Worldwide Protests for the End of Fossil Fuels

On six continents, in over 75 percent of the world's countries, people came out en masse yesterday to attend over 2,000 events to demonstrate the power of renewable energy to combat global climate change. As apart of the 'Moving Planet' campaign organized by 350.org, activists created a giant human-windmill in Paris, gave out bike lessons in Buenos Aires, practiced evacuation measure in the Pacific island of Tuvalu imperiled by rising sea levels, and marched in Cape Town for a strong agreement at the next UN climate meeting hosted in Durban, South Africa. "The planet has been stuck for too long with governments doing nothing about the biggest problem we've ever faced," said Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org. "This is the day when people will get the earth moving, rolling towards the solutions we need."  


Many events took on a local flavor. In Sydney activists flew kites calling for the government to put a price on carbon, an issue that the current Australian administration supports but has seen fierce opposition. In the US many activists spoke out against the Keystone XL pipeline that would bring tar sands oil down from Canada to Texas; oil from the tar sands releases significantly more carbon than more conventional sources. In India, ten thousand citizens protested the proposed construction of 80 new coal fired power plants. However, all the events were pushing for societal rejection of fossil fuel power with aggressive pursuit toward renewable and clean energy.  

Many people biked, rollerbladed, skate boarded, and took public transit to events. In Santo Domingo, activists painted the Dominican Republic's first bike lane. Scientists have warned for decades that the reliance of global society on fossil fuel energy is putting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and warming the Earth. 350.org takes its moniker from the scientific-assertion that carbon should be below 350 parts per million in order to retain a stable climate; currently carbon is 390 parts per million.

"Moving Planet, is a global expression of unity, urgency and purpose to show political and business leaders they need to move from rhetoric to action," said Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International, in a press release. "Today, we're beginning to move in the right direction." Naidoo, who was recently arrested off Greenland for boarding an oil rig in the Arctic as apart of an act of civil disobedience, joined hundreds of people protesting a new coal plant in Chicago. 

Global climate change is expected to cause, and in many cases has already been linked to, melting of the Arctic, global sea level rise, increased droughts and floods, worsening extreme weather, mass extinction, desertification, amid other impacts such as increased global conflict and famine. Given that governments worldwide have not yet adequately addressed climate change, the 'Moving Planet' day was developed as a chance for citizens to show that fighting climate change is feasible.  

"Speak against climate change, talk to your families, community members, your elders and your government," Krishneil Narayan, Pacific media engagement director with 350.org, told the Fiji Times. "You are neither wrong nor alone to ask for a better planet to live in." A thousand trees were planted in Fiji among other events. Across the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco, thousands marched and biked down Market Street. Mother and daughter, Jennifer and Harper Harris, were among the marchers. "Having her made me realize even more how we need to take action now—it makes this more personal," Jennifer Harris told the San Francisco Gate. "And I want her to understand that in a democracy, part of our responsibility is to show up and say what we want from our government." The global day of action opened in the Pacific Island of Tonga at sunrise where a village priest prayed for climate change mitigation, followed by a village choir singing.


Source: Mongabay

Cost of the War on Conservation

In the Phong Dien Nature Reserve in central Vietnam, an unlikely resource is hindering formal conservation efforts. Deep in the forest, villagers scavenge for scrap metal left during the Vietnam War. Unprecedented research from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation (ITFC) finds scrap metal gathering is a primary driver in forest degradation and trade in non-timber forest products in Vietnam.

The Khe Tran village lies adjacent to the Phong Dien protected area, where logging and hunting have been prohibited since 1992. The extraction of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) is still permitted, and collectors earn roughly $62 a year scavenging metal, around one-twelfth the mean annual income of surveyed households. In Vietnam, scrap metal is a “backbone product,” meaning it influences markets for other forest products. Traders who purchase metal also will purchase rattan, bamboo, or eaglewood from metal collectors.

Because unexploded ordinance is a threat to metal collectors, collectors minimize risk by torching areas of the forest to increase visibility and detonate mines from a distance. As a result, fire has greatly contributed to the degradation of forests and farmland around Khe Tran village and in the Nature Reserve.

To encourage forest protection, policy makers must understand how local peoples use the forest and what risks their activities pose to long-term conservation. Collecting metal is the primary reason villagers enter the forest, yet they broaden their impact by collecting other forest products—including some threatened species, say CIFOR researchers. As metal becomes scarcer, those dependant on this artificial forest resource could diversify their incomes through timber harvest or the animal trade.

