From: owner-forpol-digest@sfu.ca (forpol-digest) To: forpol-digest@sfu.ca Subject: forpol-digest V1 #12 Reply-To: forpol Sender: owner-forpol-digest@sfu.ca Errors-To: owner-forpol-digest@sfu.ca Precedence: bulk forpol-digest Tuesday, March 3 1998 Volume 01 : Number 012 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 11:42:48 -0800 (PST) From: David Luzi Subject: River's Nomination form BC's Ten Most Endangered Rivers of 1998 Nominations Requested Raising awareness about the threats to BC's rivers has been a high priority for the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC since it was formed nearly 20 years ago. During that time the Council has been involved in a wide range of activities aimed at increasing British Columbians' river awareness and appreciation of rivers as well as the dangers facing BC's natural river heritage. These activities range from holding international river symposiums to coordinating BC Rivers Day to developing a provincial river management strategy. An initiative that has proven to be quite successful with respect to raising river awareness has been the publication of an annual BC's Ten Most Endangered Rivers list. Last year's list received a lot of attention from the media, especially in towns and cities located on rivers that made the list. The articles that were written and broadcast about the list helped tremendously to increase awareness about the threats facing our rivers. The Outdoor Recreation Council of BC needs your input to develop British Columbia's most endangered rivers list for 1998. If you know of a river or rivers that are endangered and are suffering from pollution or overfishing, being impacted by logging or mining, have dams or diversions proposed for them, or if scenic values and access are being impacted by shoreline development then please take a few moments to fill out the form below. Please feel free to copy this form for distribution. Replies will be compiled by the Council's Endangered Rivers List Committee and a Ten Most Endangered Rivers list will be developed. This list will then be released to media in late Spring. Please fill out the entry form below and mail or fax it to the Council's office by Tuesday March 31, 1998. BC's Ten Most Endangered Rivers of 1997 1. Urban Streams (foreshore development, habitat loss, pollution, culverting) 2. Taku (proposed access road, proposed logging, acid mine drainage) 3. Owikeno System (extensive logging and road building) 4. Horsefly (extensive logging and road building) 5. Englishman (proposed gravel pit, storage dams, and garbage dump) 6. Stikine/Iskut (increased logging, mine proposals, increased access) 7. Fraser (threatened fish stocks, habitat loss, pollution, urban growth, sewage) 8. Nechako (low and irregular water flows) 9. Finlay (increased access, logging, absence of plan to protect wildlife and wilderness values) 10. Columbia (inadequate flow regimes, pollution) BC's Most Endangered Rivers 1998 Name: Address: City: Postal Code: Phone: I nominate the following as BC's three most endangered rivers: *Additional supportive information may also be submitted 1. Endangered from: 2. Endangered from: 3. Endangered from: please return by March 31, 1998 to: Outdoor Recreation Council of BC #334-1367 West Broadway, Vancouver BC V6H 4A9 Phone: (604) 737-3058 Fax: 737-3666 E-mail: orcbc@istar.ca Rivers Conference 98 - Conserving & Restoring Our River Heritage Hosted by: - --------------------------------------------------------------- Outdoor Recreation Council of BC 334-1367 West Broadway Vancouver, BC V6H 4A9 Tel: 604-737-3058 Fax: 604-737-3666 e-mail: orcbc@istar.ca URL: http://home.istar.ca/~orcbc/ - --------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 19:19:35 -0800 From: "Alavalapati, Janaki" Subject: Forest policies/programs Hello members of FOREST: I want to examine "Changes in Canadian forest policies/programs: Implications for the United States". Forest policies/programs can be trade, environmental, or institutional related and impacts can be social, economic, and environmental in nature. If policy changes are many, I would like to select a few. For example, recent restrictions on softwood lumber exports from Canada to the U.S. may have implications for U.S. consumer/producer welfare. Any thoughts or literature about forest policy changes and implications for the US will be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance Janaki Alavalapati *********************************** Canadian Forest Service (Economics) 5320 - 122 Street Edmonton, Canada T6H 3S5 Tel: 403 - 435 - 7366 Fax: 403 - 435 - 7359 e-mail: jalavala@nrcan.gc.ca *********************************** ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 11:44:06 -0700 From: Michael Howlett Subject: CEC Exec dir resigns >X-Sender: ccastell@205.151.216.3 >X-Subject: Press Release >Mime-Version: 1.0 >Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 13:56:18 EST >Reply-To: ESAC/ACEE List >Sender: ESAC/ACEE List >Comments: Resent-From: "John Henning, Eco-echo, McGill U., Montreal, > Ca" >Comments: Originally-From: Corrie Castello >From: "John Henning, Eco-echo, McGill U., Montreal, Ca" > >Subject: CEC Exec dir resigns >To: ESAC-L@YORKU.CA >X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by rm-rstar.sfu.ca id >LAA20514 > >Please find attached a press release dated February 10, 1998 > >For Immediate Release on Contact: Rachel Vincent >10 February 1998 Commission for Environmental >Cooperation > Tel: (514) 350-4308 / e-mail: rvincent@ccemtl.org > >CEC SECRETARIAT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR RESIGNS > > >The Executive Director of the Secretariat of the Commission for >Environmental Cooperation (CEC), Victor Lichtinger, today informed the CEC >Council that he will resign, effective March 1, to pursue other >opportunities. CEC Secretariat Director Janine Ferretti, a Canadian, will >be appointed interim Executive Director upon Mr. Lichtinger's departure and >will assume all duties and responsibilities of the Executive Director. > >"I'm very proud of the work accomplished here at the CEC," says Lichtinger, >who recently entered his second-term as Executive Director. "The CEC is >entering a new phase of its development which calls for new ideas and fresh >leadership." > >In accepting the resignation, representatives to the CEC Council (composed >of environmental ministers or their cabinet equivalents from Canada, Mexico >and the United States) recognized the important role Mr. Lichtinger has >played in the formation and first years of operation of the CEC >Secretariat. They also acknowledged his valuable contribution to the >creation of a non-partisan institution, with the mandate of promoting >stronger environmental protection efforts in the three NAFTA countries. > >Mr. Lichtinger, a Mexican citizen, was the first Executive Director of the >CEC Secretariat. He accepted the position in July 1994. Prior to joining >the CEC, Mr. Lichtinger was General Director of ICF Kaiser in Mexico. He >has also served as General Coordinator for Natural Resources and >Environment in the Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretariat, where he organized >Mexico's participation in several international bodies and meetings, >including the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in >1992. > >Created by an environmental side accord to NAFTA, the CEC is equally funded >by the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States. Based in >Montreal, it has an annual budget of US $9 million. > >=BE30=BE > >For more information, please contact Rachel Vincent at the CEC Secretariat: > 514-350-4300, or by e-mail at rvincent@ccemtl.org. > =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D Rebecca Raglon e-mail igs@sfu.ca Senior Research Associate phone (604) 947-0774 Institute for Governance Studies Fax (604) 947-0774 Simon Fraser University WWW: http://www.sfu.ca/igs/CASHE.html Burnaby BC Canada V5A 1S6 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 23:27:44 -0800 From: geza@portal.ca Subject: Dr. Jerry Franklin - Public lecture "The Natural, the clearcut, and the future." Dr. Jerry Franklin (University of Washington) is speaking=20 on Wednesday Febrauary 18, 7:30 pm at the Ocean Pointe Resort Hotel, in Victoria, Britsh Columbia, Canada, as part of the "Structure, Processes and Diversity in Successional=20 Forests of Coastal British Columbia" workshop which began today. Dr Franklin is highly respected, and one of the North West's most knowlegable forest professionals. G=E9za V=E1mos, PEng, 3970 Laurel Street Vancouver, BC, V5Z 3V6 Tel (604) 873-5504 Email geza@portal.ca ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 13:39:21 -0800 From: geza@portal.ca Subject: Multilateral Agreement on Investment- MAI - it could crush your country Multilateral Agreement on Investment MAI - 29 OECD Countries will sign away their citizens constitutional rights early 1998, alarmed? For more details, including the full draft MAI, refer to the following web pages, and book: www.citizen.org/pctrade/tradehome.html www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/freetrade/index.html, www.web.net/coc/mai.html web.idirect.com/~ccaft Book: MAI - Maude Barlow/Tony Clarke Below is a short update on its status, extracted from from the EcoNews newsletter (details below article). MAI PROGRESS Here's the latest on the Multilateral Agreement on Investments, from Andrea Durbin, Friends of the Earth, USA : "NGOs have successfully pushed the environment and labor issues enough that the negotiators realize that we are a political force to reckon with and are madly trying to figure out what can be done (of course the "fixes" they are discussing are not enough to resolve the fundamental problems with the agreement). The latest efforts however by the negotiators has led the business community to begin to question whether or not the agreement will have enough in it for them to support in the end. The next MAI negotiations will be in mid-February with high level officials. This will be the key negotiating session where they will decide whether or not to go ahead with the agreement and finalize it in April; or call the whole thing off. The next four weeks are critical for the NGO movement against the MAI to increase its efforts and organize aggressively against the MAI." Because of its ban on performance targets for investors, the MAI would make many social and environmental standards illegal, ranging from recycled content to arms export bans. This is a crucial time to tell your Elected Representatives that you oppose the MAI. British Columbians: call Glen Clark (250)-387-1715 to ask him to step up B.C.'s pressure against the MAI. Here in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, call the MAI-NOT campaign - Saul Arbess, 383-5878. Extracted from EcoNews, an excellent newletter emailed to you for free. Subscribtions: gdauncey@islandnet.com Pervious edition at: http://www.islandnet.com/~gdauncey/econews/ G=E9za V=E1mos, PEng, 3970 Laurel Street Vancouver, BC, V5Z 3V6 Tel (604) 873-5504 Email geza@portal.ca ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 23:28:55 -0800 From: (by way of Michael Howlett) Subject: Call for Manuscripts >Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 15:28:19 -0500 >Reply-To: EcoFem@csf.colorado.edu >Sender: owner-EcoFem@csf.colorado.edu >Precedence: bulk >From: Peter Nielsen >To: STUDIES IN WOMEN AND ENVIRONMENT >Subject: Call for Manuscripts >MIME-Version: 1.0 >X-To: CLIM-ECON@csf.colorado.edu, CNIE@csf.colorado.edu, >ECOFEM@csf.colorado.edu > >Ashgate Publishing Company announces a new book series > >ASHGATE STUDIES IN ENVIRONMENTAL AND NATURAL RESOURCE ECONOMICS > >Series Editors: >Tom Tietenberg, Colby College >Theodore Panayotou, Harvard Institute for International Development >Wendy N. Morrison, Middlebury College > >This book series will encompass the various areas of environmental and >natural resource economics, including agricultural economics. >Theoretical, empirical, and policy-oriented books will be included. >The goal is to provide an outlet for longer works that advance the >leading issues of the field. The series is intended primarily for >researchers, doctoral students, and advanced practitioners. > >The series will cover the following types of books: > >RESEARCH MONOGRAPHS that make substantial contributions to knowledge. > >ADVANCED EXPOSITORY BOOKS that extend and integrate particular lines of >research. > >EDITED COLLECTIONS that tie together in a useful way influential papers >on a particular topic or by a particular author. > >EDITED COLLECTIONS OF CONFERENCE PAPERS on well-focused subjects. >Environmental economics: air and water pollution; solid and hazardous >waste; toxic substances; climate change; acid rain; and ozone depletion. > > >The series will cover the following areas: > >ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS: air and water pollution; solid and hazardous >waste; toxic substances; climate change; acid rain; and ozone depletion. > >NATURAL RESOURCE ECONOMICS: forests; fisheries; water resources; >energy; land use; biodiversity; marine and coastal resources; and >recreation. > >AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS: sustainable agriculture; irrigation; land use; >soil erosion; and non-point source pollution. > >INSTITUTIONS AND INSTRUMENTS: policy instruments (regulatory, >market-based, and judicial); monitoring and enforcement; green >accounting; trade and the environment; sustainable development; >valuation; benefit/cost and cost/effectiveness analyses. > >It is hoped that this book series will encourage researchers to provide >a more ambitious and comprehensive treatment of topics than is possible >through journal publication, and to devote more attention to subjects >which by their nature are better suited to book than to journal >publication. The editorial board will select titles for the series >based on their quality and relevance to the field. Ashgate offers a >highly efficient editorial process and one of the finest international >marketing and distribution systems in academic publishing. > >For further information, please contact: > >Wendy N. Morrison >Economics Department >Middlebury College >Middlebury, VT 05753 >Tel: 802-443-5787 >Fax: 802-443-2084 >E-mail: Wendy.Morrison@middlebury.edu > >or > >Peter Nielsen >Ashgate Publishing Company >Old Post Road >Brookfield, VT 05036-9704 >Tel: 802-276-3162 >Fax: 802-276-3651 >E-mail: pnielsen@ashgate.com >http://www.ashgate.com > ============================================================================= Rebecca Raglon e-mail igs@sfu.ca Senior Research Associate phone (604) 947-0774 Institute for Governance Studies Fax (604) 947-0774 Simon Fraser University WWW: http://www.sfu.ca/igs/CASHE.html Burnaby BC Canada V5A 1S6 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 22:29:59 -0800 From: geza@portal.ca Subject: BOMBING THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION, by David Orchard PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS ARTICLE FAR AND WIDE - IT IS URGENT THAT ALL UNDERSTAND WHAT IS BEHIND THE BARBARIC AND ILLEGAL ACTIONS AGAINST IRAQ BY THE UNITED STATES AND ITS COWARDLY ALLIES (INCLUDING CANADA, TO ITS AND OUR ETERNAL SHAME!) This article has been sent to all major and not-so-major newspapers in Canada and the major English-language ones abroad. Keep your eyes open in case it surfaces there and please let us at CCAFT know. It can be reprinted without permission but please the author full credit and send us a copy of your publication. BOMBING THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION, by David Orchard So the nation with more "weapons of mass destruction" than any other tells us to beware of Iraq. The country which has done more invading than any in history warns, "Iraq must be stopped." Iraq "may" possess and "might" use chemical and biological weapons, says the U.S. =97 which has used them repeatedly, from Vietnam to Cuba, and now proposes to blow whatever amounts Iraq may have into the atmosphere, with nuclear weapons if necessary. Iraq is an "unpredictable rogue state," announces Washington, which in 1991 fired 900 tons of depleted uranium into Iraq, drenching it with permanent, radioactive contamination. Iraq is a threat to world peace, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair declare. Did Iraq overthrow Guatemala's government, 1954? Attack Cuba and assassinate Congo's prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, 1961? Invade the Dominican Republic, 1965? Drop 10,000,000 tons of bombs, chemicals and napalm on Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, 1965-1973? Overthrow and assassinate Chile's Salvador Allende, 1973? Invade Grenada, 1983 and Panama, 1989? Saddam Hussein is accused of being a modern Hitler. How has a small, virtually landlocked country, dependent on imported food and exports of oil =97 both cut off by sanctions =97 publicly stripped of its weapons,= embargoed and guarded by a phalanx of the world's most advanced weaponry, inspected 2,186 times over seven years, incapable of even flying over its own territory, become equal to Nazi Germany? War may come, our leaders say. How is war possible when only one side has weapons? Is the operative word not massacre? Iraq is a Third World country, smaller than the province of Saskatchewan; its population is roughly 20 million with an average income today, according to the New York Times, of $2 per month. Devastated during the one-sided 1991 Gulf War =97 U.S. officials referred = to it as a "turkey shoot"=97 Iraq has since been bled white by seven years of sanctions and embargo. Since 1991, over one million Iraqis have died a slow starving death, (two-thirds of them children, making mockery of the U.N. declaration on the Rights of the Child), and millions more are suffering physical damage and drastically shortened lives. The majority of the population is reduced to "semi-starvation," according to the World Health Organization. Radiation-ravaged and deformed children are denied any relief from their agony by an embargo harsher than that imposed on Germany following World War II. The recent U.S. Bishop's statement to President Clinton reads, "Epidemics rage, taking away infants and the sick by the thousands..." The starvation of a population is clearly prohibited by international law, even during war, yet under this embargo a child is dying in Iraq every ten minutes. Now Iraq faces another overwhelming attack by the world's superpower =97 = and a few sycophantic spear-carriers, including Canada. This is not a U.N. action. The Security Council has not authorized it and the U.N. Charter does not authorize member states to take unilateral military action. In 1804, Haiti was the first Latin American country to achieve its independence, through a slave revolt. The U.S., supported by Britain, imposed a 60-year embargo on the island; it did not want slave rebellion at home. For almost 40 years, Washington has embargoed Cuba and attempted to assassinate its leaders. Independence in the Caribbean continues to be an offence. For 30 years the U.S. blockaded Vietnam. Vietnam's crime? It defeated the U.S.A. Now the U.S. refuses to lift the embargo against Iraq. Why? Almost a century ago, Britain seized the Persian Gulf area, and carved a border between Iraq and Kuwait =97 a division never accepted by Iraq and renounced formally by it in 1961 after it overthrew the British-imposed monarch and achieved independence. In the 1930s, Britain conceded the entire oil reserves of the region to U.S. and British interests. In the 1970s, Iraq nationalized (with compensation) its oil industry and its citizens achieved a very high standard of living. In 1989, a high power U.S. delegation visited Baghdad and demanded Iraq privatize its oil industry. Iraq refused. Today Iraq stands in the way of complete U.S. (and British) control of the oil resources of the Gulf. In 1951, the Mossadeq government of Iran nationalized its oil. Britain and the U.S. imposed draconian sanctions and two years later the U.S. overthrew Mossadeq, calling him "that madman." In the early 1970s, Libya nationalized its oil reserves and built impressive health, education and construction projects in that once impoverished nation. President Nixon publicly reminded Libyan leader Moammar Gaddaffi of Mossadeq's fate and U.S. officials began referring to Gaddaffi as a "Hitler," a "terrorist" and a "mad dog." In 1986, the U.S., supported by Britain, bombed Libya, wounding Gaddaffi's wife, injuring all seven of his children, and killing his infant daughter. When Pierre Trudeau's government introduced the National Energy Programme, 1980, with its goal of 50% Canadian ownership of the industry, Washington, outraged, publicly warned that "relationships are sliding dangerously towards crisis." U.S. officials, referring to the 1973 Chilean coup, spelled out a plan to topple Trudeau by "destabilizing" Quebec and Ontario. Now Ottawa has volunteered to help Washington unleash the world's most horrendous weapons in an illegal and profoundly racist holocaust against the defenceless citizens of the cradle of recorded civilization. =20 Call it privatization at the point of uranium-tipped missiles. - ----------- DAVID ORCHARD is the author of The Fight for Canada: Four Centuries of Resistance to American Expansionism (1993) and the founder and chair of the Citizens Concerned About Free Trade. He farms in Saskatchewan. He can be reached by telephone: (306)652-7095 (r) (306)244-5757 (o), by fax: (306)244-3790 and by e-mail at: ccafttor@sympatico.ca, website: http://web.idirect.com/~ccaft **************CITIZENS CONCERNED ABOUT FREE TRADE************* The 1990 Gulf War, and 1998 Proposed War have no ground in