Indonesia court refuses to rule on peat swamp case

An Indonesian court has thrown out a lawsuit concerning the development of peat swamp forests that was brought by conservationists who fear for the fate of orangutans

The Associated Press in Times-Standard | April 3, 2012

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Shell in court over Nigeria oil spill compensation

Lawyers representing a Nigerian fishing community are taking the oil firm Shell to court in London over alleged unpaid compensation for recent oil spills

BBC News | 23 March 2012

Ogoni people say their land has been devastated by pollution from the oil industry over many years

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Biopiracy: Depriving indigenous rights

The issue of biopiracy, commercially exploiting naturally occurring biochemical or genetic material, has once again become a talking point following the recent arrest of a group of foreign ‘bio pirates’ in Kalpitiya

by  Sandun Jayawardana | The Nation | 11 March 2012

Confiscated samples

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Indonesia investigates rainforest agreement breaches

Authorities in Indonesia are investigating what could be a violation of the forestry agreement held with Norway, reports say

by Michael Sandelson and Lyndsey Smith | The Foreigner | 29th February, 2012

Rainforest. Photo: tauntingpanda/Flickr

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BP reaches $7.8 billion deal over Gulf of Mexico spill

BP Plc has reached an estimated $7.8 billion deal with plaintiffs suing over the massive 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the company said on Friday, but the oil giant still faces claims by the U.S. government, Gulf states and drilling partners

By Andrew Longstreth | Reuters | Mar 3, 2012

Fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon, off Louisiana, in this April 21, 2010 file handout image. Credit: Reuters/U.S. Coast Guard/Files/Handout

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CIFOR, UNODC Examine Measures to Control Illegal Logging in Indonesia

The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have released a working paper titled "Lessons for REDD+ from Measures to Control Illegal Logging in Indonesia," which examines the illegal logging context, including drivers, government regulations and moratoria, plantation development, certification options, and forest law enforcement and governance in Indonesia

Climate Change Policy & Practice | January 2012

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Metal tissue holders contain radioactivity

12 metal tissue box holders containing low levels of cobalt-60 radioactivity were removed from four store

United Press International in Disasater News Network | January 13, 2012

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Fighting for a Less Corrupt New Year

After failing to muster support in parliament for the passage of a watered- down anti-corruption bill, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh must find ways to satisfy opposition parties, allies and civil society that his United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is serious about curbing graft in the New Year

By Ranjit Devraj | Inter-Press Service | Jan 1, 2012

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International airlines will be charged for carbon emissions, EU court rules

All airlines flying to and from EU airports will buy permits under the Europe's emissions trading scheme, from 1 January 2012

Reuters in guardian.co.uk | 21 December 2011

The European court of justice has ruled that all airlines flying to and from the EU will buy carbon permits. Photograph: Corbis

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Montara oil spill victims still awaiting promised compensation

East Nusatenggara (NTT) fishermen who lost their livelihoods by the Montara oil spill in 2009 are still waiting for the promised compensations, two years after the disaster

by Fardah | ANTARA | December 19 2011

Montara Block. (guardian.co.uk)

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The other side of the Penan story: threatened tribe embraces tourism, reforestation

News about the Penan people is usually bleak. Once nomadic hunter-gatherers of the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo, the indigenous Penan have suffered decades of widespread destruction of their forests and an erosion of their traditional culture. Logging companies, plantation developments, massive dams, and an ambivalent government have all played a role in decimating the Penan, who have from time-to-time stood up to loggers through blockades, but have not been successful in securing recognition of legal rights to their traditional lands

Jeremy Hance | mongabay.com | December 19, 2011

Traveling on the Kerong River with the Penan. Photo courtesy of Gavin Bate.

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Indonesia Passes Land Acquisition Bill

Indonesia’s House of Representatives on Friday approved a long-awaited land acquisition bill investors hope will give a big boost to government infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia’s top economy

Jakarta Globe | December 16, 2011

Indonesian members of parliament approved the final draft of a long-awaited land bill on Wednesday that investors hope will speed up land acquisition for government infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. (Antara Photo)

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Corruption undermining land access, development

FAO and Transparency International release working paper, call for improved governance

FAO Media Center | 12 December 2011

Secure access to land fosters sustainable development.

