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FOREST
CONSERVATION NEWS TODAY
East
Asia Pledges Action on Illegal Logging
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09/18/01
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY by Forests.org
After
years of government neglect, illegal logging and associated
illegal
trade in forest products in Asia are receiving the high-
profile
attention they deserve. Good thing too
- since forests are
rapidly
being lost in the region; and intact, large and fully
operable
forest ecosystems are endangered. A
recent meeting of
Ministers
from East Asian nations has accepted by acclamation "an
unprecedented
and historic declaration" committing their countries to
combat
the scourge of illegal logging. This is
a substantial
statement
of intent that was drafted through wide consultation with
most
stakeholders, and will be significant if properly implemented.
We hope
it is.
However,
if regional and national forest sustainability is the goal,
reducing
illegal logging is only part of the solution.
Asian logging
industries
are simply too large for the resource base and must be
restructured
and resized (and not simply transferred elsewhere; i.e.
to
Brazil, Papua New Guinea, Cameroon, Cambodia, etc.). While much
forest
loss and diminishment Worldwide can be attributed to illegal
logging,
efforts to combat this problem does not necessarily equate
to
sustainable forestry or ending deforestation.
The
World Bank and others hold up enforcement and stopping illegal
logging
as the primary component of their forest conservation
strategy. Yet they continue to subsidize in various
manners legal
and
highly damaging industrial logging.
Such "legal" harvests
continue
apace and threaten most remaining large rainforests. The
World
Bank must not be allowed to legitimize large and destructive
industrial
forest industries. Their proposed new
forest policy may
do just
that - opening up lending for commercial logging practices
that
had previously been banned. Rather than
continue to invest in
reforming
extensive and intensive industrial forest management, in
Asia
and elsewhere, they should finance a restructuring of over-sized
timber
industries. Reductions in the scale and
intensity of forest
management
practices is required if there is going to be any hope of
sustaining
the World's forests. The World Bank
cannot have it both
ways -
either they are for forest conservation or maximizing profits
from
commercial forest industries - the two are in conflict.
g.b.
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TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: East Asia Pledges Action on Illegal
Logging
Source: Copyright 2001 Environment News Service
Date: September 17, 2001
BALI,
Indonesia, September 17, 2001 (ENS) - Ministers from East Asian
Nations
and other regions at the East Asia Ministerial Conference on
Forest
Law Enforcement and Governance accepted by acclamation last
week an
unprecedented and historic declaration committing their
countries
to combat illegal logging, associated illegal trade, and
other
forest crimes.
The
declaration represents the first ever international commitment by
governments
to combat corruption in the forestry sector.
"This
is a historic occasion - the first of its kind anywhere in the
world.
A diverse range of countries, neighbors, trading partners, and
NGOs
have gathered here as a testament to the importance we attach to
the
problem of illegal logging and the trade in illegal timber
products,"
said Hillary Benn, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
at the
Department for International Development in the United
Kingdom.
"While East Asia is the focus of this conference, illegal
logging
and the trade in illegal timber products is an international
problem."
Forests
and other wooded lands cover almost one third of the planet,
but
between 1990 and 1995, 65.1 million hectares (160 million acres)
of
forests were lost in developing countries alone.
In
Indonesia alone, a low end estimate of royalties, reforestation
fund
and export taxes payments that are not being paid to the
Government
of Indonesia on timber stolen each year amounts to US$600
million.
That is
four times the combined spending of central and local
government
in the forestry sector for operations, investment and
reforestation.
This is also twice what the Indonesian government
spent
on subsidized food programs for the poor in 2001 and about
three
quarters of the development budget for education.
"With
respect to law enforcement, our forest is endowed by the grace
and
benevolence of God. We inherit them from our ancestors and yet
borrow
them from our successor. Therefore, in order to safeguard them
we will
have to impose very strong penalties for those who commit
destructive
action," said Indonesian Forestry Minister, H.E. DR.
Muhammad
Prakosa.
"Combating
internal illegal logging and controlling illegal trade has
to go
together," the minister added.
In his
remarks, World Bank country director for Indonesia Mark Baird
stated,
"Forest law can not be effectively enforced in the absence of
good
governance. Good governance begins with strong political will,
demonstrated
by solid and consistent commitment at the highest level
of
government."
The
declaration also emphasized the urgent need for effective
cooperation
at the sub-national, national, regional and international
levels.
Key action plans were also identified to intensify national
efforts
as well as to strengthen bilateral, regional and multilateral
collaboration
to address violations of forest law and forest crime.
A
regional task force on forest law enforcement and governance will
be
formed to advance the objectives of the declaration.
"We
must look together for solutions that involve both producers and
consumer,"
said Benn. "Time is short. a sandalwood tree can take a
hundred
years to grow and only a minute to be cut down."
The
declaration will address not only the direct impacts of illegal
logging,
but also the secondary environmental and economic effects.
For
example, rapid deforestation can leave steep forest slopes
vulnerable
to devastating mudslides, denuding the slopes of topsoil
and
smothering villages, fields and streams below.
The
loss of trees also contributes in several ways to the loss of
rare
forest species. In northern Sumatra, Indonesia, orangutans are
losing
ground as illegal loggers strip their remaining habitat of the
largest,
most valuable trees.
Dr.
Carel van Schaik, a Wildlife Conservation Society research
associate,
reported this year that in Sumatran areas that have been
selectively
logged, the number of orangutans has decreased by more
than 60
percent. A decline in trees that produce fruit - a critical
food
source for orangutans - as well as the loss of canopy trees used
by
orangutans for travel, was to blame, she said.
Illegal
loggers often build roads to access valuable tracts of trees.
These roads
offer easy access into the forests for other illegal
activities,
including mining and bushmeat hunting.
Illegal
commercial hunting for the meat of wild animals, also known
as
bushmeat, has apparently already caused the extinction of the Miss
Waldron's
Colobus Monkey, and many more animal species are being
hunted
at a rate that outpaces their ability to reproduce and
replenish
their populations, experts warn.
Environmental
groups hailed the international accord on illegal
logging.
"The
declaration surpasses what we expected," said Nigel Sizer,
director
of the Asia Pacific Forests Program at The Nature
Conservancy,
an international environmental organization. "We are
eager
to work together in implementing these commitments. We have
seen
very frank, honest, open discussion of problems that have been
taboo
in inter-governmental debate about forests in the past."
About
150 participants - including representatives of nongovernmental
organizations,
the private sector, and government institutions -
contributed
to the three day conference, exploring the best current
thinking
on forest law enforcement. Representatives of a number of
African
and Latin American countries as well as G-8 and European
Union
member countries also attended as observers and resource
persons.
The
three day meeting consisted of two days of technical discussions
and a
ministerial segment on the last day.
The
meeting was cohosted by the World Bank and the government of
Indonesia.
The United States and the United Kingdom provided
financial
support and other contributions.
Patrick
Cronin, assistant administrator for policy and resource
planning
at the U.S. Agency for International Development, stressed
the
sense of urgency, need for partnership, as well as the interests
of
private sector industry and NGOs.
"The
Bush Administration is committed to helping advance forest law
enforcement
because it makes good business sense as well as
environment
and development policy," he said. "Let's go to work."
More
information about the conference is available at:
http://www.worldbank.or.id
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