Apes in the News

Most new palm oil plantations are established in forest areas. This causes enormous greenhouse gas emissions due to the loss of forest vegetation and decomposition of organic (peat) soils. In addition, it leads to an alarming biodiversity loss. The criterion regarding ‘continuously forested areas’ in article 17.4b of the Renewable Energy Directive is crucial to prevent further conversion of forests into palm oil plantations for biodiesel production.

If the criterion is interpreted in a way that conversion from forests into palm oil plantations is allowed, it will lead to an additional loss of tropical forests. As 55-60% of all new plantations are developed at the cost of forests, it leads to the forest loss of 2.3 million hectares by 2020; just for European biodiesel demands. This alone will cause a total additional emission of 1.4 billion tonne CO2. If these forests were on peatsoils, as often the case in SE Asia, ongoing CO2 emissions of 70 tonne per hectare per year will occur. A rough estimation is an additional emission of 80 million tonne CO2 per year, for the coming decades.

It takes 75 year for forest areas and almost 700 years if the plantation is on peatsoil to balance this carbon loss via palm oil harvests.

22/03/2010
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Scientists' write that press release based on study was "misleading and inaccurate".

Recently, Boston University issued a press release on a scientific study regarding the Amazon's resilience to drought. The press release claimed that the study had debunked the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) theory that climate change could turn approximately 40 percent of the Amazon into savannah due to declining rainfall. The story was picked up both by mass medai, environmental news sites (including mongabay.com), and climate deniers' blogs. However, nineteen of the world's top Amazonian experts have issued a written response stating that the press release from Boston University was "misleading and inaccurate".

The study in question, published in Geophysical Research Letters, showed that the forests' level of 'greenness' had not changed during the 2005 year drought (see mongabay.com's original coverage of the study and press release: Amazon confusion: new research shows forest is resilient to drought, but is this the whole picture?). However it was not the study, but the press release, entitled 'New study debunks myths about Amazon rain forests', that has disturbed some of the world's most notable Amazon experts.

http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0319-hance_amazon_letter.html

19/03/2010
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Pressure is building on the French shipping company Delmas to cancel large shipments of rosewood, which was illegally logged in Madagascar during the nation's recent coup. Today two environmental groups, Global Witness and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) called on Delmas to cancel the shipment, which is currently being loaded onto the Delmas operated ship named 'Kiara' in the Madagascar port of Vohemar.

Global Witness and EIA have composed an open letter to Delmas' CEO, Jean-Francois Mahe, urging him to suspend all shipments of the wood, much of which was logged from Madagascar's world-renowned national parks. The environmental organizations have obtained photos of 'Kirara' being loaded with rosewood containers by Delmas, a division of shipping group CMA-CCA.

http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0315-hance_ngos_madagascar.html

15/03/2010
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It is no secret that orangutans are threatened with extinction because their rain forests are being destroyed at an alarming rate. Ten years ago, Shawn Thompson, a writer, former journalist and university professor, set out to chronicle the threat to orangutans in a book released in March 2010. The book is called The Intimate Ape: Orangutans and the Secret Life of a Vanishing Species. The book spends most of the time talking about the nature of orangutans and the relationships between orangutans and people. But the ultimate underlying message is there about the source of the peril to orangutans and the solution. Thompson says that the problem of saving orangutans has to do with communications and human nature.

10/03/2010
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Brazil and the United States have signed an agreement to worth together to reduce deforestation as part of an effort to slow climate change.

The memorandum of understanding signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Brasilia last Wednesday comes as talks on REDD, a proposed climate change mitigation mechanism that would pay tropical countries for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation, move forward despite the lack of a formal climate treaty.

http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0307-brazil_us_mou.html

07/03/2010
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07/03/2010
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