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Greenpeace Lauds Forest Conservation Pilot From Indonesian Palm Oil Producer

Jakarta Globe, March 13, 2013

Palm fruits at a palm oil plantation in Talun Kenas, North Sumatra. (EPA
Photo/Dedi Sahputra)

              

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Environmental advocacy group Greenpeace has welcomed the launch of a forest conservation pilot project by the world's second largest palm oil plantation company, Golden Agri-Resources, to protect high carbon stock forests in Indonesia.

“Greenpeace commends GAR for putting its forest conservation policy commitment into action. GAR’s initiative is crucial for finally breaking the link between palm oil and deforestation,” Bustar Maitar, head of Greenpeace Southeast Asia’s Indonesia Forest Campaign, said on Wednesday.

Bustar said Indonesia’s rainforest was in dire need of protection, especially with the approaching expiration date of the two-year moratorium on logging permits in May.

“The government should see today’s announcement as a strong signal that government, industry and civil society together can turn the tide and protect Indonesia’s forests for the sake of the people and biodiversity that depend on them and for the global climate,” he said.

He said GAR’s conservation policy, which would begin with Kartika Prima Cipta in West Kalimantan, would also be implemented in the company’s investment in Liberia and would set a strong example for future oil palm development in Africa if executed properly.

GAR previously has pledged to stop procurement of unsustainable raw materials by 2015.

Separately, the Indonesian government announced it is set to revoke the licenses of palm oil companies in the country if they do not have an Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil certificate by 2014, a high-level official at the Agriculture Ministry said on Thursday.

“Because it is a mandatory, there will be sanctions. We could revoke the licenses of palm oil companies that do not have the ISPO,” said Gamal Nasir, director general for plantations at the ministry.

The Indonesian government introduced the ISPO several years ago, setting a standard to ensure that palm oil producers will not add to deforestation and destruction of carbon-rich peat lands because of their activities.

JG & ID

Rare Sumatran tiger kills Indonesia farmer: villagers

Google – AFP, 13 March 2013 

A trapped Sumatran tiger on Indonesia's Sumatra island on January 9,

2012 (Nature Conservation Agency/AFP/File)

SIDEMPUAN, Indonesia — A Sumatran tiger has killed a cocoa farmer in Indonesia, villagers claimed Wednesday, in the latest apparent attack by the rare wild cat as its habitat is rapidly cleared for plantations.

The body of Karman Lubis, 32, was found decapitated around one kilometre (0.6 miles) from a cocoa plantation on Sumatra island at 02:00 on Tuesday (1900 GMT Monday), while his head was found hours later in another area, a relative said.

Lubis' right hand was still missing, Amiruddin Nasution added, saying he was likely attacked by a tiger sighted days earlier near their village of Rantau Panjang, adjacent to the Batang Gadis National Park on the island's north.

A national park office staff member said there were no witnesses to confirm a tiger was to blame.

"Given the body's condition, he could have been attacked by a bear, a clouded leopard or a tiger," said the staff member, who declined to be named.

The Sumatran tiger is the world's smallest tiger and is critically endangered, with only an estimated 400 to 500 alive on the Indonesian island.

Rampant deforestation and poaching have led to a decrease in the number of Sumatran tigers, experts say.

New protection for endangered trees against rampant logging trade

178 nations at the world's biggest wildlife summit agree to strictly regulate trade in mahogany and rosewood timber

guardian.co.uk, Damian Carrington, Tuesday 12 March 2013

Loading rosewood timber on trucks at the port of Toamasina (Tamatave),
Madagascar. Photograph: Babelon Pierre-Yves/Alamy

Every species of mahogany and rosewood tree in Madagascar gained new protection on Tuesday against a rampant logging trade that threatens to wipe out some species before they are even discovered.

The 178 nations at the world's biggest wildlife summit agreed unanimously to strictly regulate the international trade in mahogany timber.

The Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), taking place in Bangkok, also gave new protection to rosewood in Central America, Thailand and Vietnam. Ebony and rosewoods are targeted to make high-price furniture, musical instruments, chess pieces and flooring.

