Mixing Messages

Today for you 34 new articles about earth’s trees! (235th edition)
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-- British Columbia : 1) Forest economy
-- Washington : 2) Clearcutting park to make airport more safe
-- Oregon : 3) ski expansion shut down, 4) New wood economy, 5) Sustainable forestry?
-- California : 6) Bill for Air resources board to help protect trees, 7) Bristlecone Pine,
-- UK : 8) Trees as movie stars
-- Finland : 9) Elk eating tree farmer’s trees
-- Ethiopia : 10) Sustainable Starbucks is good at sustaining genocide
-- Tanzania : 11) Nou forest sustains 200,000 people
-- Uganda : 12) Bombing gets people to plant trees for protection, 13) Chimps, Brazil
-- Brazil : 13) What’s wrong with FSC?
-- Guyana : 14) if destruction pays and conservation doesn't…
-- Chile : 15) 2.17 million hectares now biosphere preserve
-- Uruguay : 16) 4 pulp mills set to destroy whole country
-- India : 17) local involvement important, 18) stopping timber thieves, 19) Ayurvedic cultivation suffers from defrorestation, 20) Scandal in Kerala Assembly,
-- China : 21) # 1 criminal in the business of illegal logging, 22) Magic tree worshiped,
-- Burma : 23) Protest revolve around corrupt logging practices
-- Cambodia : 24) Pursat province officials stealing logs
-- Philippines : 25) Children of the forest make mini forests
-- Malaysia : 26) Samling shut down to protect Penan, 27) Fines increased,
-- Indonesia : 28) Forest Carbon Protection Facility
-- Australia : 29) pulp baron scam, 30) Save Moira forest, 31) Save Karri forests,
--World-wide: 32) International Day Against Monoculture, 33) Extincition count, 34) FSC GE tree fraud,

British Columbia :


1) British Columbia 's economy was built on forestry, and while over the last 150 years the province's economy has become more diversified, forestry remains a key economic driver. Forestry is responsible for 15 per cent of the province's economic activity and directly employs about 80,000 British Columbians. Outside the Lower Mainland, forestry remains the largest or second-largest source of income for 77 per cent of B.C. communities. At around $14 billion per year, forestry accounts for about 40 per cent of the province's exports. British Columbia remains one of the world's leading exporters of forest products, including pulp and paper. In 2003, we introduced the Forestry Revitalization Act – the most significant update to forest policy in over 50 years. The changes were aimed at revitalizing the industry by allowing businesses to operate more competitively, and by opening up the door for greater diversification by new entrants and First Nations. Now, 49 communities have new or expanded community forest opportunities. Forestry is not without its challenges, which currently include a strong Canadian dollar, increased competition from low-cost jurisdictions and a slumping U.S. housing market. But, history has shown B.C.'s forestry's industry is resilient and can overcome the cyclical nature of the business. http://www.gov.bc.ca


Washington :

2) So far, about 250 trees of a total of 350 trees have been felled. Cutting began the first week of September. During the park closure, temporary traffic barriers will be set up. The tree-clearing effort is part of a three-year project initiated by the Port of Port Angeles to remove trees from the approaches to William R. Fairchild International Airport , which is west of the park.The trees are being removed to comply with Federal Aviation Administration guidelines for runway glide slopes. The city of Port Angeles , which owns the park, will sell the trees for an estimated $50,000. An initial survey by the port identified 200 trees for removal. The 200 were located in the west part of Lincoln Park near the former campground. A follow-up survey by the city identified an additional 150 trees that were deemed diseased or dangerous, and that could be removed to create additional recreational space at the park. Those 150 trees were closer to Lauridsen Boulevard . Under FAA regulations, trees and any other obstructions must be removed from an area 10,000 feet beyond the end of the airport’s main runway and 5,000 feet beyond the end of the alternate north-south runway. http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/a pps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070922/NEWS/7 0922001

Oregon :

3) The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against the U.S. Forest Service in a lawsuit that challenged the merits of an expansion project to the Mt. Ashland Ski Area. The three-judge panel federal appeals court for the western United States ruled that the Forest Service “failed to properly evaluate” the impact the project would have on the Pacific fisher, a rare mink-like animal that lives in the Siskiyou Mountains, and didn’t “appropriately designate” riparian reserves in the expansion area. “The MASA (Mount Ashland Ski Area) expansion would result in eliminating habitat that may be vital to preservation of the fisher population in the project area,” the court wrote in its decision filed Monday morning. “Similarly, until the Riparian Reserves and Restricted Watershed lands are properly classified and subjected to additional scrutiny required by these classifications, the possibility of environmental harm to the ecological health of the region’s waterways remains.” The Mt. Ashland Association sent out a press release this afternoon that stated members of the board of directors and staff “will review the court decision with its legal counsel to determine its next course of action.” Ashland City Councilor Eric Navickas, who was a party to the lawsuit as an individual before the case was appealed to the Ninth Circuit, said, “I’m pretty ecstatic. We expected this after sitting through the court hearing but it feels a lot better to have a decision from the court. It really shows what a waste of time that whole process has been. Hopefully Mt. Ashland will accept that it lost and stop dumping money into this.” He said if the expansion plans are, in fact, over, he will end his ten-year boycott of the Mt. Ashland slopes and go skiing this winter. http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dl l/article?AID=/20070925/NEWS/709250308

