http://www.ecoearth.info/rss/alert.xml Curent Cyber Actions at http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/alerts/ Earth Action Network a project of Ecological Internet, Inc. info@ecologicalinternet.org (Dr. Glen Barry) http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/images/eilogo85.gif http://www.ecoearth.info/rss/alert.xml ![CDATA[Old forests including tropical rainforests are the ultimate expression of life, evolution and ecology. The term “old forests” is used to describe primary unlogged forests, regenerating late successional natural old-growth, and planted mixed-species forests regaining old-growth characteristics. Here untold co-evolved species and genetic diversity exist and interact with each other and their environment to provide ecosystem services – water, nutrient and energy cycling – required for a habitable Earth. Forests logged industrially for the first time are permanently ecologically damaged in terms of composition, structure, function and dynamics. When primary forests are lost or diminished, it is inevitable that local ecological and social conditions deteriorate, regional weather and species distributions deviate, and the global biosphere and its ability to maintain conditions for life are weakened. The forest protection movement, like many social justice movements before it, is at a crossroads. The slavery abolitionists had to choose between improving conditions for slaves or pursuing their freedom. American revolutionaries chose between greater autonomy under continued British colonialism or to fight for full freedom and liberty. Similarly, the forest movement has to decide whether we want to work to fully protect and restore old carbon and species rich forests as a keystone response to achieve global ecological sustainability, or continue to log – in only a slightly better manner – 500 year old trees in 60 million year old ecosystems for disposable consumer products. By definition, primary forests are destroyed. Since 1993 best estimates are the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has sanctioned the logging of sixty million hectares of primary and old-growth forests, and an equal amount is threatened in coming years. But no one really knows the full extent of the problem as FSC does not compile how many old forests it certifies for first time heavy industrial logging. This means FSC and the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) -- an FSC founding member and ardent supporter -- are responsible for the past and threatened loss of about 460,000 square miles of primary and other old forests – an area the size of South Africa, or nearly two times the size of Texas. FSC has not responded to numerous requests to gather more accurate figures, when directly questioned FSC board members say they do not know, and even RAN who is a member was not provided this information. In light of current and emerging ecosystem, biodiversity and climate science; as well as evident abrupt climate change and the ongoing biodiversity extinction crises, it is clear that FSC certification for primary and old-growth logging – except under specific circumstances such as small scale community eco-forestry practiced by local peoples – is one of the primary threats to old forests. This is particularly true when many other certification schemes and business as usual industrial rainforest logging make competing claims of sustainability. Internationally, forest carbon efforts – such as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) – build upon the falsehood that logging primary forests, even establishing plantations where they once stood, is a desired outcome. In most countries it is impossible to suggest old forest logging end and development be based upon standing old forests, as the response is they are to be “sustainably” logged. It is becoming abundantly clear that ending industrial diminishment and working for the full protection and restoration of old forests are keystone responses to the climate change, biodiversity, ecosystem, water and poverty crises. If RAN can target others for damaging the environment, then clearly their own involvement in such massive and unexplained logging of ancient forests is worthy of a campaign and deserves a reasoned response. Past protests have been shrugged off and twice RAN reneged on promises to get FSC to address the problem. RAN’s former executive director – who never thought it necessary to publicly defend their position – now heads the Sierra Club, another FSC supporter, and the controversy follows him there. Both organizations are already taking a strong and successful ecological position on coal, why not old forests? Sierra Club founder John Muir – who long defended a preservationist ethic against utilitarian conservationist approaches – is assuredly rolling in his grave. There is no chance old forest logging will ever end until otherwise ecologically attuned groups like RAN and the Sierra Club discontinue their FSC membership. Please demand these leading organizations vigorously defend their positions and resign from FSC immediately.]] http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=ran_ancient_forest_logging http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=ran_ancient_forest_logging 