Norway's Climate and Forests Initiative, which has set aside billions of dollars for efforts to reduce deforestation, should work with the country's Ministry of Finance to divest the Government Pension Fund from companies that destroy forests, says the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an environmental group.

EIA is making a push on the issue just four days after the pension fund announced it had sold all of its shares in Malaysian logging conglomerate Samling Global after an investigation found evidence of illegal logging in Sarawak, a Malaysian state of the island of Borneo. While the sale represented less than 1 percent of Samling's outstanding shares, the action sent a strong signal.

Now EIA is calling upon the Ministry of Finance to evaluate another $437 million in shareholdings in major forestry, agriculture, and related commodities companies that operate in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Malaysia.

"Many have been linked to deforestation and other severe environmental damage," read a statement from EIA. "Some have been accused of illegal logging and land clearance, rights and labor abuses, corruption, and significant tax fraud. All such activities would contravene the Ethical Guidelines of the Pension Fund if confirmed."

Among the questionable holdings cited by EIA:

Source: Mongabay

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BirdLife’s efforts to save threatened rainforests around the globe have received a major boost following the support of HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco and Singapore Airlines at events held in Singapore today.

Royal support

Speaking to delegates from governments, the private sector and conservation organisations at an evening event hosted by the Nature Society (Singapore) (local BirdLife Partner), HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco stressed that: “… the work of BirdLife allows whole areas to be protected and preserved – unique areas of the globe whose importance is key both for our survival and for our knowledge of the world”.

HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco used the event to underline the importance of tropical forests, and announced his support to BirdLife's Forests of Hope programme. “The conservation and restoration ‘Forests of Hope’ projects co-ordinated by BirdLife and its Partners in tropical forests around the world … are now better known, and above all, let us hope, on the way to being saved”.

“I am particularly pleased that my Foundation - whose commitment to biodiversity and protection of the planet - is a faithful partner of BirdLife International, and has signed a framework partnership allowing our efforts to be united and our approaches to be shared on several projects throughout the world.”

Forests of Hope – a fresh approach to rainforest conservation

The BirdLife Global Partnership has been deeply engaged in forest conservation across the tropics for years, and is achieving significant successes on the ground. BirdLife’s ‘Forests of Hope’ programme is building on this wealth of experience, and expanding this work across the globe. 

It uses an innovative approach towards large-scale forest restoration and conservation which addresses biodiversity conservation, eco-services preservation, social development and climate change mitigation and adaptation.
 
Delegates at the event heard how Burung Indonesia (BirdLife Partner) and the RSPB (BirdLife Partner in the UK) and BirdLife International are conserving and restoring around 20% of Sumatra’s remaining lowland forest through the Harapan Rainforest Initiative.

Harapan success

Harapan Rainforest – the Indonesian word for ‘hope’ - is located on the island of Sumatra, the largest island in Indonesia. The dry lowland forest is home to over 290 species of birds, along with other charismatic and Globally Threatened animals like Asian wild dog, Malayan Tapir, Asian Elephant and a significant proportion of the world’s Sumatran Tiger.

The Harapan concession has been recently licensed to the BirdLife consortium by the Indonesian Government under a completely new regulation that allows forests to be set-aside and managed for their long-term conservation and restoration. Harapan is the world’s first forest restoration concession of this type, and the license has been granted for nearly 100 years. Real hope.

The BirdLife consortium have employed over 200 staff - mainly from local communities - to ensure that the 100,000 hectares of forest are safe from fires and illegal logging. “We are working hard to ensure the indigenous communities who still live sustainably in the forest feel the benefits of the project, with many social development and employment opportunities being made available”, said Dr Marco Lambertini - Chief Executive of BirdLife International.

“Just three years into the project the results are already impressive, with a sharp decline in forest fires, illegal logging and poaching”, added Dr Lambertini.

Singapore Airlines contributes to 'Harapan Fund'

Recognising the effectiveness of BirdLife’s approach to tropical forest conservation and restoration, earlier today Singapore Airlines announced a US$3 million contribution to establish a 'Harapan Fund' managed by BirdLife.

"Forests are among the world’s chief carbon stores, and the arrestment of deforestation is a key step towards combating climate change,” said Mr Bey Soo Khiang - Singapore Airline’s Senior Executive Vice-President Marketing and Corporate Services. “The money contributed will be used to finance ongoing core operations such as the employment of forest patrols to prevent illegal logging and forest fires as well as plant and species protection programmes”.

"Singapore Airlines is pleased and excited to be a part of this initiative which has tangible environmental benefits not just for Indonesia, but the international community as well," he added.

"We are delighted that Singapore Airlines has decided to help us conserve tropical forests like Harapan”, said Dr Lambertini. “This will help to preserve their invaluable biodiversity and crucial eco-services, and combat greenhouse emissions from deforestation and forest fires. Singapore Airlines has shown real long-sighted vision and corporate environmental responsibility at a time when tropical forests need more help than ever".

