Trees... generate oxygen; men just breathe it up, stink it up, and generally misuse it. Trees hold the soil in place, men are constantly displacing it. Trees provide shelter and protection to countless species, men threaten the existence of those species. When in sufficient numbers, trees regulate atmospheric temperatures, men endanger the planet by knocking those regulations askew. You can't rest in the shade of a human, not even a roly-poly one; and isn't it refreshing that trees can undergo periodic change without having a nervous breakdown over it? And which has more dignity - the calmer spiritual presence - a tree or a typical Homo sapiens? Best of all, perhaps, what mahogany or banyan ever tried to sell you something you didn't want?
Trite? Probably, but so what? Tom Robbins - Villa Incognito Certainly not if you consider the
report issued today by
Forest Trends which states that
the overwhelming majority of current commercial industrial forestry operations in PNG are ecologically and economically unsustainable, and, in fact, illegal.
Papua New Guinea's forest industry is predominately focused on the harvesting of natural forest areas for round log exports. There is little plantation production and only a limited number of processing facilities. The sector is dominated by Malaysian-owned interests and the primary markets for raw logs are in China, Japan, and Korea. Many of the logs are processed in China for consumption in Europe and North America.
This sounds suspiciously similar to the proposed
2,000 kilometer long, five kilometer wide swathe along the Malaysian border in Kalimantan
I blogged about a couple of days ago.
While the PNG Government and its regulatory institutions have all the necessary policies, laws, and regulations to ensure that sustainable timber production can be achieved, these laws are not being enforced. Industry is allowed to ignore PNG laws and, in fact, gains preferential treatment in many cases, while the rural poor are left to suffer the social and environmental consequences of an industry that operates largely outside the regulatory system. Corruption is an underlying theme throughout the review reports.
"The system must be fixed," said Michael Jenkins, President & CEO of Forest Trends. "The nexus between the logging companies and the political élite needs to be broken."
The political élite in which countries, Michael?
NB. Papua New Guinea is a sovereign state and not to be confused with the Indonesian province(s) of
Papua, 'home' of
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. which is
protected by the Indonesian military, to the
displeasure of the Papuans.
Charlton supports EnglandThere haven't been many Charlton players who've represented England and I can't think of a single goalscorer. So good luck tonight to
Darren Bent who will start up front
against Uruguay. Given that the World Cup squads need to be finalised soon, let's hope he bags a few.
Strange to think that he's preferred to
Jermaine Defoe, now with Tottenham Hotspur, but formerly a Charlton youth player. Similarly waiting in the wings praying for injuries to others are
Scott Parker, now with Newcastle, and
Paul Konchesky, now with West Ham, also former Charlton youth products.
Luke Young, Charlton's most capped England player with 7 aqppearances, will almost certainly be going to Germany, but as understudy to Gary Neville of Manyoo. Former England right back,
Chris Powell, with 5 caps but now 'too old' at 36, has the summer off.
I look forward to seeing the match, which is on in the wee small hours here. I've already 'booked' my place on the sofa for the rerun tomorrow at 7pm.
Á propos de rien News that the Rolling Stones have been forced by the Chinese government to drop a few songs from their repetoire when they play in Shanghai next month should not surprise anyone. After all, their songs
Brown Sugar, Let's Spend the Night Together, Honky Tonk Woman and
Beast of Burden are ripe with sexual innuendo.
Their current tour is called
A Bigger Bang.
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