13 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST | | info@ecologicalinternet.org (Dr. Glen Barry) ![CDATA[The mighty Ramu River valley in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea flows for some 450 miles (720 km) – through over a million hectares (2.47 million acres) of sparsely populated primary lowland rainforest and swamp forest. The Ramu contains a wide variety of tropical Australasian marsupials, including tree kangaroos, and thirteen mammal species that are endemic or near endemic. The local tribes are loving, simple people; most of whom have had little if any formal education. As they become more aware of the outside world, they reasonably want to meet their basic needs for education, medicines, transportation and improved living standards. Sadly industrial logging of their rainforests is often seen as the one way to advance themselves. Several logging concessions covering hundreds of thousands of hectares have already been laid out, logging has started by criminal Rimbunan Hijau (RH) of Malaysia in Ramu Block 1. Tiong Hiew King is the Chairman of Rimbunan Hijau, and after years of viciously denuding much of Asia/Pacific's rainforests, is reportedly the richest man in Asia. RH's intent as demonstrated by the massive logging infrastructure they have already built is clearly to industrially log the entire area. The primary tributary is the Sogeram River, which is crossed to reach the Ramu, has already been partially logged by another now defunct Malaysian logging company, and RH corruptly seeks to acquire remaining forests here as well. They are close to doing so. Local group Asples Madang – a project of Ecological Internet – is the only organization working with all Ramu and Sogeram landowners to end logging. Some seek to end the logging to pursue alternatives, others prefer existing provincial logging companies that operate somewhat more responsibly and with a much lower impact. Yet all are united with concerns over RH’s sociopathic reliance upon violence and corruption to illegally destroy their birthright. Having seen this logging mafia in action for almost a year, landowners are united in wanting RH out now. This fragile alliance has stopped the logging since November 2009 based upon a Sogeram landowner court case that shows the Forest Management Area (FMA) was illegally granted. This is only a temporarily reprieve however, as both RH and competing logging companies have literally been taking bags of money into the bush to bribe ill-informed and poverty-stricken landowners. This renewed competition for logging rights offers a unique opportunity for forest protectors to unite to expel RH, and work to end or carefully limit and control logging. This will first require outing massive ongoing corruption and violence by RH and the national government. It is reported that RH has again made major bribes to the Somare government to keep the FMA. And they have unleashed deadly violence upon landowners which have bravely been petitioning to have the FMA canceled or removed from RH. In late 2009, drunken youth broke into RH’s tool shed. On the behest of Francis Wong – RH’s local manager – local police were bribed to send a message to the community to end their resistance. The next day two youths were separately rounded up by visibly drunken police and unknown associates, and shot with a military style M-16 rifle at point blank range in the leg. After the torture, neither was arrested but were just left to bleed. Both were hospitalized with a shattered leg, with the youth in the photo having just now after two months of treatment been discharged from hospital. Asples Madang’s Director – Peter Las from the Sogeram – has been single-handedly helping these youths, documenting their story, bringing them food and seeking to have criminal charges brought. But Asples Madang is critically short of funding to do so. After sending the alert, you will be forwarded to a donation page to “Save the Ramu”. 100% of your support will be given to Sogeram and Ramu landowners to pay for transportation, office and patrolling expenses to resist RH and their style of industrial logging in general. There exists a marvelous opportunity to stop the horrendous ecological sustainability and human rights abuses threatening the peoples and habitats of Asples Madang – the people of Madang. No one but you and I are standing with Ramu Block 1 and Sogeram landowners bravely resisting RH and industrial primary rainforest logging. Please send the alert, and if possible, give what you can afford to their locally initiated and run campaign. This is the beginning of the campaign to end industrial scaled first time logging of PNG’s and then the world's remaining primary rainforests.]] http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=png_ramu_rh http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=png_ramu_rh 07 Feb 2010 11:00:00 PST | | info@ecologicalinternet.org (Dr. Glen Barry) ![CDATA[UPDATE: 26/01/2010 Madagascar has legalized the export of rosewood logs, ushering in renewed logging of the country's embattled rainforest parks. The transitional authority led by president Andry Rajoelina, who seized power during a military coup last March, earlier this month