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Imperial Bird Club

Volume 29 Issue 9 Sept. 2012

The Amazing….

….Amazon Rainforest

The Imperial Bird Club meets the third Thursday of each month at the VFW Hall of Auburndale, 241 Lake Ave. East, Auburndale. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. and the meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. The Board Meeting is held every third Thursday of the month between 6:00 and 6:30 p.m. prior to Club Meeting at the VFW Hall in Au-burndale. All club members are welcome to attend and all board members are required to attend the Board Meetings. Con-tact Lisa Prescott, President for more information.

Club Objectives 1. To ensure the preservation

and propagation of non-native cage birds in the United States.

2. To further the Science of Aviculture.

3. To exchange the knowledge, information, and ex-periences related to cage birds.

4. To educate the general pub-lic on Avian matters.

Club Raffle Table The Club raffle table is totally member supported. If you win a prize, at the next meeting, bring a prize of equal value for the table. Of course, you can always bring something for the raffle table. Everybody is happy if they win a little some-thing and as we all contribute it will continue spreading happiness among our mem-bership.

The opinions expressed in the Birdy Gazette are not necessarily those of the Im-perial Bird Club or the edito-rial staff. The Imperial Bird Club and its staff assume no responsibility for claims of our advertisers or for the quality of goods or services the advertisers provide. We regret if mistakes are made, however IBC is responsible only for corrections of errors.

September meeting is here already! Soon it will be

Christmas! Be sure to attend this month’s meeting as we

make plans for future meetings and activities.

We will be having a DVD that is very good concerning birds.

Message from your

President

New IBC Website !

Have you been to the Imperial Bird Club’s website? It’s

all new! Visit it soon and often.

I will be continually working to update the information

as well as adding more bird stuff that will be of interest to all.

If you have an idea that you would like to see on the website, let

me know and I will see what I can do.

Your webmaster,

Fred Smith

imperialbirdclub@wildblue.net

Guess Who's Chopping Down The Amazon Now?

Though Brazil's Amazon has been the focus of environmental groups

for decades, the deforestation rate there has fallen dramatically in recent

years as clear-cutting of Amazonian jungle in eight other countries has

started to rise.

As a result, the 40 percent of Amazonia located in a moon-shaped arc of

countries from Bolivia to Colombia to French Guiana faces a more seri-

ous threat than the jungle in Brazil. The culprits range from ranching to

soybean farming, logging to infrastructure development projects.

And in no other country is the problem as serious as in landlocked and

remote Bolivia. Though better known for its bleak and haunting high-

lands, 70 percent of Bolivia's land mass is part of the Amazon basin, from

biodiverse foothills to lowland jungles. It's an area bigger than California;

but every year, nearly 1,400 square miles are deforested, about two-thirds

the size of Delaware.

Bolivia, which is vast but has barely 10 million inhabitants, has among

the highest per capita deforestation rates in the world.

"It's the highest in the Amazonian basin," says Eduardo Forno, director

of Conservation International in La Paz, Bolivia's capital. "We have to

ask why. I think it's related to institutional weakness and the vision the

IBC Committees Expo Chairman—Lisa Prescott 863-370-1764 Librarian-Gloria Boughton & Lois Wygonik Historian– Lisa Prescott Legislation-Fred Smith-863-858-6739 Publicity-Marni Cooper-407-496-3797 Food Chair-Monique Desroschers Hospitality - Rachael Holley

Bird Club Officers President - Lisa Prescott-863-370-1764 Vice President –Jean Pattison-863-686-4532 Treasurer - Fred Smith-863-858-6739 Secretary-Valerie Kane-863-439-5199 Director-Monique Desrochers-863-521-2046 Director-Jim Aldrich-734-476-9079 Director-Carol Aldrich-734-476-9079 AFA Regional Director-Florida, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands-Fred Smith-863-858-6739 Webmaster and Newsletter editor - Fred Smith fredsmith@wildblue.net

Club Affiliations AFA Reps (2) Fred Smith & Lisa Prescott FFA Reps(2) Fred Smith & Jean Pattison FFA President Marty Dochstader

Elizabeth Taylor in the

1940’s with her Cockatiel

Item Description List 6-11 12-49 50+ 010-C 10" Probe-Lite Candler $27.95 $23.75 $19.55 $16.75 2-AA Batteries Included Candler Lamp Included Note: Let me know if any Club member is interested in buying one or more.

IBC Member’s Notice!

