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Archive for the ‘forests’ Category

FLORIDA FOREST TO BE DESTROYED FOR BIO-TECH CITY

February 14, 2011: Two FAU Alumni go to great heights to defend Endangered Species in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida suspend themselves 30 feet from the ground in the pine trees of the Briger Tract Forest in protest of the FAU/Scripps Bio-tech City plan.

Tree-sitters display banner reading “Defend These Forests”, visible to all Northbound I-95 traffic.

Media Contacts:

• Tree-sitters on Briger Tract site (561) 324-1033
• Ana Rodriguez, on site at FAU Campus Protest: (561) 374-3268
• Maya, on site at FAU Campus Protest:  (413) 695-2249

Two “Tree-sitters” on the Briger Tract Forest in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida suspend 30 feet in the air holding a banner reading to all of northbound traffic on Florida Interstate I-95 to highlight their concerns regarding the FAU Scripps Bio-technology.

Law Enforcement with the Florida Department of Transportation and City of Palm Beach Gardens arrived at approximately 9 am to the site located on the northbound side of I-95 just south of the Donald Ross exit.

FDOT and PBG Gardens police have told the FAU Alumni “tree-sitters” to leave the site or risk imminent arrest. The two FAU Alumni remain suspended 30 foot high from pine trees, holding a banner that reads “Defend These Forests”.

The tree-sitters sited on-going concerns about the proposed development which their group, Everglades Earth First, has been voicing at City and County public meetings over the past year.

One tree-sitter commented “As an FAU Graduate and Palm Beach County resident I am dismayed at the lack of protection for the Endangered Species on the FAU Scripps development site.  The Scripps “bio-tech city” plan promotes sprawl and will destroy endangered species located on the Briger Tract Forest.  We have tried legal means to protect the site, but the developers and politicians have ignored our concerns.  If the state and county refuse to protect endangered species then we must take action to preserve the remaining natural beauty of Florida.”

Further comment from the tree-sitters is available through the media contact.  The tree-sitters and their banner are visible from Northbound I-95, at the Donald Ross exit adjacent to proposed “biotech city” of the Scripps Research Institute.

In conjunction with the tree-sit, forty protesters are currently converged at the existing FAU/Scripps Florida building located at 120 Scripps Way on the FAU Honors Campus.  City of Jupiter police and FAU campus police are on site at the protest and have briefly detained at least one person.

“The Scripps Bio-tech City development violates the Palm Beach Gardens Comprehensive Plan.  said Ana Rodriguez on-site at the FAU/Scripps protest.  The government’s approval of Scripps’ Bio-tech city demonstrates that they are unwilling to protect critical habitat for Endangered Species.  We are concerned about the environmental impacts of the development and the hazards of bio-technology.  With bio-technology comes genetic engineering, infectious diseases and animal testing in our backyard.”

Bio-technology has been a controversial science receiving critique from farmers, the scientific community and residents globally.

The group says that the action marks the beginning of a collaborative campaign to stop the clearing of the Briger Forest, on the ground and in the treetops. Earth First! activists plan to maintain a presence on the site to ensure no endangered species habitat is destroyed, and no animals are abused in the proposed vivisection labs.

Protest at FAU to protect Briger Tract Forest

Protest for Briger Tract Forest from Scripps Bio Tech City

The view of the Florida Tree Sitters from I-95

Native forests in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay are being destroyed to plant new crops of “profitable” trees.  Non-indigenous, but fast growing trees like eucalyptus and pine are being planted to produce large-scale wood, pulp and paper production.  Along with destroying the forest, these trees also use more water and degrade the soil of these South American countries.

Rural women’s organizations and environmental groups have drafted letters to the forestry companies in protest but have been ignored and pushed out of the way by claims that these “tree plantations” will act as carbon sinks, helping to offset green house gasses and carbon emissions.

Among the many negative aspects of the “unsustainable” development model followed by the forestry industry, [the women] denounced that companies pressure families into selling their farmland, that the industry creates few jobs for women, that tree plantations are depleting water resources, and that these changes have significant social impacts, such as a breakdown in the social fabric, leading to domestic violence and sexual harassment among the affected communities.

Promoting plantations as forests is “misleading,” said the rural women’s organisations and environmental groups, which pointed to the “countless negative impacts” that these projects have on the lives of rural families, and particularly on women, who are “disempowered” by the expansion of these single-crop plantations.

The document the women put forth was signed by the March of Women, The Peasant Women’s Movement of Brazil and the Centre for Environment Studies.  It was also backed by GRAIN, Friends of the Earth, The Rural Women’s Movement and the World Rainforest Movement.

These tree plantations are more than just a minor headache.  Along with pushing rural families off their land in Brazil, the plantations have ruined the livelihoods of the families as the land suffered severe droughts, abrupt temperature changes, severe loss of biodiversity, food crop reduction, drying up of water sources and degradation of soil fertility.

Two books have resulted from this ordeal, Brazil: Women and Eucalyptus: Stories of Life and Resistance, and The European Union’s Role in the Disempowerment of Women of the South through the Conversion of Local Ecosystems into Tree Plantations.
To understand more about this ongoing struggle, read the full article on Common Dreams