11/19/01 -- Logging Off: Ending Industrial Logging of Primary & Old-Growth Forests

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FOREST CONSERVATION NEWS TODAY

Logging Off: Ending Industrial Logging of Primary & Old Growth Forests

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org, Inc.

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11/19/01

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Forests.org

Commercial logging of high conservation value forests must end. If

current trends continue most of the World's remaining closed canopy

forests -- forests sufficiently large and intact to retain most or all

of their species and ecological processes -- will be gone by mid-

century. Failure to end the era of large-scale industrial forestry in

the World's remaining primary and old growth forests will result in

cataclysmic species loss, ecosystem collapse and social upheaval.

The Union of Concerned Scientists and Smithsonian Institution's Center

for Tropical Forest Sciences have launched a timely new report

entitled "Logging Off: Mechanisms to Stop or Prevent Industrial

Logging in Forests of High Conservation Value". Fifteen different

mechanisms are discussed to reduce or eliminate industrial logging in

high conservation value forests. Case studies presented include

purchasing timber concessions for protection, cracking down on illegal

logging, international timber boycotts and import bans. The report

can be found at: http://www.ucsusa.org/environment/logging.html.

Coverage of the report and further recent news on this topic is below.

Establishment environmental groups are making a huge effort to reform

commercial forestry - sanctioning the "certification" of the

environmental sensitivity of large-scale commercial logging of intact

primary and old growth forests. It is too late. Half of the Earth's

original forest cover has been completely lost due to deforestation

and only one-fifth of the world's original forests still remain in

large, natural and relatively undisturbed blocks. There is no such

thing as environmentally sustainable commercial forestry in ancient

primary forests. To say otherwise is scientifically without merit and

duplicitous.

Global ecological sustainability depends upon strictly protecting most

of the World's remaining large and intact primary and old growth

forests, commencing the age of forest restoration, and learning to

meet our needs for forest products in other ways. These include

certified community-based eco-forestry activities in ancient forests,

certified mixed species plantations on degraded lands, certified

secondary forest management and use of alternative fibers.

Global forest sustainability depends upon forest conservationists

protecting and restoring forests, not spending their time as

commercial logging apologists. Further efforts to reform rather than

end industrial logging of ancient primary and old-growth forests is

futile and dangerous. The default assumption for such forests that do

not have protected status is that they will be commercially logged.

This is wrong. For most forests that are not yet protected, the focus

needs to be upon stopping or preventing first time large-scale

logging. The era when industrial harvest of mature, wild and natural

forests was acceptable is over.

g.b.

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ITEM #1

Title: Logging Off: Mechanisms to Stop or Prevent

Industrial Logging in Forests of High Conservation Value

Source: Smithsonian Institution's Center for Tropical

Forest Sciences

Date: November 19, 2001

UCS and the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Tropical Forest

Sciences (CTFS) are pleased to announce the release of a new report,

"Logging Off: Mechanisms to Stop or Prevent Industrial Logging in

Forests of High Conservation Value."

You can download a pdf copy of "Logging Off" at

( http://www.ucsusa.org/environment/logging.html ) , or you may

order a hardcopy from the Union of Concerned Scientists at

( http://www.ucsusa.org/publications/pubs-home.html#environment ).

Please feel free to circulate this notice to colleagues.

** About the Report

Under current trajectories, most of the world's remaining closed

canopy forests-forests sufficiently large and intact to retain most or

all of their species and ecological processes-will be gone by mid-

century. Moreover, the pressures that the world's forests face now

will likely increase with the expanding human population (projected to

rise from 6.1 billion now to about 10 billion by 2050) and growing

demands for arable land and wood products.

Yet possibilities do exist to slow and ultimately reverse these

trends. One is to focus conservation activities on forests threatened

by industrial logging, both legal and illegal. A large proportion of

the world's remaining forests fall into this category-far more than

are currently protected-and many of these have not yet been highly

degraded. These production forests constitute a tremendous but

fleeting conservation opportunity. Conserving them while meeting the

world's demands for wood products will require three concurrent

actions: greatly reducing or eliminating industrial logging operations

within forests that have the greatest value for biodiversity

conservation; strengthening the sustainability of forestry operations

in regions of relatively lower conservation value; and expanding wood

supplies from well-managed plantations.

