Map of timber value in the Amazon. Click for larger image and detailed caption provided by authors. Illustration: Sadia Ahmed and Robert Ewers, Imperial College London

Researchers exploring the value of different types of timber across the Amazon rainforest have produced a fascinating choropleth map to illustrate their findings.

Shown above, it consists of timber values plotted on a gridded map of equal-area cells, each 0.25km-squared in size. Click on the image to view the full-size version.

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.

Timber worth millions of rupees was destroyed due to wildfires in more than 200 community and national forests in the Chure and Mahabharat areas in the district within the past two weeks.

The District Forest Office (DFO) said forest fires engulfed more than 100 community forests in Alitali, Sirsha and Jogbuda VDCs in the inner Madhes and Chure area while a dozen of forests at Salla in the Mahabharat area caught fires.

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".

Union environment and forest ministry has objected to former Uttar Pradesh CM Mayawati’s ambitious 147.8 km-long Upper Ganga Canal Expressway project, saying it involves 760 hectare of forest area. The ministry has questioned the purpose of the Rs 8,000 crore project. The Upper Ganga Canal has NH 58 parallel to it more than a km away. Besides, a road also exists on its left parallel to the canal. But the Mayawati government emphasized the need for the expressway saying the “roads get crowded during the movement of kawariyas’’.

Relies on Lokayukta report while filing reply in Supreme Court

The State government has washed its hands of a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged role of three former chief ministers — S M Krishna, N Dharam Singh and H D Kumaraswamy —in illegal mining, and decided to leave it to the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to take an appropriate decision in this regard.

Development activities, human settlements narrowing pathways

Most of the elephant migratory corridors in the State are under threat, experts have found, even as the High Court’s June deadline for the government to submit a report on man-elephant conflict in Hassan and Kodagu is fast approaching.

New Delhi India has potential to make forest produce like wood and paper as major foreign exchange earner and UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) is ready to extend knowledge and technological assistance for the same, a top FAO official said on Thursday.

“India can turn wood and paper as its major export items by pursuing a sustainable forestry policy,” Eduardo Rojas Sriales, assistant director general, forestry department, FAO,

After drawing international acclaim, Indonesia's moratorium on forest clearing has proved hard to implement, as special interests whittle down the area protected under the agreement, environmental groups say.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is likely to veto some controversial aspects of a forest bill passed by the Congress last month as pressure mounts against the text days before the country hosts a large UN conference on sustainable development.

The bill, a revision of Brazil's Forest Code, grants partial amnesty to landowners who had illegally cleared some of their forests until as recently as 2008, relaxing the legal requirements for reforestation of these areas.