Prince’s Rainforests Project

The Prince’s Rainforests Project (PRP) today launched a worldwide campaign to raise awareness of the issues of our dwindling rainforests and the impacts of widespread deforestation and destruction.

Kudos to Prince Charles.  He has made a video to help launch the campaign and he gives a sincere and not-that-cheesy plea on behalf of our most vital resources, the rainforests.  A well presented video with an accurate and vitally important message.

Oh, and please disregard the silly green puppet frog at the end.  The cute and cuddly real amphibians featured in the video are fine but they should lose the felted frog.  That really is cheesy.

“The future of the Rainforest is our future too.”

The Prince’s Rainforests Project

Regrowing the Rainforests?

Willie Smits has found a way of regrowing rainforests that have been cleared.

He tells us about it in the excellent, informative and inspiring video above.  The audience begins to applaud when he announces that he has over 1000 rescued orangutans in his two centres but he stops them dead . . . “No, no, wrong!  This is horrible.  This is proof of our failing to save them in the wild.  It’s not good.”

No, a man-made refuge centre is simply not a suitable home for these gentle and intelligent creatures.  Only a rainforest, their natural habitat, is good enough for these wonderful beasts.

So what does this amazing guy Smits do?  He builds them a rainforest.  And more than that . . he creates thousands of jobs involving the local people and he incentivises them into caring for and preserving the forest.

Amory Lovins said of him . . .

Willie Smits is the world’s leading protector of orangutans and their habitat. The ecosystem [he has built] is beautifully and comprehensively integrated with the local economy, making the people so much better off. This may be the finest example of ecological and economic restoration in the tropics.

A UN Parliamentary Assembly – democratizing globalization by globalizing democracy.

On November 5th, the Senate of the Republic of Argentina became the first national parliament in the world to adopt a declaration unconditionally calling for the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) “in order to strengthen the effectiveness, transparency, representativeness, plurality and legitimacy of the resolutions of the institutions that compose the UN system.”

Without the need to change any of the 111 articles of the UN Charter, an Assembly of this range can create an important link between the United Nations, its agencies, national governments and parliaments, and civil society.”

The assembly would be an advisory body that would review the activities of the UN and its agencies and give elected representatives for the first time direct representation at the global level.

The Campaign for the Establishment of a UN Parliamentary Assembly, (currently a global network of parliamentarians and non-governmental organizations) launched in April 2007. The campaign would like to see the UNPA eventually develop into a “world parliament” vested with distinctive rights and functions.

At a recent UNPA conference of 15 countries in the European Parliament in Brussels the European deputy Jo Leinen stressed the “immense importance” of global parliamentary monitoring in the field of climate regulations.

More on the UNPA campaign.

Oxfam Publication:Pastoralism & Climate Change

Photograph: Safariskenya.com

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone but Oxfam has said that the African Maasai tribe can help fight climate change by spreading their survival and adaptability skills across Africa. Oxfam has issued a report entitled Survival of the Fittest: Pastoralism and Climate Change in East Africa.

From the report:

Pastoralists in East Africa have been adapting to climate variability for millennia and their adaptability ought to enable them to cope with this growing challenge.

As Matt reported here, indigenous tribes are already fighting against governments and corporations to preserve their way of life. Similarly, the pastoralists in sub-Saharan African are being continually marginalised in the decision-making. If the concept of trading skills could be adopted it may halt this habitual disregard for the tribalists and their way of life, as well as provide a valuable contribution to the fight against climate change.

For this to work, the tribes would need cooperation and support from the officials, as Kenyan minister, Mohammed Elmi said . . .

Their adaptability cannot be realised without government support and investment

I think perhaps we all should try to embrace some aspects of the Maasai lifestyle. I’m sure the West could certainly benefit from a few lessons in adaptability. I’m not suggesting we should all go and live off-grid in some arid desert or in the middle of a jungle but it’s a fact that pastoralism is a sustainable lifestyle with minimal emissions and if these tribes were empowered and enabled rather than hindered or disregarded, then I’m convinced they could teach us a great deal about adaptability, sustainability and ultimately survival.

Peru’s govt clamps down on Indian land rights

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Peru’s government declared a state of emergency Monday in remote jungle regions where Indian groups are blocking highways and oil and gas installations to protest a law that makes it easier to sell their lands.

The 30-day decree published in the official gazette suspends rights to public gatherings and free transit in three northern provinces.

It follows nine days of protests by members of 65 Indian tribes and a clash Saturday in northern Peru between police and hundreds of spear-carrying Indians with painted faces. Lima newspaper El Comercio reported eight officers and four protesters were injured.

Alberto Pizango, president of an Indian rights group speaking for the protesters, warned the government to be “very careful” as it attempts to bring order to the affected regions.

The Indians are protesting a law that would let half of those attending a community assembly approve the sale of communal lands. Previously, two-thirds of the local community, whether they attended a meeting or not, had to approve any sale.

UK govt starts to question biofuels option

image: biofuels protest outside Downing St., attended by The Coffee House earlier this year.

Article

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said: “To tackle climate change we will need to develop new, cleaner fuels – but that doesn’t mean pushing forward indiscriminately on biofuels that may do more harm than good.”

The UK is to slow its adoption of biofuels amid fears they raise food prices and harm the environment, the transport secretary has said. Ruth Kelly said biofuels had potential to cut carbon emissions but there were “increasing questions” about them.  “Uncontrolled” growing of fuel crops could destroy rainforest, she told MPs.

Ms Kelly’s statement comes as the European Parliament is about to vote on whether to scrap the EU’s target of sourcing 10% of transport fuel from biofuels by 2020.

World Bank president Robert Zoellick has also called for reform in rich countries, urging them to grow more food instead.

A panel of government experts, chaired by Professor Ed Gallagher, head of the Renewable Fuels Agency, has looked at the impact of energy policy on land use. Its report calls for biofuels to be introduced more slowly than planned until controls are in place to prevent higher food prices and land being switched from forests or agriculture.

His review says biofuel production should be focused on idle and marginal land and the use of so-called second generation biofuels. These use waste parts of plants for energy to avoid land use change and reduce competition with food production.

Russians wipe out forests with no replacement policy

Jonathan Dimbleby’s BBC ‘Russia’ programme, recording his travels through the vast country of Russia is fascinating. Last night he headed east into Siberia.

Part of this trip showed loggers at work in the huge forests, using their machines to fell the trees. In 2007 ‘Boreal Boris’ and his team felled 750,000 trees from this part of the Tomsk forest. ‘A ferocious destruction,’ according to Professor Kirpotkin.

At a logging camp outside Tomsk ‘Boreal Boris’ explains, ‘I love the forest … but the forest has to be cut.’ But professor of biology Sergey Kirpotkin (beside him) says, ‘We are facing an ecological disaster’.

Siberia constitutes about 20% of the total world forested area and nearly 50% of the total world coniferous-forested areas. The coniferous species are the dominant species throughout Siberia. Pine is the main species in west Siberia and in other regions larch dominates, being the most common tree.

The machines above take just seconds to take out a tree. The men work continuously. Learn more about Russian deforestation.

The Dam Builders versus the Warriors

Picture: AP

Amazon Indians have been squaring up to the mighty corporations and the state in a bid to prevent the construction of a series of hydroelectric dams that are planned for the Xingu River. 

The officials are claiming that the construction plans are part of their sustainable energy drive but in reality it’s difficult to see how concreting, flooding and connecting immense power lines through thousands of miles of forests – forests that everybody in the world must now know are absolutely vital natural resources - can be considered as part of an environmentally-friendly initiative.

The dams will swallow up large areas of the rainforest, they will destroy rare fish species and will ultimately impact the lives and livelihoods of thousands of indigenous people living in the area who depend on the fish, the animals and the clean water of the rivers: 

‘We are indigenous people of the Xingu and we don’t want this dam on the river. We want the fish and the fauna and flora, we want the river to be clean, we want water that feeds us and quenches our thirst. We’re not holding back the country’s progress. We’re defending our rights to life, to our land, and to our way of life.’  Ikpeng people. 

It’s not the first time they’ve fought against such plans.  Rock-singer Sting attracted international condemnation to similar plans back in 1989:

“In 1989, our parents defeated a similar proposal with the help of the international media. Now it is back. But we are ready to fight again. This time we speak their language, and we are more determined than ever,”  Chief Bocaire.

Of course the officials are using emotional language to support their capitalist venture by claiming that it will provide jobs and boost the economy but there are wider implications and the dam-builders and the government ministers are failing to see the bigger picture.  Around 15,000 people will be displaced by these plans and in true warrior spirit, the people have issued a stark warning . . .

“We ask you to tell (president) Lula that we will not accept dams on the Xingu. If they try to build dams, there will be war.”

For more information visit the Xingu River website.

 

 

Prince Charles loves Canopy Capital

Prince Charles has been talking on BBC radio 4 this morning about his desire to reinvigorate the drive to conserve the world’s pristine rainforests. He has said to friends that he wants to make significant progress by the time his 60th birthday arrives on Nov 14th 2008.

