印尼伐木速度倍增 紅毛猩猩面臨危機

摘譯自2007年2月7日ENS肯亞，奈洛比報導；楊璧如編譯；蔡麗伶審校


聯合國6日一項新的報告警告，我們必須要緊急行動才能確保紅毛猩猩的生存。這些猩猩僅存的棲地——印尼的雨林，因非法伐木、大火、為種植棕櫚油樹而整地等原因，正以比從前快30%的速度遭到摧毀。「猩猩的最後棲地︰危機狀態」這份報告說，蘇門答臘島和婆羅洲的自然雨林被快速地破壞。如果再不緊急採取行動，到2022年將會有98%的森林遭受破壞。這項估計比聯合國10年前預估的情形快多了，原因是這5年來，印尼非法伐木情況趨於嚴重，非法伐木數量高達印尼總伐木量的73%。

根據聯合國環境規劃署快速回應小組的報告，「如果沒有直接介入，這些紅毛猩猩和其他依靠雨林生活的野生動物將會逐漸減少，直到牠們的族群不再存在。」
快速回應小組組長諾曼博士表示，縱使是在國家公園內，非法伐木的規模也在逐漸增加。不僅是印尼，連帶如亞洲其他地區、非洲及拉丁美洲都是如此。報告中建議，為了要拯救紅毛猩猩，印尼本身應加強偵查的快速部署，解除在國家公園內的非法種植、採礦和農業發展的情形，以及加強國際法執法計畫，來遏止非法伐木。

聯合國環境規劃署執行長史坦納提到，非法伐木的行為並非是「貧窮的個人所為，而是由組織良好的商業集團所進行」。他呼籲國際社會能夠協助印尼當局加強設備、訓練及提供經費，以加強國家公園的巡邏，來遏阻非法伐木業者。

Orangutans in Peril as Indonesian Logging Accelerates
NAIROBI, Kenya, February 7, 2007 (ENS)

Emergency action is needed to ensure survival of the orangutan, a new United Nations report warned Tuesday. The great apes' only habitat, the Indonesian rainforest, is being destroyed at a rate up to 30 percent higher than previously thought by illegal logging, fire, and clearing for palm oil plantations. The report, "Last stand of the orangutan: State of emergency," says the natural rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo are being cleared so rapidly that without urgent action up to 98 percent may be destroyed by 2022. This assessment moves up the UN's estimated date of Indonesian forest destruction by 10 years due to an acceleration in the past five years of illegal logging, estimated to account for more than 73 percent of all logging in Indonesia.

"Without direct intervention in the parks, orangutans and other forest-dependent wildlife will become progressively scarcer, until their populations are no longer viable in the long-term," according to the Rapid Response report from the UN Environment Programme, UNEP.
The scale of illegal logging, even in national parks, is likely to increase not only in Indonesia, but also in other parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America, said the leader of the Rapid Response team Dr. Christian Nellemann. To save the oranguntan, Indonesia’s own efforts must be strengthened with the rapid deployment of reconnaissance units, removal of illegal plantations, mining and agricultural development inside the parks and enhanced international law enforcement programs against illegal logging, the report advises.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner noted that the logging is not done "by individual impoverished people, but by well-organized elusive commercial networks," and he called on the international community to aid the Indonesian authorities with equipment, training and funding to patrol their national parks from illegal loggers.

全文及圖片詳見http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2007/2007-02-07-05.asp