Earth Policy Institute「EMPTY SKIES: World's Birds at Risk」。
The sharpest declines in avian populations in recent years have come in Asia, particularly in Borneo and Sumatra, where lowland moist tropical forests are disappearing at an astonishing rate. By 2000, some 40 percent of Indonesia’s forests had been cleared. Now three out of every four bird species that depend on Sumatra’s lowland forest are on the verge of extinction. In addition to the loss of forests due to logging for lumber, the increasing demand for palm oil—recently prized as a biofuel—has raised pressure to convert natural forests to palm plantations. Without a rapid reversal of deforestation trends, all the lowland forest could be lost within a decade. Overall, some 118 of Indonesia’s bird species, including several endemic parrots and cockatoos, are threatened with extinction—the highest number of any country.
洗剤だけでなく、バイオ燃料としても注目を浴びだしたモテモテのヤシ油。ヤシ油のプランテーションが熱帯雨林を放逐していくことが、「環境への配慮」か。
