* Minister: raid is warning to illegal loggers
* Illegal saw mills destroyed as workers watch
* Crackdown part of gov't campaign to slash deforestation
* Gov't trying to help timber-reliant areas (Updates with revised amount of wood, adds quotes, details, changes dateline)
Environmental police in Brazil seized the equivalent of 300 truckloads of wood in a major raid on illegal loggers, the government said on Wednesday, the latest effort to curb destruction of the Amazon rain forest.
During the surprise raid in Nova Esperanca do Piria, 120 miles (190 km) southeast of the city of Belem, police shut down 13 logging companies and sawmills, and seized tractors, guns, and ammunition, Environment Minister Carlos Minc said during a visit to the remote jungle site. The owners fled the area.
The crackdown is the latest in a series of measures by the government to meet a new target of reducing destruction of the Amazon forest by 50 percent during the next decade.
"We are determined to slash deforestation -- this operation is a warning to illegal loggers," Minc told Reuters before ordering the destruction of 120 kilns for making charcoal, which is used by iron ore smelters to fire blast furnaces.
Brazil's government last year abandoned years of opposition to deforestation targets and now is under pressure to show the world community and critics at home that it can deliver, particularly ahead of a major climate change summit in Copenhagen in December.
Minc aims to reduce deforestation to about 3,700 square miles (9,500 sq km) in the 12 months through July, the lowest on record and down from 4,600 square miles (11,900 sq km) the year earlier.
The government initially said the latest raid netted 400 truckloads of illegal wood but lowered the figure to about 300 after surveying the area.
Each year advancing loggers, ranchers and farmers cut huge swathes of forest in search of cheap land.
"This is why Brazil has an image abroad of destroying rain forest and emitting carbon," Minc said after overseeing the dismantling of a clandestine saw mill.
Dozens of townspeople, many of whom worked at the saw mills, watched as bulldozers demolished their livelihood.
"We know it's illegal but we have to work," said Keno Alverenga, the son of a mill owner.
In an attempt to prevent social unrest in Nova Esperanca, where most of the 32,000 inhabitants depend on the timber industry, the government pledged welfare measures and alternative economic activities.
SEEKING ALTERNATIVES TO LOGGING
The steps include unemployment benefits, food baskets and plots of land for the poorest. The estimated 5 million reais ($2.24 million) in proceeds from the sale of the impounded wood will finance local infrastructure projects where redundant loggers will be hired.
"Alternative economic activities are more important than repression," Minc said. "Without them, they'll just keep deforesting down the road."
Last year similar police operations in other areas caused violent protests in which loggers took officials hostage and fled with the impounded tree trunks.
Since he took office 10 months ago, Minc has cut credit to illegal ranchers and farmers and impounded beef and soy products from deforested areas. He also struck deals with timber and grain wholesalers as well as banks to boycott products of illegal origin.
But critics say President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government remains deeply divided over conservation. It is promoting a series of new roads and hydroelectric plants that conservationists fear could increase deforestation.
The country's influential agriculture lobby also has resisted costly measures to improve productivity and recover depleted land instead of slashing and burning forest.
Norway, which last year pledged contributions of $1 billion through 2015 to a new Amazon Fund, has made its annual contributions conditional on progress in cutting deforestation rates. The fund will finance conservation, scientific research and sustainable economic development.
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN08531657
rainforestpower Headline Animator
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Ancient Acai: Amazonian Fruit's True Nutritional Properties
Sambazon, World Leader in Acai, Stands up for the Amazonian Fruit's True Nutritional Properties
Sambazon, the pioneer and global market leader in acai, with certified organic food and beverage products sold in 10,000 retailers nationwide from Whole Foods to Publix, Kroger and Safeway, announces factual acai nutrition information in light of current false claims by acai scam campaigns and consumer watchdog organizations alike.
Acai, an Amazon palm berry historically consumed by locals for centuries, is a highly nutritious fruit scientifically found to be rich in powerful antioxidants and healthy omega fats. Sadly, the acai scams today are clearly misleading consumers with outrageous health claims from rapid weight loss to enhanced sexual performance. Sambazon urges consumers to be wary of claims made by online diet scams as well as those made by organizations discrediting the many true benefits of acai -- and for those consumers unfortunately caught up in a scam, we encourage them to contact the BBB.
There is an increasing amount of misleading information in circulation comparing packaged products to whole fruit or juice in an inaccurate attempt to discredit the true properties of acai. Years of tests conducted by accredited organizations in Brazil and the U.S. prove that when comparing pure fruit to pure fruit, or pure juice to pure juice, the antioxidant capacity of acai reigns superior to pomegranate, blueberry, blackberry and most fruits available.
"Acai is one of the few fruits that are rich in heart-healthy omega-9 fats, like the type you would find in olive oil," says David Grotto, RD, author of 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life. "A four-ounce portion of pure acai is only 100 calories, is low in sugar and contains powerful antioxidants including anthocyanins which may help fight inflammation."