The government has sought to reduce rural reliance on forests by encouraging plantation crop in the place of shifting cultivation. With increased reliable incomes from plantations, and the growing scarcity of metal scavenged from the forest, most villagers in Khe Tran no longer depend on forest metal for their main income. However, members of the nearby Phong Son Commune and other neighboring areas still are reliant on scrap metal as land scarcity has precluded farming alternatives.

The people of Khe Tran have requested formal recognition of their rights to the forest. Perhaps to ensure limited outside access to forest resources, the population of Khe Tran has expressed interest in assisting authorities with conservation goals by monitoring and patrolling the Phong Dien Nature Reserve. As in common in the developing world, government conservation resources are spread thin: only eight rangers patrol the 40,000-hectare protected area.

When war metal becomes too sparse to merit collecting, the poorest and most vulnerable members of Vietnam’s rural communities will be in need of alternative livelihood options, and researchers fear further degrading activates should effective policies to protect the forest while providing income-generating activities is not met.





Source: Mongabay

Obama Washes His Hands of the Tar Sands

Two weeks of climate disobedience at the White House ended over the weekend with 1,252 people arrested in total. Activists were protesting the controversial Keystone XL pipeline in an effort to pressure US President Barack Obama to turn down the project. If built the pipeline would bring oil from Alberta's tar sands through six US states down to Texas refineries. While protestors fear pollution from potential spills, especially in the Ogallala Aquifer which supplies water to millions, the major fight behind the pipeline is climate change: Canada's tar sands emit significantly more carbon than conventional sources of oil. 

Renowned NASA climatologist, James Hansen, raised awareness of the issue when he wrote that if the tar sands are exploited along with coal reserves "it is essentially game over" for the climate. Hansen was arrested on Day 10 of the protests. What was once a relatively obscure issue impacting 6 states has galvanized environmentalists across all 50 states. After years of disappointment on environmental issues it has become a litmus test of the Obama administration's dedication to fight climate change as he promised to do in his 2008 campaign. 

"It’s not the easiest thing on earth for law-abiding folk to come risk arrest. But this pipeline has emerged as the single clear test of the president’s willingness to fight for the environment," author, activist, and head of 350.org Bill McKibben said in a statement prior to being arrested early on in the protests. "So I wore my Obama '08 button, and I carry a great deal of hope in my heart that we will see that old Obama emerge." 

However, during the two weeks of civil disobedience, the 'old Obama' was decidedly absent as number of administration decisions further frustrated protesters. An environmental impact assessment of the pipeline found that it would have 'no significant impact' on the environment, but neglected to address what campaigners say is the biggest and most obvious impact: climate change. Then on Friday the Obama Administration backed down on setting regulations on smog standards that scientists say are necessary for public health. After years in the making, the sudden drop of the planned regulations shocked many. 

"For two years the Administration dragged its feet by delaying its decision, unnecessarily putting lives at risk. Its final decision not to enact a more protective ozone health standard is jeopardizing the health of millions of American, which is inexcusable," said Charles D. Connor, President and CEO of the American Lung Association. 

A litany of recent decisions against environmental protections—including opening up the Arctic to oil drilling—have pushed environmentalists to increasingly view the administration with wariness, instead of as allies. Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, told the New York Times that if the Keystone XL pipeline is rubber-stamped by Obama it will have large-scale political impact on an administration that is already being seen as weak and cowardly by many of its past supporters. "It will be increasingly difficult to mobilize the environmental base and to mobilize in particular young people to volunteer, to knock on thousands of doors, to put in 16-hour days, to donate money if they don’t think the president is showing the courage to stand up to big polluters," Brune said. 

The Keystone XL Pipeline would carry around 800,000 barrels of oil every day 1,700 miles from the tar sands Alberta. Extracting oil from the tar sands is both difficult and energy intensive. The oil—which exists in the form of bitumen and is mixed with clay, water, and sand—must be extracted from the ground with hot water and upgraded by using a high energy process. To make a single barrel of oil two tons of oil-sands and three barrels of water are required. In terms of carbon emissions, Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) estimated the greenhouse gas emissions of the tar sands was 5-15 percent higher than conventional sources, while the International Energy Agency (IEA) found that emissions were 20 percent higher.

