Countries risk delaying much-needed private sector investment in slowing deforestation by dodging tricky issues such as how to protect the rights of forest dwellers, green groups said Thursday.

Negotiators aim to finish work on how to measure the CO2 content of tropical forests by the year-end U.N. meeting in Qatar.

But, according to a draft U.N. document, nations will take another year to complete work on ensuring that any move to cut emissions by slowing down deforestation will not harm indigenous communities or the biodiversity of the forests.

The growing of tea invariably replaces biodiversity-rich tropical forests with a beautiful, but single species (monoculture). Soil erosion, competition for water, pollution from fertilizers and the requirement of firewood to fuel tea driers, are some of the main environmental concerns that accompany commercial tea cultivation.

By following the Sustainable Agriculture Network Standard, tea growers can pro-actively address social and environmental challenges. By complying with the requirements of this standard, tea estates can obtain "Rainforest Alliance Certification".

Recommending scrapping of two controversial hydro-power projects in Karnataka and Kerala that had run into difficulty due to opposition from environmentalists, the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) has suggested setting up of a statutory authority to protect the Ghats.

The report of the panel, headed by Madhav Gadgil, formerly with the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, has called for cancellation of Karnataka's Gundia and Kerala's Athirapally hydro-projects, and gradual phasing out of mining activities in ecologically highly-sensitive areas of Goa by 2016.

SHILLONG: The bio-diversity hotspots in the State are vanishing at a faster rate, cautioned State Principal Secretary of the Department of Forest and Environment MS Rao.

Giving an overview of the bio-diversity of the State during an official programme to mark the International Bio-diversity Day in Shillong, Rao said today, “Our State has bio-diversity hotspots to talk about but their richness is under threat.”

New species of native succulent plants appear to have been discovered at the site of a planned uranium mine in Western Australia, the state's independent environment watchdog says.

Environmental Protection Authority chairman Paul Vogel said it appeared new species of tecticornia were present at Toro Energy's Wiluna uranium project in the Mid-West region.

The Department of Environment (DoE) yesterday fined a power plant in Chittagong Tk 10 lakh for polluting and hampering the biodiversity of Halda river through discharging furnace oil into the river.

DoE Director (Enforcement) Mohammed Munir Chowdhury gave the sentence to the project director of a 100 megawatt Peaking Power Plant in Hathazari.

On April 11 this year, around 1,600 litres of furnace oil went into Halda river through Changkhali canal for the negligence of the power plant authorities, said a DoE press release.

Guwahati, May 22: Assam plans to prepare a people’s bio-diversity register, which will document the biological resources in the state, their medicinal or any other use or any other traditional knowledge associated with them. Assam forest and environment minister Rakibul Hussain announced this during a function organised here today on International Day for Biological Diversity.