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World Bank’s Benoit Bosquet on REDD: “It’s probably good to take the time to get things right”

The “ultimate goal is to jump-start a forest carbon market”, the World Bank announced in 2007, at the launch of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facitily. A “jump-start” is a way of starting a car with a flat battery. After four years of trying, perhaps it’s time to accept the fact that there’s no point jump-starting the forest carbon car when the wheels have fallen off

By Chris Lang | REDD-Monitor | 9th November 2011

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Keeping carbon criminals out of the forests

The REDD+ lobby would do well to learn the lessons of the Uganda land grab and build transparency, anti-corruption measures, conflict resolution into the system from the start, says Davyth Stewart from Global Witness

Davyth Stewart | Environmental Finance | 4 October 2011

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Europe Acts to Ensure Its Imported Timber Is Legal

Huge meranti tree trunks, many of them destined for faraway shores, are piled high along the road in this town about a two-hour drive northeast of Kuala Lumpur, awaiting their date with the saw

By LIZ GOOCH | The New York Times | April 9, 2010

Tree trunks at the Maran Road Sawmill in Malaysia that have been labeled to show the areas in which they were harvested. Palani Mohan for the International Herald Tribune

Steps away, inside the Maran Road Sawmill, workers nimbly slice lengths of timber into thinner strips, adding to the blanket of ochre dust beneath them.

All the logs have numbers scrawled on their ends, indicating the area they came from and the sawmill’s license number — assuring buyers that the wood was harvested legally and could be traced to its source.

As band saws droned on a recent Friday, the mill director, Ng Kay Yip, ushered a potential customer from the Netherlands around the facility, explaining how the trees had been harvested and showing him the nearby factory, where the timber was planed into semifinished pieces for windows and doors.

Europe is already an important export market for the company, but Mr. Ng and others in the timber industry here are hoping that even more buyers from Europe will soon knock on their doors. Malaysia is working to become the first country in Asia to sign a voluntary agreement with the European Union guaranteeing that all timber exports to the area have been harvested legally.

The European Union says the agreement is likely to give Malaysia and other countries that sign similar pacts a competitive advantage as the bloc pushes for tighter regulation of timber imports because of environmental concerns. Last year, countries in the 27-member union imported wood, wood charcoal and cork worth 8.5 billion euros ($11.3 billion) — 4.6 percent of it from Malaysia.

Uncontrolled logging can destroy animal habitats, cause erosion and increase the risk of natural disasters like floods and landslides, contribute to deforestation and climate change, and deprive governments of tax revenue. A report by the World Wide Fund for Nature estimated that illegally harvested timber accounted for as much as 19 percent of the European Union’s wood imports in 2006, with Russia and Indonesia the main culprits.

The European Union has no regionwide law preventing the importation of illegally logged wood products, although in response to consumer demand, some companies voluntarily buy timber from sources certified by various groups as sustainable. The union is considering legislation that would require all importers in the bloc — from furniture makers to those buying raw materials like boards — to conduct due diligence to show that the timber had been legally harvested.

Companies importing from countries that have signed a voluntary partnership agreement, like the one being negotiated with Malaysia, would be given a “green lane” for entry into European markets and would be exempt from further checks. “There’s no doubt that this will create an advantage for the timber traders on the E.U. market,” said Vincent Piket, head of the European Union’s delegation to Malaysia.

Under its Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade action plan, the European Union has already signed agreements with Ghana, the Republic of Congo and Cameroon. In addition to Malaysia, negotiations are under way with Indonesia, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon and Liberia. The union has not begun negotiations on an agreement with China — the biggest exporter of timber to Europe — but the two sides signed a cooperation pact last year that was intended to reduce unlawful logging and trade in illegal timber.

Under the voluntary partnership deals, source countries are responsible for determining that the timber has been harvested according to their national laws and the criteria in the European agreements. While the agreements may vary among countries, requirements typically include that trees not be cut from protected forests, that endangered species of trees not be logged and that companies comply with trade and customs regulations.

A third-party monitor, like an independent auditing company, would conduct spot checks to ensure compliance.

Whether such agreements will significantly decrease illegal logging, however, remains to be seen.

“It’s a very positive step, the idea of introducing these structural changes by requiring companies to use control systems, but we believe that it’s not enough,” Sébastien Risso,Greenpeace’s European Union forest policy director, said by telephone from Brussels.

E.U. companies should be compelled to show a product’s complete chain of custody, he said, documenting its journey from the forest to its final destination.

Rupert Oliver, director of Forest Industries Intelligence, a British consulting firm, said the proposed legislation could result in the sale of illegal timber to other countries that lack strict rules on timber imports, like China and India.

“It doesn’t really get to the root cause of the problem,” he said. “It shifts the problem elsewhere.”

Mr. Oliver added that the proposed legislation was not as tough as the United States law known as the Lacey Act, under which companies can be criminally prosecuted for importing illegal timber. The draft European Union law does not stipulate the level of penalties to be imposed on those involved in importing illegal timber, leaving it to the member states to determine the penalties.

