World Environment Day, commemorated each year on 5 June, is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action.
News Sales of modern wood-based stoves, heaters and fireplace inserts are shooting up in France with about 6 million households equipped today, according to ADEME, the French environment and energy agency. "If France is deprived of oil, in contrast, it has a lot of wood," says Jean-Christophe Pouët, a coordinator for wood heating at ADEME who explains France's renewed taste for wood with a rural tradition of open fireplaces and rising energy prices.
News A group of Finnish hunters are to travel to the German state of Bavaria to help bring down a bear thought to have crossed the border from Austria. Ilpo Kojola, a researcher at the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute, confirmed to the Finnish News Agency (STT) Friday that Finns had been asked to solve the rare problem.
November 17-18. 2006 This conference will be the sixth event in the series of annual Berlin Conferences. This year's discussions will address the theme 'Resource Policies: Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Equity'. Plenary speakers will include Professor Paul Ekins, Policy Studies Institute London, UK, Prof. Marina Fischer-Kowalski, IFF Vienna - Department of Social Ecology, Austria, Prof. Daniel Bromley, University of Wisconsin, USA, and Prof. Martin Jänicke, Freie Universitaet Berlin -
News Rome, May 30-31, 2006 International Scientific Conference on Avian Influenza and Wild Birds has been organized by FAO and OIE to exchange scientific information on AI and the role of wild birds, to assess the risk of the introduction of HPAI virus to yet uninfected areas as well as to propose mitigation and preventive measures.
News Australia, Tazmania - The Federal Government has accused the Green movement of environmental treason for "poisoning" the reputation of Australia's sustainable timber industry overseas. The latest attack on Green protesters campaigning against the export of woodchips from Tasmania's native forests comes as the Federal Government prepares to act against importation of illegally harvested rainforest timber into Australia.
News By Laura Zuckerman WISDOM, Montana — Buffalo once thundered across this vast river valley in southwest Montana but now the only evidence of the animal that symbolizes the untamed American West is its image on a national park sign. By the late 19th century, the systematic hunting of American buffalo, or bison, had cut their numbers from the millions to the dozens. Today, domesticated buffalo are commercially ranched throughout the West, but the nation's only wild herd of purebred bison is at Yellowstone National Park.
News Jan Heino elected as chairman for the European State Forest Association Members of the newly founded European interest group “EUSTAFOR – the European State Forest Association” met in Brussels at the beginning of May for their first general assembly. On the agenda of the state forest heads from Austria, Finland, France and Latvia were the election of a EUSTAFOR chair and an examination of the role of state forests in the EU.
New forestry recommendations offer Finnish forest owners new and more numerous alternatives for tending their forests. Forest owners have the opportunity of emphasizing timber production, or of securing forest biodiversity.
News IRKUTSK -- Some 1,500 hectares of forest are on fire in the Baikal national park. This is one of the largest fires on a guarded territory in the past few years. The fire broke out three days ago, a source at the territorial forestry airbase told Itar-Tass on Sunday. The dry and hot weather spread the blaze towards the village of Buguldeika, close to Baikal.
News The UN’s Food and Agriculture organisation says it is unreasonable to blame wild birds as the source of H5N1, in the absence of rigorous research into their role in the ecology and dynamics of the virus. (Avian flu: Don't place all the blame on wild birds, 22 May 2006)
News by Dave Jacke Volume 1 Ecological VI Synopsis: Already a popular growing method in Australia, permaculture is gaining ground in America, and Edible Forest Gardens is the authoritative sourcebook for designing amazingly productive permaculture gardens in a temperate climate. Edible Forest Gardens is a groundbreaking two-volume work that spells out and explores the key concepts of forest ecology and applies them to the needs of natural gardeners in temperate climates.
News Appropriate strategies are needed Rome - While the rest of Europe is steadily progressing towards sustainable forest management, Eastern European countries are facing many challenges, following the restitution of forests from the State to their previous owners, FAO said at the European forestry commission meeting (23-26 May) in Zvolen, Slovakia.
PARIS - The area in France covered by forest has grown by a third in the last 50 years, partly due to to private investors who have funded reforestation programmes as part of long-term, tax-efficient investment plans. One third of France is covered by trees, the farm ministry says, and at more than 16 million hectares, the country's forest takes up more land than all the arable crops combined.
News The Association of the Slovenian Forest Owners got established (ZLGS) Ljubljana – At its Foundation Assembly, the Association of Slovenian Forest Owners (ZLGS) got established to gather forest owners at the national level and to represent their interest in Slovenia and abroad.
News The Albertine Rift By Jumah Ssenyonga Kampala – The receding water levels of Lake Victoria have destroyed part of Lutembe Beach, threatening two million migratory birds from Europe and around the world that roost there during winter, attracting concern from conservationists. According to the conservationists the site that roosts birds is part of the Albertine Rift that spans over eight National Parks in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, that is home to 48 bird threatened species.
News Dear all, The UNFF Secretariat is introducing a series of online fora titled "Root Causes of Deforestation". Through this series we aim at better involving the online community. We would like to know more about our audience: Who you are? What are your specific interests? What type of activities are you involved in? The online forum will be closely linked to our bimonthly newsletter, and summaries will become available.
Forestschools BUDAPEST - Monkeys and apes in Budapest's Zoo drink their way through 55 litres of red wine each year, albeit in small quantities each day, to help boost their red blood cells, the zoo said on Monday. Budapest Zoo spokesman Zoltan Hanga said it was the 11 anthropoid apes who drank most of the wine in 2005.
