Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
The Brazilian government is considering banning logging it the country's forests for a period of six months to one year to save the Amazon rainforests. This was announced by Brazil's environment minister Marina Silva on July 15, 2005. "What is being discussed in the government is what we call a
function table() { var popurl="image/20050731/27-graph.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=400,height=350,scrollbars=yes") } Himachal Pradesh (hp) is a pioneer state. Thanks to an economic evaluation of its forest resources, by Madhu Verma of the Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, it now knows that, every year, its forests provide benefits worth over Rs 100,000 crore. This …
function graph() { var popurl="files/images/20050731/26-graph.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=400,height=300,scrollbars=yes") } Here is a piquant contradiction: forest-rich states in India are beginning to grumble about the natural wealth they possess, and are protecting. In his speech to the 12 th Finance Commission (fc), Virbhadra Singh, chief minister of Himachal Pradesh
The moef (Union ministry of environment and forests) is a gross under-performer, and way off its targets for the tenth Five Year Plan. This is what the Planning Commission has concluded, in its mid-term appraisal of the ministry’s work “Disappointing” and “inadequate” are the themes that run through the commission’s …
This issue of Down To Earth examines a crisis forest-rich states in India find themselves in: conserving forests is a burden states are no longer able - or willing - to afford. This has happened because in India, as concern for natural resources grew, the harvesting of forests stopped. For …
The ill-funded mismanagement of the world's forests is likely to continue for at least another year. The reason:the United Nations Forum on Forests (unff) has missed its target of delineating reforms for promoting their management, conservation, and sustainable development. The fifth high-level ministerial meeting of the body (unff-5), held in …
The Amazon rainforests have a new enemy: soya bean. According to deforestation figures released by the Brazilian government recently, a huge forest area of 26,130 square kilometres (sq km) was destroyed in the year ending August 2004, mainly by soya bean farmers. The destruction was almost six per cent higher …
Australian prime minister John Howard and the premier of the state of Tasmania, Paul Lennon, recently announced a us$188.6 million package to restructure Tasmania's forestry industry and combat old-growth logging. Partly funded by the Tasmanian government, the move comprises declaring a million hectares (ha) land as a reserve. Pointing out …
The native Indians of Brazil's Roraima state have won a crucial battle against non-indigenous farmers and other settlers in their area. Despite intense lobbying to stall the move, on April 14, 2005, the government announced the long-pending creation of a reserve for around 15,000 Indians in a fiercely disputed remote …
Africa's massive rainforests, second only to the one in Amazon basin, have received a new lease of life. Leaders of seven central African countries recently signed a treaty to protect these forests, spread over more than 200 million hectares in their territories. Poaching, illegal logging and ecological damage is rampant …
Prevention is always better than cure, whether it is a disease or a conflict. The army was recently sent to Brazil's Amazon rainforest region to quell violent clashes between peasants and loggers over the area's natural resources. The move followed the killing of Dorothy Stang, a 73-year-old nun who tried …
While the neighbouring Philippines battles a major storm, believed to have been caused by illegal logging, Indonesia and Malaysia have struck a deal to fight the menace. During a recent state visit of Malaysian deputy prime minister Najib Razak to Indonesia, the two countries agreed to establish designated sea ports …
The Terai-Duar Savanna Ecoregion is spread over the southern slopes of the Himalayas in India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. The Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) lies within this ecoregion covering an area of approximately 49,500 sq km in India and Nepal stretching from the Bagmati River in the East to the …
a multi-state World Bank (wb) loan for some tribal populations in India is in the pipeline, making it the first time the country might receive such a loan. The loan is to focus on the central Indian tribes that depend on forests for their livelihood. The money will be distributed …
When national leaders from all over the world gathered at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for Earth Summit, 1992, management and protection of the world’s forests was among the most contentious issues on their agenda. Since then, the term sustainable forest management (sfm) has become a matter of multilateral bedlam. Simply …
in the face of overexploitation of rare medicinal plants, the Jammu and Kashmir government has imposed a ban on collecting minor forest produce from demarcated forestlands. It has prohibited people from collecting medicinal plants. But it is encouraging people to grow these plants on private lands and nurseries and has …
ecologists have long wondered why forests decline in the absence of catastrophic disturbances. A study, published in Science, sheds light on this issue. During the study, an international team of researchers investigated natural forested stands across six