Ivy Wong Abdullah, forest conservation senior manager at WWF Malaysia, said that no statistics were available on the extent of illegal logging in Malaysia but that “sporadic instances” were still being detected. She said that while Malaysia had strong laws against illegal logging, “there’s a need for more enforcement personnel on the ground.”

Malaysia’s timber industry already has several voluntary programs for certifying that timber is legally and sustainably harvested, with sawmills and other businesses participating to make their products more appealing to buyers concerned about environmental issues. Once the pact with the European Union is signed, all timber companies will be compelled to comply with the criteria.

Europe is Malaysia’s second-largest timber export market after Japan, with 2.67 billion ringgit ($834 million) in sales of timber and timber products in 2009. Furniture, sawn timber, moldings, plywood, doors and flooring materials are among the main exports. Meranti, the timber at the Temerloh mill, is an important hardwood that grows in the tropical forests of Asia and is used in light construction and veneers

Jalaluddin Harun, director general of the Malaysian Timber Industry Board, said Malaysia was committed to fighting illegal logging and had decided to pursue the agreement with Europe to ensure that timber traders continued to have unhindered access to European buyers.

“We want to ensure that our timber continues to be exported without having to be re-evaluated,” he said. “In Malaysia we would like to have the image of selling or trading in legal timber.”

Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

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SBY rebukes Cabinet for slow anti-logging drive

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed his disappointment at his Cabinet on Monday for failing to update him on current illegal logging activities

The Jakarta Post | April 6, 2010

"Unlike in the past, I haven't been updated on anti-illegal logging operations," Yudhoyono said during a Cabinet meeting at his office.

He said that a recent flurry of landslides and floods in some regions in the country were caused by the degradation of forests, and then urged his subordinates to commit to continue anti-logging activities despite a lack of recent media coverage of the issue.

"The police should mobilize more of its personnel. I want reports on the condition of our forests in each province," he said.

The President also called for joint action in intensifying nationwide reforestation efforts. "Make environmental NGOs our partners," he said.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved

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Six-million-dollar fine for destroying Amazon rainforest

A farmer in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso was fined 6.15 million dollars for destroying 2,234 hectares of the Amazon rainforest, Brazilian authorities said Monday

Earth Times | 05 Apr 2010

Sources at the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Human Resources (IBAMA) told the news website G1 that the deforestation happened near the town of Nova Ubirata, some 500 kilometres from Mato Grosso capital Cuiaba, and in an area close to the indigenous and nature reserve of the Xingu National Park.

The massive fine on the farmer, whose name was not made public, was the result of an IBAMA operation in Mato Grosso last week. The area lies within the so-called "Arco de Fogo," arch of fire, where setting fires to destroy the rainforest is frequent.

Around 545,000 cubic metres of wood were confiscated in the operation, amidst suspicions that it came from illegal felling.

Five other firms were also fined for allegedly trading in ill- obtained forestry products, for a total of about 550 million dollars.

Copyright DPA

© 2010 www.earthtimes.org, The Earth Times, All Rights Reserved

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PERU: The Tangled Paths of New Forest Law

Indigenous protests prompted the introduction of a new legislative bill on forests and wildlife in Peru, the second most forested country in South America. Experts consulted by Tierramérica pointed to what the initiative gets right, but also to what's wrong with it

By Milagros Salazar* | Tierramérica in Inter-Press Service | Apr 1, 2010

The open wounds of the Amazon. Credit:Rolly Valdivia/IPS

The bill proposes a land registry to identify the zones with forest resources, which would help prevent disputes related to different economic activities, according to the experts.

"This is an advance because decisions about what to do with the forests can't be made if we don't know where they are," José Luis Capella, of the non-governmental Peruvian Society for Environmental Law, told Tierramérica. This gap in knowledge reveals a major problem, given that nearly 60 percent of Peruvian territory is suitable for forest.

However, Sandro Chávez, president of the Ecological Forum, warns that the initiative lacks a mechanism to ensure legal security for ancestral lands. "That must be a prior guarantee so that third parties do not impose their plans," he said.

The text, according to Chávez, does not clear up the communities' doubts about the expansion of agriculture that is occurring to provide inputs for biofuels, or the mining and fossil fuel projects in the Peruvian Amazon region.

The number of petroleum lots approved in the area jumped from 30 in the year 2000 to 151 in 2006, covering 89 percent of the country's Amazon region with exploration projects, according to official data.

Chávez told Tierramérica that the incorporation of communal land ownership into the proposed law came from an agreement between officials and indigenous groups. That dialogue was initiated by the Alan García government following the deaths of more than 33 people, including Indians and police officers, in protests in the northern province of Bagua last June.

