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In this issue:
Asia-Pacific-Australia
Index:
--Russia:
1) Log export tax info
--Hong Kong: 2) Rare trees uprooted from
plazas & public parks & sold across border
--Nepal:
3) Minister says end forest encroachment, especially in Treai region, 4)
Rampages by wild elephants, 5) 3,000 trees mysteriously fall in ten minutes?
--India: 6) Tiger attacks in Sundurbans, 7) Hunting is harming tropical forests
of NE India, 8) Border Security Force caught stealing forests, 9) Compensatory
Afforestation Fund Bill - 2008, 10) Save Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve from
Neutrino researchers, 11) 1,523 trees to fall for Delhi Government's expansion
plan, 12) Tragic zoo of captured forest dwellers who had there homes logged,
--Myanmar: 13) Data on Myanmar's tiger population and other carnivores
--Singapore: 14) Forests
around Singapore's
rush hour
--Philippines: 15) 7,000 more board feet of "hot logs" confiscated, 16)
Lost forest cover at a rate of 2.1 per year, 17) Already beyond the point of no
return, 18) Enviros in Carage demand removal of forest product monitoring
stations,
--Papua New Guinea: 19) More oil Palm plantations get green light, 20) Mother
knows impacts from Turama Forest Industries' rainforest logging, 21) Log ship
protestor speaks,
--Malaysia:
22) Gov attempting to quell indigenous opposition to logging
--Sarawak: 23) Wanting to stop them from
plundering his ancestral land, 24) Corridor of Renewable Energy to create
110,000 jobs?
--Indonesia:
24) Pressures mounting to save endangered orangutans
--New Zealand: 25) Forest owners can fell forests and plant them somewhere
else
--Australia: 26) Frog extinction disproven & may lead to more forest
protection, 27) Showdown planned between anti-logging activists and police, 28)
Mass letter campaign asks gov. to save native forests, 29) Climate change
taking its toll on native flora, 30) Land clearing is leading to more cases of
Ross River virus, 31) Consult protesters before crews move in, 32) Forest
clearing in Queensland wiping out tens of millions of animals, 33) Koalas are
dying by the thousands as a result of land clearing,
Articles:
Russia:
1) As of April 2008, Russian log export taxes for softwood species and
large-diameter birch logs increased from 20% to 25% of the log value (minimum
€15/m3 of about US$23/m3). Smaller-diameter birch logs will not be taxed in
2008. Although the tax increase of €5/m3 is a small share of the total log cost
for foreign sawmills, it has still had an impact on the sourcing strategies for
many forest companies in both Europe and Asia.
Despite continued negotiations amongst the governments of the Nordic countries,
EU representatives and Russian ministers, there has, so far, been no
willingness by Russian representatives to reconsider the announced increase of
log taxes to 80% of the log value (minimum €50/m3 or about US$78/m3) for
softwood species in January 2009. If Finland
is not successful in reversing the Russian export barrier, and if the Finnish
Government does not find a way of compensating the Finnish forest industry, it
is likely that the last shipment of softwood logs to Finland
may leave Russia
in late December of 2008. In the latest issue of the Wood Resource Quarterly it
was reported that as a result of the implemented and planned log export taxes,
shipments of softwood logs from Russia
have declined both to Europe and Asia in 2007
and 2008. In the first quarter of 2008, Russia
shipped 44% less to Europe and 15% less to Asia.
During the 1Q/08, Russia
exported less to all of its major trading partners except China, which
increased purchases by 14%. Softwood log exports are now at their lowest level
in four years. Hardwood log exports, which typically consist of smaller logs
for pulp manufacturing, have not been affected by the higher taxes on large
birch logs and were actually up by as much as 28% in the first quarter of 2008,
as compared to 2007. In 2007, Sweden
and Finland alone imported
89% of Russia's total
shipments to Europe. Other importers were
sawmills in Estonia and Latvia, which increasingly have become dependent
on Russia
for sawlogs. http://bricstrategist.blogspot.com/2008/09/global-timber-markets-impacted-by.html
Hong Kong:
2) The dark blue van pulls up to Cheung Sung Lam's office in a wealthy Hong Kong neighborhood, and four men with a rope jump out
in the dark. They swarm around their 80-year-old target on the sidewalk and try
to lasso it into the van. Yet the intended victim -- a 6- ton ``good luck''
tree worth about HK$1 million ($128,203) -- won't budge. ``I've had that tree
for more than 10 years, it brings me serenity and luck,'' says Cheung, 61, who
watched the failed caper on his security cameras. ``All my sorrows are gone
whenever I see my pine. I never thought I might lose it this way.'' Buddhist
Pine trees are considered harbingers of fortune in feng shui, an ancient
Chinese practice exploring the relationship between nature and people. The rare
trees are uprooted from plazas, gardens and public parks in Hong Kong and sold
across the border in southern China
for up to HK$600,000 each, police say. At least 1,000 mature pines -- or about
a quarter of the territory's total -- were stolen in the past five years,
Marine Police Superintendent Wong Chun-chin says. The crime spree is spurred by
China's
rising wealth. The number of U.S.-dollar millionaires increased 20 percent to
415,000 last year from 2006, said a June 24 report by Merrill Lynch & Co.
and Paris-based Cap Gemini SA. China's
economy has grown by at least 10 percent annually since 2002. ``Some mainland
Chinese are just so rich that they have to find ways to spend their money,''
says Wong, who's been intercepting drug smugglers, illegal immigrants and tree
thieves for 15 years. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=a9vIAP9EQfCE&refer=asia
Nepal:
3) Newly appointed Minister for Forest and
Soil Conservation (MoFSC) Kiran Gurung has pledged to end forest encroachment
especially in the Treai region and corruption under his ministry. At a time
when the forest activists and community forest consumers have been pointing
their fingers towards the ministry and political parties saying that they were
protecting the corrupt employees instead of forest, Minister Gurung spoke in
line with the past ministers Sunday. "I will do my best to give a new
message to the people by preventing the past mistakes like safeguarding
corruption and delaying the act of handing over community forests to the
consumers against peoples' aspirations," Gurung said addressing an
interaction programme organised by the Federation of Community Forest Users
Nepal (FECOFUN). He, however, did not clearly state whether the Ministry would
hand over the community forests in the Terai to the consumers. He said the task
necessitated extensive discussions among stakeholders. "I will try to
forge a consensus among the consumers about handing over the community forests
in the Terai region," he added. The forest activists have been raising
their voice against the government saying the officials were hesitating to hand
over the community forests to the consumers. FECOFUN general secretary Bhola
Bhattarai said that the hand over of more than 5,000 community forests was
pending while forest encroachment in Dhading, Nawalparasi, Palpa, Banke,
Bardiya, Kailali, Kanchanpur, Udayapur and Rautahat districts was widespread as
the mainstream political parties were protecting the forest land encroachers.
