MEDIA REPORTS
FORESTS, DESERTS
AND LAND
This page was updated
on: 01/13/10
2006
Forests, Deserts and Land Media Reports Archives:
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2002
DECEMBER 2006
PARAGUAY EXTENDS ZERO DEFORESTATION LAW
The government of Paraguay has extended a law that seeks to curb
deforestation rates in the endangered Upper Parana Atlantic Forest. The
Zero Deforestation Law, which came into force in December 2004, aimed at
assuring the conservation and recuperation of the forest by enforcing a
series of procedures and penalties for those committing environmental
crime by deforestation. The law would have expired at the end of 2006,
but has been extended by two years, after having cut deforestation rates
by more than 85 percent in the Upper Parana Atlantic Forest.
Link to further information
WWF Media Release, 18 December
2006
SEVEN NEW PROTECTED
AREAS CREATED IN BRAZILIAN AMAZON
The governor of the Brazilian state of Pará announced on 4 December 2006
the establishment of seven new protected areas in Amazonia covering over
14 million hectares. Two of the seven new areas are designated as
strictly protected areas, one of which is the world's largest strictly
protected area ever created in a tropical forest, and the remaining five
allow for sustainable use and limited production. The region now boasts
a mosaic of connected protected areas, which create a biodiversity
conservation corridor that allows species to roam vast landscapes.
Link to further information
Conservation International News Release, 4
December 2006
NOVEMBER 2006
LARGEST TROPICAL FOREST
CERTIFICATION IN THE WORLD
The Rainforest Alliance has granted Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
certification to 1.5 millions hectares of rainforest in the central
Amazon owned and managed by a group of Kayapó, who harvest and sell
Brazil nuts from the land. It is the largest area of tropical forest to
receive FSC certification. With this, Brazil took the lead as the Latin
American country with the most FSC-certified forestlands, totaling
approximately 12.4 million acres -- 6.7 million acres in natural forest
and 5.7 million acres in plantations.
Link to further
information
Rainforest Alliance News Release, 13 November
2006
WASHINGTON, INDONESIA SIGN DEAL TO COMBAT
ILLEGAL LOGGING
US President George W. Bush and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono signed an agreement on 16 November 2006 to work together to
put an end to illegal logging in Indonesia. The US pledged an initial
US$1 million for programmes to improve law enforcement capabilities
through remote sensing devices and by supporting various conservation
groups. The US and Indonesia have also pledged to share information on
trade in illegal lumber products and to cooperate on law enforcement
efforts. After the meeting, Bush said "Together, our nations will fight
illegal logging while promoting trade in forest products that does not
threaten the region's environmental quality."
Link to further
information
Environment News Service News Release, 20
November 2006
IUFRO EUROPEAN CONGRESS CALLS FOR ABSTRACTS
The first announcement and call for abstracts for the IUFRO European
Congress 2007, which will focus on "Forests and Forestry in the Context
of Rural Development," has been posted. The Congress will convene from
6-8 September 2007 in Warsaw, Poland.
Link to further information
The
announcement
US$1.4 BILLION ANTICIPATED OVER 10 YEARS FOR CENTRAL
ASIAN SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME
Five Central Asian countries and more than a dozen development
cooperation partners have launched the Central Asian Countries
Initiative for Land Management (CACILM), a ten year programme promoting
sustainable land management (SLM). The 16 November 2006 launch comes
after several years of work between five Central Asian Countries,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and the
Global Mechanism of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the
Asian Development Bank, the Canadian International Development Agency,
the CCD Project of the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ),
the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, the
International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Swiss Agency for
Development Cooperation, the UN Development Programme, the UN
Environment Programme and the World Bank. The Global Environment
Facility is also contributing funding for this project, which is
anticipated to result in investments of US$1.4 billion to restore,
maintain and enhance the productivity of degraded land and improve the
livelihoods of local communities in the five countries.
