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forests > features
Saving Madagascar's sacred forests
by Richard Hamilton
Madagascar, one of the world's biodiveristy hotspots, has already lost at least 80 per cent of its original forest cover � with over half this loss in the last 100 years. A growing population has put pressure on the country's forests. Illegal felling of trees for firewood, charcoal and rice growing is threatening the country's unique plant and animal species. But the new management of Sakoantovo forest now in the hands of local Mahafaly people could show the way forward, as Richard Hamilton reports. ... more
Mining threatens last of Ghana's forests
Two million acres of forest land is lost annually to mining in Ghana, with mining concessions taking over 70 per cent of the total land area. Now gold mining companies threaten to destroy much of the remaining forest, according to a report from the World Rainforest Movement. ... more
Greening the palm oil industry could help save Indonesia's forests
The world's growing demand for palm oil - a major ingredient of soap, moisturiser, lipstick and food stuffs - is likely to lead to a doubling in the area of oil palm plantations in Indonesia, threatening the country's already dwindling forests, and the animals that depend on them. Jamie Grant and Emma Duncan report. ... more
Put a cork in it!
by Tanya Petersen
Cork harvesting has been a way of life in the Mediterranean for at least a thousand years. The forests are ancient, with cork oak trees living for up to 600 years. But the advent of plastic and screw top alternatives to natural cork stoppers is placing cork oak forests - and the people and wildlife that depend on them - under threat. Tanya Petersen reports. ... more
Amazon forest faces climate catastrophe
The Amazon basin - which contains 60 per cent of the world's rainforest - is threatened on two fronts: 'business as usual' emissions of greenhouse gases and accelerating deforestation for commercial development. The result, says a new authoritative report, could be devastating - not only for South America but for the global climate. ... more
The nut that could help save the Amazon
by Stephanie Boyd
The Brazil nut tree is part of the delicate web of life in the Amazon - and its harvesters are seen as the 'guardians' of the forest. However, falling prices and high transport costs are threatening this industry run mainly by small family businesses. Stephanie Boyd reports from Peru on the plight now facing the Brazil nut harvesters. ... more
High price of illegal logging
by Janet Larsen
Extensive floods in Indonesia during early 2002 killed hundreds of people, destroyed thousands of homes, damaged thousands of hectares of rice paddy fields, and inundated Indonesian insurance companies with flood-related claims. Rampant deforestation, much of it from illegal logging, has destroyed forests that stabilize soils and regulate river flow, causing record floods and landslides. Here Janet Larsen outlines the true economic and ecological cost of illegal logging. ... more
Oil palm - spreading 'too fast'
Oil palm plantations currently extend over millions of hectares of forest lands throughout the tropics. Further plantations are either being implemented or promoted in almost every Southern country where soil, water and solar energy fill the requirements of this palm. But says the World Rainforest Movement, most plantations result in deforestation, having even worse impacts than destructive industrial logging. ... more
Forests - a planetary treasure
by Norman Myers
The decline of tropical forests represents the biggest land-use change of its scale and speed in human history. It may soon by followed by a similar decline of boreal (northern) forests. Yet, says Norman Myers we have scarcely begun to ask ourselves what we are losing along the way. Here he explores the real nature of this forest treasure house and tots up some of the damaging consequences of grandscale destruction. ... more
Helping people to save the forests
by Jeff McNeely
The destruction of the world's forests can only be halted if governments and foresters rediscover the historic links between forests and people says Jeff McNeely in this global overview. ... more
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