4) In 2006, 32,320 Oregonians worked in lumber and wood products manufacturing, compared to 64,764 in 1986 — a loss of more than 50 percent in 20 years, despite the state’s population doubling during the same time. “For sure, the percentage that manufacturing makes up of the total economy has declined,” said Steve Williams, the Oregon Employment Department’s regional economist for Central Oregon . Statewide, manufacturing has been growing as an industry. In the Portland area, for example, new companies produce semiconductors and microchips. In Crook County , on the other hand, wood products still constitute about 90 percent of all manufacturing jobs. In the last 10 years, manufacturing jobs in Oregon have grown by about 15 percent, Williams said. But the rest of the economy has grown by about 60 percent. So manufacturing is a smaller component of the overall economy than it was 10 years ago. Not everyone displaced by the changing economy has adopted careers as different as Gervais. Bob Otteni, of La Pine, for example, is still working in forestry. Sort of. To change with the times, he started a tree care company that transfers his forestry skills to the service industry. Otteni had a reforestation company in Eugene that came to Central Oregon in 1980 on a contract with the logging and mill company Brooks-Scanlon. Then he started winning local contracts with the U.S. Forest Service. After trees were cut down for timber, Otteni and his crew came through an area and replanted trees. In the winter, his crew helped thin overgrown stands of trees to allow the remaining trees to grow bigger faster. “We had enough work to stay busy year-round,” Otteni said. “We got up to where we had probably 40 or so employees during the (peak) season.” By the late 1980s, Otteni had bought some wood processing machinery. He ran a post and pole mill in the La Pine Industrial Park and a mechanized thinning operation, too. “You had to be changing all the time; it was such a dynamic industry,” he said. “You always had to be looking at where the industry was going. I saw it as a cyclical thing, with waves that would rise and fall. And you had to sort of position yourself so that you could ride the crest of the wave coming up and get off before (it crashed) because most of these cycles would end.” http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.d ll/article?AID=/20070923/BIZ0102/7092303 56/1001&nav_cate
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5) We hear praise for sustainable forestry from the timber industry, politicians, and even among many environmental groups. While sustainability is an admirable goal, most of what I have seen touted as sustainable practices are far from ecologically sustainable, especially when compared to wild landscapes. In nearly all instances that I have observed, the so called “sustainable” logging, grazing, farming-- fill in the blank-- is only sustainable by externalizing most of the real costs (ecological impacts) of production. That doesn’t prevent people from trying to claim that they have achieved the Holy Grail and found a way to exploit nature and protect it too. Everyone wants to think they can take from nature and somehow not have to pay the full cost. It’s the free lunch syndrome. Sustainable forestry as practiced today is usually more of an economic definition than an ecological one. By sustainable, timber companies and their supporters in the “sustainable forestry” movement engage in practices that ensure a continual long term timber supply, not a sustainable forest. A couple of weeks ago I toured a highly ballyhooed sustainable forestry site in California . The company whose property we viewed was certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as a sustainable forestry wood producer. Certification by FSC permits a company to sell its wood for a premium and supposedly gives consumers reassurance that the wood they are buying is environmentally benign or may even enhance ecosystem function. The company land was, by the standards of the industry, well managed. They did no clearcutting. They left buffers along streams. They didn’t cut any remaining patches of old growth. In short, they were a model timber operation. Their land still had trees, but did it still have a forest? For many the mere presence of trees is taken as proof that logging on the site was sustainable. But a continuous supply of trees for the mill doesn’t necessarily mean you are preserving or sustaining a forest ecosystem. The company owners and foresters who led the tour were proud of their efforts. I don’t want to denigrate their practices, which, on the whole, were much better than those followed by other timber companies. But that doesn’t mean their logging practices were perpetuating a forest ecosystem. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/is _sustainable_forestry_sustainable/C38/L3 8/#comments

California :

6) Under AB 32, the Air Resources Board is charged with leading California 's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels. A small but important component of this is expanding and financially crediting the role that forests -- and forestry -- can play in capturing and storing carbon dioxide. The ARB is scheduled to adopt the existing but flawed forestry protocols at its October meeting. If it takes this action, it will please "cut no tree" environmental types but greatly diminish the true potential for California forestry to help in achieving the goals of AB 32 by playing a vigorous role in the emerging marketplace for carbon credits. What's wrong with the current protocols? Nothing, if you're managing forest property as a park. Because environmentalists don't like forestry, the protocols are skewed to reward landowners who grow trees but don't harvest them. They have nothing to offer to traditional forestry interests who are in the business of planting, growing and cutting trees. http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/392 606.html

7) Scattered on a remote mountainside of eastern California , these gnarled, twisted specimens are the oldest living organisms on Earth, the most senior among them some 4,700 years old. If the mere sight of trees that pre-date the ancient Pyramids of Giza is not enough to take the breath away, the hour-long trek to reach them is: these natural wonders are found at a rarified altitude of 3,300 meters. The bristlecone's astounding durability is partly explained by the harsh climate that they have endured throughout the ages, according to Patti Wells, a US Forest Service naturalist, who has studied the trees for 37 years. In the summer, the trees bask in temperatures of 25 degrees Celsius, but in winter they are frozen in bone-chilling sub-zero temperatures that can reach minus 30 degrees. Roaring winds of 320 kph (200 mph) pummel the forest, which is also blanketed in snow up to three meters deep. Only the bristlecone is able to withstand such extreme conditions, botanists say. The reasons are partly to do with the tree's unique make-up and unforgiving location. Because the trees grow slowly, they have developed an impervious resinous wood, protecting them from insect infestations and mushrooms. The high altitude of the forest also means that potentially devastating fires in the region don't have as much oxygen to feed them, Wells said. At first glance bristlecone pines often appear to be dead. As the tree ages outer layers of bark die, leaving only a strip of connective tissue stretching from the roots to the few branches that remain alive. The deadwood of "Pinus Longevae" is so solid that it does not rot. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jbq PkeCraj9vmMDWjweCt0A6fKow

UK :

8) The most striking piece of trivia about the Queen beech, a gnarled, knotted old tree in an ancient Hertfordshire woodland, is that it was once a character in a Harry Potter film. The landmark at Frithsden Beeches, just outside London , took a turn as the sometimes violent Whomping Willow in The Prisoner of Azkaban. You can see why the film-makers were struck by it: it looks good for a 350-year-old. Regal limbs creep out from its centre; it has the grandeur of a seen-it-all veteran that has lived since before the Great Fire of London, and taken in plenty more besides. If one could pick the ideal companion with which to encounter this majestic and spooky scene, it would surely be Richard Mabey. Softly-spoken, intense and erudite, he is one of the "wild bunch" of lyrical writers currently riding a wave of interest in man's relationship with the landscape. His drinking buddies include Crow Country scribe Mark Cocker and Cambridge University don Robert Macfarlane, author of the recent hit The Wild Places. Among his peers, Mabey's name is uttered with a hushed reverence. In the world of the green-fingered literary gurus, he is king. The beech is Mabey's favourite tree. He spent much of his childhood playing in the beech woods of the Chilterns, and once owned a beech wood himself. He admires the tree's amazing ability to respond to catastrophe. Today, beech woods criss-cross southern England , from Burnham Beeches to the New Forest and the Chilterns. Unlike the high-profile oak, Mabey calls beeches the "workhorses of the forest". They provide firewood and furniture, and epitomise nature's capacity to respond to change. They also play host to many organisms, from hawks in their branches to toadstools on the ground. The Wild Wood in The Wind in the Willows is, inevitably, a beech wood. All this is chronicled in Mabey's eagerly-awaited new book, Beechcombings, the Narratives of Trees. Released next month, it describes the beech's characteristics, habitat and mythology, and explores what we, as humans, can learn from the world of trees. http://environment.independent.co.uk/wi ldlife/article2991254.ece

Finland :

9) “Yes, it really does get us pretty steamed up that each winter the elk come round and browse on the saplings. We’ve planted each and every one of them. Now they are around 150 centimetres high, and the elk are simply gobbling them up”, complains Piisilä. Roughly 30 per cent of the saplings on the piece of land have been badly damaged by the four-legged visitors. One method used to keep the elk away was pieces of soap hung on the saplings. It didn’t work. And there seems to be no guarantee that the spraying is going to be any more effective. “We have so far come to the decision that we will not be planting any more seedlings”, adds Piisilä. A total of 795 elk were shot last autumn in the municipality of Salla (which admittedly does cover an area of nearly 6,000 square kilometres). Five years ago the number was around 400. What happens when the crown of a small pine gets nibbled by a browsing elk is that a new crown springs up alongside it, causing the tree to grow crooked. In addition, the presence of herds of heavy-hoofed elk trampling through the sapling stands in the winter leaves a good many of them flattened. In the winter, young pine trees are the main diet of elk passing through the area. The damage done to the young trees does not kill them, but it does put a severe blight on their future value as sawn timber: the affected trees are good only for cellulose pulp production, where the return for the owner is appreciably less than if the trees were to go as logs. http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Fo rest-owners+fighting+a+losing+battle+aga inst+hungry+elk+/113
5230568156

Ethiopia :

10) Tucked inside a fancy black box, the $26-a-pound Starbucks Black Apron Exclusives coffee promised to be more than just another bag of beans. Not only was the premium coffee from a remote plantation in Ethiopia "rare, exotic, cherished," according to Starbucks advertising, it was grown in ways that were good for the environment -- and for local people, too. Companies routinely boast about what they're doing for the planet, in part because guilt-ridden consumers expect as much -- and are willing to pay extra for it. But, in this case, Starbucks' eco-friendly sales pitch does not begin to reflect the complex story of coffee in East Africa . Inside the front flap of Starbucks' box are African arabica beans grown on a plantation in a threatened mountain rain forest. Behind the lofty phrases on the back label are coffee workers who make less than a dollar a day and a dispute between plantation officials and neighboring tribal people, who accuse the plantation of using their ancestral land and jeopardizing their way of life. "We used to hunt and fish in there, and also we used to have honeybee hives in trees," one tribal member, Mikael Yatola, said through a translator. "But now we can't do that. ... When we were told to remove our beehives from there, we felt deep sorrow, deep sadness." No coffee company claims to do more for the environment and Third World farmers than Starbucks either. In full-page ads in the New York Times, in brochures and on its Web page, Starbucks says that it pays premium prices for premium beans, protects tropical forests and enhances the lives of farmers by building schools, clinics and other projects.In places, Starbucks delivers on those promises, certainly more so than other multinational coffee companies. In parts of Latin America , for instance, its work has helped improve water quality, educate children and protect biodiversity. Inside many Starbucks outlets across America , the African décor is hard to miss. There are photographs and watercolors of quaint coffee-growing scenes from Ethiopia to Tanzania to Zimbabwe . Yet such images clash with the reality of African life. Since 1990, Ethiopia 's population has jumped from 52 million to about 80 million: two new Los Angeleses. The more people, the less there is to go around. Ethiopia 's per capita annual income is only $180, one of the lowest on Earth. The environment is hurting, too, as coffee and tea plantations -- as well as peasant farmers -- spread into once wild areas, raising concern about the demise of one of the country's natural treasures: its biologically rich southwestern rain forest. http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/393 917.html

Tanzania :

11) Tanzania 's Nou forest, in the Manyara region of the country's temperate north-east, provides livelihood for over 200,000 people. They depend on it for food, water and a valued raw material - raffia, from the Raffia Palm (Raphia). Raffia is part of daily life in the forest, where an abundant water supply and fertile soils provide favourable growing conditions. The versatile palm has multiple uses: raffia culms (stems) are commonly used as supporting beams in buildings and the leaves make effective roof covering. There is also a long-standing tradition of raffia use in textiles - baskets, mats, hats and rope can be woven from the flexible fronds. These goods were produced primarily for use within the villages, but are now sold locally and abroad, generating much-needed income. Previously the situation was very different when a combination of rapid population growth and the need for productive agricultural land devastated large areas of the forest. In particular, unrestrained grazing, illegal logging and uncontrolled forest fires contributed to soil erosion, silting of the rivers and destruction of the area's biodiversity. Over-harvesting and unsustainable methods of collecting raffia also contributed to the destruction of parts of the state-owned forest, threatening the village's water supplies and depleting most of the raffia. Faced with a potential environmental catastrophe, the Tanzanian government banned the collection of raffia from the forest. With the help of two NGOs, the ban has been revoked and forest communities are now weaving their way to a brighter future. FARM-Africa Tanzania and SOS Sahel Ethiopia established the Nou Joint Forest Management (JFM) project, a participatory forest management (PFM) scheme, bringing villagers and the government together to manage the forest sustainably. http://africanagriculture.blogspot.c om/2007/09/tanzanian-region-learns-susta inable.html


Uganda :

12) Bridget Andrio, who left Moyo while still a baby, recently returned after eight years to a whole new world of beautiful mother nature, different from what she was used to in Kampala . On arrival, Andrio fell in love with the trees, preferring to spend most of her time under the mango, neem and orange trees. Bridget is one of the people, who on visiting Moyo town, cannot resist appreciating the beautiful tall green trees in many homes. Fifteen years ago, Moyo was a dusty town, where all hopes of returning to normalcy were thwarted by the dry winds which echoed the approach of the Sahara Desert . However, all hopes dwindled with the incessant bombing raids by the Sudanese Air force. The name antonov became an abomination as at the sound of a plane, people would scamper out of their houses to take cover in the nearest ditches or under trees. When five people, including three of the same family were killed in a bombing raid near Moyo Technical Institute in 1993, President Yoweri Museveni visited the site and advised residents to plant trees to reduce the impact of the missiles. The result was instantaneous. People rushed to plant mangoes, guavas, oranges and cashew nuts in their compounds. Teak trees, commonly known as tikka, were used to demarcate land as neem trees were planted for medicine. No technology could save the residents as the antonovs flew beyond the range of UPDF anti-aircraft missiles. The only choice was to plant trees. http://allafrica.com/stories/2007092402 41.html

12) Today’s post is a lot more somber compared to last weeks, however the topic I am about to discuss is one that has been weighing on my mind a lot over the past week. I feel this is an important issue to discuss. Hopefully this post will give you all an idea of the situation the chimps and many other wildlife here are facing. The chimps that live in the forest around our site are living in a forest that has been heavily logged, and until just the past week I had no idea how heavily logged their territory really was. For the past week, Alex, Kennedy and I have not been able to find the chimps. While we have been hearing many vocalizations from them, and often very close by, we have been unsuccessful at actually seeing them. Sometimes their calls sound like they are directly beside us, unfortunately, since they are not fully habituated, as we move closer they also move, but farther away from us, making it impossible to actually capture a glimpse of them. This situation has been somewhat discouraging, but so goes field work…you have good days and bad days and some weeks are harder than others. I’m just thankful that I get to spend every day in the forest! Anyway, back to our issue at hand, logging. Alex, Kennedy and I have been walking through the forest a lot more over the past week in our search for the chimps, therefore becoming more familiar with the terrain and territory of our group. I have come to realize that their entire forest is actually many small patches of forest connected by grasslands and logged areas. Yesterday we came across 13 different logged sites, and 5 of these were all within several hundred meters of each other. If logging continues at the rate it has been, the forest will soon become smaller and smaller patches and the grasslands in between will widen, making it not only difficult, but also dangerous for the chimps to move among the forest patches. http://andreadurcik.blogspot.com/2007/0 9/sad-state-of-things.html

Brazil :

13) Jurua Forestal was first certified for FSC by the California-based Scientific Certification Systems Inc in April 2002. At the time of the certification, Jurua held 25,000 hectares of rainforest in the Brazilian state of Para , but was reported by SCS to be exploiting 2,000 hectares per year. The company was therefore known at the time of FSC certification to the operating on the shockingly unsustainable logging 'cycle' of 12.5 years. Even SCS were forced to note that "this farm will only have enough wood to supply the sawmill alone for a period of 10 to 15 years. JURUÁ is aware that it must find other areas to supply the sawmill so that it can maintain the 30-year harvest cycle on this area". SCS nevertheless proceeded to issue the certificate, and there has been no report subsequently that Jurua has obtained other areas of forest - not that this would make much difference to the 'sustainability' of what has already happened. A further major flaw in the certification was whether the forest should or shouldn't have been classified as ' High Conservation Value Forest '. SCS reported that the area consisted of a patchwork of diverse lowland rainforest types on different soils. A study was also conducted into the primate diversity of the forest, revealing that no fewer than seven primate species were present. Despite this, SCS decided not to classify the area as HCVF, which would have led to tighter certification requirements. SCS did, however, insist on no fewer than 23 'conditions' for the issuance of the certificate, along with 14 'recommendations' (a full copy of SCS's Public Summary Certification report, which also includes the results of subsequent annual audits, is available for download below). But although SCS were evidently aware of the multiple problems with Jurua Forestal's operation from the outset, they nevertheless failed to use the standard FSC practice of defining Major or Minor 'Corrective Action Requests' for the company, which would enable FSC to keep a close check on whether Jurua was dealing with any issues which might conflict with their certification status. http://www.fsc-watch.org/archives/2 007/09/22/SCS_certification_of_Jurua_For estal__Brazil__FSC_
plumbs_new_depths_of_bad_practice
Guyana :

14) Senior Economist at CI Dr Richard Rice, who brought the concept to Guyana, said that the problem that conservationists face is that "if destruction pays and conservation doesn't," then the first will always win over the latter Conservation International (CI) Guyana since establishing the Upper Essequibo Conservation Concession (UECC) five years ago has reported strong partnerships with communities nearby and announced plans to seek an extension of the concession. Celebrating the fifth year anniversary at Cara Lodge on Friday night were Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, other government officials, members from CI Washington office and non-governmental organizations. On July 17, 2002, Conservation International signed a 30-year lease with the Guyana Forestry Commission for the management of the Upper Essequibo Conservation Concession - an area of approximately 200,000 acres of pristine rainforests in a watershed area within the forestry zone in the upper Essequibo River . According to Manager Eustace Alexander of Conservation Science at CI Guyana, within the next five years CI plans to implement new initiatives to leverage new sources of funding and petition the government for geographic expansion of the present conservation concession. They also plan to ask for the inclusion of the site into the legally protected area when the National Protected Areas System becomes enacted. In addition, CI also intends to explore a greater variety of
partnership arrangements, particularly with Guyana 's private sector and
multinational developmental agencies. Already a corporate sponsor is on board with the concession - Save Your World Corporation which makes personal care products in the United States . Save Your World President Scott Cecil was present to mark the
five-year anniversary. The communities closest to the site are Apoteri (50 miles away); Rewa (70 miles away) and CrashWater (100 miles away). These communities are dependent upon the forest and its resources for their livelihoods, noted Alexander, since the communities "would like to secure their forests from the perils of development (e.g. logging) and still achieve socio-economic development." http://guyanaforestryblog.blogspot.c om/2007/09/ci-to-seek-bigger-essequibo.h tml

Chile:

15) The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) officially incorporated more than 2.17 million hectares of Chilean temperate rainforest - along with 22 other sites around the world - into the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. The move was made official at a meeting at the organization's Man and the Biosphere Program (MAB) Bureau in Paris last week. The area, now known as the "Southern Andes Temperate Rainforest Biosphere Reserve," spans the area from the northern border of Chile 's Region X south along the Argentine border through to the Futaleufú National Reserve. "More than 1.5 million hectares of temperate rainforest are in this area," said Luis Cárdenas, director of the region's National Forestry Service (CONAF). The area is also known for its high mountain ecosystem and invaluable water resources. Conservation International has previously recognized this area as a conservation "hotspot", while The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and The World Resources Institute have classified it as a Global 200 eco-region that should be preserved for its unique contribution to global biodiversity. In fact, according to Antonio Lara - director of the Núcleo Milenio Forescos of Chile 's Universidad Austral - of the species that inhabit the temperate rainforests of South America , 35 percent of the trees and shrubs, 23 percent of reptiles, 30 percent of birds, 33 percent of mammals, 50 percent of fish, and 76 percent of amphibians are unique to this area. The new reserve is home to many of Chile's most emblematic species, such as the alerce and araucaria trees - among the oldest trees in the world - as well as the monito del monte ("little forest monkey"), the huemul, the pudú (the world's smallest deer), and the Magellanic woodpecker (second largest in the world). All of these species are endemic to these forests. According to MAB, Biosphere Reserves are areas that promote solutions to "reconcile the conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use demonstrating integrated management of land, water and biodiversity." They are nominated by their governments and remain under national jurisdiction, though they are internationally recognized. http://www.tcgnews.com/santiagotimes/in dex.php?nav=story&story_id=14735&topic_id=1

Uruguay :

16) The Botnia Orion plant originally from Finland and which demanded an investment in the range of 1.5 billion US dollars is undergoing trials and is scheduled to begin production in the coming weeks in spite of the Argentine government and pickets’ ongoing opposition. A second pulp mill is to be built by Spain ’s ENCE, along the coast of the River Plate. Originally to be placed a few kilometers from Botnia-Orion on the river Uruguay , the plant was relocated following strong pressure from Argentina , but also for logistic reasons and a clean up process inside the company. Partly owned by the Spanish government Ence, according to the current Socialist administration, had too many cronies from the previous Conservative administration who committed several money loosing mistakes while waiting to be removed. Another project belongs to Sweden’s Stora-Enso and is planned to be built in the center of Uruguay along the Rio Negro, a waterway which cuts the country in half (East/west) and is already dammed in three locations generating an average 30% of the electricity consumed in Uruguay. Finally during the recent visit of Uruguayan president Tabare Vazquez to Brussels , Spain and Portugal , the Lisbon seated company Portucel announced its interest in constructing a paper and pulp plant in Uruguay , somewhere in the east of the country and involving an investment in the range of one billion US dollars. The four projects underline the pro business atmosphere in Uruguay plus the natural conditions for such undertakings: abundance of water, trees and rainfall. However, in the last twenty years Uruguay promoted forestry as an option for the poorest soils and now an estimated 800.000 hectares have been planted mostly with eucalyptus (80%) and the rest coniferous. An ideal input for the pulp industry.According to industry sources Uruguay still has room for another 500.000 hectares of forests, which if completed would mean 9% of the country’s 16 million hectares of land will be dedicated to the new option for the country’s economy. With a GDP in the range of 18 to 20 billion US dollars, four investments of such magnitude anticipate a significant change for the country’s economy and development possibilities. http://www.mercopress.com/vernotici a.do?id=11438&formato=HTML

India :

17) The Principal Secretary to the Government, Department of Forest and Ecology, Abhijit Dasgupta, has said that a sustainable management of forests would remain incomplete without the active participation of local people. Mr. Dasgupta was delivering the presidential address at the inaugural session of a two-day conference of forest researchers and scientists working in southern States on “present research activities and future vision” here on Tuesday. In the past, the word management was synonymous with exploitation. With the passage of time, the term had come to denote regeneration of forests with sound techniques and technological support. Enhancing biomass production was vital in that context, he said. The research programmes should be evolved to meet the changing management objectives. This would enable researchers face the new challenges, including the data demands of the forest management effectively, he said. The departmental research wings in a majority of the States had been focussing mainly on “adaptive research agenda” such as regeneration technique, provenance trial, nursery techniques and plantation management. A huge information gap between the forest management and forestry research had not been addressed, Mr. Singh said. Minister for Forest and Ecology C. Chennigappa said the State forests had a repository of over 4,500 species of flowering plants, 600 species of birds, 800 species of fishes, 160 species of reptiles, 180 species of mammals and 70 species of amphibians. http://www.hindu.com/2007/09/19/sto ries/2007091953910400.htm

18) Governor Rameshwar Thakur has said that all the departments, including the police, in the southern States should be involved in establishing an effective coordinating machinery for checking the loot of forest wealth and trade in wild animals. Mr. Thakur was speaking after inaugurating a two-day conference of Forest Ministers of southern States here on Thursday. Stating that the efforts of people who had preserved and protected the forest wealth for thousands of years should not be allowed to go waste, Mr. Thakur suggested that the States should immediately make concerted efforts to arrest all kinds of illegal activity. Minister for Forests, Environment and Ecology, C. Chennigappa, said that protecting the flora and fauna in the forests would be difficult without well defined and effective coordination among the States concerned. A conference of this nature should provide a permanent forum for regular interaction among all States in conceiving and enforcing effective forest protection management strategies, he said. Tamil Nadu Minister for Forests, N. Selvaraj, said that areas on the inter-State border were vulnerable to illegal activities. The situation called for cooperation and coordination among the States concerned. The common problems were encroachments, ganja cultivation and smuggling of timber and forest wealth. http://www.hindu.com/2007/09/21/sto ries/2007092154370400.htm

19) VISAKHAPATNAM: A Chintaluru-based Ayurvedic firm (West Godavari) which cultivates rare medicinal plants in 20,000 acres in Orissa, Rampachodavaram and Maredumilli (East Godavari) and parts of Nalgonda district is finding it difficult to ensure continuous supply of raw materials with the depletion of reserve forests in the region. The disappearance of medicinal plants have also affected the herbal medicine industry. According to the Ayurvedic firm managing director D V Srirama Murthy, the shortage of raw material has necessitated cultivation of herbal plants on a large scale to meet the industry needs besides conserving medicinal plants. The company has entered into a contract with a 100 percent ‘buy back’ guarantee to the farmers. The ayurvedic company produces medicines for arthritis, asthma, diabetes and thyroid deficiencies. The 800-year-old hospital-cum-production unit has millions of customers abroad. http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.as p?ID=IEA20070924011907&Page=A&Headline=Depletion+of+fore
sts+hits+Ayurvedic+firm&Title=Southern+News+-+Andhra+Pradesh&Topic=0

20) Thiruvananthapuram: The Opposition walked out of the Kerala Assembly yesterday after the Speaker disallowed their demand for an adjournment motion over the alleged felling of trees in a plantation. The new scandal has hit the government of the Communist Party of India Marxist (CPM)-led Left Democratic Front at a time when it is already facing a series of allegations over controversial land deals leading to the resignation of a minister and demand for another's exit. The Congress-led opposition United Democratic Front raised the issue of alleged felling of trees in the Harrison Plantation estate in violation of rules and suggesting the involvement of the Forest department Forest Minister Binoy Viswom. On the heels of the exit of Public Works Minister T.U. Kuruvilla over a land scandal, the opposition has been demanding Viswom's expulsion from the ministry over his alleged role in the controversial sale of a portion of the Merchiston Estate in Ponmudi near here to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). http://archive.gulfnews.com/article s/07/09/19/10154671.html

China :

21) China is already the largest importer of illegally logged timber in the world: an estimated 50 percent of its timber imports are reportedly illegal. Illegal logging is especially damaging to the environment because it often targets rare old-growth forests, endangers biodiversity, and ignores sustainable forestry practices. In 2006, the government of Cambodia, for example, ignored its own laws and awarded China's Wuzhishan LS Group a 99-year concession that was 20 times as large as the size permitted by Cambodian law. The company's practices, including the spraying of large amounts of herbicides, have prompted repeated protests by local Cambodians. According to the international NGO Global Witness, Chinese companies have destroyed large parts of the forests along the Chinese-Myanmar border and are now moving deeper into Myanmar 's forests in their search for timber. In many instances, illicit logging activity takes place with the active support of corrupt local officials. Central government officials in Myanmar and Indonesia , countries where China 's loggers are active, have protested such arrangements to Beijing , but relief has been limited. These activities, along with those of Chinese mining and energy companies, raise serious environmental concerns for many local populations in the developing world. http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070901f aessay86503/elizabeth-c-economy/the-grea t-leap-backward.h
tml?mode=print

22) SINGAPORE - Buddha sat for years under one to find enlightenment, and scientist Isaac Newton had his epiphany in another's shade. But for many Singaporeans, trees are useful for a more prosaic quest -- lucky lottery numbers. The discovery of two "monkey heads" poking out of the bark of an otherwise non-descript African Mahogany tree have sparked a minor craze in the southeast Asian state, as devotees seek numbers from what they believe to be a god living in the tree. Bananas, peanuts and peaches have been left as offerings to please the monkey god, sacred in Chinese mythology and Hinduism. A wheel-like device which kneeling gamblers turn by hand in front of the tree to spit out numbered balls has helped fuel the mania. "Most people come for lottery numbers", explained Madam Kang, who had traveled half way across the island to join a crowd of a hundred onlookers milling around the tree on a weekend afternoon. "There were three car accidents by the tree but no one was hurt, so people believe it was the monkey god protecting them." Not long after the monkey god reportedly aided a series of wins, another three trees bearing gnarls that resemble gods were discovered along the same -- now jammed -- road. http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyl eMolt/idUSSP16732320070924

Burma :

23) The protests in Rangoon are taking place against a backdrop of systematic abuse of Burma’s natural resources, writes Andrew Wasley The Burmese junta, responsible for the brutal crackdown on recent protests against the authorities' decision to hike fuel prices at a time of worsening economic conditions, is bankrolling its regime by exploiting the country's vast natural resources at the expense of the Burmese people and environment. Oil, gas, gold and timber - amongst other commodities - are being ruthlessly sought out for extraction, sale and export abroad, often with the help of complicit foreign companies. According to campaigners, the trade in these natural resources has been linked to serious human rights and environmental abuses, including killings, forced labour, deforestation, pollution, land grabbing and compulsory relocation. The trade in Burmese timber has been particularly responsible, say pressure groups, for a disturbing number of violations and, in some cases, accused of being directly to blame for perpetuating armed conflicts and insurgency inside the country. Much of the timber coming out of Burma is being exported to China and other Asian manufacturing hubs before finding its way onto the high streets of Europe and beyond. Campaigners argue that despite large profits being made by the Burmese junta, and timber suppliers, manufacturers and retailers, little or none of this wealth is filtering back to the Burmese people. They are calling on companies and governments to cease doing business with the Burmese regime to help severe the revenue gained from these unsustainable trades. Advocacy group Global Witness, which first raised the alarm about the role played by timber in perpetuating conflict - the group highlighted in 1995 how the Khmer Rouge were trading timber to fund its murderous regime in Cambodia - argues that the continued logging of Burmese forests jepoardises any chance of peace or sustainable development in the country. NHG Timber Ltd, based in Sanderstead, Surrey, offers Burmese hardwood for sale as planks, boards and logs; marine specialists Hawke House, based in Gosport , Hampshire, uses Burmese teak for decking destined for use in the manufacturer of luxury yachts; and the Oxfordshire-based Timbnet retails sawn teak amongst other hardwoods. Pressure groups say that furniture made from Burmese teak is frequently found for sale in both specialist and high street stories. http://www.indexonline.org/en/news/arti cles/2007/3/burma-the-environmental-pill age.shtml

Cambodia :

24) Officials claiming to be in charge of protecting the forests of remote Pursat province have been stealing logs from independent harvesters and selling them to private merchants, an official report and villagers say. Men claiming to be from a forestry protection agency stole logs from residents of Battambang province who had come to Pursat to cut down trees, according to a report issued by the Cambodian People's Party in Battambang. Meas Soeum, a CPP commune council member in Mong Russei town, Battambang province, said villagers complained to him they had been robbed of logs they were hired to cut. The thieves sold all the wood from carts, but returned the cattle hauling those carts to the villagers, Meas Soeum said. "As for the carts, they sold them too," he said. It was unclear whether the villagers were illegally cutting the trees themselves. The alleged thefts underscore the nature of forest depletion in Cambodia, which occurs when common people cut trees for household use or to be sold alongside the road as charcoal, or when illegal companies cut away large swaths of forest.Villagers said the logs may have been taken by people pretending to be from a forest protection organization, or from the government itself. "Actually, there are many problems, because the forestry administration officials are also corrupt," one villager said, speaking on condition on anonymity. "They are supposed to control the logging, but instead they seize them from the people and sell them." http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2007/09/pu rsat-big-thief-stealing-from-smaller.htm l

Philippines :

