permaculture

[mIEKAL aND <dtv@mwt.net>]

Mediterranean Cork Oak Forests at Stake in Wine Closure Battle

LONDON, UK, May 15, 2006 (ENS) – Every year over 15 billion cork  
stoppers are produced and sold to the wine industry, but the  
increasing popularity of plastic and screw top closures could spell  
the end for the cork oak forests of the western Mediterranean, an  
environmental group warns.

Issued on the eve of the International Wines and Spirits Fair that  
opens Tuesday in London, a new report by the global conservation  
organization WWF predicts that three-quarters of the western  
Mediterranean’s cork oak forests could be lost within 10 years.

The survival of these unique forests depends upon the market for cork  
wine closures, but the WWF report, "Cork Screwed?" says the trend  
away from cork stoppers could lead, in the worst case scenario, to  
synthetic and screw tops holding 95 percent of the wine closure  
market by 2015.

Cork oaks survive without the use of chemical herbicides, fertilizers  
or irrigation and is the only tree that regenerates after harvesting.

more:

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2006/2006-05-15-01.asp