Spectacular species found in Amazon Rainforest

Spectacular species previously unknown to the outside world are being discovered in the Amazon rainforest at a rate of one every three days, environment group WWF said in a report published on Tuesday.

An anaconda as long as a limousine, a giant catfish that eats monkeys, a blue fanged spider and poisoned dart frogs are among the 1,220 animals and plants to have been newly found from 1999 to 2009, according to the report.

The report was released on the sidelines of a United Nations summit in Japan that is being held to try to save the world's fast diminishing biodiversity, and the WWF said it highlighted why protecting the Amazon was so vital.
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"This report clearly shows the incredible, amazing diversity of life in the Amazon," Francisco Ruiz, head of WWF's Living Amazon Initiative, told reporters at the launch.

"(But) this incredible region is under pressure because of the human presence. The landscape is being very quickly transformed."

Logging and clearing for agriculture such as cattle farming and palm oil plantations have led to 17 per cent of the Amazon -- an area twice the size of Spain -- being destroyed over the past 50 years, according to the WWF.

The WWF compiled the findings reported by scientists over the 10-year period to highlight how much valuable biodiversity humans may be losing without even knowing as the Amazon is being cleared.

"It serves as a reminder of how much we still have to learn about this unique region, and what we could lose if we don't change the way we think about development," Ruiz said.

One of the most amazing discoveries was a four-metre anaconda in the flood plains of Bolivia's Pando province in 2002.

It was the first new anaconda species identified since 1936, and becomes only the fourth known type of that reptile, according to the WWF.

There were a total of 55 reptile species discovered, with others including two members of Elapidae -- the most venomous snake family in the world that includes cobras and taipans.

A kaleidoscope of different coloured frogs were also found, including 24 of the famed poison dart variety and one that was translucent.

Among the 257 types of fish discovered in the rivers and lakes of the Amazon over was a "goliath" catfish.

One of them found in Venezuela measured nearly 1.5 metres long and weighed 32kg.

At least 500 spiders were also discovered, including one that was completely brown except for a pair of almost fluorescent blue fangs.

Thirty-nine new mammals were also found, including a pink river dolphin, seven types of monkeys and two porcupines.

Among the 637 new plant species discovered were sunflowers, ivy, lilies, a variety of pineapple and a custard apple.

The Amazon is home to at least 40,000 plant species, and the WWF described the scale of diversity in some areas as "mind boggling".

It said 1,000 plant species were documented in one hectare of lowland rainforest in Ecuador, while 3,000 were found in a 24-hectare region of the Colombian section of the Amazon.

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Preventing pillage in the rainforest

A scheme to regularise land holdings in the Amazon forest faces many obstacles

GRAND plans to halt the destruction of the Amazon rainforest have come and gone over the years with scant success, so a degree of scepticism about Brazil’s latest scheme seems justified. However, one positive sign is that, this time, the federal government seems to have recognised the importance of working with, rather than against, state governments in the region.

The new plan, discussed at a meeting of state governors and federal officials earlier this month, involves regularising the titles to 80% of the private land holdings in Brazilian Amazonia over the coming three years. This, it is hoped, will encourage the occupants to stay and improve their land instead of abandoning it and moving on to clear the next patch of virgin forest.
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A small-scale initiative under way near the village of São Luiz do Anauá in Roraima state provides an illustration of what the scheme hopes to achieve. The local soil is the colour of cement and almost as rich in nutrients. The area was deforested 15 years ago. Cattle ranchers came and went, and for the past few years the land has been unproductive. But now, neat rows of palms sit waiting to be planted, thanks to a biofuels company based in São Paulo.

Brazil lacks a central land register, suffers widespread forgery of title deeds and has a long history of squatters seizing land. A widely-quoted study by Imazon, an NGO, reckoned that only 4% of private land in Amazonia is covered by secure title deeds. Much of the rest has been grabbed in the hope of establishing de facto ownership eventually.

The government’s new scheme is, in principle, simple. Plots of up to 100 hectares (247 acres) will be given to the people farming them. Larger ones, of between 100 and 2,500 hectares, will be sold using various different pricing mechanisms. Plots of over 2,500 hectares will be reclaimed by the government, which is meant to own them anyway. Roberto Mangabeira Unger, the minister responsible for the new scheme, believes that solving the problem of insecure land title will “change the economic equation that has made pillage more attractive than either preservation or production in the Amazon.”

In the past, however, similar initiatives have floundered, for a number of reasons. First, state and federal governments have disagreed over who should be responsible for what. The state governors particularly dislike INCRA, a federal agency charged with distributing small plots of land. Eduardo Braga, the governor of Amazonas, says “INCRA abandoned the families it settled on land in the Amazon without electricity or infrastructure.” The agency certainly has a poor record of preventing deforestation on the land it administers.

