Plantation farming is expanding rapidly in Burma and is emerging as the main driver of deforestation, according to a new report released on Thursday. The report, by the US based Forest Trends research centre, claims that politically connected businessmen are receiving government licenses to log swathes of natural forest in ethnic minority regions, ostensibly to plant rubber and oil palm.

The UN Collaborative Program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD+) aims to pay developing countries for storing carbon in forests. To monitor how countries are conserving their forests under REDD+ the UN will rely on a combination of satellite measurements and field checks.

Although the news of the 28% increase in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon last week was unwelcomed, it was not surprising. The rise is attributable to the fact that there are still no positive incentives available to farmers and livestock growers. This study reviews four hypotheses from the media and literature asking why deforestation has increased but concludes that deforestation is a result of a combination of factors.

Deforestation in the Amazon has increased 28% in the 12 months through the end of July 2013. The rise is accountable by expanding farms and a rush for land around big infrastructure projects. Changes to Brazil’s forestry laws are also attributable to the increase, as well as high global prices for agricultural commodities.

An article published in the journal ‘Science’ has said that efforts by countries and companies to achieve ‘zero net deforestation’ may be having the unintended effect of rainforests being replaced by less valuable plantations. As the approach does not distinguish clearly between the different values of replanted areas and natural forests, it means some countries are guilty of replacing their native forests with exotic species. A more favourable way of protection would be for companies, states and other groups to set separate reduction targets in forest loss and for reforestation efforts.

Communities living alongside the world's tropical forests can estimate an area's carbon stocks as effectively as hi-tech systems, according to findings published in the journal Ecology and Society. The study found that community members in four South-East Asian countries using sticks and ropes were able to gather the same results as satellites. The research team aim to convince policy makers of the vital role local communities can play under the UN’s Redd+ programme which aims to curb GHG emissions from deforestation and land-use change.

Although certification is often attributed with helping to reduce deforestation, little is known about the effectiveness of many of the schemes. It is vital that we understand how these commitments can be transformed into results if we want to measure changes in deforestation rates. This article suggests that addressing deforestation in the most successful manner may derive from using a combination of approaches, and certification is just one of these approaches.

A new decree signed by the Indonesian president to create a national agency aimed at combating greenhouse gas emissions signals progress in the country’s efforts to tackle global warming, said a scientist with the Center for International Research.
The REDD+ (Reducing Emissions through Deforestation and Forest Degradation) agency, which will report directly to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, fulfills one among several criteria detailed in a climate change partnership agreed in 2010 with Norway. Under the terms of the agreement outlined in a letter of intent, the two countries opened the door to developing policy on REDD+, a U.N.-backed framework for reducing emissions caused by deforestation and forest degradation.

The actor Harrison Ford, who has been filming a documentary called ‘Years of Living Dangerously’ in Indonesia, has been threatened with deportation after confronting the forestry minister in an interview. The actor asked the minister why deforestation was occurring in protected areas after he had witnessed illegal logging taking place in Sumatra. The documentary will air on the US television network Showtime in April 2014.

APP has announced two breaches of its forest moratorium on natural forest clearance. The first small-scale clearance for a pre-planned community project had already been reported. The second case appears to be an outright breach of the policy in Sumatra by three companies which cleared 69 hectares of high carbon stock forest in a "No Go" zone. APP called the violation "unacceptable" and says it will improve sign-off procedures to address the breach.

Data released this week by Terra-i, a collaborative mapping initiative, shows that deforestation in Ecuador for the first three months of 2013 was pacing more than 300 percent ahead of last year's rate. The report comes shortly after Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa killed off a proposed plan to prohibit oil drilling in Yasuni National Park in exchange for payments equivalent to half the value of the park's unexploited oil reserves.

Terra-i, a collaboration between the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the School of Business and Engineering (HEIG-VD) in Switzerland and King’s College London (KCL), uses NASA satellite data to detect deforestation in Latin America on 16-day basis. The system shows that between Jan 1 and Mar 7 this year, some 9,075 ha of Ecuador's forests were cleared. By comparison, 2,931 ha of forest were chopped down during the year-earlier period.

The Paraguayan government has extended the “Zero Deforestation Law” for a further five years, resulting in an important conservation win for this highly threatened eco-region.

