Chinese Whispers in Indonesian Conservation
Why do we measure deforestation rates in number of football fields lost? This is causing major confusion.
Avatar Firmly Keeps the Con in Conservation
Erik Meijaard explains why he thinks that Avatar-like solutions are particularly helpful in conservation.
Event at Steinhart ..Bringing together Bay Area Clean Tech and Conservation interests?
With most of the local corporate community “distracted” by all the financial chaos on “Wall Street”, we have chosen to delay our planned clean tech expo at the new Steinhart until the first part of next year. However, as with similar projects, this program is more about the production process (and the working relationships that develop) then the actual event. On that note, we have made some in-roads with...
Event at Steinhart Progressing ….
The event that we are working to develop at the new Steinhart / California Academy of Sciences is proceeding nicely. As mentioned in a previous post, this event will showcase Bay Area “clean tech” and environmental initiatives with the Bay Area’s entrepreneurial community (Keiretsu Forum members …world’s largest “angel investor” group …see: http://k4forum.com ). It looks like several...
Event at New Steinhart
This blog is being written to document my efforts to develop an event at the new California Academy of Sciences (The Steinhart). I am working in collaboration with Rhett Butler of Mongabay.com …details to follow as this event takes form. Stay tuned! Mark Szotek
Conservation Forestry Rule Engine Financed by the Carbon Markets and A Commodity Buffer Zone
Previously, we wrote “the land dictates the rules, and rural communities are the gatekeepers” [The Jakarta Post, December 2007] regarding how should the nascent forestry ecological service market develop. Essentially, this equates “avoided deforestation” best practices with best practices in natural resources management. To explain further, a successful avoided deforestation project is a subset of land use,...
More media coverage of Woodlark Island situation
The Woodlark islanders struggle to stop Vitroplant Ltd from logging seventy percent of their island for palm oil plantations has received new attention from organizations and media. The online organization forests.org has set up an action letter which anyone concerned by the issue may attach their name to have their opinion sent to 12 administrators involved. Over two thousand people from all over the world have sent protests for...
A Rainforest in France?
A study suggests that France was once covered with tropical vegetation, reports LiveScience. Writing in the Jan. 4 issue of The Journal of Organic Chemistry, researchers report “the discovery of a new organic compound in amber called “quesnoin,” whose precursor exists only in sap produced by a tree currently growing only in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.” The researchers say the amber likely dripped from a similar tree that...
Indonesia calls for reforestation in wake of deadly floods
Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has urged large-scale reforestation initiatives to reduce the risk of flooding and landslides that have killed scores of people in East Java’s Madium district, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Earlier this year the Indonesian government annouced plans to plant 2 billion trees in 2007, though it is unclear whether that goal was...
Agricultural benefits of deforestation are short-lived
BBC news reports on a new study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that found the benefits of converting rainforests for agriculture land are short-lived in terms of soil nutrients. “US researchers studied deforested land in Mexico and found that soil levels of phosphorus, a key nutrient for plants, fell by 44% after three growing cycles. In the long-term, the land risked becoming so degraded that...
