Lorna Li's Rainforest and Indigenous News Feed

Highway endangers uncontacted Amazon Indians

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 09:04:28 -0800

Photo of the uncontacted tribe photographed last year in the Brazilian Amazon, near the Peruvian border.
© © GLEISON MIRANDA/FUNAI

Brazil’s Attorney General’s office has warned that uncontacted Indians in the Amazon are at risk of extinction due to a highway that runs through Rondônia state to the Bolivian border.

The Attorney General’s office has condemned the Department of Infrastructure and Transport for breaking environmental licensing laws, and has ordered asphalting work on the BR-429 road to be suspended. It has highlighted that the department did not take into account the impact of upgrading the road on indigenous peoples in the region.

The new highway runs through the municipality of São Miguel do Guaporé, where according to the government’s indigenous affairs department, FUNAI, ‘large groups of Indians are living in the area affected by BR-429.’

Tari, an Amondawa Indian leader, laments: ‘I never imagined that one day São Miguel would be transformed into pasture and that the forest where I have been walking all my life would one day completely disappear.’

The Attorney General’s office is concerned that paving the road will increase the illegal extraction of natural resources from protected areas and will cause confrontations between indigenous peoples and those invading their territory. It warns that uncontacted Indians could die as a result of conflict.

The paving of the highway will directly affect the uncontacted Jurureí Indians, according to federal prosecutor Daniel Fontenele, and may lead to contact between the tribe and outsiders.

The Massacó indigenous territory, inhabited solely by uncontacted Indians, probably of the Sirionó tribe, is another area at risk of invasion.

Perenco comes third in spoof Friends of the Earth award

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:35:50 -0800

Crossed spears left by an uncontacted tribe in the Amazon where Perenco is working
© Marek Wolodzko/Survival

More than a thousand people voted for Anglo-French company Perenco in a spoof Friends of the Earth award for human rights.

Perenco was nominated for the award, the ‘Pinocchio Prize 2009’, for its billion dollar project in a part of the Peruvian Amazon inhabited by at least two uncontacted tribes. The company’s work in the area violates the tribes’ rights under international law, and could decimate them if contact is made.

The winner of the award, Bolloré, was announced in a statement by Friends of the Earth (France) yesterday. Perenco came third with 22% of the vote.

The ‘Pinocchio Prize’ is intended to raise awareness of, and condemn, French businesses who ‘perpetrate the most serious human rights violations.’ Perenco’s chairman, Francois Perrodo, met Peru’s president, Alan Garcia, earlier this year while indigenous people in the Amazon were protesting against his company.

‘Moves to stop global warming are devastating tribal people’, says new report

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:22:00 -0800

Hydropower dams are being built across the Amazon in the name of combating climate change.
© Survival

Measures to stop global warming risk being as harmful to tribal peoples as climate change itself, according to a new report from Survival.

The report, ‘The most inconvenient truth of all: climate change and indigenous people’, sets out four key ‘mitigation measures’ that threaten tribal people:

1. Biofuels: promoted as an alternative, ‘green’ source of energy to fossil fuels, much of the land allocated to grow them is the ancestral land of tribal people. If biofuels expansion continues as planned, millions of indigenous people worldwide stand to lose their land and livelihoods.

2. Hydro-electric power: A new boom in dam construction in the name of combating climate change is driving thousands of tribal people from their homes.

3. Forest conservation: Kenya’s Ogiek hunter-gatherers are being forced from the forests they have lived in for hundreds of years to ‘reverse the ravages’ of global warming.

4. Carbon offsetting: Tribal peoples’ forests now have a monetary value in the booming ‘carbon credits’ market. Indigenous people say this will lead to forced evictions and the ‘theft of our land’.

The report calls for tribal people to be fully involved in decisions that affect them, and for their land ownership rights to be upheld.

Survival Director Stephen Corry said today, ‘This report highlights ‘the most inconvenient truth of all’ – that the world’s tribal people, who have done the least to cause climate change and are most affected by it, are now having their rights violated and land devastated in the name of attempts to stop it. Hiding behind the global push to prevent climate change, governments and companies are mounting a massive land grab. As usual, where money and vast profits are at stake, the world’s indigenous people are being shamefully swept aside.’

Read the report – PDF (3.5MB)

A media kit is available with images and video interviews

Brazilian Indian found dead following attack by gunmen

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:01:27 -0800

Guarani man
© João Ripper/Survival

The body of a Guarani Indian has been found dead and badly bruised in a river close to his ancestral land in Brazil, following an armed attack on the community of Ypo’i on 30 October.

The body of teacher Genivaldo Verá was identified by his relatives on 10 November. Brazilian authorities are examining it to establish the cause of death. The attack happened near the ‘Triunfo’ ranch, built on Guarani land close to the city of Paranhos in Mato Grosso do Sul in south-west Brazil, near the Paraguayan border.

Genivaldo’s cousin and fellow teacher Rolindo Verá disappeared after the attack and is still missing. The Guarani are urging the Brazilian and Paraguayan authorities to carry out an urgent investigation, as they fear he might also have been killed.

Genivaldo and Rolindo Verá had joined other Guarani on 29 October in reoccupying part of their ancestral land or tekohá. Their land had been stolen and occupied by ranchers, and they had been living with 3,000 other Guarani squeezed onto just 2,118 hectares of land.

For years the Guarani have longed to return Ypo’i. FUNAI, the Brazilian government’s Indian affairs department, has failed to demarcate their land despite its mandate to do so.

The day after they returned to Ypo’i, the Guarani were attacked by a group of armed men who arrived in a truck and began shooting at them, beating them, harassing them and forcing them out of the area. Several Guarani were injured and Genivaldo and Rolindo went missing.

Guarani chief Verá said, ‘When we arrived at our tekohá, we were very happy. We began to build some huts so we could begin living on our land again. But it wasn’t long before a gang of gunmen arrived and beat us up and shot at us. We started to run away. Much more than the pain of the bullets and the beatings, we felt the pain of being forced away from what is ours.’

The attack is the most recent in a series of violent events in Mato Grosso do Sul. A week prior to this attack, Terena Indians who had occupied a part of their traditional land in the municipality of Sidrolândia were also expelled by force.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has just visited Brazil and described the situation of indigenous people as ‘astonishingly invisible.’ She said, ‘they are being held back by discrimination and indifference, chased out of their lands and into forced labour.’

The Guarani of Mato Grosso do Sul face one of the most difficult situations of all the indigenous peoples of Brazil. Having once occupied a homeland of forests and plains totaling some 350,000 square kilometers, they now live in severely overcrowded settlements.

Some Guarani have no land at all, and live camped by roadsides. They face unemployment, poverty, illness, malnutrition, violence, exploitation in the sugarcane fields, and a suicide rate unequalled in South America.

Survival International has opened a fund to support the Guarani, in association with the film ‘Birdwatchers’, which stars Guarani-Kaiowá Indians. All donations will go towards helping them defend their rights, lands and futures.

Anglo-French company nominated for spoof Friends of the Earth award

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:21:00 -0800

Perenco is exploring for oil inside uncontacted Indians' land.
© Survival

An Anglo-French company has been nominated for a spoof Friends of the Earth (FoE) award for its billion dollar project in a part of the Amazon inhabited by two of the world’s last uncontacted tribes.

