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10 facts about forests for International Forest Day
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on March 21st, 2016
Mongabay: Today is International Forest Day, which was launched by the United Nations March 21, 2012 to promote the importance of forests and trees. In recognition of the designation, below are ten facts about forests. Forests cover around 4 billion hectares or 30 percent of Earth’s land surface Forests cover about four billion four billion hectares (16 million square miles). That represents about 30 percent of Earth’s land surface or eight percent of its total surface area. Ten countries hold about two-thirds...
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Indonesia hustles to preempt new round of haze-causing fires
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on March 18th, 2016
Mongabay: Local governments, environmental agencies, emergency services and the military are working across Indonesia’s fire-prone areas as President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo tries to minimize this year’s haze in what could be the largest challenge of his presidency. In Singapore, politicians and NGOs have called for more preemptive action as the prospect of more fires in the coming weeks appears increasingly likely. “You need to do that because with three, four months of haze now in Singapore, it actually seems...
Gold mining in Venezuela: “perfect storm” of illegality, deforestation and mafias
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on March 11th, 2016
Mongabay: The Nineties were a decade that stood out for Venezuelans, because they discovered that the were garimpeiros in the south of the country. These traditional miners from Brazil, drawn by the gold rush, had crossed the wide Amazonian border between the two countries digging ditches in the middle of the rainforest in order to extract the precious metal. These illicit activities affected the fragile equilibrium of the Amazonian ecosystem, the health and way of life of the local indigenous and Creole...
Indigenous communities are forced to clean up a 3,000-barrel oil spill in Peru’s Amazon
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on February 26th, 2016
Mongabay: The images being shared on social media and by the international press these days show to the average eye what the impacts of a broken oil pipeline can be: water dyed deep black, turned into a liquid as thick as the oil that has contaminated them. Those recent photos from northern Peru document how the oil spill is covering rocks on the rivers’ shores, and also the white suits donned by the men who have been hired to clean up the spill in the Amazon tributary. This isn’t the first time that an...
Chinese dam builder eyeing major Amazon mega-dam contract
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on February 26th, 2016
Mongabay: Chinese construction companies are trying to gain a larger foothold on infrastructure projects — especially hydroelectric dams — in the Amazon, a region and sector in which large Brazilian construction companies have long dominated. That opportunity has been created by hard times for the Brazilian companies, due to the ongoing government/corporate Operação Lava Jato (Operation Car Wash) scandal, the devaluation of Brazil’s Real currency, along with pricey credit rates. China Three Gorges — a state-owned...
‘Biogeographical oddity’: New monitor lizard is only large predator remote Pacific Island
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on February 25th, 2016
Mongabay: On Mussau, a remote island of the country of Papua New Guinea, biologists have discovered a new species of monitor lizard with a turquoise or blue-pigmented tail. The lizard also has a pale yellow tongue, a trait that it shares with only three other known species of Pacific monitors. So far, the blue-tailed lizard — more than a meter in length — is the only known large-sized predator and scavenger on the island, according to a study published in ZooKeys. This suggests that the lizard most likely...
To stop the Zika virus from spreading in Brazil, specialists call for an “environmental revolution”
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on February 18th, 2016
Mongabay: For nearly five months now, Liana Azeredo avoids walking the streets of Rio de Janeiro during the day. Even under the intense heat of the city, she also prefers long blouses and pants. Inside her handbag, she’s carrying repellents and colored bracelets with citronella. The change in her life is due to the fear of Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that transmits diseases such as Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika. Although all three are considered serious diseases, Liana’s biggest fear is being contaminated...
Bangladesh sticks with coal power plant project despite major backlash
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on February 16th, 2016
Mongabay: Bangladesh, regarded by many as the nation most vulnerable to the impacts of global climate change, is on track to construct two coal-fired power plants that critics say are dangerously close to the world’s largest single tract of mangrove forest called the Sundarbans. A major driver behind these new power power plants is to increase electricity resources for Bangladesh’s 157 million people and achieve its goal of becoming a middle-income country by 2021. Currently, the country produces 8,000 megawatts...
Guatemala’s La Pasión River is still poisoned, nine months after an ecological disaster
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on February 16th, 2016
Mongabay: Nine months ago, the water of La Pasión River showed up smelling foul and covered with dead and poisoned fish. Soon after, hundreds of fishermen of Sayaxché —the largest nearby river community– learned two new terms coined by environmentalists and by the Guatemalan government: “ecocide” and “closed season.” Many of those fishermen are now deep in debt and embroiled in conflict. There isn’t even a general consensus over what to do about the cause of the ecological disaster: REPSA (Reforestadora de...
With haze threatening return, Indonesian forestry giant pushes peatlands restoration model
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on February 4th, 2016
Mongabay: Last year some two million hectares of land in Indonesia went up in flames across Sumatra, Borneo, and the Western half of New Guinea. The conflagrations caused choking air pollution, hospitalizing hundreds of thousands of people and further denting regional economies already hard hit by the downturn in commodity prices. Daily carbon emissions from the fires during the height of the crisis were higher than the daily emissions from the entire U.S. economy. Most of the haze was caused by fires burning...