Brazil

Environmentalists in Brazil won a major victory when a legislative proposal to open more areas to logging and harvesting was put on hold till March. If the Congress approved the bill, it would have been "the largest known setback for Brazilian environmental laws", said Andre Lima, a representative from Brazil's Social Environmental Institute.

The cutting edge

it is an attempt to achieve environmentally-friendly logging. Mil Madeireira, a Brazil-based forestry company, has evolved a way to cut trees in such a way that when a tree is cut, it falls in an area where few other trees would be affected. The company's logging method has been acknowledged by conservationists in their fight to stop the devastation of the world's largest tropical rainforest.

China

Concern for the country's deforestation and resulting damage to the ecosystem is becoming a major issue in China, reports the China Daily. The government and the people are considering it important to improve the forest ecosystem and increase forest cover from the present 13.9 per cent to 19.4 per cent within the next 10 years, according to the state administration of forestry. Four million hectares of land have been forested and 2.4 billion trees have been planted during the past 20 years.

Brazil

Fifteen years ago, Brazilians did not even have a name for the lush, tropical rainforest that tumbles from seaside mountains to the ocean along much of the nation's Atlantic coast. They came up with a name just in time. The Mata Atlantica or the Atlantic rain forest, is now one of the five most-threatened regions in the world, according to environmentalists.

Gdp adn Forests

Only one-third of the estimated 4.20 million hectare (ha) forest area, or 4.8 per cent of Pakistan's total geographical area, is productive. The remaining two-third is maintained for environmental protection. According to sources, the forest sector, owing to very small productive forest area in the country, contributed about 0.1 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 0.4 per cent to the agricultural sector during the fiscal year 1998-99. In the Northwest Frontier Province, forest covers about 1,214,000 ha, while in Baluchistan it covers only 333,000 ha.

Return of the woods

Teak trees sold

After experiencing a 10-year low in economic growth, the cash-starved Sri Lanka government has decided to sell its valuable teak trees. This decision has sparked a major controversy with environmentalists criticising the move. A committee, appointed by president Chandrika Kumaratunge, said the government could earn US $35 million by selling the country's teak resources. The committee recommended that laws be changed to allow the felling of 70 per cent of the teak trees in national parks, said forest conservator W Wickramasinghe.

Forests: lost in the wild

Forests are the planet's largest and most important ecosystems. They exert a profound influence on the structure and function of the human habitat locally and globally -- providing more than environmental and material services. In short, they help conserve the human habitat. Unfortunately, in the post-industrialisation period humans have failed miserably to live in tune with nature. Increasing population pressures, urbanisation, and logging activities have caused damage from which forests may never recover.

TALIBAN SEEK HELP

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement urged the international community to help it extinguish a huge fire raging in the eastern forests. Reports on what caused the fire in the Paich valley of Kunar province are sketchy, but several thousand families have fled their homes and international help is required to douse the blaze, a Taliban official said. He said the fire has spread to other parts of the valley, covering hundreds of hectares. At least four people have been killed. Kunar is a key source of timber exports to Gulf countries.

Lone crusader