European Union helps fight forest fires in Greece (European Commission)

European Commission, Press release, Brussels, 26 August 2014:

Greece is receiving support through the European Union's Civil Protection Mechanism to fight the forest fires raging in the central part of the country. France has responded to Greece's request for assistance in a matter of hours – its two fire-fighting planes are already operating in the affected areas.

"Forest fires are a risk we face every summer and this year is no exception; we will continue to support the efforts of Greece to prevent the fire from spreading towards populated areas.

The Commission is grateful to France for its prompt gesture of solidarity; I hope that other Member States will also be able to offer assistance," said Kristalina Georgieva, the European Union Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response.

The European Commission's Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) is in contact with the civil protection authorities of the countries participating in the Mechanism.

The ERCC is actively monitoring the forest fire risks across Europe. It uses national monitoring services and tools such as EFFIS (the European Forest Fire Information System) and satellite imagery to provide an overview of the situation in Europe. Every summer, its experts hold a weekly videoconference with national authorities from countries at greatest risk of forest fires.

Background

The fire that broke out on 24 August in a forest region near Kalabaka, central Greece, has burnt around 400 hectares of land and is still active. Greece has also activated the satellite imagery service of the European Commission. Тhe Copernicus mapping system provides all actors involved in the management of natural and man-made disasters and humanitarian crises with timely and accurate satellite images of the affected areas. It can be activated only by authorised users, e.g. national civil protection authorities, through the ERCC.

The European Civil Protection Mechanism facilitates cooperation in disaster response among 31 European states (EU-28 plus Norway, Iceland, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia). The participating countries pool the resources that can be made available to disaster-stricken countries all over the world. When activated, the Mechanism coordinates the provision of assistance inside and outside the European Union. The European Commission manages the Mechanism through the ERCC.

The European Civil Protection Mechanism was activated 17 times over the last three summers to respond to forest fires inside and outside Europe. In 2012, for example, Greece has requested assistance at combatting forest fires for three times.

Furthermore, in June 2014 a major EU civil protection exercise, EU PROMETHEUS 2014, took place in Greece, testing cooperation and response capacities of Member States through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. Among other things, the participating teams from a number of EU Member States were tested at combatting a huge wildfire near populated areas.

For more information.....................http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-949_en.htm?locale=en

26/7/14

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Related:

• Fighting forest fires in Europe – how it works (European Commission)

California Wildfires Destroy Homes

Firefighters battling two massive fires in Northern California may finally have some relief, with more humid conditions forecast, but thunderstorms could bring more fire-causing lightening.

The two fires have destroyed 11 homes and scorched thousands of hectares of land since Friday.
State fire spokeswoman Captain Amy Head said fire crews in Northern California were trying to beat back wildfires burning near the town of Burney in Shasta County on Monday.


Burney residents faced possible evacuation as the two blazes, now within a few kilometers of one another, threatened their town.

The fires started at about the same time in Lassen National Forest. They have destroyed hundreds of kilometers of forest, burned down at least 8 homes and now threaten to destroy more buildings.

Northern California has been suffering through one of the worst droughts on record.

East of the state's capital Sacramento, hundreds of homes were evacuated along the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range after the so-called Sand Fire burned ten residences and seven other buildings.

The blaze, which fire officials said may have been started by a vehicle driving over dry vegetation, is only 35 percent contained as firefighters face dry conditions, high winds, and triple-digit temperatures.

A second fire west of Yosemite National Park quadrupled in size overnight to consume 859 hectares. It forced the evacuation of about 100 homes in the community of Foresta, where one house was destroyed.
The park remains open.
Federal fire officials are working to contain 19 blazes in six western states, with state and local teams battling dozens more throughout the region.
 http://www.voanews.com/content/california-wildfires-destroy-homes/1971693.html
4/8/14
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Fighting forest fires in Europe – how it works (European Commission)

European Commission, MEMO, Brussels, 4 August 2014:

Every year there are devastating forest fires in Europe, destroying thousands of hectares of forests. The South European countries are at higher risk, but no European country is immune. When the fire gets too big for a country to extinguish it on its own, the European Union's Civil Protection Mechanism can be activated to coordinate the response from participating states.