25) Eight-year-old Ramon Madrid has never set foot in a real forest. Nor has he felt cool winds in a mountain setting or seen streams gurgling with pristine waters. The sound of birds chirping and the sight of butterflies fluttering are scenes he hears -- and sees -- only on television, the movies or in books. Ramon lives in a condominium located in another jungle, one made of concrete and steel. That is why “Tsikiting Gubat (Children of the Forest ),” an environmental project which aims to teach children the importance of having nature in their immediate surroundings, was recently launched. “It is never too young to start teaching children how to plant trees and care for the environment,” environmentalist Odette Alcantara, founder of the Mother Earth Foundation, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) during the project launching at her house in Quezon City. A dozen children showed up for the event where each of them was given a 5-month-old seedling of a fire tree. Children as young as 3 years old were accompanied by parents who were more than happy to see their offsprings become environmentalists at such a young age. The aim of the activity, said Odette -- “Lola O” to her colleagues -- is to create “mini forests” in the city by planting as many trees as possible in available spaces. For starters, the kids were told to plant the seedlings in their own backyard. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingne ws/metro/view_article.php?article_id=902 91

Malaysia :

26) The Malaysian authorities have told timber giant Samling that the company will lose its licence to log on the land of the nomadic Penan, stars of tonight’s BBC television show ‘Tribe’, unless it resolves its long-running conflict with the tribe. ‘The Penan have no rights to the forest’, said Samling executive James Ho in an interview recently broadcast on Swiss television. For more than 20 years the nomadic Penan of Sarawak have blockaded roads to stop loggers destroying their forest home. Their blockades have been repeatedly destroyed by police. The latest blockade was mounted in August to prevent a Samling subcontractor from entering the forest. Police destroyed a blockade in another area in June, only to see the local Penan erect another in July. Samling was awarded a certificate for ‘sustainable’ logging of the Penan’s land in 2005, sparking immediate protests by the tribe. The Penan of Long Benali community recently refused a ‘gift’ of water pipes from the company, whose logging activities have polluted their drinking water. Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘For too long the Malaysian government has taken the side of the logging companies against the Penan, in contravention of its own laws. Let’s hope that its warning to Samling is serious and that no further logging takes place against the Penan’s wishes.’ Malaysian and international law states that the Penan have rights to their land, and must be consulted before logging takes place. Malaysia also voted in favour of the UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples, approved by the General Assembly on 13 September. http://www.survival-international.org/n ews/2506

27) Sabah has increased the fine against those convicted of having stolen timber by ten-fold. The state has followed the step taken by Sarawak in providing a fine of up to RM500,000 for those found in possession of illegally-felled logs. The state assembly passed an amendment to the Forestry Enactment on Monday. Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister, Datuk Nasrun Datu Mansor, who tabled the motion, said the previous penalty of RM50,000 was not enough to deter those involved in illegal logging activities. He said of the 281 illegal cases in Sabah between 2001 and August this year, 16 of those convicted faced the maximum fine of RM50,000. However, he said, the value of the logs involved was far greater than the penalty imposed. Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman has also directed the Forestry Department to suspend sawmills found to be keeping illegal logs. “The Government has to be more stern in its actions and in driving home the message that we will not let off these irresponsible people,” said Musa, adding that the effectiveness of this penalty would be monitored and tightened further, if necessary. Independent assemblyman for Kuala Penyu, Datuk John Ghani called for illegal loggers to be slapped with fines of up to RM5mil, saying that even a revised maximum penalty of RM500,000 may not be enough to deter them as it would only mean “a few logs” to the culprits. Tan Sri Joseph Kurup (BN – Sook) said there had been instances of offenders being tipped off ahead of raids against them. “Illegal loggers are getting creative. There are reports of them setting up sawmills in the middle of the jungle so that their illegal harvests could be taken out undetected,” he added. Recalling that Sabah once possessed large tracts of forests, he lamented that illegal loggers had since stripped much of this wealth. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?fi le=/2007/9/24/nation/20070924164455&sec=nation


Indonesia :

28) The president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, will announce the Forest Carbon Protection Facility after climate change talks with world leaders, including the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, in New York today. The World Bank believes its $400 million fund will expand into a multibillion-dollar program to preserve forests and reduce global warning. More than 20 per cent of greenhouse gases result from deforestation. Pilot projects for the fund are to be detailed at the pivotal December climate change conference in Bali , which is to outline a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. World Bank sources believe the fund can be a central feature of a new agreement to combat global warming. Governments, forestry companies and local communities would be eligible for compensation for agreeing to abandon logging or protect forests. Under the Kyoto Protocol, a carbon credits scheme of financial incentives excludes forest protection. Only replanting is eligible for assistance. The facility would establish a carbon credit market to help companies meet their emissions targets by paying developing countries to halt logging. Large energy firms operating coal-fired power stations - a major source of greenhouse emissions - are understood to have expressed interest in the facility. The existing carbon credit market is worth billions. The value of forest protection payouts under the new fund could rise to between $7 billion and $18 billion a year, according to estimates in the Stern report on climate change. Dr Yudhoyono and Mr Zoellick will issue a statement supporting the facility today. Indonesia is likely to become the first pilot project for logging compensation. With Indonesia hosting the December climate change conference, Dr Yudhoyono is attempting to ensure deforestation is addressed. The conference is expected to endorse testing the forest protection facility for inclusion in an agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol on its expiry in 2012. Indonesia is the world's third-largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions because of rampant forest-clearing. http://www.smh.com.au/news/environm ent/foresters-paid-to-stop-logging/2007/0 9/24/1190486225992.
html#


Australia :

29) Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald says the forests department has been charging the South East Fibre Exports company up to $16 a tonne for logs taken from the Eden agreement area, which covers forests from near Cobargo to the Victorian border. Logs from north of Cobargo are paid for at the rate of just under $7 a tonne. The Minister's spokesman, Bill Frew, says it is a fair return. "The whole aim with forestry is to get a return from all products of the forest," he said. "We don't want to leave marketable wood lying around in the forests and the pulp wood which is produced is a by-product of the sawlog recovery operation and so if we can sell that it all contributes to the bottom line and the overall return that ultimately the whole of NSW gets from the forest." However, anti-logging groups say their court action forced the State Government to reveal the sale price of pulp logs to the Eden chipmill. Harriett Swift from the Chipstop group says the Department of Primary Industries initially refused a freedom of information request for the information, but this decision was overturned on appeal. She says that price is scandalous. "The prices are lower than they were 10 years ago which is pretty disgusting and compared to plantation prices for equivalent wood is one seventh for what Gunns or Great Southern plantations would pay," she said. "They're just under-pricing it to a degree that it's quite scandalous and it's no wonder they wouldn't release the information before, they find it quite embarrassing." http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2 007/09/24/2041639.htm

