349 EU-Africa-Mid-East

–In the UK Researchers are studying the potential of growing forests on top of toxic waste sites. They say it will work! (16). Neighbors are upset at a O-Gen UK wood burning plant that gets 15 lories of wood a day. The plant is expanding and the screen trees between them and the neighborhood are getting cut down. (17) Being a woodland owner who doesn’t build on thier land is a new popular hobby in the UK (18). Economic analysis of the wood industries says pulp demand is rising and the future will be a “very different complexion” (19). More street tree double-speak (20). A new report requests a greening of globalization, especially because the world’s poorest 1.5 billion people have half of their needs met directly by ecosystem services (21).

–In Austria 2 dozen Greenpeace protesters shut down an Austrian oil and gas station to raise awareness about how biofuels cause deforestation. (22) –In Estonia upcoming trade talks with Russia will be an opportunity for governments to talk about illegal logging, as well as Russia’s new log tariffs (23). –In Germany it’s crunch time for the more than 6,000 representatives from 191 nationsl. Will they agree to a road map that acutally protects biodiversity (24)? Also at the convention they have backed down on a proposed ban on GE trees (25)

–Africa: A group called: Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa explains itself in terms of forestry development. If anyone know more about thisgroup let me know. (26) –In Namibia there were two articles: The first is about declaring 10 more community forests so local people instead of big business will be allowed to log the land to earn a living (27). The next article is about a community forestry in Northeastern Namibia project, how its growing (28). –In Ghana the The Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) is speaking out, calling for a paradigm shift (29). This article keeps focus on the congo as rapid destruction of forests, as unprecedented droughts, as well as brutal oppression of indigenous people (30). –In South Africa the World Rainforest Movement and FSC visit Komatiland’s vast non-native pine plantation (31).

UK:

16) A ten-year study has found that it is possible to grow mature and sturdy trees on land once used to dispose of liquid, clinical and hazardous waste without any threat of leakage in the local environment. The results will delight supporters of the Campaign to Protect Rural England and Friends of the Earth, which have been monitoring the impact on nearby households of landfill sites and the daily convoy of waste lorries. Five former dumping grounds near Bristol, Swindon, Hatfield, Ely and Skelmersdale have been monitored to find out how various tree varieties fared when planted above a compacted clay cap. The fastest-growing trees were poplar, alder, cherry, whitebeam, ash and Corsican pine, but oaks also thrived with sufficient rainfall. These trees were able to grow in a soil bed of only 1.5 metres (5ft) on top of the clay cap. There were fears that the roots of the trees would penetrate the cap or that the cap would crack and weather. But the study shows that the roots of 98 per cent of all trees planted were contained within the 1.5m layer of soil. In areas of southern England that suffer drought it is envisaged that a deeper soil cover would be required to ensure enough moisture to keep mature trees healthy. Guidance is now to be issued to local authorities by the Environment Agency on how to transform these blots on the landscape to create neighbourhood parks, woods and nature reserves. The move is also seen as an important new tool in the Government’s commitment to tackle climate change – planting one hectare of trees can lead to the absorbtion of six tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year – and to regenerate brownfield land. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4029350.ece

17) Energy company O-Gen UK wants to create a wood-burning plant on part of the disused former QDF Castings foundry, in Sinfin. But work at the Victory Road site has already upset nearby residents, who are furious at the potential environmental impact of the development and the work so far. O-Gen UK , which recovers used timber, has applied to Derby City Council to extend the height of Unit One on the site by four metres and build a 20-metre chimney for the fumes produced by its furnaces. If the plans are passed, the O-Gen plant will take used timber – which would otherwise be sent to landfills – and burn it to create electricity to help power the National Grid. The planning application states that O-Gen UK expects to receive between eight and 15 lorry deliveries of timber daily. The application does not state how many days a week this would be for. The timber would come from recovery companies within five miles of the site. Jo Broughton, 44, whose garden backs directly on to the site, said she was horrified when she saw trees around the unit being chopped down earlier this week. She said: “It’s never been a pretty sight but the trees and hedges have hidden it from view for the last few years. There were birds, foxes and all sorts of wildlife around there. They’ve butchered it without thinking.” Gary Woolley, a road worker who lives in Victory Road, said he was worried about potential fumes from the chimney. Mr Woolley said: “When the site was last in use, we had a lot of trouble with fumes. We used to get black clouds of dust that settled on windows and cars.” http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=124378&command=displayContent&sourceNode=231734&home=yes&more_nodeId1=124522&contentPK=20756231

