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The fire burning near Kirkland Lake, Ontario is continuing to grow, prompting emergency services to plan how to evacuate areas of Kirkland Lake if necessary.

Right now the fire is 3 kilometres from town and is 2757 ha in size.  If the fire moves to within 1 km of Kirkland Lake, then evacuations will be announced.

If an evacuation is necessary, it is likely the citizens will be moved south because there are several fires of concern burning to the north, especially in the Timmins area.

An Emergency Area Order has been declared for some areas of Kirkland Lake, limiting access to all forest roads and crown land. (view the emergency order)

A total of 300 people have been evacuated from Goldthorpe road (West side of Kirkland Lake), Goodfish Lake and other northerly lakes.

For information regarding evacuation and road closures in the Kirkland Lake area, please call the Kirkland Lake Municipal Office at 705-568-9365 ext. 221.

Ontario’s Northeast Region

Currently there are 45 active fires in the province of Ontario, 17 of which are listed as Not Under Control. There are 28,870 hectares burning in the province, predominantly in the Northeast Region.

The Timmins 09 fire is now 21,088 ha in size. Karen Passmore, a spokesperson with the Ministry of Natural Resources in Timmins, said they’re, “really concerned …about the changing wind direction and whether or not it will push the fire towards town.” This fire grew significantly overnight and is now 45km in length.

Highway 101 is closed near Timmins due to fire. Another fire near Gogama has closed a section of Highway 144. For highway closure information, please call the OPP at 1-888-310-1122

To see Ontario’s current fires on a map, visit Current Forest Fire Situation in Ontario

Read more:
Current Fire Situation (Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources)
The latest from CJKL in Kirkland Lake (on Facebook)
Kirkland Lake prepares for evacuation (CBC)

Kirkland Lake fire update is a post from: ForestTalk.com

The Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment will be hosting a series of open meetings seeking public input on proposed new legislation called “The Wildfire Act” to replace The Prairie and Forest Fires Act, 1982, one of the oldest pieces of fire legislation in Canada, which has not kept pace with current wildfire practices.

The new legislation promotes the government goals of sustainable economic growth and ensuring public safety in the following areas:

• Increases efficiency and reduction of administrative requirements;
• Places responsibility, appropriately shared by government with individuals, stakeholders or other jurisdictions;
• Enhances protection for public safety and the environment;
• Clarifies responsibility for wildfire administration and suppression within municipal jurisdictions;
• Enhances prevention initiatives within wildland urban interface areas; and
• Administers industrial and commercial operations under a results based regulatory framework.

The ministry began consultations within government in March 2012 and is now embarking on extensive public consultation meetings during the months of May and June with stakeholders, First Nations and Métis people, industry, municipalities, communities and the public in general.

“The Ministry of Environment is moving forward to address long-needed changes to the current legislation,” Environment Minister Dustin Duncan said. “I encourage the public and stakeholders to actively participate in the review process and work with the province to develop new and modernized legislation.”

Public meeting are not being scheduled during peak wildfire season. Consultations with northern communities will resume in September.

Discussion papers highlighting key changes within the Act and information on the Provincial Wildfire program are available on the Ministry of Environments website at www.environment.gov.sk.ca.

Upcoming Meetings

Prince Albert, Wednesday May 23, PA Exhibition Centre – East Room, 7pm
Nipawin, Thursday May 24, Evergreen Centre, 7pm
Saskatoon, Wednesday May 30, Travelodge Hotel – Hercules Room, 7pm
Regina, Monday June 4, Travelodge Hotel – Burlington Room, 7pm
Hudson Bay, Tuesday June 5, Hudson Bay Curling Club, 7pm
Meadow Lake, Thursday June 7, Lutheran Church Hall, 7pm

New wildfire act being proposed in Saskatchewan is a post from: ForestTalk.com

Forestry authorities in Northwestern China's Gansu province said Monday that they have started the first wide-ranging census and DNA collection on endangered wild giant pandas.

