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Rainforest Restoration
Rich countries to compensate poor states that preserve their rainforests
Nov 19th
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Foreign nations share the blame for the destruction of Indonesian forests and should pitch in to help restore them, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said on Friday.
Indonesia, host of a U.N. climate change conference in December, has been a driving force behind calls for rich
countries to compensate poor states that preserve their rainforests to soak up greenhouse gases.
“Those foreigners keep harping on our country’s high emissions. Our emissions are high, but don’t forget who created this. Where did our timber go?” Kalla told reporters.
Kala said developed countries such as Japan and the United States had been major consumers of Indonesian timber, much of which was logged illegally.
“It means they have to pay,” he said.
According to global environmental group Greenpeace, Indonesia had the fastest pace of deforestation in the world between 2000-2005, destroying an area of forest the size of 300 soccer pitches every hour.
The Indonesian government says it must be given incentives, including a payout of $5-$20 per hectare, to preserve its forests. It also wants to negotiate a fixed price for other forms of biodiversity, including coral reefs.
Indonesia has a total forest area of more than 225 million acres, or about 10 percent of the world’s remaining tropical forests.
Rainforest Gets Protected Status
Nov 14th
Vast tracts of rainforest in Brazil are to get a new protected status. The segments of land in the northern Para state together cover 15 million hectares (57,915 sq miles), an area of land that is bigger than England.
Thousands of wildlife species inhabit the pristine forest, including jaguars, anteaters and colorful macaws.
Campaigners say the decision made by Para Governor Simao Jatene is one of the most important conservation initiatives of recent years.
US House Votes remove logging road subsidy
Jul 7th
SitNews – US House Votes Spending Millions on Logging Roads Isn’t Good Investment.
Thursday the U.S. House agreed that spending taxpayer dollars on building logging roads on the Tongass National Forest is not a good investment. The amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill which calls for ending subsidies for logging roads was sponsored by Republican Representative Steve Chabot of Ohio and Democrat Robert Andrews of New Jersey. It passed 237 to 181.
According to the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, the Chabot/Andrews amendment is supported by nearly 80 Southeast Alaskan businesses and 21 outfitter and guiding businesses.
"Southeast Alaskans rely on and care about the health of the Tongass. The Forest Service has to balance the needs of other users of the forest with those of the timber industry-that means not wasting money on logging roads, but using their limited funds to support growing sectors of the economy," says Beverly Anderson, Business and Community Outreach Coordinator of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council.
The Southeast Alaska Conservation Council says that many Tongass-dependent businesses are concerned that while the Forest Service is subsidizing a struggling industry, which contributes less and less to Southeast Alaska’s economy, projects that would support other growing sectors of our region’s economy are short on funds. The spending priorities of the Forest Service focus on road building and large timber sales, while projects such as tourism planning, review of special use permits for hunting and fishing businesses, cabin and trail building and maintenance, and fish and wildlife habitat restoration all lack adequate funding.
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