China Tries to Silence Liu Futang, Eco-Journalist and Whistleblower

This is a story about censorship.

Censorship is when you are prevented from saying or writing about what’s on your mind.

Liu Futang Liu Futang is an environmentalist and writer. Earlier this year he won the award for Best Citizen Journalist in China’s Environmental Press Awards. Recently he was arrested. His crime: printing books without a license, books which he gave away.

But the real crime here is being committed by the Chinese government, which doesn’t want the world to look closer at what earned Futang his award, namely: writing about rapid deforestation in China’s Hainan province. Futang’s “crime” is that he exposed how rich and powerful people in China are so anxious to make money by building hotels, apartments and golf courses that they are willing to destroy the country’s natural inheritance.

China“Liu’s only crime is trying to tell as many people as possible about what he has learned from his research. His trial is an attempt to deter all citizen-journalists and get them to censor themselves,”
according to Reporters Without Borders, a global group that fights to protect journalists. Reporters without Borders is one of many humanitarian and environmental groups that have publicly protested Futang’s arrest.

The timing of Futang’s arrest is ironic. While he faces five years in prison for the “crime” of warning people about a threat to the environment, in the US four Presidential and one Vice-Presidential debate have now concluded without one question being asked about climate change and other serious threats to the environment.

Here’s hoping that important environmental issues are freely and frequently discussed in your school. (It’s your future, after all.)

To learn more, read this story on Mongabay.com

And this MarketWatch story.

To read about how environmentalists are protesting Futang’s arrest at South China Morning Post.

Wildlife Rangers, Endangered Opaki Killed by Congolese Poachers

Okapi, Image courtesy MongaBay.com

If this mass murder had happened in Europe or the United States, it would have been on every newscast and millions of people would be so thoroughly outraged they would be demanding action.

Republic of the Congo (light green), and Democratic Republic of the Congo (dark green).But since it happened in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa, this is probably the first time you’ve heard about the poachers who recently attacked the Opaki Wildlife Reserve, killing six people, including two wildlife rangers, and more than a dozen of the endangered species.

It happened in mid-June. The organization that runs the reserve, the Wildlife Conservation Network, believes the attack was pushback by poachers angry at a crackdown on elephant poaching and gold mining inside the reserve.

Now that you know, spread the word.

To learn more, read the latest from the Wildlife Conservation Network -- as well as this story from Mongabay.com.

Shoot to Kill Tiger Poachers in Indian State of Maharashtra

Bengal tiger in Rantgambhore National Park. Photo by: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen via MongaBay.com

How bad is tiger poaching?

This bad: in the Indian state of Maharashtra, the government just granted immunity to any forest ranger who shoots a poacher.

Maharashtra in IndiaIf that sounds cruel, consider this: since the beginning of the year, some 50 Bengal tigers have been found dead in India, roughly as many as in all of 2011, with the highest number killed in a tiger reserve in Maharashtra. “The situation is critical and we are taking several emergency measures,” India’s tiger conservationist authority said in a statement, according to reporting by Mongabay.com.

Tigers are poached for their parts, which are believed to have medicinal value by many in Asia.

To learn more, read this Mongabay story.

To Protest Deforestation, Indonesians Sew Mouths Shut

At least 28 Indonesians who want the world to know that loggers are deforesting land critical to the survival of the Sumatran tiger recently sewed their mouths shut.

Whether the logging operation is illegal is open to question. However, loggers definitely appear to be stripping away environmentally valuable land.
In addition, the deforestation threatens livelihood of many local farmers.

For more information, read this Monga bay article.

American Demand for Furniture Causing Increase in Illegal Logging in Laos

Coutesy: Mongabay.comIt’s only natural that people would want to buy nice furniture for their homes.

Unfortunately, it’s this natural desire for furniture on the part of Americans that authorities say is driving illegal logging halfway around the world.

According to the Environmental Investigation Agency, more and more furniture is being made from timber illegally cut down in Laos and then shipped to Vietnam for fabrication.

According to the agency, although Laos has strict laws to prevent illegal logging, corrupt local officials look the other way. The big losers in all this are the Laotian people, who depend on their forests to earn a living.

For more information, read this Mongabay.com story.