News
Uganda: FAO mapping technologies help fill gaps in forest data
11 Aug 2013
FAO recently introduced new mapping technologies in Uganda that will help the country generate better forestry statistics and land cover maps. FAO's innovations permit efficient processing of satellite images and do not require any large financial investments to implement.
Design benefit-sharing carefully, or risk undermining REDD+, researchers warn
9 Aug 2013
Among the risks for REDD+ is that forest users may not be willing to commit to it if they cannot be sure of receiving any reward for their efforts, a study by scientists at the Center for International Forestry Research argues. Picture credit: CIFOR/Kate Evans
BOGOR, Indonesia (9 August 2013) — Mechanisms for sharing the benefits from REDD+ must be well designed or they could create problems in the long term, researchers from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) advise....
Cameroonians See REDD
8 Aug 2013
The Menchum Falls in Cameroon could be a great opportunity for REDD and ecotourism says Joseph Amougou, from the National REDD Coordination in the Ministry of Environment and Nature Protection and Sustainable Development. Credit: Monde Kingsley Nfor/IPSUncertainty over property rights and access to forest land is potentially a major stumbling block for implementing the United Nations collaborative initiative on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation in Cameroon.
In Adjab,...
Amazon urban migration does not improve livelihoods, environment – report
7 Aug 2013
Through research, Luke Parry, a professor at the University of Lancaster Environment Centre, was able to determine that migrants who left their rural homes in search of better work opportunities, still lacked access to good urban employment and largely failed to escape from poverty. Picture Credit: CIAT/Neil Palmer
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (7 August, 2013) – The migration of rural people to cities in the Brazilian Amazon often does not result in hoped for poverty alleviation or biodiversity...
Old-growth trees store half rainforest carbon
7 Aug 2013
Large trees store store up to half the above-ground biomass in tropical forests, reiterating their importance in buffering against climate change, finds a study published in Global Ecology and Biogeography. The research, which involved dozens of scientists from more than 40 institutions, is based on data from nearly 200,000 individual trees across 120 lowland rainforest sites in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. It found that carbon storage by big trees varies across tropical forest regions, but...
Nature ‘is better at carbon farming’
6 Aug 2013
Large forests planted with a single species of tough small tree could capture enough carbon from the atmosphere to slow down climate change and green the world's deserts at the same time, researchers...
Nueva herramienta para el monitoreo de la agricultura itinerante ayuda a REDD+
6 Aug 2013
Una parcela de cultivo itinerante pasa por cambios cíclicos en la cobertura de la tierra, de cultivo a barbecho, a bosque joven, a bosque secundario y nuevamente a cultivo. Fotografía de CIFOR/Jean-Christophe Castella
BOGOR, Indonesia (6 de agosto de 2013)_Una nueva herramienta diseñada para evaluar el impacto de la tumba y quema en la degradación forestal podría tener un papel clave en el monitoreo de los programas REDD+ de mitigación del cambio climático, dijeron científicos.
El marco de REDD...
First ever temporary certified emission reductions issued for reforestation project in Brazil
6 Aug 2013
The UNFCCC today issued more than 4 million temporary Certified Emission Reductions (tCERs) to a reforestation project in Brazil, making it the first worldwide. Afforestation/Reforestation (A/R) CDM projects can only issue credits once per commitment period, and many are therefore waiting toward the end of the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period to maximize the number of credits issued. While this is the first forestry project to date to issue such credits, many others are currently...
WWF alarmed by oil palm fruit grown in Sumatra national park
6 Aug 2013
The World Wide Fund for Nature said it found Asian Agri and Wilmar, two of the world's biggest palm oil concerns, were recently buying palm fruit that had been grown illegally in the Tesso Nilo...
