Two-Thirds of Congo Basin Forests Could Disappear

[nam78_two]

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11859

ENN FULL STORY
Two-Thirds of Congo Basin Forests Could Disappear

December 15, 2006 — By Tansa Musa, Reuters
YAOUNDE -- Two-thirds of the forests in the Congo River Basin could disappear within 50 years if logging and mineral exploitation continues at current rates, environmental group WWF said in a report.

The Congo Basin, the world's second largest tropical forest after the Amazon, loses some 3.7 million acres a year to agriculture, logging, road development, oil exploitation and mining, WWF's Central African regional office (CARPO) said in a report published late on Thursday.

"Tropical forest is vanishing at a rate of 5 percent a decade, wrecking habitats and releasing 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, which is a fifth of global greenhouse emissions," CARPO director Laurent Somé said in the report.

About 400 mammal species live in the Congo Basin, including the world's largest populations of lowland gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and forest elephants, all under threat as their habitat is destroyed.

More than 655 bird species fly under its dense canopy and over 10,000 plant species take root in the forest floor, many of them unique to the region and containing medicinal properties.

"The region is blanketed by a patchwork quilt of logging concessions. While the logging itself is usually selective and does little damage, the associated roads, infrastructure and migration degrade surrounding landscape and result in massive wildlife depletion," the report said.

"Studies show that if current trends continue, two-thirds of the Congo's forests could be lost within 50 years."

[RobofSWVA]

1. UN needs to do something about Africa

Europe and the United States need to collectively clean up the mess we all made in Africa. Imperialism and exploitation of the continent created the situation we see today. Not only are we seeing destruction of rainforest and other natural areas, but human genocides as well. The logistics and details for a plan designed to stabilize the region are mind blowing to say the least. With so much focus on the Middle East I don’t know what we could really do other than complain right now. Which is so sad I want to puke.

[Ganja Ninja]

2. We ought to try and restore some of the forests that ..

the white man logged off right here in America. I'm sure that weather patterns were a lot different back when the east was covered in trees.

[jwirr]

3. E.F. Schumacher quotes Gandhi in his book Small is Beautiful:

"Step by step, he spelled our the essential good sense of a third world, economic policy that rejected imitation of Western models: breakneck urbanization, heavy capital investments, mass production, centralized development planning, and advanced technology. In contrast, Gandhi's scheme was to begin with the villages, to stabilize and enrich their traditional way of life by use of labor-intensive manufacture, and handicrafts, and to keep the nation's ecumenic decision making as decentralized as possible, even if this slowed the pace of urban and industrial growth to a crawl."

I think those two men are worth following. If only our government and the IMF, World Bank, etc. really cared about the people of Africa.