18) At Woodlands.co.uk we encourage people to buy, own and enjoy their own woodland. We’ve been selling our woodlands through Woodlands.co.uk for 20 years, but we want to make more woodlands more widely available. For buyers it can be difficult and time-consuming to find out what is available, so we have developed a website where people can buy and sell woodlands <http://www.forests.co.uk>. For sellers of larger woodlands, www.forests.co.uk is intended to help market these more widely. Bob Liles will be managing www.forests.co.uk for us principally. Some of you will know Bob already; he is an old hand in selling and assessing woodlands. If you know anyone with a larger woodland who would like to sell, please do get them to send him an email at bob@forests.co.uk. http://www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/practical-guides/forestscouk/

19) Demand for wood chips and pulp from processors operating at full capacity is driving demand for small roundwood, according to the latest UPM Tilhill Timber bulletin. A shift in demand from sawlogs to small roundwood has been particularly from pulp and board manufacturers in the north and also for exports and the rapid growth in demand for energy wood. “Looking ahead, the UK market displays a very different complexion from last year and is influenced by many factors outside the control of the UK timber industry,” said UPM Tilhill managing director Steve Lavery. “Global economic conditions, evidence of a slowdown in the US economy and of the strong euro dampening European economic growth, rising input costs largely driven by high oil costs – all will invevitably reflect in the price that is paid to the grower.” Despite this, Mr Lavery said the processing sector was “strong”, with investments in new capacity in the sawmilling and board industries, plus rapidly growing demand for energy wood. “Underpinning all of this is the real and evident increase in forest production. So despite the likely impacts of the current economic conditions, we have good reason to remain positive and look forward to another exciting and demanding year.” http://wood.lesprom.com/news/34139/

20) Trimming in St James’s Lane and neighbouring streets has taken place over the last couple of months and one resident says he’s has had enough. Edward Hancock, 78, of Hillfield Park, claimed trees have been cut down in St James Lane. He said: “Muswell Hill is the most beautiful area in London and everyone comes here because of that. It’s being lost bit by bit.” Haringey Council said it has had two applications to prune trees in St James Lane, with the latest taking place on Monday of last week. In March, Haringey conservation officer Ian Holt inspected damaged trees in Parkland Walk after residents raised the alarm. Peter Thompson, of the Muswell Hill and Fortis Green Association, said people were distressed to see poplars being cut down. He added: “They weren’t being felled but were being brought down to size. We have to be vigilant about this type of thing.”A council spokesman said: “If any additional trees have been removed they would have been done illegally.” http://www.muswellhilljournal24.co.uk/content/haringey/muswellhilljournal/news/story.aspx?brand=MHJOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsmhj&itemid=WeED28%20May%202008%2012%3A49%3A51%3A327

21) Two-thirds of our ecosystem services are already in decline, some dramatically. We need a greening of globalisation.” The document to be released at the CBD is an interim report into what the team acknowledges are complex, difficult and under-researched issues. The 7% figure is largely based on loss of forests. The report will acknowledge that the costs of losing some ecosystems have barely been quantified. The trends are understood well enough – a 50% shrinkage of wetlands over the past 100 years, a rate of species loss between 100 and 1,000 times the rate that would occur without 6.5 billion humans on the planet, a sharp decline in ocean fish stocks and one third of coral reefs damaged. However, putting a monetary value on them is probably much more difficult, the team acknowledges, than putting a cost on climate change. “[But] two-thirds of these ecosystem services are already in decline, some dramatically. We need a greening of globalisation.” The document to be released at the CBD is an interim report into what the team acknowledges are complex, difficult and under-researched issues. The 7% figure is largely based on loss of forests. The report will acknowledge that the costs of losing some ecosystems have barely been quantified. The trends are understood well enough – a 50% shrinkage of wetlands over the past 100 years, a rate of species loss between 100 and 1,000 times the rate that would occur without 6.5 billion humans on the planet, a sharp decline in ocean fish stocks and one third of coral reefs damaged. However, putting a monetary value on them is probably much more difficult, the team acknowledges, than putting a cost on climate change. At the CBD on Wednesday, 60 countries signed pledges to halt net deforestation by 2020. But the main CBD target agreed by all signatories at the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992 – to “halt and begin to reverse” biodiversity loss by 2010 – is very unlikely to be met. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7424535.stm

