wild places | wild happenings | wild news
make a difference for our wild places

home | links | search the site
  all articles latest | past | articles by topics | search wildnews
wild news on wildsingapore
  UNEP 6 Feb 07
Globalization & Great Apes: Illegal Logging Destroying Last Strongholds of Orangutans in National Parks

PlanetArk 7 Feb 07
Illegal Logging Hits Asian Forests, Orangutans - UN
Story by Daniel Wallis

BBC 7 Feb 07
Orangutans 'face greater threat'

Yahoo News 6 Feb 07
Illegal logging threatens endangered orangutans: UN
by Karen Calabria

NAIROBI (AFP) - Illegal logging by international companies could lead to a 98 percent loss of South East Asia's tropical rainforests by 2022, threatening the habitat of tens of thousands of endangered orangutans, the United Nations warned.

To supply a growing global demand for timber and biofuels like palm oil, illegal loggers have begun to raid Indonesia's national parks, resulting in a devastating loss of biodiversity for both local and animal populations, a report by the Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme (UNEP) found.

"This is a stark reminder of what we're talking about when we're looking at the degradation of natural resources in the context of globalisation," UNEP chief Achim Steiner told reporters on the sidelines of a UN environment meeting in the Kenyan capital on Tuesday.

"The pressure from the global market base is leading the illegal logging industry into national parks," he said.

The report entitled "The last stand of the orangutan: State of emergency" found that more than 73 percent of all logging in Indonesia is illegal and traces of the illicit timber trade have been found in 37 of the country's 41 national parks, the last remaining habitats of Bornean and Sumatran orangutans.

Up to 98 percent of the country's tropical rainforests could be destroyed by 2022 if the appetite for timber continues unabated, the report said. Urgent action is needed to counter the effects of illegal logging, which the report found to be the work of large multinational corporations as opposed to impoverished local populations, or the results could be felt soon.

"At the current rate of intrusion, some of these parks may be severely degraded in three to five years," Christian Nelleman, lead author of the report, told journalists.

Current estimates put the number of Bornean orangutans between 45,000 to 69,000 while only 7,300 Sumatran organutans remain in the wild, signifying a marked 91 percent decrease in population since the beginning of the 20th century, the report said.

"Orangutan populations are seriously affected when their forest is destroyed or logged, not least because they are often killed for meat or to protect newly planted crops," it said.

Other orangutans are often swiped from their habitats while logging occurs and smuggled illegally out of the country -- often on the same boats that are transporting illicit timber.

"The trade in orangutans is largely a by-product of the timber trade.... Orangutans have nowhere else to go and only a fraction, around a thousand, end up in rescue and rehabilitation centers," Melanie Virtue of the Great Apes Survival Project told AFP.

Although efforts are in place to monitor the illegal logging trade in Indonesia, such as the formation of specially trained ranger units and military operations, the government has few resources to work with as they attempt to cover vast areas.

"The challenge of policing and enforcing Indonesia's vast parks is immense and rangers have currently little access to ground vehicles, boats, arms, communications or aerial surveillance such as planes or helicopters," said Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar.

Environmentalists are therefore calling for change to start at the consumer level and encouraging governments to introduce certification programmes ensuring that the timber was logged in an environmentally sustainable way.

"We are very very serious (in our efforts to reduce illegal logging) but I don't think we can do anymore than we have done," Witoelar said. "But we can appeal to the conscience of the whole world... to stop buying uncertified wood," he added.

PlanetArk 7 Feb 07
Illegal Logging Hits Asian Forests, Orangutans - UN
Story by Daniel Wallis

KENYA: February 7, 2007 NAIROBI - Rampant illegal logging is destroying the tropical forests of Southeast Asia far quicker than had been feared, with dire impact on endangered orangutans and other wildlife, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Without urgent action, 98 percent of remaining forests on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo could be gone by 2022, with serious consequences for local people and wildlife including rhinos, tigers and elephants, the UN report said.

"The situation is now acute for the orangutans," said the report by UN Environment Programme (UNEP) experts. "The rapid rate of removal of food trees, killing of orangutans displaced by logging and plantation development, and fragmentation of remaining intact forest, constitutes a conservation emergency."

The world body blamed a shadowy network of multinational firms for increasingly targeting Indonesian national parks as one of the few remaining sources of commercial timber supplies.

Indonesia made a plea for Western consumers to reject smuggled timber.

"We are appealing today to the conscience of the whole world: do not buy uncertified wood," Rachmat Witoelar, Indonesia's environment minister, said on the fringes of a major UN environment meeting in Kenya.

He said illegal logging was ravaging 37 of his country's 41 national parks, and now accounted for more than 73 percent of all logging in Indonesia.

