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The Swamp Man

May 1, 2012, www.sierraclub.org | “Dean Wilson survived in southern Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin for months by catching swamp critters for food, but this rugged outdoorsman has a soft spot for trees.

When he found out that loggers were clear-cutting thousands of acres of cypress trees to make mulch for flower gardens, he says, that was the last straw.”

 

Lindy Rose shared a link.
“Dean Wilson survived in southern Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin for months by catching swamp critters for food, but this rugged outdoorsman has a soft spot for trees.
When he found out that loggers were clear-cutting thousands of acres of cypress trees to make mulch for flower gardens, he says, that was the last straw.”
The bald cypress of southern Louisiana is resilient and rot-resistant—and so is Dean Wilson, its most ardent defender
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Filed under: Farms & Gardens, Forests, People, Profiles, Protection

3 Year Moratorium on Logging in the Boreal Forest

www.DavidSuzuki.org| The David Suzuki Foundation has joined an unprecedented coalition of forestry companies and environmental groups to unveil the landmark Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, one of the largest forest conservation agreements in history.  The Agreement covers an area of more than 70 million hectares of public lands — an area larger than the entire Province of Alberta — and when fully implemented will permanently protect vast areas of Canada’s treasured Boreal Forest, stretching from British Columbia to Newfoundland and Labrador.

The forestry companies have committed to immediately stopping all logging on 30 million hectares of caribou habitat in the Boreal forest for the next three years, and to adopt sustainable forestry practices in the remaining forests.

In return, the environmental groups will support the industry’s exciting transition to sustainability and will cease campaigns urging consumers not to buy products from the companies.

  Leila Bee shared a link, Arthur Carlson likes this.

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Filed under: Forests, Protection, Restoration, Sustainable Forestry

Belize enacts moratorium on rosewood

Illegally harvested rosewood from the Sarstoon Temash National Park in Belize. Photo by: Anisario Cal.

March 20, 2012, www.news.mongabay.com | “The Belizean Government has banned the harvesting and export of rosewood with immediate effect, in response to the widespread clearing of the hardwood species for the Asian market.”

“Belize enacts moratorium on rosewood
news.mongabay.com
The Belizean Government has banned the harvesting and export of rosewood with immediate effect, in response to the widespread clearing of the hardwood species for the Asian market. A government statement released on Friday, March 16th claimed the moratorium was necessary”
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Filed under: Economics, Forests, National Policy, Protection

Reforesting Afghanistan Top Priority with 420,000 Trees

Image

March 16, 2011, www.isaf.nato.int | “Nearly 420,000 trees are scheduled to be planted throughout Afghanistan during the two weeks of the Afghanistan Nowruz [New Year].  “These trees are representative of the future, of the new year, and in many ways of our partnership as we work together toward a common and prosperous future,” said U.S. Navy Rear Adm.”

Leila Bee shared a link
“Reforesting Afghanistan Top Priority with 420,000 Trees
www.isaf.nato.int
ISAF – International Security Assistance Force, The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is a key component of the international community’s engagement in Afghanistan, assisting the Afghan authorities in providing security and stability while creating the conditions for reconstruction and …”
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Filed under: Forests, Protection, Restoration, Sustainable Forestry, Tree-plantings

The Amazon’s Internet Indians

March 13, 2012, www.aljazeera.com | Amazonia is much more than just the earth’s lungs: it is home to 20 per cent of the world’s fauna, 20 per cent of its fresh water reserves and countless animal species.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Brazil started the conquest of the massive ancient forest in order to increase the country’s prosperity – a people without land moved to a land without people, built roads, dams and cities.

Since then, two million hectares of tropical rainforest have been burned down and cleared in the Amazon every year.  An area approximately the same size as France, 65 million hectares, has now disappeared.

Today, the earth’s largest forest is home to 20 million people: All of them have their own, usually conflicting, ideas about the future development of the Amazon region.

 

“Way cool!”
Meet the tribe using the internet to tackle the logging mafias targeting their villages.
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Filed under: Economics, Forests, Local Policy, Native Peoples, Native Peoples, Land, Protection

In Africa’s Vanishing Forests, the Benefits of Bamboo

March 13, 2012, www.opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com | In the district of Asosa, the land is thick with bamboo.   People plant it and manage the forests. They rely on its soil-grabbing roots to stabilize steep slopes and riverbanks, cutting erosion. They harvest it to burn for fuel, to make into charcoal sticks to sell to city dwellers and to build furniture.

