Index:

–EU: 1) Forest love video encourages you to push for forest law vote!
–UK: 2) Britain a leader in illegal lumber imports, 3) Plans for 800-acre forest, 4) Heat adapted trees to take over forest, 5) Public part of revision of Woodlands for Wales,
–Ukraine: 6) Logging Carpathians results in large scale flood,
–Cyprus: 7) Billboards and tree poisoning, 8) Cont.
–Turkey: 9) Armed forces fighting back by burning down forests
–Ethiopia: 10) Photographer Andarge Asfaw returns to a barren homeland
–Zimbabwe: 11) 70% in poverty leads to forest and wildlife rapid vanishing
–Burkina Faso: 12) 110,000 hectares of forest disappear every year
–Kenya: 13) Mau Forest epitomizes everything wrong about Kenya, 14) Save Mau!
–Mozambique: 15) Fake UN vehicles used to smuggle logs
–Congo: 16) Million acres certified for destruction, 17) Commission for the Conversion of Forestry Titles to review 156 titles, 18) Mbendjele Pygmies provide data to help loggers protect / destroy forest,
–Iran: 19) Art and Nature Club in Tehran explains forest defense in a new film,
–Pakistan: 20) Forestless within a single generation?
–Kyrgyzstan: 21) 60% of illegal logging is for firewood

Articles:

EU:

1) Remember the way we copied Unilever’s great “Onslaught” ad on YouTube, to spread the message about palm oil and deforestation? We’re going to do the same to the European Commission — but this time we want to make the video with you. The European Commission has delayed the EU forests law vote, previously scheduled for this month, to early September. We want to do something especially provocative to deliver our message to the EU. If you’re not offended by the suggestive rubbing of branches, ahem, come watch our intro video and get involved. Watch the video and send a letter: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/forests/eu-ban-illegal-timber/forest-love?utm
_s
ource=gpi-cyberactivist-list&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=eu-illegal-logging&x=y The European Commission has delayed a vital vote on protecting forests from illegal logging till September. We want to make sure the commissioners don’t forget about it during their summer holiday. We need you to help us make an extra impression before the September vote. We all love the forests, and we would like to showcase all that love to the EU (and we know for a fact that the EU doesn’t have anything against some loving). The forests already have made an effort themselves! Here is your mission: 1) Take pictures and/or videos of yourself and your friends spreading the love in a forest. 2) Submit your pictures in the flickr group or post your video as an answer to ours. We’ll use these photos to make a collaborative video that we’ll show the European Commission in September. If you haven’t already, please also send this email to the President of the European Commission: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/forests/eu-ban-illegal-timber/forest-love

UK:

2) Britain imports more illegal timber than almost any other country in Europe, a new report claims. Almost one-fifth of wood imported into the EU in 2006 came from illegal sources, according to WWF. And the UK imported 3.5m cubic metres of illegal wood making it the second biggest importer behind Finland. WWF has called for an EU law to guarantee that only legal wood is sold in the European market. This included the biggest quantities of furniture, finished wood products, sawn wood and plywood of all EU states. WWF claims that in total the EU imported between 26.5m and 31m cubic metres of illegal wood and related products in 2006, equal to the total amount of wood harvested in Poland in the same year. Most came from Russia, Indonesia and China. http://naturealert.blogspot.com/2008/07/britain-imports-more-illegal-timber_24.html

3) Conservationists are planning to buy an 800-acre site to grow the largest continuous native forest in England. The Woodland Trust will plant more than 600,000 trees on the site near St Albans in Hertfordshire. The trust says a new native forest of this size and type has never been created in England before, and could take shape within 12 years. England has lost half its ancient woodland to development, agriculture or conifer woods since the 1930s. More forest has been created than lost in recent years but this has been mostly non-native conifer trees planted for commercial purposes. The trust says it is a different story when it comes to native broadleaved woodland of species such as oak, ash and field maple. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7528041.stm

4) Britain’s woods and forests face their greatest disruption since the last Ice Age with native species such as oak, beech and ash under threat from climate change, according to research. These and other native trees are likely to retreat from parts of the warmer south and west as well as East Anglia, leaving woodlands dominated by species adapted to heat and drought, such as Corsican pine, Spanish oak and shrubs including spindle and dogwood. Many of these species were introduced to Britain as ornamental trees but are now expected to flourish in the wild. American giant redwoods already grow well in England and could thrive. Further threats are posed by disease. Half the country’s 2m horse chestnut trees are suffering from bleeding canker, which disfigures the trunk and branches. Oak and beech trees are being hit by sudden oak death, a fungus carried by rhododendron bushes. Research about the scale of the change will be presented to the British Ecological Society next month. “Climate change will have a [big] impact over the next five decades,” said Dr Keith Kirby, a woodland scientist with Natural England, who will present a study on conserving woodlands as the climate changes. “Our woods will change. Many species will cope with some warming but there is uncertainty about what happens with extreme events such as droughts and storms, which we expect to become more frequent.” Beech is particularly vulnerable to summer drought because of its shallow spreading roots. Gill Stribley of Surrey Wildlife Trust has studied British beech trees for 19 years and recently noted a marked decline in their health and growth. “What is of concern is how the old trees will be replaced. Younger ones are not doing well. Whether they reach maturity remains to be seen. Trees less than 50 years old are showing changes that we would not expect to see until they were about 140,” she said. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4449530.ece

5) There are 382 million reasons for protecting and developing Welsh woodlands. This was the message of the Minister for Rural Affairs, Elin Jones, in launching plans for fulfilling the One Wales commitment of creating a Welsh national forest of native trees. There are 382 million trees in Wales but the Assembly Government is working to ensure that woodlands in Wales can meet the challenges of the 21st century, particularly climate change. The minister was speaking at the launch of a 12-week public consultation on the revision of Woodlands for Wales, the Welsh Assembly Government Woodland Strategy, at the Forestry Commission pavilion, Royal Welsh Show. It gives the opportunity to re-assess the current strategy in light of the One Wales commitment to create a Welsh National Forest to act as a carbon sink, and to consider how trees and woodlands can help further the Assembly Government ambitions in a range of other ways. Elin Jones said that there will be bold decisions to be taken and important choices need to be made now which will shape the forests of the future. She said: “Since publication of the original strategy in 2001, a number of issues have emerged which need to be included in to a revised Woodlands for Wales. For example, in 2001 climate change has risen up the agenda and is recognised as the greatest challenge for mankind. “Although Wales is a small country with only 14 per cent of its area as woodland, it can make an important contribution to addressing this issue. To reflect its importance the new strategy is to include a section specifically related to climate change.” http://www.newswales.co.uk/?section=Environment&F=1&id=14765

Ukraine:

6) Cutting down of forests in Carpathians result in large scale flood in western regions of Ukraine. Such an opinion was expressed by director of the Kyiv ecology-cultural center Volodymyr Boreiko. According to him, having lost over the previous 40 years a large part of forests, the Ukrainian Carpathian mountains came to be unable to keep moisture.
Water swiftly runs down to valleys thus causing great ecological disasters, the expert notes. He also says that Ukraine’s neighbouring countries Poland, Slovakia and Rumania have become aware of this threat and banned the industrial cutting down of forests in the Tatry and Carpathians. http://www.nrcu.gov.ua/index.php?id=148&listid=71369

Cyprus:

7) NICOSIA – Authorities in Cyprus are investigating the destruction by poisoning of hundreds of trees on the Mediterranean island. The forestry department called in police after finding evidence that pine trees lining two key motorways had been deliberately killed. “We found that the lower parts of tree trunks had been pieced with a drill and herbicide was placed inside,” George Pattichis, a forestry department spokesman, told Reuters. “They are mainly pines and cannot be saved.” Cyprus is suffering its worst drought in decades, but the huge number of usually hardy pines wilting and dying made authorities suspect something else was afoot, Pattichis said. A man was being questioned by police on Wednesday. Newspapers reported the suspected motive was to offer drivers a clearer view of advertising billboards currently obstructed by the trees. http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL058168120080730