released a decree that allows the export of rosewood logs harvested from the Indian Ocean island's national parks [1]. Ecological Internet has received confirmation that our Madagascar campaign with Rainforest Rescue did achieve some partial success. The particular logging shipments highlighted at the end of 2009 did not proceed. Two weeks ago a $40 million shipment of rosewood from Vohemar was canceled after complaints that the French shipping company, Delmas, would facilitate the trafficking of illegally logged timber. However, the Malagasy government is now forcing the hand of Delmas shipping by authorizing the export of rosewood. Rajoelina has ordered that rosewood logged from Madagascar's rainforests now be shipped out of the country. Following the campaign, Delmas apparently said it would no longer ship rosewood out of Madagascar. But now Malagasy power-brokers are effectively blackmailing Delmas, saying that if it doesn't pick up timber, it will no longer be allowed to do business in Madagascar. Delmas is planning to ship up to 400 containers from Vohemar port to Tamatave port, where it then goes to Asia on another vessel, and likely another company. The names of the shipping companies reaching Tamatave and sailing to Asia : Delmas, Safmarine and PIL. France, Holland, Morocco, and the World Bank have all been implicated in financing illegal logging operations in Madagascar's national parks over the past year. Even as foreign governments condemned the surge in illegal logging last year, many--either directly or through institutions they support--are shareholders in the very banks that have financed the export of illegal lumber from Madagascar's SAVA region. The Bank of Africa Madagascar, for instance, is part owned by Proparco, a subsidiary of the Agence Française du Développement, as well as the World Bank's International Finance Corporation, Dutch development bank FMO, and the Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur. Société Générale and Crédit Lyonnais, both part-owned by the French government, have also provided loans to illegal timber traders. Local sources confirm there are presently thousands of loggers in Masoala (UNESCO World Heritage site) and Makira. With the log exports now open, loggers will step up logging of these rainforest parks. Since Madagascar has no system for tracking timber or any control over logging, there is no way to ensure that these logs aren't being illegally cut from national parks – which is certainly occurring and becoming increasingly well-documented. Further, allowing exports provides impetus for more logging. EI has been asked by local organizations to repost our action page, as people are looking for ways to help. MOST RECENT ALERT: 20/12/2009 Mongabay reports that Delmas shipping company is planning to take as many as 200 containers (worth $40M) of illegally logged rosewood rainforest timbers out of Vohemar port in Madagascar on the 21st or 22nd of December [2]. They reported four shipping companies have transported rosewood from Madagascar this year. Three of these have agreed to stop shipping rosewood following criticisms from international conservation groups, but the fourth, Delmas (a subsidiary of French shipping giant CMA-CGM) continues to ship illegally logged precious woods in large quantities. Delmas has been asked by local campaigners to stop abetting the illegal timber trade by transporting rosewood. Delmas answered by insisting they had the authorization of the Minister of Environment and Forests, despite being presented with clear evidence that the merchandise they are transporting is of illegal origin. A search of their website reveals no routing information for the Consistence and the Lea, two of their ships reported to have transported rosewood recently. Though shipments of lumber may change hands in the Comoros, Mauritius or Malaysia, cargo manifests routinely leave out these intermediary stops and list only the shipment's final destination in China. Loggers in Madagascar are daily plundering up to $460,000 of precious woods from national parks in the country's northeast, and the shipping companies are a good target to end these atrocities. The vast majority of precious woods that leave Madagascar are bound for a few cities in Southern China: Hong Kong, Dalian, Shanghai, Ganzhou. Between 1998 and 2008, Chinese imports of tropical wood nearly quadrupled, to 45 million cubic meters annually, making it by far the world's largest consumer of tropical timber. Over half of these imports are thought to be sourced illegally. In October, Rainforest Rescue and Ecological Internet reported loggers and wildlife traders continue to violate Madagascar's biodiversity rich rainforests including protected areas. In March of this year controversy surrounding leasing of agricultural land resulted in a military coup. In the chaos that ensued, armed gangs funded by Chinese traders entered Madagascar’s Marojejy and Masoala National Parks, two world-renowned World Heritage Sites, and logged rosewood, ebonies, and other valuable hardwoods. NGOs operating in Madagascar report continued armed, open and organized plundering of precious wood from several natural forests, including these parks. Recently Global Witness and EIA