arborvitae Issue 44 - Forests: a legal challenge
IUCN | 01 Nov 2011
This issue of arborvitae, produced in conjunction with IUCNs Commission on Environmental Law and the IUCN Environmental Law Centre, looks at how forest law is impacting local forest management around the world and how reforms are progressing in several countries.It also include articles on the following: Natural resource laws undermined in Uganda and law and local forest management in Africa
 Uganda | Forests and Woodlands | National Policies and Environmental Laws

States Urged to Participate in Reducing Carbon Emissions
AfricaFiles | 26 Feb 2011
Nigeria's Minster of Environment has urged states within the nation to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation and thus, limit the environmental effects of carbon emissions.
 Nigeria | Environmental Impacts | Forests and Woodlands | Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Forest Fest Makes Headway in Protection, Poverty Reduction
Inter Press Service | 07 Feb 2011
Political leaders have committed to ramping up restoration of the world's forests and tackling poverty in forest communities as part of pledges made at the ninth session Forum on Forests, which wrapped up at the United Nations headquarters in New York last week.
 Forests and Woodlands | Governance | Poverty Reduction

What are REDD and REDD+?
IRIN News | 31 Jan 2011
Forests help sustain life on earth by absorbing carbon dioxide from the air, and also provide a home to many communities that depend on them, yet they become one of the biggest sources of harmful carbon dioxide when they are destroyed.
 Biodiversity | Clean Development Mechanism | Climate Change Adaptation | Climate Change Convention and Kyoto Protocol | Forests and Woodlands

Somalia: Charcoal trade booming despite ban
IRIN News | 21 Jan 2011
Although the export of charcoal has been banned by Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), the trade is booming in areas controlled by Islamist opposition groups, with locals saying volumes have risen sharply in past months.
 Somalia | Economics and the Environment | Energy | Forests and Woodlands | Health and Environment | Loss of Vegetation

In Brief: Spotlight on forests
IRIN News | 11 Jan 2011
Forest clearing to make way for agriculture continues at a high rate, according to a UN Food and Agriculture Organization report published before the launch of 2011 as the UN International Year of Forests on 2 February. Between 2000 and 2010, the world's total forest area decreased at an annual rate of 5.2 million hectares, equivalent to the size of Costa Rica, states the 2010 Global Forest Resources Assessment.
 Biodiversity | Conservation | Deforestation | Forest Quality | Forests and Woodlands

Southern Africa Collectively Gearing Up For REDD
Inter Press Service | 03 Dec 2010
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is moving to support its member countries to tap into benefits from the reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) framework.
 South Africa | Climate Change Adaptation | Climate Change Convention and Kyoto Protocol | Climate Change Impacts | Forests and Woodlands

Nigeria/Benin: Global Warming - Edo Govt to Plant One Million Trees
AllAfrica.com | 02 Dec 2010
Benin — Edo State Government has said it would plant at least million trees a year as a measure to reduce the effect of climate change. The process, according to Governor Adams Oshiomhole, has already started in 2009 with the planting of 250,000 forest tree seedlings in the state forest reserve and later increased to 400,000 at Ologbo and South Ibie Forest Reserve.
 Benin | Nigeria | Climate Change Adaptation | Forests and Woodlands

UGANDA: Carbon Finance May Not Benefit Forest Communities
Inter Press Service | 30 Nov 2010
Uganda has lost more than two million hectares of forest since 1990, mostly converted to farmland by a growing population of smallholders. Carbon finance through the REDD programme is often presented as one way to arrest this destruction, but only if the benefits clearly translate to the grassroots.
 Uganda | Conservation | Forest Quality | Forests and Woodlands

Tanzania: Protecting the World's Most Expensive Tree
ips.org | 22 Nov 2010
Moshi, TANZANIA, With the snow-capped peak of Mount Kilimanjaro providing a backdrop under simmering tropical sunshine, a group of women in Mijongweni village break into song. The song, in Swahili, praises the benefits of protecting the environment and living in harmony with nature for the survival of generations; values vital to the survival of one of the rarest hardwood trees in the world, the African blackwood.
 Tanzania | United Republic of | Environmental Awareness | Education