8) A Cypriot businessman and his brother appeared in court on Wednesday on suspicion they destroyed scores of pine trees because they were obstructing the view of advertising billboards. The advertising company owner and his brother are accused of destroying 233 pine trees mainly on public highways on the island by injecting pesticide or herbicide through holes drilled into the trunks. The men, who deny any involvement, could face maximum jail terms of three years if convicted. “According to the forestry department, the cost of damage to the trees — which average 27 years old — is 21,127 euros,” investigating officer Iosif Katsouides told the court. “But this is not only about money. The damage is catastrophic to the environment,” he said. The court heard that the businessman had previously complained to the forestry department and asked for the removal of trees that spoilt the view of his advertising billboards. The Cyprus Greens condemned the “tree poisoning,” saying it was not the first time that advertisers have harmed trees that obscure their billboards. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jBUDbfhGz6EjxyMRFJPE_aSO6bzA

Turkey:

9) During the recent military operations of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in southeastern Anatolia, several fires were set on forested land to eliminate hiding places of the PKK. Some of them were left to burn without interference due to possible land mine explosions in these areas. On its Web site, meanwhile, the PKK threatened to set fire to forests in the Mediterranean and Aegean regions to retaliate against the military. The villagers in the Southeast who had fires set near their villages appealed to Parliament’s Human Rights Commission and certain ministries to stop fires from being set by the military, while the newly established Green Party asked for an explanation from the Environment and Forestry for the setting of the recent fires in the region. Setting fires to forests purposefully is not a new phenomenon in southeastern Anatolia, which is the poorest region of Turkey both economically and in terms of forested area. Only 3 percent of the region is forested, and some of this area has fallen victim to terror and the combat of terror. Approximately 27 percent of Turkey was forested, but according to statistics from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry this number has dropped to 20 percent due to fires over the last 15 years. In the western part of the Turkey, the causes of forest fires are usually human carelessness and land clearance for agricultural purposes. Some of the fires in western Turkey are also deliberately set by the PKK, but in southeastern Anatolia most fires are carried out as part of military operations. “Everybody knows who is responsible and why the forests of the region are set on fire,” said Mehmet Emin Tekin, representative of the Chamber of Forest Engineers, adding that the main tree species in the forests of the Southeast are oak and juniper. http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=149234&bolum=101

Ethiopia:

10) Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, photographer Andarge Asfaw has lived in the U.S. for almost 40 years. He came here as a young teenager, attending high school in Ithaca, N.Y., then Cornell University and the Hallmark Institute of Photography. After Asfaw completed his studies, he planned to return home to Ethiopia, so his birth country could benefit from his education abroad. “I arrived to find an unfamiliar Ethiopia,” Asfaw wrote in Tadias, an online magazine for the Ethiopian-American community. “The trees had disappeared. Wildlife that had crossed the roads not far from the region where I grew up was absent… Unemployment, relocation, political differences and health concerns had reshaped the lives of the population. Devastated, I didn’t know where to begin documenting my dreams.” As Asfaw traveled deeper into the country, a plan slowly emerged. Inspired to document the effects deforestation had wrought on the environment and the wildlife, and the rapidly decaying infrastructure of Ethiopia’s cities, Asfaw traveled to many different parts of the country. Since then, he has returned to Ethiopia as many times as possible, recording change and capturing the fleeting beauty that still remains in his native land. The result is a trove of photographs that Asfaw, with help from Jones, has published in the book Ethiopia from the Heart. http://valleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=8087

Zimbabwe:

11) High levels of poverty, particularly in the rural areas, where approximately 70 percent of the population lives, make deforestation and wildlife poaching a huge environmental challenge due to increased demand for household fuel wood and food. The rampant cutting down of trees for both fuel and agricultural purposes is perhaps the biggest problem because it negatively impacts the weather, rivers, rain and soil quality. To make matters worse, climate change, with its disruption of rainfall patterns, has negatively affected subsistence agriculture, which is the main source of livelihood and food for 80 percent of the population. According to analysts, among the most serious of Zimbabwe’s environmental problems is erosion of its agricultural lands, wildlife poaching and deforestation. By 1992, deforestation was progressing at the rate of 70,000-100,000 hectares per year, chewing up 1.5 percent of the nation’s forestland. It is estimated that between 1990 and 2005, Zimbabwe lost 21 percent of its forest cover. The country has no primary forests left, and deforestation rates have increased by 16 percent since the end of the 1990s. In 2001, nine of the nation’s mammal species and nine bird species were endangered, as well as 73 types of plants. Zimbabwe has about half of the world’s population of black rhinoceroses, an endangered species. Despite this degradation, Zimbabwe has some 1,747 species of trees among its 4,500 species of higher plants. The country is also home to a number of safari animals like elephants, lions and hippos. In total, 270 species of mammals are found in Zimbabwe along with 180 reptiles and 661 birds. http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=383286&rel_no=1

