Agricultural lending jumps in Brazil, will Amazon deforestation follow?
With commodity prices surging, lending to Brazilian farmers for tractors, harvesters and plows reached 8.2 billion reais ($4.8 billion) for the July through November 2010 period, a 64 percent increase since the same period last year and the fastest pace since 2004, reports Bloomberg.
World Bank, UN Program to Offer Panama 8.9 mln USD
Panama will receive 8.9 million U.S. dollars from the World Bank and a UN emission-cut program to mitigate the impact of climate change in the country, the National Environmental Authority said Monday.
Indonesia’s Corruption Legacy Clouds a Forest Protection Plan
Flying over the Indonesian half of the island of New Guinea, rainforest stretches like a sea of green, broken only by rugged mountain ranges and winding rivers. The verdant canopy shows little sign of human influence. But as you near Jayapura, the provincial capital of Papua, the tree cover becomes patchier — a sign of logging — and red scars from mining appear before giving way to the monotonous dark green of oil palm plantations and, finally, grasslands and urban areas.
Trees planted in China to neutralize carbon emissions of UN conference
Shanxi, Dec. 28, 2010 (Xinhua News Agency) -- A newly planted forest will neutralize carbon dioxide emissions from a UN climate change conference as China ups its efforts to combat climate change, an official said here Tuesday.
Atlantic Forest Restoration Pact plan to restore 15 million hectares of forest
Pacto pela Restauração da Mata Atlântica (Atlantic Forest Restoration Pact) is an alliance with the aim of the Atlantic Forest Restoration Pact is to restore 15 million hectares of the forest in Brazil by the year 2050, spread across annual plans approved by its Steering Committee.
Wood prices in Canadian East much higher than in the West
Over the past 20 years, pulp mills in Eastern Canada have consistently had higher wood fiber costs than the mills in the Western provinces with the exception of a short period in 1995, according to the North American Wood Fiber Review.
In 2010, the Brazilian pulp industry - Fibria and Suzano Papel e Celulose a global producer of bleached eucalyptus pulp produced 14 million tons of pulp, 9.8 million tons of paper and export revenues of U.S. $ 6.7 billion according to Bracelpa (Brazilian Association of Pulp and Paper).
Exports of pulp from Indonesia should gain momentum in coming months
Exports of pulp from Indonesia should gain momentum in coming months, adding further instability to the market. The increased supply of raw materials from Indonesia, mainly to Chinese customers, due to local government approval for the planting of forests in new areas, can lead to higher capacity utilization of factories. There is a new factory, in Kerinci (Sumatra), which should start producing 850 000 tones.
