United Nations Stalled on Strategy to Save Forests

World Growth -- a U.S.-based non-governmental pro-growth organization -- called on wealthy nations to honor their commitments to support the United Nations’ strategy to save forests in the developing world.

World Growth Chairman Alan Oxley points out that rather than assisting poor countries in their efforts to implement sustainable forestry, U.N. aid donors have been directing those much-needed funds to anti-forestry initiatives promoted by NGOs like Greenpeace and WWF.

Speaking on the release of a new report from the World Growth Forestry and Poverty program -- “Forestry and Development: Building the Foundations for Sustainability” -- timed to coincide with this week’s meeting of the U.N. Forum on Forestry, Mr. Oxley explains, “The U.N. has always insisted that forestry initiatives both protect biodiversity and promote economic growth.

However, influenced by persistent criticism against commercial forestry NGOs like Greenpeace and WWF, aid donors have provided funding to anti-forestry campaigns that devastate the economic welfare of poor communities by restricting forestry in developing countries."

“There’s clear evidence that Greenpeace’s illegal logging claims regularly ignore the facts. World Growth’s new report shows that global targets to reserve 11 percent of the world’s forests for conservation have been far exceeded -- an impressive 80 percent of the Amazon rainforest remained intact. Moreover, the annual rate of deforestation is now less than 0.2 percent per year and falling.”

In “Forestry and Development,” World Growth reveals that deforestation is not caused by commercial forestry (or illegal logging), but rather pressure of population growth and the need to produce valuable crops.

It also outlines the steps necessary to implement sustainable forestry (good technical knowledge of forests, well-trained forest officials, clear property rights and carefully designed forestry policy), noting that the intensive process is costly.

“If the world’s forest-rich developing countries are to successfully transition to sustainable forestry practices, they’ll need financial assistance,” Mr. Oxley continues.

“For that reason the U.N specifically outlined an obligation to resume aid to poor countries for this very purpose in its strategy on developed countries. However, aid donors have yet to honor this commitment.”

In 1991, the World Bank 1991 decided to not support sustainable forestry in tropical countries. Though the organization has informally conceded this policy was wrong and has even recently made a major loan to Brazil to support sustainable forestry, the formal position of the Bank is still stuck in the past.

“Donors have fallen into an aid trap,” says Mr. Oxley. “Rather than fund sustainable forestry -- which enables developing countries to responsibly develop their natural resources and then finance forest conservation themselves -- activist groups have convinced funders to subsidize measures to temporality improve conservation.

Because the conservation can only continue as long as the donor provides the aid, this is poor alternative. “Good aid, on the other hand, produces self-perpetuating conservation. For that reason, the U.N., the World Bank, and world leaders must formally reject misguided anti-forestry policies.”

Over 20000 families flooded in East Kalimantan

At least 20.106 families have been inundated in floods in Samarinda city of East Kalimantan province. Heavy rain since Friday submerged thousands of houses in North Samarinda and Samarinda Ilir districts, over the weekend.

North Samarinda district head Marnabas said the heavy downpours had increased the water debit in the Benanga dam, Lempake subdistricts, from 30 cubic centimeters to 65 cubic centimeters per second.

The heavy rains also caused the Mahakam River and its tributary Karang Mumus River to overflow, leading to floods along their riverbanks. The worst flood, with a depth of 80 centimeters, occurred in Bengkuring, North Samarinda, whose downtown areas were inundated in waters up to 50 centimeters deep.

"I could not send my elementary school son to school because our motorbike could not pass through the street in front of our house," said Ruqiyah, a housewife from Bengkuring.

Dhea, from South Sempaja, said the flood was the worst she had ever experienced in the area. The flood has inundated the street in front of the Madya Sempaja Stadium, up to 50 centimeters deep, disturbing the traffic in the region.

Marnabas expressed hope the heavy downpour would stop and that the floods would not extend to wider areas. "We are working with the Social Agency to prepare for the boats and provide logistic supplies to survivors."

Many, including head of the Ministry of Environment's Kalimantan Regional Office B. Widodo Sambodo, have blamed the conversion of green regions into housing complexes or mining sites for the frequent floods in the region.

Samarinda has suffered from widespread flooding several times in the past five months due to heavy rains. Last November, floods killed a 12-year-old boy, identified as Roby, who was electrocuted while playing in an area flooded by up to two meters in North Samarinda.

In the same month, five estuarine crocodiles, some measuring up to seven meters in length, were flushed out of their holdings in Mulawarman University National Park as major floods destroyed their cages. The park had to deploy 40 people to catch them.

The two-wheeled electric car that will 'never crash'

General Motors Corp. and Segway Inc. are working together to develop a two-wheeled, two-seat electric vehicle designed to be a fast, safe, inexpensive and clean alternative to traditional cars and trucks for cities across the world.

The Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility, or PUMA, project also would involve a vast communications network that would allow vehicles to interact with one another, regulate traffic flow and prevent crashes, the companies said last week.

"We're excited about doing more with less," said Jim Norrod, chief executive of Segway, the Bedford, N.H.-based company best known for its innovative electric stand-and-ride electric scooter that's used by police departments, pizza deliverymen and others in urban settings.

"Less emissions, less dependability on foreign oil and less space," Norrod said.

The 300-pound prototype runs on a lithium-ion battery and uses Segway's characteristic two-wheel balancing technology, along with dual electric motors. It's designed to reach speeds of up to 35 miles per hour and can run 35 miles on a single charge.

Ideally, the vehicles would also be part of a communications network that through the use of transponder and Global Positioning System technology would allow them to drive themselves. The vehicles would automatically avoid obstacles such as pedestrians and other cars and therefore never crash, Burns said.

As a result, the vehicles would not need air bags or other traditional safety devices and include safety belts for "comfort purposes" only, he said.

Though the technology and its goals may seem like something out of science fiction, Burns said nothing new needs to be in- vented for it to become a reality.

Meanwhile, the recession has resulted in some of the lowest industrywide vehicle sales in more than a quarter-century.

But Burns argued that some of the most revolutionary ideas have been born out of tough economic times.

"The next two months, and really 2009, is all about the reinvention of General Motors," he said.