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In this issue:

Latin America

Index:

–Cayman Islands: 1) Save the Yellow Mastic tree!
–Jamaica: 2) Strengthen the link between agriculture and forests?
–Panama: 3) MTV trashed Boca Del Drago Island
–El Salvador: 4) Long-range environmental planning
–Costa Rica: 5) Measurement of avoided deforestation from protected areas, 6) 650 acres of forest saved from gold miner-gov. corruption 7) Altitudinal range of 1000 species is rising,
–Colombia: 8) Indigenous leaders and REDD, 9) The Chocó is a biodiversity hotspot,
–Ecuador: 10) Save the Harpy Eagle! 11) Huge scandal changes the face of government, 12) Please ‘donate’ £350 million or we will let ‘em destroy Yasuni Natinal Park!
–Peru: 13) Amazon logging uncontrolled, 14) Debt for nature agreement announced, 15) Miner land titles filed in Contumaza were falsified, 16) People of Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve,
–Chile: 17) Latin America’s 3rd largest producer of Eucalyptus?
–Uruguay: 18) Yet another billion dollar pulp mill
–Paraguay: 19) Forest Conversion Moratorium
–Amazon: 20) Exelon’s $1.5 million bribe
–Brazil: 21) Galloping sense of insecurity replaces swaggering confidence, 22) Banks to combat global warming in the Juma forest reserve, 23) Gisele Bündchen of the Future – Seeds forest, 24) We need advanced radar satellites for monitoring, 25) Increasingly betting on intelligence and technology to stop deforestation, 26) climate-change plan is short on specific targets, 27) Protestors shut down Aracruz Celulose, 28) Large-scale mahogany plantations, 29) Chopped down 3 times as fast as last year, 30) Parliaments’ deforestation Limit previously set at 500 hectares, has been increased to 1,500 hectares, 31) Alta Floresta has one of the highest deforestation rate on the planet,

Cayman Islands:

1) One of our largest native critically endangered trees, the Yellow Mastic tree, not to be confused with our endemic Black Mastic tree – which is also critically endangered – is found on the Mastic Trail at the highest point on Grand Cayman, a towering 60 feet above sea level! The heartwood is heavy and strong. Mastic was valuable for its timber in the Bahamas and West Indies and has been used for cabinetwork and boat timbers. Yellow Mastic trees were heavily logged but are still found in Cayman. Mastic has the potential to make an excellent shade tree but not for someone who is impatient. It can take 100 years or more for mastic to mature to its tallest heights. The Mastic Trail provides a unique opportunity for the adventurous traveller to see a different side of this beautiful Caribbean island. The following excerpt is taken from Wild Trees in the Cayman Islands by Fred Burton, with illustrations by Penny Clifford. Photographs provided by Ann Stafford. Yellow Mastic grows as a tall, single–trunked tree emerging above the surrounding woodland canopy. The straight trunk usually appears pock–marked from shedding of irregular flakes of bark. Old bark surfaces are pale grey with lichen growth, while newly exposed bark beneath shedding flakes is pale reddish brown. On really old, massive trees the bark sheds in heavy sheets. Yellow Mastic is still abundant on Cayman Brac’s Bluff, but on Grand Cayman the only significant stand remaining is in an area of North Side appropriately called “The Mastic,” partly within a reserve protected by the National Trust. It does not occur on Little Cayman, but is native throughout the West Indies. This magnificent tree was much more common in times past, but its wood is extremely useful and has attracted the attention of loggers everywhere. Sandpapering the seeds helps to speed up the otherwise slow germination process: the tree is not particularly fast growing. Protect Cayman trees and encourage Cayman Wildlife! For more information, to share your knowledge or if you would like to get involved with the many activities in the National Trust’s Know Your Islands programme, please visit www.nationaltrust.org.ky, or call 949–0121. http://www.caycompass.com/cgi-bin/CFPnews.cgi?ID=1034285

Jamaica:

2) The Government is moving to strengthen the link between agriculture and forests, that is necessary for food security and rural development. This symbiotic relationship is often lost and needs to be strengthened, according to a study by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The study found that decision makers often overlook the value of forestry in poverty reduction and its contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), due to a lack of data on forest resources and productivity. It further states that linkages between forestry and the wider national agenda are weak or non-existent, and that there is need for countries to address this. The Ministry of Agriculture, in recognising the importance of Jamaica’s forests, with respect to food security, rural development and poverty alleviation, is changing the status of the Forestry Department to an Executive Agency, a process which should be completed within one year. As an Executive Agency, the Forestry Department will have greater autonomy, be more service oriented and technically adept. “The Department will be working more with targets, taking new approaches to data collection, forecasting and planning, as well as focussing on modernising corporate services and technical support and improving compliance [with Forestry laws], through increased public awareness,” says Conservator of Forests, Marilyn Headley, in an interview with JIS News. She argues that non-compliance is largely the result of a lack of awareness, not just of the laws, but the dangers that breaking conservation laws posed to human life. “Hills without sturdy tree cover cannot sustain agriculture, as top soil, crops and infrastructure will always be lost in heavy rains,” she says, emphasising that for food security and rural development, “keeping trees on our hills is therefore critical, and our theme this year for National Tree Planting Day, ‘Deforested Hillside: Downstream Disaster’, was in keeping with this concept.” Stressing the inter-connectedness between forests and agriculture, Miss Headley urges citizens to grow trees especially in the mountains and river beds, allowing for 20 metres from the river bank, to protect food, property and life. http://www.jis.gov.jm/agriculture/html/20081009T100000-0500_16948_JIS_GOV_T__STRENGTHENING_LINK_BETWEEN_AGRICULTURE_AND_FORESTS.
asp

Panama:

