443 - Latin America Tree News

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Index: --Latin America: 1) Moriche Palm provides food & shelter for humans and wildlife, 2) 4 Personal Crusades for Nature, --Cuba: 3) Tree protection movement--Trinidad & Tobago: 4) Petition to help save Mangroves

--Nicaragua: 5) Bianca Jagger speaks for the tree,--Colombia: 6) Lack of policies against indiscriminate deforestation--Ecuador: 7) Shrimp farmer destroying Mangroves, 8) Judge says Ecuador has to pay Chevron's fines?

--Guyana: 9) Iwokrama meets Canopy Capitol, 10) President unveils plan today,--Suriname: 11) Update on 1998 protection for Eco-Tourism efforts--Bolivia: 12) Measuring trees for CO2 capture--Peru:

13) Amid corruption Independent forest preservation by underfunded

activists, 14) Land of the lost Cloud People, 15) Amphibians loss may

be underestimated, 16) They say they can end deforestation in 10 years ?--Amazon region: 17) New book: The Roots Of Deforestation In The Amazon.--Brazil:

18) Brazil promises to block 1st world offsets that save 3rd world

forests, 19) The next big promise to limit logging, 20) Massive

escalation after four years of a tiny decline in logging rates, 21)

3-part series on REDD and agriculture, 22) police officers on Wednesday

to quell looting by homeless and hungry landslide victims, 23) Forest

Defender named Sir Ghillean (Iain) T. Prance, 24) Satellite Photo of

Fires in the Amazon, 25) Sign Greenpeace petition to congress, 26) Big

AG pulls funding from new farms in Brazil, 27) Deforestation figures

for this month, Articles:Latin America: 1)

Mauritia flexuosa, commonly known as the Moriche palm, aguaje, burití

(and a variety of other names) is a large palm which is native to

tropical South America and Trinidad. It grows in permanently or

temporarily flooded forests, and often forms monodominant stands. In

parts of South America these stands cover thousands of hectares at

densities which can exceed 300 trees per hectare. Moriche palms are

important as a source of "food, fiber, oil, medicinals, materials for

construction and fishing equipment, and fallen stems serve as a

substrate for raising of edible larvae of the palm beetle (suri,

Rhynchophorus palmarum)"1 Palm fruits are important food sources both

for humans and wildlife. The outer surface of the Moriche fruit is

reddish-brown and scaly. Beneath this is a thin layer of yellowish pulp

which covers a large seed. This pulp is used in Peru to make ice cream,

popsicles and cold drinks. Consumption in Iquitos ranges from 22-150

tonnes/month. The harvest and sale of the fruit is an important source

of income for rural people in the Peruvian Amazon.1 The idea of a

non-timber product from the rainforest with a well-established

market…it seems too good to be true. And in a sense, it is. While it

would seem to be the perfect tool for forest conservation, demand for

aguaje has led to the degradation or destruction of extensive areas of

Moriche swamps. You see, the normal way to harvest the fruit is to cut

down the tree. Aguaje production around Iquitos, Peru, is estimated to

lead to the destruction of at least 24,000 trees annually.1 It takes

7-8 years for an individual to reach maturity, so the rate of

replacement of cut trees is pretty slow. Add to that the fact that the

most productive trees are cut (it takes the same effort to cut down a

tree with a large fruit crop as it does a tree with few fruit) and the

end result is pretty obvious. Not only do aguaje collectors have to

travel to more and more remote sites in order to harvest fruit, the

trees left behind to re-seed the area are the ones that produce the

least attractive crops. In addition, moriche swamps are important food

resources for wildlife.1 http://ianramjohn.wordpress.com/2008/11/30/seeking-sustainability-in-amazonian-palm-production/

2)

Elba Muñoz rescues and cares for mistreated monkeys in Chile; Trinidad

Vela revived a dry riverbed and saved her Peruvian community from

drought; Rubén Pablos has spent 12 years restoring the native

Patagonian forest in southern Argentina; and Angela Corvea is

cultivating awareness about the environment in Cuba. 1) Muñoz, a

58-year-old midwife, founded the Peñaflor Centre for Primate Rescue and

Rehabilitation, 40 kilometres west of the Chilean capital. Sixty

percent of the 6,000 dollars the centre spends monthly comes from Muñoz

and her family. The rest is donated by more than 240 " sponsors. " The

centre today is home to 145 monkeys of 10 different species. 2) In

Peru, Trinidad Vela was born 72 years ago in the Amazonian village of

Juanjuí, along the Huallaga River, which in the 1980s became a cemetery

for victims of Peru's internal armed conflict, and is now threatened by

drug traffickers and deforestation. There, in a degraded area of

pasture land in the eastern region of San Martín, this daughter of

peasant farmers, who never finished primary school, planted a forest 14

years ago that revived the flow of a dry riverbed. In 2005, the water

saved her local farming community from the worst drought in this part

of the Amazon jungle. " At first, everybody thought I was crazy because

I didn't want to burn off or cut down the weeds, and I began to plant

species to recover the flow of our stream. They said 'she is wasting

the land and she's not working the soil', " Vela tells Tierramérica.

While others planted coca bushes or orange trees, she planted mahogany

and cedar to attract native birds, mammals and insects back to their

original habitat. 3) In Argentina, Rubén Pablos has led a reforestation

project since 1996 in the native forest of the southwestern city of

Bariloche. Fires, which in the 1990s decimated 10,000 hectares a year

in the Nahuel Huapí National Park, were his wake-up call. At first he

channelled his concerns by serving as a volunteer fire fighter in the

forests. That experience revealed to him that no entity was working to

recuperate what the fires destroyed. That is how the Native Andean

Patagonian Forest Restoration Project was born. The initiative includes

the Bariloche Forest Nursery, which produces 50,000 seedlings of

various species to be planted in reforestation efforts. 4) In Cuba,

Angela Corvea, 59, is busy raising public awareness on the environment.

Corvea's message is aimed at children. " They are like sponges; they

take in everything that one plants in their brains. My intention is to

alert them and make them concerned, but also keep them busy, " she tells

Tierramérica. With Acualina, a cartoon character on the government-run

educational television channels, her ideas have spread across the

entire country. The character is a girl, a child philosopher dressed

like the ancient Greeks, highlighted by the colours of the Cuban flag.

