Category Archives: Trees and forests

US-China soy trade war could destroy 13 million hectares of rainforest

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Study suggests Brazil likely to rush to fill China’s sudden soy shortfall by boosting farming

The Amazon rainforest could be the greatest casualty of the trade war between the United States and China, warns a new study showing how deforestation pressures have surged as a result of the geopolitical jolt in global soy markets.

Up to 13m hectares of forest and savannah – an area the size of Greece – would have to be cleared if Brazil and other exporters were to fill the huge shortfall in soy supply to China that has suddenly appeared since Donald Trump imposed hefty tariffs, according to the paper published in Nature.

US exports of the commodity, primarily used to feed livestock, to China plummeted by 50% last year, which the authors say is an unusually sharp level of decline between two trading partners outside wartime.

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‘A good day’: New Zealand adds area half the size of Auckland to national park

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Environmentalists ‘stoked’ by expansion they say will protect blue duck, native kaka bird, bats and giant land snails

A national park in New Zealand has been expanded by 64,000 hectares – the largest gain for a national park in the country’s history.

Kahurangi national park is situated in the north-west corner of New Zealand’s South Island, and is already the second-largest national park in the country.

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‘We are fighting’: Brazil’s indigenous groups unite to protect their land

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Residents of Raposa Serra do Sol are determined to face down the threat posed by mining

“A united people will never be defeated!” shouted Maria Betânia Mota, as the indigenous assembly in a partially burned-out agricultural college began. Hundreds of voices roared back in approval.

Betânia Mota is the women’s secretary of its organisers, the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR), which represents the majority of those living in the 1.7m hectares of savannah and scrub that make up the Raposa Serra do Sol reserve in Brazil’s northernmost state.

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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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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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