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News and Views

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WWF Newsroom, April 22, 2002

http://www.panda.org/forests4life/news/cbd.cfm

The Hague, Netherlands - As the Sixth Conference of the Parties (COP) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) ended last week, WWF, the conservation organisation, commented that Governments have failed to commit to an international programme of work on forests which is urgently needed to combat the threats facing the world's forests.

The challenge of the CBD, a UN forum, was to address the current rate of forest loss around the world by developing a new programme of work on forests. With recent estimates of forest loss at 14 million hectares per year (an area the size of Nepal) the international community does not have time to waste.

According to WWF, if the priority-setting for key forest ecosystems is left only to national Governments, without some overarching vision and programme from the international community, many countries may choose very limited actions to try and conserve or use their forest resources. Likewise, if the importance of involving local people is not recognized at the global level, then there will be less incentive for countries to take this seriously. "An opportunity was missed to clearly demonstrate international commitment on forests at the CBD" said Carole Saint-Laurent, Senior Policy Officer for WWF-International.

Despite the disappointing results on the international level at the CBD, WWF applauds recent national commitments made on forests by the French and German Environmental ministers to provide leadership in the fight against illegal timber trade and the destruction of ancient forests. This will include procurement policies based on internationally recognised forest certification schemes such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which environmental and social NGOs consider as the only credible certification system. WWF also welcomes the announcement by the United Kingdom of a bilateral agreement with Indonesia aimed at supporting the use of certification in the battle against illegal logging. WWF calls on other governments, in particular G8 countries, to follow the example of France, Germany and the UK.

WWF now calls on the international community to make clear commitments at Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in August. WWF calls on Governments to implement international agreements for combating threats like unsustainable and illegal logging and for the protection, responsible management and restoration of the world's forests that promote environmental, social and economic benefits. Specifically, Governments should commit to:

• establish ecologically representative and effectively managed protected areas.
• purchase timber that originates from legal and well-managed sources and work with producer countries to help stop illegal timber harvesting
• provide incentives for socially and environmentally appropriate forest landscape restoration
  

9. UN conference backs plan to save world's forests

Agence France Presse, 4/19/2002

http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=10116

Delegates at a UN conference on biodiversity here pledged to fight against deforestation and illegal logging, official sources said Friday. Adopting a ten-year plan of action, environment ministers from 125 countries across the world had already declared Thursday their committment to "halting biodiversity loss at the global, regional, sub-regional and national levels by the year 2010".

They also recognised that additional international funding was necessary to facilitate the effective implementation of the plan by developing countries. Moreover, there was a vital need for "urgent conservation action" for forests that were ecologically significant or were important for biological diversity, delegates said.

Diplomatic sources said such terminology represented a key compromise from two opposing blocs at the conference. European countries had preferred to target what are known as "primary forests", areas of relatively intact virgin growth which are situated in both tropical regions of the globe and in industrialised countries such as Canada and Russia.

That perspective though was rejected by Canada, Brazil and Malaysia among others who are staunchly opposed to outside interference in their forestation policies.

The declaration also promised to "promote forest law enforcement and address related trade", which is diplomatic language for taking on illegal logging. The two main negotiating camps, the Europeans led by France and Germany and the main producers of tropical wood led by Brazil and Malaysia, expressed their satisfaction at the outcome of the conference.

French Environment Minister Yves Cochet said in a press statement that the question of the future of forests had been dealt with and the EU had "won its case" on the issue of illegal logging. But environmental group Greenpeace said the conference was a failure.

"We came here with high hopes to reverse the trend of ancient forest destruction," a Greenpeace statement said. "We are left only with minor steps that fail to match the scale of the crisis."

The conclusions of The Hague conference are set to provide key input to the second Earth Summit, scheduled for Johannesburg in September. That summit hopes to build on the Convention on Biological Diversity agreed at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit in Brazil, which commits signatory countries to sustainable use of the planet's wildlife -- every living thing from bacteria to whales.

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10. Support for biodiversity linked to poverty reduction, says UNDP

Newsfront (UNDP), 16 April 2002

For further information, please contact Gelila Terrefe, UNDP Environmentally Sustainable Development Group, or Ana Gerez, UNDP Communications Office.

http://www.undp.org/dpa/index.html

Support for conserving biodiversity -- the wide variety of plants, animals, micro-organisms and ecosystems that make up the web of life -- is closely tied to global efforts to reduce poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals, and tightly integrated into UNDP programs worldwide.

These initiatives range from helping save the famous cedars of Lebanon to protecting the coastal fisheries of small island states in the South Pacific and aiding Ethiopian farmers in maintaining traditional varieties of food crops that resist pests, diseases and drought.

This message was conveyed to an international conference on the Convention on Biological Diversity in The Hague, Netherlands, last week by Frank Pinto, Executive Coordinator of the UNDP Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and Deputy Leader of the Environmentally Sustainable Development Group. The meeting of states that have ratified the convention continues this week, and comes amidst preparations for the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August and September.

"Whether for food, medicine, shelter or income generation, poor people throughout the world depend on biodiversity," said Mr. Pinto. UNDP supports the "conservation and wise use of biodiversity as a key contributor to reducing poverty around the world," he said. UNDP has channelled over US$1billion to developing countries to support biodiversity conservation efforts over the past decade, Mr. Pinto reported. This includes $100 million from its own resources and an additional $100 million in cost sharing for these activities. The total also includes $430 million in GEF funding for biodiversity projects and $600 million in GEF co-financing that UNDP has marshalled from other sources, including the private sector.