Acualina's likeness can also be found on posters, matchboxes,

calendars, prepaid phone cards, a web site and two books. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45014

Cuba:3)

In December 2006, a State Forestry Service brigade radically pruned a

one-hundred-year-old ceiba tree in the San Agustín district, on the

outskirts of Havana, allegedly to prevent its branches from falling on

a two-storey building that at the time housed a clinic. " Before that, I

wasn't very involved with my community, I didn't care much, " Díaz

admitted to IPS. " But when they pruned that tree, I realised I had to

do something, " he said. Díaz, a young biologist, took photographs and

made a video with images of the damaged tree, spoke with anyone passing

by the spot, to convince them to sign a petition, and wrote to dozens

of people to alert them to what had happened. Shortly after his

actions, he was contacted by Forestry Service officers who informed him

that the brigade had gone against the pruning order. The positive

response from the authorities and the support of individuals and

institutions prompted him to publish an electronic newsletter, El

Guardabosques, which is described as " an alternative in environmental

communication. " The bimonthly publication is backed by the Cultural

Department of the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución, where Díaz

works as a computer specialist. It is currently emailed to more than

500 rs, mostly universities, research centres, cultural

organisations, and artistic institutions, both in Cuba and abroad. Each

number features environmental protection news, reports denouncing

environmentally-harmful actions, scientific articles, ecology-related

illustrations and literary pieces, in addition to information on

environmental regulations and laws. In every issue, El Guardabosques

invites its readers to report any attacks on trees witnessed anywhere

on the island. The newsletter also aims to turn into a means of

encouraging citizens to become actively involved in their own

environmental education. According to the Agriculture Ministry's

Forestry Planning Department, as of 2006, a little less than six

percent of the territory of the province of Havana -- the smallest of

Cuba's 14 provinces -- was made up of wooded areas. The Cuban capital

complies with the World Health Organisation (WHO) standard that

recommends having 10 or more square metres of green spaces per capita.

Data from the State Forestry Service indicates that Havana has an

average of 13 square metres per inhabitant, with some suburban areas

having as much as 33 square metres. In 1996, the city launched a

reforestation programme, known as My Green Programme. The main

objectives are " reverting the silent catastrophe of the province's

deforestation, " and achieving effective city planning to care for

existing trees and plant new ones wherever possible. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44923

Trinidad & Tobago:4)

Recently, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago signed an agreement

with Essar Steel of India to build a steel mill in the center of a

number of communities in the North Claxton Bay area. It has also

contracted with Saipem, an Italian firm to build a port next to the

steel mill and fishing port in the area. These projects will be ruinous

to the economy, health, environment and livelihood of the residents of

Claxton Bay and environs, and citizens of the West Coast and Trinidad

and Tobago generally. A No Port, No Steel Mill Campaign has been raging

on the island over the past two years. Activists have engaged in

meetings with leading government officials, protests, rallies, numerous

media campaigns, fasting, legal action, national sensitization, the

burning of tyres and direct action against surveying and soil testing

activities. A number of activists have been arrested. Please take a

moment TODAY to support environmental groups and fishing families in

Trinidad and Tobago who oppose construction of a steel mill and

industrial port. These projects threaten marine and mangrove habitat

and the health and livelihoods of hundreds of families that depend on

the local fishery. Trinidad's president has agreed to meet with

environmentalists on Monday, Dec 8. They are trying to get as many

signatures as possible on their petition to present to the president.

It only takes a minute to sign the petition. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/957999809

Signatures are needed TODAY. Thanks for supporting this local movement

for environmental protection and environmental justice in the

Caribbean. http://www.mangroveactionproject.org/news/action-alerts/emergency-action-protect-mangroves-and-fishermen-trinidad

Nicaragua: 5)

Among Bianca Jagger's happiest memories are long forest walks in her

native Nicaragua with her mother. Today, she said, that love of nature

inspires a struggle to stop what she believes is a looming

environmental disaster that would deny her granddaughters the same

pleasure. Jagger is attending a two-week U.N. climate conference in

Poznan, Poland, lobbying to save the world's rain forests and reduce

the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for weather that already devastates

the lives of some of the world's poor. Jagger, 58, chairwoman of an

environmental group called World Future Council, said Sunday she hoped

the talks among 190 nations seeking a new climate change treaty " will

not be an exercise in futility. " The former model and ex-wife of

Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger is using her celebrity to raise

awareness of what she says is the need to stop climate change. In an

interview with The Associated Press, Jagger spoke with passion about

forest preservation, which has emerged as an important issue at the

climate talks. The cutting and burning of forests is responsible for 20

percent of carbon dioxide emissions caused by man, according to U.N.'s

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Negotiators are seeking to

make protection of forests part of a new treaty that would replace the

Kyoto Protocol — an earlier climate change agreement that will expire

in 2012. " Scientists have sounded the alarm bells and told us we have

only 10 or 12 years before the point of no return, " Jagger said. " We as

a generation have failed our children and our grandchildren. " She said

it was her mother who gave her a love of nature, teaching her the names

of the wild orchids and other flowers in Nicaragua's rain forests. " Of

course we didn't think of ourselves as environmentalists then, " said

Jagger, drinking green tea and fresh grapefruit juice in a hotel lobby.