RSS adds from Udayapur, three employees at the District Forestry Office,
Udayapur, including the Assistant District Forest Officer Ramakanta Yadav, have
been suspended for misappropriating the timber belonging to a local forest
users' group. A patrolling team of the Armed Police Force last week seized the
timber being taken towards Janakpur. The timber was seized in Lahan. The police
then handed over the timber to the District Forestry Office, Siraha. http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/detail.php?article_id=6789&cat_id=4
4) At least six people have been killed in southern Nepal in rampages by wild elephants
in the last two days, police said Saturday. "Five people were trampled to
death overnight while one was killed on Friday morning in the villages of
Saptari and neighbouring Siraha districts," police officer Bhoj Narayan
Shrestha told AFP. Police said three wild elephants entered the villages from
the jungles bordering India
and attacked people as they slept. "We believe the elephants come inside Nepal from (neighbouring) India. They
disappear inside the jungle during the day and come to attack villagers at
night," Shrestha said.The officer said a team of police had been mobilised
to chase away the elephants, which are protected as an endangered species under
Nepali law. Shrinking forests and encroachment on elephant territory has forced
the animals to stray into human settlements looking for food, often resulting
in attacks, experts say. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Wild_elephants_kill_six_people_in_Nepal_police_999.html
5) In what locals believe to be the handiwork of some supernatural power,
nearly 3,000 trees at a local community forest in Banke district in mid-western
Nepal
collapsed in a matter of 10 minutes, eKantipur.com reported on Thursday.
According to the website, locals have been completely baffled as the trees at
the Shrikrishna Community
Forest, some 360 km westof Kathmandu, fell in quick succession last Monday.
According to the locals, the land in the area has deep cracks. "There was
neither a gale nor a storm during that day," said Tilak Bahadur Chand, a
local. Unable to explain the incident, people have resorted to supernatural
theories. The open-mouthed locals have begun saying that the incident is
ominous and they are now fearful something bad might happen soon. "It is a
bad omen," said another local. News about the incident spread quickly and
every day people from the surrounding areas in huge numbers are visiting the
site of the mystery. And they are offering different explanations -- many see
in it the hand of some supernatural power. Locals said they immediately
apprised the District Forest Office (DFO) about the incident. They allege that
the DFO has become a mere spectator, taking no initiative to find out the
truth. However, Hemlal Aryal, a forest official, said that they would soon visit
the site to find out what is behind the incident. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/11/content_9919856.htm
India:
6) Kumaresh Mondal managed to run a few steps before the 450-pound beast
knocked him down with a leap, tore into his throat, and dragged his limp body
into the dense mangrove forest. "I tried to chase the tiger, but I couldn't
find any path," said Monoranjan Mondal, another of the four men fishing
that day in March. "There were no tracks, no broken branches. ... He just
took him away." The Sundarbans, a tangle of unforgiving islands at the
mouth of the Ganges River, are home to perhaps the world's largest
population of wild tigers _ as well as millions of the poorest people in India and Bangladesh. Despite decades of
attempts to keep the tigers at bay, they still kill about two dozen people
every year. Now, experts fear environmental changes and shrinking land could
lead to more tiger-human conflicts, with disastrous results for both. Villagers
who can no longer grow enough crops are venturing into the tigers' domain in
search of fish, crabs and honey to sell. And tigers are creeping ever closer to
villagers in search of fresh water and food, according to scientists who track
their movement. "There should be no people living here," said
Pranabes Sanyal, former field director of the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve.
"It's too dangerous." In the Sundarbans, whose 3,700-square-mile
mangrove forest is the world's largest, families scrape by as stubborn rice
farmers, overmatched fishermen and barefoot honey collectors. Nearly everyone
has a friend or a relative who was attacked by a tiger. There are believed to
be close to 250 tigers on the Indian side of the Sundarbans, and another 250 on
the Bangladesh
side. http://www.ksl.com/?nid=235&sid=4258967
7) Logging, agricultural expansion, and hunting of large birds and mammals in
the tropical forests of northeastern India may be reducing the capacity
of the biologically-rich ecosystem to regenerate itself, report researchers
writing in the open-access journal Tropical Conservation Science. Analyzing the
dispersal modes and spatial patterns of 128 tree species in the tropical
semi-evergreen forest of Arunachal Pradesh in the eastern Himalayas,
Aparajita Datta and G.S. Rawat found that 78 percent of trees are dispersed by
animals and that tree species distributions are to an extent limited by
dispersal. The results suggest that declines of hornbills, ungulates, bears,
and primates — major dispersers for many tree species — as a result of human
activity, are "likely to have consequences for the dispersal and
recruitment of many tree species in these forests, especially several rare
large-seeded tree species." Population growth in the global biodiversity hotspot
is a particular challenge, note the researchers. While the region has the
lowest population density in India,
a population growth rate of three percent per year has put pressure on
community-owned forest reserves for food, timber, and non-timber forest
products. However it is this dependence — combined with improved relations
between the Forest department and the Nishi, a
local tribe — that may help facilitate more effective conservation action in
Pakke Wildlife Sanctuary and the surrounding area, say Datta and Rawat. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0915-aparajita__tcs.html
8) Forest officials caught [Indian] troopers of Border Security Force (BSF)
red-handed ferrying illicit timber to their camp in North
Kashmir's Bandipora district on Saturday. Sources said that
ferrying illicit timber under the shade of gun has been a routine for troopers
deployed in villages near forests here. Caught-red handed on Saturday when they
were ferrying four illicit logs measuring around 200 cft to the near by camp
located in the premises of Tehsil Office Bandipora. Sources said that Forest officials after spotting the BSF vehicle with
illicit timber couldn't stop it as the vehicle was running along with long Army
convoy. However, they followed it until it reached the camp and raided the
vehicle and seized the illicit timber once the vehicle entered the camp. When
contacted Range Officer Khuihama Abdul Rashid Lone, said, "During curfew
hours BSF troopers are chopping off green trees from the nearby forest taking
advantage of our absence during the curfew time." He confirmed that on Saturday
morning BSF troopers of 51 Battalion 'A' Coy ferried four illicit logs to their
camp which were later seized by the Forest
officials. "Our men had spotted the BSF vehicle carrying illicit timber but
they couldn't stop it because it was running as part of an Army convoy, Lone
