#protecttheforests — Public Fediverse posts

‘The environmental movement needs many hands’: saving Australia’s biodiversity is getting personal

Powered by individual donations and bequests, the country now has one of the world’s largest networks of privately protected and managed land

by James Norman, Fri 17 Apr 2026

Excerpt: "Over three decades later, #BushHeritage today owns and protects 45 bought or gifted bush reserves around #Australia – covering more than 1.4m hectares of land and providing habitat for over 9,000 native species. Working with #FirstNations communities and farmers, it supports the management of an additional 20.5m hectares beyond what it owns directly.

" 'Some of Australia’s most threatened and fragile #ecosystems and #wildlife sit outside of the national reserve system,' says Rachel Lowry, Bush Heritage Australia’s chief executive officer.

" 'They’re found on private land or pastoral country, and they may have deep cultural and ecological values, but they’re not protected from threats such as #LandClearing, #mining or #InvasiveSpecies.'

"The organisation reports a rise in the number of personal bequests, from 2,500 in 2022 to more than 4,600 bequests last year. Lowry puts the increase down to a personal desire to have a meaningful impact on the worsening global climate and #biodiversity crisis.

"Bush Heritage’s model has inspired other groups around Australia to acquire and conserve lands and forests of significant ecological value. One such example is the #NorthEastTasmania #LandTrust (#NETLT), which secretary Dr Christine Hosking describes as 'a microcosm of Bush Heritage'.

"Formed in 2009, the organisation manages donated land through weed control and regeneration of the native environment.

" 'Currently, we have 10 acres [4 hectares] of endangered eucalyptus forest in #BinalongBay that adjoins the #BayOfFires #Conservation Area, and a smaller patch of coastal habitat for the endangered swift parrot,' she says."

#SolarPunkSunday #LandConservation #EndangeredSpecies #ClimateCrisis #ProtectTheForest #ProtectTheForests #Regeneration #PreserveNature #Conservationists #IndigenousAustralians #TraditionalLandManagement

Some highlights from the #APCAW conference on #AshTrees and #EmeraldAshBorer

#JohnDaigle mentioned chemical treatment on selected trees combined with biological control releases. May not need to keep using chemical treatments if the bio-control takes hold.

EricTopper: "Pheromones could draw EAB away from places which would fall under the bio-control umbrella."
John replied that it has not been tested, as far as he knows.

John Daigle: "The goal ultimately is to co-exist. Get brown ash to evolve to be more resistant, possibly by cross-breeding with other ash trees. That is being done with Manchurian ash and is having success."

Ella MacDonald: "Brown ash used for Wabanaki basket making. Green ash not as suitable for basket making.
We might breed brown with green ash - green ash might be more resistant to EAB. Possibly white ash with brown? However, there us no federal store of black or brown ash seeds. Seed collecting of those two are important. Folks can collect it themselves, after positively identifying the species."

FMI about #SeedCollecting from #APCAW / #UMaine

#Ash Protection Collaboration Across #Waponahkik

Seed Collection and Ash Regeneration

Includes:
- Collecting Ash Seed
- Seed Collection Map and Reporting Tool
- Processing and Storing Ash Seed
- Growing Ash From Seed

https://umaine.edu/apcaw/seed-collection-and-ash-regeneration/

#SolarPunkSunday #Biodiversity #Rewilding #PreserveTheSacred #Maine
#EAB #EmeraldAshBorer
#AshTrees #InvasiveSpecies #Wabanaki
#ProtectTheForests
#MaineNews #SaveTheTrees #WabanakiCulture #WabanakiBasketry #WabanakiTradition #Forestry #ProtectTheSacred #TraditionalEcologicalKnowledge #NativeAmericanBasketry #Sustainability #IndigenousStewardship #CulturalPreservation #InvasiveSpecies #EAB #PreservingNature #TEK #TIK #TraditionalIndigenousKnowledge #Basketry #PreservingTheSacred #PreservingTheForest #WabanakiConfederacy
#WabanakiAlliance

#AshTree Protection Collaboration Across #Wabanakik

"Ash trees, in particular brown ash (used interchangeably with black ash, Fraxinus nigra), are a cultural keystone species for Wabanaki communities and a crucial part of wetland ecosystems in the Northeast. The spread of the invasive forest pest EAB has caused 99% brown ash tree mortality in other areas of Turtle Island, and will have a considerable effect on ecosystems and traditions as it spreads through the Dawnland.

