Argentines lift 3-year roadblock over Finnish paper mill

Nepal bans logging for two months
Kathmandu (AFP) June 18, 2010 - Nepal has banned people from cutting down trees for two months after reports of massive deforestation in its lawless southern plains, a government spokesman said Friday. The government made the ruling after receiving reports that more than 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of forest had been razed in the past few months alone, he told AFP. "We have received reports of tree-felling on a massive scale and illegal trading in forest wood," Information Minister Shankar Pokharel said. Nepal already has strict laws on the felling of trees, but enforcement is weak -- particularly in the southern belt known as the Terai, where the United Nations says security is deteriorating rapidly.

Pokharel said four officials had been suspended on suspicion of involvement with the illegal timber trade, and the government would now form a committee to investigate the problem. Nepal relies on wood for around two-thirds of its energy needs, and in the 1970s the government launched a community forest scheme to give people more control over their local woodlands. The scheme has been successful in preserving tree cover in the central hills, but there are reports of widespread illegal logging in the community forests of the Terai.

by Staff Writers
Arroyo Verde, Argentina (AFP) June 19, 2010
Argentine protesters Saturday lifted a three-year-old roadblock on a bridge to Uruguay to give a Finnish paper mill time to prove it's not polluting the river.

As cars began crossing the bridge linking Gualeguaychu to Fray Bentos, in Uruguay, protesters said they were expecting a joint monitoring system would be put in place in the next 60 days to ensure the UPM mill's operations are environmentally safe.

"We're not giving up," the protesters said in a statement. "If the two governments (Argentina and Uruguay) don't resolve this conflict we'll continue and we'll be back with our massive and peaceful protest."

The roadblock on the General San Martin Bridge began in November 2006, one year before the paper mill owned by Finland's UPM (formerly called Botnia) went into operation over Argentina's objections it was polluting the river and that it had not been notified of its construction.

The International Court of Justice in the Hague in April ruled that "Uruguay breached its procedural obligations" by not informing Argentina about the paper processing plant on the River Uruguay.

The court, however, chose not to hold Montevideo responsible for polluting the river.

The Argentine protesters said they expected "a complete and truthful report" on the results of the joint monitoring system, as well as proper control of toxic substances trucked into the UPM plant in Fray Bentos.

In the meantime, one protestor said over the loudspeaker, "we'll wait alongside this road an continue our protest.

"Botnia is illegal, it is polluting and it must get out of the Uruguay River basin."

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Cisgenics In Forestry Offers New Tools For Biotechnology
Corvallis OR (SPX) Jun 17, 2010
Forestry scientists at Oregon State University have demonstrated for the first time that the growth rate and other characteristics of trees can be changed through "cisgenics" - a type of genetic engineering that is conceptually similar to traditional plant breeding. Cisgenics uses genes from closely related species that usually are sexually compatible. If governments choose to regulate it ... read more

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