Loggers 'burned Amazon tribe girl alive'

Loggers in Brazil captured an eight-year-old girl from one of the Amazon's last uncontacted tribes and burned her alive as part of a campaign to force the indigenous population from its land, reports claimed on Tuesday night.

The child was said to have wandered away from her village, where around 60 members of the Awá tribe, who live in complete isolation from the modern world, and fallen into the hands of the loggers.

Luis Carlos Guajajaras, a local leader from a separate tribe, told a Brazilian news website that they tied to her a tree and set her alight as a warning to other natives, who live in a protected reserve in the north-eastern state of Maranhão .

"She was from another tribe, they live deep in the jungle, and have no contact with the outside world. It would have been the first time she had ever seen white men. We heard that they laughed as they burned her to death," he said.

Reports of the killing, which was said to have happened in October or November last year, were seconded by the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI), a Catholic group which said it had seen footage of her charred remains.

A spokesman for the Brazil's Indian Affairs Department said the government was urgently investigating the claims.

Huge iron ore deposits and valuable timber have encouraged mining and logging companies to enter the forests of Maranhão despite laws designed to protect the few remaining uncontacted tribes, often leading to violent clashes.

Around 450 tribes people have were murdered in Brazil between 2003 and 2010, according to figures from CIMI.

Survival International, a charity for tribal groups, warned that a third of the Awá's land had already been destroyed and that their nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle was being threatened as animals fled in the face of the approaching logging companies.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/brazil/9005835/Loggers-burned-Amazon-tribe-girl-alive.html

Logging threat fears for rare lobster

Experts fear a planned logging operation in Tasmania's north-west threatens the survival of the Tasmanian giant freshwater lobster.

A river system near Wynyard has been earmarked for logging by Forestry Tasmania, despite the area being known as one of the last strong holds of the vulnerable lobster.

The coupe is not listed for immediate protection under Tasmania's $276 million forest peace deal, but is being assessed for inclusion in future reserves of high conservation value forest.

Lobster expert Todd Walsh says sediment run-off from logging operations could decimate lobster populations and the area should be given immediate protection.

"Sediment covers their homes, which means the juvenile lobsters have nowhere to live, which means they're exposed to predators like platypus and blackfish."

"But also it covers up their food supply so they either starve to death or they get eaten; so sediment basically wipes them out."

Mr Walsh says the area is an important study site.

"This tributary runs into probably the most surveyed lobster spot on the planet, so there's been more lobsters surveyed and tagged downstream from this tributary than anywhere else.

"So it's probably the most important site that we've got," he said.

Meanwhile Forestry Tasmania has denied plans to log a key habitat of the giant freshwater lobster go against the spirit of the forest peace deal.

Ken Jefferys from Forestry Tasmania says it is harvesting the coupe to meet supply agreements, as it is required to do under the forest agreement.

"Only a few weeks ago we had to send a consignment from the south of the state to the north west with sawlogs to keep those mills operating, we are in a very constrained space, whenever you lock up more forests our capacity to reschedule, to adopt flexibility is significantly reduced."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-09/20111109-logging-threat-fears-for-rare-lobster/3655276

Coffs Harbour koalas lose habitat to red tape

THE state Environment Department has approved logging of almost 2000 hectares of significant koala habitat contrary to its own guidelines, conservationists say.


Since 2007, at least 60 separate logging applications on private land have been approved in areas containing ''core koala habitat'' around Coffs Harbour, according to an analysis by the North Coast Environment Council.

The department does not dispute the council's figures, but said the Coffs Harbour koala plan of management, which identifies the vulnerable species' local habitats, is not officially gazetted.

Advertisement: Story continues below Because of this, the prohibition on logging that normally applies to important koala habitats under state environmental planning policies could not be enforced in that council area, the department's director of landscapes and ecosystems conservation, Tom Grosskopf, said.

''We're helping them to get their plan updated and get it going,'' he said.

But local environmentalists are appalled and have accused the department of playing word games. The environment council's vice-president, Susie Russell, said the department knew full well where the region's key koala areas were. It had been integral in mapping the habitats, but was ignoring the results and approving their destruction.

The NSW Private Native Forestry code of practice prohibits forestry operations in core koala habitats.