Over the course of 8 years, as part of their quality assurance standard operating procedures, Sambazon has spent over $500,000 dollars routinely testing the acai processed at their proprietary facility in the Brazilian Amazon to ensure that they continually are delivering the most nutritionally potent and highest quality acai available.
"Our acai products are packed with powerful antioxidants along with healthy fats -- claims that have been validated through years of scientific data," states Ryan Black, CEO, Sambazon. "It's a shame that the extravagant and unfounded claims made by illegal scam businesses are undermining the public's understanding of the true benefits of the fruit. With testimonials from renown athletes and nutritionists, and products that are consumed by millions of satisfied consumers worldwide, we're proud to offer the highest quality acai products made with integrity in every step of the process -- the 'real deal.'"
About Sambazon
Sambazon is the global market leader in Acai -- a delicious and powerfully nutritious purple berry that grows on palm trees in the Amazon Rainforest. Sambazon's product portfolio of Organic Acai beverages, frozen Acai berry products and Acai supplements are enjoyed by both world-class athletes and health-conscious consumers, and available at major retailers across North America including Whole Foods Market, Jamba Juice, Krogers and thousands of grocery chains, specialty stores and juice bars across the country.
Sambazon's market-driven conservation business model in the Amazon Rainforest promotes forest stewardship, creates new jobs, improves living conditions and educational opportunities for thousands of small family farmers through the sustainable management of the Acai palm tree.
In 2006, Condoleezza Rice named Sambazon winner of the "Secretary of State Award for Corporate Excellence" for helping to create worldwide awareness and demand for the Acai fruit while supporting local indigenous communities in Brazil.
To learn more about Sambazon Acai and creating positive change in the Amazon and beyond please visit www.sambazon.com.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/sambazon-world-leader-acai-stands-amazonian-fruits-true-nutritional-properties/
Sambazon, the pioneer and global market leader in acai, with certified organic food and beverage products sold in 10,000 retailers nationwide from Whole Foods to Publix, Kroger and Safeway, announces factual acai nutrition information in light of current false claims by acai scam campaigns and consumer watchdog organizations alike.
Acai, an Amazon palm berry historically consumed by locals for centuries, is a highly nutritious fruit scientifically found to be rich in powerful antioxidants and healthy omega fats. Sadly, the acai scams today are clearly misleading consumers with outrageous health claims from rapid weight loss to enhanced sexual performance. Sambazon urges consumers to be wary of claims made by online diet scams as well as those made by organizations discrediting the many true benefits of acai -- and for those consumers unfortunately caught up in a scam, we encourage them to contact the BBB.
There is an increasing amount of misleading information in circulation comparing packaged products to whole fruit or juice in an inaccurate attempt to discredit the true properties of acai. Years of tests conducted by accredited organizations in Brazil and the U.S. prove that when comparing pure fruit to pure fruit, or pure juice to pure juice, the antioxidant capacity of acai reigns superior to pomegranate, blueberry, blackberry and most fruits available.
"Acai is one of the few fruits that are rich in heart-healthy omega-9 fats, like the type you would find in olive oil," says David Grotto, RD, author of 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life. "A four-ounce portion of pure acai is only 100 calories, is low in sugar and contains powerful antioxidants including anthocyanins which may help fight inflammation."
Over the course of 8 years, as part of their quality assurance standard operating procedures, Sambazon has spent over $500,000 dollars routinely testing the acai processed at their proprietary facility in the Brazilian Amazon to ensure that they continually are delivering the most nutritionally potent and highest quality acai available.
"Our acai products are packed with powerful antioxidants along with healthy fats -- claims that have been validated through years of scientific data," states Ryan Black, CEO, Sambazon. "It's a shame that the extravagant and unfounded claims made by illegal scam businesses are undermining the public's understanding of the true benefits of the fruit. With testimonials from renown athletes and nutritionists, and products that are consumed by millions of satisfied consumers worldwide, we're proud to offer the highest quality acai products made with integrity in every step of the process -- the 'real deal.'"
About Sambazon
Sambazon is the global market leader in Acai -- a delicious and powerfully nutritious purple berry that grows on palm trees in the Amazon Rainforest. Sambazon's product portfolio of Organic Acai beverages, frozen Acai berry products and Acai supplements are enjoyed by both world-class athletes and health-conscious consumers, and available at major retailers across North America including Whole Foods Market, Jamba Juice, Krogers and thousands of grocery chains, specialty stores and juice bars across the country.
Sambazon's market-driven conservation business model in the Amazon Rainforest promotes forest stewardship, creates new jobs, improves living conditions and educational opportunities for thousands of small family farmers through the sustainable management of the Acai palm tree.
In 2006, Condoleezza Rice named Sambazon winner of the "Secretary of State Award for Corporate Excellence" for helping to create worldwide awareness and demand for the Acai fruit while supporting local indigenous communities in Brazil.