said, adding that "we sent a team to the BSF camp and seized the logs
there." He, however, also informed that when Forest
officials reached the BSF camp, the troops misbehaved with them and tried to
harass them. Independent sources informed that fearing reprisals from the BSF,
the Forest officials confiscated only one log
of timber instead of seizing all the four. BSF troopers also directed their ire
at the media people who had reached the spot to capture photographs of the
illicit timber. Pleading anonymity, sources in the Forest
department said that Army and BSF men said that are chopping up green trees for
making furniture which they (troopers) then smuggle out of the state to
decorate the homes of their officers. "Assisted by Forests officers the
top officers in defense forces compel their subordinates to get the timber for
manufacture of furniture which has high demand in states of India,"
sources told 'Kashmir Images'. http://www.kashmirwatch.com/showheadlines.php?subaction=showfull&id=1221411446&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1&var0news=value0news
9) By using a purely economic or quantitative lens to scrutinise industrial
activities which destroy nature, the forests bill ends up legitimising them.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and
Forests is presently scrutinising a Bill which was introduced in parliament in
May 2008. This Bill, titled, The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill, 2008,
seeks to institutionalise a mechanism to collect and manage the money collected
as payments made by project authorities whose projects — steel plants,
highways, hydro-electric projects, ports and so on — necessitated diverting
forest land for non-forest use. The genesis of this Bill and what it proposes
can be traced back to an ongoing case in the Supreme Court, also famous as the
Godavarman (forest) case. Since 1996, several orders and judgments have been
passed as part of this case which have a bearing on forest management in the
country. An order passed on September 26, 2005, in the Godavarman case raised a
critical question. It asked whether a user agency (private company, PSU,
government) should compensate for the diversion of forests and loss of benefits
accruing from such a change of land use. Further, should not the user agency
make a payment in the form of Net Present Value (NPV) of such diverted land
which can be utilised in the long run to 'get back the benefits'? The next step
after the court's deliberations was the setting up of a Compensatory
Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) in May 2006 which was
to manage the funds received. Now, two years later, the new Bill seeks to
institutionalise this system to manage the huge amounts of money collected for
the tasks of compensatory afforestation, additional compensatory afforestation,
penal compensatory afforestation, NPV and all other amounts recovered under
FCA. While there may be different opinions on this, isn't it at least necessary
to review if the purpose of conservation, as is implicit by the title Forest (Conservation) Act, is being achieved at all? Is
the forest clearance process or compensatory afforestation schemes, NPV etc
resulting in a conservation-oriented decision making? Is monetary compensation
a deterrent against large-scale destruction caused by the change of land use of
a forest into a mine, an industry or a power-generation hub? Can the loss of an
ecosystem and the severing of the cultural and spiritual association attached
to it, and the myriad livelihoods supported by it, be valuated and compensated
for? These questions may appear simple, but there are no direct answers. http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=334325
10) In early 2000, a team of scientists gathered at the Saha Institute of
Nuclear Physics in Kolkata and decided to revive research on neutrinos, tiny
elemental particles that can pass through almost all matter unhindered. A
flurry of meetings followed culminating in a project called India-based
Neutrino Observatory (INO), touted as the biggest and most ambitious experiment
on particle physics in India.
This has generated much enthusiasm among physicists, for though neutrinos are
one of the fundamental particles that make up the universe, they are least
understood. There are only a handful of observatories in the world carrying out
experiments on neutrinos. Environmental activists and conservationists,
however, are apprehensive about the multi-crore-rupees project because it is
proposed to come up in the middle of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR), a
5,520 sq km of contiguous protected forest at a tri-junction of Kerala,
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. They fear constructing the observatory will disrupt
elephant corridors and add more population to the area, leading to its
ecological degradation. A joint committee of the Department of Atomic Energy
and the Department of Science and Technology handling the INO project, however,
claims adequate measures will be taken to protect the environment. http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20080915&filename=news&sec_id=50&sid=50
11) Yet another lot of trees, 1,523 to be precise, are proposed to be axed as
part of the Delhi Government's expansion plan for ensuring smooth traffic for
Commonwealth Games 2010 in the national capital. Of total 1,523 trees, 1,000
are on the neighbouring Uttar Pradesh land which is yet to be acquired for
widening of Uttar Pradesh Link
Road from NH-24 (Noida mor) to Chilla Regulator
towards Sahadara side in East Delhi. "We
will have to cut down 523 trees on land located on our side and 1,000 on land
in Uttar Pradesh to execute the Rs 334-crore project estimated to be completed
before the mega sports event," a senior official told media. He said
tenders for widening the eastern side on the land belonging to the Delhi government has
already been floated. The work of widening on western side (on the land to be
procured from UP government) will be subsequently taken after transfer of land,
an issue which has remained unresolved despite several meetings between the two
states. The project involves construction of UP link road corridor and widening
of this road from six lanes to eight lanes with grade separators to bridge the
five T-junction, one four-armed junction and also construction of an additional
four-lane bridge at Hindon Cut on Chilla Regulator. Since work has to be
started soon, we have requested the Department of Forest and Wildlife to permit
felling of 530 trees on Delhi
soil, the official said. "We will soon be writing to the UP government as
well seeking permission to cut 1,000 trees on 25.5 acres of land which are yet
to be acquired," the official added. The extent of the UP land is 3,680
metres along the corridor on the Yamuna river. The project would be executed
within 27 months after the award of work, the official said. Since 2007, forest
department has granted permission to fell 17,995 trees -- most of them for big
infrastructure projects. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Delhi_to_axe_1523_trees_to_give_way_to_traffic_/articleshow/3454768.cms
Bangladesh:
12) With systematic destruction of forests, they have now been pushed to the
verge of extinction. These animals were captured from different parts of Sri
Mongol and Sylhet as they foraged into locality. Slow Loris locally known as
lazzabati banor (Pic No 3) lived in the mixed evergreen forest of Sylhet.
