The destruction of the world’s rainforests is contributing up to 25% of
global carbon emissions and neither of the major political parties in
Australia is offering adequate support to this issue, said Rainforest Rescue
and other concerned groups at the signing of the Forests Now Declaration in
Brisbane today.

Rainforest Rescue patron, noted environmentalist and author, Tim Low, said
Australia’s next Prime Minister should show our country’s commitment to
tackling climate change and attend the U.N. Climate Change Convention in
Bali next month. There they should back the move to save the world’s
rainforests.

Under the present Kyoto Protocol only trees planted after 1990 are given any
consideration while millions of hectares of existing forests are destroyed
annually. To take real action on Climate Change we need to save the worlds
rainforests and neither party have an adequate commitment to real action.
This is an opportunity to make a significant step forward.

“We have billions of dollars of commitments by both major parties if they
win government, but where are the policies to protect our forests here and
rainforests worldwide?” Low said. “Will our new Prime Minister and
Environment Minister even sign this important declaration?”

The Forests Now Declaration will be presented to the Convention calling on
world governments to take urgent action on deforestation in the tropics and
sub-tropics.

So far it has been endorsed by over 200 scientists, conservationists,
organisations and business leaders since it began its journey from Brazil’s
Amazon rainforest, visiting the world’s carbon capitals and other great
rainforests.

Today in Brisbane Rainforest Rescue was joined by the Ethos Foundation and
the Daintree Rainforest Foundation to endorse the Declaration and show
support.

Already it has been signed by several prominent Australian environmentalists
and scientists, including 2007 Australian of the Year, Professor Tim
Flannery. *

The Stern Report for the UK Government stated that deforestation in the
tropics and sub-tropics contributes between 18 and 25 percent of global
carbon emissions, more than the world’s entire transport industry and second
only to the use of fossil fuels.

“Rainforest Rescue and other concerned groups have signed the Forests Now
Declaration because it highlights the fact that policy debates have been
dominated by clean energy solutions, yet forests indisputably offer one of
the largest opportunities for cost effective and immediate action and must
now be treated with equal urgency,” said Tim Low.

Rainforest Rescue helps save Ecuador rainforest

At the signing ceremony, Rainforest Rescue announced the purchase and
protection of 200 hectares of rainforest in Ecuador.

The 200 hectares purchased through Rainforest Concern, an international
rainforest preservation group, was threatened by logging and clearing for
agriculture and is part of the vital link between Andean Cloud Forests and
the lowland forests of the Awa Ethnic Reserve. It will help to ensure
continuity of forest between the three largest reserves in western Ecuador.

“If we lose our rainforests, we lose the fight against climate change. In
Ecuador 300,000 hectares are destroyed each year and in South East Asia
rainforest equivalent to 300 soccer fields is being destroyed every hour.
In Ecuador it only costs $200 to save a hectare, or 2 cents a square metre,
for one of the world’s most precious rainforests- how cheap is that to make
a difference right now?” said Rainforest Rescue’s Executive Officer, Kelvin
Davies.

“As a developed nation we should set an example and support the developing
countries of the world when it comes to protecting rainforests which absorb
and store carbon and support half the species of life on Earth. Their
biodiversity maintains our atmosphere and provides vital ecosystem services
upon which all of humanity depends.

“These services include rainfall generation, regional climate regulation,
habitat conservation, watershed protection, and soil stabilisation – at
local to global scales. As the Forests Now Declaration points out, every
person on the planet benefits from these services, but none of us pay for
them,” Davies said.

Rainforest Rescue is associated with rainforest projects in four countries;
Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Ecuador and Australia.

Currently Rainforest Rescue is seeking another $25,000 to save rainforest in
Ecuador and $50,000 to complete the purchase of its 10th property in the
Daintree World Heritage Value rainforests before the end of 2007. To make a
tax-deductible donation or for more information: www.rainforestrescue.org.au
or 1300 763 611.

* Other Australian signatories to the Declaration include:

- Australian Tropical Rainforest Institute

- Associate Professor Corey Bradshaw, Charles Darwin University

- Professor Roger Kitching, Griffith University

- Tim Low biologist and author (personal signatory)

For further information: Kelvin Davies – ph 0427662913

Released for Rainforest Rescue by Green PR
Contact Neville Sloss: 0414562010, neville@greenpr.com.au

About the Forests Now Declaration

The Declaration calls for a series of carbon policies and market reforms to
incentivise the protection of tropical forests and safeguard the vital
services they provide, including capture and storage of carbon dioxide.

Forests have been absorbing and storing carbon for millennia and contain 60%
of the carbon stored on Earth. Deforestation releases this carbon into the
atmosphere contributing significantly to global warming. Action now to stop
deforestation and to stimulate forest restoration and the planting of new
forests will help substantially in the fight against climate change.

Deforestation also threatens critical natural habitats across the world
particularly in tropical and sub-tropical regions. Tropical forests are home
to more than 50 percent of the world’s remaining species and are critical to
the survival of over a billion of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable
people. New market-driven incentives are required now if we are to avoid
irrevocable damage to our environment and to ourselves.

The Forests Now Declaration has been journeying across the world’s great
remaining rainforests. From the heart of the Amazon in Brazil, where State
Secretary for Environment Virgilio Viana, signed the Declaration with
leaders from the indigenous peoples, and NGO and scientific communities, it
has travelled to London and New York and onto the Congo Basin, then to
Borneo and will arrive in Bali for the Conference of the Parties to the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), starting on
December 3. This is where world leaders are to begin pivotal renegotiations
of the Kyoto Protocol, and will decide on the role that forestry will be
able to play in future efforts to limit emissions and support developing
countries.

The Declaration calls on world governments to:

a.. Ensure that carbon credits for reduced emissions from deforestation
and the protection of standing forests are included in all national and
international carbon markets, especially those created by the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change.
b.. Simplify and expand effective carbon market rules, including the Clean
Development Mechanism, to encourage reforestation, afforestation and
sustainable forest management.

c.. Include tropical forest and land use carbon credits in the European
Union Trading Scheme, while maintaining strong incentives to reduce
industrial emissions.
d.. Encourage early action and new market mechanisms that recognise the
value of carbon stocks and forest ecosystem services, and support
appropriate voluntary carbon market standards.
e.. Provide assistance for developing nations to build capacity to fully
participate in the carbon markets, and to evaluate the ecosystem services
their forests provide.
f.. Incentivise the regeneration and sustainable use of degraded land and
ecosystems, and remove incentives that encourage forest destruction.
g.. Forests provide one of the largest opportunities for cost effective
and immediate action against climate change and demand urgent attention
For more information: www.forestsnow.org