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Bushmeat trade "most significant" threat to Africa's wildlife says ...
Maverick conservationist, Richard Leakey, writes that "commercial bushmeat hunting has become the most significant immediate threat to the future of wildlife in Africa and around the world" in an article on Wildlife Direct. Founded by Leakey, Wildlife Direct is a nonprofit allowing researchers and wildlife organizations in Africa and Asia to connect directly with supporters through blogs.
A paper recently released by the Centre of International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biodiversity (CDB) argued that legalizing bushmeat trade is the only way to ensure species survival and provide protein needs to impoverished people. Leakey disagrees: "legalizing this multi-billion trade will not help the wildlife. It will instead exterminate what remains, species that we are working so hard to preserve." Leakey has spent two decades working to conserve wildlife in his native Kenya.
"CIFOR argues that since up to 80 percent of the rural households in central and western Africa already depend on bushmeat for their daily protein requirements, a blanket ban on the trade would endanger both humans and wildlife " Leakey writes. "They call for regulated but legal uptake of wildlife protein. Maybe, but just how can this be done? There are no mechanisms to regulate this even with the best legislation."
Leakey says that CIFOR and CDB's idea of legalizing the bushmeat trade "shows remarkable naïveté and totally fails to understand the realities on the ground. A hungry population is never going to practice conservation of food, especially where it can be had free from the forest."
Comparing legalizing the bushmeat trade to legalizing drugs, Leakey writes that there are other ways in which to provide poor communities with protein. "Why don't people encourage the rearing of chickens, fish or cane rats to alleviate their protein deficiency? This will bring development and a better and healthier existence."
According to Leakey a number of species that have experienced local extinctions or drastic declines due to the bushmeat trade in Africa, including elephants, chimpanzees, gorillas, pangolins, bush pigs, duikers, and monitor lizards. Numerous primate species are especially susceptible. The bushmeat trade is also a threat to many species in Asia.
Richard Leakey, son of famed anthropologist Louis Leakey, is known for his bold conservation views and his long career in politics, anthropology, and conservation in Kenya. Maverick conservationist, Richard Leakey, writes that "commercial bushmeat hunting has become the most significant immediate thre... more -
Treating Frog Fungus With Bacteria | Dr. Lucy Spelman
About half of the world's frog and amphibian species are threatened with extinction. In an effort to raise public awareness, 2008 has been named the year of the frog by Amphibian Ark. Various zoos, aquariums, and conservation organizations have joined the effort, along with several celebrity conservation biologists, including Sir David Attenborough, Jeff Corwin, and Jean-Michel Cousteau. Their goal is to engage the public, create partnerships, and generate financial support for projects aimed at better understanding and conservation of amphibians.
Frogs, in particular, suffer from multiple problems, including habitat loss, water pollution, climate change, and chytridiomycosis, a skin infection caused by a fungus. Scientists discovered this organism on frog skin about ten years ago. The first studies found the infection only in parts of the U.S. and Australia. Since then, the disease has been diagnosed in frogs worldwide and implicated in the decline or extinction, dating back to the mid-70s, of several frog species. Initially, the fungus was thought to be a secondary invader, a problem only in frogs whose health was compromised by other variables, such as environmental degradation and global warming.
Scientists have recently changed their thinking. The species of frogs declining most rapidly--those living at higher elevations in the tropics of South America--have not experienced rapid changes in their environment, nor have toxins or pollutants been identified that would explain the pattern. Chytrid infection has been found in nearly every case of frog decline, however. The fungus has been found in South African frogs (where, however, it does not cause disease). Humans have apparently caused its spread around the world, primarily via the movement of wildlife, but potentially also on our shoes or in contaminated water, with devastating effects. About half of the world's frog and amphibian species are threatened with extinction. In an effort to raise public awareness, 2008... more -
Petition Against Kimberly-Clark’s shocking mismanagement of forest resources
Shocking new photos released today reveal the existence of a massive stockpile of old-growth logs that are destined to become disposable products like Kleenex tissue and Cottonelle toilet paper for tissue giant Kimberly-Clark Corporation (K-C). The logs originate from the Ogoki Forest, the single most ecologically valuable area left in Ontario’s southern Boreal Forest and the site of growing controversy.
