May 21, 2012
The Forestry Ministry says that women can play a major role in forest conservation efforts as they are now equipped with required skills.
The minister’s special staff Indriastuti said that with adequate training, women who lived in the conservation areas could live prosperously without having to go too far into the forest to make a living.
“There are at least 558 non-wood forest commodities that can be developed by women, such as silk, honey, bamboo...
May 20, 2012
Recently in Vietnam, a coalition of international NGOs, donors and government officials have been promoting market-based forest conservation projects in the form of payments for environmental services (PES) as a win–win for both conservation and development objectives; Vietnam is now the first country in Southeast Asia with a national law on PES.
This article provides a macro survey of how market-based instruments for forest conservation have expanded in Vietnam,...
May 18, 2012
The cultivation of cash crops in the understorey of tropical forests is an ancient practice, but the effects of cultivation on forest ecosystem processes are poorly understood. Authors assessed the effects of planting the high-value spice crop cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) on forest structure, tree species composition, and soil properties in the montane forests of the Knuckles Forest Reserve in central Sri Lanka, where cardamom cultivation has been banned since 1985 because of the high...
In a forest not far from the capital, local residents are stepping up to help protect the earth in an initiative that may give the next generation hope for the future. The people of Cipeuteuy village in Sukabumi, West Java, realized the weight on their shoulders was getting heavier and heavier after living side by side with a newly established national park. Not only had they lost a source of income – for the park prohibited them from obtaining anything from that protected land – but they...
May 17, 2012
The Western Ghats is a global biodiversity hotspot where 74 percent of existing forests remain outside protected areas. The lack of economic opportunities for most landowners drives them to lease out forests to logging contractors. Since the causes of deforestation are directly linked to the economic needs of the local populace, an incentive-based mechanism for private land conservation was tested by conservation–nongovernmental organization (NGO) Applied Environmental Research Foundation (...
April 22, 2012
Most of the terrestrial biodiversity within the Asia-Pacific region is contained within forests. Protected areas are the mainstay for biodiversity conservation although other forest areas are also important. Habitat destruction and extraction of high-value species are major threats to biodiversity. Ecosystem stability is based on interdependence among constituent species and with biodiversity loss, resilience to change is reduced. Awareness raising, stringent environmental impact assessments...
April 18, 2012
When Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias was appointed Secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in January, he took responsibility for implementing the CBD’s new ten-year strategic plan. In a wide-ranging interview with Ecosystem Marketplace, he discusses the plan, the future of biodiversity, and the role of offsetting.
The Tenth Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) took place towards the...
April 16, 2012
The state forest department has developed a plan for conservation of the rich biodiversity outside the protected forest areas, that is, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks.
The exercise, a joint initiative with the Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Environment Education and Research (BVIEER), will focus on conservation of reserve forests, catchment areas of dams, river valleys , agricultural fields, sacred groves and even urban areas. It will extend support to the...
April 2, 2012
Conservationists often call for the protection of additional wildlife habitat, and in 2010 many countries signed a pledge to increase the global protected area network from 12% to 17% by 2020. Meeting this goal will be a challenge for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the difficulty in pinpointing which locations merit protection or, when there are several worthy options, which will yield the greatest biological benefits.
After recognizing this potential...
March 11, 2012
A Nepal-China ministerial-level meeting has agreed to hold biennial ministerial-level meetings alternatively in both the countries to strengthen cooperation and coordination in the field of forestry and biodiversity conservation.
A team led by Chinese Minister of State for Forestry Administration Jia Zhibang is on a four-day Nepal visit beginning February 22 at the invitation of Forest Minister Md Wakil Musalman.
According to Ram Lamsal, spokesperson...