Tree farms are set to grow at the expense of natural forests, especially palm plantations, which produce oil used in products such as soap, chocolate and cosmetics as well as biodiesel.

Asia’s rainforests are being rapidly destroyed, a trend accelerated by surging timber demand in booming China and India, and record food, energy and commodity prices, forest experts warn.
The loss of these biodiversity hot spots, much of it driven by the illegal timber trade and the growth of oil palm, biofuel and rubber plantations, is worsening global warming, species loss and poverty, they said, reported AFP.
Globally, tropical forest destruction “is a super crisis we are facing, it’s an appalling crisis,“ said Oxford University’s Professor Norman Myers, keynote speaker at the Asia-Pacific Forestry Week conference in Hanoi.
“It’s one of the worst crises since we came out of our caves 10,000 years ago,“ Myers said at the five-day meeting of 500 foresters, researchers, state officials and activists held last week in the Vietnamese capital.
Over-logging in Southeast Asia caused 19 percent of global rainforest loss in 2005, Myers said, compared to cattle ranching--once a leading cause, mainly in South America--which now caused five percent of world losses.
The rapid growth of palm oil and other plantations accounted for 22 percent, and slash-and-burn farming, unsustainable as more poor people exploit fast-shrinking forests, caused 54 percent of rainforest destruction, he said.
Asia’s forest cover, including tree plantations, in fact grew by three million hectares from 2000 to 2005--largely because of China’s 1998 logging ban and afforestation-- said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
“In contrast, forest loss persists at a very high rate in several countries,“ said an FAO report. “Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Australia and Papua New Guinea and a number of other countries have seen significant losses.“
Ecologists stress that new forests in China, India and Vietnam are man-made plantations lacking high varieties of plant and animal species.
“Many plantations, in terms of biodiversity, are green concrete,“ said Peter Walpole, head of the non-profit Asia Forest Network.
Yet what environmentalists call “tree farms“ are set to grow at the expense of natural forests, especially palm plantations, which produce oil used in products such as soap, chocolate and cosmetics as well as biodiesel.
Commercial crops “will be the most important factor contributing to deforestation in Asia-Pacific countries,“ said the FAO report, citing record prices for food grains, energy and commodities.
Demand for forest products is also surging in Asia’s boom economies.
Imports to China, now the world’s top furniture exporter, increased more than tenfold from 53 billion dollars in 1990 to 561 billion dollars in 2004.
India’s imports of wood products, including paper, grew from about 750 million dollars in 1990 to 3.1 billion dollars in 2005, the FAO said.
Asia’s boom economies are now importing timber from as far as Central Africa and South America, said FAO forestry economist C.T.S. Nair.
The illegal timber trade, fuelled by poverty and corruption, is rife in much of Asia, where 78 percent of forests are state-owned and often managed by the armed forces, not the people who live in or near them, experts said.

Nurturing the sense of security, helping build cultural values and spreading public awareness are among the priorities of the law enforcement forces this year, Iran’s police chief said Sunday.
Brigadier General Esmail Ahmadi Moqaddam outlined the new agenda of his organization during an inaugural speech at a nationwide meeting of police commanders and administrators.
“In the Year of Innovation and Prosperity with strategic planning we will endeavor to make the results of our efforts tangible for the public at large,“ he was quoted by IRNA as saying.
The general told the audience that in the last Iranian year (ended March 19) security had improved across the country due to the untiring efforts and hard work of the police.
“Implementation of social security plans contributed to the decline
in violent crime and by extension security increased and corruption was confronted to a significant extent. In terms of security, the past year was the best in the past few decades.“
Ahmadi Moqaddam noted that productivity of his forces improved by an impressive 30 percent during the 12 months ending in March.
“We took important steps toward providing housing, helping marriage and improving the quality of life of the police forces,“ he said, but acknowledged that he is facing problems in paying salaries, benefits and costs of officers on mission.
“Of course the government has helped a great in resolving the problems,“ he concluded.