launched a major report on the matter [3].]] http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=madagascar_landgrab http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=madagascar_landgrab 26 Jan 2010 11:00:00 PST | | info@ecologicalinternet.org (Dr. Glen Barry) ![CDATA[Malaysia's large, intact rainforests in the province of Sarawak, on the Island of Borneo, are nearly exhausted, and most of what remains is to be cleared and converted into industrial monocultures of oil palm and acacia trees, or flooded under hydro-electric dams. Malaysia is the world's leading rainforest destroying nation, globally exporting industrial ecocide to virtually every rainforest worldwide. But increasingly they are encountering resistance, as this network recently successfully stopped (for now) the Malaysian government's oil palm expansion into the heart of the Amazon. And for more than two years, the indigenous Penan community of Long Benali, armed with spears and blowpipes, have successfully prevented the bulldozers of the Samling group from encroaching onto their native customary lands. Since 1960, Malaysian timber and oil palm companies have mercilessly plundered Sarawaks's rainforests which are the rightful home of the Penan indigenous peoples. Malaysia's rainforests and fate of the Penan were once a cause célèbre amongst progressive activists -- yet sadly their plight has largely faded from global public view. Yet, Malaysia continued to lose 1.49 million hectares, or 6.6 percent of its forest cover, from 1990 to 2005. The last forested areas large enough to support the Penan's nomadic traditional hunter-gather lifestyles are now falling victim to bulldozers. Some 10,000-12,000 Penan are believed to remain in Sarawak, about 400 of whom are nomadic. Continued industrial rainforest destruction has driven many to settle down into rural poverty and caused increasing problems with disease, alcoholism and sexual assault. Driving this loss of species, genetics, ecosystems and peoples is the world's growing population and hunger for endless growth of consumption in cheap palm oil, paper and electricity. The Sarawak state government wants to expand the acreage devoted to oil palm to 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) by 2010, from 744,000 at the end of 2008. Companies that formerly chopped down hardwood trees and exported the timber are now moving into palm plantations. Oil palm can be used for food, chemicals, and biofuels; and acacia trees provide raw materials for the voracious paper industry. About 35% of the world’s cooking oil comes from palm, more than any other plant, and 90% of the world’s palm oil comes from Malaysia and Indonesia. Sarawak's rainforests and peoples are further threatened by ill-conceived plans for a string of rainforest destroying hydro-electric dams. Environmentalists have opposed the Bakun dam on the Balui River in Sarawak for years -- the first and largest of the dams -- as it will flood 700 square kilometres of rainforest. The area is already being cleared using fire, violating Malaysian legislation against open burning, and thickening the blanket of polluting haze that hangs over the region. Further plans call for a network of 12 hydroelectric dams to be built across Sarawak’s rainforests by 2020 with a capacity to produce 7,000MW. By 2037, as many as 51 dams could be constructed. The project will create one of the largest hydropower complexes outside China and will be developed by the China Three Gorges Project Corporation. Far from being a source of "clean" energy, such large dams flood massive pristine forested areas, produce large-scale carbon dioxide and methane emissions from rotting vegetation, severely affect river hydrology, displace thousands of indigenous people, and fragment forests affecting endangered and endemic plants and wildlife. Construction of the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam has been called a "monument of corruption." CMS -- like much of the timber and oil palm industry -- is owned by the family of Sarawak’s long-standing chief minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud. Development projects such as plantations and dams are not reducing poverty amongst local peoples. The courageous Penan are making a final valiant effort to protect their last forested areas from notorious criminal enterprises like Samling, Hill International, Shin Yang, KTS, CMS and Rimbunan Hijau. Recently some 3,000 indigenous residents have blocked several main roads leading to their rainforests, and are determined to do anything to resist. Please join with them and thousands of other global citizens, and write to the Malaysian government and ask for the recognition of land rights of the Penan and the immediate halt to the rainforest clearing in Sarawak for dams, paper and oil palm. Let them known intact, large old rainforests are a requirement to halt climate change, biodiversity loss, and to achieve local, regional and global community development and ecological sustainability]] http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=malaysia_penan_blockade http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=malaysia_penan_blockade 07 Sep 2009 11:00:00 PST | | info@ecologicalinternet.org (Dr. Glen Barry)