50,000 km of roads built across Brazilian Amazon in 3 years

29 October 2013 (mongabay.com) – Roads are rapidly expanding across the Brazilian Amazon opening up once remote rainforests to loggers, miners, ranchers, farmers, and land speculators, finds a new study published in the journal Regional Environmental Change. Researchers from Imperial College London and Brazil-based Imazon used maps of existing roads and satellite imagery to track […]

Amazon rainforest is at higher risk of tree loss as forest dries out much faster than projected

By Alex Kirby, Climate News Network27 October 2013 LONDON (Climate Central) – Researchers say the southern part of the Amazon rainforest is at a far higher risk of dieback than the models used in the most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The research team, led by Professor Rong Fu of […]

Illegal logging remains rampant in Brazil

By Rhett A. Butler 23 October 2013 (mongabay.com) – Illegal logging remains pervasive in the Brazilian state of Pará, finds an assessment released Monday by Imazon. Analyzing satellite data and records from Pará’s environmental agency Sema, the Brazil-based NGO found that 78 percent of logging documented via satellite between August 2011 and July 2012 was […]

Why Ecuador’s president is misleading the world on Amazon rainforest oil plan

By David Hill    15 October 2013 (theguardian.com) – The decision by Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa to abandon a plan to permanently forgo exploiting hundreds of millions of barrels of oil in return for at least US$3.6bn in compensation – the “Yasuni-ITT Initiative” – has sparked severe non-state media criticism in Ecuador, calls for a referendum, […]

More than 500 million people might face increasing water scarcity – ‘This is not about ducks and daisies, but the very basis of life’

Contact: Press Officepress@pik-potsdam.de49-331-288-2507Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)8 October 2013 More than 500 million people might face increasing water scarcity This is shown by complementary studies now published by scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) [Comparing projections of future changes in runoff from hydrological and biome models in ISI-MIP, Asynchronous […]

Video: Orphaned orangutan asks girl for help in sign language – ‘Your food is destroying my home’

[Can’t verify the truthiness of this video (it looks a bit stagey), but Desdemona completely supports the message.] 9 October 2013 (RAN) – http://InYourPalm.org – TAKE ACTION TODAY TO STAND WITH THE LAST WILD ORANGUTANS. Rainforests are being destroyed for palm oil and pushing the last wild orangutans to the brink of extinction. At Rainforest […]

Climate change pushing tropical trees upslope ‘exactly as predicted’ – ‘Dieback is happening much faster than expansion’

By Claire Salisbury 27 September 2013 (mongabay.com) – Tropical tree communities are moving up mountainsides to cooler habitats as temperatures rise, a new study in Global Change Biology has found. By examining the tree species present in ten one-hectare plots at various intervals over a decade, researchers found that the proportion of lowland species increased […]

Indigenous Malaysians block road as controversial rainforest dam begins to fill – ‘The plight of the Penan is a fundamental example of corporate greed steamrolling human rights’

25 September 2013 (borneoproject.org) – It has been a tragic week for the people affected by the Murum Dam in Sarawak. Sarawak Energy has begun the impoundment of the Murum dam, starting a process that threatens to drown over 2,750 sq. kilometers of forest and traditionally-owned land. We have also heard from our partners at […]

How palm oil from illegal deforestation reaches global brands

3 September 2013 (Greenpeace) – The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004 to promote the use of sustainable palm oil through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders. It is a voluntary association, consisting of palm oil producers, processors and traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and investors as well as […]

Graph of the Day: Deforestation in Ecuador, 2005-2013

By Rhett A. Butler4 September 2013 (mongabay.com) – Data released this week by Terra-i, a collaborative mapping initiative, shows that deforestation in Ecuador for the first three months of 2013 was pacing more than 300 percent ahead of last year’s rate. The report comes shortly after Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa killed off a proposed plan […]

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