Opposition against the pipeline has run against the media-propagated sense of current American politics, which assumes liberals are green-minded while conservatives are happy to sacrifice the environment for wealth. Republican governor of Nebraska, Dave Heineman, came out against the pipeline during the protests. 

"I want to emphasize that I am not opposed to pipelines," Heineman wrote. "I am opposed to the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline route because it is directly over the Ogallala Aquifer. The aquifer provides water to farmers and ranchers of Nebraska to raise livestock and grow crops." The Ogallala Aquifer spans eight states and provides around one-third of the nation's irrigation water.

Many of the states that would be directly impacted by an oil spill from the pipeline are so-called Red States. Heineman was joined in opposition to the pipeline by Governor of Vermont, Peter Shumlin, a democrat. Vermont has recently seen record flooding from Hurricane Irene, which Shumlin linked directly to climate change. "Our nation must come together to find local, clean, renewable energy to reduce our carbon footprint and spur the economy," Shumlin wrote in a letter opposing Keystone XL, adding, "we need to find sources that will mitigate the impacts of climate change as much as possible for Vermont and the United States." 

An op-ed from the New York Times also came out against the proposed pipeline, citing a recent report by Canada's environment ministry which estimates production in tar sands will jump to 1.8 billion barrels a day by 2020. "That rate will mean cutting down some 740,000 acres of boreal forest—a natural carbon reservoir.[...] greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas sector as a whole will rise by nearly one-third from 2005 to 2020—even as other sectors are reducing emissions," reads the editorial.  

Still all signs point to the likelihood that the Keystone XL pipeline will be approved. Even Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who has long been outspoken about the need to fight climate change, has said he views Keystone XL pipeline as 'tradeoff'. President Obama may be little aware of the protests themselves: when press secretary, Jay Carney, was asked if the President knew about the civil disobedience outside the White House, Carney responded, "I haven’t talked to him about it." Proponents of the pipeline say it will provide jobs and make the US less reliant on the Middle East for oil. However, a recent report by Oil Change International claimed that much of the oil would likely be sold overseas and not consumed in the US.

The US is the world's biggest consumer of oil: in 2009 it is estimated that the US consumed 18,690,000 barrels of oil a day or 6.8 billion a year. It is also the world's largest importer. Although US politicians have long paid lip service to the nation's addiction to oil and its impact on both the environment and foreign policy, almost nothing has been done to stem the addiction. In fact, for decades the US has focused on importing more from abroad and drilling more—including off-shore drilling—rather than curbing consumption. The one thing the Obama Administration has done on this front is raise efficiency standards for vehicles, though that has not appeased activists who see a need for the federal government to propel the US to move beyond the age of fossil fuels. 

Those arrested in the protests included McKibben, Hansen, actresses Daryl Hannah and Margot Kidder, filmmaker Josh Fox, author Naomi Klein, former White House official Gus Speth, and aboriginal activist Gitz Derange. A petition against the pipeline has been signed by over 600,000 people. "If the tar sands pipeline is approved, we will be back and we will grow," Hansen said. "For the sake of our children and our grandchildren, we must find somebody who is working for our dream."

Source: Mongabay

Our Unknown Earth

Scientists have named, catalogued, and described less than 2 million species in the past two and a half centuries, yet, according to an new innovative analysis, we are nowhere near even a basic understanding of the diversity of life on this small blue planet. The study from PLoS Biology, which is likely to be controversial, predicts that there are 8.7 million species in the world, though the number could be as low as 7.4 or as high as 10 million. The research implies that about 86 percent of the world's species have still yet to be described.

The question of how many species exist has intrigued scientists for centuries and the answer, coupled with research by others into species' distribution and abundance, is particularly important now because a host of human activities and influences are accelerating the rate of extinctions," said lead author Camilo Mora of the University of Hawaii and Dalhousie University in a recent press release.  

Estimates for life on Earth have varied widely, jumping from 3 million in total to 100 million, but the authors of the paper argue theirs is the most accurate estimate to date. "We discovered that, using numbers from the higher taxonomic groups, we can predict the number of species. The approach accurately predicted the number of species in several well-studied groups such as mammals, fish and birds, providing confidence in the method," says co-author Dr. Sina Adl at Dalhousie University. The team came up with the estimate by analysing the 1.2 million species listed in the Catalogue of Life and the World Register of Marine Species.