The company, Perenco, is one of four nominees in the human rights category for Friends of the Earth France’s ‘Pinocchio Prize 2009’. The prize is intended to raise awareness of, and condemn, French businesses who ‘perpetrate the most serious human rights violations.’

Perenco has been nominated for its project in the Peruvian Amazon where it plans to drill for millions of barrels of oil on land belonging to uncontacted tribes, according to FoE. In doing so, Perenco is contravening a recent recommendation from the UN to Peru’s government, and is being sued by Peru’s national indigenous peoples’ organisation, AIDESEP. Perenco denies the tribes exist.

FoE says that in June there was a ‘massacre’ following indigenous protests against government plans to open up their land to oil companies without their consent. ‘Peru’s president, Alan Garcia, has recognised publicly that the government failed to consult adequately with indigenous people about oil concessions. But Perenco doesn’t seem ready to learn from this, and is aggravating what is an extremely tense situation following the massacre,’ says FoE.

Perenco’s chairman, Francois Perrodo, met Alan Garcia earlier this year and promised to invest two billion dollars in the project. At the same time, indigenous people in the Amazon were protesting against the company and preventing their boats from traveling on a major Amazon tributary.

Survival Director, Stephen Corry, said today, ‘This is a major embarrassment for Perenco. One way of guaranteeing they don’t win the Pinocchio prize would be to abandon this project tomorrow.’

Voting for the Pinocchio prize can be done on-line: http://www.prix-pinocchio.org/nomines.php. The winner will be announced on 24 November.

Jailed for saying Botswana President ‘looks like a Bushman'

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:16:00 -0800

Botswana's persecution of the Bushmen has continued under President Khama.
© Survival

A South African woman who said Botswana’s president ‘looks like a Bushman’ was arrested, detained for two days and fined for ‘insulting Botswana’.

Dorsey Dube was arrested after commenting on a portrait of President Khama at a control post on the Botswana-South Africa border. She said the President looked like her friend’s father, who has Bushman features.

The deeply-entrenched racist attitudes of many people in authority in Botswana towards the Bushmen were starkly revealed, however, when the authorities assumed it was meant as an insult. Survival International is sending a report on the incident to the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Ms Dube says she was held at the police station and not allowed to call anyone in South Africa for assistance, though her friends did eventually reach help. She was released after spending a night in a prison cell and a further full day in custody.

President Khama (who is himself half-British) has referred to the Bushmen’s way of life as an ‘archaic fantasy’. The government has banned them from hunting for food or accessing water on their land, in a bid to force the Bushmen to abandon their land and lifestyle.

President Ian Khama, who was returned to office after elections in October, is a board member of Conservation International.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, ‘You couldn’t have clearer evidence of the racism towards Bushmen in Botswana than this incident. A South African person thought resembling a Bushman was complimentary, but Botswana officials took it as an insult. It’s doubly tragic when you consider that President Khama’s father, the country’s first President, himself endured a great deal of racist abuse from the colonial authorities for marrying a British woman, and that he promised the country’s Bushmen that their rights would always be protected.’

Kenyan tribe to Ban Ki-Moon: 'We condemn Peru repression'

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:32:00 -0800

A spokesman for the Ogiek has condemned the Peruvian government's attempt to disband AIDESEP.
© Survival

A spokesman from a tribe in Kenya has condemned the Peruvian government’s attempt to destroy Peru’s Amazon indigenous movement.

The condemnation comes from Kiplangat Cheruyot from the Ogiek tribe in response to the revelation that Peru’s government plans to disband Peru’s national organisation for indigenous people in the Amazon, known by its Spanish acronym AIDESEP.

‘We, the Ogiek Indigenous people of Kenya, condemn in the strongest possible terms the Peruvian Government for its human rights abuses, including arrest, prosecution and harassment of indigenous and tribal people.

‘We understand that Peru is a signatory to several United Nations conventions that seek to promote and protect its citizens. It’s sad to note that the same government violates its own national laws by not respecting or recognising indigenous peoples’ rights as contained in the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights.

‘We call upon the international community, including the UN secretary-general, to send its Special Rapporteur for an immediate fact-finding mission on human rights situations in Peru. We cannot just sit by and watch what is happening. We must take all necessary avenues to make the government change its ill motives and intentions.’

Cheruyot is a spokesman for the Ogiek People’s Development Program. The Ogiek face becoming the world’s latest ‘conservation refugees’ after the Kenyan government recently announced plans to evict them from their land in a bid to stop climate change.

AIDESEP was founded in 1980 and represents 350,000 indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon.

Repression of Amazon Indian movement condemned worldwide

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:10:00 -0800

Peru's Amazon Indians have been protesting against the exploitation of their lands by oil and gas companies
© David Dudenhoefer

The Peruvian government’s unprecedented attempt to destroy Peru’s Amazon Indian movement has been condemned by indigenous leaders around the world.

The wave of condemnation comes after it was revealed that the government plans to disband Peru’s national organisation for Amazon Indians, known by its Spanish acronym AIDESEP.

‘We Bushmen of Botswana support the Indians of Peru and think that the government of Peru and the oil companies should not forget the indigenous peoples. If you destroy their land, you destroy the Indians themselves,’ said Jumanda Gakelebone, from First People of the Kalahari, a Bushman organization in southern Africa.

‘Peru’s government should sit down and talk respectfully to AIDESEP as the legitimate representatives of the country’s Amazonian Indians, not try to attack them through the courts,’ said Armand MacKenzie, from the Innu Council of Nitassinan in Canada.

‘It is outrageous. I condemn Peru’s government for trying to destroy the voice of Peru’s Amazon population,’ said Lal Amlai, a Jumma man from Bangladesh.

‘If you target AIDESEP you’re targeting all indigenous people – not just those in the Amazon or Peru but all over the world,’ said CAOI, an organization representing indigenous people in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. CAOI called the attempt to disband AIDESEP ‘absurd’ and further evidence of the government’s ‘racist’ policies.

AIDESEP has been vigorously opposing the government’s attempts to open the Peruvian Amazon to oil, gas and mining companies. The proposal to disband it was made by Peru’s Ministry of Justice just three days after armed Peruvian police attacked a peaceful indigenous protest in northern Peru, which was part of Amazon-wide protests coordinated by AIDESEP. The attack led to more than thirty deaths and two hundred people injured.

AIDESEP was founded in 1980 and represents 350,000 indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon.

Survival director, Stephen Corry, said today, ‘To many people worldwide the first thing that comes to mind when they think of Peru is Machu Picchu, South America’s top tourist attraction. Peru now risks being better known for a repressive government determined to destroy the country’s indigenous movement.’

Uncontacted tribe's forest bulldozed for beef

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:18:00 -0800

The Ayoreo's home is being rapidly destroyed for beef production.
© GAT/Survival

The only uncontacted tribe in South America outside the Amazon is having its forest rapidly and illegally bulldozed by ranchers who want their land to graze cattle for beef.

The Ayoreo-Totobiegosode is the only uncontacted tribe in the world currently losing its land to beef production.

The ranchers’ operations were exposed by satellite photos taken on 1 November. Since 2 November, an ad by Survival publicising the deforestation has been playing on a major Paraguayan radio station, Radio Nanduti.

The ranchers, from Brazilian company Yaguarete Pora S.A., are operating on the tribe’s land in Paraguay despite having their licence suspended by the Environment Ministry in August for previous illegal clearance.