Link to further information
Global Mechanism CACILM webpage
OCTOBER 2006
AMAZONIAN DEFORESTATION DECREASES - BRAZILIAN
GOVERNMENT
The Brazilian government
has reported that 13,000 square kilometers of Amazonian forest were
destroyed between August 2005 and 2006, representing a 30% decrease
in deforestation rates compared with the previous year. According to
WWF-Brazil, the decrease in soy prices may have contributed to the
reduced rate. In order to maintain these reduced levels, WWF-Brazil
further highlighted the need for implementation of public forest
policies and availability of financial resources to tackle
deforestation, encourage cooperation of state governments, and
stimulate sustainable forestry activities.
Link to further information
WWF News Release, 26 October 2006
SEPTEMBER 2006
GRASSROOTS DESERTIFICATION INITIATIVES HONORED
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has recognized two grassroots
initiatives that combat desertification and land degradation in
developing countries. The 2006 Sasakawa Prize, sponsored by UNEP and
the Nippon Foundation of Japan, has been awarded to Rodrigo Vivas
Rosas, leader of the Inter-institutional Consortium for Sustainable
Agriculture, an alliance of 16 organizations and 6,500 people
promoting the sustainable use of water in Colombia; and to the
Tenadi Cooperative Group, which has ensured drinking water and
prevented the movement of dunes through forestation in Mauritania.
Links to further information
UNEP press release, 28 September 2006
Sasakawa Prize information
SLOVENIA TO HOST DROUGHT MANAGEMENT CENTRE
Slovenia has been selected to host the new Drought Management Centre
for South-Eastern Europe (DMCSEE). Slovenia's proposal garnered
two-thirds of the secret ballot vote from the eleven countries of
South-Eastern Europe during a meeting hosted by the World
Meteorological Organization with the UN Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD). The Centre will: serve as an operational
centre for South-Eastern Europe for drought preparedness, monitoring
and management; prepare drought monitoring and forecast products;
promote and strengthen technical and scientific capacity for drought
preparedness, monitoring and management in participating countries;
and help implement UNCCD in drought preparedness, monitoring and
management, in particular to work out national drought strategies.
The other countries in the region are Albania, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, Greece, Hungary, Republic of Moldova, Romania and Turkey.
Link to further information
WMO News Centre (29
September 2006)
MALAYSIA AND EU TO START TALKS ON FOREST GOVERNANCE,
TRADE
The Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities of Malaysia
and EU commissioners for Development and Environment have agreed to
embark on formal negotiations towards conclusion of a voluntary
partnership agreement (VPA) on forest law enforcement, governance
and trade (FLEGT). The agreement, made in Brussels on 25 September,
will be designed to provide an assurance that all timber trade
between Malaysia and the EU is legal, and will include joint
studies, knowledge-sharing and capacity building activities.
Link to further information
Europa Press Release (25 September 2006)
UNFF EXPERT GROUP MEETING DOCUMENTS RELEASED
The UN Forum on Forests Secretariat has released the provisional
agenda and terms of reference for the ad hoc expert group
meeting on the Non-Legally Binding Instrument, which is scheduled
for 11-15 December 2006. The ad hoc expert group will take
into account the compilation of the draft indicative elements and
other proposals submitted by member States during and after the
sixth session of the Forum, and comments provided by member States
regarding all the proposals.
Link to further information
Meeting documents
FIRST TREE GENOME SEQUENCED
A team
of scientists led by Gerald Tuskan of Oak Ridge National Laboratory
in Tennessee and Daniel Rokhsar of the Joint Genome Institute in
California, has successfully sequenced the genome of the black
cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa). The first tree species and
only the third plant genome to be sequenced, cottonwoods, like most
poplars, are fast-growing and provide a good source of fiber for
paper, lumber, plywood, and a possible source of biofuel. Among the
major discoveries yielded from the poplar project is the
identification of over 45,000 protein-coding genes, more than any
other organism sequenced to date. The research team identified 93
genes associated with the production of cellulose, hemicellulose and
lignin, the building blocks of plant cell walls, which can be broken
down into sugars that in turn can be fermented into alcohol and
distilled to yield fuel-quality ethanol and other liquid fuels. The
study was published in the 15 September issue of Science.
