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Recent Reports Indicate Forest's & Species Decline Continue



Hi -

Good factual information on the decline of our forests and species - and the
impending disaster if current trends continue unabated.  

Sorry to be the bringer of bad tidings - but the tidings aren't as bad as it
will be to experience the actually foretold futures, if we don't use our shared
energy to change the train's direction.  

And it's not just about the environmental disaster and threats to our survival
(for we, like all animals, require sufficient amounts of clean food, air, and
water) that can come out of this desecration, but also resource wars, riots,
instabilities, floods of refugees, that even armed gates and armed borders won't
prevent - raised stakes in warfare with more and more frightening weapons used
by governments and individuals in a desparate attempt to survive - etc.  Already
these things occur as people have conflict and crisis about resources - they're
just not necessarily reported as resource conflicts by the media - but if you
study war, resources are one of the key reasons they occur, underneath the
ideological justifications that are created, for people will risk dying if they
feel their survival is threatened.

I just feel it's important to remember that the environment's survival is
required for our own, and that ensuring the environment's well-being is not just
about having a place for a Sunday stroll after dinner.

P. Dines

--- FORWARD ---
From: Rich Winkel, INTERNET:rich%pencil@VMA.CC.ND.EDU
Sender: o-imap@chumbly.math.missouri.edu
Date: Sat, Nov 9, 1996, 10:19 PM
Subject: Recent Reports Indicate Forest's & Species Decline Continue

/** headlines: 129.0 **/
** Written  9:08 PM  Nov  6, 1996 by econet in cdp:headlines **
/* Written 7:03 AM  Nov  1, 1996 by wafcdc@igc.org in biodiversity */

FOREST'S & SPECIES DECLINE CONTINUE - STRONGER ACTION NEEDED

     A series of recent reports indicate that forests continue to
shrink, more species are being pushed to the brink of extinction, and
not surprisingly, stronger international action is needed to stem these
declines.  World Wildlife Fund released a decade-long mapping project
that indicates only about 6 percent of the world's 13 million square
miles of forests are protected against logging and other development.
The U.N. estimates that between 1980 and 1990 the world lost 13
percent of its forests to logging, farming, and development.  At this
pace, it would take only 76 years to completely eradicate the world's
natural forests.  In the lower 48 states, all but 2 percent of the native
forests present around the time of Columbus have been logged at least
once.  The report and maps can be viewed at http://www.panda.org or
call 202/293-4800.

     The impact on wildlife from lost habitat, pollution, and hunting
have been severe.  The Species Survival Commission of the World
Conservation Union list of threatened wildlife indicates species continue
to decline at an increasing pace.  The list was recently updated using
revised criteria for determining the risk of extinction, and the news is
grim: 1,096 mammals, nearly one-fourth of all known species, are
considered threatened, as are 1,108 birds, more than 11 percent of the
world's bird species.  The number of mammals listed as critically
endangered (169), endangered (315) or vulnerable (612) is startling,
since this is the first time that the organization, formerly known as the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature, has fully assessed
the status of each of the 4,630 or so species in the world's 26 orders of
mammals.  In the past only birds, which number 9,670 species, have
been evaluated on a comprehensive global scale.  The three risk
categories are based in large part on the rate of a species' population
decline over the last 10 years.

     Dr. Russell Mittermier, a primate expert who is president of
Conservation International in Washington, called the report
"indisputable proof that warnings about global biological loss haven't
been exaggerated."  More than 500 scientists contributed to the
evaluations, which identify 5,205 animals of all kinds as threatened.
The document lists 253 reptile, 124 amphibian and 734 fish species as
being at risk of extinction, but it emphasizes that thousands of species
in those taxonomic groups have not been assessed.

     Finally, a report entitled "Corporate Power, Corruption and
the Destruction of the World's Forests" by Environmental
Investigation Agency (EIA), a London and Washington, D.C. based
group, says only a new legally-binding global accord could curb the
"systematic, unchecked plunder" of forests by logging
multinationals.  The report highlights the activities of 15 of the
world's leading timber and paper groups, including Weyerhaeuser
and Georgia-Pacific.  "The handful of companies controlling the
timber trade have the economic and political might to log wherever
they want.  Once forests are exhausted in one region, companies
simply move elsewhere," says Juliette Williams EIA's forest
campaigner.  A copy of the report is available from EIA, 15
Bowling Green Lane, London, EC1R 0BD, fax +44 171 490 0436.

Steve Holmer
Campaign Coordinator

Western Ancient Forest Campaign
1101 14th St. NW #1400
Washington, D.C. 20005
202/789-2844 ext. 291
202/682-1943 fax
wafcdc@igc.apc.org

** End of text from cdp:headlines **

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