REDD in the news: 16-22 October 2017

REDD-Monitor’s round-up of the week’s news on forests, climate change, and REDD. For regular updates, follow @reddmonitor on Twitter.

Asia Pacific Carbon Forum 2017
IISD, October 2017
Organised by the UNFCCC, Asian Development Bank (ADB), International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), the 2017 Asia Pacific Carbon Forum (APCF 2017) will provide a platform to exchange of knowledge and information on carbon markets and implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) at regional level.

16 October 2017

Plant more trees to combat climate change: scientists
By Alister Doyle, Reuters, 16 October 2017
Planting forests and other activities that harness the power of nature could play a major role in limiting global warming under the 2015 Paris agreement, an international study showed on Monday.
Natural climate solutions, also including protection of carbon-storing peat lands and better management of soils and grasslands, could account for 37 percent of all actions needed by 2030 under the 195-nation Paris plan, it said.
Combined, the suggested “regreening of the planet” would be equivalent to halting all burning of oil worldwide, it said.

S.C. Johnson campaign to support major Amazon reforestation project
By Lauren Anderson, BizTimes, 16 October 2017
Funds raised from S.C. Johnson & Son Inc.‘s rainforest conservation matching challenge will kick off what the company says is the world’s largest tropical reforestation project in the Brazilian Amazon.
The Racine-based manufacturer of household products including Pledge, Glade, OFF! and Ziploc announced a partnership with Conservation International earlier this year to provide conservation match funding and promote awareness by sponsoring the distribution of a virtual reality film about the Amazon, “Under the Canopy.”

[Guyana] Was the money reallocated?
By Peter Persaud, letter to the editor Stabroek News, 16 October 2017
I thank the media for publishing my recent letter in relation to the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) failure to implement the much anticipated Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) REDD+ Readiness project in Guyana. Editor, I alluded in my recent letter to the sum which was budgeted for the National Toshaos’ Council (NTC) ($150,000) and the four indigenous organizations (APA, NADF GOIP and TAAMOG ($150,000)). I know this because the Amerindian Action Movement of Guyana (TAAMOG) was involved in developing the project document. The procurement plan (Annex 1- Gy- T1097) approved by the IDB in November 2013 specifies the allocation of this US$300,000.00 to the NTC and the four national indigenous organizations.

Indonesia to miss carbon emissions target under existing climate policies: study
By Hans Nicholas Jong, Mongabay, 16 October 2017
Indonesia, a top carbon polluter, has a plan to cut its emissions.
But unless it takes more drastic measures, it will miss the target it has set for itself, according to a new analysis by the World Resources Institute, a think tank.
Indonesia has pledged to reduce its emissions growth by at least 29 percent over business-as-usual levels by 2030. That means it can emit no more than 2 gigatons of carbon dioxide that year.
But even if it follows through on existing policies aimed at reducing emissions, Indonesia will emit 2.3 gigatons of carbon in 2030, just a 19 percent drop, according to the WRI.

17 October 2017

Airline industry’s sustainable jet fuel plan hits stumbling block
By Kerry Reals, Runway Girl Network, 17 October 2017
Last week’s ICAO Conference on Alternative Aviation Fuels in Mexico City failed to secure the consensus needed to work towards achieving the UN body’s proposed biofuel targets for international aviation in the short, medium and long term.
In its Vision on Aviation Alternative Fuels, ICAO had proposed targets for 2% of international aviation fuel to be sustainable by 2025, 32% by 2040 and 50% by 2050.
Environmental campaigners, who had argued that setting such volume-based targets for the widespread use of biofuels in aviation could result in a reliance on palm oil and further deforestation, have lauded the rejection of the ICAO goals as a victory for them.

10 Keys To Slashing Deforestation In Just Two Years
By Steve Zwick, Ecosystem Marketplace, 17 October 2017
Donuts, deodorant, buns and burgers. They’re killing us – and not just because of what they do to our bodies. No, the real problem is what the beef, soy, and palm oil that they’re made of – as well as the pulp & paper they’re packaged in – do to our forests and, by extension, our climate.
Specifically, these are the big four commodities responsible for most of the world’s deforestation, and the Union of Concerned Scientists points out that four Latin American countries alone destroy at least 2.71 million hectares of forest each year just to make way for cattle. That’s more than 10,000 square miles of forest, which is almost 10-times the devastation wrought by this year’s California wildfires.

