Deforestation = more malaria; study

Reuters reports that malaria rates rise when the forests are cut down in the Amazon according to a study by U.S. researchers.

The scientists found in their study, published in Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, a 48 percent increase in malaria rates in Brazil after 4 percent of the tree cover was cut down.

"Conservation policy and public health policy are one and the same," Jonathan Patz, the professor who oversaw the work, said in a telephone interview. "How we manage our landscapes and, in this case, tropical rain forest has implications for public health."

Malaria, caused by a parasite transmitted by mosquitoes, kills about 860,000 people a year globally, according to the World Health Organization. Brazil has about 500,000 cases a year of malaria, most carried by Anopheles darling mosquito.

Patz's team has been tracking mosquito populations and how they change as forests are cut down in Brazil and Peru. They took satellite data showing changes in tree cover in one county of Brazil's Amazon region and linked it with health records showing diagnosed cases of malaria.

Read the full story: Cleared forests lead to rise in malaria in Brazil

Photo from Nature's Crusaders / Stephen Ferry / Getty

London Zoo exhibits S American rainforest life

The Guardian reports on London Zoo's South American rainforest exhibit.

David Field, zoological director of London zoo, said: "Rainforest Life will transport people to other corners of the world by coming through the gates of London zoo. It is a dynamic, living ecosystem and you won't see the same exhibit twice. It will give people a real taste of these priceless forests that are disappearing fast."

The zoo hopes [the exhibit] will become a breeding centre for the endangered species it houses. Visitors to the exhibit will have the chance to experience the heat and humidity of the jungle from elevated walkways where they can view the canopy teeming with wildlife.

Read the full story: London zoo exhibit recreates living South American rainforest

Photo from London Zoo

Orphaned gorillas could return to wild

The Guardian reports on the plans to release two orphaned young gorillas back into the wild.

Ndeze and Ndakasi (picture left) were orphaned after their parents were killed during the 2007 massacres in Congo's Virunga National Park that left 10 gorillas dead.

Negotiations are under way to bring two adult gorillas from Rwanda to become their adoptive parents, with a view to returning the babies to the wild.

The return of the gorillas from Rwanda depends on the completion of the Senkwekwe Centre, a specially designed sanctuary for Ndeze and Ndakasi in a lush forest habitat in Virunga park. The pair, each two and a half years old, moved there last December from a makeshift shelter in the city of Goma.

Besides the threat of poaching, the gorillas habitat is being slowly cut down as people seeking wood for fuel encroach more and more into the forests.

Read the full story: New hope for mountain gorillas

Photo from Virunga National Park

Sierra Leone to save mangroves

Reuters reports on conservationists' efforts to protect what's left of West African mangrove forests.

The mangrove trees have been cut down to fuel salt production in Sierra Leone.

For generations, villagers have scraped "salt dust" from the soil, added seawater, and boiled it over wood stoves.

Marie Kano, head of the salt producers association, said many of the mangrove trees used for fuel have already gone. "We don't have any wood left now," she said. "My children, sister and father ... all used to cook salt. But because there is no wood anymore, they all left and went to town."

Now conservation groups are trying to salvage the few remaining forests while helping the poor residents keep their livelihoods.

Solar-panel fueled salt extractors are being introduced, the mangroves replanted and carbon trading schemes in the works.

Read the full story: West Africa sets out to protect dying mangroves

Photograph by Royalty Free / CORBIS

Mapping out green ski developments

New Scientist reports on new geo-software that will help ski resort developers be eco-conscious.

Developers Jordan Silberman, a geographer at the University of Delaware in Newark and colleague Peter Rees created the geographical information system (GIS). Prospective developers need only to type in their business model plans:

The software then homes in on the preferred general region and seeks out those locations with the combinations of available land and humidity levels most likely to produce powder snow. Among many other factors, it also analyses accessibility by road, slope steepness - to work out the risk of avalanches - and the likely erosion from tree felling. A key factor is the ready availability of electricity to power the ski lifts.

Read the full story: Geo software aims to avoid ski eco-disasters

Photo by Ulli Seer / Getty

Deforestation caused Peruvian natives decline; study

Reuters reports that deforestation caused the decline of Peruvian natives called the Nasca according to a new study.

The Nasca people, famed for the lines that depict animals or geometric shapes most clearly visible from the air, became unable to grow enough food in nearby valleys because the lack of trees made the climate too dry, scientists said.

The report, led by Cambridge University in England, said that the findings showed a need for more action now to protect the world's arid lands.

Read the full story: Deforestation sped demise of Nasca in Peru: study

Photo from Thomson Reuters

Smallest primate under threat

Reuters reports on the threat to the world's smallest monkey, the tarsier. The habitat of this tiny primate, the size of a human fist, in Indonesia's Sulawesi forest is being destroyed by logging. There are an estimated 1,000 left in the world.

Watch the report below:

Canada's boreal forest fate in government's hands

Reuters reports that Canadian politicians are saving the boreal forest on advice from environmental experts.

Only 10 percent of the forest is protected now and deforestation is a big concern. The forest covers 1.4 billion hectares (see picture above) and is "better than almost anywhere else on the planet at keeping climate-warming carbon out of the atmosphere."

The plan to preserve the boreal forest picked up momentum last year when 1,500
scientists from more than 50 countries called for its protection.

In July, the government of Ontario agreed to strictly protect half of its boreal lands and to sustainably manage the other half, with no extraction of minerals or other natural resources allowed.

