NEW YORK, New York, March 18, 2010 (ENS) – The Cambodian government has decided to protect six of the largest remaining stretches of lowland grasslands in Southeast Asia. The six sites, one in Siem Reap province and five in Kampong Thom province, encompass about 77,000 acres (31,160 hectares).

The sites are located in and around Cambodia’s Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake. They contain unique seasonally flooded grasslands that form a refuge for many globally threatened birds.

The grasslands are a fishing, grazing, and deep water rice farming resource for local communities. While most of the sites have been partially protected by a provincial conservation order, they remained vulnerable to land-clearing and dam-building activities associated with large-scale commercial rice production.

The new designations empower staff from Cambodia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to prevent these activities.

The designation of the protected areas is the result of work done over the past four years by the Wildlife Conservation Society, based at New York’s Bronx Zoo, in collaboration with Cambodia’s Forestry and Fisheries Administration, local governments and community stakeholders.

As part of that effort, WCS has sourced funds and provided technical advice and management support.

Read article…

Visit Environment News Service

Conservationists earmark £16m to encourage a new generation of people whose ponies, pigs and cattle will preserve its rich biodiversity

Caroline Davies reports from the New Forest.

For almost 1,000 years, the New Forest, one of England’s most precious landscapes, has been shaped by the ponies and cattle that graze on its heathland and wood pasture.

Now a £16m conservation agreement, announced by Natural England, is designed to safeguard these traditional grazing methods to preserve the rich beauty of these acres where kings once went to hunt.

The money is intended to encourage the historic practice of “commoning”, ancient rights that were granted to the people driven out of the forest by William the Conqueror and his son, Rufus. The environmental grants are intended to attract new, younger “commoners” to continue the traditions that have contributed to the rich biodiversity of the forest. Today, such methods are under threat.

Commoning dates back to the creation of the forest, which was designated for deerhunting by William in 1079. The king’s creation of the New Forest saw the depopulation of many villages and the demolition of churches.

Read article…

Visit The Guardian

Harare — A new conservation area spanning five countries in southern Africa will be the world’s largest transfrontier park.

Situated in the Okavango and Zambezi River basins where the borders of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe converge, the Kavango-Zambezi Trans-Frontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) covers an area of about 287 000 square kilometres.

When established, it will include 36 national parks, game reserves, community conservancies and game management areas.

The conservation area also boasts numerous attractions such as the Victoria Falls between Zambia and Zimbabwe, San Rock paintings in Botswana and the absorbing wildlife population in the region.

This high concentration of attractions is expected to create an entirely new assortment of tourism opportunities in southern Africa but also present a new dawn for socio-economic development in the Sadc region, resulting in deeper integration among member states.

Read article…

Visit The Herald Online

Deforestation has revealed what could be a giant impact crater in Central Africa, scientists say.

The 36-46km-wide feature, identified in DR Congo, may be one of the largest such structures discovered in the last decade.

Italian researchers considered other origins for the ring, but say these are unlikely.

They presented their findings at the recent Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas, US.

The ring shape is clearly visible in the satellite image by TerraMetrics Inc reproduced on this page.

Only about 25 terrestrial impact craters are of comparable size or larger, according to the web-based Earth Impact Database.

Read article…

Visit The BBC Online…

Forest Research scientist Matt Parratt is working on a project to help conserve 5 threatened conifer species.

Matt Parratt, a seed specialist with the Forest Research’s Centre for Forest Resources and Management, travelled to Vietnam as part of an international tree conservation programme.

The global conservation project aims to help conserve five globally threatened conifer species, including Vietnam’s Xanthocyparis vietnamensis and Cupressus tonkinensis, both of which were only recently identified.

Parratt has brought seeds of the X. vietnamensis tree to the UK.

The tree is struggling to replace itself in the wild through natural regeneration because it produces very few fertile seeds. He and his colleagues at Forest Research’s Alice Holt Lodge research station in Surrey will study them and try to germinate them.

During Parratt’s visit to Vietnam, he gave a presentation to his about the propagation of rare and endangered conifers at the Commission’s National Pinetum at Bedgebury in Kent.

He visited nurseries and local communities involved in the project, advised on propagation problems and techniques, and visited conservation sites where X. vietnamensis had been re-introduced to the wild and other sites where C. tonkinensis is being cultivated as ornamental specimens.

Through his work, as well as with the expert guidance he provided during the trip, it is hoped there will be more successful propagation and re-introduction of the endangered species to the wild.

Parratt’s visit was funded by the Friends of the Bedgebury National Pinetum, and was part of a project to conserve threatened conifer species in Vietnam run by The Global Trees Campaign under the charity Fauna & Flora International and the Centre for Plant Conservation in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The Forestry Commission is also a founding member of the Global Partnership for Forest Landscape Restoration (GPFLR), which is working to share experience, resources and expertise to reverse damaging deforestation and restore the world’s lost forests.

Source

Visit Horticulture Week

For every one wild tiger alive in the world today, there may be three “farmed” tigers in China.

They have been bred for their hides but also their bones, which are used to infuse some wines prized in South East Asia.
Some in the region believe that the consumption of certain parts of a tiger’s carcass can give strength and virility.
China banned the trade in tiger bones and products in 1993 but that has not stopped the practice, which is currently on the agenda of an international tiger conservation conference in Thailand.

According to the World Bank, which leads the Global Tiger Initiative (GTI), the trade is being spurred by privately run tiger farms in Asian countries. It has called for these farms to be shut down.

