09/08/02 -- Plethora of Paltry Forest Protection Announcements

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FOREST CONSERVATION NEWS TODAY

Plethora of Paltry Forest Protection Announcements

10% Wildland Protection is Inadequate & Dangerously Unsustainable

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org, Inc.

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September 8, 2002

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Forests.org

A plethora of paltry forest conservation gestures were made during

the recently concluded Earth Summit in Johannesburg. Announcements

made include that Brazil’s protected areas will triple in 10 years

(to 12%), that Canada will increase its protected areas by 50%, and

that 10 million hectares of new protected areas will be established

in the Congo basin region – including 12% of Gabon’s rainforests.

These announcements are encouraging yet inadequate. While any strict

protection of large, contiguous wildlands is good in terms of

maintaining the biosphere and biodiversity; the recent announcements

are far from adequate to ecologically sustain the World’s remaining

wild forest ecosystems. Let us look at the announcements in a more

biocentric manner.

A dangerous myth has been propagated by a number of large

environmental conglomerates that 10% preservation of land is a worthy

protection goal. But in areas where large, unfragmented and

contiguous forests continue to power global ecological functions;

what is to happen to the rest? Does this mean that approximately 90%

of the remaining wildernesses in the Amazon, Congo and Canada are to

be commercially developed? Ten percent protection of these massive

still intact wildernesses is simply not enough to guarantee local,

regional and global forest ecological sustainability.

The beauty and ecological importance of the World’s remaining large

forest ecosystems lies in their intactness. Carving out 90% of these

massive life giving ecosystems for commercial development and leaving

10% as derelict, isolated fragments is not sustainable; and will

alter climate, hydrology, plant communities and wildlife. Despite

pledges to “sustainably manage” or pursue “certified” commercial

forestry in the unprotected matrix; most of these areas are likely to

continue to be deforested and ecologically diminished by clear-cut or

highly intensive selective logging, dams, power projects, roads and

agriculture. As the trees fall, ecosystems are wiped out and many

other species are killed off. Within such a context, recently

announced protected areas will become ever diminishing islands of

artificial nature – disconnected and museum like – failing to provide

the same level of ecosystem services and frequently undergoing

massive changes in vegetational composition, structure and function .

Recent announcements are mostly based upon generating good PR for

governments and filling the coffers of the environmental

conglomerates, and still fall nearly an order of magnitude below the

level of protection required for each region’s forest sustainability.

These polices are not based upon scientific requirements for upscale

forest sustainability. While strict protection of these large areas

of forests is a positive development, it must be clear that this is

only the beginning. Best estimates are landscape level forest

sustainability requires that 50-70% of an intact large ecosystem be

strictly protected from commercial development, that large core areas

must be present, that these areas must be connected, and the embedded

development must be small to medium scaled and based upon principles

that strive for ecological sustainability. The most important

element of such ecologically based community development is that it

takes place within a largely intact matrix of protected forests.

Humanity will not commercially manage our way to global forest and

ecological sustainability. Massive protected areas with embedded

community based ecological management by and for the benefit of local

peoples is the equitable, just and ecologically sound prescription

for maintaining forest wildlands and indeed the global ecological

system – Gaia if you will.

If the forest wildlands of the Amazon, Congo, Russia, Papua New

Guinea, Canada and a handful of smaller forest wildernesses are to be

maintained; far higher levels of strictly protected areas are

required, as are limiting development to community based small and

medium scaled eco-forestry activities. Recent emphasis by a number

of international organizations, NGOs and governments that large-scale

forest protection is important should be applauded. And I do so.

But the amounts put under protections thus far are simply inadequate

to maintain the Earth’s biosphere. And the very same group’s efforts

to certify that large-scale, intensive commercial management of most

of the rest of World’s large primary forests is environmentally

acceptable are inconsistent and highly damaging to the prospects for

sustaining an operable biosphere.

No amount of fanfare and grandstanding can escape ecological

realities. If protection efforts for the World’s remaining forest

wildernesses settle on 10% protection versus 90% commercial develop,

the ecological condition of the Planet will be gravely impacted and

our and many other species future will be in doubt. The vast

majority of remaining large forests must be strictly protected, and

the age of forest restoration begun to expand fragmented, and thus

threatened, ecological remnants.

g.b.

