Refugees clash For the first time in 16 years, a violent confrontation took place in the third week of February between Bhutanese refugees and villagers in Pathari, 600 km east of Nepal's

India s sawmill regulation

This term was first coined in 2001 by a UN panel of experts investigating the illegal exploitation of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since 1998, timber there has helped fund a conflict that has killed around 4 million people. The volume of wood removed by rebel factions, companies and government-armed forces of neighbouring countries is so great that in neighbouring Uganda the market price halved. The UN panel found that the conflict was self-perpetuating: each party had interests in its continuation.

Common preservative can cause arsenic leaching

How China’s growing wood imports are affecting its neighbours

ITC's proposed plant of 200,000 tonnes paper capacity will need 400,000 tonnes of dry wood, for which, in turn, 800,000 tonnes of wet wood (with normal moisture content) are needed.

At Kerala s Periyar Tiger Reserve, deepa kozhisseri finds local tribal communities happily involved in forest protection and ecotourism

Numbers declining fast; afforestation insufficient