According to the paper, 91 percent of ocean species remain undiscovered, while 93 percent of fungi are unknown. "We have only begun to uncover the tremendous variety of life around us," says co-author Alastair Simpson, also with Dalhousie. "The richest environments for prospecting new species are thought to be coral reefs, seafloor mud and moist tropical soils. But smaller life forms are not well known anywhere. Some unknown species are living in our own backyards—literally."

Less is even known about the threats to species in what scientists say is an age of mass extinction. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which evaluates the threat-level to species, has to date analyzed just over 59,000 species, or 0.6 percent of the world's species according to the new estimate.  

"Many species may vanish before we even know of their existence, of their unique niche and function in ecosystems, and of their potential contribution to improved human well-being," Mora said, adding that given this, " I believe speeding the inventory of Earth's species merits high scientific and societal priority. Renewed interest in further exploration and taxonomy could allow us to fully answer this most basic question: what lives on Earth?"

Source: Mongabay

The Ministry of Deforestation

Indonesia's Ministry of Forestry is continuing to undermine the country's ambitious forest protection program in favor of industrial forestry interests, reports Reuters.

David Fogarty of Reuters investigated the the Rimba Raya REDD project, which aims to conserve 90,000 hectares of peat forest in Central Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo. Despite winning initial approval from official in Jakarta, the project was last year halved by the Ministry of Forestry, undercutting its viability. Instead, the Ministry of Forestry granted thousands of hectares of deep peat to PT Best, an oil palm company. The concession not only breaks Indonesian law — which prohibits conversion of peatlands deeper than 3 meters — but sends a dangerous signal to other backers of some 40 REDD projects across Indonesia and raises questions of governance. The Ministry of Forestry's action also puts it at odds with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has publicly backed Indonesia's REDD program.

"Internal forestry ministry documents that Reuters obtained show how the ministry reversed its support for the project after a new minister came in, and a large chunk of the project's land was turned over to a palm oil firm," wrote Fogarty. "The case illustrates how growing demand for land, bureaucratic hurdles and powerful vested interests are major obstacles to conservation projects in Indonesia and elsewhere in the developing world."

This news comes just a month and a half after the release of "The Toothless Moratorium" by Greenomics Indonesia. This report claims that a new decree from the Ministry of Forestry has converted 81,490 hectares of forest protected under the moratorium into logging areas. The area affected is larger than Singapore.

"The 81,000 hectares were marked on the Indicative Moratorium Map as primary forest but the new decree changes the function to production forest," Elfian Efffendi, Greenomics Indonesia Director, told mongabay.com. The areas affected includes the national parks of Tanjung Puting and Sebangau.

"Changing the function from conservation areas and protection forests to production forest means that it will be logged legally," he said. "Once logged, any primary forest will become secondary forest, and then can be potentially converted to plantation."

However most of the affected area is already planted with oil palm or granted for logging, indicating that the initial map that underpins the moratorium has inaccuracies. The changes by the Ministry of Forestry may thus reflect realities on the ground, rather than a direct effort to undermine the moratorium. Only a small proportion of the affected area is actually primary forest, despite what the moratorium map says.
 
The Ministry of Forestry and interests in the palm oil, logging, and pulp and paper fought successfully during the first half of 2011 to greatly limit the area of land included in the moratorium. Civil society groups had called for inclusion of all forests under the moratorium, but the final presidential instruction that defines the moratorium includes only primary forests and peatlands. The moratorium contains large loopholes for energy development and mining (surprise, surprise).

Back in July 2010, U.S. investor Todd Lemons and Russian energy giant Gazprom believed they were just weeks from winning final approval for a landmark forest preservation project in Indonesia. A year later, the project is close to collapse, a casualty of labyrinthine Indonesian bureaucracy, opaque laws and a secretive palm oil company. The Rimba Raya project, on the island of Borneo, is part of a United Nations-backed scheme designed to reward poorer nations that protect their carbon-rich jungles. Deep peat in some of Indonesia's rainforests stores billions of tonnes of carbon so preserving those forests is regarded as crucial in the fight against climate change. 

By putting a value on the carbon, the 90,000-hectare (225,000 acre) project would help prove that investors can turn a profit from the world's jungles in ways that do not involve cutting them down. After three years of work, more than $2 million (1 million pounds) in development costs, and what seemed like the green light from Jakarta, the project is proof that saving the world's tropical rainforests will be far more complicated than simply setting up a framework to allow market forces to function.
 