Please Take Action! Sign Petition: http://members.greenpeace.org/action/start.php?action_i...
More Details: http://www.kleercut.net/en/node/936
Also, read 'Activists lock down Kleenex mill in CA' : http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/photosvideos/slideshows/a...
Greenpeace's Kleercut campaigners continued their efforts to stop Kimberly-Clark from destroying ancient forests to make its disposable products by locking down a Kleenex factory in Fullerton, CA.
Tell Kimberly-Clark: Don't Blow Ancient Forests on Kleenex!
There's no excuse for destroying ancient forests -- especially when the forests are used to make disposable products such as tissues and toilet paper. That's why a growing chorus of customers, companies, and universities are asking Kimberly-Clark to:
Stop purchasing fiber from endangered forests;
Drastically increase the amount of recycled fiber they use for all of their tissue products, including Kleenex brand toilet paper, facial tissue and napkins; and
Buy all non-recycled fiber from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified forests to ensure it is produced in a responsible manner.
In an attempt to allay concerns over its role in the destruction of endangered forests, Kimberly-Clark recently released a new fiber policy. Unlike other corporate fiber policies, Kimberly-Clark's has a number of fatal flaws, including:
No safeguards for endangered forests, including the North American Boreal;
No agreements to increase the use of recycled paper in Kleenex brand products; and
No measurable commitment to Forest Stewardship Council certified fiber.
Take action >>Tell Kimberly-Clark's CEO, Thomas Falk, and President of Consumer Products, Steve Kalmanson, that you want Kimberly-Clark to stop destroying ancient forests, and that you will avoid Kimberly-Clark products until they meet with Greenpeace to start making real changes. Shocking new photos released today reveal the existence of a massive stockpile of old-growth logs that are destined to become disposab... more -
CONSUMING NATURE-The Biodiversity Crisis-Part 2
In 2003, Dr. Anthony Rose and I sat in the back yard of his Palos Verdes home discussing the many issues which plague Cameroon, Central Africa, the Congo Basin.
Everything which we talked about plays heavy on my conscience as criminal movement continues on in one of the worlds last wild places.
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What a profound and powerful species we humans are. Whether envisioned as the end point of Creation or as a product of ongoing evolution, humans have surpassed every other known form of life in our ability to transform the world to suit our needs and ambitions. We have made the whole earth our dominion, and all life our resource. We bring with us a voracious hunger, progressing as if we are destined to consume everything in our path.
Humans are the ultimate omnivore. On a planet fantastically rich with life, there is very little we do not eat. From ants to elephants, everything that moves has turned up in the cooking pot. This capacity to consume has helped make us the most adaptive, and the most deadly species on earth. Monkey brains are an illegal gourmet delight in Asian restaurants. International traders travel the world in search of rhino horn, tiger penis, bear gall, and whale fat. Exotic birds and rare turtles are worth more than their weight in gold. Our affluence and appetite grows at the expense of nature.
Nowhere is the consumption of endangered wildlife expanding faster than in equatorial Africa. The Congo River, its tributaries, and the other great rivers of the region pass through a myriad of swamp and forest stretching across the center of the continent to the Atlantic Ocean. A wonderland of flora and fauna wanders in the shadows. Water creatures swim beneath the surface hidden by the shimmer of setting sunlight. With luck we may see the elusive forest elephant tramping across a grassy clearing, but for the most part the great mammals are as secretive as the smallest of jungle animals.
Why should an elephant hide? For millennia these powerful and sensitive beasts roamed freely, losing only the most lame and weak members of their communities to predators. Humans who dwelt in the forests rarely took down an elephant, and when they did it was cause for reverent celebration and gratitude. When outsiders came to Congo with guns and a lust for exotic wealth, the balance changed. Trophy hunters chased the great mammals deep into the forests. Elephant, ape, buffalo, and leopard survived the early invasion by learning to stay clear of men. Today, there is no longer any place to hide.