This nocturnal animal lived in the upper tier of the jungle in recluse during
the day, and would look for food at night. As the tall trees vanished because
of illegal logging, they got exposed and could not escape humans because of
their slow mobility. Sitesh Ranjan Dev of Sri Mongol, who runs a private zoo
there and is a controversial character for his alleged trade in wildlife,
although there is no proof of it, claims he got these slow loris from an
indigenous Khasia person who had caught them in Lawachhera forest. Badger (Pic
No 4), is a very rare animal in Bangladesh,
as Dr Reza Khan, a zoologist and environmentalist, said. It is also a nocturnal
animal dwelling on the ground level in mixed evergreen forests, and would feed
on underground worms and roots of plants. Badgers need wide areas for foraging.
But as the lower tier of forests got thin, they also got exposed. The one in
the picture was caught as a result of forest depletion and no one knows what
happened to its cubs or mate. Leopard cats (Pic No 2) also used to live in
mixed evergreen and Sal forests. Today they are deemed extinct in Bangladesh.
Sitesh claims somebody caught them and handed them to him. But Dr Khan suspects
they were brought in from India.
Jungle cats (Pic No 1) are also rarely seen in the wild because of their rarity
and also because of their ability to hide. These two cubs were captured in Sri
Mongol. Civets (Pic No 5 & 6) live in the middle tier of forests which is
also in a sorry state in Bangladesh.
They feed on geckos, worms and eggs. Today they are endangered due to forest
depletion. Hornbills (Pic No 8) need tall trees for nesting. As such trees
became a rarity, their number also dropped. And they can be easily located
today and caught, as the few remaining tall trees, their only refuge, can now
be easily identified. Green pigeons (Pic No 7) are also a lost case in Bangladesh
because of vanishing fig trees and hunting. These beautiful birds can hardly be
seen in the wild today in this country. http://www.thedailystar.net/pf_story.php?nid=53677
Myanmar:
13) Wildlife Conservation Society researchers have built up a bank of valuable
data on Myanmar's
tiger population and other smaller, lesser known carnivores. These findings
will help in the formulation of conservation strategies for the country's
wildlife. The data were gathered between December 2002 and May 2004. Using
camera traps survey techniques, researchers from the Soceity's Myanmar
Programme combed the 3,250-square-km core area of the Hukaung tiger reserve for
evidence of the big cats. Researchers photographed six individual tigers some
21 times in the reserve, and this has allowed the first ever scientific
estimate of abundance for these big cats in northern Myanmar. "We know there are
tigers here, but previously we were not able to put some numbers to the population,"
said Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) researcher, U Than Myint, co-author of
the study that was published in the journal Population Ecology. "We have
collected the first real data needed to determine how many tigers are here.
From the analyses of this data, it is estimated that there are at least seven
and potentially up to 70 tigers living in the core area. "Estimating
numbers of prey animals such as gaur and sambar may give an indication of how
many tigers can be supported over this vast habitat, but any further ecological
monitoring will likely need to be done at the same time as efforts are
increased to protect tigers and their key prey species from illegal hunting and
trade," Myint said. Researchers have also confirmed the continued existence
of 18 smaller carnivores in a variety of habitats across Myanmar,
according to another study by WCS's Myanmar Programme. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Flora__Fauna/Researchers_map_Myanmar_forests_for_wildlife/articleshow/3467235.cms
Singapore:
14) We had walked for only a few minutes before the noise of Singapore's
rush-hour traffic was muffled by the dense canopy of strangling figs with their
dangling aerial roots, tapioca trees, banana trees and nascent ginger and
cinnamon plants. The spidery tendrils of vanilla orchids hung in the air too,
their anchor in the surrounding trees impossible to trace, while the forest
floor echoed with cicadas. We can all be forgiven for overlooking the wildlife
merits of this city-state; after all, the tourist industry has historically
pointed visitors towards Orchard
Road rather than wild orchids. The scorpion
scuttled onwards on its epic journey across the 250-yard-long bridge that is
the highlight of the 1.2-mile MacRitchie Tree Top Walk at the heart of Singapore's
Central Nature Reserve. Inevitably, perhaps, for such a corporate-driven city,
the walk is sponsored by a major international banking group but, in
environmental terms, Singapore
is part of a tropical forest that once stretched from Thailand; through Malaysia
and south to Indonesia.