To learn more about Sambazon Acai and creating positive change in the Amazon and beyond please visit www.sambazon.com.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/sambazon-world-leader-acai-stands-amazonian-fruits-true-nutritional-properties/
Friday, March 20, 2009
Norway emerges as champion of rainforest conservation
Scandinavian country with population 1.5 percent that of the United States is the biggest international funder of rainforest conservation.
While citizens in western countries have long paid lip service to saving rainforests, Norway has quietly emerged as the largest and most important international force in tropical forest conservation. The small Scandinavian country has committed 3 billion krone ($440 million) a year to the effort, a figure vastly greater than the $100M pledged — but never fully contributed — by the United States under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act (TFCA). Norway now hopes it can help push to include forest conservation in the successor to the Kyoto Protocol by providing funding and fostering cooperation among international actors like the UN and World Bank, as well as developing countries, to fund the creation of an international architecture which makes it possible to incorporate deforestation and degradation into a post-2012 climate regime.
Norway's leadership on forest conservation arose from its concern over the impacts of climate change and what it sees as an attractive source for cuts in carbon dioxide emissions: reducing deforestation and forest degradation, which together account for roughly 20 percent of emissions caused by human activity or more than all the world's trucks, cars, ships and airplanes combined. The country, which is the world's third-largest gas exporter, the fourth-biggest oil exporter, and has some of the highest emissions per capita in Europe, aims to be carbon neutral — in terms of compensating for all remaining domestic emissions through emission reductions in other countries — by 2030. Although Norway was among the first countries in the world to adopt a carbon tax (in 1991) and hydropower is the source of nearly 99 percent of its electricity, it needs to aggressively reduce n emissions to meet its targets.
Norway's intention to support forest conservation as a mechanism for reducing greenhouse gas emissions was announced by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg at the 2007 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bali, Indonesia. At the time, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), was still a somewhat esoteric idea for curtailing emissions; one championed by a handful of major conservation groups, a coalition of tropical nations led by Papua New Guinea, and the World Bank. Today the landscape has changed. REDD — in various forms — is backed by a broad range of interests, from politicians to business leaders to environmental groups. Still, few have ventured forth with the funds needed to jumpstart REDD projects. The United States for example has not directly committed money to the initiative. Norway hopes its commitment will prod other countries to follow its example.
"The Norwegian government realized REDD was a field which needed leadership in order to kick start the process," Hans Brattskar, ambassador and director of the Norwegian government's International Climate and Forest Initiative, told mongabay.com. "Norway, by making significant initial contributions, could be catalytic in the sense that we could start building the international framework needed to make it easier for other countries to follow."
"Our main goals are to include emissions from deforestation and degradation in a new climate regime and to reduce emissions from forests—but we also recognize that this may have added value in terms of protecting biodiversity, strengthening indigenous people's interests and improving local livelihoods," he continued.
The Norwegian government cites these multiple benefits — a "triple dividend" — as the critical reason for supporting REDD. It also sees REDD as an opportunity to engage developing countries in climate negotiations set to resume in Copenhagen this December.
"We think it is important to underline that REDD is more than development aid, and more than combating climate change," Brattskar said. "It might seem ambitious but we strongly hope that the work with reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation can create deep, substantial, lasting partnerships between developed and developing countries to help put the latter on the path to genuine, sustainable, low-carbon development."
Oil palm plantation border rainforest. Oil palm has arisen as an important driver of deforestation in Southeast Asia
Norway is optimistic about the potential of REDD to simultaneously reduce the risk of dangerous climate change, alleviate rural poverty, and protect ecosystem services and biodiversity. But it notes that daunting challenges need to be overcome, including building capacity for developing nations to reduce deforestation, thus ensuring equitable distribution of benefits to stakeholders including forest people, verifying reductions in emissions, and providing the long-term funding needed to compete economically with the primary drivers of deforestation, among them agriculture and logging.
"REDD is recognized as a cost-effective and relatively fast way to reduce emissions," Brattskar said, but added that it will be neither cheap nor easy. "Our main goal and challenge is the inclusion of REDD in a future climate regime, in a form that ensures cooperation and predictable financing for REDD in developing forest countries."
Norway has demonstrated its willingness to commit substantial sums for forest conservation — provided recipient countries honor their commitments to reduce deforestation. Last year Norway pledged up to a billion dollars to Brazil's Amazon Fund, an initiative that seeks to reduce deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon by 70 percent relative to a 1996-2005 baseline. It also announced NOK 500 million ($73 million) towards the development and implementation of a national REDD strategy in Tanzania over the next five years, millions of dollars for the South American country of Guyana, and more than $100 million to Congo Basin countries. It continues to seek new partnerships and opportunities in countries committed to developing national strategy plans for REDD. Most of the support is channeled through multilateral organizations such as the African development bank (which administers the Congo Basin Forest Fund), the World Bank (Forest Carbon Partnership Facility) and the UN (UN Redd Programme) that support countries in drafting national strategies for REDD.
