Forest

SHOKit eli strategisen huippuosaamisen keskittymät ovat suomalainen innovaatio, jonka tavoitteena on tiivistää yritysten ja tutkimuslaitosten yhteistyötä, tehostaa tutkimustulosten hyödyntämistä liiketoiminnassa ja luoda näin uutta kasvua ja työpaikkoja. Vuonna 2007 tiede- ja teknologianeuvoston aloitteesta käynnistyneen SHOK-toiminnan kautta yritykset ja yliopistot investoivat merkittävästi suomalaisen osaamisen kehittämiseen. Suurin julkinen rahoittaja Tekes on rahoittanut toimintaa vuosina 2008-2012 yli 200 miljoonalla eurolla.

18th May—The European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO) has declared May18th 2012 the first international “Fascination of Plants Day”.

FSC is being forced on forests not certified according to the system. ”Sounds strange, admittedly,” is the comment from FSC.

The outcome of China’s planned carbon emissions scheme could have a transforming effect on efforts to tackle climate change, experts say. China is preparing to run pilot carbon trading schemes beginning in 2013 in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Hubei and Guangdong , major cities with a combined population of 250 million people. The government’s [...]

Over 25 years after people stopped growing cardamom in Sri Lanka’s Knuckles Forest Reserve (KFR), the spice crop is still having an impact on the forest, according to a recent study in Forest Ecology and Management. The clearing of understory plants and the use of fertilizers continue to shape the forest in the protected area.  [...]

An Indonesian oil palm plantation in which Norway has a financial stake paid Papuan tribal landowners as little as US$0.65 per hectare for their forestland, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) can reveal.   In the new report Clear-Cut Exploitation, EIA and its Indonesian partner Telapak expose woefully low payments by PT Henrison Inti Persada (PT [...]

In a forest not far from the capital, local residents are stepping up to help protect the earth in an initiative that may give the next generation hope for the future. The people of Cipeuteuy village in Sukabumi, West Java, realized the weight on their shoulders was getting heavier and heavier after living side by [...]

Agribusiness giant Bunge expects its avoided deforestation project on private land in Brazil to be issued around 800,000 voluntary carbon credits by the second half of the year, the firm’s Brazil country manager said.   Please click here to read the original news item.

The Indian Law Resource Center has called on the UN Permanent forum on Indigenous Issues to ensure that the World Bank implements the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.   At the 11th Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which is taking place this week in New York, Leonardo Crippa, [...]

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Nearly 100 participants from around the world representing governments, international organizations, industry and NGOs gathered from May 15-17 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the ITTO-sponsored workshop on Tracking Technologies for Forest Governance.

Nearly 100 participants from around the world representing governments, international organizations, industry and NGOs gathered from May 15-17 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the ITTO-sponsored workshop on Tracking Technologies for Forest Governance. The objectives of the workshop were to share experiences on applications of tracking technologies for forest governance, to review a compendium of tracking technologies prepared for the meeting and to provide guidance to governments and other stakeholders on how tracking technologies can contribute most effectively to improved forest governance. The report of the meeting, including the compendium of tracking technologies will be available on-line soon. more information

  BONN, Germany (16 May 2012)__ Discussions on how mitigation and adaptation funds will be raised and used in the second commitment period of Kyoto Protocol from 2013-2020 will be key during the climate change talks in Bonn to ensure that REDD+ can move forward. Forest-rich nations cannot wait much longer without progress in financing, [...]

BONN, Germany (15 May 2012)__A ‘step-wise approach’ for determining greenhouse gas reference emission levels (RELs) from forests, adopted at the 2011 UNFCCC talks in Durban, should help countries overcome a major technical hurdle to beginning REDD+ activities, according to a team of scientists presenting more details on the approach at UN climate talks in Bonn [...]

endoftheicons: The joint investigation team collected more than a dozen soil samples as well as measuring peat depth from various hotspots in SPS2 concession. Upon multiple results of in palm oil plantations in peat deeper than 3 meters, Ministry of Environment investigators question why the company illegally operates in deep peat, to which SPS2 representatives responded by admitting they have never measured the peat depth. (Coalition to Save Tripa/Handout) Banda Aceh, (Analisa). The Head of REDD+ Task Force,...

U.N. climate talks in Durban this week agreed to define new market mechanisms under a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol, but pushed forward a decision to develop rules for them until next year. Negotiators decided the mechanisms would operate under the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties and “bear in mind different circumstances of developed [...]

Sydney Morning Herald: THE future of a much-vaunted $30 million Australian project to protect Indonesian forests for their carbon is in doubt after an independent review found it is not the best use of the money. The project on the island of Sumatra was announced by Labor in early 2010 to international fanfare, but so far there has been little detail about the project's design. It is understood there has been no actual on-ground work in Sumatra and officials to date have done research only. It is the second Australian-Indonesian...

Inter Press Service: As the host of Rio+20, the Brazilian government has defined guidelines for achieving success at the upcoming world summit, whose aim is to assess and strengthen what has been done since the 1992 Earth Summit, the first global meeting on sustainable development. There is still no consensus on the draft outcome document for Rio+20 - the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development - but Brazilian Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira confidently forecasts positive results. "Those who...

Sarayaku in Ecuador is one of the more unique places in the Amazon. The community has beaten back oil drilling plans on their lands for over a decade, and their plan de vida for future development and land management is visionary.

NATORI, Miyagi Prefecture – Contributions from the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia to the Tohoku Reconstruction Project will support rebuilding of the Yuriage City Public Market, a significant first step in helping the local farming and…