Guest guest Posted December 12, 2007 Report Share Posted December 12, 2007 Today for you 34 new articles about earth's trees! (266th edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com --Ohio: 1) Beavers closing in on Cleveland --Maryland: 2) Clearcutting 400 mountaintop acres for wind farms --Maryland: 3) Teacher retirement fund buying forest land, 4) Sit-in to save UK trees, --Georgia: 5) 840 signatures on petitions for 10-year logging ban, --Vermont: 6) Governor's new green standard is all about biofuels --Canada: 7) Harper is rude and not very smart --UK: 8) Protecting Watford's ancient woodlands --Bulgaria: 9) Green tigers' youth protest overbuilding in mountains, --Sierra Leone: 10) Gola Forest to become Sierra Leone's second national park --Niger: 11) Sahara has swallowed 2/3 of the country --South Africa: 12) Alien trees in Table Mountain National Park --Cameroon: 13) Community forest management embezzlement --Kenya: 14) Loggers want ban to end --Peru: 15) Imminent oil development --Mexico: 16) Police raid clandestine mills --Colombia: 17) Cocaine, herbicide and rainforests --Brazil: 18) Amazon Conservation Team, 19) Soy farmers leaves no trees in sight, 20) More income in leaving trees standing, --India: 21) India found itself alone and criticized at climate conference, 22) Elephants flee pilgrims, 23) What is a forest? --Indonesia: 24) shutting down illegal logging will cut supplies by 2/3, 25) $160 million for forest conservation, 26) Resolution on the Adaptation Fund, 27) Mangrove stats, --New Zealand: 28) More ANZ protests, 29) Malaysian Ernslaw One's empire grows, --Australia: 30) East Gippsland blockade continues, 31) Forestry Tasmania rejects emission stats, 32) Conference debates and maneuvers, --World-wide: 33) REDD $'s an 'interesting' amount, 34) Nitrogen cycles and carbon, Ohio: 1) Beavers have been busy since November chewing up trees within sight of downtown Cleveland. They are settling in at Wendy Park on Whiskey Island, a stretch on Lake Erie's shore at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. Their arrival is evidence that nature and wildlife are reclaiming the former dump and refuge for the homeless. The beavers have felled almost 50 cottonwood trees at the new 20-acre park. Widlife officials don't think there's a chance the beavers will try to dam the river -- a major entry point for shipping serving Cleveland industry. Carol Thaler -- a program officer with the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission -- it would take more than the two or three beavers inhabiting the park for that to happen. Information from: http://www.cleveland.com - http://www.wdtn.com/Global/story.asp?S=7473310 Maryland: 2) A Pennsylvania company is asking the O'Malley administration for leases in two Western Maryland state forests so it can clear up to 400 mountaintop acres to build about 100 wind turbines. The U.S. Wind Force structures would be about 40 stories tall and visible from some of the region's most popular tourist areas, including Deep Creek Lake and the Savage River Reservoir. The projects in the Potomac and Savage River state forests would cost $400 million and would generate enough pollution-free electricity for about 55,000 homes, said David F. McAnally, chairman of the company. " It would be a good thing from the standpoint of environmental benefits. There are no emissions at all from wind turbines, so this will help Maryland with clean air, " McAnally said. Not all environmentalists agree that scenic public lands should be used for industrial machines. " The idea of destroying the Appalachian ridge tops for such a little bit of energy capacity doesn't make any sense to me, " said Ajax Eastman, a conservationist from Baltimore. The proposal to lease about 400 acres for $30 million to $40 million a year would have to be approved by Gov. Martin O'Malley and the other two members of the state Board of Public Works. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.wind06dec06,0,7979303.story Kentucky: 3) The worst U.S. housing market since 1991 and plunging lumber prices have done nothing to dim the appeal of timberlands for the $16 billion Kentucky Teachers' Retirement System. The fund earmarked $200 million for its first purchases of forests, joining investors from Harvard University to the California Public Employees' Retirement System that have poured $40 billion into tree farms since 1990. Timberland values in the U.S. South climbed 14 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries, as pension funds and endowments ignored the housing slump and purchased property as a hedge against inflation. Another $4 billion will be invested in forests within three to five years, New York-based Merrill Lynch & Co. says. ``Trees grow, and organically they're going to grow 8 percent a year whether the market's up or down,'' Kentucky Teachers' Chief Executive Officer Gary L. Harbin said in an interview from Frankfort, Kentucky. ``If we do have inflation, the raw value of that timber and the land that it's on is just going to increase.'' The appeal of U.S. forests has increased even as returns from lands in the South, Northeast and Pacific Northwest fell to 8.3 percent through September from 14 percent in all of 2006 and 19 percent in 2005, based on measures of cash flow and appraised land values published by NCREIF. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109 & sid=aDp4F5kTMjEA & refer=news 4) Throughout the semester, the UK community has debated the merits of logging Robinson Forest. On Monday, a group of students will meet with the university's highest governing body, the Board of Trustees, to look at the issue one more time. Monday's meeting will be from 4 to 5 p.m. in the 18th-floor boardroom in the Patterson Office Tower. At the meeting, about eight people will present arguments against logging 800 acres of the 15,000-acre Eastern Kentucky forest, said Garrett Graddy, a geography graduate student. " I'm hoping the Board of Trustees will realize when they voted on this project in 2004, they didn't have all of the information, " Graddy said. " We're hoping the board realizes there is a lot on the line. " About 25 local activists and members of campus groups contributed to what will be presented at Monday's joint meeting of the University Relations and Student Affairs committees. Among their recommendations, the presenters will call for an external review of Robinson Forest from scientists who would understand the " extraordinary research " that the proposed logging would prevent, Graddy said. " UK is aiming to be a top-20 university, but if you look at all of the top universities - Harvard, Yale, (University of California at) Berkeley - ecological stewardship is what all of the top universities are doing, " Graddy said. Monday's meeting follows a protest against logging Robinson Forest last week, when about 15 students, including Graddy, sat outside UK President Lee Todd's office demanding a meeting with him. who was on his way to the airport during Tuesday afternoon's protest, helped organize the meeting. UK staff trustee Russ Williams said a trip to Robinson Forest with other board members last month made the 2004 board decision more favorable in his eyes, but he said he would be willing to reconsider it if the presenters bring in new information on the forest. " I think any time you have a group of students who feel passionately about an issue, it's important to address it, " Williams said. Pyles said he also is concerned about the impact the logging will have on the other side of the mountain, in the Swoope area. The county has spent about a half a million dollars paving roads in that area through the rustic roads program, Pyles said. Many of these roads have sharp shoulders that large logging trucks could cause to collapse, he said. http://media.www.kykernel.com/media/storage/paper305/news/2007/12/10/CampusNews/\ Activists.Wan t.Outside.Study.Of.Logging-3140063.shtml Georgia: 5) Norris Campbell grew up exploring the woods that surround the house where generations of his family have lived. But recently the land that Campbell loves so much has undergone a major change. At the base of Little North Mountain, about 150 yards from Campbell's house, is a level patch of earth where loggers have cut away about 17 acres of forest. Tree stumps and piles of scrap wood are the only remainders of what Campbell said were once tall oak trees. The clearing is one of 16 clearcuts within a mile radius of Campbell's house, five of which have been done in the past 18 months. The land is owned by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, he said. " They make me mad, " Campbell said about the clearcut areas. " Every time I look at them, I get mad. " On the edges of the clearing, an older clearcut is visible. After more than a decade, Campbell said the trees are barely big enough to walk through. In his lifetime, Campbell said he will not see the forest restored to its former state. " My grandkids are not going to see it back to like it was, " he said.More than a year ago, Campbell formed an activist group to try to stop the logging. The group is composed of about 50 residents, he said. Group members have gathered 840 signatures on petitions and have contacted local politicians for help, Campbell said. Augusta County Board of Supervisors member Tracy Pyles has worked with the group for about a year. Pyles said he would like to see a moratorium placed that would stop logging in the area for 10 years and then study the effects. When acres are clearcut, logging roads act like gutters that funnel water down to rivers at a faster rate and cause flood conditions to increase, Pyles said. Factors like the dust and flooding caused by the logging, safety considerations and the cost of maintaining the roads outweigh any revenue the state gains from the clearcutting, Pyles said. http://www.newsleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071210/NEWS01/712100311/1\ 002 Vermont: 6) Can the state's forests produce income in new ways while reducing the state's carbon footprint? What is the " Vermont green standard " the governor proposes, and how would it work? What are the realistic chances of success for the governor's strategy? The Douglas administration is the first to say there are no full answers to those questions yet. But in interviews with researchers, advocates, national experts and the administration last week, the challenges and opportunities of the Douglas approach became clearer. Here's a look at the three ideas at the heart of the governor's new climate change agenda: Vermont forests already produce fuel for the Burlington wood-fired electric generating plant, and for a growing number of wood boilers to heat public buildings. Thousands more tons of wood could be harvested for those uses. But cellulosic ethanol could provide a whole new market for Vermont's farms and forests, the governor says. He is talking about a car-and-truck fuel produced from the stalks, stems and woody fiber of plants -- a process that produces twice as much ethanol per acre as corn. Agency of Natural Resources Secretary George Crombie is particularly enthusiastic about planting hardy, fast-growing switchgrass -- a leading candidate for making ethanol -- as a cash crop for Vermont farmers. " Imagine if we could protect our waterways by planting buffer strips with switchgrass that farmers could harvest and sell, " he said. http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071209/NEWS01/71\ 2090306/1009 & theme= Canada: 7) " To show up at someone's party and yell at them, seems rude and not very smart, " said NDP environment critic Nathan Cullen, who witnessed the exchange between Baird and the environmentalists. " But I think it is this minister's nature. I think he enjoys fighting more than he enjoys working together. " Meanwhile, in an apparent effort to fend off international attacks over its climate change policies, the Harper government began a series of multimillion-dollar environmental announcements. Baird insisted the funds are proof that the government is taking real action to stop global warming. But he was unable to say whether his main announcement of the day, a pledge to spend $85.9 million over four years on climate change adaptation and research, is any different from a Natural Resources Canada climate change adaptation program that his government shut down last summer. The now-defunct federal climate research network conducted studies to help various communities and economic sectors cope with the impacts of a changing climate, such as severe weather, the pine beetle infestations in western Canada, and crumbling infrastructure. The funding announcement came after Baird handed over $7.5 million for an initiative to promote clean energy projects in developing countries. He is expected to make other good-news announcements throughout the week, including a $1.5 million payment for the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism, and a $15 million announcement to support green energy projects in the North. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=3ce6bdeb-d80a-4692-a30f-96\ 394153a7e0 UK: 8) Conservation work is underway to protect Watford's ancient woodlands from future extinction. Littered among the town's numerous estates, tower blocks and busy roads are a handful of nature reserves, home to species of animals, plants and trees that have survived for hundreds of years. Working to keep these areas alive for the enjoyment of future generations are residents who live close to the protected areas. The Friends of Harebreaks Wood (FoHW) and Friends of Albans Wood (FoAW), recently planted young trees to reclaim land that had grown sparse. Harebreaks Wood, off Leggatts Way, is an ancient sem-natural woodland filled with oak, ash, beech and cherry trees. It is also abundant with bluebells, birds including woodpeckers, thrushes and long-tailed tit, and animals such as foxes, deer and bats. Serge Mozota, 48, joined FoHW 18 months ago, when he began attending community meetings to discuss the future of the Bill Everett Leisure Centre. He said: " Trees don't last forever. It's not a glam or sexy activity but it's important because when trees fall and there's nothing to replace them, the wood gets smaller and smaller. " Historically, Harebreaks Wood was a natural barrier between Gammons Farm and Leggatts Farm, and is classed as an ancient semi-natural woodland by Natural England because it has been untouched since 1600 and retained native trees and shrubs. Serge, an IT consultant, said: " In 1883, it didn't really matter to preserve it but in 2007, it does matter because there's so little left. " When you've got it you take it for granted. When it's gone, it's gone forever. It takes hundreds of years to develop but you can completely obliterate it in two months. " http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/localnews/display.var.1888289.0.help_make_\ town_greener.php Bulgaria: 9) 'Green tigers' youth organization, supported by 'Green Bulgaria' is organizing a protest action starting at 11.00h on 'St. Nedelia' square in Sofia. The eco activists will protest against overbuild in Bulgarian mountains and illegal forests cutting. The protest will start with public prayer for the Bulgarian mountain. The nature protectors had elaborated physical geography map of Bulgaria with thousands of hotels, destroying the nature, marked on the map. The initiative observes the today's International Mountain Day, declared by United Nations in 2002. http://international.ibox.bg/news/id_1209138866 Sierra Leone: 10) The 75,000 hectare Gola Forest is to become Sierra Leone's second national park and has been bought in a flagship