They are clearing the forest, the home of the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode tribe, using bulldozers alleged to belong to Jacobo Kauenhowen, owner of a large bulldozer business in a nearby Mennonite colony.

‘This is a serious threat to the Totobiegosode. The illegal deforestation carried out by Yaguarete in Paraguay is continuing without any control whatsoever,’ said the Paraguayan NGO GAT, which is working to protect the Ayoreo’s lands.

Last year Yaguarete, together with another Brazilian company, River Plate S.A., destroyed thousands of hectares of the tribe’s land.

Some of the Totobiegosode have already been contacted and have relatives among those who remain uncontacted.

Survival director, Stephen Corry, said today, ‘The Totobiegosode are the most vulnerable uncontacted tribe in the world. A tragedy is unfolding right before our eyes – and the satellite camera’s lens. President Lugo must not sit back and watch as Paraguay’s most vulnerable people see their homes and livelihoods annihilated.’

Isolated Amazon Indians die in ‘swine flu epidemic’

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:02:00 -0800

The Yanomami are the largest relatively isolated tribe in the Amazon
© 1980 Victor Englebert/Survival

Seven Yanomami Indians in Venezuela have died from an outbreak of suspected swine flu in the last two weeks. Another 1,000 Yanomami are reported to have caught the virulent strain of flu.

The Venezuelan government has sealed off the area, and sent in medical teams to treat the Yanomami. The regional office of the World Health Organization has confirmed the presence of swine flu.

There are fears that the epidemic could sweep through the Yanomami territory and kill many more Indians.

The Yanomami are the largest relatively isolated tribe in the Amazon rainforest, with a population of about 32,000 that straddle the Venezuela-Brazil border. Due to this isolation they have very little resistance to introduced diseases such as flu.

In the 1980-90s, when goldminers invaded their land, one fifth of the Yanomami in Brazil died from diseases such as flu and malaria introduced by the miners. Their future was only secured after a major international campaign led by the Yanomami themselves, Survival and the Pro Yanomami Commission.

Health care is already extremely precarious on both sides of the border. Many Yanomami communities have no access at all to health care and this mountainous, forested region presents many challenges in the provision of emergency medical aid.

The Yanomami territory lies on the border of northern Brazil and southern Venezuela and is the largest indigenous territory in tropical rainforest in the world.

Last month Survival published a report highlighting the special threat that swine flu presents to indigenous people around the world.

Stephen Corry, director of Survival said, ‘The situation is critical. Both governments must take immediate action to halt the epidemic and radically improve the health care to the Yanomami. If they do not, we could once more see hundreds of Yanomami dying of treatable diseases. This would be utterly devastating for this isolated tribe, whose population has only just recovered from the epidemics which decimated their population 20 years ago.’

Blow to Malaysian palm oil industry as UK bans advert

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:14:00 -0800

Oil palms planted on recently-deforested land, Sarawak
© M Ross/ Survival

– Penan tribe in Borneo welcomes ban

An advert for Malaysian palm oil has been banned in the UK, dealing a major blow to the credibility of Malaysia’s palm oil industry. Members of the hunter-gatherer Penan tribe in Borneo have welcomed the ban, saying, ‘Oil palm plantations have not benefited us at all; they have only robbed us of our resources and land.’

The Penan live in Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of Borneo, and are fighting to stop the forests they rely on being cut down to make way for oil palm plantations. Survival is calling on the Malaysian government to halt plantations and logging on their land without their consent.

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority banned the magazine advert, placed by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council. The advert claimed that Malaysian palm oil was ‘sustainable’ and contributed to ‘the alleviation of poverty, especially amongst rural populations.’

The advertising regulator ruled that these and other claims made in the advert were misleading and could not be substantiated.

Members of the Penan tribe who have already lost much of their land to oil palm plantations said today:

‘Our people welcome the ban on the magazine advert by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council. How come the advert claimed that palm oil helps alleviate poverty, when from the very beginning oil palm plantations have destroyed our source of livelihood and made us much poorer? A lot of people are hungry every day because our forest has been destroyed.’

Oil palm plantations and logging are destroying the forests the Penan hunt and gather in, and polluting the rivers they fish in. Without their forests they have difficulty finding enough food.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘Claims that Malaysian palm oil is green and people-friendly will not wash, especially with the Penan. The industry’s expansion onto their land is a disaster.’

Palm oil is used in many everyday grocery products, and is increasingly being used for biofuel.

Download the banned advert

US oil company threatened with eviction from Amazon

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:06:03 -0700

The Harakmbut are one of three tribes that depend on the reserve where Hunt is exploring for oil.
© Dilwyn Jenkins/Survival

Indigenous people have threatened to evict a US company, Hunt Oil, exploring for oil on their ancestral land in the Peruvian Amazon.

According to FENAMAD, an indigenous organisation in south-east Peru, at least two hundred people have gathered in a small town called Salvación, which acts as Hunt’s base in the region.

A meeting between company representatives, local indigenous people and high-ranking government ministers, including the prime minister, was scheduled to take place on Wednesday. Fifty policemen have been sent to Salvación – a move condemned by Peru’s national indigenous peoples’ organisation, AIDESEP.

FENAMAD says local people have not given Hunt consent to work on their land, and they are willing to put their ‘lives on the line’ to stop them from doing so. They said they would evict the company if it continued to violate their rights.

FENAMAD says that local people have also asked to speak directly to Hunt’s owners. Hunt is a private company whose CEO, Ray Hunt, is a long-standing associate of former US presidents George Bush and George W. Bush.

Hunt owns the rights to explore in the region, which includes land belonging to the Yine, Matsigenka and Harakmbut tribes, with Repsol-YPF. Last month, FENAMAD announced it was suing both companies.

At the heart of the region is the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve, used by many indigenous villages for hunting and fishing and the source of six rivers that are the only fresh water supply for an estimated ten thousand people.

No-shows among South American leaders at Amazon summit

Rhett Butler — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:12:00 -0800

A summit between South American leaders to devise a plan to save the Amazon, failed to come up with a "common stance" on deforestation, as five of the eight invited leaders failed to show up to the meeting, reports Al Jazeera.

A fair deal for forest people: working to ensure that REDD forests bear fruit for local communities

Rhett Butler — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:16:00 -0800

As world leaders meet to thrash out the next incarnation of the Kyoto climate agreement, the world waits with baited breath to see how greenhouse gas emissions from forests might be included. Despite the high powered nature of these important global decisions, the success of REDD will ultimately be decided by humble forest dependent communities, living in developing countries and perhaps currently oblivious to the negotiations taking place. Dr Julie Fischer, Communities Specialist on Fauna & Flora International and Macquarie Capital’s Carbon Forests Taskforce, explains why REDD will fail unless it adequately accounts for, or indeed is steered by, these communities.

Reforestation effort would lower Britain's greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent

Jeremy Hance — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:30:00 -0800

A study by Britain's Forestry Commission found that planting 23,000 hectares of forest every year for the next 40 years would lower the island nation's greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent, according to reporting by the BBC.

Land of plenty: 50 percent rise in the amount of food wasted in America worsens global warming, consumes freshwater

Jeremy Hance — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:42:00 -0800

Just before Thanksgiving a new study shows that Americans are throwing away more food than ever. Since 1974 the amount of food Americans water per capita has risen by approximately 50 percent, according to a new study in PLoS ONE. Researchers found that food waste is adding to America's greenhouse gas emissions and accounts for over one quarter of the nation's freshwater consumption every year.

High gold prices, army collaboration, play role in mining invasion in southern Venezuela

Rhett Butler — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:46:00 -0800

Illegal gold mining involving wildcat miners, the Venezuelan army, and indigenous groups is threatening one of the country's most biodiverse river basins, according to local sources.

In midst of poaching crisis, illegal rhino horn tops gold

Jeremy Hance — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:46:00 -0800

Rhino poaching has hit a fifteen-year high, and the rising price for black-market rhino horn is likely the reason why. For the first time in a decade rhino horn is worth more than gold: a kilo of rhino horn is worth approximately 60,000 US dollars while gold is a little over 40,600 US dollars.

The US will set emissions target, but is this a turning point for success at Copenhagen?

Jeremy Hance — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:50:00 -0800

Today may mark a turning point for a successful negotiation at the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen or it may just be another blip in the up-and-down news cycles that have preceded the summit for months.

Sushi lovers may be eating Critically Endangered species without knowing it

Jeremy Hance — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:59:00 -0800

Restaurants sampled in New York and Colorado are serving up bluefin tuna without informing their customers know they are dining on an endangered species, according to a new study in PLoS ONE. Using DNA barcoding researchers from the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics at the American Museum of Natural History found that nearly a third of tuna sampled in one restaurant in Colorado and thirty restaurants in New York served bluefin tuna, and nine of the restaurants did not label the tuna as bluefin.

Authorities in Madagascar conduct raids to uncover illegal rosewood

Rhett Butler — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:26:00 -0800

Authorities in Madagascar over the weekend launched a series of raids to uncover rosewood and other precious hardwoods illegally logged from the country's national parks in the aftermath of a March military coup.

REDD may not be enough to save Sumatra's endangered lowland rainforests

Rhett Butler — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:54:00 -0800

A prominent REDD project in Aceh Indonesia probably won't be enough to save Northern Sumatra's endangered lowland rainforests from logging and conversion to oil plantations and agriculture, report researchers writing in Environmental Research Letters. The study highlights the contradiction between the Ulu Masen conservation project; which involves Flora and Fauna International, Bank of America, and Australia-based Carbon Conservation, a carbon trading company and the continuing road expansion, and establishment of oil palm plantations in the region.

Efforts to slow climate change may put indigenous people at risk

Rhett Butler — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:13:00 -0800

Efforts to slow climate change are putting indigenous people at risk, warns a new report published by Survival International, an indigenous rights' group.

Transmitters implanted in orangutans for tracking after release into the wild

Jeremy Hance — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:24:00 -0800

For the first time transmitters have been implanted in orangutans to track their daily movements. The Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) has implanted transmitters into three orangutans that have been released back into the wild from Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center in the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo.

India scraps plan to build physics lab in tiger reserve

Rhett Butler — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:30:00 -0800

Indian officials have decided against a plan to built a Neutrino Observatory, an underground experimental physics laboratory, in Mudumulai Tiger Reserve, an area conservationists say serves as an important corridor for elephants and other wildlife.

Videos and Photos: over 17,000 species discovered in waters beyond the sun's reach

Jeremy Hance — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:08:00 -0800

Deep, deep below the ocean's surface, in a world of ever-present darkness, one would expect few, if any, species would thrive. However, recent expeditions by the Census of Marine Life (CoML) have found an incredible array of strange, diverse, and amazing creatures. To date a total of 17,650 species are now known to live in frigid, nearly lightless waters beyond the photic zone—where enough light occurs for photosynthesis—approximately 200 meters deep. Nearly 6,000 of these occur in even harsher ecosystems, below depths of 1,000 meters or 0.62 miles down.

Photo of new chameleon species discovered in Tanzania

Rhett Butler — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:43:00 -0800

Researchers have discovered a new species of chameleon in southern Tanzania.

Global warming will increase likelihood of civil war in Africa by 55 percent

Jeremy Hance — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:59:00 -0800

There have been many warnings by policymakers that rising temperatures in Africa could lead to civil conflict, however a new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is the first to uncover empirical evidence for these warnings and quantify them. The results—that higher temperatures increased the likelihood of civil war in sub-Saharan Africa by over 50 percent—took aback even the researchers.

Reforestation: Challenges and Opportunities

Rhett Butler — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:20:00 -0800

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is a timeless issue that has been propounded into the public knowledge sphere since I was a child. Always eager to learn the actuality of environmental propaganda, I have been tracking reforestation practices since 2001. I first ground-truthed the realities of sustainable development in Costa Rica the summer after my freshman year at Vassar. We visited various national parks throughout the country and had the opportunity to conduct interviews with locals surrounding Monteverde on the impacts of ecotourism. This program was conducted through the School for Field Studies. My impressions were of surprise and delight at how eco-conscious Ticos appeared to be.

Google – the new eye in the sky for protecting forests?

Rhett Butler — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:20:00 -0800

Google looks set to play a part in a called-for "new environmental world order" by satellite-monitoring the rates of deforestation of tropical rainforests and pinpointing illegal logging and land misuse, Google’s Northern and Central Europe head Philipp Schindler has revealed. Schindler made the announcement in London on November 19 at a meeting at St James's Palace hosted by the Prince's Rainforests Project about a new climate change reduction mechanism, REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation). An inter-governmental report produced this month by an Informal Working Group (IWG) for Interim Funding of REDD has outlined an initiative to save the CO2 equivalent of the annual emissions of the US over five years by rewarding developing countries for reducing deforestation, with payments on a performance basis.

U.S. pledges $275M to rainforest conservation

Rhett Butler — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:36:00 -0800

The U.S. pledged $275 million to efforts to reduce deforestation in developing countries, reports Reuters.

Deforestation emissions should be shared between producer and consumer, argues study

Jeremy Hance — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:49:00 -0800

Under the Kyoto Protocol the nation that produces carbon emission takes responsibility for them, but what about when the country is producing carbon-intensive goods for consumer demand beyond its borders? For example while China is now the world's highest carbon emitter, 50 percent of its growth over the last year was due to producing goods for wealthy countries like the EU and the United States which have, in a sense, outsourced their manufacturing emissions to China. A new study in Environmental Research Letters presents a possible model for making certain that both producer and consumer share responsibility for emissions in an area so far neglected by studies of this kind: deforestation and land-use change.

Oil palm workers still below poverty line, despite Minister's statements

Jeremy Hance — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:13:00 -0800

On October 19th, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok told parliament that oil palm harvesters and rubber tappers are living above Malaysia's national poverty line, according to a story in the Malaysian Insider. But now representatives of the workers are saying Dompok lied.

After years of controversy: Flores 'hobbits' are a new species of humans

Jeremy Hance — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:31:00 -0800

When the 'hobbits' were discovered in 2003 they made news worldwide, sparking visions of a world our small relations lived among giant rats, dwarf elephants, and lizards bigger than the Komodo dragon. The small hominin fossils discovered on the island of Flores in Indonesia proved just how little modern humans knew about our deep ancestry. While researchers instantly claimed that the 'hobbits' were a new species of hominin other scientists disagreed: they argued that the 'hobbits' were modern humans that had been dwarfed by disease. A new study inSignificance hopes to put the controversy to rest.