While development and logging has accounted for 97 per cent of the country's
original jungle, Singapore
is thought to be one of just two cities (the other is Rio de Janeiro) that still boast primary
rainforest - that is, rainforest undisturbed by man. For the past 150 years or
so, the jungle has served as a water catchment buffer for four major reservoirs
and covers 2,000 hectares. Another joy is that you will almost certainly have
much of the catchment area to yourself, perhaps encountering the occasional
expat sent jogging on doctor's orders. Your companions tend to be of the avian
kind; the most charismatic is the racket-tailed drongo, named for its long,
forked tail "wires" that expand into circular shapes, and which you
have an excellent chance of spotting, feasting on insects on tree trunks. Other
birds include the beautiful, whistling bulbul, the black-naped oriole, the
banded woodpecker whose call disconcertingly resembles that of a cat whose tail
has been stepped on, and, more familiar to European eyes, kingfishers and
bitterns. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/singapore/2711991/Singapore-Its-a-jungle-out-there.html
Philippines:
15) ILAGAN, Isabela – With at least 7,000 more board feet of "hot logs"
confiscated here on Wednesday, the provincial government's anti-illegal logging
task force will have to do more in its campaign to curb illegal logging
operations here. The illegally cut lumber worth more than P600,000 was
intercepted by members of the multi-sectoral task force while passing through
one of the checkpoints here. At least 150,000 board feet of illegally cut
timbers have been confiscated coming from the towns of San Mariano and Benito
Soliven and other parts of the province since Gov. Grace Padaca reactivated the
anti-illegal logging task force last July. Reacting to reports of rampant
illegal logging operations in the province's forest areas, the governor has
waged a war against illegal loggers to stop the denudation of Sierra Madre
biodiversity corridor's forest cover. Padaca who recently flew with a team over
the Sierra Madre Mountains
for an aerial inspection said: "I saw thousand of illegally sawn lumber hidden
under the forest cover of the mountain. There must be several millions of board
feet down there waiting to be transported," she said. "But the loggers
cannot bring them down because they know we will confiscate it, and we will
even be the ones to go up to seize these contrabands if we need to," she
added. - http://www.gmanews.tv/story/120207/Padacas-war-against-illegal-logging-far-from-over
16) The Philippines lost forest cover at a rate of 2.1 percent every year from
2000 to 2005, the fastest in southeast Asia and the seventh in the world, said
Juan Echanove, a project officer of the Delegation of the European Commission
to the Philippines. "The Philippines' total forest area, including
degraded forest, is now just 24 percent of the land area, the second smallest
to urban Singapore in southeast Asia, and one of the smallest of all tropical
countries in the world, and even well below dry Mediterranean countries like
Greece or Italy," he said. In his report, Echanove also said the forest to
population ratio in the Philippines
is only 0.1 hectares of forest per head, "one of the worst in the world --
at the level of Saharan countries." He said that in Southeast Asia, there
has been a net 2 percent decrease of forest area a year, equivalent to 2.8 million
hectares per year, much of it in Indonesia. Myanmar had the second fastest rate of forest
decline after the Philippines,
he said. Echanove said that for Asia, overall efforts to conserve biodiversity
through a system of protected areas has been "positive" as there has
been a net increase of forest area during the same period. "Despite
various efforts to conserve forest in Asia
through logging bans, acceleration and reforestation programs, the pressure on
natural resources will remain severe," he said. Echanove said balancing
demand for diverse array of products and services from different segments of
society in poverty alleviation, population control, and equitable trade will
continue to be the most important challenge facing Asia.
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20080910-159813/RP-lost-forest-fastest-in-Southeast-Asia--EU-official
17) John Terborgh, in his book, Requiem for Nature, opines that the
"overpopulated Philippines"
is "already beyond the point of no return." The United Nations demographers
projected in 2002 that the Philippine population would reach between 75 and 85
million. But the population overshot the high projection and now stands at 89
million. Most of the forests were situated in the uplands, of which more than
60 percent of the country's total land area are considered as such. "The
uplands are fragile areas, and when they get overloaded with population, they
just can't take it," explained Jeff Palmer, former director of the Davao-based
Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC). Between 1990 and 2005, the Philippines
lost one-third of its forest cover. Although the current deforestation rate is
around 2 percent per year, a 20 percent drop from the rate of the 1990s,
deforestation continues unabated. "A few hundred years ago, at least 95 percent
of the Philippines was covered by rain forest; only a few patches of open
woodland and seasonal forest, mostly on Luzon, broke the expanse of moist,
verdant land," noted Dr. Lawrence R. Heaney, an American curator who holds
honorary appointments at Silliman University, the University of the
Philippines, and the Philippine National Museum. By the time the Spanish
arrived in the Philippines
in the 16th century, scattered coastal areas had been cleared for agriculture
and villages. Three hundred years later, rainforest still covered about 70
percent of the country. But in recent years, the country was devoid of its
forest cover. "Primary forests in the Philippines are being destroyed due
to both logging and agricultural expansion, significantly decreasing the Philippine's
natural resources," commented one environmentalist. Despite government bans on
timber harvesting following severe flooding in the late 1980s and early 1990s,
illegal logging continues. Illicit wood cut from secondary and primary forests
is routinely smuggled to other Asian countries. "In 1992, the date of the most
recent forest survey, old-growth rain forest had declined to a shocking 8.6
percent," Dr. Heaney reported. "In late 1997, that percentage has probably
dropped to seven percent, and perhaps further still." http://www.iloiloriver.com/philippines-fast-losing-its-forests.html
18) For the nth time, different environmentalist groups in Caraga Region have
renewed their call for President Arroyo and DENR Secretary Lito Atienza to
dismantle many forest product monitoring stations or checkpoints estimated to
reach 90 installed by private or government institutions that are supposedly
meant to curb illegal logging and log poaching activities in the region. "The
sprouting of checkpoints along Agusan River and national highways in the region
monitoring forest products will put checkpoints installed in conflict areas
like Lanao and Cotabato provinces to shame" says Valentino Javier' executive
director of federated environment watch group , Caraga Watch. Earlier local
government unit officials like Butuan
City Mayor
Democrito Plaza
, II had vowed to dismantle the checkpoints after local DENR officials headed
by DENR Regional Executive Director Edilberto Buyser told reporters dismantling
of illegally installed structures or checkpoints are law enforcement jobs not
theirs. "Dismantling of checkpoints is law enforcement job and requires local
government unit support because as far as DENR is concerned we only have three
accredited checkpoints" Buyser and some DENR officials told this writer in an
earlier interview. Earlier, tree farmers and wood traders have raised
complaints that personnel manning checkpoints were allegedly demanding money or
in form of goods or foods from them ranging the smallest P500 to highest
P10,000 depending on the volume of transported woods or logs passing either the
Agusan River or the national highways. Over the
decades, Agusan River have been used as easiest means in transporting forest
products ranging from hard wood to planted wood species to rattan poles from
the two provinces of Agusan. http://www.mindanao.com/blog/?p=4899
Papua New Guinea:
19) In a new move to boost Papua New Guinea's contribution to global warming
and climate change, the country's Morobe provincial government has given
Malaysian investors the green light for a major oil palm plantation
development. Morobe governor Luther Wenge and the country's minister for
health, Sasa Zibe, said on Thursday that they had agreed terms for a "massive
deal" with Malaysian investors, but declined to specify either the name of the
investor or the amount of money involved. In a statement received by Green
Assembly International, the minister said they "had joined hands to work together
to bring economic prosperity and development to the people of Morobe, through
the development of oil palm plantations in the province on a joint venture
basis with foreign interests." The statement said the two Morobe leaders had
clinched the deal after taking a delegation to Malaysia, where they had held
"fruitful" discussions with directors of a leading oil palm company. The
company, which industry experts suggest might be the well-known Rimbunan Hijau
Group, had indicated a strong interest in expanding its oil palm stake in
Morobe province. Under a US$
multi-million deal, the new plantations will be on forested sites in the Huon Gulf district where there is no need to invest in
infrastructure because it is already there. Introducing the oil-palm crop will
bring "enormous financial benefits" for everyone concerned, including the
people and the Government, said the statement. http://www.greenassembly.net/http:/greenassembly.net/2008/09/15/deforestation/malaysians-to-fund-massive-deforestation-in-png/
20) Kila Oumabe, Beseremen Clan, (pictured at left with hands raised) is a
mother of three daughters and three adopted children. She is at the frontline
of impacts from Turama Forest Industries' rainforest logging in Papua New Guinea.
