FORESTS play a larger role in Earth's climate system than previously suspected for both the risks from deforestation and the potential gains from regrowth, a benchmark study released Thursday has shown.

The study, published in Science, provides the most accurate measure so far of the amount of greenhouse gases absorbed from the atmosphere by tropical, temperate and boreal forests, researchers said.

All but seven percent of the world's tropical forests are “managed poorly or not at all” despite efforts to boost sustainability, according to a major report released Tuesday.
Forces driving forest destruction across four continents – including rising food and fuel prices, and growing demand for timber – threaten to overwhelm future conservation efforts, warned the 420-page study by the Japan-based International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO), an intergovernmental agency group that promotes sustainable use of forests.

Oil giant's investment in Indonesian REDD conservation project is a crude attempt to increase profit and gloss over its expanding oil drilling operations, say campaigners

Indigenous Peoples and environmental groups have accused oil giant Shell of funding a forest protection scheme for profit and to help 'greenwash' its destructive oil drilling operations.

Reserva Biológica Tirimbina (RBT) is located in Sarapiqui a scant 15 km from one of the most studied reserves in the world, La Selva Biological Station. This station claims more than 45 years of study and produces two scientific articles each week. From the proximity, one would expect not to find great differences or surprises at Tirimbina; however, in the last year we have had very good news of several.

In the last year, the Tirimbina reserve has directly sponsored research on butterflies, birds, mammals and plants. The Plants Project led by botanist José González has in short time recorded 1195 species of plants to date, including 4 new records for the region and one new species of the genera Ossaea/Melastomataceae, presumed new to science.

August 24th, 2009
Forests and farms don’t mix, according to conventional wisdom.

Farmers are often portrayed as the villains, slashing and burning trees to clear land for crops and wrecking forests from the Amazon to Indonesia (…not to mention Europe, where people cleared most forests thousands of years ago).

Almost half of the world's farmland has at least 10 percent tree cover, according to a study on Monday indicating that farmers are far less destructive to carbon-storing forests than previously believed.

From: Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent, Reuters
Published August 24, 2009
Farmers Care About Trees Too

1. WHAT IS THE MILLION TREES L.A. INITIATIVE?
Mayor Villaraigosa is committed to making Los Angeles the largest, cleanest, and greenest city in the United States. The Million Trees L.A. (MTLA) Initiative will accomplish this through public-private partnerships that will plant one million trees throughout Los Angeles.

2. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS WHEN IT SEEMS THERE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS FOR THE CITY TO BE DOING?
It is important to enhance the natural environment. Planting and maintaining trees will help clean the air, clean up polluted urban runoff, help make streets and buildings cooler and provide an all-around more livable environment. Planting trees will also increase property values, absorb noise, and reduce stress and crime.

Today is Earth Day, so it'd be bad karma to derail a Muni bus, toss plastic bags in the ocean, or randomly scatter wads of used chewing gum on the sidewalks (in fact, these are always bad karma). But the U.S. government can cut down its share of trees in a national forest, thanks to a ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The San Francisco federal court ruled against plaintiffs WildWest Institute and The Ecology Center in allowing the U.S. Department of Forestry to commence with nine "timber sale and restoration projects" in Montana's 2.2 million acre Kootenai National Forest.

On March 2, 2009, Common Vision visited Environmental Charter High School to promote the planting of fruit trees and recycling in artistic and upbeat ways.

Common Vision and Green Ambassadors allied to plant fruit trees around the community of Lawndale.