ACTION ALERT

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

World's Forests Burn

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

http://forests.org/

7/19/98

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Title: World's Forests Burn/Action Alert #138

Source: Rainforest Action Network

Status: Distribute widely accredited to source

Date: July 1, 1998

In countries around the world this past year, massive fires have raged

out of control, destroying millions of acres of ancient forest in what

appears to be a planetary meltdown.

In what is believed to be the largest fire in the history of the

Amazon, flames destroyed millions of acres in Roraima, in northern

Brazil. An estimated 56,000 settlers lost their annual crops, and

many of Roraima's 32,000 indigenous people were left without adequate

food or water.

In Mexico, fires have devastated nearly one million acres of land

since January - including significant portions of the country's last

remaining virgin cloud forest. In Indonesia, fires have been burning

non-stop since late 1997, destroying over 300,000 acres and shrouding

much of SE Asia in smoke.

Besides destroying irreplaceable old growth rainforests, the fires

pose an enormous risk to people living in or near the affected areas.

Thousands of people are suffering from respiratory diseases as a

result of smoke-filled air, and outbreaks of malaria have increased

significantly. The prolonged fires and droughts have ruined countless

crops and caused rivers and wells to dry up, making food and water

scarce long after the fires die down. Malnutrition has become a

common problem, and the threat of starvation persists in the areas

hardest hit by forest fires.

In Brazil, where poverty and overpopulation are forcing people further

and further into the Amazon, small fires set by farmers to clear land

burned out of control due to the unusually dry conditions created by

El Ni¤o. Similar scenarios have fueled fires in Indonesia and other

parts of the world, where logging and mining roads have brought the

situation to a critical point. As more roads are being cut into

forests, loggers, ranchers, and farmers-all of whom use fire to clear

land- are now able to access previously remote forest interiors.

Global climate change, which may have worsened the scorching effects

of El Ni¤o, is also creating conditions that foster fires. As human

emissions of greenhouse gases have continued unabated (due largely to

deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels), average global

temperatures have been steadily rising. If present emission rates

continue, there will be vast repercussions for the global climate,

including an increase in the frequency of drought in tropical areas.

The fires and droughts that we are witnessing now in Brazil, Mexico,

Indonesia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Russia, Africa, Canada and

Florida may be a sign that we are already well on our way to a climate

nightmare in the 21st century. Common sense tells us to expect more of

these disasters as our planet's ecosystems are devastated-and at every

juncture, we see logging and fossil fuels as primary contributors.

We must demand that our corporations and governments meet the

seriousness of the situation by making changes to stop global warming.

World Bank funding has been behind many commercial logging and oil

operations rainforest countries. The Bank has since enacted a policy

against funding logging in tropical forests; but tragically, in the

face of global conflagration, The Bank is considering easing this

policy, and aggressively continues to fund new fossil fuel projects.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Please write to World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn; let him know

that you hold The Bank responsible for establishing policies that will

ease, not exacerbate, climate change.

If we ever hope to curb the threat of climate change, the World Bank

cannot backslide on tropical forests. In fact, the funding ban must

be expanded to disallow logging in any old growth or primary forest

anywhere. Also, The Bank must develop a similar policy restricting

funding for new fossil fuel operations, and start investing in

renewable alternatives.

Write to Mr. James D. Wolfensohn, World Bank, 1818 H Street NW,

Washington, D.C. 20433. Here is a sample letter:

Mr. Wolfensohn,

Over the course of this past year, catastrophic fires have destroyed

millions of acres of precious rainforests, all over the world.

In Indonesia and Brazil commercial logging operations are largely to

blame, so this is no time for The Bank to backslide on its policy

against funding logging in tropical forests. Rather, I urge you to

strengthen The Bank's ban to include logging in any of the Earth's

remaining old growth or primary forests.

Likewise, since burning fossil fuels turns our skies into a furnace

and worsens the conditions that are causing forest fires, I urge you

to implement a policy against investing in any new fossil fuel

projects.

It is time to invest in renewable alternatives before it is too late

to stop global climate change, and deforestation.

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