Malaysia is the world's largest exporter of tropical timber. Logging in Malaysia far surpasses sustainable levels, and years of over- logging have seriously harmed their rainforests and indigenous peoples. Malaysia lost 2.7 million hectares of forest during the 1990s, 13.4 per cent of the country's forest area. A further "legal" deforestation of 3.9 million hectares is planned. Past criticisms of Malaysia's timber industry have made their government very sensitive to demands in the Western markets for sustainable timber products. In response, Malaysia has set up a certification scheme called the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC).

MTCC does not respect basic rights of indigenous peoples and forest based communities, and is widely criticized by local communities and NGOs. Logging is conducted without any meaningful consultation in forests upon which local people depend for their survival. In addition, Malaysian logging interests have repeatedly been caught laundering illegally logged Indonesian timber, and are known for their scandalous activities in other countries in which they operate.

Certification is considered one mechanism for obtaining more sustainable management of the world's forests. Until there are guarantees that indigenous peoples' rights are protected and environmentally and socially sustainable forestry is truly occurring, timbers supplied by MTCC should be rejected by all responsible governments, industry and consumers. Today, more than 4 million hectares in Malaysia are certified as "sustainably managed" by the MTCC despite these serious flaws:

* MTCC does recognize the customary tenure and user rights of indigenous peoples and local forest communities.

* MTCC criteria and indicators were developed without a consultation process, and fail to adequately safeguard social values and environmental conservation.

* MTCC certifies whole states in Peninsular Malaysia, disregarding variable practices.

* MTCC lacks a well-defined performance based standard.

A grouping of Malaysian social, environmental, and community-based groups named JOANGOHutan has repeatedly demanded changes in MTCC to ensure that the Malaysian certification scheme can be considered credible. As their concerns were ignored, they have withdrawn from the process. The JOANGOHutan network calls for a moratorium on logging in primary forests and in areas where indigenous peoples are asserting their native rights to land.

JOANGOHutan explains: "The MTCC timber certification scheme cannot protect and guarantee the interest and rights of indigenous peoples. MTCC cannot also guarantee the health of the forest... the MTCC is structured to find ways to sell our timber while we are mandated to protect our forests and to secure the livelihoods and interests of indigenous peoples and local communities who live in, depend on and derive their spiritual and cultural identity from the forests."

There are many examples of abusive and illegal practices occurring in forest management activities that are certified by MTCC as environmentally and socially friendly. In May 2003, 14 villagers from a Temuan indigenous community were arrested when they tried to stop a logging company from carrying out its work on their ancestral land in Pahang. The encroachment on indigenous land took place although Pahang has been certified by MTCC since 2001. Recently the governing party of Malaysia was responsible for illegal logging and the clearcutting of 4000 hectares of virgin peat swamp forest in the state of Pahang - another example of "certified" timber.

MTCC has worked hard to gain acceptance for their forest products from the European market. Denmark is the first European country to officially accept MTCC as "a good guarantee of legal forest management, on its way towards becoming sustainable" in their tropical timber purchasing guidelines. The EU Commission, European national governments and cities in Germany and the Netherlands, such as Hamburg and Amsterdam, have also been approached by the Malaysian government and the country's timber industry, with the aim of having MTCC accepted as a credible certification scheme.

Whether MTCC standards are deemed acceptable has implications not only for forestry in Malaysia, but also for the future of forest certification around the world. Accepting MTCC would undermine the rights of indigenous peoples and sustainable forestry in Malaysia. Further, it would indicate globally that certified forestry remains exploitative and unsustainable business as usual, and is essentially meaningless in terms of forest conservation.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0)

Have these people no shame? When the Earth is reduced to a smoldering waste heap - its once bountiful biology and ecology destroyed - may those responsible rot in hell.

Again, an Assault on Alaska

If at first you don't succeed in despoiling an environmental treasure, try, try again. That's apparently the White House motto for drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hmm... Think our movement's 15 years of campaigning to conserve Papua New Guinea's rainforests has had any impact? I think it is highly likely.

PNG minister defends Malaysian logging firm after blast from Greenpeace

Log exports from PNG, which are mainly shipped to China, Japan and South Korea, have plunged in value from around 480 million US dollars in 1993 to around 100 million dollars last year.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0)

Could it be true? Could WWF be stopping its role as green apologist to commercial logging of ancient forests? It is unconscionable that WWF even considered supporting intensive logging of hundreds of thousands of hectares of Indonesian rainforest.