UCS joined with CTFS to produce "Logging Off: Mechanisms to Stop or

Prevent Industrial Logging in Forests of High Conservation Value,"

which provides guidance on how to tackle the first of these

objectives. Authored by Ted Gullison, Mary Melnyk, and Carmen Wong,

this report offers the first broad assessment of the potential tools

available for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), governments, and

other stakeholders to reduce or eliminate industrial logging in high

conservation value forests. Reviewing a series of case studies of

different approaches that have already been applied in tropical and

temperate forests, the authors identify 15 different mechanisms

through which logging could be stopped or prevented. These range from

purchasing timber concessions for protection and cracking down on

illegal logging to international timber boycotts and import bans.

Several mechanisms have been successfully implemented, and some, such

as conservation easements, have been applied in a number of countries

for decades.

As Gullison and coauthors elaborate, these mechanisms face some common

challenges to their successful application. One is to decide which

production forest areas should be the focus of efforts to eliminate

logging. At a broad geographic scale, the "biodiversity hotspots,"

"frontier forests," "critical ecoregions," and other recent priority-

setting exercises provide valuable (and despite their varying

methodologies, largely overlapping) guides for selecting forests with

the highest conservation value. Within them, the authors suggest that

finer-scale biodiversity assessments and effective land-use planning

with key stakeholders can further specify priority locations where

logging operations should be halted.

Clearly, substantial political will and increased financial

investments will be essential to broadly implement this approach to

forest conservation. Conservation scientists and institutions can help

strengthen the former by providing policymakers with clearer consensus

assessments of geographic priorities for biodiversity conservation.

The latter would benefit from new funding sources, for example,

through establishing a market value for associated reductions in

carbon emissions.

** Visibility and Distribution Plans.

Released only a few weeks ago, "Logging Off" is already gaining

substantial attention. Co-author Mary Melnyk and Peter Frumhoff,

Director and Senior Scientist of UCS's Global Environment Program,

gave a well-received presentation on the report at the Convention on

Biodiversity's SBSTTA-7 meeting in Montreal on November 14th. The

report and presentation attracted the attention of many of the SBSTTA-

7 delegates, and was also reported in the Canadian press, including

the Montreal Gazette and the Vancouver Sun.

Drs Melnyk and Frumhoff will also present the report's findings to

forest policy specialists at the World Bank in early December.

We're distributing notice of the report to a broad range of

stakeholders. By the end of October, more than 1700 copies had been

downloaded from the web, and several hundred copies have been mailed.

Our outreach is focused on forest policymakers, conservation

scientists, donor agencies, NGOs, and responsible industry

representatives -- all key constituencies who can draw upon the

toolkit of mechanisms for reducing or preventing industrial logging in

high conservation value forests which "Logging Off" provides. Seizing

the opportunities to apply these mechanisms will help alter current

trajectories of forest and biodiversity decline and allow a more

optimistic appraisal of the future of the world's forests.

** Additional Background information:

Ted Gullison holds a Ph.D. in Tropical Forest Ecology from Princeton

University. He co-founded the Palo Alto-based environmental consulting

company, Hardner & Gullison Associates.

Mary Melnyk has a Ph.D. in Ecological Management from Imperial College

(London). A former AAAS fellow, Mary works with the USDA's Foreign

Agriculture Service and is placed in USAID's Asia and the Near East

Bureau as its Senior Advisor for Natural Resources Management.

Carmen Wong is a research analyst with Hardner & Gullison Associates.

She holds a Masters in Resource Management from Simon Fraser

University (British Columbia).

The Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) of the Smithsonian

Tropical Research Institute is a global consortium of researchers and

research institutions dedicated to the long-term study of tropical

forest diversity, dynamics, management, and conservation. CTFS

oversees a network of 16 standardized, large-scale forest plots, and

is currently monitoring over 3 million trees of 6000 species -- or

more than 10% of all known tropical tree species.

