"The best thing you could do for the Amazon is to bomb all the roads." That might sound like an eco-terrorist's threat, but they're actually the words of Eneas Salati, one of Brazil's most respected scientists. Thomas Lovejoy, a leading American biologist, is equally emphatic: "Roads are the seeds of tropical forest destruction."
A stand of young redwoods, survivors in what was once a magnificent forest of towering giants, could play a small part of the battle to slow global warming -- and forms part of an emerging market.
Pakistan is poorly endowed with forests, covering 5.2 percent of the total landscape with 2.1 deforestation rate annually. The forest resources are not only important for the environmental services but carry immense importance for the local population for their livelihood.
A comprehensive development plan costing Rs 2020.267 million has been launched to bring a maximum area under forest cover in the Fata. Out of this, Rs 453.97m is being spent during the current financial year.
Agroforestry has high potential for simultaneously satisfying three important objectives viz., protecting and stabilizing the ecosystems; producing a high level of output of economic goods; and improving income and basic materials to rural population. Besides, agroforestry is capable to conserve natural resources through various systems under different agroclimatic regions.
Carlos Minc said he told President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday that pressure from legislators, farmers and even colleagues in government had gone too far. He cited opposition from the agriculture and transportation ministries.
"I explained to President Lula that the (environment) ministry is under attack," Minc told reporters in the capital Brasilia.
Understanding the forces that drove policy in the past can inform expectations of the effectiveness of policy implementation today. Forest policies of countries with forested frontiers transition through stages of forest management, reflecting the orientation of governments toward economic development.
Stepping into a major environmental dispute, the Obama administration said Thursday that no new timber-cutting or road project could begin in roadless areas of national forests without the permission of the secretary of agriculture.
Large-scale deforestation is rapidly increasing environmental degradation causing rise in several fatal diseases in Pakistan and efforts should be made to stretch the forest cover to 6percent by 2015 under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
A logging operation planned by Asia's biggest pulp producer in Indonesia's Sumatra island threatens the habitat of rare orangutans, tigers and elephants, a joint report by five conservation groups said on Tuesday.