Conserving forests across the tropics

Finally, delegates from the business world heard how BirdLife intends to grow a new global ‘Forest and Climate Fund’ to conserve a portfolio of sites identified from across the tropics. These sites include Cambodia’s Western Siem Pang Important Bird Area (IBA) - one of the last areas of the dry and semi-evergreen forests of mainland South-East Asia.

“This site is of global conservation importance and supports populations of five Critically Endangered bird species making it globally unique”, said His Excellency Chea Sam Ang - deputy chief of Cambodia’s Forestry Administration - at the evening event.

In Cambodia, the Forestry Administration and BirdLife International have a long-established collaborative programme to conserve IBAs in The Kingdom. “The Forestry Administration looks forward to further strengthening our collaboration with BirdLife and to working together to secure the conservation of Western Siem Pang”, announced His Excellency Chea Sam Ang.

Wider corporate support needed

To conserve sites like Harapan and Western Siem Pang, BirdLife needs others to join Singapore Airlines and invest in tropical forest conservation action around the globe.

“The combination of biodiversity conservation, haze prevention and tangible contribution to combat global warming, creates a strong ethical and business case for companies to invest in tropical forest conservation”, said Dr Geh Min from the Nature Society (Singapore). A global market of carbon credits from natural forests was discussed by the world’s governments in 2008 under the UN Convention on Climate Change, but is likely to take a decade to come into action.

“We can’t wait this long”, said Dr Geh. “Millions of hectares of tropical forests across the tropics are being lost - now is the time to invest in their restoration.

This is a wonderful chance for Singapore to do her part to save the Earth, benefit ourselves and our neighbours - a shared dream come true”.

Source: BirdLife International

75 percent of birds and dung beetles remain even after a forest is logged twice.

A new study in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B finds that forests which have undergone logging in the past, sometimes even twice, retain significant levels of biodiversity in Borneo. The researchers say these findings should push conservationists to protect more logged forests from being converted into oil palm plantations where biodiversity levels drop considerably and endangered species are almost wholly absent. Given that much of Borneo's forests have been logged as least once, these long-dismissed forests could become a new frontier for conservationists.

"Whilst the value of primary habitat is undisputed and efforts to protect them are vital, the area of primary forest remaining in Borneo is rapidly diminishing and is increasingly fragmented," lead author David Edwards explained to mongabay.com. "It is only with the inclusion of logged over, degraded forests that large-scale networks of protected areas can be maintained and the long-term viability of Borneo's biodiversity guaranteed,"

Edwards and his team surveyed birds and dung beetles—the most "cost-effective indicator" species of biodiversity—in a primary forest, a forest logged once (where all the large marketable trees are removed), and in a forest logged twice in the Malaysian state of Sabah in Borneo. They found that over 75 percent of species remained even after two rounds of logging, although about half of the species experienced abundance changes.

"Logging rainforest shifts the make-up of species found, and in turn, relogging causes further changes," Edwards says "However, despite these shifts in species, we find that relogged forests harbor similar numbers of bird and dung beetle species to primary forests and that over three quarters of the species found in primary habitat remain after relogging."

Edwards adds that he was surprised that biodiversity remained so high even after a forest was logged twice.

"The forest structure and canopy height of relogged rainforests are so dramatically different to primary forests that it is hard to believe that biodiversity will remain in high levels. But that is exactly what we do find."

The study also found that birds endemic to Borneo (found no-where else) were unaffected by the first round of logging, but nearly half were impacted by the second. IUCN Red List threatened birds were also impacted by logging, but not nearly as much as by conversion into palm oil. According to the study, endangered birds had "a two hundred-fold higher abundance" in logged forest than in palm oil plantations.

While once or twice logged forests are often considered 'degraded lands' and so handed over to palm oil and other plantation companies for conversion, Edwards says this new study shows that logged forests hold vital conservation potential.

"Converting relogged forests to oil palm would come at a dramatic loss of biodiversity. Just focusing on the total numbers of species present would reveal a reduction from about 140 species in second rotation forest to about 30 species in oil palm. And those species lost include the vast majority of IUCN Red-listed species found in relogged forests."

There is also the potential that once or even twice logged forests might eventually see the return of lost species. Edwards says that if, over time, logged forests begin to regenerate "then hopefully the 20-25% of bird and dung beetle species that are currently absent/very rare will also begin to recolonize and recover. Such an understanding of forest regeneration will also indicate whether degraded forests will need some assistance to aid their recovery via forest restoration techniques."

The island of Borneo contains some of the Earth's most biodiverse rainforests—over 16,000 species have been identified not including insects—but has lost half of its forest cover in the last 50 years to logging, plantations, and subsequent fires. (By Jeremy Hance)

CITATION: David P. Edwards, Trond H. Larsen, Teegan D. S. Docherty, Felicity A. Ansell, Wayne W. Hsu, Mia A. Derhé, Keith C. Hamer and David S. Wilcove. Degraded lands worth protecting: the biological importance of Southeast Asia's repeatedly logged forests. Proc. R. Soc. B published online 4 August 2010. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2010.1062.

