–Asia: 9) End deforestation by 2020?
–South East Asia: 10) I’ll never eat another Oreo again!
–China: 11) Tropical forest users of Xishuangbanna protest rubber industry
–India: 12) They decided to equip forest guards in a better way, 13) Floods deforestation bring leopards into villages, 14) Rampant corruption in the nation’s forest department,
–Vietnam: 15) Road in Quang Tri Province’s Dakrong District leads to illegal logging
–Malaysia: 16) Chief minister of Kedah still adamant about destroying forest, 17) Tree are to orangutans what roads are to humans,
— Indonesia: 18) Exploring with Iban tribesman, 19) Documentary movie: Timber Mafia, 20) Greenpeace’s new media director,
–Borneo: 21) New population of rare leopard
–New Zealand: 22) 140,000 ha of radiata pine throughout New Zealand for sale. 23) Loggers and Enviros unite to demand more regulation of illegal log imports,
–Australia: 24) Please consider all science surrounding forests and carbon emissions, 25) Community and Union turn log trucks away from Boral mill, 26) Our forest management practices are helping the planet? 27) Gunns to sell forest to pay off $170 million in debt, 28) Gov gives $2.3 Million in Blah Blah for saving OTHER country’s forests, 29) SeedQuest NSW,

Asia:

9) The United Nations has called on more Asian leaders to agree to a plan to end deforestation by 2020 to slow down the destruction of plants and animals, a top official said on Friday. About 80 percent of the world’s known biodiversity could be found in forests, where about 1.6 billion people also depend for their survival, Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive director of U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), told a news conference in Manila. The United Nations has called on more Asian leaders to agree to a plan to end deforestation by 2020 to slow down the destruction of plants and animals, a top official said on Friday. About 80 percent of the world’s known biodiversity could be found in forests, where about 1.6 billion people also depend for their survival, Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive director of U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), told a news conference in Manila. http://hybridliving.com.au/news/?p=6603

South East Asia:

10) What do Oreo cookies made by Nabisco (KFT, Fortune 500), Cheez-It crackers from Kellogg’s (K, Fortune 500) or General Mills’ (GIS, Fortune 500) Fiber One Chewy Bars have to do with global warming and the destruction of tropical rainforests? A lot, say environmental activists. The link between the supermarket shelf, climate change and shrinking rainforests is palm oil, a controversial ingredient that may now be the most widely-traded vegetable oil in the world. Here’s the problem: Demand for palm oil, which is found in soaps and cosmetics as well as food, has more than doubled in the last decade as worldwide food consumption has soared. Farmers, in turn, are expanding their plantations, burning forests in Indonesia and Malaysia, where nearly all of the palm oil imported to the United States originates. Deforestation is the primary reason that Indonesia’s greenhouse gas emissions are the third-highest in the world. The Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace International, Friends of the Earth and the Center for Science in the Public Interest are all campaigning against palm oil. (You can find their arguments here and here and here and here.) Last week, RAN asked about 2,000 volunteers to sneak into food stores across the United States and attach stickers to products made with palm oil.”Warning!,” the stickers said. “May Contain Rainforest Destruction.” The targets of the RAN campaign are three global agricultural firms that grow or import palm oil: Archer Daniels Midland (ADM, Fortune 500), Cargill and Bunge (BG). The goal of last week’s stunt was to get the attention of consumer-goods companies, who are being asked to look into their sourcing of palm oil. http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/21/news/companies/palm_oil.fortune/

China:

