Guest guest Posted March 19, 2008 Report Share Posted March 19, 2008 Today for you 32 new articles about earth's trees! (312th edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com To Donate: Click Paypal link in the upper left corner of: http://www.peacefromtrees.org --UK: 1) Biofuels emits 9 times the carbon of standard fuels, 2) Ecotribal, 3) 82-hectare extension to Elemore Woods, --Wales: 4) Just 6% of Wales is native woodland --Scotland: 5) Forestry is moving up the agenda in Ireland --France: 6) Greenpeace takes over and illegal log ship --Bulgaria: 7) Principles and values in protection / development of forests --Lebanon: 8) Pine forests in Aley are threatened with extinction --Latin America: 9) Satellites help to define the details of vegetation types --Costa Rica: 10) Trees as heroes and protectors --Panama: 11) Talamanca mountain range and the La Amistad Biosphere Reserve --Peru: 12) Protected reserves push development to neighboring areas --Brazil: 13) Monetary Council will have to use environmental criteria before conceding a loan, 14) New strain of Coca plantations move in, --Vietnam: 15) Booming furniture industry investigated --China: 16) Desertification crisis continues, 17) Mass protests against APP --Thailand: 18) People Survive, Forest Remains program, 19) Forestry officials categorized as heartless and Phonsa is working to change that, --Philippines: 20) More government employees busted for illegal logging --Indonesia: 21) Failure of WWF and APP's agreement, 22) Landscape-based Conservation of Orangutans between Central and West Kalimantan, --Australia: 23) Post-fire renewal on Kangaroo island, 24) largest temperate burning out of control, 25) Letter to shareholders of forest destruction, 26) Investigating the management of forests of World Heritage-value, 27) Shire Council has rejected a bid by firewood entrepreneur, --World-wide: 28) 56,000 sq. miles lost each year, 29) Protect biodiversity instead of islands of land, 30) Indigenous ways of land protection affected by climate change, 31) Buying land to save it? 32) Land cover with a resolution never before obtained, UK: 1) Researchers at the University of Leeds UK and the World Land Trust have concluded that up to nine times as much carbon dioxide could be emitted using biofuels compared to conventional gasoline and Researchers at the University of Leeds (UK) and the World Land Trust have concluded that up to nine times as much carbon dioxide could be emitted using biofuels compared to conventional gasoline and diesel because biofuel crops are typically grown on land which is burnt and reclaimed from tropical forests. In a report in the journal Science, the authors conclude that protecting and restoring natural forests and grasslands is a much better way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.This study shows that if your primary concern is reducing carbon dioxide emissions, growing biofuels is not the best way to do it. In fact it can have a perverse impact elsewhere in the world. The amount of carbon that is released when you clear forests to make way for the biofuel crop is much more than the amount you get back from growing biofuels over a 30-year period. You can’t convert your car to run on biofuel and keep on driving and think that everything will be OK. You are turning a blind eye to what’s happening around the world and that in fact, you could be making things much worse. http://ninakdkmalia.wordpress.com/2008/03/17/study-global-biofuel-use-could-emit\ -9x-more-co2-th an-conventional-gasoline-and-diesel/ 2) It is being co-ordinated by Ecotribal, a UK-based organisation that collaborates with indigenous peoples to provide them with an income from sustainable products. Ecotribal works with tribal communities to develop markets for sustainable products. Most tribal communities are geographically, culturally and economically marginalised, and so Ecotribal works with them to provide solutions to these market barriers. Products include coffee, crafts, rubber products. There are also Ecotribal tours and expeditions. Such products support their culture and autonomy as well as territorial and environmental integrity. The Ashaninka Association of Producers and Treeflights are supporting the tree planting project. For each order Treeflights splits the £10 50/50 with its planting partners. Of the £5 that goes to the Peru project, £1 goes to Ecotribal for overseeing and auditing. The remaining £4 goes directly to the Ashaninka for each tree that they plant and tag. " It is exciting being involved in a project like this. We really hope it can make a difference to the Ashaninka community and the region's biodiversity, " said Ru. " We are currently setting up similar projects in Kenya and Sumatra. " There are several thousand Ashaninka living in and around Cutivireni. They are dispersed through the forested hills and valleys of the region. Politically they are organised around a school, a health post, a community, a river port and a narrow grass airstrip at Cutivireni. But the majority of the people live in or close to one of the annex villages, several of them with larger populations than Cutivireni itself. This tree planting initiative has arrived at an important moment in Ashaninka history. For geographical, cultural and historical reasons, Cutivireni represents one of the few remaining traditional heartlands of Ashaninka forests and traditions. In the last 20 years they have fought off attacks by cocaine smugglers and terrorists to take their land and or ensnare them into their agendas. In the early 21st century, however, there are new threats on the horizon. In 2002 illegal loggers arrived at Cutivireni looking to do deals on selected mahogany extraction with community chiefs. The communities were rarely offered more than 20p a cubic foot, the logging was indiscriminate and it was the first time that outsiders had been allowed into their territory since terrorists had been ejected in the early 1990s. http://www.blogeclectic.com/articles.php?id=121 3) An area of farmland between Durham and Hetton-le-Hole is to be transformed into a woodland. The 82-hectare extension to Elemore Woods was bought by the Woodland Trust in January after a campaign raised £1.35m. The land has been used for farming but will be planted with more than 90,000 native broadleaf trees to be called White Hill Woods, part of a continuous area of woodland stretching 2.5 miles between Easington Lane in Tyne and Wear and South Hetton to Littletown, Co Durham. A guided walk on Saturday March 29 will be preceded by a consultation meeting at nearby Elemore Family Golfing Centre in Hetton-le-Hole, when locals will be able to tell the Woodland Trust what they would like to see on the new site, and offer their suggestions as to how it should be managed. http://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/latest-north-east-news/Farm-makes-way-for\ -new.3888942.jp Wales: 4) Could Wales be set to return to the days when, it is said, a squirrel could travel from one end of the Valleys to the other without touching the ground? Could we see the restoration of the great native forests that Owain Glyndr and earlier Welsh princes used to ambush their enemies? One of the lesser noticed commitments in the One Wales Agreement between Plaid Cymru and Labour as their programme for government, was the pledge to, " provide support for indigenous woodlands, including a tree for all new babies and adopted children, helping to create a Welsh National Forest of native trees to act as a carbon sink. But what will that mean in reality? There is certainly a strong case for creating more native woodland in Wales. After all, just 6% of Wales is native woodland; most of the woodland that we have is coniferous. As this year's unnervingly early spring illustrates, climate change means an ever-more uncertain future for wildlife. It's no longer good enough to protect a few designated areas for wildlife. We need to create wider, more resilient areas of wildlife-friendly habitats, where wildlife can adapt – and if necessary move across the landscape – in