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Archive for April, 2011
If You Want To See The Future Of Global Greens, Visit Brazil
Posted by Business Insider: None Given on April 15th, 2011
Business Insider: Brazil is ground zero for global greens. Home of the largest and richest rainforest system in the world, Brazil is where the fight for biodiversity and the fight against deforestation will be either won or lost.
At the Copenhagen Summit, Brazil played a key role in failed negotiations that killed the Green Dream of a universal treaty to stop global warming.
And as I learned this week, Brazil is the country whose creativity and ingenuity is changing the terms of the global climate and food debates...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on If You Want To See The Future Of Global Greens, Visit BrazilAvon commits to greener palm oil
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 15th, 2011
Mongabay: The beauty products giant Avon will purchase enough GreenPalm certificates to meet 100 percent of its palm oil use.
The move means that Avon can claim all of the palm oil it is purchasing is going to support the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a body that sets social and environmental criteria for palm oil production. GreenPalm certificates, which represent physical palm oil certified under the RSPO, allows companies to bypass supply-chain complexities and financially support sustainable...
Drought grows more dire in Southwest, farms hit
Posted by Reuters: Carey Gillam on April 15th, 2011
Reuters: Conditions for crops and livestock are growing more dire by the day in the U.S. Southwest as drought continues to grip the region.
Texas is a tinderbox, pastureland for hungry cattle is drying up, and prospects are deteriorating rapidly for wheat, corn, cotton and other crops.
"Conditions are just deplorable right now. One hundred percent of the state is currently in some form of drought," Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples told Reuters.
The threat to cattle and crop production...
Former Cambodian poacher turns gamekeeper
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 15th, 2011
AFP: As a hunter roaming the remote forests of eastern Cambodia, Lean Kha shot animals from dozens of endangered species, including tigers, bears and elephants.
But the repentant former poacher is now putting his tracking skills to good use as a wildlife ranger in Mondulkiri Protected Forest, which Cambodia hopes will become an eco-tourism hotspot.
Over nearly three decades, the 50-year-old shot hundreds of creatures as he tried to eke out a living in poverty-stricken Mondulkiri province, a sparsely...
The finitude of forests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 15th, 2011
Economist: The finitude of forests A scheme to save the world’s rainforests still seems too good to be true
AS THE heavens open, the canopy offers scant protection from the downpour, so the orang-utans tear leaves off the trees to make pathetic little umbrellas to hold over their heads. It is an endearingly human gesture but, as a means of keeping dry, almost entirely futile. And it is not just the rain that makes these creatures seem so helpless. The relentless destruction of their tropical-forest habitat...
Pro-deforestation group calls for weakening of U.S. law against illegal logging
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 14th, 2011
Mongabay: Pro-deforestation group calls for weakening of U.S. law against illegal logging A group that lobbies on behalf of forestry conglomerates in Indonesia and Malaysia is calling on the U.S. to roll back legislation intended to fight illegal logging.
World Growth International, a Washington D.C.-based group that sometimes portrays itself as a humanitarian organization, yet consistently pushes policies that favor industrial forestry interests over those of rural communities, has submitted formal comments...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Pro-deforestation group calls for weakening of U.S. law against illegal loggingSeasonal climate forecasts possible in Africa but not helping yet – study
Posted by AlertNet: Laurie Goering on April 14th, 2011
AlertNet: For African farmers struggling to cope with increasingly erratic conditions linked to climate change, there's good -- and bad - news.
The good news is that in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, scientists can now issue reasonably reliable seasonal climate forecasts a month or more in advance of the planting season, giving growers a chance to opt for different kinds of crops or other measures to adapt to upcoming conditions.
That has the potential to improve food security in many climate-vulnerable...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Seasonal climate forecasts possible in Africa but not helping yet – studyVietnam creates reserve for newly-discovered, nearly-extinct mammal, the saola
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 14th, 2011
Mongabay: Vietnam creates reserve for newly-discovered, nearly-extinct mammal, the saola
The Vietnam government and local people have approved a Saola Natural Reserve to protect one of the world's most endangered--and most elusive--mammals. Only discovered by the outside world in 1992, the saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) inhabits the lush forests of the Annamite Mountains. No one knows how many saola remain, but it has been classified as Critically Endangered as it is likely very few. Recently, conservationist...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Vietnam creates reserve for newly-discovered, nearly-extinct mammal, the saolaFrom the Serengeti to Lake Natron: is the Tanzanian government aiming to destroy its wildlife and lands?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 14th, 2011
Mongabay: From the Serengeti to Lake Natron: is the Tanzanian government aiming to destroy its wildlife and lands?
Thousands of lesser flamingoes (Phoenicopterus minor) crowd in Lake Bogoria in Kenya. Nearly all of these flamingoes will breed in Tanzania's Lake Natron, now a proposed site for soda ash mining. Photo by: Steve Garvie.
What's happening in Tanzania? This is a question making the rounds in conservation and environmental circles. Why is a nation that has so much invested in its wild lands...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on From the Serengeti to Lake Natron: is the Tanzanian government aiming to destroy its wildlife and lands?World Atlas of Mangroves: A Book Review
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 14th, 2011
Mongabay: Because recent research has shown that it is often the case that mangroves store more carbon than tropical forests--from 90 tons to 588 tons carbon from above-ground and below-ground biomass combined with net primary productivity of 7 to 25 tons carbon annually(1)--while providing an estimated ecosystem services value of up to US$ 9270 per hectare per year (2), the timely publication of the World Atlas of Mangroves is an excellent reference for those of us working to protect mangroves globally. With...