Every two seconds, across the world, an area of forest the size of a football field is clear-cut by illegal loggers.1 In some countries, up to 90 percent of all the logging taking place is illegal.2 Estimates suggest that this criminal activity generates approximatel US$10–15 billion annually worldwide—funds that are unregulated, untaxed, and often [...]
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Chevron is being sued for more than $11 billion by Brazilian prosecutors [for spilling at least 2,400 barrels of oil offshore Brail]Officials say they are preparing criminal charges against Chevron and its management….Eager to halt criticism from regulators, politicians and environmental groups, Chevron said last November that it ”accepted full responsibility” for the incident. [...] Indigenous rainforest communities from Ecuador who recently won an $18 billion judgment against Chevron for environmental damage have filed a petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights strongly criticizing Chevron’s “egregious misuse” of the U.S.-Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty (“BIT”) to violate human rights protections. They are seeking an order requiring Ecuador’s government to [...] An international fund to protect the Amazon forest launched by Brazil in 2008 has gotten bogged down in red tape and donors are frustrated their $466 million contributions are hardly put to use, a Norwegian official said. The fund was designed to slow deforestation by stimulating sustainable economic alternatives to cattle ranching and farming, [...] A new document reveals that Chevron officials ordered the destruction of key documents as part of a broad scheme to hide the extent of the company’s pollution in Ecuador’s Amazon, says Amazon Defense Coalition. A company memorandum from Ecuador dated July 1972 ordered that all reports related to oil spills “are to be removed [...] The Brazilian Amazon is now home to 24m people, many of them settlers who trekked those roads in the 1960s and 1970s, lured by a government promise that those who farmed “unproductive” land could keep it. Chaotic or corrupt land registries left some without secure title. Rubber-tappers, loggers, miners and charcoal-burners came too. The [...] Eight South American countries pledged to boost cooperation to protect one of the planet’s largest natural reserves from deforestation and illegal trafficking in timber and minerals. Representatives of Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela gathered in Manaus, northern Brazil, also vowed to speak with one voice at next June’s UN conference [...] Brazil would lose about $100 billion in agricultural output if the senate rejects legislation that forgives farmers for illegally clearing protected rainforest, said Senator Katia Abreu. Failure to approve the bill would force farmers to reforest about 70 million hectares (173 million acres) of land currently under coffee, oranges and other commodities, said Abreu, [...] Press Release on The State of the Forest Carbon Markets 2011: From Canopy to Currency (2011). (PDF) This is Ecosystem Marketplace’s second annual report giving readers an in-depth look at what’s happening in today’s market, and what might be happening down the road. First, 2010 marked a dramatic increase in the volume and value [...] Brazilian authorities say they have pinpointed the location of a community of uncontacted tribespeople in one of the remotest corners of the Amazon rainforest. Fabricio Amorim, a regional co-ordinator for Brazil’s indigenous foundation, Funai, said the indigenous community had been found after three small forest clearings were detected on satellite images. Flyovers were carried [...] |
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