The government set up taskforces, including one dedicated to overturning legislative decree 1.090, which modified the old forestry law and left 60 percent of primary forest unprotected.

The former national forest director Gustavo Suárez de Freitas, who participated as a representative of the Agriculture Ministry in the dialogue, committed to incorporating the issue in the bill and is now a consultant to the technical secretariat that is drafting the initiative.

Suárez de Freitas told Tierramérica that in Article 61 of the bill it is made clear that the "government will not submit a forest law about the lands of the communities, it is about forests."

In Peru, forests are only granted in concession for use, not property. The forests are considered part of the national wealth. Suárez de Freitas believes that creating a legal mechanism implies "a change."

The Ecological Forum responded that the indigenous peoples call for prior approval of a law on use rights that provides them with greater security over their lands, and regulation of territory and community ownership.

There are currently more than 1,200 native communities, but there are many more that have not been recognised.

In contrast, Capella noted that the initiative improves institutions by creating the Forest Service, a technical body under the Ministry of Agriculture, and encourages the participation of civil society and the private sector by upholding the creation of the National Forest Commission.

However, he admitted that it is one thing to have the law on paper, and yet another "to guarantee mechanisms that work." One example is the transfer of forest management powers to the regional governments, which are often not provided with the resources to complete that work.

Chávez, meanwhile, warned that the bill opens up some cracks in controlling the illegal exploitation of the forests and changes in land use.

He questions the exclusion of a proposal for stiffer requirements for those transporting forest products. As it stands, almost any documentation is acceptable.

He also criticises the lack of a ban on forest products that are endangered or a system for tracking timber taken from the forest, which would help prove irregularities ranging from the logging to the export of the lumber.

The initiative states that the lands suitable for forest or under protection cannot be approved for agricultural purposes, but just a few lines further on, it refers to a provision of land classification for its "capacity of greater use." Indigenous groups want that overturned because it would allow changing land use for extractive industries or infrastructure, said Chávez, underscoring the contradiction.

The experts and NGOs will be able to send their comments on the bill up to Apr. 9. Afterwards, the Executive branch will approve a final version to be presented to Congress for a vote.

(*This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.)

Copyright © 2010 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved.

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Japan charges New Zealand whaling activist Pete Bethune

A New Zealand anti-whaling activist who boarded a Japanese harpoon ship is facing five charges, including trespass and causing injury

BBC News | 2 April 2010

Sea Shepherd said Mr Bethune was now a "political prisoner"

Pete Bethune, of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, boarded the Shonan Maru 2 in February, and tried to make a citizen's arrest of its captain.

The incident happened as Sea Shepherd activists attempted to disrupt Japan's annual whale hunt in Antarctic waters.

If found guilty, Mr Bethune could face up to 15 years in prison.

Mr Bethune had been in command of Sea Shepherd's hi-tech speedboat the Ady Gil when it was sliced in two in a collision with the Shonan Maru 2 in January. All six crew members escaped unharmed.

On 15 February, Mr Bethune boarded the Shonan Maru, saying he wanted to arrest its captain, Hiroyuki Komiya, and present him with a bill for the damage.

He was detained on the ship and taken to Japan, where he was formally arrested for trespass earlier this month.

Mr Bethune has now also been charged by Japan's coastguard with assault, possession of a knife, destroying property and obstructing business.

Charges 'bogus'

The crew of the Shonan Maru said the activists had tried to tangle a rope in their propeller and had thrown butyric acid at the ship, injuring a sailor.

Culture clash over whaling

Whale of a dilemma

But Sea Shepherd has denied any of its activists caused injury and said the substance thrown was harmless, if unpleasant, rancid butter.

The Ady Gil incident was one of several clashes between Japan's whaling fleet and Sea Shepherd activists in the Southern Ocean during the hunt season.

The group has described Mr Bethune as a "political prisoner" and says the charges against him are bogus.

"Shame on Japan for blowing Captain Bethune's case out of proportion, and shame on Japanese maritime authorities for failing to investigate the serious criminal actions of the Shonan Maru 2," it said in a statement.

It also accused New Zealand of being "surprisingly quiet" on the arrest.

The charges come a day after New Zealand's representative on the International Whaling Commission said countries should be allowed to kill a limited number of whales.

Sir Geoffrey Palmer said attempts to reach a global deal on whaling would fail unless nations could compromise.

Japan abandoned commercial whaling in 1986 after agreeing to a global moratorium - but international rules allow it to continue hunting under the auspices of a research programme.

It says the annual hunt catches mostly minke whales, which are not an endangered species.

Conservationists say the whaling is a cover for the sale and consumption of whale meat.

© MMX

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