Scientists propose using lasers to map rainforests
A new Carbon Balance and Management paper argues that mapping the world’s tropical forests with a fleet of airplanes outfitted with advanced lasers, known as LiDAR, could rapidly and accurately assess global forest carbon stocks for $250 million, or less than the cost of a typical Earth observation satellite mission. The paper says the system could be used to provide a baseline for REDD+, a program that aims to compensate...
Activism: funds needed to replant forest for nearly-extinct loris
Note: as a news organization mongabay.com does not endorse the action below, but believes its readers may be interested in taking action or discussing the issue in comments. Horton Plains slender loris. Photo courtesy of EDGE. Researchers estimate that only 80 Horton Plains slender loris (Loris tardigradus nycticeboides) survive in the world. After believed to be extinct ZSL EDGE rediscovered the subspecies in a dwindling Sri Lanka...
Wangari Maathai muses on trees, activism, and God (radio)
Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Green Belt movement, Wangari Maathai, started a tree-planting campaign to create a better world for the impoverished and marginalized people of her native country, Kenya. For such views, she faced threats of assassination, violence, and censorship from the government. Now 71, Maathai speaks to Krista Tippett, the host of the radio show On Being, about the importance of trees, how ecology and...
FSC-certified company clearcutting Swedish forests
A German news show (with English subtitles) investigates clearcuts in the Swedish boreal by logging company Stora Enso, which has been certified as sustainable by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The FSC has come under heavy fire from a number of small green groups for what they deem as ‘greenwashing’ ecologically destructive practices, however the FSC remains supported by large conservation organizations who argue...
Activism: save Southeast Asia’s last major primary lowland rainforest
Note: as a news organization, mongabay.com does not endorse the action below, but believes its readers may be interested in taking action or discussing the issue further. Villagers from Prey Lang forest area rally in Cambodia’s capital against continuing destruction of their forest. Protestors dressed as ‘avatars’ to gain more attention to their plight. Photo courtesy of: Prey Lang Network. Cambodia’s Prey Lang...
Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron visit indigenous community threatened by mega-dam (video)
Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron visit an Arara village on the Big Bend of the Xingu River, which is imperiled by Brazil’s mega-dam Belo Monte. For more information on the Belo Monte: Bill Clinton takes on Brazil’s megadams, James Cameron backs tribal groups (03/28/2011) Former US President, Bill Clinton, spoke out against Brazil’s megadams at the 2nd World Sustainability Forum, which was also attended by...
Elementary school children urge KFC to stop cutting down forests (video)
With 6,000 hand-drawn postcards, four elementary school kids travel from Charlotte, North Carolina to Louisville, Kentucky (350 miles) to urge KFC to use recycled paper and stop endangering forests on North Carolina’s coast. Lead by 10-year-old forest activist, Cole Rasenberger, the group delivered the postcards to executives at KFC. “I had a second grade project to be an environmental activist,” Rasenberger explains. “I found...
Celebrating ten years of the Great Bear Rainforest (video)
Video by Greenpeace chronicling the fight to save the Great Bear Rainforest. According to the description, the fight to save the Great Bear Rainforest should inspire work to save forests around the world: “The Great Bear Rainforest campaign demonstrates that out of conflict and peaceful resistance, it is possible to work towards solutions. It inspires our work in the Amazon, the Congo and Indonesia...
Trailer: When Two World’s Collide (video)
When Two Worlds Collide (trailer) from Yachaywasi Films on Vimeo. The film follows the struggle of indigenous people to save their Amazonian home from the Peruvian government and industrial corporations, especially focusing on the role of Alberto Pizango, hero and leader to indigenous people, who was arrested last year in Peru for sedition and rebellion. According to the film’s website: “The hazardous journey of an...
Girl Scouts question palm oil in their cookies
Forest clearing in Sumatra for palm oil plantation. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Two Girl Scouts are asking their organization why palm oil is an ingredient in pervasive and popular Girl Scout Cookies. Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen, after their concerns about the environmental and social impact of palm oil have long been ignored by the heads of the Girl Scout organization, have joined with the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) to...
