Category Archives: Deforestation

Kew’s tree library leads hi-tech war on illegal logging

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New techniques will help customs officers identify and seize wood that came from endangered species

The wooden blinds that lie crumpled in Peter Gasson’s laboratory in Kew Gardens are chipped and forlorn-looking. Their manufacturers had claimed they were made of pine but customs officers were wary. And their suspicions were well-founded. Gasson, Kew’s research leader on wood and timber, found the blinds were not made of pine but ramin.

“All ramin trees, which grow in south-east Asia, are endangered and trade in their wood is illegal,” said Gasson. “On this occasion, we got lucky and stopped people profiting from this trade.”

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World’s largest bee, missing for 38 years, found in Indonesia

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Biologists discover single female Wallace’s giant bee inside a termites’ nest in a tree

As long as an adult thumb, with jaws like a stag beetle and four times larger than a honeybee, Wallace’s giant bee is not exactly inconspicuous.

But after going missing, feared extinct, for 38 years, the world’s largest bee has been rediscovered on the Indonesian islands of the North Moluccas.

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Massive deforestation by refugees in Uganda sparks clashes with local people

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Communities clash over natural resources as arrivals from South Sudan and DRC plunder environment for fuel and construction

The cutting down of millions of trees has sparked angry clashes in parts of Uganda between local people and refugees who have been fleeing conflict in neighbouring South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The timber is being used for house construction, fuel and to make charcoal. In the north and west of the country, where an estimated 1.1 million refugees are living, massive deforestation is drawing protests by local communities.

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Brazil environment minister’s dismissal of slain Amazon defender stirs outrage

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Ricardo Salles’ comments fuel criticism of administration’s stance, which environmentalists say is excessively pro-business

Brazilian environmental groups have blasted Jair Bolsonaro’s environment minister after he dismissed the murdered Amazon rain forest defender Chico Mendes as “irrelevant”.

Related: Climate change a 'secondary' issue, says Brazil's environment minister

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Brazil’s government reveals plans to privatize key shipping route

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Jair Bolsonaro plans to overhaul country’s transportation infrastructure despite concerns of increased deforestation on the Trans-Amazonian highway

Brazil’s new government has unveiled plans to privatize the Trans-Amazonian Highway, in a fresh attempt to complete – and fully pave – the dictatorship-era road which has already been blamed for extensive deforestation.

The government also plans to sell to investors a concession to run BR-163, a key northern route for shipping Brazilian grains, adding it along with the Trans-Amazonian to a priority list for privatization at a meeting next month, infrastructure minister Tarcisio Freitas told Reuters in an interview.

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