Urgency
Logged forests support biodiversity after 15 years of rehabilitation, but not if turned into plantations
With the world facing global warming and a biodiversity crisis, a new study in Conservation Biology shows that within 15 years logged forests—considered by many to be 'degraded'—can be managed in order to successfully fight both climate change and extinction.
Studying regenerating forests in northeast Borneo, Dr. David Edwards from the University of Leeds, surveyed bird species in three different forests: a protected forest that had never been logged; a forest that had been logged and then actively rehabilitated over the last 15 years; and finally a forest undergoing natural regeneration after logging. Both forests were logged 20 years ago.
A Plan to Save Rainforests Gains International Momentum
Today, some analysts believe that a plan to save the world's rainforests, championed then by Conrad in Bali, could again carry the day -- this time at international climate talks in Copenhagen in December aimed at drafting a replacement to the Kyoto Protocol.
Oil company to cut 454 kilometers of seismic lines in uncontacted tribe territory
Repsol YPF, a Spanish-Argentine oil company, plans to cut 454 kilometers (282 miles) of seismic lines in a territory of the Peruvian rainforest known to be home to uncontacted indigenous peoples, according to a press release from Survival International. To construct seismic lines paths will be cleared in the forest and explosives set-off regularly. Seismic lines allow energy companies to locate oil deposits by creating a cross sectional view of the subsurface.
Repsol YPF has submitted its oil exploration plans, which also include constructing 152 heliports, to Peru's Energy Ministry for approval.
Government admits palm kernel animal feed contributes to rainforest destruction
Mr English also sought to deflect attention from Fonterra’s use of palm kernel by twice challenging Greenpeace to picket the nation's supermarkets over palm-oil products such as margarine, processed foods and soap.
Amazon felled for British plywood
You might not guess it flying west from Manaus in a small plane but the mighty Amazon forest is in jeopardy. Thirty years ago only one percent of the Amazon forest had been cut down. Today a quarter has disappeared.
Now previously untouched areas in the very heart of the forest are being felled, and, as elsewhere, most of the logging is illegal.
The logging takes place during the dry season, which has just begun. Later in the year when the rains come and the floodwater rises the logs are floated out of the forests and down the rivers to saw mills, many of them in Amazonia's biggest city, Manaus.