Second, the existing laws that govern what land can be used and what cannot are confusing and close to unenforceable. In the 1960s and 1970s, farmers were sometimes required to cut down trees as a condition for getting credit from the state. Some token efforts were made to change this regime in the 1980s, and then in 1996 a decree was issued requiring 80% of each plot of land to be preserved as forest, with only 20% to be cultivated or ranched. This law is widely ignored, and when the government has tried to enforce it, it has often met with strong resistance from the men with the chainsaws. Given this history of mutual antagonism, the process is unlikely to be smooth.

Still, some of these problems have been resolved in the new plan, which has the force of law via a presidential decree. On a federal level, the Ministry for Agrarian Development will handle some of the implementation, taking it away from INCRA, which could be described politely as troubled. Mr Unger, a former Harvard law professor, seems to have succeeded in charming the governors of the states in the Amazon into a more co-operative mood. “We have Obama’s teacher here,” says José de Anchieta Júnior, the governor of Roraima, while addressing a public meeting in the state. “Things are looking up.”

Nevertheless, there is a risk that the scheme, by making it easier to get secure title for dubious land claims, might somehow stimulate demand for virgin forest land, not damp it. And, as ever, enforcing the rules will be the difficult bit. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government has shown an indulgent attitude to violations of property rights elsewhere in the country by the Landless Movement, making it an unlikely guardian of them now. The new scheme is not bound to fail, but the sceptics will take a bit more convincing.

http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13184683

Brazil police, troops resume crackdown on illegal Amazon logging

Brazilian authorities are resuming their crackdown on illegal logging in the Amazon

Hundreds of federal police and military troops returned to a town (Tailandia) in the eastern part of the region haul out stacks of illegally cut hardwood.

At least 2,000 townspeople and sawmill workers rioted against the crackdown last week. They burned tires, blocked roads and forced federal environmental officials to flee the area, according to Brazilian newspaper accounts.

Before the unrest, 130 environmental inspectors had audited 10 of the towns estimated 140 sawmills. The environmental agency says if fined seven for stocking lumber of unknown origin and selling lumber without authorization.

The Amazon is the world's largest rainforest. Official data showing an unexpected surge in deforestation late last year prompted Brazil's president to launch the crackdown.

http://www.whotv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7915170&nav=2HAB

Lawmakers gather in Brazil to discuss climate change

Lawmakers from the world's major industrial nations and five emerging economies gather in Brazil from Wednesday to discuss a global climate change treaty currently under consideration.

This will be the first gathering of legislators from wealthy and developing countries to help shape the post Kyoto Protocol agreement, World Bank Vice President for Latin America, Pamela Cox, told Reuters.

"Legislators are more than just another voice," Cox said. "In many countries they are the ones that actually sponsor and enact the laws that may govern any future climate change agenda," she added.

Cox, who will attend the conference in Brasilia, said reducing the carbon emissions that cause climate change requires a global solution.

"It is such an important global issue that it can't be a bilateral discussion, you need to engage society across the board," she said. "I don't think there has been any other sort of initiative or event like this."

The meeting of 100 lawmakers includes the Group of Eight industrial countries -- Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Canada and Japan -- and fast-developing nations China, Brazil, India, South Africa and Mexico.

The Kyoto Protocol was aimed at traditionally industrial powers and their emissions and did not target emerging and developing economies such as China and India. The post Kyoto treaty being negotiated will include all nations to ensure cuts in all forms of greenhouse gas emissions.

Brazil's concerned its involvement in a multilateral treaty will undermine its sovereignty over its Amazon rainforest region. Yet it is the world's fourth largest producer of greenhouse gases, virtually all of it as a result of deforestation.

PROTECTING FORESTS

The World Bank is leading efforts to develop private-sector and other solutions to curb greenhouse gas emissions, including those that emanate from deforestation.

In October, the Bank said it was developing a Forest Carbon Partnership Facility that would provide financial incentives to countries for protecting and replanting tropical forests, which store huge amounts of carbon that causes climate change.

Deforestation contributes 20 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, more than all the world's cars, trucks, trains and airplanes combined. By creating economic value for tropical forests, the facility can help developing nations like Brazil generate new revenue for poverty alleviation.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is expected to address the conference. He has argued that rich countries are responsible for 60 percent of the gas emissions and therefore need to shoulder the responsibility.

Brazil, like other developing nations, is also worried that solutions to climate change could hamper economic development.

"Both sides need more understanding of each other's point of view because it's a global issue and we are all in this together," Cox said. "These countries need to be seen as full partners. It isn't just who pays but who plays, and we're expecting the G8 will pay and these middle-income countries will play and we need to figure out how that will work out," she added.

Cox said it was important to balance development and environmental needs.

