The Last Tree

jim1nz

When the last tree is cut... | Greenpeace New Zealand

Blog of a photo competition. A short but sweet read.

Drouin Tree Service

The picture from the amazon strikes a nerve,Developing and third world countrys are rife with hard core logging and the furniture produced makes the locals very very little for there effort the middle men make a fortune.

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Drouin Tree Services | Excavator Hire - Drouin and SE Gippsland | Landclearing Melbourne

Done it

I watched a show about Nigeria a few days ago. Some serious illegal logging there, but not for much longer. It's big business worldwide.

10 countries with the highest deforestation rates in the world

Eric Frei

Yeah, we're lucky we cleared 50%+ before greenpeace etc came along. In fact Wikipedia claims 70%
These countries are playing catch up .... are they not allowed to?

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S.O.P

It's about learning from past mistakes?

You know, salinity, erosion, loss of wildlife and habitat, diversity, tourism, aesthetics etc. etc.

It's like watching a poor chainsaw technique cut a guy's arm off and then go and copy that technique because it's slightly faster.

Sure, modify that technique but to head back to the original topic, we all know clear felling everything isn't the best option.

Drouin Tree Service

The thing is this country will have more salinity erosion and new desersts than countrys around the equator,I brought a outdoor table setting the other day didnt really think at the time but yep made in Indonesia.

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Drouin Tree Services | Excavator Hire - Drouin and SE Gippsland | Landclearing Melbourne

Eric Frei

I see, so those countries should pay for our country's "mistakes" ....

Clear felling everything is also an assumption, fishbone deforestation is the latest technique but at the end of the day everyone, every country etc want to make a quid, and they turn to their natural resources just like we did and do even today mining the living shit out of Australia.

Poorer nations evolve economically by starting out with simpler industries like logging, timber, crops, fishing etc. As they evolve they then value add, make the furniture, dry the dates and fruit etc.

It just happens to be that tropical locations have diverse forests, some places like USA, NZ and Canada have tons of monoculture like pines, spruce, fir etc.... again they logged the living hell out of it and even reforested (for logging again), but I suppose as it was not a rainforest it's not as spectacular to report on.

When it's worth more to keep the tree in the ground then they will, till then it's game on. Many of the nations doing the deforestation are not the world's largest polluters, it would be reasonable to say that if the polluters weren't causing the issues they are (greenhouse gases) then the pressure would not be so high for developing nations to stop land clearing.

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S.O.P

All true.

It's the way of the world, the pursuit of the mighty dollar at all costs. What you say is completely correct, but ethically, it's wrong on a lot of counts.

Palm oil is definitely not the best oil, but while poorer countries are willing to destroy everything they have to supply the companies that need it, it makes sense for them. I have no doubt they will regret it, like Australia regretted all their salinity, erosion, dead river problems. Once it's gone, it takes a lot of time to get it back, if at all.

I'm sure we could find a million problems like the poisoned rivers in Eucador, polluted water in China, dead land in Russia all due to due care not being taken in the first place.

We are doomed to make the same mistakes, over and over again, we just get better and larger at making them now.

jim1nz

Really good posts here guys.

Yea thats true we made mistakes but there is hope that one day we learn before all is lost. Its just such a shame we loose all remnant stands before we learn. Here in Europe its refreshing to see some really good sustainable logging. The are continually production thinning and are so efficient at it they still make money. For sure there is clear fell but it is restricted to a certain amount at a time. There are also a few added dollars from once worthless brush being converted into bio fuel so not much is being wasted.

They even go to the extent of collecting seed from genetically proven strong forest stands. This increases not only the biological diversity of the trees but achieves a more desirable final product (big trees, long inter-nodes, small branches, straight trunks...)

I have some pics of Douglas cone picking if anyone is interested.

Also check these restoration projects out

KAURI 2000 Trust - Whitianga Coromandel Peninsula New Zealand
Waipoua Forest - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Might help to restore a bit of hope haha, cheers

TrevMcRev

Pics please

From the little i know the germans take environment & recycling pretty seriously. My wife lived there for a short time about 15 years ago and even then it was a big deal.