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By Scott Wallace, National Geographic, 14 May 2012 | As Brazil braces for president Dilma Rousseff’s forthcoming decision on whether to sign or veto recent legislation that would alter the country’s Forest Code, rights groups are decrying a surge in illegal land grabs that is wrecking environmental havoc and threatening vulnerable tribal populations. According to the rights organization Survival International, a gold rush mentality seems to have taken hold among loggers, ranchers and settlers in the eastern Amazonian state of Maranhão, as intruders bore their way deeper into reserve areas set up to protect the forests of the Awá tribe. In addition to 355 contacted members of the tribe, about 100 Awá remain uncontacted, making them one of the very last groups of nomads still roaming the forests of the eastern Amazon. The majority of the 60 or more uncontacted tribes that still survive in the Amazon inhabit the more secluded and remote western regions on the vast Amazon Basin.

UC Davis News & Information, 14 May 2012 | A new study from the University of California, Davis, provides a deeper understanding of the complex global impacts of deforestation on greenhouse gas emissions. The study, published May 13 in the advance online edition of the journal Nature Climate Change, reports that the volume of greenhouse gas released when a forest is cleared depends on how the trees will be used and in which part of the world the trees are grown. When trees are felled to create solid wood products, such as lumber for housing, that wood retains much of its carbon for decades, the researchers found. In contrast, when wood is used for bioenergy or turned into pulp for paper, nearly all of its carbon is released into the atmosphere. Carbon is a major contributor to greenhouse gases.

Phys.org, 14 May 2012 | On the first day of summer – the longest day of the year – tree leaves are lush and green, luminous in the June sunlight. Yet just a day after the summer solstice, length of daylight begins to incrementally decrease; tree leaves begin to shut down, and the activity of photosynthesis declines. As the season progresses, this drop in photosynthetic activity means trees absorb less carbon dioxide than they had on the longest day of the year and ultimately sequester far less carbon on a global scale than earlier thought, a team of scientists has found. Photoperiod, rather than temperature, is a primary driver of leaf activity, according to research findings published May 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In fact, photosynthetic activity wanes long before autumn’s chill, the study shows.

By Tunggadewa Mattangkilang, Jakarta Globe, 16 May 2012 | The fast rate of deforestation in East Kalimantan over the last few years has made it the country’s third largest carbon emitting region. According to the East Kalimantan Climate Change Council (DDPI), the province emitted 255 million tons of carbon dioxide last year, behind only Riau (358 million tons) and Central Kalimantan (324 million tons). Daddy Ruchiyat, chairman of the DPPI, said that just five years ago the province was the bedrock of the country’s natural forests and helped minimize the impact of carbon emissions. “Now, we are the third largest emitter because more and more forests are turned into mines and residential areas,” he said in Balikpapan on Monday. Daddy said the province’s carbon emissions increased by 1.4 percent annually because the local administration had allowed more forest conversion in recent years in a bid to make more money.

Associated Press, 17 May 2012 | Security forces have sealed off a village in eastern Cambodia and denied entry to human rights workers after the fatal shooting of a teenager in the latest violent eviction aimed at clearing land for development. Soldiers said they needed to secure the area around Proma village, in eastern Kratie province, to continue the search for five accused ringleaders involved in a clash with security forces a day earlier, said Chan Soveth, a prominent investigator with Cambodian human rights group Adhoc. He said journalists and human rights activists were initially moved to an area half a mile (1km) from the village but then pushed farther back, raising concerns about the soldiers' conduct and the safety of the villagers. The interior ministry, meanwhile, issued a statement alleging the protesters were an "anarchic group" trying to set up a self-governing zone outside the law. It accused demonstrators of abducting two soldiers and seizing their weapons.

Point Carbon, 17 May 2012 | Agribusiness giant Bunge expects its avoided deforestation project on private land in Brazil to be issued around 800,000 voluntary carbon credits by the second half of the year, the firm’s Brazil country manager said. [R-M: Subscription needed.]