conservation project to protect it from logging and diamond mining. The forest, close to the Liberian border, will become the focal point of a new national park network with local people being paid to protect it rather than exploit it. The scheme is being jointly funded by the European Commission, the French government, the RSPB and US-based Conservation International. Alistair Gammell, International Director for the RSPB, said: " We are helping the government turn a logging forest into a protected forest. It is owned by Sierra Leone and we are working with the Sierra Leonean people to conserve the area, which has rarely been done before. " Huge amounts of carbon will be saved and the site is an excellent example to those now involved in climate talks in Bali. It is showing how richer countries can help poorer countries protect wildlife, support local communities and tackle climate change. " It is a project that politicians in Bali seeking to cut the world's carbon emissions should be lauding, applauding and copying. " Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma, is expected to officially endorse plans for the national park which will help protect more than 50 mammal species including leopards, chimps and forest elephants, 2,000 different plants and 274 species of bird of which 14 are close to extinction. The European Commission and French government are contributing more than £3 million towards the training of more than 100 staff to patrol Gola's boundaries, monitor wildlife and run education programmes. Scientists will be encouraged to study the wildlife of the area which is expected to become a hub for eco-tourism in the country. At the same time, a £6 million trust fund is being established to pay the park's running costs and the annual payments to local communities, representing more than 100,000 people. The RSPB and Conservation International have paid about £1m each into the fund. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/12/10/eagola110.xml Niger: 11) It is not yet daybreak when the trucks, the donkeys and the camels pour out of Niamey across the Kennedy bridge. Night has fallen when they return, loaded down with huge cargoes of wood from south western Niger's last forests. Local people continue to cut down the few forests still standing to keep themselves in firewood, unaware or unconcerned about the impact their routine has on global warming and desert encroachment. The Sahara has already swallowed up two-thirds of Niger's surface area and continues to progress at a rate of 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) every year, according to the environmental website Mongabay. The desertification advances despite the planting of more than 60 million trees in this western African nation between 1985 and 1997. Specialists say the desert is creeping towards the west and the south of the country, where the last forests remain, at a rate of six kilometres (four miles) every year. Between 1990 and 2005, Niger lost 679,000 hectares of tropical forest, more than one-third of its total wooded land, Mongabay said on its website. The environment ministry does not publish cumulative statistics, but estimates that 120,000 hectares of tropical forest are lost every year, in addition to some 340,000 hectares that were lost between 2000 and 2006 due to forest fires. " Wood's getting scarce. We go more than 150 kilometres (93 miles) to find it, near the border with Burkina Faso, " said Ali Amadou, a woodcutter from Dar-el-Salam, one of Niamey's markets. In 2006 the country consumed more than 3.4 million tonnes of wood. By 2010 it is expected to be consuming 4.2 million tonnes annually, according to government forecasts. " Wood provides more than 90 percent of domestic household energy, " said Moustapha Kadi from the non-governmental organisation SOS-Kandaji. " That is paradoxical in a country which has coal reserves and whose neighbours are major oil and gas producers, " one specialist who asked not to be named noted, referring to northern neighbor Algeria and Nigeria, to the south. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Nigers_vanishing_forests_last_hope_to_keep_des\ ert_at_bay_999. html South Africa: 12) Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) says a compromise has been reached on the felling of alien trees in the Cecilia and Tokai plantations. Some groups have wanted the aliens to stay to provide shade for recreation, while others have insisted they be cut down to ensure the survival of indigenous fynbos. After a year of public consultation, a compromise has been reached that would see pine harvesting and controlled burns continue in some areas. The burns would be followed by fynbos growth over eight years to allow seed banks and the fynbos to recover. Non-invasive pine trees would then to be planted to provide shade for people who use the plantation for recreation. After about 30 years, the non-invasive pines would be harvested, the area burnt and another fynbos regrowth cycle begun. The proposed " transitional " areas are the lower slopes of the Cecilia plantation, lower Tokai along the urban edge, and the Tokai Arboretum, where shaded areas would almost double, creating more picnic space. " We've heard people's concerns and the majority are delighted with this compromise proposal, " TMNP manager Brett Myrdal said. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1 & click_id=14 & art_id=vn20071207091024859C6\ 34199 Cameroon: 13) Northwest Governor, Koumpa Issa, has accused community forest management leaders of Kilum- Ijim and others of embezzlement and mismanagement of funds derived from forest and non-forest products. The Governor's speech was read at a one-day workshop Tuesday, November 28 by the Secretary General at the Governor's office, Peter Tieh Ndeh, at a workshop on the mechanisms for generating and distributing benefits from the Kilum-Ijim Forest. Other ills that have been contributing to the unsustainable management of community forests, especially the Kilum-Ijim Forest, are conflicts of roles and interests between stakeholders, non-commitment by some relevant authorities and misinterpretation of ownership of the forest, confiscation of devolved powers from forest management institutions, greed, complicity and ignorance. The Governor expressed the hope to see good governance principles reinstated when the leaders return to their various stations, since they have been empowered with indispensable tools for the success of community forestry. Koumpa also expressed indignation that the communities where these forests are located have not been doing enough to keep the confidence the government entrusted in them to manage their forests. http://allafrica.com/stories/200712031293.html Kenya: 14) The Government banned logging in 1999 ostensibly to protect the country's closed canopy forest estimated at only two per cent. The timber industry at the time was sustaining more than 30,000 employees in the logging fields and others who worked in the sawmills. The majority of the sawmill owners subsequently shut down their mills and dismissed the employees, hoping that the Government would streamline the commercialisation of forest produce and lift the ban. But eight years down the line, more than 230 sawmills remain closed and about 70 that did not close have to rely on material from private farms. The chairman of the Timber Manufacturers Association (TMA), Mr Samuel Gitonga, says that the ban had not only worked against the timber industry, but had led to massive losses in trees that had been rotting in government forests. In the Rift Valley Province, the Government was earning an average of Sh132 million from the sale of forest produce annually before the ban. As a result of the loss of earnings, the Forestry department was unable to finance the pruning and thinning of young cypress and pine