a) you needn't go to south america or asia to see forest area in
decline
report titled ENDANGERED ECOSYSTEMS OF THE UNITED STATES: A
PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT OF LOSS AND DEGRADATION, available from the
National Biological Service (NBS), a research organization within
the federal Department of Interior. We obtained the report over
the Internet,[3] and its conclusions are stunning:
** 90 percent of its ancient or "old-growth" forests have been
lost.
** 95-98 percent of the virgin forests in the lower 48 states had
been destroyed by 1990; 99 percent of the virgin Eastern
deciduous forests have been eliminated.
** In the Northeast, 97 percent of Connecticut's coastline is
developed; 95 percent of Maryland's natural barrier island
beaches are gone; and almost all of Ohio's bottomland hardwood
forests are gone.
** In the South, 99.99 percent of Kentucky's native prairies have
disappeared; 98 percent of the Southeast coastal plain's longleaf
pine forests are gone; and 88 percent of southwest Florida's
slash pine forests have been eliminated.
** In the Midwest and Great Plains, 90 percent of the tallgrass
prairie has disappeared, as has virtually all of the prairie in
Michigan and Ohio, 72 percent of Minnesota's northern hardwood
forests, and 86 percent of Minnesota's red and white pine forests.
** In the West, 99 percent of California's native grassland is
gone, as are up to 90 percent of western Montana's old growth
forests and low-elevation grasslands; half of Colorado's wetlands
and 90 percent of Hawaii's dry forests and grasslands are gone.[4]
b) TIMBER SUPPLY: Only 12.3% of the United States' timber supply
comes from your national forests.
where do you think, you get the rest from ?
deforestation is not due to growing lifestock feed, but for timber
like mahogany...
--------------
Headline: "U.S. Punishes Mining Company Over Abuse"
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Date: Thursday, November 2, 1995
By Jim Mann, Los Angeles Times
Page 4
Washington
In an unprecedented action against environmental abuse by
American companies overseas, the Clinton administration yesterday
cut off $100 million in federal insurance to a U.S. company whose
gold and copper mining in Indonesia were said to be damaging
tropical rain forests and rivers.
The Overseas Private Investment Corp., the federal agency that
provides political-risk insurance for U.S. firms operating
abroad, terminated its guarantees for the Indonesian operations
of Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc. of New Orleans.
It was the first time the agency had cut off insurance to any
American company for environmental or human rights reasons.
American businesses trying to start operations in new areas often
say they need the agency's insurance more than any other help
from the U.S. government. Political-risk insurance, which
protects a company against the possibility that its assets
overseas will be damaged or seized because of political upheaval,
is often hard to obtain from private insurers.
On Friday, President Clinto turned aside an appeal from
Indonesian President Suharto, who urged the administration to
preserve the insurance guarantees for Freeport-McMoran. The
American company owns 80 percent of the Indonesian mining
venture; the Indonesian government holds 9 percent, and private
investors in Indonesia the remaining 11 percent.
Freeport-McMoran said in a statement yesterday that it was
"disturbed" by the government's action. It said that the agency
"lacks a legal basis for cancelling the coverage" and that the
dispute had been submitted to arbitration.
The company also said it was in compliance with Indonesian
environmental regulations and was "committed to the highest
environmental standards in our mining operations."
----
but you are right, major importers of food, which becomes feed
are european countries, because they have no CHEAP protein-rich
feed like soy, copra, palmoil, cocos oil..
and it's not the american, who are no. 1 in robbing forest, it's
the asian countries. "nice" example japan: one meal, one pair of
chopsticks gone. than pretty soon sums up to a lot of wood....
Asian logging giants extend reach
Rainforests are major targets
August 18, 1996
Copyright 1996 Associated Press
KUCHING, Malaysia (AP) -- Flush with expertise and profits from
felling local rainforests, Asian logging companies have begun
stripping millions of acres of timberland around the world.
Their reach extends from South Pacific islands to pristine forests
in Latin America and Africa. According to an Associated Press
survey, their operations are accelerating -- as is the opposition
they face from indigenous people and environmentalists.
With Malaysians and Indonesians at the forefront, Asian companies
started moving out in the mid-1980s. They now dominate rainforest
logging worldwide.
Some of their concessions are already the size of small countries,
and their sights are set on such riches as Brazil's Amazon
forests.
"What we are witnessing today is a relatively new trend of 'South-
South colonialism,' whereby southern transnational companies are
making heavy investments in other 'more backward' Third World
countries," said Marcus Colchester of the Britain-based World
Rainforest Movement.
Companies contacted insist they are practicing sustainable logging
that will not destroy forests. They project themselves as
entrepreneurs from dynamic economies that less developed nations
should emulate.
But in a clash that appears to leave little middle ground,
conservationists charge that many loggers operate like "robber
barons," depleting an ecologically important resource at
unconscionable rates and violating native rights.
"That's not to say there aren't bad European and American
companies, but Asians are the worst," said Jean-Paul Jeanreneaud
of the Switzerland- based World Wide Fund for Nature. "They are
more cavalier, less concerned about environmental and social
issues. And they're all over the place."
A study financed by the World Bank and the United Nations warned
in early August that logging is endangering half of the world's
remaining 5 billion acres of tropical forest. It said the rest is
threatened by slash- and-burn farming techniques used by primitive
peoples.
Among recent findings by Associated Press reporters in Latin
America, Asia and Africa:
-- The next major targets for Asian loggers are the Amazon,
probably the world's top timber source in the coming decade, and
Africa, where European logging companies have tended to dominate.
Asian companies have bought 8.6 million acres in the Brazilian
Amazon. Purchases over the next two years could reach 22.2 million
acres, or about 15 percent of the harvestable forest.
"By the end of next year, the Amazon lumber industry will have a
new face - - an Asian one," said Francisco Coelho, president of the
Amazonas State Sawyers Syndicate.
-----
klaus
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