Austria:

22) About 25 Greenpeace activists, some dressed as orangutans, blocked an OMV petrol station in Vienna Thursday, accusing the Austrian oil and gas giant of destroying the rainforest to make agrofuel. A few of them brandished placards that read “OMV: no rainforest in the fuel tank.””Whoever fills up at OMV is destroying up to ten square metres of rainforest,” Jurrien Westerhof, an energy expert with Greenpeace Austria, said in a statement. Greenpeace said fuel samples taken from OMV petrol stations had been found to contain soya and palm oil from Latin America and South East Asia.”That shows a direct link between OMV agrofuel and the clearing of rainforests to set up plantations for palm or soya oil,” said Westerhof. However OMV denied the charge and said it had invited Greenpeace to a meeting next week to discuss the “misunderstanding.” http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jbe8tiEdbjvlKslRyQACDENlrxFA

Estonia:

23) Estonia’s minister of foreign affairs has urged the European community to focus on trade, energy and customs affairs in forthcoming discussions with Russia. Urmas Paet, speaking after European foreign minsters met to discuss the terms of reference for EU-Russia treaty negotiations, said the issue of trade was important. For Estonia, he explained in reports in the Baltic Course, border policy and the issue of tariffs on timber were significant, with free trade a key point. Mr Paet said customs and energy were the priorities for Estonia – with the relaxation of timber levies one of the chief goals. Russia has adopted prohibitive tariffs for timber trade coming through its borders, despite opposition from the industry, which has seen imports from a range of countries banned. This news item is brought to you by KMS Baltics in conjunction with Fest-Forest and EST KINNISVARA. Baltic forestry and property specialists. http://www.kms.ee/index.php?Estonia_keen_on_EU_timber_talks_with_Russia&page=12&article_id=18615555&action=article

Germany:

24) A major UN conference on how to slow species loss and the destruction of the world’s ecosystems has entered its final hours with a half-dozen proposals on the table but virtually nothing decided. “This is crunch time,” said James Leape, the head of World Wildlife Fund International (WWF), an influential environmental group monitoring the negotiations. “Everything depends on what comes out at the end of the day,” he said. More than 6,000 representatives from 191 countries gathered in Germany since May 19, have struggled to hammer out a road map for saving Earth’s vanishing flora and fauna, much of it in tropical rain forests and the sea. Biodiversity advocates, inside and outside government, say the rapid disappearance of species – some 150 every day – and environmental damage pose no less a threat to human welfare than climate change. The first major economic assessment of ecosystem degradation, released Thursday, calculated the cost to the world economy at between ($US2.1 to 4.8 trillion) every year. But the call to action has only recently gathered momentum, and concrete measures remain the exception rather than the rule. The conference will vet a slew of proposals before adjourning Friday. One calls on industrialised countries to boost funding for biodiversity conservation, by 50 per cent for national programmes and by 100 per cent for international initiatives. German Chancellor Andrea Merkel pledged this week to stump up 500 million euros ($A821.73 million) before 2013, and another half-billion euros annually thereafter, but so far few other advanced economies have indicated they will follow suit. The adoption of binding standards for biofuel development, and a certification regime for applying those standards, are also under review. Carbon-fuel substitutes made from grain and non-food crops were widely hailed until recently as a silver bullet in the fight against global warming. But critics say some biofuels use nearly as much energy to produce as they save, and have helped drive up world food prices for corn and soy. Large swathes of CO2-absorbing tropical forests – especially in Brazil, which is hostile to the proposal – have been converted to biofuel production. http://news.smh.com.au/world/little-decided-in-un-biodiversity-talks-20080530-2jt5.html

24) The 150 countries that are members of the Convention on Biological Diversity – the leading international agreement for ecological governance – refused to ban the controversial trees during their conference in Bonn, Germany. The decision means that trees whose genetic traits have been manipulated to make them more suitable for the paper making and biofuel industries, can be grown in field trials with a view to being grown on a commercial scale. Under the decision, members are allowed to ban the controversial trees in their own countries but with no international agreement, they would not be protected by contaminated pollen blown across national borders from neighboring countries. The conference comes amid growing commercial pressure from the biotechnology industry which wants to grow GM trees in large-scale monocultures. The amount of cellulose in trees can be increased to make them more suitable for paper and ethanol, which can be used as a biofuel. Simultaneously, the level of lignin – the substance that gives trees their rigidity – can be reduced. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/05/30/eagm130.xml