Blackout in Brazil: Hydropower and Our Climate Conundrum

Rhett Butler — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:48:00 -0800

It’s everyone’s worst nightmare: being caught in an underground subway in the midst of a power outage. Yet, that is exactly what happened recently when Brazilian commuters in the city of São Paulo were trapped inside trains and literally had to be pulled out of subway cars. In addition to sparking problems in public transport, the blackout or apagão led to hospital emergencies and the shutting down of several airports. In all the power outage darkened approximately half of the South American nation, affecting sixty million people.

REDD may increase the cost of conservation of non-forest ecosystems

Rhett Butler — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:35:00 -0800

Policy-makers designing a climate change mitigation mechanism that will reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) aren't doing enough to ensure that the scheme protects biodiversity outside carbon-dense ecosystems, argues an editorial published in Current Biology by a group of scientists.

Indonesian government suspends license of logging company in controversial forest area

Rhett Butler — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:45:00 -0800

The Indonesian government today temporarily suspended the license of Asia Pacific Resources International Holding Limited (APRIL) for developing an area of forest and peatland in Sumatra pending a review of the company's permits, reports Greenpeace.

Gibson Guitar under federal investigation for alleged use of illegal rainforest timber from Madagascar

Rhett Butler — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:03:00 -0800

Federal agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service raided Gibson Guitar's factory Tuesday afternoon, due to concerns that the company had been using illegally harvested wood from Madagascar, reports the Nashville Post.

Using fish as livestock feed threatens global fisheries

Jeremy Hance — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:17:00 -0800

Fish doesn't just feed humans. Millions of tons of fish are fed every year to chickens, pigs, and even farmed fish even in the midst of rising concerns over fish stocks collapses around the world. Finding an alternative to fish as livestock feed would go a long way toward preventing the collapse of fish populations worldwide according to a new paper in Oryx.

Oceans' ability to sequester carbon diminishing

Jeremy Hance — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:58:00 -0800

A new study—the first of its kind—has completed an annual accounting of the oceans' intake of carbon over the past 250 years, and the news is troubling. According to the study, published in Nature, the oceans' ability to sequester carbon is struggling to keep-up with mankind's ever-growing emissions. Since 2000 researchers estimate that while every year the oceans continue to sequester more anthropogenic carbon emission, the overall proportion of carbon taken in by the oceans is declining.

Pygmy hippo shot and killed in…Australia

Jeremy Hance — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:36:00 -0800

Hunters going after pigs in Australia's Northwest Territories got a big surprise when they shot an animal they mistook for a pig, only to find out it was a pygmy hippopotamus, reports the Northwest Territory News.

Record year for CO2 emissions, even with economic slowdown

Jeremy Hance — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:02:00 -0800

8.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide was emitted into the earth's atmosphere in 2008, a growth of 2 percent despite the economic crisis. This averages out to each person contributing a record high of 1.3 tons of carbon, according to a report in the journal Nature Science. While the global recession slowed the growth of fossil fuel emissions for the first time this decade, it did not lower emissions altogether.

Ecological benefits of REDD boosted by inclusion of private landowners, potentially harmed by plantations

Rhett Butler — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:06:00 -0800

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation [REDD] programs that include landowners will conserve more habitat and ensure greater ecosystem services function than programs that focus solely on protected areas, report researchers from the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC), the Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia (IPAM), and the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG).

Coastal habitats may sequester 50 times more carbon than tropical forests by area

Jeremy Hance — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:54:00 -0800

Highly endangered coastal habitats are incredibly effective in sequestering carbon and locking it away in soil, according to a new paper in a report by the IUCN. The paper attests that coastal habitats—such as mangroves, sea grasses, and salt marhses—sequester as much as 50 times the amount of carbon in their soil per hectare as tropical forest. "The key difference between these coastal habitats and forests is that mangroves, seagrasses and the plants in salt marshes are extremely efficient at burying carbon in the sediment below them where it can stay for centuries or even millennia."

Holding the Global North Responsible for Climate Change: What Would Lord Russell Do?

Rhett Butler — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:13:00 -0800

If Lord Bertrand Russell were still alive today, he would most likely be appalled by the Global North’s glaring inaction on climate change. One of the twentieth century’s most eminent philosophers, Russell was also an outspoken critic of war and irrationality. In 1966, just as the United States was ramping up the war in Vietnam, Russell helped to establish a novel legal tribunal which condemned war crimes committed in South East Asia.

Extinct goat was "similar to crocodiles"

Jeremy Hance — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:55:00 -0800

It sounds like something out of Greek mythology: a half-goat, half-reptilian creature. But researchers have discovered that an extinct species of goat, the Balearic Island cave goat or Myotragus balearicus, survived in nutrient-poor Mediterranean islands by evolving reptilian-specific characteristics. The goat, much like crocodiles, was able to grow at flexible rates, stopping growth entirely when food was scant. This adaptation—never before seen in a mammal—allowed the species to survive for five million years before being driven to extinction only 3,000 years ago, likely by human hunters.

Financial Accounting for Forest Carbon Offsets and Assets

Rhett Butler — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:57:00 -0800

Poised to wreak havoc on the climate of Earth, our only home, is a phenomenon we’ve been observing for 150 years: an increase in Earth’s mean temperature. To mitigate the global climatic disruption that humans put into motion long ago, the actors in the forest carbon offset market encourage landowners to sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide (the culprit in global temperature increases) in return for a payment for ecosystem service based on financial unit called a metric ton carbon dioxide equivalent (mtCO2e). The regulatory and institutional frameworks of the forest carbon market are developing rapidly, yet one of the most urgent regulatory issues for a viable quality market is forest carbon financial accounting under International Accounting Standards (IAS) and U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). We predict forest carbon offset assets will become a thriving investment asset class with significant equitable distribution of revenues based in a transparent financial accounting mechanism. This article introduces forest carbon assets as an alternative asset class under IAS and U.S. GAAP.

Asia-Pacific leaders drop emissions cuts from Copenhagen agenda

Rhett Butler — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:45:00 -0800

Leaders of the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) dropped the reference to greenhouse gas emissions cuts from their declaration released Sunday, reports Reuters.

Actions taken to save sharks 'disappointing'

Jeremy Hance — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:40:00 -0800

Environmentalists say that the International Commissions for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) did not do enough in their yearly meeting to protect the ocean's sharks.

ICCAT fails to protect critically endangered tuna—again

Jeremy Hance — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:00:00 -0800

The International Commissions for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) ignored the advice of its scientists to end fishing of the Atlantic bluefin tuna. Instead ICAAT set a quota of 13,500 tons of fish. This is not the first time ICCAT has flouted its own researchers' advice: it has repeatedly set quotas well-above its researchers' recommendations.

Brazil pledges to restrain emissions growth

Rhett Butler — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:34:00 -0800

In a move that some observers say could provide a path forward on a future climate agreement that includes emissions cuts in developing countries, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said his country will aim to reduce emissions 14 to 19 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

New rating systems seeks to promote sustainable landscapes from shopping malls to city parks

Jeremy Hance — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:11:00 -0800

The Sustainable Sites Initiative has developed the United States' first rating system for the design, construction, and on-going maintenance of a wide-variety of landscapes, both with and without buildings, including shopping malls, subdivisions, university campuses, corporate buildings, transportation centers, parks and other recreation areas, and single-family homes.