Norway is counting on other industrialized nations to eventually join the effort initiative by supporting multilateral processes for REDD. Brattskar said Britain is already providing financial backing for the Congo Basin Forest Fund while Germany is supporting forest conservation through its international climate initiative. He said other donor countries are showing "great interest".
"In addition to our contributions to the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), which is also supported by a number of other countries, Norway is financing the first phase of the United Nations' REDD program," which is run by three UN agencies, UNEP, FAO and UNDP. "In the long run, this needs to be supplemented by funding from other donors. We do not want this to be seen as a 'Norwegian project'."
"We are certainly not alone in this field. At the same time, we would strongly appreciate more countries' getting involved and providing support to REDD efforts."
Norway has demonstrated its willingness to commit substantial sums for forest conservation — provided recipient countries honor their commitments to reduce deforestation. Last year Norway pledged up to a billion dollars to Brazil's Amazon Fund, an initiative that seeks to reduce deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon by 70 percent relative to a 1996-2005 baseline. It also announced NOK 500 million ($73 million) towards the development and implementation of a national REDD strategy in Tanzania over the next five years, millions of dollars for the South American country of Guyana, and more than $100 million to Congo Basin countries. It continues to seek new partnerships and opportunities in countries committed to developing national strategy plans for REDD. Most of the support is channeled through multilateral organizations such as the African development bank (which administers the Congo Basin Forest Fund), the World Bank (Forest Carbon Partnership Facility) and the UN (UN Redd Programme) that support countries in drafting national strategies for REDD.
Norway is counting on other industrialized nations to eventually join the effort initiative by supporting multilateral processes for REDD. Brattskar said Britain is already providing financial backing for the Congo Basin Forest Fund while Germany is supporting forest conservation through its international climate initiative. He said other donor countries are showing "great interest".
"In addition to our contributions to the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), which is also supported by a number of other countries, Norway is financing the first phase of the United Nations' REDD program," which is run by three UN agencies, UNEP, FAO and UNDP. "In the long run, this needs to be supplemented by funding from other donors. We do not want this to be seen as a 'Norwegian project'."
"We are certainly not alone in this field. At the same time, we would strongly appreciate more countries' getting involved and providing support to REDD efforts."
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0319-norway_forests.html
While citizens in western countries have long paid lip service to saving rainforests, Norway has quietly emerged as the largest and most important international force in tropical forest conservation. The small Scandinavian country has committed 3 billion krone ($440 million) a year to the effort, a figure vastly greater than the $100M pledged — but never fully contributed — by the United States under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act (TFCA). Norway now hopes it can help push to include forest conservation in the successor to the Kyoto Protocol by providing funding and fostering cooperation among international actors like the UN and World Bank, as well as developing countries, to fund the creation of an international architecture which makes it possible to incorporate deforestation and degradation into a post-2012 climate regime.
Norway's leadership on forest conservation arose from its concern over the impacts of climate change and what it sees as an attractive source for cuts in carbon dioxide emissions: reducing deforestation and forest degradation, which together account for roughly 20 percent of emissions caused by human activity or more than all the world's trucks, cars, ships and airplanes combined. The country, which is the world's third-largest gas exporter, the fourth-biggest oil exporter, and has some of the highest emissions per capita in Europe, aims to be carbon neutral — in terms of compensating for all remaining domestic emissions through emission reductions in other countries — by 2030. Although Norway was among the first countries in the world to adopt a carbon tax (in 1991) and hydropower is the source of nearly 99 percent of its electricity, it needs to aggressively reduce n emissions to meet its targets.
Norway's intention to support forest conservation as a mechanism for reducing greenhouse gas emissions was announced by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg at the 2007 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bali, Indonesia. At the time, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), was still a somewhat esoteric idea for curtailing emissions; one championed by a handful of major conservation groups, a coalition of tropical nations led by Papua New Guinea, and the World Bank. Today the landscape has changed. REDD — in various forms — is backed by a broad range of interests, from politicians to business leaders to environmental groups. Still, few have ventured forth with the funds needed to jumpstart REDD projects. The United States for example has not directly committed money to the initiative. Norway hopes its commitment will prod other countries to follow its example.
"The Norwegian government realized REDD was a field which needed leadership in order to kick start the process," Hans Brattskar, ambassador and director of the Norwegian government's International Climate and Forest Initiative, told mongabay.com. "Norway, by making significant initial contributions, could be catalytic in the sense that we could start building the international framework needed to make it easier for other countries to follow."
"Our main goals are to include emissions from deforestation and degradation in a new climate regime and to reduce emissions from forests—but we also recognize that this may have added value in terms of protecting biodiversity, strengthening indigenous people's interests and improving local livelihoods," he continued.