By Michelle Kovacevic, CIFOR Forests News Blog, 15 May 2012 | Despite recent research that has closely linked climate change and water scarcity with a rapidly rising deforestation rates, the international climate community still mainly thinks of forests in terms of their carbon storage potential rather than the critical role they play in regulating rainfall and other climate patterns. Over the last week, participants in the Rio+20 Dialogues on Sustainable Development have been discussing how forest and water managers on the ground can overcome these challenges to help solve future water problems. Giving some examples of successful water and forest management strategies in Canadian plantation forests, Simon Bridge, Head of Knowledge and Information Management at Natural Resources Canada pointed out that it was critical that water issues be addressed if forest managers expect to achieve any type of certification for sustainable management.

By Kate Evans, CIFOR Forests News Blog, 18 May 2012 | Climate change scientist Daniel Murdiyarso has been closely watching the ban’s progress, and says that revisions to the map have revealed that extensive concessions had already been granted to mining, logging or palm oil companies by the time the moratorium took effect, so the area covered by the moratorium is less than originally anticipated. “The objective of the moratorium is to hold back the issuance of permits. So to some extent the map is showing that, but on the other hand it is also showing the reality [...] the fact that some areas are already under license,” he said. He says the first revision of the map revealed that permits had already been issued for almost 5 million hectares of carbon-rich peatland that were previously thought to be covered by the moratorium. However, he says the fact that this is now public knowledge is a significant step forward.

By Ayesha Daya, Bloomberg, 15 May 2012 | Dubai plans to offer United Nations carbon credits at 10 euros ($12.85) a metric ton from next year for sale to European countries, Alrroya reported, citing Waleed Salman, chairman of the Dubai Centre for Carbon Excellence. Dubai is seeking its first tradable emission credits under the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism as it seeks to increase energy efficiency and rely more on solar power to meet future demand. UN offsets for December delivery were up 0.6 percent at 3.66 euros a ton as of 11:03 a.m. on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange.

By Heather Scoffield, GuelphMercury, 15 May 2012 | Delays in regulating greenhouse gas emissions mean Canada is quickly locking in old-fashioned infrastructure that will fill the air with carbon for decades to come, new research shows. The longer the federal government waits to clamp down on emissions and business continues as usual, the more difficult and costly it becomes to meet environmental targets, the research concludes. The new research comes from the soon-to-be-defunct National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, the federally funded advisory group formed to give advice and research on sustainable development. The Harper government is in the process of abolishing the agency.

By Pilita Clark and Leslie Hook, Financial Times, 16 May 2012 | This year is not turning out well for the climate change business. The pace of global climate talks is sluggish. Prices have collapsed in the world’s biggest carbon market. Eurozone woes have shoved environmental concerns well down the list of priorities for leaders worldwide. Yet the outlook is far from hopeless, say some green businesses and campaigners, because of one, somewhat unlikely, part of the world: China. The world’s second-largest economy is home to some notable examples of environmental delinquency and produces more of the carbon dioxide emissions linked to climate change than any other country. But its fledgling plans to start seven pilot carbon emissions trading schemes have injected vigour into the global environment debate. If these pilot programmes end up producing an efficient national carbon market, they could have a transforming impact on efforts to tackle climate change...

UPI.com, 17 May 2012 | The outcome of China's planned carbon emissions scheme could have a transforming effect on efforts to tackle climate change, experts say. China is preparing to run pilot carbon trading schemes beginning in 2013 in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Hubei and Guangdong , major cities with a combined population of 250 million people. The government's goal is to introduce a national trading scheme by 2015, just two years after the seven pilot programs are scheduled to be in place. "For us to finish this in two years is a huge amount of work," Mei Dewen, chief executive of the China Beijing Environmental Exchange told the Financial Times. "A carbon trading market is a very complex system." Because of China's size and rate of economic growth, the outcome of its pilot carbon trading schemes is "one of the most important questions of environmental policy of our time," states a Stockholm Environment Institute study published last month.

By Giles Parkinson, The Australian, 18 May 2012 | Australia is set to play a key role in the development of a new global-debt security, with work under way on an initiative to arrange a dollar "climate bond" in what could be a world first. Climate bonds are a new form of security that are considered crucial to providing liquidity in debt markets for financing investment in low-carbon industry sectors, which will rely on economies of scale to grow. According to Sean Kidney, the Australian founder and head of the Climate Bonds Initiative, the new category is set to become a major new part of the global bond market, and he expects the world will need to issue about $300 billion of such bonds a year from 2016 to facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy. Several banks around the world are looking at issuing climate bonds.

