Deforestation

Feb. 12, 2008 -- Colorado Governor Bill Ritter today created the Colorado Forest Health Advisory Council, a multi-agency action group that will coordinate and lead efforts to address the mountain pine beetle epidemic and other threats to Colorado's 22.6 million acres of forestland. View the Executive Order here.    » read more »

24 January 2008 -- The Brazilian government says deforestation of the Amazon surged during the last five months of 2007.

The report, issued Wednesday, says that between August and December of last year more than 3,000 square kilometers of the world's largest rain forest were cleared. Environment ministry officials say that number may be higher after they analyze satellite images with a higher resolution.

Brazil's environment minister, Marina Silva, and other ministers are meeting with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Thursday to discuss how to curb deforestation.    » read more »

Facility will Tackle Climate Change and Deforestation

BALI, INDONESIA, December 11, 2007— World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick launched a groundbreaking financing mechanism today to combat tropical deforestation and climate change.

The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) was developed because forests are more important left standing than cut. It will reduce deforestation and forest degradation by compensating developing countries for carbon dioxide reductions realized by maintaining their forests.    » read more »

September 13, 2007 -- Washington, DC – The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the Tropical Forest and Coral Conservation Act of 2007, which was introduced last week by Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) and U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN), the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The legislation extends an initiative to protect tropical forests worldwide and broadens the initiative’s mandate to include coral reefs.    » read more »

16 June 2007 -- Delegates from 171 nations have wrapped up a conference on endangered species by putting trade restrictions on ivory, several commercial timber species and some fish.

The meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, known as CITES, ended in The Hague Friday. At the 12-day talks, the delegates also approved trade limits on red and pink coral used in jewelry, saying over-harvesting in the Mediterranean and Pacific threatens to wipe it out.    » read more »

Top forest researchers have published an article in Science that shows how reductions in tropical deforestation could lower heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere to relatively safe levels

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (May 10, 2007) – Slowing tropical deforestation is one of the most important ways to avert severe climate change, according to a new study published today in the journal Science.    » read more »