Kila has visited the Esperanza in PNG, as a representative of all the women
living in the 1.7 million hectares of the Turama Extension*. Her experiences
are typical of women across the extension: "I have to walk six to eight
kilometres to find food for my family. It takes all day. Before it used to take
two to three hours or half a day. I used to walk out my back door to find the
plants and animals to feed my family. Sometimes a woman can't find anything and
comes home at 9 o'clock or midnight and cooks sago only and goes to sleep."
"The children sometimes complain and cry. So we explain to them what has
happened." "At this stage the animals and the fish – which are eaten for the
strength of the family - are hard to find. Now they are some kilometres away
because the machinery is too noisy and the trees have been cut down." The
people in the Turama Extension area are forest people. The tulip tree is
significant in this part of Papua
New Guinea. Explains Kila, "Everybody is
taught how to use this tree. The tree is very important for rope, string and
food. We eat the leaves like cabbage everyday. From the bark of the tree we
make string bags called bilums. Our great-grandmothers taught us. And will in
the future too. They are the most special tree for us." "When the logging
operation comes, they go to a place to get the logs. When the tulip tree is in
the way, they are knocked down." The women of Turama Extension know what they
want for their future. "The logging workers are from other parts of PNG and
from overseas. When we want to talk to them, they ignore us when we need help,
(like going into) labour and sickness, very big accidents. They do not accept
us, they ignore us. But this is our land, our resources". "Right now, there are
woman at all the (forestry) camps. At the protests the women are going to lead.
They are there with their bags packed. The woman have gathered. "I told them,
'Don't fear, let's move'." http://www.greenpeace.org.au/blog/energy/?p=253
21) My name is Daniel Holland, I'm a freelance artist. My Dad is from Abau, Central Province
and Mum from Popondetta, Northern Province, Papua
New Guinea. I live in Port Moresby and am a volunteer activist with
Greenpeace. My first action was in the Pacific Ocean a few months ago,
campaigning on the overfishing of tuna in the international waters between Pacific Island countries. Now in my own country,
Papua New Guinea,
the Esperanza is here doing forest campaigning and I'm proud to be part of it.
I'm in the climb team that climbed the crane of the ship and hung the big
banner that said "Protect Forests Save Our Climate'. It's a new experience and
I like it. I know exactly how these people feel, it's painful. I had an
experience a bit similar to these people. At my place, because of the money
some people don't find out who the real landowners are and they bring companies
in. Me and my brother got rid of the logging out of our area and saved our
forest a few years ago. I learned about this area when a report came out by
CELCOR (Centre for Environmental Law and Community Rights) and I knew these
people around here were in trouble. This was a good opportunity to help be a
voice for them out here. I'm a landowner myself in my village and to help
another countryman be the voice on the crane with the banner was really good. I
want the country and the world to know what is happening in this area with the
illegal logging of our forests and to its people. http://www.greenpeace.org.au/blog/energy/?p=258
Malaysia:
22) The Malaysian government is attempting to quell indigenous opposition to
logging in the rainforests of Borneo by deposing community leaders and
replacing them with timber company stakeholders, reports an environmental
group. The Bruno Manser Fund, a Swiss NGO that works on behalf of the forest
people of Sarawak, Malaysia, says that the headmen of
at least three Penan communities that have opposed logging have lost official
recognition from Malaysian authorities over the past year. The government is
working to install representatives who support logging. "The non-recognition
of the elected community headmen by the Sarawak State Government is a clear
violation of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,"
stated the Bruno Manser Fund in an emailed release. "The Declaration,
which has been adopted by Malaysia, upholds in its article 18 the right of
indigenous communities 'to participate in decision-making in matters which
would affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves in
accordance with their own procedures'." The Penan communities of Sarawak
have waged a long battle against the logging of their ancestral homeland in the
rainforests of Sarawak, on the island
of Borneo. The opposition
reached a crescendo in the 1980s when the Penan blocked logging roads and
sabotaged equipment. The Malaysian government responded by closing down media
access to the area and sending in armed forces to violently supress the unrest.
While the attacks on the Penan brought international attention to the rapacious
logging of Borneo's forests, they had
relatively little long-term impact. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0909-penan.html
Sarawak:
23) He stood alone, armed with two parang, against what he considered a greedy
oil palm company that wanted to plunder his ancestral land. For three months,
Iban farmer Segan anak Degon left the comfort of his village in Kampung Lebor,
70km from Kuching in Sarawak, to endure
mosquitoes, snakes and pests in protecting his land, which is as big as 14
football fields, some 45 minute- walk away. Out of the 101 pintu or households
living in the 11,000ha village, Segan was the only one who successfully
defended his 7ha land against takeover by local oil palm company Nirwana
Muhibbah Sdn Bhd. His land is now an "island" surrounded by a sea of oil palm
trees. When he is protecting his land, he lives on rice supplied by his wife.