The Norwegian government cites these multiple benefits — a "triple dividend" — as the critical reason for supporting REDD. It also sees REDD as an opportunity to engage developing countries in climate negotiations set to resume in Copenhagen this December.
"We think it is important to underline that REDD is more than development aid, and more than combating climate change," Brattskar said. "It might seem ambitious but we strongly hope that the work with reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation can create deep, substantial, lasting partnerships between developed and developing countries to help put the latter on the path to genuine, sustainable, low-carbon development."
Oil palm plantation border rainforest. Oil palm has arisen as an important driver of deforestation in Southeast Asia
Norway is optimistic about the potential of REDD to simultaneously reduce the risk of dangerous climate change, alleviate rural poverty, and protect ecosystem services and biodiversity. But it notes that daunting challenges need to be overcome, including building capacity for developing nations to reduce deforestation, thus ensuring equitable distribution of benefits to stakeholders including forest people, verifying reductions in emissions, and providing the long-term funding needed to compete economically with the primary drivers of deforestation, among them agriculture and logging.
"REDD is recognized as a cost-effective and relatively fast way to reduce emissions," Brattskar said, but added that it will be neither cheap nor easy. "Our main goal and challenge is the inclusion of REDD in a future climate regime, in a form that ensures cooperation and predictable financing for REDD in developing forest countries."
Norway has demonstrated its willingness to commit substantial sums for forest conservation — provided recipient countries honor their commitments to reduce deforestation. Last year Norway pledged up to a billion dollars to Brazil's Amazon Fund, an initiative that seeks to reduce deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon by 70 percent relative to a 1996-2005 baseline. It also announced NOK 500 million ($73 million) towards the development and implementation of a national REDD strategy in Tanzania over the next five years, millions of dollars for the South American country of Guyana, and more than $100 million to Congo Basin countries. It continues to seek new partnerships and opportunities in countries committed to developing national strategy plans for REDD. Most of the support is channeled through multilateral organizations such as the African development bank (which administers the Congo Basin Forest Fund), the World Bank (Forest Carbon Partnership Facility) and the UN (UN Redd Programme) that support countries in drafting national strategies for REDD.
Norway is counting on other industrialized nations to eventually join the effort initiative by supporting multilateral processes for REDD. Brattskar said Britain is already providing financial backing for the Congo Basin Forest Fund while Germany is supporting forest conservation through its international climate initiative. He said other donor countries are showing "great interest".
"In addition to our contributions to the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), which is also supported by a number of other countries, Norway is financing the first phase of the United Nations' REDD program," which is run by three UN agencies, UNEP, FAO and UNDP. "In the long run, this needs to be supplemented by funding from other donors. We do not want this to be seen as a 'Norwegian project'."
"We are certainly not alone in this field. At the same time, we would strongly appreciate more countries' getting involved and providing support to REDD efforts."
Norway has demonstrated its willingness to commit substantial sums for forest conservation — provided recipient countries honor their commitments to reduce deforestation. Last year Norway pledged up to a billion dollars to Brazil's Amazon Fund, an initiative that seeks to reduce deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon by 70 percent relative to a 1996-2005 baseline. It also announced NOK 500 million ($73 million) towards the development and implementation of a national REDD strategy in Tanzania over the next five years, millions of dollars for the South American country of Guyana, and more than $100 million to Congo Basin countries. It continues to seek new partnerships and opportunities in countries committed to developing national strategy plans for REDD. Most of the support is channeled through multilateral organizations such as the African development bank (which administers the Congo Basin Forest Fund), the World Bank (Forest Carbon Partnership Facility) and the UN (UN Redd Programme) that support countries in drafting national strategies for REDD.
Norway is counting on other industrialized nations to eventually join the effort initiative by supporting multilateral processes for REDD. Brattskar said Britain is already providing financial backing for the Congo Basin Forest Fund while Germany is supporting forest conservation through its international climate initiative. He said other donor countries are showing "great interest".
"In addition to our contributions to the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), which is also supported by a number of other countries, Norway is financing the first phase of the United Nations' REDD program," which is run by three UN agencies, UNEP, FAO and UNDP. "In the long run, this needs to be supplemented by funding from other donors. We do not want this to be seen as a 'Norwegian project'."
"We are certainly not alone in this field. At the same time, we would strongly appreciate more countries' getting involved and providing support to REDD efforts."
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0319-norway_forests.html
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Amazon Rainforest damage and destruction
37,000 sq km of Amazon rainforest destroyed or damaged in 2008
New satellite system provides a more detailed look at forest degradation and may help Brazil stop deforestation before it occurs.
Logging and fires damaged nearly 25,000 square kilometers (9,650 square miles) of Amazon rainforest in the August 2007-July 2008 period, an increase of 67 percent over the prior year period, according to a new mapping system developed by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE). The damage comes on top of the nearly 12,000 sq km (4,600 sq mi) of rainforest that was cleared during the year.
