Latest Illegal logging Stories
The Brazilian government said it experienced the smallest loss of its sprawling Amazon rainforest over the past year in more than two decades, attributing the change to its tougher environmental policies, AFP reported. However, the region still lost 2,700 square miles of rainforest between July 2008 and July 2009. Officials said that was 45 percent less than what was lost during the previous 12 month period to inroads by ranchers, loggers and other human development in the planet's largest...
BRASILIA, Brazil, Nov. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon dropped 45.7 percent from August 2008 to July 2009, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced today during a meeting with state governors and mayors in Brasilia. According to new data based on analysis of satellite imagery by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), an estimate of 7,008 square kilometers of forest were cleared in Brazil during the 12-month period, the lowest rate...
Landmark reforms were aimed at halting deforestation, illegal wood products WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Sierra Club and the United Steelworkers (USW) today voiced concerns over a decision by regulators to grant special exemptions for pulp and paper from the Lacey Act reforms of 2008. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080131/DC12982LOGO) These landmark reforms aim to protect the world's forests and communities by halting the import and sale of...
Additional HTS Headings Require Plant Product Declaration Form at Border WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- It has been five months since the official beginning of the declaration requirement phase-in for plant and plant products under the amended US Lacey Act. USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) now requires importers of certain wood products including logs and veneer to declare the value, volume, scientific name, and country of harvest origin of the...
According to a new study, researchers say that deforesting large swathes of the Amazon to clear land for cattle and soy does not bring long-term economic progress. The study examined some 286 Amazon municipalities and found that clearing forests offered only short-lived economic benefits that were soon reversed. In the most recent issue of the journal Science, the researchers use their data to argue that the deforestation cycle helps neither people nor nature in the long-run. They further...
ST. LOUIS, Feb. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A lot of focus has been directed toward the destruction of the world's forests during the past few decades. The truth is that deforestation is happening with alarming frequency. Millions of acres of forest land are harvested illegally throughout the world every year, which contributes significantly to global warming and the destruction of wildlife habitat. Because this activity adversely affects our environment, the National Wood Flooring...
Govenrment officials said on Monday that logging must stop on nearly 13 million hectares of forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo, after a government review canceled nearly 60 percent of the vast country's timber contracts.The Congo is home to the second largest tropical forest in the world after the Amazon.A long-delayed review of 156 logging deals aimed at stamping out corruption in the sector and enforcing minimum legal and environmental standards has finally been completed, Reuters...
Brazilian officials say the destruction of the Amazon rainforest has accelerated for the first time in four years; the government said the figure could have been a lot worse if it had not taken action against illegal logging. In recent years the Brazilian government has been able to celebrate three successive falls in deforestation. But satellite images show 11,968 sq km of land was cleared this year, nearly 4% higher than the year before, according to the National Institute for Space...
Logging companies have their eye on new U.S. legislation that intends to stop illegal logging in an effort to save the world's forests.The new law requires companies to declare the country of origin as well as the genus and species of any wood or other plant material they import."The intent was good, but I think it lacked many practical features that something of this magnitude ought to have," said Jon Kent, a lobbyist for the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of...
Under growing international pressure, Brazilian authorities are increasingly turning to intelligence and technology to help fight the country's illegal drug activities. Several weeks ago, Brazilian police arrested the pilot of a Colombian drug-smuggling plane minutes after it landed at a small clandestine airstrip in the vast Amazon rainforest. A high-tech spy plane circling thousands of feet above the earth had guided authorities to the plane, in which police found and confiscated 661...