Last week, Quebec Premier Jean Charest, now campaigning for re-election, pledged to do the same if he wins. Canadian businesses also have endorsed the plan, and Kallick said there is a good chance most provincial governments will as well.

Read the full story: Politicians persuaded to save Canada boreal forest

Bolivia's model rainforest protection scheme

The Christian Science Monitor reports on the Bolivian rainforest conservancy project that could be a world-wide model for fighting deforestation and global warming.

The Bolivian government along with conservancy groups and energy companies came together to save the rainforest in a first-of-its-kind plan called Noel Kempff Climate Action Project.

This venture sparked a carbon-reducing initiative called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, or REDD, which environmentalists criticized:

"But REDD is now seen as a leading solution to deforestation, which accounts for 20 percent of the world’s annual greenhouse-gas emissions – more than the transportation sector, according to the Center for International Forestry Research...

In Bolivia, the idea has been tested at the widest scale: The project bought out four timber concessions, nearly doubled the national park’s boundaries, and set up a carbon-monitoring system by which offsets are awarded to three participating energy companies (American Electric Power, BP, and PacifiCorp.) and the Bolivian government – offsets that could be traded on the voluntary carbon-trading market, and (in the case of the Bolivian government) the money reinvested in the communities affected."

Read the full story: Bolivia gets clean by staying green

More Amazon should be cut down for food says Brazilian leader

Reuters reports that the governor of Brazil's largest soy producing region wants to help stem the so-called global food crisis by clear-cutting more of the Amazon rain forest for farm land.

Blairo Maggi of Mato Grosso state (in western Brazil) said in a local paper that as the global food crisis grows it will be "inevitable to discuss" either growing food or protecting the environment. He goes on to say that as a solution his country has the "space to raise [agricultural] production."

Mato Grosso has the distinction of being the most deforested state in 2007 but its northern half is still covered with Amazon rain forest.

Images above from NASA compare deforestation in Mato Grosso from June 17, 2002 center and June 28, 2006 top

Read the full story: Brazil "soy king" sees Amazon as food solution

Books on the endangered environment

Traveling is bad for the environment no matter how "eco" the traveler is.

And to drill in that point The Washington Post reports on four books that will "make you think about where you're going."

The titles of the books say exactly what you will encounter:

1) Disappearing Destinations: 37 Places in Peril and What Can Be Done to Help Save Them

2) Disappearing World: 101 of the Earth's Most Extraordinary and Endangered Places

3) The Quest for Kaitiakitanga: The Ancient Maori Secret From New Zealand That Could Save the Earth

4) Across the Tibetan Plateau: Ecosystems, Wildlife, and Conservation

It seems like all the books' authors have actually traveled to the places they have written about. But nothing about if they used environmentally-sound traveling policies. The one thing that always bothers me is when pro-environmentalists go all over the world to show how bad the environment is but travel in planes or other greenhouse gas producing transportation, hence worsening the problems with global warming.

It seems to me a little hypocritical.

Read the full story: Traveling to the edge of extinction

Contradictions in Costa Rica's ecotourism trade

Costa Rica is often touted as an ecotourist paradise.

But although many tourists visit this Central American country to enjoy nature, the tourist outfits aren't always thinking about keeping the environment as pristine as one would think.

The Christian Science Monitor explored this dark issue in a recent article:

"Statistics revealed that 97 percent of Costa Rica's sewage flows untreated into rivers, streams, or the ocean, and that more than 300,000 tons of garbage was left uncollected on streets in 2006. And a flurry of illegal well-drilling is running aquifers dry, ironic in a country where as much as 20 feet of rain falls annually.

Despite the chaos, less than a quarter of coastal towns have zoning plans to balance tourism development with natural resources and government services such as sewage treatment and public water supply."

Read the full story: Costa Rica sees tourism's environmental dark side

For-profit ecotourism in Peru reaps many rewards

The Economist magazine highlights how a for-profit ecotourism outfit in Peru has the best interests of the Amazonian rain forest in mind... something that NGOs or non-profits have struggled with.

The area of the Amazon in Peru is fast becoming an eco-tourist destination with a reported 20-times increase in the past 15 years.

Rainforest Expeditions operates Posada Amazonas the largest tourism outfit in the area. Its goal has always been conservation through tourism, which has been successful, but it has also enriched the local families in the area as well. RE has actively involved the local community in the tourism projects, the locals get most of the profits and eventually will take over entire control. The peoples literacy, health and nutrition levels have benefited greatly while the forest has remained intact.

But the future of Peru's rain forest is still up in the air because of a newly paved road straight through it leading directly to Brazil. Past statistics of paved roads leading into Brazil's Amazon have shown that an increase in damaging development has occurred.

Read the full story: Rumble in the jungle

Yemeni goats eating tree to extinction

The New York Times reports on a disappearing tree on a Yemeni island. The Dracaena cinnabari, or dragon's blood tree, is especially vulnerable to goats on which Socotra island's economy depends. Goats are infamous for eating anything in their path and they find the young tree shoots especially tasty. So much so that they are eating the tree to its extinction. The tree's only stable area is in the high mountains where the goats can't reach.

Read the full story: Off Yemen, a storied stand is vulnerable

Is ecotourism solution for Madagascar

The island nation of Madagascar is slowly becoming an eco-travel destination. Tourists come to see animals such as the lemur that can only been seen there. But because the country is poor and developing, environmental damage consisting of major forest clear-cutting for rice farming and survival is a major problem that is threatening the few remaining areas of natural forests. Current TV's Adam Yamaguchi traveled to this island and reports on the hope of eco-tourism among a few other measures to help save what's left of the island's environment: