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Erik Patel's Article on the Crisis (5/20/10)
National Geographic NewsWatch interview -
click here
Rosewood Export Ban Announced (4/2/10)
EI PRESS/SOCIAL MEDIA RELEASE
VICTORY! Madagascar Reinstates Rainforest Protections
Following EI Led Global Public Outcry
March 29, 2010
From Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet (EI)
http://www.ecoearth.info/newsdesk/
Madagascar's transitional government last week reinstated a
ban on rosewood logging and exports, following prolonged and
growing pressure over illegal logging of its national parks
spearheaded by Ecological Internet. As reported by Mongabay,
the decree (no. 2010-141) prohibits all exports of rosewood
and precious timber for two to five years. With the export
ban in place, the fate of 10,000-15,000 metric tons of
already illegally logged rosewood awaiting export remains
uncertain. It is also unclear whether illegal loggers and
traders will be prosecuted [1].
“These issues, getting this moratorium to be permanent, and
working to demonstrate community development from standing
primary and restored rainforests will require continued
vigilance and campaigning. Yet, two important points have
been made. It is again demonstrated that it is possible to
end rainforest logging. And the emergence of an empowered
global movement committed to protecting and restoring old
forests – and other ecologically sufficient policy necessary
to achieve global ecological sustainability – is again
powerfully demonstrated,” says Dr. Glen Barry, EI President.
Over the past year, Ecological Internet conceived and led an
international protest campaign seeking to emphasize the
importance of keeping Madagascar’s dwindling primary forests
standing and intact as the basis for national advancement
[2]. Some 7674 EI network participants from 102 countries
sent over 1/2 million protest emails. The result comes just
days after EI blasted President Sarkozy of France, a country
with deep historical ties to Madagascar, as being “guilty of
dangerous hypocrisy” for condemning deforestation as a
French company company continued to threaten Madagascar’s
rainforests.
Other groups such as Regenwald, Global Witness and the
Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) that have been
protesting the resumption in exports of illegally logged
timber cautiously welcomed the move as well. The logging
crisis began in March of 2009 when destabilization following
a government coup allowed loggers to enter several of
Madagascar's world-renowned parks and illegally log rosewood
and other valuable trees. Tens of thousands of hectares were
logged in Madagascar's most biodiverse rainforests, which
also sparked a rise in bushmeat trafficking of lemurs.
Madagascar’s transitional government then sanctioned timber
exports at the end of 2009 despite a long-standing ban on
rosewood logging.
[1] Madagascar bans rainforest timber exports following
global outcry,
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0325-madagascar_rosewood_ban.html
More Information can be found at Mongabay which has broken
and continues to cover the story.
[2] Action Alert: Protest Madagascar's Legalization of
Rosewood Log Export from National Parks
http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=madagascar_landgrab
Madagascar Rainforest Massacre by Derek Schuurman 2009 YouTube video
Virtual
Tour of Madagascar - Climate Change and Economic Solutions via
the Forests
Journal Madagascar Conservation & Development 10/6/09
National Geographic News
Scientific American
Edmonton Journal
Wanderlust
YubaList.com
Reuters
WildMadagascar.org
Madagascar Fauna Group
Madagascar Net
Madagascar
Tribune (in French)
Destruction Worsens... - Current.com
Interview with Erik Patel
- mongabay.com
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