A Reuters investigation into the case also shows the forestry ministry is highly sceptical about a market for forest carbon credits, placing it at odds with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who supports pay-and-preserve investments to fight climate change. Hong Kong-based Lemons, 47, a veteran of environmentally sustainable, and profitable, projects, discovered just how frustrating the ministry can be to projects such as his. "Success was literally two months around the corner," he said. "We went through -- if there are 12 steps, we went through the first 11 on time over a 2-year period. We had some glitches, but by and large we went through the rather lengthy and complicated process in the time expected."
 
That's when the forestry ministry decided to slash the project's area in half, making it unviable, and handing a large chunk of forested deep peatland to a palm oil company for development. The case is a stark reminder to Norway's government, the world's top donor to projects to protect tropical forests, on just how tough it will be to preserve Indonesia's rainforests under its $1 billion climate deal with Jakarta.

The dispute has turned a spotlight on Indonesia's forestry ministry, which earns $15 billion a year in land permit fees from investors. Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said last month it will investigate the granting of forest permits and plans to crack down on corruption in the resources sector. "It's a source of unlimited corruption," said Chandra M. Hamzah, deputy chairman at the KPK. Indonesia Corruption Watch, a private watchdog, says illegal logging and violations in issuing forest use permits are rampant. It estimates ill-gotten gains total about 20 trillion rupiah ($2.3 billion) each year.

A forest ministry official connected with the U.N.-backed forest carbon offset scheme was sentenced in April to three years in prison for accepting a $10,000 bribe to ensure an Indonesian company won a procurement tender. Wandojo Siswanto was one of the negotiators for Indonesia's delegation at the 2009 U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen, despite being a bribery suspect. His case has highlighted concerns about the capacity of the forestry ministry to manage forest-carbon projects.  

The forestry sector has a long history of mismanagement and graft. Former trade and industry minister Bob Hasan, a timber czar during the Suharto years, was fined 50 billion rupiah ($7 million) for ordering the burning of forests in Sumatra and then imprisoned in a separate case of forestry fraud after Suharto was toppled from power in 1998.

In an interview in Jakarta, senior forestry ministry officials denied any wrongdoing in the Rimba Raya case and criticised the project's backers for a deal they made with Russia's Gazprom, the world's largest gas producer, to market the project's carbon credits. Internal forestry ministry documents that Reuters obtained show how the ministry reversed its support for the project after a new minister came in, and a large chunk of the project's land was turned over to a palm oil firm.

The case illustrates how growing demand for land, bureaucratic hurdles and powerful vested interests are major obstacles to conservation projects in Indonesia and elsewhere in the developing world. That makes it hard for these projects to compete and navigate through multiple layers of government with the potential for interference and delay. "We have systematically not been able to demonstrate that we can complete the loop to turn projects into dollar investments," said Andrew Wardell, program director, forests and governance, at the Centre for International Forestry Research in Indonesia. "Which is why the palm oil industry is winning hands down every time."

The Rimba Raya project was meant to save a large area of carbon-rich peat swamp forest in Central Kalimantan province and showcase Jakarta's efforts to fight climate change. Much of the area is dense forest that lies atop oozy black peat flooded by tea-coloured water. Dozens of threatened or endangered species such as orangutans, proboscis monkeys, otter civets and Borneo bay cats live in the area, which is adjacent to a national park.

Rimba Raya was designed to be part of the U.N's Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) program. The idea is simple: every tonne of carbon locked away in the peat and soaked up by the trees would earn a steady flow of carbon credits. Profit from the sale of those credits would go to project investors and partners, local communities and the Indonesian government. That would allow the project to pay its way and compete with palm oil farmers and loggers who might otherwise destroy it. Rich countries and big companies can buy the credits to offset their emissions.

By preserving a large area of peat swamp forest, Rimba Raya was projected to cut carbon emissions by nearly 100 million tonnes over its 30-year life, which would translate into total saleable credits of about $500 million, Gazprom says. It would also be a sanctuary for orphaned or rehabilitated orangutans from elsewhere in Borneo. Rimba Raya teamed up with the founder of Orangutan Foundation International, Birute Mary Galdikas, in which OFI would receive a steady income from annual carbon credit sales.

It was the sort of project President Yudhoyono and Norway have pledged to support. Yudhoyono has put forests -- Indonesia is home to the world's third-largest forest lands -- at the centre of a pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 26 percent by 2020. He tasked a senior adviser to press for reforms to make REDD projects easier and for greater transparency at the forestry ministry. Rimba Raya was poised for success. It got backing from the Clinton Foundation's Climate Initiative, which helped pay for some of the early costs. Gazprom invested more than $1 million. It was the first in the world to meet stringent REDD project rules under the Washington-based Voluntary Carbon Standard, an industry-respected body that issues carbon credits. Rimba Raya was also the first to earn a triple-gold rating under the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance, a separate verifier.

Companies including German insurer Allianz and Japanese telecoms giant NTT pledged to buy credits from the project if it gets its licence. In December 2009, the forestry ministry tentatively named the now Indonesian-registered company PT Rimba Raya Conservation the licence holder for nearly 90,000 ha, contingent on it passing an environmental impact assessment. It did so a few months later. The ownership of PT Rimba Raya Conservation is split 70 percent foreign and 30 percent Indonesian, with Lemons and business partner Jim Procanik holding small stakes.

Lemons is CEO of Hong Kong-based firm InfiniteEARTH, which is the developer and manager of the Rimba Raya project as well as investment fund-raiser. Procanik, 44, is the managing director. In June last year, Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan asked for a map that would set the final boundary of the project, according to a copy of the instruction seen by Reuters. This mandatory step normally takes a few weeks. Once the map is issued, a project is eligible for a licence to operate. But by September last year it was clear something was wrong, according to Lemons. Despite repeated promises by ministry officials, the final map had not been issued. No explanations were given. "No one has ever said, 'No'. So that's exhausting," said Lemons.  

What followed instead was a series of steps by the forestry ministry that have resulted in the project being undermined. A ministry review focussed on conflicting claims to the land by several companies belonging to palm oil firm, PT Best Group. PT Best, which is run by Indonesian brothers Winarto and Winarno Tjajadi, had long coveted the peat land within the area the forestry ministry set aside for the Rimba Raya project. On December 31, 2010, PT Best was granted 6,500 ha of peat swamp land for palm oil development, next to a smaller parcel of deep peat land granted a year earlier -- part of PT Best's broader plan to connect its palm oil plantations in the north with a port on the coast nearby. The land granted last December was part of the original area set aside for Rimba Raya.

The Tjajadi brothers have so far refused to speak to the press about any of these issues. The December allocation to PT Best came despite assurances from Forestry Minister Hasan that he would not allow deep peatlands to be converted for agriculture. The allocation also came a day before a two-year moratorium on issuing licences to clear primary forests and peat lands was due to start on January 1 this year. The moratorium is a key part of the climate deal with Norway.

After months of delay, the forestry ministry finally ruled that PT Rimba Raya was only eligible for 46,000 ha, a decision that cut out much of the peatlands covering nearly half the original project area.

The case has now been brought before the office of the Indonesian government's Ombudsman. In an interview, senior Ombudsman Dominikus Fernandes told Reuters he believed the forestry ministry should issue the licence to Rimba Raya. "If Rimba Raya has already fulfilled the criteria, there should not be a delay in issuing the licence," he said. "This is a model project in Indonesia that should be prioritized. If we don't give an example on the assurance of investing in Indonesia, that's not a good thing." Officials from the forestry ministry, in a lengthy interview with Reuters, said the area was given legally for palm oil development because PT Best had claims to the land dating back to 2005.   

Secretary-General of the ministry Hadi Daryanto stressed the peatland areas originally granted to Rimba Raya were on a type of forest called convertible production forest, which can be used for agriculture but not REDD projects. Handing that nearly 40,000 ha to Rimba Raya would be against the law, he said. Yet in 2009, the ministry was ordered to make the title switch for this same area of peatland so it could be used for a REDD project. The instruction to immediately make the switch, a bureaucratic formality, was never acted on. In the Oct 2009 decree seen by Reuters, former Forestry Minister H.M.S. Kaban issued the order as part of a broader instruction setting aside the nearly 90,000 ha for ecosystem restoration projects. Kaban left office soon after.