"Partners of the Ash Protection Collaboration Across Wabanakik’s (APCAW) have been working for 20 years to prepare for the onset of EAB in Northeastern forests. We are committed to identifying research-informed strategies to protect the future of ash in the Dawnland that align with Wabanaki priorities. The purpose of this website is to share practical knowledge with those who seek to take actions to maintain ash on the landscape. If you’d like to receive event announcements in your inbox, sign up for our newsletter here. Read on to find information about the cultural importance of ash, seed collection efforts, and emerald ash borer (EAB) management.

Why are we called the Ash Protection Collaboration Across Wabanakik?

"Our name emerged from collaborative conversations about the goals of our shared work. We decided to use the word #Wabanakik to refer to the place where we are located in an effort to center Wabanaki language and ways of knowing. Wabanakik is a term with slightly different meanings in each eastern #Algonquin language, but can be understood in English to mean either 'in the location of the land which is referred to as the #Dawnland' or 'in the location of the People of the Dawn.' Wabanakik stretches from Newfoundland in the north, to mid-Maine in the south, and parts of Quebec in the west.

"APCAW members acknowledge that we are located in the homeland of the #WabanakiConfederacy, which includes the #Abenaki, Maliseet, Mi’kmaq, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot Tribal Nations. Wabanakik has a ongoing legacy of #colonialism, of #StolenLand, broken treaties, forced removal and genocide of Wabanaki peoples which have fragmented Wabanaki relationships to land. The People of the Dawn maintain a sacred relationship with brown ash trees since time immemorial. APCAW’s work is to center, protect, and restore this ongoing relationship between Wabanaki peoples and ash ecosystems.

Who are we?

"The Ash Protection Collaboration Across Wabanakik (APCAW) is a group of Indigenous and non-indigenous researchers, Tribal members, and forest caretakers working together to bring more awareness of the cultural and ecological significance of ash trees and efforts to conserve them. APCAW continues the initiative set forth by the EAB and Brown Ash Taskforce, which began in the early 2000s to facilitate the collaborative capacity of Wabanaki basketmakers, Tribal Nations, state and federal foresters, and others to prevent, detect, and respond to the EAB. APCAW gives platform to the work of a broad range of partners, including:

• University of Maine School of Forest Resources

• Tribal Nations
#MikmaqNation, Presque Isle
#HoultonBand of #Maliseet Indians, Houlton
#PassamaquoddyTribe at #IndianTownship
Passamaquoddy Tribe at #PleasantPoint #Sipayik
#PenobscotNation, Indian Island

• Wabanaki basketmakers and the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance

• State and Federal Forestry Agencies
USDA APHIS
State of Maine Department of Agriculture & Forestry
State, Private, and Tribal Forest Service

• Conservation organizations and seed saving organizations
The #WildSeedProject
#MaineLandTrustNetwork

Learn more (includes links to resources):
https://umaine.edu/apcaw/

#Maine #MFS #EAB #EmeraldAshBorer #AshTree #AshTrees #APCAW #InvasiveSpecies #Wabanaki #ProtectTheForests #MaineNews #Maine #SaveTheTrees #WabanakiCulture #WabanakiBasketry #WabanakiTradition #Forestry #ProtectTheSacred #SolarPunkSunday

From the Bretton Woods Project: #Forests

"Finally, the [#WorldBank] ’s #forest policy and #WeakSafeguards on #ForestProtection have also been observed to infringe the rights of local communities and have failed to protect one of the planet’s most important ‘#CarbonSinks’ (see Observer Spring 2017). CSOs have called for the Bank to open up its Forest Notes – which are meant to guide the interface between its lending and forests – to consultation (see Observer Winter 2017-2018). CSOs have also been highly critical of one of the forest initiatives the Bank manages, the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), a climate investment fund that supports Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) projects. A March 2017 post in REDD Monitor called the FCPF, 'the most cost-inefficient tree-saving scheme ever,' owing to high administrative costs between fiscal years 2009-2015 absorbing 64 per cent of FCFP’s $55 million expenditure. More generally, the Bank’s overall approach to lending has undermined the protection of vital natural ecosystems in borrower countries. As noted by Bruce Rich in his influential 2013 book, Foreclosing the Future: The World Bank and the Politics of Environmental Destruction, 'When one examines the failures to conserve ecosystems, or to mitigate environmental impacts of development, one finds that failed governance at all levels is almost invariably at the root. …Many of [the Bank’s] problems are associated with a dysfunctional institutional culture in which the relentless pressure to move money out the door, even in violation of the Bank’s own policies and rules, often overrides all other considerations.'"