Apes, elephants, indeed all the edible animals have become consumer items as men with guns and a hunger for wild game scour the wilderness in search of commercial gain. People who once considered the forest a place of danger now see it as a frontier for business, where money can be made without the controls and costs of urban political and legal structures. Like the gold rush in America in the nineteenth century, today's quest for natural resources in Central Africa is fraught with problems of lawlessness, social disruption, and environmental destruction. Like every rush for quick riches, the plundering of rain forest resources moves at a pace and in a fashion that cannot be sustained without severe consequences for nature and humanity as a whole. In 2003, Dr. Anthony Rose and I sat in the back yard of his Palos Verdes home discussing the many issues which plague Cameroon, Centra... more -
CONSUMING NATURE-The Biodiversity Crisis-Part 1
Biodiversity. The sum total of all life on Earth. That wealth of genes, species,ecosystems, and ecological processes that make our living planet what it is – the only place in the entire universe where we know with certainty that life exists. We are extremely fortunate to be an integral part of such a rich and diverse planet, especially at a time when scientific understanding and advanced systems of transport and communications enable us to see, to visit, to learn about, to fully appreciate the amazing range of life forms with which we share this Earth.
We should delight in this wealth of life that has co-evolved with us over millions of years. We should value it as much as we do the creations of our own species -- our art, our music, our literature, our history, our cultures, and our languages. And we should do everything in our power to make sure that every bit of earth life continues to share this very special planet with us.
Unfortunately, in spite of our growing knowledge of biodiversity and our increasing appreciation of its complexity, its magnificence, and its value to us, we are in a crisis of epic proportions. Indeed, we stand at the threshold of one of the most overwhelming losses of life in Earth's history – a planet wide series of extinctions, coming in great spasms unlike anything since the loss of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago. This time the cause is not a giant meteorite crashing into the Earth or some other uncontrollable cosmic force. This crisis is caused by the inability of one species to control its consumption at the expense of the many millions of others.
The Prim8 Fund(P8F) Biodiversity. The sum total of all life on Earth. That wealth of genes, species,ecosystems, and ecological processes that make our l... more -
New manatee species discovered!
NEW SPECIES OF LIVING MANATEE!
'A New Species, the Dwarf Manatee, Amazon Association for the Preservation of Nature'
Discovered in AAPN Manus-Amazonas, Brazil.
Shallow clear-water adapted dwarf manatee is already on the edge of extinction due to rainforest deforestation, hunting...
THERE ARE NO LAWS TO PROTECT THIS CRITICALLY ENDANGERED DWARF MANATEE.
http://www.care2.com/news/member/785844898/889616
http://www.marcvanroosmalen.org/dwarfmanatee.htm
CRITICALLY ENDANGERED! NEW SPECIES OF LIVING MANATEE! 'A New Species, the Dwarf Manatee, Amazon Association for the Preservation of Nature' ... more -
Our Polar Bears, Ourselves...OUR FUTURE
It wasn't much noticed at the time, but three weeks before she was chosen as John McCain's vice presidential running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin played a key supporting role in the latest episode of the Bush Administration's eight-year war on the Endangered Species Act, one of the cornerstones of American environmental law. On August 4 Alaska sued the government for listing the polar bear as a "threatened" species, an action, the lawsuit asserted, that would harm "oil and gas...development" in the state. In an accompanying statement, Palin complained that the listing "was not based on the best scientific and commercial data available" and should be rescinded.
The Bush Administration had not wanted to designate the polar bear as threatened in the first place; now Palin's lawsuit provided cover to backtrack on the decision. The Interior Department had issued the listing only after environmental groups filed two lawsuits, and the courts ordered compliance. While the polar bear population was currently stable, the plaintiffs argued, greenhouse gas emissions were melting the Arctic ice that polar bears rely on to hunt seals, their main food source. A study by the US Geological Survey supported this argument, concluding that two-thirds of all polar bears could be gone by 2050 if Arctic ice continues to melt as scientists project. The listing was the first time global warming had been cited as the sole premise in an Endangered Species Act case, and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne clearly wanted it to be the last. When Kempthorne announced the polar bear listing on May 14, he emphasized that it would not affect federal policy on global warming or block development of "our natural resources in the Arctic."
A week after Palin's lawsuit, Kempthorne delivered on that pledge. On August 11 he proposed new rules that could allow federal agencies to decide for themselves whether their actions will imperil a threatened or endangered species. The rule reverses precedent: since passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, scientists from the Fish and Wildlife Service have made such determinations independent of the agency involved. Under the new rule, if the Army Corps of Engineers is building a dam, the corps can decide whether it is putting species at risk. To make sure no one missed the point, Kempthorne told reporters that the new rule, which he termed "a narrow regulatory change," would keep the Endangered Species Act from becoming "a back door" to making climate change policy.