The Prince announced the creation of The Prince’s Rainforests Project in Oct 2007, which aims to work with the private sector, governments and environmental experts to find solutions which could be put in place.

“These solutions need to provide credible incentives to rainforest nations, down to the farmers on the ground, and must ‘out-compete’ the drivers of rainforest destruction,” he said.

In his interview this morning he mentioned Canopy Capital. The UK private equity company has recently purchased the rights to environmental services generated by a 371,000-hectare rainforest reserve in Guyana. There is an enlightening article on this by Mongabay.com which also talks about Merrill Lynch’s investment in a rainforest conservation project in the Indonesian province of Aceh, which is worth $9 million over four years (detail here).

In a follow up interview with Canopy Capital and a rainforest charity on radio 4 there was some discussion on how venture capital companies expect to make a profit from their investment. It appears that one way could be via carbon markets, which are still a new market instrument. The rainforest charity representative had his doubts as he believed factoring in the huge value of rainforests as carbon sinks (and therefore carbon credits) would devalue the price of carbon credits on the market overnight, therefore threatening pollution abatement and renewable energy projects.

Meanwhile “Merrill is betting that money it puts in to the Aceh project now will be a source of cheap credits that will become more valuable if forestry becomes part of the post-Kyoto landscape,” writes Wright of The Wall Street Journal. “The success of the deal could also influence how much more money Merrill puts in to forestry. The bank is debating internally about raising a fund of up to $3 billion to protect global forests. A war chest like that could start to make a real impact on deforestation rates.”

Canopy Capital, in exchange for funding a “significant” part of Iwokrama’s $1.2 million research and conservation program on an ongoing basis, have secured the right to develop value for environmental services provided by the reserve. Essentially the financial firm has bet that the services generated by a living rainforest — including rainfall generation, climate regulation, biodiversity maintenance and carbon storage — will eventually be valuable in international markets.

Hylton Murray-Philipson, director of Canopy Capital, says the agreement — which returns 80 percent of the proceeds to the people of Guyana — could set the stage for an era where forest conservation is driven by the pursuit of profit rather than overt altruistic concerns.

This is the new frontier in forest conservation and the Prince of Wales has just decided to put his backing to it. Lets hope he’s right. There is certainly an urgent need to ratchet up the pressure worldwide for huge conservation schemes that work and work in the longer term.

China’s super highway changes SE Asia forever

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The prime ministers of Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam officially opened a former opium smuggling route as the final link of what they call the “north-south economic corridor,” a network of roads linking the southern Chinese city of Kunming to Bangkok spanning 1,800 kilometers, or 1,100 miles. It is also known as Route 3.

The new roads, as well as upgraded ports along the Mekong River, are changing the diets and spending habits of people on both sides of the border. China is selling fruit and green vegetables that favour temperate climates to its southern neighbours and buying tropical fruit, rubber, sugar cane, palm oil and seafood. “You never used to see apples in the traditional markets,” said Ruth Banomyong, an expert in logistics who teaches at Thammasat University in Bangkok.

China has blasted shallow sections of the Mekong to make it more easily navigable for cargo barges, allowing traders to ship apples, pears and lettuce downriver. The price of apples in Thailand has fallen to the equivalent of about 20 cents apiece from more than $1 a decade ago. Roses and other cut flowers from China have displaced flowers flown in from Holland, making Valentine’s Day easier on the wallet for Thais. Traders now have the choice of shipping by barge, truck or both.

Over all, even before the completion of the road, trade between China and upland Southeast Asian countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam) had risen impressively to $53 billion in 2007 from $5.7 billion a decade ago.

Since paving was completed late last year, people who live deep inside the jungle have come to the edge of Route 3 to sell vegetables and forest products, residents say.

image: Laotian food stall

“You have a huge hinterland that’s pretty badly served at the moment, from Kunming down through Laos and northern Thailand,” said John Cooney, director of the Southeast Asia infrastructure division at the Asian Development Bank, which financed one section of the road in Laos. “That suddenly is becoming a market.”

Cash-strapped Laos is encouraging Chinese investment by handing out what it has plenty of: land. Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad has said the government will trade “land for capital.”

The Chinese spent $4 billion building the highway from Kunming to the border. One particularly difficult stretch of road required the construction of 430 bridges and 15 tunnels. With the bridge over the Mekong still in planning stages, passengers must take ferries across the Thai-Laos border.

Some of the most remote parts of SE Asia are being changed forever. As usual, some of this is positive but, other aspects will not be welcome.

Continue reading …

Want to know more about Laos? Highly recommended reading here.