2017: World Bank policy lending undermines climate goals

"One of the main problems is the Bank’s refusal to adequately assess the social and environmental risks of their policy loans" - Harlem Mariño, Derechos, Ambiente y Recursos Naturales

6 April 2017

"A late January report by US-based NGO Bank Information Center (BIC), together with partners in Egypt, Indonesia, Mozambique and Peru, claimed that the Bank is undermining its climate commitments by supporting investment incentives for coal, gas and oil projects through its development policy financing (DPF) mechanism. DPF accounts for approximately a third of all Bank funding and provides resources for programmes of policy and institutional reforms that are agreed by the Bank and the borrowing government (see Update 82). The report argued that the Bank’s financing through DPF contradicts the internationally agreed and Bank-supported goal of limiting the global average temperature increase to 2°C, which according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change would require that at least two-thirds of existing fossil fuel reserves are left in the ground.

"BIC’s report looked at the Bank’s DPF measures in four countries: Egypt, Indonesia, Mozambique and Peru. It found that DPF introduced subsidies for coal in all countries, apart from Peru. For example, the report argued that Bank-supported subsidies for coal infrastructure have helped Indonesia become one of the world’s top coal exporters. It found some DPF support for renewable energy, but argued that the Bank could do more given that all countries examined have potential to develop renewable energy. For example, while Peru’s DPF provides subsidies to public-private partnerships to develop oil and gas infrastructure, it does not include plans for solar or wind power projects."

https://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/2017/04/world-bank-policy-lending-undermines-climate-goals/

#FCPF #REDD #Ecosystems #ProtectTheForests #EnvironmentalDestruction #ForestDegradation #Deforestation #EnvironmentalImpacts #Egypt #Indonesia #Mozambique #Peru #LeaveItInTheGround #Coal #BigOilAndGas #ExtractiveIndustries #Exploitation #EnvironmentalImpacts
#HumanRights #ParisAgreement
#ParisClimateAgreement #BigOilAndGas #CorporateColonialism #IMFLoanSharks #RenewablesNow

#ForestProtectors Arrested at #FairyCreek

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 16, 2023

"Three forest protectors were arrested on Tuesday protecting the old-growth forests west of Victoria, as Canada continues to target #NativePeople with police operatives protecting the interest of destructive industries. The police ops are #BritishColumbia's C-IRG, the Community #Industry Response Group.

"Mourning the invasion of the #MilitarizedPolice squad who arrested the #ForestDefenders, who were his guests, #Pacheedaht #FirstNation Elder Bill Jones said, 'We are at the end times of our great forests.'

"Abolish C-IRG said, 'Due to the increasing amount of #indigenous-led anti-resource extraction movements in British Columbia, the Community-Industry Response Group was born. C-IRG is unique to British Columbia. They are militarized, have no budget limit, and the officers get paid handsomely to force #pipelines, #mines, #dams, and #logging through unceded #IndigenousTerritories, without consent. This is just another extension of the #RCMP’s original task- to remove and separate people from the land and enforce #ColonialRule. They do not keep us safe, they protect #capital."

Background: Back to Fairy Creek

"The last time the world was watching Fairy Creek, we witnessed the largest act of #CivilDisobedience in #CanadianHistory. Well over 1,000 Indigenous and non-Indigenous forest defenders were arrested by the RCMP over months of tense standoffs in 2021 as #activists sought to halt the logging of rare #AncientTrees.

"The courts hammered that movement, with charges and bail conditions keeping many away, and the tussle in the trees went dormant for most of the last two years.

"Until now.

"A new blockade, led by #IndigenousYouth and supported by non-Indigenous allies, has just been erected on a key bridge crossing an arterial logging road. The RCMP's specialized tactical team that responds to land defence actions is present and surveilling the camp. A raid could come any day, and having #media on the ground is of crucial importance to keep tabs on police and document the latest developments as land defenders seek to protect their unceded territories from old-growth logging."

Full article and more information:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/08/forest-protectors-raided-at-fairy-creek.html

#VancouverIsland #ACAB #ProtectTheForests #CIRG #Colonialism #Capitalism #Corporatism #Oligarchy