"It is not being done by individual impoverished people, but by well-organised elusive commercial networks," said Achim Steiner, head of the UNEP.

DWINDLING HABITAT

Indonesia's government has deployed the military on at least three occasions in recent years to confiscate timber and chase loggers out of its parks -- and has begun training quick response ranger teams to police protected areas.

But experts say the new units remain crippled by a lack of funds, vehicles, weapons and equipment, and face a huge threat from ruthless loggers, who are often protected by heavily armed militia commanded by foreign mercenaries.

Combined with forest fires, encroachment by farmers on their dwindling habitat and poaching, illegal logging is having a devastating impact on orangutans, which once numbered in the hundreds of thousands across Southeast Asia.

The UN report, which was compiled using new satellite images and Indonesian government data, said orangutan habitat was being lost 30 percent quicker than was previously feared. It was estimated in 2002 that there were about 60,000 of the shaggy ginger primates left in the jungles of Borneo and Sumatra.

Some ecologists say the number has now been halved and others say the species could be extinct in 20 years.

A month ago, the European Union and Indonesia agreed to negotiate a pact aimed at ending illegal logging by providing guarantees forest products imported to the EU are verified as legal.

The EU is the third largest market for Indonesian timber after China and the United States. Washington and Indonesia signed a similar pact last year.

But experts say the amount of investment in the logging companies from the industrialised world vastly outstrips donor efforts to help Jakarta combat the illegal practice.

BBC 7 Feb 07
Orangutans 'face greater threat'

Illegal logging is destroying forests in South-East Asia quicker than had been feared, with dire implications for orangutans, a UN report has said. The practice threatens many other species in the region, the United Nations Environment Programme says.

If no action is taken, the report says, 98% of forests on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo may be gone by 2022. This would have serious consequences for local people and wildlife including rhinos, tigers and elephants.

"The situation is now acute for the orangutans," the authors wrote. "The rapid rate of removal of food trees, killing of orangutans displaced by logging and plantation development, and fragmentation of remaining intact forest, constitutes a conservation emergency."

The rate of loss has accelerated in the past five years. The present projection of 2022 for the disappearance of most suitable orangutan habitat outstrips a Unep report which came up with an estimate of 2032.

'Smuggled timber'

Unep blamed a shadowy network of multinational firms for increasingly targeting Indonesian national parks as one of the few remaining sources of commercial timber supplies. Indonesia made a plea for Western consumers to reject smuggled timber.

"We are appealing today to the conscience of the whole world: do not buy uncertified wood," said Rachmat Witoelar, Indonesia's environment minister.

He said illegal logging was ravaging 37 of his country's 41 national parks, and now accounted for more than 73% of all logging in Indonesia.

"It is not being done by individual impoverished people, but by well-organised elusive commercial networks," said Achim Steiner, head of Unep. Indonesia's government has deployed its military on at least three occasions in recent years to confiscate timber and chase loggers out of its parks - and has begun training quick response ranger teams to police protected areas.

Habitat loss

But experts say the new units remain crippled by a lack of funds, vehicles, weapons and equipment, and face a huge threat from ruthless loggers, who are often protected by heavily armed militia commanded by foreign mercenaries.

Combined with forest fires, encroachment by farmers on their dwindling habitat and poaching, illegal logging is having a devastating impact on orangutans, which once numbered hundreds of thousands across South-East Asia.

The UN report, compiled using new satellite images and Indonesian government data, said orangutan habitat was being lost 30% quicker than was previously feared.

It was estimated in 2002 that there were about 60,000 of the primates left in the jungles of Borneo and Sumatra. Some ecologists say the number has now been halved.

A month ago, the European Union and Indonesia agreed to negotiate a pact aimed at ending illegal logging by providing guarantees forest products imported to the EU are verified as legal.

The EU is the third largest market for Indonesian timber after China and the US. The US and Indonesia signed a similar pact last year.

But experts say the amount of investment in the logging companies from the industrialised world vastly outstrips donor efforts to help Jakarta combat the illegal practice.

UNEP 6 Feb 07
Globalization & Great Apes: Illegal Logging Destroying Last Strongholds of Orangutans in National Parks

24th Session of UNEP's Governing Council / Global Ministerial Environment Forum 5-9 February 2007

Nairobi, 6th February 2007-- The tropical forests of South East Asia, important for local livelihoods and the last home of the orangutan are disappearing far faster than experts have previously supposed according to a new Rapid Response report from The UN Environment Programme.

The report says that natural rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo are being cleared so rapidly that up to 98% may be destroyed by 2022 without urgent action.