11) Farmers in the tropical region of Xishuangbanna in China’s south-west Yunnan province recently staged a protest, accusing local officials of colluding with the rubber industry to destroy the local rainforest. The BBC’s Jill McGivering tried to investigate their allegations, which the government denies. The environmental activist was extremely nervous when he met us, dashing from place to place to find somewhere private enough to talk. He had reason to worry. He wanted to speak out in support of a group of farmers in a remote part of the tropical region of Xishuangbanna who have made some controversial claims. Last month the farmers held a protest, complaining that local officials were turning a blind eye to a law that the rainforest must be protected. The farmers alleged that some local officials were colluding with rubber companies, allowing them to flout the rules and cut down the forest to plant rubber trees. Several farmers were arrested. The activist told me that the farmers were fighting to preserve their traditional way of life. “Where the forest is destroyed,” he told me, “it causes drought. The farmers have to go a long way to get water. And without water, they can’t live.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7570501.stm

India:

12) Lucknow – The state Department of Forests has decided to equip its forest guards and rangers in a better way so that they could stop incidents of poaching and forest crime. Besides, a forest security service is also on the anvil to help guard the forests effectively. The department has already decided to distribute cellphones with CUG (Closed User Group) numbers to the forest guards, rangers and the divisional forest officers. Talking about the initiatives to strengthen the communication network in the department, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) BK Patnaik said the department has realised the need to strengthen its communication network to counter poaching and wildlife crime. “Often we get delayed information about any animal poaching incident. We understand that we have a weak communication network. Hence, while forming a force to deal with wildlife crime, we have decided to strengthen our network first, beginning from the lowest level,” said Patnaik. The department has already bought CUG numbers for the forest guards and rangers. “These numbers will be circulated among the people living in villages adjoining the forests in order to establish a well-knit communication network. Since mobile network does not effectively work in some areas, so we will be also providing wireless sets at range offices,” he added. The department also plans to purchase motorcycles and jeeps for better surveillance in the forest areas. According to a forest range official, the latest initiative will help them reach any part of the forest faster and will enable them to track poachers in a more effective manner. The official said that through vehicles, they can also ensure that in case any injured animal is found by them, they can send it to the nearest available vet for urgent medical care. “We have seen some fine examples of strong communication networks in Nepal and Karnataka too. Since we are now working on a joint strategy with Nepal, we may follow some of their examples,” Patnaik said.

13) LUCKNOW: Excess rains and the resulting floods have brought leopard scare back to the contiguous area of north Kheri forest division and Dudhwa. Though forest officials deny that anyone being killed by three leopards said to be on the prowl, they have strategically installed cages at sighting places to avoid any mishap. The leopards were spotted at Motipur range, Nishangada village which is about 30 km from Motipur and Sampoornanagar range. “The flood in the area has brought leopards out of the forest,” said KK Singh, DFO, north Kheri. The big cats have ventured out of forests following their preys. There have been instances where the animals have attacked and killed cattle but no human has been killed so far, he added. However, activists from the area claimed that a 7-year-old boy was killed by the beasts in Nishangada. It is this place where cages have been installed. “The leopards have also injured villagers,” said VP Singh from the Terai Nature Conservation Society. The leopards may recede to forests once the flood subsides as they are not violent and are venturing into villages only in search of prey. Leopards, otherwise, also exist in the periphery of forests in order to avoid the territory of tigers. This brings them more often in conflict with man. On the other hand, there is also an opinion that leopards are present in good numbers in Uttar Pradesh forest area. The animal scare is, however, not confined till Dudhwa and Katarniaghat. The attacks by beasts have also been reported from Azadnagar village in Ambedkarnagar district. A boy was killed last week in one such attack. Though official sources said nothing could be said about the animal behind the attack without studying the pugmarks, they suspected it to be a wolf in all probability. However, villagers claimed it was a leopard and added that it had attacked on earlier occasions as well. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Lucknow/Leopard_scare_haunts_Dudhwa_region/articleshow/33723
13.cms

Bangladesh:

14) DHAKA — Bangladesh’s jungles, including the world’s largest mangrove forest the Sunderbans, are being destroyed because of rampant corruption in the nation’s forest department, a graft watchdog said Monday. Transparency International (TI) said in its report that forest officials were engaged in illegal logging worth millions of dollars a year. Bribery was most evident in the appointment process for top-level jobs. Over the past two decades, forest chiefs have been chosen through an auction system in which the person who paid the biggest bribe landed the job, TI said. The local branch of the Berlin-based watchdog conducted a 16-month investigation into Bangladesh’s forest department. Lead investigator Manzoor-e-Khuda told AFP it was among the most corrupt in the graft-ridden country. “Corruption is everywhere in the department and it’s threatening the future of our forests. Our biodiversity is now at stake because of corrupt practices,” he said. “The post of the chief conservator forest (CCF) has been auctioned off regularly in the past 20 to 25 years. The immediate past CCF (Mohammad Osman Gani) gave an 11 million taka (161,000 dollars) bribe to get the post,” the report said. In March 2007, armed forces raided the home of the country’s then chief conservator of forests Gani and found local currency worth 142,000 dollars stashed throughout his house, including in pillows, under his mattress and in a rice barrel. His arrest was part of the emergency government’s nationwide crackdown on corruption and he was sentenced to seven years in jail. About a dozen top forestry officials have been detained since then on corruption charges. TI said Bangladesh was losing 37,700 hectares (93,150 acres) of its forest each year, largely due to illegal logging, up sharply from 8,000 hectares in the 1980s. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jLR9PkDKZiQcLpgiyjimb5uC5MAQ

Vietnam:

15) An unfinished road in central Quang Tri Province’s Dakrong District has opened the way for illegal loggers, since its construction started two-years ago. Avao-Balin forest was once a pristine area despite the fall out from the war with the US. In 2006, work began on the 13-kilometer stretch of road to connect the heart of Avao Commune and a local border guard station. As more than two kilometres of the planned road was meant to go through the forest, some trees had to make way. But many ancient trees, up to one kilometer away from the road have fallen victim to timber poachers. Quang Tri rangers recently discovered a large number of logs with diametres of 1.4-2 metres but failed to identify the loggers. In some areas only tree stumps remained of what was once lush forest.Many of the remaining trees had also been marked indicating they were next to go. Local area resident, Con Ria, said that before evening the road is busy with logging trucks. http://www.intellasia.net/news/articles/society/111248086.shtml

Papua New Guinea:

PAPUA New Guinea’s anti-corruption watchdog is investigating the alleged payment of millions of dollars in bribes from the logging industry to ministers in the Government of Prime Minister Michael Somare. PNG government sources said yesterday the Ombudsman Commission of PNG was examining the Singapore bank accounts of two ministers. It would investigate suggestions that some payments were channelled through the Cairns branch of an Australian bank. Media reports in PNG claimed there was a money trail of corrupt payments from Singapore through Australia to Port Moresby, with $US27million ($31 million) being withdrawn from one account around the time of last year’s PNG national elections. PNG’s Post Courier newspaper reported last month that one minister had received $US40 million in allegedly corrupt payments. The report led to a heated parliamentary exchange in Port Moresby between Deputy Prime Minister Patrick Pruaitch and Forest Minister Belden Namah. Mr Pruaitch was Mr Namah’s predecessor as Forest Minister in the last government, when he firmly rejected claims of corruption in the logging industry. PNG government sources told The Australian that Chief Ombudsman Chronox Manek was investigating the corruption allegations after receiving records of Singapore bank accounts from the Post Courier. The records indicated that two ministers received a total of $US45 million, which was deposited in the accounts. The Australian reported in June the results of a five-year study, using satellite images, showing logging had destroyed almost four million hectares of PNG rainforest over 30 years. A succession of reports from PNG authorities, the World Bank and other sources have concluded that much of the logging was illegal. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24208462-2703,00.html

Malaysia:

16) Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak, Chief Minister of the Malaysian state of Kedah, is pushing ahead with a plan to log Ulu Muda forest reserve despite concerns that logging could hurt water supplies and threaten biodiversity. Speaking yesterday at the weekly state executive council meeting, Azizan said the reserve holds RM16 billion ($4.5 billion) worth of valuable timber that could be used to sponsor development programs in the state, according to the New Straits Times. Critics of the plan argue that logging the reserve — which is nearly twice the size of Singapore — may diminish the watershed’s capacity to supply water for agriculture. Some have called for the reserve to be protected as a national park. Azizan has previously claimed he would be willing to call off the logging of Ulu Muda if the federal government resumes annual payments of RM100 million ($30 million) pledged after Kedah agreed to not to log the catchment area in 2003. While it has yet to come up in high level discusions, another option for generating revenue from Ulu Muda could be the emerging market for forest carbon. Protecting the 160,000 hectare reserve for its stored carbon could generate several million dollars per year in “avoided deforestation” credits, while ensuring the flow of water for the agricultural industry. Kedah accounts for 53 percent of Malaysia’s rice production. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0822-kedah.html

17) TREES are to orangutans what roads are to humans. When we develop pockets of forests, humans cut off not just the primates’ connectivity to other parts of the woodland but also their food supply. CHAI MEI LING learns how a few ringgit can contribute to a tree-planting programme armed with the mammoth task of linking up those roads again. If we think about trees … it’s something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distills water, provides a habitat for hundreds of species, accrues solar energy, makes complex sugars and food, creates micro-climates, self replicates.”The above is a quote lifted off The 11th Hour, the latest environmental docudrama. Beautiful, isn’t it, what a tree can do? Even more amazing is a contribution as small as RM15 can put a tree in its rightful place, allowing it to perform just those wizardry, including building the orang utans’ home. Forgo a cup of latte, two packets of cigarettes or this week’s pasar malam treat, and send that money to Boh and WWF’s Tea for Trees Restoring the Home of Orang Utans campaign. Every RM15 sent means one tree is planted in the degraded forests of the lower Kinabatangan River, Sabah. In many areas there, orang utans face not just food shortage with every disappearing tree, but also difficulty in getting to places where there are fruit-bearing trees. Plantations and grasslands that dot the area are separating tracts of forests, further isolating these primates to certain forested area and cutting off their access to other forests where food can be found. As arboreal animals who spend most of their lives in trees, orang utans can’t walk across these plains and estates. These fruit eaters, confined to a specific spot, would soon run out of food and find that mating partners are few and far in between, which can result in inbreeding. It was for this reason that the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia and the Sabah Wildlife Department launched the Corridor of Life programme five years ago. A tree-planting project was established to create a “corridor” that connects the forests. “If we don’t open up the bottlenecks, the long-term effect is death. There will be a lot of inbreeding and the species’ need for food becomes a challenge,” says WWF-Malaysia executive director Datuk Dr Dionysius S.K. Sharma. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1524023/one_tree_one/

Indonesia:

18) Far from the last knock of civilization in the Borneo jungle, I trudge along the Malaysian border with Indonesia. Here, together with two Iban tribesmen and a guide—all of us caked in mud and sweat—I come to a place where the familiar clamor of birds, monkeys, and bugs is being drowned out by the sound of a chain saw. We enter a clearing in which a teenager is hacking a felled tree, sawing it into pieces. Nearby, a backhoe levels a huge swath of land. Soon palms will be planted here, I’m told, and when harvested their oil will be sold on the world market. What I’ve come upon is just one scene in the massive global picture of deforestation. There are thousands and thousands of small operators hacking away at forests to profit from their bounty. Deforestation is occurring at a rapid pace as the demand for housing and goods increases with world population growth, which is expected to climb 50 percent between 1999 and 2040, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Moreover, as appetites for food and biofuels—made with palm, corn, and other plants—rise, more land is needed to accommodate agriculture. About 32 million acres of forest are destroyed per year. That’s equivalent to about 50 football fields a minute. And the rate is expected to increase as demand grows. http://discovermagazine.com/2008/sep/20-want-to-save-the-trees

19) If you had the chance to see the documentary movie Timber Mafia released by Journeyman Pictures in 2002, you would have some idea of the massive scale of illegal logging in Indonesia. Although efforts have been made to crack down on illegal logging in Indonesia, it appears the problem is getting worse. It is hard to get accurate data on its magnitude, because there are no accurate records on it. Estimates indicate that approximately 70 percent of timber sourced from the country is illegally harvested, amounting to a massive 50 million cubic meters. A high-ranking government official said the annual loss from illegal logging accounts for between US$600 and $1,500 million. This accounts for over 1.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, as much as the contribution of “legal” forest products to the GDP. This loss is only assessed on the royalty that would have been paid if the timber had been legally harvested. Therefore, the total financial loss is much larger. What are the underlying causes of illegal logging and how can we deal with it? Some analysts have mentioned market failure as a main cause. Markets for illegally-logged timber are so widely available, even in environmentally-concerned regions, that the legal markets can hardly function alongside the illegal ones! The international marketing problem is undeniable and apparently beyond government control. While expecting improvements in global markets, we should also focus on government failures in dealing with illegal logging. Domestically, it is evident that illegal forestry activities are strongly linked with underdeveloped regulatory frameworks and lack of enforcement capacity by governmental agencies, compounded by corruption and collusion between illegal loggers and officials in forestry and state agencies. It is difficult to isolate these factors as they are interdependent. http://old.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20080822.F04&irec=3

20) I just started as Greenpeace’s media director, in part because I wanted to help Greenpeace save the world’s rainforests, a topic I’ve written a lot about at Grist and elsewhere. Within a week of starting the job, I knew I’d made a good decision when I got this news release from our Southeast Asian office: This is very good news for the orangutans, rhinos, and elephants being killed off by Indonesia’s aggressive expansion of palm oil — and excellent news for the climate too: Burning all that rainforest for palm oil makes Indonesia the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, right behind the United States and China and right ahead of fellow forest destroyer Brazil. The victory comes after months of effort by Greenpeace in Riau (see a video of Greenpeace’s Forest Defenders Camp in Riau here) to expose the hugely disproportionate damage palm oil does to the planet. Alone, it accounts for around 8 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions. But don’t start buying Entenmann’s products, Twix, Oreos, Kit Kats, Body Shop soap, Burt’s Bee’s products, Kashi breakfast bars, or any of the other cookies, crackers, soaps, shampoos, and cosmetics that contain palm oil just yet. Food and ag giants like Cargill, ADM, and Bunge are still slipping this fattening orangutan killer into our Trader Joe’s Chocolate Truffles and Whole Foods’ water crackers, and the Indonesian central government is still allowing this land grab to go ahead unabated. Until deforestation for palm oil is stopped and already deforested areas restored, we need a complete ban on palm oil and rapid replacement with less ecologically damaging (and equally affordable) edible oils like canola. We also need a long-term solution that will permanently change the financial calculus that allows palm oil, soy, and cattle ranching to take precedence over the far more valuable services forests provide such as carbon storage, clean air, and water, and shelter for indigenous people and wildlife. We can do that by giving financial credit for protecting forests under both domestic and international climate regimes. And we can finally put the deforestation era behind us once and for all. http://redapes.org/news-updates/indonesian-province-puts-moratorium-on-rainforest-destruction/

Borneo:

21) A new population of rare leopard has been found living in thick forests on the Indonesian half of Borneo island, a researcher said Thursday. Camera traps in Sebangau National Park in Central Kalimantan province have snapped pictures of two adult male Bornean clouded leopards in an area once decimated by logging, British zoologist Susan Cheyne said. The discovery by researchers from Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit and Indonesia’s Pangkalan Raya University is the first confirmation the clouded leopard, which is classified as vulnerable, lives in the park. The discovery holds out new hope for the little-understood species, which numbers less than 10,000 individuals and is the top predator on Borneo island, Cheyne said. “This elusive species is a good indicator of forest health. Large cats need prey and the prey — deer, macaques and bearded pigs — need the forest,” she said. “The clouded leopard is the largest predator on Borneo, there are no tigers. Having the island’s top predator surviving in an ex-logging concession hopefully means that the species is resilient.” However, the discovery still only provides a small amount of information about the behaviour and distribution of the big cats. “With more time and increased number of photos we can start to identify individual cats, look at which cameras they show up on to get an idea of range, and possible range overlap with the smaller cats,” Cheyne said. The forests on Indonesia’s half of Borneo island are home to some of the world’s most diverse wildlife, but are under threat from plantations and logging, much of it illegal. http://wildsingaporenews.blogspot.com/2008/08/rare-leopards-found-in-borneo-forest.html

New Zealand:

22) Matariki Forests owns the country’s third-largest forest estate, comprising 140,000ha of radiata pine throughout New Zealand. It bought 95,000ha of forests from Carter Holt Harvey for $435 million, and forests owned by Rayonier were also put in the venture. Favourable valuations of the estate over the last three years, as part of a strategic review, had prompted the owners to explore a sale, Rayonier NZ managing director Paul Nicholls said. “This hasn’t been triggered by any unsolicited offers, it’s a decision by the shareholders to go and test the market,” he told NZPA. Favourable factors were the declining New Zealand dollar, medium term forecasts of falling shipping prices into Asia, and restrictions on the supply of Russian logs into markets, Mr Nicholls said. “If they can’t realise the value, they will wait and see if these other factors turn in their favour.” Other shareholders were funds managed by AMP Capital Investors with 35 percent, and clients of Deutsche Bank’s REEF Infrastructure with 25 percent. If the investigations proceeded to a sale, the business — all assets and the management company — would be sold as a going concern. Shareholders were in the process of appointing a financial adviser. About 70 percent of the harvest is sold to domestic mills for processing into appearance-grade timber suitable for millwork or for structural applications, Rayonier said on its website. The remaining 30 percent is sold as logs into East Asian markets. http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/forestry-company-considers-sale-all-assets-34159

23) Environmental groups and forest owners have joined forces to demand an urgent tightening of regulations to stop products made from illegally-logged timber being imported or used in New Zealand. In a joint statement today six lobby groups and four forestry and timber organisations said importers and retailers should have evidence from their suppliers that wooden furniture, hardwood decking and fire logs were sourced from legal and sustainably managed forests. “Illegal logging, especially in the tropics, is causing huge environmental and social damage and undermines the markets for legal forest products,” said one of the signatories, Greenpeace forests campaigner Grant Rosoman. “The Government continues to talk about the problem but does nothing. We need regulations now to stem the multi-million dollar import of illegal wood products into New Zealand.” Forest Owners Association chief executive David Rhodes said the New Zealand forest industry, and environmental groups, were committed to sustainable forestry. “Illegal logging and the destruction of rainforests have unfairly sullied the reputation of all wood and forest products — even those derived from sustainably managed plantation forests,” he said. The joint statement was issued by the Ecologic Foundation, Environment and Conservation Organisations of New Zealand, Greenpeace New Zealand, Forest and Bird, World Wildlife Fund, the Forest Owners Association, the Farm Forestry Association, the Pine Manufacturers Association and the Wood Processors Association. http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/forsters-and-environmental-groups-join-forces-over-imports-34063

Australia:

24) Tasmanian environment organizations, Huon Valley Environment Centre and Still Wild Still Threatened, have called on Climate Change Minister Penny Wong to heed the calls of all stakeholders and consider all the science surrounding forests and carbon emissions, as she opens a climate change conference organised by the logging industry in Sydney today. Penny Wong will address logging industry head honchos including Forestry Tasmania’s Bob Gordon at the $2,200 a-head Asia Pacific Forest Industries Climate Change Conference. The conference is billed as giving participants “The Opportunity to Influence Australian Government on Forestry’s Role in the Emissions Trading Scheme.” We are calling on Minister Wong to accept a real climate change solution and end logging of mature, old growth and high conservation-value forests. We are extremely concerned that Minister Wong, who is charged with the important task of steering Australia down a low-carbon path, is pandering to wood chipping and old growth logging interests, whose activities have been shown to pose a major climate impact. A recent report by Australia’s National University has highlighted the immense carbon storage potential of undisturbed native forests and the vital role forest protection can play in our climate change solution. The old-growth logging industry has buried its heads in the sand, rejected this scientific research and denied that logging natural forests exacerbates climate change. Yet, Forestry Tasmania’s own data shows that their management will lead to a loss of 28 percent of the carbon stored in commercial forests between 2007 and 2030, a crucial window of opportunity to stop climate change. http://www.nativeforest.net/?p=25

25) Log trucks were turned away from the Boral mill yesterday as the community and union members set up a blockade in a bid to force the company to reconsider its decision to shut down the mill. It was the start of a round-the-clock vigil in support of the 23 workers who lost their jobs without warning. The pressure is now on to stop Boral stripping the log quota from the mill and transporting it elsewhere for milling and force the company to sell or lease the facility as a viable sawmill. All access to all vehicles – in or out – will be blocked and the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union has set up on-site facilities to maintain the blockade 24 hours a day. Walcha mayor Bill Heazlett and Member for Northern Tablelands Richard Torbay want Boral to do the right thing and on sell or lease the mill along with the timber from the 20 year Wood Supply Agreement. “The decision to shut the mill down was in Boral’s interests and that’s not our interests,” Mr Heazlett told the 40 people gathered at the blockade on Thursday morning. “We want this mill opened. We have been a timber community for a long time and we won’t give this up. “Boral will not be taking any of the timber on site at Walcha away for processing elsewhere or stripping other assets from the site. “There are huge implications for regional towns across this state if Boral gets away with its Walcha closure. Well, they won’t be getting away with it on my watch – this community is going to fight to have the mill reopened. The fact that there are locals prepared to sleep out in the middle of winter should say something about our determination.” Mr Torbay said at the rally that on one hand Boral claims the mill is “unviable” but on the other wants to keep the timber. “They (Boral) can’t have it both ways,” Mr Tobay said. “We’ve been talking with Primary Industries Minister Ian McDonald to look at options. “We want this mill re-opened and if Boral don’t want to do it then let someone else do it.” Mr Torbay said Boral Timber received more than $22.5 million of public funding under the Forest Industry Structural Adjustment Program to invest in mills in smaller communities and provide security. http://walcha.yourguide.com.au/news/local/news/general/town-keeps-on-fighting/1243624.aspx

26) Perusing the climate change section of Forestry Tasmania’s web site, you would be forgiven for believing that, thanks to it, the state’s forests are doing a great job sucking carbon from the atmosphere. Thanks to Forestry Tasmania’s management strategies, the carbon is sucked up at a rate of “around 700 thousand tonnes per year … each year, Tasmania’s forests are absorbing 24% of the entire state’s carbon emissions”. However, a trip to the Weld or Florentine Valleys in southern Tasmania, or the Blue Tier on the east coast, where the scarring of massive clear-fell operations is very visible, dispels Forestry Tasmania’s spin that, “Our forest management practices are helping the planet”. Its website emphasises: “Tasmanian forests [are] a massive contributor to the fight against climate change”. Environmentalists would add: “Only if you leave them standing”. Forestry Tasmania makes much of the fact that it is the only industrial sector that absorbs carbon. At an April 23 forum in Hobart, Barry Chipman, from Timber Communities Australia, referred to the 2005 inventory of state emissions from the Australian Greenhouse Office when he claimed that “forestry is the only sector that is climate positive”. But what does this inventory actually show? In 2005, Tasmania’s total emissions from “land use” and “land use change and forestry” (which excludes agriculture) added the equivalent of 2.99 megatonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere. According to the same data, emissions produced by this sector have dropped by 55.7%, compared to 1990 levels. http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/763/39384