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ITEM #1

Title: Environmental groups back Amazon protection plan

Date: September 5, 2002

Byline: Axel Bugge

BRASILIA, Brazil - Two leading environmental groups and the World

Bank threw their weight this week behind the largest-ever tropical

forest conservation plan, a Brazilian initiative to give complete

protection to 12 percent of the Amazon, the World Wide Fund for

Nature said.

The World Wide Fund, formerly the World Wildlife Federation, the

World Bank and the Global Environmental Facility - a fund aimed at

helping poor countries clean up their environment - will contribute

much of the $395 million to the plan that will gradually set aside

land, reaching an area the size of Spain in 10 years.

The backing by the three international organizations of the Brazilian

government's plan was decided at the Earth Summit in South Africa,

according to a statement by the WWF in Brazil.

"The Amazon region is a biodiversity treasure," the statement quoted

Mohamed T. El-Ashry, chairman of the Global Environmental Facility,

made up of 32 donor countries, as saying. "This program is important

for the people of Brazil, as well as for the region and the world."

The Amazon - which extends to neighboring countries like Venezuela,

Peru, Colombia and Bolivia - is the world's largest tropical forest,

covering an area larger than Western Europe and is home to up to 30

percent of the planet's plant and animal species.

About 15 percent of the Brazilian Amazon has been destroyed since the

mid-70s and despite commitments made at the first Earth Summit - held

in Brazil in 1992 - its destruction continues unabated, with an area

about half the size of Belgium burnt or cut down each year.

The Brazilian government's plan aims to set aside 193,050 square

miles (500,000 square km) out of the Amazon's total area of 1.54

million square miles (4.1 million square km) under complete federal

protection.

The areas will be made into national parks or biological reserves,

meaning they cannot be touched.

Increasingly large parts of the Amazon have been put under complete

protection over recent years. Among them has been the demarcation of

Indian lands equivalent to the size of Germany, the Netherlands and

Switzerland combined.

The rest of the Amazon, such as private farmland, is protected by a

law obliging 80 percent of a property to be set aside for protection,

while loggers are only allowed to cut down trees if they have a

sustainable logging plan. Still, because of the vastness of the

Amazon, it is extremely difficult to monitor and control how much of

it is destroyed.

As part of its plan to set aside 12 percent of the Amazon for full

protection, Brazil's government last month created the Tumucumaque

National Park - the world's largest tropical forest park - which

covers 15,000 square miles.

One of the biggest current fears by environmentalists is that a large

government plan to build new roads across the Amazon will open vast

new areas to illegal loggers and farms.

ITEM #2

Title: Brazil unveils project to save rain forest

Date: September 7, 2002

Byline: ALANNA MITCHELL, EARTH SCIENCES REPORTER

Unnoticed on the sidelines of the political gamesmanship at the World

Summit on Sustainable Development, Brazil announced the biggest

conservation program for tropical rain forest in the planet's

history.

The plan, announced this week by Brazilian President Fernando

Henrique Cardoso, will set aside, over the coming decade, about 50

million hectares of the most sensitive rain forest ecosystems. That's

about 3.6 per cent of the planet's remaining tropical forests, or an

area about the size of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland

combined.

"The tropical forest of the Amazon has been going in the opposite

direction for a long time," said Arlin Hackman, chairman of World

Wildlife Fund's conservation committee on Latin America. "What we're

seeing here is a long process of deterioration turning around."

Brazil's Space Research National Institute has found that about 1.8

million hectares of that country's tropic rain forest have

disappeared every year between 1996 and 2001. They have fallen to

clear-cut logging, dams, power projects, roads and agriculture. As

the trees fall, ecosystems are wiped out and many other species are

killed off.

That is significant, because the hot and humid Amazonian rain forest

is a birth place for new species. As well, it has a rich range of

species, including 350 types of mammals, 950 birds, 2,000 fish

species, 2.5 million insect species, hundreds of different trees and

thousands of species of plants.

Together with the rain forests of Peru, Colombia and Ecuador, Brazil

holds a third of the species known to science, said Guillermo

Castilleja, vice-president of the Latin American file for WWF.

"Very few places in the world harbour so many species of birds,

mammals and insects," Mr. Castilleja said.

Many of the most brilliant -- including monkeys, parrots, eagles and

snakes -- live only in the Amazonian rain forest.Among the most

endangered is the cat-sized monkey uakari, known locally as the

English monkey because its white coat and red face remind Brazilians

of British visitors. It lives in the rare flooded forests along the

Amazonian shores that turn dry for half the year. The monkey has been

threatened by logging.