Asosa is not in China, not even in Asia.    It is a district in the west of Ethiopia, on the Sudanese border.   To many people, bamboo means China.   But it’s not just panda food — mountain gorillas in Rwanda also live on bamboo.   About 4 percent of Africa’s forest cover is bamboo.

Soon it may be much more.  Bamboo may provide a solution to a very serious problem:  deforestation.  In sub-Saharan Africa, 70 percent of the people cook their meals over wood fires.  The very poorest cut down trees for cooking fuel; those slightly less poor buy charcoal  made from wood in those same forests.  Every year Africa loses forest cover equal to the size of Switzerland.  Terence Sunderland, a senior scientist at the Indonesia-based Center for International Forestry Research, said that in southern Africa, even trees that can be used for fine carving, such as ebony and rosewood, are being cut down and made into charcoal.

Robert Brothers shared a link.

“300 micro small enterprises with over 2,000 out growers propagating 11,733 seedlings. 7,000 low income local households are expected to use bamboo charcoal as fuel wood by the close of the project year in 2014.” — Additional info from this article in Ghana Business News, http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2011/12/30/new-bamboo-charcoal-technology-promises-to-jump-start-africas-bio-energy-sector/
via Polly Howells
In Africa’s Vanishing Forests, Charcoal from Bamboo Plantings can substitute for the cutting of wild
In the fight to reverse deforestation and environmental ruin in Africa, some are using a fast-growing, renewable weapon.
Isabel Nortje Lass likes this.
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Filed under: Animals & Plants, Forests, Plants, Protection, Restoration, Sustainable Forestry

Avatar Grove’s giant old trees saved

Feb 17, 2012, www.theprovince.com | “Avatar Grove, a stand of centuries-old Douglas firs and red cedars, will be included in an expanded 59-hectare old-growth management area, Forests Minister Steve Thomson said Thursday.  That means no logging or mining, but it is one step short of the legislated protection of park designation.”

“Victory for this ancient grove : ) congrats to all the activists who worked for this !
Avatar Grove’s giant old trees saved
A grove of giant, old-growth trees near Port Renfrew, which has attracted thousands of visitors over…”
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Filed under: Animals & Plants, Forests, Plants, Protection

New high resolution maps of forests in Madagascar, useful for cap-and-trade assessments

Madagascar with the 659,592 ha northern and1,713,088 ha southern study regionsnews.mongabay.com, 2/15/12
A team of scientists has created the first high resolution maps of remote forests in Madagascar. The effort, which is written up in the journal , will help more accurately register the amount of carbon stored in Madagascar’s forests, potentially giving the impoverished country access to carbon-based…   Thérèse Williams shared a link., “Greg Asner of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, with help from the GoodPlanet Foundation and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), participated in the project, which mapped some 2.4 million hectares (9,160 square mile…See More  
COMMENT GoodNews FortheEarth ‎~ VERIFIABLE CARBON ASSESSMENTS FOR CAP-AND-TRADE
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Filed under: Cap and Trade, Climate, Forests, Protection

New rainforest and indigenous reserve established in Peru

news.mongabay.com, 2/07/12, “On February 4th, the Peruvian government and a small indigenous group created a new Amazon reserve, dubbed the Maijuna Reserve. Located in northeastern Peru, the 390,000 hectare (970,000 acres) reserve is larger than California’s Yosemite National Park and over three times the size of Hong Kong”

posted by  Therese Williams, “This new conservation area protects a true jewel: a complex of Amazonian high terraces—a habitat unknown until recent biological inventories—that shelters a flora and fauna with a number of new, rare, and specialized species.”  Judith Green and Robert Brothers like this.

Feb 7, 2012 Roberta Sisters 1 Comment
Filed under: Forests, Native Peoples, Native Peoples, Land, Protection

New rainforest and indigenous reserve established in Peru

 

Feb 7, 2012, www.news.mongabay.com | On February 4th, the Peruvian government and a small indigenous group created a new Amazon reserve, dubbed the Maijuna Reserve. Located in northeastern Peru, the 390,000 hectare (970,000 acres) reserve is larger than California’s Yosemite National Park and over three times the size of Hong Kong.

 

Caron von Zeil shared a link.

New rainforest and indigenous reserve established in Peru http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0207-hance_maijunareserve.html
On February 4th, the Peruvian government and a small indigenous group created a new Amazon reserve, dubbed the Maijuna Reserve. Located in northeastern Peru, the 390,000 hectare (970,000 acres) reserve is larger than California’s Yosemite National Park and over three times the size of Hong Kong.
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Filed under: Forests, Protection