order to survive. And native woodland is a great example of this kind of wildlife-friendly habitat. With obesity a growing problem and fears that young people are losing touch with the natural world, the more accessible native woodland for informal recreation that can be provided, the better, especially if this is near to where people live. And with ever-rising energy prices, and timber prices possibly rising alongside them, there is much to be said for expanding the native woodlands of Wales as a commercial resource – sympathetically and working with the grain of the landscape. As the One Wales Agreement suggests, the National Forest could play a useful role as a carbon sink. http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/countryside-farming-news/countryside-news/2008/03\ /18/chance-to -see-a-national-forest-through-all-the-trees-91466-20637327/ Ireland: 5) A government minister in Ireland has emphasised the importance of protecting the country's forests. Mary Wallace, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, spoke last week at the opening of the National Forestry Conference in Ireland. Delegates were told how businesses should join the campaign to protect Ireland's woodland for " environmental, economic and social " reasons. Wallace pointed out how recent changes to the Forest Environment Protection Scheme (FEPS) encourage and help businesses to protect local woodland environments. She said: " These changes to FEPS should provide a welcome boost to our planting figures. " The revised scheme has seen some changes, which will encourage the participation of holders of both smaller Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS) farms and larger REPS farms, who will find added incentive to plant under FEPS. " Wallace strongly emphasised the importance of farmers, foresters and farm planners working together in the fight to sustain forests. A government report published in Ireland recently said that forestry is moving up the agenda in Ireland as the country seeks to develop " sustainable economic, energy, environmental and climate change policies " . http://www.fairhome.co.uk/2008/03/17/irish-minister-calls-for-businesses-to-prot\ ect-the-count rys-forests/ France: 6) Caen — We've tracked a shipment of suspect wood from the Amazon to France on board the cargo ship Galina III. Some hours ago our activists climbed on the ship. Once our activists were onboard, the ship missed its chance to go into port. Its next chance is at dawn with the new tide, but for now it is headed back out to sea with our activists occupying its cranes. Our team in Brazil, and here in Europe, put months of surveillance and research into the companies behind this shipment who engage in illegal logging and ancient forest destruction. Now we're calling them out in public, to get tougher laws against people like them. Sixty to eighty percent of timber from the Amazon is illegally logged - with Europe a major buyer. Two fast boats from our ship, the Arctic Sunrise, pulled up to the 16,000 tonne Galina roughly five kilometres (3 miles) from port. Five activists managed to clamber onboard before the cargo ship's crew threw the ladder off. After reassuring the Galina's crew about their peaceful intentions, some of the activists occupied the ship's cranes. The activists onboard the Galina are from the UK, Germany, Italy and Chile. The temperature at sea is about four degrees Celsius (39deg F). According to Greenpeace Amazon campaigner, Marcelo Marquesini: Illegal logging is fuelling the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and this in turn is driving global climate change, harming biodiversity and communities. What is worse is that the EU is complicit in this destruction being the world's leading importer of Brazilian Amazonian timber. Because the EU doesn't verify that timber comes from legal sources, the door is left wide open for rogue companies to flood the EU market with illegal timber. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/amazon-galina170308 Bulgaria: 7) A special document should combine the principles and values in the protection and development of the Bulgarian forests, while its implementation should be overseen by an inter-departmental body, President Georgi Purvanov told a forum on the problems of Bulgarian forestry sector in the Sofia's University of Forestry on March 18 2008. Hosted by Purvanov, it is part of a presidential initiative for the preservation of Bulgarian forests. However, the only tangible suggestion made by Purvanov during the conference was to plant up to 500 000 trees in co-operation with the Bulgarian Union of Hunters and Fishers and environmental organisation. Additionally, the Cabinet should do more to improve the motivation of staff employed by the forestry administration, an area in which he claimed the efforts were insufficient. At the end of 2007, the forestry employees protested, demanding higher salaries. http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/purvanov-solution-for-bulgarian-forests-plant-m\ ore-trees/id_2 8216/catid_66 Lebanon: 8) ALEY: Pine forests in the Chouf region are facing a catastrophic threat that requires an emergency plan to protect the key resource, an environmental group warned on Monday. " Pine forests in Aley are threatened with extinction due to repetitive fires and damages resulting from snow storms, " Mahmoud Ahmadieh, the president of Nature Without Frontiers Association, told The Daily Star. According to Ahmadieh, fires and storms have reduced this year's pine production in the region by about 25 percent. " Pine trees not only constitute an important part of agricultural production during a certain season of the year, they are also a source of tourism revenue and attract summer visitors and big investments, " he said. Ahmadieh said statistics showed that Lebanon's production of white pine nuts " is no less than 800 tons per year. " " However, " he added, " snow storms have affected 6 percent of pine trees, particularly in areas located at medium and high altitudes. " Ahmadieh urged the government to inspect the damage caused by recent storms and to compensate pine farmers for the losses they have incurred. " We are preparing a report on conditions of the pine sector in Lebanon, in which we will also include a number of demands, " he said. " If we do not do anything, our forests will become barren. " Ahmadieh also called for offering " incentives " to farmers to promote the protection of pinewood forests. " Ten pine trees can provide a family with the necessary production as well as the quantity of wood needed for heating, " Ahmadieh said. " Pinewoods can provide sustainable economic riches, from pine nut production to firewood on condition that we exploit those forests with awareness, " he added. Ahmadieh also called on the Agriculture Ministry to allocate " small funds " to organize teams of student volunteers to clean pine forests, " instead of spending large amounts on fields [Civil Defense] that proved to be unable to limit the danger of fires. " http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1 & categ_id=1 & article_id=90008 Latin America: 9) The method involves the examination of a single pixel in a satellite image and searching the pixels, named neighbours, that are closest in their spectral values and from which field observations are available. The letter " k " refers to the number of neighbours. Based on the known neighbours, the floristic class, for example, or another indicator of the species composition can be predicted for the pixels over the study area… In her dissertation, Principal Research Scientist Sirpa Thessler from MTT (Agrifood Research Finland) combined field observations made in the lowland rainforests of the Amazonas region with satellite image analysis and was also able to predict the floristic variation of unexplored areas. By knowing the differences in species composition between areas, conservation and land use can be planned and carried out effeciently. When the floristic variaton of the region is known, new conservation areas can be planned