Burkina Faso:

12) All Africa reports, “In the West African nation of Burkina Faso, millions of trees are planted every year to reverse desertification. However the growing socio-economic needs of local populations pose a constant threat to these efforts. “People have built homes, marketplaces, places of worship, full cities within our national reserves,” said Salifou Sawadogo, Burkina Faso’s minister of the environment in an interview with IPS. According to the ministry, 110,000 hectares of forest disappear every year, 75,000 of which go to farming. “Its difficult to gather the ideal conditions for managing these reserves with such intense human pressure. Its harder still to put together a larger-scale development strategy to safeguard this heritage,” added Sawadogo. According to a 2007 study by the environment ministry, 60 percent of reserves have been lost to farming and small villages. Moreover, a number of destructive activities such as bushfires, illegal timber cutting, overgrazing and carbonization are rampant. As a result, there has been a severe environmental degradation, the main waterways are blocked by sedimentation, forested areas are disappearing and the production of timber and non-timber products has slowed. Oumar Tiemtoré, who oversees sustainable management of forest resources in southwest and southern Burkina, cites the chaotic nature of recent development as the main threat to preserving what little gains have been made.” http://www.africanpath.com/p_comments.cfm?articleID=160762

Kenya:

13) The Mau Forest saga epitomizes everything wrong about Kenya. Political patronage, forest & land expropriation, illegal logging, forced evictions of peasants, inter-tribal conflicts, losing government battles with corporate hegemonies, international pressure from Nile dependent states etc. For your information, the Prime Minister has a close insider account to the Mau debacle from none other than his current PS, Dr Mohamed Isahakia, who was former president Moi’s Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources during the height of the Mau deforestation policies around the sunset years of the Nyayo rule. Dr. Isahakhia himself had run-in battles with Moi‘s loyal Minister in the same Environment & Natural Resources docket, Noah Katana Ngala. The latter was blindly implementing policies that were decimating Kenya’s forests purely for business interests and political patronage. The biggest bribe to convince Kipsigis electorate into voting for Moi’s project Uhuru Kenyatta in 2002, was more than 147,000 acres of forest land excised from the gazetted and state owned Mau Forest. This was forest land that the Moi and Kenyatta logging and timber interests, RaiPly and Timsales had previously shaved off hardwood trees in unfettered fashion. Moi had previously directed Ngala and Isahakhia to excempt his RaiPly (K) Ltd and Kenyatta family’s Timsales (K) Ltd from the ban on hardwood logging within gazetted state forests at Bararget, Nesiut and Mauche areas of the Mau Forest. The shaved lands were then allocated via political patronage, through pointmen like Isaac Ruto, Franklin Bett and others. The ambivalence in Dr Isahakia was exposed when, on October 24, 2001, he told the Daily Nation that if he would have had his way, he would have thrown the entire lot of forest officers responsible for the plunder of forests into Kamiti Maximum Prison. http://blog.jaluo.com/?p=1247

14) The need to immediately end the destruction of the Mau Forest is not debatable. It is a complete disgrace that what is essentially a question of the survival of many Kenyans and the economic viability of a large region has been reduced to mere bickering over ethnicity and a few thousand votes. What can, and should, be debated is how to handle the removal of those who have invaded different forests in the 400,000-hectare system. A group of MPs, and those farming in the forest, have come out fighting against action to save the forest. This is understandable, especially when one reflects on what has been happening to the country’s forests over the years and how such forests were converted into private land as outlined in the Ndung’u Commission’s report. AT FIRST, SOME MPS HAD BEEN quoted in the media asking their constituents not to leave the forest. The tune has now changed, and they are willing to have the farmers leave so long as they are compensated in advance. But, as this debate goes on, it should not be lost on Kenyans that the ongoing destruction of the Mau is a grave crime against this country’s economy and survival. There is evidence from a combined effort of local environmental groups, the Department of Resource Survey and Remote Sensing and the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) that our collective short-sightedness has, and continues to, negatively affect our future ability not only to feed ourselves but also to raise tea, to attract tourists as well as to continue to get clean water. In a chilling revelation, Unep’s Executive Director, Achim Steiner, told our sister publication, The EastAfrican, that if the current destructive trends continue, then the entire forest will be gone in 15 years. http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=24&newsid=128072

