Wild elephant incursions into human settlements in Aceh will continue
if nothing is done to stop illegal logging in forest areas, Antara
news agency reported quoting a local nature conservation official as
saying. “The problem will persist unless illegal logging is stopped,”
Andi Basrul, head of the Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam Natural Resources
Conservation Agency (BKSDA), said here Saturday.
During December 2008,
wild elephants had invaded a number of villages in Aceh, damaged a few
houses and injured several people. Basrul said his agency could not do
much to stop the animals’ incursions because they were merely reacting
to the damage being done to their habitat. Villagers were known to
have tried to fight the elephants by poisoning them but Basrul said
the villagers’ actions would not be effective and only cause the
elephant population to shrink.
The root cause of the present conflict
between elephants and humans was the damage done to the enimals’
habitats by illegal logging, he said. The wild elephant problem
existed in the districts of Aceh Jaya, South Aceh and North Aceh, he
said. The only way to solve the problem, according to Basrul, was the
consistent implementation of the Aceh provincial government’s
moratorium on forest logging.
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=381411
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Jackson Advisory Group (JAG) has now reviewed four near-term harvest
plans proposed for Jackson State Forest. Two of these, Brandon Gulch
and Camp 3, were the subject of prolonged legal action that ended in a
negotiated agreement among involved parties. Both will be harvested in
a manner that moves them toward old-growth characteristics. The other
two plans, one on the west side and one on east side are for harvest
areas designated in the Jackson Forest management plan approved in
January 2008. The allowed harvest methods (silvicultural parameters)
were constrained near the end of the management planning process by
the incorporation in the plan of “initial period harvest guidelines.”
These included restrictions on the allowed silvicultural methods and
direction to avoid harvests in older unentered second growth stands,
stands near to parks or old-growth reserves, and more generally stands
with an abundance of larger trees. The initial period constraints were
part of a consensus agreement for resuming operation in Jackson Forest
after the near decade-long halt in logging. During the initial period
of up to 3 years, the JAG is to develop a long-term landscape plan for
the forest. The constraints were designed to minimize the impact of
any logging operations on the long-term options for the affected
stands. In simple words, logging in the interim should not seriously
impact the possibility that the stand might be designated for
old-growth development or for enhanced recreation opportunity. A
problem with the harvest plans proposed in the management plan has now
become apparent, a problem that has been exacerbated by the housing
collapse and general economic downturn. Many of the harvest plans were
developed long before the form of the present management plan took its
final shape. Indeed, a number of these plans were initially developed
in the 1990’s under the 1984 management plan that was declared invalid
by the courts. The priorities and goals for forest management in the
new plan differ greatly from those of the 1984 plan (which primarily
addressed managing the forest for maximum timber yield, with no
attention to endangered species and ecological diversity and little
attention to recreation). The proposed plans included substantial
even-age management (clearcuts and variations) and group selection
(small clearcuts). Both of these are prohibited by the interim period
guidelines. Essentially, the plans are limited to single-tree
selection. Further, no more than 30% of the trees can be removed, and
the average size of the trees cannot be decreased. Further, some of
the plans with the highest potential harvest profitability were
excluded by the guidelines.
http://jacksonforum.org/blog/2009/01/02/harvest-plans-need-reconsideration/
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A month ago I took a walk in Arcata forest. It’d been 8 years since I
argued that their management plan was degrading the landscape. I never
cease to be amazed how people act like any management that doesn’t
clear-cut is good management. But truth is you can destroy a forest’s
ability to grow not by cutting every tree but by destroying it’s
soils. And the soil compaction rates that I’ve seen in this forest are
off the charts. I wholeheartedly supporteded black sheep Humboldt
State Forestry Professor Rudy Becking 8 years ago when he argued that
Arcata community forest suffered too much soil compaction due to
campers / recreation. Projected tree growth rates after the first
thinnings failed to meet projections because of this and it’s total insanity to
claim further thinnings of the forest will increase tree growth
rates.
So after 8 years of over thinning their “community” forest
there are huge areas of bare dead soil that nothing grows on. Of
course thru the eyes of the unlearned it’s an ideal way to
treat the land? Or is it? –Deane
———-
———-
The Arcata Community Forest is being held up as a model to guide the
formation of similar efforts in other parts of the nation. The forest,
along with others in Swan Valley, Mont. and Randolph, N.H., is
featured in a manual meant to help communities begin or complete
projects to create publicly owned forests. The manual, “Acquiring and
Managing a Community-owned Forest: A Manual for Communities,” is a
publication of the nonprofit Communities Committee, which came out of
the Seventh American Forest Congress in 1996.
Such an effort requires
developing a community vision and mission for the forest, a commitment
to sharing costs and benefits, and the creation of a structure to
govern long-term management of the forest, according to a city of
Arcata press release. The manual includes step-by-step advice on
getting started, including issues related to the broader community,
financing acquisition and long-term management, stated the release.
