S.1930 – Combat Illegal Logging Act of 2007

As we all know, illegal logging is one of the major factors contributing towards species loss, decreasing biodiversity, habitat destruction and increased greenhouse gases. However, there are no laws or regulations in any country that stops the wood produced from this corrupt exploitative trade from being imported and used by any and all companies.

Finally, American Senator Ron Wyden has recognised the need for government to become involved in this issue and made a long overdue stand by introducing the 2007 ‘Combat Illegal Logging Act’ – or S.1930. It will make it illegal in America to knowingly import, sell, buy or transport illegally-sourced wood and wood products.

This is a massive step forward for an issue like this to be brought to the forefront of politics, especially by a world superpower, and especially by the country that is responsible for 25.2% of the world’s greenhouse emissions. the only problem is, this bill has to be voted in not only by Senate, but by the President aswell, and with George W. Bush’s long standing stubbornness to blatantly, not even skillfully, ignore climate change and global warming, we may be in for the long ride with this one.

OpenCongress.org

Retail Responsibly for Orangutans

Experts at Brookfield Zoo, Chicago, have called on us all to recognise the plight of the rare and diminishing species, the Orangutan. In a conference held on Thursday, Cheryl Knott, a leading Orangutan expert on a project at Harvard University, explained how something as simple as buying the right brands can truly make a big difference.

The main threat to the Orangutan species is the loss of habitat in their only native countries of Burma and Sumatra, Indonesia. A report earlier this year from the United Nations’ Environment Programme [UNEP] said Indonesia’s forest habitat for orangutans may be gone by 2022 without intervention. Boycotting retail products that source Palm Oil from an unsustainable source, can cut down on the massive rainforest loss.

RETAIL RESPONSIBLY

• Read the labels of your grocery and toiletry shopping, choose brands that either do not use Palm Oil at all, or use a sustainable source.
• Do not buy any wood materials from an uncertified tropical hardwood – it will have come from an illegal logging site. Anything from toothpicks to furniture…..
• Next time you pass a charity box at a zoo or otherwise aimed at underfunded conservation efforts – drop £1 in. If we all made a small contribution the difference would be huge.

Not only are the trees destroyed, but the mothers killed and the babies taken away to be sold as illegal pets, forcing them into a new life of captivity and misery. Please do a little something to help – a little change for you could make a massive change for them.

GREENPEACE Report on the Goldigging Government

Greenpeace has released a damning statement, uncovering the alarming destruction of Indonesia’s rainforest. Between 2000 and 2005, an area the size of 300 football pitches was razed by logging EVERY HOUR, amounting to the highest rate of forest destruction ever witnessed. This carries on unchecked.

Greenpeace has urged the country’s government to put a stop to this immediately, and commit to a conservation plan to save the beautiful habitat and biodiversity by converting peatland forest and achieving a cut in fires.