Mr Grosskopf said that despite the logging approvals around Coffs Harbour, the department protected koalas.

The department could not say when the koala management plan would be officially gazetted.

Saffron Howden

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/coffs-harbour-koalas-lose-habitat-to-red-tape-20110103-19dwt.html

Coffs Harbour koalas lose habitat to red tape

THE state Environment Department has approved logging of almost 2000 hectares of significant koala habitat contrary to its own guidelines, conservationists say.


Since 2007, at least 60 separate logging applications on private land have been approved in areas containing ''core koala habitat'' around Coffs Harbour, according to an analysis by the North Coast Environment Council.

The department does not dispute the council's figures, but said the Coffs Harbour koala plan of management, which identifies the vulnerable species' local habitats, is not officially gazetted.

Advertisement: Story continues below Because of this, the prohibition on logging that normally applies to important koala habitats under state environmental planning policies could not be enforced in that council area, the department's director of landscapes and ecosystems conservation, Tom Grosskopf, said.

''We're helping them to get their plan updated and get it going,'' he said.

But local environmentalists are appalled and have accused the department of playing word games. The environment council's vice-president, Susie Russell, said the department knew full well where the region's key koala areas were. It had been integral in mapping the habitats, but was ignoring the results and approving their destruction.

The NSW Private Native Forestry code of practice prohibits forestry operations in core koala habitats.

Mr Grosskopf said that despite the logging approvals around Coffs Harbour, the department protected koalas.

The department could not say when the koala management plan would be officially gazetted.

Saffron Howden

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/coffs-harbour-koalas-lose-habitat-to-red-tape-20110103-19dwt.html

Russia’s logging rights auction derailed after public outcry

Logging would have threatened few remaining Amur tigers

November 2010: Public outcry has derailed an auction planned for the end of last month by the forestry administration of Primorsky Province in the Russian Far East that would have opened up critical Amur tiger habitats for logging.

The Forest Management Department said that its director Pyotr Diuk departed Tuesday on holiday, and the commission responsible for conducting the auction, highlighted by Wildlife Extra last month - Amur tiger habitat threatened by Russian auctions - was a no-show.


The Forest Management Agency of Primorsky Province had announced that it would conduct an auction on October 26 for logging rights for 16 harvest sites in the Bikinsky and Pozharsky Korean Pine Nut Harvesting Zones, and the proposed Middle Ussuri wildlife refuge, by making them available for so-called intermediate harvesting.

The failed auction comes after WWF-Russia alerted the press to the auction and demanded the exemption of protected forests in the Bikin River Basin of northern Primorsky Province from a timber auction authorised by the provincial Forest Management Department.

Public reaction was universally negative
WWF experts and representative to the Legislative Assembly Aleksandr Ermolayev spoke out against the proposed auction. Their testimony then was sent to the Forest Management Department and Primorsky Province Ecological Prosecutor's office for review.

Public reaction to the auction, in Russia and abroad, was universally negative, especially because Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has invited all heads of government from tiger range states to participate next month in the Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Putin said that a full public statement was pending an investigation of the circumstances surrounding the auction, according to WWF-Russia. Also, the Russian Federal Forest Agency sent a telegram to Primorskii Province's governor with a request to investigate within ten days the legality of the proposed logging of Korean pine stands.

Logging would increase access for poachers
Intermediate harvesting is a widely abused legal loophole which allows loggers to cut valuable Korean pine, oak and ash timber in protected forests. This practice greatly increases poaching access to remote tiger territories (through forest road building), destroys key breeding, feeding and overwintering habitat for tigers and their prey, and significantly reduces the supply of pine nuts and acorns on which tiger prey species survive.

The logging rights up for auction would have allowed loggers to cut down forests that protect salmon breeding grounds and are crucial habitats for Amur tigers.

The endangered Amur tiger, numbering fewer than 500 in the wild, is found primarily in southeastern Russia and northern China.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/logging-russia02.html

Russia’s logging rights auction derailed after public outcry

Logging would have threatened few remaining Amur tigers

November 2010: Public outcry has derailed an auction planned for the end of last month by the forestry administration of Primorsky Province in the Russian Far East that would have opened up critical Amur tiger habitats for logging.

The Forest Management Department said that its director Pyotr Diuk departed Tuesday on holiday, and the commission responsible for conducting the auction, highlighted by Wildlife Extra last month - Amur tiger habitat threatened by Russian auctions - was a no-show.


The Forest Management Agency of Primorsky Province had announced that it would conduct an auction on October 26 for logging rights for 16 harvest sites in the Bikinsky and Pozharsky Korean Pine Nut Harvesting Zones, and the proposed Middle Ussuri wildlife refuge, by making them available for so-called intermediate harvesting.

The failed auction comes after WWF-Russia alerted the press to the auction and demanded the exemption of protected forests in the Bikin River Basin of northern Primorsky Province from a timber auction authorised by the provincial Forest Management Department.

Public reaction was universally negative
WWF experts and representative to the Legislative Assembly Aleksandr Ermolayev spoke out against the proposed auction. Their testimony then was sent to the Forest Management Department and Primorsky Province Ecological Prosecutor's office for review.

Public reaction to the auction, in Russia and abroad, was universally negative, especially because Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has invited all heads of government from tiger range states to participate next month in the Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Putin said that a full public statement was pending an investigation of the circumstances surrounding the auction, according to WWF-Russia. Also, the Russian Federal Forest Agency sent a telegram to Primorskii Province's governor with a request to investigate within ten days the legality of the proposed logging of Korean pine stands.

Logging would increase access for poachers
Intermediate harvesting is a widely abused legal loophole which allows loggers to cut valuable Korean pine, oak and ash timber in protected forests. This practice greatly increases poaching access to remote tiger territories (through forest road building), destroys key breeding, feeding and overwintering habitat for tigers and their prey, and significantly reduces the supply of pine nuts and acorns on which tiger prey species survive.

The logging rights up for auction would have allowed loggers to cut down forests that protect salmon breeding grounds and are crucial habitats for Amur tigers.

The endangered Amur tiger, numbering fewer than 500 in the wild, is found primarily in southeastern Russia and northern China.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/logging-russia02.html

Gorillas Could Disappear in 15 Years, UN Agency Warns

24 March 2010

Gorillas could disappear from large parts of the Greater Congo Basin in central Africa by the mid-2020s unless urgent action is taken to safeguard their habitats and counter poaching, a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and INTERPOL warned today.

Projections in 2002 had suggested that only 10 per cent of the original gorilla ranges would remain by 2030, but the report found that those estimates were too optimistic given the intensification of pressures including illegal logging, mining, charcoal production and increased demand for bush meat, of which an increasing proportion is ape meat.

Outbreaks of the Ebola haemorrhagic fever virus are adding to concerns. These epidemics have killed thousands of great apes, including gorillas, and by some estimates up to 90 per cent of animals infected by the virus will die.

The report, launched at the meeting of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) currently taking place in Qatar, said the situation is especially critical in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where a great deal of the escalating damage is linked with militias operating in the region.

It stated that the militias are behind much of the illegal trade, which may be worth several hundred million dollars a year.

"This is a tragedy for the great apes and one also for countless other species being impacted by this intensifying and all too often illegal trade," said Achim Steiner, UNEP's executive director.

"Ultimately it is also a tragedy for the people living in the communities and countries concerned. These natural assets are their assets: ones underpinning lives and livelihoods for millions of people. In short it is environmental crime and theft by the few and the powerful at the expense of the poor and the vulnerable," he added.

Mr. Steiner welcomed the involvement of INTERPOL and called on the international community to step up support for the agency's environmental crime programme.

Christian Nellemann, a senior officer at UNEP who was lead author of the 2002 report and headed up the new one, said the original assessment had underestimated the scale of the bush meat trade, the rise in logging and the impact of the Ebola virus on great ape populations.

"With the current and accelerated rate of poaching for bush meat and habitat loss, the gorillas of the Greater Congo Basin may now disappear from most of their present range within 10 to 15 years," said Mr. Nellemann.

"We are observing a decline in wildlife across many parts of the region, and also side-effects on poaching outside the region and on poaching for ivory and rhino horn, often involving poachers and smugglers operating from the Congo Basin, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda, to buyers in Asia and beyond," he added.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201003250006.html