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News Brazil - The Institute for Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) has fined 70 producers in the State of Roraima for illegal logging. Fines vary according to the location. Fines in forest areas are at 1,500 BRL per hectare while in reserves or protected areas they can reach up to 5,000 BRL per hectare.
News Forests in Sweden and elsewhere in the world are becoming interesting investment objects, similar to any other kind of real estate, said Ms Elisabeth Salander-Björklund, head of Stora Enso Forest Products, at a conference held in SLU, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. The world's forests attract new kinds of investors. The giant oil company Shell is one of them.
News Did you know that UPM-Kymmene, in partnership with customers, environment groups and local government, is working to increase transparency in the paper chain in general and in Russian wood imports in particular? Protecting the environment is an important part of UPM-Kymmene's activities as a giant in the forest industry.
WASHINGTON – Two reports detail the dramatic changes in the ownership of Southern U.S. forest land and the declining markets for forest products. One report, the "U.S. South's Timber Sector in 2005: a Prospective Analysis of Recent Change," captured significant forces of change driving markets for timber production across the South.
News Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged African governments to prioritise the use of renewable energy sources, warning that the continent will soon run out of energy. Obasanjo's speech was read by the Nigerian minister for Science and Technology, Mr Turner Isoun, during the second scientific conference on the energy situation in Africa in Nairobi.
News LONDON - Santa Claus may have to swap his sleigh for waterwings sooner than expected as global warming melts his Arctic home, environmental group WWF said on Friday. A new study for the organisation formerly known as the Worldwide Fund for Nature predicts that the earth could warm by two degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels as early as 2026 -- and by triple that amount in the Arctic.
Indonesia's tsunami ravaged Aceh province could face a new wave of disasters if local forests are cut down for reconstruction work, the conservation group WWF has warned. WWF on Thursday warned of landslides and flash floods if already depleted forests in Indonesia were logged further.
Buddlea pink Forestry researchers will start experimental releases of an introduced insect soon, which they hope will curb rampant growth of an ornamental plant that's threatening pine plantations. Like many plant pests, Buddlea was brought here as a garden specimen, grown for its striking purple flowers.
FAO - Whereas deforestation, degradation and poor forest management reduce carbon storage in forests, sustainable management, planting, and rehabilitation of forests can increase carbon sequestration. It is estimated that the world’s forests store 283 Gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon in their biomass alone, and that the carbon stored in forest biomass, deadwood, litter and soil together is roughly 50 percent more than the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.
The forestry sector may save millions with a new computerized system that enables the driver to regulate tire pressure under way. This is the conclusion of Swedish tests conducted on the CTI-system for trucks, soon to be completed. A computer in the driver's cabin is connected to a system that regulates tire pressure under way.
Bioenergy, which can be defined as energy generated from renewable biomass (i.e. living plants and plant components), has been hailed as one of the key weapons in the battle against global warming. However, as the European Commission releases its Biomass Action Plan, BirdLife has warned the EU that it must put in place strong environmental safeguards. Without these, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will be negligible and impacts on the broader environment will be severe.
News Joint story from TPA and TIMA - The many positive economic and social benefits associated with the investment in timber plantations. Contrary to the accusations of rural decline and depopulation levelled at the Australian plantation sector, there are many positive economic and social benefits associated with the investment in timber plantations.
News In Jämtland County, a sparely populated and densely wooded are in central Sweden, more than 60% of all heat and power is derived from renewable sources. The county’s aim is to become a 100% non-fossil fuel region by 2015. This ambitious target can be reached this thanks to immense natural resources, notably woods and forests covering 99% of the Jämtland’s territory and being an extraordinary source of biomass.
News By Brad Knickerbocker A report rejects US policy of logging after fires in national forests, arguing a hands-off approach yields better results. ASHLAND, ORE. – The 2005 wildfire season was declared officially over here the other day. Rain and snow in the mountains have dampened the timber, and the sound of firefighting helicopters and trucks has been replaced by the rifle fire of deer and elk hunters.
On 7 December, Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs will present a biomass action plan that aims at doubling the use of biomass energy for transport, electricity and heating by 2010 and quadrupling it by 2030.
News By VIVIAN SEQUERA BRASILIA, Brazil – The Amazon rain forest lost 7,300 square miles _ an area more than half the size of Maryland _ but deforestation slowed by nearly a third this year, Brazilian officials said Monday. The rain forest lost 7,300 square miles between July 2004 and August 2005, down from 10,500 square miles in the same period the year before, Environment Minister Marina Silva said. Silva credited increased law enforcement and stringent environmental regulation.
San Francisco – A study by the Carnegie Institution and U.S. government scientists says planting trees to absorb carbon dioxide may worsen global warming. The research from the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was to be presented Wednesday during the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting in San Francisco.
When oil runs out, forests may provide petrol for our cars. Nordic researchers are close to a breakthrough in the technology of producing petrol from wood. Bio-fuels, i.e. petrol and diesel oil produced from biological, renewable raw materials, are expected to be the most important future fuels. Researchers are working intensively on the problem how to extract ethanol from wood.
