Deforestation
Did You Know...
Every second of every day, an area of rainforest the size of Croke Park football field is chopped down. That's 86,400 Croke Park pitches of rainforest per day, or over 31 million Croke Park pitches of rainforest lost each year. FOREST FACTS from UNEP
Picture of Irelands National Gaelic Games stadium courtesy of © SportsFile
Consider this.. If I hire a couple of blokes with automatic weapons, break into a garden center in Dublin, and take, at gun-point, fifty prize roses, I have committed a crime. If I drive those roses to Belfast and sell them to 'Don't Care DIY Store', 'Don't Care' doesn't own them, and if it sells them suspecting I stole them, 'Don't Care DIY Store' has also committed a crime.
If a logging contractor does the same thing in Tanzania, or the Amazon, and gets the wood to Ireland, they're home free. Same thing if they sell the logs in China and the mahogany, teak or bintangor, ends up in furniture in the 'Furniture Heaven Shop' in Tullamore or plywood in 'McCarenot Timber Supplies' in Bray. Illegal trade is one of the huge stories being ignored by industry, politicians, many governments and the mainstream media. More than half of all tropical deforestation is estimated to be the result of illegal logging, and *deforestation is causing 20% of total global CO2 emissions.
(*Deforestation-Emissions from deforestation are very significant globally. Independent estimates of the annual emissions from deforestation are put at more than 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions, greater than that produced by the whole of the global transport sector. These emissions could potentially be cut significantly fairly quickly – no new technology has to be developed – although considerable challenges have to be addressed, as discussed below. (Extract from chapter 25 of the STERN Review-The Economics of Climate Change)
Without forests, we lose the fight against poverty and climate change.
Illegal logging and the international trade in illegally logged timber is a major problem for many timber-producing countries in the developing world. It causes environmental damage, costs governments billions of dollars in lost revenue, promotes corruption, undermines the rule of law and good governance and funds armed conflict. It retards sustainable development in some of the poorest countries of the world. Consumer countries like Ireland contribute to these problems by importing timber and wood products without ensuring that they are legally sourced. While in recent years, producer and consumer countries alike have paid increasing attention to illegal logging the problem is still widespread.Throughout the world, ancient forests are in crisis. Many of the plants and animals that live in these forests face extinction. Many of the peoples and cultures who depend on these forests for their way of life are under threat.
Just Forests calls on the Irish Government to adopt a 'Public Timber Procurement Policy' that gives preference to timber and wood-based products from forests managed to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards.
PRESS RELEASE February 2008
PRESS RELEASE May 2008
The failure of Ireland to do anything proactively on illegal logging and a lack of awareness lands them at the bottom of the league. Click for More » |
Tullamore Town Council increases its ‘carbon footprint. Click for More » |
The water crisis - The World's forests and Fresh water. |
Carving up the forests of the Congo Irish timber traders import timber from the Congo. Click for more » |
Fuelwood is very important in the lives of people in developing countries. Click for more » |
Ireland's construction companies are using illegally-logged timber. Click for more » |
A new feature-length documentary following the incredible events in the wake of Sister Dorothy Stang's murder in Brazil premieres March 9 and 10 at the 2008 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas. Click here to see film. |
As the International Climate Change talks in Bali conclude, Stop Climate Chaos petition signatures joined millions of citizens around the globe. Click for more » |
March 27, 2008.... The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) launch their State of the World's Forest Report 2007.... click here for more |
| The following line from an early Irish poem lamenting the destruction of Ireland's forests could very well apply to many countries today where forests and wildlife are threatened: |
"Cad a dheanfaimid feasta gan adhmad, ta deire na gcoilte air lar"
|
Unilever, the makers of Dove beauty products, are buying palm oil from suppliers who destroy Indonesia's rainforests. We've got the proof. They're causing forest destruction, species extinction and climate change. Together we can make the company stop destroying forests for palm oil. Join the international Dove campaign today - sign the open letter on the Greenpeace website. Stop DOVE from destroying rainforest |
Monday 20th October 2008. A new report 'UNDERCUTTING AFRICA', from Friends of the Earth-UK spells out how new EU trade laws will devestate African forests and increase poverty
June 25th 2008. Report from Uganda on linkages between forests and poverty
