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Brazil has near-record year for Amazon deforestation
by AFP Staff Writers
Rio De Janeiro (AFP) Aug 6, 2021

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon reached near-record levels for the 12 months through July, according to figures released Friday, the latest bleak news for the world's biggest rainforest under President Jair Bolsonaro.

A total of 8,712 square kilometers (3,364 square miles) of forest cover -- an area nearly the size of Puerto Rico -- was destroyed from August 2020 to July 2021, according to satellite data from Brazilian space agency INPE's DETER monitoring program.

That is the second-worst year on record for the program's August-July reference period, behind only the 9,216 square kilometers deforested the previous year -- the worst for the Brazilian Amazon since the monitoring program was launched in 2015.

The latest annual figure is an increase of more than 90 percent since 2017-2018, the last full year before Bolsonaro took office.

The far-right president has slashed environmental protection programs and pushed to open protected lands to agribusiness and mining.

Environmentalists say that is having a disastrous impact on the Amazon, a critical resource in the race to curb climate change.

"The rainforest's future is currently in the hands of land speculators, illegal loggers and gold miners," said Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, a coalition of environmental groups.

"The Amazon has become a free-for-all for environmental crime, in partnership with the current government," he said in a statement.

Facing international pressure to improve his administration's environmental record, Bolsonaro accepted the resignation in June of environment minister Ricardo Salles.

The regulation-slashing Salles, who was one of Bolsonaro's most controversial ministers, is under investigation for allegations of involvement in a timber trafficking scheme.

The Climate Observatory said the new minister, Joaquim Leite, "has not yet made a single move to undo his predecessor's policies."

Two recent studies have found heavily damaged portions of the Amazon are now emitting more carbon than they absorb, a worrying sign the rainforest may not act as a curb on global warming much longer.

The DETER figure is for the period through July 30, meaning the final number is likely to be slightly higher.

Band of merry nudists anger locals in Robin Hood woods
London (AFP) Aug 6, 2021 - Nude ramblers are leaving regular visitors to Sherwood Forest hot under the collar, with naked sightings now an "everyday" occurrence in the famed home of English outlaw Robin Hood.

One unimpressed regular has launched a petition to demand that Nottinghamshire County Council and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), which run the nature reserve, "stop promoting nudity" in the ancient wood.

"In recent times, nudists have started walking around here, sometimes in groups of up to 12 men," said petition organiser Robert Robinson.

"My wife used to regularly jog around the forest, but stopped when she came across this group of men," he added, explaining she had been "confronted by a naked man in the bushes who was 'self-gratifying' himself as she went by".

Sightings of naked ramblers are now an everyday occurrence, he added, blaming the RSPB for saying that nudists are welcome.

"There is no need to walk about naked. Clothes do not stop you enjoying the forest," he said.

The ancient forest in central England is home to the 1,000 year-old Major Oak tree, which, according to legend, was Robin Hood's main hideout.

The heroic outlaw, accompanied by Maid Marian and his band of Merry Men, is said to have robbed the rich and given to the poor, outwitting his nemesis the Sheriff of Nottingham.

The RSPB said it requested "considerate behaviour from everyone" and that "small numbers" of nudists had enjoyed walking in quieter parts of the forest for decades.

"Their presence is tolerated -- and indeed legal -- provided they adhere to certain behaviours," a spokeswoman said in a statement.

She said the alleged incident referred to in the petition was never reported to the site managers and if it had been, would have been referred to the police.

"The RSPB does not tolerate sexual, abusive or intimidating behaviour of any kind under any circumstances and anyone encountering this behaviour should contact the police as soon as possible," she added.


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WOOD PILE
Russia's forests store more carbon than previously thought
Paris (ESA) Aug 05, 2021
Russia has the largest area of forest on the planet, with more than a fifth of the world's trees. A new study, led by Russian scientists using data from ESA's Climate Change Initiative, has produced new estimates of biomass contained in Russian forests, and confirms that the vast forested area is storing more carbon than previously estimated. The study, published last month in Nature Scientific Reports, estimates that Russian forests contain 111 billion cubic metres of wood as of 2014 - which equa ... read more

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