Indian Government Gives Forest Land to Industries! Protest this move!

More forest land for projects after PM intervention

The Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has agreed to divert additional 25% forest land that was earlier categorised as no-go area for setting up projects concerning infrastructure ministries such as power, road and coal. This is after the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) stepped in and pushed the ministry to fast-track project clearances.

Government sources said the move has come as a huge relief for the industry, as around 30-50 projects will now be taken up for consideration. It will also provide access to some of India's best sites for natural resources deep inside forests in tribal areas. "We are working on the finer print," an official said.

Moreover, the ministry has said environment clearance for projects will come in 60 days and forest clearance in 180 days after all the documents are submitted. The environment ministry has also listed priority projects for consideration of its Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), which is mandated to examine each project with respect to its environmental impact.

The agreement was reached at the two meetings called by the Prime Minister's principal secretary Pulak Chatterjee on business projects over the last fortnight after a group of chief executive officers led by industrialist Ratan Tata met the PM and other central ministers.

The coal and power ministries had complained to the PMO that the environment ministry takes up to six years to clear projects, thereby leading to a shortage in coal supply and power generation. "Priority projects will be cleared within the deadline," an official said.

While the officials of coal and power ministries are happy with the development, non-government organisations (NGOs) are worried about its adverse impact on forests and the environment.

Over 100 NGOs from across the country will meet in Delhi this weekend to discuss ways to protect India's dwindling forest cover and degrading natural resources. The Centre for Science and Environment has analysed recent environmental clearances and found that the country saw more clearances than those planned for during the 11th and 12th five-year plans.

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'Saalumarada' Thimmakka - A Peerless Green Champion!

Thimmakka, aged 101*, is a native of Hulikal village in the Magadi taluk of Bangalore Rural district in Karnataka.

She has an unsurpassed credit to her name—some 1000 plus sturdy banyan trees, which she has lovingly tended against all odds, from mere saplings to a sweeping canopy.

Saalumarada Thimmakka (“saalumarada”—“row of trees” in Kannada—is an honorific people have added to her name) and her landless labourer husband Chikkannah could not have children. So one day more than 60 years ago, they started planting trees.

The road to the next village Kudur (Kudoor) was a dry hot one. Ficus (banyan) trees were aplenty near Thimmakka's village. Thimmakka and her husband started grafting saplings from these trees. Ten saplings were grafted in the first year and they were planted along a distance of 20 kilometres near the neighbouring village of Kudur. Fifteen saplings were planted in the second year and 20 in the third year and so on. She used her own meager resources for planting these trees. The couple used to carry pots of water for a distance of four kilometres to water the saplings. They were also protected from grazing cattle by fencing them with thorny shrubs.

The saplings were planted mostly during monsoon season so that sufficient rain water would be available for them to grow. By the onset of the next monsoons, the saplings had invariably taken root.

They covered the whole stretch. The saplings grew to become trees, the trees grew tall, and the couple rejoiced in their children. Chikkanna died in 1990, but Thimmakka continued her life’s work.

Thanks to her unusual labour of love, this illiterate woman is the idol of every environmentalist.

A "living monument of our times" is how the citation of National Citizen's Award describes Thimmakka.

Titles like Vanamitra, Nisargaratna, Vrikshasri and Vrikshapremi, an award by Karnataka government, among many others have been conferred on her.
For one who barely set out of her village once a year, Thimmakka now finds her way to Delhi and Mumbai for tree planting ceremonies. Thimmakka is busy spreading the message of afforestation. She unassumingly suggests that everybody should leave behind some asset for humanity.
She barely ekes out a living from various awards and a monthly pension. But nothing stops her from dreaming big. Now, she has made her will to open up a hospital in her village, so that no poor is affected.

Saalumarada Thimmakka, Hulikal-561101, Kudur, Hubli, Magadi Taluk, Bangalore-Rural dist.

Archive Video: http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/thimmakka-the-tree-lady/79918

*age discrepancy

‎"We need to be the change we wish to see in the world" - Mahatma Gandhi

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Monks Fight to Get Cambodian Forests on the Carbon Market

For years, the guardians of Sorng Rukavorn forest have drifted through the muted greens and grays of the underbrush in their saffron robes. In the far north of Cambodia, the monks live in what should be peaceful isolation, but all too often they have had to fend off incursions on this land. Using their authority as holy figures, they've turned away illegal loggers - among them, they say, armed police and soldiers - as well as local officials who have tried to wrestle control of the public land to parcel it out for their own profit.

Now the monks are looking for backup. They plan to institutionalize their communal ownership of the forest and shared profit from its 44,479-acre bounty by demarcating it an international ecological asset. Sorng Rukavorn is one of 13 community forests spreading over 168,032 acres in Oddar Meanchey province that is being registered as a bank of carbon credits. Under this nascent international tool of climate change mitigation referred to as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), governments and companies in industrialized nations can pay developing countries to cut carbon emissions on their behalf by not cutting trees. Deforestation accounts for roughly a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity, according to the UN. Trees and plants absorb the gas - produced by a number of natural and manmade processes, from the combustion of fossil fuels by factories, cars and volcanic eruptions, to the flatulence of livestock - and are therefore essential to balancing its levels in the atmosphere.