The forest itself, like Canada's boreal forest, plays a vital role in

regulating the planet's climate and carbon cycle. Known as the lungs

of the planet, it stores and regenerates vast amounts of carbon,

helping to absorb it from the atmosphere. It is a protection against

yet further climate instability caused by carbon dioxide and other

greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Mr. Cardoso's announcement, when implemented, will protect 12 per

cent of Brazil's forested land mass as national parks, biological

reserves and sustainable development areas. That's equivalent in area

to the entire U.S. parks system.

Mr. Hackman said the move will have immediate positive effects across

the Western Hemisphere because the Brazilian rain forest is home not

only to species that stay put, but to those that migrate up to North

America and back down.

For example, several species of warblers that spend the winter in the

Amazon help protect Canadian forests from spruce-budworm

infestations, Mr. Hackman said.

The conservation plan also got rave reviews from James Wolfensohn,

president of the Washington-based World Bank."Saving the rain forests

is essential to sustainable development and we need to scale up our

efforts to an unprecedented level," he said in Johannesburg, the site

of the summit, as he helped to announce the plan. "This is an act of

global significance."

The plan is unusual not only in its scope, but also because it is

being funded by a range of international interests. The World Bank,

the Global Environment Facility (a funding mechanism set up at the

Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro 10 years ago), a German agency and the

World Wildlife Fund have all pledged millions of dollars to help the

Brazilian government finance creation of the protected areas.

Setting up the 50 million hectares will cost about $395-million

(U.S.) over the coming decade.

ITEM #3

Title: Environmentalists applaud Canadian parks plan

Date: September 5, 2002

Byline: Cameron French

TORONTO - Canadian environmentalists applauded Prime Minister Jean

Chretien's promise to boost the size of Canada's national park system

by 50 percent, calling it a continuation of a legacy of preservation.

"This may be the most significant announcement for Canadian

wilderness and wildlife in decades," Stephen Hazell, director of the

Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society said this week.

Chretien announced the initiative at the United Nations Earth summit

in Johannesburg on Monday, saying he would create 10 new national

parks and five marine conservation areas, building on a parks system

he said has become a source of national pride.

"I believe we have a responsibility to preserve the gorgeous areas of

Canada for future generations," he told reporters.

The announcement was twinned with Chretien's pledge to ratify the

Kyoto Protocol by year-end, giving conservationists two reasons to

cheer.

Canada's current 39 national parks cover an area close to 225,000

square kilometres (87,000 square miles) - almost the size of Britain.

The proposed additional parkland should increase the total by more

than 100,000 square kilometres.

Hazell cautioned, however, that funding has yet to be set aside for

the project.

"CPAWS will be watching the federal budget process very carefully

over the coming few month to ensure that the finance minister, John

Manley, delivers on the prime minister's commitments."

Environmentalists said the announcement continued the prime

minister's legacy of parkland preservation. As minister of Indian and

northern affairs in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Chretien

established 10 new parks.

"This has been an ongoing commitment by the PM. It has his

thumbprints on it," said Monte Hummel, president of the World

Wildlife Fund Canada.

Chretien initially made the promise to complete the national park

system years ago while running for the Liberal Party leadership.

"Over the last two or three years, (the government) has fallen behind

on actually delivering on these parks, so we were very pleased to see

this brought to life again," Hummel said.

While environmentalists applauded the 10 new land-based parks, they

said the additional five marine conservation areas were an important

step for what some say is an ignored conservation priority.

"We're just bringing the curtain up on the marine component," said

Hummel.

The latest round of park creation will kick off in three regions - on

British Columbia's Gulf Islands on the Pacific coast, the northern

shore of Lake Superior, and the tundra of Wager Bay in the Arctic

territory of Nunavut.

ITEM #4

Title: Gabon Preserves 10 Percent of Land for Parks

Date: September 5, 2002

Byline: Cameron French

NEW YORK, New York, September 5, 2002 (ENS) - A full 10 percent of

the land mass of the African country of Gabon will be set aside for a

system of national parks, the nation's government announced

Wednesday. Gabon, which had no national park system until this week,

contains some of the most pristine tropical rainforests on earth,

home to gorillas, chimpanzees, forest elephants and a host of other

wildlife.

