Under mounting pressure over illegal logging of its national parks, Madagascar's transitional government on Wednesday reinstated a ban on rosewood logging and exports.

The decree (no. 2010-141), which prohibits all exports of rosewood and precious timber for two to five years, was announced during a council meeting held yesterday at Ambohitsorohitra Palace in Antananarivo, Madagascar's capital city. Madagascar's Minister of Environment has already proposed a plan to address the illegal timber trade, according to the Madagascar Tribune.

http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0325-madagascar_rosewood_ban.html

25/03/2010
Click here to read on...

Global forest loss has diminished since the 1990s but still remains "alarmingly high", according to a preliminary version of a new assessment from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The report, Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 (FRA 2010), shows that global forest loss slowed to around 13 million hectares per year during the 2000s, down from about 16 million hectares per year in the 1990s. It finds that net deforestation declined from about 8.3 million hectares per year in the 1990s to about 5.2 million hectares per year in the 2000s, a result of large-scale reforestation and afforestation projects, as well as natural forest recovery in some countries and slowing deforestation in the Amazon.

http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0325-deforestation.html

25/03/2010
Click here to read on...

Gorillas may disappear across much of the Congo Basin by the mid 2020s unless action is taken to protect against poaching and habitat destruction, warns a new report issued by United Nations and INTERPOL.

The Last Stand of the Gorilla - Environmental Crime and Conflict in the Congo Basin - released at the CITES meeting in Doha, Qatar - lists a multitude of threats to gorillas, including the bushmeat trade, outbreaks of the ebola virus, illegal logging, mining, and charcoal production. The report warns that that militias in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are exacerbating the gorilla crisis through trafficking and involvement in other illicit activities. Gorilla bushmeat moves through the same smuggling channels as illegally extracted timber, diamonds, gold and coltan (a mineral used in cell phones). Further, insecurity in the region has driven hundreds of thousands of people into refugee camps, which has increased pressure on natural resources, including forest habitat for gorillas and the apes themselves.

http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0325-congo_gorillas.html

25/03/2010
Click here to read on...

Accelerating Impacts from Poaching to Illegal Timber Trade Hitting Great Ape Populations and Habitats Faster Than Previously Supposed

UNEP and INTERPOL Call for More Support for Border and Customs Controls

The Rapid Response Assessment report, entitled The Last Stand of the Gorilla - Environmental Crime and Conflict in the Congo Basin can be downloaded from www.unep.org/grasp media and publications

24/03/2010
Click here to read on...

Rare animals, including chimpanzees and gorillas, are being hunted into
extinction because of record levels of demand for bush meat, according
to a new study.


By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
Published: 7:00AM GMT 23 Mar 2010


Research in the Congo Basin in Africa found more than three million
tonnes of 'bush meat' is being extracted from the area every year, the
equivalent of butchering 740,000 bull elephants.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/7497703/Rare-animals-are-being-eaten-to-extinction.html

23/03/2010
Click here to read on...

Wetlands International, 22 March 2010

Alex Kaat ( HYPERLINK "mailto:alex.kaat@wetlands.org" alex.kaat@wetlands.org / +31 (0)6 5060 1917)

Summary

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
Click here to read on...