[ As I have done in the past, I am relaying this bulletin from Glen Barry
concerning the global threat to forests to the NATIVE-L mailing list
(which is linked with Usenet's "soc.culture.native" and "alt.native,"
as well as electronic conferences on the APC systems), because of the
strong relationship between this issue and threats to the habitat and
way of life of the indigenous peoples who live in these areas and due
to the fact that threats to the forests and to biodiversity are threats
to us all, and violate the principle of sustainability, which is contrary
the the outlook of indigenous peoples who have achieved and sustained a
fairly harmonious relationship with their natural surroundings over a
period of thousands of years. --Gary (gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us) ]
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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
US, Canada & Brazil Thwart Global Forest Plan
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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
http://forests.org/
11/13/96
OVERVIEW & SOURCE by EE
In a shocking display of obstructionism, the US, Canada and Brazil
used their clout at the Third Conference of the Parties to the
Convention on Biodiversity to delay global action on forests for
another 18 months. It is critical that world governments turn the
corner, and acknowledge that the world's forests are uniformly in
decline, and begin to develop remedial policies. Failure to do so
immediately significantly decreases the amount of forests and
biological resources that will be available to meet future needs for
forest products, continued provision of forest ecosystem functions and
the amount of biological materials available for eventual forest
restoration activities. What remains of native virgin old growth and
other significant second growth must be put off limits to industrial
forestry practices. Mixed species plantations and massive forest
landscape restoration must begin. The blocking of action to begin to
address forest decline is irresponsible and a disservice to humanity.
g.b.
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
US, Canada, Brazil thwart global forest plan - WWF
11/12/96
Copyright 1996 by Reuters
BUENOS AIRES (Reuter) - The United States, Canada and Brazil have
blocked agreement on a plan to protect the world's forests at a nature
conservation conference in Argentina, environmentalists said Tuesday.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said that at a late Monday night
session of the Third Conference of the Parties to the Convention on
Biodiversity, delegates from those countries used their clout to
silence critics and negotiate a delay in forest action for another 18
months.
"There will not be a full work program until at least May 1998, when
the Conference of the Parties meets again," Steve Howard, WWF forest
conservation officer, told Reuters.
"In that time there will be about 110 million acres of forest lost.
The research hasn't been done to even say how many species we'll lose.
We don't know the scale of the problem we're facing."
WWF said this was equivalent to one and a half times the total forest
cover of Argentina. It said the rate of deforestation of some of the
world's key eco-systems has been estimated to have increased by more
than one third since 1992.
The four-year-old Convention on Biodiversity, aimed at protecting the
diversity of ecosystems and species, has been ratified by 162
countries but not the United States.
WWF said the conference Monday night also failed to agree on a
priority list of research activities on forests proposed by the
convention's own scientific advisory group.
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Email (best way to contact)-> grbarry@students.wisc.edu