The rate of loss, which has accelerated in the past five years, outstrips a previous UNEP report released in 2002 at the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD). Then, experts estimated that most of the suitable orangutan habitat would be lost by 2032.

The illegal logging, driven by global demands, accounts for tens of millions of cubic metres annually and an estimated more than 73% of all logging in Indonesia. Approximately 20% of the logs are smuggled directly out of Indonesia, the remaining is used to support an extensive international and local wood industry, and then exported to the international markets by well-organized, but elusive commercial networks.

New satellite imagery reveals that the illegal logging is now entering a new critical phase: As the demands grow, the industry and international market are running out of cheap illegal timber and are now entering the national parks where the only remaining timber available in commercial amounts is found.

Satellite images confirm, together with data from the Indonesian Government, that illegal logging is now taking place in 37 out of 41 national parks, and likely growing.

"At current rates of intrusions, it is likely that some parks may become severely degraded in as little as three to five years, that is by 2012", says the new study 'The last stand of the orangutan: State of emergency.'

Overall the report is concluding that loss of orangutan habitat is happening at a rate up to 30% higher than previously thought.

The report, compiled by a wide range of experts, is being launched at UNEP's 24th Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum.

Here, close to 100 environmental ministers and state secretaries are meeting under the theme of globalization--environmental risks and opportunities Indonesia is active in fighting illegal logging and has worked with a series of international programmes and initiatives to reduce the logging.

However, says the report, while many of these initiatives are valuable, they require the assistance of the international community to stop the demands for illegal timber, and they are also mainly long/term in effect.

In response, the Indonesian government has on several occasions in recent years directly used support from the Navy and Army to arrest, confiscate timber and drive companies out of the parks.

Recently, the Indonesian government has launched perhaps one of the most promising initiatives in recent years, namely the training of specially equipped ranger units (SPORC) to protect the parks.

Achim Steiner, UN Under Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said: "Globalization is generating unprecedented wealth and lifting millions out of poverty. But in this case, the illegal logging is destroying the livelihoods of many local people dependent upon the forests while it is also draining the natural wealth of Indonesian forest resources by unsustainable practices. The logging at these scales is not done by individual impoverished people, but by well-organized elusive commercial networks".

"National Parks form a cornerstone in the 2010 target to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss and are also so valuable for eco-tourism and in generating new livelihoods. Their protection is vital to these international goals and to the entire concept of protected areas."

He called on governments and the international community to assist the Indonesian authorities with the equipment, training and particularly funding needed to enforce and patrol their national parks from illegal loggers.

H. E. Rachmat Witoelar, Indonesia's environment minister and outgoing president of UNEP?s Governing Council, said; "We are currently in an unequal struggle over illegal logging, which in the medium to long-term could be won through certification processes. Such processes can help global consumers choose between sustainably produced wood and palm-oil products and those produced illegally and unsustainably".

He said that the government was acting in the short term with counter measures including through the development of Ranger Quick response Units to counter illegal forest destruction.

"However, the challenge of policing and enforcing Indonesia's vast parks is immense and rangers have currently little access to ground vehicles, boats, arms, communications or aerial surveillance such as planes or helicopters. In 35 of our national parks we have over 2000 rangers but they have to patrol an area of over 100,000 km2"

The scale of illegal logging, including into national parks is likely to increase not only in Indonesia, but also in other parts of Asia, Africa and Latin-America.

"The situation is now acute", says Christian Nellemann, leader of the Response team. "The recent Indonesian initiatives on law enforcement will require the necessary scale, financial and logistical support in order to stop the extent of this illegal logging. If successful, the Indonesian experiences gained in the coming years may substantially improve our ability to protect national parks and fight illegal logging in other parts of the World".

The report is prepared by GRASP, the Great Ape Survival Partnership lead by UNEP and UNESCO in collaboration with a wide range of NGOs.

Note to Editors:

Bornean and Sumatran orangutans are classed as Endangered and Critically Endangered and are listed on Appendix 1 of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Recent estimates suggest there are between 45,000 and 69,000 Bornean and no more than 7,300 Sumatran orangutans left in the wild. The orangutans share their habitat with a wild range of other threatened and ecologically important species including the Sumatran tiger, Sumatran rhinoceros and Asian elephant. UNEP and the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) have launched the Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP) in response to growing concern over the plight of the orangutan, chimpanzee, bonobo and gorilla.

The report 'Last stand of the orangutan: State of emergency' can be downloaded at www.grida.no or at www.unep.org/grasp/docs/2007Jan-LastStand-of-Orangutan-report.pdf
or www.globio.info including high and low resolution graphics for free use in publications.
links
Related articles on Primates and Forests
about the site | email ria
  News articles are reproduced for non-profit educational purposes.
 

website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com