July 2011

A string of recent events indicates that Amazonian deforestation and violence against environmental activists are on the rise.
The Brazilian Congress’s lower house approves a bill that weakens protection of the rainforest—which may explain the drastic increase in deforestation, as land clearers anticipate amnesty for their crimes.

Reforming forest tenure systems and securing forest ownership rights can significantly improve peoples’ livelihoods and enable them to gain income from forest products says a new United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report .

nvestments in forestry have many desirable features. Under certain conditions, forestry investments yield attractive returns to investors and can contribute substantially to the economic, social and environmental development of countries.

he Environmental Paper Network (EPN) publishes the State of the Industry Report as a resource for policy-makers, non- governmental organizations (NGOs), the paper industry, large volume paper purchasers and other stakeholders to monitor key indicators of environmental sustainability in the North