3) While filming and producing “Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Island,” MTV trashed Boca del Drago Island, which is located in the Republic of Panama. According to one eyewitness, MTV made very little if any attempts to cleanup or remedy their ecological footprint imposed on the pristine area. Although the piece of land was private, an eyewitness observed, “I can assure all of you that had this been done in any urban/suburban neighborhood, almost anywhere else, the neighbors would have been justified in entering a legal complaint against the landowner.” From ecorazzi.com: As one would expect, the real “reality” is much less exciting. In fact, as was recently reported by Michael Drake on the Tree Climber’s Coalition site, not only is the show basically scripted and shot in and around civilization, but it also appears to have done a good deal of environmental damage. Drake, along with others living on Boca del Drago Island in the Republic of Panama witnessed MTV clear a large section of rainforest for the set construction. In addition, they also trashed a pristine beach, disturbed a bird sanctuary island “off-limits” to human visitations, and left behind an insane amount of garbage, set debris, and refuse. As Drake wrote, “MTV’s behavior in this situation has been rampantly inconsistent with their self-proclaimed ‘MTV Green Crusade’. I sense a bit of hypocrisy and I question their commitment toward being ‘green’.” http://conservationreport.com/2008/10/08/deforestation-viacom-owned-mtv-cuts-down-trees-tramples-an-island-rainforest-and-destroys-a-remote-beach-to-produce-and-air-worthless-reality-tv-trash/

El Salvador:

4) When Susanna Hecht went to El Salvador in 1999 to help the government with long-range environmental planning, officials at the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources told her there were no forests left in the country. To Hecht, AB’72, a professor of urban planning at UCLA and an expert on tropical development, the claim came as no surprise. El Salvador was notorious for population growth and ecological degradation. The most crowded country in Latin America, during the 1960s and ’70s it had suffered severe deforestation with the expansion of livestock and sugar-cane farming. In 1999, the same year Hecht arrived, the tropical ecologist John Terborgh declared that in El Salvador, “nature has been extinguished.” But as she drove around the country, Hecht noticed plenty of trees. Some were remnants of old forests, but she also saw hedgerows, backyard orchards, coffee groves, trees growing along rivers and streams, cashew and palm plantations, saplings sprouting in abandoned fields, and heavily wooded grassland. Almost every village abounded with trees—“like a big jungle forest,” she said. Rather than no trees, she saw them everywhere. Nature was far from extinguished; it was thriving. Hecht called these woodlands El Salvador’s “secret forests.” In a country only recently deforested, trees were coming back. And El Salvador was not alone. For many reasons, trees were resurgent throughout Latin America, including Honduras, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, and in parts of the Amazon. But because scientists and policy-makers were preoccupied with tropical deforestation, Hecht said, they had been slow to take notice. In another sense, she said, they didn’t see El Salvador’s forests because of an old bias toward so-called “pristine” forests—primitive and untouched—and against “anthropogenic” forests, those created by humans or shaped by human activities like burning, grazing, farming, and logging. It was these anthropogenic landscapes, which Hecht called “peasant” or “working” forests, that were reclaiming El Salvador. They were a secret in plain view. But whether you saw them depended on how you counted. http://dailyduck.blogspot.com/2008/10/whose-side-are-you-on.html

Costa Rica:

5) Our study examines the measurement of avoided deforestation from protected areas in Costa Rica. We chose Costa Rica because it has one of the most widely lauded protected-area systems (9) and is a leader in the debate to have ”avoided deforestation credits” recognized by international climate-change conventions. It also had one of the top deforestation rates during the 1960s and 1970s (10), driven mainly by the expansion of cattle grazing and coffee and banana production (11). In 1960, Costa Rica had 3 million hectares of forest. By 1997, more than one million hectares had been cleared and 900,000 hectares assigned to legal protection. We address the question, ”How much more forest would have been cleared in the absence of these protected areas?” Global efforts to reduce tropical deforestation rely heavily on the establishment of protected areas. Measuring the effectiveness of these areas is difficult because the amount of deforestation that would have occurred in the absence of legal protection cannot be directly observed. Conventional methods of evaluating the effectiveness of protected areas can be biased because protection is not randomly assigned and because protection can induce deforestation spillovers (displacement) to neighboring forests. We demonstrate that estimates of effectiveness can be substantially improved by controlling for biases along dimensions that are observable, measuring spatial spillovers, and testing the sensitivity of estimates to potential hidden biases. We apply matching methods to evaluate the impact on deforestation of Costa Rica’s renowned protected-area system between 1960 and 1997. We find that protection reduced deforestation: approximately 10% of the protected forests would have been deforested had they not been protected. Conventional approaches to evaluating conservation impact, which fail to control for observable covariates correlated with both protection and deforestation, substantially overestimate avoided deforestation (by over 65%, based on our estimates). We also find that deforestation spillovers from protected to unprotected forests are negligible. Our conclusions are robust to potential hidden bias, as well as to changes in modeling assumptions. Our results show that, with appropriate empirical methods, conservation scientists and policy makers can better understand the relationships between human and natural systems and can use this to guide their attempts to protect critical ecosystem services. PNAS October 21, 2008
vol. 105 no. 42 16089 –16094

6) The Costa Rica attorney general’s office said Tuesday it has opened an investigation into President Oscar Arias and Environment Minister Roberto Dobles for abuse of authority over a gold mining exploitation they claim to be of “national interest.” “Yesterday (Monday), the national attorney general’s office ordered an investigation into the President of the Republic Oscar Arias Sanchez and the Minister of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications, Roberto Dobles Mora, for possibly committing the crime of abuse of authority,” a statement said. Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for helping end civil wars in several central American countries, took office as president in May 2006. He served an earlier term as president from 1986 to 1990. The investigation centered on a decree signed by both ministers last Friday which said that the Crucitas gold mine project in the north of the country, by the Industrias Infinito company, was “of public and national interest,” the statement said. Environmental groups have slammed the decree which authorizes the company — a subsidiary of the Canadian company Vanessa Ventures Incorporation — to fell 262 hectares (647 acres) of forests, including protected species, in the region bordering Nicaragua. The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the immediate suspension of the government decree, following a citizen’s appeal to protect the forests. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hyt3uaFAfo3r4WtCO4gBO-N8nIBQ

7) Working their way up the forested slopes of a Costa Rican volcano rising nearly 3000 m (10,000 ft) above the coastal plain, Colwell and colleagues have collected data on the altitudinal ranges of nearly 2000 species of plants and insects. They report that about half these species have such narrow altitudinal ranges that a 600 m (2000 ft) uphill shift would move these species into territory completely new to them, beyond the upper limits of their current ranges on the mountainside. But many may be unable to shift— most mountainside forests in the tropics have been severely fragmented by human land use. Meanwhile, tropical lowland rainforests, the warmest forests on Earth, face a challenge that has no parallel at higher latitudes. If the current occupants of the lowlands shift uphill, tracking their accustomed climate, there are few replacements waiting in the wings, currently living in even warmer places. According to Colwell and colleagues, the threat of lowland attrition from warming climates faces about half the species they studied in Costa Rica—unless lowland species retain tolerances to higher temperatures developed millions of years ago when the world was much warmer. Only further research can estimate the risk, but Colwell’s report indicates that the impact of global climate change on some tropical rainforest and mountain species could be significant. http://esciencenews.com/articles/2008/10/09/tropical.rainforest.and.mountain.species.may.be.threatened.global.warming

Colombia:

8) “We need to solve the topic of property and the issue of autonomy,” added Jorge Furagaro of the Witoto people in Colombia. Indigenous leaders “have no real authority to negotiate, so too often we lose out.” Discussions laying the groundwork for proposed forest conservation financing schemes like REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) have largely excluded indigenous leaders, despite plenty of lip-service paid to their cause by environmental NGOs. As a result, while such mechanisms could ultimately benefit forest-dwellers, many indigenous groups strongly oppose measures to use forests as giant carbon offsets. Their opposition will likely continue until they play a greater part in determining policy. Chief among their concerns is the potential for a “land grab” whereby governments, carbon traders, and speculators secure rights of the ecosystem services provided by forests without the consent of the people who live within the forests. In places where indigenous land rights are poorly defined, such claims could be used to evict forest people from lands upon which they have been living for generations. Therefore the development of policy mechanisms like REDD will involve thorny issues like traditional land rights as well as broader questions on how compensation will be structured and what measures will effectively conserve forests without driving more people into poverty. In the end, there is little doubt that support from forest people will be critical in making “avoided deforestation” schemes a reality. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1008-indigenous_redd.html

9) The Chocó, a region of humid tropical forest in western Colombia and northwestern Ecuador, is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots with high levels of endemic species but large-scale habitat loss. The situation is particularly dire in Ecuador where more than 90 percent of the Chocó has been cleared for agriculture. But hope is not lost. A dedicated team of researchers is working with local communities to ensure that Chocó will be around for future generations. The Center for Tropical Research (CTR), a research and conservation group based at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment, runs a program that combines research, training, education and grassroots sustainable development to conserve and expand Ecuador’s endangered Chocó forests. The project, headed by Dr. Jordan Karubian, is improving rural livelihoods, preserving biodiversity and helping slow the country’s deforestation rate, which is one of the highest in Latin America. In an October 2008 interview with mongabay.com, Karubian discussed the project and its implications for conservation in Ecuador. A 5-minute overview of the project is also available in English and Spanish Mongabay: What is the Chocó and why is it a global priority for conservation? Jordan Karubian: The Chocó Biogeographical Region spans 100,000 square kilometers of humid forest in western Colombia and northwestern Ecuador. It is one of Conservation International’s original 17 ‘Conservation Hotspots’ and is among the 5% top areas in the world in terms of biodiversity, endemism (when species which occur in only one habitat type – in this case, the Chocó — and nowhere else in the world) and threat. For example, the Chocó is home to over 60 endemic species of bird, the highest number in the Americas (and over 500 species of bird total), yet only 5-10% of Ecuador’s original Chocó forest remains. Worryingly deforestation continues at a steady pace. In Ecuador, deforestation is driven mostly by an impoverished local populace that lacks alternatives and depends on exploitation of natural resources through activities such as slash-and-burn agriculture, timber extraction, and hunting. Without active conservation efforts remaining Chocó forests will be lost in the near future, with a huge loss to biodiversity and to the well being of local residents. Mongabay: What is the Center for Tropical Research (CTR) and what is its role in the Chocó? Jordan Karubian: The Center for Tropical Research (CTR) is a research and conservation group based at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment. Our over-arching goal is to understand the biotic processes that underlie and maintain the diversity of life and to advance conservation efforts that protect these processes. A focal point for CTR’s work is Latin America, especially the mega-diverse country of Ecuador. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1009-interview_karubian.html

Ecuador:

10) When we finally walked out onto the platform, we suddenly had a breathtaking view from horizon to horizon out across the top of the Amazon rainforest, a vast expanse of billowing green clouds. First instinct of a birdwatcher: Raise binoculars to eyes and scan! I did. Just thirty yards away, a spectacular Blue-throated Piping-Guan was perched on the very topmost branch of a tree. I shifted the binoculars to the far horizon and instantly saw something which looked like two large blankets flapping furiously on a very thick washing line. Dangling from below this vision was a monkey, writhing desperately like a murderer at the end of a hangman’s rope. I shouted to Oscar and pointed to the horizon and, after a split second’s glance, he shouted back to us – Harpy Eagle! We watched as Harpy, with monkey, flapped slowly away and was lost in the greens of the canopy. Oscar, on our relatively brief acquaintance with him, had seemed phlegmatic in the extreme. But now, suddenly, he erupted into a whooping war dance round and round the platform, shaking our hands, grinning from ear to ear and finally telling us that this was only the second ever sighting of a Harpy Eagle from the La Selva canopy tower. It is one of the world’s largest and most powerful eagles, vying only with the Philippine Eagle for the top spot. But, of course, the bigger they are the more room they need and a pair of Harpies needs up to 20 square miles of, preferably, pristine virgin lowland rainforest to survive and raise a family. They are found from South-eastern Mexico to Northern Argentina and Southern Brazil, a huge area taking in the whole of the Amazon basin but with this forest now being ferociously fragmented they are endangered birds indeed. The Harpy stands over three feet tall, with massively thick legs and toes covered by wrinkled, pinkish yellow skin. It grips tree branches (and its hapless prey!) with wickedly curved grey talons up to the size of a grizzly bear’s claws. Its huge round owl-like face, a circular rosette of pale grey feathers is topped by a few long grey feathers sticking out at odd angles like an Indian brave’s headdress. It’s built like a huge sparrowhawk – relatively short wings (but still spanning over six feet) and a relatively long tail – and like the sparrowhawk is adapted for hunting fast and large prey inside the canopy. Our monkey was a typical meal, along with sloths (not actually fast, of course, – there’s an exception to every rule), opossums, reptiles and birds. For such a big bird, Harpies are highly maneuverable fliers and strike their (terrified!) prey after a (normally) rapid pursuit through the trees. They can fly with prey weighing up to about half of their own (10 – 20lb) body weight. As with the sparrowhawk tribe generally, the female can be as much as twice as heavy as her mate. http://www.tropical-forests.com/2008/10/the-harpy-eagle-king-of-the-canopy/