The Gabonese government has been working closely with New York based

Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) on conservation issues for the

past 10 years. The conservation group, based at the Bronx Zoo, calls

Gabon's announcement a major victory for Africa's wildlife.

"This is one of the most courageous conservation acts in the last 20

years," said Dr. Steven Sanderson, president and CEO of the WCS.

"President Bongo has set a new standard for wildlife protection in

Central Africa - one that we hope other nations will follow."

According to Gabon's President El Hadj Omar Bongo, some 13 national

parks comprising more than 10,000 square miles will be established,

protecting vital wildlife habitat. Only Costa Rica has set aside a

higher percentage of its land for conservation, though the total size

of its parks is much smaller.

"This is a decision of global significance that implies certain

sacrifices in the short and medium term in order to achieve our goal

of preserving these natural wonders for future generations," said

President Bongo.

The parks range from regions along Gabon's coastline, where

hippopotamuses frolic on untouched beaches, to unique forest

clearings - home to so called naïve populations of gorillas that show

no fear of humans. The new Ivindo National Park will protect the

Kongou and Mingouli falls, the biggest and most spectacular

waterfalls of forested Africa, along with a number of waterhole

clearings or bais that attract concentrations of wildlife.

Mayumba National Park, a thin strip of sand in the extreme south of

the country, hosts the largest concentrations of nesting leatherback

turtles on earth. At the extreme northeast corner of Gabon, Minkébé

National Park is a huge expanse of almost uninhabited forest where

elephant paths wind between isolated rock domes and centuries old

trees.

The Bateke Plateaux National Park includes the unexplored canyons

carved by the upper Mpassa River, forested stretches supporting

hundreds of migratory birds, and may hold the few lions remaining in

Gabon. Waka National Forest includes the rugged mountains of the

Chaillu Massif and traces of an ancient Gabonese culture.

Under Gabonese law, the surface area of a National Park cannot be

less than 1,000 hectares. Smaller areas may be protected as nature

reserves, sanctuaries or other categories to ensure long term

protection for a variety of ecosystems. The forests and coastal

savannahs of Wonga-Wongué, for example, were designated as a

Presidential Reserve in 1972.

The Ogooué wetlands, the second largest freshwater delta of the

African continent, have been proposed as an international Biosphere

Reserve. Their diverse mix of mangrove flats, marsh forest, papyrus,

reedbeds and floating grasses are home to hippopotamus, manatee,

crocodiles, waterbirds, turtles and a variety of fish.

Much of the land earmarked for protection was selected based on years

of field research by the Wildlife Conservation Society, which has

studied Gabon's wildlife since 1985.

In 2000, WCS conservationist Lee White played a key role in resolving

a conflict between loggers and conservationists in the Lopé Reserve,

a pristine forest savanna mosaic, which will be part of the new park

system. White helped direct logging activities away from pristine

areas of high biological importance, in exchange for limited logging

in less ecologically productive areas.

At the same time, WCS and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) began

a survey of Gabon's remote areas in order to help the government

develop a national park system. That survey was requested by Gabon's

Minister of Forests and Water at the time, Dr. Richard Ouvinet.

National Geographic drew additional publicity to Gabon's

extraordinary biological wealth, while filming and photographing WCS

conservationist Mike Fay's "Megatransect" - a joint expedition

between WCS and National Geographic across the Congo Basin forest. As

a result of these and other considerations, President Bongo agreed

that a park system should become a reality.

Many of the new parks will be developed for ecotourism, as an

economic alternative to exploiting Gabon's forests for timber. This

endeavor will be aided by funds from the United States government and

three conservation groups - WCS, WWF and Conservation International -

who on Wednesday announced a minimum $72.5 million commitment to

protect forests in the Congo Basin, which includes Gabon.

"By creating these national parks, we will develop a viable

alternative to simple exploitation of natural resources that will

promote the preservation of our environment. Already there is a broad

consensus that Gabon has the potential to become a natural Mecca,

attracting pilgrims from the four points of the compass in search of

the last remaining natural wonders on earth," President Bongo said.

More information on the new national park system is available

at: http://www.gabonnationalparks.com

ITEM #5

Title: U.S. Government Commits $36 Million to Protect Congo's

Forests: Three International NGOs Match Government Commitment

Date: September 4, 2002

Johannesburg, South Africa - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell

announced today that the United States will commit at least $36

million in newly allocated money over the next three years to the

Congo Basin Forest Partnership. The partnership will help protect the

world's second largest block of intact and interconnected tropical

forest.

