Forestry

Deforestation in the Amazon has been found to have fallen dramatically in the last year, after new satellite surveying methods enabled accurate accounting of large-scale destruction.

Ok so this isn’t strictly related to forestry but let’s face it, this is interesting! The ongoing saga of the new Amazon dam has finally come to an end with President Luiz Lula da Silva signing the contract for the Belo Monte dam with the Norte Energia consortium. The 11,000 MW dam will become the world’s third [...]

I was researching alternative assets classes that not only could perform as well as the stock market but also provide good diversification opportunities as well as passive income possibility. One asset class which seems a little overlooked is timber. According to several sources, investing in timber has beaten the stock market by 4 percentage points [...]

The reduction of tax on Brazilian industrial products has prompted immediate growth in the country's wood furniture industry, with one industry body predicting it will last long into next year.

There has been a lot of praise recently for tree planting projects and while that is good news, after all the more trees planted the better, right? Well not quite because how does the uninformed general populace know that these schemes really deliver the level of cuts they are praised for? The answer (at least in [...]

Forest-related policy issues have become ever more complex, multifaceted and are both an outcome of several underlying causes and driving forces, and subject to influences of several policy sectors. EFI Proceedings 58 compile the presentations of the international workshop "Forest Policy and Economics in Support of Good Governance" organised in April 2009 in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

If the climate change summit in Copenhagen was characterized by over optimism followed by bitter disappointment the Cancun summit looks set to be characterized by a cart load of over pessimism.  In the face of this apathy you’ve got to admire the attempts by Mexico to ‘rescue’ the climate change negotiations ahead of this year’s [...]

Like a lot of my peers I am very eco-minded and conscientious about the environment. Also unlike my peers I know that money can grow on trees if you know where to invest. At the moment there are several options for ‘green investments’, whose purposes are to make profits from supporting green projects while also supporting [...]

EFORWOOD, an EU-financed research programme, developed ToSIA, a computerized decision-support tool that helps decision-makers in politics, government departments, industry, and other players to make sound and reliable decisions on forestry and forest products manufacturing and consumption leading to sustainable development. Read more about what ToSIA can do and what EFORWOOD did in the EFORWOOD Final Report, which is now available at the EFORWOOD website.

The quality of forest governance is known to have effects on deforestation, together with other factors. However, assessing its impact is challenging due to the diverse mechanisms leading to deforestation, and data availability. In a new paper Umemiya, Rametsteiner and Kraxner analyse interrelations between governance quality and deforestation rates using governance quality indicator data of the World Bank and deforestation rate data of the FAO Forest Resources Assessment 2005. Results show that an increase in governance quality tends to be associated with a decrease in deforestation rates.

Catastrophic wildfires in Russia have seen demand for timber from other nations rise, after forests worth at least $300 billion were destroyed in the infernos.

Investing experts are predicting that Brazil will be joined by Chile in leading the way for new, profitable investment opportunities in South America.

The RoK-FOR project creates research-based clusters in sustainable forest management, renewable energy, sustainable construction and bio-based products in the participating regions Aquitaine-Basque, Catalonia, Baden-Württemberg, North Karelia and cross-border cluster Croatia-Serbia. The forthcoming RoK-FOR conference 14 October in Biarritz is targeted to representatives of the RoK-FOR regions: to the business enterprises, research institutions and regional administrations.

Ireland has ratified the Convention on the European Forest Institute(EFI). The Convention on EFI has now been ratified by a total of 22 European countries. The ratifying countries are now Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the UK.

FAO is stressing the importance of integrated fire management following the release of the report on the causes of Australia's 2009 Black Saturday fires. The Select Committee on Agricultural and Related Industries that investigated the incidence of bushfires noted that the fire management voluntary guidelines coordinated by FAO would be a good basis for a common approach to a national bushfire policy.

Eduardo Rojas-Briales, Assistant Director-General, FAO, discussed forest trends including heightened financial constraints within the sector, growing demands for the economic, ecological and social values of forests, and the central importance of forests in climate mitigation and adaptation.

One of the world's most iconic urban forests – Rio de Janeiro's Tijuca forest – is testament to the power of forests to regenerate and restore themselves after catastrophic human impact.

The Brazilian real strengthened slightly this week, with the expectation of increased investment inflows, on the back of a large share sale by Petrobras.

"The first condition is that, the governmental policies should be based on bottom-up participation."

Professor Gerard Buttoud (University of Tuscia, Italy) presents an event that will be held within the upcoming World Forest Week at FAO headquarters, Rome. Click to watch the video.

The XXIII IUFRO World Congress to be held in Seoul, Korea, from 23-28 August 2010 will focus on Forests for the Future: Sustaining Society and the Environment. It’s a great opportunity for researches, decision makers, NGOs and others interested in the forests for the future to get together, learn, share best practices and produce the newest and most pioneering thinking of forest challenges that affect all of us. European Forest Institute (EFI) will participate in the Congress by some oral presentations, by EFI FLEGT Asia’s side event and by having an EFI booth (B11) at the trade exhibition in conjunction with the Congress.