News

Urban Trees: Opportunity or Problem? (ForestPress)

Wednesday 22nd March 11.30 to 17.00 Regrettably this event is now fully booked. Please e-mail Stephan@treesforcities.org if you would like your name to be added to the waiting list. We will be in touch if places become available. Join TV Gardener Diarmuid Gavin,Broadcaster Jon Snow, Garden Designer Andy Sturgeon, Tony Kirkham from BBC’s A Year at Kew and many more high profile speakers for the Trees for Cities conference : ‘Urban Trees – opportunity or problem?’

2006. March 14.

Selection felling would reduce timber production by 20 % (Nordic Familie)

Present forest management methods yield most timber, they are financially the most viable and they are a prerequisite for further increasing timber production. But nevertheless selection felling constitutes an important complement for improving biodiversity. This is the conclusion of a recent report from Sweden where fifteen scientists at Skogforsk, the Forestry Research Institute of Sweden, and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences have analysed various strategies for Swedish forestry.

2006. March 13.

Lula's UK visit highlights Amazon destruction (enn.com)

By Goska Romanowicz The unprecedented rate of destruction of Brazil's rainforest over the last three years came into public attention during Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's three-day state visit to Britain. The criticism came as the UK and Brazil signed an agreement Tuesday to work together to combat climate change. The two countries agreed to cooperate on global promotion of low carbon technology, climate change science and related issues.

2006. March 13.

News

Fire in the Moscow State Forestry University (forest.ru)

On 8 March 2006 at about 11 a.m. a fire broke out in the main building of the Moscow State Forestry University (MSFU) in Moscow region. The MSFU building burned down and collapsed. According to representatives of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, the fire was still burning at 7 p.m. that day. However, the center of the fire was localized and some rooms could be protected. In any case, the main building of the MSFU virtually entirely burned down. The other buildings of the MSFU were, consistent with preliminary information, not affected.

2006. March 12.

Session FT5.10 at the 4th World Water Forum (ForestPress)

The role of forests in water related natural risk management IUCN, together with the Forestry Commission of Japan is convening a topic session, which will review common narratives on the interactions between forests and water and their relationship to risk management. The session will explore coherent and consistent ways to communicate the forest and water relationship to both sectors.

2006. March 11.

Crisis plans against the risk of pine wood nematode (Nordic Familie)

Crisis plans have been enhanced in Finland for the case that the pine wood nematode(Bursaphelenchus xylophilis) will arrive in Finland. The Plant Production Inspection Centre (KTTK), in co-operation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK) and the Finnish Forest Industries Federation has updated its crisis plans.

2006. March 10.

Lula to seek biofuel agreement with Europe (Business News Americas)

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Britain's prime minister Tony Blair are expected to sign an agreement to promote the use of biofuels in Europe, Lula announced during his weekly radio program. Lula, as the Brazilian president is known, is visiting Britain this week (March 6-10) and will seek support from Blair for a program to implement 5.75% mixture of ethanol to gasoline and diesel by 2010, local daily Valor Econômico reported.

2006. March 9.

News

Europe's chill linked to disease (BBC Science/Nature)

By Kate Ravilious Europe's "Little Ice Age" may have been triggered by the 14th Century Black Death plague, according to a new study. Pollen and leaf data support the idea that millions of trees sprang up on abandoned farmland, soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This would have had the effect of cooling the climate, a team from Utrecht University, Netherlands, says.

2006. March 8.

Rolling Stones Keyboardist Wins Prestigious ForestLeadership Award (ForestPress)

ForestLeadership is pleased to announce the final program of The Sustainability Challenge – its upcoming conference that will be held in Toronto on March 1-2, 2006. This year’s event is the seventh in a series of highly successful strategic conferences for industry leaders, policymakers and other decision makers. It is anticipated to be one of the year's most forward thinking and dynamic conferences for the North American forest sector.

2006. March 7.

Almost 1 900 000 km less driving for Swedish lorries (Nordic Familie)

Last year Swedish lorries drove a distance of more than 12.5 million miles (English miles), which is the equivalent of 500 laps around the equator. But it is possible to reduce this distance drastically and to save both money and to reduce environmental damage.

2006. March 7.

How effective is satellite monitoring of forest infractions? (www.forest.ru)

Every ruble invested into satellite monitoring of forest use in Arkhangelsk, brought less than 5 kopeeks in fines and forfeit in 2005. The total sum of penalty charges in 2005 for all kinds of forestry law violations in Arkhangelsk was 577,000 rubles (USD 20,458). At the same time, the total sum of expenses necessary to conduct the monitoring of forestry activities is 11,7 million rubbles (USD 414,829), or 20 times more than received in fines. It should be noted that not all of the violations in Arkhangelsk forest were detected through the satellite monitoring system. Many of the violations were detected thanks to the active work of inspectors of the Federal Service on Nature Use Supervision and leskhozes’ staff.

2006. March 6.

4th World Water Forum (ForestPress)

Local Actions for a Global Challenge March 16, 2006 - March 22, 2006 El Centro Banamex, Mexico City, México The main theme of the 4th World Water Congress will be "local actions for global challenge." The activities of the 4th World Water Forum will, therefore, seek to harness the practical, intellectual, financial, and political means to support local action on a global scale.

2006. March 6.

News

Sudden end of Norwegian green electricity certification (Nordic Familie)

Mr Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy, has decided to put green electricity certification on ice. The new Government that took office last autumn promised to create a market for green certificates that would have resulted in considerable investments in renewable energy sources. Now this project has come to nothing.

2006. March 4.

Wild boar hunting may return to Britain (Telegraph)

By Andrew Davies The burgeoning wild boar population rooting around in Britain's woodlands needs to be culled to halt an impending environmental disaster, scientists said yesterday. Conservationists and wildlife specialists are calling on the Government to designate the ferocious creatures as game, paving the way for boar hunting seasons.

2006. March 2.

New scientific discoveries may revolutionize forestry (Nordic)

Researchers in the Ume? Plant Science Service at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences will shortly present a new discovery that may have much impact on future forestry. They attracted much attention in the scientific community last autumn when they solved a problem that has remained a mystery for almost a century. What makes flowers bloom?

2006. March 1.

China plants trees in bid to save forest (AP)

China has planted 12 billion trees over the past five years in an effort to restore its scarce forest cover and combat flooding and the loss of farmland blamed on excessive tree-cutting. The new trees, many planted by volunteers, covered 80 million acres, Jia Zhibang, director of the State Forestry Administration said at a news conference in Beijing on Monday.

2006. March 1.

PRESIDENT'S FY 2007 BUDGET ADVANCES GOALS OF HEALTHY FORESTS INITIATIVE (ForestPress)

PRESIDENT'S FY 2007 BUDGET ADVANCES GOALS OF HEALTHY FORESTS INITIATIVE AND MEETS TARGETS OF THE NORTHWEST FOREST PLAN Budget also proposes measure for continued payments to states for rural economic development WASHINGTON – The USDA Forest Service will receive $4.9 billion for the sustainable management of America's 155 national forests and 20 grasslands, as part of the President's fiscal year 2007 budget.

2006. February 28.

Finland: Forest industry on paper consumption (finland.fi)

HELSINKI,— According to special researcher Lauri Hetemäki of the Finnish Forest Research Institute, consumption of newsprint and office paper is decreasing in the Western countries. He expects also demand for magazine paper to decrease in the long run as the electronic media becomes more common.

2006. February 26.