economic appraisal that considers the interactions between tree and pasture growth and the relative costs, prices and yields for livestock and forest products,” Mr Stephens reported. “Emerging opportunities for producing bio-fuels and participating in carbon trading schemes are all exciting possibilities.” Modelling techniques will be employed at a farm level to assess the sensitivity of silvopastoral systems to current and projected cost, price and yield scenarios and help identify under what circumstances these systems are likely to be a profitable land use. http://www.ausfoodnews.com.au/2008/07/08/csiro-hopes-green-agricultural-system-will-provide-foo
d-security-solutions.html

30) AUSTRALIA will defy a call by the 21-nation World Heritage Committee to extend Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage Area to include tracts of tall eucalypt forests scheduled for logging. The WHC meeting in Quebec called on Canberra to “consider extension of the property to include appropriate areas of tall eucalypt forests”. Conservationists immediately urged federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett to heed the call, but late yesterday he rejected it. “The Australian Government has no plans to extend the current (WHA) boundary into production forests,” Mr Garrett said in a statement. He contrasted the WHC’s call for an extension covering threatened forests with a report presented to the committee by a delegation that visited the WHA earlier this year. Mr Garrett said this report had found a further extension was not warranted “as the WHA already includes a good representation of tall eucalypts”. However, he accepted “in principle” the WHC recommendations that the 1.3million-hectare wilderness WHA be extended to include 21 existing areas of national park and state reserves bordering it. The WHC urged Australia to “have regard to the advice of” the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which called for a moratorium on logging of forests adjacent to the protected wilderness area. This includes tracts of the world’s tallest flowering trees, eucalyptus regnans, in the Styx and areas of the Weld and Upper Florentine valleys. The Wilderness Society spokesman Vica Bayley said the WHC resolutions, combined with the need for carbon sinks, increased pressure on the federal and state governments to protect 90,000ha of unprotected native forests. “There are some of the most carbon dense forests in the world,” Mr Bayley said. “Protecting them would have massive benefits for (reducing) climate change.” http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23985607-30417,00.html

31) A short video about an agreement between the Victorian Government and a US owned logging company to log native forest in the Strzelecki’s is at YouTube – Losing the remnant rainforest The community was excluded from the final negotiatons and has still been given no details about the agreement. A community forum will be held at Boolara on Sunday July 27 to plan the next steps. Full details are at Hancock Watch – John Hancock Insurance Company, Hancock Timber Resources Group currently logging what little remains of native vegetation in the Strzelecki Ranges. http://www.hancock.forests.org.au/