"There are 80 ebony species known in Madagascar but they are literally identifying more right now and there may be as many as 240 species in all," said Noel McGough, a botanist at Kew Botanical Gardens in London and a member of the UK delegation. He said the new protection, aimed at ensuring harvests are sustainable, had been urgently needed: "We need to move quickly."

"Regulating the international trade will give the chance to feed money back to the poor local communities," he added. "Illegal trade just drains money away from them."

Recent years have seen a sharp rise in the exploitation of ebony in Madagascar, with much of the wood destined for Asian markets. For some species, no large trees remain in the wild, posing a serious threat to trees that take decades to produce the hard, dense, black wood that is sought after.

The number of rosewood trees in Thailand is estimated to have declined as much as 70%, from around 300,000 in 2005 to 80,000-100,000 trees in 2011.

Achim Steiner, the executive director of the UN Environment Programme (Unep), said Interpol and Unep estimated that 50-90% of logging in the key tropical countries around the world is being carried out by organised crime gangs. "Illegal logging is worth well over $30bn annually to the criminals, whereas many of the poor people enlisted into these illegal activities get a pittance in return," he said.

There were many ways criminals dealt in illegal timber, Steiner said, including falsifying logging permits, bribing officials to obtain permits, logging beyond concessions and hacking government websites to obtain or change electronic permits.

In all, 135 species of Madagascan ebony and rosewoods were protected. John Scanlon, secretary-general of Cites, praised the achievement of the 178 member states, noting that previous discussions of valuable timber had been difficult.

McGough said the tone of the debate on Tuesday was very different to that of recent decades: "There were very divisive debates that set range states [where the trees grow] against importing countries and saw many proposals defeated or withdrawn in the face of mass opposition."

Ruthless crime gangs driving global wildlife trade

Channel Asia News, AFP, 09 March 2013

Poaching and illegal trade in protected species like elephants, rhinos and tigers
 has boomed into a billion-dolloar industry that threatens security and stability
 in many countries, the World Wildlife Fund warned Wednesday. (AFP/File
Rodger Bosch)

              

BANGKOK: Ruthless and heavily armed "criminal syndicates" linked to drug smugglers and militias are running the global wildlife trade and turning their guns on the park rangers tasked with protecting endangered species.

Hundreds of rangers have been killed over recent years as poachers stop at nothing in their quest for lucrative animal parts such as ivory and rhino horn, according to experts at a global convention on protecting wildlife in Bangkok.

The illegal trade "poses an immediate risk to wildlife and to people, including those serving on the frontlines to protect wildlife" says John Scanlon, secretary general of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

"It increasingly involves organised crime syndicates and in some cases rebel militia."

The death toll among the rangers has risen as the slaughter of elephants and rhinos reaches record levels -- with photographs of carcasses stripped of horns or tusks stirring public outcry.

At least 1,000 rangers have been killed in 35 different countries over the last decade, said Sean Willmore, president of the International Ranger Federation (IRF), adding that the real global figure may be between 3-5,000.

"There is an undeclared war going on on the frontline of conservation," he told AFP citing the example of a group of 50 rangers in the Democratic Republic of Congo who stumbled across a 5,000-strong militia group out poaching armed with AK47s.

And while attacks by lions or elephants make their work "dangerous enough", he said 75 per cent of the dead were killed by traffickers, with their lack of equipment, training and low wages weighing against them.

Every weakness is exploited by criminals determined to cash in on large animal reserves in some of the world's poorest, most unstable countries.

"Wildlife crime has historically been known as a low-risk, high-profit crime," according to Ben Janse Van Rensburg a senior CITES official.

Alarmingly, the groups are part of a web of global criminals involved in other illicit trades such as drug and human trafficking, he said.

Although the countries worst hit by the scourge of wildlife trafficking have shown willing to tackle the issue, they do so with limited means.

But some countries have not even made the issue a serious crime "making conviction difficult", says Jorge Rios of the UN Office against Drugs and Crime (UNODC), urging political commitment to be "accompanied by resources at national and international level".

For poaching to be curbed those resources must be targeted at a the whole trafficking chain.