Kempthorne's proposal nevertheless seems likely to go forward. An obligatory thirty-day period for public comment expires September 15, after which Interior can begin to implement the rule. Congress could block funding, but few expect that to happen. Lawsuits are certain to follow, but critics say the quickest solution would be for the next administration to withdraw the rule. Barack Obama seems likely to do that; he immediately condemned Kempthorne's proposal. John McCain was silent. But his choice of Palin--who does not believe global warming is caused by humans but does think it's acceptable for humans to gun down wolves from airplanes--suggests that Arctic creatures have much to fear from a McCain administration.
FOR THE REST OF THIS REPORT, PLEASE VISIT: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080929/hertsgaard It wasn't much noticed at the time, but three weeks before she was chosen as John McCain's vice presidential running mate, A... more -
Cuteness Kills Endangered Monkeys
Illegal Wildlife Trade - Too Cute for Their Own Good
Cotton-top tamarins are smaller than spider monkeys, but they are equally charming, with outsize feet and shocks of wild white hair. They, too, are losing habitat at an alarming rate.
According to Anne Savage, Senior Conservation Biologist for Disney's Animal Programs, cotton-tops can survive in degraded forest but not isolated forest, island, that are disconnected from other kinds of habitat. Once, Savage recalls, she received a phone call from field staff saying that worker were cutting down trees [at the same time] as they were trying to count monkeys.
Between 30 and 70 percent of original habitat [has] disappeared she continues, due to deforestation for agricultural purposes, clearing land for cattle grazing or using trees for building materials and firewood.
Cotton-tops have also been taken for the biomedical trade. And as pets. They shoot the mother with a slingshot and take the young off her back when she falls to the ground says Savage.
Being cute is prized among humans, but for primates such as the variegated spider monkey (Ateles hybridus) and the cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus), the trait can be costly.
Alba Lucia Morales, of CI-partner Fundac in Biodiversa Colombia, admits to thinking the spider monkeys are the most wonderful in the forest. They are big and noisy the pregnant females are beautiful and the babies are gray and very cute.
But beauty in these animals is both blessing and curse. Deforestation and illegal wildlife trade threaten many animals, and these monkeys have an added challenge. No one is entirely sure exactly how many are taken each year for the illegal pet trade.
More Info:
http://www.conservation.org/FMG/Articles/Pages/colombia... Illegal Wildlife Trade - Too Cute for Their Own Good ... more -
Loopholes Make the 'Roadless Area' Rules Meaningless - Care2 News Networ...
'Truce' is reached in battle over Idaho forest land after years of political battles with the Bush administration pushing for "less-restrictive" rules. *CONSERVATION CAN NOT ENDURE IF THE PEOPLE MOST AFFECTED BY IT DO NOT SUPPORT IT*
Legal and political battles over the future of national forest land have raged since 2001, with the Clinton administration’s “roadless rule” protecting millions of acres from loggers, miners and development, and the Bush administration pushing for less-restrictive rules.
Other wilderness-protection groups opposed the plan released on Friday. Some, like the Wilderness Society, based in Washington, were concerned about the likelihood of phosphate mining in the acreage with less protection, and continued to press for the full measure of safeguards afforded by the Clinton-era rule.
Craig Gehrke, the regional director of the Wilderness Society, said on Friday that the organization’s position had been that all the national forest land protected by the 2001 rule “should be left roadless and undeveloped.”
The compromise on forest protections was embraced in the federal government’s final environmental impact statement, which will be open to public comment for 30 days. Final adoption would probably come late in the fall.
The new regulation covers only Idaho. The original Clinton rule applied to the entire country. That rule and a Bush administration substitute have been tangled in two-track litigation in federal courts, and it is not clear whether the new Idaho compromise plan will remain free of this tangle.
While the compromise was being hailed in a news conference in Boise, Idaho’s capital, in Colorado the battle continued unabated. That state, where 4.1 million acres were protected by the original roadless rule, has proposed a plan that has drawn fierce criticism from environmental groups for provisions that, they say, cater to ski resorts, ranchers and other commercial interests.
