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Uganda: ‘Return Our Forest’
Gerald Tenywa And Salome Alweny, Panos/All Africa
Kampala – It was an act of defiance when Henry Tekei and his Ndorobo tribesmen over-ran a protected forest reserve in eastern Uganda last April and hacked down thousands of trees planted by a Netherlands-based firm.
“No one should say that we don’t respect the forest,” says Henry Tekei, controlling the anger in his voice as he points up to the strikingly green Mount Elgon National Park, where tribesmen axed the trees in a four-month destruction spree.
They cut the trees not to disrespect the forest, but to reclaim land they had lived on for generations, he says.
In 1994, after the land was cleared, the official Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) signed a 25,000 hectare tree plantation agreement with the FACE Foundation, a Netherlands-based company dealing in a controversial carbon trade business that evolved from the Kyoto Protocol. ..
Miguel Lovera, an environmental campaigner with the Global Forest Coalition, says that Africa’s interest in tree plantations is controversial. “It is being undertaken without fair treatment of the local people. There is a lot of resource, but the interests of the local people are not being respected,” he says.
“In order for plantations to work, you need sound governance procedures that hinge on justice and respect for the rights of indigenous peoples,” says Lovera, who was warning top African officials at the Nairobi conference against jumping too quickly into the carbon plantations business.
“There are many international agencies that have strong interest in Africa and have given a lot of money for tree planting. But this is not going to benefit the local people, because it goes against the norms of the local people, especially those who own the land communally,” Lovera says.
(14 Nov 2006)
Australian drought: Goin’ Under
Schnews
A DROP OF STREWTH IN AN OCEAN OF BULLSHIT
Last weekend was the International Day of Action Against Climate Change, coinciding with the start of the latest UN Climate Talks in Nairobi from 6th-17th November. The buzzword at this summit is ‘adaptation’ – i.e. we’ve left it too late to stop climate change, so how do we adjust our markets to survive and prosper from the now inevitable changes? Also being discussed is what to do when the Kyoto agreement lapses (and the world ends, according to Mayan prophecy) in 2012.
The day drew marching crowds worldwide, while one country facing a nasty climate-changed future saw some of its biggest ever environmental rallies – Australia.
The 40,000 in Sydney, 40,000 in Melbourne, plus twenty six other population centres who protested could be having their ‘Katrina’ moment over the next few months as the country goes into its worst droughts for 1000 years – after the hottest year on record – and the reality of climate change becomes irrefutable, even to right-wing politicians.
(13 Nov 2006)
A good summary of the frightening prospects climate change poses for Australia, delivered in Schnews’ trademark style. And a link to my EDAP primer – thanks Schnews! -AF
Ailments Surge as Ozone Hole Widens
Stephen Leahy, IPS
Skin cancer, eye lesions and other infections are on the rise, a reminder that the Antarctic ozone hole continues to be a serious problem, especially for southern Argentina and Chile, where ultraviolet radiation during the spring months increases 25 percent.
According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the dramatic thinning of the ozone layer over the Antarctic — an annual phenomenon — sprawled to an average of 29.5 million square kilometres Sep. 21 to Sep. 30.
…Global UV levels have been rising for the past 25 years and it is not known how fast they will continue to increase, nor for how long, said De Fabo. “Ozone-depleting chemicals are going to be in the atmosphere for hundreds of years,” he added.
…Worldwide, levels of UV radiation are on average five to 10 percent higher than pre-1980 levels, and will remain that way for another decade or more.
(11 Nov 2006)
Warm weather wrecks bears’ winter slumber
Reuters
Insomniac bears are roaming the forests of southwestern Siberia scaring local people as the weather stays too warm for the animals to fall into their usual winter slumber.
“Due to weather conditions, bears didn’t go into the winter sleep in time,” said Tatiana Maslova, chief expert at a regional environmental agency in the city of Kemerovo, about 3,500 km (2,190 miles) southeast of Moscow.
“At the moment there is enough fodder, so they are not wreaking any havoc,” Maslova said. Hunters, out in the woods stalking birds and hares now that the hunting season is open, need protection from restless bears the most, she added. ..
(16 Nov 2006)
