Global Forest Crisis Accelerating

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

http://forests.org/

4/12/98

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

In a new report, the Worldwatch Institute details the scope of the

global forest crisis; largely caused by increased demand for paper and

other wood products, government corruption, illegal logging, and the

burning of forests.

g.b.

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Title: Global Forest Crisis Accelerating

Source: InterPress Service

Date: April 7, 1998

/** ips.english: 505.0 **/

** Topic: ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN-UNITED STATES: Global Forest Crisis **

** Written 3:36 PM Apr 7, 1998 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.english **

Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.

*** 04-Apr-98 ***

Title: ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN-UNITED STATES: Global Forest Crisis

Accelerating

By Danielle Knight

WASHINGTON, Apr. 4 (IPS) - The increasing demand for paper and other

wood products - combined with government corruption, illegal logging,

and the burning of thousands of hectares for quick profit - is turning

local forest destruction into a global catastrophe, warns a new

environmental study.

Forest fires presently raging in Indonesia and Brazil are symptoms of

the global trend of accelerating forest loss, says a report released

Saturday by the Washington-based World Watch Institute.

''Half the forests that once covered the earth are gone, and

deforestation has been accelerating the last 30 years,'' warns Janet

Abramovitz, a senior researcher with World Watch, and author of the

report.

Between 1980 and 1995 at least 200 million hectares of forests

vanished - an area larger than Mexico. When forests disappear, ''we

lose more than just timber,'' she explains in the report, 'Taking a

Stand: Cultivating a new Relationship with the World's Forests.'

As forests have been shrinking, the pressures on them have grown more

intense. In the last 35 years, wood consumption has doubled, paper use

has more than tripled and each year at least another 16 million

hectares of natural forest are cleared, she says - quoting data from

the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Abramovitz accuses logging corporations, encouraged and subsidised by

governments, as being the main cause of the large- scale forest

exploitation and infrastructure developments in forested areas.

''Subsidies for below-cost logging, processing road building, and

infrastructure are so large that governments are essentially paying

private interests to take the timber and convert the land to other

uses,'' says Abramovitz.

Taxpayers usually don't even know that they are footing the bill for

these revenue-losers. Indonesia's timber concessions cost the

government 2.5 billion dollars in lost revenues in 1990, according to

the report. In the United States, timber sales from national forests

lost over one billion dollars from 1992 to 1994, because of subsidies.

Even when a government has forest laws and policies on the statute

books, governments often lack the capacity or will to enforce them,

the study says.

Brazil, now the world's fourth largest timber producer, estimates that

80 percent of logging in the Amazon is illegal. Despite this,

Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, recently vetoed a law

that would boost enforcement of environmental regulations. In Russia,

the study estimates that as many as 12 million hectares are illegally

logged each year, compared to only two million hectares of legal

logging.

Government corruption and strong federal ties to logging and timber

corporations is another major contributor to forest destruction,

according to the report.

In Indonesia, President Suharto diverted money from the nation's

reforestation fund to build a paper factory for his personal friend

and ''timber king'' Bob Hasan - who was recently appointed as the

Minister of Industry and Trade.

A recent audit by the International Monetary Fund found no money in

the fund to fight the devastating forest fires because the money had

been diverted to prop up Suharto's son's failing car company. In

Cambodia, the prime ministers and military illegally control the

forests and timber trade. According to this study, profits bypass the

treasury and fund their factions in the civil war.

Abramovitz also blames the growing push behind economic globalisation

for the increase in forest destruction.

''The lowering of barriers to international trade and investment,

through mechanisms including the General Agreement on Tariffs and

Trade and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, allow corporations to

roam the world seeking more profitable forest opportunities,'' says

the study.

Since 1970, the international legal trade in forest products has

tripled 142 billion dollars, and substantial amounts of illegal trade

go unreported, she says.

The rising demand for forest products, coming especially from

industrialised countries, is fueling this boom in legal and illegal

trade. Today, less that one-fifth of the world's population living in

Europe, the United States, and Japan consumes over half the world's

industrial timber and more than two thirds of its paper. Japan alone

consumes almost as much paper as the entire nation of China, a country

with nearly 10 times as many people, says the report.

Prior to the economic crisis, demand in Asia has been growing faster

than anywhere else with growth rates in the consumption of wood panels

more than three times the world average.

Having depleted their domestic forests, many Asian timber companies

are now moving elsewhere. The amount of Amazon forest under concession

to Asian companies quadrupled in 1996 to more than 12 million

hectares, according to Abramovitz. One Malaysian company controls over

60 percent of the timber concessions in Papua new Guinea

Despite the increased destruction of forests, Abramovitz is not

without hope. Governments, businesses and consumers have been

developing new relationships with forests, finding innovative ways to

meet demand for forest products while still preserving the long-term

values of intact forests.

''People are waking up to the need for change,'' she says. ''The next

challenge is to scale up these initiatives fast enough to prevent

irreversible damage to the world's forests.''

While paper recycling and reducing paper consumption are essential

steps, sustainable forestry management is the key, according to the

report.

Even though the definition of such forest management is still

evolving, the Mexico-based Forest Stewardship Council which has

developed a set of guiding principles for sustainable management.

The Council's principles includes not logging primary forests and

other sites of major environmental, social or cultural significance,

as well as conserving the biological diversity of the forest and also

respecting the ownership of forest by indigenous communities.

With consumers beginning to demand products from sustainably managed

forests, which are labeled with an eco-friendly sticker - the Council

has already certified more than 6.3 billion hectares in 20 countries.

Some governments are also beginning to change policies to better

protect their forests by eliminating subsidies, halting road building

in forests and strengthening the enforcement of domestic and

international laws.

The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Climate Change Convention as

it is negotiated further may also provide incentives to preserve

forests for their role in absorbing carbon dioxide.

''By scaling up the efforts already underway, we can begin to turn

away from today's destructive relationship,'' says Abramovitz, ''and

move towrds managing our forests so that all of their benefits and

services, from timber and jobs to flood control and climate

regulation, are available for generations to come.''

(END/IPS/dk/98)

Origin: Amsterdam/ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN-UNITED STATES/

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[c] 1998, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)

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