Trailer for Oka! Amerikee, eco-drama set in the Congo rainforest
Filmed in the Congo rainforest of the Central African Republic (CAR), a region rarely explored in film, the movie tells the story of an American ethnomusicologist living with the indigenous Bayaka people, also known as the pygmies, as loggers invade their land. According to the film’s website: “The movie is partly based on the life’s work of Louis Sarno, who has lived with and recorded the music of the Central African...
Photos: some of our best rainforest shots
Sunset over Borneo rainforest . Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Fast-flowing creek forming the border of Bwindi park in Uganda. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Kapok tree towering over the forest in Costa Rica. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Giant dipterocarp tree on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Brownsberg reserve in Surianme. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Rainforest waterfall in Malaysian Borneo . Photo by Rhett A. Butler....
Volunteer opportunity in the Peruvian Amazon
Chanti waterfall. Photo courtesy of: The Amazon Waterfalls Association. Have you ever dreamed of visiting the Amazon? How about touring little-seen jungle waterfalls—one of which is three times taller than the Eiffel Tower and 17 times taller than Niagara Falls? The Amazon Waterfalls Association is looking for a few good volunteers to help develop walking paths passing by a series of astounding waterfalls in Peru. “The trek...
Activism: titanium mine approved in Cambodia
Note: mongabay.com does not endorse the action below, but believes its readers may be interested in taking action or discussing the issue in comments. Asian elephants in Cambodia. Photo courtesy of Wildlife Alliance. Cambodia has approved a controversial titanium mine in the heart of the Cardamom Mountain forests. Home to many endangered species, critics say the open-pit mine will pollute waterways, destroy over 20,000 hectares of...
Photo: world’s most threatened forest
Forest along the Nam Ou river in Laos. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Deforestation for a rubber plantation in Laos. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Yesterday, Conservation International (CI) released a top 10 list of the world’s most threatened biodiverse forest. Number one were the forests of Indo-Burma, including Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar (Burma), and parts of China and India. This landscape includes the forests in Laos...
The view from the air
Angel Falls in Venezuela. Photo by Rhett A. Butler River in the lowlands of Gabon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Rice fields in Madagascar. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Mountains in Western China. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Flowering trees in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. African buffalo in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Photo by Jeremy...
Forest carbon offsets under California’s AB-32
The Tropical Forest Group, a forest policy organization, has released a briefing on California’s AB 32 Regulations, as it relates to the reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) mechanism. Briefing Note on Proposed CA AB 32 Regulations An editorial by John O. Niles of the Tropical Forest Group can be found at: Can RED Hot California Heat Up A Sedated Cancun? (12/07/2010) In his concession speech after the...
Without oversight and safegaurds, REDD may be caught up in web of corruption
The issue of measurement, reporting and verification of carbon levels is set for the agenda at COP 16 in Cancun next month. Experts warn, however, that more attention must be given to the monitoring and reporting of REDD+ financial flows, which stand to be caught up in complex webs of corruption. There will be a lot at stake. In Copenhagen last year developed countries committed new and additional resources to forestry worth $30 billion for 2010-12, and set out to mobilise $100 billion annually from 2020 to address the needs of developing countries. If any of that money makes its way into bank accounts overseas, the money trail becomes difficult to follow.
Which came first the forest or the rain?
By: Douglas Sheil Repost from Bwindi Researchers on Wildlife Direct During the rainy season in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, there’s an impressive storm and our water tanks overflow nearly every day. We’re in the equatorial rain forest after all: we have the location, trees and weather to prove it. But is the forest here because of the rain or is it the other way around? Being in a highland area we probably get...
Tool for comparing value of forest conservation to logging, palm oil
A new tool developed by Lian Pin Koh of ETH Zurich allows users to quickly compare the value of various forms of land use, including oil palm plantation development, logging, and carbon conservation for REDD+ payments. The web-based tool provides a rough estimate for the net present value of economic activities as well as the impact on biodiversity. The tool is available at LU...