CFS 44 Raises Concerns About State of SDG 2, Endorses Recommendations on Sustainable Forestry for Food Security and Nutrition
by Stefan Jungcurt, IISD, 17 October 2017
The 44th session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS 44) endorsed recommendations, among other issues, on: the rise of global hunger as result of conflict; food systems and nutrition; sustainable forestry for food security and nutrition (FSN); women empowerment in the context of FSN; and urbanization, rural transformation and FSN.

The case for regulating cryptocurrencies
By Kuek Ser Kwang Zhe, The Edge Malaysia, 17 October 2017
In recent months, investors have seen regulators around the world introducing laws to outlaw, curb or encourage the use and trading of cryptocurrency in their jurisdictions. This trend could be the catalyst that pushes the digital coin sphere towards the next phase of growth and prices higher, say industry participants.
Certain countries, like Venezuela, have taken an extreme position on cryptocurrency and bitcoin miners can be imprisoned if they are discovered. At the other end of the spectrum, countries like Japan have embraced it by passing new laws to regulate exchanges and recognise cryptocurrency as a legal payment method.

Brazilian Amazon still plagued by illegal use of natural resources
By Allie Wilkinson, Nature, 17 October 2017
Despite Brazil’s efforts to safeguard the Amazon rainforest by establishing protected areas and boosting law enforcement, illegal use of the region’s natural resources is still widespread, according to a study published on 10 October in PeerJ.
The researchers looked at 4,243 law-enforcement records from between 2010 and 2015, across 118 federally protected areas of the Brazilian Amazon. Although the overall number of citations decreased over those five years, illegal activities still occurred in nearly every protected area. The analysis highlighted the need for improved monitoring and enforcement, says study co-author Érico Kauano, a conservation biologist at the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), the Brazilian agency responsible for the management of the federal protected areas.

[Indonesia] Blue Carbon Can Reduce Carbon Emission and Support Public Economy
Netral News, 17 October 2017
Kaimana Regent Mathias Mairuma expresses his support in carbon emissions reduction commitments. Moreover, blue carbon has been echoed as one of the contributions to the world carbon emission reduction targets in the 22nd UN Climate Change Conference of The Parties (COP) in Morocco in 2016.
At the conference, there were 151 countries that had at least one of the blue carbon ecosystems. Indonesia is one country that has three blue carbon ecosystem namely mangrove, seagrass and tidal swamp.

Uganda’s forest cover reduces by 100,000 hectares annually
By Andrew Ssenyonga, New Vision, 17 October 2017
The country loses about 100,000 hectares of forest cover every year, a situation that is worsening the effect of climate change according to the Ministry of Water and Environment.
The director of environment in the ministry, Paul Mafabi, said Uganda has lost 1 million hectares of forest cover over the last 10 years yet the Government has planted less than 150,000 hectares, creating a deficit.
“There is a big deficit and it is evident when one takes any direction from Kampala, the land is bare and the effects of climate change are more felt due to the absence of tree cover,” Mafabi said.

18 October 2017

Global Tree Cover Loss Rose 51 Percent in 2016
By Mikaela Weisse and Liz Goldman, Global Forest Watch, 18 October 2017
Global tree cover loss reached a record 29.7 million hectares (73.4 million acres) in 2016, according to new data from the University of Maryland released today on Global Forest Watch. The loss is 51 percent higher than the previous year, totaling an area about the size of New Zealand. Forest fires seem to be a primary cause of this year’s spike, including dramatic fire-related degradation in Brazil. Deforestation due to agriculture, logging, and mining continue to drive global tree cover loss from year-to-year.
The wide scale of forest disturbance shows the urgent need to improve forest management.

$1 billion programme launched to restore land, protect forests
Reuters, 18 October 2017
Dutch bank Rabobank and U.N. Environment have announced a $1 billion programme to finance new ways of farming that curb emissions, restore the land and protect forests.
Agriculture produces about 24 percent of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, and those emissions are expected to rise along with the global population.

WRI and Norway Partner on Forest Legality and Transparency
By James Anderson, Forest Legality Initiative, 18 October 2017
WRI and the Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI) are partnering on a new initiative, “Removing Transparency and Legality Obstacles to Implementing REDD+: Mobilizing New Technologies to Combat Illegal Logging and Associated Trade.”
Timber and paper are among the world’s most commonly used and traded commodities. Although legal, sustainable forestry can be a positive force for development, in many regions illegal logging has had devastating impacts.