Full article here

Painting by Ivan Shishkin

Earth could be 'unrecognizable' by 2050

Earth could be 'unrecognizable' by 2050, experts say

The earth could become "unrecognizable" by 2050, if a growing affluent global population keeps consuming more resources, researchers warned at a major US science conference.

"By 2050 we will not have a planet left that is recognizable" if the global population continues to increase, said Jason Clay of the World Wildlife Fund Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The United Nations has predicted the global population will reach seven billion this year, and climb to nine billion by 2050, "with almost all of the growth occurring in poor countries, particularly Africa and South Asia," said John Bongaarts of the non-profit Population Council.

Meanwhile, as income is expected to rise over the next 40 years -- tripling globally and quintupling in developing nations, people tend to consume more meat, eggs or dairy products, which would cost more grains to produce, adding more strain to global food supplies.

"We want to minimize population growth, and the only viable way to do that is through more effective family planning," said John Casterline, director of the Initiative in Population Research at Ohio State University.

It takes around seven pounds (3.4 kilograms) of grain to produce a pound of meat, and around three to four pounds of grain to produce a pound of cheese or eggs, AFP reported.

"More people, more money, more consumption, but the same planet," Jason Clay told AFP, urging scientists and governments to start making changes now to how food is produced.

Population experts called for more funding for family planning programs to help control the growth in the number of humans, especially in developing nations.

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Painting by Ivan Shishkin

Brazil judge blocks Amazon Belo Monte dam

A Brazilian judge has blocked plans to build a huge hydro-electric dam in the Amazon rainforest because of environmental concerns.

Federal judge Ronaldo Desterro said environmental requirements to build the Belo Monte dam had not been met.

He also barred the national development bank, BNDES, from funding the project.

The dam is a cornerstone of President Dilma Rousseff's plans to upgrade Brazil's energy infrastructure.

But it has faced protests and challenges from environmentalists and local indigenous groups who say it will harm the world's largest tropical rainforest and displace tens of thousands of people.

Judge Desterro said the Brazilian environmental agency, Ibama, had approved the project without ensuring that 29 environmental conditions had been met.

In particular, he said concerns that the dam would disrupt the flow of the Xingu river - one of the Amazon's main tributaries - had not been met.

His ruling is the latest stage in a long legal battle over Belo Monte. Previous injunctions blocking construction have been overturned.

The government says the Belo Monte dam is crucial for development and will create jobs, as well as provide electricity to 23 million homes.

The 11,000-megawatt dam would be the biggest in the world after the Three Gorges in China and Itaipu, which is jointly run by Brazil and Paraguay.

It has long been a source of controversy, with bidding halted three times before the state-owned Companhia Hidro Eletrica do Sao Francisco was awarded the contract last year.

Celebrities such as the singer Sting and film director James Cameron have joined environmentalists in their campaign against the project.

They say the 6km (3.7 miles) dam will threaten the survival of a number of indigenous groups and could make some 50,000 people homeless, as 500 sq km (190 sq miles) of land would be flooded.

Article here

Painting by Ivan Shishkin

New Data Highlights Role of Forests in Fight Against Climate Change

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15, 2010 - The USDA Forest Service today released new estimates of the total carbon storage of U.S. forests, highlighting the important role America's forests play in the fight against climate change. According to the new data, 41.4 billion metric tons of carbon is currently stored in the nation's forests, and due to both increases in the total area of forest land and increases in the carbon stored per acre, an additional 192 million metric tons of carbon are sequestered each year. The additional carbon sequestered annually offsets roughly 11 percent of the country's industrial greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of removing almost 135 million passenger vehicles from the nation's highways.

"America's forests play a critical role in combating climate change, collectively capturing and storing significant amounts of carbon that would otherwise pollute the atmosphere," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "Forest management on all lands can contribute significantly toward cooling a warming planet, and this new information will assist the public and policy makers as we work to address this significant issue."

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Painting by Ivan Shishkin
View of Valaam Island. Kukko. 1859.

Obama administration reverses Bush wilderness policy

DENVER (Reuters) - The Obama administration has restored U.S. land managers' powers to curb development on vast tracts of America's back country, undoing what conservation groups called a "no more wilderness" policy put in place under President George W. Bush.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced on Thursday that the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will again have the authority to set aside large areas of federally owned territory in the West that it deems deserving of wilderness protection.

It would still be up to Congress to decide whether to grant those areas formal wilderness status, putting them permanently off-limits to energy development and other commercial uses.

An official wilderness designation by law prohibits the building of roads or other structures, or any human activities that would alter the natural landscape, such as farming, logging, mining, or oil and gas drilling.

In years past, lands classified by BLM as eligible for such protection were to be protected as de facto wilderness until or unless Congress acted.