effectively to complement the existing ones. In her dissertation, Ms Thessler examined the field observations made by the University of Turku Amazon research group in the rainforests of Ecuador, Peru and Costa Rica and combined these with Landsat satellite images taken from the same areas. The species richness in the rainforests is immense, for which reason observations in the field are practically always limited in certain indicator species. They provide information about the environmental variation of the region, such as the nutrient content and humidity of soil, thus also describe the general patterns of flora. In Thessler's study, the indicator species included grass- and shrub-like Melastomataceae species and ferns in the understorey as well as tree and palm species in the canopy layer. Field observations on hundreds of plant species were statistically summarised in three dimensions, in order to be able to present the satellite image based predictions of compositional variation in a single map. In addition various vegetation types were classified from the satellite images. http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/yournews/33415 Costa Rica: 10) I visited my study site in the tropical cloud forest of Monteverde, Costa Rica, where I have investigated forest canopy biology for the past 25 years. A huge tree recently had toppled, tearing open a giant gap in the fabric of the forest canopy and creating a sunlit area that previously had been held in deep shade on the ground. I felt deep sadness at the tree's transformation from living to dying, vertical to horizontal. Yet the new light allowed the dormant seeds in the soil to sprout and make their own way to the canopy. Later, my despondency shifted; I viewed the trunk of the fallen tree as the trunk of a fallen hero who inspires his followers to move from stasis to action, from darkness to light. Humans need heroes - entities that inspire us to overcome life challenges by demonstrating inspiration, protection and endurance. As a child, descriptions of heroes came solely from my history books - men who conquered and dismantled empires. I sought heroes from other sources, and found them, surprisingly often, in trees. The word tree is from the Sanskrit word deru, which means to be firm or solid. From it comes the words tree, durable, trust, continue and endure - all typifying heroism. Providing refuge for the unprotected is a heroic attribute, and trees provided that for me as a child. I was the middle of five energetic siblings - and accompanying pets, chores and expectations. My father, a Hindu from India, and my mother, an Orthodox Jew from Brooklyn, of Russian parentage, raised us with values and traditions that were sometimes at odds with surrounding suburban America. I struggled to gain a sense of my own self with so many dissimilar influences, and found a sense of peace when I climbed the sturdy sugar maples in our front yard after school. When my small limbs climbed into their strong limbs, I knew I would be undisturbed by parents or siblings until the dinner bell. Aloft, I occupied my own world of peace and safety. Giving without taking is another heroic quality, exemplified by a scraggly linden tree that I encountered in the tiny park near my piano teacher's house during childhood summers. As a forest ecologist, I now know that any urban tree - roots captive under cement, meagerly fed by poorly drained soils, near-stifled by car exhaust, peed on by dogs, carved on by teenagers - is a model of heroic endurance. I have learned that heroes need not be restricted to humans who are framed by television screens or the rifled arches of a 21-gun salute. I need only look out to the maple tree in my own front yard. http://www.theolympian.com/opinion/story/386308.html Panama: 11) The Talamanca mountain range, bridging southeast Costa Rica and northwest Panama, where discoveries of new species of salamanders made the news in 2007, is an unusual place. Plants and animals of both North and South America are found here. Several indigenous peoples live within the La Amistad Biosphere Reserve as well. But demands for hydroelectric power and access by road to other resources put the area's inhabitants at risk. La Amistad International Peace Park is adjacent to the Palo Seco Forest Reserve and is a major water source for the San San/Pondsak Wetlands, a designated Ramsar site. Many species of fish which require saltwater at some stage of their lives make their way into and out of the Reserve as part of their life cycle. Within the Reserve are multiple ecosystems, not just rainforest. Cloud forest, a special type of high elevation rainforest covered in cloud most of the time, and paramo, a scrub plant, grass and small tree ecosystem occurring above the tree line, are both found here. As is the largest tract of virgin mixed oak forest in Costa Rica. More than 30 percent of the park's plant species are endemic, meaning they are found nowhere else. Ocelot, puma, jaguar, Baird's or Central American tapir, squirrel and spider monkeys all make their home here. In total 215 mammal species can be found with the Biosphere Reserve. The bird life is also abundant with harpy ,crested and solitary eagles, Resplendent Quetzal and bare-necked umbrella birds, in addition to nearly 60 endemic species. Reptile and amphibian species number over 250, two of them new salamanders, have been recorded. It is suspected that further surveying will find more as this is area has a very high density of amphibians. Several indigenous peoples live in the Changuinola River basin. Three of five of Panama's indigenous tribes are found in La Amistad. http://bioamistad.wordpress.com/2008/03/16/dam-building-near-world-heritage-site\ -affects-wildli fe-and-people-nov-2007/ Peru: 12) The creation of protected reserves may be pushing development to neighboring areas, confounding overall conservation efforts in regions where development pressures are high. Such " leakage " — as the displacement is called — makes it difficult to assess the effectiveness of protected areas strategies. Reviewing the results of a study that found significant leakage near forest concessions in Peru, Robert M. Ewers of the Zoological Society of London and Ana S.L. Rodrigues of Cambridge University report on leakage concerns for conservation and methods for quantifying the effectiveness of nature reserves. The research is published in Trends in Ecology and Evolution. The Peruvian study, published by P.J.C. Oliveira and colleagues in 2007 in the journal Science, found that the deforestation rate decreased inside a newly established restricted-use area but increased outside the areas surrounding the forest concessions, " indicating that human impacts had leaked from a restricted land-use area to a nearby, unrestricted area. " Ewers and Rodrigues say the Peru study shows that " leakage can exaggerate the perceived effectiveness of reserves for reducing human impacts on biodiversity. Leakage might lead to the impression that land-use restrictions are reducing impacts when in fact they might simply be displaced across space and/or time. Consequently, leakage might accelerate the rate at which reserves become isolated habitat remnants embedded in a highly impacted landscape, " the authors write. " Leakage might affect our perception of the effectiveness of individual reserves, by magnifying differences in human impacts inside and outside their boundaries. For example, a direct comparison of deforestation rates inside versus outside a Peruvian forest concession in 2005 would show a large and significant difference, both because deforestation rates have diminished inside the concession and because they have increased outside the concession. " http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0317-ewers_rodrigues.html Brazil: 13) Thanks to a new disposition by the National Monetary Council, private and public banks in Brazil will have to follow environmental criteria before conceding a loan to producers in 550 cities located in the states of Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima, Mato