Can Personal Carbon Trading Take Off On The Blockchain?
By Ben Schiller, Fast Company, 18 October 2017
Most of us subscribe to the science of climate change, but few of us actually make strenuous efforts to reduce our carbon footprint. We might buy the odd energy-saving lightbulb, yet many of us will still board a flight to see Grandma at Thanksgiving. A single flight from New York to Denver, let us remind you, produces the equivalent CO2 emissions of driving a car 7,500 miles a year–which is to say, a lot.

Forest fires on the rise as study warns of danger to air quality
Phys.org, 18 October 2017
The JRC’s annual forest fires report confirms a trend towards longer and more intense fire seasons in Europe and neighbouring regions, with wildfires now occurring throughout the year. The report coincides with an international study which finds that global wildfire trends could have significant health implications due to rising harmful emissions.
The 2016 report, which is the only official source of information on the number of fires and area burnt for countries both inside and outside the EU, provides policymakers across the EU with the best available data and tools to support them in preventing the destructive effects of forest fires. Through the collation of individual country reports, the publication also supports the sharing of good practices in forest management.

Warming soils bad for atmosphere
By Tim Radford, Climate News Network, 18 October 2017
As the world’s soils warm, they may surrender potentially dangerous amounts of carbon to the atmosphere. Rising temperatures could mean rising levels of carbon dioxide respired by the microbes underfoot.
The world’s longest-running soil-warming experiments deliver no easy assurances that forests will continue to absorb atmospheric carbon that pours from vehicle exhausts, power stations and factory chimneys as humans burn fossil fuels, raise greenhouse gas levels and send the planetary thermometer ever higher.
The conclusion is based on a set of experiments described in the journal, Science.

New Amazon threat? Deforestation from mining
ScienceDaily, 18 October 2017
Sprawling mining operations in Brazil are destroying much more of the iconic Amazon forest than previously thought, says the first comprehensive study of mining deforestation in the world’s largest tropical rainforest.
The research, published in Nature Communications, finds that mining-related forest loss caused roughly 10 percent of all Amazon deforestation between 2005 and 2015, much higher than previous estimates.

[Indonesia] Financing farmers: Can funds for oil palm help save our forests?
By Suzanna Dayne, CIFOR Forests News, 18 October 2017
Palm oil: people love it, hate it or maybe just use it without even knowing. The controversial vegetable oil is found in thousands of consumer products from soap to lipstick, frozen pizza, ice cream and even fuel.
World demand continues to increase rapidly and is placing pressure on forests, mainly in Indonesia. But, for now, the profitable commodity is here to stay.

How small is too small? The uncertain fate of Madagascar’s forest fragments
By Rowan Moore Gerety, Mongabay, 18 October 2017
When he first told colleagues at the Missouri Botanical Garden that lemurs still lived in the forest in Ankafobe, Jean Jacques Rasolofonirina said he was met with disbelief. “The forest is too small,” he recalled one saying—just 27.76 hectares, to be exact, split into three fragments scarcely larger than three or four New York City blocks.

New Talks on Paris Climate Pact Are Set, and That’s Awkward for U.S.
By Lisa Friedman, New York Times, 18 October 2017
When Trump administration officials travel to Germany next month for United Nations climate change discussions, they will face a fundamental contradiction: how to negotiate the terms of a deal they say they’re walking away from.
Like a spouse who demands a divorce but then continues to live at home, the relationship between the United States and other parties to the Paris agreement is, at best, awkward.

How the U.S. might fulfill its Paris pledge without the White House
Phys.org, 18 October 2017
With President Trump planning to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, a new poll found that 55 percent of Americans now want their local and state governments to fight global warming. And indeed, states, regions, cities, businesses and colleges are stepping up efforts to reduce carbon emissions in an attempt to meet the pledge the U.S. made at the Paris climate accord.

19 October 2017

How Nature Can Get Us 37 Percent Of The Way To The Paris Climate Target
By Bronson Griscom, Ecosystem Marketplace, 19 October 2017
The last two years have seen significant global advancement on climate action, with hundreds of global businesses and national and sub-national leaders building on the momentum of the Paris Agreement to initiate new climate pledges, initiatives and funding programs. But there remains a gap between promised action and realized climate progress, and many solutions available to us now remain underutilized—especially in the land sector, which currently accounts for nearly a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions.
In fact, new research shows that stewardship of the land can play a significant role in keeping global temperature increases under 2 degrees Celsius. The Nature Conservancy partnered with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to bring together more than two-dozen expert scientists specializing in conservation, climate modeling, and economists from a variety of global institutions to explore this issue. They found that nature’s ability to mitigate climate change is about 30 percent higher than previously projected.

Climate change and biodiversity (part 2)
By Michael Svoboda, Yale Climate Connections, 19 October 2017
Why link a pair of posts about climate change and biodiversity to Columbus Day? Because the exchange of species between the Old and New Worlds in the wake of Columbus’s voyages is the only other time in recorded history that humans scrambled the biosphere in a way that even approximates what is beginning to happen with climate change.
The October 12 companion post highlighted 12 books that provide overviews of likely impacts of climate change on biodiversity, historical and species-specific case studies, surveys of habitats and ecosystems, and reflections on places, policies, and practices.

Our Climate Crossroads: How Technology Can Lead Climate Action and Sustainable Development
By Nick Nuttall, IISD, 19 October 2017
We are living through an amazing moment in human history. We understand more than ever before how economic growth and human development is driving the climate change on our planet. Science shows the connection with great clarity. And we are witnessing the impacts firsthand, as extreme weather throughout the second half of 2017 has showed.

Yes, climate change fuels forest fires — but that’s not the only factor
By Irene Banos Ruiz, DW, 19 October 2017
The warming climate has played a substantial role in the devastating wildfires around the world in 2017. However, the real causes of such tragedies are often left in the shadows — and in most cases they can be traced back to human activity.
Pyromaniacs, negligent forest visitors tossing a smoldering cigarette butt into the bushes or farmers burning trash without the required control measures are just some of the reasons fires are sparked and end up burning thousands of forest hectares around the world every year.

Climate Mitigation Finance Update: First Emerging Economy Green Bond, Large Scale Forest Restoration in Amazonia
By Gilian Nelson, IISD, 19 October 2017
Several climate mitigation finance initiatives have been launched in recent weeks, including the first sovereign emerging market green bond in Fiji, forest restoration in Amazonia, collaboration between the European Investment Bank and the International Solar Alliance, and renewable and energy efficiency financing in Belgium, Egypt, India, Morocco, Mozambique, Serbia and Uganda.

Brazilian Amazon lost 660,000 hectares of forest in last year
By Fabiano Maisonnave, Climate Home, 19 October 2017
The Brazilian Amazon lost 6,624 sq km of forest between August 2016 and July 2017, an area about twice the City of London.
This week, president Michel Temer’s administration said the 16% reduction from the previous period was a victory against illegal clearing. But environmental groups cautioned against such optimism and criticised the government for stripping protections from forests to aid farmers.
The figure, calculated by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) has been used for a range of environmental policies. It is also the base to calculate the level of Norwegian aid to fight deforestation in the Amazon – if the rate increases, the funding dwindles.

Deforestation drops 16% in the Brazilian Amazon
By Rhett A. Butler, Mongabay, 19 October 2017
Deforestation in the world’s largest rainforest declined over the past year, reports the Brazilian government.
According to preliminary data from Brazil’s national space agency INPE, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon amounted to 6,624 square kilometers (2,558 square miles) between August, 1 2016 and July 31, 2017. The loss is equivalent to 112 Manhattans or half the U.S. state of Maryland, but is 16 percent lower than the prior year period when 7,893 square kilometers were chopped down.

The Oligarchy Versus The Amazon Rainforest
By Marcos Costa Lima, Morning Star, 19 October 2017
In Brazil we have a national parliament that seems to be working at a double-quick speed for the disintegration of all civilised norms in the country, whether in labour legislation, social security or in other relevant spheres.
In May 2017 the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of parliament) approved an amendment to the statutory limits of the Jamanxim National Forest in the south-eastern state of Para.
Shortly after this, the Senate voted on boundary changes to environmental preservation areas in both Para and Santa Catarina states.

[Ghana] Speedy trials for forest degraders – Chief Justice
GhanaWeb, 19 October 2017
Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, has said she will ensure speedy trials for culprits who engage in acts of deforestation to serve as a deterrent for would-be law breakers.
Speaking at a deforestation event organised by the National REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation Conservation of Forests, Sustainable Forest Management and Enhancement of Carbon Stocks) initiative, at the International Conference Center in Accra on Thursday, 19 October 2017 on the theme, “Strengthening law enforcement for effective REDD implementation”, Ms Akuffo called for close collaboration between stakeholders to prosecute persons who degrade the forest and other natural resources.
According to her, preserving the forest and the environment would not only save the earth, but is also a gift to unborn generations who will suffer the brunt of how bad the earth is treated today.