Zoologists will comb forests in southern Gansu's city of Longnan and nine counties in the Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Gannan to track individual wild pandas, said Ouyang Feng, who works with the giant panda protection office of the Gansu provincial forestry bureau.

A forest fire broke out at 9:35 am in Northeast China'a Heilongjiang province Tuesday morning, local authorities said.

A total of 4,040 people are working to tame the forest fire which rips through Tayuan forest in the Greater Hinggan Mountains in the province.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Environmentalists have slammed the environmental impact report of the controversial Mae Wong Dam, saying it was poorly conducted and underestimated the likely damage to wildlife and forest ecology.

The project's Environmental and Health Impact Assessment (Ehia) study was put up for final public review at a forum in Lat Yao district yesterday.

Around 1,000 people and some veteran environmentalists attended the forum, organised by Creative Technology Consultant, which was commissioned by the Royal Irrigation Department (RID) to conduct the study.

Fire crews gained a fragile upper hand against stubborn Arizona wildfires on Monday, but cautioned that tinder-dry conditions and high temperatures could jeopardize containment efforts in coming days.

Blazes in rugged, mountainous areas of Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado have forced the evacuation of several small towns and torched more than 65 square miles (168 square km) of forest, brush and grass in the U.S. Southwest.

Indonesia's government said on Monday it would protect a strip of peatland in Aceh province at the centre of an international storm over palm oil development, in a case that had become a test of the country's commitment to halt deforestation.

Indonesia imposed a two-year moratorium on clearing forest last May under a $1 billion climate deal with Norway aimed at reducing emissions from deforestation, but the former governor of the country's westernmost Aceh province breached the ban by issuing a permit to a palm oil firm to develop the peatland.

Coastal seagrass can store more heat-trapping carbon per square mile (kilmometre) than forests can, which means these coastal plants could be part of the solution to climate change, scientists said in a new study.

Even though seagrasses occupy less than 0.2 percent of the world's oceans, they can hold up to 83,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometer, a global team of researchers reported Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience.

That is more than twice the 30,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometer a typical terrestrial forest can store.

Forest fire About 700 people in Yebilaptsa, Zhemgang are battling a forest fire, which has been raging for the last two days, and has burnt about ten acres of chirpine forest under the Royal Manas national park.

Students from Yebilaptsa schools, and police and volunteers from nearby areas, have been battling the flames, since it was first reported around 1am on May 20. Trong gup reported the fire to the fire division, the park’s assistant forester Sangay Choda said.

The fire started below the Panbang-Gomphu road, a few kilometres away from Yebilaptsa hospital.

A Malaysian researcher known for finding new amphibian species said Friday his team had discovered at least one new species of frog in studies he said highlight Borneo's rich biodiversity.

Indraneil Das of the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak said the brown frog is just 4-5 centimetres (1.6-2.0 inches) long and makes a distinctive high-pitched chirp.

His team discovered the frog during an expedition to the rainforests of Mount Singai in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo island in September 2010. They later found another of the same species in nearby Kubah National Park.

The personnel of Forest Department and the police on Monday evicted a group of tribespeople, owing allegiance to the pro-CPI(M) Adivasi Kshema Samiti (AKS), who had encroached upon 17.65 hectares of vested forest at Thumbassery, near Makkiyad, under the North Wayanad Forest Division in the district.

In the peaceful action, the police arrested 60 people, including 42 men, 14 women, and four children. The eviction team destroyed the 40 huts put up by the tribespeople. (The eviction team had held discussions with AKS leaders and members before the eviction, sources said.).

SILIGURI, 21 MAY: To bring under control "resident" wild elephants that frequently damage houses and crops and even kill people, the state forest department is planning a project. The objective is to confine elephants known to be trouble-makers ~ particularly tuskers ~ in a forest area and keep them there, inside the fencing. State forest minister Hiten Barman said his department had sent two proposals recently to the Central government, to build "rescue" centres for the notorious elephants.