Tigers on the farms are kept in cages and are also allowed to chase cows or chickens for the amusement of the paying public.

Read article…

Visit BBC News Online

The government on Friday said it would allocate 100,000 hectares of forest land to be declared Hutan Tanaman Rakyat , or “People’s Plantations,” as part of efforts to reduce poverty and cut greenhouse gas emissions through sustainable forestry practices.

“We’ve decided to give away 100,000 hectares of forest land to 10,000 households,” Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said at the vice presidential palace after Friday was declared National Day of Nature Conservation.

“In addition, we’re also going to give 40,000 hectares of forest land to 20,000 households for community-based forest management and 30,000 hectares to 11,000 households for village-managed forests.”

Based on a report by the Nairobi-based World Agroforestry Center, poverty figures tend to be high in and around forests.

The country’s forestry policy has been criticized for failing to safeguard resources, while communities were frequently omitted from conservation programs.

Zulkifli said that the program could result in livelihoods for at least six people per household.

“If one hectare could result in Rp 200 million ($21,500), 10 hectares equal Rp 2 billion — it could increase our people’s welfare.

“ We don’t want them to be only workers, instead they should be masters of their own areas,” he said.

The plantations will be developed in 10 districts, including Jeneponto, South Sulawesi and Musi Banyuasin, South Sumatra.

Wandojo Siswanto, head of the climate change working group at the ministry, added that the project was also part of the government’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2020.

“It is related to how we can achieve the 26 percent emission cuts and was already set out in the ministry’s contract with the president [in the 100 days program],” Wandojo said, adding that a total of 500,000 hectares were targeted to become “People’s Plantations.”

The proposal is also intended to instigate changes to people’s way of life and attitudes toward the forest.

Wandojo emphasized the inextricable link between sustainable forestry management and climate change.

“It would also be a way to improve welfare,” he said. “Because people can enjoy the benefits of the forest without damaging it.”

[Ed-Apols for full quote]

Source

The Jakarta Globe

A multi-billion dollar deal tabled at the Copenhagen climate summit could lead to conflicts in forest-rich nations, a report has warned.

The study by the Rights and Resources Initiative said the funds could place “unprecedented pressure” on some areas.

Six nations offered $3.5bn as part of global plans to cut deforestation, which accounts for about 20% of all emissions from human activity.

Campaigners warn the scheme fails to consider the rights of forest people.

Read article…

Visit BBC News Online

Lam Hoang Sa, vice chairman of Kien Giang People’s Committee, said the plan, to be carried out until 2015, makes use of all possible sources to develop the forests and protect them from logging and encroachment.

It also allows use of the forest environment to develop eco-tourism in the province, Sa said.

“I don’t think renting the forests out will destroy their environment,” he said.

Under the plan, more than 6,800 hectares of forests in U Minh Thuong, An Minh, Kien Luong, Kien Hai, Hon Dat Districts and Ha Tien Town will be rented out.

Those renting the forests will have to develop flora resources in the area, like planting trees in bare spots. They will be allowed to put up constructions only at specified locations.

Sam said the province will checked quality, number and location of trees in the forest areas before renting them out and issue specific conditions on their use.

“The project developers must have enough money (to develop tourism in the area), experience in forest management and show their commitment to the forest,” he said.

Forests on Phu Quoc Island are excluded from the plan, Sam said, explaining that the central government has not yet marked out forest land on the island.

People who have lived inside forests for a long time without land use rights will receive some support to move from their homes under the plan, he added.

Source: Tuoi Tre

The Telegraph (Calcutta) reports

The French development agency, Agence Française de Développement, has given the go ahead to the Assam forest department to undertake a feasibility study of the Rs 450-crore Assam project on forestry and bio-diversity conservation.

The project aims to restore and manage natural forest ecosystems and resources to enhance the livelihoods of communities dependent on forests and to ensure the sustainable conservation of bio-diversity.

A senior forest department official said a nine-member team from the French agency would arrive in the state in the first week of February to undertake the feasibility study jointly with the state forest department.

“It has always been a joint work. Senior and middle-level officers from the forest department will participate in the study,” the official said today.

He said the concept note prepared by the forest department was presented to the agency and the department of economic affairs recently during their first annual negotiation meeting in Paris. During this meeting, both the parties mutually agreed to go ahead with the next steps of the project.

If the agency approves the project’s feasibility in March, a formal proposal for it financing the conservation effort will follow in April. An appraisal mission will be held in Assam in May to ensure that the project can be presented to the agency’s board of directors in June or July, he added.

“The progress of the project has been fine till now as both the sides have collaborated nicely and one hopes that it will get cleared finally,” the official said.

There are eight components of the project: community empowerment, livelihood alternatives, eco-restoration and bio-diversity management, mitigation of human wildlife conflict, strategic planning, capacity building research and development, monitoring and evaluation.

A major aim of the project is to gradually empower forest-dependent communities to become partners in the management and conservation of forest resources and bio-diversity through training and institutional design.

The project will also explore strategies to reduce man-animal conflict, increase tolerance levels within the affected population and undertake activities to mitigate the levels of conflicts. The research and development component will aim to bridge knowledge gaps within the forest department through call for proposals tailored to suit the needs of the department.

There will be a representative from the ministry of environment and forests and one from a reputed NGO. A representative of the French agency will be included in the governing body as an observer if rules permit.

[Ed-Apols for full quote]

Source