11) The scandal emerged last week when a Peruvian TV station played audio recordings it had obtained from an anonymous source. The conversations involved high ranking members of Peru’s government discussing bribes they would receive from the Norwegian Oil Company, Discover. The company had won 4 exploration contracts after “bidding” for them in an auction last month. These contracts would have allowed Discover to explore for oil in places such as Peru’s famous Madre de Dios rainforest region. However, after word of hidden bribery became public, Peru’s president, Alan Garcia, was immediately pressured by opposition leaders to fire his cabinet of ministers. On Friday a confusing chain of events transpired, where Garcia’s ministers resigned immediately prior to Peru’s Congress voting to force them out of office–a classic performance of political theater. Details about what truly happened are sparse beyond what we know from the audio tapes. An investigation has been ordered by Congress of all of the oil concessions that have been granted since Garcia came into office in 2006. Jorge Del Castillo, Peru’s prime minister, was implicated in the recordings as someone who could have helped to facilitate the oil bidding process in Discover’s favor. So far, Del Castillo, Discover, and all other parties involved have denied the accusations of corruption and bribery. Del Castillo and Garcia’s ministers can now mount his defense from the sidelines (save several who were recently appointed and who were thus spared). Perhaps the biggest loss is that of Antonio Brack, Peru’s Minister of the Environment. Having been recently appointed in the earlier part of this year, he was charged with helping Peru to combat problems associated with climate change and the environment. He recently announced the creation of a 3,000 person “Environment Police” that would help stop illegal deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest region of Peru. It’s unclear now if that plan and others will be put on hold. http://ecoworldly.com/2008/10/13/perus-entire-presidential-cabinet-fired-over-oil-scandal-is-president-next/

12) Ecuador’s proposal to protect one of the world’s most biodiverse rainforests from oil development has failed to secure any funding ahead at its December deadline, reports the Guardian Unlimited. The plan, set forth by president Rafael Correa in April 2007, calls for $350 million in donor funds per year for a decade to leave the oil — which lies near Yasuni National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon — in the ground. The proposal would avoid the release of around 108 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and safeguard from development a region that is home to some of the world’s highest concentrations of biodiversity as well as indigenous groups still living in traditional ways. Previous drilling in the region — known as the Oriente — caused extensive environmental damage. Chevron is currently facing a $16 billion liability for damages caused by Texaco, which operated in the area from 1964-1992. The Guardian reports that while there has been political interest from Germany, Spain, and Norway in the plan, no one has offered much in the way of cash. Norway recently said it would contribute up to $1 billion to Brazil’s fund to protect the Amazon rainforest. “The first option is to leave that oil in the ground, but the international community would have to compensate us for immense sacrifice that a poor country like Ecuador would have to make,” President Correa said in a radio address when he first put forth the proposal. “Ecuador doesn’t ask for charity, but does ask that the international community share in the sacrifice and compensates us with at least half of what our country would receive, in recognition of the environmental benefits that would be generated by keeping this oil underground.” Ecuador has shown particular interest in the environment of late. Last week the country passed a constitution that established a “Bill of Rights” for the environment that effectively grants its ecosystems legal rights akin to those afforded to people and businesses. The government has also clamped down on illegal migration to the Galapagos islands, a chain famed for its wildlife, although it has controversially not restricted tourists. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1009-ecuador.html

Peru:

13) Peruvian and Brazilian authorities are trading accusations that uncontrolled logging on the Peruvian side of the Amazon Forest is uprooting isolated Indian tribesmen forcing them to flee across the border into Brazil in search of untampered land and food. Indigenous rights groups and Indian tribes researchers in Brazil now believe the uprooting may be a recipe for renewed inter-tribal conflicts over the resource that may suck governments of both nations into a row over the other’s responsibility in the affair, Reuters reports. Jose Meirelles, a researcher with Funai, Brazil’s Indian affairs agency, is quoted as claiming Peru is allowing the loggers to kill and expel isolated tribes people from within their boarders while clearing forest cover for oil and gas exploration. As a Brazilian government official, Meirelles, together with a colleague, have been attacked by Peruvian Indians crossing into his country who used arrows of a different type from those used by Brazilian tribes, reinforcing his evidence. But Peruvian officials denied the allegations, and even further questioned the existence of uncontacted Indian tribes still inhabiting the Amazon if any, a stance that draws the ire of indigenous rights groups. A couple of the rights organizations working in the area, Survival International and CIPIACI accuse the Peruvian authorities of doing little to protect the tribes and avert the emerging conflicts, particularly in the Ucayali region. Already, an area measuring 2,000 hectares (4,900 acres) in the Kaxinawa Igarape reserve has recently been deforested, translating into a 16% loss of its total area. http://ecoworldly.com/2008/10/20/amazon-forest-logging-sucks-peru-and-brazil-into-fight-over-uprooted-indian-tribes/

14) The Governments of the United States of America and the Republic of Peru today announced an agreement to reduce Peru’s debt payments in exchange for protecting the country’s tropical forests. Under the agreement more than $25 million will be put towards conserving Peru’s rainforests. This agreement with Peru was made possible by the Tropical Forest Conservation Act (TFCA) of 1998. It will complement an existing TFCA debt-for-nature program in Peru dating from 2002, a 1997 debt swap under the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative, and the United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement, which includes a number of forest protection provisions. With this agreement, Peru will be the largest beneficiary under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act, with more than $35 million generated for conservation. Peru is one of the most biologically rich countries on earth. Funds generated by the debt-for-nature program will help Peru protect tropical rainforests of the southwestern Amazon Basin and dry forests of the central Andes. These areas are home to dense concentrations of endemic birds such as the Andean Condor and Andean Parakeet; primates including the Peruvian Yellow-tailed Woolly Monkey and Howler Monkey; other mammals such as the Jaguar, Amazonian Manatee, Giant Otter, Spectacled Bear and Amazon River Dolphin; as well as many unique plants. Rivers supplying water to downstream settlements originate in many of these forests, and people living in and around the forests depend on them for their livelihood and survival. The new Peru agreement marks the 14th Tropical Forest Conservation Act pact, following agreements with Bangladesh, Belize, Botswana, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Panama (two agreements), Paraguay and the Philippines, as well as an earlier agreement with Peru. These debt-for-nature programs will together generate more than $188 million to protect tropical forests. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2008/oct/111051.htm