reason (unless you are an oil or arms producer). These views are supported by ample evidence quoted below. References to full articles are included below. Read on! Improving US car efficiency from 20 mpg (miles per gallon) to 23 mpg could displace all of the oil the US imported from Iraq and Kuwait before the hostilities of July 1990. A dozen auto makers world-wide have prototype cars that range from 63 to 138 mpg. From 1977 to 1986, the rise in US oil productivity averaged 5 percent per year--80 percent faster than needed to keep up with both economic growth and the decline in domestic oil extraction. Oil imports fell by half. Had the United States just maintained that pace, it would have needed no Persian Gulf oil from 1986 on. However, in 1986 the Reagan Administration rolled back mandated light-vehicle efficiency standards, and cut the print run of the government's car efficiency guide by two-thirds. These actions doubled oil imports from the Persian Gulf. Extracts from Amory Lovin's articles on Security and Energy (Amory Lovin's work resulted in billion dollar energy conservation programs by power companies, and now Lovin's forced the US government and US auto makers to take fuel efficiency seriously for the first time in history). Web: http://www.rmi.org The USA did not, and does not need oil from the Persian Gulf, however President Bush served the interests of US oil and arms corporations, by provoking the Iraqi's to invade Kuwait. Extract from speech by a former CIA agent, published in the Z magazine, and on the web: http://www.cdrom.com/pub/obi/Philip.Agee/Z "With an increase in price of $15 per barrel, which..had already happened, Saudi Arabia stands to earn more than $40..billion extra dollars during the 14 months from the invasion to the..end of the next U.S. fiscal year. Pentagon calculations of Desert..Shield costs come to $18 billion for the same 14 months. Even if the..Saudis paid all that, which they won't because of other contributors,..they would have more than $20 billion in windfall income left over...O.K., bring that money to the States through weapon sales. That, I..suppose, is why the ($21 billion) Saudi Arms sale instantly became known as the..Defense Industry Relief Act of 1990". G=E9za V=E1mos, PEng, 3970 Laurel Street Vancouver, BC, V5Z 3V6 Tel (604) 873-5504 Email geza@portal.ca ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 08:05:28 -0700 From: "Jerome Simpson" (by way of Michael Howlett) Subject: Russian News Round-up COURT UPHOLDS APPEAL BY ENVIRONMENTALISTS. In the first case of its kind, the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of an appeal by environmental groups against government instructions allowing the development of some federally owned forested areas, RFE/RL's Moscow bureau reported on 20 February. Last April, the environmentalists appealed against 12 government regulations that allowed some 32,000 hectares of forest to be cleared for other uses, such as the construction of homes. They said the government had failed to comply with laws requiring that ecological surveys be conducted before forests can be converted to other land uses. Vera Mishenka, the president of the Eko-Yuris institute, said the court's ruling affects only a few regulations that were based on old forestry laws, not similar government instructions based on the new forestry code. She added that it will be a challenge to force the government and the Federal Forestry Service to implement the court ruling. LB ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 02 Mar 1998 09:32:25 -0800 From: geza@portal.ca Subject: "Business in the Rainforest" - Thursday March 5th SFU Harbour Centre Ecotrust discusses their work assisting environmentally responsible businesses in coastal temperate rainforests, March 5th 7-830 pm SFU Harbour Centre 515 W Hastings, Vancouver, free admission. G=E9za V=E1mos, PEng, BSc (env sci) Vancouver, BC, Canada Tel (604) 873-5504 Fax on request Email geza@portal.ca Web www.portal.ca ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 12:35:19 -0800 (PST) From: "Gary Gallon, Canadian Institute for Business & Environment" (by way of Michael Howlett) Subject: Decline of Forestry Management in Ontario THE GALLON ENVIRONMENT LETTER Canadian Institute for Business and the Environment 506 Victoria Ave., Montreal, Quebec H3Y 2R5 Ph. (514) 369-0230, Fax (514) 369-3282 Email: cibe@web.net Vol. 2, No. 4, March 4, 1998 ****************************************************************************= * ONTARIO FOREST LAND GRAB: CALLED "LANDS FOR LIFE" Using Orwellian "government speak" the Ontario Government is taking the next step in removing environmental protection as a road-block to unfettered development. Called "Lands for Life", the new land use planning exercised launched by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) is fast-tracking measures to accelerate logging of the province's remaining forests. The forest companies have cut trees so fast, with little effort to reforest over the last 40 years, that there is not much merchantable forest left in Ontario. There are now too many pulp mills, too many saw mills, and not enough wood. Full tree regrowth and rotation in Ontario/Quebec takes an average of 80 years. Areas left unreforested lose their topsoil to water and wind erosion and can never grow the great trees that were once there. Other fast growth industries of non-consumptive uses of the forest such as canoeing, hiking, wilderness tours and bird-watching, are given little economic weight by MNR. Bird-watching in particular is generating millions of dollars more in annual revenues for Ontario's businesses, yet tree-cutting is given priority. Contact: Ministry of Natural Resources: Website: http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/mnr. Or contact: Tim Gray, Executive Director, Wildlands League, 401 Richmond St., W., Suite 380, Toronto, Ontario M5V 3A8, Ph. (416) 971-9453, fax (416) 979-3155, email: wildland@web.net. ***************************************************************** ONTARIO FOREST COMPANY DEMANDS EVERY TREE IN THE NORTH Buchanan Forest Products Ltd., in Thunder Bay, Ontario, sensing new opportunities with the Ontario Government wrote in a letter November 20, 1997 that: "every hectare of forested land in the Northwest MNR Region, and every tree on this land is needed to run our sawmills in Hudson, Atikokan, Longlac, Dubreuilville, three sawmills in Thunder Bay, and an MNR approved sawmill in Nakina which will be built in 1998. And every bit of by-product from these sawmill operations are needed to run the eight pulp mills in the region. All of this was confirmed by the MNR's Northwest Regional Wood Supply Study. For this reason we are not in favour of establishing any further parks and any further areas where harvesting will NOT be allowed...yours sincerely, Glen R. Swant, Vice-President, Fiber Supply", Buchanan Forest Products Ltd., 233 South Court St., Thunder Bay, Ont P7B 2X9, Ph. (807) 345-0571. ********************************************************* NATIVE PEOPLES JOIN ONTARIO FOREST COMPANY IN A PROPOSAL TO LOG SOME ONTARIO PARKS It appears that some native peoples groups have joined with Buchanan Forest Products Ltd., in a proposal to log some of Ontario's