Despite government assurances that it would crack down on the rosewood trade, illegal logging continues in Madagascar's rainforest parks, according to new information provided by sources on the ground.

The sources report logging in three parks: Mananara, Makira, and Masoala. All three are known for their high levels of biodiversity, including endangered lemurs.

Rosewood logs are being transported to Tamatave (Toamasina), Madagascar's main port, despite a national moratorium on logging and export of precious hardwoods. Most rosewood ends up going to China, where it is in high demand for furniture.

http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0906-madagascar_mananara.html

06/09/2010
Click here to read on...

3D forest mapping with lasers reveals substantial climate impact of selective logging in the Amazon

Scientists using a combination of satellite imagery, airborne-laser technology, and ground-based plot surveys to create three-dimensional high resolution carbon maps of the Amazon rainforest have documented a surge in emissions from deforestation and selective logging following the paving of the Trans-Oceanic Highway in Peru.

The study, published this week in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals that selective logging and other forms of forest degradation in Peru account for nearly a third of emissions compared to deforestation alone. The findings, which demonstrate the feasibility of using LiDAR and satellite imagery over large areas of tropical forest, have important implications for monitoring, reporting, and verifying emissions reductions under proposed Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) programs, which could compensate developing countries for protecting and sustainability managing their forests.

http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0906-carbon_mapping_peru.html

06/09/2010
Click here to read on...

We are please to announce that a new publication has just been posted
on the PSG website:

Best Practice Guidelines for Great Ape Tourism

Elizabeth J. Macfie and Elizabeth A. Williamson

with contributions from Marc Ancrenaz, Chloe Cipolletta, Debby Cox,
Christina Ellis, David Greer, Chloe Hodgkinson, Anne Russon and Ian
Singleton

The PDF can be downloaded via the following link:

http://www.primate-sg.org/BP.tourism.htm

We hope to have printed copies available at the IPS Congress next
month. Translation into French and Bahasa Indonesia is underway.

We are very grateful to the Arcus Foundation and the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service for supporting the production of this document.

02/09/2010
Click here to read on...

www.conservationtraining.org
<http://www.4apes.com/lists/admin/FCKeditor/editor/www.conservationtraining.org>

The Nature Conservancy; Conservation International; the Climate,
Community, and Biodiversity Alliance; Rainforest Alliance, the World
Wildlife Fund, and GTZ have updated their online introductory course
on reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation and
conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+) with new
information and activities.

This course provides a basic level of understanding regarding the
REDD+ concept. It begins with background information on climate change
and drivers of deforestation, then covers the essential aspects of the
technical, political, financial, social and environmental issues
related to REDD+, and finalizes with a basics on implementing REDD+
activities at a national or sub-national scale. The course is meant to
enable participants to more fully understand and better engage in
REDD+ policy negotiations at the national and international levels and
to facilitate the development of credible REDD+ activities in
developing countries through basic capacity building.

The course is free and publicly available at:

www.conservationtraining.org
<http://www.4apes.com/lists/admin/FCKeditor/editor/www.conservationtraining.org>

02/09/2010
Click here to read on...

By Wolfgang H. Thome, eTN | Aug 26, 2010
(eTN) - The Ruhengeri/Musanze area of Rwanda is best known around the
world for being the access point for tracking the famous mountain
gorillas living up by the volcanic mountains, which form the
ever-present background against the horizon.

Over the past 5 years alone, the number of tourist-quality hotels and
safari establishments has more than doubled, providing added job
opportunities while a large number of cooperatives have sprung up,
which provide local crafts and curios to the hotels, lodges, markets,
and shops where foreign tourists can then purchase genuine items
produced in the area. Porter services, operating in form of
cooperatives, have also allowed people to earn a living every day by
carrying the backpacks, water bottles, and camera cases for tourist
visitors tracking the gorillas or taking hikes up and around the
mountains, a service incidentally highly recommended, not just to
spread some income into the communities but also to ease ones' own
burden of carrying something, which originally weighs two or three
pounds but in the end feels like the proverbial ton.

http://www.eturbonews.com/18120/gorilla-tourism-shows-results-rwanda-local-economy

25/08/2010
Click here to read on...

By William Mullen, Chicago Tribune reporter

Dead set against people keeping chimpanzees as pets, Lincoln Park Zoo primatologist Steve Ross flew to Montana last year to face Jeanne Rizzotto, a wealthy Realtor who had declared on national television that somebody would have to step "over my dead body" to take her two pet chimps away.
      
        Ross, a soft-spoken Chicago scientist, had just founded Project ChimpCARE to locate every chimpanzee in North America and assess its level of care. He was astonished to see Rizzotto's chimps - Connor and Kramer - living in the lap of luxury, eating pizzas and hot wings and quaffing bottled mineral water.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-chimpcare-20100825,0,7477782.story

25/08/2010
Click here to read on...