Encompassing partnerships with governments, civil society, local communities, and the private sector, UNDP/GEF provides assistance for 285 protected areas around the world covering 23.3 million hectares.

At the grassroots level, the UNDP/GEF Small Grants Programme has supported 1,300 projects that help communities integrate biodiversity conservation into their own local development activities. A new UNDP partnership program, the Equator Initiative, supports the biodiversity conservation and sustainable use in the counties in the equatorial belt by identifying and strengthening innovative community partnerships. The initiative recognizes local achievements through awards for innovative partnerships to be presented during the Johannesburg Summit.

It also fosters community-to-community learning exchanges and is mounting a global communications programme. UNDP created the initiative in partnership with BrasilConnects, Canada, the International Development Research Centre, the World Conservation Union, Television Trust for the Environment, and the United Nations Foundation.

A new UNDP GEF publication, "Conserving Biodiversity, Sustaining Livelihoods: Building Capacity for Conservation" was launched at a conference side event that included representatives of GEF projects from Belize, Ethiopia, Jordan, Lebanon, Federated States of Micronesia, Philippines, and Samoa. Another side event, organized by the Small Grants Programme, highlighted the enormous contribution civil society is making, particularly at the grassroots level, to meet the convention's objectives.

11. Saving the rainforests

South African Press Association

http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/Science_Nature/0,1113,2-13-46_1169351,00.html

The Hague - Environment ministers from 120 nations began two days of meetings behind closed doors on Wednesday to find ways of saving the world's threatened ancient rainforests. It is one of the thorniest issues being tackled at a UN biodiversity conference that opened in The Hague 10 days ago aimed at protecting natural habitats and sharing precious resources between the world's rich and poor.

Wednesday's meeting was opened by Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok, whose government resigned on Tuesday following a report that criticised Dutch UN peacekeepers over the massacre of thousands of Muslims in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995. According to UN estimates, one percent of tropical forest disappeared each year throughout the 1980s - a 50 percent increase over the previous decade.

The conclusions from the environment ministers' two-day session - aimed at thrashing out an action plan on the preservation and sustainable use of forests - will provide key input at the next Earth Summit in Johannesburg in September. That forum hopes to build on the Convention on Biological Diversity agreed at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit in Brazil, which took effect the following year.
The accord commits signatories to sustainable use of the planet's wildlife - everything that lives, ranging from bacteria to whales.

The environment ministers are expected to adopt a declaration committing themselves to halting or reducing by 2010 the "alarming rate" of the disappearance of natural habitats and species, according to the Dutch presidency.

However, diplomats say the 2010 target date is fiercely contested by southern hemisphere countries and most industrial nations, and suggest that the ministers may adopt a later date of say 2020 or even hold off from fixing a timeframe.

12. WWF event unites businesses, NGOs for responsible trade in forests products

WWF Newsroom, April 25, 2002

http://www.panda.org/forests4life/news/wwf_event.cfm

For more information on the Forest Leadership Forum, visit: www.ForestLeadershipForum.org

For more information on the Global Forest and Trade Network (GFTN) visit: www.panda.org/forestandtrade

Gland, Switzerland - The Forest Leadership Forum, a WWF organized event, opens today in Atlanta, bringing together for the first time the world's largest forest product companies such as International Paper and Weyerhauser, retailers like the Home Depot and IKEA, and environmental groups to promote responsible trade in forest products.

The Forest Leadership Forum was organized in recognition of the fact that the forest products industry can be part of the solution and can play an important role in combating threats to the world's forests such as illegal logging. Discussions at the Forum will focus on issues such as illegal logging, responsible management of production forests, and corporate purchasing policies.

"The world's forests and the timber industry's reputation can be protected at the same time," said Bruce Cabarle, Director of WWF's Global Forest Programme. "By bringing together diverse stakeholders in forest conservation and trade, the Forest Leadership Forum will reveal new ways to manage our global forests responsibly while meeting the foreseeable needs of wood products consumers."

In its report titled Forest Industry in the 21st Century, and published two years ago, WWF showed that destruction of the world's forests is not caused by forestry or wood consumption per se, but by poor forestry practices and over-exploitation in some areas. While the environmental community and consumers have increasingly held the biggest timber producers and retailers responsible for worsening forest conditions, the WWF study showed that with responsible forest management and improvements in efficiency, the forest products industry's requirements could be met from approximately one-fifth of the world's forest area.

WWF is encouraging responsible management and efficiency by forming partnerships with industry through its Global Forest and Trade Network (GFTN). This professional group of over 800 members consisting of timber producers, processors, and retailers, and environmental groups is committed to promoting sustainable forest management and trading and/or sourcing independently certified forest products.

For example, WWF International today announced a new partnership with the IKEA Group, one of the world's largest home improvement retailers. WWF and IKEA, which is already a member of WWF's Global Forest and Trade Network, are joining forces in a three-year venture to promote responsible forestry. The two organizations will carry out a series of forest projects that will promote responsible forestry in Russia, China, Romania/Bulgaria and the Baltic countries. By strengthening forest certification and promoting legal compliance in forestry and trade, the projects are important steps in implementing IKEA's forest action plan and WWF's conservation goals. They include a methodology for the identification and management of forests of high conservation value, addressing issues like illegal logging in Russia and China, and helping to implement forest certification in producer countries.

Other members of the industry present at the event such as International Paper, the world's single largest processor of timber in the world, recognize the responsibility of the forest industry to engage. "International Paper plays a defining role in the health of our global forest estate," said George O'Brien, Senior Vice President of International Paper. "Our company is sponsoring and participating in the Forum to help find creative solutions to unsustainable forest management and trade practices."

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13. Bangladesh: Massive depletion of forest resources in Chittagong Hill Tracts

The Daily Star

Nurul Alam

http://www.dailystarnews.com/200204/17/n2041707.htm#BODY2

The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) saw a massive depletion of forest resources in the past few years following illegal trafficking in timber by a section of unscrupulous traders, sources said.
According to reports, over four lakh CFT timber is extracted from CHT a year that poses a threat to environment as well as natural resources.

With the illegal extraction of timber continuing unabated, most of the eight reserve forests in CHT have been facing extinction. Over 70 per cent of the six reserve forests had already been depleted. The most affected forest areas include Matamuhuri, Sangu, Kachalong, Maini, Thega, Rainongkhong, Meroon Khedachhari and Sindhukchhari. Many hills also have been stripped of green foliage.

In addition, jhum cultivation by the tribal people contributed significantly to the depletion of greenery. As varieties of costly wood are available here and the timber is in great demand, the furniture business is booming in the CHT. Consignments of furniture are supplied to different parts of the country.

Sources said the unscrupulous traders are extracting and trafficking in timber in collusion with a section of forest officials and law enforcing agency personnel. To stop such activities, the government imposed a ban on 'jote' permit a month ago. But the traffickers are carrying out their activities as usual, for they are backed by the ruling partymen, sources said.

On March 22, army men intercepted 15 trucks loaded with timber at Guimara hilly area of Khagrachhari and seized about 5,000 CFT timber. Following the seizure, some ruling partymen started lobbying and put pressure to recover the timber, sources said. After this incident, traffickers have stopped using the Guimara route for transporting timber. Instead, they are using other routes for the same purpose.

Illegal extraction of timber had taken place in large scale after the signing of peace treaty in 1997 as the woodcutters got the opportunity to enter most of the inaccessible areas of deep forests in the CHT. Earlier, they avoided the deep forest areas fearing attacks by Shantibahinimen. Many woodcutters were either killed or abducted by Shantibahinimen during the two decade-long insurgency that rocked the scenic and rugged hill districts.

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14. Botswana: Indigenous tribe's battle to remain in Botswana game reserve goes to court

Associated Press, April 12, 2002

http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/04/04122002/ap_46917.asp

LOBATSE - The government urged the country's High Court this week to dismiss a lawsuit by 243 members of a hunter-gatherer tribe aimed at preventing their eviction from a massive game reserve.

The Basarwa tribes of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve - a 52,000-square-kilometer (20,000-square-mile) semidesert region in the middle of the country - are resisting government efforts to relocate them, saying they cannot abandon the graves of their ancestors, who lived in the region for centuries.

The government has cut off water and other services to the reserve, and the Basarwa had asked the court to rule that they be reinstated because the action was unconstitutional. State attorney Nchunga Nchunga argued that the Basarwa's legal papers were not in order and that the main applicant in the lawsuit, Sesana Roy, was no longer living in the reserve and had no right to represent the people who remain there.

Both arguments were rejected by John Whitehead, the Basarwa's lawyer. Judge Maruping Dibotelo said he would rule next Friday whether to allow the case to proceed. The government, which has traditionally supplied the Basarwa with water, medical care, old-age pensions, and destitute allowances, says it can better sustain their services outside of the reserve, which was established in the 1960s.

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15. Cambodia Takes Measures to Protect Forests

Xinhua News Agency, April 14, 2002

Yan Ming, Li Chaobi

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2002-04/14/content_357527.htm

In recent years, Cambodia has taken effective measures to preserve forests and achieved good
results since the country stressed the importance of protection of its forest.

Sok An, senior minister and minister of cabinet, recently said that forests are vital to the daily life of the Cambodian people because today 85 percent of the population, who live in rural areas, totally rely on agriculture and forests.

In 2001, Cambodia stepped up forest management. About 7,180 cubic meters of logs and 760 cubic meters of timber that had been illegally exploited were confiscated; 158 illegal wood processing workshops, sawing workshops and charcoal kilns were dismantled or burnt down. In the meanwhile, 73 people were arrested for illegal hunting in forests and 3,406 captive wild animals were sent back to the forests.

However, forests in the country are disappearing at an alarming speed. Before 1970, Cambodia's forests covered 13.2 million hectares which was equivalent to 73 percent of the country's totalland areas enriched with natural resources; but the rate of forest coverage now is only 58 percent, or totaling 10.6 million hectares, said Chan Sarun, minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

Although Cambodia's forest coverage seems to be quite high compared with some other countries, yet the forests are qualitatively and quantitatively deteriorating due to the denudation of forests and the damages by the protracted civil war, which has severely damaged natural eco-environment, resulting in floods and droughts in the country every year, he added.

In order to improve management and protection of forests, the ministry, with the financing from the ADB (the Asian Development Bank) and WB (the World Bank), in 2001 held various kinds of 19 workshops and ministerial meetings to discuss the matter of forest preservation, and finally formulated a draft law on forest which was approved unanimously by the Council of Ministers on August 17, 2001.

Before the draft law on forests comes into effect, Cambodia has enforced the regulations on the management of concession forests, which canceled some agreements on concession forests with some companies who had concession for timber right and suspended their logging business in a bid to eradicate forest anarchy.

The authorities issued a directive that has stipulated that as of January 1, 2002, all the logging and transportation of chopped logs should bee stopped. In addition, the Cambodian commission in charge of forest investment, consisting of the Council of Ministers, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and Law Committee, in coordination with ADB supervision experts, held emergent consultations with 17 companies that currently have concession on timber right, and reviewed their timber-chopping plans and requested them to draw up new plans for logging and management of forests for future.

More importantly, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has regular meetings with these companies, examines the process of logging and gives them necessary instructions. While forest experts and officials often go to the forest areas to inspect the implementation of their logging plans including planting trees after tree chopping on the scene.

With the help of WB, UNDP (the UN Development Program) and WFO (the World Food Organization), Cambodia will tighten up the supervision and reporting system for criminal forest activities, which was set up in 1999, through employing satellite sensing system and recruiting experts who know Khmer language as well as technology of management with the assistance of the ADB.

In addition, the government has officially set up forest parks and protection zones for wild animals so as to preserve forest areas. Currently, the protected zones in the country cover more than 3 million hectares of land, equal to 18 percent of the surface area of the country that boasts 774 kinds of wild animals including 122 kinds of mammals, 114 reptiles and 538 birds.

Cambodia has also decided to establish more protected zones for wild animals, including one in Mondulkiri province, eastern Cambodia, and the other in Preah Vihear province, northern Cambodia. They cover a total of 470,000 hectares and 200,000 hectares, respectively, aiming to enlarge the forest coverage and protect forest resources in the country.

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16. Chile: Greenpeace protests Chile native forest destruction

Reuters News Service, April 12, 2002

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=15447&newsdate=12-Apr-2002

SANTIAGO, Chile - Greenpeace activists chained themselves to a Japanese ship docked in Chile this week to protest the use of native tree species to make wood chips. The environmental protesters aimed to prevent the "Iwanuma Maru" freighter from loading 452,100 cubic feet (42,000 cubic metres) of wood chips made from prized species found in temperate, old-growth rainforests in southern Chile.

Greenpeace accused Chilean timber firms of destructive harvesting of native forests that goes unpunished by the government. The Japanese cargo ship was at a private port owned by Chilean firm Forestal San Jose, located about 620 miles (1,000 km) south of Santiago.

"It is inconceivable that the government permits our native forest to be destroyed, degraded and threatened when its biological and ecological importance has been recognized worldwide," said Greenpeace activist Cecilia Serrat.

In recent years, Chilean environmentalists have fought attempts to build timber projects in the area, which is valued for its ancient lingue, tepa, rauli and oak forests. In 2000, legal challenges by activists blocked plans by multinational Boise Cascade Corp. to install a woodchip mill there.

Greenpeace urged timber companies operating in Chile to comply with the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council, an international body that certifies and classifies lumber and sets sustainable forestry management procedures. Local authorities defended the company, saying it had the permits required to harvest trees on its own plantation.

"The company has management plans and is authorized to cut down what it likes. The chips come from trees planted by the company and from native trees that are dead," regional governor Cristina Maeztu told Reuters.

The Greenpeace activists said they would remain chained to the ship until the company publicly promises to stop harvesting native forests.

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17. China: World Bank gives $94M for Sustainable Forestry

Greenwire, April 22, 2002

Tim Breen, Greenwire associate editor

http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=10263

On the eve of its annual spring meeting and protests that largely fizzled in April showers, the World Bank last week freed up $94 million for a sustainable forestry program in China, bringing recent investment in the project to some $125 million.

The program -- the China Sustainable Forestry Development Project -- is aimed at protecting some of the country's most important remaining natural forests and biodiversity, the bank said. The program should also have benefits in terms of watershed and flood protection, and will ensure a supply of wood for China's growing demand while taking pressure off other Asian forests. Forestry is crucial in the Chinese economy, the bank noted, providing 40 percent of rural household energy, almost all the wood for the large construction sector, and much of the raw material for the pulp and paper industry.

"[The program] will help local communities affected by a recent natural forests logging ban to maintain or improve their standards of living by switching to other, more environmentally friendly sources of income," said the World Bank's manager of the project, Mohamed Benali. The project will set up forest plantations, participatory planning and management in certain forests and reserves, community development activities and forest management training, according to the bank.

The $94 million joins $16 million contributed by the Global Environment Facility and $15 million granted from the European Commission, the bank said.

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18. Chinese farmers stage sit-in at Beijing legislature

Reuters, April 12, 2002

http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/04/04122002/reu_46925.asp

BEIJING - About 200 Chinese farmers staged a sit-in outside the headquarters of the Beijing city legislature on Thursday, saying corrupt local government officials had robbed them of their land, witnesses said.

"They took away all the land and they didn't give us one cent," said one elderly woman as the crowd dispersed under heavy police supervision. They were ordered onto three buses by police and driven home.

The sit-in outside the Beijing city People's Congress, the city council, follows a string of protests by pensioners and laid-off workers as the country adapts to life as a member of the World Trade Organization. The farmers said they were from Beishanshu village in Tongxian county on the east side of Beijing. "We're not protesting; we're just here to beg for food," said another of the farmers, who declined to be identified.

The farmers declined to give further details of their dispute with the local government, but there have been similar protests by angry residents kicked off their land to make way for new property developments. Although public protest is not allowed in China without advance government approval, which is rarely granted, such small-scale peaceful protests are sometimes tolerated as a way for citizens to air their grievances.

Last month, about 200 pensioners staged a similar protest in front of an ailing Beijing automobile factory. But organizers of larger protests are often arrested and accused of undermining social stability, labor groups said.

China was hit by a string of protests last month by thousands of angry laid-off workers in the northeastern "rust belt" city of Liaoyang and the model oil town of Daqing. The protests highlighted growing public anger at official corruption, inadequate state welfare support, and rising unemployment as China presses ahead with painful economic reforms.

Four organizers of the Liaoyang protests had been arrested and were due to stand trial for "illegally gathering and demonstrating," family members have said.

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19. Himalayas: Global warming threatens major flooding in the Himalayas, says U.N.

Associated Press, April 17, 2002

By Naomi Koppel

http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/04/04172002/ap_46955.asp

GENEVA - Nearly 50 high Himalayan lakes could flood their banks in the next 5 to 10 years, sending water crashing down the mountains and threatening thousands of lives, the United Nations said Tuesday.

Tests carried out in Nepal and Bhutan found that the temperature has risen by almost one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) since the mid-1970s, causing snowfields and glaciers to melt and fill the lakes. The U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) blamed global warming for the change, stressing that if nothing is done, people and animals could be killed and bridges and farmland destroyed. "Both the numbers and the size of the lakes are growing. The lakes grow until the mouth can no longer hold the water and then it all comes down," said Surendra Shrestha, Asian coordinator for UNEP's early warning program.

UNEP said that lake floods are not a new phenomenon but have become more frequent in the past three decades. "The lakes are at an average altitude of 4,000 meters (13,120 feet). The water picks up speed and debris and cuts down everything in its path," said Shrestha. "In one case, there was a 40-meter- (131-foot-) high wall of water traveling at 10,000 cubic meters (353,000 cubic feet) per second."

In 1985, a bursting lake in Nepal destroyed 14 bridges and caused US$1.5 million damage to a power plant. UNEP scientists, working with the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development in Kathmandu, Nepal, found at least 44 lakes in Nepal and Bhutan that were filling so rapidly they were in danger of bursting their banks. There are probably many more in other countries, they said.

"There are 2 billion-plus people that depend on the Himalayan river systems, so any change in the mountain areas has a direct or indirect effect on the population downstream," said Shrestha.
Klaus Toepfer, UNEP executive director, said the findings were "another compelling reason" to act to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases.

UNEP said money was also desperately needed to fund projects to draw water from the lakes before they can flood. The water can then be used for power generation or irrigation. Shrestha said programs had already been started at three lakes, but it was estimated it would cost up to $3 million per lake.

UNEP also is helping the governments of Nepal and Bhutan to put in place "early warning" systems that will help them warn communities and carry out engineering works to reduce the threat.

"Solving this problem is going to be costly because glacial lakes are situated in remote areas which are difficult to reach," Shrestha said.

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20. India: Forest Department equips to fight fires

Express News Service, April 21, 2002

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=15493

Panchkula: THE Forest Department, Haryana, is adopting modern forest-fire control techniques in the state, including the establishment of a communication network by installing wireless sets, setting up firewatch towers, engaging fire informers, purchasing latest fire-fighting equipment, fire resistant clothes and shoes. Besides, other contemporary methods for fire prevention are also being put to use.

This was highlighted at the beginning of the Forest Fires Prevention Week today.
Naseem Ahmed, Financial Commissioner and principal secretary, Haryana; J.P.L. Srivastava, the principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF), Haryana, Panchkula; Dr Vinod Kumar Bahuguna, inspector general of forests, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, and officials of the Forest department, Haryana, and members of the Hill Resources Management Societies (HRMS) participated in the function.

An on-the-spot painting competition was also organised for schoolchildren. Relevant material on fire safety, hazards and other items were displayed by the Forest department. Speaking on the occasion, Naseem Ahmed said that the forests were the first priority and essential for the sustenance of life. He said that the greenery was the basis of life and forests acted as the 'guardians of ecological security,' and played a very important role in maintaining the ecological balance.

PCCF, Haryana, said the loss caused by fires to the forests was incalculable. He added that forest fires damaged seedlings, rendered the soil sterile, burnt wild animals and the eggs of birds. Besides destroying the habitat and animals, forest fires added to the atmospheric carbon and increased the temperature of the atmosphere. He stated that a tree rendered services worth Rs 32 lakh during its lifespan.

This includes production of oxygen, absorption of carbon dioxide, moderation of climate, improvement of soil fertility and providing shelter to various forms of life. He termed forests as the repositories of biological diversity and the green lungs of the earth.

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21. India Gives Biodiversity Conservation a Local Touch

Inter Press Service, April 24, 2002

Keya Acharya

http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=10395

Sitting on handwoven reed mats inside a mud hut still cool despite the summer heat, 25-year-old Laknoo Biddika admits to never having heard of The Hague or big-sounding words like "biodiversity." But he does not underrate what he has to offer the world.

"We are 14 village representatives gathered here with a single objective of documenting and promoting our skills and knowledge," he says.

The gathering was organized in Kuruppam district in the southern coastal state of Andhra Pradesh by Sanyasi Raju of Village Reconstruction, a local body in charge of compiling indigenous cultures and livelihoods of the region under India's $ 970,000 National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP). This socially sensitive conservation planning process, underway since 2000, is funded by the Global Environment Fund and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) through the Ministry of Environment and Forests and an NGO called Kalpvriksh (Tree of Life).

"We organize people's representatives who list what they want to do, and then get them together with government officials so that existing government policies can become more effective," says Raju.

There is plenty to document. There are medicinal plants, formulas and healers in an ancient system of Indian herbal medicine, nutritious traditional vegetable and cereal seeds such as red gram, ragi and millet, and a host of marketable forest commodities like honey, nuts and seeds that tribals have used sustainably for centuries.

But exploitation by outsiders, who pay tribal healers a pittance for both formulas and shrubs, has kept the healers in penury, with this oral tradition now practically dying out. Soil degradation and aridity is pervasive due to theft by commercial loggers of almost all the trees in tribal lands, sometimes in collaboration with tribals who have been duped to sell 50-year-old trees for as little as a dollar apiece.

The government's distribution of non-tribal staples like chemically-grown rice and wheat has allowed the neglect of traditional nutritious staples, engendering malnutrition in a community that does not have access to alternative vegetables.

"The government prepares schemes for us in their offices without asking us what's best for us," says schoolteacher T. Rama Rao, one of the community's rare graduates.

"The Forest Department is using millions of rupees in the name of Joint Forestry. But they plant all the wrong trees that use too much water or kill other native plants. There is no understanding of the tribal situation," says Lingaraju, secretary of a network of village groups.

Village self-help groups have now begun preserving their own seeds and marketing herbal medicinal formulations and products from the region. Efforts at collective income generation through growing indigenous mangoes and a medicinal garden are also underway.

"I am optimistic about this form of decentralization, wherein village livelihoods are integrated into government schemes that already exist," says Raju. The government's Integrated Tribal Development Agency as well as Agriculture and Horticulture departments have begun collaboration with self-help groups.

Raju's efforts at helping the tribals by enjoining village self-help groups might well allow some measure of success in this part of Andhra Pradesh, but NBSAP's plea at a comprehensive government policy looks set to have mixed results elsewhere.

In the neighboring southern state of Tamil Nadu, herdsmen of an ancient and indigenous cattle species named Malaimadu, a hardy animal that fetches a small income from manuring, draught and sale in an emergency, have locked horns in battle with the Forest Department over being denied grazing rights inside the Giant Grizzled Sanctuary in Virudhunagar District.

Neither party is willing to compromise

Ironically enough, it is Tamil Nadu's Forest Department that is the official nodal agency for NBSAP in the State. NBSAP state forest conservation coordinator Dr. R. Annamalai says the state has not yet convened even a preliminary meeting to discuss state-level plans.

Another ecologically-rich southern state, Karnataka, is the first in the country to draw up a clear and detailed plan that involves making an inventory and monitoring biodiversity with satellite-imagery based mapping in-situ and ex-situ conservation involving schools, higher educational institutions, government departments and the general public.

Its coordinator, Professor Madhav Gadgil of the Indian Institute of Science's Center for Ecological Sciences, hopes the measures will get sustained under the country's Biodiversity Law approved by India's Parliament early 2002.

But with the state's over-riding concern for industrial development projects, many of which are already in conflict with biodiversity interests, conservation remains a sensitive issue. Under NBSAP, the country has been divided into 10 ecosystem regions having 18 subregions. Within this system a complex mesh of micro-planning at village-level then feeds into 33 state-level plans for conserving all kinds of national resources.

Kalpavriksh expects to draw up final plans for state and national-level policies by mid-2002. "Innate wisdom, simple logic, refreshing innocence and indigenous profoundness, I believe our plans must have a combination of all of these together with sound science," says Kalpavriksh coordinator Ashish Kothari.

This explains why the remote foothill village of Neridimanuguda, beautiful with its flowering medicinal shrubs and Terminalia Arjuna trees in Kuruppam district, is a part of the NBSAP process.

Home to the Jatapa, Kondadora, Savara and Gadaba tribal communities who were India's original forest inhabitants centuries before the invasion of land-races from its northern borders, this region remains in poverty and illiteracy, unable to keep up with the rest of the state.

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22. Indonesia: Illegal Logging Accounts for Two Thirds Log Output

Asia Pulse, April 23, 2002

http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=10290

Indonesia's tropical rain forests are being destroyed at a staggering pace, with two thirds of the country's timber production coming from illegal loggers, the Association of Forestry Companies (APHI) reported today.

Association chairman Adiwarsita Adinegoro, said Monday that illegal logging remained the primary problem for the country's forestry sector. He said log smuggling has continued depsite ban on log exports. The forestry and trade and industry ministers issued a joint decision recently banning exports of logs in a bid to reduce illegal logging and try to save what lefts of the forests.

The ban on smuggling is expected to be more effective as because perpetrators will no longer be able to use false document for exports. Another APHI chairman Robert Sianturi said illegal logs are also used by thousands of unlicensed sawmills.

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23. Indonesia and UK sign world's first forest agreement

WWF Newsroom, April 18, 2002

For more information contact: Tori Lyall, e-mail: tlyall@wwf-forests.org

http://panda.org/news/press/news.cfm?id=2862

London, UK - WWF, the conservation organization, today welcomed a groundbreaking agreement between the Indonesian and UK governments designed to tackle illegal logging and the international trade in timber and wood products. The agreement, which will be signed today by both governments, is the first time that two governments have committed to reforming legislation and developing systems to prevent the harvesting, export and trade in illegal timber. The UK government has committed to provide technical and financial assistance to assist with the design and implementation of these systems in Indonesia.

"This agreement provides the framework for an action plan to reverse the depressing trend of forest loss due to rampant illegal logging," said Dr Paul Toyne, Head of WWF-UK's forest programme. "Other major importers of timber from Indonesia must follow the UK's lead and instigate similar bilateral agreements to prevent the further decimation of this country's globally significant wildlife-rich forests and negative impacts on the local communities of Indonesia."

Under the agreement, both governments will also encourage the forest industry to take action to reduce and eventually eliminate the amount of illegal timber and wood products transported and sold as the solutions to combating illegal logging depend on many different stakeholders.

"Illegal logging is a complex issue that requires agreements like these from many in the international community which provide technical support and aid for wider issues of illegal logging such as law enforcement and governance." said Agus Purnomo, Executive Director of WWF-Indonesia.

WWF is calling upon the Governments of the G8 nations, specifically, - France, Italy, Germany, Japan, and the United States as well as China as they are the key consumers and importers of timber from producer countries like Indonesia, to enter into similar trade agreements. The G8 and China buy at least 25 million m3 of round wood equivalent from Indonesia - this is equal to 60% of Indonesia's total timber exports. Other key producing countries with forests of high conservation value, such as Cameroon, Gabon, Russia, Cambodia and Brazil which are threatened by illegal logging should also sign agreements with governments within the G8, EU and China.

WWF highlights that while the Indonesian-UK agreement is an important commitment in addressing the critical problems of illegal timber trade it does not address the issues of ensuring that forests are well-managed on the ground. WWF believes that forest certification using the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) scheme or equivalent, which includes the principle of legality, is a critical step in combating illegal logging and improving forest management for long term sustainable use.

Governments should also adopt and implement procurement policies and sign on to trade agreements to ensure they are buying timber from both legal and well-managed forests. In addition, they should provide technical support and aid to assist in the implementation of improving forest management and governance on the ground.

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24. Indonesia planning permanent log export ban

Reuters News Service, April 15, 2002

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15476/story.htm

JAKARTA - Indonesia is planning to impose a permanent ban on exports of logs to protect its dwindling tropical forests, a senior trade and industry ministry official said last week. In October 2001, the ministers of industry and trade and forestry issued a joint decree putting in place a temporary ban on exports of logs for wood chips, but this expired in April.

"We are planning to impose a permanent ban on log exports," Sudar SA, director general of exports told reporters, adding the government would first extend the temporary ban while discussing permanent measures with the International Monetary Fund. The IMF has a $5 billion loan programme with cash-strapped Indonesia and periodic disbursements are contingent on a batch of economic reforms being implemented across all sectors.

Indonesia imposed a ban on exports of logs in 1980 but later replaced it with a 200 percent export tax. These moves were aimed at protecting local industry and encouraging exports of higher-value wood products. But in accordance with an agreement with the IMF signed in 1998, Jakarta reduced the taxes gradually to 15 percent by the end of 1999 and 10 percent by the end of 2000.

Indonesia's rain forests have been ravaged for years by over-logging, often with government approval. In the late 1990s forest fires repeatedly hit the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, where much of the remaining forest is.

Environmentalists said illegal logging became more rampant after the government reduced its hefty export taxes under the IMF agreement. They said illegal logging in Indonesia destroys some 60 million cubic meters of forest each year.

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25. Indonesia: Unrestrained mining endangering forests

The Jakarta Post, April 15, 2002

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20020415.G12&irec=11

A coalition of environmental groups here urged the government to withdraw licenses given to mining companies that plan to operate in around one-fifth of the country's protected forests and conservation areas.

The non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also blasted the mining companies for their efforts to force the government to change several regulations in order to legalize their operations.
"They have urged the government to revise Law No. 41/1999 on forestry which has hampered their investment. They want the status of the forests to be changed from protected forests into forest concessions," Chalid Muhammad from the Network of Advocacy for People's Mines (JATAM) told a media briefing last week.

Chalid did not reveal the names of those mining companies. The mining companies have threatened to sue Indonesia through an international arbitrator should the government refuse to open the 11.4 million hectares of protected forest for new operations in Sumatra, Jawa, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara islands, Maluku islands and Irian Jaya. Around 150 mining companies have explored the area.

Longgena Ginting of the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi) pointed out the current mining sites have reached more than 35 percent of Indonesia's mainland and have largely responsible for environmental destruction in the country.

The endangered areas include protected forest in Gag-Papua island, Poboya-Paneki forest in Central Sulawesi and Meru Betiri National Park in Jember, East Java.

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26. Kenya: Government Stopped From Excising Forests

The East African Standard (Nairobi),April 23, 2002

Amadi Mugasia

http://allafrica.com/stories/200204230019.html

The Government was yesterday blocked from excising forests country-wide pending the hearing of a suit challenging the decision. The temporary order halting the excision was issued by Nairobi Judge, Justice Richard Kuloba, who further stayed any further issuance of titles relating to the disputed forest lands. He ordered that the ruling be published in three local dailies, East African Standard, Daily Nation and Kenya Times at least once.

The judge also ordered that the contentious suit be served on the Minister for Environment and other top Government officers. The order followed an application by Kenya Alliance of Residents Associations, East African Wildlife Society, Environmental Liaison Centre, a postgraduate student, James Aucha Akim and Lumumba Odenda.

The applicants want to block the Minister for Environment, Commissioner of Lands, Chief Lands Registrar, Principal Registrar of Titles, Director of Physical Planning and Director of Survey be barred from altering boundaries of various forests in the country.

The order by the Minister for alteration was made last October 19 and affected Kapsaret, Nabkoi, Eastern Mau, South Nandi, Mt Londiani, Molo, Northern Tinderet, Mt Kenya, South Eastern and Western Mau and Marmanet forests. Leading the onslaught, a leading constitutional lawyer, Mr Stephen Mwenesi, told the court that the continued excision of forest cover in the country will have a devastating effect on the economy, climate, the social well-being and security of the country.

He said members of public were utterly opposed to these detrimental actions and were demanding the same be halted forthwith. "Applicants insist that the forests are on trust land... but the Government, which is expected to protect them has continued to excise them."

Saying this raises pertinent constitutional matters relating to forests and it should be resolved by the court at once, Mwenesi emphasised that the constitution is explicitly clear that the forests are on trust lands. He lamented that prior to the Minister's order, the forest land had been allocated and titles issued.

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27. Kenya: Kamotho in New Pledge On Forests

The Nation (Nairobi), April 21, 2002

Waweru Mugo

http://allafrica.com/stories/200204210036.html

The government will introduce a new law to stop the destruction of forests. Under it, companies which use forest products will be required to plant trees to replace those that they cut.

Environment minister Joseph Kamotho said his ministry had already drafted the Forest Bill which will be taken to Parliament soon.The new law would also give communities the power to manage forests to curb illegal logging. A Sessional Paper on forestry would further strengthen the resolve to end the destruction of forests, the minister said.

Mr Kamotho made the remarks at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport soon after arrival from the two-week Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity at the Hague, Netherlands. He observed that the world was witnessing a wave of illegal logging of trees without replenishing of the same.

He said, "The afforestation programme by private users of forest products will check against the destruction of indigenous forests too."

He was categorical that forest destruction was perpetrated by a cross-section of stakeholders and called for a stop to shifting blame.

"No one is blameless in the destruction of forests. Let us not apportion blame to the provincial administration, the Forest department..." he went on.

The conference noted that developed countries contributed to the rampant shipping of genetic resources like medicinal herbs and minerals from Africa without the source countries accruing any benefits. It adopted guidelines on access and benefit sharing of the resources through which countries would check against illegal pirating by unscrupulous agent.

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28. Malaysia: A New Wave of Penan Blockades

The Penan, Kayan and Kenyah protest against logging and sand mining activities on native land

Sahabat Alam Malaysia Press Release, April 23, 2002

By Thomas Jalong, On behalf of the President of Sahabat Alam Malaysia

http://www.earthisland.org/borneo/news/articles/020412article.html

At least five blockades have been put up and one protest has been staged by several native communities in the middle Baram of Sarawak's Miri, Division since March 27th, 2002. This is the first time in more than ten years that numerous Sarawak native communities have organized to put up blockades simultaneously in various locations to draw the attention of the Malaysian authorities to their plight.

Blockades are human barricades and wooden structures that are put up at strategic points across access roads to prevent the movement of logging and plantation companies' vehicles. The first blockade was erected on March 27 across a road used by Interhill Logging Sdn. Bhd. in the interior of Long Lama, a huge Baram subdistrict, by the Penan communities of Long Sayan and Long Belok in the Sungai Apoh area. Three days later, an agreement was signed at the site between the blockaders and company representatives, and witnessed by a forest officer and police personnel. But later the natives withdrew their signatures, as the agreement was too vague to be meaningful and subsequent negotiations had also not been fruitful. As a result, the blockade was re-erected on April 18.

The second blockade was erected on March 28 by the Penan of Long Itam And Long Pakan in the Sungai Kabeng tributary of the Sungai Patah area, blocking the access road used by Interhill that leads to Penan communities in the upper Sungai Akah area. This blockade was torn down later on the same day because an Interhill managing director agreed to all of the people's demands. He asked the blockaders to come down to Marudi and sign an agreement in front of the District Officer. The people went on April 2, but the Interhill director was not there. Finally, they also resumed their blockade on April 18. Two other communities in Sungai Patah from Long Lilim and Long Lutin and one from Long Pangaran Iman in Sungai Akah have also joined the second blockade.

The third blockade was erected on April 8 by a group of nomadic Penan led by Chief Guman Magut near Long Patah in the Sungai Magoh area of the Tutoh region. Their area is about to be logged by Woodman Sdn. Bhd. This blockade ended on April 13, when the company agreed to withdraw their vehicles from the people's community forest area. However, the community is still apprehensive as the company may enter the area one or two years from now as this has always happened in other areas. They demand that their communal forest reserve to be recognised, protected and endorsed by the State Government.

The fourth blockade was also erected on April 8 by another group of nomadic Penan led by Selai Sega in Sungai Madihit, Ulu Limbang to stop logging operations carried out by Samling Sdn. Bhd. This blockade has continued without interruption so far.

In Sungai Apoh, a fifth blockade erected by the Kayan community of Long Bemang turned ugly when the manager of the timber camp was alleged to have become violent and verbally abused the group. In accordance to their customs when dealing with the unruly, the people had tied the manager and brought him to their longhouse to be calmed down.

The people claimed that he was untied after about an hour when he had finally calmed down. They denied having laid a finger on the manager but instead alleged the manager himself had injured his head by hitting it at the side of the vehicle on their way to the longhouse. The people denied that they were taking the law into their own hands by abducting the manager to demand for ransom and instead were only acting according to their own adat for the manager's own safety and the safety of others. 31 people from the longhouse were remanded by the police as a result of the incident but 23 of them have been released since. The rest of them are still being questioned until April 26.
Meanwhile, near the town of Long Lama, the Kayan and Kenyah communities of Uma Akeh and Sungai Puak have joined forces to protest against a company, Besungai Quarry Sdn. Bhd. that is extracting sand from the Baram riverbank near the people's longhouses. Approximately 30 people have staged a protest.

Reasons for the blockades and protests

Of particular concern to SAM is the predicament of the Penan communities, whose plight received national and worldwide attention more than a decade ago. The Penan, who were originally nomadic hunter-gatherers, resorted to erect the blockades as a desperate measure to draw the authorities' attention to their plight and the continued violation of their rights, as detailed below:

• Rights to their customary land have long been ignored by the logging companies and the State Government. This has resulted in them having to endure increasingly severe living conditions due to the depletion of forest and river resources and their livelihood.
• Most of them are living in dire conditions without adequate food supply, proper housing facilities, accessible healthcare and education services and other basic necessities like clean water and electricity.
• Even the settled Penan communities are also not able to make a living as they have no experience in farming and little assistance in terms of technical training and seed access.
• All the pro