SIBERIAN REGION IN BID TO PRESERVE VIRGIN FOREST.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has launched a new campaign to preserve the world’s fast-disappearing forests. Only 6 percent are protected, and the WWF’s modest aim is to increase that figure to 10 percent. It is encouraged by the recent decision of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in eastern Siberia. This is Russia’s largest territory, where 90 percent of Russia’s diamonds are mined. Sakha has undertaken to preserve 70 million hectares of forest (2 percent of the world’s entire forested area). The WWF says Sakha is by no means typical and hopes it will inspire Brazil, China, Indonesia and the US — which together contain one-third of the world’s remaining forests — to do more to protect their trees. Closer to home, the WWF points to the Russian Republic of Komi. There, what the Fund says is Europe’s largest surviving virgin forest is under threat following an application by a French company for a logging concession. (BBC World Service, December 14)

Flexible Morality in Arms Sales.