Kroger, America’s largest grocery chain, stops carrying Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) products due to deforestation concerns

The move comes after a Greenpeace campaign targeting Paseo, a toilet paper brand owned by APP and sold by Kroger in the USA. APP has been targeted by environmental groups for its ongoing destruction of rainforests and peatlands in Indonesia to produce paper products.

http://news.mongabay.com/2011/1222-kroger_app.html

APP has missed three deadlines — 2004, 2007, and 2009 — for phasing out logging of natural forests.

Brazil: Amazon Destruction at Lowest Level:

It’s good to hear postive news every now and again… Annual destruction of the Amazon rain forest fell to its lowest recorded level this year, Brazilian authorities said Monday, hailing an enforcement crackdown for the drop.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/brazil-amazon-destruction-lowest-level-15091043#.Tt4VUlZa8dU

Brazil’s government has stepped up enforcement of environmental laws in recent years, mostly by sending armed environmental agents into the jungle to carry out large raids on deforestation hotspots.

Observing Deforestation from Space: Global climate change can now be observed from space. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) launched a new technology that can survey the world’s forests via satellites and provide a more accurate, global picture of common threats to the environment, such as deforestation, degradation or illegal logging.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106036