Charles urges forest logging halt

Prince Charles has been a long-time critic of deforestation. How many other VIP people in a position of power and influence have we heard speak out so passionately against logging. Hmmnn, hmmnn, ah, ...........................I'm still thinking.


Thursday, 15 May 2008 06:25 UK BBC Web Site


Charles urges forest logging halt

Prince Charles said there needed to be rewards for preserving the rainforest
Prince Charles has said the halting of logging in the rainforest is the single greatest solution to climate change.

The prince called on governments, big business and consumers to demand an end to the practice.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the rainforest provided the "air conditioning system" for the planet.

The Prince of Wales said it was "crazy" that the rainforest was worth more "dead than alive" to some of the poorest people in the world. He said of the rainforest: "When you think they release 20 billion tonnes of water vapour into the air every day, and also absorb carbon on a gigantic scale, they are incredibly valuable, and they provide the rainfall we all depend on."

Charles said a way had to be found to ensure people living in the rainforest were adequately rewarded for the "eco-system services that their forest provides the rest of the world.
We're asking for something pretty dreadful unless we really understand the issues now"
said Prince Charles.

"The trouble is the rainforests are home to something like 1.4 billion of the poorest people in the world. "In order to survive there has to be an effort to produce things which tends to be at the expense of the rainforest.

"What we've got to do is try to ensure that those forests are more valuable alive than dead.
"At the moment there's more value in them being dead. This is the crazy thing." Grand scale Charles said the time was right to persuade business to play its part because there was increasing concern about global warming.

"Halting deforestation would be the easiest and cheapest way in helping in the battle against climate change," he said. "Waiting for all the new technologies to come on stream is not going to be soon enough." Charles said if deforestation did not slow down soon there would be "far more drought and starvation on a grand scale".

He said: "We're asking for something pretty dreadful unless we really understand the issues now, and urgency of those issues.

"It is the easiest way to create a win on the climate change front while all sorts of other things come along later."