Eagle Worldwide Inc.(fka ELWD)

[Snickerke]

finally cracked the pdf

here is the pdf I got from David shaw (Terra verde Microforsts)

The TerraVerde MicroForests Program

Executive Summary

The TerraVerde Foundation, established in 2003, is a non-profit Panamanian Private Interest Foundation dedicated to the sustainable Preservation of Earth’s Flora, Fauna and Water Resources. Our primary Mission is to Conserve, Protect and Enhance the Forest Reserves, Refuges and Wildlife for which we are responsible and to assist in the Protection of other Forests through collaborative relationships where appropriate. The exclusive MicroForests Licence Agreement with PayPro Incorporated will enable the TerraVerde Foundation to work with PayPro Inc. to conserve important Mature Forests in the Boquete region and the Canal Zone of Panama and other Forest areas to be announced.

Our emphasis on the conservation and protection of Mature and established Secondary Growth Forests is a reflection of their economic and ecological value and the “services” which they provide. Humanity relies on the Forest ecosystems of the world to provide many familiar and important goods and commodities including: food, fodder, fuel-wood, timber, pharmaceuticals and industrial products. Forests and the innumerable life forms which live within them also provide a range of services which are indispensable to human life and civilization. These services include: air and water purification, climate regulation, regeneration of soil fertility, and the maintenance of genetic and biological diversity. According to the Ecological Society of America, human activities are now significantly impairing the delivery of these services and these human-induced changes will be difficult or impossible to reverse, at least on a time scale relevant to the current population. The largest of these human-induced changes is Deforestation.

Global Deforestation has been underway for many centuries, however the rate of this destruction accelerated greatly in the latter part of the 20th century. Since the 1960s there has been a devastating increase in the rate of Tropical Deforestation while Temperate Forests (at least in developed countries) have shown a slight recovery. The loss of Tropical Forest over the period 1980 to 1995 is estimated at 200 million hectares, 85 million of which was in the Caribbean and Latin America (FAO 1997). Most of this forest clearing was carried out to provide farms, pasture land and timber.

Tropical Forests are the home for a disproportionately large part of the planet’s biological and genetic diversity and they also store (sequester) globally significant amounts of carbon. The loss of Tropical Forests is far more profound than simply the loss of areas of great beauty and the consequences are not merely local but global and far-reaching. The local consequences include: soil erosion & silting of rivers and water sheds, changes in local climate and rainfall, and loss of local fauna populations (including pollinators). The additional global effects include: the loss of bio-diversity (both species and genetic), disruption of global hydrologic, carbon, nitrogen and other geochemical cycles, and acceleration of climate change (global warming) due to the release of the carbon which is stored in the trees and forest soils. This carbon is released in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2) - the principal gas responsible for global warming.

Most of the world’s leading climate scientists are now in agreement that global warming is occurring and is due to the impact of human activity.

James Hansen, leading climate scientist and longtime director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, believes that global warming is accelerating and "The natural changes, the speed of the natural changes is now dwarfed by the changes that humans are making to the atmosphere and to the surface."
Those human changes, he says, are driven by burning fossil fuels that pump out greenhouse gases like
CO2, carbon dioxide. Hansen says his research shows that man has just 10 years to reduce greenhouse gases before global warming reaches what he calls a tipping point and becomes unstoppable.
Source: CBS Program “60 Minutes” broadcast March and July 2006.

Past global deforestation is responsible for a large part of the globally elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) level which is the major driver of global warming. Today, ongoing Tropical deforestation is estimated to cause about 20% of the world’s annual CO2 emission. Conserving the remaining Tropical Forests and planting new Tropical Forests could reduce the rate of CO2 emission and buy more time while better alternatives to burning fossil fuels are developed.

The MicroForest Program created by the TerraVerde Foundation offers a convenient yet effective way for individuals, families, corporations or other groups to contribute to the effort to slow global warming by becoming “carbon-neutral”. To do this, the total CO2 emission of the individual or group is estimated and a TerraVerde MicroForest is sponsored or purchased to balance this emission to achieve an overall zero emission of CO2. A TerraVerde MicroForest is simply a defined area located within a larger New Forest, Secondary Growth Forest or Mature Forest.

There are various models for estimating personal carbon emission. A simple estimate of average personal CO2 emission can be based on the total population and total energy consumption of the country where the person lives. On this basis, a person in Latin America causes the emission of about 2.3 tons of CO2 per year, someone in Western Europe an average of 8.5 tons/year, whereas someone in the USA would emit about 20 tons/year1.

By photosynthesis, a tree can convert about 4lbs of CO2 into 3lbs of oxygen which is released into the atmosphere and 1lb of carbon which is stored away as wood. The rate at which CO2 is removed from the atmosphere depends on the growth rate of the tree which in turn depends on many factors including: species, maturity, climate, soil and management. In the tropics, trees can grow much faster than elsewhere and can therefore absorb CO2 at a higher rate. One estimate for the tropics suggests that 1acre of specially designed New Forest can absorb as much as 16 tons of CO2 per year for many decades while providing biodiversity and a habitat for wildlife. However, the CO2 absorption rates expected for typical Forests are substantially lower than for this special case1.

Using the figures above for the specially designed New Forest, an individual living in Latin America can achieve total carbon neutrality by sponsoring a 580sqm New MicroForest whereas an individual in the USA needs a New MicroForest almost 10 times larger (about 5,000 sqm). The sizes for Conservation MicroForests will differ from these figures (see below). Note that for a Forest to effectively sequester carbon, the trees (or wood) which are grown must not be subsequently destroyed by burning or natural decay. If the trees are allowed to stand or are harvested for use in durable wood products, the carbon may be locked away for 100 years or more.

Conservation MicroForests

As briefly outlined above, the overall value of in-tact Mature Forests is far greater than the value of New Forests, especially mono-culture Plantations. The rate of absorption of CO2 is generally thought to be lower for Mature Forests compared to younger, faster growing Forests however the benefit of faster growth may be overwhelmed by a huge release of CO2 which can occur when the soil is disturbed while preparing for planting the New Forest and in some cases the CO2 released during planting is never fully recaptured by the New Forest.

The TerraVerde Foundation believes that the Protection of in-tact Mature Forests (and established Secondary Growth Forests) is of far greater value than planting New Forests. We base our carbon-neutral calculations for Conservation MicroForests on the estimated rate of carbon absorption PLUS the amount of carbon stored in these Forests which will not be released due to their protected status. By utilizing a Panamanian Foundation as legal owner of these Forests this Protection is provided in perpetuity.



1 All of these numbers are subject to substantial errors and revisions as more data becomes available. It is important to keep in mind that the objective of the TerraVerde MicroForests Program is to effectively protect our Forests for the future - the numbers are secondary.
V 1.01