News

Kenyan collects Nobel peace prize (ForestPress/BBC News)

Professor Maathai is also vocal on women's rights Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai has been presented with the Nobel Peace Prize for 2004 at a ceremony in Oslo. Professor Maathai, also Kenya's deputy environment minister, is the first African woman and environmentalist to win the prestigious award. The 64-year-old was honoured for her campaign to save Africa's trees and for promoting social, economic and cultural reforms that are ecologically viable.

2004. December 11.

Kenyan ecologist wins Nobel prize (ForestPress/BBC News )

Kenyan environmentalist and human rights campaigner Wangari Maathai has won the Nobel Peace Prize. She is the first African woman to be awarded the peace prize since it was created in 1901. A surprised Mrs Maathai broke the news to reporters minutes before the official announcement. The prize committee says Mrs Maathai, Kenya's Deputy Environment Minister, is an example for all Africans fighting for democracy and peace.

2004. December 11.

San Francisco Rules Could Bar Elephants from Zoo (FoestPress/Reuters)

By Adam Tanner SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Elephants must receive hundreds of times more space to live at San Francisco's zoo or not be kept at the facility, city legislators said on Tuesday in legislation that could effectively bar pachyderms for good. Animal rights advocates had sought a permanent ban -- which would have been a first for an urban zoo -- but the city's Board of Supervisors came up with a compromise to require the zoo to provide elephants 15 acres.

2004. December 11.

Europeans push to move against global warming

Buenos Aires, Argentina - European participants at a UN global climate conference are leading discussions on ways to cut greenhouse emissions after 2012, looking beyond the timeframe laid out to curb global warming set by the Kyoto Protocol. Yvo de Boer, the chief European Union negotiator, said Russia's recent ratification of the Kyoto Protocol had inspired the nearly 200 nations at the conference to consider a post-Kyoto framework to curtail the gases blamed for Earth's warming.

2004. December 10.

U.N.hopeful as climate talks begin (ForestPress/Reuters)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- A U.N. conference on climate change opened on Monday with delegates looking for any change in U.S. opposition to the Kyoto protocol after President George W. Bush's re-election and Russian ratification of the agreement. Russia's ratification has created the most optimistic mood in years among environmentalists.

2004. December 9.

Wood carving industry hard on African forests (ForestPress/SABC News)

Southern Africa's booming industry in wood carvings may be coming at a high price: the destruction of the region's hardwood forests. Environmentalists say the largely unregulated activity has almost wiped out the African Blackwood in Malawi, a hardwood coveted by carvers for its colour and texture. Photos: ForestPress

2004. December 8.

News

US rejects climate policy attacks (BBC News )

By Tim Hirsch, Buenos Aires The US has been defending its decision not to take part in the Kyoto Protocol, just two months before the international agreement to cut greenhouse gases comes into force. Senior US negotiator Harlan Watson attacked the treaty as being politically motivated rather than based on science. Speaking to reporters at the UN climate change convention in Buenos Aires, he suggested European countries were in no position to lecture the Americans about cutting emissions.

2004. December 8.

US rules out joining Kyoto treaty (BBC News)

By Elizabeth Blunt (Buenos Aires) The US has told a UN conference on global warming that it has no intention of re-joining international efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The chief American negotiator at the conference in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires ruled out any move to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol for years. He told reporters that efforts to cut emissions were based on bad science.

2004. December 8.

World needs more than Kyoto: minister (ForestPress/The Age)

The world would require measures more far reaching than the Kyoto agreement to address climate change, federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell said today. Parties to the Kyoto agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are meeting in Buenos Aires for the last time before it comes into effect in 2005.

2004. December 8.

News

Death of the environmental movement? (ForestPress/ UNION-TRIBUNE)

2004. December 8.

News

Argentina warns of climate crisis BBC News,

Poor countries should be given extra help to avoid the worsening effects of climate change, a UN conference on global warming has been told. Argentina's environment minister Ginés Gonzalez Garcia opened the conference in Buenos Aires by saying his country had already experienced major changes. High rainfall, violent storms and increased levels of disease were all blamed on climate change, he said. The meeting takes place a month after Russia ratified the Kyoto Protocol.

2004. December 7.

A Real Christmas Tree is the Natural Choice (ForestPress/ www.realchristmastrees.org)

Each holiday season, shoppers find themselves confronted with a difficult choice: celebrate with a real or plastic tree. What most people don't realize is that the best choice has always been the traditional and natural choice, a real Christmas tree. Real Christmas are a benefit to the environment from the time they are planted until after the holiday season when they can be recycled. While they're growing, real Christmas trees support life by absorbing carbon dioxide and other gases and emitting fresh oxygen. This helps prevent the earth-warming greenhouse effect.

2004. December 6.

Coal firm to reduce greenhouse emissions (English.eastday.com/ForestPress)

A Chinese coal production company said yesterday it will receive US$19 million under a purchase agreement it signed with the World Bank to cap greenhouse gas emissions. The company promised to reduce carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions by 4.5 million tons in two decades. According to the agreement signed on Wednesday, Jincheng Anthracite Coal Group Co Ltd will capture coal mine methane and use it for power generation at the Sihe mine in Jincheng City in north China's Shanxi Province.

2004. December 4.

Illegal Logging blamed as Philippines flood toll rises (ForestPress/ABC Online)

300 people have died from landslides and floods, proof that the country is mismanaging its forestry policy Phillipines officials say the death toll from landslides and floods unleashed by a tropical storm in the Philippines has exceeded 300. Several villages have been engulfed by mudslides caused by heavy rain on the east coast of Luzon Island.

2004. December 3.

Flowering Phone is Environmental Wake-Up Call (REUTERS NEWS SERVICE)

Photo by University Of Warwick LONDON - A rose is a rose is a phone? British scientists seeking to protect the environment have designed a biodegradable mobile phone cover that breaks down in soil when discarded and sprouts a flower from a seed embedded inside the case.

2004. December 3.

NEW AWARDS PROGRAM ANNOUNCED BY FORESTLEADERSHIP (ForestPress)

Montreal, December 1, 2004 – ForestLeadership is pleased to announce a new Awards Program to recognize individuals and organizations demonstrating exceptional leadership, communication and collaboration skills.

2004. December 2.

The Global Forest and Paper Summit 2005 (ForestPress)

The Global Forest and Paper Summit 2005, Vancouver, BC, Canada, June 1-3. is comprised of a series of events that will bring together senior executives from the world's leading forest and paper companies with internationally recognized thought leaders and government policy makers to discuss the key issues and challenges facing the sector globally over the next decade.

2004. December 2.

Greenpeace accuses Singapore multinational of illegally razing China forests

BEIJING (AFP/ForestPress)— Global environmental group Greenpeace accused a Singapore-based multinational pulp and paper company of illegal logging and rampant forest destruction in southwestern China's Yunnan province. Asia Pulp and Paper Co. Ltd (APP) was flouting China's forestry law and was preparing to sow destruction to Yunnan forests by replacing natural growth with eucalyptus tree plantations, Greenpeace China said in a report.

2004. December 1.