Joint and coordinated response

When national capacities to respond to forest fires are surpassed, other EU countries often show solidarity by sending assistance in the form of water bombing aircraft, helicopters, fire-fighting equipment and personnel.

The Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) is the emergency response hub of the European Commission. The centre co-ordinates assistance on the European level in the case of disasters and in this way ensures that help is efficient and effective.

The EU Civil Protection Mechanism can also be used to facilitate and co-finance the transport of assistance to the affected area. 

Prepared for the forest fire season

The ERCC is actively monitoring the forest fire risk and incidence across Europe. It uses national monitoring services and tools such EFFIS (the European Forest Fire Information System) which provides an overview of data that Member States collect through their national forest fire programmes.

Before the forest fires season, the ERCC organises meetings with all the participating states in the EU Civil Protection Mechanism for an exchange of information on the state of preparedness for the upcoming forest fires season.

Over the summer period, the ERCC organises weekly video conferences with the countries that are at high risk of forest fires and whose national capacities could get overwhelmed. Spain, Croatia, Portugal, Greece, Italy and France are the most fire prone countries in Europe.

In addition, experts from Member States who are seconded to the ERCC every summer contribute to its work and maintain regular contacts with national civil protection authorities. 

Tackling forest fires

The European Civil Protection Mechanism was activated 16 times over the last three summers to respond to forest fires inside and outside Europe.

• During the 2012 forest fire season nine requests for assistance were received, and in 2013 four. During the past two summers, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Albania, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece and, Portugal activated the Mechanism requesting aerial means. The satellite mapping service has also been activated in response to forest fires related emergencies.

About the EU Civil Protection Mechanism

The EU Civil Protection Mechanism facilitates the cooperation in disaster response among 31 European states (28 EU Member States, FYROM, Iceland and Norway). The participating countries pool the resources that can be made available to disaster-stricken countries all over the world. 

Since its launch in 2001, the EU Civil Protection Mechanism has monitored over 300 disasters and has received more than 180 requests for assistance. It intervened in some of the most devastating disasters the world has faced, like Hurricane Katrina in the USA (2005), the earthquake in Haiti (2010), the triple-disaster in Japan (2011), and typhoon Haiyan that hit the Philippines (2013). 

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-14-503_en.htm?locale=en

4/8/14

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Urgent action needed to safeguard genetic diversity of world’s forests, UN study says

UN, 3 June 2014 – Urgent action to better manage the genetic diversity of forests – under pressure from climate change, exploitation and conversion for other uses – is needed to ensure that the benefits they provide will survive, the United Nations said in a first-of-its-kind report released today. 

“Forests provide food, goods and services which are essential to the survival and well-being of all humanity,” Eduardo Rojas-Briales, Assistant Director-General for Forestry at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said on the release of The State of the World's Forest Genetic Resources.
“These benefits all rely on safeguarding the rich store of the world’s forest genetic diversity – which is increasingly at risk,” he added.

The report says that half of the forest species regularly utilized by countries are threatened by the conversion of forests to pastures and farmland, overexploitation and the impacts of climate change. 

Biodiversity in forest genetic resources is also essential, it says, to improving both forest species' productivity and the nutritional value of the foods they produce, which includes leafy vegetables, honey, fruits, seeds, nuts, roots, tubers and mushrooms.
A wide variability in desirable traits, such as fruit size, growing speed, oil composition and pulp proportion, is a prerequisite for breeding and domesticating improved tree species, it says. 

At the same time, it adds, genetic diversity is needed to ensure that forests can adapt to changing environmental conditions, including those stemming from climate change and invasive pests and diseases. 

Among the primary actions called for by the report is stepped up management and data gathering on forests resources. While existing tree species in the world is estimated at between 80,000 and 100,000, only 2,400 (around 3 per cent) are actively managed for the products and services they provide. 

