Subject: Global Initiative Reveals Vanishing Forests
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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org, Inc.
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3/5/00
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY
World Resources Institute has rolled out their high powered and 
priced "Global Forest Watch" Internet site, and is the first to 
display interactive maps over the Internet for forest conservation 
purposes.  The new site gets an "A" for concept, and a "C-" for both 
progress made given resources and informational content.  With 
millions of dollars going into the project, there is really no excuse 
for entire sections of the web site not having any content.  GFW's 
maps are small and slow to use.  As web map serving software matures, 
we can expect to see a number of offerings in the World forest map 
category.
g.b.

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Title:   Global Initiative Reveals Vanishing Forests 
Source:  Environment News Service, http://www.ens.lycos.com/
Status:  Copyright 2000, contact source for permission to reprint 
Date:    March 1, 2000

WASHINGTON, DC, March 1, 2000 - A unique combination of satellite
imagery, geographic information systems, mapping software, the
Internet and on the ground observation is giving the public a clearer
picture of the threats facing the world's forests. The picture is not
pretty, said the World Resources Institute, launching a new initiative
Tuesday to document vanishing forests.

The world's remaining frontier forests are rapidly being logged over
and opened up for development, said the World Resources Institute
(WRI), an international conservation group dedicated to providing
information, ideas, and solutions to global environmental problems.
WRIs new initiative, Global Forest Watch, is a major new network and
tracking system that uses satellite imagery and ground level
observations to improve global knowledge about the state of forests..

"Two years ago, we documented that only a fifth of the world's
historic forest cover remains as frontier forests or large tracts of
intact forests. At the current rate of expansion, we estimated that
another 40 percent would be lost in the next 10 to 20 years," said
Dirk Bryant, director of Global Forest Watch. "It now looks like we
have underestimated those threats in some places."

WRI released maps and reports of Canada, Gabon and Cameroon, revealing
widespread logging in the forests of the Congo Basin, and extensive
mining, energy and road construction projects in the forests of
Canada.

"For the first time, we are mapping out logging across the Congo
Basin, a region that contains the world's second largest contiguous
tropical forest after the Amazon," said Bryant. "Canada's intact
forests are being opened up for large-scale exploitation, including
those in the environmentally-sensitive far northern forests."

The reports released by Global Forest Watch Tuesday are "A First Look
at Logging in Gabon," "Canada's Forests at a Crossroads: An Assessment
in the Year 2000" and "An Overview of Logging in Cameroon." The
reports and the maps are available online at:
www.globalforestwatch.org. The website uses an interactive map server
and cutting edge software that allows the integration of local data
with satellite imagery.

Global Forest Watch addresses the international problem of the lack of
transparency and easy access to information, WRI says. Over the next
five years, the international network will span 21 countries and cover
80 percent of the world's remaining frontier forests.

Global Forest Watch combines on the ground knowledge with digital and
satellite technology to provide accurate forest information to anyone
with access to the Internet.

"The key is the power of information," said WRI President Jonathan
Lash. "What Global Forest Watch does is put communities, people,
activists and wood consumers together and provide them with
information about what is happening to the forests."

Global Forest Watch identifies and promotes successful forest
management practices, enables governments to better manage their
forests, and provides local groups with the information they will need
to participate in the management of their forests.

WRI board chairman Bill Ruckelshaus said that Global Forest Watch
would not have been possible a few years ago. "It is a reality now
because of the growth of local citizen's groups, the expansion of the
Internet and other digital technologies and the new partnerships being
forged by businesses, governments and environmental groups," said
Ruckelshaus.

Global Forest Watch has received support from both environmental
groups and industry. It currently has 75 partners in seven countries.
Software companies such as Environmental Systems Research Institute
(ESRI) and ERDAS, and home furnishings company IKEA, have given major
donations to support Global Forest Watch.

"We have committed that by September 1, we will not use solid wood
from natural intact forests," said Jan Kjellman, president of IKEA
North America. "To be able to live up to this, we have to know where
the natural intact forests are and which forests need protection."
IKEA is the world's largest home furnishings company with 156 stores
in 28 countries.

Through the donations of ESRI and ERDAS, Global Forest Watch partners
will be using the latest software to document and map what has been
observed in the field.

"Global Forest Watch is a good model of how technology can be used to
protect the environment," said Jack Dangermond, ESRI president.
"Thanks to new technologies, we are better positioned to head off
further threats to the world's remaining intact forests."

c [25]Environment News Service (ENS) 2000. All Rights Reserved. 

4. http://ens.lycos.com/

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