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Painting by Ivan Shishkin
View in the Vicinity of St. Petersburg. 1856

Churches Across Faith Traditions Plant 12,000 Trees

In keeping with the biblical mandate to care for God's creation, thousands of people from ten faith traditions have come together to plant 12,000 trees in northern Michigan.

About 100 congregations from Presbyterian, Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, United Methodist Church, Jewish, and Quaker traditions, among others, and nonprofit organizations are participating in a tree project led by the interfaith coalition Upper Peninsula Earth Keepers.

Volunteers planted the first of 12,000 12- to 16-inch White Spruce and Red Pine trees during the blessing of the trees ceremony on Wednesday in observance of Earth Day.

"This is about more than putting trees in the ground – it’s an expression by the faith communities of love and care for God’s creation," said Kyra Fillmore, Catholic Earth Keeper team member and the project’s communications coordinator for faith communities, according to the Presbyterian News Service.

Thousands of volunteers will be picking up tree seedlings on May 2 and planting the equivalent of a forest across 400 miles the following day.

"Our interfaith tree-planting effort is more than another conservation project," said the Rev. Jon Magnuson, co-founder of the Earth Keeper initiative and executive director of the Cedar Tree Institute, as reported by the Presbyterian News Service. "With prayers, hymns and the blessing of 12,000 seedlings, it's a gentle proclamation of a new consciousness and commitment among our faith communities to care for God's creation."

Being stewards of God's creation has taken on greater significance as more Christians view global warming as a serious problem.

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The Painting is by Henry Hillier Parker

Volunteers prepare trees and shrubs for Arbor Day sale

Soil and Water Conservation District workers observed Earth Day on Wednesday by preparing more than 1,000 tree and shrub orders for distribution.

Seedlings and transplants will be distributed from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Saratoga County Fairgrounds.

More than 1,000 people have pre-ordered bare root plants. There will also be a variety of evergreen and deciduous bare root trees, shrubs and ground covers available for purchase at low cost on a first come, first served basis.

The species available are well suited for conservation purposes, and provide food and cover for songbirds and other wildlife.

This week is National Volunteer Week and the district relies heavily on such people to accomplish its missions and goals. All board members are volunteers — Ray Bowman, Don Monica, Tom Wood, Richard Hunter, Victoria Garlanda, Jay Matthews and Phil Griffen. These and other people helped prepare the tree and shrub orders for this weekend’s distribution.

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The Painting is by Henry Hillier Parker

For Md. Grad Student, a Time to Plant

David Ruppert's approach to preserving family trees is a bit unconventional. He plants them by the hundreds.

The Kensington native's quest to preserve and propagate the seed of local vegetation began years ago on his family's Olney property, when a magnificent white oak began to fail and produced in its death throes an abundance of acorns -- a large yield known as a mast.

"Sometimes, when they know it's the end, they'll produce a last huge one," Ruppert said of the phenomenon. "It was a truly gigantic white oak, probably one of the biggest white oaks in the county."

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The Painting is by Henry Hillier Parker

Tree planting caps governor's busy Earth Day

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger marked Earth Day on Wednesday in part by helping one local company reach its goal of planting 1 million trees.

Schwarzenegger, in one of three Earth Day appearances statewide, helped plant the 1 millionth tree at Shaklee. He was joined by company officials and Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement and winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.

Maathai is the "global ambassador" for the company's "A Million Trees, A Million Dreams" campaign. Her group, based in Kenya, started in 1977 with tree plantings and is a way to empower women by getting them involved with the environment.

Shaklee makes items such as vitamins, household cleaners and personal hygiene products. The company said that in 2000 it was the first company in the world to be certified as being "climate neutral" by the Climate Neutral Network, with the tree plantings being counted toward that effort.

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The Painting is by Henry Hillier Parker

Supervisors protect historic tree in Knightsen

When George Knight settled in far East County more than 100 years ago, he planted a eucalyptus tree to mark his land.

On Tuesday, Contra Costa supervisors made it possible for the tree to stand tall for years to come in the town named for Knight.

The tree, located on Delta Road near Bartels Drive, was designated a Heritage Tree by supervisors, protecting it from being cut down and preserving a piece of Knightsen's history.

Some say the tree, with a trunk 22 feet round and an estimated height of 50 feet, can be seen from Byron.

The decision was made despite the tree straddling county and privately owned land.

The owner, Huguette Bartels, wrote a letter opposing the designation, but in the end, the community's voice was louder.

"This is something that the community supports," Supervisor Mary Piepho said, "and because of that, this is something the board supports."

Bartels is still responsible for maintaining the tree but does not have any additional obligations, said conservation and development director Catherine Kutsuris. A permit is needed for Bartels to do anything significant to the tree.

In her letter, Bartels wrote that she opposed the designation because it was a "dangerous and very messy tree" that was "not native of California." She also said the cost of upkeep was too much for her to handle.

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The Painting is by Ivan Shishkin