Mike King, the deputy director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, said the draft proposal had exempted some categories of land from roadless protections but had not delineated the boundaries of the land. This prompted assertions from environmental groups that the loopholes made the rule meaningless.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/us/30forest.html?ref=... 'Truce' is reached in battle over Idaho forest land after years of political battles with the Bush administration pushing fo... more -
ENN: Submerged Ghana forest may point to timber bonanza
Logging of a Ghanaian forest submerged 40 years ago by a hydroelectric dam could point to an underwater timber bonanza worth billions of dollars in tropical countries, a senior Ghanaian official said on Monday.
Exploiting submerged rot-resistant hardwoods such as ebony, wawa or odum trees in Lake Volta, the largest man-made lake in Africa, can also slow deforestation on land and curb emissions of greenhouse gases linked to burning of forests.
"Logging will start in October," Robert Bamfo, head of Climate Change at the government's Forestry Commission, told Reuters on the sidelines of a U.N. August 21-27 climate conference in Accra. "This will reduce the pressure on our forests."
"The project aims to harvest 14 million cubic meters (494.4 million cu ft) of timber worth about $4 billion," he said.
Logging will be led by a privately owned Canadian company, CSR Developments, which says it aims to invest $100 million in Ghana. Cutting equipment can be mounted on barges, guided by sonars to grab trees below water.
"There are very similar circumstances in numerous countries around the world including Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Brazil, Surinam, Malaysia and others," Bamfo said of forgotten forests swamped by hydroelectric dams.
"The potential is there -- they are awaiting to see the outcome of the Ghana project," he said.
He told the conference there were estimates that there were "5 million hectares (12.36 million acres) of salvageable submerged timber in the hydroelectric reservoirs in the tropics with the potential to supplement global demand for timber."
"The trees are still strong," Bamfo said, even though they had been under water since construction of the Akosombo Dam in the 1960s. Harvesting would cost more than on land but was still commercial because of the value of the timber.
BOAT COLLISIONS
In some shallower parts of the lake, covering an area of 850,000 hectares (2.1 million acres), thousands of trunks jut several meters out of the water. The lake is 90 meters (300 ft) deep at its deepest with a mean depth of 19 meters.
"Boat collisions with submerged tree stumps cause many fatalities every year," Bamfo said.
In the 1960s, no one saw a need to fell the trees as the lake rose. "Maybe at the time we thought we had enough timber in our forest estates to sustain us. Now, because of the decline, we need to diversify."
Ghana is being deforested at a rate of about 1.9 percent a year.
The U.N. conference is looking at ways to slow deforestation, blamed by U.N. surveys for emitting almost 20 percent of greenhouse gases from human activities. Trees soak up carbon dioxide as they grow and release it when burnt or when they rot. Logging of a Ghanaian forest submerged 40 years ago by a hydroelectric dam could point to an underwater timber bonanza worth billions ... more -
America's Endangered Species Under Attack
The Bush administration is proposing new rules that would weaken species protections and eliminate independent scientific review of development projects that could threaten species habit.
The changes ("tweaks") that the President Bush and the Bush Administration are proposing would weaken Section 7 of the landmark Endangered Species Act.
For more than three decades, this key provision of the ESA has safeguarded imperiled species from the impacts of potentially harmful federal projects.
Key to the success of this provision has been the requirement for interagency consultation between "action agencies" that build dams or highways, issue oil and gas leases or timber cutting contracts, etc., and the "conservation agencies" that have the primary responsibility for protecting endangered species (the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service).
The conservation agencies have always had the opportunity and responsibility to take a second look at the projects proposed by the action agencies. As a result of taking that independent look, the conservation agencies have often been able to suggest project modifications that avoid harmful impacts to rare species.
The proposed regulatory changes would eliminate the requirement for an independent review by the conservation agencies. The result will almost certainly mean that both harmful impacts on rare wildlife, and opportunities to avoid those impacts, will be overlooked.
Conservation is not the mission of federal action agencies like the Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Highway Administration, and others. To make sure that their projects (and the projects of many other federal agencies as well) do not cause needless harm to rare species, the existing requirement for independent review by federal conservation agencies should not be abandoned.
