Topic: forests

In many developing countries, forestry policies systematically exclude the poor from the wealth of the forests around them. Senegal provides an interesting example of how even good policies can fail to deliver the benefits they are intended to provide.

These films show how Senegal’s Forestry service, forest merchants, and other government agents are blocking local governments from playing their legal role in forest management and use.

The representatives of more than 100 countries attending December’s U.N. climate conference in Bali, Indonesia, finally focused on the important role tropical forests play in global warming.

A Right to Information request in India has revealed that an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for a bauxite mining project in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, was copied at least in part from a Russian EIA for a bauxite mine.

Trends to Watch is WRI’s annual forecast of emerging issues that will have major impacts on environmental coverage in 2008. On climate change: what will happen between COP-13 in Bali, and COP-14 in Poznan? What role will China play? Will we see new legislation and regulations from Congress or the EPA? Where will biofuels and technology go? Where will the water come from? WRI President Jonathan Lash makes his predictions at the National Press Club.

The choice of Bali as the location for the 2007 U.N. climate conference, currently underway, is significant because Indonesia is home to the world’s third largest remaining intact tropical forest (following only Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo). This makes it crucial in the fight against global warming.

At this year’s conference, there has been much focus on offsetting carbon emissions by preventing deforestation – a concept known as “avoided deforestation” or Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD).

Reducing global GHG emissions can be aided by reducing deforestation, while simultaneously helping to protect forests and promote sustainable development.