Mozambique:

15) Illegal logging operators in the northern Mozambican province of Nampula province have been using vehicles painted with the symbols of international organizations, particularly the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to transport logs and processed wood, reports Wednesday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”. The disguise is to try and dodge the forestry and wild life inspectors, in the belief that they will not inspect vehicles that appear to belong to United Nations agencies and other humanitarian organisations. In Nacaroa district, the police, in coordination with the forestry inspection authorities, recently seized two vehicles belonging to an operator based in Nacala port, named Luis Tipaneque, but carrying the WFP logo. One of the vehicles was loaded with 21 logs of the precious hardwood, jambire, and the other, a three-tonne pick up truck, was carrying unspecified quantities of processed timber. Both were covered with tarpaulins to hide the contents. The truck driver, identified as Abacar Mussa, said that his employer is licensed to operate in this business in Muecate district, which borders Nacaroa. He said that he also picked up logs and processed wood in Memba and Erati districts, where his employer supposedly has an agreement with other operators. Mussa said he always transported the wood at night. It was this that alerted police suspicions. An officer from the Nacaroa district police command, Manuel Anibal, said the police had found it strange that these two supposedly WFP vehicles regularly drove past checkpoints after 23.00. http://allafrica.com/stories/200807300875.html

Congo:

16) WWF today announced that more than one million hectares of Congo Basin forests have achieved certification under the world’s leading sustainable forestry scheme. The world’s second largest block of rainforests, the Congo Basin is a haven for indigenous peoples and endangered species like elephants and gorillas. It is also important in sequestering carbon and safeguarding water supply and quality. “With rampant illegal logging, vague logging concession boundaries and massive blocks of pristine forest destined for the chainsaw, this is a laudable step towards avoiding an ecological disaster,” says James P. Leape, Director General of WWF. http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=142501
As if Carving up the Congo wasn’t enough, logging companies are also evading paying taxes and cheating the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) out of millions of euros in revenue. A new report we have released today called Conning the Congo shows how the logging company Danzer has avoided paying approximately €8 million in tax from its logging operations in the DRC and the Republic of Congo. Just to put €8m in context in this part of the world, that is more than fifty times the DRC Ministry of Environment’s annual operating budget. The Congo rainforests of Central Africa form the second largest rainforest block on Earth after Amazon. They are of great importance for the global climate, the planet’s biodiversity and the forest-dwelling communities who depend on them for resources and livelihoods. http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/forests/conning-the-congo-20080730

17) The Democratic Republic of Congo will begin its review of forestry titles on July 30, a member of the commission said. The Interministerial Commission for the Conversion of Forestry Titles will assess whether the 156 titles held in the central African country comply with its forestry code, commission member Augustin Mpoyi said today in a phone interview from the capital, Kinshasa. “More than half the titles will be canceled, that’s certain,” said Mpoyi, executive director of the Council for the Defense of the Environment through Legality and Traceability, which monitors the origins, transformation and fate of products as they move through production. The Congo has 125 million hectares (308.9 million acres) of tropical rain forest, and about 35 million people, or 60 percent of the country’s population, are dependent on forests in some way, according to the World Bank. The bank helped the Congolese government in drafting a new forest code in 2002 to encourage sustainable forest management and to avoid destructive and unsustainable logging. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=anyRJows88i0&refer=africa

18) The Mbendjele Pygmy communities of northern Republic of Congo are working together with an international logging company to help protect the forest. Using GPS and a new radio station, the indigenous people keep the company and the community informed. The Congo Basin forest covers an area twice the size of Nigeria (around 2 million square kilometres) and stretches over the countries of Gabon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Congo and Cameroon. It is the second largest tropical forest in the world after the Amazon. While the rate of destruction is less than that of the South American jungle, conservationists have long been concerned about the amount destruction taking place through natural resource mining, population growth and logging in the area. Consumers have also become steadily aware of the threat to this and other important ecosystems, and are gradually demanding products from renewable sources. Rather than lose potential sales, many of the world’s largest logging companies have decided to work together with international pressure groups and local populations living in affected areas. The Tropical Forest Trust (TFT), a non-profit charity based in Switzerland, advises timber traders throughout the world on good forest management practices and tropical forest conservation. In the Congo Basin, TFT manages a project to protect the land of the indigenous Mbendjele Pygmy communities in the northern region of the Republic of Congo. The Indigenous People’s Voices project helps the Mbendjeles map the parts of the forest that are important to their culture and livelihoods, and works with the main logging company to ensure that these areas are protected. http://ictupdate.cta.int/en/Feature-Articles/Logging-the-forest