Please follow the link for the petition to President Bush. If these regulatory changes are made, it will be as if the Endangered Species Act does not exist... not to mention the horrific impact on the environment.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION!
http://action.edf.org/campaign/esa_action
I will be posting more news release on this issue. The Bush administration is proposing new rules that would weaken species protections and eliminate independent scientific review of de... more -
125,000 gorillas found in African zone
Wildlife researchers said Tuesday that they've discovered 125,000 western lowland gorillas deep in the forests of the Republic of Congo, calling it a major increase in the animal's estimated population.
The Wildlife Conservation Society, based at New York's Bronx Zoo, and the Republic of Congo said their census counted the newly discovered gorillas in two areas of the northern part of the country covering 18,000 square miles.
Previous estimates, dating to the 1980s, put the number of western lowland gorillas at less than 100,000. But the animal's numbers were believed to have fallen by at least 50 percent since then due to hunting and disease, researchers said. The newly discovered gorilla population now puts their estimated numbers at between 175,000 to 225,000.
"This is a very significant discovery because of the terrible decline in population of these magnificent creatures to Ebola and bush meat," said Emma Stokes, one of the research team.
The researchers in the central African nation of Republic of Congo _ neighbor of the much larger Congo _ worked out the population figures by counting the sleeping "nests" gorillas make. The creatures are too reclusive and shy to count individually.
The researchers in the central African nation of Republic of Congo _ neighbor of the much larger Congo _ worked out the population figures by counting the sleeping "nests" gorillas make. The creatures are too reclusive and shy to count individually.
Craig Stanford, professor of anthropology and biology at the University of Southern California, said he is aware of the new study. "If these new census results are confirmed, they are incredibly important and exciting, the kind of good news we rarely find in the conservation of highly endangered animals." He added that independent confirmation will be valuable because nest counts vary depending on the specific census method used.
Western lowland gorillas are one of four gorilla subspecies, which also include mountain gorillas, eastern lowland gorillas and Cross River gorillas. All are labeled either endangered or critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. --Stokes said it does not mean gorilla numbers in the wild are now safe.
"Far from being safe, the gorillas are still under threat from Ebola and hunting for bush meat. We must not become complacent about this. Ebola can wipe out thousands in a short period of time," she said.
The report was released as primatologists in Edinburgh, Scotland warned that nearly half of the world's 634 types of primates are in danger of becoming extinct due to human activity. That figure, carried in a comprehensive review of the planet's apes, monkeys, and lemurs, included primate species and subspecies.
Scientists meeting at the International Primatological Society Congress in Edinburgh said they hoped the report will help spur global action to defend mankind's nearest relatives from deforestation and hunting.
Primatologists warned that species from the giant mountain gorillas of central Africa to the tiny mouse lemurs of Madagascar are on the "Red List" for threatened species maintained by the IUCN.
The review was funded by Conservation International, the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation, Disney's Animal Kingdom and the IUCN. It is part of an examination of the state of the world's mammals due to be released at the 4th IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain, in October.
"It is not too late for our close cousins the primates, and what we have now is a challenge to turn this around," said Russell A. Mittermeier, president of Conservation International and the chairman of the IUCN Species Survival Commission's primate specialist group.
"The review paints a bleak picture. Some primates are quite literally being eaten to extinction. But it is by no means a doomsday scenario. There is a lot of will here among these scientists in Edinburgh and in the countries where primates live." Wildlife researchers said Tuesday that they've discovered 125,000 western lowland gorillas deep in the forests of the Republic of... more -
Congo launches review of logging contracts
*Africa's Deforestation Twice the World's Rate*
http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/37370
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congo, home to the world's second largest tropical forest, launched a review of all timber contracts on Wednesday in an effort to clean up a business rife with corruption and to recoup millions of dollars in lost taxes.
THE WORDL BANK SPONSERED initiative will look at 156 deals. Most were signed during a 1998-2003 war and subsequent interim government accused of awarding numerous dubious logging and mining contracts
In 2002, with the country partially under the control of rebels, the Democratic Republic of Congo issued a five-year moratorium on new logging contracts as part of efforts to stem rampant deforestation aggravated by the conflict.
The measure went largely unheeded and companies continued to sign new deals.