We would like for everyone who has an e-mail address to send it to

me so I can update our list. We will be sending everyone with e-

mail’s a notice when the newsletter is updated on the club’s website.

By viewing the newsletter online we will be able to add video’s as

well as links to articles thus expanding our newsletter greatly. In the

next few weeks we will be making changes to the format so that it

will be easier to view and add new features as well.

Those of you who are not online, we will continue to supply you

with the IBC newsletter as before.

Please send your current e-mail address to

ramonaksmith@wildblue.net In the subject line put IBC Member.

Thank You!

Cont’ from page 4...

country has, to extract resources."

Loggers: Forests Are Disappearing

It is a vision that is plainly evident in the farms and forests around

Ascencion, about 200 miles north of Santa Cruz, a regional capital

in the country's east.

On a recent day, logging crews work deep in the jungle in Amazo-

nia's far southwestern corner, looking mainly for hardwoods that

will be sawed into planks and shipped to China.

Led by Agustin Villa, a two-man crew — with a single chain saw

and plenty of gasoline — works in a ravine filled with heavy

brush and big trees. They take down about 25 trees a day, from

silk-cotton hardwoods to figs to ceibas, some of them 80 feet tall

and decades old.

In the distance, other workers drive earth movers, cutting a path

into the forest that will be used to drag out trunks that Villa and

his partner saw into big chunks.

"There are areas here that have disappeared, and parts that are

fine," Villa says. He then ticks off many stretches of the forest that

have been cleared of trees.

Brazilian Deforestation Under Control

For decades, environmentalists had focused much of their atten-

tion on Brazil's Amazon, which is bigger than all of Western

Europe. They had reason to — just a few years ago, an area the

size of Maryland was clear-cut every year, the trees falling to cat-

tle ranchers, soy producers and peasant farmers.

A young Teddy Roosevelt with his Hyacinth Macaw Eli.

Dolly Madison had a Blue and Gold named Polly. Stone-wall Jackson had an Amazon. His bird spoke both English and Spanish and cursed something horrible. His foul mouth caused him to be removed from the room during Jackson's funeral. Thomas Jefferson had mocking birds as pets. Martha Washington and her niece had many birds, so Mt Vernon was filled with birds. There was an Amazon that terrorized George Washington and he wrote about the bird in his jour-nals. One of the Kings of England had a Grey that ran around the table, eating off everyone's plate and exclaiming," Bust my buttons." Thereby driving the Queen mad. And we all must remember that the beautiful Duchess of Richmond and Lenox had an African Grey that died only a few days af-ter the Duchess passed away. From a broken heart? The bird was the first parrot to be stuffed and was put on display along with a wax image of the Duchess.

That has changed as Brazil's government began to stringently enforce

land-use laws, and farmers and cattlemen began adopting policies that

better employ already cleared land. Deforestation fell by 76 percent be-

tween 2004 and last year, according to Brazil's National Institute for

Space Research.

"In the last five or six years, there has been a phenomenal change in

Brazil with respect to the development process," says Timothy Killeen,

an ecologist who has worked for 25 years with major environmental

groups across the Amazon. "With Brazil deforestation rates going down

and the Andean deforestation rate going up, there's probably more de-

forestation in the Andean Amazon than in the Brazilian Amazon."

But Thomas Lovejoy, an expert on Amazonian deforestation at George

Mason University, points out that it's Brazil's government and Brazilian

companies that are funding development such as highway and hydroe-

lectric dam construction in parts of the non-Brazilian Amazon.

"Brazil beats its chest about lowering deforestation rates, but there has

to be reconciliation with what Brazil is doing in some of those coun-

tries," he says.

New Bolivian Forest Policy Needed

In much of the non-Brazilian Amazon, environmentalists say, the devel-

opment is disorderly, with peasants burning the tree cover and mining

companies easily winning permits to carve out a diverse mix of projects.

In Peru, trees are making way for pipelines and dams, while in tiny Ec-

uador oil companies are expanding their reach. Colombia is trying to

develop a region in its far southeast for farming, while producers of Af-

rican palm oil have been among the big drivers of deforestation.

Throughout the whole region, small, poorly regulated artisanal mining,

Cont’ from page 7...

often for gold, brings settlers and destruction.

In Bolivia, as in other places, the deforestation comes from a com-

bination of factors, some illegal and some carried out by the book.

The soy farming that is responsible for much of the deforestation, for

instance, is driven by farmers and companies that buy up land as part

of a policy that Bolivia's government has long encouraged. Much of

the logging in Bolivia is also legal.