[Ghana] “Fight Against Deforestation, Degradation Critical To Tackling Climate Change” – Prez Akufo-Addo
Peace FM, 19 October 2017
The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, says the fight against deforestation and forest degradation is critical to Ghana’s successes of tackling Climate Change.
With Climate Change being, perhaps, the biggest threat to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, President Akufo-Addo noted that it is fast becoming a developmental issue of grave concern to most leaders across the world.

[Indonesia] WWF to Assist Jokowi’s Agrarian Reform
By Tabita Diela, Jakarta Globe, 19 October 2017
Indonesia’s Economic Affairs Coordinating Ministry on Thursday (19/10) appointed conservation group World Wildlife Fund to be the project management office in charge of setting up a joint secretariat to push through with the government’s agrarian reform.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo announced his administration’s agrarian reform plans earlier this year, aimed at closing economic gaps in the country by redistributing land to landless farmers and victims of natural disasters. The reforms’ ultimate goal, according to the government, was increasing productivity of low-income earners.

[Peru] Benefits do not always equal cash
By Barbara Fraser, CIFOR Forests News, 19 October 2017
When Amazonian communities in Peru conserve their forests, they recognize both economic and non-monetary benefits, researchers have found. But they need the support of government authorities to ensure that those benefits are not undercut by the encroachment of deforestation from illegal logging, mining or other activities.
How do villagers value programs for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+)?

[UK] Fraud in England and Wales is up again as cyber crime and credit card fraud increase
By Alys Key, City A.M., 19 October 2017
Incidences of fraud increased again this year in England and Wales, as more than half of crimes took place online.
According to the latest crime figures for the year to June from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, there was a four per cent increase in fraud offences to over 653,000. This represents the fifth year in a row in which fraud has risen at this level.
But separate data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), which attempts to work out how many crimes have occurred in total rather than just those reported to the police, showed a much higher number.

Leading US plywood firm linked to alleged destruction, rights violations in Malaysia
By John C. Cannon, Mongabay, 19 October 2017
The sustainability and legality claims of the largest plywood importer in the US have come under question after it was found to have received shipments of Malaysian plywood worth more than $500,000 from a supplier connected to environmental and human rights violations.
The 600 cubic meters (21,200 cubic feet) of plywood that Liberty Woods bought in January 2017 came from Shin Yang, a company that operates in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo, according to the investigative non-profit organization Earthsight.

20 October 2017

Shock decline in flying insects
By Tim Radford, Climate News Network, 20 October 2017
The mass of flying insects in parts of Germany has fallen by three-quarters in the last 27 years. Since the territories sampled were all nature reserves in some way protected from pesticides and other disturbance, the implications are alarming: winged insects may be flying to oblivion across much of Europe.
The cost to natural ecosystems and to human economies could be devastating. Insects pollinate 80% of wild plants, feed on species that could otherwise become pests, recycle plant and animal waste, and are themselves food for 60% of birds. One calculation places the value of wild insect pollination at $57bn a year in the United States.

Report review: Cargill making solid progress on ambitious climate goals
By Claire Manuel, Ethical Corporation, 20 October 2017
The global food giant is working with a range of partners to increase its use of renewables, decrease emissions and tackle deforestation, according to its latest integrated annual report.
Cargill has a high-profile sustainability agenda. Following President Trump’s decision to exit the Paris Agreement, Cargill chairman and CEO David MacLennan was quick to step up and declare the company’s continued commitment to address climate change in its global food and agriculture supply chains.

[Ghana] Give punitive sentences to deter deforestation — Prez Akufo-Addo
By Victor Kwawukume, Graphic Online, 20 October 2017
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has called on the Judiciary to ensure that punishments meted out to people who engage in illegal logging and mining are deterrent enough to discourage the practice.
He further called for determined and concerted efforts on all fronts to effectively deal with the twin menace of illegal logging and mining.
The President was addressing the opening session of the second National Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) Forum on the theme “Strengthening Law Enforcement for Effective REDD+ Implementation.”

