FORESTRY & DEVELOPMENT

With the election campaign in full swing, the CSN and Nature Québec are warning the public against the current depletion of Québec’s public forests, which could have serious repercussions for workers, biodiversity, forest communities, landscapes, vacationers and First Nations. The public forest is deteriorating and the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks (MFFP) must quickly change course to regain the community’s trust and put an end to the climate of confrontation that is taking hold in the forest. By Louis Bégin, President of the CSN Manufacturing Industry Federation, Frédéric Venne, Biodiversity and Forest Coordinator at Nature Québec and the co-signatories Louis Bélanger, eng.f., Nature Québec, Marie-Ève Desmarais, eng.f. , Jean-Pierre…

The forest fire in Saxon Switzerland is in its third week. Hundreds of firefighters continue to extinguish embers. Rain is not in sight. Professor Johann Georg Goldammer is a fire ecologist and heads the Center for Global Fire Monitoring in Freiburg im Breisgau. His team is currently on duty with the extinguishing tank in Grunewald. He also observes the fire in Saxon Switzerland. Question: In the case of a forest fire in Saxon Switzerland, the embers are still particularly dangerous. Professor Goldammer, where do you see the reasons for this? Johann Georg Goldammer: We don’t only have this issue in Saxon Switzerland. We also saw it with the fires in…

Forest fires continue to rage in parts of southern Europe: in Greece, a village near the burning Dadia National Park has been evacuated. It also continues to burn on the holiday island of Lesvos. In Spain, a fire is causing concern on Tenerife. The massive fire in Dadia National Park in north-eastern Greece continues to rage uncontrollably. The village of Dadia was evacuated during the night, and in the morning the military and forest workers were deployed to cut aisles through the pine forests and thereby prevent the flames from spreading further. Firefighting operations on the ground and in the air also continued. 320 firefighters were deployed with 68 fire…

Labor has just overthrown the Conservatives in the Australian parliament. The new Prime Minister wants to catch up with the delay taken by Australia in terms of the environment. But the coal lobby is still powerful… Australia is changing course! After Labor’s victory in the legislative elections on Saturday, ending nine years of Conservative rule, the one who should become Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has indicated that he will place his program under the seal of the fight against climate change. “I really want to change the country,” he said. According to him, Australia has fallen behind in environmental matters and must repair its image. He thus wants to “let…

Ahead of World Environment Day, Everland, which represents the world’s largest portfolio of high-impact forest conservation projects (REDD+), released the Forest Plan, which outlines goals to help develop up to 75 forest conservation projects in critical hotspots around the world. The plan was developed in response to promises made by 141 countries at COP26 to end deforestation, a major cause of climate change, by 2030. The plan includes the largest voluntary carbon finance effort to date, with one transaction alone expected to generate more than $2 billion in funding streams over the next 10 years for community-based forest conservation projects in the global south. The Forest Plan will further expand…

Papua New Guinea’s Centre for Environmental and Community Rights, or CELCOR, is demanding the sacking of police working for logging companies. This follows the killing of two landowners and a police officer in a forestry operation in East Sepik last month. The deaths sparked a parliamentary call for an enquiry into police officers working for logging companies as guards. CELCOR’s Peter Bosip said police working for logging companies should no longer be tolerated and Police Commissioner David Manning should take action. “The police commissioner should call all the men from the logging camps and wherever it is found that police are doing illegal business working for a logging company, they…

A new WWF program is seeking to expand Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification in the Trans-Fly and Kikori River Basin regions of PNG.  The program is an extension of the work WWF has been doing in the country for some years now – mostly aimed at restricting PNG’s commercial forestry industry. WWF has operated in the Trans-fly region of PNG since 2003. Through its ‘Biodiversity Vision for the Transfly’ strategy it has worked to encourage local government authorities to alter land-use plans and use WWF’s High Conservation Value system in spatial planning, which severely curtails available land for forestry and agricultural use.

Claims about environmental damage made by Greenpeace about Indonesian company APP have been revealed as false. ITS Global, the sponsor of Forestry and Development, recently released an audit of a report by Greenpeace (“How Sinar Mas is Pulping the Planet”) in which Greenpeace alleged Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) is despoiling the environment and generating greenhouse gases. [1]  APP commissioned the audit. Greenpeace is using the report in its greenmail campaign to pressure businesses in Europe to cease buying APP products. The audit revealed the report contained claims which were based on fiction or could not be supported. It concluded the report was a highly politicized vehicle to advance Greenpeace’s greenmail…