Diego Pacheco, an adviser on environmental matters to Bolivia's

Foreign Ministry, says the government wants to better regulate land

use and find a way to both promote sustainable projects and protect

the forest.

Pacheco says a new forest policy is in the works and may be ready

later this year.

"I think we need to protect, but also we need to manage the forest,"

he says, noting that many Bolivians live in or on the edge of the for-

est and need it for their livelihoods.

Biodiversity Vs. Business

Martha Zotar, 37, and her family are making a living on land that

was once virgin forest. They legally bought 170 acres and are now

raising chickens and growing everything from rice to soybeans, the

region's cash crop.

"Everyone wants to plant soybeans," she says. "The prices are good

and it's easy to grow."

Still, Zotar says she is ever more conscious of the environment — in

school, her daughter is learning about how destruction of the Ama-

zon results in climate change, and that has affected Zotar,

Cont’ from page 16...

Over half of deforestation in Africa is carried out by poor farmers practis-

ing subsistence agriculture.Around 40% of the best-selling products in

British supermarkets contain palm oil, linked to rainforest clearance in

South East Asia.

What can be done?

A solution is possible but we must act now – we need to make rainfor-

ests worth more alive than dead. One way is to pay countries to keep their

forests standing through a process called Reducing Emissions from De-

forestation and Degradation (REDD). The result: the trees stay standing,

the world benefits from all the free environmental services the forest pro-

vides, countries develop cleaner energy supplies, and carbon stays locked

up.A recent success story is in Ecuador, where the government has agreed

to not extract oil sitting beneath one of the world’s most important rain-

forests in return for payments from the international community.

Use your purchasing power. When you shop, you can select products that

are certified as ‘forest friendly’. Certification schemes include FSC and

the Rainforest Alliance. You can also write to companies and urge them

to buy products that do not contribute to tropical deforestation. *

Deforestation of the

Rainforest not only re-

moves trees but destroys

the birds’ source of habi-

tat. Thus they have to

move to another location

where they may have to

compete for survival.

Cont’ from page 15

Livelihoods :: Millions of people make their living in and from the rain-

forest. We need to make the rainforests worth more alive than dead. Ap-

proximately 60 million indigenous people rely on the forests for

their way of life. Many of these people are threatened by habitat destruc-

tion.

Biodiversity :: Rainforests cover 5% of the Earth and contain over half

the world’s plant and animal species. This biodiversity has great medici-

nal and economic value. More than 70% of plants with anti-cancer prop-

erties are found here (according to the US National Cancer Institute). Ag-

ricultural scientists use wild strains of rainforest crops to increase yields

and resistance to pests and diseases in cultivated varieties. Losing the

rainforest could affect our food, water and health.

‘Rainforests are the glue that holds the climate of our planet to-gether. Lose the forest and it will have devastating consequences

for all life on Earth’

Around 137 species of rainforest plants and animals are wiped out every day.

We are losing a treasure trove of potential innovations. Evolution will not

make good these extinctions for a million years. We could feel the

losses within a generation.

Why are they cut down?

Our consumption helps fuel the destruction. Farmers in Brazil can make

$3,000 per hectare by clearing forest and growing soybeans for export.

Soybeans that end up in our supermarkets in many, many different prod-

ucts, even feeding the cattle that provide the meat for our burgers and

pies.

who points out a clump of trees on her family's land that she wants to

preserve. "We've got to protect this," she says. "We can't finish every-

thing off."

Deeper in the forest lies a stretch of wilderness that reflects Bolivia's

biodiversity. The country has more than 1,400 species of birds, from

macaws to toucans to eagles that dart past trees in search of monkeys.

There are jaguars, pink dolphins, wild pigs and a range of other mam-

mals.

These days, though, some of these creatures are increasingly sharing the

forest with loggers. Much of the loggers' work is legal, provided under

concessions that stipulate that only certain trees are to be harvested.

On a recent day at one 1,200-acre concession to a Santa Cruz lumber

company, it's tree-harvesting time. The loggers are searching for hard-

woods, the most valuable, which are used in homebuilding, and soft-

woods for such things as paneling. All are cut into sections that go to lo-

cal sawmills.

"I'm an environmentalist but not an extremist," says Cristian Saavedra, a

forestry technician working at the concession. "I think this harvesting of

wood is sustainable.