The Land Conversion Moratorium for the Atlantic Forest of Paraguay, also known as the “Zero Deforestation Law” was enacted in 2004 and dramatically slowed the country’s deforestation rate by prohibiting the transformation and conversion of forested areas in Paraguay's eastern region. The Atlantic Forest corridor covers Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina, and is one of the world's most endangered tropical rainforests, with just 7 percent of its original surface coverage remaining.

Paraguay previously had the second-highest deforestation rate in the world, and nearly 7 million hectares of Atlantic Forest were lost to slash-and-burn methods of agriculture and ranching. Most of the remaining forests have been exploited for timber, and some are second growth forests recovering from deforestation. After Paraguay approved the Zero Deforestation Law for the eastern part of the country in 2004, there was a decrease of deforestation by about 90%.

Jakarta, 3 September 2013 - The palm oil sector was the single largest driver of deforestation in Indonesia between 2009-2011, accounting for about a quarter of the country’s forest loss, revealed Greenpeace International in new mapping analysis published today. The analysis shows that significant deforestation took place in concessions currently owned by members of the palm oil industry’s largest sustainability organisation, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, including companies such as Singapore-based Wilmar International. More damning is the revelation that RSPO concessions accounted for 39% of the fire hotspots on palm oil concessions in Riau during January-June 2013.

"The RSPO wants its members to be industry leaders in sustainability, but its current standards leave them free to destroy forests and drain peatland. Year after year, Indonesia's forest fires and haze wreak havoc on the region, and the palm oil sector is a main culprit. While RSPO members might have no-fire policies, the peatland they have cleared and drained is like a tinderbox – one spark is all it takes," said Bustar Maitar, head of Greenpeace International’s Indonesia Forest Campaign.

Four Russians have been charged with smuggling timber valued at $3m per month into neighbouring China. The four are accused of using dozens of different companies and fake documents to smuggle 150 freight cars of lumber every month. Police believe the four are part of a much larger smuggling ring. Trade across the border is driven by huge Chinese demand for raw materials, and illegal trade increased dramatically after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Illegal timber trade from Russia to China in 2011 was valued at $1.3 billion, accounting for around 10 million cubic metres of logs and sawn timber.

With deforestation up by 90% on 2012’s rate of loss, Brazil has bolstered the number of environmental inspectors in the forest to curb illegal clearing. Landowners clearing forests are struggling to escape detection by the government’s near-real-time satellite forest monitoring system, DETER, but are starting to clear smaller forest areas that the system cannot see at its 25-hectare resolution. A higher resolution system that would detect this clearing, known as PRODES, is only used annually. Environmentalists believe the more relaxed revisions to the Forest Code, implemented in 2012, accounted for this rise in clearing.

APRIL still holds chain-of-custody certificates granted through the industry-led PEFC forest certification scheme.

Unlike FSC, PEFC does not have a policy of association or a process to dissociate itself from companies engaging in large scale deforestation.

FSC has banned APRIL and associated companies from any use of FSC trademarks.

This decision follows a formal complaint submitted by Greenpeace, WWF Indonesia and Rainforest Action Network that APRIL was in violation of its Policy of Association, conducting large-scale deforestation activities, pervasive social conflicts and violations of human rights in Indonesia by APRIL and other companies within the RGE group.

BBC One's Panorama investigates illegal logging in the tropical forests of West Africa and the timber's journey as it makes its way to Western Europe.

The Indonesian Forest Ministry has defended the new Law on Preventing and Eradicating Forest Destruction which passed early in July. Critics point out that the new law does not mention forest fires, cuts the prescribed punishments for certain forestry crimes, and excludes mention of the protection of indigenous groups with ancestral claims and the regulation of forest boundaries. In response, proponents of the law say that it will target large-scale operators and bureaucrats who fail to uphold the law, in addition to introducing harsher deterrence methods and allowing for better coordination between law enforcement agencies.

The Brazilian government released data that confirmed an increase in Amazon forest loss, with the majority of clearing taking place in Mato Grosso for agriculture. Reasons for the increase are thought to derive from weakening of the country's Forest Code, which limits clearing on private forest land, and agricultural exports have also become more commercially attractive for farmers.