Grosso, Tocantins and Maranhão. The measure seeks to prevent loans from getting to illegal deforestation projects. According to Folha newspaper, middle and large producers applying for loans will have to present an environmental license for the area where their project will take place, along with a declaration that states there is no prohibition in the use of that land. These rules also apply for partners and providers relating to the project. Banks who don't follow the rules could face fines. With this disposition, the Brazilian government hopes to stop around 2,6 billion Reais a year (about 1,3 billion US dollars) in financing to illegal deforestation projects. Read more details in the extended. ::Via Tierramerica. Additional info via Folha de Sao Paulo. The amount of credit banks will be allowed to concede will be compatible with the available land the producer is allowed to work with. If the land is in restoration process, its potential use will be determined by its State's environmental agency. Brazilian Environment Ministry stated in a note that the restrictions were adopted due to the accelerated growth of the farming sector during the last years, in order to warrant that the development takes place within a sustainable use of natural resources. More importantly, the measure is one of the many necessary to stop deforestation in Brazil, which has grown during 2007. According to the National Institute for Special Investigations, 639 square kilometers (246.654 square feet) of the Amazon were deforested only last January. http://www.treehugger.com2008/03/brazil-banks-forbidden-loans-deforestati\ on.php 14) Coca plantations and a fully-equipped laboratory for making cocaine have been found for the first time in a Brazilian part of the Amazon rainforest. A senior army officer said the find might mean drug traffickers were trying to find new locations to grow coca. The authorities would need to stay on alert, he said. The leaf, a key ingredient of cocaine, is normally grown in mountainous regions in some of Brazil's neighbours such as Bolivia, Peru and Colombia. The authorities in Brazil say it was satellite images of a large area of Amazon rainforest that had been cleared which first attracted their attention. In total, four plantations were discovered covering an area of between 100 and 150 hectares, according to the government news agency Agencia Brasil. The army and police used small boats and three helicopters to reach the area, which is near to the north western city of Tabatinga, close to the border with Peru and Colombia. The coca, which was almost ready for harvest, was found along with a fully equipped laboratory prepared to manufacture cocaine. No-one was arrested, but the coca was destroyed. The army says it is the first time that plantations like this have been discovered in the Brazilian Amazon, where the climate was not thought to favour coca fields. A different plant known as epadu, which can also be used to produce cocaine, is more common in the area, but is much less productive. The army believes drug traffickers may be trying to adapt or genetically modify the coca leaf and find new locations for plantations. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7299964.stm Vietnam: 15) Today, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Telepak release a report about illegal logging in the Mekong Region. The report, titled " Borderlines: Vietnam's Booming Furniture Industry and Timber Smuggling in the Mekong Region " documents how timber is illegally transported from Laos to Vietnam, where it is made into furniture. Furniture exports from Vietnam are expanding dramatically, relying on huge quantities of illegally-logged timber from Laos and Cambodia. Much of the furniture is exported to the US and the EU. EIA/Telepak found that some of the furniture is being sold in the UK, advertised as being FSC-certified. EIA gives the example of Your Price Furniture, an Internet trading site which sells garden furniture manufactured from keruing and balau. Your Price Furniture's website claims: " All timber is sourced from factories that have FSC (Forestry [sic] Stewardship Council) chain of custody certification ensuring that the timber originates from renewable sources. " EIA/Telepak contacted Your Price Furniture who provided two chain of custody certificate codes for two Vietnamese factories - IMC II Company and Quoc Thang. Your Price Furniture receives all of its keruing furniture from IMC II Company and all of its balau furniture from Quoc Thang. EIA/Telepak's investigations in Vietnam revealed that while Quoc Thang buys FSC certified balau from Malysia, it also buys yellow balau timber from the Vietnamese firm Tien Dat which was logged in Laos. http://www.fsc-watch.org/archives/2008/03/19/FSC_chain_of_custody China: 16) China is facing the challenge of desertification which causes economic losses of 54 billion yuan (US$6. 5 billion) to the country each year, according to an official with the State Forestry Administration (SFA). China's highest legislative body passed a law on prevention and treatment of desertification Friday, providing legal measures for desertification control efforts in the country. However, it is widely believed that the task will remain arduous in the coming years since the land-turned desert area is growing rapidly as a result of environmental and man-made factors. A survey conducted 7 years ago showed that the total area of land-turned desert has surpassed 1.69 million square kilometers, or 17.6 percent of the country's territory, said Cao Qingyao, deputy director of the SFA's Management Center of Desertification Prevention and Control. Desertification has brought about a sharp decrease in usable land, quickened deterioration of the ecological environment, worsened the poverty of the people living in the desert area, and caused huge economic losses to the country, Cao said. Cao blamed natural factors as the major cause of desertification in China, such as shortages of rainfall, poor vegetation coverage, frequent wind storms and successive droughts in dry and semi-dry areas. But irrational human activities like rampant cultivation, livestock raising and destruction of vegetation have to take some responsibility for the rapid growth of deserts, Cao said. Desert-like land has been found in 30 of 31 provinces in China, but the majority of land, is located in the west. According to the new law, new types of nature reserves are to be established in desert areas, in which road construction will be prohibited, while farmers and herdsmen living inside the area will be moved out eventually. http://www.chocolatesavy.com 17) Another environmental watchdog in China bares its fangs as Singapore-based logging giant APP is hit with charges of unlawful tree clearing. A student protest in China has also targetted supermarkets stocking APP products. The announcement comes as a mass student protest in China stage a Day of Action in six cities to call on the company to cease their " destructive logging practices " , according to a statement. The students will be boycotting APP products and will be asking companies to follow. Protestors took up positions in front of supermarket shelves featuring APP products in Beijing, Hefei, Nanning, Lanzhou, Harbin and Chengdu. Passing shoppers were told of the company's forestry operations in Yunnan and elsewhere. The State Forestry Administration has taken official action against the company and its operations in the south-western province of Yunnan. " The investigation is not finished yet, but we have indeed spotted illegal logging in an APP project after initial investigation. We believe that both APP and local governments are responsible for the violation, " Wang Zhuxiong, a senior SFA official told the official newsagency Xinhua. The news comes in the wake of a damning report by Greenpeace on the company's tree felling practices in Yunnan, which was released last November. The environmental group claims that APP sequestered a 1.8 million acre plot in, intensively clear-felled it and replaced it with plantation