Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation FOREST NEWS Overcutting in America February 8, 1999 IIASA A 1998 report from the U.S. Forest Service says that Americans harvest about 500 million cubic meters of timber a year and that by the year 2040 this amount could be increased by more than 40%. In contrast, a report from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria concludes that an increase of this magnitude will possible only if Americans are willing to live with a much higher level of environmental damage, or if presently protected areas are cut. If the Forest Service assumptions take place, it would lead to serious deforestation in southern states, such as Georgia and Mississippi. “Both the United States and Canada are urging other countries to manage their forests in a sustainable way, but they do not have their own house in order,” says Stan Nilsson, the author of the IIASA report and one of the world’s leading analysts of forestry data. The problem, he says, is that national data on wood supplies take no account of government commitments to maintain tree cover, protect against erosion and sustain biodiversity in forests. Forestry scientists simply work out how much timber is growing and assume it can all be cut. Nilsson describes the situation in Canada as “desperate.” Official statistics still refer to a 1985 study of timber growth. He believes it now overestimates growth by as much as 40% in some provinces and that the rate of harvesting in Canada is now approaching twice the rate of replanting. Cutting in Amazon Rainforest on the Rise February 12, 1999 MNS After six years of declining cutting of the Amazon rainforest, destruction is on the rise again, Brazilian scientists announced earlier this week. Data from the U.S. National Space Research Institute which monitors changes in rainforest size showed that 6,500 square miles of forest — an area larger than the State of Connecticut — were destroyed during 1998, a substantial increase from 5,100 square miles in 1997. The total devastation is certainly higher, said Thelma Krug who heads the institute's earth observation department. The NSR data measures only the actual clearing of land by loggers, farmers and cattle ranchers. The institute does not count areas destroyed by forest fires. Last year a massive unchecked fire ravaged more than 4,200 square miles of grasslands and wooded areas. Over the last twenty years, Brazil's Amazon rainforest has shrunk by over 205,000 square miles — more than 10% of its original size. Most climatologists believe the destruction of the world's largest wilderness will reduce carbon absorption and accelerate the impact of global warming. Landsat satellite images taken during 1997 showed that about half of the destroyed area was primary forest, while the rest was mostly savanna or forest edge areas that already had been partially cleared, Krug said. The latest numbers show some improvement from 1995, when forest destruction hit a single-year record of 11,220 square miles. The low was 4,300 square miles in 1991, because of a recession which slowed the economy. The increase in forest destruction, said environmentalists, indicates that new legislation and repression just isn't working. 'Despite all of the rhetoric, the government has failed in combating deforestation,'' said a spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund in Brasilia. ''What we need is a comprehensive plan for forest management. We don’t have an all embracing plan for forest areas, and we need one.'' ________________________________________________ Do you have news you would us to post_ Please send forest news to: Thank you.