Last week, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo agreed to extend the country’s moratorium on new forestry concessions. Also last week, Jokowi visited Papua and relaunched the disastrous Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE).
Tag: Deforestation
Indonesia: Good news and bad news on deforestation
First the good news: Indonesia’s rate of deforestation slowed in 2013. And the bad news: It’s likely to go back up unless the government does a U-turn on the country’s expanding palm oil production.
The Amazon is losing its capacity to absorb carbon. Or, why we can’t rely on forests to solve climate change
By Chris Lang A paper published this week in Nature concludes that the Amazon is losing its capacity to absorb carbon. In the past decade, the carbon absorbed by the Amazon each year has decreased by about one-third.
Permitting Crime: Palm oil expansion and illegal logging in Indonesia’s REDD pilot province
In May 2010, the Norwegian Embassy in Jakarta posted a list of frequently asked questions on its website about the US$1 billion REDD deal with Indonesia. The last question is about illegal logging: “Will this program stop illegal logging in Indonesia?”
Uh oh. Brazil’s deforestation increased by 467% in October. And Brazil’s cabinet now includes a “chainsaw queen” and a climate denier
In 2013, after eight years of dramatic reductions in deforestation, the rate of deforestation in Brazil increased by 29%. The following year, it dropped by 18%. Unfortunately, deforestation is rising again, and is unlikely to stop – especially with the latest appointments to Brazil’s cabinet.