Jagger's mother died two years ago. But she said she returns often to

Santa Maria de Ostuma, the mountain hotel, with 1,100 acres of

surrounding property, where she and her mother vacationed. She said she

was dismayed to see the environmental degradation of the region. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jKKUaIOteWuGQ4_9H-rwIAywnlmwD94U1N080

Colombia: 6)

The lack of policies against indiscriminate deforestation in river

basins, in synergy with the rainy season, which is heavier than usual

this year because of the La Niña climate phenomenon, has had

devastating effects in Colombia. This " winter, " as the rainy season is

called in this country, there have already been 600 local disasters

caused by gale-force winds and constant, heavy rainfall. Rivers have

burst their banks, and landslides and avalanches of all kinds have

occurred, meteorologist Max Henríquez told IPS. The rains began in

September and will probably only let up in mid-December, because of La

Niña. " Throughout 2007 and for several months this year we have

experienced this climate phenomenon, caused by the cooling of the

surface waters in the Pacific ocean, which brings above normal

rainfall, " the meteorologist said. So far no one is venturing to

predict when the winter season will end. According to the National

Disaster Prevention and Response System (SNPAD), 50 people have been

killed, 85 injured, nine are missing and 735,000 have been left

homeless. The government of President Álvaro Uribe has announced

deliveries of aid, and the Colombian Red Cross has organised solidarity

campaigns which recently allowed it to provide over 600 tonnes of food,

clothing and utensils. " The problem is not nature; nature is not

deliberately out to get anyone, as some people think. Human beings are

the problem, because we don't do the right things, " Henríquez said.

" Cutting down trees in the river basins means that the rains are not

contained, but sweep down rapidly into streams and rivers, which rise

and overflow. Deforestation causes problems by accelerating the water

cycle on land, " he said. The expert said that those responsible for

uncontrolled deforestation included coca farmers, as well as those who

build luxurious holiday homes, " campesinos " (small farmers) who fell

trees for firewood, and carpenters who use them to make furniture, but

above all, cattle ranchers extending their pasture lands. " Sixty

percent of deforestation in Colombia is due to cattle ranching, " he

said. The expansion of the agricultural frontier alone has invaded

312,000 hectares of forests in the last 20 years, while illegal crops

like coca and opium poppies have taken over about 30,000 hectares. " The

relatively young geological age of the Andes mountain chain " is also a

factor in disasters, with its propensity to volcanic eruptions and

earthquakes, and so is poverty, as people with no other options settle

in places unsuitable for habitation, and the ambition and greed of

construction firms that do not carry out the necessary studies and

build in an irresponsible manner. In addition, the inertia of the

planning offices that do not fully comply with regulations for

authorising and inspecting buildings can lead to tragedies such as

happened this year in an exclusive neighbourhood of Medellín, the

capital of the northwestern province of Antioquia. In El Poblado, the

most affluent and exclusive district of Medellín, a landslide of 65,000

cubic metres of earth buried six houses on Nov. 16, leaving 10 people

dead. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44993

Ecuador: 7)

The activities of the Puro Congo shrimp farm are destroying the

Majagual mangrove area, known for possessing the tallest mangroves in

the world. This was the conclusion of members of the Spanish NGO,

Azacan-Serso Castilla y Leon, during a fact-finding, evaluation and

technical follow-up visit to the area. Jesus Gomez Perez and Karmele

Burzaco Foronda, who inspected the zone, detailed that among the

activities affecting the mangrove area are: construction of a cement

wall on the beach that is rerouting currents; illegal canals that take

water from the estuary in order to feed the shrimp ponds; and the

extraction of water by electric pumps. For them, the way to recuperate

the Majagual mangroves is by preventing the shrimp farm in mention from

functioning, "given that while the shrimp farm is there, the forest is

condemned," they assured. Gomez Perez added that they are developing an

international campaign. The subject has already been presented to

Spanish legislators and there exists a lot of interest in Congress. In

addition, they are dialoguing with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and

currently hope to reach the European Parliament and possibly the United

Nations. The appearance of the shrimp farm has decreased by a

significant amount the collection of cockles by locals, threatening

their way of life and causing them to migrate away from the area.

"Studies show that shrimp farm production generates about US$18,000 per

hectare of mangrove, while artisanal fishing and shellfish collecting

(extractivist activities) generate US$188,000 per hectare," says Gomez

Perez. http://www.mangroveactionproject.org/news/current_headlines/mangroves-of-majagual-ecuador-are-dying

8)

Ecuador has been ordered to pay US oil giant Chevron 1.6 billion

dollars by an international court in a long-standing dispute over

alleged environmental damage, the company said on Thursday. Chevron

filed the complaint at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague

arguing that Quito had violated a bilateral investment agreement. The

US firm also said Quito had demonstrated " legal irregularities " in

seven large commercial claims for damages on production contracts

before Ecuadorean courts. " This ruling is of utmost importance to

Chevron since this matter could be evaluated by a qualified and neutral

forum outside Ecuador, " the company said in a statement to media. In

April, Chevron rejected a court report holding it liable for 16.5

billion dollars in alleged environmental damage when the company,

formerly known as Texaco, extracted crude in the Amazon jungle between

1964 and 1990. Texaco was subsequently sold to Petroecuador, Ecuador's

state-run oil company. The statement added that Ecuador faces

arbitration in other international disputes. " The total demand easily

exceeds five billion dollars, " the company said. Several indigenous

communities filed a class-action lawsuit against Chevron in 2003

seeking compensation for soil pollution in their Amazon homelands. The

Amazon Defense Coalition has led a 27-billion-dollar compensation claim

on behalf of dozens of rainforest communities and five indigenous

groups. The coalition says Chevron dumped over 18.5 billion gallons of

toxic " produced water " in the Amazon waterways, filled pits with toxic

sludge and spilled at least 17 million gallons of crude oil, affecting

30,000 rainforest residents during the 16-year period. In 1990, a New

York court ordered Texaco to stand trial in Ecuador on environmental

charges, the first time a US oil company was told to answer to charges

in a foreign country. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/International_Business/Ecuador_ordered_to_pay_16_bn_to_Chevron/articleshow/3794665.cms

Guyana:9)

The Iwokrama scheme was originally set up in 1996, at a time when

Guyana's President Chedi Jagan was keen to prop up his country's

flagging international credibility. It was intended as a visionary and

self-sustaining new scheme to balance conservation with sustainable

rainforest use and provide world-class facilities for scientific

research. But the economics of the scheme were never sound. Having

built a large centre and employed numerous staff, it has always relied

heavily on support from donors and, increasingly, the revenue from

logging operations, which have now been allocated across half the

area's 370,000 hectares. By 2007, the scheme was effectively out of

cash, and in search of new forms of income. Enter, in 2008, Canopy

Capital, in the form of Hylton Murray-Philipson, a former banker, and

Andrew Mitchell, a rainforest canopy scientist and founder of the

Global Canopy Programme. Canopy Capital contracted with the government

of Guyana to 'buy' the 'ecosystem services' of the area, for an as-yet

undisclosed sum. Murray-Philipson has said that it is important for his

kind of project to "deliver a better living for local people", but

exactly how much of Canopy Capital's money is reaching local

communities has also not been divulged. Murray-Philipson and Mitchell

have also been close advisors to the Rainforest Project of Prince

Charles, who has been Royal Patron of the Iwokrama project since 2001.

