Amazon rainforest mapped in unprecedented detail

Scientists record Amazon’s structure and biodiversity by bouncing laser beams off forest 400,000 times per second. Huddled in a twin-engine Dornier 228 aeroplane called the Carnegie Airborne Observatory, the scientists are capturing multicoloured images of the Peruvian rainforest canopy that verge on the psychedelic.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jan/27/amazon-rainforest-map-biodiversity-detail?newsfeed=true

As well as measuring how the forest ecosystem is responding to the 2010 Amazon drought – the worst ever recorded – the technology accurately monitors deforestation and degradation, and has revealed unexpectedly high levels of biodiversity in high forest on the Andean rim of the Amazon basin.

The data could prove critical to the United Nation’s Redd (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) initiative, which will be the biggest future source of funding to protect the planet’s tropical forest.

Deforestation: Nigeria Ranked Worst in the World. But the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) stressed that there was still hope for the country, unless it starts paying urgent and serious attention to nature. The Project Director, IITA, Mr. John Peacock, explained that over 90 per cent of Nigeria’s forest has been lost as a result of deforestation.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/deforestation-nigeria-ranked-worst-in-the-world/103321/

Problem is that in poor rural areas of the world, where finding clean drinking water may sometimes be a challenge, deforestation is not the most important topic for day to day survival and well being.

US, Indonesia sign $30m debt-for-nature swap :: (AFP) The United States forgave almost $30 million in Indonesian debt, diverting the funds to tropical forest conservation on Borneo.

The debt-for-nature swap is authorised under the US Tropical Forest Conservation Act, aimed at mitigating climate change by reducing deforestation which releases greenhouse gases.

I find this to be great news. It makes me realize that governments and the financial industry need to devise more creative financial strategies to preserve the world’s forests.