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.

A recently published paper has highlighted the fact that large volumes of rosewood logs have disappeared from depots in Northeast Madagascar. The logs are smuggled by small boats to larger ships waiting offshore. It was reported that traffickers were offering around 1 million Malagasy Ariary ($450) per household in the Masoala peninsula to turn a blind eye regarding rosewood.

Officers from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided the corporate headquarters of Lumber Liquidators, the top-selling flooring retailer in America, in Toano, Virginia. ICE agents were investigating whether the company had imported illegally logged wood products from eastern Russia. The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has published a sobering report which gives details that Lumber Liquidators has allegedly purchased millions of square feet of illegally logged hardwoods in the Russian Far East.

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.

Google Earth has helped to create a new high-resolution global map of forest loss and gain, with a resolution of 30m. In the twelve years that the map spans (2000 – 2012), the Earth lost enough trees to cover the UK six times. It isn’t all bad news however - Brazil cut their annual forest loss in half between 2003-4 and 2010-11.

A new £15m forestry research centre at Birmingham University will study how climate change is affecting Britain's woodlands and examine how trees can be protected from the threat of invasive pests and diseases, such as the Chalara fraxinea virus which has caused the spread of Ash dieback across the country.

The Indonesian language version of the report from Human Rights Watch called “The Dark Side of Green Growth: Human Rights Impacts of Weak Governance in Indonesia’s Forestry Sector” was released today. The report says that the new FLEGT VPA between the EU and Indonesia does not address whether harvesting of the timber has violated local community rights and it does not address corruption in the issuance of timber cutting licences. The NGO is concerned that the problems related to local community rights are likely to worsen rather than improve as the government’s “green development” plan aggressively expands plantations of pulp trees for paper and oil palm for biofuel.

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.

Myanmar’s Ministry of Commerce has revealed that US$ 17 million worth of timber was recently found to have been smuggled from Myanmar to China via illegal routes avoiding official checkpoints along the road to Muse, Myanmar's border town with China. Most of Myanmar’s trade is with China and Thailand and with Chinese import restrictions on some agricultural products from Myanmar, local exporters find it difficult to get health recommendations from China for their exports, creating a growing illegal trade.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have joined forces to promote viable forestry investment and innovation in the Russian Federation's Far East based on sustainable use of forest resources. Improving legal frameworks and the inventory of forest resources; developing modern forestry infrastructures and supporting services, in particular railway transportation networks; introducing modern logging, as well as harvesting and wood-processing technologies; providing adequate training at local level; clearly designating and protecting forest areas of high biodiversity value are among the key Roadmap recommendations.

Peruvian environmental prosecutor, Francisco Berrospi, comments on the corruption he has experienced first-hand across the timber trade in the Peruvian Amazon. A slideshow also accompanies this story: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2013/10/19/world/americas/20131019Peru.html?ref=americas

Illegal logging has fuelled the rapid disappearance of commercially viable forests and threatened indigenous livelihoods in the Solomon Islands. But local communities are confronting the companies responsible and taking them through the courts.

Global Witness has accused Danish timber company, DLH, of illegal timber purchases worth $305,000 in 2012. The investigation showed that the timber was felled using outdated permits that were deemed illegal in Liberia because of widespread misuse, fraud and corruption. These accusations put DLH in breach of its FSC certification, and any further imports of this kind would make the company liable to criminal sanctions under the EU Timber Regulation.

Based on historic trends, global forest cover is predicted to stabilise at around 22% forest cover over the next century. This represents a decline of an additional 10% compared to where we are today. The increase in decline is predicted based on the long-term challenge of feeding a growing population while still conserving forest areas.

A report from the UK- and US-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has said that up to 80% of the hardwood harvested in the Russian far east is logged illegally. The EIA say the demand for this material comes from Chinese sawmills and subsequently their western customers. The material that is of most concern is illegally logged Russian oak. US wood flooring retailer, Lumber Liquidators, was named in the report as being heavily reliant on Chinese suppliers who allegedly mainly sell illegally logged material. The EIA say the US and EU regulations on illegal logging are important pressure points where they now have the ability to intervene – before now, and without this pressure, illegal logging in Siberia has seen rapid expansion. Despite industry incentives from the Russian government, incredible demand from China has led to Chinese sawmills establishing just over the China-Russia border. EIA’s investigations suggest that most of these mills rely on a supply of illegally logged timber.

A recent study has revealed how recovering forests manipulate the process of nitrogen fixation to ‘heal’ themselves. Forests recovering from agricultural land use demonstrated exceptionally high rates of biomass accumulation, indicating very high rates of nitrogen demand. The results from the study indicate that nitrogen-fixing trees should be used preferentially in reforestation projects.

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.

New checks on Indonesian timber are being introduced by the EU to curb illegal logging. The EU is Indonesia’s biggest export market for timber, with Germany, the UK, France and Italy among the major importers.
From now on, only Indonesian timber compliant with the EU’s verification system, called Forest Law Enforcement Governance (FLEGT) will be imported into the EU. The European Commission says the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with Indonesia commits both sides to only trade in verified legal timber products.