Logging and land clearance for farming are eating away the Congo Basin, home to more than a quarter of the world's tropical forest, at the rate of more than 800,000 hectares a year.
Many contracts are expected to be cancelled outright by a review panel made up of government officials and independent experts.
"What I'm hoping for is fewer concessions. What I'm hoping for is more revenues for the state. What I'm hoping for is better management of the forestry sector," Environment Minister Jose Endundu told reporters on Wednesday.
Endundu said last month he wanted to reduce land attributed to logging companies to 15 million hectares from 20 million.
Amongst the biggest timber firms operating in Congo are Siforco, which is a subsidiary of Germany's Danzer Group, and Portuguese-owned Sodefor, a unit of holding company NST.
Together with a third company, Safbois, they account for more than 66 percent of the timber exported from Congo, researchers say.
PROFIT LAUNDERING
Conservation campaigner Greenpeace accused the Danzer Group on Wednesday of employing a system of price fixing and off-shore accounts to avoid paying taxes on timber harvested from Congo and neighboring Republic of Congo.
Greenpeace said the losses to both countries in tax revenues between 2000 and 2006 could top $12 million -- or around 50 times the annual operating budget of Democratic Republic of Congo's Environment Ministry.
"(Congo) is one of the poorest places on the planet and that companies like Danzer Group are looking for ways to avoid paying taxes is simply outrageous," Michelle Medeiros, Greenpeace International Africa Forest Coordinator, said in Zurich.
Responding to the charges, Danzer said the Greenpeace allegations were "totally without foundation".
"They are an absurd, populist gimmick designed to cloud the current public discussion surrounding tax evasion in a misleading Greenpeace report," it said in a statement. *Africa's Deforestation Twice the World's Rate* http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/37370 ... more -
Diary: Protecting mountain gorillas
In July 2007, armed men entered the Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park and killed five critically endangered mountain gorillas at point-blank range, leaving the bodies where they fell.
Since September, rebel forces have controlled the area, threatening to kill any conservationists or gorilla rangers who attempted to enter the area.
Diddy and Innocent are long-serving rangers who have spent their working lives protecting the remaining gorillas in the war-torn region.
In this weekly diary, they describe life on conservation's frontline and the frustration of how recent events are hampering their efforts.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7110093.stm In July 2007, armed men entered the Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park and killed five critically endangered mo... more -
Half of all primate species face extinction
A new study warns that 48% of the world's primates species face extinction.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species says the main threats are habitat loss, primarily through the burning and clearing of tropical forests, hunting of primates for food and illegal wildlife trade.
The survey showed that out of 634 recognised species and subspecies, 11% were Critically Endangered, 22% were Endangered, while a further 15% were listed as Vulnerable.
With 71% considered at risk of extinction, Asia had the greatest proportion of threatened primates. The five nations with the highest percentage of endangered species were all within Asia. A new study warns that 48% of the world's primates species face extinction. ... more -
In Cambodia, land seizures push thousands of the poor into homelessness
When the monsoon rain pours through Mao Sein's torn thatch roof, she pulls a straw sleeping mat over herself and her three small children and waits until it stops.
She and her children sit on a low table as floodwater rises, bringing with it the sewage that runs along the mud paths outside their shack.
Mao Sein, 34, was resettled by the government here in an empty field two years ago, when the police raided the squatters' colony where she lived in Phnom Penh, the capital, 12 miles away.
She is a widow and a scavenger. The area where she lives has no clean water or electricity, no paved roads or permanent buildings. But there is land to live on, and that has drawn scores of new homeless families to settle here, squatting among the squatters.
With its shacks and its sewage, Andong looks very much like the refugee camps that were home to those who were forced from their homes by the brutal Communist Khmer Rouge three decades ago.
Like tens of thousands of people around the country, those living here are victims of what experts say has become the most serious human rights abuse in the country: land seizures that lead to evictions and homelessness.
"Expropriation of the land of Cambodia's poor is reaching a disastrous level," Basil Fernando, executive director of the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong, a private monitoring group, said in December. "The courts are politicized and corrupt, and impunity for human rights violators remains the norm."
With the economy on the rise, land is being seized for logging, agriculture, mining, tourism and fisheries, and in Phnom Penh, soaring land prices have touched off what one official called a frenzy of land grabs by the rich and powerful. The seizures can be violent, including late-night raids by the police and military. Sometimes, shanty neighborhoods burn down, apparently victims of arson.