DNA uncovers nearly extinct Siamese crocodiles in captivity

Jeremy Hance — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 10:37:00 -0800

The Critically Endangered Siamese crocodile, once believed to be extinct in the wild, received some uplifting news this week. DNA testing of 69 rescued crocodiles at Phnom Tama Wildlife Rescue Center (PTWRC) in Cambodia found 35 purebred Siamese crocodiles.

Finnish paper company to sever ties with logging firm linked to rainforest destruction in Indonesia

Rhett Butler — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:26:00 -0800

Finnish paper company UPM-Kymmene will stop buying paper pulp from Asia Pacific Resources International Holding Limited (APRIL) due to concerns over the company's poor environmental record, reports Greenpeace. UPM-Kymmene contact's represents 4 percent of APRIL's total pulp production, worth over US$55 million annually, according to the environmental group.

Countries that invest in conservation will see higher financial returns, argues report

Rhett Butler — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:07:00 -0800

A new report issued by the The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) initiative makes a strong case for valuing the planet's ecosystem services. The report calls for investments in "ecological infrastructure" to protect wildlands and the services they provide; market-based valuation of ecosystem services; reductions in environmentally harmful subsidies; recognition of the link between environmental degradation and poverty; and a strong climate deal that includes forest carbon.

"Responsible" palm oil producers pledge not to develop endangered Sumatra rainforest

Rhett Butler — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:31:00 -0800

Members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an initiative developing criteria to improve the environmental performance of palm oil, agreed to declare the Bukit Tigapuluh Ecosystem in Sumatra a 'high conservation value area'. The decision, voted on by RSPO General Assembly members at the group's annual meeting earlier this month in Kuala Lumpur, effectively bans oil palm development of the endangered forest ecosystem by RSPO members.

Brazil releases official Amazon deforestation figures for 2009

Rhett Butler — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:39:00 -0800

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell nearly 46 percent to the lowest annual loss on record in 2009, reported the Brazilian government Thursday.

Forgotten species: Madagascar's water-loving mammal, the aquatic tenrec

Jeremy Hance — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:04:00 -0800

There are many adjectives one could attach to the aquatic tenrec: rare, mysterious, elusive, one-of-a-kind, even adorable, though one tries to stray from such value-laden titles since it excludes so many other non-adorable inhabitants of the animal kingdom. This small and, yes, cute insectivore, also known as the web-footed tenrec, lives in Eastern Madagascar where at night it spends the majority of its time swimming and diving in fast-moving streams for insects and tadpoles. It sleeps during the day in small streamside burrows. To date that is about the extent of our knowledge of this species.

Blackwashing by NGOs, greenwashing by corporations, threatens environmental progress

Rhett Butler — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:11:00 -0800

Misinformation campaigns by both corporations and environmental groups threaten to undermine efforts to conserve biodiversity and reduce environmental degradation, argues a new paper published in the journal Biotropica. Growing concerns over climate change and unsustainable resource extraction have put companies that exploit the environment in the spotlight. Some firms have responded by taking measures to reduce their environmental impact. Others have alternatively engaged in sophisticated marketing campaigns intended to mislead consumers on their environmental performance, maintaining that environmentally-destructive practices are instead benign. At the same time some activist groups have been guilty of exaggerating claims of environmental misconduct in order to boost support for their campaigns and therefore their fundraising efforts.

New report: boreal forests contain more carbon than tropical forest per hectare

Jeremy Hance — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:00:00 -0800

A new report states that boreal forests store nearly twice as much carbon as tropical forests per hectare: a fact which researchers say should make the conservation of boreal forests as important as tropical in climate change negotiations. The report from the Canadian Boreal Initiative and the Boreal Songbird Initiative, entitled "The Carbon the World Forgot", estimates that the boreal forest—which survives in massive swathes across Alaska, Canada, Northern Europe, and Russia—stores 22 percent of all carbon on the earth's land surface. According to the study the boreal contains 703 gigatons of carbon, while the world's tropical forests contain 375 gigatons.

Will Brazil's blackout drive a new push for more rainforest dams?

Rhett Butler — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:20:00 -0800

The power outage that affected nearly a third of Brazil's population Tuesday could be used by development interests to justify a renewed push for hydroelectric dams in the Amazon rainforest.

Declaration calls for more wilderness protected areas to combat global warming

Jeremy Hance — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:44:00 -0800

Meeting this week in Merida, Mexico, the 9th World Wilderness Congress (WILD9) has released a declaration that calls for increasing wilderness protections in an effort to mitigate climate change. The declaration, which is signed by a number of influential organizations, argues that wilderness areas—both terrestrial and marine—act as carbon sinks, while preserving biodiversity and vital ecosystem services.

Helping Old Forests Stabilize Climate 2009: Ecological Internet $75,000 Year-End Fund-Raiser

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:03:07 -0800

Please support EI's proven Internet-based global advocacy to achieve ecological science-based ecosystem protection and restoration - http://www.climateark.org/shared/donate/

Dear Earth colleagues,

I have just come from the rainforest, and things are not looking good. Old forests continue to needlessly fall, even as abrupt runaway climate change appears imminent. Today Ecological Internet launches our biannual fund-raiser to support our ten year old unique brand of Internet mediated global ecological advocacy to address the twin crises of forest degradation and climate change.

Simply no one protects old forests to stabilize climate like Ecological Internet. Besides our long-running eco-portals with search engine, action alerts and blog; we are currently residing in Papua New Guinea, bringing our work straight to the rainforests, and working with local peoples and groups. Please, for this work to continue, we need your help with a tax-deductible donation now at: http://www.climateark.org/shared/donate/ . And it will be doubled with a matching grant!

RELEASE: WWF Confronted for Rainforest "Greenwashing" of "Sustainable" Palm Oil

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:02:08 -0800

By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet
http://www.ecoearth.info/newsdesk/
CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org

An Open Letter signed by more than 80 organizations from 31 countries was delivered yesterday to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) [search] and to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) co-initiator of the initiative. In the letter, they are urged to end the greenwashing and certification of palm oil plantations as being sustainable.

According to the Open Letter, palm oil companies certified by the RSPO are directly responsible for much social and environmental damage: dislocation of local populations livelihoods, destruction of rainforests and peat lands, pollution of soils and water, and contribution to global warming. These are the reasons why palm oil monoculture[s] are not and can never be sustainable and certification serves as a means of perpetuating and expanding this destructive industry.

ALERT! No to Copenhagen 'Carbon Logging': GOOD REDD Fully Protects and Restores Old Forests as a Global Climatic Imperative

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:56:44 -0800

By Ecological Internet's Climate Ark Climate Change Portal

TAKE ACTION HERE NOW!

Copenhagen climate talks [search] must not provide Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) carbon market funds for old, natural forest logging, or for conversion of natural or semi-natural forests and other ecosystems to plantations. Ending deforestation and degradation of old and relatively ecologically intact primary and old growth forest ecosystems, and the ecological restoration of late-successional old growth forests, are keystone responses to maintaining the global climatic system. TAKE ACTION!

ALERT! Madagascar's Protected Rainforest Hardwoods Continue to be Selectively Logged

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:54:42 -0700

TAKE ACTION!

