Bolivia’s Amazon Is Quietly Changing Hands

LOS 20 PRINCIPALES PAÍSES DE EUROPA CON MÁS BOSQUES PLANTADOS

Cómo los neumáticos amenazan la selva tropical | DW Documental

Se está destruyendo la selva tropical para producir neumáticos de caucho natural. Pero hay alternativas. El 70% del caucho se destina a la industria del neumático. Pero en abril de 2024, el Parlamento de la UE votó a favor de una ley sobre la cadena de suministro.

Cuando la ley entre en vigor, ningún neumático producido en Alemania o importado a Europa podrá contener caucho natural procedente de la selva tropical. Los fabricantes de neumáticos, como Continental y Michelin, están obligados a hacer transparentes sus cadenas de suministro. Esta certificación plantea un problema a los productores. El caucho natural casi siempre comienza su viaje en Asia. Sin embargo, las cadenas de suministro desde el cauchero hasta Europa, pasando por diversos intermediarios, han sido hasta ahora poco transparentes. De ahí que las empresas busquen alternativas.

Pirelli trabaja con productores sostenibles de Tailandia. Michelin intenta aumentar la vida útil de los neumáticos con alta tecnología, y Continental investiga una materia prima sustitutiva junto con el Instituto Fraunhofer: el diente de león ruso. Cultivado a gran escala en Europa, debería contribuir a sustituir al caucho natural. Además, los neumáticos desechados, recauchutados y reciclados, podrían volver al mercado, en lugar de tirarse a la basura. ¿Un verdadero cambio de mentalidad o sólo un lavado de cara ecológico?

Uruguay depredando con Arboles de Monocultuvo - Why does this forest look like a fingerprint?

New forests for greater climate protection? | DW Documentary

Planting trees will save the climate. At least, that’s the claim of many environmental organizations. As a result, massive reforestation efforts are taking place worldwide. But just how effective are these campaigns? 

It sounds tempting: If we can just plant enough trees, we can halt climate change. And we won’t even need to change our lifestyles that much. It’s a theory promoted by science: A Swiss university study made headlines in July 2019 when it said that 900 million hectares of land are available for reforestation worldwide, and that reforesting this area would compensate for two thirds of CO2 emissions caused by human activity. 

But is it really that simple? How can conflicts over land use be avoided? Who will mediate between farmers and tree planters? How many billions of trees need to be planted to balance emissions? And are reforestation projects really of long-term use for our climate? This film reportage goes in search of answers in Australia and India.

 

Climate change: the trouble with trees | The Economist

Summer 2019 - More than 38,000 fires raged across the Amazon. Fires that were man-made. Over the past 50 years almost 17% of the world’s largest rainforest has been cleared. And globally deforestation has almost doubled in just five years.
Since the start of human civilisation it’s estimated that the number of trees around the world has fallen by almost half. Clearing forests increases carbon-dioxide levels but planting them could store away some of the carbon already in the atmosphere.
This woman runs safaris in England. Guests are not only here to see wild animals - they’re here to see wild trees.

Almost 20 years ago Isabella Tree—yes that is her real name-handed 1,400 hectares of Sussex farmland back to nature, by doing, well nothing. She thinks this is the best way to use the land to help tackle climate change.
To stabilise the climate global carbon emissions need to drop to net zero by 2050. Simon Lewis is a professor of global change science.
And there’s never been more global ambition to plant trees. In 2014, 51 countries pledged to plant over 3.5m square kilometres of forest by 2030 - an area slightly larger than India. The 2030 target looks likely to be met. But there’s a catch.

Monoculture tree plantations like eucalyptus grow quickly but the trees are harvested every ten or so years releasing much of the carbon stored in the tree back into the atmosphere - which means that, according to some studies they’ll store only around one-fortieth of the carbon natural forests do over the long term.
In fact, those pledges to plant millions of trees actually promise to store 26bn tonnes less carbon than they could. Sometimes the motives for planting forests are less green than they might appear. By 2020 Ireland ought to have cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 20% below 2005 levels. But at current rates it will have reduced them by only 5%. Planting forests might help Ireland avoid massive penalties for missing EU targets because the potential carbon these forests could store in the future can be counted as a carbon credit today. In the 1920s Ireland had the lowest forest cover in Europe at around 1%. That’s now risen to 11% and the government has set a target to cover 18% of the land with forest by 2046.

And now local community groups are protesting against these monoculture tree plantations. They say they’re doing more harm than good.
Tree-planting programmes invariably have an impact on the people living nearby. In east Africa one project is demonstrating what can be achieved when there’s genuine buy-in from the local communities. Green Ethiopia is a mixed-tree planting charity.
The land is communally owned and co-operatives of local women receive benefits for planting trees which are protected from being harvested. Here conserving is just as important as planting.

Green Ethiopia assesses whether the condition of the land is good enough to regenerate by itself. When it is—on about a third of the area the charity runs they leave it alone. Just like Isabella Tree, back in England.
Monoculture plantations are often preferred because they make money. So some experts are looking to a future where carbon payments could create financial incentives for natural forests. Ultimately though, the trouble with trees tackling climate change is space

El impacto social de la palma aceitera en Indonesia

¿Por qué Indonesia es el principal productor mundial de palma aceitera? Antropóloga Tania Murray Li estuvo en lamula.pe para hablar acerca de esta realidad.