provincial parks. In a letter dated November 20, 1997, Glen R. Swant of Buchanan Forest Products wrote: "we would like to make a proposal to the Lands for Life ....we and the affected native groups would like to perform sensitive forest management in Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, Quetico Provincial Park, Wabakami Provincial Park, Brightsand Waterway Park, Turtle River Waterway Park, and the Kopka River Waterway Park." Buchanan Forest Products Ltd., 233 South Court St., Thunder Bay, Ont P7B 2X9, Ph. (807) 345-0571. ************************************************************************** COURTS RULE THAT ONTARIO NOT ENFORCING ITS OWN FORESTRY LAW The Ontario Division Court ruled that the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources is failing to enforce its " Crown Forest Sustainability Act" and gave Ontario one year to comply with the its own provincial law. Mr. Justice Archie Campbell, who wrote the decision stated that: " the nature and quality of the non-compliance (by the Ministry of Natural Resources) is extreme." Problems include allowing improper and excessive logging, not adequately protecting wild life habitat and waterways from poor logging practices, and not allowing proper access to other economic (non-consumptive) uses of the forests such as tourism, hiking, camping and bird watching. Web site: http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/MNR/. Source: The Toronto Star, February 10, 1998. ****************************************************************************= * ONTARIO ABANDONING REFORESTATION EFFORTS The previous Progressive Conservative government of Bill Davis committed to planting two trees for everyone cut down. Stumpage fees and other forest company assessments helped the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources establish a large and extensive tree nursery and tree- planting program. Even people with private forest lands could go to the government nurseries and purchase subsidized tree seedlings for private lands reforestation. That has been ended by this Conservative Government. The government nurseries are being closed or sold to the private sector. Government reforestation is being severely curtailed. Ken Russell, MNR's District Information Management Supervisor, "says the government is getting out of all business associated with forest management." The reforestation efforts have been handed over to the forest companies, but so far, few new tree nurseries have been established to replace the capacity that has been lost. And for the private land owners that have been reforesting their lands for bird and wildlife habitat the cost of seedlings has jumped ten-fold from 10 cent to $1.00 average per tree seedling, cutting a huge hole in the private reforestation efforts. Source: Northern Daily News, Kirkland Lake, Ontario January 22, 1998. ****************************************************************************= * NPRI REMAINS ONE OF THE KEY ENVIRONMENT TOOLS FOR CANADA The National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) remains as one of the few strong active tools of environmental protection for Environment Canada. It reports annually on discharges, emissions, and transfers of wastes. It does not mandate clean up. However, provides information to the public and industry on industry performance. It allows people to compare company efforts and track improvements. The following is the latest information for the 1995 discharges of Ontario companies. ***************************************************************** GENERAL MOTORS CANADA IS MAJOR EMITTER The "Big Three" auto makers showed up several times on the NPRI list of toxic releases. In particular, General Motors seemed exceed the other two (Ford and Chrysler) by a substantial amount. General Motors of Canada Ltd., - - Autoplex, Car Plant and truck plant in Oshawa placed first in toluene discharges (to the air) with 537.2 tonnes (388.4 tonnes at the car plant and 148.8 tonnes at the truck plant). This out distanced Ford Motor Co. Ltd., Oakville which placed 10thwith 144.2 tonnes. The combined General Motors of Canada Ltd. truck and auto plant at the Oshawa facility generated the most xylene emissions of all companies in Canada with 1,193.6 tonnes. In second place is Papiers Perkins Lt=E9e (les), based in Candiac, Quebec emitted 793.7 tonnes. General Motor in Oshawa also placed first in Canada in discharges of isopropyl alcohol at 137.8 tonnes. While Ford Motor Co. Ltd., St. Thomas Assembly plant placed first in discharges of Methyl isobutyl ketone at 121.1 tonnes. Two General Motors plants (one truck and the other auto) within the same General Motors Oshawa complex generated a combined 138.5 tonnes of Methyl isobutyl ketone placing them in first place ahead of the Ford St. Thomas plant with 121.1 tonnes. ********************************************************* ONTARIO HYDRO'S NANTICOKE COAL-FIRED PLANT HYDROCHLORIC ACID DISCHARGES UNUSUALLY HIGH Ontario Hydro's Nanticoke Coal-Fired Generating station placed a distant first place in the discharges to air of hydrochloric acid with 2,042 tonnes, four times the amount of second place O.H.'s Lakeview Coal-fired generating station with 537.5 tonnes. Nanticoke was the only non- aluminum plant to make the top 8 emitters of hydrogen fluoride, placing sixth with 100.5 tonnes. Nanticoke placed high, in seventh place with nickel discharges of 13.8 tonnes. ******************************************************** ONTARIO'S OTHER LARGE EMITTERS Algoma Steel Inc., Sault Ste. Marie, was a huge emitter of manganese at 1,184 tonnes. Standard Products (Canada) Ltd., - Rubber Plant #1 in Stratford, Ontario placed first in releases of ethylbenzene with 170 tonnes. A distant second was Ford Motor Co. Ltd., in St. Thomas, Ontario with 71.5 tonnes ethylbenzene. Four INCO Ltd., facilities were among a total of seven reporting releases of cobalt, with INCO's Port Colborne Refinery placing first with 9.4 tonnes cobalt discharges and INCO's Copper Cliff Smelter in second with 5.6 tonnes. Ontario companies placed nine of the top ten dischargers of trichloroethylene. Sandvik Steel Canada in Arnprior discharged 223.2 tonnes trichloroethylene to the air. Wolverine Tube (Canada) Inc., in London, Ont. discharged 133.2 tonnes to the air. Bombardier Inc., de Hailland Inc., in Downsview, Ont discharged almost one-third of that at 44.5 tonnes. Also, Ontario companies placed nine out of the top ten emitters of toluene in Canada. GM Oshawa 288.4 tonnes toluene to the air for first place. Quebecor Printing's operations in Etobicoke third place in Canada with 311.7 tonnes. INCO Ltd., placed in five of the top six emitters of nickel. INCO's plants placed first 509.9 tonnes from the Sudbury smelter and nickel refinery. Second in Canada, was INCO's smelter in Thompson, Manitoba with 106.8 tonnes. INCO's Sudbury smelter placed first in Canada with discharges of 3,041 tonnes of sulphuric acid, three times more than second place Tembec Inc., pulp mill in Quebec with 1,250 tonnes. ******************************************************** COST OF PLASTIMET HAMILTON FIRE CONTINUE TO ESCALATE: $200 MILLION LAWSUIT If the Ontario Ministry of the Environment thought it was saving money by cutting