The British heir to the throne talks in a web video about Iwokrama as

an example of how 'ecosystems services' markets can work, and

specifically mentioned Canopy Capital's Guyanese venture during a BBC

radio interview earlier this year. The dual role of Mitchell in both

the Global Canopy Programme, which has strongly lobbied European

decision makers for inclusion of forest credits in the Emissions

Trading Scheme, as well as in Canopy Capital, which would no doubt

stand to gain financially from such a policy development, has also

raised a few eyebrows. As Murray-Philipson said in his interview with

Mongabay.com,"If you can't make something work in Guyana, I'm not sure

you are going to ever make it work anywhere." There may be more truth

to this than he realises. On the basis of what has happened at Iwokrama

so far, the precedent for these kinds of projects in terms of

transparency, respect for indigenous rights, and consultation, is not

very promising. Prince Charles, who has been a committed long-time

supporter of the world's indigenous forest people, may fail to be

amused on learning that Iwokrama's indigenous inhabitants appear to

have been treated with less than full respect by the Canopy Capitalists

and their partners in the Guyanese government. http://www.redd-monitor.org/2008/12/03/canopy-capitals-iwokrama-guyana-project-shrouded-in-secrecy-indigenous-residents-not-consulted/

10)

President Bharrat Jagdeo will today launch Guyana's position on Avoided

Deforestation at the Guyana International Conference Centre at

Liliendaal. He will unveil the main features of the technical report

that outlines Guyana's position and a large number of stakeholders are

expected to be present, a press release from the Government

Infor-mation Agency (GINA) said. Head of the Presidential Secretariat,

Dr. Roger Luncheon at his post-cabinet media briefing at the Office of

the President yesterday noted that Guyana has very high forest coverage

and its standing forest has been subjected to a historically low rate

of deforestation. "As you know, standing forests in this era of climate

change and global warming is no longer questioned as a public good. As

a consequence, Guyana expects that its contributions in maintaining its

standing forests, its contributions to world economic conservation and

environmental conservation would be treated fairly in the marketing of

environmental services in combating carbon emissions" Luncheon said.

The release stated that for some time now, Jagdeo has been lobbying for

Guyana to receive monetary compensation for its standing forests. He

has also offered the services of the forest in the world's battle

against climate change. Guyana is one of four countries remaining in

the world which still have their forests intact, GINA asserted. As a

consequence, President Jagdeo has been recognized on the international

front for his efforts, especially in the environmental arena, the

release added. http://stabroeknews.com/news/president-to-unveil-avoided-deforestation-position/

Suriname:11)

Ninety percent of Suriname appears this primordial, a vast, pristine

wilderness broken only by isolated Amerindian and Maroon settlements

and - a foreboding development - the makeshift camps of Brazilian gold

miners. By some estimates, this constitutes more intact rain forest

than all of Central America combined. In 1998, the Surinamese

government was on the verge of parceling out a huge swath of it to

Asian logging companies until a constituency led by Washington's

Conservation International (CI) intervened, convincing the government

it was better off staking out a future in ecotourism. It set aside the

Central Suriname Nature Reserve, a 6,000-square-mile corridor of virgin

forest in the country's heartland. To make good on its promise, CI

spruced up a pair of tourist lodges at an area called Raleighvallen,

the reserve's northern gateway. Back in the 1970s, Raleighvallen was

internationally recognized as a birdwatchers' paradise, attracting

Americans long before current hot spots like Costa Rica siphoned their

numbers. But political instability in the 1980s crippled Suriname's

tourism industry; it's only just recovering.The government's nature

conservation agency, which manages the facilities at Raleighvallen,

remains a slumbering and disorganized bureaucracy - good for rain

forest preservation, because extraction deals are slow to develop, but

frustrating for efficient ecotourism. A burgeoning private sector has

emerged instead, resulting in the construction of several new jungle

lodges across the interior. The tourists remain overwhelmingly Dutch,

thanks to direct flights between the capital, Paramaribo, and

Amsterdam. U.S. travelers must typically endure at least two flights, a

transfer in Trinidad or Aruba and an after-midnight arrival. It's far

greater hassle than vacationing in Costa Rica, but it's part of

Suriname's back-of-beyond appeal. After two hours on the trail, Stephen

and I reach the base of the Voltzberg and begin a steep ascent. We soon

rise above a lush canopy of bursting crowns, treading up an exposed

surface of charcoal-colored rock home to an incongruous community of

cacti and lizards. Beneath us a choppy green sea spreads in all

directions, lapping against the bases of scattered granite domes rising

like islands out of the landscape. On the horizon a faint outline of

mountains marks the northernmost reaches of the Brazilian Amazon.