plantations, which subsequently became bush. The building industry was also thrown into a spin and contractors have now been importing cypress and pine timber from Tanzania and Malawi at a time when the Government has more than 23,000 hectares of plantations that were planted more than 30 years ago. A tonne of cypress timber, which cost Sh7,000 before the ban, was today fetching Sh27,000 while a tonne of pine and eucalyptus timber was selling at Sh24,000 and Sh21,000 respectively. TMA claims that the ban was not well thought out because the Government had more than one million hectares of indigenous forests and 120,000 hectares of exotic plantations by 2005. Mr Gitonga and an official of the Friends of Mau Watershed (Fomawa), Mr Jacob Mwanduka, claim that plantations established after the ban had a very poor survival rate because the Forestry Department did not have funds to hire labourers. http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=39 & newsid\ =112443 Peru: 15) One of the most intact and biodiverse rainforest regions on Earth, located in the Upper Amazon Basin on the Ecuadorian-Peruvian border, is now threatened by imminent oil development, warns a conservation organization based in Washington with close ties to its counterpart groups in South America. Known as the Napo Moist Forest ecosystem, this region is renowned for its record-breaking diversity of life and is so remote that it is home to several uncontacted indigenous groups living in voluntary isolation. Yet the governments of Ecuador and Peru have just given the green light for three major new oil projects in the area. " Three different oil companies are set to begin operations in what is arguably the most biodiverse spot on Earth, " said Dr. Matt Finer, an ecologist with the DC-based nonprofit organization Save America's Forests. Barrett Resources (Peru) LLC, is an independent upstream energy company based in Delaware that advised the state regulatory agency Perupetro a year ago of its plans to develop commercial Block 67, its 250,000-acre contract area located in the Maranon Basin of northeastern Peru. The Ecuadorian government recently granted an environmental license for the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras to drill for oil in Block 31 located in Yasuní National Park, a roadless area sheltering some of the world's rarest species. All three blocks are located within the core of the Napo Moist Forest. In addition, the Peruvian government has just signed eight more contracts with multinational oil companies. Finer calls the drive by the Peruvian government to lease out oil blocks throughout its large portion of the Amazon " relentless. " Analysis by Save America's Forests shows there are now 50 active blocks under contract with multinational companies in the Peruvian Amazon, and at least 13 more are on the way. " http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2007/2007-12-04-02.asp Mexico: 16) Police raided clandestine sawmills near a threatened nature reserve where Monarch butterflies nest in the winter, arresting 45 people and confiscating enough illegally logged wood to fill 600 heavy trucks, the government said Thursday. Illegal deforestation in and around the reserves threatens the butterflies, which rely on the forest cover to protect them from the cold, high-altitude winds. Huge numbers of Monarchs died during a cold snap in 2002. About 600 police and environmental agents raided 19 clandestine saw mills Wednesday in the western state of Michoacan. They detained mill workers, lumberjacks, truck drivers and others, said Augusto Cabrera, a spokesman for the attorney general for environmental protection. Authorities reported seizing about 210,000 cubic feet of logs and boards, equivalent to about 4,400 tons of wood. Cabrera and other environmental authorities said they could not remember a larger seizure in Mexico. " This was in the area of the Monarch butterfly, in the buffer zone " created to protect the pine- and fir-covered mountaintops where the butterflies rest for the winter after migrating south from the United States and Canada, Cabrera said. Before Wednesday's raids, the government had already seized about 6.4 million cubic feet of illegally logged wood, closed 59 sawmills and charged 193 people with related crimes this year. " That's the important thing — that people are being charged, " Cabrera said. " Before, (authorities) would seize wood and dismantle sawmills, but there weren't many charges. " It was not immediately clear what charges and possible punishments the suspects face. A study conducted in 2000 showed that 44 percent of the fir forests that shelter the migrating butterflies during their annual stopover had been damaged or destroyed over the preceding 29 years. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gYigM299eT8-JDIPTeDcLNPqGPyQD8TC83N01 Colombia: 17) According to a recent poll, Colombians are the second happiest people on earth. I fell in love with the place in the two weeks that I spent there at the invitation of the president, Alvaro Uribe. The invitation was extended to me because in my recently published autobiography I claimed to have spent £1m on champagne and cocaine. That's all behind me. I'm a farmer now, and it was as a farmer that I wanted to go there. My heart beat faster from the moment I arrived. We were bundled through the airport with armed security into a bombproof brick of a car that shot along white lines and hard shoulders with great speed and finesse. The big story in Colombia is cocaine. There are many intricacies, back stories and subplots, but cocaine is at the beginning, middle and end of all of it. Eighty per cent of the world's cocaine is produced in Colombia. It's an industry worth more than Kellogg's, Microsoft and Coca-Cola combined. Early in the morning I flew south in a twin turboprop to a narcotics police air-base in San Jose del Guaviare. It was nice there. Think South Pacific: all technicolour and songbirds. The Colombian rainforest has greater biodiversity than anywhere else on the planet. There are thought to be undiscovered small mammals under the canopy as well as many birds, plants and insects unknown to science. It's very precious, the proverbial lungs of the earth. From the air, the beauty of the rainforest is breathtaking. I've never seen anything as beautiful: a vast, cosmic Eden of moundy, feminine hills, but it's a very masculine struggle that's raging there. Three spray planes flew low and neat like skaters, dusting the easy-to-spot coca fields with herbicide – glyphosate – as I circled above in a heavily armed Black Hawk helicopter. The US Treasury currently gives Colombia more than $700m a year in aid to fight cocaine production – more than it gives to any country outside the Middle East and Afghanistan – and 80% of that money goes to the military, to spray herbicide on rainforest. Last year was a record year for spraying, yet production was up for the third year running. The Colombian government estimates at least 388,000 acres of national parkland is being used for growing coca. There was an obvious flaw in dumping weedkiller on this much rainforest. It's more effective to pull the plants up by hand but that's time-consuming and risky: 10% of the manual eradication work-force died last year. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/a\ rticle3021117.e ce Brazil: 18) The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) [donate] was today awarded mongabay.com's inaugural " Innovation in Conservation Award " for its path-breaking efforts to enable indigenous Amazonians to maintain ties to their history and cultural traditions while protecting their rainforest home from illegal loggers and miners. " ACT is very pleased to win this award, " said Dr. Mark Plotkin, a renowned ethnobotanist, author, and founder of the Amazon Conservation Team. " It's our strong belief that the people who best know, use, and protect biodiversity are the indigenous people who live in these forests. The best way to protect ancestral rainforests is to help the Indians hold on to their culture, and the best way to help them hold onto their culture is to help them protect the rainforest. And, the fact that it comes from Mongabay — which is employing 21st century technology to spread this story far and wide, and increasingly recognized as the 'go-to' rainforest site on the web — makes it all the more meaningful. " ACT has won wide acclaim for its novel approach to conserving biodiversity, health, and culture in South American rainforests, one of the few places where many indigenous populations still live in mostly traditional ways. But as forests fall to loggers, miners, and farmers, and the allure of western culture attracts younger generations to cities, extensive knowledge of the forest ecosystem and the secrets of life-saving medicinal plants are forgotten. The combined loss of this knowledge and these forests irreplaceably impoverishes the world of cultural and biological diversity. ACT is enabling Indians to monitor and protect their forest home while passing on their cultural wealth to future generations. ACT is working in partnership with local governments to train Indians in the use of GPS and the Internet to map and catalog their forest home, helping to better manage and protect ancestral rainforests by monitoring deforestation and preventing illegal incursions on their land. At the same time the efforts are strengthening cultural ties between indigenous youths and their parents and grandparents. http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1211-conservation_award.html 19) On the sweltering frontier of the Amazon rain forest there is barely a tree in sight. Green fields of newly planted soy stretch as far as the eye can see. Brazil is poised to become the world's largest exporter of soybeans. Though it is sold mostly as cheap food for humans and animals, increasingly soy is used to make biodiesel, a cleaner-burning fuel. Brazilian biofuels - ethanol and biodiesel - are being hailed as the best global example of how renewable fuels can reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist led a trade mission to Brazil last month, largely focused on biofuels. In January, a Brazilian federal mandate will go into effect requiring that every gallon of diesel in Brazil be blended with 2 percent biodiesel - and the percentage will keep climbing. " Only soy today has the production capacity to meet that demand, " recognizes Carlos Klink, a Harvard-trained Brazilian scientist with the Nature Conservancy. " That means a lot of expansion. " http://www.sptimes.com/2007/12/08/Worldandnation/Amazon_balancing_act_.shtml 20) Residents of Amazonia could find that their rain forests generate more income with the trees standing than when cleared for logging or agricultural development, according to an incentive program outlined in a leading scientific journal. " Avoided deforestation " is not only a worthwhile ecological concept, it also may be worth money to the peoples of rain-forest regions of Brazil and the Guyanas. J. Timmons Roberts, acting director of the program in Environmental Science and Policy at the College of William and Mary, is a co-author of " Climate Change, Deforestation, and the Fate of the Amazon. " The paper was published in the online version of Science on Nov. 30 and will appear in an upcoming print version. " The concept is basically that wealthy nations would pay for the services provided by an intact rain forest, " Roberts explained. The framework for cash incentives, he said, came from the international markets in carbon emissions that followed the Kyoto Protocol. " In essence, we will be paying for carbon dioxide not released by deforestation, as well as carbon dioxide absorbed by the forest. " South American rain forests are a potential weapon against global warming at the same time as being a potential cause and casualty of its effects. Even though the Amazonian rain forests are threatened by trends associated with global warming, Roberts said the most immediate danger is deforestation stemming from logging, ranching and agricultural uses. The Science paper stresses the importance of the Amazonian forests to regional and global climate, noting that the trees and the soil they grow in retain immense amounts of carbon. Much of the region's water is rainfall " recycled " through the trees and back into the atmosphere. Roberts and his co-authors cite models that indicate removal of 30 percent to 40 percent of the rain forest could push a large portion of Amazonia into a drier climate, which in turn could have effects on the global climate. The paper outlines a set of broad ecological goals for the Amazonian forests, starting with keeping the total deforested areas below the 30 percent to 40 percent climatic " tipping point. " It also recommends conserving forested migration corridors, especially along rivers, to act as refuges and migration routes for wildlife. http://www.wm.edu/news/index.php?id=8521 India: 21) India found itself alone and the subject of criticism from many sides over the issue of being paid to conserve forests at the UN climate change conference here Tuesday. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has decided to include the fight against deforestation as a part of the fight against climate change after scientists proved that deforestation is leading to 20 percent of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) that lead to global warming. Developing countries - which have the major forests - have sought payment not to cut trees. While there is no agreement on this yet, funding may well become available for what is being described here as " avoided deforestation " . In this way, the carbon sequestered by the forests that are not being cut can be encashed by developing countries in the carbon market, though the methodologies and the carbon values of trees are yet to be worked out. The Indian delegation here wanted to add " conservation " to " avoided deforestation " . When that point was not included in the draft that appeared Tuesday morning, India objected, and immediately became the subject of criticism from industrialised and other developing countries alike. Secretary in the ministry of environment and forests Meena Gupta told IANS: " We are not the only country that wants this. India is one of the few developing countries where the forest cover is going up, not down. We should not be penalised for that. " Gupta is leading the negotiating team in the delegation. According to another member, China, Brazil, Indonesia and many countries in Africa were of the same view. But the other countries backed out. India's Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal, who is the head of the Indian delegation, then spoke to a number of ministers, including the environment minister of host country Indonesia. http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=b0c3afa3-1921-49bd-b84\ d-b485a4bced31 & MatchID1=4604 & TeamID1=6 & TeamID2=7 & MatchType1=1 & SeriesID1=1157 & MatchID2=4575 & Tea\ mID3=8 & TeamID4 =2 & MatchType2=1 & SeriesID2=1147 & PrimaryID=4604 & Headline=India+finds+itself+alone+\ at+Bali+summit 22) Nagercoil - With the onset of the pilgrim season in Sabarimala hill shrine, elephants in the nearby jungles were moving to the adjacent forests of Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari district, forest officials said on Saturday. According to District Forest Officer of Kanyakumari, Sundar Raju, around 60 elephants have entered the forests in Kaliyal, Kulasekaram and Azhagiyapandipuram of the district. Speaking to reporters, he said that the elephants were terrified by the huge flow of pilgrims to the hill shrine. Three teams of forest personnel have been formed to keep a watch on the elephants, he said. There were also reports of elephants spotted roaming along the fringes of Perunkuruvi, Akasthiyarkoodam and Vellasarithodu forests near Sabarimala in the Kerala side. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200712081432.htm 23) What is a forest? The UPA government's attempt to frame an answer to this seemingly innocuous question may severely impact the country's ecological future. Which is why questions are being raised about the effort of the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) to provide a legal definition for forests. The ministry says this will help the government identify and manage the nation's green cover more effectively. Environmentalists and lawyers, however, allege any definition will only end up freeing vast stretches of forest land for commercial use. The MOEF, they say, will be doing more harm than good. To be sure, there is no existing definition of a forest. Not even in the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, that regulates the country's green cover. Three criteria offered by the Supreme Court in a judgement in December 1996 have helped identify forest lands so far. These include all statutorily recognised forests, whether designated as reserved or protected; any area recorded as forest in any government record; and forests as understood by the dictionary meaning. These criteria, the court noted, applies irrespective of the nature of ownership or classification of forests. The definition being proposed by the MOEF has been formulated at the government's request by the Bangalore-based Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment. It defines a forest as " an area notified as such in any act or recorded as forests in any government record " . This excludes man-made plantations, fruit orchards and agroforestry tree crops on private and community-owned land. It also does away with the broad classification of forests as understood by the dictionary meaning. Ritwick Dutta, coordinator of the Lawyers Initiative for Forest and Environment, a Delhi-based NGO that lobbies for environmental causes, says this narrower definition will open forest land to commercial exploitation by business groups. Says he: " Since this definition limits what a forest encompasses, it is only going to help industries circumvent the due process of diverting forest land and paying the required compensation. Then, what about the many areas that may not be notified as a forest but may still qualify as one in the dictionary sense? " http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20071217 & fname=Forest+(F) & sid=1 Indonesia: 24) A drive to clamp down on illegal logging in Indonesia could cut supplies of raw materials to the pulp and paper industry and slash output by two-thirds next year, an industry official said on Monday. Environmentalists blame timber groups in the country for illegal logging and the destruction of forests. The pulp and paper groups have denied that they use illegally logged timber. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said last month that illegal loggers and their financial backers were " common enemies " and must be brought to justice. Muhammad Mansur, chairman of Indonesia's pulp and paper association, cited cases where firms had got permits from the forestry ministry to cut down trees in a concession but had then been targeted by the police for illegal logging. " The conflict between the forestry department and the police department has hurt raw material supplies, " Mansur told Reuters. Since the start of the year, police have tried to catch illegal loggers in areas including forest concessions owned by companies supplying wood to PT Indah Kiat Pulp & Paper and PT Riau Andalan Pulp and paper in Sumatra island, a director at a parent firm said previously. Mansur said pulp producers were expected to produce 1.68 million tonnes of pulp next year, down from an estimated of 5.2 million tonnes this year and 5.67 million tonnes in 2006. He said that in order to ensure supplies, the companies had been cutting down immature trees on their plantations, but he estimated this would only be possible until the end of the first quarter of 2008. Indonesia has 84 integrated pulp and paper mills, with a total capacity of 6.5 million tonnes, according to data from the association. http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=89615 25) Wealthy countries and a US green group donated 160 million dollars Tuesday for a new climate-change project aimed at encouraging poor developing nations to conserve their tropical forests. The World Bank-led plan was launched in Bali amid negotiations over a new framework on climate change once Kyoto Protocol commitments to curb gas emissions end in 2012. Emerging nations are demanding greater help to cut down on their own greenhouse-gas emissions as their economies catch up with the rich world. " This initiative is a practical pilot to expand the tools for climate change negotiations, " World Bank President Robert Zoellick said. Around 1.2 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods and deforestation accounts for a fifth of global greenhouse-gas emissions, according to figures cited by the Bank. The Kyoto Protocol allows developed countries to meet their obligations by funding green projects in poor economies but in its present format does not offer specific help for reducing deforestation or forest degradation. One of the issues on the table at Bali is how to provide such support in the post-2012 pact. The new programme aims to assist 20 countries, among them some of the poorest in the world, with incentives to discourage illegal logging and forest clearance for agriculture. Countries that complete a first step under the new Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) would then be eligible to a " carbon finance fund " under which they would be financially compensated for the carbon emissions saved by preserving their forests. Germany, the outgoing president of the Group of Eight (G8) wealthy nations, is the top contributor to the fund, offering 59 million dollars of the 160 million dollars pledged by nine countries and a US group. The other contributors are Britain (30 million dollars), the Netherlands (22 million), Australia and Japan (10 million dollars each), France and Switzerland (seven million dollars each) and Denmark and Finland (five million dollars each). In addition, the Nature Conservancy, a US environmental group, has pledged five million. " We must not lose another day when it comes to climate and forest protection, " German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said in a statement. " Forest protection must be a central element in a future agreement on climate change. " http://www.terradaily.com/reports/160-million-dollar_plan_to_save_forests_launch\ ed_at_Bali_talk s_999.html 26) Flagged as a " critical outcome " at the beginning of the conference, the resolution on the Adaptation Fund marked the first real progress on the so-called Bali Roadmap. Valued currently at $67 million, the Fund is financed by a two per cent levy on transactions on the Clean Development Mechanism as charted out by the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, and is expected to be worth about $5 billion by the end of the first period of commitments in 2012. However, disbursement of the Fund's resources had been stalled over quarrels regarding its administration. A major point of contention was the " one country-one vote " that developing countries felt would not be reflected if the Fund was managed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) — an international financial body supported by the World Bank. As per the resolution, the Fund will be administered by its own Board, which will have 