“There is a tremendous interest around the country in establishing and
utilizing community forests in strategies for regional conservation
and community and economic development,” said Arcata Director of
Environmental Services Mark Andre. “We are please to be featured in
the manual.” http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_11361614
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Lane County is the biggest timber producing county in the country!
Trees grow well there! And now that extraction exploitation is
shifting to sequestration exploitation… Can zero-cut on public lands be
far behind? All the available science says unlogged, unthinned forest
sequesters more carbon than “manged” forests. So what’s the debate?
–Deane
———-
———-
Public forest lands in Lane County and across Oregon have long been
measured in terms of their value to lumber, recreation and natural
habitat. Now the county board is considering a new role for them:
Battling global warming. The commissioners are considering the
monetary value of public forests for carbon sequestration, which is
the absorption of “greenhouse gases” such as carbon dioxide that cause
climate change.
The county wants to be positioned to benefit if the
federal government — even years from now — starts paying communities
that take harmful gases out of the air, a county official said this
week. The county is working with state representatives on a statement
asking Congress to share any future revenue from carbon sequestration
on federal forest lands in the counties, just as revenue from timber
sales is shared today, said Alex Cuyler, the county’s
intergovernmental relations manager.
Under the “cap-and-trade” model,
the nation’s carbon emissions could be capped at a certain level and
entities that produce less greenhouse gases could sell credits to
those that produce more. During a report to the county board last
fall, County Administrator Jeff Spartz said Lane County’s public
forest land could bring $48 million annually, depending on the value
that the federal government could set per ton for carbon reduction.
The county’s operating budget, by comparison, is about $65 million.
But some question whether policy-makers can make carbon sequestration
work on the ground. Mary Wood, an environmental law professor at the
University of Oregon, said scientists continue to debate whether the
human race has already put in play irreversible, climate-related
natural disasters that will eventually overwhelm the planet. But those
scientists who argue society can reverse the catastrophic trend do so
with the assumption that governments will protect the forests and
soils that store carbon, she added. “The scientists are banking on
local and state governments protecting these lands, and government
officials need to know that and do it,” Wood said.
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/news/5167190-35/story.csp
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Travel is all about unique experiences, and this was certainly one of
them. And Madagascar is full of them: Exploding palm trees that
violently flower once at age 50 and then die. Ketchup-red Tomato
frogs. Giraffe-necked beetles. Psychedelic-colored chameleons whose
slow cha-cha motion is at odds with the lighting speed with which
their long, sticky tongues grab bugs.
Madagascar has a roll call of
unique inhabitants: It is home to 5 percent of the world’s plant and
animal species, 80 percent of which are endemic to this island off the
southeastern coast of AfricaAt the same time, it is also one of the
most threatened ecosystems on the planet. Deforestation has dwindled
once-lush forests to less than 16 percent of the land area. It has
been terraced, clear-cut, farmed and slashed-and-burned to feed the
inhabitants of one of the world’s poorest countries. Each year as much
as a third of the country burns and 1 percent of its remaining forests
are leveled. Madagascar is eroding horrifically, its rivers bleeding
great muddy red swirls out to sea. The few patches of remaining
forest, islands of vegetation, are zealously guarded within national
parks such as Reserve of Indri d’Analamazaotra, better known as
Perinet, where we saw the Indri lemurs. These days, Madagascar falls
into the see-it-while-you-still-can category. The fourth-largest
island in the world, Madagascar is home to 20 million Malagasy whose
bloodlines are a unique mélange of Indonesians, Arab traders, South
Asians, East Africans and European pirates. Here you can experience
duck with truffle gravy and braised witloof at a first-class French
restaurant or watch a “turning of the bones” ritual where the remains
of ancestors are removed from their family tombs, danced and partied
with for a week, then placed back in their resting place in a clean
shroud. Madagascar is one seriously weird country.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/02/TR6F13UP1M.DTL
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January 3rd, 2009 in
Madagascaar | tags:
Eco-tourism |
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“You don’t have to go too far to find trees just snapped off. A lot of
other trees lost major branches high up and they’re damaged,” said
Robert Childs, an entomologist at the University of Massachusetts
Amherst. “Anytime a tree is broken like that, it just opens the tree
to these invaders - fungi, beetles - that contribute to the demise of
the trees.”
The storm was yet another blow to the trees of Worcester
and several surrounding towns, which have been under quarantine since
the destructive Asian longhorned beetle was discovered in the area
this summer. To stop the beetle from spreading, no wood may be
transported out of a 63-square-mile area, and fallen branches are
taken to a central facility to be turned into wood chips or to be
burned. Several forestry officials said that while the impact on
man-made infrastructure was huge, with some communities losing power
for nearly two weeks, the storm’s impact on forests paled in
comparison to the storm that struck New England a decade ago. That
storm hit farther north and coated 25 million acres of forest with
ice, mowing down large swaths of trees. That storm provided a
laboratory to better understand the impacts of devastating storms -
and showed that overall, forests recover, said Charles Levesque,
executive director of the North East State Foresters Association. “The
long-term damage as a result of the ‘98 storm was not nearly what
people had predicted,” Levesque said. “The damage was terrible - and
those forests are still there.”
