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.

Commentary from Scott Poynton, Founder & Executive Director of The Forest Trust, highlighting the conflicts of interest faced by voluntary certification schemes who are "protecting income streams rather than the world's forests". To solve the problem, Scott recommends certification schemes adopt a new funding model that does not rely on issuing certificates.

Greenpeace is cautious in response to the announcement by the President of Indonesia that the ban on deforestation in the country will be extended by two years. It claims that almost half of Indonesia’s primary forests and peatlands will have no protection from illegal logging even with the ban in place. The ban is only on the granting of new concessions and does not affect the rights of those who already have concessions to clear trees on that land. Greenpeace is also concerned about the low levels of enforcement by the Indonesian authorities against companies involved in illegal logging.

The European Space Agency has given the go ahead to develop a satellite which use a radar system to “weigh” forests. The primary mission is to calculate the amount of carbon stored in the world’s forests. It will also monitor any changes in forest cover over the course of its five-year mission which is expected to launch in 2020. It is hoped that the data gathered will provide a basis for agreements under REDD+.

A new WWF report warns that the Greater Mekong subregion in Southeast Asia risks losing more than a third of its natural forest cover in the next two decades at current rates of deforestation. The region, which is host to vital freshwater systems and forests depended upon by iconic species and a huge human population, is threatened by dam development, poaching and timber theft. The local governments have also given away large concessions to mining companies and plantation owners in designated protected areas.

The UK government is backing the Tropical Forests Alliance (TFA) 2020. TFA 2020 is a business-led initiative launched by the US government and the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) which is a group of over 400 retailers and manufacturers. Although there are no regulatory implications, TFA 2020 aims to provide a forum ‘in which to share best practice with major private companies’ committed to adopting ‘sustainable supply chains’ and to ‘encourage other governments and companies to take similar steps’.

A partnership between Google, the University of Maryland and the UN Environment Programme will launch Global Forest Watch 2.0, an interactive, real-time forest monitoring system, later this year. The tool will combine satellite and remote sensing technology with human on-the-ground networks. Google Earth will provide forest cover information and people in the field will be able to download information to mobile devices and also upload coordinates and photographs from the ground. The intention is that this will address some of the previous challenges of out-of-date information, high costs and technical challenges faced by those monitoring forests.

An overview of rainforest-related news stories in 2012 including coverage of the main research publications on the impacts of rainforest logging, global trade and deforestation, deforestation-free sourcing policies and country-by-country summaries.

A new Eyes on the Forest report accuses Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) of continuing to destroy large areas of rainforests and peatlands despite a commitment to end natural forest logging by 2009. The report draws links between APRIL’s wood suppliers and their obtaining of cutting licences from officials who have been convicted of corruption offences and are now serving custodial sentences. In response APRIL has acknowledged that it continues to clear natural forest but claims that all licences were issued prior to the moratorium in 2011, hence making the company compliant with Indonesian law.

Analysis of the prospects for Burma’s forests in the wake of international sanctions being lifted. Aside from some ad hoc exploitation Burma’s primary forests have remained largely intact and are home to a rich diversity of wildlife. Meanwhile Burma’s leaders appear to be taking a measured approach to environmental planning with the recent postponement of a Chinese-sponsored dam citing environmental concerns and civil society in the country is increasingly active. However, an EU FLEGT report published last year noted that the government does not collect or publish detailed data on the forest sector and concluded that the forest sector has become increasingly corrupt.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund will require companies in its portfolio to ‘to manage risk associated with the causes and impacts of climate change resulting from greenhouse gas emissions and tropical deforestation.’ The move comes after campaigners had targeted the fund for continuing to invest in companies associated with deforestation while the Norwegian government had committed $522 million to protecting the world’s forests. Questions considered in assessing company risk will include: disclosure on tropical forest footprint; commitment to international standards for sustainable production of agricultural commodities; and reporting on the implementation of its commitments.

An expert from the Forest Survey of India (FSI) claims that recent surveys overestimate the extent of India’s remaining forests. The Ministry of Environment and Forests reports biennially on the state of India’s forests but the FSI who are involved in the process are openly critical of the satellite imagery technology used which they say does not have the required resolution to identify small-scale deforestation. Furthermore, the technology is unable to tell the difference between native forests and bamboo grown on cleared forests. It is thought that there are particular problems with deforestation and a lack of response from the state government in Meghalaya state in northeast India.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has published a report, Wood for Good: Solutions for Deforestation-Free Wood Products, analyzing tropical wood production’s effect on deforestation and offering solutions for sustainable production. The report identifies a threefold solution to meet the global demand for sustainable tropical wood: 1) turn to responsible plantation forests; 2) governments to develop policies that make sustainable forest management an attractive business prospect; and 3) all stakeholders should demand products certified by FSC or PEFC.

The US House of Representatives will vote this week on a bill called the RELIEF Act (The Retailers and Entertainers Lacey Implementation and Fairness Enforcement Act) which would significantly weaken the use of the Lacey Act to regulate against illegal logging by allowing manufacturers to keep illegal wood and limiting the species and country declaration requirements to solid wood (i.e. pulp and paper would be excluded). The article points to World Bank estimates which suggest that government and businesses suffer more than $10 billion in lost revenue each year due to illegal logging, $1 billion of which is lost by the US.

The Russian government has committed up to $12.4 billion over the next eight years to be spent on forestry protection. This will include restoration and improvement of species composition in forests, reducing illegal logging and addressing the black market in timber, improving aerial monitoring, cultivating trees for restoration and creating fire ponds to protect against wildfires. In response to the announcement of the policy, the CEO of the forestry company RusForest called for privatisation of the country’s forest, saying that this would incentivise longer term investment in the management of Russia’s forests. The current model is for companies such as RusForest to manage areas of forest on relatively short-term leases from the government. Russia currently imports more paper than it produces despite having around 700 million hectares of forest.

The Global Canopy Program is promoting the use of smartphones by indigenous communities to protect their forests. The strategy would see smartphone apps used to collect geographic data and photographs. This local data would then be linked to remote sensing data to enhance the monitoring of forest management. Up until now the effectiveness of community forest management projects in halting deforestation has been brought into question. The hope is that smartphones would play a significant role in helping local communities to manage their forests though there are some concerns that this would reduce the role of communities to simply collecting data without having input using their local knowledge on how their forests should be managed.

Representatives of NGOs and government agencies from Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico and Peru took part in a special technical training session on monitoring deforestation, forest degradation and biomass organised by the Governors' Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF). The week-long training aims to improve the measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) systems which are an integral part of REDD+.

The Viet Nam Administration of Forestry announced that over 13,700 violations of forest protection and timber management laws were reported in the first six months of 2012. Around 623ha of forest land have been lost in this period as a result of changes in forest use purposes, illegal logging and forest fires. Government ministries working on the issue aim to tighten controls on the wood processing industry and local authorities have been ordered to review existing forestry projects and ensure that forest protection programmes are adequately funded.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Indonesia on Tuesday to meet with President Yudhoyono to discuss deforestation and the environment. She previously visited the country seventeen years ago when she was environment minister. The visit comes as Germany explores ways to make its financial aid to Indonesia conditional on Indonesia conserving its remaining rainforests.

Two forest managers and a businessman have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the illegal logging of 500 cubic metres of protected forests along the Laos border. The arrests follow those of six others who the Vietnamese police have proposed charging with violations of forest management and bribery.