Iran:

19) The largest and most serious group working on environmental issues in Iran is the Art and Nature Club in Tehran, which is supported by the United Nations Development Programme. At one recent meeting, the club held a screening of a documentary about the destruction of the ancient forests of northern Iran, which skirt the Caspian Sea. In the final shots of the documentary, the camera zoomed in on a newspaper headline saying “Goodbye Forest”. Afterwards, an official from the state forestry agency was given an opportunity to respond. He said the film made exaggerated claims, and he rejected the charge that forests were being systematically chopped down. The audience listened to him in stunned silence. Then the chairman of the meeting told the forestry official that while his statistics were all very interesting, they didn’t reflect the real situation reported by observers. This response met with hearty applause, which showed the level of discontent felt by Iranian conservationists. The conservation department at the forestry agency says there are about a thousand forest fires recorded across Iran every year. About a hundred of them occur in the Caspian and Hirkan forests in the north. The agency says these fires come at a high price, but its calculations are based only on the price of timber and ignores the environmental and historical value of these forests. Ninety-five per cent of forest fires are started by human activity. Some environmentalists are convinced the fires are the work of land-grabbers who want to clear an area of trees. The Hirkan forest stretches from Golestan province in Iran into the neighbouring country of Azerbaijan. It’s one of the most valuable wooded areas in the world because it is a relic. There are species of tree that have been growing here continuously for the last 40 million years. The older forests in Europe date back just 11 thousand years. But now the Hirkan forest is under threat. Developers have won planning permission from the government to build a road through the forest. Meanwhile, green campaigners are trying to get the Abr forest, part of the Hirkan area, listed as a natural heritage site by UNESCO. Under Iran’s last president, Mohammad Khatami, the government made it a requirement that no major new construction projects of this kind could be approved unless they passed an environmental assessment. But all too often the appraisal is not done properly. Sam claims that these environmental assessments have merely generated an army of consultant engineers and ecologists who make a fat living by producing positive reports. In some cases, the assessment is knocked together in a matter of days, and so-called experts take bribes in return for defending the project when it goes before the committee that decides the matter. http://www.payvand.com/news/08/jul/1313.html

Pakistan:

20) If the current rate of deforestation continues unabated, Pakistan will be forestless within a generation. The people who will be most immediately and severely hurt by the loss of forests are the local communities. In the extractive sector, decisions of location are predetermined, or at least constrained. The communities that reside where the resource is located must therefore enter any discussion of natural resources. Greater clarity can be brought to policy and academic discourse by acknowledging that the human geographies of natural resource commodification are different for different types of resources. An intuitive starting point for analysing the differences between natural resources is the relationship between local communities and the resource. A concept that is helpful, and that has been debated by political economists for centuries, is use-value. Use-value is simply the utility of an object. There are two types of relationships that local communities can have with natural resources: those based on use-value, and those not. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C07%5C31%5Cstory_31-7-2008_pg3_5

Kyrgyzstan:

21) Bishkek – Sixty per cent of trees (or wood) illegally felled in Kyrgyzstan are used for preparing firewood, the head of the department for forest ecosystems under the Kyrgyz state agency for the protection of the environment and forestry, Askat Kysanov, told a news conference in Bishkek today. He said that the number of cases of illegal logging had risen over the past few years following rises in prices for energy resources and building materials, unemployment and low living standards. “According to the data, 449 reports on filing lawsuits and [imposing] fines to the tune of 1,006,700 soms [over 25,000 dollars] were made over the first half of 2008,” he said. [Passage omitted: some lawsuits mentioned; felling of certain types of trees decreased] Originally published by AKIpress news agency website, Bishkek, in Russian 0658 25 Jul 08. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1496294/low_living_standards_reportedly_cause_of_illegal_l
ogging_in_kyrgyzstan/