Floor of oldest forest discovered in Schoharie County

William Stein, associate professor of biological sciences at Binghamton University, carefully places one of the world's oldest trees in the University's greenhouse.cientists from Binghamton University and Cardiff University, and New York State Museum researchers, and have reported the discovery of the floor of the world's oldest forest in a cover article in the March 1 issue of Nature, a leading international journal of science.
"It was like discovering the botanical equivalent of dinosaur footprints," said William Stein, associate professor of biological sciences at Binghamton University, and one of the article's authors. "But the most exciting part was finding out just how many different types of footprints there were. The newly uncovered area was preserved in such a way that we were literally able to walk among the trees, noting what kind they were, where they had stood and how big they had grown."

Plants play larger role than thought in cleaning up air pollution

Poplars, aspens, other trees provide extensive "ecosystem services."
Credit: USDAChemicals known as oxygenated volatile organic compounds (oVOCs) affect environment, human health

Vegetation plays an unexpectedly large role in cleansing the atmosphere, a new study finds.

The research, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., uses observations, gene expression studies, and computer modeling to show that deciduous plants absorb about a third more of a common class of air-polluting chemicals than previously thought.

Model predicts shifts in carbon absorption by forest canopies

An Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist participated in a project to fine-tune computer models that can indicate when forest "carbon sinks" become net carbon generators instead. The results will help pinpoint the effectiveness of trees in offsetting carbon releases that contribute to higher atmospheric temperatures and global climate change.

ARS plant physiologist Erik Hamerlynck teamed up with Rutgers University biologist Karina Schafer and U.S. Forest Service colleagues Kenneth Clark and Nicholas Skowronski to calibrate the Canopy Conductance Constrained Carbon Assimilation (4C-A) model, a computer program that generates carbon balance estimates for tree canopies. Hamerlynck works at the ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center in Tucson, Ariz.

Understanding the threat to monkey numbers from forest decline

Monkey populations in threatened forests are far more sensitive to damage to their habitat than previously thought, according to new research.
An analysis of monkeys living in Tanzania’s Udzungwa Mountains suggests that the impact of external factors, such as human activity, on species numbers is felt in forests as large as 40 square kilometres.

Researchers also found that the health of monkey populations is closely related to the type of habitat found between forest fragments, rather than the distance that separates them.

Ecologists discover forests are growing faster

Climate change appears to be driving accelerated growth

Speed is not a word typically associated with trees; they can take centuries to grow. However, a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found evidence that forests in the Eastern United States are growing faster than they have in the past 225 years. The study offers a rare look at how an ecosystem is responding to climate change.

For more than 20 years forest ecologist Geoffrey Parker has tracked the growth of 55 stands of mixed hardwood forest plots in Maryland. The plots range in size, and some are as large as 2 acres. Parker's research is based at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 26 miles east of the nation's capital.

Tree planting in Kenya's Mau Complex signals new beginnings for a critical ecosystem

Kenya took a step to restore its diminishing water towers and address rapid environmental degradation when it launched a tree planting drive in the Kiptunga area of the Mau Forest Complex on Friday.

20,000 tree seedlings were planted on 20 hectares at a ceremony attended by Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Deputy Executive Director, Angela Cropper.

Mau, the largest indigenous forest in East Africa and Kenya's most vital water tower, covers some 270,000 hectares. After Mau, restoration will also take place in Mt. Kenya, Aberdares, Mt. Elgon and the rest of Kenya's forests and water catchment areas with the aim of increasing the forest cover from the current 1.7 percent to 10 percent by the year 2020.

Seeing the forest through the trees and seeing the trees through the leaves

Since the time of the earliest humans, people have attempted to understand the natural environment. We have observed our surroundings and searched for explanations for natural phenomena. Yet despite our persistence over thousands of years, many basic questions remain to be answered. Although we understand core processes such as photosynthesis, we do not have a full understanding of issues such as how plants maximize their photosynthetic capacity.

Specific leaf area, or SLA, plays a prominent role in ecological theories that attempt to provide explanations for plant and ecosystem function. SLA, a measurement of the total leaf area to dry mass, has been found to correlate with the potential for light-resource use, the relative growth rate of a plant, and differences in essential nutrient demand and habitat preference.

Forests of Hopenhagen

Tropical deforestation accounts for 15-20 per cent of all human-induced carbon emissions each year. BirdLife International wants to see this reduced to zero by 2020, along with the acknowledgement of the vital importance of safeguarding biodiversity, ecosystems and the essential services that tropical forests provide in climate change mitigation.

In response to this global crisis, BirdLife International has created the Forests of Hope programme to bring together and build on its successful forest conservation and management programmes throughout the tropics.

Don't hold REDD hostage in Copenhagen: IUCN

After good progress in week one concerns remain that a deal on REDD-plus could yet stall on a small number of unresolved issues, or could be sacrificed because of the lack of progress in other areas of the bigger deal, says IUCN.

"Don't hold REDD hostage to the current impasse in the negotiations," says Stewart Maginnis, Director of IUCN's Environment and Development Group. "If we are going to stabilise atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases by 2020 we urgently need REDD-plus up and running as soon as possible."

René Ngongo receives Right Livelihood Award

René NgongoRené Ngongo, Greenpeace Africa Political Advisor and civil society activist for 18 years, received the Right Livelihood Award at the Swedish Parliament for his dedicated, and at times dangerous, work in defending the rights and livelihood of Democratic Republic of Congo's forest communities.

The Right Livelihood Award Foundation recognised Ngongo, "for his courage in confronting the forces that are destroying the Congo's rainforests and building political support for their conservation and sustainable use."

Clicks to help save Amazon

Those people unable to make it to the Copenhagen Climate Conference this month can still contribute to stopping climate change – by using a new search engine from their own computers.

The same day the conference begins on Dec. 7, web users can start using a new green search engine called Ecosia. The new application, powered by Yahoo! and Microsoft's Bing search engines, will allow internet surfers to protect about 2 square meters of Amazon rainforest just by clicking on sponsored links.

Monitoring vital role of forests

A new scientific organisation is needed to monitor the commitments that will be made by developing countries at Copenhagen to cut their deforestation rates, according to research at the University of Leeds.

Existing government agencies and research groups have failed to make full use of the thousands of satellite images of the Earth's surface collected each week to monitor tropical forests.

Indigenous fire management techniques against climate change

Canberra bushfire in 2003Carbon credits bring millions for new jobs in indigenous communities; Australian project a model of opportunity, especially for Africa

A landmark Australian project that mitigates the extent and severity of natural savannah blazes by deploying traditional Indigenous fire management techniques is being hailed as a model with vast global potential in the fights against climate change and biodiversity loss, and for protecting Indigenous lands and culture.

Billion hectares of forests with potential for restoration

Land areas around the world, bigger than Canada, have been identified as having potential to be restored to good quality, healthy forests, a new study has found.

As the global effort to help tackle climate change by reversing the earth's alarming loss of forests steps up, scientists using sophisticated satellite mapping have produced a world map identifying areas in which more than a billion hectares of former forest land and degraded forest land has restoration potential.

Climate change and forests workshop in West Africa

Without effective intervention, climate change impacts on the remaining n the Upper Guinea Forest of West Africa will be catastrophic. Photo:Guy Shorrock/RSPBBirdLife's regional office for West Africa, in collaboration with the Ghana Wildlife Society (BirdLife Partner), has organised a four-day workshop on climate change mitigation and forest biodiversity conservation for protected area managers from five West African countries (Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana).

The workshop aimed to raise awareness of emerging conservation opportunities to mitigate climate change impacts, such as carbon finance (trading), Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), and Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG).

Paper factory shut down sends warning signal to world leaders

Greenpeace shuts down climate destroyer in Indonesian rainforest ahead of critical UN summit

Twelve days before the critical UN Copenhagen Climate Summit, today Greenpeace activists shut down the export facilities of a major pulp and paper mill operated by Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) in the heart of Indonesia's rainforests. Sinar Mas, which owns APP, is a leading driver of global climate change due to its widespread role in forest destruction.

