World
Forests Rapidly Disappearing - Biofuels a Major Driver
ROME,
ITALY, MARCH 16 -- In a reaction to the alarming data
released today in the 2009 State of the World's Forests report
by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), Friends
of the Earth International [1]
and the Global Forest Coalition [2],
two leading networks of environmental and Indigenous Peoples'
Organisations, called on world governments to take immediate
action to halt deforestation and forest degradation.
Deforestation
rates continue to be shockingly high in many countries despite
increased awareness that forests -which host more than 70% of
terrestrial biodiversity- play a key role not only in sustaining
the livelihoods of more than one billion people but also in
mitigating climate change.
The
environmental networks called on the FAO Committee on Forestry
to stop promoting plantations and urged governments to immediately
halt the conversion of forests into biofuel plantations in their
countries. Governments should also recognize urgently Indigenous
Peoples' territories, promote community-based forest management
and restoration, ban illegal logging and related trade, and
implement immediate deforestation moratoria.
The
FAO report notes that the expansion of large-scale monocultures
of oil palm, soy and other crops for agrofuel production has
been a key factor in the failure to halt deforestation.
The
report also states that "the potential for large-scale
commercial production of cellulosic biofuel will have unprecedented
impacts on the forest sector."
"If
cellulosic biofuel leads to a strongly increased demand for
wood, it will have a dramatic impact on the world's forests,
especially in regions like Africa and Asia, which are already
facing increased pressure on forests due to the failure to combat
illegal logging and the rapidly rising demand for wood in general,"
said Andrey Laletin, chairperson of Friends of the Siberian
Forests and focal point for North and Central Asia of the Global
Forest Coalition.
Another
driver for deforestation is illegal logging - 20% of the timber
supply comes from illegal sources. "Europe remains one
of the main markets for illegal timber despite a 2003 EU action
plan to combat illegal logging and related trade. Strong legislation
to halt illegal timber trade and to decrease Europe's devastating
impact on the world's forests should be adopted as a bare minimum
- there is no time to lose," said Friedrich Wulf from ProNatura
/ Friends of the Earth Switzerland.
According
to the FAO report, illegal logging could increase due to the
global economic crisis, as it might cause a contraction of the
formal forestry sector.
An
additional worrying trend is the massive replacement of forests
by large-scale tree plantations in many countries.
"Plantations
are not forests", said Isaac Rojas, coordinator of the
Forest and Biodiversity Program of Friends of the Earth International.
"All over the world, plantations destroy the lands and
livelihoods of local communities and Indigenous Peoples, as
well as biodiversity and water resources. They also store far
less carbon than natural forests."
"As
they provide very little employment for rural people, tree plantations
are also a major cause of rural depopulation and a further shifting
agricultural frontier, thus causing the destruction of forests
elsewhere," said Simone Lovera, managing coordinator of
the Global Forest Coalition. "By actively promoting monoculture
tree plantations, FAO itself is partly responsible for this
global trend of replacing biologically diverse forests with
straight rows of usually non-native trees," she added.
FOR
MORE INFORMATION
In Rome: Simone Lovera and Andrey Laletin - Global Forest Coalition:
Tel: +31-6-15 34 53 79 (Dutch cell)
In
Rome: Friedrich Wulf, Pro Natura / Friends of the Earth Switzerland:
Tel: +49-176 85 32 25 10 (German cell)
In
Costa Rica: Isaac Rojas, Friends of the Earth international:
+ 506-83
38 32 04 or 506-22 68 60 39 (Costa Rican numbers)
NOTES:
[1] http://www.foei.org
[2] http://www.globalforestcoalition.org/