It was nine years ago that Nirwana Muhibbah appeared with bulldozers and other
heavy machinery to clear land at the village. The Sarawak state government had
granted a provisional lease to Nirwana Muhibbah to develop the sprawling
11,000ha Native Customary Rights (NCR) land — the size of Kuala Lumpur
International Airport — into an oil palm plantation. Under the Sarawak Land
Code, NCR land was created, whether communal or otherwise, prior to January 1,
1958, including any area of state land declared as Native Communal Reserve by
the chief minister. It also includes Interior
Area Land,
upon which NCR has been lawfully created by obtaining a permit. The villagers
were caught off-guard and defenceless. "There were no meetings, discussions,
agreements or consultations. But they brought in their machines. Overnight,
they destroyed all our crops. We lost our livelihood," said Segan. Nirwana
Muhibbah had forcefully cleared and grew oil palm on 3,500ha of the NCR land
belonging to 100 families. Determined not to be trampled upon, Segan and his
fellow villagers consulted lawyers and took the company to court. A year on
after the trial, the case is still not settled. Kampung Lebor's suit is among
one of the 180 backlog cases of encroachment of NCR land in the state. http://sarawakheadhunter.blogspot.com/2008/09/taib-mahmud-doesnt-consider-that-these.html
23) The Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score) is poised to create
110,000 new jobs in the wood-based sector, one of the 10 priority industries
identified to be developed by 2030. According to the latest issue of Perkasa,
the Sarawak Timber Industry Corporation's bi-monthly newsletter, wood-based industries
within the corridor employed 41,521 or 83 percent of the 50,000 workforce in
the sector at present. Last year, the 70,000 sq km corridor in the state's
central region, contributed RM1.7 billion or 92.2 percent of the sector's total
export earnings besides exporting 2.6 million cubic metres of logs. It said the
pulp and paper industry, with the support of the forest plantation
establishments being carried out actively by both the government and the
private sector, would continue to be developed and promoted intensively. Apart
from supplying raw materials for the industry, the forest plantation will also
cater for the production of mechanical wood products such as sawn timber,
plywood and medium-density fibreboard, which will be further utilised to produce
value-added products like furniture. The publication said development of
wood-based industries and its associated downstream value-added activities
would be the driving force behind the growth of Score's industrial development.
The corridor stretches along the coast from Similajau in Bintulu division to
Tanjung Manis in Mukah division and extends into the surrounding areas and the
hinterland of the central region. http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Monday/NewsBreak/20080915124835/Article/index_html
Indonesia:
24) Pressures are mounting to save endangered orangutans in Central
Kalimantan, where most of the world's only great ape lives under
increasingly bleak conditions due to declining forests -- their habitat.
Aldrianto Priadjati of the Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation said the
number of displaced orangutans due to forest conversion for timber estates and
agriculture, including palm oil plantations, has increased. "Currently,
there are about 1,000 orangutans being rehabilitated in our orangutan
rehabilitation center. Most of them were saved from palm oil plantations,"
he said. BOS' Nyaru Menteng, the world's largest orangutan rehabilitation
center, is about 30 kilometers south of Palangka Raya, the capital city of Central Kalimantan. Many
of the rehabilitated orangutans have been ready to be released to primary
forests. "But it is very difficult for us to find the primary forests for
the orangutan to live securely," he said. He was one of the speakers at an
August workshop on the implementation of the strategic and action plans for
orangutan conservation. The workshop was jointly organized by the Forestry
Ministry's Natural Resources Conservation Center (BKSDA), BOS, World Wildlife
Fund, oil palm company Agro Group, Orangutan Foundation International (OFI),
Orangutan Conservation Services Program and the U.S. Agency for International
Development. The event aimed to implement orangutan conservation action plans
that were launched by the ministry of forestry in Jakarta late last year. http://old.thejakartapost.com/detailfeatures.asp?fileid=20080909.U01&irec=0
New Zealand:
25) The National Party says it would allow forest owners to fell forests and
plant them somewhere else without penalty. The Government's proposed Emission
Trading Scheme bill, which is expected to be passed by Parliament this week,
would allow only for offsets of carbon emissions from forests if they are made
part of the Kyoto Protocol in future. Forest
owners currently face deforestation taxes unless they replant on the same spot.
National says it would change the scheme so a pre-1990 owner planting an
alternative area with the same carbon absorbing capacity would not face any
costs. It says it would make the change within nine months of taking office. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2008/09/08/124373645c75
Australia:
26) A species of frog thought to be extinct has been found thriving in far
north Queensland.
The armoured mist frog was last seen in 1991 and was thought to have be wiped
out by a fungal disease. But James Cook University
frog expert, Professor Ross Alford, says the frog has been found thriving in
rainforests to the north and west of Cairns.
"It turns out that these frogs are living in an area that we wouldn't have
expected them to be living at," he said. "Out past the western edge
of the rainforest, particularly if the climate changes the edges may become the
centres, so we need to conserve not just the best possible habitat, but a whole
sample of the places species might live." http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/12/2362564.htm?section=justin
27) The scene is set for a showdown between anti-logging activists and police
on the South Coast, following a meeting in Bermagui on Monday. At the meeting,
local activists were told there will be zero tolerance for people breaking the
law while protesting logging operations in State Forests. "Legal action
will be taken for any offences committed," officer Peter Volf told a
meeting between police and representatives from anti-logging groups. Although
the meeting was arranged by NSW Forestry, there were no forestry officers
present. When asked why they were not there, police officer Peter Volf said
they had double booked, a response met by jeers from the crowd. Activist Lisa
Stone labelled the Bermagui logging operation illegal, saying NSW Forestry has
not issued a harvest plan or consulted with the community on the matter. One
group opposed to the logging, Friends of the Five Forests (FOFF), say logging
will also result in the siltation of the Bermagui River
and damage oyster leases. A request was made for police to address all those gathered,
but the officers declined saying they wished to discuss the matter with a small
group in a rational manner. FOFF representative Suzanne Foulkes questioned
police about the need to exclude the wider group from the meeting. "The
group would like to hear it first hand from you not second hand from us,"
Ms Foulkes said. "All of these people are committed just as much to
stopping this operation as the people you have invited are, so I think it's
only fair and decent that you should address everybody who has attended."
In response officer Peter Volf said "I've invited five people not fifty I
appreciate your strength in numbers but I have invited five people so we can
sit down and talk about it rationally." In a closed meeting police said they
understood the democratic rights in relation to protests but they would not
support illegal activities. He said illegal activities include trespassing into
areas marked by Forestry for logging. The group was informed that public land
would be sectioned off and made inaccessible by force of law. Dr Helen
Caldicott responded by saying the property belonged to the public. "We own
those forests, they are our forests that's our land," Dr Caldicott said. http://narooma.yourguide.com.au/news/local/news/general/zero-tolerance-for-logging-protest/1268642.aspx#
28) More than 10,000 people have joined a mass letter campaign calling on Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd to save native forests. The Wilderness Society has
submitted the letters, which included giant signed tree banners, to the GPO in Brisbane's CBD.
