Clear Cutting on Indigenous Land May 2008

"Canada must abide by the international law principle that there can be no development on Indigenous land without consulting and getting the consent of the Title Holders."

We the people are the TITLE HOLDERS!

Clear cutting can certainly be bad for the environment, for ecosystems, for animal populations. A giant swatch of ecosystems are literally taken away from clear cutting on disputed Indigenous Land. At the same time government officials present a deal for land claims. INAC officials were alerted along with the chief and council also.

"What is happening in this region is a monumental crime against the natural world, the tribes, the fauna and is further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the 'civilized' ones, treat the world," Jose Carlos Meirelles was quoted as saying in a statement by the Survival International group.

According to the (CBD) Convention on Biological Diversity, the world is losing plants and species at 100 to 1,000 times the natural rate of extinction, leading to a smaller pool of genetic resources.

The Wolastoq (St. John river)or Nekuwutkok (Tobique First Nation) community has suffered many traumas over the years, including forced attendance in Canada's notorious and now-defunct boarding [residential] schools, forced relocation away from their traditional living areas, flooding of sacred grounds and burial sites by hydroelectric dam projects, and clear-cut logging of their forests. Mercury waste from a paper mill contaminated local rivers and created devastating long-term health problems.

Compared to other racial and cultural groups in Canada, indigenous people have the lowest life expectancies, highest infant mortality rates, most substandard and overcrowded housing, lower education and employment levels, and the highest incarceration rates. Native people lead in the statistics of suicide, alcoholism, and family abuse.

And that's not all!

According to Sukhdev's report, deforestation, should it continue at current levels, would mean the world's gross domestic product would be some 6 percent -- or €2 trillion ($3.1 trillion) -- lower by 2050 than it would be were forests preserved. Not only does deforestation mean a forest can no longer produce economic goods, he explained, but it also increases the pace of climate change and puts areas at greater risk of flooding, all of which mean additional costs. The poor would bear a disproportional share of the costs, he said.

A global system to protect all ecosystems would cost around $45 billion annually to build up and maintain, Sukhdev explained. But the returns from such a scheme would be in the range of $4.4 trillion to $5.2 trillion -- meaning that every dollar invested would be repaid 100-fold.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• tobique
• grassroots
• inac
• clear
• cutting
• indigenous
• native
• american
• aboriginal
• land
• disaster
• environment
• ecosystems
• maliseet
• mi'kmaq
• mikmaw
• first
• nation

[Indigence]

Hell no!

[zpgJiggleBilly]

If you need wood you gotta cut down trees. Less people would work too. I would support a war against north korea, china and russia, Hopefully we could get india in on it as well so we can cut world population down drastically.

[brandon9966]

They are logging the great bear rainforest. Just like this.

[Compwhiz128]

I love trees too, assholes cutting them fuckers down...

people, assemble, buy the forestry land as you have incentives to keep it maintained, govt officials do not.

[AirAdvocates]

The privilage to qualify to live in the green belt. Help me help you i am all about the environemnt cleaning the air we breath just look at whats been standing in my way airadvocates on youtube has some cool stop motion videos. NCC General Meeting air-medics.ca/newadventures/ look what they been standing in the way of.

[futuredimension]

Even if trees get replanted, the whole mini eco system that lived around those specific trees and specific plants has been destroyed and new trees will not bring that back to the way it was. Man is shooting himself... in the foot... no! in the head! And still mindlessly reproducing himself... I am kind of glad I am born when i was cos Ill be dead in hopefully 60 years before it all starts to crumble tragically.

[Psychentist]

Draper8888,

You don't have to be a hippie to care about our environment and to realize that human greed is taking a serious toll on our planet. There is tons and tons of information pointing to serious decline of all the systems of the biosphere, from our air, to our water, to fish and wildlife extinctions, to the africa sized island of trash in the pacific ocean. Its all around you. Can you not see it?

Our planet has been alive for billions of years, and in the last 200 it has started to die.

[Draper8888]

you are all hipies

[nicolatwo]

For CetanSha: Yes. Some trees are over 2000 years old and now we have less than 1 percent of the old growth forest left and they are still clearcutting. I am so deeply worried about this planet. We depend on those gigantic trees to transform CO2 into oxygen. Little seedlings do not replace those large trees. I am terrified about human greed.

[CetanSha]

It is sad to lose what Mother Earth has provided due to over population and the demand for shelter and other goods. We are are responsible for the need. Look around you and see what is used from clear cutting. Replacing the trees does not replace the communities that live beneath and in them. Much is lost, never to be again. Mother Earth will soon shake us loose like water from the dog's back that has come out of the river. hecitu welo