30) Environmentalists are trying to stop red gum logging in a forest on the New South Wales side of the Murray River today. The New South Wales Red Gum Forest Action Group is protesting against logging in the Moira State Forest , which is the subject of a case in the state's Land and Environment Court . The group's Naomi Hodgeson says the 20 protesters plan to prevent logging until environmental studies are carried out. "There's an activist suspended from a tree that's connected by a cable to the logging machinery so the machinery can't move while we're here and we're going to remain here until we get a commitment from the New South Wales Government that the compartments that are subject to the court case aren't going to be logged in the meantime," she said. http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/conten t/2007/s2041657.htm


31) A third of the State’s plant species face extinction and South-West karri forests could be reduced to small pockets even if international climate change targets are met, experts have warned. University of WA school of earth and geographical sciences researcher Ray Wills said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had recommended a 60 per cent reduction in greenhouse emissions in the hope that global warming could be limited to just 2C, but many SW species would not survive even that rise. “The majority of species on the planet live in less than a three-degree temperature band so if we increase the temperature by three degrees we put all those species at risk,” he said. “Eucalypts and close to two-thirds of vegetation and species in the SW live in a close to two-degree temperature band. In the recent history of the planet we’ve never warmed above the temperatures we’re at now during the past 40 to 50 million years and most of the species on the planet have evolved in the past 25 million years in the kind of temperatures we live in or lower, but not higher.” National Climate Centre figures show the annual mean temperature for WA has increased by a little more than 0.8C since 1910. Species of banksia, which Dr Wills called the “canary in the coalmine” have already begun dying on a large scale in the Mid-West. “With two degrees of warming my view is for the most part there probably won’t be any banksias left in the wild,” he said. “They live in a rainfall zone between 500mm and 900mm and if it falls below that we lose them and it will affect eucalypts which grow in that band as well. Certainly up to 3000 species could be at risk with a twodegree temperature increase and we’re talking about any species with less than a 300km range — which is most of the species we know in WA.” http://exitstageright.wordpress.com/200 7/09/22/karri-forests-native-plants-face-e xtinction-clim
ate-experts-say/

World-wide:

32) In 2004, September 21st was declared as International Day Against Monoculture Tree Plantations by a number of organizations throughout the world. On this day, people in every continent carry out actions to generate awareness on the impacts of large scale tree monocultures on local communities and their environments. Be they eucalyptus, pines, acacias, gmelinas, oil palm or other types of monoculture tree plantations, they are all mostly aimed at feeding northern consumers with growing volumes of raw materials extracted in southern countries at a huge social and environmental cost. Wasteful consumption patterns in the north are displacing food production in countries where malnutrition and hunger are already a major problem for millions of people. Market-based export policies are leading to decreased food sovereignty in food producing countries. Local communities are displaced to give way to endless rows of identical trees that displace most life forms in the area. Water resources are depleted and polluted by the plantations while soils become degraded. Human rights violations are rife, ranging from the loss of livelihoods and displacement to repression and even cases of torture and death. While communities suffer as a whole, plantations result in differentiated gender impacts, where women are the most impacted. New threats are emerging that could increase even further the area occupied by these "green deserts", as well as their social and environmental impacts. The looming disaster of climate change has resulted in the promotion of "solutions" that not only do not solve the problem but that create yet more suffering for local communities. So- called "carbon sink plantations" (carbon dumps), so-called "green fuels" (agrofuels) and so-called "improved trees" (genetically engineered) are examples of such "solutions". The millions of hectares of land already occupied by pulpwood, timber and oil palm plantations could be dwarfed by yet more millions of hectares that are now being targeted for fast wood plantations to absorb the carbon emitted by the use of fossil fuels, for oil palm plantations to produce biodiesel for feeding cars, for frankentrees to absorb more carbon than natural trees or for producing ethanol for energy consumption. None of this is science fiction: it is already happening. We must stop it. But the only way for achieving this aim is to increase our support to communities that are in the frontline in the struggle against plantations and to force governments to change course. On this day we call on the peoples of the world, and particularly on northern citizens to join in and help to make things change http://www.globaljusticeecology.org

33) There are now 41,415 species on the IUCN Red List and 16,306 of them are threatened with extinction, up from 16,118 last year. The total number of extinct species has reached 785 and a further 65 are only found in captivity or in cultivation. One in four mammals, one in eight birds, one third of all amphibians and 70% of the world’s assessed plants on the 2007 IUCN Red List are in jeopardy. http://www.countdown2010.net/china/exti nction-crisis-escalates-red-list-shows-a pes-corals-vult
ures-dolphins-all-in-danger

34) Three years ago, in response to an article I wrote about the pulp industry’s involvement in research into genetically modified (GM) trees,[1] I received an email from the FSC Secretariat in Oaxaca, Mexico. “I assume you are aware,” read the email, “that the only forest certification scheme that has a clear position against GM trees is the FSC scheme, and that this issue is particularly relevant to large plantation companies that have the resources to invest in this kind of research and development.” Without FSC, the email continued, activists opposing the development of GM trees would be “left looking for some other practical way of heading off the use of GM trees.” But does FSC really have “a clear position against GM trees”?[2] Criterion 6.8 of FSC’s Principles and Criteria is clear: “Use of genetically modified organisms shall be prohibited.” Strictly interpreted this would mean that a company carrying out laboratory research into GM trees (and/or financing such research) should not be certified under the FSC system, because that would involve the use of genetically modified organisms. But rather than upholding this clear position on GM trees, FSC’s policies and standards weaken Criterion 6.8.[3] In June 1999, FSC’s General Assembly approved a motion to complete an FSC Policy on GMOs. “This policy should address among other things the Precautionary Principle. A draft of such clarification and policy should be submitted to the membership for review and comment within 6 months,” the motion stated.[4] In 2000, FSC duly produced an “Interpretation on GMOs”, which states that “The use of GMOs is prohibited in certified forests, and would normally constitute a major failure of Principle 6.”[5] But the Interpretation does not exclude GM trees planted by the company outside the area to be certified. And why does the word “normally” appear? Under what circumstances could the use of GMOs not constitute a major failure of Principle 6? FSC’s “Interpretation on GMOs” was approved by FSC’s Board in May 2000. Yet the interpretation includes the following statement: “This draft has been prepared by secretariat staff. It does not have official status as an FSC position. . . . Please send your comments to the secretariat.” http://chrislang.org/2007/09/25/clear-a s-mud-fscs-position-on-gm-trees/