Links to further information
Article in Science, 15 September 2006 (subscription required
for access to full article)
Doe Joint Genome
Institute press release, 14 September 2006
ILLEGAL LOGGING COSTING BILLIONSWORLD BANK
Illegal logging of public lands in developing countries causes
estimated losses of more than US$10 billion a year in assets and
revenue, according to a World Bank report released during the IMF-World
Bank annual meeting held in September in Singapore. A further $5
billion in revenue was lost each year through tax evasion and loss
of royalties on legal logging. The report stated that two-thirds of
the 17 countries surveyed have illegal logging rates of at least 50
percent. In Indonesia, between 70 and 80 percent of all logging was
illegal, in Bolivia, 80 percent, and in Cambodia, 90 percent. The
report highlighted China's appetite for timber as helping to
escalate the problem. It added that illicit cash from illegal
logging needed to be targeted and that anti-money laundering and
asset forfeiture laws were important tools to combat forest
clearing, corruption and organized crime. A panel discussion on
raising the governance bar in the forest sector took place on 16
September 2006, as part of the Civil Society Forum of this year's
meeting.
Links to further information
Reuters
news report, 16 September 2006
IMF-World Bank
2006 Annual Meetings website
AMAZON DEFORESTATION SLOWING– BRAZIL
According to data released by the Brazilian government, the rate of
deforestation in the Amazon has decreased by approximately 11 per
cent between August 2005 and August 2006. WWF- Brazil said that this
may be partially due to a reduction in the price of soy resulting in
reduced incentive to cut down the Amazon for soy planting. However,
the Brazilian government noted that ranching, logging and
agricultural activities continue to degrade the Amazon.
Link to further information
WWF press release (7 September 2006)
WWF, TIMBER COMPANY PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE FOREST
MANAGEMENT IN AFRICA
WWF
and the Danzer Group, a major global producer of hardwood veneer and
lumber, are to work together to promote sustainable forest
management in Africa. Danzer's subsidiaries in the Republic of Congo
and the Democratic Republic of Congo are scheduled to be certified
by the Forest Stewardship Council starting in 2008. Covering a
combined forest area of 3.2 million hectares, this is the largest
African concession currently being prepared for FSC certification.
Danzer has also announced it will join WWF's Global Forest and Trade
Network, a partnership between leading NGOs, companies and
communities aimed at eliminating illegal logging and improving the
management of valuable and threatened forests.
Link to further information
WWF press release (14 September 2006)
FSC CLARIFIES RELATIONSHIP WITH MALAYSIAN TIMBER
COUNCIL
The
visit of the Malaysian Minister for Plantations and representatives
of the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) to Europe this
month had triggered a number of enquiries about possible
collaboration and convergence between the MTCC and the Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC). However, FSC has released a statement
stating that while the Council recognizes the efforts that the MTCC
has made to adapt its systems more closely to international FSC
requirements, it believes the MTCC standard and scheme to not be
compatible or in near compliance with FSC.
Link to further information
FSC statement (15 September 2006)
INTERNET TRACKING TO FIGHT ILLEGAL AMAZON LOGGING
Brazil
has inaugurated an internet-based lumber tracking system that
authorities say will help them combat illegal logging in the Amazon.
Many environmental groups had criticized the ease with which paper
documents previously requested for transporting timber and forest
products were falsified, but Environment Minister Marina Silva said
that the electronic system would reduce such fraud. Under the new
system, loggers will have to register their shipments on the
Internet. However, Greenpeace has noted that the wireless internet
access needed for use by inspection officers to verify the validity
of certificates remains almost nonexistent in the Amazon region.
Link to further information
The International Herald Tribune (Associated Press), 1 September
2006
AUGUST 2006
UNCCD TO RESCHEDULE CRIC-5
The
fifth session of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification's (CCD)
Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention
(CRIC-5), which was originally scheduled for 4-13 October 2006, in
Buenos Aires, Argentina, has been postponed. The UNCCD Secretariat
announced that the Argentinean government requested that the meeting
be rescheduled to March 2007, due to structural changes introduced
in the government, including the repositioning of the Secretariat
for Environment within the Prime Minister's Office.