Nearer, bands of puffy thunderclouds drift low across the crepuscular

sky, leading slanted gray rain streaks as if by a leash. At the golden

hour, the forest below changes its temperament. From the summit I watch

a family of five red howler monkeys huddle for the night on the

uppermost branches of a tree. I've often wondered what it might be like

to get airdropped deep in a forest, into a world that has evolved

beyond the reach of civilization. Such a place may no longer exist, but

as I descend from the peak and move beneath the canopy, toward the

darkness and the voices of creatures now awake, I imagine that I'm

close. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/05/TRCR13EL21.DTL

Bolivia: 12)

Right now in Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, a day's drive over

rutted tracks northeast of the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz, they're

counting the trees. Members of nearby indigenous communities, with help

from the Bolivian green group Friends of Nature Foundation (FAN) and

the American nonprofit the Nature Conservancy (TNC), have fanned out

across the Noel Kempff's 4.2 million acres (1.7 million ha), which

range from Amazon rain forest to dry savanna. In the footsteps of

howler monkeys and endangered black jaguars, they follow mapped plots

in the forest, drive stakes into the ground and measure out circles

with diameters of 13 ft. (4 m) to 46 ft. (14 m) — and then within that

area they chart the diameter of every tree. But it's not the number of

trees they want to discover. They're really measuring carbon, and FAN

and TNC can use those calculations — together with sophisticated

satellite data — to work out precisely how much potential greenhouse

gas is locked within Noel Kempff. That matters, because in 1997 TNC,

U.S. utility companies American Electric Power (AEP) and PacifiCorp,

and oil major BP Amoco paid Bolivia $10.8 million for the credits

represented by all that carbon. In return, the government simply has to

ensure that the forest remains standing and healthy for the next 30

years. It's called avoided deforestation, and projects like this may

represent one of the most promising ways to simultaneously slow the

destruction of tropical forests and the pace of climate change — if we

can get it right. An estimated 50,000 sq. mi. (129,500 sq km) of forest

are lost to the logger's ax or to fire every year, and that hurts the

planet in two very important ways. Rare plants and animals, many still

undiscovered, depend on the forests — especially the rich rain forests

that encircle the earth either side of the equator. When the forests

disappear, all that wildlife disappears as well. But trees also contain

carbon, and while they live, they absorb CO2 from the atmosphere,

compensating in part for the greenhouse gases spewed into the air from

cars, power plants and factories. When trees are cut down or burned,

that carbon is put back into the atmosphere, accelerating climate

change. At least 20% of annual global carbon emissions come from

deforestation. If we can't stop forest loss, we'll struggle to stop

climate change. That fact was recognized by the British government's

recent Eliasch Review on forestry, which estimated that failure to halt

deforestation could increase the cost of damages caused by global

warming by $1 trillion annually by 2100. " If we're going to solve

climate change we need to take advantage of the opportunity to reduce

deforestation, " says Duncan Marsh, TNC's director of international

climate policy. " We have no choice. " http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1864302,00.html

Peru:13)

Fernando and I are on a mission to check out the road access to the

newest of the Project Amazonas field sites and forest reserves in Peru.

This site is different from the other three that Project Amazonas

already operates. It has no river access, but instead is located on a

new road between the Peruvian Amazon's largest city (Iquitos), and the

Napo River port city of Mazan. Once that new road is a little less new,

and presumably in better condition, there is little doubt that the tall

primary forest that covers the hilly upland terrain will soon

disappear. In January 2008, we purchased the first two lots of land

with funding from Margarita Tours. In February and March, two

additional purchases and some creative land-swapping enabled us to

double the size of the acquired lands to 84 hectares (208 acres). In

the subsequent months, all the survey work and title-work for the 4

parcels we've acquired of lands was completed though the Ministry of

Agriculture which handles such matters. In July, however, an adjacent

land-owner offered to sell his parcel of 24 ha to us as well –

acquiring this parcel would put us just two narrow parcels away from

the Santa Cruz community's forest reserve lot of 300 hectares – and so

I say yes, we'll buy it, I'll get the money one way or another! If we

can border the community's forest reserve, it will create a block of

protected forest area of over 600 acres, and open up many possibilities

for developing collaborative management of the lands for education,

conservation, research, and ecotourism purposes. So we're there to

check out the new parcel, as well as to determine where we'd like to

put a caretaker's house and, in the near future, an educational center.

To seal the deal with the landowner, Fernando has given him a used

motorcycle and a cash sum from his salary. Tomorrow I'll pay the

landowner the remaining amount and we'll sign the paperwork for the

bill of sale. Both Fernando and I will be reimbursed our personal funds

out of a conservation donation from the Lawrenceville School in New

Jersey which was made for the express purpose of acquiring the new

parcel of land. Curiously, however, this border line appears to be

freshly cleared, and at the road edge is a wooden post sporting a trio

of blue plastic "A's". The landowner is surprised, and is not

responsible for them. Fernando patiently unravels my confusion. He

explains that crooked forestry engineers take money from equally

crooked logging barons to fabricate official looking studies and

documentation giving the loggers the authority to log on lands that

don't lie within any logging concessions, and which may or may not

cross into private lands that are somewhat remote from community

centers where everyone would know if something was going on. http://veggierevolution.blogspot.com/2008/11/devon-discovers-illegal-scam-rushes-to.html

14)

Little is known about the Cloud People of Peru, an ancient,

white-skinned civilisation wiped out by disease and war in the 16th

century. But now archaeologists have uncovered a fortified citadel in a

remote mountainous area of Peru known for its isolated natural beauty.

It is thought this settlement may finally help historians unlock the

secrets of the 'white warriors of the clouds'. The tribe had white skin

and blonde hair - features which intrigue historians, as there is no

known European ancestry in the region, where most inhabitants are

darker skinned. The citadel is tucked away in one of the most far-flung

areas of the Amazon. It sits at the edge of a chasm which the tribe may

have used as a lookout to spy on enemies. The main encampment is made

up of circular stone houses overgrown by jungle over 12 acres,

according to archaeologist Benedict Goicochea Perez. Rock paintings

cover some of the fortifications and next to the dwellings are

platforms believed to have been used to grind seeds and plants for food

and medicine. The Cloud People once commanded a vast kingdom stretching

across the Andes to the fringes of Peru's northern Amazon jungle,

before it was conquered by the Incas. Named because they lived in

rainforests filled with cloud-like mist, the tribe later sided with the

Spanish-colonialists to defeat the Incas. But they were killed by

epidemics of European diseases, such as measles and smallpox. Much of

their way of life, dating back to the ninth century, was also destroyed

by pillaging, leaving little for archaeologists to examine. Remains

have been found before but scientists have high hopes of the latest

find, made by an expedition to the Jamalca district in Peru's Utcubamba

province, about 500 miles north-east of the capital, Lima.Until

recently, much of what was known about the lost civilisation was from

Inca legends. Even the name they called themselves is unknown. The term

Chachapoyas, or 'Cloud People', was given to them by the Incas. Their

culture is best known for the Kuellap fortress on the top of a mountain

in Utcubamba, which can only be compared in scale to the Incas' Machu

Picchu retreat, built hundreds of years later. Two years ago,

archaeologists found an underground burial vault inside a cave with

five mummies, two intact with skin and hair. Chachapoyas chronicler

Pedro Cieza de Leon wrote of the tribe: 'They are the whitest and most

handsome of all the people that I have seen, and their wives were so

beautiful that because of their gentleness, many of them deserved to be

the Incas' wives and to also be taken to the Sun Temple. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1091550/Ancient-city-discovered-deep-Amazonian-rainforest-linked-legendary-white-skinned-Cloud-People-Peru.html