[Iceland] Turning greenhouse gas into stone: First carbon-negative power plant opens
By Cole Latimer, Sydney Morning Herald, 20 October 2017
While Australia rejects a clean energy target, Iceland is aiming to go beyond zero, creating a carbon-negative power industry.
On October 11, one of the world’s largest geothermal power plants, located in Iceland, began capturing carbon dioxide and removing it completely from the atmosphere by turning captured carbon emissions into stone.
The operation, a joint venture between Climeworks and Reykjavik Energy, is an evolution of the world’s first commercial carbon capture facility – the Direct Air Capture plant which opened in Switzerland in June this year and is also run by Climeworks.

APRIL halts Indonesia paper unit ops as forestry permit revoked
By Fergus Jensen, Reuters, 20 October 2017
Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) has suspended forestry operations at its Indonesian pulp and paper subsidiary after the government canceled a long-term work plan citing environmental non-compliance.
PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper’s (RAPP) work plan was canceled on Oct. 17 after the ministry deemed that the company’s revisions to it did not comply with a regulation on peatland forests, according to a company statement sent to stakeholders dated Oct. 18 and reviewed by Reuters on Friday.

Another Madagascar environmental activist imprisoned
By Edward Carver, Mongabay, 20 October 2017
In Madagascar, speaking out against corporate wrongdoing or government corruption can be dangerous business. So it took some courage for Raleva, a 61-year-old farmer, to stand up and ask questions at a meeting in his village in southeast Madagascar on September 27. A Chinese-Malagasy company, previously expelled from the area, had come to announce that it would resume its gold-mining work. Company representatives had brought with them the “chef de district,” a powerful local official.

[Mozambique] SEC Sues Mining Giant Rio Tinto for Fraud
By Leon Kaye, Triple Pundit, 20 October 2017
This week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused the international mining company Rio Tinto and two former executives of fraud in a federal court in New York City. The SEC alleges Rio Tinto’s former chief executive officer and chief financial officer inflated the value of coal mines in Mozambique. The company acquired the assets in 2011 for $3.7 billion and in a textbook example of coal’s rapid decline, Rio Tinto sold those coal holdings a few years later for $50 million.

[Pakistan] Centre asked to initiate projects to cut deforestation
Pakistan Observer, 20 October 2017
The Federal Ministry of Climate Change should initiate immediately at-least two REDD+ demonstration projects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by covering Malakand and Hazara Divisions under the umbrella project of World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) for REDD+ readiness – said FCPF CSO Representative Asia-Pacific Kanwar Muhammad Javed Iqbal while addressing the plenary of Local Forest Community’s Consultative Assembly at Mingora, Swat.

21 October 2017

A giant insect ecosystem is collapsing due to humans. It’s a catastrophe
By Michael McCarthy, The Guardian, 21 October 2017
Thirty-five years ago an American biologist Terry Erwin conducted an experiment to count insect species. Using an insecticide “fog”, he managed to extract all the small living things in the canopies of 19 individuals of one species of tropical tree, Luehea seemannii, in the rainforest of Panama. He recorded about 1,200 separate species, nearly all of them coleoptera (beetles) and many new to science; and he estimated that 163 of these would be found on Luehea seemannii only.

[Ghana] Let’s Stop Illegal Logging And Mining—President Akufo-Addo
Modern Ghana, 21 October 2017
President Akufo-Addo has charged persons living in Ghana to make it a duty to stop illegal mining and felling of trees in the country.
According to the President, “What we make of our natural resources would determine our existence.
“I call on all gathered here, and every Ghanaian, to rise up to the occasion. Farmers and local community members should not allow illegal logging and mining to continue. Security agencies on our roads, ports and borders should not look on unconcerned and allow illegal timber products just to pass without confiscation or with corrupt purpose. Most importantly, the Forestry Commission should strengthen its law enforcement measures to curb illegal logging, mining and unsustainable harvesting of forest products,” he stated at the second national Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) forum in Accra on Thursday under the theme, ‘Strengthening law enforcement for effective REDD+ implementation.’

22 October 2017

Nigeria’s forest cover now less than 7 per cent, Asiodu laments
By Abdullateef Aliyu and Susan Onuorji, Daily Trust, 22 October 2017
Only 7% of Nigeria’s forest cover remains amidst depletion, and down from 40% at independence, say Philip Asiodu, president, Board of Trustees of the Nigeria Conservation Foundation (NCF).
He stressed the need for the entrenchment of environmental education at all levels to stop all forms of “crimes against nature”.
Asiodu, an elder statesman, stated this at the annual walk for nature with the theme: “Cleaner Lagos: Unlocking nature’s tourism potentials” jointly organized by the NCF and Lagos State Government.