May 22, 2012
Just below the ocean's surface lies a carbon powerhouse: seagrass meadows. New research in Nature Geoscience estimates that the world's seagrass meadows conservatively store 19.9 billion metric tons of carbon, even though the threatened marine ecosystems make up only 0.2 percent of Earth's surface. The findings lend support to the idea that seagrass...
- BOGOR, Indonesia (22.05.2012)_A new environment award from the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) and commemorating renowned environmentalist, the late Wangari Maathai, will be presented in September this year. The US$20,000 Wangari Maathai Award recognises 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai’s positive contribution to forests and the environment. An international jury selected by CPF, a [...]
May 21, 2012
- Delegates discussed, among other things: the implementation of the Agreement and Action Plan; international reviews; the International Implementation Tasks 2009-2016; the African-Eurasian Flyways Global Environment Facility Project; implementation and revision of the communication strategy; proposals for amendments to the Agreement’s Action Plan; and international Single Species Action Plans and Species Action Plans.
A year-and-a-half after a landmark summit that pledged to double the world's number of tigers by 2022, and still 65 percent of tiger reserves lack minimum standards of protection for the world's largest cat, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Reporting at the first meeting of all 13 tiger-range countries since the 2010 summit, WWF said that 41 tiger reserves...
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
- A mother orangutan and its baby were rescued from an area of forest that was being bulldozed for an oil palm plantation in Sumatra, reports the Orangutan Information Centre (OIC), which participated in the translocation of the red apes.
- BOGOR, Indonesia (18.05.12)_Indonesia should continue to improve forest governance in the second year of its moratorium on new forestry concessions if the ban is to have a significant impact, said senior CIFOR scientist Daniel Murdiyarso. This week marks the halfway point of the two-year moratorium on new logging permits for primary forest and peatlands, which [...]
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...