The true cost of forestry

[redflex]

Just sharing my thoughts with you all

Today I heard the news that in the Philippines yet another landslide which has buried whole villages and schools.

After spending lots of time out there doing forestry survey and working on the watersheds to protect the villages it upsets me to see this happen but reminds me why I am doing my studies and that differences we all can make.

Sorry to go on about it , but before it was just another news story, but despite all the bad press about the Philippines street kids, corruption etc the poeple are actually really kind and wonderful. I have spent many hours sitting with villagers in the Philippines found them so caring and full of life this what turns it from a news story to something more to me.

Like I said just wanted to share my thoughts :sad6:

 

[BorderReiver]

It really hits home when you know the country.

Maybe someday,something will get done about clear felling.

Until it does there will be more tragedies like this one. :aargh4:

 

[Longstrider]

Having personal experinece of the areas involved in such events does bring home to a man just how devastating they can be. I know I felt even more sympathy for the victims of last years earthquake in Pakisan than I might have done ordinarily,as I had not long returned from the area myself.

Earthquakes are (as far as we know) an unavoidable force of nature, but to see such devastation caused by the recklessness of Man as in the Philipines is to see the true tragedy of the situation. Lets all hope that we as a species can see what a mess we are making of this planet before we lose it (and our home) in the pursuit of "progress".

 

[Topcat02]

Any ideas on the cause of the landslides, was it deforestation, unusually high rain fall?

TC

 

[Lurch]

Ah, when I saw the thread title I expected a story about planted forestry rather than logging.

 

[redflex]

The earthquake cause the mudslide but deforestation created the mud and destablised the area. My friends on the island told me that illegal logging was active in the area .

 

[baggins]

It really does grate when these things happen mate. Having knowledge of what causes these things (especially in an area close to your heart) really brings home what damage the demand of our 'modern' civlization has wrought on our planet. Alas, there are too few of us out there that actually care what consequenses our demands have on other, striving parts of the world. The only thing we can do is educate as many people as possible. But until the massive, multi-national corporations are made to realise that people and the planet are more important than a couple of extra quid...
All you can do is your best.
(pm sent!)

 

[philaw]

The news said it was a combination of deforestation, heavy rains, and 'tremors' that caused it. I think it's worth remembering that this kind of thing is caused more by poverty than by recklessness or foolishness. People in these places know it's not clever to cut down al the trees, but people that poor lack options.

If the only way to get fuel to cook your dinnner is by lopping down a tree then that's what you do.

 

[BorderReiver]

The news said it was a combination of deforestation, heavy rains, and 'tremors' that caused it. I think it's worth remembering that this kind of thing is caused more by poverty than by recklessness or foolishness. People in these places know it's not clever to cut down al the trees, but people that poor lack options.

If the only way to get fuel to cook your dinnner is by lopping down a tree then that's what you do.

Agreed.

To me the worst part is the insistance by the World Banks that the Plillipines "make use of their natural resources" to get a bit of cash flow before they will help. :Wow: Evil or what?

The government is left with no choice but to sell timber.Add to that the inability of a poor country to stop illegal logging and the aboriginal uses and you have the sort of tragedy which has just occurred.

 

[bloodline]

Until the "developed world" gives poor countries a chance they have no choice but to exploit their natural resources to the extreme resulting in disasters like this. Its a shame its the poor that suffers the most and takes the least. There is a familly of Phillipinoes next door to me they are great people and the best neighbours you could have I just hope none of their people have been caught up in this disaster

 

[redflex]

On Leyte the logging is being carried out for the production of illegal charcoal very little timber is being sold on.
The Philippines government have not issued licences for felling on leyte for long time. I have spent time working with former illegal loggers who now paid to monitor the activities of the charcoal makers.
Most of thisis linked to the RPA (anti-government forces)who use it for funding. The whole issue is very complex and goes back decadeds

 

[philaw]

The IMF and the World Bank are more like debt colection agencies than development agencies. During my politics degree I once pulled up some graphs from the world bank's website that showed that after something like 1985 debt repayments exceeded aid given.

What does that mean? It means that whilst the nice people want aid given to help development, the quantities that we give are really just a subsidy on their interest payments to our banks. Everyone knows that the poorest countries can never really hope to repay the loans, but they don't know that many of them couldn't even pay the interest without us doing it for them, and making them liquidate assets like forests.

It's a crime that our banks and governments kept lending money to unelected, irresponsible governments, knowing that little or nothing was being invested, and that ordinary people would have to pay back what dictators borrowed in their name to spend on palaces.

Rant over.