Link to further information
UNCCD
announcement (28 August 2006)
BRAZIL
PUBLISHES NATIVE PLANT NAMES TO PREVENT TRADEMARK MISUSE
The
Brazilian government has published a list of more than 5000 generic
plant names in a move to prevent further trademark disputes with
companies that, for example, take a name of a Brazilian fruit in
Portuguese and trademark it to get exclusive rights to commercialize
it under that name in a certain country or region. Brazil has
distributed the list to trademark offices around the world, hoping
it will be used as a basis for consultation with parties involved.
The focus of the list is solely on generic names from the Portuguese
language used in Brazil that are associated with Brazilian
biodiversity, not all Portuguese generic terms.
Link to further information
Intellectual Property Watch report, 4 August 2006
PROPOSALS PUBLISHED FOR NON-LEGALLY BINDING
INSTRUMENT ON FORESTS
The
Secretariat of the UN Forum on Forests has made available a
compilation of country proposals, submitted at or after UNFF-6 in
early 2006, on the indicative elements of a non-legally binding
instrument on all types of forests. In December 2006, an open-ended
ad hoc working group will convene and draw from this
compilation in considering the content of the non-legally binding
instrument prior to UNFF-7.
Link to further information
Country
proposals (August 2006)
PLANTED FORESTS' MARKET SHARE ON RISE IN LATIN
AMERICA, CARIBBEAN
More
than 60% of sustainable wood supply in Latin America and the
Caribbean will come from planted forests by the year 2020, leaving
more natural forests untouched, according to FAO forecasts. This
shift from natural to planted forests for wood supplies is being
driven by increasingly restricted access to natural forests and
intensive reforestation programmes. However, the study cites the
expansion of agriculture and cattle raising as continuing causes of
deforestation in the area.
Link to further information
FAO media release (1 August, 2006)
JULY 2006
NEW UN COMPLEX OPENED IN BONN
UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan participated in the 11 July 2006
opening of a new campus to house UN offices in Bonn, Germany. The
"Langer Eugen" formerly housed the west German parliament and will
now unite a number of UN agencies that are located in that city,
including the Secretariats of the Convention on Migratory Species
and the Convention to Combat Desertification.
Link to further information
UN News Report (July 2006)
US AND CANADA SIGN SOFTWOOD LUMBER AGREEMENT
The US and Canada have signed an agreement regulating trade in
softwood lumber. The agreement, signed on 1 July 2006, comes after a
dispute spanning two decades. As part of the agreement, the US will
return US$4 billion of the $5 billion that has been collected from
Canada since 2002 in antidumping and countervailing duties on
Canadian lumber, while Canada will require its regions to levy
export taxes that will rise from 0 to 15 percent based on export
price triggers and US market share. The US had previously maintained
duties on Canadian lumber throughout extensive legal battles in both
the WTO and NAFTA dispute settlement systems, alleging that Canada's
low stumpage fees on state-owned land constituted a subsidy.
Links to further information
BRIDGES Trade BioRes New Brief
(July 14 2006)
Text of the Agreement (July 1 2006)
JUNE 2006
EUROPEAN COMMISSION ADOPTS FOREST ACTION PLAN
The
European Commission has adopted an EU forest action plan that seeks
to focus on improving long-term competitiveness, improving and
protecting the environment, contributing to quality of life, and
fostering coordination and communication. The Action Plan provides a
framework for forest-related actions and serves as an instrument of
coordination between EU action and Member State forest policies.
Eighteen key actions are proposed by the Commission to be
implemented jointly with the Member States over a period of five
years (2007–2011).
Link to further information
EC press release (15 June 2006)
NEAR EAST FOREST RESOURCES OVEREXPLOITED – FAO
Heavy
grazing, fuel wood gathering, clearing of forests for agriculture,
and urban development are depleting forest resources in the already
forest-scarce Near East, according to the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization. The announcement was made at the Near East Regional
Forestry Commission, held from 5-8 June in Larnaka, Cyprus. One FAO
expert said that forests and forest products are still largely
neglected in policy- and decision-making processes in the region.