WWF opts out of Indonesian pulp project

WWF, the conservation organisation, has withdrawn from a controversial project to help clean up the environmental practices of Indonesia's largest pulp and paper producer - a move that could see the company lose hundreds of millions in sales in Europe, Japan and the US.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0)

TAKE ACTION @ the Rainforest Action Network:
Wake up Weyerhaeuser by expressing your opposition to destructive logging

The Rainforest Action Network has launched an international campaign to transform logging giant Weyerhaeuser's environmental polices, described as "the number one destroyer of old-growth forests in North America". This follows close upon RAN et al's recent successes in getting Boise Cascade Corporation to withdraw from old-growth forests in the United States and adopt a plan to exit endangered forests worldwide. Weyerhaeuser still logs in Canada's primary forests and imports products from around the world that come from primary and other endangered forests. Forests.org joins RAN in calling for a complete, immediate and absolute moratorium on logging in so-called first-growth forests, forestland that has never been commercially logged. More information on RAN's "Wake Up Weyerhauser" campaign can be found here.

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No less a party than Indonesia has joined in the condemnation of Malaysia's involvement in illegal logging - demanding that Malaysian lumber be boycotted. Forests.org is in complete agreement and joins Indonesia's plea that Malaysia cease its support of illegal and environmentally damaging logging practices.

Yahoo! News - Indonesia defends its call for Malaysia timber ban

Indonesia appealed for Malaysia's help in combating the trade in illegal timber from its forests and defended its call for a ban on Malaysian lumber in Europe.

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Malaysian timber cartels threaten the existence of most of the World's remaining primary rainforests through predatory logging and marketing of illegal timber. Described as "robber barons", Malaysian timber interests and their government apologists trample upon human rights, national sovereignty, the rule of law, and biodiversity and ecosystems. Hypocritically, Malaysia is now hosting the "Conference of Parties" to the Biodiversity Treaty, charged with finding solutions to biodiversity and forest loss.

Only twenty percent of the Earth's original forest cover remains as large intact areas, with more than a third of these under threat. Malaysian logging interests have gained notoriety as the most aggressive and damaging industrial loggers of ancient forests. An example is Rimbunan Hijau of Malaysia which has been exposed as one of the major players in global forest crime. In Papua New Guinea (PNG), Malaysian logging companies routinely resort to corruption and human rights abuses to carry out environmentally and socially damaging first time industrial logging of ancient primary forests. Illegal trade in ramin enabled by Malaysian timber interests threatens some of Indonesia's last remaining national parks and endangered species including orangutans and the Sumatran tiger.

Demand that the Malaysian government cease its obstruction of efforts to conserve, preserve and sustainably use forest biodiversity. Insist Malaysia commit to eradicating illegal logging and related trade, and respect of indigenous rights in Malaysia and worldwide. Call upon the Malaysian government to use their hosting of the meeting to galvanize a specific, adequately funded and time-bound agenda to end deforestation and degradation of forests and biodiversity. Let Malaysia's government know that failure to do so will mean a boycott of Malaysian products and travel.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0)

The World Bank is stealthily seeking to increase logging by sixty times in the world's second largest intact rainforests, much of which are found in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Internal World Bank documents obtained by the Rainforest Foundation reveal that the bank, together with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), intends to "create a favorable climate for industrial logging" by supporting the development of comprehensive new forestry laws in the Congo, as well as the 'zoning' of the country's entire forest area. More than 100 environment, development, and human rights groups in the Congo have called on the World Bank to stop these plans, and Forests.org asks you to do likewise above.

A sixty-fold increase in logging! First time logging of tens of millions of hectares of Congo's rainforest - harvesting millions of years of evolutionary history with unmatched ecological brilliance to make consumer products for the rich - all
facilitated with your tax dollars, contributions to large environmental groups (see below) and consumer choices.

There is no longer any doubt regarding the basis of the World Bank's interest in "rainforest conservation". Their flowery sustainable forestry rhetoric found in their recently revamped forest sector policy and elsewhere provides cover for efforts by the global economic growth machine to gain access to the World's remaining ancient forests. According to the World Bank and their environmental apologists, multi-national corporations logging the World's remaining large primary forests is forest conservation. Such polices are the result of ancient advisors preaching dated and failed conservation dogma. Hello?! Anyone at the bank that matters heard of conservation biology or landscape ecology?