Loggers and wildlife traders continue to violate Madagascar's biodiversity [search] rich rainforests including protected areas. In March of this year controversy surrounding leasing of agricultural land resulted in a military coup. In the chaos that ensued, armed gangs funded by Chinese traders entered Madagascars Marojejy and Masoala National Parks, two world-renowned World Heritage Sites, and logged rosewood, ebonies, and other valuable hardwoods. NGOs operating in Madagascar report continued armed, open and organized plundering of precious wood from several natural forests, including these parks.

TAKE ACTION!

RELEASE: deRANged II The Sequel -- Rainforest Action Network Endangers World's Rainforests

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:16:03 -0700

By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet
http://www.ecoearth.info/newsdesk/
CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org

(EARTH) -- Rainforest Action Network (RAN) has unexpectedly pulled out of nearly completed secret negotiations with Ecological Internet to work jointly to reform the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to stop certifying as environmentally acceptable the first time logging of old forests [1]. After fifteen years of FSC membership, RAN still cannot say how much first time industrial primary and old growth forest logging FSC has certified as "well-managed" while implying environmental sustainability (no one including FSC board members can, or at least they are not talking). Estimates place it as high as 60 million hectares of old forests having been cleared with FSC certification for such necessities as toilet paper and lawn furniture, with an equal amount imminently threatened.

RAN's tropical rainforest campaign has collapsed into irrelevancy. For several years there has been no activity other than working on oil palm, fund-raising and throwing lavish parties. A year ago, after two years of protests and threats to disrupt their REVEL celebrity studded fund-raiser, they pledged to reinvigorate their rainforest campaign, starting with writing to FSC to find out just how much old forests they are destroying. Apparently being an FSC member has few benefits, as no response has been received. By supporting FSC, Rainforest Action Network is greenwashing rainforest destruction globally. FSC is only marginally better than competing industry certification schemes in that it depends upon old forest logging to meet market demand for throw-away consumer items. Old forest logging must end.

Eco-Forestry Forum Calls for Protection from Continuing Papua New Guinea Rainforest Carbon Scams

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 20:15:54 -0700

Eco-Forestry Forum, a leading Papua New Guinea (PNG) NGO, makes major new charges of continued corruption in the establishment of carbon projects and markets in PNG in their newspaper advertisement (pdf, text below). Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) [search], or sometimes called Avoided Deforestation -- paying for the full protection of standing rainforests -- is an excellent idea that is going badly wrong. The EFF has tried to print the advertisement in the two PNG national papers but were suspiciously refused.

This was not surprising for "The National", the mouthpiece of the PNG timber industry, and owned by the largest foreign logger. But why is it that The Nature Conservancy (TNC), AusAID and the Government of PNG have conspired to block the advertisement in the Post-Courier as well, the other major national daily newspaper, as has been alleged? The conflicts of interest herein detailed show clearly that most carbon market players in PNG have interests other than protecting rainforests and reducing carbon in the atmosphere.

New York City Activists Unfurl 35-foot Banner on High Line to Protest Park's Use of FSC-Certified Amazon Wood

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:21:27 -0700

From Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet (EI)

Contact:
Tim Doody: rainforestsny@gmail.com
Simon Counsell: info@fsc-watch.org
Dr. Glen Barry: glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org

PHOTOS AND VIDEO OF BANNER:
http://RFNY.org

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32461153@N08/

September 24th, New York: This morning, environmental activists unfurled a 35-foot banner blocking the iconic view of 10th Avenue from the High Line park to protest the Amazon wood [search] used in the park for bleachers, benches and decking. The banner read, "High Crime on the High Line! FSC Lies: Amazon Wood Is Not Sustainable [search]!"

Two New York City-based groups, Rainforest Relief and New York Climate Action Group, coordinated the banner action to confront the "First International FSC Friday," an event held on September 25th by the Forest Stewardship Council to promote their certification scheme.

According to Friends of the High Line's website, the tropical hardwood used throughout the High Line was certified by FSC-accredited agencies. The wood, called ipê, originates from primary Amazon forests in Brazil and Peru. Ipê trees are typically 250 to 1,000 years old and grow an average of one or two trees per acre.

ALERT! Copenhagen (and You) Must Cut Carbon Emissions by at Least 10% During 2010

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:59:22 -0700

By Ecological Internet's Climate Ark Climate Change Portal

TAKE ACTION HERE NOW!

Urge all Earth's citizens and tribes to pursue a 10:10 pledge, protect and restore all old forests, and pursue other ambitious, short-term actions -- both personally and at Copenhagen -- as a start to avert abrupt climate change and global ecological collapse. Stewardship Revolution starts here as global ecological sustainability depends upon dramatically reducing greenhouse emissions in the short term. TAKE ACTION!

EARTH MEANDERS: Ecological Overshoot: Climate, Inequity and Corruption

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:25:49 -0700

By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet
Earth Meanders come from Earth's Newsdesk

A call for reluctant Earth revolutionaries to unite and slay the economic growth machine consuming ecological being.

A disease is ravaging Earth as ever more people, consume ever more, destroying natural ecosystems that are our shared habitat. In a few short centuries the violent, expansionist and deeply ecologically unsustainable Western mindset has become virtually universally accepted. The meaning of life is more, ever more of everything, at the expense of a finite biosphere. The emptiness of such a vacuous worldview is revealed through changing climate, devastating human inequities and an irredeemably corrupt economic system.

More than just a climate crisis, humanity is facing profound over-population and injustice that are spurring dozens of inter-related ecological and social crises. Billions suffer as their basic human needs go unmet, while billions more gorge themselves. Forests, prairies, streams, rivers, estuaries, wetlands, lakes, soil, oceans, air and all the rest are all life's flesh and blood. Humanity, Earth and kindred species have entered the late stage condition of ecological overshoot -- whereby our cumulative demands upon ecosystems exceed their life-giving capacity and cause them to collapse.

We are eating creation. Hardly anyone is thinking or acting at the necessary scale to avert global ecological Armageddon. Market based solutions are pervasive with corruption and inequity. Nothing we do is going to maintain an affluent life, as it is now for some. Widespread economic decline will certainly accompany abrupt climate change and global ecosystem collapse; indeed, it has begun. If existing political systems are unable to deal with the inevitable collapse of the growth machine, at the same time as pursuing rigorous environmental policy-making, then new political structures will be necessary.

ALERT! Questioning World Bank Palm Oil Funding and Forest Carbon Finance in Indonesia

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:35:51 -0700

By Rainforest Rescue with Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal with

TAKE ACTION!

Ombudsman report on 20 years of corrupt IFC, World Bank Group lending to the Indonesian oil palm industry casts doubt on Bank's fitness to manage international forest carbon funds that may emerge at Copenhagen climate talks. It is time for the World Bank to end finance of oil palm, sustainable forest management, paper pulp and other industrial rainforest developments known to be the root causes of deforestation, degradation and climate change. The Bank must permanently end financial support for these industrial developments impacting primary rainforests, or it is the wrong entity to administer forest carbon monies.

MORE INFORMATION AND TAKE ACTION NOW!

ALERT! Join Borneo's Penan Indigenous Peoples in Standing up to Malaysian Rainforest Destruction

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:25:44 -0700

By Rainforest Rescue with Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal with

TAKE ACTION!

Malaysia is the world's leading rainforest destroying nation. Insist Malaysian authorities respect native customary land rights and boundaries of Penan's last remaining ancestral rainforest reserves; halt rainforest destruction in Sarawak for oil palm, pulp plantations and hydro-electric dams; and ensure rainforest destruction and abuse of indigenous rights by Malaysian companies end globally.

