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].
As hundreds of decision-makers are gathering in Marrakech to agree new standards for global migration, the United Nations climate change conference ‘COP24’ is looking at concrete ways to help countries tackle large-scale displacement caused by the impacts of climate change, including water scarcity, flooding, storms and rising sea levels.
Nigeria’s central Middle Belt region is home to a diverse cultural population of semi-nomadic cattle herders and farming communities. For decades, the region has experienced increasingly violent attacks that have been partially attributed to direct competition over access and use of natural resources.
COP24 starts today, the IPCC has published new scientific evidence on the devastating impacts of climate change, the probability that those changes will be manageable are decreasing, and, once again, there is a stalemate in international climate negotiations. Time is running out fast - or more appropriately, as UNFCCC Executive Secretary Espinosa stressed, time is a luxury we no longer have. So, actually the question is how soon is now?
COP24 might be in Katowice, but for the rest of the world it’s on Twitter. Navigating through this sea of news and expert profiles is not the easiest task, however. With this is mind, we’d like to share our favourite Twitter accounts with our followers so that you can be up-to-date throughout the event.