indonesia

As you may have already seen, along with WWF, the RSPB, Friends of the Earth and enoughsenough.org, we've placed an advert in several of today's papers warning the government about the environmental risks of biofuels as an alternative to petrol and diesel. Hang on, I imagine some of you are saying right now, aren't they supposed to be clean and green with the power to save us from the tyranny of fossil fuels? Well, yes... and no.

This morning, the streets of Jakarta were buzzing with the sound of chainsaws. It wasn't a loggers' convention causing all the racket but protesters sawing through a huge wooden wall depicting Indonesia's rainforests.

In tropical latitudes, months pass without any rain and in the dry season forests become susceptible to fire. These can occur naturally and would normally not pose a serious problem, but clearing land as a result of logging or to make way for plantations is exacerbating the problem and every year the fires spread faster and further.

Yesterday we occupied Admiralty Arch where the government is using illegally logged plywood from the rainforests of Papua New Guinea as hoardings around the building. Fourteen protestors sat on top of the Arch, demanding Tony Blair own up and commit to legislation banning imports of illegal timber into the UK.

Of China, Napoleon once said to let it sleep. When it wakes, he warned, the world will tremble. It will have escaped no one's attention that that time has almost certainly come, and as China grows in virtually every measurable way, so does its appetite for raw materials including timber.