Africa:

26) The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is working on a forestry development and management strategy that will help sustain management of forestry products, services and climate change in the COMESA region. Trade in a range of forest products from the COMESA region is already globally significant, according to the latest newsletter of the trading block, which said that COMESA member States were among the leading exporters of timber and non-timber forest products. The Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, is the fifth largest exporter of tropical logs. The newsletter quoted Director of Investment Promotion and Private Sector Development (IPPSD) at the COMESA secretariat, Chungu Mwila, as revealing that Sudan provides 50 percent of global supplies of gum Arabic, while Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Kenya are leading exporters in a number of valuable flavours and fragrances. Other COMESA member countries that are leading in the exporter of forestry products are Madagascar, Burundi, Kenya and DRC, which export the medicinal bark from the tree known as Prunus Africana. COMESA is a global leader in the production of vanilla (dominated by Madagascar) and ylang-ylang for perfumes (dominated by Comoros). Coffee and tea are major agroforestry crops, and several COMESA member countries (Kenya and to a lesser extent Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) are significant producers of woodcarvings). http://www.afriquenligne.fr/news/africa-news/zambia:-comesa-plans-viable-strategy-on-forestry-products-200805305429.html

Namibia:

27) The number of rural Namibians deriving income from forestry products is set to increase if the newly appointed Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry has his way. Minister John Mutorwa told the National Assembly recently that his Ministry would declare ten more community forests in the future and intensify the implementation of community-based forest management. Currently, there are 134 gazetted community forests in Namibia, says the Director of Forestry, Joseph Hailwa. However, Hailwa said it was difficult to say how many people were benefiting from community forests. “It is not like in the rural conservancies, where members of the conservancy are registered,” said Hailwa. Mutorwa said his Ministry was monitoring the current benefit-sharing mechanism and would continue to advise communities how to make the most of their local forests. He said equipment for clearing firebreaks in the Oshana and Kavango regions had been bought and fire management activities carried out in most fire-prone areas. Hailwa said the limited number of trees with commercial value in Namibia’s community forests was one of the challenges facing the management of these forests. “Forests provide more of a subsistence living. We do not have many trees of commercial value, unlike in countries such as DRC, where you have huge forests with a lot of timber. http://allafrica.com/stories/200805290808.html

28) A PROCLAIMED community forest and three emerging community forests were recently joined to the Na-Jaqna Conservancy near Tsumkwe in northeastern Namibia. Jana Arnold of the German Development Service (DED), which supports the Community Forestry in Northeastern Namibia project, said in the past conservancies and community forests were developed separately. “It was therefore difficult to co-operate and especially the benefit distribution system was restricted to certain people,” said Arnold. The decision to join the projects was taken at the annual general meeting of the Na-Jaqna Conservancy on April 24 at Mangetti Dune in the Otjozondjupa Region. The forests that were joined with the conservancy are the M’kata, Pespeka, Mangetti-South and Omatako-South community forests. A working group consisting of support organisations and members of the existing management committees will now draft a joint constitution that will unite the formerly separated projects and lay the foundations for co-management. Joining community forests with conservancies for the benefit of integrated natural resource management became possible with the latest extension of the Community Forestry programme of the Directorate of Forestry in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry. http://allafrica.com/stories/200805290797.html

Ghana:

29) A civil society group in Ghana has accused gold mining companies of killing agriculture, displacing local populations and damaging the environment, saying that life for mining communities is “hell”. “For the mining communities, life with mining is hell,” WACAM said in a report issued as the Ghana Chamber of Mines celebrates 80 years of mining with the slogan “Life without mining is impossible”. The Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) said Ghana is sacrificing its enormous agricultural potential to mining in a time of soaring global food prices. “Multinational mining companies are mining in Western Region, Eastern (Region), Ashanti and in the Brong Ahafo region and these are the areas that constitute the food basket of the country,” the report, sent to AFP Wednesday, said. It said multinationals such as AngloGold Ashanti, Golden Star Resources, Newmont Ghana Gold Limited, Goldfields Ghana Limited and Chirano Gold Mines “hold large tracts of agricultural lands as mining concessions”. WACAM said that mining has caused many areas that used to be major food production areas to become areas of net food deficit. The group also said gold mining has displaced tens of thousands of landlords, along with their labourers and dependents. The group blamed what it said was the determination of successive Ghanaian administrations to attract foreign direct investment into the extractive sector at all costs. “In the past two decades, there has been a paradigm shift .. from dependence on agriculture to mining and we have exhibited a strong desire and committment to promote the mining sector above all sectors through the provision of generous incentives to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) ..,” WACAM said. The group said the extractive sector accounts for around 70 percent of all FDI inflows to Ghana. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Life_with_mining_is_hell_Ghanaian_NGO_999.html