crops. Greenpeace says this is an example of APP's " international record of illegal logging " and is evidence that it is " repeating its traditional practice of clearing natural forest for plantations in Yunnan. Despite the fact that the company signed an understanding with provincial authorities, Greenpeace claims that there is no felling permit and that APP's operations violate China's Forestry Law. APP was quoted in a Xinhua article as saying the company only targeted wasteland. http://www.climatechangecorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=5219 Thailand: 18) Phongsa named his self-initiated programme Khon Yoo Pa Young (People Survive, Forest Remains), and there is a song that every student must be able to sing to finish the first grade. " The lyrics of the song remind them that nothing can exist as a single entity. So they have to be kind to the environment, " Phongsa says. As students move up to higher levels, they will delve deeper into more complicated subjects like forest ecology, watershed management, and even Buddhist philosophical teachings on how to live peacefully with nature. " I believe that environmental awareness must start at a young age. They must be groomed to be well-rounded individuals so that when they grow up, they will not fall prey to conniving, wealthy money barons who seek to exploit them and their forests. " His school programme, however, was frowned upon by some of his superiors, who ordered Phongsa to terminate the programme claiming that he was running an illegal school. Fat chance. An adamant Phongsa refused to throw in the towel. He continued to run environmental classes for the villagers' children and continuously revamped their content to fit current situations. His efforts finally outlasted the opposition. Now students from all over Thailand join summer camps held annually at the unit and learn to take leadership roles in saving the forest. Grooming young minds was challenging and fun, but getting the attention of students' parents is a whole new ball game. Concerned with survival more more than ants' essential relationship with other lives in the forest system, the villagers at Phato, like many other poverty-stricken families living in other provinces, felt that it was necessary for them to clear forest land for farming. One of the main culprits, according to Phongsa, is the false glorification of the benefits of mono-crop farming. Abandoning their old ways of environment-friendly farming, many villagers switched to expensive chemical fertilisers and hazardous pesticides to reap higher yields. But when the soil went bad and the entire ecosystem was disrupted, their profits plunged, putting many in the red. Searching for new fertile grounds, the villagers headed deeper into the forests. " We have to re-educate them about farming. We have to prove to them that the multi-cropping system is more sustainable and viable, " Phongsa explains. http://www.bangkokpost.com/Outlook/18Mar2008_out54.php 19) Due to their involvement in long-standing land rights conflicts in forested areas, forestry officials have been categorised as heartless people out to arrest poor forest-dwellers. Many, therefore, might expect Phongsa, head of the Phato Watershed Conservation and Management Unit, to possess a puffed-up attitude and an imperious personality that scares people off. His amicable personality is not only a pleasant surprise; his boundless enthusiasm somehow makes Phongsa, a lean man of average height - he's five feet seven inches (170 centimetres) - seem much taller and bigger than he really is. " I don't believe that the work of forestry officials should be arresting villagers and poachers and barring communities from entering the forests. We have to work hand in hand with the locals, " Phongsa says matter-of-factly. In his office-cum-visitor's centre, the pale walls are covered with colourful wooden boards featuring information on Phato and how the watershed area is protected by the unit. " Most villagers walk into a government office with fear. I don't want them to feel that way here. They can stop by my office and talk to me about everything like I'm their friend. " Ironically, his people-friendly approach is what he had learned at forestry college. " We were taught that humans are a threat to the forest. I beg to differ, " he says. After he graduated from the forestry college in Phrae province to start working, he came to realise that higher learning institutions failed miserably to inculcate a holistic environmental conscience, particularly forest conservation, into young minds. His belief in community participation in forest conservation, however, has made him a black sheep among his peers who believe that villagers are forest destroyers. So, when he was made chief of the Phato Conservation and Watershed Unit in 1990, he was determined to put his theories into practice. At the age of 26, he began his mission by spending his days talking to villagers instead of arresting them for living in the forests. In only one year, he succeeded in initiating several community-based projects to raise the villagers' environmental awareness and quality of life. " To protect the forest, one must form a robust army. And people in the community, regardless of their age and gender, are the best soldiers you can recruit because they are wise and insightful from their real-life experiences, " he says. It was not an easy task, though. The biggest challenge is erasing the villagers' deep fear and mistrust, even hatred, of forestry officials. But his sincerity finally won the the hearts and minds of the locals, particularly those of the children. http://www.bangkokpost.com/Outlook/18Mar2008_out54.php Philippines: 20) LUCENA CITY — Two more employees of the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) in Real town in northern Quezon province will be investigated for alleged involvement in illegal logging after they were implicated by two workers of the agency. This was learned from a source in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, who requested not to be named as he was not authorized to make the announcement. This developed as Herminigildo Jocson, chief of the provincial DENR office, said he had already completed the initial investigation on the earlier reported involvement with illegal loggers of Manolo Delgado, verifying forest officer and Quirino Cadeliña, chief of the Forest Resources Utilization Unit, both of Cenro-Real. Last month, the signatures of the two were found in " recycled " documents being used in the transport of illegally cut forest products. Jocson clarified that the reported documents were not " recycled " but outright spurious. " They (Delgado and Cadeliña) were not authorized to sign such documents. It was an abuse of authority, " he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net). Jocson said he recommended that the two be slapped with preventive suspension and that the DENR conduct formal investigation because of the seriousness of the charge. He said he had yet to receive an order from the office of the DENR executive director for Southern Tagalog dismissing Cenro-Real chief Antonio Diwa from his position for command responsibility. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20080317-125157/2-mo\ re-DENR-men-fac e-probe-for-illegal-logging Indonesia: 21) The agreement between the World Wildlife Fund and Asian Pulp and Paper in 2003 was touted by some as the next big thing in corporate-NGO relationships, and as a cop-out by others. WWF had for some time been aggressively pursuing corporate partnerships and had, in some ways, led the pack in what was then a burgeoning area. The criticisms came from those in the not-for-profit sector who saw that the organisation was getting too close to, and allowing itself to be associated with, a company many consider to be among the worst in sustainability terms in the region. For the company's part, it too copped some flak. By entering into a relationship with WWF, was it reneging on what some would call its hard-line business agenda? Was it endeavouring to co-opt the civil sector to further its own commercial agendas? Could it be trusted to extend a hand to an icon like WWF, without holding a knife in the other? Whatever the basis for the partnership, it broke down in February this year. The reasons for that breakdown, given the partnership's high profile and test-case status in Indonesia and the region, contain salient lessons for all non-governmental organisations and corporations here and elsewhere as corporate-NGO partnerships become more mainstream and goals-focused. The basis of the agreement was an attempt by WWF to put an end to the massive logging of native forests in Indonesia, APP's base, and other parts of the South East Asia region. APP and its parent, Sinar Mas, were and are a major logger in the region and it is fair to say might be seen as a vital centre of influence in the efforts to help put an end to rampant logging, illegal or otherwise. The company saw reason to work with the WWF as it could see its name being muddied and, as it entered a major refinancing phase, its ability to attract capital being eroded by an extended risk profile brought about by its perceived sustainability weaknesses. As the company continues its attempts to develop a capitalisation package with banks and other lenders, it remains to be seen to what extent that influence will affect the company's future. http://www.climatechangecorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=5218 22) Our proposal is not complicated; entitled simply " Landscape-based Conservation of Orangutans between Central and West Kalimantan " it aims to bring together and improve conservation initiatives already underway in West Kalimantan (by FFI) and us, in Central Kalimantan. It represents what we have long believed in – NGOs collaborating, not competing – and the pragmatic acceptance that logging operations exist but are not fatal unless the logging concession is subsequently converted to palm oil. Simple idea and, if I say so myself, the right idea; but now to jump through the hurdles. Yayorin's presence was an imperative. As the Indonesian conservation organisation who will do the implementing in Central Kalimantan, they had to be involved all the way. Quite rightly, most of the discussion took place in Indonesian, though trying to translate legalese such as " The recipient may request a waiver of the Marking Plan or of the marking requirements of this provision, in whole or in part, for each program, project, activity, public communication or commodity, or, in exceptional circumstances, for a region or country " was a struggle! So what was the outcome? Wildlife Direct is needed, perhaps more than ever. (Fingers crossed) We'll get the grant. This will expand the range of our joint operations and put more conservation flags on the map. USAID and other big donors are great at providing the training opportunities and supplying the satellite images and computing hardware to analyse them, and we are the first to say thank you for that. But simple things like rucksacks for the guys' backs, new uniforms and, indeed, anything actually for orangutans themselves falls way outside of " Locally financed procurements must be covered by source and nationality waivers as set forth in 22 CFR 228, Subpart F, except as provided for in mandatory standard provision " . http://orangutanfoundation.wildlifedirect.org/2008/03/18/the-state-of-play-the-p\ lay-of-state/ Australia: 23) Just a few months after the December 2007 fires, bushland on Kangaroo Island is recovering well and there are plenty of signs of renewal. This is particularly evident at the western end of the island, where January rains promoted widespread regrowth of mallee and woodland trees, shrub germination and the flowering of Yacca or grass trees with their distinctive spikes covered in small yellow flowers. Even areas along the South Coast Road where regeneration has lagged are starting to show signs of regrowth, with extensive resprouting of branches forming clusters of stems at the bases of mallee trees. If you look closely you will notice much of this new growth is not green but red in coloration. These new leaves have high concentrations of chemical compounds that make them unpalatable to insects and browsing animals, protecting the tree in the crucial early stage of regeneration. Wildlife is starting to be seen in many places, especially animals that are good survivorsof fire such as echidnas and goannas. Kangaroos, wallabies and possums are also starting to recolonise burnt ground that is regenerating, while small skinks appear to be thriving in many areas. Project officers from the Department for Environment and Heritage (DEH), with support from Friends of Parks volunteers, have also recently found signs of the rare Southern Brown Bandicoot in an island of unburnt habitat near Cape du Couedic. This work is part of the DEH Conservation Unit fire ecology program. In coming months we will continue the bandicoot study and begin surveys to detect other small mammals such as the Kangaroo Island Dunnart and Western Pygmy Possum. These cryptic species are hard to find and we have limited understanding of how fire affects their populations and habitat. A variety of birds are being seen wherever there is unburnt vegetation, including the Golden Whistler, the Superb Blue Wren and the White-browed Scrub Wren. The endangered Glossy Black Cockatoos at the island's western end have survived the fires but some feeding habitat and a small number of their nesting sites were burnt. http://kangarooisland.yourguide.com.au/news/local/general/bush-is-back-and-bloom\ ing/1206345.html 24) Australia's largest temperate rainforest is currently burning out of control. The Tarkine wilderness area in the north west of the island state that is now under threat of being lost to wildfire. The fire is burning in the Arthur Pieman Conservation area, the Mount Donaldson Nature Recreation, and in the state forest near Corinna. 17 000 hectares have burnt so far, and windy conditions forecast for Thursday are causing concern for firefighters. The Tarkine region covers over 440 000 hectares, from the Arthur River to the north, the Pieman river to the south and the Murchison Highway to the east. The region contains a diverse range of landscapes, including fragile sand dunes; coastal vegetation; mountainous areas like the Meredith range; and the huge expanse of temperate rainforest. The region takes its name from the Tarkiner Aboriginal people that inhabited the area. There are hundreds of significant Aboriginal sites in the Tarkine, mostly concentrated in the coastal region. The Tarkine is home to more than sixty species that are listed as rare, threatened or endangered. It is a core habitat area for the Tasmanian wedge tail eagle, the largest eagle in Australia. Dr Phil Pullinger is the president of the Tarkine National Coalition, an environment group established in 2004 that have been campaigning for the preservation of the Tarkine and eventual establishment of a Tarkine World heritage area. Phil was not surprised to hear that the fire was started by a car that crashed and caught alight. The crash occurred on the Western Explorer road, known to locals as the road to nowhere. More than one hundred people were arrested while protesting against the roads construction in the mid 1990's. Conservationists such as Phil Pullinger argued that the construction of the road would dramatically escalate the risk of wildfire in the Tarkine region. http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2008/03/182193444.htm?backyard 25) The Wilderness Society today launched an open letter to ANZ shareholders seeking their support to hold a shareholder general meeting, or extraordinary general meeting (EGM), should ANZ fund Gunns' pulp mill. " We believe that like the majority of the public, the majority of people who have shares in the ANZ bank are opposed to Gunns' proposed pulp mill. Those people have a critical role to play in deciding on the future of Tasmania's forests, climate change and economy, " said Mr Paul Oosting, pulp mill campaigner for The