forests

Photos from the Amazon win international award

Posted by jamie — 3 March 2009 at 5:37pm - Comments

A section of rainforest surrounded by eucalyptus plantations in the Amazon

Eucalyptus plantations surround an area of rainforest in the Amazon: one of Daniel's winning images ©Greenpeace/Beltrá

Photographs illustrating the environmental problems we're facing provide one of the most powerful tools we have for our campaign work. Whether it's an image of the beauty that still remains or one of the havoc we humans so often create, sometimes one photo really can explain it all.

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From forests to ashes: fires in Indonesia

Posted by jamie — 24 February 2009 at 10:57am - Comments

Some rather grim images were sent out from our picture desk yesterday. Taken on Sunday by Ardiles Rante, they show the devastation caused by fire in the peatland forests outside Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province in Sumatra. So that's another few thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide sent up into the atmosphere, and seeing photos like these make me realise our ongoing campaign to protect these forests from the ever-expanding palm oil industry is even more essential.

Fire burns through peatland forest in Sumatra, Indonesia

Amazon cattle map

Last edited 20 February 2009 at 4:36pm

This map shows the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil and highlights some of the effects of the cattle industry on the Amazon rainforest. You can see how the slaughterhouses (the black dots) are strung along the roads through the state, which have cut through the green areas of forest and savannah.

Click on the Greenpeace placemarkers for more information and photos.

Less peatlands, more palm oil, says Indonesian government

Posted by jamie — 20 February 2009 at 1:12pm - Comments

Greenpeace supporters remind Hillary Clinton during her visit to Jakarta to 'cut emissions now'

Volunteers in Jakarta get the climate message to Hillary Clinton's convoy (not pictured) © Greenpeace

Our colleagues in Indonesia have been very busy this week - with visiting foreign dignitaries and an outrageous decree from their own government following in quick succession.

All aboard the Arctic Sunrise in Brazil

Posted by jamie — 20 February 2009 at 12:42pm - Comments

One of the great things about working for an international organisation is that my inbox is constantly filling with emails from around the globe detailing what other Greenpeace offices are working on. A thread I've been following particularly closely is the stream of messages coming from the Arctic Sunrise which is currently back in Brazil on a two-and-a-half month tour of the country.

The purpose of the tour - which goes under the name of 'Save The Planet Now... Or Now!' - is to highlight the important role Brazil (as the fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet) can play in fighting it in the lead-up to the UN climate change negotiations in Copenhagen this December.

How cattle ranches are chewing up the Amazon rainforest

Posted by jamie — 31 January 2009 at 9:38am - Comments
by-nc. Credit: Greenpeace / Daniel Beltrá

For about three years now, we've been working on curbing the impacts of the soya industry on the Amazon rainforest in Brazil which, before the current moratorium was put into place, was replacing the forest with plantations on a massive scale.

However, there's another agricultural sector cutting deep into the forest which we're also going to tackle: cattle ranching. To assess the scale of the problem, Greenpeace researchers in Brazil have produced a new set of maps showing how the Amazon region has suffered.

Congo logging contracts cancelled but forest still under threat

Posted by jamie — 21 January 2009 at 6:03pm - Comments

Logging in the Congo rainforest

© Stok/Greenpeace

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has, at long last, completed a review of the logging industry. Although there are some positive results, at the same time it has allowed an expansion of the industry to more than twice the recommended size.

Back in October last year, the government announced the results of a three-year review of logging contracts that had been issued. Logging companies which had contracts cancelled were then allowed to appeal against the decisions and this week's announcement is the final result of that process.

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