The role of corporate conservation conglomerates acting as commercial logging apologists for the World Bank must be noted. The World Wildlife Fund and Wildlife Conservation Society are providing cover for the World Bank's assault on ancient forests - resulting in more extinction, ecosystem collapse and indigenous human rights violations - not less. They are greenwashing the final demise of wild rainforests from the Earth for a few bucks from da man.

Forests.org calls upon all environmental groups to clarify their positions regarding industrial scale logging in the World's remaining primary forests. Those that support expansion of commercial logging in ancient forests, take money from the World Bank while it seeks to increase such logging, or are agnostic on the question, deserve to be boycotted as assuredly as the timber companies doing the actual harvesting. Even dark green groups such as Rainforest Action Network and Greenpeace must realize you can not have it both ways - seeking protection of ancient forests while supporting certified commercial logging in primary forests.

It is time to choose sides and espouse a consistent forest conservation vision. I would suggest forest conservation advocacy should focus upon strict protection of most primary forests, restoration of adjoining areas, and small scale community based eco-forestry where logging is a social requirement.

Please call on the World Bank to immediately halt plans for the expansion of industrial logging in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Insist that instead they support the strengthening of the rights of people living in the forest, and to ensure that strict safeguards are put in place to protect the forest and environment, or else cease their activities in the forest sector worldwide. Please use the background materials below to organize your own campaigns, and sign the Rainforest Foundation's petition.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0)

A message of hope is emerging from Maine's northern forests, as a major new U.S. National Park - Maine North Woods National Park - is proposed for its expansive forests. The window of opportunity in Maine is short and the need to move for strict long-term protection is now.

America and other overdeveloped countries have deeply overshot the amount of land that can be developed without adverse ecological impacts - including droughts, soil erosion, increased fire frequency and intensity, increased threat from emergent diseases, and other symptoms of sick land. Over emphasis upon reckless development and intensive management of natural habitats - reducing wild nature to a few small "protected areas" - can and must be stopped and reversed.

There are still opportunities across America and the World to preserve and restore the vast tracts of intact habitat necessary for the sustainable existence of most species including humans. Anyone that drinks water, breathes or eats must acknowledge the importance of large-scale forest protection. The most massive tasks to ever face humanity loom before us - restoring overdeveloped landscapes and finding ways to protect remaining large habitats before they too become fragmented and weak.

Increased large and connected protected areas embedded within a framework of productive lands under conservation management are a prerequisite for human survival. Both Muir and Pinchot were correct - we need protected AND conserved lands. However it is clear that protection on the scale necessary to ecologically sustain land has lagged.

Proposals such as a Maine North Woods National Park begin to redress this imbalance. Please request that the National Park Service complete an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the possibility of establishing a new 3.2 million acre Maine Woods National Park and Preserve surrounding Baxter State Park in north-central Maine. This is in support the campaign of RESTORE: The North Woods.

The era of restoration ecology and economy is upon us. It is incumbent upon humanity that the will be found to let major parts of the land rest, and society learn to live as if humanity is forever.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (1)

New Jersey is getting it right on water, adopting rules that will place 300 foot buffers around more than 6,000 miles of waterways - the most comprehensive water protections in the nation. And they are providing financing for doing so through establishment of trees, shrubs, vegetative strips used to filter water, contour grass strips and grass waterways.

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One of the major hurdles in development of hydrogen based energy systems is the enormous amount of energy required to split water molecules in order to produce hydrogen. Under current systems, this energy is likely to come from coal burning or nuclear power plants, greatly reducing their environmental benefits. Not suprisingly given our utter dependence upon plants for life, researchers are finding that plant's ability to break water into oxygen and hydrogen is amazingly efficient. Perhaps this will serve as a model for developing processes to more efficiently and cleanly produce hydrogen.

Researchers said Thursday they had taken another step toward understanding how plants split water into hydrogen and oxygen atoms, which may provide a cheap way to produce clean-burning hydrogen fuel.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0)

Malaysia to Host Biodiversity Conference as Concern Mounts Regarding Conduct of Its Timber Industry

Malaysia's timber cartels are destroying many of the World's remaining primary forests - particularly rainforests - through predatory logging and marketing of illegal timber. These robber barons are doing so in a way that tramples upon human rights, national sovereignty, the rule of law, and biodiversity and ecosystems. Against this background, Malaysia is set to host the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity next week (frequently referred to as the "Biodiversity Treaty").