"We cannot just focus on poachers... we also have to deal with middle men working in transit countries, and people distributing and selling the merchandise in market countries," Dan Ashe, director of the US Fish and Wildlife service told AFP.

"We have to deal with people who are financing these operations."

But it is not an easy task, with corruption lubricating the movement of illicit wildlife -- often destined for Asia as delicacies or use in traditional medicines.

"They (traffickers) have a lot of money... they are paying for the right to do whatever they want," says Steve Galster, executive director, of conservation group the Freeland Foundation.

After several years of investigation his group accused Vixay Keosavang, an influential Laos national, of orchestrating a major trafficking network.

Tigers, turtles, pangolins, snakes and monkeys from Africa arrived on the banks of the Mekong river in legitimate breeding farms used as a front to sell protected or poached species, he said, highlighting the "loopholes" of CITES that have failed to stop people like him flouting the law.

- AFP/fa

 Related Articles:

International conference aims to protect endangered species

"Do Animals Reincarnate?" - NOV 22, 2010 (Kuthumi channelled by Lynette Leckie-Clark)

“... Perhaps this is a timely reminder for mankind to respect all life forms. All play a part in the consciousness evolution of man and the planet. As you prepare to enter a year of Unity, of stepping forward in respect of one another, I ask you remember the many kingdoms who also share the planet- the elemental, plant, mineral and animal. I ask you develop a new awareness for these. It is not all about you - the human. No it is not. You must now begin to awaken your consciousness to sharing - with all. For all is part of God's great creation.

Update from Ashtar via Mike Quinsey: Obama’s State of the Union Address – (Ashtar channeled by Susan Leland, February 12, 2013)

“… It is Freedom in every aspect of the lives of all humans on Planet Earth; it is Freedom for the animal and the plant kingdoms, and for the mineral kingdoms who are deemed to serve the humans. You know, it’s the humans who think all of the other kingdoms are here to serve. If you ask members of the other kingdoms what they have to say about that, they would take a different perspective and voice a different point of view which is true and appropriate, and as you like to say, it is high time because we are in High Times and we are continuing on this Path! ..."

Hualien farmer shares fruit with passing cyclists

Want China Times, Yang Han-sheng and Staff Reporter 2013-03-09

Wang Chin-tsai in front of the cyclist rest area he built. (Photo/Yang
Han-sheng)

An old farmer in eastern Taiwan has made headlines for offering free fruit to passing cyclists, reports our Chinese-language sister paper China Times.

The fruit orchard belonging to 62-year-old Hualien resident Wang Chin-tsai was severely damaged three years ago during a typhoon, rendering the fruits unmarketable to customers because of their unappealing appearance. Rather than let the fruit go to waste, Wang built a shack on the side of the local bicycle track as a rest stop for cyclists who would like to take a break and enjoy some fruit. Wang does not charge for the fruit but accepts donations from those who appreciate the gesture.

Wang spent more than a month building the shack on the side of the 193 county highway with wood from a tree near his orchard in Fenglin. He admits it was not an easy task because he had no assistance.

None of the fruit at the shack used pesticides. Banana is provided all year round, while orange is available in spring and grapefruit in autumn. Besides fruit, Wang also spends NT$1,000 (US$33.70) a month on mineral water, also provided to the riders free of charge.

"I only want to share. It has now become a habit. So I come back every week to see if everything is okay," Wang said.

"All the fruits and mineral water are for free [to have there], but it costs NT$10 (US$0.37) for take away. There is an old cash drawer in the shack and visitors are free to pay and take their change. Although these fruits do not look appealing from their appearance, they are still good on the inside. Even birds fly in here to taste them," Wang said.

The cash drawer is usually filled with coins of all denominations as well as banknotes.

People who have tasted Wang's fruit sometimes leave him a kind message on the walls, one of the most touching is "You taught me what sharing actually is."　

References:

Wang Chin-tsai　　王金財

WWF Welcomes EU Application of Tighter Timber Regulations

Jakarta Globe, Alina Musta’idah, March 05, 2013

A laborer transports timber in Cianjur, West Java in this 2010 file photo.
 The European Union earlier this year gave its full recognition to Indonesian
 timber products that come with a wood certification document based on
the Timber Legality Verification System (SVLK). (JG Photo/Rezza Estily)  

   

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he World Wildlife Fund on Tuesday welcomed the European Union’s implementation of tighter timber regulations aimed at barring the entry of illegal woods and wood products into the markets of its 27 members.

