Source: carbonpositive.net
5 May 2010 - An alliance of US environmental groups and a workers union have called for trade sanctions to be used to stem the export of illegal timber from Indonesia to protect American jobs and industry. The BlueGreen Alliance, Natural Resources Defense Council, Rainforest Action Network, Sierra Club and United Steelworkers have released a report identifying the economic, social and environmental costs of illegal deforestation in Indonesia on both countries.
“Illegal logging undermines the forest products industry in the United States by distorting global prices of timber, undercutting sustainably manufactured products, and jeopardising the jobs of American workers,” the alliance says.
Deforestation alone catapults Indonesia into the top five of global greenhouse gas emitter nations. Forest loss is responsible for 80 per cent of the country’s emissions, dwarfing the contribution of industrial or energy emissions in the national carbon footprint. The alliance report, Illegal Logging In Indonesia: The Environmental, Economic and Social Costs, quotes latest estimates showing that up to 55 per cent of logging harvests in the country are illegal. A UN report in 2007 put the figures at 73-88 per cent.
A study for the American Forest & Paper Association in 2004 put the cost to the local US industry from depressed wood prices due to illegal logging at $1 billion. The alliance calls for action to curb the trade in illegally-sourced wood to cut high rates of deforestation and benefit communities and workers in both developed and developing countries.
For the complete article, please see carbonpositive.net.
You can also download the report "Illegal Logging In Indonesia: The Environmental, Economic and Social Costs" [PDF 750 KB].
Global progress towards achieving the SDGs is slow, and for many targets, off track. While SDG implementation is primarily a national task and responsibility, it also requires concerted international cooperation. This article presents two arguments why foreign policy could play an important role in their achievement.
No country is immune to natural hazards, but for fragile states, the effects are even more severe. Mostly, conflict prevention and humanitarian aid are seen as more pressing priorities to protect livelihoods there. This pushes efforts of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction to the bottom of the priority list and results in compounded pressures.
As the debate over climate-related security risks grows, many Pacific Island States are calling for more action by the international community to better address the links between climate change and global security. In an interview with adelphi, the former President of Nauru, Baron Waqa, highlights some of these calls as well as the challenges in getting the climate-security issue on the UN’s agenda.
A record breaking European heatwave provided a fitting backdrop to the latest round of UN climate change talks, in which delegates from around the world descended on Bonn for a two-week diplomatic effort.