Carbon neutral cheating
Being “carbon neutral” seems to have become fashionable. The World Bank, the Vatican, the World Olympics, the Football World Cup, the Body Shop, the Rolling Stones, and a long list (Read More)
OUR VIEWPOINT
CLIMATE CHANGE
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Coalition created to intensify actions to prevent and respond to climate change
During the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007, a number of social movements and groups agreed (Read More)
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Gender issues and climate change
For the first time in the history of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, a world wide coalition of women drafted position papers with the women’s and gender perspective (Read More)
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The paper industry and the “business of climate change”
For many years, the pulp and paper industry has been trying to paint itself green. No challenge is too big, it seems, for one of the most polluting industries on (Read More)
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Why carbon sink plantations have been hardly implemented within the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism…so far
In the general public perception, trees are automatically associated with environmental benefits, and there is consumer demand for “cuddly” offset tree-related projects, as opposed to the type of industrial emissions (Read More)
COMMUNITIES AND FORESTS
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Criminalized for Defending Nature
The Summit of Communities Criminalized for Defending Nature was held last November in Quito, Ecuador. Criminalization is part of a strategy aimed at silencing any protest against the extractive activities (Read More)
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India: Implementation of Tribal Forest Rights Act 2006
India’s Minister of Tribal Affairs promised on 7.12.2007 to the Indian Parliament that the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Forest Rights) Act 2006 which the parliament approved a year (Read More)
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Mekong: MRC doing the wrong checking
Old proposals of damming the Lower Mekong River were revived recently. According to press releases from the Thailand-based NGO TERRA, the governments of Lao PDR, Cambodia and Thailand have granted (Read More)
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Thailand’s Community Forest Bill: Who does the military government think it’s good for?
The National Legislative Assembly (NLA), set up after the military coup in Thailand last year and due to be disbanded following the general election on 23 December, has, in its (Read More)
COMMUNITIES AND TREE MONOCULTURES
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Chile: What is not said about work in tree plantations
Forestry development in Chile –meaning monoculture tree plantations- is marked by a great imbalance in the distribution of the monetary wealth generated by this industry. The huge profits obtained -subsidized (Read More)
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Chile: The worthless CERTFOR tree plantation certification label
Most Chilean forestry companies’ plantations are certified, some by FSC and the majority by CERTFOR (a member of PEFC). In round figures, FSC has certified some 350,000 hectares, while CERTFOR (Read More)
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Papua New Guinea: Woodlark’s islanders demand a halt to oil palm plantations
The 85,000 hectares territory of Woodlark Island in Papua New Guinea’s Milne Bay Province is almost totally covered by dense lowland rainforest — lowland dry forest on the eastern side (Read More)
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Swaziland: Woodmark and SAPPI ignore the lessons from a neighbouring farmer
Peter George is a farmer. Or, to be more accurate, he used to be a farmer. He bought Elangeni Farm in the cool highveld of Swaziland in the mid-1970s. He (Read More)
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The European Union and agrofuels: Making the unsustainable “sustainable”
European politicians want to validate the accelerated introduction of agrofuels into the EU countries establishing supposedly sustainable criteria. However, before making full assessments, consulting with the populations involved and establishing (Read More)