The illegal and highly ecologically damaging conduct of the Malaysian timber industry is justifiably drawing a lot of attention. As Forests.org has been amongst the first to highlight to the international community over past years, new reports on the eve of the Biodiversity meeting illustrate the degree to which Malaysia's timber industry and government are responsible for threats upon the world's remaining large and biodiversity rich primary forests.

A new report by Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Telapak (local Indonesian group) highlights the degree to which illegal trade in ramin - largely enabled by Malaysian timber interests - is threatening some of Indonesia's last remaining national parks and scores of the world's endangered species, including orang-utans and the Sumatran tiger. It is alleged that the Malaysian government is permitting and perhaps facilitating this illegal trade.

Greenpeace's new report entitled "The Untouchables" states that in Papua New Guinea (PNG), Malaysian logging companies routinely resort to corruption, payoffs, human rights abuses - and occasionally even condone torture and rape - all in order to carry out extremely environmentally and socially damaging ancient forest liquidation. Rimbunan Hijau of Malaysia, which dominates PNG's timber industry and politics, is exposed as one of the major players in global forest crime.

These reports highlight the degree to which global trade in illegal and destructively logged timber from the Earth's last fully intact and operable forest ecosystems is out of control. While Malaysian timber interests bear much of the responsibility for unlawful access to forest resources, environmental damage and forest destruction, human rights abuses and social dislocation of forest-dwelling peoples in some of the poorest areas of the world, one must not forget these activities are ultimately driven by those who buy timber and timber products from illegal sources.

Mirroring Forests.org's dark green forest conservation message of the past decade, Greenpeace states: "Twenty percent of the Earth's original forest cover remains as large intact areas, with more than a third of these under threat. Industrial-scale logging poses the single largest menace to the forests' survival. Across the globe, transnational corporations continue to operate destructively, and often outside of the law, as they harvest the world's last remaining accessible forest resources."

Predatory logging by Malaysian companies, and the failure of their government to stop it, threatens "the diversity of life on Earth that provides the natural services we need for our health and well being. Those services include things like cleaning our air and water, maintaining fertile soils, and stabilizing our climate", as discussed by David Suzuki below.

For the Biodiversity meeting to be successful, it is critical that nations move beyond assessing the damage, and act to slow and reverse habitat loss and degradation through pursuit of a specific, adequately funded and time-bound agenda. Crimes against forests and their biodiversity are an important and visible, and thus relatively easy to address, component of biodiversity loss. For the meeting to achieve actual biodiversity conservation outcomes, member nations must be compelled to shut down their rogue loggers and markets for their ill-gotten products.

Forests.org was one of the first organizations to highlight the threat to the World's rainforest poised by renegade Malaysian loggers, and continues to consistently offer a "dark green" vision of ending industrial logging in the world's remaining primary ancient forests. The barbarous treatment by Malaysian logging robber barons of ancient forests and indigenous cultures are acts of global ecocide and genocide and must be confronted. Forests.org looks forward to continuing to do so, particularly in the coming weeks, and hope you will join us. More next week...
g.b.

New Report Referred to Above:

Profiting from Plunder: How Malaysia Smuggles Endangered Wood

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0)

Most forests in the Western United States have evolved with natural fire disturbance. The perceived severity of recent fires has been exacerbated primarily by growth in residential development, climate change and past fire suppression. Despite the risk of fire, these areas continue to experience massive residential growth. Does this justify turning to industrial logging free of environmental controls in order to protect these homes? I would suggest that choosing to live in fire-prone areas entails taking responsibility to protect your own property and to live with rather than try to artificially suppress fires from which baby forests are born.

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The Orwellian "Healthy Forests Initiative" threatens 70 percent of America's publicly owned forests with logging without meaningful environmental protections. One would think that forests had never burned before, and that before there was industrial logging forests were unhealthy. The policy resulted from President Bush's resource industry oligarchy in collusion with Democrats and Republicans, and continued ineffectual opposition by mainstream corporate greens.

The Counterpunch article entitled Bush's Second Front: The War in the Woods: Resistance is Fertile outlines resurgence in grassroots forest advocacy - really the only hope for the World's forests. From Virginia to Oregon, citizen activism on behalf of America's forests is alive and fertile. 100% of America's proposed new timber sales are being monitored by grassroots forests conservationists. The author concludes, "[a]ll the pieces are in place for a spirited and successful defense... It's now or never for many of these public-owned forests and the species dependent upon them. The time is long overdue for a moratorium on any logging on public lands." Pick an effort and join in!

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