Laos has been participating in the international REDD negotiation process under the UNFCCC since 2007 and recently started using multilateral negotiating blocks such as the ASEAN, G-77 and China, and LDC to support and push for an agreement on REDD. Laos’ Climate Change Strategy, National Socio-Economic Development Plan 2011-15, the Agricultural Development Strategy 2011-20 and the Agricultural Master Plan 2011-15 all indicate Laos’ interest in carbon market mechanisms and REDD+. The forestry and land use sector has been identified as the biggest greenhouse gas emitter in Laos and also holds the largest mitigation potential while promising environmental and socio-economic benefits at the same time. The government’s goal is to increase forest cover to 70 percent by 2020 and use REDD+ and other mechanisms to achieve that goal. Laos aims to use fund-based mechanisms in the short-term and allow participation in the voluntary market, but will use compliance markets in the longer term when international protocols have been agreed. 

 

Laos is actively preparing itself for REDD+ implementation with support from the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), the Forest Investment Program (FIP), other bilateral and multilateral donor projects and INGO initiatives. Laos became one of the first 14 member countries of the FCPF in July 2008 and its REDD Readiness Preparation Proposal (R-PP) was completed and accepted by the FCPF Secretariat in late 2011. FCPF will start implementation activities in 2012. The FIP has selected Lao PDR as a pilot country and the FIP investment plan was approved by the FIP sub-committee at its meeting on 31 October 2011 with some minor comments to be addressed. The Department of Forestry, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation will coordinate FIP implementation. Further funding will be provided under the FIP Dedicated Grant Mechanism to support indigenous and community participation in FIP programs.

 

Various other bilateral and multilateral donor programs provide substantial financial and technical support to Lao PDR’s REDD+ readiness development. Major programs include the Climate Protection through Avoided Deforestation (CliPAD) Program, three programs supported by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Sustainable Forestry and Rural Development (SUFORD) Project and the regional Lowering Emission in Asia’s Forests (LEAF) program. There are also numerous sub-national activities which include one afforestation-reforestation project in the CDM pipeline and numerous REDD+ feasibility studies and pilots initiated by donor projects, INGOs and the private sector at project, village and provincial levels.

 

The Laos REDD country database outlines the background situation, the institutions, the legal framework of the country, plans and policies, activities and financing options related to forest carbon/ REDD. The database also summarises developments relating to the following elements of REDD:

• Management and coordination
• Stakeholder engagement and participation
• Rights and tenure
• Compliance (incentives and enforcement)
• Reference level
• Safeguards
• MRV

 

Please click here to view the Laos database.

Sri Lanka was awarded observer status to the UN-REDD Programme Policy Board in October 2009. The Forest Department (FD) with support from UN-REDD is currently drafting a National Joint Programme (NJP) for building REDD readiness over the period 2011-14. Sri Lanka’s REDD Readiness Proposal is to be finalized and submitted to the UN-REDD 7th Policy Board meeting by October, 2011.

 

Sri Lanka has been actively engaged in the international REDD negotiation process since October 2008. The Sri Lankan Government is implementing a set of initiatives to resolve environmental issues in its development policies and for reducing deforestation and forest degradation, although no specific REDD+ initiatives have been developed yet.

 

The Forest Department also explored joining the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) but the FCPF is currently closed to new REDD country participants. Sri Lanka has had little forest carbon activity at the sub-national level so far.

 

The Sri Lanka REDD country database outlines the background situation, the institutions, the legal framework of the country, plans and policies, activities and financing options related to forest carbon/ REDD. The database also summarises developments relating to the following elements of REDD:

• Management and coordination
• Stakeholder engagement and participation
• Rights and tenure
• Compliance (incentives and enforcement)
• Reference level
• Safeguards
• MRV

 

Please click here to view the Sri Lanka database.

China’s three main carbon markets – the Beijing Environment Exchange, Shanghai Environment Energy Exchange and Tianjin Climate Exchange – were all formed within two months of each other, towards the end of 2008. At that point, the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (EU-ETS) was still struggling to recover from a crash a year previously, which had seen the price of carbon allowance plummet from 30 euros to just a few cents. 