The EU officially began imposing additional controls on its timber product imports under the EU Timber Regulation on Sunday, which seeks to ascertain whether wood products are derived from legal sources.

“The implementation of the EUTR clearly helps conservation efforts in Indonesia. There should be more forestry companies putting into effect good timber management, so that the programs initiated by the Global Forest and Trade Network [GFTN] will become increasingly relevant,” Nazir Foead, the director of conservation with WWF-Indonesia, said.

 

Nazir, however, noted that the EUTR was still only dealing with the legality of products and not whether the products was produced in a sustainable manner.

“The identification and management of high conservation value forests, for example, is not something protected by the EUTR. And although this policy is a positive step, each business practitioner is hoped to implement a green procurement policy,” he said.

The EU earlier this year gave its full recognition to Indonesian timber products that come with a wood certification document based on the Timber Legality Verification System (SVLK).

Indonesia developed the SVLK as part of its commitment to curbing trade in illegally harvested wood. The verification system was effective for Indonesia’s wood exports as of Jan. 1. So far more than 200 companies across Indonesia have sought the certification for their goods for exports.

With the EU’s recognition of the SVLK, the government has said that it hopes its forestry product exports would rise substantially from their current level of $1.2 billion annually, especially since the European Union is one of the main markets for Indonesian forestry products.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has estimated that illegal wood products could result in Rp 300 trillion worth of losses. It also said that illegal logging threatened the livelihoods of people living in and around forests, as well as future sustainability.

Investor Daily

Frogs leap from Indonesian swamps to European tables

The West Australian – AFP, March 3, 2013

Frogs leap from Indonesian swamps to European tables

BOGOR, Indonesia (AFP) - The Indonesian frog vendor closes her eyes, asks Allah for his blessing, and with one swift strike of a cleaver, beheads the trembling creature.

Though diners in white table-clothed French brasseries may not know it, their frogs legs most likely come from the murky swamps of tropical Indonesia, caught by hunters in the dead of the night to be slaughtered and sold at local markets.

As mechanically as a factory worker, Sri Mulyani rips off the frog's skin, pulls out its innards with her bare hands and flings the amphibian onto a mountain of others that have suffered the same fate.

"If I feel disgusted and sick of frogs, I just think about the money," the smiling 41-year-old told AFP at an early-morning market in Bogor, on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta.

Mulyani and her frog-hunter husband, Suwanto, 48, make up to 500,000 rupiah ($52) a day -- well above the local minimum wage of around $200 a month -- chasing and selling frogs to restaurants or middlemen for export.

Devoured for their fleshy chicken-like taste, frogs legs are a known delicacy in France, Belgium and Luxembourg, but are also prized in Indonesia and China.

Indonesia has become the world's biggest exporter of frogs, providing more than 80 percent of Europe's imports, almost all caught in the wild by village-style frog hunters like Suwanto.

But conservationists are concerned the lucrative trade may see the end to certain frog populations that help keep ecosystems healthy by preying on pests. Their tadpoles also help stabilise aquatic environments.

Much of the demand comes from France, where an estimated 80 million frogs are consumed every year. France was forced to place a ban on commercial frog hunting and farming in 1980.

The trade moved mostly to India and Bangladesh, but those countries too banned exports in the late 1980s as their frog populations drastically depleted.

"We fear that over the years the frog population, at least the large body of frogs in Indonesia, will collapse," said Sandra Altherr from German group Pro Wildlife, which co-authored a report on the frog trade last year.

"History has given us a lesson and we should learn from it."

But for Suwanto the work is too lucrative to give up, and frog hunting, he said, is in his blood.

"I've been hunting frogs since 1992, and my father before me was frog hunter," Suwanto said, adding he was unsure if the tradition would continue in his family as he only had daughters, explaining frog hunting was men's business.