the environment budget for the operations of the abatement and compliance group, it now finds that the cuts are costing them more in legal fees and potential compensation pay outs as a result of the huge plastics fire at the ill-fated Plastimet Co. in Hamilton, Ontario. Had the cuts not been made, there would have been adequate resources available to have monitored and controlled the poor handling operations inside Plastimet. To date the affected residents that suffered the health and business losses during the fire, have launched a $200 million class action suit against Ontario, Hamilton, and the company. The MOE has issued multi million dollar cleanup orders to Plastimet, to Plastimet's owner, and to the owner of the land, and has given notice that it intends to issue more orders. Hearings regarding the clean up before the Environmental Assessment Board are expected to begin soon. Source: Diane Saxe, Dianne Saxe, D. Jur., Barrister and Solicitor, Certified Specialist in Environmental Law, 66 Russell Hill Road, Toronto, Ontario M4V 2T2; ph. (416) 962 5882, fax (416) 962 8817; email: dsaxe@envirolaw.com; Web site: http//www.envirolaw.com. **************************************************************** REPORT ON POTENTIAL CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS IN ONTARIO AVAILABLE: =46ROM ENVIRONMENT CANADA John Mills, Director General, Ontario Region, Environment Canada, announced that the executive summary and the plain language summary of the Canada Country Study called: "Adapting to Climate Variability and Change in Ontario". The study considers existing and potential adaptive responses to climate change caused by manmade global warming. For a copy of the report: Tel. 1-800-668-6767. ************************************************************* LUCIEN BRADET ANNOUNCES CES LIST UPDATE The Canadian Environmental Solutions (CES) Directory of Canadian companies has been updated, announces Lucien Bradet, Director General, Environmental Affairs Branch, Industry Canada. The CES, developed under the direction of Bradet, is used extensively by Canada's Trade Commissions and DFAIT Foreign Affairs officers, as well as Environment Canada to promote Canadian companies. Make sure your company is listed. It must be exporting, or export ready. Visit the CES Web site: http//strategis. ic.gc.ca/sc_indps/canenvir/engdoc/es00001e.html. ***************************************************************** INTERNATIONAL INTERNATIONAL INTERNATIONAL ***************************************************************** BASEL CONVENTION ON CONTROL OF HAZARDOUS WASTES Officials from over 100 countries met in Kuching, Malaysia for the week of 23-27 February 1998 to consider a list of hazardous wastes that will be covered under an earlier decision of the Parties to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal to ban the export of such wastes from developed to developing countries. This decision is a follow-up to the September 1995 adoption of an Amendment to the Basel Convention prohibiting the export of hazardous wastes from (principally) Member States of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), including Canada, to any other State for final disposal. The Basel Convention calls for phasing out the export of hazardous wastes destined for recycling or recovery by 31 December 1997, with a full ban thereafter. The Amendment has so far been ratified by Denmark, the European Community, Finland, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Canada has not yet signed. A critical issue on this meeting's agenda concerned proposals by Chile and the European Community to amend the Convention further by incorporating into it two lists of wastes that have been prepared by the Convention's Technical Working Group. The hazardous waste list would ban the export of wastes containing arsenic, lead, mercury, asbestos and dozens of other chemicals and substances. The non-hazardous waste list would exempt from the ban those wastes that can be safely (and profitably) recycled or re-used, including scrap iron, steel or copper, certain electronic assemblies, non-hazardous chemical catalysts, and many ceramics, solid plastics and paper and textile wastes. Contact: UNEP Information Officer, at (41-22) 979- 9242/44, fax (41-22) 797-3464, e-mail: mwilliams@unep.ch Web site: http//www.unep.ch/basel/ ************************************************************** CONSERVATIVES CHALLENGE STRINGENT NEW U.S. AIR REGULATIONS Conservative efforts in Washington, D.C. to challenge the Clinton Administration's new, more stringent air quality standards were stymied last year, but there are signs that new life may be breathed into these initiatives in 1998. In the House, H.R. 1984, a bill sponsored by Representatives Ron Klink (D-PA), Rick Boucher (D-VA and Fred Upton (R-MI) that would place a four-year moratorium on the new air standards, has been bottled up by Commerce Committee Chairman Tom Bliley (R-VA). The reason is that Bliley does not believe the bill has sufficient support from Democrats to garner the 290 votes needed to over-ride a certain presidential veto. But supporters of the bill are now circulating a discharge petition -- a process that permits a bill to be taken directly to the house floor for a vote provided 218 signatures are collected -- in the hopes of breaking the log jam. Source: David Ridenour Vice President, The National Center for Public, Policy Research, Washington, D.C. email: Dridenour@nationalcenter.org. ********************************************************* UK CONFERENCE ON GREENHOUSE GAS CONTROL TECHNOLOGY It would be a good idea to attend the Fourth International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies, Interlaken, Switzerland, August 30 - September 2, 1998. The conference will provide a forum for the discussion of the latest advances in the field of Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies, including capture, storage and utilisation of carbon dioxide and methane gases. Other mitigation options such as efficiency increase and use of renewables, as well as economic issues, are included. The conference strives to promote international research and development collaborations and to encourage an exchange of ideas on future directions in this field. =46or those who would like to present papers, abstracts are due March 31,1998. Contact: Andrea Smith, IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme, United Kingdom; Tel: +44 (0)1242 680753, Fax: +44 (0)1242 680758; Web site: http://www.ieagreen.org.uk/ghgt4.htm E-mail: andrea@ieagreen.demon.co.uk ******************************************************** HOW TO CUT EXCESSIVE GOVERNMENT SPENDING WITH GREEN SCISSORS It is time to cut wasteful government spending, trim budgets and stop deficit spending. This is the message from the coalition of environment industries and environment groups in the United States. Rather than cut environment budgets, hospital and social budgets, its time to cut government welfare to the resource, mining and energy industries. In January, the Green Scissors Campaign released the 4th annual report targeting federal spending and subsidies that hurt the environment, Green Scissors 98. This year's report identifies 71 federal programs that waste