Congo:

30) In the forests of Central Africa, the BaKa and Bambendzele indigenous peoples practice a traditional subsistence lifeway based on hunting and gathering. Often referred to as “pygmies” because they rarely grow taller than five feet, they live mostly in southern and northeastern Gabon, southern Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Congo River basin of Zaire, Equatorial Guinea, and in small numbers in Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda. Numbering over 25,000, these guardians of the forest have maintained their traditional lifeway patterns in the face of rapid change. Harboring an intimate knowledge of every square inch of their homeland and its wildlife, the BaKa and Bambendzele indigenous people continue to rely heavily on forest resources for their livelihoods. However, current developmental activities have threatened their traditional lifeway as deforestation, bushmeat hunting, and human migration have caused numerous impacts. Furthermore, persistent discrimination and limited political voice have also created obstacles for the BaKa and Bambendzele indigenous people in maintaining their customary rights and resource use. For example, in the forests surrounding the village of Mambele in southeast Cameroon and Bomassa in north Congo, the Baka and Bambendzele indigenous people have had to adapt their lifeway to development programs, especially industrial logging. Compounding this is the fact that recent changes in their environment have caused shortages in many traditional resources. Rainfall has become less regular and harder to predict. Women who normally catch fish in barriers built in small streams in the dry season are often unable to achieve traditional fish catches as flood patterns of the rivers are changing. Fire has occurred in forest areas where it has not been observed in the past. The El Niño years of 1983, 1987, and 1997 all coincided with droughts in the forest zone, and fires occurred in forests that had not previously burned in the living memory of these peoples. http://indigenouspeoplesissues.com/index.php?Itemid=77&catid=55&id=89:the-baka-and-bambendzele-indigenous-people-of-central-africa&option=com_content&view=article

South Africa:

31) In November 2007, several representatives from World Rainforest Movement visited Komatiland Forests’ operations at Brooklands in Mpumalanga province in South Africa. Under a photograph of J. Brooke Shires, who planted the first eucalyptus and acacia trees at Brooklands in 1876, we listened to a company presentation. Komatiland is a parastatal company managing a total of about 128,000 hectares of mainly pine plantations. The trees are grown on a 28 to 30 year rotation for saw logs. Komatiland employs 2,400 people with a further 1,200 people employed on a contract basis, we were told. The Komatiland plantations at Brooklands cover an area of just over 12,000 hectares. The company uses a horse harvesting system on about one-third of its land at Brooklands. The company has been certified by SGS Qualifor under the Forest Stewardship Council certification system since 1997.[1] A Komatiland official told us that there are four stages of certification: unknowingly non-compliant; knowingly non-compliant; knowingly compliant; and unknowingly compliant. In these days of corporate greenwash, this part of the presentation was refreshingly honest. “I’m buggered if I know where we are,” he said, laughing. “Somewhere between two and three.” This was a staff member of an FSC-certified company admitting publicly that Komatiland was not fully compliant with FSC standards. “There are problems with all operations. We are not perfect. You will be able to find problems in every one of our plantation units.” He said this to an audience that he knew was critical of both industrial tree plantations and FSC certification. Winnie Overbeek asked about land rights and conflicts over land. “That sounds like a very European question,” came the reply. Overbeek explained that he has worked for more than a decade in Brazil supporting the Tupinikim and Guarani Indigenous Peoples in their struggle for land in the area occupied by Aracruz Cellulose’s plantations and that his question was based on this experience. Undaunted, the company representative continued. “South Africa is a very unique country”, he explained. “There are no indigenous people in South Africa according to FSC standards. Apartheid happened and there are lots of land claims. All plantations and farms have land claims. That doesn’t mean that they are valid land claims.” http://chrislang.org/2008/05/30/south-africa-a-visit-to-komatiland-forests-industrial-tree-monocultures/