Biochar proponents slammed over secret “land-grab” agenda

TOKYO ~ Nineteen groups concerned with climate change have  expressed their dismay at an article by leading biochar advocates.
The groups say the article, published in the science magazine Nature and posted online in the August edition of Nature Communications, proposes that an area larger than the land mass of India could be turned into charcoal [...]

Hope in a Changing Climate

HOPE in a Changing Climate – the groundbreaking BBC documentary that shows how ecological damage can be reversed – may provide one of the key solutions to global warming and climate change, but only if it is adopted as a matter of urgency.
The 22-minute film shows how farming and over-grazing led to soil erosion on [...]

More force now behind US Act to defeat timber barons

The World Resources Institute and the Environmental Investigation Agency have launched a partnership to combat illegal logging worldwide and clean up timber supply chains.
The launch follows the announcement that the United States is banning the import, sale, and trade of all illegally harvested wood and forest products, effective now.

UK joins UN fund to throw US$800 million to Asia’s loggers, palm-oil barons and politicians

JAKARTA ~ The UK is to donate £100 million (US$150 million) to tropical countries such as Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Vietnam, to help them protect forests and reduce their impact on climate change.
The donation will be made through a fund operated under a new initiative of the United Nations which aims to extend carbon [...]

Indonesia’s president doing next to nothing about climate change: Greenpeace

SINGAPORE ~ Indonesia’s president is reneging on the promise he made to halve his country’s greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation by 2009, environmentalists said today.
At the July 2008 Hokkaido G8 meeting, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made a commitment to reduce his country’s greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation by 50 percent within 18 months.
“Six months [...]

UN throws another US$8.6 million at tropical forests

YOKOHAMA ~ The UN’s International Tropical Timber Council (ITTC) has announced funding of US$8.6 million to help reduce deforestation in the tropics in addition to the $3.1 million committed earlier this year bringing the total pledged in 2008 to a staggering $11.7 million.
The ITTC announced the news in a statement which also revealed that only [...]

UN’s forest carbon plan slammed: REDD won’t work says FOE

JAKARTA ~ International proposals to protect forests as a way of stopping climate change could displace 1.6 billion people and will also fail to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, campaigners warn. 
From today until 12 December, the Polish city of Poznań is hosting crucial United Nations climate talks amidst fears that forest carbon trading will [...]

Rimbunan Hijau logging rights withdrawn by PNG supreme court

THE Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea has quashed a decision granting logging rights over the country’s huge 800,000 hectare Kamula Doso virgin forest area to Rimbunan Hijau (RH) in a court case brought by the PNG Eco-Forestry Forum.
In a major victory for good governance and for the environmental movement of Papua New Guinea (PNG), [...]

UN sanctions required to stop Indonesia logging: campaigners

SINGAPORE ~ Indonesia, currently third after China and USA in the CO2 emission league table, could become the world’s worst unless something is done to stem the country’s pursuit of wealth through logging and palm-oil cultivation.
Responding to the declaration by Californian governor Arnold Schwarzenegger last week that his state would send financial aid to keep [...]

Minister admits palm-oil cultivation ‘out of control’ in Indonesia

SINGAPORE ~ Indonesia’s agriculture minister Mr Anton Apriyantono said international demands for a moratorium on the country’s drive to expand oil palm plantations, is beyond the control of his government.
Speaking at the opening of the annual meeting of the recently discredited Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in Bali, Apriyantono said any moratorium, including the one [...]