Indonesian law also bans any clearing of peat lands more than 3 metres deep. An assessment of the Rimba Raya area by a peat expert hired by InfiniteEARTH showed the peat is 3 to 7 metres deep, so in theory was out of bounds for PT Best to clear for agriculture. For Lemons, 47, the mood has switched from exhilaration to bitter disappointment. "We've been here every day pushing like hell from every angle," he said. Procanik says the disappointment is personal. "Todd and I have both invested what savings we had for our kids' college education in this project," he said. Gazprom is also upset.

In a letter dated June 16 to the Indonesian government, the Russian firm criticised the ministry's failure to issue the licence for Rimba Raya and threatened to abandon clean-energy projects in Indonesia estimated to be worth more than $100 million in foreign investment. The government has yet to respond.

Secretary-General Daryanto and Iman Santoso, Director-General for forestry business management, said another major problem was InfiniteEARTH's deal with Gazprom, which was made in the absence of any licence. "We didn't know about the contract with Gazprom. They had no legal right to make the contract," Daryanto told Reuters. Santoso described it as the project's "fatal mistake." Daryanto also questioned whether REDD would ever work and whether there was any global appetite for carbon credits the program generates, a view at odds with other parts of the Indonesian government, which has been actively supporting REDD projects.  

"Who will pay for the dream of Rimba Raya? Who will pay? Nobody, sir!" Daryanto told Reuters during an interview in the heavily forested ministry compound near central Jakarta. Lemons said the Gazprom deal was explained in person during a presentation of a 300-page technical proposal submitted to the ministry to prove the project would be financially viable. Daryanto was among a ministry panel that approved the proposal. "One of their biggest concerns was whether REDD could deliver the same revenues to the state as other land-use permits such as palm oil, logging, mining. We were required to show contracts that demonstrated we could pay the fees and annual royalties," he said.

Gazprom, designated as the sole marketer of carbon credits from Rimba Raya, said it had already agreed long-term sales contracts with buyers at between 7 and 8 euros ($10 to $11.40) per tonne -- contingent on the licence being issued. "We've sold to four or five companies around that price," said Dan Barry, Gazprom Marketing & Trading's London-based global director of clean energy. Gazprom became involved, he said, because it was a project that looked to have official support. The Russian company agreed to a financing mechanism that ensured the project's viability for 30 years, regardless of the price level of carbon markets.

Those markets, centred on the European and U.N. carbon trading programs, were valued at $142 billion in 2010, the World Bank says. National carbon trading schemes are planned for Australia and South Korea, while California is planning a state-based scheme from 2013. New Zealand's carbon market started in 2008. "If you ever want a successful REDD scheme, you are going to have to have a process that people believe in," Barry said. "The Ministry of Forestry ought to be doing everything it can to support a program that benefits forestry as opposed to favour a program that's there to cut it down and turn it into palm oil." 

Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the head of the REDD task force in Indonesia who is also in charge of the president's government reforms unit, said the Rimba Raya case highlighted deep flaws in the bureaucracy and the need for sweeping reforms to underpin the 40 other REDD projects in Indonesia. "The core concern is the trust in government statements of readiness, and responsibility," he told Reuters in an email. "Even with the best of intentions, the unsynchronous action of the central government's ministry and the district government's action is not conducive for investment, especially in this new kind of venture. "I can surmise that the case of Rimba Raya is a case of a business idea that is ahead of its time. The government infrastructure is insufficiently ready for it." Legal action was one solution to this case, he added.

That is a path Lemons and Procanik may eventually take but for now they have proposed a land swap deal with PT Best in which the firm gives PT Rimba Raya 9,000 ha of peat land in return for a similar sized piece of non-peat land held by PT Rimba Raya in the north of the project near other PT Best landholdings. PT Best rejected an earlier offer by Rimba Raya of 9 percent of the credits from the project, Lemons said. Based on recent satellite images, PT Best has yet to develop the disputed 9,000 ha area. The delays mean it is too late for Rimba Raya to become the world's first project to issue REDD credits. That accolade has since gone to a Kenyan project. "Our whole point here is to show host countries that REDD can pay its way," said Lemons. "And if it can't pay its way then we haven't proven anything."

Source: Mongabay.com, Reuters

'Fanged Frogs' Discovered on Sulawesi

Boasting "crazy" evolutionary adaptations, a new group of so-called fanged frogs—cousins of this Luzon fanged frog (file picture)—has been discovered on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, according to biologist Ben Evans. 

During a recent expedition, thirteen new "fanged" species were seen on Sulawesi for the first time, nine of them new to science, according to a new study led by Evans, a biologist at McMaster University in Canada. 

