News
Researchers develop highest-resolution global forest cover dataset to date
17 May 2013
Researchers at the University of Maryland have developed a 30-meter resolution forest cover data set that could boost efforts to track deforestation and forest degradation.
La REDD+ peut-elle être moteur de changement en RDC?
17 May 2013
L’application du programme de l’ONU pour la réduction de la perte de forêts en RDC sera difficile tant que le gouvernement ne s’occupe pas du manque d’autorité de l’état dans certaines régions. Oxfam International.
L’application du programme de l’ONU visant à réduire la perte de forêts en République Démocratique du Congo sera difficile, selon une nouvelle étude, à moins que le gouvernement ne s’occupe de la corruption, du manque d’autorité...
Scientists have reached an overwhelming consensus on human-caused climate change
16 May 2013
Despite outsized media and political attention to climate change deniers, climate scientists long ago reached a consensus that not only is climate change occurring, but it's largely due to human actions. A new study in Environmental Research Letters further strengthens this consensus: looking at 4,000 peer-reviewed papers researchers found that 97 percent of them supported anthropogenic (i.e. human caused) global warming. Climate change denialists, many of them linked to fossil fuel industries...
Can REDD+ drive change in DR Congo?
16 May 2013
Implementing a U.N. backed scheme to slow forest loss in the DR Congo will be difficult until the government addresses a lack of state authority in some regions. Oxfam International.
Implementing a U.N.-backed scheme to slow forest loss in the Democratic Republic of Congo will be difficult, a new study says, until the government addresses corruption, a lack of state authority in some regions, and intermittent fighting between rebels and government forces in the country’s east.
Despite...
Analysis: Indonesia renews moratorium on logging, palm plantations
16 May 2013
Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made a bold and courageous decision this week to extend the country’s forest moratorium. With this decision, which aims to prevent new clearing of primary forests and peat lands for another two years, the government could help protect valuable forests and drive sustainable development.
This Week In Forest Carbon: Corporate Leadership paves REDD+ Path
15 May 2013
The UNFCCC Secretariat recently published a collection of views on how to improve the coordination of REDD+ activities by the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 18). Nearly 50 countries contributed suggestions. Perspectives range from ...See all stories on this topic »
Indonesia officially extends forestry moratorium
15 May 2013
The Indonesian government has officially extended its moratorium on new logging and plantation concessions in 65 million hectares of forests and peatlandsi for another two years. The move, which had been expected, was announced Wednesday by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Paper giant APRIL to restore peat forest in Sumatra, but green groups say it continues to deforest
15 May 2013
Pulp and paper giant Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) has launched a $7 million ecosystem restoration project to restore and protect over 20,000 hectares of peat forest in Indonesia’s Riau province, Mongabay-Indonesia reported last week.
Amazon's flood/drought cycle becoming more extreme
14 May 2013
The Amazon River's hydrological cycle has become more extreme over the past two decades with increasing seasonal precipitation across much of the basin despite drier conditions in the southern parts of Earth's largest rainforest, finds a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters. The research analyzed monthly Amazon River discharge at Óbidos, a point that drains 77 percent of the Amazon Basin, and compared it with regional precipitation patterns.
Amazon may lose 65 percent of land biomass by 2060
14 May 2013
There will be no winners if agriculture made possible by widespread felling in the Amazon continues to expand, say researchers from Brazil and the U.S.
They calculate that the large-scale expansion of agriculture at the expense of the forest could entail the loss of almost two-thirds of the Amazon’s terrestrial biomass by later this century.
Their study, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, shows that deforestation will not only reduce the capacity of the...