MORE INFORMATION AND TAKE ACTION NOW:
http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=malaysia_penan_blockade

ALERT! Liberia's Plans to Resume Industrial Primary Rainforest Logging Already Plagued by Corruption

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:35:25 -0700

By Rainforest Rescue with Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal with

TAKE ACTION!

The fact notorious illegal loggers Samling of Malaysia [search]; who have devastated rainforests globally including those of the Penan, are surreptitiously in contention for Liberian logging [search] contracts illustrates, despite decades of failed reform efforts locally and internationally, that the global industrial tropical timber logging industry remains irredeemably corrupt. There is no evidence first time industrial logging of primary forests is ever ecologically sustainable or reduces poverty. Please call upon Liberian President to pursue development based upon standing rainforests, and reject entirely the resumption of industrial logging. NOTE: After sending this protest you are forwarded to several crucial ongoing alerts, which we ask you to please send as well

MORE INFORMATION AND TAKE ACTION NOW:
http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=liberia_logging_resume

RELEASE: "Good REDD" Fully Protects and Restores Old Forest Carbon and Local Livelihoods

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:05:37 -0700

All Copenhagen bound climate parties urged to get back to basics of avoiding deforestation and degradation as a keystone climate change response. The focus must be upon ending first time industrial logging of primary forests, while providing local peoples alternative incomes based upon fully intact standing old forests. Anything less is unworthy of green support.

By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet (EI)
CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org

Ecological Internet and Rainforest Rescue of Germany have launched a campaign leading to Copenhagen's climate talks in December to ensure carbon based funding for forest protection -- called avoided deforestation [search], or Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) [search] -- remains ecologically and socially rigorous, or does not proceed at all. REDD has the potential to help end primary and old-growth forest logging and other industrial destruction and diminishment of old forests.

The REDD concept faces immediate risk of being usurped by industry. The focus in project design remains primarily upon profit-making and greenwashing "Sustainable Forest Management", rather than necessary policies to ensure large areas of primary and old-growth forests are fully protected to optimally keep existing and new carbon sequestered. It is even being suggested that first time logging of primary forests and establishment of industrial tree plantations should be worthy of carbon market financing.

ALERT! Madang, Papua New Guinea's Mighty Ramu River Rainforests, Carbon and Peoples Threatened by Timber Mafia & Government Corruption

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 02:24:08 -0700

By Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal with Rainforest Rescue

TAKE ACTION!

Let the Papua New Guinea (PNG) government know it must follow its people's wishes and end industrial rainforest destruction [search] once and for all. Support local landowners in Madang Province and nationwide working bravely to end primary forest logging and pursue REDD carbon monies and other means to benefit from standing rainforests. The government cannot corruptly pursue both continued industrial logging and oil palm, and expect to still receive carbon market REDD payments for intact rainforest protection.

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO TAKE ACTION NOW:
http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=png_redd_logging

ALERT! Swiss Francs Threaten Indonesian Rainforests

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:31:51 -0700

TAKE ACTION!

Major Swiss banks Credit Suisse and UBS are to further fund Golden Agri-Resources [search] (GAR), the world's largest listed palm oil company, which currently produces 10 percent of Indonesia's palm oil. A further 1.3 million hectares of land are to be developed for palm oil plantations [search] with Swiss finance on the island of Indonesia Kalimantan (Borneo) and in Papua on the Western half of the island of New Guinea. Let these banks and the Swiss government know that their financing of rainforest destruction and climate change is completely unacceptable and will be protested until it ends.

ALERT! Tell Papua New Guinea and British Royalty: Climate Solutions Have No Place for Continued Industrial Primary Forest Destruction

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:28:42 -0700

TAKE ACTION!

Knighting of illegal logger and carbon market corruption plague Papua New Guinea's (PNG) attempts to receive carbon money for protecting rainforests [search]. Let Prime Minister Somare, and England's Queen and Prince of Wales, know PNG climate and biodiversity protection under REDD requires an immediate end to industrial primary rainforest destruction by logging and oil palm. And certainly no royal knighthood for criminal loggers.

EARTH MEANDERS: Old Forests, REDD Rage and Earth Revolution

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:05:47 -0700

By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet
Earth Meanders come from Earth's Newsdesk

Earth and her humanity need old forests to exist. And all enabling their destruction, including potential carbon markets paying for 'sustainable forest management' in primary forests, are legitimate targets for an Earth Revolution.

For too long those feeding upon the trough of "sustainable" forestry have been perpetuating the myth that primary and old growth forests can and should be harvested using "Sustainable Forest Management" (SFM) techniques. Old Forests are key to ecosystem, biodiversity, human and the Earth System's survival. Along with other intact natural terrestrial, aquatic and marine habitats; old forests are the internal organs of the Planet and regulate the Earth System to maintain conditions conducive to life. Primary forests logged for the first time are permanently ecologically damaged in terms of composition, structure, function and dynamics.

I am stunned, dumfounded and enraged at the wholesale selling out of the climate and forest, led by big environmental NGOs (BINGOs). The latest positive idea for an ecologically sustainable Earth -- Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Diminishment (REDD) -- to pay for ancient forest protection with carbon monies, is at this very moment being watered down to mean business as usual first time logging of primary forests that forever destroys ecosystems and habitats. Like "sustainable development" and "certified forestry", the REDD concept of paying for protection of old forests' carbon stores, biodiversity and ecosystem is being taken over by industry.

ALERT! Mighty Mekong River Must Forever Flow Freely

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:09:44 -0700

TAKE ACTION!

The mighty Mekong River [search] in Southeast Asia faces a devastating threat from eleven new proposed dams. If even one of the dams are built in Cambodia, Laos or Thailand; they would block major fish migrations and otherwise ecologically disrupt this vitally important river, placing at risk millions of people who depend upon the Mekong for their food security and income. Help "Save the Mekong" and this affinity campaign in seeking to pressure regional governments to shelve the plans.

ALERT! Madagascar: Daewoo's Rainforest Land Grab in Nature's Paradise

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:13:19 -0700

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The island of Madagascar is a veritable Noah's Ark of biodiversity [search], and this natural wealth is the country's primary treasure and opportunity for future ecologically sustainable development. The Korean company Daewoo Logistics intends to lease half the agricultural land in Madagascar for 99 years, industrially producing maize and palm oil on 1.3 million hectares that are now biodiversity rich rainforests and gardens. There already exists a severe food crisis nationally and local peoples, who are soon to be dispossessed from their land, are protesting, causing a major government crisis. Tell Daewoo the people of Madagascar have spoken -- and to shove off and leave Madagascar's rainforests, peoples and land alone.

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VICTORY/RELEASE: Global Consensus Emerging Regarding Need to End Industrial Primary Forest Logging as Keystone Climate Change Response

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:00:01 -0700

After being a lone voice in the wilderness for decades, Dr. Glen Barry and Ecological Internet's biocentric forest protection position has been adopted by most major forest protection organizations. It remains to be determined how those committing to keeping such logging out of UN carbon finance can reconcile with their support for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification of first time old forest logging. Regardless, time to unite the forest and climate movements going into Copenhagen with strong message of protecting and restoring standing old forests for local development and biodiversity benefits, and regional and global climate and ecosystem sustainability.