AsiaOne, 15 May 2012 | Regulations and structures to handle Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation+ (REDD) programmes, as well as building linkages with local communites and utilising local knowledge may be the key to the transboundary haze situation. The 2nd Ministerial Steering Committee (MSC) Forum on Transboundary Haze last week decided that there is a need for regulations and incentives to be put in place by governments in order to induce the market to respond. Innovative approaches and projects which involve government officials and community groups, corporations and landowners, as well as utilising local knowledge and building linkages with local communities were also important.

By David Hill, The Guardian, 16 May 2012 | An environmental consultancy working for an oil company withheld evidence of an "uncontacted tribe" where the company is operating in Peru's Amazon, a leaked report obtained by the Guardian reveals. The leak is acutely embarrassing for Perenco, based in London and Paris, because it has consistently claimed there is no evidence for indigenous people living without contact with the outside world near its operations and cites research by the consultancy, Daimi Peru, as proof. The report was written by three anthropologists from the National University of the Peruvian Amazon (Unap) who were contracted by Daimi, which in turn was contracted by Perenco. The anthropologists list the evidence they found – "bent branches, footprints, women bathing in the rivers and crossed spears on pathways" – all of which was reported by local people..

By Erin Hale, The Guardian, 17 May 2012 | Ford, GM and BMW are sourcing material from Brazil that is driving illegal logging and slave labour, according to campaigners at Greenpeace. Brazil is a major exporter of pig iron, a primary ingredient of steel and cast iron, that is produced using massive quantities of charcoal. Reports over the past decade from the Brazilian government, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and the US Department of Labour have indicated that charcoal used by many pig iron suppliers in the Amazonian state of Pará was obtained through forced labour and illegal logging of protected and indigenous lands. A new report by Greenpeace uses customs data to link eight international companies to two major Brazilian exporters of pig iron, Viena Siderurgica do Maranhão (Viena) and Siderúrgica do Pará (Sidepar), that the green group says are linked through the supply chain to charcoal suppliers with histories of buying from illegal camps...

mongabay.com, 19 May 2012 | Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is lower in 2012 relative to the same period last year according to satellite-based data released by Imazon, an NGO. Imazon's Deforestation Alert System (SAD) detected 830 square kilometers of clearing between August 2011 to April 2012, down about 35 percent from the 1268 square kilometers recorded at this time last year. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon last year was the lowest since annual record keeping began in the late 1980s. Imazon's deforestation tracking system also found a sharp decline in forest degradation, which often proceeds outright deforestation. Forest degradation is typically the result of logging and fire. Brazil measures its annual deforestation at the end of July during the dry season when cloud cover is at a minimum. Final data is typically released in December. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon usually peaks in the July-September period.

mongabay.com, 19 May 2012 | A mother orangutan and its baby were rescued from an area of forest that was being bulldozed for an oil palm plantation in Sumatra, reports the Orangutan Information Centre (OIC), which participated in the translocation of the red apes. The rescue was conducted by the OIC’s Human Orangutan Conflict Response Unit (HOCRU) with the assistance of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SCOP), the Leuser Ecosystem Management Authority (BPKEL), and the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA). It was the second orangutan rescue in ten days at the site. The female orangutan and her baby were isolated in a patch of forest within an oil palm plantation owned by PT Sisirau, an Indonesian palm oil company, in Aceh Province. Sisirau was preparing to bulldoze the forest, according to OIC.

By Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com, 17 May 2012 | Last month, three Guarani communities, the local Argentine government of Misiones, and the UK-based NGO World Land Trust forged an agreement to create a nature reserve connecting three protected areas in the fractured, and almost extinct, Atlantic Forest. Dubbed the Emerald Green Corridor, the reserve protects 3,764 hectares (9,301 acres) in Argentina; although relatively small, the land connects three protected other protected areas creating a combined conservation area (41,000 hectares) around the size of Barbados in the greater Yaboti Biosphere Reserve. In Argentina only 1 percent of the historical Atlantic Forest survives. "The agreement that has been reached is truly ground-breaking," John Burton the head of World Land Trust (WLT) said in a press release, "and it’s been heralded as such by the government of Misiones."