15)

The number of threatened amphibian species in Peru may be significantly

underestimated, increasing the risk that conservation decisions will

fail to account for their needs, report researchers writing in the

December issue of Tropical Conservation Science. Peru is home to

roughly 500 known species of frogs, toads, and caecilians — one of the

highest levels of amphibian biodiversity in the word. However beyond a

species count, this bounty is poorly known. Compiling data on the

conservation status of 83 types of amphibian found in Peru, Rudolf von

May and colleagues found that only 8 percent of the country's species

are recognized as threatened by the government (using a generous

definition of " threatened " ), compared with a global rate of 32 percent,

and higher rates in neighboring Ecuador (36 percent) and Colombia (30

percent). The authors estimate the conservation status of 47 percent of

the sampled species need to be re-assessed, indicating that the number

of at-risk species is likely higher than currently recognized. The

authors say that continued research, coupled with standardization of

criteria used by the Peruvian government to establish conservation

status, will help better protect amphibians — facing a rising onslaught

of threats including the spread of a deadly fungal disease — from

extinction. " Habitat conservation is crucial to protect amphibian

species facing human-induced threats, " they write. " As we have shown,

the habitat of almost half of threatened amphibian species reported

herein still remains unprotected and it is likely that at least some of

it will be altered in the near future. Climate change, emerging

pathogens, air-borne pollution, and invasion of exotic species (e.g.,

Lithobates catesbeianus "bullfrogs") can affect amphibian species

inside protected or pristine ecosystems. However, other equally

important threats such as habitat destruction, water pollution, and

illegal collecting can be alleviated by establishing new protected

areas. " http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1201-Von_May_et_al_tcs.html

16)

The Peruvian government says it can reach zero deforestation in just 10

years with the help of funds from Western governments. It is taking its

ambitious proposal to the latest round of UN talks on climate change,

which are taking place in Poznan. The government claims more than 80%

of Peru's primary forests can be saved or protected. Peru has the

fourth largest area of tropical forest in the world after Brazil,

Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia. It has around 70 million

hectares of tropical forest covering nearly 60% of its territory. " We

are not a poor country going to the Poznan meeting begging for aid, "

Environment Minister Antonio Brack told the BBC. " We are an important

country with a large area of forest that has a value. " Mr Brack says

his ministry has calculated that Peru needs about $25m (£17m) a year

for the next 10 years to be able to save or conserve initially at least

54 million hectares of forest, which could rise to 60 million. He says

the Peruvian government has already committed $5m a year, and he is

looking for $20m a year from the international community. " This is

Peru's contribution to mitigating climate change, " he said. Government

figures for Amazonian deforestation suggest 150,000 hectares were cut

down in Peru in 2005, although other organisations put the average

figure in recent years higher at around 250,000 hectares annually. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7768226.stm

Amazon: 17)

Imagine how the trends would run if the Amazon forest dies? Its

accumulated carbon dioxide will eventually be exhausted back to the

air; and the abrupt negative changes of greenhouse effect will likely

take place. Our wildlife resources would soon be depleted and the

biggest source of natural life would undoubtedly come to an end.

Located in the northern part of South America, the Amazon is shared by

nine different countries; and one of which is Brazil. Its vast landmark

stretches out to almost 60% of the Brazilian lands. Full and rich of

120 feet tall trees, and equipped with species both known and unknown

to man, the Amazon forest is a home to both the human race and the

animal kingdom. It also does much in the absorption of carbon dioxide

and is the largest contributor to the prevention of greenhouse gases

accumulating in the surfaces of our atmosphere. However, with the

rising rate of deforestation in the Amazon, the world can be cupped in

fatal hands. Annually, gigantic land areas of the Amazon forest are

being destroyed for the sole purpose of agricultural use; and the main

culprits are underprivileged farmers and huge companies. Clearing

smaller areas of the forest is a form of feeding the impoverished

population while larger tracts are being emptied for the conversion of

forest areas to soybean vegetation. Statistically speaking, these

companies would reach heights up to the level of the American Midwest

soybean plantation; and they would gradually be covering the entire

Amazon if not stopped. The future is truly hard to see and predict. It

takes a while to convince and drive people to change. Perhaps, with the

ongoing rise of deforestation in the Amazon, it isn't unlikely for the

world to fall into pieces with just a snap of our fingers. It is

definitely hard to appreciate something while it's still there.

Remember, regrets usually come last. So even before nature backfires on

us, we must strive to become the leaders to change. http://www.thegreenhomeeffect.com/environment/deforestation/the-roots-and-consequences-of-deforestation-in-the-amazon

Brazil: 18)

" Brazil has always been against offsets in forestry, " said Sergio

Serra, Brazil's ambassador for climate change. Brazil ruled out on

Thursday letting rich countries offset their greenhouse gas emissions

by helping to save the Amazon rain forest, an idea under active

discussion by the European Union. Indigenous peoples attending United

Nations-led climate talks in Poznan protested that they had no chance

of seeing such carbon cash, and appealed instead for money first to

root out corruption and cement their land rights. The global carbon

market works by putting a cap on greenhouse gases in rich countries.