nearly 50 billion taxpayer dollars. The Green Scissors Campaign is led by =46riends of the Earth, Taxpayers for Common Sense, and U.S. Public Interest Group and is supported by a coalition of environmental, consumer, taxpayer and deficit hawk groups representing more than 8.5 million people. Over the last few years, the Campaign has helped save taxpayers more than $20 billion. The Campaign has fought nuclear reactors, stopped dams, halted the giveaway of taxpayer assets, and pressed for reform of subsidies to the timber industry. Logging Road Construction -- Government support for construction of logging roads subsidizes the timber industry's cost of cutting trees on public lands at taxpayer expense. Wildlife habitat and water quality suffer. Efforts to cut this program failed by one vote in both the House and Senate last year. As a result, taxpayers will pay nearly $50 million this year to assist timber companies. Fossil Fuel Research & Development -- Polluting fossil fuel industries - such as coal and petroleum - have received billions of dollars of taxpayer support over decades. These are mature industries that should be able to stand or fall without taxpayer assistance. The House of Representatives failed to cut this corporate welfare 175 to 246. Eliminating these handouts would save more than $150 million each year. Tongass National Forest -- Despite spending $250 million to transition southeast Alaska away from a timber dependent economy, the Forest Service has proposed a Tongass land management plan that would promote a new era of destructive, taxpayer- subsidized logging in the world's largest old- growth temperate rainforest. More than $170 million federal tax dollars would be spent. The Highway Demonstration Projects -- These road projects epitomize the pork-barrel system of spending taxpayer money on pet projects and favors. The highways often have significant citizen opposition and environmental impacts. Proponents will likely seek $6.2 billion for highway demonstration projects as part of the reauthorization of the federal highway bill (ISTEA). Livestock Subsidies -- The federal grazing program allows a small fraction of the nation's livestock operators to graze animals on public lands at subsidized rates. While the program costs taxpayers between $50 and $500 million annually, more severe costs come to rangelands which are denuded of grass and plants due to overgrazing, causing severe environmental damage on public land. Last year, the House passed grazing legislation but failed to enact significant fee increases despite close votes. The Senate may take up similar legislation this year. Source: Gawain Kripke, Friends of the Earth, Washington, D.C. {gkripke@foe.org}; Website: http://www.foe.org. ********************************************** U.S. ENVIRONMENT BUDGET INCREASED President Clinton's 1999 proposed budget includes a record $7.8 billion for environmental programs, including $116 million for global warming, $2.1 billion for Superfund cleanups, especially urban brownfields, $145 million for a Clean Water Action Plan, $75 million to implement emission standards for ground-level ozone and particulates; $19 million for community right to know, including the new Center for Environmental Statistics; $1.85 billion to upgrade drinking water and wastewater treatment plants, and $8 million for the Children's Health Agenda, incorporating health threats to children in environmental standards. A summary of the proposal is posted at . Extensive negotiations with Congress may change the budget substantially before it is approved. Source: Dianne Saxe, D. Jur., Barrister and Solicitor, Certified Specialist in Environmental Law, 66 Russell Hill Road, Toronto, Ontario M4V 2T2; ph. (416) 962 5882, fax (416) 962 8817; email: dsaxe@envirolaw.com; Web site: http//www.envirolaw.com. ******************************************************** ATTEND BIG INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY CONFERENCE IN SAN FRANCISCO Tachi Kiuchi, Managing Director, Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Chairman, Global Futures and The Future 500 invites you to attend Industrial Ecology III, April 24-26, 1998, San Francisco and the Marin Headlands, designed to explore opportunities for profit, innovation, and sustainability by emulating natural systems. Industrial Ecology III will bring together a catalytic mix of people and ideas to explore strategies and tools that can create new opportunities for profit while moving us towards a sustainable economy. You will learn first hand how innovative companies like Texaco, Target, Intel, Coors, Hallmark, and Hewlett-Packard are shifting their environmental efforts from a cost liability to an industrial ecology approach profit center. Costs: . Workshop and Roundtable Retreat (Apr. 24-26, 1998) for a Future 500 Member US$295.00, for a non-member US$445.00. Workshop Only (Apr. 24, 1998) Future 500 Member US$145.00, Non- member US$195.00. Contact: Global Futures =46oundation, and The Future 500, 801 Crocker Rd., Sacramento, Calif, ph. (916) 486-5999; fax (916) 486-5990; web site: http//www.globalff.org. *************************************************************** PRIVATE INVESTORS INVITED TO INVEST IN RECYCLING International private equity investors interested in growing recycling and manufacturing companies in the U. S. are invited to a series of Recycling Investment Forums. The forums each feature business plan presentations by 12 or more companies seeking additional private equity capital for expansion. Expert investment and recycling industry analysis and technology exhibits are also included in the forums. Investors interested in reviewing company profiles but unable to attend the events may request forum booklets to be provided after the events for a nominal fee from the organizers listed below. Each event is hosted by state or multi-state recycling economic development agencies with funding support from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency and other sponsors. KirkWorks is a recycling entrepreneurial development firm that assists in organizing and coordinating recycling investment forums in the USA. The upcoming event schedule is as follows: SOUTHEAST RECYCLING INVESTMENT FORUM 2/23/98, Charleston, SC, USA Ted Campbell, SC Recycling Market Development Advisory Council, 803-737-0477 Website: http://www.state.sc.us/commerce/recycle/Srifmenu.htm. Email: TCAMPBEL@commerce.state.sc.us MIDWEST RECYCLING INVESTMENT FORUM 3/23/98, Omaha, NE, USA Pat Langan, Nebraska Department of Economic Development, 402-471-3766 Website: http://reda.ded.state.ne.us, Email: langan@ded1.ded.state.ne.us NORTHEAST RECYCLING INVESTMENT FORUM 5/5/98, Philadelphia, PA, USA Mary Ann Remolador, Northeast Recycling Council, 802-254-3636 Website: http://www.nerc.org, Email: mremolad@sover.net Source: David Kirkpatrick, KirkWorks, Post Office Box 15062, Durham, North Carolina 27704- 0062 USA; ph. 919/220-8065, Fax 919/220-9720; email: david@kirkworks.com Website: http//www.kirkworks.com. *********************************************************** WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE SAYS =46UTURE OF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT HINGES ON SURGING FLOWS OF PRIVATE