Data from 86 countries in the report show a lack of data and insufficient awareness of the importance of forest genetic resources, Linda Collette, Secretary of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, said, adding that it often translates into national policies that are “partial, ineffective, or non-existent.” 

“Governments need to act and implement the Global Plan of Action for Forest Genetic Resources and FAO and its Commission stand ready to guide, support and assist countries in the conservation and sustainable use of forest genetic resources,” she said.
[un.org]
3/6/14
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The battle for Tasmania's wilderness

Could the government have the 2013 addition to the Tasmanian World Heritage Area revoked, asks John Pickrell.  
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AUSTRALIA’S WORLD HERITAGE areas are having a tough time. In 2013 it was revealed that the Great Barrier Reef had lost half its coral cover since the 1980s. Now, due to a series of port developments for coal and gas exports, it is hanging under the threat of ending up on the “List of World Heritage in Danger”, the precursor to World Heritage status being removed.

It would be embarrassing for this to happen in one of the world’s wealthiest nations, one that holds under its guardianship perhaps the most famous natural World Heritage Area (WHA) on the planet. 

While we await the World Heritage Committee’s decision on the reef, it now appears that the Tasmanian Wilderness WHA could be at similar risk. In June 2013, the committee voted to add 1700sq.km to the existing 14,000sq.km protected area, which now covers 22 per cent of Tasmania.

Stunning strips of forest

The additions comprise many stunning strips of forest along the eastern and northern borders of the existing WHA, which grew to envelop areas including the eastern- and northern Great Western Tiers; Mount Field National Park; and the Huon, Styx, Upper Florentine, Picton and Counsel river valleys.

The extension was well received by conservation workers and environmentalists who believed these areas were now protected in perpetuity. It seemed a fitting way to mark 30 years since the High Court decision that saved the Franklin River from damming in July 1983.

However, in the run-up to September’s federal election, the Coalition said it did not agree with the extension, which had been formalised under the Labor government, and it would seek to have part of it delisted from the WHA if it was elected.

Value of Tasmanian forests

This has been reiterated since the election and was confirmed to AG by Richard Colbeck, Liberal senator for Tasmania and parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Agriculture. Will Hodgman, Tasmania’s Liberal opposition leader, has said that if his party wins the state election in March 2014, they’ll allow logging in parts of the extension that were previously state forest. Environmentalists say that this would be an unprecedented act of ecological vandalism.

About one-third of the newly added area is made up of pre-existing national parks and reserves that have pristine old growth woodlands and tall eucalypt forests that are of undisputed value. However, Mark Poynter of the Institute of Foresters of Australia has argued that, as the extension was not scientifically assessed for World Heritage values, it inappropriately included heavily disturbed former state forest areas.

He also says that the area added in June was ushered in as a “minor boundary modification”. The World Heritage Committee accepts these small modifications without the independent scientific analysis of value and wilderness quality that it requires for larger areas. The June addition was allowed despite the fact that minor boundary modifications typically constitute no more than a 10 per cent increase to the area of a WHA, and the new addition represented a 12 per cent increase.

Legal complications

The problem now for the Coalition is that it may not be legally permissible for recent additions to be removed. This has never been attempted in Australia and there is little experience of it internationally – usually governments fight to have territory added to the World Heritage List, not removed. Even more worryingly, if logging was to occur in disputed areas, it might place the entire WHA under threat of going on the danger list.

Some argue that removing the new areas with the minor boundary modification rule is unlikely to succeed, as they protect the integrity of the overall WHA, but this remains to be seen. One legal option would be to renounce Australia’s support for the entire World Heritage Convention, but we have to hope the government will come to its senses and realise that this is a step too far.
John Pickrell is the editor of Australian Geographic. Follow him on Twitter @john_pickrell.
Source: Australian Geographic Nov/Dec 2013
 australiangeographic.com.au
29/11/13
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Related (Great Barrier Reef):

• Υπό εξαφάνιση ο μεγαλύτερος κοραλλιογενής ύφαλος

• Αχτίδα ελπίδας για το Μεγάλο Κοραλλιογενή Ύφαλο

• Μαζική Επέλαση Από Αστερίες Απειλεί τον Μεγάλο Κοραλλιογενή Ύφαλο της Αυστραλίας.

