Biodiversity under threat news articles

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/04/ancient-woodland-cut-down-biodiversity-offsetting
1. Campaigners attack proposals to allow destruction of ancient woodlands
2. Environment secretary Owen Paterson has suggested 100 new trees could be planted for each ancient one destroyed
3. Critics of the proposal warn that the proposals could result in the destruction of forests dating from around 1600
4. Green campaigners have urged the government not to "gamble" with England's natural heritage after the environment secretary defended plans to allow developers to destroy ancient woodland.
5. Paterson said that "biodiversity offsetting" could accelerate construction, providing jobs and easing the pressure on housing prices.
6. While destroying mature trees was a "tragic loss", replacing each with 100 new ones would "deliver a better environment over the long term"
7. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said any move to build on ancient woodland would be restricted to major projects and would only get planning permission in exceptional cases.
8. While speeding up development was welcome, there was a risk developers were given "carte blanche" to concrete over valuable habitats
9. Offsetting should only be used as a "last resort", policy director Hilary Allison told the Times – criticising Paterson's suggestion that an hour's journey by car would be close enough to do compensatory work.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25623157
1. MPs concerned over environment budget cuts
2. Substantial cuts to the government's environment department budget will hamper its future ability to cope with emergencies such as flooding, MPs fear.
3. Mr Paterson has said resources will be shifted to respond to changing needs.
4. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) budget has been cut by £500m since 2010 and must find £300m in savings by 2016.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24934790
1. The Earth lost 2.3 million square kilometres of tree cover in that period, due to logging, fire, disease or storms.
2. Brazil's progress in reducing deforestation was more than offset by losses in Indonesia, Malaysia, Paraguay and Angola, according to a study in the journal Science.
3. Between 2000-2012 the Earth lost a combined "forest" the size of Mongolia, enough trees to cover the UK six times.
4. But the planet also gained 800,000 sq km of new forest, a net loss of 1.5 million sq km in total.
5. Brazil showed the best improvement of any country, cutting annual forest loss in half between 2003-04 and 2010-11.
6. Indonesia had the largest increase in deforestation, more than doubling its annual loss to nearly 20,000 sq km in 2011-12.
7. In the United States, the "disturbance rate" of south-eastern forests was four times that of South American rainforests - more than 31% of forest cover was either lost or regrown.
8. Paraguay, Malaysia and Cambodia had the highest national rates of forest loss.
9. Overall, tropical forest loss is increasing by about 2,100 sq km per year, the researchers said.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-24950487
1. Brazil says the rate of deforestation in the Amazon increased by 28% between August 2012 and last July, after years of decline.
2. The government is working to reverse this "crime", Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said.
3. Activists have blamed the increase in destruction on a controversial reform to Brazil's forest protection law.
4. Last year Brazil reported the lowest rate of deforestation in the Amazon since monitoring began.
5. The provisional statistics from August 2012 to last July suggest that the area suffering deforestation was 5,843 sq km (2,255 sq miles), compared to 4,571 sq km (1,765 sq miles) in the previous 12 months
6. The 28% rise interrupts a period of declining deforestation which began in 2009. However, it still remains the second lowest annual figure for forest loss in absolute terms
7. The worst year on record was 2004, when 27,000 sq km of forest was destroyed.
8. Environmentalists say the controversial reform of the forest protection law in 2012 is to blame for the upwards trend in Brazil.
9. The changes reduced protected areas in farms and declared an amnesty for areas destroyed before 2008.
10. Agriculture accounts for more than 5% of the Brazilian GDP.
11. The Brazilian government made a commitment in 2009 to reduce deforestation in the Amazon by 80% by the year 2020, in relation to the average between 1996 and 2005.
12. Brazil showed the best improvement of any country, cutting its deforestation rate in half in the period 2000-2012, from approximately 40,000 sq km per year to approximately 20,000 sq km per year.
13. But overall the planet saw a net loss of of 1.5 million sq km of forest - an area the size of Mongolia.

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