Wilderness Society. Australia's Corporations Act has provisions aimed at ensuring that the will of shareholders is reflected in the running of their company. Shareholder meetings or extraordinary general meetings (EGM's) give shareholders, the people who own the company, the opportunity to express their will and to obtain critical information. " If the ANZ has organised finance for the project and/or contributed funds for the mill, it will demonstrate serious systemic failures in the bank's environmental, social and economic investment policies. They will then have serious questions to answer from their shareholders. Those who own the ANZ, their shareholders, expect the bank to act on environmental and social responsibility, not just use it as greenwash, " said Mr Oosting. " We are looking for expressions of interest from ANZ shareholders who would be interested in requisitioning an EGM should ANZ fund the pulp mill. Already we have been contacted by a number of ANZ shareholders opposed to Gunns destruction of Tasmania's native forests, " said Mr Oosting. http://www.wilderness.org.au/campaigns/forests/tasmania/gunns_proposed_pulp_mill\ /MR190308/ 26) Key environment groups will today meet a high level international delegation that is investigating the management of forests of World Heritage-value in Tasmania and the negative impact logging and road building operations are having on those forests outside the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA). In addition, the mission will consider what impact logging and associated impacts of burn-offs and scarred viewfields are having on the values of the TWWHA itself. The delegation involves representatives from the World Heritage Centre, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the International Council on Monuments and Sites and is a welcome opportunity to fix the problems with the location of the boundary of the TWWHA once and for all.The Wilderness Society has been working on protecting Tasmania's key World Heritage forests for nearly 30 years, and sees this mission as a critical breakthrough opportunity. Vica Bayley spokesperson for The Wilderness Society today said, " There are a number of critical areas of World Heritage significance that are excluded from the protection the TWWHA should afford. " " The outstanding values of areas such as the Styx, Weld, Upper Florentine, and Great Western Tiers are should be fully protected within the TWWHA, with spin-off benefits for water, aboriginal heritage, protecting biodiversity and the global challenge of dealing with climate change, " said Mr Bayley. Environment groups will be taking the mission delegates in a helicopter flight along the border of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage area in South-West Tasmania, including field trips into areas of threatened World Heritage-value forest in the Weld Valley and the Upper Florentine Valley. Environment Tasmania, Tasmania's Conservation Council, is a peak body that represents more than 20 environment groups across the state. Several of Environment Tasmania's member groups will be making representations to the World Heritage delegation. " Environment groups are united in their view that the destruction of World Heritage-value forests is totally unacceptable – and is in breach of Australia's international obligations under the World Heritage convention, " said Dr Phill Pullinger, Chairperson of Environment Tasmania. http://www.wilderness.org.au/campaigns/forests/tasmania/MR180308/ 27) Upper Lachlan Shire Council has rejected a bid by firewood entrepreneur Mr. B. Smillie to log growing trees in his portion of the Mt. Rae forest. The decision overturned a recommendation from Council's Environment Officer, Mr. Robert Mowle, that the application be approved in view of the Department's stand. Debate on the matter took place at Council's meeting at Gunning on Thursday, before a crowded gallery which included Mr. Smillie. Every Councillor who spoke opposed the idea of felling trees for firewood, and Cr. Bill Martin's motion to refuse Mr. Smillie's bid to vary Council's original approval to remove fallen timber only was carried unanimously. Mr. Smillie had an application before Council to modify the original order to allow him to fell trees - a proposition which was supported by a Property Vegetation Plan which had been approved by the Department of Climate Change and Environment. Cr. Martin's motion, which was seconded by Cr. John Coombs, put forward three reasons to reject the application. Firstly, he claimed it could not be termed a " modification " because it was not substantially the same development for which the original consent was granted. Secondly, the likely adverse environmental impact made it unacceptable. And thirdly, the forest should be preserved in the public interest. Before the Council debate, former Councillor and lifetime resident of the area Mr. Eric Hurn spoke briefly on behalf of the Landcare movement. Mr. Hurn has been deeply involved in Landcare since its inception, particularly with the Roslyn group, and was a co-ordinator for the movement which now has 21 groups in the Shire. " Roslyn group opposes this concept because of the damage it will do, " Mr. Hurn said. 'Over the years we have seen the loss of habitat because of over clearing and destructive work " Mr. Hurn said the Mt. Rae forest played an integral part in the development of the " corridors " of trees that were the focal part of Landcare strategy. " It's pretty important also to all of the catchment, to see Mt. Rae preserved, " he said. " " It is a rare forest despite what has been said, " It feeds wildlife into our corridors and areas of remnant growth. " http://crookwell.yourguide.com.au/news/local/general/council-defies-dept-resound\ ing-no-to-mt-ra e-logging/1201460.html World-wide: 28) Every second a slice of rainforest the size of a football field is mowed down. More than 56,000 square miles of rainforests are lost each year. The rainforests, which cover less that 2 percent of the Earth's total surface area, are home to 50 percent of the Earth's animals. Temperate rainforests used to exist on almost every continent in the world. Now only 50 percent (75 million acres) of these forests remain worldwide. Rainforests are needed as part of our global environment and well-being. Rainforests act as the world's thermostat by regulating temperatures and weather patterns. Rainforests are critical in maintaining the Earth's limited supply of drinking and fresh water. One-fifth of the world's fresh water is found in the Amazon Basin. The rainforests and the destruction of them should be a concern to every citizen of the planet. The Center for Biological Diversity is leading efforts to stop the planned dam construction. Relocating the project to an already disturbed watershed and reviewing alternative energy sources are options for providing power without destroying La Amistad and San San/Pondsak. And RARE is working to build awareness and support for protecting La Amistad within local communities, including the indigenous tribes most likely to be affected. With several organizations, both local and international, exploring ways to ensure the protection of the park while finding ways to help improve the lives of the people of the area, perhaps an answer can be found. http://www.sanduskyregister.com/articles/2008/03/15/viewpoints/reader_forum/6442\ 52.txt 29) With human activity pushing more and more species to the brink of extinction--species abundance has declined by 40% between 1970 and 2000 alone--the need to protect biodiversity has never been more urgent. In a new essay published this week in the open-access journal PLoS Biology, conservation biologist Luigi Boitani and his colleagues argue that the next meeting of the World Conservation Congress in October is the perfect opportunity to codify policies that can make significant gains in biodiversity conservation and stanch the loss of species, habitat, and ecosystem services. Organized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the meeting will bring together a large