Forestry and Development E-News: June 2008
Forestry and Development (F&D) is an online resource on sustainable forestry. It supports commercial forestry as a viable source of economic growth which is compatible with sustainability.
PNG deforestation report uninformed and 'grossly exaggerated': ANU expert 2 June 2008: A recent report released by the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) and the Australian National University (ANU) and in part financed by the EU which claims deforestation in PNG is rapid and caused by the forest industry has been described as inexpert and “grossly exaggerated” by Dr Colin Filer, one of ANU's own forestry experts. Dr Filer, convener of the Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Program at ANU, has studied environmental and resource management in PNG for more than 25 years and published numerous books on the topic. Filer said in an interview that the report's claims are "grossly exaggerated". In an article for the ABC, Filer stated that: "this latest study tends to aggregate measures of deforestation and degradation, as if to assume that degradation is now just a step on the road to deforestation, while the process of forest regrowth or regeneration has come to a halt … Only in that way could the authors arrive at the conclusion that 'half of PNG's forests will be gone within 13 years". The report incorrectly treats commercial forestry as the driver of deforestation in major respects: - The report ignores entirely fuel wood removals which the FAO has stated is responsible for more than 75 per cent of all log removals; - Deforestation in New Ireland is attributed to oil palm and forestry over the past 35 years: these areas were actually cleared by trading company Burns Phillip before the First World War; - Deforestation attributed to forestry and palm plantations and in Milne Bay, Oro and West New Britain was in fact mandated by the Australian and PNG Governments to bring large-scale economic development to impoverished areas; - Deforestation in Milne Bay attributed to oil palm estates neglects to mention that the plantations were developed on degraded cocoa and rubber plantations established as early as the 1900s. There are other major inaccuracies. The report attributes responsibility for management of forestry to the industry; in PNG landowners under law retain unfettered rights to concessions and determine how they are managed. The report implies that the logging cycle is 30 years, when it is in fact 35. The report's commentary on regrowth also ignores data from 137 regrowth trial plots, adding further weight to Dr Filer's point that the report assumes regrowth has come to a halt.
SGS criticises Greenpeace assessment of legal verification 6 June 2008: SGS, one of the world’s most respected inspection organisations, has criticised a Greenpeace report released in January that purports to be a technical assessment of international legality verification systems as “unprofessional and untransparent. Greenpeace gave the SGS Timber Legality Traceability and Verification (TLTV) system a surprisingly low score, despite the system being considered one of the best around. The SGS statement says that the Greenpeace Assessment does not qualify as a balanced, informed, and accurate analysis and deplored the lack of professionalism and transparency applied by Greenpeace in carrying out this specific task, especially since, in doing so, Greenpeace is adversely affecting potential customers’ perception of the services." SGS was too polite to note that Greenpeace is Board Member of the Forest Certification System which it set up with WWF and which offers competing TLTV services. Greenpeace and WWF have an established record of using unethical methods to promote FSC at the expense of other, often better, systems of certification. Many forest businesses prefer systems like SGS more than FSC systems because they are more neutral and less political. NZ announces illegal logging measures 27 May 2008: The New Zealand Government has announced it will adopt measures to address the issue of illegally-logged wood products. New Zealand Forestry Minister Jim Anderton announced that international action will include financial mechanisms to reduce deforestation in developing countries, research, and government engagement with key consumer countries that are considered a risk for the export to New Zealand of illegally-logged wood. New Zealand's imports are relatively small, but a campaign by the New Zealand Greens attacking the import of kwila - primarily from Malaysia - has gained considerable attention over the past months. Cabinet has agreed to compulsory labeling of kwila products that indicates if it is legal or otherwise. An election is approaching in New Zealand, so these measures are likely to have been adopted to win over the Green vote.	UNFCCC - getting reality into REDD X June 2008: At the recent UNFCCC meetings in Bonn, developing countries and the FAO began to insert some reality into the debate about forestry’s role in climate change. Forestry’s most important contribution to climate change is to increase sinks to absorb carbon dioxide, not just to reduce emissions by ceasing forestry. The Stern report popularised the idea that if forestry were reduced, there would be fewer emissions of carbon dioxide. Anti-forestry NGOs have fostered this idea and it clearly informed the World Bank-sponsored concept REDD - Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation - which is to link payment of credits for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide to action by developing country forestry nations to stop deforestation and forest degradation. Important forest nations from Africa and Latin America, as well as Indonesia, made the point at Bonn that the key concept in forestry relevant to amelioration of climate change is to increase the carbon stock, not reduce emissions. The FAO reported at Bonn that it was initiating a program to enable countries to assess changes to their carbon stock in forestry. At this stage no one knows what is happening to forestry-related carbon stocks. The data does not exist. Remote sensing gives some picture (but without sound assessments of the carbon stockpile, which requires detailed on-ground, technical analysis of the performance of forest species, ground cover, forest litter and soil) they could not be accurate. Forestry has become a political plaything in the UNFCCC negotiations. The Greenpeace version of REDD is that developing countries can be paid to cease forestry. The World Bank’s grandiose conception of a global fund to buy carbon credits from developing countries which reduce deforestation does not seem well thought through. As the FAO regularly points out, most deforestation is caused by economic development, not commercial forestry. Does stopping deforestation mean stopping development and do World Bank carbon credits become compensation for slowing down economic development? Has the Bank’s knowledge of forestry diminished since it effectively ceased funding mainstream forestry some time back and instead aligned its forestry policies with those of WWF? Key forest nations are becoming aware that the first thing required to get the full benefit for climate mitigation from forestry is to establish a sound technical understanding of the carbon cycle in forestry and the nature of change of carbon sinks in forestry. If the World Bank follows their cue, it might get it right. WWF at CBD - "postcard" theatrics 30 May 2008: WWF has claimed that environment ministers from 65 countries have demonstrated their support for WWF's call for zero net deforestation by 2020 by signing postcards at the WWF side event at the 9th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP9) in Bonn last month. The postcards were addressed to WWF International Director-General, James Leape. Australia and Indonesia both signed the postcards. WWF has said that its target of zero deforestation by 2020 was set to “support and enhance the CBD's Forest Programme of Work”. Given the link between deforestation and economic development, as mentioned above, WWF has once again demonstrated that when crafting policies to achieve its forestry ambitions, no weight is given to economic growth or eradication of poverty. Also on Forestry and Development News > About F&D > Contact Us >
You have permission to forward this email newsletter to other interested persons provided it is passed on in its entirety. Forestry & Development E-News is published monthly by ITS Global (http://www.itsglobal.net/). ITS Global are accredited assessors for the International Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes (PEFC) Questions and feedback can be sent to forestrydevel@bigpond.com If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, please click here. © 2008. All rights reserved | Forestry & Development Website | Contact |