03/05/00 -- Global Initiative Reveals Vanishing Forests

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Global Initiative Reveals Vanishing Forests

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org

http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Archives

http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest Conservation

3/5/00

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY

World Resources Institute has rolled out their high powered and

priced "Global Forest Watch" Internet site, and is the first to

display interactive maps over the Internet for forest conservation

purposes. The new site gets an "A" for concept, and a "C-" for both

progress made given resources and informational content. With

millions of dollars going into the project, there is really no excuse

for entire sections of the web site not having any content. GFW's

maps are small and slow to use. As web map serving software matures,

we can expect to see a number of offerings in the World forest map

category.

g.b.

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Title: Global Initiative Reveals Vanishing Forests

Source: Environment News Service, http://www.ens.lycos.com/

Date: March 1, 2000

WASHINGTON, DC, March 1, 2000 - A unique combination of satellite

imagery, geographic information systems, mapping software, the

Internet and on the ground observation is giving the public a clearer

picture of the threats facing the world's forests. The picture is not

pretty, said the World Resources Institute, launching a new initiative

Tuesday to document vanishing forests.

The world's remaining frontier forests are rapidly being logged over

and opened up for development, said the World Resources Institute

(WRI), an international conservation group dedicated to providing

information, ideas, and solutions to global environmental problems.

WRIs new initiative, Global Forest Watch, is a major new network and

tracking system that uses satellite imagery and ground level

observations to improve global knowledge about the state of forests..

"Two years ago, we documented that only a fifth of the world's

historic forest cover remains as frontier forests or large tracts of

intact forests. At the current rate of expansion, we estimated that

another 40 percent would be lost in the next 10 to 20 years," said

Dirk Bryant, director of Global Forest Watch. "It now looks like we

have underestimated those threats in some places."

WRI released maps and reports of Canada, Gabon and Cameroon, revealing

widespread logging in the forests of the Congo Basin, and extensive

mining, energy and road construction projects in the forests of

Canada.

"For the first time, we are mapping out logging across the Congo

Basin, a region that contains the world's second largest contiguous

tropical forest after the Amazon," said Bryant. "Canada's intact

forests are being opened up for large-scale exploitation, including

those in the environmentally-sensitive far northern forests."

The reports released by Global Forest Watch Tuesday are "A First Look

at Logging in Gabon," "Canada's Forests at a Crossroads: An Assessment

in the Year 2000" and "An Overview of Logging in Cameroon." The

reports and the maps are available online at:

www.globalforestwatch.org. The website uses an interactive map server

and cutting edge software that allows the integration of local data

with satellite imagery.

Global Forest Watch addresses the international problem of the lack of

transparency and easy access to information, WRI says. Over the next

five years, the international network will span 21 countries and cover

80 percent of the world's remaining frontier forests.

Global Forest Watch combines on the ground knowledge with digital and

satellite technology to provide accurate forest information to anyone

with access to the Internet.

"The key is the power of information," said WRI President Jonathan

Lash. "What Global Forest Watch does is put communities, people,

activists and wood consumers together and provide them with

information about what is happening to the forests."

Global Forest Watch identifies and promotes successful forest

management practices, enables governments to better manage their

forests, and provides local groups with the information they will need

to participate in the management of their forests.

WRI board chairman Bill Ruckelshaus said that Global Forest Watch

would not have been possible a few years ago. "It is a reality now

because of the growth of local citizen's groups, the expansion of the

Internet and other digital technologies and the new partnerships being

forged by businesses, governments and environmental groups," said

Ruckelshaus.

Global Forest Watch has received support from both environmental

groups and industry. It currently has 75 partners in seven countries.

Software companies such as Environmental Systems Research Institute

(ESRI) and ERDAS, and home furnishings company IKEA, have given major

donations to support Global Forest Watch.

"We have committed that by September 1, we will not use solid wood

from natural intact forests," said Jan Kjellman, president of IKEA

North America. "To be able to live up to this, we have to know where

the natural intact forests are and which forests need protection."

IKEA is the world's largest home furnishings company with 156 stores

in 28 countries.

Through the donations of ESRI and ERDAS, Global Forest Watch partners

will be using the latest software to document and map what has been

observed in the field.

"Global Forest Watch is a good model of how technology can be used to

protect the environment," said Jack Dangermond, ESRI president.

"Thanks to new technologies, we are better positioned to head off

further threats to the world's remaining intact forests."

4. http://ens.lycos.com/

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