16 members from parties to the Kyoto Protocol, with two representatives from each of the five U.N. regional groups, one each from the Least Developed Countries and the Small Island Developing states, and two each from the industrialised and developing nations as defined by the Protocol itself. Secretariat services will be provided by the GEF, while the World Bank will serve as the Fund's trustee. India and other developing countries successfully argued that these appointments be made on an interim basis, with the agreement to review them in three years' time. A resolution of the contact group on reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries marked the second major success of the day amidst furious diplomatic wrangling between the Indian and Brazilian delegations. In spite of being considered to be the source of 20 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation has consistently evaded resolution due to the seemingly intractable concerns of various countries. The basic idea behind the REDD framework is to provide countries with resources to combat deforestation and thereby limit its impact on climate change. The Indian stand point has consistently favoured a system of incentivised " conservation, " where developing countries are essentially paid to preserve their forests and, if talks progress, open up the forestry sector to trade on the carbon markets. http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=89635 27) A thesis in 1984 recorded the area of intact mangrove as 175 hectares. In 2004, a postgraduate thesis conducted in the same area found only 43 hectares remained. And it will keep shrinking, rather than increasing. Just 25 percent of the mangrove forest remains. This means we are now three times more likely to see large floods than in the past and, ironically, we have no protection, are doing nothing, ignoring the warnings, just sitting and waiting. Many explanations can explain the disaster and everybody will agree that all have one thing in common, which is they are caused by human enterprise. The recent flood is not a stand-alone disaster. First, it is the loss of the mangrove forest. At the regional scale, it is linked to condition in the front yard of Jakarta, which is Jakarta Bay and the Thousand Islands archipelago. At the distance of 10 kilometers from Muara Angke to Pulau Untung Jawa, the sea floor has been clogged by sedimentation coming from the bay, ranging from 30 cm to 1 m in depth. The dark color of the bay versus the living green color of the healthy sea captured by satellite supports this fact. As a result, the sea is losing its depth, and hence an increasing sea level. To the north, the coral reefs are each of the islands in the Thousand Islands chain has been destroyed, leaving no protection. A scientific study reported remnant reef coverage ranging from just 5 to 30 percent. Not only have we lost the reefs, but also islands due to illegal sand mining. This provides a " toll way " for the massive sea current and facilitates the tide. http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20071211.E03 & irec=2 New Zealand: 28) Protests in Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and in front of ANZ branches throughout five states in Australia today demanded that the ANZ bank stop funding forest destruction in Papua New Guinea (PNG), and in the Australian state of Tasmania. This coincides with the Bali Climate conference and Australia's apparent inability to commit to an interim target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Logging and landclearing in Tasmania account for at least 30% of that states greenhouse gas emissions and should it be built, a proposed pulp mill in Tasmania is conservatively estimated to add 2% to Australia's annual emissions. " The fact that world leaders and scientists are currently meeting in Bali and discussing logging and deforestation, and the devastating climate effects it has in releasing millions of tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere each year, should be a major wakeup call to the ANZ to stop funding these climate polluting practices, " said Paul Oosting, spokesperson for The Wilderness Society. The Stern report on climate change stated that 'curbing deforestation is a highly cost-effective way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Action to preserve the remaining areas of natural forest is needed urgently'. " Both governments and banks have a global responsibility to help cut greenhouse gas emissions. This starts with refusing support for destructive logging practices and moving to help protect intact native forests. " " Tasmanian forests are some of the most " carbon rich " of any forests in the world. As we stand outside the ANZ today, ancient trees 70-80 metres tall are being cleared and felled in Southern Tasmania's Styx Valley, in a woodchip driven logging operation, " said Mr Oosting. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0712/S00147.htm 29) Malaysian-owned Ernslaw One will buy struggling central North Island forestry company Winstone Pulp International for an undisclosed sum. Based at Ohakune, Winstone owns about 16,500 hectares of forest in the central North Island, a sawmill at Tangiwai and a pulp mill nearby at Karioi, and employs about 300 staff. At September 30, 2006, its forest crop was valued at $83 million and its fixed assets at $38.7 million. The deal is subject to Overseas Investment Office approval, but as Winstone is at present controlled by foreign interests, registered in Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands, that should not be a hurdle. It had revenue of $131 million for the year ended September 30, 2006, but made a $10.1 million loss. BusinessDay understands its pulp mill has been under fierce competition from Chinese pulp mills, and its sawmill had been under pressure coping with the current tight margins in that sector. Managing director David Anderson said the sale would not affect staff levels. " The sale will enable WPI to gain the benefits of operating on a larger scale and we look forward to joining the Ernslaw family of companies. It's part of the ongoing rationalisation of the New Zealand forestry sector. " The purchase takes Ernslaw One's forestry plantation to 100,000 hectares, making it the fourth-largest forest owner in New Zealand. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4312159a13.html Australia: 30) A forest blockade in East Gippsland enters its second day this morning after police and government officers failed to remove protesters from logging equipment. Thirty protesters are continuing to stop old growth logging, in the face of reports that deforestation is responsible for twenty percent of global greenhouse emissions. " If the Australian government is serious about addressing the threat of climate change, then old growth logging must stop immediately, " said spokesperson for the environmentalists, Mark Tylor. The logging coupe is north of Cann River, near the Errinundra National Park, and contains rainforest and habitat for the endangered Sooty Owl, which has reportedly been heard calling at night. " The Federal government was elected on the issue of climate change, yet are failing to act to protect old growth forest, which is an important carbon sink and vital for the future of the planet, " continued Mark Tylor. The group of environmentalists have been in the logging coupe over the weekend, preventing logging from continuing. Two people are locked to logging machinery and a person remains up a 30 metre high tree platform. Search and Rescue police are expected to attend the site today to remove the forest blockade. The protest follows forest blockades last week where logging was stopped in three logging coupes. http://www.sydneyalternativemedia.com/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1771282 