"We would like to help on the debate but also to put the development focus into the debate. It isn't an either/or," she said. "While money is helpful, it is also important that they have a voice in the process, that they feel heard, that their interests are respected. If you don't do that you won't have a long-run sustainable solution," she added.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7321922

Amazon rivers' newest ship is floating eco-lodge

I thought my impish Brazilian guide was pulling my leg. All doubt was banished when, standing on a wooden dock in the Amazon village of Novo Airão, I was greeted by three robustly pink dolphins thrusting their heads from the water.

I followed my guide's prodding to slip into the tea-colored river holding a sliver of fish, which was deftly plucked from my fingers. The dolphins playfully jostled me for more, bumping and rubbing me with their cool, rubbery bodies.

The Amazon basin is a place of natural astonishments, and pink dolphins are just the start. Many are albino, with coloring ranging from rosy gray to flamingo pink. They apparently grow pinker when excited, as if blushing.

A small pod has become friendly with a village family that innocently started to feed them fish scraps. The dolphins became daily visitors, and word spread, putting Novo Airão on the small but burgeoning Amazon tourist circuit. The French hotel group Accor is building a 100-room hotel nearby, slated to open in 2010. Hilton also plans to build an eco-resort here.

I arrived by luxurious riverboat from Manaus, a Brazilian city of nearly 1.8 million people in deep rain forest, 1,000 miles upriver from the Atlantic coast. Dozens of small boats carry tourists on river trips from Manaus, but the one on which I traveled has caused a splash by being the newest and largest.

The Grand Amazon is a floating resort modeled on Nile River cruisers. It offers 72 balconied cabins on four decks, a good restaurant, sun deck with pool and bar – all the amenities of a large passenger ship.

Based in a jungle lodge, I had explored the area before, visiting the wilds in motorized canoes.

I feared that a cruise ship would offer a more superficial experience. That is, until I grasped the concept. The Grand Amazon is essentially a lodge that moves. The ship carries small boats for exploring. And this lodge can relocate overnight.

The vessel was custom-built in Manaus (Brazilian hardwoods lend a rich glow to its interiors) by Spanish hotel company Iberostar to make this difficult environment easily accessible to the growing number of eco-tourists.

Like the lodges on land in the area, the ship offers a choice of two or three excursions each morning, afternoon and evening.

After breakfast, we'd clamber into the boats – about 20 people per group, accompanied by local guides – and head off on our chosen tours. Skimming across water as glassy as a polished mirror, I loved how the river reflected the mountainous clouds in the blue sky. At night, with the moon and stars duplicated in the black water, I had the sensation of cruising across the universe.

On hikes through pungent forests, we learned which plants could be eaten and which were poisonous, which were best for building shelter and which could sterilize wounds. We learned that potable water can be found in vines, filtered by the plant. We ate açai berries, a nutrient- and antioxidant-rich fruit considered a superfood.

With eyes trained to spot things we could not, the guides found ant nests, scorpions, tarantulas and huge spiders. I managed to spy a twiglike insect and one large ant.

"Bullet ant," said Marco, our naturalist. He tapped his machete against a tree trunk, and the bark soon was crawling with the agitated insects. "The bite of one can make you very sick," he advised us, "and 10 could kill you." The pain of the bite is likened to that of a bullet wound, hence the name.

During an onboard buffet lunch of local specialties, the ship would sail to a new spot, and we'd reboard the small boats for a slow cruise through channels and flooded forests. Or, we'd be transported to another hiking trail.

"You won't see an anaconda in the wild," said Rafael, one of our guides. "They are too secretive." Yet, on the second day I spotted one of the giant snakes swimming.

"You won't see a jaguar," the guides told us, and we didn't.

But we did see toucans, scarlet macaws, parrots and dozens of other exotic birds. We saw sloths, and howler and spider monkeys. We fished for piranha.

At night, our shallow-draught boats slipped through reeds in search of crocodiles, their eyes glowing red in our strobe lights.

At Manaus, the Amazon splits into two tributaries: the cola-colored Rio Negro and the muddy Rio Solimões. The rivers present two distinct environments, and Grand Amazon explores both waterways. Rio Negro is the Amazon of our imagination: dark, deep, mysterious. Rio Solimões resembles the Amazon of headlines: pockets of settlement, river traffic and trees cut to make room for cattle.

I preferred the unspoiled Rio Negro (and the pink dolphins of Novo Airão), while others onboard enjoyed the Solimões with its river traffic and greater concentration of wildlife. More people live on the Solimões because there are more fish, and more fish also mean more birds and animals.

A four-day itinerary focusing on the Rio Negro and a three-day route on the Rio Solimões can be booked separately, but it makes sense to do both. In a week, I felt I'd seen and learned a lot.