The increase in activity has been attributed to the sharp rise in commodity prices over the past two years. While grain and meat prices have plunged since last March, higher prices have provided an impetus for converting land for agriculture and pasture. Accordingly, the burning season of 2007 (July-September) saw record numbers of fires in some parts of the Amazon as farmers, speculators, and ranchers set vast areas ablaze to prepare for the 2008 growing season. The high levels of degradation relative to deforestation for 2007-2008 may be an indication that some of the area slated for development was abandoned — before clearing — as commodity prices fell.
Mato Grosso and Pará, states on Brazil's agricultural frontier, saw the highest levels of deforestation and degradation. Large swathes of forest land and cerrado (tropical savanna) in both states have been converted for large cattle ranches and mechanized soy farms in recent years.
Monitoring deforestation before it occurs
The new system, dubbed DEGRAD, is based on special processing of satellite images provided by LANDSAT and the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS). DEGRAD may allow Brazil to become the first rainforest nation to accurately track carbon dioxide released during deforestation and forest degradation, the source of roughly two-thirds of Brazil's greenhouse gas emissions. Such monitoring capacity is critical to REDD, a proposed mechanism for compensating countries for reducing such emissions. Brazil expects to enhance the system when it launches the Amazon-1, an advanced satellite that will use cloud-penetrating technology to allow more detailed monitoring of the Amazon.
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0319-brazil_inpe_degrad.html
New satellite system provides a more detailed look at forest degradation and may help Brazil stop deforestation before it occurs.
Logging and fires damaged nearly 25,000 square kilometers (9,650 square miles) of Amazon rainforest in the August 2007-July 2008 period, an increase of 67 percent over the prior year period, according to a new mapping system developed by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE). The damage comes on top of the nearly 12,000 sq km (4,600 sq mi) of rainforest that was cleared during the year.
The increase in activity has been attributed to the sharp rise in commodity prices over the past two years. While grain and meat prices have plunged since last March, higher prices have provided an impetus for converting land for agriculture and pasture. Accordingly, the burning season of 2007 (July-September) saw record numbers of fires in some parts of the Amazon as farmers, speculators, and ranchers set vast areas ablaze to prepare for the 2008 growing season. The high levels of degradation relative to deforestation for 2007-2008 may be an indication that some of the area slated for development was abandoned — before clearing — as commodity prices fell.
Mato Grosso and Pará, states on Brazil's agricultural frontier, saw the highest levels of deforestation and degradation. Large swathes of forest land and cerrado (tropical savanna) in both states have been converted for large cattle ranches and mechanized soy farms in recent years.
Monitoring deforestation before it occurs
The new system, dubbed DEGRAD, is based on special processing of satellite images provided by LANDSAT and the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS). DEGRAD may allow Brazil to become the first rainforest nation to accurately track carbon dioxide released during deforestation and forest degradation, the source of roughly two-thirds of Brazil's greenhouse gas emissions. Such monitoring capacity is critical to REDD, a proposed mechanism for compensating countries for reducing such emissions. Brazil expects to enhance the system when it launches the Amazon-1, an advanced satellite that will use cloud-penetrating technology to allow more detailed monitoring of the Amazon.
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0319-brazil_inpe_degrad.html
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
New report confirms uncontacted tribe has been fleeing to Brazil
A report published today by Survival International confirms that some of the world’s last uncontacted Indians have been fleeing from Peru to Brazil in order to escape illegal logging.
The report details evidence found by employees of the Brazilian government’s Indian Affairs Department (FUNAI) since 2004. The evidence consists of numerous sightings of the Indians and includes photos of arrows belonging to them and houses built by them. It also includes mahogany boards which have floated past the FUNAI team’s protection post on the remote Envira River, coming downriver from Peru where uncontacted Indians are known to live.
‘(There has been a) forced migration of autonomous groups in Peru, caused by mahogany exploration in the headwaters of the Jurua, Purus and Envira (rivers in Peru),’ says Jose Carlos Meirelles, head of the FUNAI team, in the report. ‘The collection of arrows (belonging to the Indians) on my table is piling up. . . The situation will only be resolved when the Indians are left alone on the other side of the border.’
Download Survival's new report
(.pdf format)
Loggers have illegally invaded the uncontacted Indians’ land in Peru in search of some of the last commercially-viable mahogany trees in the world. They are often armed and expose the Indians to diseases to which they have no immunity. After loggers forced first contact with members of the Murunahua in 1996, an estimated half of the tribe were wiped out.
Survival’s report urges Peru’s government ‘to protect uncontacted Indians’ land by removing all loggers and prohibiting the entry of any other outsiders and any form of natural resource extraction in areas where they live. . . At present, uncontacted Indians are at huge risk and face extinction.’
http://www.survival-international.org/news/4333
The report details evidence found by employees of the Brazilian government’s Indian Affairs Department (FUNAI) since 2004. The evidence consists of numerous sightings of the Indians and includes photos of arrows belonging to them and houses built by them. It also includes mahogany boards which have floated past the FUNAI team’s protection post on the remote Envira River, coming downriver from Peru where uncontacted Indians are known to live.