Indigenous community clashes with loggers in the Amazon

Trucks filled with timber from illegal logging operations in the Amazon have been stopped in their tracks by an indigenous village protesting the continued exploitation of their lands.
With little or no support from the local or federal authorities, the Pukobjê-Gavião people in Maranhão state, Brazil, are refusing to stand aside as their forests are destroyed by illegal loggers.
The Pukobjê-Gavião have blocked four trucks and a tractor filled with fresh timber from leaving their lands. 
Frederico Pereira Guajajara, a member of the neighboring Indigenous Land “Arariboia”, says he was assaulted as he began filming the Pukobjê-Gavião protests as the trucks were trying to leave their land.

"Loggers beat me on my head, pushed me, broke my phone and wanted to throw me in the fire, but did not because the other Indians started to leave," he said.
The Federal Police were informed of the confrontation by the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) and the Federal Public Ministry.
The police arrived to investigate and seized the logger’s equipment but left the land empty-handed just hours later. A group of 100 people – made up of loggers, according to media reports – barricaded the access road to the territory with burning tires, preventing the police from leaving the indigenous land with the seized machinery.
According to Augusto Gavião – a leader from a village of the same name – the police have since left the area, without giving any notice.
"We are not able to go to the city, because it is dangerous for us. We are being threatened by loggers, they call here and say they will kill us," Gavião said.
"The situation is not resolved. We are waiting for Funai (the Brazilian National Indian Foundation) to contact us again, this time with the prosecutors and police. The trucks will have to be removed from here."
The public prosecutor from the municipality of Imperatriz, Douglas Fernandes, said they are demanding the Federal Police, Funai and Ibama resolve the case. He said the illegal logging of indigenous lands is common practice in the region.
In May 2012, Greenpeace denounced the destructive logging practices in the region – driven by the production of pig iron – the raw material of steel.
An investigative report about the impacts of the pig iron industry was released showing the degrading conditions in this production chain, including invasion of protected areas for illegal logging and charcoal used in the work by slave labour.
Two months after the allegations, the pig iron industry of Maranhão signed a public commitment for zero deforestation in its supply chain. Under the agreement, producers have two years to implement a monitoring system to ensure that none of their suppliers produce coal with wood from native forests or deforestation to plant eucalyptus trees that are turned into charcoal.
Lack of governance and the new Forest Code has made a case for a Zero Deforestation Law in Brazil.
In March, a petition for a zero deforestation law in Brazil was launched.
Just a few months later, over 600,000 people have signed onto the citizen’s initiative.
According to Brazil’s laws, if 1.4 million people support the Zero Deforestation initiative, it could be presented to the Brazilian Congress and become law. Learn more about the Zero Deforestation Law and support Brazil’s call to end Amazon destruction.
greenpeace.org
18/1/13

The future of the Amazon uncertain | Greenpeace International

For ten years, the fate of Brazil’s forests have hung in the balance as the future of the Forest Code has been up for grabs. We’ve see the debate over the law come to a head over the last few years, as the agribusiness sector pressed the Congress for major changes to the law and the scientific community and 80% of the public opposed drastic changes to the law.
Today, President Dilma has ignored the call of the people of Brazil and taken final steps to approve a new law that opens the Amazon up for destruction. 
President Dilma Rouseff announced today, approval of the provisional measures of the new Forest Code with 9 partial vetoes,  making the law that has protected the Amazon for almost 70 years a thing of the past, paving the way for new areas of expansion for the agribusiness sector and granting amnesty for past forest criminals. Vetoes sound like a a drastic measure but in reality they will do nothing new to protect the Amazon. ........The future of the Amazon uncertain | Greenpeace International