CAPITAL More than $1 trillion of private capital has moved into the developing world over the last decade- a financial force with growing power to make or break the health of the environment and the economy, reports a new Worldwatch Institute study. "Long-term economic success will only come from investments that harvest natural wealth in ways that leave the resource base intact for future generations," says Hilary F. French, Worldwatch's Vice President for Research and author of Investing in the Future: Harnessing Private Capital Flows for Environmentally Sustainable Development. In the wake of Asia's economic crisis, many experts are now warning that private financial flows to the developing world have outgrown existing financial regulatory structures. But few people are asking to what extent these capital flows have undermined the economy's ecological foundations. Join us at the date and time above to discuss strategies identified in the report for shifting investment out of environmentally damaging activities and into the cleaner technologies and enterprises of tomorrow. " As investors search the world for the highest return, they are often drawn to countries with bountiful natural resources and weak environmental laws, a potentially disastrous combination for the environment and the economy," cautions French. But she also notes that international investment can benefit the environment. While private investors are helping to deforest the Brazilian Amazon and are financing coal-fired power plants in China, they are also underwriting ecotourism ventures in Costa Rica and wind power projects in India. French recommends that international environmental standards be integrated into international trade and investment agreements-including the Multilateral Agreement on Investment now under negotiation. She calls on the World Bank and bilateral export promotion agencies to strengthen environmental requirements in their private sector programs, and on the International Monetary Fund to use its clout to halt the destruction of natural capital. She also urges commercial banks and stock market investors to better scrutinize environmental performance. "As the process of devising international policies for a globalizing world gets under way in earnest, protecting the natural resource base that underpins the global economy merits a prominent place on the agenda," says French. Contact: Hilary F. French, Vice President for Research, Worldwatch Institute, 1776 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. Contact: Mary Caron, (202) 452-1992 Ext. 527. Website: http://www.worldwatch.org. *********************************************************** LOOSE-FILL INSULATION FROM RECYCLED CARPET Between customers at the Philco, Illinois plumbing supply store where he works, Tom Deem thought a lot about the roughly four billion pounds of old carpeting sent to landfills each year. In 1993 he came up with the idea of turning old carpeting into loose-fill insulation for attic applications and now has a patent pending on his recycled carpet insulation. In a thermal test, the stuff achieved a respectable R-3.3 per inch. Deem plans to package the insulation into 40-pound bags, each of which will cover roughly 19 square feet at a rating of R-38. He expects the retail price to be $3.50 per bag, considerably less than cellulose and loose-fill fiberglass for comparable insulation value and area coverage. Underwriters Laboratories (UL) is now testing Deem's insulation for fire safety and Deem hopes to begin selling his recycled carpet insulation by June. For more information, email Tom Deem, Recycled Carpet Technologies, Inc., rct100@aol.com. - Environmental Building News, Jan 98, p 6. Source: greenclips@web02.energy.wsu.edu ********************************************************** DEVELOPERS PAY ANTI-SPRAWL FEES Lancaster, a California city about 60 miles north of Los Angeles, is now getting national attention for the innovative anti-sprawl fee system it adopted in 1993. The city's Urban Structure Program encourages concentrated growth by levying higher charges for new development located outside core service areas. The program has gone into place smoothly, says USP coordinator David Ledbetter, because the city based the system's fees on rigorous analysis and involved developers and others affected by the fees in planning the program. Contact: David Ledbetter, ph. (805)723-6000. Planning Commissioners Journal, Winter 98, p 10, by Dean L. Pierce. ******************************************** APPLY FOR US$30,000 DUBAI AWARD FOR ENVIRONMENTAL BEST PRACTICES Your company, community or organization should apply for the Dubai Awards of Excellence for The Best Practices Initiative, Best Practices are initiatives which have resulted in tangible improvements in the quality of like and the living environment of people in a sustainable way. They offer contemporary and innovative approaches to some of the most pressing problems facing individuals in national governments, local authorities, communities, and households throughout the world. Building on the success of the 1996 Awards for Excellence, which saw nearly 700 submissions received from over 90 countries, UNCHS has decided to continue the Best Practice Initiative. In 1998, the Awards for Excellence in Improving the Living Environment will be presented to a new group of deserving initiatives. The Dubai Municipality will sponsor 10 Awards for Excellence in improving the Living Environment, as a symbol of its commitment to sustainable human settlements. Each Award will consist of: U.S.$30,000. A detailed list of criteria for a Best Practice is available at http://www.hsd.ait.ac.th. A detailed and comprehensive Reporting Format is also available at the site. Deadline for application :April 1, 1998; also pre-submission information required immediately. Contact: UNCHS (Habitat), Best Practices Programme, P.O. Box 30030, Nairobi, Kenya; Tel: +254-2/624328, Fax: +254-2/624328 or +254-2/624266. bestpractices@unchs.org . Website: http://www.hsd.ait.ac.th ****************************************************************** ************************************************** $180.90 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION TO THE GALLON ENVIRONMENT LETTER Subscribe to "The Gallon Environment Letter" and its "Green Jobs Available" supplement. The 6 - 8 page newsletters are distributed twice monthly. Send a cheque for $180.90 a year ($169.00+ GST) and help finance the research that delivers inside information and breaking news on environment business in Canada and the world. Make the cheque out to "Gallon Letter": 506 Victoria Ave., Montreal, Quebec, H3Y 2R5. ******************************************************************** ************************************************** xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Copyright (c) 1998 Canadian Institute for Business and the Environment, Montreal All rights reserved. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Gary Gallon President Canadian Institute for Business and the Environment 506 Victoria Ave. Montreal, Quebec H3Y 2R5 Ph. (514) 369-0230, Fax (514) 369-3282 email: cibe@web.net ------------------------------ End of forpol-digest V1 #12 ***************************