15) In July of 2008 The Company Jesus 2008 was formed in Contumaza, Peru with the stated intention to explore mining in various regions throughout Contumaza and Cascas. In late July land titles to the Cachil Forest, Palo Seco (another forest near Cachil) and much of the upper areas of the Cachil valley were filed in Contumaza with the mining company stated as the owner. In the beginning of August residents began to and increase in activity in the valley: along the border of the forest and even inside it holes appeared, minerals extracted, makeshift houses constructed and traffic along the highway increased substantially. These activities are obvious precursors to mining activity. However there is a serious problem to this seemingly routine start up mine: the land titles filed in Contumaza were falsified. The true owners have never sold their land, never entered talks to sell and in fact only became aware of the situation when local villagers alerted Puentes to the activity in September of 2008. Illegal appropriation of land is all too common in Peru. Like in many regions of the Andes the true owners of the land do not live in the Cachil Valley but in the city of Trujillo, five hours away and Cascas, two hours away. The owners hold the titles as a remnant of the hacienda culture of generations ago. As the moderately wealthy family is no longer living on their land it appears to the uninformed observer that the land is abandoned. As is normally the case local residents live and work on the land typically with the blessing of the land owner. Residents are often too poor and too isolated to change the ownership status. In addition owners rarely wish to sell. http://chapolan-cachil.blogspot.com/2008/10/urgent-threat-to-cachil-forest.html

16) In the rain forests of Peru’s remote Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, mothers don’t make kids eat their carrots. Instead, kids munch on aguaje, a crisp, neon yellow palm fruit covered in maroon scales. It tastes a bit like a carrot, but packs three times the vitamin A punch. Aguaje is just one of more than a hundred wild and domesticated fruits available to people each year in this 8,000-square-mile chunk of protected Amazon wetland at the confluence of two rivers in northeastern Peru. (See more photos of Amazon fruits.) And with so much variety and abundance, it’s not surprising that these fruits form the centerpiece of the local diet. The reserve’s 100,000 residents depend on them for many nutrients—like vitamins, protein, and oils—that the rest of us normally get from a variety of other foods, including vegetables and nuts. Fruits also serve as an important source of income for the residents—especially aguaje. It generates $4.6 million every year in the markets of Iquitos, the nearest city—more than any other indigenous fruit from the Peruvian Amazon. While U.S. farmers markets might sell a dozen or two different kinds of fruit in any given week, the Iquitos market boasts nearly 200, with varied tastes, colors, shapes, and textures: spiky yellow rinds, crunchy seeds, and orange pulp. But outside the Amazon region, their popularity is limited. Although the Amazon has occasionally yielded commercially valuable fruits, such as the antioxidant-rich açaí added to gourmet juices and the caffeine-charged guarana used in energy drinks, international markets have yet to plumb most of the bounty of indigenous fruits growing in lush forests along rivers. Beyond Peru and parts of Brazil, the aguaje’s supercarrot possibilities remain largely unknown. Could that change? One expert thinks it’s possible. Outside the Amazon, few know more about this region’s wild and cultivated fruits than Nigel Smith. The Venezuelan-born geographer, a professor at the University of Florida, has devoted much of his four-decade career to the Amazon region. The past three decades have seen unprecedented human migration into the Pacaya- Samiria reserve, part of an area Smith calls the “epicenter of wild-fruit consumption in the Amazon.” Other pressures, like hunting, logging, and unsustainable fishing, are on the rise as well. As these pressures grow, Smith believes small farmers hold a key to managing and protecting the region. With support from the National Geographic Society’s Committee for Research and Exploration, the MacArthur Foundation and the Moore Foundation, he and his team, including Peruvian botanist Rodolfo Vazquez, spent six months in Pacaya-Samiria over several years documenting 148 different fruit species. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081014-amazon-fruit-missions.html

Chile:

17) La Libertad’s Regional Center for Strategic Planning (Cerplan) manager, Ángel Polo Campos, emphasized that this department has been the country’s first producer of eucalyptus for several years thanks to its lands, which still have more potential to be exploited. He indicated that the Peruvian company Tableros Peruanos, manufacturer of fibreboards, uses 90 percent of the eucalyptus of this department. “As this (quantity of eucalyptus) is not enough, the company has to resort to other zones. The potential of eucalyptus is not only used for wood but also for paper pulp”, he expressed. The forest potential of La Libertad includes the production of tara, exporting plant for industrial and medicinal purposes. “In Peru, the region ranks third place in exports of this product”, he added. Both products, the eucalyptus and the tara grow in different zones of La Libertad’s highland. “That’s why we are interested in planting more areas”, he said. In addition, he mentioned that there is not only interest to supply the economic demand but also to contribute with the maintenance of basins, rivers and, in general, with the preservation of the environment. http://www.andina.com.pe/Ingles/Noticia.aspx?id=XwjU9Z6dVQU=

Uruguay:

18) The Portugal-based Portucel Soporcel group is investing $4 billion here to build a pulp plant and deep-water port. “President Tabaré Vázquez says the investment from Portucel Soporcel Group will stem contagion from the world financial crisis,” the Associated Press has reported. The plant will probably be built by the Laguna Merín near the border with Brazil, Radio Espectador reported on its Web site yesterday. (The enormous lagoon is supposed to be quite beautiful, and I only hope construction does not start before I get the chance to head out there for a trip I have planned to nearby Melo.) The projected $4 billion investment is no small change in a country this size. The controversial Botnia pulp mill, for example, cost only $1.2 billion to build along the River Uruguay and it has been credited as the engine behind Uruguay’s 13.1 percent growth in the first half of this year. Given that performance, and the country’s otherwise dangerous dependency on beef and rice exports, it is no surprise that Uruguay is pushing to expand its pulp mill industry. In May, Finland’s minister for migration and European affairs said more pulp mills are headed to Uruguay, and a during a recent trip through the interior, my view of the country’s famous pastureland was interrupted several times by planted Eucalyptus groves. http://benjamingedan.blogspot.com/2008/10/protucel-pulp-plant-good-news-for.html

Paraguay:

