Biofuel Causes Endless Destruction Of Rainforest And Orang-Utans
Indonesia plans to develop 3 million hectares of palm oil plantations in the next five years to meet demand for biofuel. More rainforests are to be destroyed. An often-unmentioned victim is the Orang-utan (‘man of the forest’) who suffers horrific and vicious abuse when straying into palm oil plantations. With the world locked in an energy crisis, rainforest destruction seems set to escalate.

Goodbye To West Africa’s Rainforests
100 years ago, West Africa had about 50 million hectares of coastal rainforest, now it has about 3 million hectares. Relentless logging, agricultural clearing, industrial activities and high population growth are all to blame. The struggle for resources has caused vicious divide and bloody uprisings, which have led to a deep instability within the region.

Skyrocketing Deforestation In Uganda And Burundi But Not Rwanda
Between 1990 and 2005, Burundi has lost nearly 50% of its forest cover, Uganda about 25%. Some of the highest concentrations of biodiversity in Africa are deeply threatened as a result. A national reforestation effort in Rwanda however has increased overall forest cover by 8% between 2000 and 2005.

More And Larger National Parks For New South Wales
An extra 24,000 hectares of NSW is to receive protection after the creation of 21 new national parks and reserves. Included would be 300 hectares of coastal wetlands, 5000 hectares of old-growth forest and the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri people to be known as the Snake Rock Aboriginal Area.

Talks On Future Of The World’s Forests Open In New York
The United Nations Forum on Forests meets for two weeks at the UN headquarters in New York to discuss sustainable forest management and deforestation control.

Rainforest Action Network
A group of activists targets America’s largest financial institutions and succeeds in motivating environmental policies in association with their funding decisions.

Palm And Rapeseed Contend In Biofuel Race
The EU’s policy that by 2010, 5.7% of diesel must be biofuel has led to an escalation of demand and price of rapeseed and palm oil, not to mention destruction of the rainforest.

Brazil Expands Amazon National Park
The Amazon National Park is to expanded by 150,000 hectares and other new environmental protected areas are to be created. These include the area for which American nun Sister Dorothy Stang campaigned and for which she was murdered in February 2005. The Amazon region as a whole has about 45 million hectares of protected area, an increase of a third since 2003.

World’s Largest Wetland Under Threat In Brazil
The world’s largest wetland, Brazil’s Pantanal, lying near the borders of Bolivia and Paraguay is in critical danger. Home to a large variety of wildlife, destruction of the natural vegetation has been attributed to agriculture, cattle grazing and coal mining.

Nepal’s Precious Forests Going Up In Smoke
Just over 40% of Nepal’s population live below the poverty line. Rampant logging, tree clearance for agriculture and firewood collection has resulted in the loss of nearly 25% of forest cover in just 15 years. This has led to local fuel shortage and serious flooding in the monsoons.

Unique Australian Trees Endangered
A fungus-like disease, almost certainly brought in by an unauthorised and so unprotected visitor, has endangered the Wollemi pine. This tree is often referred to as a living fossil, and was thought to be extinct until 1994.

Warmer Winters Tempt the Nuthatch To Head North
The nuthatch, the only bird to scurry headfirst down tree trunks, is busy colonising Scotland.

NEWS 2005

Wetlands Sucked Dry In China
Over-development has sucked over four-fifths of China’s northern wetlands dry. Reasons given are climate change, over-exploitation and damming of the major tributaries. Already China’s population consumes vastly less water than other countries. Very many rivers often run dry, most water is contaminated and over 1000 lakes have disappeared since the 1950s. Strategies to counter the problem include cloud seeding and deeper ‘mining’ of ground water.

Congo’s Pygmies May Trade The Rainforest For Soap And Salt
Living in dirt and disease and left to their fate by the Congolese government, what little leverage the Congolese Pygmies may have in protecting their habitat may soon be traded away for the most basic of needs. In a country where backhanders are obligatory, their pebbles and civet-cat skins will neither sway corrupt government officials nor the profit-driven logging industry.

Papua New Guinea Ignoring Illegal Timber Trade
The political elite is turning a blind eye to the illegal and unsustainable logging by the timber industry and so is directly endangering the virgin forests of Papua New Guinea. Export documents in fact ‘launder’ illegally logged tropical hardwood, which is processed in China, Japan and Korea for the European and North American markets. A report by the Washington based Forest Trends summarises independent reviews of the situation in New Guinea.

Deadly Fungus Threatens The Panamanian Golden Frog
The golden frog, the country’s national symbol, is at risk of extinction, under attack by a deadly fungus that is sweeping through Panama. Frogs use their skin to breathe and the fungus grows over this skin, effectively suffocating them. Climate change with its sweeping warmer changes has ensured the warm, moist environment most beneficial to fungus growth.

Australia’s Toxic Toads Threaten Disaster
Cane toads that can weigh up to 2kg and are toxic are proving a nightmare. Introduced for pest control over 70 years ago, they are sweeping through Australia leaving behind a trail of dead creatures such as snakes and lizards, poisoned by eating their skin. Scientists have as yet found no solution to the problem of controlling them.

Norway Plans To Store Seeds Of All The World’s Crops
The Norwegian Island of Spitsbergen is to be a storage centre for seeds of all known crops. It will be designed to protect the world’s food supply from all possible threats. Freezing temperatures should ensure their successful cold storage.

Millions Of Trees To Regenerate Scotland’s Native Woodland
Large areas of native woodland are to be created on ten different sites by planting over seven million trees. BP has committed over £10 million in ten years to the scheme, one of the largest contributions to the environment in Scottish history.

Germany’s Mighty Oaks Threatened By Pollution
Nearly 30% of Germany’s oak trees have severe pollution damage. Air pollution, parasites, unusual weather conditions and their long life span are said to be causes.

Water Shortages Haunt Europe
France and Spain are deeply worried over the climate this year fearing deadly forest fires, crop failures and water shortages. A dry 2004/05 winter and low rainfall levels during the rest of 2005 have resulted in seriously low water tables.

Bush Plans To Sell Public Lands
President Bush’s 2007 budget proposes to sell $800 million worth of Nation Forest System lands. The cash driven proposal will put conservation of these areas deeply under threat owing to pressure from development companies. The conservation of public lands promotes the protection of water quality which may be consequently at risk

The Peruvian Camisea Amazon Pipeline Project Threatens Pollution
The Camisea natural gas pipeline project has suffered four leaks in its first 15 months of operation and faces the possibility of many more due to its poor construction. The resultant pollution will harm ecosystems and affect the health and lives of indigenous people.

The Mountain Pine Beetle Causes Havoc To Forests In Canada
The mountain pine beetle, whose population has swiftly multiplied due to the rapidly warming environment, is sweeping across Canada felling swathes of the ubiquitous lodgepole pines in its wake. It is set to kill double the number of trees per year than does the logging industry.

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