constituency of conservationists to discuss the most pressing issues in biodiversity conservation. A key issue on the agenda will be the revision of the IUCN categories of Protected Areas. Though conservation biologists have long recognized Protected Areas' value for conserving biodiversity and for facilitating species and habitat management and recovery, these roles have not been incorporated into the parameters that the IUCN uses to categorize Protected Areas. Boitani et al. make the case that shifting the focus of the categories toward conservation outcomes would substantially enhance their value as tools for protecting biodiversity. The authors argue that " such a redesign would reduce the subjectivity of current classifications in favor of more objective criteria, appropriately based upon definable biological components. " By basing categories on conservation objectives concerning the species, communities, or processes that are to be maintained or restored--including, for example, viability of populations or set of habitat types to be maintained--progress and successes can then be monitored and recorded. With over 100,000 protected areas worldwide, the switch from management-based outcomes to biodiversity-based outcomes will have huge implications for preserving the earth's rapidly diminishing biodiversity. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Making_Protected_Areas_Pay_Biodiversity_Divide\ nds_999.html 30) Honduras' Quezungal farmers have an age-old trick to protect their crops from hurricanes -- planting them under trees whose roots would anchor the soil, thereby holding the crops steady. Not just these farmers, but many indigenous people around the world are sitting on a treasure trove of traditional knowledge that could be mined as the world seeks adaptation strategies to deal with climate change, the International Union for Conservation of Nature said on Monday. " Indigenous people have a lot of techniques to adapting to climate change that we can learn from, " the group's chief scientist Jeffrey McNeely told journalists in Geneva. These are strategies including crop diversification in order to minimise the risk of harvest failure, or change in food storage methods including drying or smoking foods according to climate variability. " They are not just victims, because of their long dependance on nature they've developed strategies to cope with climate change and extreme natural events which still have as much relevance today as they did hundreds of years ago, " said IUCN General Julia Marton-Lefevre. However, these populations are also the most vulnerable to climate change, and are seeing effects of climatic changes rendering unreliable the knowledge they have accumulated about the world. For example, Indonesia's East Kalimantan hunter-gatherer Punan people look out for a full moon when planning to plant fruit trees, as it increases the chances of a yield of large fruits. On the other hand, the day when the moon is shaped like a letter 'c' in reverse is the day to avoid cultivating fruit trees and rice. " But with the changes of climate these lunar signals may no longer coincide with the favourable times for these activities and the Punan may be misled in taking their decisions, " said the IUCN in its report. Urging more involvement of indigenous people in the climate change dialogue, McNeely said: " The people who are hardly being mentioned are the ones most likely to be heavily impacted by climate change. " http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Indigenous_people_can_offer_climate_change_sol\ utions_IUCN_999 ..html 31) Buying land - whether an acre of tropical rainforest, an elephant corridor or British woodland - is a practical way of saving it from development. But land owned by the government of a poor country that wants to exploit its natural resources may not always be available for purchase. Logging, mining and other resource-development activities offer the prospect of tangible economic benefits; conservation does not. But conservationists have learned that huge tracts of public forest in the developing world are being leased by governments at less than $1 per hectare (2.5 acres) a year - a price that some of them can afford. The total costs of conservation - comprising the costs of leasing, monitoring and protection - can be as little as $1-2 per hectare per year in forests around the world. At such prices, conservation organizations can outbid logging and mining companies, and can also pay locals to manage the intact ecosystems. Conservation concessions are attractive to governments, too. They offer a steady stream of income which is often more dependable than taxes on timber or agricultural goods. The idea of conservation concessions was first mooted in 2000 by Conservation International (CI), an environmental advocacy group based in Arlington, Va.; and Hardner & Gullison Associates, a conservation consultancy based in Amherst, N.H. Richard Rice, CI's chief economist, has been involved from the start. His first lease was for 81,000 hectares (200,150 acres) of pristine forest in Guyana. Since then, he has done deals in Peru, Sierra Leone, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Mexico. The agreements are no different from logging contracts, or any other business deal that grants control over natural resources. The terms of the lease can be tied to conservation, and can be terminated in the event of biodiversity loss, if the owner fails to protect his land. This provides more incentive for ongoing land protection than a one-off payment. The success of these deals relies on low opportunity costs. Dr. Rice says that although leasing for conservation seems expensive, when compared to the billions of dollars spent on failed sustainable-use projects like ecotourism and sustainable logging, its benefits are clear. http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/mar/17/na-rent-a-tree-leasing-the-environment-t\ o-protect-/ 32) A new global portrait taken from space details Earth's land cover with a resolution never before obtained. ESA, in partnership with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, presented the preliminary version of the map to scientists last week at the 2nd GlobCover User Consultation workshop held in Rome, Italy. Earth's land cover has been charted from space before, but this map, which will be made available to the public upon its completion in July, has a resolution 10 times sharper than any of its predecessors. Scientists, who will use the data to plot worldwide land-cover trends, study natural and managed ecosystems and to model climate change extent and impacts, are hailing the product - generated under the ESA-initiated GlobCover project - as 'a milestone.' " The GlobCover system is a great step forward in our capacities to automatically produce new global land cover products with a finer resolution and a more detailed thematic content than ever achieved in the past, " Frederic Achard of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) said. " This GlobCover product is much more than a map. It is an operational scientific and technical demonstration of the first automated land cover mapping on a global scale and may provide the detailed description of the land surface states needed for regional climate modelling, " said Prof. Pierre Defourny, from the Universite catholique de Louvain, who designed the land classification process. " Land cover data is an essential requirement of the sustainable management of natural resources, environmental protection, food security, climate change and humanitarian programmes, " John Latham of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said. " The GlobCover product will be the first freely available product at 300m resolution and is therefore a milestone product which will be fundamental to a broad level stakeholder community. " http://www.spacemart.com/reports/New_Portrait_Of_Earth_Shows_Land_Cover_As_Never\ _Before_999.ht ml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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