News Gland, Switzerland – WWF updated its evaluation of credible forest certification in Europe. This follows the completion of a series of three studies WWF in Europe has been involved in to gain insights into how the two forest certification systems, FSC and PEFC, perform and deliver against key elements WWF considers important for a system's credibility.
Spanning across Canada from Alaska to the Atlantic Ocean exists a global treasure: the Canadian Boreal forest. Thirteen times the size of California, the Boreal is larger than the Brazilian Amazon and plays an astonishingly unsung role in the regulation of global climate and the maintenance of clean air and water.
News Imaging the International Year of Deserts and Desertification The United Nations General Assembly, at its 58th session, adopted resolution A/Res/58/211 which declares 2006 the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. The decision was taken to help prevent the exacerbation of desertification around the globe.
News Turdus Iliacus Organic farms are better for wildlife than those run conventionally, according to a study covering 180 farms from Cornwall to Cumbria. The organic farms were found to contain 85% more plant species, 33% more bats, 17% more spiders and 5% more birds.
Launched 9th August 2005 at IUFRO World Forestry Congress in Brisbane The importance of restoration continues to grow, and this book integrates the restoration of forest functions into landscape conservation plans.
News By Louise Egan GUALEGUAYCHU, Argentina — Gualeguaychu used to be a sleepy Argentine town. That was before two European companies decided to build some of the world's largest pulp mills on its doorstep in neighboring Uruguay. Now it's a hotbed of protest as farmers, ecologists and politicians fearing the mills will lead to acid rain and a stench reminiscent of rotten eggs have taken to the streets to block the projects. Their opposition to the mills, which Uruguay hopes will help bolster its economy, has also caused a diplomatic feud between the two countries.
News Gippsland's Strzelecki Ranges VICTORIA – A father and son ripped $12 million of ferns and logs from native forests, causing environmental devastation, a court heard yesterday. Prosecutors allege they used bulldozers, chainsaws and excavators to plunder soft tree ferns and hardwood logs in forest bordering Gippsland's Strzelecki Ranges. They dumped old tyres and oil-filled drums, destroyed surrounding vegetation and damaged nearby creeks.
News The fires that have until now devastated an area the size of Luxembourg across Portugal are threatening several bird species and the habitats that they depend on. Wild birds are being affected either directly, through being burnt or asphyxiated, or indirectly through loss of habitat, and prey, such as rabbits for eagles.
News New Zealand's (Aotearoa) national bird is the kiwi and the people call themselves kiwis – yet New Zealand’s state-owned coal mining company plans to destroy prime habitat of the endangered great spotted kiwi with a new open pit coal mine.
UNECE region forest products markets respond positively to globalization Geneva - The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) just released the UNECE/FAO Forest Products Annual Market Review, 2004-2005.
News WASHINGTON - U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth today appointed Anne Zimmermann as the director of the agency's office for watershed, fish, wildlife, air and rare plants. Zimmermann is currently the deputy director of the office and has served as its acting director for the past year.
News KHABAROVSK - Thirty-three forest fires, covering a total area of more than 116,000 hectares of taiga, are still raging in Russia’s Far East, a source at the local forest protection air service told Itar-Tass on Sunday. The greatest number of fire seats have been reported from the Amur Region and Khabarovsk Territory. The total area of forest fires increased by 113 hectares as of this Sunday.
News Confessions of a Tree Grower "My friends say I am a tree farmer in my heart and a musician in my Soul" - Chuck Leavell Chuck Leavell turns forestry heads big time with his one-man promotion of forestry and especially through his "confessions" of a forest owner. These insightful confessions are collected and recorded in an exceptionally good book called Forever Green - The History and Hope of the American Forest. I'll get to the book in a minute.
Sauna – Quentin Le Guen-Geffrouy, Norway European Timber Council Photo Contest Reflections of Wood in the Eyes are as individual and emotional as the people who look at nature‘s own material in all its beauty. Quentin Le Guen-Geffroy from Norway and his Sight of Wood is the winner of the photo competition Wood in Your Eyes, arranged by the European Wood Magazine Building Europe.
News Peter Beattie MP, Premier of Queensland It is fitting that Queensland — Australia’s Smart State — is hosting the XXII International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) World Congress Forest-related issues of a cultural, social, environmental or economic nature will be central in discussions at the World Congress — especially given its theme of Forests in the Balance: Linking Tradition and Technology.
News Boorman and McGregor motorcycled round the world A new drive to "welcome" motorcyclists to Scotland has been launched by tourist organisation VisitScotland. The scheme will give guidance to the tourism industry on the services it can offer to improve the holiday experience for motorbike enthusiasts.
News UNESCO, in partnership with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), has launched a new kit on Desertification in English, French, and Spanish, targeted for use in the classroom by teachers and their pupils between ages 10 and 12.
Invasive and exotic species threaten much of the World's biodiversity and ecosystems. Humanity has had very little success in addressing these super competiters which thrive in human disrupted ecoystems. Yet genetically modified super weeds that share these traits and more are a real possibility in the age of Franken-agriculture. Now it has been reported that a wild relative of the oilseed rape has picked up the traits of engineered crops.