 

The World Bank estimates that carbon trading globally could be worth US$3.5 trillion by 2020, meaning it would overtake oil to become the world’s largest market. Spurred by this rosy outlook, China had 100 carbon exchanges in operation or under preparation by late 2011. Most were quickly taken over by speculators, however, while genuine carbon trading remained rare. None of the three main exchanges saw a single real carbon trade in its first year of operation.  

 

On 29 October last year, the National Reform and Development Commission (NRDC), China’s top economic planner, announced that carbon trading trials would run in seven of the country’s most important cities and provinces: Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangdong, Hubei and Shenzhen. Each of these locations already has its own carbon emissions exchange. (Compared with the existing exchanges, these trial platforms will enjoy policy-created-demand and guaranteed customers, and so in theory be free from worry about their sales performance.) 

 

But as part of a clampdown on price manipulation and dubious trading practices, on November 11 last year the State Council – China’s highest administrative organ – announced a ban on trading in shares of assets except from stocks and permitted financial products, effectively blacklisting the core business of carbon markets.

 

The Chinese stock market offers one of the strangest examples in that it has become a reverse barometer of the Chinese economy; it keeps going down while the Chinese economy is booming.

 

Please click here to read the original news item.

Forestry Research Associates (FRA) has stated that the signing of a sustainable forestry agreement between China, the Republic of Korea and Japan is an “extremely positive move” in the fight against desertification and deforestation.

 

The three nations met at the Fifth Trilateral Summit Meeting last week. They each signed an agreement to try to increase sustainable forestry management in their countries in a move that will help to bring down their carbon emissions as additional trees means more CO2 being absorbed from the atmosphere.

 

The joint statement of cooperation will ensure that all three nations take the conservation and management of sustainable forests seriously and as part of their wider environmental goals. The statement made by the three countries stated: ‘We, the leaders of the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Korea and Japan, recognizing that the realization of economic, social and environmental benefits of forests is one of the important means to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) given the renewable, diverse and multi-functional nature of forests.’

 

Please click here to read the original news item.

Coastal seagrass can store more heat-trapping carbon per square mile (kilmometre) than forests can, which means these coastal plants could be part of the solution to climate change, scientists said in a new study.

 

Even though seagrasses occupy less than 0.2 percent of the world’s oceans, they can hold up to 83,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometer, a global team of researchers reported Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience.

 

That is more than twice the 30,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometer a typical terrestrial forest can store. Seagrasses can be damaged by human activity, such as pollution from oil spills and by boat propellers and cargo that can rake through seagrass meadows and cut through roots.

 

Please click here to read the original news item.

The Indonesian government said on Monday it would protect a strip of peatland in Aceh province at the center of an international storm over palm oil development, in a case that had become a test of the country’s commitment to halt deforestation. 

 

Indonesia imposed a two-year moratorium on clearing forest last May under a $1 billion climate deal with Norway aimed at reducing emissions from deforestation, but the former governor of the country’s westernmost Aceh province breached the ban by issuing a permit to a palm oil firm to develop the peatland. 

 

This prompted legal action from environmental groups and probes by the police and several government bodies. The resulting preliminary investigation showed that the permit was issued to palm oil firm Kallista Alam without following proper procedures, a government official said. He said the peatland would again be listed as a protected area.

 

Please click here to read the original news item.

FAO, in collaboration with forest management, climate change experts and relevant stakeholders, is developing guidelines to assist forest managers to effectively respond to climate change challenges and opportunities. These guidelines will include actions related to both climate change adaptation and mitigation and will be relevant to all types of forests, all management objectives and all types of managers.

Main Topic: 

• Climate Change

thesaurus: 

• Forest Management
• Climate Change
• Climate Impacts
• Climate Adaptation
• Climate Mitigation
• Private Sector
• Public Sector
• NGO
• Forests

Publisher : 

• FAO

Place of Publication: 

• Rome

Attachment(s):  forest management and climate change.pdfMark Content Private(Internal): Email Alert: 30Publication Date: 01/05/2012