However, forest area in many countries in the region has increased
due to forest plantations. The Near East Forestry Commission meets
every two years and is part of a global network of regional forestry
commissions which together feed ideas and suggestions to the FAO
Committee on Forestry, scheduled to meet in March 2007.
Link to further information
FAO press release (6 June, 2006)
FREE TRADE DEALS MAY HASTEN FOREST DESTRUCTION –
REPORT
A free
trade deal between the US and Malaysia may encourage illegal logging
in Southeast Asia, according to the Environmental Investigation
Agency (EIA), an international not-for-profit organization that aims
to expose environmental wrongdoing. According to the EIA, demand for
timber exports, approximately a third of which is illegally-cut
wood, could surge with a free trade agreement. The EIA has urged the
US government to enact a law prohibiting entry of illegal timber
imports into the US before signing pending free trade agreements
with other timber trading nations.
Links to further information
Illegal logging press release (21 June 2006)
Reuters news article
(16 June 2006)
CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZING DESERTIFICATION E-FORUM
Three
civil society organizations – CARI (France), BothENDS (the
Netherlands) and ENDA (Senegal) – have opened an electronic debate
on the issue of dryland areas and the fight against desertification
to prepare for an international forum on desertification and civil
society to be held in September 2006. The e-forum will focus on
three topics: (a) drylands and the political agenda at the national
and international level – increasing the priority given to the issue
of dryland areas; (b) economic potential of dryland areas and
increasing local communities' resources – the constraints,
opportunities and possible innovations; and (c) strategy of civil
society organizations and their national and international networks.
The September meeting is organized in the framework of the
International Year of Deserts and Desertification and is slated to
take place in Montpellier, France, from 21-23 September 2006.
Links to further information
Desertif'Actions website
Desertif'Actions e-forum, June 2006
U.S TAKEN TO COURT OVER ALLEGED IMPORTS OF
ILLEGALLY-LOGGED MAHOGANY
In a
lawsuit filed on 6 June 2006 with the US Court of International
Trade, the Natural Resources Defense Council and two Peruvian
indigenous groups – the Native Federation of Madre de Dios and
Racimos de Ungurahui – allege that the US government and private
companies have been importing mahogany timber for use in luxury
furniture without the proper documentation of legality required by
the US Endangered Species Act and the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species in Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), which
has included mahogany on its Appendix II since 2003.
Link to further information
ICTSD
Trade BioRes, 16 June 2006
MOST FORESTS STILL NOT MANAGED SUSTAINABLY, SAYS
ITTO
While considerable progress has been made in recent years, well over
90 percent of tropical forests are still not being managed
sustainably, according to the ITTO. The organization has released an
analysis of the state of tropical forestry in 33 countries in Asia,
the Pacific, Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. Reflecting
four years of work, the study incorporates
data submitted by ITTO countries and information collected from a
variety of independent sources. It assesses the effectiveness of
plans to bring sustainable management practices to large areas of
timber-producing tropical forests, and finds a significant gap
between words and on-the-ground action in all regions examined.
The report shows that the area of sustainably managed
tropical forests has expanded from less than one million hectares in
1988 to at least 36 million hectares in 2005. However,
of the 353 million hectares designated as
production forests, only 7 percent are being managed sustainably.
The report was released at the 40th Session of the International
Tropical Timber Council (29 May - 2 June, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico).
Links to further information
ITTO press release, 25 May 2006
ITTO press release, 2 June 2006
MAY 2006
RESEARCHERS WARN OF EXPANDING TROPICS, LAND
DEGRADATION
An
expansion of tropical regions towards both poles could increase the
threat of land degradation in arid regions and cause deserts to
spread, according to a new article in Science magazine.
Co-authors Qiang Fu, Celeste Johanson, John M. Wallace and Thomas
Reichler based their study on satellite data from 1979-2005 and
found that the northern and southern hemispheres' jet streams have
moved about one degree of latitude nearer to the poles.