Cont’ from page 9

It's not deforestation." But environmentalists say such logging, multiplied

many times over across Bolivia, is taking a toll.

And at the concession, one of the loggers, taking a break from the back-

breaking work, acknowledges that it's getting harder and harder to find

the right trees in Bolivia's forests.

"It's not like before," says Juan Diez, "because it's being finished off. I

don't know what we'll do later." *

Internet viewers: click on following links for additional reading.

The Amazon Road: Paving

Paradise For Progress?

Demand For Quinoa A Boon For

Bolivian Farmers

Environment

In One Brazilian Farm Town, Reviving The

Forest

Let’s see who can take their

fruit and vegetables and cre-

ate their favorite bird, then

bring it to Club meeting next

month!

So why are rainforests important?

Climate controllers :: Rainforests control our climate by absorbing

CO2, acting as a store for carbon, and by making huge white clouds.

White reflects heat, keeping the Earth cool. They are called rainforests

because they make rain. The Amazon forest releases 20 billion tonnes of

moisture every day, helping water crops thousands of miles away.

It is estimated that 12% to 20% of all current carbon emissions come

from deforestation and so if we can help the forests to survive, they will

help ensure our future survival. Climate change is the biggest challenge

of the 21st century. If we bring the use of fossil fuels to zero and don’t

halt deforestation we will still breach the safe limit of greenhouse

gas concentrations. If we don’t act now it could, potentially catastrophi-

cally, narrow the time available to make the necessary transition to a low-

carbon world.

Cont’ from page 13

rainforest destruction. The large-scale cutting of trees begins a cycle in

which farmers burn leftover jungle scrub to replenish the soil, which re-

leases huge amounts of carbon dioxide (200 to 300 million tons in 2003)

into the atmosphere, that are in turn absorbed by the rainforest.

9,169 square miles of rain forest were cut down in 2003 alone. *

Minutes from Board Meeting and General

Membership Meeting for August 2012

Will be read at the September club meeting.

The Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon is a rainforest in South America. It encompasses 1.2

billion acres (7 million km²), with parts located within nine na-

tions: Brazil (with 60% of the rainforest), Colombia, Peru, Vene-

zuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.

This forest represents over half of the planet's remaining rainfor-

ests. States or departments in four nations bear the name Ama-

zonas for the Amazon.

The region is home to ~2.5 million insect species, tens of thou-

sands of plants, and some 2000 birds and mammals. The diversity

of plant species is the highest on earth with some experts estimat-

ing that one square kilometre may contain over 75,000 types of

trees and 150,000 species of higher plants. One square kilometre

of Amazon rainforest can contain about 90,000 tons of living

plants. This constitutes the largest collection of living plants and

animal species in the world. One in five of all the birds in the

world live in the rainforests of the Amazon.

To date, an estimated 438,000 species of plants of economic and so-

cial interest have been registered in the region with many more re-

maining to be discovered or cataloged. (Note: Brazil has one of the

most advanced laws to avoid biopiracy, but enforcing it is a problem-

There has been concern among environmentalists for many years, re-

garding the deforestation of the region, stemming mainly from the fact

that more than one fifth of the Amazon Rainforest has already been de-

stroyed; and much more is threatened. Not only are environmentalists

concerned about the loss of biodiversity which will result from the for-

est's destruction, they are also concerned about the release of the car-

bon which is held within the trees -- this carbon will accelerate global

warming. .)

The deforestation of this area in the 1980s was largely considered

catastrophic. Yet, in 1996, the Amazon was reported to have shown a

34 per cent increase in deforestation since 1992. A new report by a

congressional committee says the Amazon is vanishing at a rate of

52,000 square kilometers (20,000 miles²) a year, over three times the

rate for which the last official figures were reported, in 1994. Environ-

mentalists commonly stress the fact that there is not only a biological

incentive to protecting the rainforest, but also an economic one. One

square kilometer in the Peruvian Amazon has been calculated to have a

value of $682,000 if intact forest is sustainably harvested for fruits, la-

tex, and timber; $100,000 if clear-cut for commercial timber (not sus-

tainably harvested); or $14,800 if used as cattle pasture.

The Força Aérea Brasileira has been using EMBRAER R-99 surveil-

lance aircraft, as part of the SIVAM program, in an attempt to halt

rainforest molestation. At a conference in July 2004, scientists warned

that the rainforest will no longer be able to absorb the millions of tons

of greenhouse gases annually, as it usually does, because of the in-

creased pace of