They can exceed these targets, but only if they pay for corresponding

emissions cuts in the developing world, in a system called carbon

offsetting. EU member states debated on Thursday widening that scheme

to allow " forest offsetting " -- letting countries and companies

compensate for excess carbon emissions by funding tropical forest

conservation. " The EU is discussing this right now, " said Brice

Lalonde, representing France, holder of the EU Presidency, in Dec. 1-12

talks in Poland, meant to push for agreement on a new climate treaty by

the end of next year to replace the Kyoto Protocol.A French draft paper

seen by Reuters on Wednesday suggested the bloc could allow forest

offsetting as an way to help some companies meet carbon obligations

more cheaply during a recession. That would mark a reversal of

proposals by the EU's executive Commission in October. Worldwide, an

area of forest greater than the size of Greece is lost every year,

contributing to about a fifth of the global greenhouse gas emissions

blamed for global warming. Last week Brazil said the rate of Amazon

deforestation increased in the year to July for the first time in four

years. But the country would block the use of offsets for forest

protection under a new climate treaty, Brazil's representatives told

Reuters on Thursday, explaining that would absolve rich countries from

cutting their own emissions. That poured cold water on hopes from most

other tropical forested countries, seeking money for protecting their

forests under a new climate treaty. Advocates include Indonesia, Mexico

and India, analysts say. Brazil supported instead a public funding

approach, building for example on a $1 billion pledge from Norway this

year to a new Amazon Fund, aimed at improving conservation and the

enforcement of laws against deforestation. http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL4383081.html

19)

Brazil has announced a plan to reduce deforestation rates in the Amazon

region by 70% over the next ten years. The plan follows a call for

international funding to prevent further loss of the Amazon rainforest.

This year, the rate of Amazon deforestation increased after falling for

the past four years. The announcement comes as the UN's latest round of

climate talks begin. Tasso Azevedo, head of the Brazilian government's

forestry service said " We can now adopt targets because we now have the

instruments to implement them. " He was referring to a new Amazon fund,

where foreign nations are being encouraged by Brazil to contribute

financially to the conservation of the vast Amazon region. Last month,

Norway announced its intention to support the fund, saying it will give

$130m (euros 103m; £88m) next year, the first instalment of a $1bn,

(euros 700m; £670m) to be given over the next seven years, however

Norway will only make each year's donation on the condition that there

has been a reduction in deforestation during the previous year. The 70%

figure comes from averaging levels of deforestation in the 10 years up

to 2005, the plan aims to see a reduction in deforestation of nearly

6,000 sq km per year or about half the current annual rate of

deforestation. A crackdown on illegal settlements and increased

policing in the Amazon region came earlier this year, following an

estimated 3.8% increase in deforestation compared with the previous

year. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7759192.stm

20)

Destruction of the Amazon forest in Brazil accelerated for the first

time in four years, the government said on Friday, as high commodity

prices tempted farmers and ranchers to slash more trees. Satellite

images showed nearly 4,633 square miles (12,000 sq km), or an area

nearly the size of the U.S. state of Connecticut, were chopped down in

the 12 months through July, the National Institute for Space Studies

said. That is up from 4,332 square miles (11,224 sq km) last year but

still down from a peak of 10,570 square miles (27,379 sq km) in 2004.

Environment Minister Carlos Minc, at a news conference in the capital

Brasilia, said he was dissatisfied with the figure but insisted it

would have been much worse without government policies aimed at

tackling illegal logging. " Many had expected an increase of 30-40

percent and we managed to stabilize it, " Minc said. " When you

confiscate soy and beef it hurts them in the pocket, " he said,

referring to several crackdowns this year. The government this year

increased policing, impounded farm products from illegally cleared land

and cut financing for unregistered properties, stepping up its efforts

after figures showed a spike in deforestation late last year. But

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's commitment to preserving the

environment has come into question after Minc's predecessor Marina

Silva, known as an Amazon defender, resigned in May citing difficulty

pushing through her agenda. " Today's figures are unacceptable but the

long-term trend remains positive and they show that it is possible to

do something about deforestation, " Paulo Moutinho, coordinator at the

Amazon Research Institute, told Reuters. Critics say the environmental

protection agency is understaffed and underfunded to face thousands of

often heavily armed loggers and ranchers in the world's largest rain

forest. On Sunday a crowd in Paragominas, a town that depends heavily

on logging, ransacked offices of the environment agency Ibama, torched

its garage, and used a tractor to break down the entrance of the hotel

where its agents stayed. It also stole 12 trucks with confiscated wood.

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnN28436736.html

21)

The series begins with an Editorial on how President Lula's experience

could serve as an example to President-elect Barack Obama and

commonalities between both leaders.The editorial ends by stating that

"Like da Silva and Obama, the US and Brazil have too much in common not

to share regional and global leadership." The second article is on

South-South cooperation on Agriculture. Embrapa is on the forefront of

agricultural science, turning the cerrado into a fertile grain

exporting region, with techniques such as "no-till planting", lime to

diminish acidity and the development of tropical varieties of soybean.

EMBRAPa now exports this know-how to Africa and other Latin American

countries under the header of "South-South cooperation". One downside

of new agricultural technologies is the incentive it creates for

increased agricultural production and the deforestation required for

new agricultural frontiers. The third article tells us that: In an

attempt to counteract this deleterious effect on the environment the

state of Amazonas has begun experimenting with a REDD program – which

stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation and is

based on the type of international carbon-trading model in which rich

countries compensate developing countries for not destroying their

forests. The Amazonas Sustainable Foundation – a private initiative

with state support – is paying families 50 reais ($23) per month as

long as they participate in sustainable activities. Currently, 2,000

families participate in the "Bolsa Floresta" program and the goal is to

expand it to the 10,000 families estimated to live in the state's

protected areas. But as the global economy slows, the funding of such

programs could be at risk. http://brazilportal.wordpress.com/2008/11/12/three-part-series-on-brazils-growing-influence-in-the-developing-world/

22)