27) FOREST products company Gunns is considering selling $170 million of plantations to help pay debt. In a profit update to the market, Gunns said it was considering divesting a tranche of plantation forest as part of a review of its broader capital structure. The offer under consideration would bring in about $170 million. “If the transaction is completed, the funds will be applied to the reduction of debt,” the company said. Gunns now owes more than $1 billion, with gearing about 40%, and will have to raise more money to fund its controversial $2 billion Bell Bay pulp mill. Without lowering debt, further borrowings could increase gearing beyond 70%, making the company more vulnerable to economic downturn. Gunns will give an update on the Bell Bay pulp mill when it releases its full-year results on August 28. Chief executive John Gay said in a statement the 2007-08 net profit would be about $67 million. Earnings before interest and tax, before non-operating items and including revenue from managed investment scheme (MIS) financing, are expected to be about $185 million. Mr Gay said the hardwood operations had performed strongly, but industry conditions in the softwood market were challenging, and interest costs were higher, as were non-operating items. Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) from Gunns’ hardwood operations would be about 30% above the previous year. “This increase is primarily a result of an improving Asian wood-fibre market,” Mr Gay said. “The pricing outlook for the 2009 year remains positive.” Gunns’ woodchip sales for the first half of 2008-09 are expected to be more than 2 million tonnes, a rise of more than 15% on the previous half-year. EBIT for the Auspine business is expected to be about $28 million. Trading conditions in the June quarter were weak due to slowing domestic construction activity and strong import competition. http://business.theage.com.au/business/gunns-to-pull-trigger-on-assets-20080815-3weo.html

28) The Australian government has announced $2.3 million to help deforestation programs in the Asia-Pacific region. Federal Forestry Minister Tony Burke met with Papua New Guinea ministers in Port Moresby on Tuesday to discuss climate change issues linked to deforestation. “None of this policy is easy,” Burke told reporters.”But in terms of discussions today there is no doubt there are significant moves where our governments are moving in a similar direction,” he said.”I don’t deny we have a long path to walk but I am also very confident we are walking that path together.”Burke heads to Indonesia on Wednesday for similar meetings with counterparts on Thursday. A study earlier this year revealed more than half of PNG’s tropical rainforest, said to be the world’s third largest, could be lost or badly damaged by 2021 because of “wasteful” logging and population growth. In March Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and PNG Prime Minister Michael Somare signed a PNG-Australia forest carbon partnership. One month later Climate Change Minister Penny Wong announced $3 million in funding to help PNG reduce greenhouse emissions from deforestation. http://news.smh.com.au/world/australian-funding-to-stop-deforestation-20080819-3y2g.html

29) Ms Seed returned home to the Northern Rivers on Tuesday to talk about SeedQuest NSW, an international partnership for plant conservation between the NSW Seedbank at the Mount Annan Botanic Gardens and the Millennium Seed Bank Project of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England. The project is aiming to collect samples of 10 per cent of the world’s dryland flora, around 24,000 species. Rainforest plants present particular problems with many of the fleshy fruits not able to tolerate conventional methods of drying and storage. “The seeds are moist and can crack,” Ms Seed said. President of the Friends of the Lismore Rainforest Botanic Gardens Jan de Nardi said the group was researching the plants that used to grow where the Ripple-leaf Muttonwood grew in the wild so they could recreate the natural environment. “There are only three known wild populations of this plant and it hadn’t been found for years,” Ms de Nardi said. “That’s one of the reasons it’s so important to preserve these threatened species, in case we lose the wild populations.” http://www.echonews.com/index.php?page=News%20Article&article=22838&issue=356