Source: Mongabay

(Reuters) - Indonesia's plans to halt forest clearing will slow the aggressive expansion of plantation firms in the world's top palm oil producer, leading to higher costs as firms will need acquisitions or improved yields to boost growth.

The two-year moratorium on new permits to clear natural forest from 2011 will increase land prices, pushing some to consider following industry leader Wilmar in expanding overseas to Africa or to diversify into food crops.

Indonesia is regarded as a key player in the fight to slow climate change because its tropical forests and carbon-rich peatlands trap huge amounts of carbon dioxide but its rapid deforestation rate has sparked concern among environmentalists.

Analysts said firms with a lack of land reserves such as Jakarta's biggest listed planter PT Astra Agro Lestari risk slower profit growth and reduced market share, while smaller players such as Gozco Plantation may be forced to merge or become takeover targets.

"In the short term, the moratorium will be bad for plantation firms as plans to grow landbank will be limited, and firms with small landbanks will find it especially hard to expand," said Kenny Suyatman, fund manager at PT Mandiri Manejemen Investasi.

The fund manages $1.9 billion in assets including stakes in London Sumatra and Sampoerna Agro.

Firms with the smallest unplanted landbanks include BW Plantations and Bakrie Sumatra, while Wilmar and Indofood Agri have the biggest Indonesian landbank.

The ban by Southeast Asia's biggest economy follows a $1 billion climate aid deal Indonesia signed with Norway aimed at avoiding greenhouse emissions from deforestation.

Palm oil buyers Unilever and Nestle have halted supply contracts with Indonesian palm oil giant PT SMART Tbk and agribusiness giant Cargill is conducting a review following reports from Greenpeace alleging SMART destroyed carbon-rich rainforests.

Regional planters rapidly expanded in recent years as a rally in crude palm oil prices (CPO) was driven by growing demand from Asia and Europe for an oil used to make products from biscuits to biodiesel. But easy land expansion may be over.

"NGO pressures may become too intense for big cap planters to expand through new planting. The big cap planters may prefer to buy existing estates or firms," said Ivy Ng Lee Fang, a plantation analyst at CIMB Investment Bank Berhad in Kualu Lumpur, pointing to BW and Sampoerna Agro as possible targets.

Consolidation in the industry may be beginning. Sources told Reuters on Wednesday that Wilmar plans to buy a 20 percent stake in Indonesian firm Kencana Agri, which also has a relatively high unplanted landbank.

Gozco, which has among the largest land reserves among small caps, said that firms from Europe, Singapore, India, China plus U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill had expressed interest in taking a stake or partnering it.

The moratorium is creating a perception of land scarcity in Indonesia, said an industry source that does land acquisition deals for Southeast Asian planters.

"Planters are talking to us about either expanding west to Africa or going east to Papua New Guinea," said the source, who declined to be identified. "The moratorium, if put in place, will see land prices rise by 30-50 percent from current levels."

ACQUISITIONS OR RESEARCH

This is not good for Astra Agro, whose trees are aging -- at an average of 15 years old versus an optimum fruit-bearing age of 7-18 years -- meaning it needs to plant soon. Suyatman sees it losing out from the moratorium and has cut his holding.

Astra Agro expects its expansion to be restricted by the forest moratorium, with output flat this year.

Its stock has slipped 10 percent this year, underperforming a 19 percent rally in the Jakarta index, and with a price to earnings ratio of 19.4 is still seen as overvalued by many.

Land surveys that used to take a few days now take weeks, leading to higher fees, given more stringent environmental criteria, the firm said. It is now looking at expanding in neighboring Papua New Guinea instead.

If environmental concerns do restrict future supply of palm oil, investors say higher CPO prices could be a comfort for strong players, given a healthy demand outlook. Analysts in a Reuters poll saw steady CPO prices next year.

Those firms able to tap that demand through better yields may be winners.

Alfi Fadhliyah, a plantation analyst at PT Bahana Securities, picked out London Sumatra and Sampoerna Agro because of high quality seeds as a result of research and a young tree age -- a combination that should boost future yields.

London Sumatra, whose CEO told Reuters the moratorium will be a "temporary shock" for the industry, has an average tree age of 11 years.

"We like London Sumatra because it could have higher yields among its peers as its trees are at a prime age for palm oil, which could help the company benefit during the moratorium period," said Winston Sual, fund manager at the $108 million top performing Indonesian fund Panin Dana Maxima. (By Janeman Latul and Neil Chatterjee; Additional reporting by Niluksi Koswanage; Editing by Anshuman Daga)

Source: Reuters

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