Malaysian Oil Palm Threatens Brazilian Amazon
By Rainforest Rescue with Ecological Internet
http://www.regenwald.org/international/englisch/ &
http://www.climateark.org/
May 6, 2009
TAKE ACTION HERE NOW:
http://www.climateark.org/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=amazon_oil_palm
Malaysia's government owned and subsidized oil palm cooking oil and
biofuel industry -- the scourge of Asia and the world's rainforests --
is continuing to expand, this time into the heart of the Brazilian Amazon
BRIEF BACKGROUND:
Malaysia‘s Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) will soon break
ground on a joint venture with a Brazilian firm to establish
30,000-100,000 hectares (ha; 75,000 – 250,000 acres of oil palm
plantations in the heart of Brazil's Amazon rainforest. Similar oil palm
development continues to devastate Asia-Pacific's rainforests, and
increasingly the world, with some thirty square miles of carbon and
biodiversity rich habitat being cleared a day to provide cooking oil and
transport biodiesel. Oil palm agrofuel is heralded as a climate change
mitigation measure, yet the initial rainforest clearance leads to much
more carbon release than its production and use avoids.
Large scale biofuel production runs counter to urgently addressing
climate change and threatens to cause more deforestation, hunger, human
rights abuses, and degradation of soil and water. Global ecological
sustainability and local well-being depend critically upon ending all
industrial development in the world's remaining old forests -- including
plantations, logging, mining and dams. The amount of primary and old
growth forests that have been lost has already overshot the carrying
capacity of Earth. Globally there are not enough old forests to maintain
climatic and hydrological cycles, meet local forest dwellers' needs, and
to maintain ecosystems and the biosphere in total. Local peoples must be
assisted to fully protect, restore and benefit from intact, standing
forests.
TAKE ACTION NOW:
http://www.climateark.org/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=amazon_oil_palm
DISCUSS THIS ALERT:
http://www.rainforestportal.org/issues/2009/05/alert_malaysian_oil_palm_threa.asp
--
Dr. Glen Barry
President
Ecological Internet, Inc.
USA
GlenBarry@EcologicalInternet.org
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My.EcoEarth.Info -- http://My.EcoEarth.info/
New Earth Rising e-zine -- http://www.newearthrising.org/
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