Link to further information
SciDev.Net news story and link to Science article (30 May
2006)
MELTING GLACIERS IN CHINA TURNING HIGH PLATEAU
INTO DESERT
A study by the Chinese Academy of Sciences has found that glaciers
on China's Qinghai-Tibet plateau are shrinking, turning the plateau
into desert. SciDev.Net cites a state news agency report indicating
that the glaciers are shrinking by seven percent per year, due to
global warming. Researchers warn that droughts and sandstorms will
result.
Link to further information
SciDev.Net news story, 3 May 2006
NEW COALITION TO STRENGTHEN LOCAL FORESTRY RIGHTS,
FIGHT POVERTY
A coalition of organizations has launched a new initiative
advocating stronger community rights to own and use forests and
develop sustainable forest-based economies. The Rights and Resources
Initiative, which includes the Center for International Forestry
Research (CIFOR), Forest Trends, and the IUCN, aims to assist
communities and governments to double the global forest area under
community ownership and management by 2015, boost incomes among the
1.6 billion forest-dependent poor, prevent illegal logging and
protect forest biodiversity.
Link to further information
Rights and Resources press release (4 May 2006)
MOST LOGGING IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA ILLEGAL – REPORT
Most commercial industrial forestry operations in Papua New Guinea
are illegal, according to a recent report from Forest Trends.
According to the study, five independent reviews commissioned by
Papua New Guinea's government between 2000 and 2005 found most
activities to be unsustainable and provided little benefit to the
state and forest community. The reviews included an examination of
fourteen unlawfully operating logging projects covering 3.17 million
hectares and producing 1.3 million cubic meters of logs with a
declared export value of US$70 million. The studies point to a lack
of governance, arguing that this puts into question the government's
current proposal to sell forest carbon.
Links to further information
Forest Trends report (May 2006)
Forest Trends press release (1 May 2006)
IUCN BEGINS FIELD-TESTING REVISED ITTO GUIDELINES FOR
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION IN TROPICAL PRODUCTION FORESTS
IUCN-The
World Conservation Union has started the process of field-testing
the revised International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO)
guidelines for the conservation of biological diversity in tropical
timber production forests in Brazil, Cameroon, Indonesia and Guyana.
Mandated by the member governments of the ITTO, IUCN will update and
revise the previous version of the ITTO guidelines, and will help
optimize the contribution of tropical production forests to global
biodiversity conservation.
Link to further information
IUCN press release (2 May 2006)
APRIL 2006
FAO REPORTS HIGHEST RATE OF FOREST PLANTATION IN
ASIA-PACIFIC
The
FAO has released data indicating that the Asia-Pacific region
recorded the world's highest rate of forest plantation over the past
five years. On 13 April 2006, FAO reported that this rate of
plantation helped the region reverse the trend in the 1990s of a net
loss in forest cover. The net loss in the 1990s was 1.3 million
hectares per year, while the net gain between 2000 and 2005 was more
than 600,000 hectares per year. FAO attributed the gain primarily to
an increase in forest plantations. However, the FAO also warned that
the gain concealed a "disturbing continued loss of natural forests"
in recent years.
Link to further
information
FAO news release, 13 April 2006
US, Indonesia launch bilateral talks to combat illegal
logging
US
Trade Representative Rob Portman has announced that bilateral
negotiations will be held with Indonesia to combat illegal logging.
The announcement was made during meetings with Indonesia's Minister
of Trade, Mari Pangestu, under the US-Indonesia Trade and Investment
Framework Agreement. The first of its kind for the US, this
bilateral agreement is consistent with President George Bush's
global Initiative to Address Illegal Logging, launched in 2003. The
agreement will seek to build on existing Indonesian efforts to
combat illegal logging and help ensure that Indonesia's legally
produced timber and wood products have continued access to U.S. and
other international markets.
Link to further
information
US government press release, 4 April 2006
AGREEMENT ON FOREST LANDSCAPE RESTORATION SIGNED
WWF,
IUCN and the Forestry Commission of Great Britain – the founding
members of the Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR)
– have signed a memorandum of understanding formalizing their
commitment to collaborate on the effective operation of the
Partnership. The agreement was signed on 20 April 2006 at IUCN
headquarters in Gland, Switzerland. A seminar on FLR held prior to
the signing stressed that there was still a need to better express
what FLR means on the ground.
