wood Kabul
Land Use/Forests

Snow Sales Replace Illegal Logging in Afghan Province

KHOST, Afghanistan, September 8, 2014 (ENS) – For hundreds of years, people in Afghanistan have stockpiled winter snows in specially-dug pits so they can use it during the scorching summer months. Now, residents and officials in Khost say storing and selling snow could provide a viable alternative to illegal logging. […]

planting rice
Land Use/Forests

Global Action Plan to Protect Soil Resources Approved

ROME, Italy, July 25, 2014 (ENS) – A third of the world’s soils are degraded by erosion, nutrient depletion, acidification, urbanization, and chemical pollution, soil experts at a global conference warned today. There, governments approved a global plan of action to safeguard soil resources through strong regulation and investment. […]

mine site
Land Use/Forests

EPA Blocks Giant Alaska Mine to Protect Bristol Bay Salmon

SEATTLE, Washington, July 18, 2014 (ENS) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today proposed regulations to protect one of the world’s most valuable salmon fisheries, in Bristol Bay, Alaska, from the risks posed by a proposed open pit mine nearly as deep as the Grand Canyon and larger than Manhattan. […]

forest
Land Use/Forests

British Columbia Not Obliged to Protect Endangered Forests

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada, May 11, 2014 (ENS) – A British Columbia Supreme Court decision undermines government claims that B.C.’s forestry laws are among the strongest in the world, environment groups said Friday, after losing a court battle to protect the province’s last old-growth Coastal Douglas-fir forests. […]

White Mountains
Energy

Underground Options Open for New Hampshire’s New Power Line

CONCORD, New Hampshire, May 5, 2014 (ENS) – The U.S. Department of Energy has released a list of alternatives under consideration for the controversial Northern Pass transmission line project in New Hampshire. The choices range from scrapping the plan altogether to burying the entire power line underground. […]

Yasuni
Land Use/Forests

Oil Vote Deadline Looms for Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park

QUITO, Ecuador, April 8, 2014 (ENS) – In 2007, for the meager sum of US$3.6 billion, Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa offered the world a chance to buy into a conservation plan, called the Yasuní-ITT Initiative, to save his country’s easternmost sector from oil extraction. […]

Pebble Mine site
Land Use/Forests

Rio Tinto Withdraws From Pebble Mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay

LONDON, UK, April 7, 2014 (ENS) – The British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto will give its shares in Northern Dynasty Minerals, Ltd., owner of the Pebble Project, to Alaskan charitable foundations, ending its involvement in the controversial gold, copper and molybdenum deposit in the Bristol Bay watershed.
[…]

Rao
Land Use/Forests

U.S. Indicts Six for Bribery Over Titanium Mining in India

CHICAGO, Illinois, April 3, 204 (ENS) – Alleged bribes of Indian officials to secure licenses to mine titanium minerals in India have led to charges of racketeering conspiracy brought by the U.S. Government against six foreign nationals, including a Member of India’s Parliament. […]

meeting
Land Use/Forests

Warm Praise for Afghan Reconstruction Project

KHOST, Afghanistan, March 17, 2014 (ENS) – Residents of Khost province in southeast Afghanistan say a nationwide development initiative is making a real difference to their daily lives, calming tribal tensions and boosting security as well as providing essential infrastructure. […]

sockeye
Land Use/Forests

EPA Acts to Protect Alaska’s Bristol Bay Fishery From Mining

WASHINGTON, DC, February 28, 2014 (ENS) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today began a process under the Clean Water Act to identify options that would protect the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery in Bristol Bay, Alaska from the potentially destructive impacts of the proposed Pebble Mine. […]

Russia
Land Use/Forests

First Global Forest Protection Platform Opens Online

WASHINGTON, DC, February 22, 2014 (ENS) – Global Forest Watch, a new, free online monitoring and alert system for forest management, was launched Thursday by more than 40 organizations, including the World Resources Institute, Google and the UN Environment Programme. […]

Obama
Food

Obama Signs $1 Trillion Farm Bill Into Law

WASHINGTON, DC, February 7, 2014 (ENS) – Today, President Barack Obama signed into law the nearly $1 trillion farm bill, which extends, expands, or modifies federal agriculture and nutrition programs, including farm income support, crop insurance, conservation, credit assistance, trade, research, food assistance and rural development through the fiscal year 2018 crop year. […]

Steiner, Slewa
Land Use/Forests

UN to Help Iraq With Environmental Restoration

BAGHDAD, Iraq, January 26, 2014 (ENS) – To restore Iraq’s deteriorating environment, the Government of Iraq has signed a landmark cooperation agreement with the UN Environment Programme to speed environmental recovery and support peace-building. […]

Croatia
Land Use/Forests

Crops Eating Into World’s Natural Land Base

DAVOS, Switzerland, January 24, 2014 (ENS) – Lands covering an area the size of Brazil could be degraded by 2050 if conversion of natural lands to crop lands continues, warns a report by the UN Environment Programme, presented at the ongoing World Economic Conference in Davos. […]

home burning
Land Use/Forests

Kenya Burns Indigenous People Out of Ancestral Lands

NAIROBI, Kenya, January 22, 2014 (ENS) – The Kenyan government has sent Kenya Forest Service guards, with police support, to Embobut Forest in the Cherangany Hills to forcibly and illegally evict thousands of Sengwer indigenous people from their ancestral forest lands and burn their homes and belongings. […]