A cooking oil that is driving the
destruction of the rainforests, displacing native people and
threatening the survival of the orangutan is present in dozens of
Britain's leading grocery brands, an investigation by The Independent has found.
Palm
oil - blamed for a tree-felling rampage in south-east Asia - is present
or suspected in 43 of 100 best-selling brands in UK, far more than the
one in 10 products estimated by Friends of the Earth four years ago.
The trade in Sumatran orangutans for pets shows little sign of decline and is taking the species to the brink of extinction, a report concludes.
Compiled by Traffic, the international wildlife trade monitoring network, it suggests that more orangutans are being traded than in previous decades.
The species is listed as critically endangered, with only about 7,000 left.
Traffic says Indonesian authorities need to pursue prosecutions and heavy penalties against illegal traders.
The Sumatran orangutan is protected under national laws and international conventions.
COPENHAGEN - The Amazonian rainforest is likely to suffer catastrophic damage even with the lowest temperature rises forecast under climate change, researchers have found.
Damage will be so severe that it will cause irreversible changes to the world's weather patterns, which would be expected to bring more storms, floods and heatwaves to Britain.
Up to 40 per cent of the rainforest will be lost if temperature rises are restricted to 2C, which most climatologists regard as the least that can be expected by 2050.
John Seed has been called "the town crier for the global village" for his work promoting and protecting rainforests around the world. He has made films about rainforests and traveled the world with his rainforest roadshow, spreading the word and building networks of people committed to the cause. He is also the founder of the Rainforest Information Center and the Rainforest Action Network and in 1995 was awarded an OAM (Order of Australia Medal) for services to the environment.
Dr Simon Lewis, a Royal Society research fellow at the University of Leeds and author of the paper, said: "We are receiving a free subsidy from nature.
"Tropical forest trees are absorbing about 18 per cent of the CO2 added to the atmosphere each year from burning fossil fuels, substantially buffering the rate of climate change."
Dr Lewis said the trees could be mopping up even more carbon dioxide than before because CO2 already in the atmosphere is acting like a fertiliser, but man could not rely on them forever.
Scenes like this, with vast tracts of Amazonian rainforest razed to make way for cattle, are to become more common in Brazil as it continues its drive to expand its beef export industry, according to environmentalists.
Green activists say that country's determination to double its share of the world beef market is likely to undermine its new targets for halting Amazon rainforest destruction and reducing carbon emissions.
ARDINGLY, England - A seed bank that is trying to collect every type of plant in the world is now under threat from the global financial crisis, its director says.
The Millennium Seed Bank Project aims to house all the 300,000 different plant species known to exist to ensure future biodiversity and protect a vital source of food and medicines, director Paul Smith said.
The project is on track to collect 10 percent of the total by 2010 but the financial crisis is drying up funding, casting serious doubts on future collections, he said.
PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia - Deep in the forests of Indonesian Borneo, a small environmental group is using education and common sense to arm villagers against the devastating onslaught of palm plantations.
Yayasan Orangutan Indonesia (Yayorin) was founded in 1991 with the goal of saving Indonesia's endangered orangutans and other wildlife as well as the forests that those species need to survive.
LOS ANGELES - The Bush administration appears ready to push through a change in Forest Service agreements that would make it far easier for mountain forests to be converted to housing subdivisions.
Mark Rey, the former timber lobbyist who heads the Forest Service, last week signaled his intent to formalize the controversial change before the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.
RIO DE JANEIRO - Twenty years after the killing of Chico Mendes, one of the world's most prominent rainforest defenders, hundreds of human rights and environmental activists still face the threat of assassination in Brazil, a new study claims.
The report, compiled by Brazil's Catholic Land Commission (CPT) and due to be released in full early next year, reveals that at least 260 people, among them a Catholic bishop, live under the threat of murder because of their fight against a coalition of loggers, farmers and cattle ranchers.
