US Forest Services announces plan to save at risk forests

US Forest Service chief Gail Kimbell announced $50 million in grants to permanently protect 24 working forests across 21 States, as part of the  Forest Legacy Program, a USDA press release said.
The programme is designed to permanently protects important private forestland threatened by conversion.
“The Forest Legacy Program conserves open space, which allows us to respond [...]

Climate ‘adds fuel to Asian wildfire emissions’

In the last decade, Asian farmers have cleared tens of thousands of square miles of forests to accommodate the world’s growing demand for palm oil, an increasingly popular food ingredient, reports Science Daily.
Ancient peatlands have been drained and lush tropical forests have been cut down.
As a result, the landscape of equatorial Asia now lies [...]

Wild fruit trees face extinction

Scientists have warned that the wild ancestors of common domestic fruit trees are in danger of becoming extinct, reports the BBC’s Victoria Gill.
Researchers have published a “red list” of threatened species that grow in the forests of Central Asia.
These disease-resistant and climate-tolerant fruit trees could play a role in our future food security.
But in the [...]

Ancient trees ‘need public funded protection’

One of Britain’s leading experts on trees has expressed astonishment over the lack of public funding to protect ancient trees, reports Horticulture Week.
Ted Green, an adviser to the Queen who was awarded an OBE recently for services to ancient trees, said state cash was needed because of trees’ landscape and cultural importance.
“These trees are old [...]

UK’s Woodland Trust to plant a million trees

The Woodland Trust is to plant around a million trees on several sites across the UK to protect the “UK’s equivalent of the rainforest”,  reports Horticulture Week.
“The Plant a Tree appeal will help us plant around a million trees at five key sites across the UK, with others to come in the future,” said conservation [...]

Planting trees amid chaos of war

In the Tree Garden of Kilravock Castle is what looks like a giant octopus, says Steven McKenzie, a reporter for the BBC News website.

Called a layering beech, its limbs snake out from a sturdy trunk and bend to the ground where they have taken root before twisting skywards.
More than 300-years-old, it is classed as “extremely [...]

Tree planting in the driest place on Earth

The southern coast of Peru is one of the driest places on Earth. Why would anyone choose this parched location to re-plant a forest, asks the BBC’s John Walton.
The strip of desert between the Andean mountains and the Pacific Ocean has an annual average rainfall as low as 1.5mm.
By way of comparison, London enjoys around [...]

Taiwanese urged to plant trees for environmental protection

The Taiwanese public have been urged to participate in a tree-planting activity organised by Cingjing Veterans Farm in central Taiwan’s Nantou County, reports Taiwan News.
The annual event, called LOHAS Tree Planting Fun, was launched three years ago by the farm in conjunction with 7-Eleven of Uni-President Corp and the Good Neighbor Foundation, with the aim [...]

Campaigners link tiger attacks to deforestation

The Sumatran tiger, a critically-endangered subspecies, is hanging on by a thread in its island home, reports Mongabay.com.
Biologists estimate that, at most, 500 individuals remain, with some estimates dropping as low as 250.
Despite the animal’s vulnerability, large-scale deforestation continues in its habitat mostly under the auspices of one of the world’s largest paper companies, Asian [...]

Brazil sees fall in deforestation rate

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell to 291 square miles (754 square kilometres) between November 2008 and January 2009, reports Mongabay.com.
This was a drop of 70% when compared to the same period 12 months earlier, said Brazil’s Environment Minister Carlos Minc.
A decrease in forest clearing had been expected.
Economic turmoil, which has reduced the availability of [...]