Brazil targets illegal logging in major Amazon raids
Porto Velho, Brazil Reuters Brazilian environmental agents seized the equivalent of more than 5,000 truckloads of timber in an operation targeting one of the most heavily logged regions of the Amazon rainforest in recent weeks, officials told Reuters. The raids kicked off a year-long project called Operation Maravalha, named after a type of sawdust, in […]
Brazil’s Lula demands faster action against organised crime in the Amazon
Brasilia, Brazil Reuters Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday urged his government to speed up actions in the Amazon to combat organised crime that has contributed to destruction of the world’s largest tropical rainforest. Lula complained that it had taken a year for a security plan for the Amazon, known as AMAS, […]
Brazil’s Amazon deforestation surges to 15-year high, undercutting government pledge
Brasilia, Brazil Reuters Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest soared 22 per cent in a year to the highest level since 2006, the government’s annual report showed on Thursday, undercutting President Jair Bolsonaro’s assurances that the country is curbing illegal logging. Brazil’s space research agency, INPE, recorded 13,235 square kilometres of deforestation in the world’s largest […]
From beef to chocolate, illegal deforestation found behind many everyday foods
Bogota, Colombia Thomson Reuters Foundation Nearly 70 per cent of tropical forests cleared for cattle ranching and crops such as soybeans and palm oil were deforested illegally between 2013 and 2019, a study showed on Tuesday, warning of the impact on global efforts to fight climate change. Illegal logging was behind the loss of 4.5 […]
One year on, family of murdered Amazon land defender say nothing has changed
Thomson Reuters Foundation Illegal loggers are operating unchecked in Brazil’s Amazon as coronavirus rages despite government vows to act after an Indigenous land activist was killed exactly one year ago trying to protect the rainforest, said his cousin. Paulo Paulino Guajajara, or Lobo – ‘wolf’ in Portuguese – was hunting on 1st November, 2019, inside […]
Medicine not chainsaws: Indonesian clinic keeps villagers and forests healthy
Thomson Reuters Foundation Offering affordable healthcare to villagers and Indigenous communities living near forests could help reduce illegal logging and fight climate change, researchers said on Monday. A new study led by Stanford University analysed a clinic providing such a service, set up by two non-profits adjacent to Gunung Palung National Park in West Kalimantan […]
Under the cover of lockdown, illegal logging surges in Tunisia
Gabes, Tunisia Thomson Reuters Foundation As Tunisia’s streets emptied and shops shuttered after the 6pm national curfew to stem the novel coronavirus outbreak, a clandestine group headed to the forest. Over two nights in early April, a group of people in the north-west region of Ain Draham illegally felled 400 trees, a species known as […]
Malaysia plans tougher penalties for illegal loggers in forest law reform
Putrajaya, Malaysia Thomson Reuters Foundation Malaysia is set to beef up its decades-old forestry laws this year in an effort to protect its rainforests from illegal loggers, a senior minister said last week. The move would stiffen penalties, including fines and jail terms, for those found guilty of cutting down trees without permission, Xavier Jayakumar, […]
Wildlife-loving Gabon minister seeks to stamp out illegal logging
Johannesbury, South Africa Thomson Reuters Foundation Gabon’s new environment minister, Lee White, a British-born conservationist, has vowed to fight illegal logging by strengthening governance of forests after a national scandal in which about 350 containers of rare kevazingo wood went missing. Illegal logging, political apathy and climate change are key reasons why White made the […]
Uncontacted tribes at risk amid ‘worrying’ surge in Amazon deforestation
Rio de Janeiro, BrazilThomson Reuters Foundation Illegal loggers and militias cleared an area three times the size of Gibraltar in Brazil’s Amazon this year, threatening an “uncontacted” indigenous tribe, activists said on Tuesday. Satellite imagery collected by Instituto Socioambiental, a Brazilian advocacy group, detected about 4,600 acres (1,863 hectares) of deforestation this year in the […]