WWF - News from around the world on responsible forestry

Multinationals Vow to Boycott APP after Outcry over Illegal Logging

2012-04-02

From the Guardian: Several multinational companies have vowed to boycott the huge forestry conglomerate, Asia Pulp and Paper, after a public outcry after evidence emerged of illegal logging by APP in Indonesia, that is damaging the habitat of rare animals such as the Sumatran tiger. Pressure has been growing on APP, its suppliers and customers, since the Guardian revealed last month evidence of illegal logging that had resulted in the chopping down of large numbers of a protected tree
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Related news:
* Caught red-handed: protected tree species found at APP pulp mill (Greenpeace, February 29, 2012)
*APP affiliates in U.S., Australia, pledge to drop controversial pulp supplier linked to deforestation (The Mongabay news, March 17, 2012)

Non-Standardised Laws Hinder Sarawak Timber Exporters' Bid to Comply

2012-03-30

From the Sun Daily: KUCHING -The lack of standardised laws pertaining to timber legality in different countries has made it difficult for exporters of the commodity in Sarawak to comply. Sarawak Timber Association (STA) chairman, Datuk Wong Kie Yik today said each consumer country had its own unique laws, to exclude illegal timber products from their respective markets. "These different measures are often unclear and enormously difficult to implement due to different measures and shifting goalposts," he said at the opening of STA's annual general meeting here.
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Interpol Demands Crackdown on 'Serious and Organised' Eco Crime

2012-03-29

From the Guardian: Environmental crime such as ivory poaching and illegal logging has become "a form of serious, organised and often transnational crime", Interpol's executive director of police services told an international law enforcement summit on Thursday. Bernd Rossbach told the Unep- and Interpol-hosted event in Lyon, attended by representatives of 80 countries, that there was increasing evidence that environmental crime was connected to other forms of serious and organised crime.
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Australian Timber Bill endorsed

2012-03-23

From NEPcon: Australia has come considerably closer to adopting a new Timber Act, after a special committee of the Australian Senate has given its full support to the Australian Illegal Logging Prohibition Bill. On 27 February, the committee released a report concluding its review of the amended draft exposure bill. It is now expected that the Bill will be passed into a law that prohibits the import of illegally logged timber products to Australia.
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Related Articles:
* Australian PM rejects logging bill threatens Indonesia relations (Radio Australia, March 06, 2012)
* Forestry Groups Wary of Australian Legislation (Radio New Zealand, March 14, 2012)

Deforestation Rates Double in the Congo Basin: Report

2012-03-20

From CIFOR Forest Blog: DOUALA, Cameroon - Although the level of deforestation in the world’s second-largest tropical forest remains relatively low compared to similar regions in Asia and Latin America, the latest satellite-based monitoring data has revealed that the annual rates of gross deforestation in the Congo Basin have doubled since 1990, according to a new study.
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Just More Red Tape?

2012-03-16

From TTJonline: TRADA Technology principal consultant Elizabeth Turner discusses the impact the EU Timber Regulation will have on timber specification and supply. Forests are used for much more than timber structures and building components. However, the construction industry and the timber supply chain have a key role to play in ensuring that only timber from legal and sustainable sources is used in all their activities.
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Ministry of Forestry Signed off on Clearing of Forest with Protected Species in Indonesia

2012-03-15

From Mongabay News: Indonesia's Ministry of Forestry signed off on a plan by Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) suppliers to log areas of forest that contained protected ramin species, according to documents released by Greenomics-Indonesia, an activist group. The micro-delineation documents, which are required to win approval for forestry projects in Indonesia, confirm that APP suppliers were aware that ramin trees were present in the concessions, which have since been converted to wood-pulp plantations.
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Local Communities in Ghana to Produce Legal Lumber

2012-03-13

From GhanaWeb: Local communities in the country would soon be producing lumber to shore up the volume of legal lumber supply for the domestic market. This would be achieved through the implementation of a project by Tropenbos International (TBI) Ghana, that seeks to link local communities to forest concession holders to produce legal lumber under the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), African Caribbean and Pacific Countries (ACP) and the European Union (EU) Forest Law Enforcement Governance Trade (FLEGT) support program.
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Half of RI’s Major Timber Companies Legally Certified

2012-03-12

From the Jakarta Post: Local timber producers have stepped up their efforts to comply with a government-backed legal verification system, with around half of the firms in the primary timber industry already securing certificates, an official says. Forestry ministry official Boen Purnama said that out of around 500 firms there were 210 comprising producers of timber and wood-based items operating on more than 6,000 hectares of land that were already certified.
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Brazil Delays Vote on Bill Regulating Deforestation

2012-03-06

From CNN News: Sao Paulo - Brazil¹s Congress postponed a vote on Tuesday on a controversial forest code, which has pitted farmers and ranchers against environmentalists. According to state-run Agencia Brasil, the vote was rescheduled for next Tuesday so the government can try to secure support for the current text.
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Cameroon Government Cracks Down on Illegal Logging

2012-03-05

From AlertNet: YAOUNDE, Cameroon – The government of Cameroon has intensified a crackdown on illegal loggers in a measure aimed at conserving the country’s forest resources and combating the effects of climate change.Philip Ngole Ngwese, the country’s minister of forestry and wildlife, recently announced the suspension of licenses for 27 companies that had failed to comply with legislation governing activities in the forest sector.
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Investigation Links APP to Illegal Logging of Protected Trees

2012-03-01

From Mongabay News: A year-long undercover investigation has found evidence of Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) companies cutting and pulping legally protected ramin trees, a practice that violates both Indonesian and international law. Found largely in Sumatra's peatswamp forests, the logging of ramin trees (in the genus Gonystylus) has been banned in Indonesia since 2001; the trees are also listed under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and thus require special permits to export.
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UK Shamed as Appetite for Cheap Timber Sees it Top Sales of Illegal Wood

2012-02-23

From the Ecologist: The £700 million trade is 'one of the best kept secrets', say campaigners, with consumers largely unaware they are buying illegally felled timber. The UK has only one year left to get ready for new EU rules designed to stop the import and sale of illegally logged wood, timber and paper - but is it ready?
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Ghana Delegation Visits Guyana to Learn about Sustainable Forestry Inititative

2012-02-18

From the Caribbean Journal: Seeking to learn more about Guyana’s Chainsaw Milling Project, a sustainable forestry initiative, a team from Ghana recently visited the country to hold talks with Environment Minister Robert Persaud. Guyana’s project, which is funded by the European Union, has led to the development of 62 community forestry organizations with a membership of more than 3,000 people. Their production accounts for approximately 20 percent of the country’s production.
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Amazon Defenders Face Death or Exile

2012-02-12

From the Guardian: A single shot to the temple was Mouth Organ John's reward for spilling the beans. His friend, Junior José Guerra, fared only marginally better. Guerra's prize for speaking out against the illegal loggers laying waste to the greatest tropical rainforest on Earth? A broken home, two petrified children and an uncertain exile from a life he had spent years building in the Brazilian Amazon.
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Tropical Ecologist: Australia must Follow U.S. and EU in Banning Illegally Logged Wood

2012-02-09

From Mongabay: Australia should join the widening effort to stamp out illegal logging, according to testimony given this week by tropical ecologist William Laurance with James Cook University. Presenting before the Australian Senate's rural affairs committee, Laurance argued that the massive environmental and economic costs of illegal logging worldwide should press Australia to tighten regulations against importing illegally logged timber at home.
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Call for Tighter Laws to Halt Illegal Timber Imports

2012-02-06

From The Canberra Times: Australia must tighten laws to stop illegal timber imports and insist on stricter labelling of timber products to track the country of origin, an international tropical forests expert says. James Cook University rainforest ecologist Professor William Laurance has warned ''vague labels such as 'Made in China' are not helpful'' to consumers - and are likely to be misleading - given China's dominant role in the global illegal timber trade.
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Illegal Timber Poaching Threatening Extinction of Rare Trees in Kohistan

2012-01-28

From News Pakistan: Illegal timber poaching in the Kohistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, is now threatening the extinction of some of the rare and beautiful forests in the region. Timber poaching, which rises to its peak in the winters, is often carried out at the auspices of the forest department and the inept and corrupt forest officers who seldom go out to check their jurisdiction.
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'Massacre' of Colombian Forests has to stop: Santos

2012-01-27

From Colombia Reports: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos warned Friday the country had lost 10% of its forest in the last 20 years, reported Radio Caracol. "I've already said it and today I say it again without mincing my words: we cannot continue to allow this environmental massacre," said Santos, pointing out the combined area of forest that had been decimated in the last five years -- 600,000 acres -- equalled the size of Colombia's Atlantico department.
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Indonesia Sets Aside 45% of Forest-Rich Kalimantan to be World’s Lungs

2012-01-25

From CIFOR Forest Blog: BOGOR - Following a moratorium on new logging concessions last year, Indonesia has allocated 45 percent of Kalimantan, the country’s part of Borneo island, to remain as conservation and forested areas and serve as “the lungs of the world.”
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