Issue 151 – February 2010

International Year of Biodiversity: And what about peoples?

The United Nations declared 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity. According to the official web site, “It is a celebration of life on earth and of the value
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Africa: The huge value of mangroves for communities

Africa is richly endowed with mangroves, which cover over 3.2 million hectares, extending from Mauritania to Angola on the Atlantic coast and from Somalia to South Africa along the Indian
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Bangladesh: The role of the ADB and World Bank in the destruction of the “forest of the fallen leaves”

The last remnants of forests in Bangladesh are disappearing and much of the blame goes to local peoples’ “slash and burn” agriculture. The government –supported with loans and funds from
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Chile: Research provides data on the role of native forests in the production of water

An article published in the newspaper “La Tercera”(1) and taken up on the Mapuche IMC blog (2) reveals the results of research carried out by scientists from Valdivia’s Austral University
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Mangrove restoration is necessary, mangrove monoculture plantation is not

The December 2004 tsunami that played havoc on several Asian coasts also exposed the level of human-made destruction of protective greenbelts including mangroves along coastlines. The need to re-establish natural
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The myth of GHG emissions reductions from “Sustainable Forest Management”

A recent report by Greenpeace (“Why logging will not save the climate: the fallacy of GHG emissions reductions from so-called ‘Sustainable Forest Management’ (SFM) or Reduced Impact Logging (RIL) of
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Brazil: Once again opposing Plantar’s CDM project

Plantar S.A. Reflorestamentos, a pig-iron and plantation company operating in Brazil, in the state of Minas Gerais, has been trying hard to get money through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
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Hiding monoculture oil palm plantations under a business-friendly “forest” definition

An article published on the website EUobserver.com (1) informs that “a draft commission communication offering guidance to EU member states on the use of biofuels has classified palm oil plantations
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Laos: Research on the impacts of rubber plantations

A research project was carried out in Laos to evaluate the economic, social and ecological impacts of large-scale land concessions to plant rubber and for making recommendations for the future
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México: Violent evictions in Chiapas for establishing oil palm monocultures

What follows is a communiqué from the Latin American Network against Monoculture Tree Plantations (RECOMA) reporting on the violent situation that local communities and Indigenous Peoples of the Lacandona forest
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REDD: Breathing new life into the scam of carbon trading

Reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) is based on a simple idea: Making forests worth more alive than dead. But on closer examination, it is not simple at
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