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Red face for EU officials over pirate timber floor (ForestPress)

A painful confirmation by the European Commission that its headquarters contain 1,000 square metres of uncertified wood from the Indonesian tropical forest highlights the problem of illegally logged timber in the EU. The commission press service on Friday (1 December) confirmed that uncertified plywood was used to renovate the 13th floor - where commission president Jose Manuel Barroso's office and the commissioners' rooms are located - despite Brussels' policy of not using dodgy materials in its buildings.

2006. December 8.

News

Hydropower: a greenhouse gas culprit? (nature)

The green image of hydropower may have been seriously overstated, warn scientists Hydropower plants have long been a byword for clean energy. But researchers warn that tropical reservoirs might release more greenhouse gases than fossil fuel power stations.

2006. December 7.

News

Financing of Forest Conservation

Payments for Environmental Services in the Tropics March 2-3rd 2007 International Society of Tropical Foresters Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

2006. December 6.

Christmas Tree Thieves Strike (jsg/dpa)

A band of scrooges have struck Heidelberg's city forest, making off with 40 Christmas trees. The Grinch came early to Heidelberg this year. An unidentified band of Scrooges absconded with no fewer than 40 Christmas trees on Friday from Heidelberg's city forest. Police said the thieves cut down and made off with the innocent conifers on Friday morning in a vehicle that must have pulled a sizeable trailor in tow.

2006. December 6.

Opportunities offered by forests within reach of young people (Nordic Forestry)

In the next ten years 80 000 woodland estates will have new owners. At the present moment mainly old people are forest owners. Their average age is 60 years. Mr Michael Hornborg, President of the Finnish Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK), says that a change of generations is urgent if there are to be any active forest owners and workers in the future.

2006. December 5.

Arborvitae – issue 31, 2006 (ForestPress)

The WWF/IUCN Forest Conservation Newsletter, There’s nothing quite like plantations for stirring up a heated debate in forestry circles. Some see forest plantations as the answer not only to the growing demand for timber and wood fibre, but also to the problem of natural forest loss. Plantations, they say, lessen the need to log natural forests and thus contribute to the conservation of forest biodiversity.

2006. December 4.

European wolf remains in ‘strictly protected’ species list (AFP)

STRASBOURG - The European wolf remains on the ‘strictly protected’ species list of a key wildlife convention, after signatories rejected a Swiss proposal Monday to declassify the animal during a meeting in the eastern French city of Strasbourg.

2006. December 4.

Capitol Christmas Tree 2006 (ForestPress)

Washington State has been given this year's honor of providing the Christmas Tree that will stand in front of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C. The tree tree is a majestic, 65-foot tall Pacific Silver Fir and will be decorated with 10,000 lights and 3,000 ornaments handmade by schoolchildren from across Washington State. The highlight of the Capitol's Christmas season will be a simple, but dramatic lighting ceremony, in which the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives will light the spectacular tree, continuing a tradition begun in 1964.

2006. December 2.

Lower Danube Green Corridor (RadioBulgaria/ForestPress)

Danube – Dunji Milanovac (Photo by ForestPress) Ambitious project for conservation and restoration of Europe’s humid zones The international project Lower Danube Green Corridor (LDGC) is incorporated in the Danube-Carpathian Program of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) covering six countries in the lower reaches of the great river – Slovakia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine. It seeks the restoration of biodiversity as well as guarantees for the sustainable development of this section of the Danube.

2006. December 1.

Forests can help combat climate change

EU policy must change to recognise forests’ carbon offset potential and sustainable energy contribution, said stakeholders at a conference organised by the Finnish forest industries federation in Brussels on Tuesday.

2006. November 30.

Thousand Oaks to Be Planted for the Thousand-Year Anniversary of Yaroslavl (forest.ru)

Some time ago we told about the second working meeting on oak conservancy and regeneration, which took place in Pereslavl Zalesski in August 2006. The participants agreed that protection of transplants, giving them a legal status and including them into the regional programs and territory infrastructure should become one of the priorities of the project in question.

2006. November 30.

Forestry Conservation and Development Project

FEDERATION OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA /REPUBLIKA SRPSKA Study Tour and Action Plan on Corporate Governance within the Forest Sector Introduction The forestry sector of Bosnia and Hercegovina is facing new challenges in moving to a free market economy

2006. November 29.

Invasion of the Wild Boars (Der Spiegel/ForestPress)

They came out of nowhere. Wild boars stormed the elegant Bavarian town of Veitshöchheim on a peaceful Saturday morning and left mangled cars, smashed fences and a wrecked boutique in their wake. Police had to open fire to restore order. An angry horde of wild boars invaded a German town at the weekend, knocking over cyclists, biting pedestrians, causing traffic accidents and wrecking a boutique, police said.

2006. November 29.

Ecology group's bid to save Himalayan pine forest (IANS)

New Delhi, An environmental group has filed a complaint in the Supreme Court to stop illegal extraction of resin from pine trees in Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh. The Himalayan Chipko Foundation Sunday said they have filed the application in the apex court, highlighting the "corruption and environmental danger due to the tapping of resin" from pine trees in Uttaranchal.

2006. November 28.

Church Takes over Forest Management Company (Slovene Press Agency STA)

Metropolitana, a company owned by the Ljubjana Archdiocese has succeeded in its bid to take over Gozdno gospodarstvo Bled, the company that manages forests around the lakeside resort town of Bled. After Metropolitana acquired a 76.18% share in Gozdno gospodarstvo Bled on the basis of a public bid open until mid-October, it has now also purchased a 20% share from the state-run Pension Fund Management (KAD) and Restitution Fund (SOD).

2006. November 27.

News

Wood based bioenergy is neutral in natural circulation (Nordic Forestry)

Calculations of carbon circulation made by Mr Göran ?gren and Ms Riitta Hyvönen, researchers at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, demonstrate that bio energy from forests and cultivated fields are practically carbon dioxide neutral and that they do not disturb natural circulation.

2006. November 24.

News

Thieves Steal German Forest (cro dpa/spiegel.de)

A German forest owner who wanted to check up on his fir trees was shocked to find a wasteland of bark and twigs. Police are hunting the thieves who carted off an entire 2,500 square meter forest. Wood thieves in western Germany have sawn down a 2,500 square meter area of fir trees.

2006. November 24.

Forest Fires May Lead To Cooling Of Northern Climate (ForestPress)

Countering hypotheses that forest fires in Alaska, Canada and Siberia warm the climate, scientists at UC (University of California, Irvine) have discovered that cooling may occur in areas where charred trees expose more snow, which reflects sunlight into space. This finding suggests that taking steps to prevent boreal forest fires to limit the release of carbon dioxide and methane – the most influential greenhouse gases – may unintentionally warm the climate in northern regions.

2006. November 23.