The explorer in me was secretly disappointed, though, that it was so easy. And so comfortable.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/lifetravel/stories/013108dnamazon.32a8297.html

Return to the Amazon With Jean-Michel Cousteau

The Amazon: The most powerful of the world's rivers, its rapid transformation will alter the global climate. Emptying into the great Atlantic Ocean, it flows through the world's largest tropical rainforest, the vast, natural theater where evolution has gone wild, creating the greatest biodiversity of any area on the planet. Twenty-five years ago, Jean-Michel Cousteau explored this fabled region with his father, the legendary Jacques Cousteau. Since then, an area the size of Texas has been deforested. With an intimate look at recent changes, Jean-Michel returns with a new expedition for the signature PBS environmental series, Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures. Combining science and discovery with expert story-telling and astonishing footage, the new season premieres nationally with Return to the Amazon, airing in two parts on April 2 at 8pm, and April 9 at 8pm (both 60 minutes), and is narrated by the acclaimed actor, Delroy Lindo.

Traveling down the Amazon River basin with Jean-Michel are his children Fabien and Celine and his crew of adventurous oceanauts. Over the course of ten months, through wet and dry seasons, in the water and on land, the team encounters debilitating challenges and uplifting discoveries throughout the multiple expeditions and forays into both wild and developed regions. All experienced ocean divers, they now have the unique experience of investigating the murky waters of the Amazon basin, where there are more species of fish than there are in the entire Atlantic Ocean! The team encounters many unusual, rare species and surprises, including swimming with an anaconda, the world's largest -- and perhaps most dangerous -- snake; going nose-to-nose with the jacare, the Amazon version of the crocodile; and playfully swimming with beautiful pink river dolphins.

Over 4,000 miles long, and without a single bridge crossing it, this is the world's longest and widest river. Negotiating it is not easy. Covering an area larger than the continental United States, the team travels together on long river passages and also breaks into small, mobile groups, sending Fabien and Celine on trips to investigate more leads. From the Brazilian city of Manaus -- a hub of commerce on the main Amazon tributary, the Rio Negro -- to protected areas in the Amazon like Xixuau and Mamiraua Sustainable Development Reserve, they investigate projects and places that are finding solutions to the destruction of the land and river. From the mouth of the Amazon at the Atlantic Ocean to a glacier in the Peruvian Andes, they explore incredible natural phenomena and the catastrophic consequences of climate change and deforestation.

Issues, challenges and problems that exist in the Amazon have a direct connection to the rest of the world, especially through global commerce. Expansive soy farms, lumber companies, commercial fishing, illegal animal trafficking, and more come under close scrutiny, but the Cousteau family and Ocean Adventures team uncover both inspiring and shocking stories throughout Brazil and Peru. They investigate the crucial role of native people in sustaining the natural rainforest and river system, and visit indigenous peoples in small, remote villages, as well as in large, protected reserves. New business models such as ecotourism, fish farms, organized fish monitoring by markets and fishermen, and developing and exporting sustainable rainforest products and medicines are all examples of potential solutions to global issues, as clear progress is made in the Amazon.

From this region of urgency and conflict, where human enterprise and expansion not only compromise the health and ecology of the river and rainforest basin, but truly inflict consequences on a global scale, come new beacons of hope and sustainability. The fight for the future of the Amazon and its people is underway, and Return to the Amazon presents solutions already in motion for keeping the forest alive and thriving.

Return to the Amazon is shot in high-definition and is narrated by Delroy Lindo, the Tony award-nominated actor whose films include "Malcolm X," "Crooklyn," "Get Shorty," "Romeo Must Die" and "The Cider House Rules." He most recently starred in the 2007 holiday hit, "This Christmas."

Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures is produced by KQED and Ocean Futures Society. The exclusive corporate sponsor is The Dow Chemical Company.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-29-2008/0004744927&EDATE

British Airways announces new green initiative

British Airways has launched a new carbon offset scheme initiative this week which will see the airline backing deforestation prevention in Brazil and research into the effects of aircraft’s non-carbon emissions. The carrier’s new initiative is UN certified and will help to finance clean energy projects in developing countries.

Monetary funds offered by customers off setting flight emissions will be supporting a new windfarm in one of the poorest regions of China, as well as river run hydro electric plants in China and Brazil.

British Airways’ offset scheme will also soon be accompanied by further projects to reduce carbon emissions, including projects to help protect the Brazilian rainforest and working with Cambridge University which will aim to establish scientific understanding of the non-C02 effects of aviation by 2012.

“We were the first airline to offer carbon offsets, and we intend to remain at the forefront in this area,” said Silla Maizey, head of corporate responsibility.

“We need a broad response to climate change: controlling our emissions with cleaner aircraft, the inclusion of aviation in emissions trading and the setting of tough international emissions targets...Offsetting is closely related to emissions trading. It is valuable in itself and improves general understanding of how carbon trading works.”

http://www.etravelblackboard.com/index.asp?id=73731&nav=130