|
|
|
Indonesia to be recognized in Guinness Book of World Records for deforestation rate mongabay.com May 4, 2007
According to Greenpeace, the text will read: "Of the 44 countries which collectively account for 90% of the world's forests, the country which pursues the world's highest annual rate of deforestation is Indonesia with 1.8 million ha (4,447,896 acres) per year between 2000-2005 - a rate of 2 per cent annually or 51 square km (20 square miles) every day." Hapsoro, an Indonesian Greenpeace forest campaigner, said "It is a national shame for Indonesia to own this distinction in the record books. These record rates of destruction make Indonesia not only the fastest forest destroyer but also the world's number one greenhouse gas polluter from deforestation."
Greenpeace has used the "award" tactic in the past, notably with the "Golden Chainsaw" prize, which was awarded in 2005 to Blairo Maggi, Governor of the State of Mato Grosso. At the time Maggi, known as the "King of Soy", was one of the largest destroyers of the Amazon rainforest. Indonesia will be officially be awarded its "highest deforestation" title in the 2008 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. Greenpeace made the announcement as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was meeting in Bangkok to discuss ways to cut carbon dioxide emissions. One of the proposals on the table considers compensating tropical countries, like Indonesia, for conserving their forests. Tropical forests lock up large amounts of carbon, helping to mitigate global warming. Related articles
(8/6/2008) A shift from poverty-driven deforestation to industry-driven deforestation in the tropics may offer new opportunities for forest conservation, argues a new paper published in the journal Trends in Evolution & Ecology. Corporations become prime driver of deforestation, providing clear target for environmentalists (8/5/2008) The major drivers of tropical deforestation have changed in recent decades. According to a forthcoming article, deforestation has shifted from poverty-driven subsistence farming to major corporations razing forests for large-scale projects in mining, logging, oil and gas development, and agriculture. While this change makes many scientists and conservationists uneasy, it may allow for more effective action against deforestation. Rhett A. Butler of Mongabay.com, a leading environmental science website focusing on tropical forests, and William F. Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama believe that the shift to deforestation by large corporations gives environmentalists and concerned governments a clear, identifiable target that may prove more responsive to environmental concerns. Often overlooked, small wild cats are important and in trouble (8/5/2008) While often over-shadowed by their larger and better-known relatives like lions, tigers, leopards, and jaguars, small cats are important indicators of the health of an ecosystem, says a leading small cat expert who uses camera traps extensively to document and monitor mammals in the wild. Dr Jim Sanderson, a scientist with the Small Cat Conservation Alliance and Conservation International, is working to save some of the world's rarest cats, including the Andean cat and Guigna of South America and the bay, flat-headed, and marbled cats of Southeast Asia. In the process Sanderson has captured on film some of the planet's least seen animals, including some species that have never before been photographed. He has also found that despite widespread criticism, some corporate entities are effectively protecting remote wilderness areas. Loggers, palm oil firms eye remote rainforests of Papua for development (7/25/2008) Commodity producers are eyeing one of the world's last relatively untouched tracts of rainforest for development, reports the Wall Street Journal. Orangutans persist in islands amid a sea of oil palm plantations (7/17/2008) Orangutan are surviving in forest islands in a sea of oil palm plantations in Malaysia, reports a new survey by a government-backed conservation initiative. The finding underscores the need to protect critical forest areas for the endangered primates as forest continues to fall in southeast Asia at a rate that is the highest of any of the world's tropical forest regions. Comments? News options News index | RSS | Add to MyYahoo! |
MONGABAY.COM
T-SHIRTS 
CALENDARS 
CANVAS BAGS 
|
|
|