From behind his home, Suwanto and a group of fellow frog hunters set off into the darkness each night at 8pm, tip-toeing through the the rice paddies and streams.

The men often hunt into the early hours of the morning, with no talking in case the noise scares the slippery creatures away.

Their modus operandi looks simple -- barefoot and armed with small handlamps, they use nets attached to long wooden poles to scoop up the frogs they find in the muck of the fields and riverbanks.

But beyond their basic tools, the frog hunters seem to have a sixth sense for the amphibians, gathering dozens in just minutes from what would otherwise be an indistinguishable patch of dark swamp.

The men catch 50 to 70 kilograms (110 to 150 pounds) of Asian brackish (a crab-eating frog) and giant Javan frogs each night, much of which will feed the domestic market, estimated to be two to seven times the export volume.

While the thought of eating frogs from the unregulated Indonesian wild may make some shudder, Chinese-Indonesian Ferdian Zhang, 37, wouldn't have it any other way, buying all his frogs legs from Mulyani for his Bogor restaurant.

"They're free-range frogs, caught in the wild like free-range chickens. You just can't compare the taste," he said.

The local market is dominated by the Chinese-Indonesian minority, as many in the Muslim majority believe eating frogs legs is "haram" (forbidden).

Altherr's conservation group hopes to draw attention the issue at this month's Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) conference in Bangkok, aiming to get several frog species on a protected list.

But Sri Mulyani has faith the frog population will continue to flourish.

"God will protect us and be fair to us, and make sure there are always frogs," she said.

That is of course, if she stops kissing the creatures, as she did on a recent delivery to Zhang's restaurant.

"Sri Mulyani kissed a frog and it turned into her husband!" Zhang said, laughing. "Suwanto is the frog prince."

Related Article:

International conference aims to protect endangered species

Tiger Hurts Jambi Man in Latest Attack Linked to Deforestation

Jakarta Globe, March 02, 2013

A Sumatran tiger growls inside a cage. (Reuters Photo/Beawiharta).

               

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A man in Jambi was attacked by a Sumatran tiger on Thursday, adding to a long list of human encounters with the endangered animal that has lost much of its habitat to encroachment and deforestation.

Sutrisno, 45, a resident of Muaro Sebo village, sustained serious wounds to his left thigh after being attacked at 2 p.m. on Thursday.

A witness, Dodi, said that Sutrisno was tapping for rubber in his field and noted that there were tiger footprints on the ground. Sutrisno later took a photograph of the footprints to alert his neighbors.

On his way back, he came face to face with the tiger.

Sutrisno went to reach for a wooden stick nearby but was attacked before he had could scare the tiger off.

The man tried to wrestle with the tiger before managing to climb a tree.

The tiger tried to chase after him but Sutrisno prevented it from climbing by hitting the animal repeatedly with the stick he was holding.

Several villagers immediately chased the tiger away after Sutrisno cried for help.

“The villagers in Muaro Sebo have now been told not to leave their houses,” Dodi said adding that there was another villager who claimed to have spotted at least three tigers not long before the incident.

The Jambi Natural Resource Conservation Agency (BKSDA) immediately deployed several officers to hunt down the tigers in a bid to relocate them away from human settlement.

The BKSDA has recorded several human encounters with the endangered species over the past three weeks, saying that a recent flood might have pushed the tiger population even closer to human habitation.

Last week, two farmers in West Tanjung Jabung district were attacked by tigers and had to be hospitalized. Just days later, a domesticated cow in Batanghari district was killed and eaten by tigers.

BKSDA Jambi chief Tri Siswo said the majority of the tiger population live inside the Kerinci Seblat National Park, which borders three provinces — Jambi, West Sumatra, and Bengkulu — and was heavily affected by recent floods.

Tri said that massive deforestation was also to blame for the increasing number of encounters with the endangered species, which is estimated to number only 30 to 40 in the entire province.

Dog 'saved life' of missing Polish girl

BBC News, 2 March 2013 

Firefighters said the animal stayed with
the child throughout the night

Firefighters in Poland say a small dog likely saved the life of a three-year-old girl who went missing from her home overnight in freezing temperatures.

