 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| . |  |
. |
Amazon deforestation slows: Brazil
Brasilia (AFP) Nov 4, 2009 Brazil lost 400 square kilometers (154 square miles) of Amazon jungle in September, but deforestation slowed by a third compared with the same month last year, according to official data released Wednesday. Environment Minister Carlos Minc said the speed at which the vast Amazon rain forest was being stripped was down 32 percent, based on satellite imagery from the government's National Space Research Institute. Brazil's government has made the fight against Amazon deforestation a priorities. Much of the fragile woodland is burnt down by ranchers and farmers, releasing into the atmosphere massive amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Brazil is expected to present the results of its efforts at a major UN climate change meeting in Denmark next month, which will try to come up with a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol.
Bulgaria claims back former king's forests The ministry said in a statement that it had filed a claim on the land in court, arguing that the restitution of part, if not all, of the forest in 1998 had been "unlawful". It also said it would was seeking 5.0 million leva (2.5 million euros, 3.7 million dollars) in damages from the family of the former king, because they allowed the logging of some 30,000 cubic metres of wood from the forests since getting them back. The restitution of royal property to the Saxe Coburg family has been a major bone of contention in Bulgaria. A spokeswoman for Saxe Coburg, Tsvetelina Uzunova, told AFP that the former king was also keen for the court to decide whether the restitution had in fact been legal. Simeon II was only six years old when he came to the throne after his father died in 1943. The royal family was exiled by the communists in 1946 and he spent the next 50 years in exile. Saxe Coburg returned to Bulgaria in 1997 and in 2001 became the first European royal to be elected prime minister. The king, who is now 72, his sister Maria-Louisa and other members of the royal family were handed back hundreds of hectares of land and forests and several royal residences and holiday villas that had been nationalised by the communists. Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Forestry News - Global and Local News, Science and Application
Timber Harvest Impacts Amphibians Differently During Life StagesColumbia MO (SPX) Nov 04, 2009 Frogs are croaking in clear-cut forests, but not exactly in their traditional manner. University of Missouri researchers found that removing all of the trees from a section of the forest had a negative effect on amphibians during their later life cycles, but had some positive effects during amphibians' aquatic larva stages at the beginning of their lives. To lessen the negative effects dur ... read more |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2009 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Google
Facebook