Locals plea for Tongass rainforest to be spared from Native-owned logging corporation

The Tongass temperate rainforest in Alaska is a record-holder: while the oldest and largest National Forest in the United States (spanning nearly 17 million acres), it is even more notably the world's largest temperate rainforest. Yet since the 1960s this unique ecosystem has suffered large-scale clearcutting through US government grants to logging corporations. While the clearcutting has slowed to a trickle since its heyday, a new bill put forward by Senator Lisa Murkowski (Rep.) gives 85,000 acres to Native-owned corporation Sealaska, raising hackles among environmentalists and locals who are dependent on the forests for resources and tourism.

Complicating the issue is that Sealaska is owned by 20,000 members of Native communities, from the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian tribes. Government officials are acutely sensitive to the demands from these tribes, since they lost their lands from the federal government when the Tongass was appointed a National Forest in 1907 by then president, Teddy Roosevelt. Yet, Sealaska has a long-time reputation for clearcutting forests and selling the logs to Asia—to fetch a higher price—versus employing local mills and using sustainable logging practices.

Amazon Deforestation in Google Earth

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Large-scale soy farming in Brazil pushes ranchers into the Amazon rainforest

Industrial soy expansion in the Brazilian Amazon has contributed to deforestation by pushing cattle ranchers further north into rainforest zones, reports a new study published the journal Environmental Research Letters.

The research, which looked at soy and cattle dynamics in the southern Amazon stats of Mato Grosso and Pará, supports the claim that soy is an important indirect driver of deforestation in the world's largest rainforest.

The authors — including Elizabeth Barona, Navin Ramankutty, Glenn Hyman and Oliver Coomes — analyzed annual census data on deforestation, crop harvest area, livestock population, and pasture area between 2000 and 2006 from municipalities in the Brazilian Legal Amazon. Their analysis found that deforestation shifted 39 km to the northeast during the period, while pasture shifted 87 km to the northwest, from northeastern Mato Grosso to southwestern Para, and soybeans moved 82 km to the northeast, from southern to northeastern Mato Grosso. The researchers also noted that soybean expansion was accompanied by a decline in pasture area in many municipalities in Mato Grosso, lending support to the argument that "decreases in pasture in Mato Grosso owing to soybean expansion may have been compensated by increases in pasture elsewhere in northern Mato Grosso, Para and Rondônia causing some deforestation indirectly, i.e., 'displacement deforestation.'"

Palm oil under attack

What do instant noodles, baby formula, some biofuels, French fries, lipstick, and ice cream have in common? Palm oil.

It’s the vegetable/oil fat listed in the ingredients of many products in the supermarket. The oil’s use is increasing as manufacturers steer away from oils that contain trans fats, by 8 to 10 percent a year, according to industry statistics.

But a United Nations report this year noted that some forms of palm oil production are done on low-lying, carbon-rich peat land, which can result in the release of enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, the key culprit in global warming.