19) The Paraguayan and Indonesian announcements follow commitments made at the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Conference of Parties in Bonn in May to achieve zero net deforestation by 2020. The new measures will contribute to safeguarding biodiversity in some of the world’s most biologically diverse eco-regions, protect local livelihoods and are significant elements of climate change action by the three countries. Deforestation, particularly in the tropics, is the third largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, generating between 15-20 per cent of global carbon emissions. Paraguay announced it will implement a policy to achieve and maintain zero net carbon emissions from land use changes by 2020. As part of this policy, it will extend the country’s Forest Conversion Moratorium, or Zero Deforestation Law, by another five years when it expires in December. Enacted in December 2004 and renewed in 2006 for another two years, the law prohibits the transformation and conversion of forested areas in Paraguay’s eastern region. Implementation of the law has led to massive cuts in deforestation rates in the Upper Parana Atlantic Forest, one of the world’s richest forests, from between 88,000-170,000 hectares annually before the law came into force, to a current level of approximately 16,700 hectares annually, a reduction of more than 85 per cent. “We will extend the moratorium on deforestation until each state has created a land-use plan showing how they will contribute to achieve zero net greenhouse gas emissions at a national scale by 2020,” said Dr José Luis Casaccia, Paraguay’s Minister of Environment. Other initiatives announced by Dr Casaccia include establishing credible and transparent systems to measure, report and verify how much carbon is stored under different land uses, and promoting mechanisms that complement the country’s Payment for Environmental Services Law, integrating them in the national poverty alleviation strategy. The Indonesian government announced it will no longer tolerate conversion of forests for establishing crop plantations such as oil palm. The government will also forge ahead with its forest-carbon initiative, aimed at conserving biodiversity, reducing carbon emissions from land-use changes, restoring ecosystem services and generating innovative incentives for sustainable development. “New crop plantations such as oil palm will have to use idle lands,” said Mrs. Hermin Roosita, Indonesia’s Deputy Minister of Environment. “Also, starting with Sumatra, Indonesia will adopt a sustainable development model that uses ecosystem-based spatial planning.” http://www.panda.org/index.cfm?uNewsID=147348

Amazon:

20) Exelon Corporation, an American energy giant, has agreed to finance Amazon forest conservation in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, reports the Field Museum, its partner in the project. Exelon will donate $1.5 million towards the Field Museum’s biological inventories and assessment of forest carbon stocks of the region, which is believed to be one of the most biodiverse in the world. The partnership will seek to cut net greenhouse emissions by reducing deforestation through the establishment of new protected areas. Deforestation and land use change accounts for roughly one fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. “Exelon’s support will help the museum maintain its expert team of biologists and anthropologists, which conducts inventories of threatened, scientifically unknown landscapes with high conservation potential,” said John McCarter, president of The Field Museum. “This will lead to the protection of intact ecosystems and species that are vulnerable, have very small ranges or are not known to occur anywhere else.” John W. Rowe, chairman and CEO of Exelon, said the partnership will boost the potential for protecting forests as a means to help mitigate emissions and slow climate change. “By partnering with The Field Museum, we can identify forests and habitats for long-term protection to prevent the emission of significant quantities of carbon” he said. “As a corollary, Exelon will gain valuable experience in developing carbon offset projects… our partnership will have strategic benefits to our business. Cordillera Azul National Park [a park in Peru that will be surveyed under the initiative] may serve as a model for the accurate measurement of carbon offsets from avoided deforestation. It is our hope that this voluntary protocol will be approved for use by others to meet legislative and regulatory requirements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” In making the announcement, Exelon joins a growing list of companies pushing for official U.S. government support of avoided deforestation in future climate negotiations. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1013-exelon.html

Brazil:

21) A galloping sense of insecurity has replaced the swaggering former confidence that insatiable demand would maintain high prices for products as varied as soybeans, copper, wheat and coffee. Commodities have tumbled in value in the wake of the financial meltdown. Some observers even fear that Latin America’s most prolonged growth spurt in years could be over, ushering in an era of renewed austerity. “We’re sailing without a compass,” said Nilson Wirth Monteiro, a consultant with Link Investments in São Paulo, Brazil, the epicenter of Latin America’s largest economy. “There’s no compass to indicate how commodities and global markets will behave.” Leaders such as Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva initially boasted that their nations would be inoculated against the “jazz effect” — as Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner mockingly dubbed the spreading crisis in an address before the United Nations. But that early sense of insouciance largely has vanished. Credit has become extremely tight and earnings from commodity exports are tanking. Plummeting regional stock markets have followed Wall Street’s nose dive. Central banks from Mexico City to Santiago, Chile, have disbursed cash to bolster suddenly shaky currencies. Many governments, including Brazil, might have to rethink ambitious spending plans meant to improve infrastructure and reduce poverty. “Latin American leaders have in a few days gone from preoccupation with the phenomenon happening elsewhere in the world to abject fear,” noted officials at the Washington, D.C.-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs, in a report released Friday. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008286565_latinamerica20.html

22) Conservationists are set to receive money from a Brazilian bank and a global hotel chain in an effort to protect trees and combat global warming in the Juma forest reserve deep in Brazil’s Amazon. For other potential donors, mostly in rich countries, who want to help preserve tropical forests as a way to reduce their carbon footprints, this test case will hopefully shed any doubts about accountability and measuring success. The Foundation for a Sustainable Amazon, which runs the project, will receive a $2 million donation over four years from the Washington, D.C., area-based Marriott hotel chain. The money is to compensate for the carbon emissions of its guests worldwide and will help the foundation protect 34 forest reserves totaling 41 million acres (16.4 million hectares), which it already manages. Arne Sorenson, executive vice president of Marriott, said the Amazon plays a huge role in combating global warming. The foundation said hotel guests would also be asked to donate $1 to the project. Brazil’s Bradesco bank and the Amazonas state government each donated 20 million reais ($9.4 million) to the foundation. Because of the 2.9 million acres (1.2 million hectares) of Amazon forest that are destroyed each year, mostly by illegal loggers, poor settlers, cattle ranchers and farmers, Brazil is one of the world’s largest carbon emitters. Brazil and several other developing countries are proposing that the United Nations Kyoto climate treaty be revised so that polluters can buy carbon credits for the protection of forests. “Our message to the world is that obstacles to include forests in the Kyoto Protocol can be overcome,” said Virgilio Viana, head of the foundation. But some potential donors are concerned about transparency, accountability, and the difficulty of measuring carbon sequestration in tropical forest projects. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1589723/brazil_sponsors_carbon_reduction_in_amazon_forest/

