Brazilian tribe owns carbon rights to Amazon rainforest land

 

By Rhett A. Butler, www.mongabay.com
December 09, 2009

A rainforest tribe fighting to save their territory from loggers owns the carbon-trading rights to their land, according to a legal opinion released today by Baker & McKenzie, one of the world’s largest law firms.

The opinion, which was commissioned by Forest Trends, a Washington, D.C.-based forest conservation group, could boost the efforts of indigenous groups seeking compensation for preserving forest on their lands, effectively paving the way for large-scale indigenous-led conservation of the Amazon rainforest. Indigenous people control more than a quarter of the Brazilian Amazon.

"This really is a landmark opinion,” said Michael Jenkins, President and CEO of Forest Trends. “What we have been able to demonstrate here is that there will be opportunity and a path forward for indigenous groups to participate in emerging markets from a global warming deal. In fact, the indigenous groups would now be part of the solution."

Baker & McKenzie reached its conclusion based on the Brazilian Constitution and legislation, which "provides for a unique proprietary regime over the Brazilian Indians land... which reserves to the Brazilian Indians... the exclusive use and sustainable administration of the demarcated lands as well as... the economic benefits that this sustainable use can generate." …

Brazilian tribe owns carbon rights to Amazon rainforest land

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Amazon deforestation to fall 30% in 2009

Deforestation is the Brazilian Amazon is likely to fall between 8,500 square kilometers (3,088 square miles) and 9,000 sq km (3,474 sq mi) for the 12 months ended July 31, 2009, a reduction of 29-37 percent from last year, reports Brazil's Environment Minister Carlos Minc. If the estimate is confirmed by high resolution satellite data to be published later this year, the rate of forest loss for 2008-2009 would be the lowest since annual record-keeping began in the 1980s. …

Amazon deforestation to fall 30% in 2009

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Brazil to build solar-powered charging stations for electric vehicles

Photo: Flickr, CC

"Electric Vehicles" Mostly Means Electric Bikes, So Far... Petrobras, the semi-public Brazilian oil giant (the government of Brazil owns 55.7% of Petrobras' common shares with voting rights), has just built the first of what it hopes will be many electric charging stations. It is located in the Barra de Tijuca neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro because that area has the most electric motorcycles and bikes in circulation in the country....

Brazil to Build Solar-Powered Charging Stations for Electric Vehicles

Technorati Tags: electric car,Brazil,solar power

Brazilian cattle giant declares moratorium on Amazon deforestation

Marfrig, the world's fourth largest beef trader, will no longer buy cattle raised in newly deforested areas within the Brazilian Amazon, reports Greenpeace. The announcement is a direct response to Greenpeace's Slaughtering the Amazon report, which linked illegal Amazon forest clearing to the cattle producers that supply raw materials to some of the world's most prominent consumer products companies. Marfrig was one several cattle firms named in the investigative report. …

Brazilian cattle giant declares moratorium on Amazon deforestation

Technorati Tags: Amazon,rainforest,deforestation,Brazil

Eating Brazil nuts protects the Amazon rainforest - literally

Image via: Author's collection

Probably the most entertaining interview we conducted during my South American tour with Green Living Project was interviewing Brazil Nut Concession Owners, and in particular, Patricio León. This 75 year old man has been harvesting brazil nuts since he was about 14 years old and is still out doing it, though he admits that now he has staff to help with the work because he’s not as young as he once was. If you’re not familiar with brazil nuts, but have ever eaten a can of mixed nuts, then you’ve probably eaten or at least seen a brazil nut. They’re the really large moon-sliver shaped nuts that you usually find hanging out at the bottom of the canister. Listen up, because eating those directly helps to protect the rainforest.

So who cares about brazil nuts and why does eating them protect the rainforest? Well, when it comes down to it brazil nuts (or castañas, in Spanish) only really grow under healthy, pristine conditions in the rainforest. Thus far, farmers and commercial organizations haven’t really successfully been able to grow the trees in brazil nut plantations, so eating them means you are supporting healthy rainforests. Farmers can’t chop down the surrounding trees to more easily get to the brazil nut trees (which are typically found 1-2 per hectare), because the trees won’t produce as well as if they were in a healthy, primary forest. Patricio told us that the trees that were in “secondary forest” areas produce 2/3 or fewer "seeds" compared with trees that are grow in primary rainforest. ...

Eating Brazil Nuts Protects the Amazon Rainforest - Literally

Technorati Tags: green agriculture,Brazil,Amazon

Brazil cracks down on illegal loggers in Amazon

 

By Raymond Colitt

BELEM, Brazil (Reuters) - Environmental police in Brazil seized the equivalent of 400 truckloads of wood in a major raid on illegal loggers, the government said on Wednesday, the latest effort to curb destruction of the Amazon rain forest.

During the surprise raid in Nova Esperanca do Piria, 120 miles east of Belem city, police shut down 13 logging companies and sawmills, and seized tractors, guns, and ammunition, Environment Minister Carlos Minc said during a visit to the remote jungle site. The owners fled the area.

The crackdown is the latest in a series of measures by the government to meet a new target of reducing destruction of the Amazon forest by 50 percent during the next decade.

"We are determined to slash deforestation -- this operation is a warning to illegal loggers," Minc told Reuters.

Brazil's government last year abandoned years of opposition to deforestation targets and is now under pressure to show the world community and critics at home that it can deliver, particularly ahead of a major climate change summit in Copenhagen in December.

Minc aims to reduce deforestation to about 3,700 square miles (9,500 sq km) in the 12 months through July, the lowest on record and down from 4,600 square miles (11,900 sq km) the year earlier.

Each year advancing loggers, ranchers and farmers cut huge swathes of forest in search of cheap land. …

Brazil cracks down on illegal loggers in Amazon

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US states sign tropical forest pledge

The states of California, Illinois, and Wisconsin and six states in Brazil and Indonesia agreed today to work together on new programmes for protecting and restoring tropical forests as an essential but so far untapped strategy to combat climate change.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with the governors of Illinois and Wisconsin,and the governors or emissaries of Amazonas, Pará, Mato Grosso and Amapá states in Brazil and Papua and Aceh provinces in Indonesia, represents a big leap forward for the concept of carbon emitters in industrialised societies paying for the service provided by tropical forests in absorbing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide.

...

“When a tropical forest is destroyed, it hurts everyone, no matter where they live,” said Peter Seligmann, the chairman and CEO of Conservation International (CI). “The memorandum between California and these Brazilian and Indonesian states and provinces containing some of the world’s last remaining intact tropical forests is a welcome and necessary step. California’s leadership in this area will help stabilise the Earth’s climate by providing effective incentives to conserve these threatened tropical ecosystems that are so critical for supporting the livelihoods of forest-dwelling communities and indigenous peoples”.

US states sign tropical forest pledge

Technorati Tags: deforestation,Amazon,Brazil,Indonesia,California,Illinois,Wisconsin,global warming

Brazil says to cut Amazon destruction by 70 percent

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil announced on Monday a plan to cut destruction of its Amazon rain forest by more than half over the next 10 years, the first time it has set a deforestation target as it seeks to fight global warming.

A government official told Reuters Brazil will aim to reduce deforestation of the world's largest forest by 70 percent by 2018. The target will be based on the average deforestation over the 10 years through 2005 of 19,500 sq km (7,530 sq miles).

That amounts to a yearly target of 5,850 sq km (2,260 sq miles), about half the most recent annual deforestation figure. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was scheduled to announce the plan officially later on Monday.

"We can now adopt targets because we now have the instruments to implement them," said Tasso Azevedo, head of the government's Forestry Service, referring to a new Amazon Fund which is attracting foreign donations to improve conservation.

Brazil says to cut Amazon destruction by 70 percent
Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:10:58 GMT

Technorati Tags: Brazil,Amazon,rainforest,deforestation

Presidential decree protects Brazil rain forest

AP - Brazil's president has signed a decree aimed at recovering and protecting devastated rain forest along Brazil's Atlantic coast.

Environment Minister Carlos Minc says the government hopes to restore 20 percent of the forest's original cover.

Only about 7 percent of Brazil's coastal rain forest remains standing. It once covered more than 500,000 square miles (1.3 million square kms).

The decree signed by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Friday provides financial incentives for local residents to protect and recover forest through green businesses.

Presidential decree protects Brazil rain forest (AP)
Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:20:51 GMT

Technorati Tags: Brazil,Amazon,deforestation