BRASILIA - Brazil sent hundreds of state and federal police officers on

Wednesday to quell looting by homeless and hungry landslide victims

facing the threat of disease after heavy flooding that authorities say

killed more than 100 people and displaced 54,000. Rescue workers

shoveled through massive mudslides that buried homes and cars and

ferried stranded survivors to safety in rubber dinghies, as the

disaster prompted President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to visit the

region on Wednesday. Lula authorized nearly 2 billion reais ($881

million) in emergency relief funds, his office said in a statement,

after residents complained that food aid had failed to arrive. Of that

amount, 730 million reais will go to help rebuild damaged hospitals,

roads and railways in the region. Six areas in southern Santa Catarina

state declared a state of emergency, some of them wealthy districts,

and as many as 100,000 people are still largely trapped after

landslides and raging rivers washed out roads and cut power. The Civil

Defense agency said the official death toll rose to 99 but estimated it

was more than 100. Nineteen people were still missing. In the cities of

Blumenau and Itajai, among the worst hit by the floods, people

ransacked supermarkets and grocery stores during the night in search of

food, local officials said. " Many haven't had food or water in four or

more days. They're hungry, " Maj. Sergio Murillo de Mello, commander of

the Itajai fire department, told Reuters. " We desperately need those

food baskets that were promised, " he said. Television footage of the

region showed houses and cars buried under mudslides, while trees and

household items drifted through flooded streets. A handful of people

were arrested in Blumenau for looting. More than 200 police officers

and at least 50 agents of the National Security Force were arriving

from The state capital, Florianopolis, to help prevent further looting

in the flooded cities, a spokesman for the local police told Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE4AP99220081126?sp=true

23)

Sir Ghillean (Iain) T. Prance has been knighted by the Queen of England

in his native country for his work during his 44-year career. And

recently, he received the Gold Medal of The New York Botanical Garden,

the research institute's highest honor, for his 25 years of work there.

I don't know about knighthood, but the Botanical Garden doesn't hand

its top award out like candy. The last winner was in 2002. Professor

Prance is your typical 71-year-old field researcher - long on

scientific knowledge and short on sartorial concern. Obviously grateful

for his latest honor, he still spent much of his speech last week

telling tales out of school about the people in the audience, many of

whom he had brought to work at the institute during a tenure that ended

in 1988. But the thing that makes his eyes light up is a place that

most of us have just read about - a huge, natural laboratory where many

of the secrets of modern medicine have been found and a place that may

end up a sliver of some botany museum at the rate its trees are being

taken down. Prance has alternated his work for much of his career - one

year in the rain forest and one year back in the lab with the data he

collected - on everything from the Brazilian nut to water lilies. It's

his long view that seems most important, however, because he has seen

changes in the nearly five decades that leave him concerned for the

future of the Amazon and the planet. He said rough estimates are that

20 percent to 25 percent of the rain forest has been cut down. " In

1973, during a field trip to see the Trans-Amazon Highway being built,

we could see that it was an ecological disaster, " Prance said, sitting

in an aquatic plants conservatory at the Garden. " That really revealed

to me that the forest was in danger. From that point on, my work turned

much more environmental. " Prance went on to host a symposium at the

Garden soon after that trip which looked at what was happening in South

America and published with colleagues a paper titled " Extinction is

Forever. " The Oxford-trained botanist said the first time he landed in

the Amazon in the early 1960s, he couldn't believe the size. Estimates

range as high as 2.5 million square miles; the United States is about

3.5 million square miles. http://lohud.com/article/20081128/COLUMNIST/811280340/-1/SPORTS

24)

In the center of this image we can see a fire in central Brazil,

probably set in order to clear part of the Amazon Rainforest in order

to grow crops. Upon opening the full image, other fires are visible

nearby. As we can see from tan streaks in the lower part of the image,

deforestation is a serious problem in the area. In 2008, Brazil's

Government announced a record rate of deforestation in the Amazon.

Deforestation jumped by 69% in 2008 compared to 2007's twelve months,

according to official government data. Deforestation could wipe out or

severely damage nearly 60% of the Amazon rainforest by 2030, says a new

report from WWF. http://www.eosnap.com/?p=1659

25)

Join the world in telling Brazil " No " to Amazon deforestation! The

Brazilian Congress, influenced by the agribusiness sector, seeks to

change the Forest Code in Brazil to open more of the Amazon rainforest

to be cleared. Not only will this destroy forested areas in the Amazon

no longer protected by the Forest Code but the clearing and burning of

these lands will release millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions

into the atmosphere—making the impacts of climate change worse. If

these changes to the Forest Code pass, they will stimulate

deforestation, increased greenhouse gas emissions, land grabbing, and

disputes over land rights in the Amazon. The Forest Code would legally

allow for millions of acres of the Amazon to be deforested and then

burned to further clear the land for grazing cattle or planting soy.

All of this could happen under the protection of the law if we don't

stop it. Please join the world in sending the message below to the

Brazilian Congress today. It's important they recognize the world

depends on the Amazon for our survival and the entire planet is

watching Brazil. http://usactions.greenpeace.org/action/start/224/

26)

As grain prices plummet and concerns over cash mount, agricultural

giants are cutting loans to Brazilian farmers, reports the Wall Street

Journal. Tighter farm credit may be contributing to a recent slowing in

deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, where agriculture is an

increasingly important driver of forest clearing. According to the Wall

Street Journal, a weakening global economy is making it more difficult

for Brazilian farmers to get loans to cover the cost of fertilizers,

pesticides and seed as well as finance capital equipment. The

development is an abrupt turn from Brazil's agricultural boom, which

saw rapid expansion of soy, corn, cotton, and cane plantings, and

turned the country into the world's largest exporter of many farm

products. " In the past several years, amid surging global demand for

grain, farmers plowed up land at a feverish pace to plant soybeans, and

roads were carved into the countryside to move the goods. Climbing

grain prices through the first half of 2008 accelerated the growth, "

writes Lauren Etter. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1202-brazil_ag.html

27)

Inpe's figures show that last month 541 km2 were cut down or degraded.

233km2 in Mato Grosso and 218km2 in Para, and 8% down on September's

figure. Inpe caution that the results are not wholly accurrate as the

real-time satellite images show up clouds, obscuring detail of the land

below. Last week Inpe released figures for the period August 2007- July

2008. Almost 1,100 km2 was cut down or degraded, a 2.8% increaseon the

preceding year. http://greenbrazil.wordpress.com/2008/12/06/latest-amazon-deforestation/