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/12/30/forests_also_fell_victim_to_ice_storm/
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U.S. Forest Service agreements that would make it far easier for
mountain forests to be converted to housing subdivisions. Mark E. Rey,
the former timber lobbyist who heads the Forest Service, last week
signaled his intent to formalize the controversial change before the
Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama. As a candidate,
Obama campaigned against the measure in Montana, where local
governments complained of being blindsided by Rey’s negotiating the
policy shift behind closed doors with the nation’s largest private
landowner. The shift is technical but with large implications.
It
would allow Plum Creek Timber to pave roads passing through Forest
Service land. For decades, such roads were little more than trails
used by logging trucks to reach timber stands. But as Plum Creek has
moved into the real estate business, paving those roads became a
necessary prelude to opening vast tracts of the company’s 8 million
acres to the vacation homes that are transforming landscapes across
the West. Scenic western Montana, where Plum Creek owns 1.2 million
acres, would be most affected, placing fresh burdens on county
governments to provide services, and undoing efforts to cluster
housing near towns. “Just within the last couple weeks, they finalized
a big subdivision west of Kalispell,” said D. James McCubbin, deputy
county attorney of Missoula County, which complained that the
closed-door negotiations violated federal laws requiring public
comment because the changes would affect endangered species and
sensitive ecosystems. Kalispell is in Flathead County, where officials
also protested. The uproar last summer forced Rey to postpone
finalizing the change, which came after “considerable internal
disagreement” within the Forest Service, according to a U.S.
Government Accountability Office report requested by Sen. Jon Tester
(D-Mont.). The report said that 900 miles of logging roads could be
paved in Montana and that amending the long-held easements “could have
a nationwide impact.” Tester and Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), who
chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, then asked for an
inquiry by the inspector general of the Agriculture Department, which
includes the Forest Service. “I think we need another set of eyes on
it,” Tester said Friday. “I don’t think that’s running out the clock.
If this is a good agreement, then what’s the rush? Why do it in the
eleventh hour of this administration?”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/03/AR2009010300720.html
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Here’s a video of the action: http://video.aol.com/video-detail/protestors-block-access-to-maury-island-mine/567764201
Here’s an article & photo about it:
Dozens of people turned out Friday to protest a gravel mine expansion
on Maury Island, blocking access roads in the latest chapter of an
ongoing environmental fight. The Seattle Times reported that about 50
people gathered at the construction site of a loading dock, delaying
work on the site by hours.
The King County Sheriff’s Office said no
arrests were made. Workers were able to walk through the barricade.
The mine has been a contentious issue for a decade. In December,
outgoing state Public Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland signed a
lease, granted to a subsidiary of Glacier Northwest, that allows it to
build a barge-loading pier on state aquatic lands in the Maury Island
Aquatic Reserve. Protesters say the mine expansion will damage
critical shoreline habitat and threaten chinook salmon and killer
whales in Puget Sound.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/northwest/story/583635.html
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It’s Living on Earth, I’m Steve Curwood. Tropical forests cover about
seven percent of the Earth, but the widespread cutting and burning of
these forests causes some twenty percent of all global warming gas
emissions worldwide. So experts in deforestation, rural development,
and climate are all working together to make sure that the next
international treaty on climate includes measures to slow the
destruction and degradation of forests. Living on Earth’s Ingrid Lobet
takes a look now at the driving forces of tropical deforestation.
LOBET: Even some veteran environmentalists have been startled to
realize how much the cutting and burning of tropical forests is
responsible for global warming. MAATHAI: For me, that was amazing.
LOBET: That’s Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai. The tree-planting
movement founder spoke at recent climate change talks in Poznan,
Poland. MAATHAI: Because quite often, we in the developing world, we
say we are not contributing much to greenhouse gases. But obviously if
you take into account deforestation, land degradation, the fact that
the majority of people use wood for lighting or cooking, then
obviously they are releasing a lot of greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere, far more than I’m sure people are aware of. LOBET: In
Africa, Maathai says, it’s often villagers who cut the forest to plant
crops. MAATHAI: And because communities do not have an understanding
of how to use the land sustainably, prevent soil erosion, when you fly
over Africa, you see a lot of that slash and burn, especially within
the Congo Basin forest.
http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00001&segmentID=3
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In 2006, the climate on the fast-developing islands of Borneo and
Sumatra and in New Guinea and other parts of equatorial Asia was three
times drier than in 2000, but carbon emissions from deforestation were
30 times greater - exceeding emissions from fossil fuel burning. “Land
managers respond to the drought by using fire to clear more land. In
dry years, they burn deeper into the forest, which in turn releases
more carbon dioxide,” said James Randerson, climate scientist at UCI
and co-author of the study, published online the week of Dec. 8 in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The findings,
Randerson says, illustrate why limits on deforestation should be a
critical part of future climate agreements. Global warming modelers
typically consider climate and land use separately when assessing how
changes will affect greenhouse gas emissions. The results also
indicate that forecasting drought may be important when countries in
this region allocate resources to combat illegally set fires and
clearing. “The link between drought and deforestation is very
sensitive,” Randerson said. “If the climate warms and there are more
droughts, it potentially makes the forest and its stored carbon more
vulnerable.” Equatorial Asia is a hot spot for biodiversity but is
undergoing widespread changes. Its global markets are growing, as is
large-scale agricultural business. Forests and peatlands in the region
store tremendous amounts of carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere
where it can turn into carbon dioxide and create warming. The climate
in equatorial Asia changes substantially from year to year and is
linked with El Nino. Dry years occurred in 2002 and 2006; wet years in
2000 and 2005. In a dry climate, fires are easier to set and burn more
deeply into organic soil. “When there is a lot of rainfall, fires
don’t burn as well, and it is more challenging to remove debris from
areas that are being converted to agriculture,” said Randerson,
associate professor of Earth system science.
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Global_Warming_Aided_By_Drought_Deforestation_Link_999.html
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Peter Goldmark said he will maintain timber harvest levels in Western
Washington, despite his campaign being backed by some of the state’s
most influential conservationists. In his own Cessna plane, Goldmark
took footage of the same damage. He used it in counter-ads claiming
Sutherland allowed too much clear-cut logging on steep and unstable
slopes, thus contributing to the mud, the wood piles and the misery
faced by rural Lewis County. “We have to enforce existing rules …
and make sure the public health and safety is an important part of
forest applications,” Goldmark said.
He says that can be done while
maintaining the economy of timber counties and trust land harvests
that provide local funding for schools and roads. Other TV spots
showed Goldmark, a scientist and rancher, on his Okanogan property
talking about himself as an advocate for rural areas. “I intend to be
a commissioner for the entire state and understand the needs of the
entire state,” Goldmark said. Local Republicans aren’t so sure. During
a recent flood anniversary press conference in Chehalis, state Rep.
Richard DeBolt, the House minority leader, did not mince words when
asked about Goldmark’s upcoming leadership. “So far all we’ve seen
from him is politicizing our flood event,” DeBolt said. “And we don’t
appreciate that.” Sutherland characterized Goldmark’s strategy on the
mudslide issue as a cheap shot. “He spent a ton of money on TV
advertising with that same ad that had a picture of the clear-cut and
blamed it all on me,” said Sutherland, a career politician who has
been the mayor of Tacoma and a Pierce County commissioner. “It was the
most negative campaign I’ve ever experienced.” Since the flood, the
official report from DNR is the forest practices rules were adequately
followed during clear-cut application approvals, although there might
have been some discrepancies on filing paperwork, most notably on a
slide into Stillman Creek that became the most profound public image
of the damage after it was captured in vivid detail by a Seattle Times
photographer. http://www.chronline.com/story.php?subaction=showfull&id=1230920505&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1
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January 3rd, 2009 in
Washington | tags:
state lands |
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Public rights to the forests of evergreens and hardwoods was
guaranteed when the state bought 20,000 acres from the Nature
Conservancy in early November, following on Christmas Eve with
conservation easements on 84,000 adjacent acres from the Lyme Timber
Co. The deals permanently secured longtime hiking trails up Lyon
Mountain and Owls Head 15 miles away, while opening up almost half the
combined tract and providing some limited access to the rest.
“That
area is sort of a gateway to the park for visitors coming from cities
like Montreal, Plattsburgh and Burlington,” said Connie Prickett,
spokeswoman for the Adirondack Chapter of the Nature Conservancy,
which negotiated the complex deal four years ago. Public access to the
northeastern corner of the 6-million acre Adirondack Park, about 140
miles north of Albany, had been limited. The project conserved habitat
for wide-ranging animals like moose, black bear and fisher, as well as
220 miles of permanent and seasonal streams, some with native brook
trout, and 20 lakes and ponds with 16 miles of undeveloped shoreline,
according to the nonprofit conservancy.
It also permitted Lyme, of
Hanover, N.H., to keep logging its share according to certified
conservation standards. Of the 104,000 total acres, almost half are
now open to the public for recreation like hiking, cross-country
skiing, hunting, fishing and, at designated sites camping. The rest
remain leased to hunting clubs, generally off-limits to others except
for designated logging roads and trails. The state paid $10.8 million
for the easements on 84,000 acres, and almost $10 million to own the
20,000 acres, most of that added to New York’s Forest Preserve. They
include 3,830-foot Lyon Mountain and a mile of shoreline on nearby
Chazy Lake.
From the mountain’s old fire tower, you can see Lake
Champlain and Vermont’s Green Mountains to the east, the Adirondack
High Peaks to the south, and on a good day the city of Montreal to the
north. This summer, an Adirondack Mountain Club crew cut a new
3.5-mile trail to the summit with more switchbacks, taking hikers off
the old direct trail that was eroded to bedrock in spots. “The trail
is primarily used by hikers in the summer, with some mountain biking
as well,” said Wes Lampman, the club’s director of field programs. He
said in winter it’s used frequently by backcountry skiers. The
easement provides access to land that was off-limits to the public for
decades, including Sugarloaf Mountain, the Norton and Plumadore
ranges, and Barnes, Grass, Figure Eight, and Fish Hole ponds,
according to the conservancy.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny–adirondackland0102jan02,0,5346513.story
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ISTANBUL - Pine trees in the forests of Istanbul’s Ayazaga are being
felled by the state to facilitate mining in the area. The desruction
of the forests is clearly visible from aerial photographs taken over
time. The Provincial Forestry Directorate said the felling of trees
was permitted by law. Forests in Ayaza?a, considered the “lungs of
Istanbul,” are slowly being destroyed for the sake of mining. Many
mining companies are operating in the area to mine stone and dolomite
for construction. The mining companies obtain permission from the
Energy Ministry and also from the Environment Ministry if the mining
site is located in a forested area.
Officials from Istanbul’s Forestry
Directorate said if permission was granted from the Energy Ministry,
they were legally bound to grant approval, too. “There is nothing
illegal here. If the mining company has permission, we carry out the
felling in the designated area,” an official said. The pine trees, a
few hundred meters from Ayaza?a Cemetery, are being cut by teams from
the provincial Forestry Directorate within the scope of the granted
permissions. On one side of the field there are machines digging mines
and on the other are hundreds of cut logs. The smaller logs are
stacked on both sides of the road awaiting transportation. While
officials from the provincial Forestry Directorate did not specify the
exact number of trees being cut down, they indicated the wood was to
be sold through a bidding process and used in the manufacture of
products, such as furniture or floors. An official from the
directorate, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the companies that
operated in the area were Akda?lar Madencilik, ?slamo?lu Madencilik
and Kab?zo?lu Madencilik. Eyüp Akda?, the board chairman for Akda?lar
Madencilik, is also the deputy president of corporate relations for
the Independent Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association, or
MÜS?AD. Akda? is also the winner of the “entrepreneur of the year”
award by Ekovitrin Magazine. The Web site of Akda?lar Madencilik also
includes claims on how the firm cares about protecting the
environment. http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/domestic/10683055.asp?scr=1
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The American Three-toed Woodpecker - Picoides dorsalis are widely
considered barometers of the health of old-growth conifer forests in
North America, due largely to the species’ apparent dependence on
mature and old-growth conifer forests. However, because of their low
abundance, habitat choice and generally quiet behavior, it is seen
only infrequently and has received little attention from researchers.
In Québec’s black spruce-diminated forests, habitat loss due to timber
harvesting may often be permanent as Three-toed Woodpeckers are
restricted to forests older than scheduled cutting rotations. In
Finland, Three-toed Woodpecker density was significantly correlated
with the proportion of forest in nature reserves. Areas with more than
100 yr old, large old-growth tracts, the species had not declined, but
in smaller old-growth forests, isolated as a result of logging, the
species had declined or disappeared. Forestry practices such as fire
suppression, salvage logging (the removal of burned trees) and
suppression logging (the cutting of insect infested trees), remove
trees on which this species depends. Additionally, the alteration of
natural fire intensity, or the replacement of ‘cool’ understory fires
to intense stands, contributes to the decline. Historically, forested
areas in the northern Rocky Mountains experienced large, intense fires
every fifty to one hundred years. No more. Three-toed Woodpeckers seem
very tolerant of humans, so disturbance by people is an unlikely
factor to declining populations of this bird.
http://ruralchatter.blogspot.com/2009/01/woodpecker-series-part-iii.html
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January 2nd, 2009 in
Canada | tags:
Industry science |
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A year-end report from the Indonesia Central Securities Depository
(KSEI) reveals that foreign investors accounted for the largest
portion of investment in the Indonesian stock market last year, with a
67 percent share up from 66 percent in 2007. The figures show that
foreign investors have confidence in the Indonesian market as
liquidity problems in their home countries have forced them to invest
in emerging markets, KSEI president director Ananta Wiyogo said
recently.
“Maybe they sold their assets in other countries, but not
in Indonesia. We are still attractive to them,” he said. The
Indonesian stock market, whose main index and capitalization fell last
year by 49.3 percent and 45.9 percent respectively, will see the
return of investment this year on fairly low share prices and
still-attractive yields, analysts say. Foreign investors have been
able to make 15 to 20 percent in yield from investments in the stock
market, and will continue to look at Indonesia and other emerging
countries as they earn less from investments in developed countries.
Foreign investors had left the market during the October collapse, but
had now started to return and this trend is likely to continue this
year, analysts say. While still dominating the capital market
portfolio, asset value held by foreign investors declined by 45.7
percent to Rp 646 trillion (US$60.07 billion) by the end of last year,
from Rp 1,191 trillion in 2007, as impacts of the global financial
downturn impacted stock value. Local investors accounted for 33
percent of the market in 2008 with stock assets worth Rp 210.2
trillion, down from Rp 400.9 trillion in 2007. According to unofficial
reports, less than 1.5 million Indonesians have investments in the
Indonesian stock market. The Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) has
targeted to attract 2 million local investors last year and again this
year. Indonesia’s largest institutional investor in the local stock
market is the PT Jamsostek state pension company.
http://watimas.blogspot.com/2009/01/foreign-investors-dominate-indonesia.html
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The country’s 1.2 million square miles of trees have been dubbed the
“lungs of the planet” by ecologists because they account for more than
7 percent of Earth’s total forest lands. They could always be depended
upon to suck in vast quantities of carbon dioxide, naturally cleansing
the world of much of the harmful heat-trapping gas. But not anymore!
In an alarming yet little-noticed series of recent studies, scientists
have concluded that Canada’s precious forests, stressed from damage
caused by global warming, insect infestations and persistent fires,
have crossed an ominous line and are now pumping out more
climate-changing carbon dioxide than they are sequestering. Worse yet,
the experts predict that Canada’s forests will remain net carbon
sources, as opposed to carbon storage “sinks,” until at least 2022,
and possibly much longer.
“We are seeing a significant distortion of
the natural trend,” said Werner Kurz, senior research scientist at the
Canadian Forest Service and the leading expert on carbon cycles in the
nation’s forests. “Since 1999, and especially in the last five years,
the forests have shifted from being a carbon sink to a carbon source.”
Translation: Earth’s lungs have come down with emphysema. Canada’s
forests are no longer our friends. So serious is the problem that
Canada’s federal government effectively wrote off the nation’s forests
in 2007 as officials submitted their plans to abide by the
international Kyoto Protocol, which obligates participating
governments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Under the Kyoto
agreement, governments are permitted to count forest lands as credits,
or offsets, when calculating their national carbon emissions. But
Canadian officials, aware of the scientific studies showing that their
forests actually are emitting excess carbon, quietly omitted the
forest lands from their Kyoto compliance calculations.
Environmentalists contend that the extreme stresses on Canada’s
forests, particularly the old-growth northern forest, mean that
logging ought to be sharply curtailed to preserve the remaining
trees—and the carbon stored within them—for as long as possible.
http://www.courant.com/chi-canada-trees_wittjan02,0,1942058.story
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Constant rain clatters against the burned-out shell of a recently
vandalised car, tiny tents flap violently in the biting wind and a
piercing early morning whistle signals the daily visit of the local
police force. Valerie Thompson, 36, has just descended from a tree-top
canopy hanging precariously 50m in the air. She’s been suspended above
the Upper Florentine Valley forests in southern Tasmania for 12 hours
straight and is happy to report to the sergeant that the night was
violence-free.
Moments after the policeman leaves she’s greeted by a
“f..king greenie ferals” from a car-load of men driving past on the
main road. She responds with a laugh, places a kettle on an open fire
and embraces her two-year-old daughter, Hope. This is the front line
of a battle for a remote piece of wilderness surrounded on three sides
by World Heritage areas and containing eucalypt trees that stand up to
80m high For the past two years, environmental activists have held an
around-the-clock vigil at the entrance of an estimated 10km of planned
logging roads that will be used to open up a series of new coupes. The
activists, from grassroots environment group Still Wild Still
Threatened, expect police to try evicting them forcibly from “Camp
Florentine” to allow logging machinery through. In preparation they
keep watch at the front of their camp, as well as rotating people
through the tree canopies and taking turns locking themselves on to
cars buried in the ground.
It’s a 24-hour display of resistance, a
co-ordinated operation to prevent any demolition work being started
under the cover of dark. “If we’re not here these ancient eucalypt
forests will be exploited predominantly for woodchips and it will
destroy the World Heritage values of the area,” says Thompson. “There
are a lot more people starting to realise that this is not forestry,
but just land degradation that is costing potential tourism jobs and
releasing tonnes of stored carbon dioxide into the air at a time when
we need to be tackling climate change.” It is believed the state
government-owned corporation Forestry Tasmania will ask police to
remove the protesters within the next six months so it can access an
estimated 200ha of the Florentine forest that contains important
sources of Tasmania’s special species timbers, such as myrtle and
sassafras. However, it is not Camp Florentine itself that is causing
angst inside the logging industry. Random direct actions by the
activists inside nearby active logging coupes are frustrating forestry
contractors to the point where confrontations are turning ugly. In
October, a video was posted on the internet allegedly showing forestry
contractors using sledgehammers to smash the windows of a car that had
been buried into the road to prevent logging machinery getting past.
Two protesters were locked in the car at the time of the attack and
one was allegedly dragged out and kicked in the head. It is the first
time such violence has been caught on video in the region and it made
headlines across the country. Three forestry workers were later
charged with assault, and four protesters with trespass. Police are
investigating another serious incident that occurred two days later
when a group of men arrived at Camp Florentine and allegedly
firebombed two of the activists’ cars and an information booth.
Tempers flared again on December 16 when Still Wild Still Threatened
activists brought Gunns’ woodchip mill at Triabunna to a standstill in
protest at what they labeled the federal Government’s weak response on
carbon reduction targets. The protest, in which activists chained
themselves to a conveyer belt and other machinery, left more than 30
fully laden log trucks and their drivers stranded for seven hours,
with an estimated cost to the industry of $300,000-$500,000.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24865691-30417,00.html
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Legal experts say the 2008 Law on Non-Tax Sate Revenue and previous
legal instruments originate from the utilization of forest areas for
development purposes other than forestry.
Tracing back, the substance
of such policies was established during the New Order period under
then president Soeharto. It is still fresh in our minds that Soeharto
was so powerful that all ministers, legislators and high-ranking
officials had no courage to oppose any policies or decisions he made
– including those associated with forestry. All they could do was
just say “yes” without being aware that the policy or legal instrument
they unanimously agreed on without reservation would later cause
ecological disasters, such as landslides and floods.
Take the 1970 Law
on Forest Concessions and the Forest Product Levy for example. This
legal instrument, issued to underpin the implementation of the
capital-oriented development policy, paved the way for the over
exploitation of forests in Indonesia. Under the regulatory framework,
forest concessions were issued only to relatives and those close to
Soeharto. The granting of forest concessions by Soeharto was not based
on transparency, but through what is known as corruption, collusion
and nepotism (now referred to as KKN). The Soeharto legacy of legal
instruments on forests and forestry apparently remains deeply
ingrained in most authorities, government officials and lawmakers, and
has been reflected in the poor law enforcement regarding environmental
violations. Indonesia should learn from the erroneous policies or
legal instruments that former President Soeharto issued and should not
repeat the oversight, especially in regard to forestry. An
uncontrollable exploitation of forests even under the pretext of
development or poverty alleviation can not be tolerated.
http://old.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20090102.F04&irec=3
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The people hiding in forests are mainly from the Gadaguda and
Sirsapanga areas. They fled from their homes after riots erupted in
the region following the murder of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader
Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four of his aides at his ashram on
Aug 23. “The tribals had recently visited their villages but fled to
the forest again. We are trying to reach them,” Kumar said.
At least
38 people were killed and thousands others were forced to flee their
homes in Kandhamal district, about 200 km from here, after they were
attacked by rampaging Hindu mobs who accused Christians of having
killed Saraswati. District authorities said there has been no violence
since October and the situation is normal. But about 8,000 Christians
are still living in six government-run relief camps and do not want to
go back home for fear of being attacked.
“Besides those living in
relief camps in the district, around 15,000 Christians are living
outside Kandhamal and are scared of returning home because many of the
rioters are still at large and the police are not arresting them,”
said Sajan K. George, president of the Global Council of Indian
Christians. Leaders of some Hindu groups say as many as 12,000 members
of the community are hiding in forests for fear of the police since
about 100,000 of Kandhamal’s nearly 600,000 residents have been
charged with rioting.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/hundreds-still-hiding-in-forests-of-violence-scarred-kandhamal_100137500.html
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January 2nd, 2009 in
India | tags:
Forest refugees |
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Fifteen urban forest reserves are to be degazzeted to cater for the
growing population and development in some towns countrywide. “It is
difficult to sustain some of the urban forests because of the pressure
from politicians and socio-economic activities,” said Hudson Andrua,
the director of natural forests at the National Forestry Authority
(NFA). “The good thing is that the law spells out conditions for
declaring a protected area and how to degazette it,” he added.
According to Andrua, the local authorities were required to provide
alternative land in exchange for the urban forests that are to be
degazetted. He also said the urban authorities must undertake an
Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) on the forests. In a recent
statement, the Ministry of Water and Environment named the forest
reserves as Arua, Kitubulu in Entebbe, Fort Portal, Gulu, Kabale,
Lira, Mbale, Mbarara and Soroti. Others are Lutoboka in Kalangala,
Kapchorwa, Kitgum, Nebbi, Ntungamo and Rukungiri districts.
The
ministry gave the local authorities three months within which to
provide the land and also undertake an EIA by mid February, according
to Andrua. Environmentalists and the Entebbe area MP, Muhamed Kawuma,
have protested the move to degazette Kitubulu. “The intention of the
people behind the degazettement is to get money by selling the land to
the big shots,” said Kawuma. In a separate interview, Douglas Lugumya,
the chairperson of Entebbe District Wildlife Association said Kitubulu
and Kyewaga were part of the ecological system of Lake Victoria.
