Project partners include four SFI Program Participants: Hancock
Timber Resource Group, Lyme Timber Company, LandVest, and Resource Management Service, who will each host a study site.
But the good news for tropical forests was tempered by developments including Indonesia announcing its intentions to open up more than 2 million hectares of carbon - dense peatlands to old palm development; the collapse in law enforcement in Madagascar, contributing to an explosion of commercial
timber (and lemur) harvesting in that country's spectacular rainforest parks; a breakdown at the RSPO meeting over efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from palm oil production; violent conflict in Peru between government security forces and indigenous
groups over land rights and
resource extraction; massive foreign land acquisitions in the Congo Basin; dodgy REDD dealings in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea; and large - scale expansion of oil palm agriculture in the Amazon.