Links to further
information
IUCN press release, 20 April 2006
IISD RS report of the
workshop in Brazil, April, 2005
FAO INVITES PROPOSALS FOR 2009 WORLD FORESTRY
CONGRESS THEME
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has invited proposals
for the theme for the next World Forestry Congress, which will meet
in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2009. The final selection of a theme
will be made by the Government of Argentina and FAO. The theme for
the World Forestry Congress should address a timely issue of
interest around the world, be attractive to a wide range of
interests (while not being too vague),
and
encompass a range of technical and policy-related topics.
Submissions should be sent by e-mail to:
FO-WFC-2009@fao.org
TROPICAL FOREST SCHEME'S CLIMATE BENEFITS PRAISED
A proposal by Papua New Guinea and Costa Rica for donor support to
avoid tropical deforestation in the fight against climate change has
been backed by an expert writing in New Scientist magazine.
Biologist William Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research
Institute has highlighted the scheme, which is likely to be
discussed at the next round of multilateral UN talks, the 24th
sessions of the subsidiary bodies to the UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change, in May 2006. The article was to be published on 14
April.
Link to further
information
EurekAlert release, 12 April 2006
MARCH 2006
TÖPFER URGES KENYA TO PLANT TREES
Outgoing Executive Director Klaus Töpfer suggested on his final day
at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) that Kenya should plant more
trees to help fight the country's water problems. UNEP is
headquartered in Kenya's capital of Nairobi, where the "soil can no
longer contain rain water," according to Töpfer.
Link to further
information
The Standard (Kenya) article, 31 March 2006
CHINA ANNOUNCES DESERTIFICATION PLAN
China's cabinet has
announced a "desert control scheme" that aims to reclaim 250,000 square
kilometers of desert by 2020. The scheme, which was announced on 28
February 2006, will involve bans on land use in areas at risk of
desertification, tree and grass planting projects, research on
desertification, and the establishment of a system to monitor the spread
of deserts. According to news reports, the Chinese government has
invested more than 50 billion Yuan (US$6.2 billion) since 1978 on tree
planting to protect the country's northern cities from the encroaching
desert. A report by the State Forestry Administration indicates that the
nation's deserts have shrunk at a rate of 1283 square kilometers a year
since 2001.
Link to further information
SciDev Net news article, 1 March 2006
The Guardian
newspaper article,
28 February 2006
PARTNERSHIP ESTABLISHED TO PROMOTE
DESERTIFICATION RESEARCH
The
United Nations University and the International Center for Agricultural
Research in the Dry Areas have entered into a partnership to boost
research on desertification in developing countries. The partnership,
which was launched on 28 February 2006, will promote research on ways to
reduce or reverse land degradation, and to conserve resources such as
soil, water and biodiversity, among other things.
Link to further information
SciDev Net news release
JANUARY 2006
ITTA, 2006 SET TO OPEN FOR SIGNATURE
The
International Tropical Timber Agreement, 2006, is set to open for
signature at UN Headquarters in New York beginning 3 April 2006, and
extending until one month after the date of its entry into force. The
agreement, which was concluded in January 2006 as the successor
agreement to ITTA, 1994, is expected to come into force in 2008 and will
operate for ten years, with the possibility of extensions of up to eight
years.
Link to further information
ITTO press release, 31 January 2006
INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF DESERTS AND
DESERTIFICATION LAUNCHED
The United
Nations launched its International Year of Deserts and Desertification
on 1 January 2006. The designation of a year on this topic is intended
to raise global public awareness of the advancing deserts, which cover
41 percent of the earth's surface, and to protect the knowledge and
traditions of the two billion people affected by the phenomenon.
Awareness raising efforts will be supported by honorary spokespersons
Wangari Maathai, Peace Nobel laureate 2004, Cherif Rahmani, Minister of
Environment of Algeria, and Bulgarian international football star and
Golden Boot winner Hristo Stoitchkov.
Link to further information
UN press Release
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