ITEM #2

Title: INTERNATIONAL MEETING ON BIODIVERSITY PROTECTION

RECOGNISES CRITICAL IMPORTANCE OF ANCIENT FORESTS

Source: Greenpeace

Date: November 18, 2001

Only partial progress made on protection of primary forests and forest

species 18 November 2001 Montreal - The five day meeting of scientific

advisors to the international Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

came to a close late Friday with limited progress made on approving a

plan to protect the health of the world's forests and forest

biodiversity.

At the meeting in Montreal the 180 signatories to the CBD began to set

firm targets and timelines for forests protection, and initiated

discussions about the need to prioritise work on the most threatened

regions of biodiversity, including the world's remaining primary or

ancient forests.

Final documents from the meeting recognized the "critical value of

primary forests for the conservation of biodiversity" and acknowledged

that currently "there is an alarming rate of loss of such forests."

"This is the first time a meeting of international delegates has

formally recognised that protecting the world's remaining ancient

forests must become an international priority," said Gudrun Henne,

Greenpeace political advisor.

"That's clearly a step in the right direction, but it's an incredible

disappointment that the delegates couldn't decide on more concrete

targets and timelines to actually protect those forests at risk.

Without action, these words could be meaningless."

Part of the reason the CBD signatories failed to make progress on

developing a plan to protect the biodiversity found in forests was the

late start to discussions of any substance. Only on day three of the

meeting were delegates able to focus on discussing targets and

timelines for forests protection.

However, this was exacerbated by the clear lack of vision and

leadership exhibited by many of the national delegations. With next

year being the tenth anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit, and the

birth of the Convention on Biological Diversity, setting clear targets

and timelines are of particular importance for the CBD's next full

meeting in the Hague in April 2002.

"If we continue to make progress at this glacial pace, we can

virtually write off a large percentage of the ancient forests that

remain on the planet," said Christoph Thies. "Between now and the

April meeting, the world will lose over seven million hectares of

forest and much of that will be in ancient forests.

Species such as the orangutan and tiger can not afford to wait while

the world's governments decide whether to act."

Approximately 80 percent of original global forests have already been

destroyed.

At the April meeting in the Hague, Greenpeace is advocating that world

governments take immediate steps to halt forest destruction by:

placing a moratoria on logging and other industrial activities in all

large areas of ancient forests until appropriate protected area

systems have been established; adopting measures to ensure that timber

is produced and traded in an ecologically, socially, and legally

responsible way; and creating a global ancient forest fund of $15

billion annually to fund these measures.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Gudrun Henne, Greenpeace International Political Advisor: +1 514 297

4393

ITEM #3

Title: Concrete Actions to Preserve World's Forest Ecosystems Should

Be Accelerated

Date: November 9, 2001

MONTREAL, November 9, 2001 - Experts from the 182 Parties to the

Convention on Biological Diversity are meeting in Montreal from

November 12 to 16 to assess the threats facing the world's forests and

to identify practical solutions.

"Despite their importance, forests across many parts of the globe and

in particular in developing countries continue to be felled and

cleared at an alarming rate. It is my sincere hope that humankind can

tackle the root causes of this, which, in many countries, lie in

poverty and the desperate circumstances that billions of people across

the globe find themselves in, " said Klaus T”pfer, Executive Director

of the United Nations Environment Program.

"Natural forests harbor the greatest variety of animal, microbial and

plant species of any terrestrial ecosystem. They provide us with a

vast array of goods and services. They are the cornerstone of

sustainable development," said Hamdallah Zedan, the Convention's

Executive Secretary. "Conserving and sustainably using these

invaluable ecosystems is a major goal of the Convention's work

program. Research is still needed, but it is now time to accelerate

concrete action to preserve the world's forests."

The role of the seventh meeting of the Convention's Subsidiary Body on

Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) is to provide

expert advice to the ministers and diplomats attending the sixth

session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention, which

takes place in The Hague from April 8 to 26 next year.

Drawing on the work of an Ad-Hoc Technical Expert Group on Forest

Biological Diversity set up by the Conference of the Parties in May

2000, the SBSTTA will consider the current status of forest

biodiversity and major trends and threats. It will identify practical

solutions that could be implemented locally, nationally, or globally.

The SBSTTA will address in particular the need to widen the focus of

the Convention's current forests work program from research to

practical action.

The Montreal meeting will also discuss three specific threats to

forest biological diversity: climate change, human-induced

uncontrolled forest fires, and the impact of unsustainable harvesting

of non-timber forest resources, including in particular bushmeat and

living biological resources. Delegates will try to identify how to

manage and reduce these threats.

Other biodiversity issues, such as the loss of pollinators in

agricultural lands, plant conservation strategy, including possible

time-bound quantifiable targets for meeting the objectives of the

Convention with regard to plant conservation, incentive measures,

impact assessment, will also be addressed by the meeting.

The meeting will be held at the ICAO building in Montreal (999,

University Street). For more information please contact Cristina

Stricker, Information Officer, tel. during the conference only

(November 12-16): +1-514-868-1581, permanent tel.: +1-514-287-7031,

fax: +1-514-288-6588, e-mail: cristina.stricker@biodiv.org.

Meeting documents and other information are available at

http://www.biodiv.org and http://www.biodiv.org/meetings/sbstta-07.asp

Background

Forest biodiversity in danger

Why are forests important?

Forests provide a wide range of goods and services, including timber,

fuel-wood, food, medicine, soil and watershed protection, and climate

stabilization. Preserving forests is therefore crucial for human well-

being. Forests also play a vital role in culture and religion and

inspire artists and thinkers around the world. At the same time,

forests contain a major share of global biodiversity: at least half of

the world's terrestrial species live in tropical primary forests.

How much forest is left?

From 50% some 8,000 years ago, forests now occupy about 27% of the

Earth's ice-free surface. Primary forests comprise less than half the

remaining forest, with the rest being secondary, degraded or

plantation forests. The main causes of destruction are the housing and

infrastructure development, desertification and land degradation, and

hundreds of years of large-scale conversion to agriculture and

rangelands.

According to data from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization

(FAO), 3,869 million hectares of global forest remained in 2000.

Forest area has declined by around 9.4 million hectares per year since

1990, an annual rate of 0.22 %. Most of the decline takes place in

natural forests in the tropics. Preliminary estimates show that net

deforestation rates have increased somewhat recently in tropical

Africa, remained constant in Central America, and declined slightly in

tropical Asia and South America. Although the establishment of

plantation forests and reforestation activities in temperate and

boreal forests and tropical areas is increasing, these plantations

cannot fully compensate for deforestation of primary forest in terms

of biological diversity.

Between 1980 and 1990, the annual rate of deforestation for developing

countries is estimated at 15.5 million hectares per year. As a result,

more than 200 million hectares of forest have been lost in the past 15

years. According to IUCN, this is equal to twice the size of South

Africa, four times the territory of Spain, or seven times that of

Malaysia.

What are the major threats?

Direct causes of deforestation and forest degradation include improper

and wasteful forest management and logging practices, changing land-

use patterns, over-exploitation, invasive alien species, and

pollution. In the near future, climate change will also be added to

this list.

Indirect, or underlying, causes include the lack of political power of

local and indigenous communities, bad governance and the mistaken

belief that forests and their resources are infinite. The constantly

increasing global demand for wood, fuel, paper, and other forest

products is also to blame. In the longer term, a lack of awareness

about the multiple environmental and economic values of forests may

loom as the largest threat.

What can be done?

An effective forest conservation strategy requires that an

ecologically viable acreage of all forest ecosystem types be preserved

through a network of protected areas. More forest restoration programs

need to be developed. At the same time, sustainable management

practices need to be implemented on the basis of the ecosystem

approach. These should include new forest-related national

regulations, strategies and plans.

Decision-making on forest management should involve indigenous peoples

and local communities in order to ensure that their legitimate needs

are taken into consideration. This approach will also ensure that

local expertise is tapped and that forest management becomes more

effective and sustainable.

Education and public awareness also need to be strengthened, for

example via campaigns promoting sustainable production and consumption

patterns. In particular, people need to be informed about the wide

range of forest services and products.

