Amazon

Amazon deforestation gets the Panorama treatment

Posted by jamie — 5 September 2008 at 6:10pm - Comments

If you haven't had your fill of news from the Amazon lately (we've recently had live webcasts and slideshows from regions where fires have swept through), Monday's edition of Panorama is dedicated to the largest rainforest on Earth, and Greenpeace will featured.

Called Can Money Grow On Trees?, it will examine how the rising cost of food is threatening the Amazon as more forest is converted into farmland for cattle ranching - the current dry season provides an excellent opportunity for a bit of fire-based forest clearance. Also included will be the question of whether financial mechanisms (like our own proposal) can be brought in to make forests more valuable if they're left standing.

We haven't seen the final programme, but it's on BBC1 at 8.30pm, with a repeat on Friday 12 September at 12.45am. Of course, you can watch it at anytime on the wondrous iPlayer after transmission (although only if you're in the UK).

Article tagged as: amazon, BBC, brazil, cattle, forests, panorama, south america

Fires raging through the Amazon

Posted by jamie — 3 September 2008 at 2:19pm - Comments

It's currently the dry season in the Amazon and, as the live webcast last week demonstrated, fires have been decimating large areas. The video crew weren't the only ones documenting the fires and last week we received images from another Greenpeace team who took to the air to photograph them and the devastated areas they leave behind. We've put together some of the most striking (not to say depressing) images into the slideshow below.

Article tagged as: agriculture, amazon, brazil, cattle, deforestation, forest fires, forests, slideshows, south america

Live and direct from the Amazon

Posted by jamie — 1 September 2008 at 4:58pm - Comments

On Friday, a Greenpeace team broadcast a live webcast from the heart of the Amazon rainforest, in an area which was still-smouldering after a recent forest fire. Even rainforests have dry seasons and during the current one, fires both natural and man-made are devastating huge areas.

It was an amazing technical achievement but that wasn't the reason they did it - they were there to show how the forest is being cleared for a variety of reasons (in this case, to open up areas for cattle).

Article tagged as: agriculture, amazon, brazil, cattle, forest fires, forests, south america, videos

Will Brazil's new environment minister save the Amazon?

Posted by jamie — 21 May 2008 at 10:27am - Comments

Deforestation in the Amazon

After losing respected environment minister Marina Silva from his cabinet last week, President Lula of Brazil has filled the gaping hole left by her departure. But whether the new minister Carlos Minc has the same commitment to protecting the Amazon as his predecessor, we'll just have to wait and see.

Article tagged as: amazon, brazil, carlos minc, deforestation, forests, illegal logging, marina silva, south america

The prince and the rubber tapper: stop trashing rainforests

Posted by bex — 15 May 2008 at 10:38am - Comments

The lungs of the world

Yesterday, the 'guardian angel' of Brazil's environment, Marina Silva, threw in the towel and quit her post as Brazil's environment minister. She told President Lula that her efforts to protect the Amazon "were being thwarted by powerful business lobbies".

Article tagged as: amazon, brazil, climate change, deforestation, forests, marina silva, prince charles

Brazilian government gets busy in the Amazon

Posted by jamie — 15 April 2008 at 5:20pm - Comments

Following our action in France last month - when the crew of the Arctic Sunrise blocked a shipment of timber from the Brazilian Amazon - efforts have been stepped up in the country of origin to prevent illegal timber being exported in the first place.

The Brazilian government's environmental agency, Ibama, has seized a shipment of timber in the first check on exports by authorities in two years. The cargo vessel in question - the BSLE Express - would have been en route to Europe but has been detained in Santarem since March 27. So far, inspectors have confiscated 732m3 of wood which were travelling with false papers; papers that were economical with the truth when it came to the species of timber present in the shipment.

Article tagged as: amazon, brazil, forests, IBAMA, illegal timber, south america
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