‘(There has been a) forced migration of autonomous groups in Peru, caused by mahogany exploration in the headwaters of the Jurua, Purus and Envira (rivers in Peru),’ says Jose Carlos Meirelles, head of the FUNAI team, in the report. ‘The collection of arrows (belonging to the Indians) on my table is piling up. . . The situation will only be resolved when the Indians are left alone on the other side of the border.’
Download Survival's new report
(.pdf format)
Loggers have illegally invaded the uncontacted Indians’ land in Peru in search of some of the last commercially-viable mahogany trees in the world. They are often armed and expose the Indians to diseases to which they have no immunity. After loggers forced first contact with members of the Murunahua in 1996, an estimated half of the tribe were wiped out.
Survival’s report urges Peru’s government ‘to protect uncontacted Indians’ land by removing all loggers and prohibiting the entry of any other outsiders and any form of natural resource extraction in areas where they live. . . At present, uncontacted Indians are at huge risk and face extinction.’
http://www.survival-international.org/news/4333
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Prince of Wales continues tour of the Amazon
Britain's Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall, toured the Amazon in Brazil, home to the world's biggest rain forest, British broadcaster Sky News reported on Sunday.
Charles and his wife arrived on Friday in the state capital, Manaus, as part of their four-day visit to Latin America's biggest country.
The couple's trip culminated in Manaus, the Amazon's biggest city with a population of two million, where he and Camilla have been staying.
Charles met with the Maguari people as he traveled down the Amazon River, dancing with locals and playing music instruments.
The prince has been traveling in South America for a week to raise awareness about climate change and the problem of deforestation of rainforests.
Prince Charles is a known environmentalist and has spent more than 20 years campaigning on climate matters.
On Friday he was named "Friend of the Forest" by the Governor of the Amazonas state for his efforts.
Carlos Miller, of the Amazon Permaculture Institute said the Prince was one of his idols "because he has been pushing this sustainable agenda for years."
On Thursday, Prince Charles told a group of business leaders in Rio de Janeiro that mankind has 100 months or less to save the planet from a climate-caused disaster.
The British royal couple will next be in Ecuador and its Galapagos Islands, the final stop on their tour of South America.
http://www.necn.com/Boston/World/2009/03/15/Prince-of-Wales-continues-tour/1237134939.html
Charles and his wife arrived on Friday in the state capital, Manaus, as part of their four-day visit to Latin America's biggest country.
The couple's trip culminated in Manaus, the Amazon's biggest city with a population of two million, where he and Camilla have been staying.
Charles met with the Maguari people as he traveled down the Amazon River, dancing with locals and playing music instruments.
The prince has been traveling in South America for a week to raise awareness about climate change and the problem of deforestation of rainforests.
Prince Charles is a known environmentalist and has spent more than 20 years campaigning on climate matters.
On Friday he was named "Friend of the Forest" by the Governor of the Amazonas state for his efforts.
Carlos Miller, of the Amazon Permaculture Institute said the Prince was one of his idols "because he has been pushing this sustainable agenda for years."
On Thursday, Prince Charles told a group of business leaders in Rio de Janeiro that mankind has 100 months or less to save the planet from a climate-caused disaster.
The British royal couple will next be in Ecuador and its Galapagos Islands, the final stop on their tour of South America.
http://www.necn.com/Boston/World/2009/03/15/Prince-of-Wales-continues-tour/1237134939.html
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Amazonian amphibian diversity traced to Andes
Study of poison frogs the first to show that the Andes Mountains have been a major source of diversity for the Amazon basin
Colorful poison frogs in the Amazon owe their great diversity to ancestors that leapt into the region from the Andes Mountains several times during the last 10 million years, a new study from The University of Texas at Austin suggests.
This is the first study to show that the Andes have been a major source of diversity for the Amazon basin, one of the largest reservoirs of biological diversity on Earth. The finding runs counter to the idea that Amazonian diversity is the result of evolution only within the tropical forest itself.
"Basically, the Amazon basin is a 'melting pot' for South American frogs," says graduate student Juan Santos, lead author of the study. "Poison frogs there have come from multiple places of origin, notably the Andes Mountains, over many millions of years. We have shown that you cannot understand Amazonian biodiversity by looking only in the basin. Adjacent regions have played a major role."
Santos and Dr. David Cannatella, professor of integrative biology, published their findings this month in the journal PLoS Biology.
It has been assumed that much of the evolution of biodiversity in the Amazon basin occurred over the last one to two million years, a mere snapshot in time.
Santos and Cannatella peered about 45 million years into the past using novel biogeographical techniques to create a deep evolutionary history of poison frogs in space and time. Because of the lack of an extensive fossil record for the tropical forest, their work used DNA sequences to discover the frogs' evolutionary history.
The poison frogs, or dendrobatids, are diverse and widely distributed across the Neotropics, an area that includes Central and South America. The scientists created an evolutionary tree, or phylogeny, using 223 of the 353 species of poison frogs known from throughout this region.
In analyzing the evolutionary relationships among the poison frogs, they discovered that Amazonian diversity is the result of at least 14 dispersals of ancestral frogs into the region beginning about 23 million years ago.
All living Amazonian poison frogs evolved from these ancestors, most of which (11 dispersals) came from the Andes Mountains.
The Amazon basin has changed dramatically over that long time. A large inland system of water has come and gone, the Andes Mountains started their uplift (about 15 million years ago) and the Amazon River was formed (about nine million years ago).
Most of the frog dispersals from the Andes occurred between one and seven million years ago, when the modern tropical rainforest of the Amazon River basin was forming.
"There was a repeated dispersal of frogs from the foothills of the Andes after the extensive inland wetlands retreated from the Amazon," says Santos.
These frogs then evolved into about 70 species found today in the Amazon basin.
The scientists also discovered that frogs have historically immigrated out of the Amazon basin to adjacent areas, and to and from other regions within the Neotropics.
Evolution and diversification of the poison frogs is ongoing, especially in the Amazon rainforest, the Chocó (a narrow region of tropical forest along the northwest Pacific Coast of South America) and in adjacent Central America.
Cannatella says many other tropical plants and animals in the Amazon may share this more complex geographical and temporal history with the poison frogs.
"The Amazon rainforest is not just gradually accumulating diversity over time," says Cannatella. "Ancestral frog species moved into and out of the area, and we can predict that other organisms restricted to these wet tropical forests may show a similar pattern of dispersal, evolution.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/uota-aad030309.php
Colorful poison frogs in the Amazon owe their great diversity to ancestors that leapt into the region from the Andes Mountains several times during the last 10 million years, a new study from The University of Texas at Austin suggests.
This is the first study to show that the Andes have been a major source of diversity for the Amazon basin, one of the largest reservoirs of biological diversity on Earth. The finding runs counter to the idea that Amazonian diversity is the result of evolution only within the tropical forest itself.
"Basically, the Amazon basin is a 'melting pot' for South American frogs," says graduate student Juan Santos, lead author of the study. "Poison frogs there have come from multiple places of origin, notably the Andes Mountains, over many millions of years. We have shown that you cannot understand Amazonian biodiversity by looking only in the basin. Adjacent regions have played a major role."
Santos and Dr. David Cannatella, professor of integrative biology, published their findings this month in the journal PLoS Biology.
It has been assumed that much of the evolution of biodiversity in the Amazon basin occurred over the last one to two million years, a mere snapshot in time.
Santos and Cannatella peered about 45 million years into the past using novel biogeographical techniques to create a deep evolutionary history of poison frogs in space and time. Because of the lack of an extensive fossil record for the tropical forest, their work used DNA sequences to discover the frogs' evolutionary history.
The poison frogs, or dendrobatids, are diverse and widely distributed across the Neotropics, an area that includes Central and South America. The scientists created an evolutionary tree, or phylogeny, using 223 of the 353 species of poison frogs known from throughout this region.
In analyzing the evolutionary relationships among the poison frogs, they discovered that Amazonian diversity is the result of at least 14 dispersals of ancestral frogs into the region beginning about 23 million years ago.
All living Amazonian poison frogs evolved from these ancestors, most of which (11 dispersals) came from the Andes Mountains.
The Amazon basin has changed dramatically over that long time. A large inland system of water has come and gone, the Andes Mountains started their uplift (about 15 million years ago) and the Amazon River was formed (about nine million years ago).
Most of the frog dispersals from the Andes occurred between one and seven million years ago, when the modern tropical rainforest of the Amazon River basin was forming.
"There was a repeated dispersal of frogs from the foothills of the Andes after the extensive inland wetlands retreated from the Amazon," says Santos.
These frogs then evolved into about 70 species found today in the Amazon basin.
The scientists also discovered that frogs have historically immigrated out of the Amazon basin to adjacent areas, and to and from other regions within the Neotropics.
Evolution and diversification of the poison frogs is ongoing, especially in the Amazon rainforest, the Chocó (a narrow region of tropical forest along the northwest Pacific Coast of South America) and in adjacent Central America.
Cannatella says many other tropical plants and animals in the Amazon may share this more complex geographical and temporal history with the poison frogs.
"The Amazon rainforest is not just gradually accumulating diversity over time," says Cannatella. "Ancestral frog species moved into and out of the area, and we can predict that other organisms restricted to these wet tropical forests may show a similar pattern of dispersal, evolution.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/uota-aad030309.php
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
