NewsRack: 'Deforestation' news in 'NewsTrust Environment' topic for user newstrust (21-41 of 2,253)

Amazon clearance for agriculture is 'economic own goal' for Brazil	10.5.2013	Guardian: Environment
Economic and agricultural gains could slip into reverse due to the loss of forest's environmental services, study shows Brazil is at risk of scoring an economic own goal if it continues clearing Amazon forest for herding and soya production, according to a new study that has potential implications for global food security. In recent decades, the conversion of vast tracts of the Amazon into pastures and farm fields has boosted the national economy and played a major role in meeting rising world demand for beef and grain, particularly soyabeans – for which Brazil overtook the US this year as the number one supplier. But researchers say the economic and agricultural gains are in danger of slipping into reverse because the loss of forest is reducing rainfall, raising temperatures and causing other malign feedbacks on the regional climate. "The more agriculture expands in the Amazon, the less productive it will become … In this situation, we all lose," warns the paper by Brazilian and US ...
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Satellite eye on Earth	9.5.2013	Guardian: Environment
Deforestation, fires, flooding and melting ice are among the images captured by European Space Agency and Nasa satellites last month
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Forest Service to states: Give subsidies back	3.5.2013	AP Top News
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Forest Service is in the business of preventing fires, not starting them....
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Impact of deforestation on wildlife in the greater Mekong	2.5.2013	Guardian: Environment
Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam could be left with little more than 10-20% of their original forest cover by 2030
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Greater Mekong countries 'lost one-third of forest cover in 40 years'	2.5.2013	The Guardian -- World Latest
Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam have lost nearly 40m ha of forest cover since 1980, a new report shows Five Asian countries have lost nearly one-third of their forests in the last 35 years and could be left with little more than 10-20% of their original cover by 2030 with devastating effects on wildlife and humans, a new report suggests. Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam have lost nearly 40m ha of forest cover since 1980 but have retained about 98m hectares of natural forest, just over half of the region's land area. Using satellite data, the WWF researchers calculated that since 1980, Cambodia has lost 22% of its 1973 forest cover, Laos and Burma 24%, and Thailand and Vietnam 43%. The report on ecosystems in the greater Mekong area warns that these countries risk losing more than a third of their remaining forest cover within the next two decades if they fail to increase protection. "The Greater Mekong is at a crossroads," said Peter Cutter, landscape ...
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Illegal logging robbing people in Africa of livelihoods – Global Witness	1.5.2013	The Guardian -- World Latest
Logging firms secretly given permits for land while communities in DRC, Liberia, Ghana and Cameroon struggle for timber Collusion between political elites, civil servants and logging companies is systematically robbing people of their livelihoods, says a report (pdf) into corrupt forestry practices in Africa. The extensive granting of "shadow permits" for small-scale logging in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Liberia, Ghana and Cameroon bypasses new laws and environmental safeguards, and is forcing communities to meet their timber needs illegally, says NGO Global Witness. The report, Logging in the shadows, identifies a "hidden" pattern of abuse in which hundreds of permits intended to promote small businesses and meet local needs are being allocated to large, often foreign, logging companies. These "shadow permits" open the door to lucrative, large-scale logging operations, which bypass the oversight of the authorities, it says. In the DRC, dozens of artisanal ...
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Report: Permits intended for small businesses are being used by industrial loggers in Africa	30.4.2013	Star Tribune: World

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Climate change compounds rising threats to koala	30.4.2013	The Guardian -- World Latest
Australia's iconic marsupial is at risk from shrinking habitats, road traffic and dog attacks – and increasingly, global warming Australia's iconic marsupial is under threat. Formerly hunted almost to extinction for their woolly coats, koalas are now struggling to survive as habitat destruction caused by droughts and bushfires, land clearing for agriculture and logging, and mining and urban development conspire against this cuddly creature. In the past 20 years, the koala population has significantly declined, dropping by 40 percent in the state of Queensland and by a third in New South Wales (NSW). The Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) estimates that there are between 45,000 and 90,000 koalas left in the wild. Shrinking habitat and climate change is compounding the risk of disease, while attacks from feral and domestic dogs and road accidents add to a long list of risks that this arboreal mammal faces as it moves across the landscape in search of food. It is estimated that around ...
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The Queen of the Cowboys	29.4.2013	Newsweek Top Stories
As one of Brazil’s biggest landowners, Kátia Abreu rides a horse to work and never shuns a fight.
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Court tosses agreement over rare forest species	27.4.2013	AP Washington
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- A federal appeals court has thrown out an agreement between environmentalists and the federal government that restored protections for rare species in old growth forests....
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Developed Countries Increasingly Look To The Private Sector For Climate Finance	24.4.2013	Think Progres
Developed Countries Increasingly Look To The Private Sector For Climate Finance
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Tracking the causes of monarch butterfly decline	18.4.2013	Guardian: Environment
A new census found this winter's population of North American monarch butterflies in Mexico was at the lowest level ever measured. Insect ecologist Orley Taylor talks to Yale Environment 360 about how the planting of genetically modified crops and the resulting use of herbicides has contributed to the monarchs' decline University of Kansas insect ecologist Orley R. "Chip" Taylor has been observing the fragile populations of monarch butterflies for decades, but he says he has never been more concerned about their future. Monarchs are beloved for their spectacular migration across Canada and the United States to overwintering sites in central Mexico — and back again. But a new census taken at the monarchs' wintering grounds found their population had declined 59 percent over the previous year and was at the lowest level ever measured. In an interview with Yale Environment 360 contributor Richard Conniff, Taylor — founder and director of Monarch Watch, a conservation and outreach program — ...