“Without Kitubulu, the rain water will sweep all the soil into the
lake,” said Lugumya. A recent study by Makerere University scientists,
Dr. Eric Sande, Dr. Isabirye Basuta, Dr. Deborah Baranga and Dr.
Robert Kityo showed that Kitubulu was a habitat for rare bird species.
The report said the forest houses four primates including the black
and white Columbus monkeys, once common around the lakeshores but are
fast disappearing. Baguma Isoke, the chairperson of the board of
trustees at NFA, said the forest has been allocated to concessionaires
in eco-tourism for 25 years. “It is one unique forest that should be
protected at all costs,” said Isoke.
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/666665
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Acting on a legislative directive, the Clackamas County Commission
began the work of changing the names of “Squaw” mountain, meadows,
lakes and creek to “Tumala” in 2007, and the Oregon Geographic Names
Board completed the work in early 2008. Tumala is a Chinook word
meaning tomorrow, or afterlife, and is as good a name as you might
wish for in this lovely mountain blend of craggy peaks, big trees and
sunny meadows. But the work here has only begun. Tumala Mountain and
the surrounding country are rich with Native American and early
pioneer history, yet little has been done to simply preserve the
legacy, much less celebrate it. Native Americans hunted and foraged
along the high ridges of Tumala Mountain area for centuries, and
likely set fires to keep the huckleberry slopes productive.
In the
autumn of 1855, a 22-year old U.S. Army lieutenant named Henry Abbot
and his 18-year old Indian guide, Sam-ax-shat, led a survey party
across the Cascades. They followed the high divide between the Salmon
and Roaring rivers, and passed through the Tumala Lakes basin, a
protected refuge with water and grazing along the high ridge top.
Abbot’s journey lent his name to the early Forest Service road that
would later be built along this route, in the 1920s. A string of fire
lookouts, guard stations and a network of trails soon followed in this
corridor. The lookout on Tumala Mountain was rebuilt at least twice,
before it was finally removed in the 1960s, when the Forest Service
burned hundreds of old lookout structures that were no longer in use.
Today, the old road to the Tumala Mountain lookout site still exists,
but serves mainly to deliver motorcycles and OHVs to the fragile
mountain summit. The Abbot Road, itself, has become a sad, dangerous
shooting gallery overrun by OHVs and target hunters. Tumala Meadows
and Lakes are also within reach of the OHVs, despite efforts to keep
them out of this remarkable basin. So the name change is a starting
point, but the work here is unfinished. At Tumala Mountain, the
solution is simple: the area must be managed for activities that build
on the natural and cultural legacy, and help preserve the traces that
still remain. The first step in making this transition is to remove
the shooters and OHVers from the area. Until they are gone, hikers,
picnickers, cyclists and equestrians are unlikely to feel safe
visiting the area, and the area will continue to suffer the abuse that
is so evident today.
http://wyeastblog.wordpress.com/2009/01/02/unfinished-work-at-tumala/
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January 2nd, 2009 in
Oregon | tags:
Mt. Hood,
OHVs |
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Dear Friend of the Forest, The Native Forest Council and The Forest
Voice just turned twenty.
And we are at a crossroads. Together, it’s time to seize the moment.
The new Administration will have the power to either make real change
or in all too many ways ’stay the course’. Industry will steal.
Politicians will lie. The Big Greens will cut deals. Like ‘The Giving
Tree’, Mother Earth sustains us, but she can’t do that if we kill her
off. If you have the courage of your convictions, stand with us.
We’re clear about the source of the problem: It’s the dishonest and
fraudulent practices of some corporations and their government
lackeys. Our new campaign needs you.
It will be exciting,
transparent, and interactive. We need your participation and your
support, financial and otherwise, to make it happen. The campaign
involves: 1) Increasing the distribution and content of our Forest
Voice. 2) Stopping America’s third world colony behavior of
exporting unfinished chips, logs and pulp along with American milling
jobs. 3) Demanding that the big timber barons pay their fair share
of the taxes and stop strip mining our states of their natural
capital. 4) Educating opinion leaders, citizens and media as to the
simple truth of what’s at stake and to keep our new Administration on
task, honest and accountable. — Remember: We all need the lungs of
the planet, our trees, clean air and clean water. You wouldn’t
willingly give your children polluted air and contaminated water. But
- failing to stop the destroyers of nature will leave a dead Earth to
our future generations. Our campaign has just begun. Help all you
can. Contact us with your ideas and suggestions. Be the Difference
Please send checks to Native Forest Council, PO Box 2190, Eugene,
Oregon 97402 Call (541) 688-2600 to make a credit card donation Or, to
donate securely online, go to http://www.forestcouncil.org/join
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January 2nd, 2009 in
Oregon |
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