"They came at 2 a.m.," said Ku Srey, 37, who was evicted with Mao Sein and most of their neighbors in June 2006.
"They were vicious," Ku Srey said of the police and soldiers who evicted her.
"They had electric batons" — and she imitated the sound made by the devices: "chk-chk-chk-chk." She said, "They pushed us into trucks, they threw all our stuff into trucks and they brought us here."
In a report in February, Amnesty International estimated that 150,000 people around the country were now at risk of forcible eviction as a result of land disputes, land seizures and new development projects.
These include 4,000 families who live around a lake in the center of Phnom Penh, Boeung Kak Lake, which is the city's main catchment for monsoon rains and is being filled in for upscale development.
**article continues, click link to read** When the monsoon rain pours through Mao Sein's torn thatch roof, she pulls a straw sleeping mat over herself and her three small ... more -
Disappearing Forests of the Southeast
Housing Sprawl in the Southeast - Our Vanishing Wild Places
Our window of opportunity to preserve much of what is left of our great Eastern Forests closes more with each new housing development in our forests. The interactive graphics below demonstrate the land that has been lost to housing sprawl and how much more will be lost if current practices fail to change.
We have a chance to preserve for future generations much of what is left of our great Eastern Forests—and there is a lot worth saving. But the time to do so narrows with each new housing development in our forests, so we must all work together now to save our most important lands. TWS is working to establish more Wilderness areas in the east; to increase federal and state funding to purchase priority lands or development rights from willing sellers; to prevent road building & commercial logging in Forest Service roadless areas; and to create a broad understanding of how protecting forests helps to combat climate change.
* The data for these maps were produced by R.B. Hammer and V.C. Radeloff at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, with funding from the USDA Forest Service North Central Research Station.
{ http://www.wilderness.org/OurIssues/EasternForests/Spra... } Housing Sprawl in the Southeast - Our Vanishing Wild Places ... more -
New satellite photos show Amazon deforestation exploding
New satellite photographs show that the destruction of Brazil's fragile Amazon rainforest has exploded this year, fueling fears that the government's efforts to stop deforestation have been fruitless.
Brazil's DETER real-time monitoring system found that more than 430 square miles of forest, an area a bit smaller than the city of Los Angeles, vanished in the month of April, while about 2,300 square miles, larger than the state of Delaware, were destroyed between last August and April.
That nine-month total surpassed the entire acreage in the Amazon that was destroyed over the previous 12 months, according to DETER data. What's worse, the satellites couldn't see about half of the forest in April due to cloud cover, suggesting that actual deforestation likely was much greater.
That's raised red flags among environmentalists, who say that soybean farming, cattle production and illegal logging are destroying the world's largest rainforest despite the government's attempts to halt the deforestation.
Chopping down and burning the rainforest releases tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, contributing to global climate change. Brazil is the world's fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, largely because of deforestation, according to the U.S.-based World Resources Institute.
Worse is yet to come, environmentalists said.
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Balancing survival with preserving nature. That is the challenge we face. New satellite photographs show that the destruction of Brazil's fragile Amazon rainforest has exploded this year, fueling fears t... more -
Brazil unveils new plan to curb Amazon logging
Brazil has unveiled its plan to encourage farmers in the Amazon region to develop sustainable sources of income and turn their backs on the illegal logging that is ravaging the rainforest.
The Sustainable Amazon Plan includes £300m in low-interest loans that will be made available to farmers.Some 40,000 families who were formerly involved in logging will also get social security and unemployment benefits.The loans will be offered at 4% annual interest, well below Brazil's benchmark 11.75% rate, said the environment minister, Marina Silva Brazil has unveiled its plan to encourage farmers in the Amazon region to develop sustainable sources of income and turn their backs o... more -
Bush selling OUR forests
Since his inauguration, President Bush has been quietly selling off our public lands to logging and mining interests. The Bush administration's allies in Congress are undermining laws established to guarantee citizen oversight of public lands, giving the logging industry the power to destroy endangered species habitat and ignore environmental laws and regulations. Since his inauguration, President Bush has been quietly selling off our public lands to logging and mining interests. The Bush adminis... more
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