The Global Forest and Climate Change

dublin | environment | press release Wednesday October 08, 2008 01:17 by ForestFriends - Forest Friends Ireland

The Global Forest and Climate Change October Festival- Oct.9-Oct.20

Forest Friends Ireland/Ghana – The Global Forest and Climate Change October Festival- Oct.9-Oct.20

A Forest Friends Intercultural festival in a s sociation with Dublin City Council.

Full details of the entire programme can be found on our website www.forestfriends.ie

The festival will be launched by environmentalist and TV presenter Duncan Stewart.

PRESS LAUNCH – ENFO ST. ANDREW ST. THURSDAY 9TH. OCT. 2.00

FORMAL LAUNCH, SUNDAY 12TH. OCT. NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDENS GLASNEVIN DUBLIN 2.30.

The Global Forest and Climate Change Project developed out of Forest Friends visit to Ghana in January 2008.

While the objective of the visit was to help set up the Ghana Branch, it became clear that the little remaining tropical rainforest was being felled at an alarming rate.

At regular intervals along the main road from Accra to Kumasi, Ashanti, tropical rainforest timber as well as bush meat was widely and illegally on sale. In Kumasi itself, the capital city of Ashanti, the unrelenting transport of giant logs to a local processing plant, in huge trucks was an everyday sight.

This plundering of the rainforest which goes under the heading of 'sustainable forest management' is a misnomer and must be stopped. Much as we would have liked, we could not have mounted a protest outside the sawmill and processing plant of 'Logs and Lumber Limited' in Kumasi or at the entrance to the Bobiri forest, because of the likely consequences for some of our members living locally.

However, we decided to draw attention to this tragedy by holding a conference in Ireland and inviting our Ghana colleagues over to discuss ways of building capacity as a means of halting the destruction. This is how the Global Forest and Clilmate Change Project began.