Wilderness Society spokesperson Vica Bayley said the government needed to act
on climate change by protecting native forests. "Any credible policy to
deal with climate change must have forest protection as its top priority,"
Mr Bayley said. Mr Bayley said the government's climate change adviser
Professor Ross Garnaut had failed to address the benefits of forests in his
report released this week. Prof Garnaut recommended a 10 per cent cut in
emissions by 2020. "Prime Minister Rudd should listen to his most
important advisers - the Australian public - the majority of whom want to see
native forests such as those in northern Australia,
Tasmania and Victoria protected," Mr Bayley said. Mr
Bayley said protecting the forests would send a signal to the world that Australia was
serious about combating climate change. "Australia has some of the most
carbon-dense forests in the world and protecting them is one of the quickest
and cheapest ways to tackle climate change," Mr Bayley said. "By
protecting the carbon in native forests, Australia can lead the world in
credible climate change policy." http://news.theage.com.au/national/mass-mailout-to-calls-for-forest-action-20080909-4cjo.html
29) The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens says . It is established a seed bank
which now has 12 million seeds covering 600 plant species struggling to
survive. The project co-ordinator, James Wood, says Tasmania is rapidly drying out, meaning more
plants will end up on the threatened species register. "Things are
changing very quickly in this state particularly wet habitats are declining
very quickly many species which were very common only 10, 20 years ago are not
seen that often and those species are probably going to need to be listed at
some point." Mr Wood says they want to gather 800 plant types struggling
to survive. "If we can collect from large healthy populations now we can
get those seeds into long term storage and store them for hundreds, possibly
thousands of years and if there's populations die out we have the option of
being able to regenerate them and put them back out into the wild again." http://forests.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=106105
30) A team of Western Australian researchers say land clearing is leading to
more cases of Ross River virus. The University
of WA study has found
that deforestation and land clearing for agriculture and development is
providing new breeding grounds for mosquitoes. The researchers have found land
clearing is forcing the watertable to rise, which is producing more stagnant
salty pools of water in typically forestry and agricultural areas. Professor
Philip Weinstein says the watertable needs to be kept down. "Anything we
can do to conserve the amount of native vegetation at this stage is good,"
he said. "Developers are an integral part of that, especially as urban
development impinges more and more on what used to be used as farm land or
forest." http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/08/2358331.htm
31) Police have confirmed they will be taking a tough stand with anti-logging
protests at a forest on the New South Wales far south coast where controversial
harvesting work is about to begin. Yesterday, police held a meeting with
representatives of conservation groups in the Bermagui area to advise them of
their proposed "no tolerance" attitude to protests in and around the
Bermagui forest. Logging has not yet started in the area, north of Bermagui on
the Cobargo Road,
but Inspector Peter Volf says he is urging the Forests New South Wales to
consult protesters before crews move in. He says that once the works begins he
hopes the environmentalists act on his message. Forests NSW will not comment,
at this stage, on planned operations, but a spokesman says it is aware of the
sensitivities involved. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/09/2359649.htm?site=southeastnsw
32) The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says forest clearing in Queensland is wiping
out tens of millions of animals and driving threatened wildlife to the brink of
extinction. WWF said the annual Statewide Landcover and Trees Study (SLATS)
reveals 375,000 hectares of bush were cleared in 2005-06, killing two million
mammals, about 9,000 koalas and millions of birds and reptiles. The group is
calling for a clearing moratorium to protect the state's unique wildlife from
habitat loss and further destruction and to help combat climate change. "This
amount of clearing is unacceptable to the Australian public," said WWF
Queensland program leader Nick Heath. "It's a huge blow for our wildlife,
our climate, our rivers and reefs. "The animals that are wiped out suffer
horribly as they are burnt or starved to death. "In order to function
properly, our ecosystems depend greatly on all the plants and animals that are
lost. "Forest clearing also opens up the
Murray-Darling to further degradation and leads to millions of tonnes of eroded
soil flowing through rivers, polluting our waterways and marine
environments." Land clearing accounted for 41.4 million tonnes - or 24 per
cent - of the state's greenhouse gas emissions in 2005-06, the second highest
contributor after the energy sector. "Queensland will fail to reduce emissions if
it continues to allow this level of land clearing," Mr Heath said.
"Halting the practice is a cheap and easy way of reducing greenhouse gas
emissions." WWF says the Queensland
government should act immediately to stop all clearing of endangered,
vulnerable or threatened regional ecosystems. Clearing should also be prevented
on land subject to erosion, salinity or other forms of degradation, as well as
riverbanks, wetlands and wildlife corridors. Permanent protection of vegetation
should be encouraged through the use of carbon-priced incentives, the group
says. "The minister has the power to regulate land clearing under the
Vegetation Management Act," Mr Heath said. "It just takes the
political will to intervene." http://news.smh.com.au/national/qld-treeclearing-wiping-out-animals-20080908-4bks.html
33) Australian koalas are dying by the thousands as a result of land clearing
in the country's northeast, while millions of birds and reptiles are also
perishing, conservation group WWF said Sunday. The environmental body warned
that unless urgent action was taken to stop trees being felled, some species
would be pushed to the brink of extinction. In an annual statement, Queensland
state last week revealed that 375,000 hectares of bush were cleared in 2005-06
-- a figure WWF said would have resulted in the deaths of two million mammals.
Among those that perished as a result of loss of habitat would have been 9,000
tree-hugging koalas, WWF Australia spokesman Nick Heath said. "It's a
horrifying figure," Heath told AFP. "Two million mammals and that's
all sorts of kangaroos, wallabies. We couldn't come to an exact figure on the
birds, but I would say it would be over five million." Heath said WWF's
figures were based on earlier scientific assessments of animal density in each
area of the state combined with the amount of land cleared over the 2005-2006
period. He said the animals that died in the largest numbers were reptiles,
including lizards and turtles. Of particular concern was the impact on the
koala, an iconic marsupial found only in Australia
and which is most populous in Queensland
state. "There is scientific debate about whether koalas are on the verge
of extinction or not... I don't want to enter into that debate," Heath
said. "All I say is, whether they are endangered or not, killing 9,000
koalas is unacceptable. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Thousands_of_Australias_koalas_felled_by_land-clearing_WWF_999.html
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