23) When you are a supermodel, you can have a whole forest named after you! In collaboration with Gisele Bündchen and Grendene (the owner of the Ipanema brand), SOS Mata Atlantica is set to recover 15 hectares of Atlantic forest in the Brazilian regions of Campinas and Bahia. The “Gisele Bündchen of the Future – Seeds” forest will be the product of planting 25,500 saplings of 100 different species. After wearing a water dress in the first ads of her Ipanema flip flop to draw attention to this vital resource, Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen strikes a pose wearing nothing but flip flops and strategically placed leaves in the new second ad campaign for her supermodel sandals. The new campaign supports an environmental program called Forests of the Future. The program aims to recover and protect gallery forest, the vegetation that surrounds rivers and streams participating in the protection of water. If you do not understand the language of the TV ad, it says something like, “I love Trend Hunter. But I love one Trend Hunter in particular. Ayman.” http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/gisele-bundchen-nature-flip-flops

24) Professor Heiko Balzter told 200 scientists and foresters in Brazil “We need advanced radar satellites for monitoring tropical deforestation and forest biomass”. The researchers from South America, the US, Canada and Europe had come together for the 8th Seminar on Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Systems Applications in Forest Engineering in the city of Curitiba, Brazil. Professor Balzter, who is Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Leicester, had been invited by the Brazilian Space Research Institute (INPE) to speak at the conference about his work on monitoring forest biomass using remote sensing. According to a recent FAO report (the Forest Resources Assessment 2005), Brazil had the world’s largest deforested area between 1990 and 2005. The country lost over 42 million hectares of forest, which is more than one and a half times the size of the United Kingdom. “With modern radar technology and knowledge of tree structures we can produce spatial carbon maps”, said Professor Balzter, whose research has been published in the journal Remote Sensing of Environment in 2007. Trees take up carbon from the air when they grow. This helps slow down the greenhouse effect and global warming. When the trees are felled, this important function is lost. “Radar uses microwaves to penetrate through the forest canopy. They measure how much wet plant matter and indirectly how much carbon is there in the forest. “Our case studies in the UK have shown that using two radar antennas with different wavelengths can provide maps of the top of the forest canopy and the forest floor. The managed forests in Britain and the rainforest of Brazil are of course very different. Nevertheless, similar results were found by scientists in Brazil”. Conference participants came from Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Canada, the US, Finland and other countries. http://www.alphagalileo.org/index.cfm?_rss=1&fuseaction=readrelease&releaseid=533101

25) In the face of growing international pressure to better preserve the Amazon, Brazil is increasingly betting on intelligence and technology in its uphill battle to tackle illegal activities. “We can’t be everywhere, the region is huge. So we need intelligence to focus our resources,” Marcelo de Carvalho Lopes, head of the Amazon Protection System, or Sipam, said in an interview this week. At Sipam, which was launched in 2003 at a cost of $1.4 billion, authorities battle deforestation, forest fires and drug trafficking by analyzing satellite images and aerial photography. Hundreds of climate sensors, satellite telephones and broadband Internet connections are now spread over the 5.2 million square kilometers (2 million sq miles) of forest, an area larger than the European Union. “The state needed more presence there,” said Lopes. On the walls of one large conference room at Sipam’s flying saucer-like headquarters in Brasilia, are the latest images of the areas worst affected by logging, taken with infrared cameras from Air Force planes. The images will be used as evidence in court against hundreds of illegal loggers. Currently, only 8 percent of all fines for illegal logging are collected, according to the environment ministry. The high-resolution images also show paths where loggers plan to chop trees, giving authorities a chance to prevent deforestation before it happens. “Sending people in by foot to take these pictures is costly, timely and dangerous — these images are a potential breakthrough,” said Wougran Soares Galvao, Sipam Operations Director. By the end of the year, Brazil will have scanned 86 percent of the Amazon. With the high-resolution images it will gain an edge in law enforcement and conservation, analysts said. Improved air traffic control and a law implemented in 2004 that permits the air force to shoot down suspect planes, have reduced drug trafficking by air, said Ricardo Augusto Silverio dos Santos of Brazil’s secret service agency, Abin. The problem is that drug gangs smuggling cocaine to sell in Brazil or en route to markets in Europe now enter from Colombia by boat instead of plane. “They’ve switched their modus operandi,” said Silveiro. Sipam is now installing new surveillance equipment along major waterways and preparing counter-narcotics operations, said Silveiro. http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE49E7GU20081015?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

26) It took one year, endless consultations and 13 government ministries to put together, yet Brazil’s national climate-change plan is short on specific targets and looks very much like a work in progress. The publication of the draft strategy in late September, now up for public consultation until the end of October, was briefly delayed, prompting speculation that government advisers judged its initiatives unsatisfactory. The 157-page plan, which contains more than 100 recommendations and also received input from the non-governmental Brazilian Climate Change Forum, covers mitigation, adaptation, deforestation, and research and development. Most noticeably, the proposals lack specific carbon-emission targets, deadlines and policies. Environmentalists are blaming industry leaders for lobbying against mandatory targets. In response, business leaders argue that such a step would render Brazil’s energy-intensive companies uncompetitive. According to the latest figures provided to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Brazil creates an estimated 1.47 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year – making the country the world’s fifth highest GHG emitter. Figures from the UN Development Programme show the ratio of Brazil’s gross domestic product to its carbon emissions growing by almost 10% between 1990 and 2004. However, as a developing economy, it has no obligations under the Kyoto Protocol to establish targets to reduce this figure. As a halfway measure, the national strategy proposes to set a reduction target for emissions per unit of production, although there is no indication of what that target should be. In fact, a general lack of timelines and policy instruments pervades the plan. Cogeneration is a case in point. At present, only 0.5% of Brazil’s domestic energy derives from capturing heat given off during industrial processes. Through a programme of “integration and permanent management”, the government believes this could increase to one-fifth of all domestic energy, although it does not specify incentives or deadlines. http://www.climatechangecorp.com/content.asp?contentid=5709

