Wood

The role of wood residues in the transition to sustainable bioenergy

Wood residues – the materials left over when trees are logged and processed – hold the potential to support resource-efficient energy access, revitalize rural economies and help mitigate climate change, according to this new report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). In many countries, wood …

Toxic links

workers in the wooden furniture industry are susceptible to cancer because of constant exposure to wood dust, reiterates a new study. The adverse health effects of wood dust are well known, but there is very little documentary evidence to support this knowledge. The study was conducted by a team of …

Indonesia

Sale Logged Indonesia plans to impose a permanent ban on export of logs to save its forests. Over-logging has nearly destroyed the country's rain forests. Realising this, it had imposed a ban on log exports in 1980 but later replaced it with a 200 per cent export tax to protect …

Chile

Big No To Chips Greens are protesting against the use of native tree species to make wood chips. Recently, Greenpeace activists chained themselves to a Japanese ship docked in Chile to express their resentment. The protesters aimed to prevent the ship from loading 42,000 cubic metres of wood chips made …

Seeing land for trees

We need to give the devil his due. Finance minister, Yashwant Sinha, has drawn flak from almost all sides for his nightmare budget 2002. But there was one item, which missed most eyes, which said that the budget would provide deduction for afforestation projects on degraded non-forest land. The crucial …

BRAZIL

In a bid to stop mahogony trade, a Brazilian government decree has suspended all forest management plans for logging mahogany in the states of Paro, Mato, Grosso and Acre. The announcement, approved by the country's environment and natural resources ministry, means an end to the illegal mahogany industry in Brazil. …

Destructive logging

Logging makes rainforest regions susceptible to destruction, proves a study. Researchers from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Germany, studied the recently-logged regions on the south-east Asian island of Borneo. According to them, rainforests are normally wet and fireproof. But deforested areas burnt more frequently and severely than virgin forests. When selective logging takes …

Forestland benefits

By LIAN CHAWIIThe Lok Vaniki scheme, introduced in Madhya Pradesh in 1999, aims at empowering the farmers to manage their degraded forestland so as to derive maximum benefits by selling its produce, including timber. The scheme has already brought about a few changes in the law as well. Under Section …

Owning up

Two months after four people were killed in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh (MP), the state government seems to be finally owing up its responsibility. Albeit with a lot of pressure, compensations have been given and activists have been released from custody. However, it seems that the larger issues are still to …

Trouble in Dewas

the Madhya Pradesh government would like to forget it. The residents of Dewas district, however, will remember it for the rest of their lives. Four people were killed in a confrontation between the administration and the tribal people at Mehendikheda village, about 100 km from the district headquarters of Dewas, …

Death logs

Workers in sawmills and wood-related industry, such as plywood manufacturing, are exposed to carcinogens and other dangerous chemicals. The chemicals may be naturally found or synthesised. Chlorophenols

Greener Shades

representatives of India's pulp and paper industry met the Green Rating Project ( grp ) unit of the Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, to take stock of their environmental performance more than one year after the release of the first ever environmental rating of its kind in the …

Trees eaten hollow

after affecting over one-sixth of the total sal ( Shorea robusta ) forests in Madya Pradesh in 1997, the sal borer is back with a vengeance. According to media reports, at least three million sal trees are affected in Bihar, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh. Climatic changes like …

Wood substitute

tipwood a substitute for wood has been developed for use in the construction industry. Tipwood maintains the aesthetic nature of wood but scores over the latter as it is termite-proof, fire-resistant, does not need solvent treatment and maintenance-free. The technology behind the product, made by Tipco Industries Ltd (til), is …

Timber trail

reeling under a total halt to its timber trade after the Supreme Court imposed a ban on all timber-related activities in the Northeast five years ago, the state government of Assam has formulated a new set of "Assam Wood-based Industries (Establishment and Regulation) Rules, 1999'. This has come in response …

Vanishing forests

the dense foliage around the Hwange Victoria Falls in north western Zimbabwe may soon be relegated to history if several species of hardwoods continue to disappear at the present rate. The booming tourism trade and the subsequent sale of curios made of wood is posing a grave threat to indigenous …

Industrial blackmail!

grasim industries ltd ( gil ), an Aditya Birla group company, sought the permission of the Kerala government to close down its viscose plant located on the banks of the river Chaliyar at Mavoor, Kozhikode district. The company also posted copies of the notice to the trade unions on August …

THAILAND

In a bid to end illegal import of wood, customs and forest officials in Thailand will work together to monitor log movements. They will supervise import and transport of logs and will identify areas where logs can be processed, a customs department official said. Illegal Thai logs have often been …

Gene magic

scientists have found a way to make eucalyptus and other trees grow a little faster. They have identified the key genes which are responsible for the development of wood in trees. They have also developed a new process for the testing of genes in the laboratory. Gerd Bossinger of the …

Law versus environment

eighteen environmentalists have been arrested in Vancouver, Canada, for opposing the logging of some of the remaining pristine rainforest valleys in the Great Bear Rainforests. The uk is playing a major role in forest destruction as it continues to import timber and pulp from British Columbia's ancient temperate rainforests to …

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