The Congo Basin Forest Partnership is a United States government

initiative to promote the conservation and responsible management of

the Basin's tropical forests. U.S. government funds will be used to

protect eleven priority areas in six countries - Cameroon, Central

African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea,

Gabon and the Republic of Congo.

Government funds will be provided mostly through USAID's Central

African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE). CARPE will

provide for up to $15 million a year, an increase of up to $12

million annually, for at least the next three years, with the hope of

future commitments.

In addition, Conservation International (CI), the Wildlife

Conservation Society (WCS) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) all

announced their intention to raise an additional $37.5 million of new

money over the next ten years for their joint efforts in the Congo

Basin. The three groups worked closely with the governments involved

to set priorities for protecting the most important landscapes in the

region.

"What is significant here is that the governments of the region, as

well as the U.S., have adopted the landscape conservation priorities

based on good science and careful consultation with the people of the

area," said Brooks Yeager, Vice President of WWF. "Saving these key

areas will make all the difference for the future of rainforest

wildlife in Africa."

"These new financial commitments help to protect one of the world's

most important rain forest wilderness areas, including the watershed

of the second largest river system on Earth - this on a continent

that is increasingly suffering from major water shortages," said

Russell Mittermeier, President of Conservation International. "The

future of the Congo Basin depends on the conservation of natural

resources and the development of appropriate governance of those

resources."

The U.S. and non-governmental organization (NGO) funds will support a

wide range of activities within the 11 targeted areas, including the

creation and management of protected areas, capacity building for

local communities and development of an ecotourism industry. These

efforts are part of a broader partnership - involving other

governments, the private sector and additional NGO's - that aims to

support a network of up to 10 million hectares (24,710,000 acres) of

effectively managed national parks and protected areas and up to 20

million hectares (49,420,000 acres) of well-managed multiple use

forests, while promoting economic development, poverty alleviation

and improved governance for people who depend on natural resources

for their livelihoods.

A portion of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership will fund Gabon's new

national park system, just announced by President El Hadj Omar Bongo.

Consisting of 13 protected areas, the new park system will safeguard

some 10,000 square miles, or ten percent of the entire country's

landmass.

"President Bongo's recent announcement is especially noteworthy and

precedent-setting for conservation," said Dr. John Robinson, Senior

Vice President and Director of International Programs of the Wildlife

Conservation Society. "It represents a sea change not just for Gabon

but for the region as a whole. His leadership on this issue deserves

special recognition."

The Congo Basin hosts some of the most charismatic biodiversity in

the world, ranging from forest elephants, bongos and chimpanzees to

forest buffalos and western lowland gorillas. The bonobo, or pygmy

chimpanzee, is also found in this region, where it is restricted to

the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Our closest living relative, the bonobo, is considered one of the

most endangered apes in the world.

Biodiversity in the Basin faces serious threats, most notably logging

and bushmeat hunting. Logging feeds the bushmeat trade as roads built

to gain access to forestlands become access routes for hunters. The

widespread slaughter of wild animals in the Congo Basin creates

"empty forests," which diminish opportunities for local communities

and threaten the forests' long-term viability.

The eleven priority landscapes are: · Monte Alen - Mont de Cristal

Inselbergs Forest Landscape (Equatorial Guinea & Gabon) · Gamba -

Conkouati Forest Landscape (Gabon, Congo & D.R.C.) · Lope - Chaillu -

Louesse Forest Landscape (Gabon & Congo) · Dja - Minkebe - Odzala

Tri-national Forest Landscape (Cameroon, Congo & Gabon) · Sangha Tri-

national Forest Landscape (Cameroon, Congo, C.A.R.) · Lac Tele-Lac

Tumba Swamp Forest Landscape (Congo & D.R.C.) · Bateke Plateau Forest

Savanna Landscape (Congo & Gabon) · Maringa/Lopori - Wamba Forest

Landscape (D.R.C.) · Salonga - Lukenie - Sankuru Forest Landscape

(D.R.C.) · Maiko - Lulunguru Tanya - Kahuzi Biega Forest Landscape

(D.R.C.) · Ituri - Epulu - Aru Forest Landscape (D.R.C.)

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