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Why action on forests now is essential to all our futures	16.4.2013	Guardian: Environment
Saving forests offers a new route to alleviating hunger and malnutrition, promoting development and tackling climate change While forests once provided subsistence for local people, for generations clearing forested land has also been good for global business, providing immediate food security for the world. Put simply, forests have been worth more dead than alive. As populations grow, emerging and industrialised countries are looking to the three great world forest regions – the Three Basins of the Congo, the Amazon and south-east Asia – for their growing resource needs. The economic imperative to acquire and clear more land increases daily as demand for food and commodities grows. More than half of the global forest loss has occurred in the Three Basins. But world food production needs standing forests not felled trees. And forests are not about food: they .provide protection for local communities against catastrophic flooding and erosion during rainy seasons. The forests of the Three ...
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Ethiopia enlists help of forest communities to reverse deforestation \| Mark Tran	15.4.2013	The Guardian -- World Latest
Despite taking years to establish the first projects, growth in forest cover and increasing incomes for the communities involved have enabled bigger schemes to begin When the Ethiopian government realised that outright bans on cutting down trees failed to stop deforestation, it instead turned to a strategy based on enlisting the help of forest communities. The first participatory forest management (PFM) schemes were piloted 15 years ago. Based on signs of success, PFM is being rolled out in larger areas. A particularly ambitious scheme is taking place in the mountains of Bale in the southern region of Oromia, where the authorities are applying PFM to 500,000 hectares (1.24m acres) of forest in a project run by Farm Africa , a British NGO in partnership with SOS Sahel, a local NGO. Ethiopia has experienced massive deforestation. From a baseline of perhaps 40% forest cover in the 16th century, the country is down to 4.6%, a result of 0.8% deforestation a year. Pressure on forests comes ...
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How Ethiopia is combating deforestation - video	15.4.2013	The Guardian -- World Latest
Tsegaye Tadesse, programme manager with Farm Africa, describes how Ethiopia is combating deforestation Mark Tran Claudine Spera
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Clyde Jantze, who revolutionized the canning industry, dies at 85	12.4.2013	Chicago Tribune: Opinion
Clyde Jantze, who revolutionized the canning industry, dies at 85
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Ethiopia heralds its lead role in expansion of Africa's bamboo sector	10.4.2013	Guardian: Environment
The east African nation is counting on its huge supply to drive growth, reduce deforestation and cut carbon emissions A combination of an abundance of bamboo and eager foreign investment is making Ethiopia a frontier for the bamboo industrial revolution in Africa, according to the country's government. "Ethiopia has the resources, the investment, a rapidly developing manufacturing industry and a strong demand for our bamboo products from foreign markets. We have what we need. The expansion of Africa's bamboo sector has begun," Ethiopia's state minister for agriculture and rural development, Mitiku Kassa, told IPS. Ethiopia has the largest area – 1m hectares (2.47m acres) – of commercially untapped bamboo in east Africa, making it attractive to investment partners from the industry. The ministry of agriculture and rural development told IPS that it was unwilling to disclose any figures, but added that there had been no formal bamboo economy in Ethiopia until last year. "The market ...
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Green Diary Rescue: James Hansen switches to activism, dilbut trashes Easter for town of Mayflower	7.4.2013	Daily Kos
Every week Daily Kos diarists write scores of environmentally related posts. Many of these don't get the readership they deserve. Helping improve the odds is the motivation behind the Green Diary Rescue. In the past seven years, there have been 221 of these spotlighting more than 12,300 eco-diaries. Below are categorized links and excerpts to 78 more that appeared in the past seven days. Lots of good reading for the spare moments of your weekend. [ Disclaimer: Inclusion of a diary in the rescue does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.] Green Diary of the Week ••• ••• Legendary climate scientist James E. Hansen retiring from NASA to fight and lobby governments —by Laurence Lewis : "Hansen has been raising the alarm over climate change and anthropogenic global warming since 1981, and stresses that the dire consequences continue to outpace predictions. And the predictions continue to grow more ominous [...] If this sounds apocalyptic, it is. [...] ...
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25 years after Chico Mendes, killings in the Amazon are endemic \| David Hill	2.4.2013	The Guardian -- World Latest
This week's trial of men accused of killing two activists last year highlights the continuing problems faced in the Amazon On Wednesday, in the Brazilian state of Pará, the trial begins of three men accused of murdering José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife Maria do Espirito Santo, who had campaigned against loggers and ranchers for years. Their assassinations in May 2011 generated international outrage, just like that of Chico Mendes, 25 years ago, and that of the American-born nun Dorothy Stang in 2005 . "This trial exposes the problems and challenges in the Amazon today," says the Brazilian political ecologist Felipe Milanez, who will attend the trial. "It's something we haven't dealt with in the past 30 years. The same thing that happened to Mendes and Dorothy happened to Claudio, and will happen to other people defending the forest." These high-profile murders are just the tip of the iceberg. In Pará alone, 231 people were killed and 809 received death threats between ...
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Haiti to plant millions of trees to boost forests and help tackle poverty	29.3.2013	Guardian: Environment
Government-backed campaign aims to double Caribbean country's forest cover by 2016 Haiti aims to plant 50m trees a year in a pioneering reforestation campaign to address one of the primary causes of the country's poverty and ecological vulnerability. President Michel Martelly will launch the drive to double forest cover by 2016 from the perilous level of 2% – one of the lowest rates in the world. Despite scepticism engendered by past ill-fated campaigns, there are hopes that the high-level push will mark a turning point after hundreds of years of degradation. Haiti was once covered in verdant forests but land clearance for colonial plantations was followed by tree felling for cooking fuel. It is estimated that 30m to 40m trees a year are cut down. Until now, efforts to address this problem, which worsens with floods and mudslides, have been sporadic, small-scale projects, mostly run by foreign non-governmental organisations. But the government has said it will spearhead the new ...
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