The role of the Convention

The Convention on Biological Diversity was opened for signature at the

Rio Earth Summit in June 1992. It is the first global agreement to

cover all aspects of biological diversity -- genetic resources,

species and ecosystems - and the first to recognize that the

conservation of biological diversity is "a common concern of

humankind" and an integral part of efforts to achieve sustainable

development. The Convention fosters scientific and technical

cooperation and the equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of

genetic resources, and the widespread use of environmentally sound

technologies.

The Convention's Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and

Technological Advice (SBSTTA) advises the Conference of the Parties -

the Convention's top decision-making body. It also promotes

international cooperation on biodiversity science, technical matters,

and technology. It addresses a broad range of issues, including the

natural and social sciences, data management, modern information

technology, models, scientific assessments, the development of

biodiversity indicators, and monitoring. In this way, the SBSTTA

provides an agreed factual basis so that policymakers can take

informed political decisions about the cross-cutting issues and

thematic areas addressed under the Convention.

The Convention addresses forests directly through its work program on

forest biological diversity. This program emphasizes the ecosystem

approach, socio-economic considerations, conservation and sustainable

use. It promotes scientific analyses of how human activities and

forest practices influence biodiversity and how to minimize the

resulting damages. The work program is currently being strengthened

and expanded.

The forest work program is implemented together with partners such as

the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United

Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the Global Environment Facility

(GEF), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

(UNFCCC), the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF) and the Center for

International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

Key definitions

Primary forests are forests that have never been directly disturbed by

humans. Whatever their age, they have developed following a natural

disturbance and according to natural processes. Forests that are used

by indigenous and local communities with traditional lifestyles

consistent with the conservation and sustainable use of biological

diversity are included in this category.

Secondary forests have been directly disturbed by humans but have

recovered, whether naturally or artificially. They do not necessary

provide the same level of products and services as a primary forest

would in the same location.

Old growth forests can be primary or secondary forests. They have

reached an age at which the structures and species normally associated

with old primary forests of that type have accumulated sufficiently to

create a forest ecosystem distinct from any younger age class.

Planted forests or forest plantations are forest stands established by

planting or seeding in the process of afforestation or reforestation.

They are either of introduced species (all planted stands), or

intensively managed stands of indigenous species.

Tropical forests are located near the equator. They have the greatest

diversity of species (many still undiscovered) and are the most

vulnerable land-based ecosystem in the world. They have only two

seasons - rainy and dry - and receive about 12 hours of daylight year

round.

Temperate forests are characteristic of North America, north-eastern

Asia, and western and central Europe. They thrive in moderate climates

with well-defined seasons and a growing season of 140 to 200 days

during four to six frost-free months.

Boreal forests are the most widespread forest type of all. They

inhabit the regions between 50 and 60 degrees north latitudes -

Eurasia, North America, Siberia, Scandinavia, Alaska, and Canada.

Seasons are divided into short, moist, and moderately warm summers and

long, cold, and dry winters. The growing season is some 130 days.

Where to find more information on forests

Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity

United Nations Environment Program

393 St. Jacques St., Suite 300

Montreal, Quebec, Canada H2Y 1N9

Tel. (+1-514) 288-2220

Fax: (+1-514) 288-6588

E-mail: secretariat@biodiv.org

http://www.biodiv.org

United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Viale delle Terme di Caracalla

Forestry Department

I-00100 Rome, Italy

Tel: (+39-06) 570-54047

Fax: (+39-06) 570-52151

http://www.fao.org/forestry/Forestry.asp

UN Forum on Forests (UNFF)

2, UN Plaza, 22th Floor

New York, NY 10017, USA

Tel.: +1-212-963-3401/9875

Fax: +1-212-963-4260

E-mail: UNFF@un.org

http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/forests.htm

Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

P.O. BOX 6596, JKPWB

Jakarta 10065, Indonesia

Tel: (+62-251) 622-622

Fax: (+62-251) 622-100

E-mail: cifor@cgiar.org

http://www.cifor.cgiar.org

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