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 <http://www.foei.org>[1]
and the Global Forest Coalition <http://www.globalforestcoalition.org/>[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> http://www.foei.org
[2]
<http://www.globalforestcoalition.org/>http://www.globalforestcoalition.org/