Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. Earth Science News .




WOOD PILE
Russian activists angry after attacked journalist's death
by Staff Writers
Moscow (AFP) April 09, 2013


U.N. calls for global look at forests
Istanbul, Turkey (UPI) Apr 9, 2013 - A U.N. official has issued a call for a better global understanding of the links between forests and society, the economy and the wider world.

Jan McAlpine, director of the U.N. Forum on Forests Secretariat, made the remarks as countries gathered in Istanbul, Turkey, to discuss forestry-related issues.

"I would argue that forests are one of the complex systems to understand and grasp," Jan McAlpine told delegates. "And one reason why we haven't been able to do it effectively is because sometimes it's simpler to take a narrow issue and address it, rather than to be able to look at a system as complex as forests and see how it fits into the landscape of these broader sets of issues."

Delegates at the forum will examine ways to reduce deforestation, improve the livelihoods and economies of people who depend on forests, increase the number of forests under protection and increase aid to developing countries to improve forest management, a U.N. release said Tuesday.

Established by the U.N. Economic and Social Council in 2000, the Forum of Forests is tasked with promoting the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests.

"People are the most important challenge" to forests, McAlpine said.

"I don't mean that they necessary have the intention to be negative, but because they don't understand the complexities and the importance of forests and their value, they have ignored them to the detriment of those resources for the future, and that is probably the biggest challenge," she said.

Colleagues and friends Tuesday expressed shock and anger over the sudden death of Russian journalist and activist Mikhail Beketov, who was left crippled after a 2008 attack that has remained unpunished.

Beketov, who died Monday aged 55, had been painstakingly regaining his strength and abilities after assailants brutally attacked him with baseball bats and left him for dead in November 2008.

But five years later, those who ordered and carried out the crime have not been found despite a promise by Vladimir Putin in 2011 to "push the probe along".

Beketov, who ran an independent and critical newspaper in the Moscow suburb town of Khimki, had strongly opposed the building of a new road through a local forest.

He connected the repeated attempts on his life to the local authorities, who had lobbied for the Moscow-Saint Petersburg highway project.

"Nobody is trying to find those who attacked him with baseball bats," the head of Russia's Glasnost Defence Foundation Alexei Simonov told AFP.

"There is no desire to find out who they are."

Washington expressed condolences Tuesday for "the loss of this advocate for clean government and press freedom".

Beketov "stood out among journalists taking on local corruption, upholding the freedom of expression, refusing to back down even in the face of threats to his personal security," said State Department deputy spokesman Patrick Ventrell.

The United States is "urging redoubled efforts to identify and prosecute those responsible for the beating of this respected journalist," he said.

Amnesty International said Beketov had been targeted after writing about corruption surrounding the highway and received multiple threats prior to the beating: his car was set on fire and his dog was killed.

"Everyone warned him against writing about this project," the NGO's Russian office said.

"This man went through such an ordeal," rights activist Andrei Stolbunov, who ran a support fund for Beketov, wrote on Facebook.

"One piece of evidence in his criminal case is a piece of his skull. That he survived after laying in the cold for 15 hours can only be called a miracle."

Despite colossal neurological damage, Beketov began to walk again last year and continued meeting with journalists, even though his ability to speak never fully returned.

It was not clear whether he died after suffering a heart attack while having a meal during a routine hospital check-up, or choked on a piece of food, Stolbunov said.

"What had happened to Mikhail was not a 'beating'," Khimki environmental activist Yevgenia Chirikova wrote on her blog Tuesday. "They were killing him, they just didn't finish him off."

"Mikhail Beketov fought to the end," the Paris-based NGO Reporters Without Borders said Tuesday. "He was a symbol of a Russia that struggles. ... Today it is more important than ever that his attackers be brought to justice. We demand the truth."

The highway construction has ploughed on despite multiple protests, assaults on activists, and international scrutiny.

Activists clashed with construction workers for months, accusing them of working without any permits. The construction company in turn accused activists of stalling a legal project.

The prospective toll highway is half-owned by a construction company that belongs to Putin's former judo sparring partner Arkady Rotenberg through an offshore company, according to Russian press. The other half is controlled by French construction company Vinci.

Beketov's beating was followed by several others, including that of campaigner Konstantin Fetisov. A trial against the suspected mastermind of that crime, a local official, is still in progress.

.


Related Links
Forestry News - Global and Local News, Science and Application






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








WOOD PILE
Russian forest campaigner dies after 2008 attack
Moscow (AFP) April 08, 2013
Outspoken Russian journalist and environmentalist Mikhail Beketov, who was beaten nearly to death in 2008 in an attack thought to be linked to his activism, died on Monday, his lawyer said. Beketov, who campaigned against the logging of a Moscow region forest and edited an independent newspaper in the suburb of Khimki, was assaulted in 2008 and had been slowly regaining his health after mult ... read more


WOOD PILE
Fukushima fuel cooling system stops again:TEPCO

Environmental policies matter for growing megacities

Finland's Fennovoima in talks with Rosatom over reactor

US drivers talk and text as much as ever

WOOD PILE
What's between a slip and a slide?

Light may recast copper as chemical industry 'holy grail'

New camera system creates high-resolution 3-D images from up to a kilometer away

Theory and practice key to optimized broadband, low-loss optical metamaterials

WOOD PILE
Dead fish cause for concern in China river

Chinese fishing boat runs aground in Philippines

Temperature difference between hemispheres could shift rainfall patterns

Chinese foreign fisheries catch 12 times more than reported

WOOD PILE
Byrd Came Oh-So-Close, But Probably Didn't Reach North Pole

Discovery of 1,800-year-old 'Rosetta Stone' for tropical ice cores

New models predict drastically greener Arctic in coming decades

Ice cores preserve 1,800 years of climate

WOOD PILE
Land degradation causes up to 5% loss in farm output

China bird flu outbreak 'devastating' poultry sales

Pandas vs pinot as vineyards adjust to warming

China bird flu outbreak spurs food safety fears

WOOD PILE
Strong quake near Iran nuclear plant kills 30

Argentina floods caused $5 billion in damage

Italy marks fourth anniversary of L'Aquila quake

7.1-magnitude quake causes panic in Indonesia's Papua

WOOD PILE
Obama takes first step to selling arms to Somalia

Jailed Sudan coup officers seek Bashir's amnesty

Thousands in Darfur seek protection after fighting

Congolese pygmy seeks to enlighten his kin

WOOD PILE
Rare primate's vocal lip-smacks share features of human speech

Women and men perform the same in math

Scientists identify brain's 'molecular memory switch'

Researchers successfully map fountain of youth




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. 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 Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement