Logging and our Environment

I was decrying the illegal logging activites in Indonesia to a colleague (where old growth forests the size of Switzerland are being cleared each year - allegedly none will be left in Sumatra by 2005 - see comments for references).

Then he sent me this SMH article about Australian agriculture:

The collapse of the wide, brown land

I need to be careful given who my friends and family are ;) but here is a quote from the article:

While 60 per cent of Australia's land area and 80 per cent of its human water use are dedicated to agriculture, the value of agriculture relative to other sectors of the Australian economy has been shrinking to the point where it now contributes less than 3 per cent of the gross national product. That's a huge allocation of land and scarce water to an enterprise of such low value. Furthermore, it is astonishing to realise that over 99 per cent of the agricultural land makes little or no positive contribution to Australia's economy. It turns out that about 80 per cent of Australia's agricultural profits are derived from less than 0.8 per cent of its agricultural land ...

Note that I have not tested or substantiated these figures, but assuming they are true then we are little better than the over-protective Europeans with their farmers.

Maybe we should just be paying the farmers in Asia and Africa a reasonable price for their produce - possibly introducing incentives for them to invest in eco-friendly farming.

Food for thought, so to speak.

Update: It occurs to me that the point about the water is a furfy - it's not water per se that is scarce, it's water in particular catchment areas. With the exception of a few particular river systems, rural and non-rural water usages are from different sources.

09:03 AM, 22 Feb 2005 by Mark Aufflick Permalink

Thats a Lot of Chainsaws

2008 for the total deforestation of Indonesia would be right if it was 100% forest now - 1,826,440 sq km* for Indonesia divided by 499,542 sq km* for Spain would be 3.65 years. Can you provide a reference for your fairly extreme Indonesian claims? Also, what jurisdiction specifies the activity to be illegal? Semi from TramTown * CIA World Factbook

by Unregistered Visitor on 02/26/05

Being kept accountable...

The source was a radio story from either DW radio Berlin or News Radio Australia.

The logging is illegal in Indonesia - but apparently China is happy to buy it.

I can't find the exact story I heard, but here are some:

Indonesian Logging - transcript - Illegal logging will continue to be an issue in the future and based on various sources, it is very often quoted that the forests in Kalimantan will disappear by the year 2010, if the same level of illegal logging continues, and the estimate for Sumatra is even more dramatic, with the belief that all the forests there will be gone by 2005.
INDONESIA: To crack down on officials involved in illegal logging - audio - The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency says nearly 300 thousand cubic metres of Merbau timber are being smuggled out of Papua each month to feed China's timber processing industry. This unchecked theft by international criminal syndicates frequently involves bribes of up to 200,000 US dollars, per ship, for safe passage out of Papua.
The Timber Mafia - pay video article - Four Corners follows the illegal timber trail from one of its main sources, Indonesia, where 70 per cent of all logging is thought to be illegal, to its ultimate destination in the west.

by Mark Aufflick on 02/26/05

Spain / Switzerland ... they're both kinda big...

EIA accuses Indonesia and China of world's biggest smuggling racket

...Over 70% of Indonesia's original frontier forests have been lost and an area the size of Switzerland is cut down every year...

Switzerland: 41,290 sq km
Spain: 504,782 sq km

TramTown - keeping the bloggers honest ;)

by Mark Aufflick on 02/26/05

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