31) Forestry Tasmania has rejected Wilderness Society claims that logging accounts for 30 per cent of the state's greenhouse gas emissions. Protests are being held around the country today calling for an end to forest destruction in Tasmania. The Wilderness Society claims logging accounts for nearly a third of Tasmania's greenhouse gas emissions. But Ken Jefferys from Forestry Tasmania says it is quite the opposite. He says the state's forests absorb carbon emissions equivalent to what would be released by almost 600,000 cars. " The research that Forestry Tasmania has done with independent consultants shows that the state forests will suck in 720,000 tonnes of carbon every year out of the atmosphere and it will lock it away in wood, " he said. " So it's simply not true to claim that forestry operations in Tasmania is carbon neutral. " " Our forests and the way that we manage our forests is sucking up the equivalent of 24 per cent of the state's entire carbon emissions, " he said. " These are seriously cool forests and it is misleading in the extreme to suggest that land clearing is being undertaken in Tasmania and it's creating a greenhouse problem it is simply not true. " http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/12/2116799.htm 32) Brendan Nelson has thrown out a climate change challenge to Kevin Rudd, calling on the Government to use rainforest protection as the basis for a world program to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions. In a policy response to the UN climate change conference under way in Bali, the Opposition Leader has offered the Prime Minister bipartisan support for short-, medium- and long-term targets to cut emissions by 2050. Opposition spokesman on climate change Greg Hunt will release the new Coalition policy in Bali today after working on it with Dr Nelson and Treasury spokesman Malcolm Turnbull. The centrepiece is for Australia to embrace a global agreement to recover rainforests and build on the $200 million international fund former prime minister John Howard set up last year. Mr Hunt wants Australia to build on the APEC Sydney Declaration and the global initiative on forests to help developing countries, particularly Indonesia and Brazil, to protect their rainforests, which are rapidly being razed for palm oil production. The policy urges the Government " to seek matching pledges from all developed countries for Australia's $200million pledge for rainforest protection and recovery " , with deforestation accounting for 20 per cent of the world's 40 billion tonnes a year of greenhouse gas emissions. Indonesia is the world's third-largest emitter because of rainforest destruction. " Given our existing leadership in this area it would be a failure if this initiative is not promoted and advanced in Bali, " Dr Nelson said. " It would also be a failure if the Government were not able to build on the existing initiative and secure pledges from the majority of developed world countries for immediate and quantifiable assistance to the developing world for rainforest protection and recovery. This global rainforest recovery plan should be for the period 2008 to 2012 and should aim to dramatically reduce CO2 from deforestation over that period. " http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22910339-5013871,00.html World-wide: 33) The rewards could be huge for Indonesia and Brazil, which account for about half of yearly deforestation worldwide. Dozens of smaller countries could cash in as well. " It can present quite an interesting amount of money, " said Ludovic Mpili, an environmental advisor to the president of the Republic of Congo. Industrial nations like the idea because, compared with the hard and expensive work of actually reducing emissions, buying reduction on the market is relatively cheap and easy. " It's one of the cheapest games in town, " Melnick said. The problem is that the market strategy -- involving vast, difficult-to-monitor expanses of jungle and billions of dollars in credits -- seems to beg for abuse. Who could know whether a forest would have been left standing even without the money? Or would protecting one piece of forest simply drive deforestation somewhere else? An Indonesian environmental group has been handing out fliers here suggesting that the system would simply be subsidizing companies that control huge swaths of land while restricting peasants from the forests. Ken Caldeira, a Stanford University climate scientist, said that including forestry into a vast global trading scheme opens myriad possibilities for gaming the system. " What might be created is an unworkable system, where real emissions get traded off semi-fictional offsets, " he said. The same objections killed attempts to include forest preservation in the drafting of the Kyoto Protocol a decade ago. Some countries have scowled at the idea because it rewards the most environmentally abusive countries, which have cut down their rain forests with abandon, while short-changing countries whose forests are still intact. Not every country with a rain forest has a deforestation problem. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, the lack of roads has made logging difficult. Other nations, such as Costa Rica, have managed to protect their forests through conservation. 34) " Everything is integrated, not only the nitrogen, carbon and climate, but also we looked at land cover and land use changes, " Jain said. " A lot of deforestation and also aforestation and reforestation are going on, and that has a direct effect on the carbon dioxide release or absorption. " Scientists have struggled for decades to build computer models that accurately predict how plants and soils will respond to rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. In the 1990s, researchers reported that crop plants such as cotton or wheat are more productive when exposed to higher carbon dioxide levels. This " fertilization effect " increases CO2 uptake and was hailed by some as evidence that Earth's forests also would take up more carbon dioxide as atmospheric levels increased. But models of the carbon cycle have failed to take into account how nitrogen availability influences this equation on the global scale, said Atul Jain, a U. of I. professor of atmospheric sciences and principal investigator on the development of the new model. Nitrogen is vital to carbon dioxide uptake in plants, and if the available nitrogen runs out, the plants won't be able to make use of the added CO2, Jain said. In an agricultural landscape, nitrogen may be added as needed, he said, but forests have limited amounts of nitrogen in their soils. The integrated science assessment model, originally developed by Jain, now has been expanded to take into account the net carbon impact of human activities and the role of rising atmospheric temperatures on the process of carbon uptake. The model accounts for different soil and vegetation types, the impact of climate and the inadvertent nitrogen deposition that results from fossil fuel and biomass burning. Interestingly, warming temperatures in response to rising carbon dioxide levels could make more nitrogen available, said Xiaojuan Yang, a doctoral student in Jain's lab. This factor must also be weighed in any calculation of net carbon dioxide load, she said. " Previous modeling studies show that due to warming, the soil releases more carbon dioxide through increased decomposition, " she said. " But they are not considering the nitrogen effect. When the soil is releasing more CO2, at the same time more nitrogen is mineralized. This means that more nitrogen becomes available for plants to use. " http://www.terradaily.com/reports/New_Model_Revises_Estimates_Of_Terrestrial_Car\ bon_Dioxide_Upt ake_999.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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