This report, two years in the making, provides a comprehensive assessment of progress being made towards SFM in each ITTO producer member country and the identifies the challenges remaining.

Among all forest types on Earth, the greatest diversity of living organisms is found in the tropical rainforest. Also called tropical wet evergreen forest, this forest type occurs in those parts around the equator with over 2,000 millimetres of annual rainfall distributed over most of the year. Dry periods with less than 60 millimetres rainfall occur only for a few weeks at most.

Extinction from habitat loss is the signature conservation problem of the twenty-first century. Despite its importance, estimating extinction rates is still highly uncertain because no proven direct methods or reliable data exist for verifying extinctions. The most widely used indirect method is to estimate extinction rates by reversing the species–area accumulation curve, extrapolating backwards to smaller areas to calculate expected species loss. Estimates of extinction rates based on this method are almost always much higher than those actually observed.

Forests are protected, but carbon sinks in mangroves, seagrasses and marshes are ignored. Margareth da Silva Copertino wants Brazil to change that.

This report by Transparency International explores major climate-related corruption risks, sets out practical guidelines and calls on strengthening of governance mechanisms to reduce corruption risk and make climate change policy effective and successful.

During the 2011 International Year of Forests, WWF’s Living Forests Report is part of a year?long conversation with partners, policymakers, and business about how to protect, conserve, sustainably use, and govern the world’s forests in the 21st century.

Plans to conserve the world’s tropical forests must respect the rights of indigenous peoples. (Editorial)
 

Large swathes of the Brazilian Amazon have come to resemble the midwestern United States in recent years, having been planted with soya as far as the eye can see. This development has unnerved conservation organizations, which fear that huge expanses of pristine rainforest are being felled to make way for the lucrative crop. A widespread hope is that large agribusiness, aware of both the need to protect this fragile environment and the importance of good public relations, can be induced to farm more sustainably.

High prices and concerns about energy security in the oil and gas industry are driving expansion into ever more sensitive environments with greater technological, political and social risks. While brands such as BP, Shell and ExxonMobil are well known, some 70 per cent of oil and gas industry activities are typically contracted out to service providers and their subcontractors.

Joypur, Dibrugarh, Feb.

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