APP paper products are unsustainable even with LEI certification

The recent certification of an Asia Pulp & Paper (APP)/Sinar Mas pulp plantation by the Indonesian Ecolabelling Institute (LEI) suggests that the LEI standards need to be strengthened, as APP products are not sustainable, a group of nongovernmental organisations in Indonesia warned global paper buyers.

APP and LEI recently jointly announced that APP will start selling LEI certified paper products near the end of the year. But such paper products do not indicate that APP has improved its practices, seven NGOs said.

Developed countries to pay for forests, says Geneva survey

A survey carried out in Geneva, Switzerland, shows that most people believe that the key to conserving tropical forests and seriously reducing greenhouse gas emissions lies with better funding from developed countries.

The survey, carried out by IUCN, UNEP and the Geneva School of Business Administration, asked 'What's a Forest Worth?' gauging public opinion on the benefits of forests and their value. Asked who should pay to conserve our forests, 64 per cent said that the cost should be split between both developed and developing countries, with the majority believing that developed countries should pay 80 per cent of costs. Just six per cent said that developing countries should bear the whole financial burden.

Indonesia suspends climate polluter's licence to destroy rainforest

Greenpeace calls on Indonesian President Yudhoyono to end deforestation

Greenpeace welcomed the decision by Indonesia's Forest Minister, Mr. Zulkifli Hasan, to temporarily stop paper giant Asia Pacific Resources International Holding Limited (APRIL) from destroying the carbon-rich forest peatlands of Indonesia's Kampar Peninsula, Sumatra, pending a review of the company's permits.

Paper giant pulls out of Indonesia rainforest destruction

While Greenpeace activists were detained by police overnight for taking direct action on Thursday to prevent Asia Pacific Resources International Holding Limited (APRIL) clearing Indonesia's rainforest, UPM-Kymmene announced that it will stop buying from the company, which is responsible for causing widespread rainforest and climate destruction.

The Greenpeace action took place as President Barack Obama prepares to fly to Asia for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), his first visit to the region as President, and as the United States continues to block progress ahead of the critical UN climate negotiations at Copenhagen next month.

The Finnish-owned company, which supplies products like photocopy paper to global markets including the US, China, Europe and Australia, admitted that APRIL's pulp "comes from a very delicate environment". Greenpeace estimates this contract to be equal to over 4 per cent of APRIL's total pulp production, worth over USD55 million annually.

"This is a very positive move by UPM to help protect Indonesia's rainforests and carbon rich peatlands, the destruction of which is driving climate change, mass species extinction and causing poverty in forest dependent communities," said Bustar Maitar, Greenpeace Southeast Asia's rainforest campaigner.

"As international companies start distancing them from this environmental disaster, the call the end global deforestation here and around the globe will only get louder and louder. It is not only one of the quickest and most cost effective ways to combat climate change but is essential in order to avert runway climate change in our lifetime."

Yesterday, activists from Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Brazil and Finland shut down APRIL's operations in the heart of the Indonesian rainforest on the island of Sumatra. They locked themselves to seven machines used to clear vast tracts of forest and peatland for conversion to pulp wood plantations. Other activists unfurled a huge banner in a freshly destroyed area of rainforest that read "Obama: you can stop this", urging him to join other world leaders and help avert a climate crisis by ending global deforestation, responsible for about a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Earlier this week, Greenpeace released fresh evidence, including aerial surveillance images that prove APRIL is destroying areas of rainforest and draining forest peatland on Sumatra's threatened Kampar Peninsula. The evidence also strongly indicates that the company is clearing forest on peat which is more than 3 metres deep. This is illegal under Indonesian law.

Over a million hectares of forest, mostly tropical rainforest, is destroyed every month – that is an area of forest the size of a football pitch every two seconds. Rainforest and peatland destruction in Indonesia emits such huge quantities of CO₂ that is has driven the country to become the world's third largest climate polluter after China and the US.

"President Obama, Yudhoyono and other world leaders must listen and take action to pull us back from the brink of a climate crisis. They must attend the UN climate summit and agree to a fair, ambitious and binding deal that includes ending the destruction of the world's rainforests," concluded Maitar.