The "fangs" aren't teeth but bony jaw protrusions—some of which aren't visible past the gumline, said Evans, whose study was published in the August issue of the journal The American Naturalist. Scientists have yet to discover the fangs' purpose, but one possibility is that the frogs use the spikes to help capture food in fast-moving water. The frogs with the largest fangs seem to prey on fish or tadpoles.

An as yet unnamed new fanged-frog species on Sulawesi watches over eggs containing tiny tadpoles. When Sulawesi fanged frogs first arrived on the island millions of years ago, each species evolved similar adaptations—such as guarding eggs laid on leaves. 

"We're seeing repeated incidences of the same adaptation [that] evolved independently," Evans said. "People think with evolution you could run the 'experiment' again and get a different result." The fanged frogs' evolution seems to suggest otherwise.

This frog, so far known only as Limnonectes species T, is one of the nine new fanged frogs discovered on Sulawesi. Unlike on the nearby Philippines, where fanged frogs compete for resources with other frogs, Sulawesi's fanged frogs have no competition. As a result, the Sulawesi amphibians have evolved to fill many evolutionary roles, Evans said.

What's surprising about these frogs is they are so closely related but so morphologically variable"—or physically different, Evans said. For instance, Sulawesi's fanged frogs all share a common ancestor that lived just 15 million years ago, yet they've rapidly diversified in a "striking" way, he said.

Another possible explanation for the frogs' fangs (pictured, Limnonectes species T) is that they're for fighting: Males use the spikes in territorial battles over roosting sites or females.

Luckily, the frogs "certainly do not bite you" with their fangs, Evans said—and the protrusions don't have any venom in them.

A fast-moving river is a typical habitat for the large fanged frogs on Sulawesi. The larger frogs tend to have webbed feet and bigger fangs, apparently to assist in moving and hunting in fast water.

The smaller frogs, which spend more time out of water, have toes rather than webbed feet. "You don't want to walk around with flippers on, if you're on land," Evans said.







Source: National Geographic

Sumava National Park under the Axe.

Sumava is the largest national park in the Czech Republic, and arguably the closest thing the country has to real wilderness. The national park encompasses more than 600 square kilometres of mountain spruce forests, peat bogs and other wetlands, glacial lakes and flower rich meadows.  

The park is home to vital populations of lynx, caterpillar, black grouse, Ural owl and European elk. Sumava is a Natura 2000 site under both Bird and Habitat Directives, a UNESCO biosphere reserve, and its peat bogs and peat forests are listed as under the Ramsar convention on wetlands. However, the a new director of the national park Jan Strasky has proposed large scale logging of spruce forests in the national park. This will lead to enormous clearcuts across the national park.  

Beautiful habitats of ancient mountain forests will be lost. The official reason for this is bark beetle gradation – the majority of the trees to be cut are said to be infected by bark beetle. However, bark beetle is a key species in mountain and waterlogged spruce forests and natural processes should be strictly protected in central parts of national parks. Environmental groups believe the beetle is simply an excuse to cede to logging interests who continually lobby politicians for new concessions.  

Jan Strasky, the park director, is a former politician and a long-time critic of modern nature conservation. He famously said: "Nature is the enemy and therefore one must fight it. If it wasn't for my ancestors who fought various animals I would not be here today."

He has also announced plans for various projects such as a ski lift, the enlargement of the road to the Austrian border to support the construction of new private buildings, and even the establishment of new municipalities inside the national park. 
 

Friends of Earth Czech Republic (FoE CR) and other environmental organisations wrote to the Czech authorities to urge them to halt the logging in what until now has been declared as non intervention (strictly protected) forests.  

The letters had no effect and the logging continued. As a result FoE CR, Greenpeace, Birdlife and other organisations started a peaceful blockade of the felling area. They were joined by some leading scientists and members of the general public.

A court ruling eventually put a stop to the blockade by FoE CR. However, up to 70 members of the general public and other NGOs continue to protest despite heavy handed tactics from the police and other members of the securtiy services. 

 The heavy police and military presence suggests that this battle is not only about the logging of 3 to 6 thousand trees but rather a demonstration of political power aiming to devastate the national park. If you want to do something about this situation, you can send a letter to the Czech officials responsible, via Friends of the Earth. eMail Link

Source: Friends of the Earth