Protecting the environment with intelligence
Just 65c a hectare for landowners while major investors cash in LONDON: An Indonesian oil palm plantation in which Norway has a financial stake paid Papuan tribal landowners as little as US$0.65 per hectare for their forestland, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) can reveal. In the new report Clear-Cut Exploitation, EIA and its Indonesian [...]
Credibility of international programme hangs in the balance DELHI, INDIA: Tiger Range Countries meet in Delhi, India next week to evaluate progress of the Global Tiger Recovery Programme (GTRP) in what will be a true test of their national commitment to end the tiger trade. The GTRP was signed into existence in November 2010 [...]
Conservationists urge EU and US governments to intervene London/Washington DC: Conservation and animal welfare groups expressed concern today over news that Iceland’s hunt of endangered fin whales will resume this summer. The Icelandic newspaper Skessuhorn reported yesterday that it had “reliable evidence” fin whaling will begin again, after being shut down last summer due [...]
LONDON: The European Commission has announced that Italy and Malta could face legal action over their continued failure to implement the European Union F-gas Regulation, which controls emissions of fluorinated greenhouse gases in Europe. On the recommendation of Connie Hedegaard, EU Commissioner for Climate Action, the Commission is sending a ‘reasoned opinion’ to both countries, [...]
Chance to transform the forestry sector with civil society LONDON: The European Union’s suspension of sanctions against Burma, which will include lifting the prohibition on direct trade of timber and wood products to EU markets, should be an opportunity to introduce meaningful reform directly benefiting the country’s people. EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg today [...]
Acknowledging the crisis is not enough to stem elephant slaughter LONDON: The new BBC documentary Ivory Wars: Out of Africa tonight detailed the ongoing tragedy of rampant elephant poaching and the international ivory trade, but something was absent from its broad overview. Leading experts featured in the Panorama special failed to confront the most [...]