The child, Julia, vanished on Friday and was found lying in marshes several kilometres from her house on Saturday morning, with the dog by her side.

She is now in hospital in western Poland, suffering from frostbite after temperatures fell to -5C (23F).

Firefighter Grzegorz Szymanski said the dog kept the child warm enough to live.

"For the whole night the animal was with the girl, it never left her. Remember, it was 5 degrees below zero and the child was wet," he said, adding that the animal was the most important factor in the girl's survival.

More than 200 people had searched for the child overnight. It is thought she spent the night wandering through the forest near her home in the village of Pierzwin.

She was eventually discovered by firefighters after she was heard crying for her mother.

Peter Gabriel wants to talk with animals online

Google – AFP, 1 March 2013 

British singer Peter Gabriel performs in a music festival in Paddock Wood,

Kent, on June 29, 2012 (AFP/File, Ben Stansall)

LONG BEACH, California — Peter Gabriel joined big thinkers and one of the Internet's founding fathers Friday in launching an "Interspecies Internet" for animals to communicate with us and each other.

"Perhaps the most amazing tool man has created is the Internet," the famous British singer said.

"What would happen if we could somehow find new interfaces -- visual, audio -- to allow us to communicate with the remarkable beings we share the planet with?"

His allies in the effort include Vint Cerf, a revered father of the Internet, along with a cognitive psychologist and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor.

Gabriel showed a video of a jamming session he had with a bonobo playing the keyboard. The bonobo used one finger to improvise a tune that the singer overlaid with his distinctive voice.

"She did good," Gabriel said with a smile.

He told of growing up on a farm and often looking into the eyes of animals and wondering what they were thinking.

"What was amazing to me was that they seemed a lot more adept at getting a handle on our language than we were at getting a handle on theirs," Gabriel said.

"I work with a lot of musicians from around the world... Often we don't have any common language at all. We sit behind our instruments and it's a way to connect."

His curiosity led him to Diana Reiss, a psychologist known for dolphin intelligence research.

"Animals are conscious. They have emotions. They are aware," Reiss said. "One of my biggest dreams is that we give them the respect and attention they deserve."

MIT professor Neil Gershenfeld signed onto the effort after seeing a video of Gabriel's jam session and concluding that leaving the rest of the planet out of the Internet was an omission in need of correction.

"What is important about what these people are doing is they are beginning to learn how to communicate with species who are not us but share a sensory environment," said Cerf.

"These other sentient species should be part of the network too."

Cerf, now chief Internet evangelist at Google, spoke of an inter-species Internet as a test run for communicating with life encountered while exploring space.

"These interactions with other animals will teach us, ultimately, how we might interact with an alien from another world," he added. "I can hardly wait."

Seed money for the project will be used to develop a touchscreen device that dolphins can use to connect to the Internet.

"We want to engage people here to make smart interfaces to make this possible," Gabriel to a TED audience know for brilliant scientists and exceptional entrepreneurs.

"We are almost ready to turn it on."

Related Articles:

"Do Animals Reincarnate?" - NOV 22, 2010 (Kuthumi channelled by Lynette Leckie-Clark)

“... Perhaps this is a timely reminder for mankind to respect all life forms. All play a part in the consciousness evolution of man and the planet. As you prepare to enter a year of Unity, of stepping forward in respect of one another, I ask you remember the many kingdoms who also share the planet- the elemental, plant, mineral and animal. I ask you develop a new awareness for these. It is not all about you - the human. No it is not. You must now begin to awaken your consciousness to sharing - with all. For all is part of God's great creation. 

Update from Ashtar via Mike Quinsey: Obama’s State of the Union Address – (Ashtar channeled by Susan Leland, February 12, 2013)

“… It is Freedom in every aspect of the lives of all humans on Planet Earth; it is Freedom for the animal and the plant kingdoms, and for the mineral kingdoms who are deemed to serve the humans. You know, it’s the humans who think all of the other kingdoms are here to serve. If you ask members of the other kingdoms what they have to say about that, they would take a different perspective and voice a different point of view which is true and appropriate, and as you like to say, it is high time because we are in High Times and we are continuing on this Path! ..."