27) Last Friday, 10 October 2008, more than 100 fishermen/-women of the Association of Fishermen/-women of Barra do Riacho and Barra do Sahy, – ASPEBR, closed the access by land to the private harbor of Aracruz Celulose S.A. (ARCEL), called Portocel for the entire day, impeding the entrance of cellulose, destined to exportation. The fishermen/-women presented a long list of demands to ARCEL and to the municipality of Aracruz. The most important demand was the immediate opening of four floodgates constructed (by ARCEL) in the river (Riacho) to increase its water quantity, because the locking of the river has diminished the water volume, causing the increase of sediments inside the river and the closing of the mouth of the river. The closing of the mouth of the river creates a desperate situation for the fishermen/-women families because it impedes them to leave their harbor to go to sea (and return), making it each time more difficult for the people who depend on fishery to guarantee their subsistence. On the other hand, the ships which use the sea (which carry cellulose to produce disposable papers in Europe, USA and Asia) always leave the Portocel without any problem. The problem of the closing of the Riacho river to the sea is being caused by ARCEL who diverted, besides the Riacho river, another four rivers in the region in order to guarantee sufficient water for its reservoir for the pulp mills. The water needed for the pulp mills and cellulose production is enormous: a water demand equal to the what a city with two million inhabitants consumes. Therefore, the Riacho river totally lost its force, causing the sedimentation of sandy particles. The fishermen/-women demanded the presence of the mayor of the municipality, Ademar Devens, who appeared in the beginning of the afternoon and observed the situation of the mouth of the river, decided to take the demands of the people to the direction of ARCEL. At about 16:00hs, company representatives came to inform to the fishermen/-women that the company was willing to open the four floodgates in the Riacho river, when the tide is low, supposing that this could facilitate the process of (re-)opening the mouth of the river. Aracruz also asked for compensation‚ from the fishermen/-women for the difficult time that the company is passing through: firstly, the lack of water in the pulp mills because of the long dry period in the region- a situation for which the company has a lot of responsibility; secondly, the difficult financial situation of the company because of the high price of the dollar. (It is publicly known that ARCEL realized financial operations with a speculative character that resulted in a loss of around $2 billion.) info@globaljusticeecology.org

28) Brazilian researchers are closer to developing a way to establish large-scale mahogany plantations, reports the ITTO in its bi-monthly update. Scientists at the Federal Rural University of Amazonia (UFRA) have found that planting a matrix of mahogany with cedar reduces the incidence of the Hypsipyla grandella caterpillar, a chief pest of mahogany that has doomed previous attempts to reforest with the valuable hardwood species. Should the technique prove viable, it could reduce pressure on wild mahogany, a species which is highly sought on timber markets. The pursuit of mahogany has been a major driver of illegal logging throughout Latin America. The technique could also allow the reforestation of degraded lands using mahogany seedlings. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1016-mahogany.html

29) Minc clarified that Incra is the formal owner of the six parcels of land at issue, which in fact were deforested by the settlers. But legally, he said, the problem falls again on Incra because the Institute cannot pass ownership of land to the agriculturists until it has been settled for 10 years. “They are small deforestations, of 20 or 30 hectares, per person. On the other hand, a small one deforests little but thousands deforest a great deal,” said Minc. “Therefore, we have that to improve, and as well we have to improve the incidents of deforestation on conservation units and on aboriginal lands.” In total, 223,000 hectares of the rainforest were logged on those six properties. The Amazon rainforest is being chopped down more than three times as fast as last year, Brazilian officials said Monday, after three years of declines in the deforestation rate. Minc blamed upcoming nationwide elections, saying that mayors in the Amazon region are ignoring illegal logging in hopes of gaining advantage at the polls. He said all illegal loggers on the list, public and private, will have to answer to the Department of Justice, replant what was deforested and change their attitude. “Most important is a change of attitude, to stop logging illegally with impunity and to reconstitute what it was deforested by the crimes,” declared Minc. According to minister, most of the deforestation has taken place in the states of Pará, Mato Grosso and Rondônia. http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2008/2008-09-30-02.asp

30) The deforestation rate in Brazil has taken on a whole new sense of emergency. The Brazilian Parliament has just adopted a provision into law providing for an increase in the area of the Amazon that may be granted for rural use with no need to call for bids. The limit, previously set at 500 hectares, has been increased to 1,500 hectares, allowing deforestation of up to 20 percent of the area granted. This law will allow an increase of soybean plantations and cattle ranches in their need to exploit more land for destruction. Recently, a report by the National Space Research Institute showed that the Brazilian Amazon lost 1,096 square kilometers of forests during May. http://blog.adreamforabetterworld.com/2008/10/10/brazil-enacts-law-for-access-to-more-rainforest-destruction/

31) Alta Floresta, a region in the Brazilian Amazon state of Mato Grosso, has experienced one of the highest deforestation rates on the planet since the mid-1980s due to the influx of colonists and ranchers who converted nearly half the region’s forest land to pasture and agricultural plots. The change has had significant ecological impacts, including reducing the availability of water, increasing the incidence of forest fires, fragmenting remaining forest cover, and diminishing the quality of habitat for wildlife. with the University of São Paulo and Próo-Carnívoros, a Brazilian wildlife NGO, is studying the impact of this transformation on mammals in Alta Florest in order to determine how to best maintain the region’s remaining biodiversity. Consistent with other regions, Michalski has found that fragment size is a key determinant of biodiversity: larger fragments support more wildlife species. But smaller fragments can still play an important role in wildlife conservation, especially when connected to other fragments via riverine forest corridors. Michalski has amassed evidence to show that corridors are critical for allowing movement of animals between forest fragments in an otherwise “hostile” landscape for wildlife. However other factors also affect the survival of wildlife, particularly carnivores which are often perceived — usually unjustly — as a major cause of livestock mortality. Michalski is working with ranchers to show that not only are puma, jaguars, and other predators blamed for an unfair share of livestock loss, but that reducing livestock predation is neither costly, nor difficult. Michalski is also examining the broader trends for remaining forests in Alta Floresta. Her outlook is not good. In a recent paper Michalski and colleagues forecast a further 50 percent loss of forest cover within the next 8 years, suggests that Alta Floresta’s forest cover will fall to 21 percent by 2016, down from 91 percent in 1984. She says the impacts of forest loss extend well beyond the region, the Brazilian Amazon, and even Brazil. “Millions of people depend on farm land that was once Amazon forest for their food and livelihoods, but billions depend on the Amazon for the maintenance of global carbon and hydrologic systems,” she told mongabay.com. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1007-michalski_interview.html