Hilario Saant is a community leader in Kapawi Achuar Territory in Ecuador, South America.  He tells, firsthand, the story of his community around the issue of oil extraction and its destruction of community and the forest.  Interviewed by Barry Heidt of Sustainability Action Media with the help of EarthSayers.tv and the Pachamama Alliance in February 2013.   English translation in process.

(short version) The World Resources Institute and partners recently previewed Global Forest Watch 2.0, a powerful new forest monitoring and management initiative, at a side event at the United Nations Forum on Forests 10 (UNFF) in Istanbul. Speakers included:

Zulkifli Hasan: Minister of Forestry, Indonesia
Kerri-Ann Jones: Assistant Secretary for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, U.S. Department of State
Wu Hongbo: Under-Secretary-General, United Nations
Naoko Ishii: CEO and Chairperson, Global Environment Facility
Tim Christophersen: Senior Program Officer, Forests and Climate Change, UNEP
Nigel Sizer: Director, Global Forests Initiative, World Resources Institute

In Irish mythology, trees are a symbol of wealth. The Irish Government is moving closer to a huge sell-off of the public forests managed by Coillte (The Irish Forestry Board) to private investors. An area greater than 1 million acres, equivalent to two medium sized counties will be lost forever. This will include some of our most valuable native woodlands, wild places and some of the last refuges of our native flora and fauna.  Sign petition here.

Interest has been expressed by Swiss finance company Helvetia Wealth - who own the International Forestry Fund (IFF) - chaired by Bertie Ahern, (ex-prime minister of Ireland) as well as The China Investment Corporation.

Uploaded on Mar 7, 2011

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/help...
http://woodlandleague.org/

The Surui Cultural Map shows the Surui tribe of the Amazon's vision of their forest, including their territory and traditional history. To create this map, Surui youth interviewed their elders to document and map their ancestral sites, such as the site of first contact with western civilization in 1969, places where the tribes battled with colonists in the 1970s, as well as places of interest, like sightings of jaguars, capybaras and toucans. To preserve their forest and their livelihood, the Surui are entering the Carbon Credit marketplace with software called Open Data Kit to measure carbon and monitor any illegal logging in their forests using Android smartphones.

Google Earth Outreach gives nonprofits and public benefit organizations the knowledge and resources they need to visualize their cause and tell their story in Google Earth & Maps to hundreds of millions of people.

Introduction to the Ecological Mangrove Restoration (EMR) method and an outline of the project objectives and deliverables. The video was shot in Krabi, Thailand at the March 2012 inception workshop of the the "Mangrove Restoration Project in Asia" which involves four countries,  five partners NGOs and is administered by the Global Nature Fund of Germany. Project Funders include the German Federal Ministry of International Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Foundation Ursula Merz.

Hal Wallis, an "ordinary kid" travels 6 ,000 miles from his home town in the United Kingdom to visit Thailand's threatened mangroves. He finds out about their vital role in the environment and about efforts to preserve and restore them. He interviews Udo Gattenlohner of the Global Nature Fund that coordinates a German funded, international project to  to help restore Asia's lost mangroves.

Related video on the Restoration Project in Asia is on EarthSayers here.

Sustainability: Forest management and Renewal, Biodiversity, Conservation

Yann Arthus-Bertrand was appointed by the United Nations to produce the official film for the International Year of Forests.
Following the success of Home which was seen by 400 million people, the photographer began producing a short 7-minute film on forests made up of aerial images from Home and the Vu du Ciel television programmes. (February 2011)

Sting introduces other artist and business people promoting the Prince's Rainforest SOS program. The Project’s work was largely concluded in Oslo in May 2010.The PRP is now part of The Prince’s Charities’ International Sustainability Unit, a programme of work to help build consensus on how to develop durable solutions which will underpin the mechanisms required to meet the challenges of climate change and natural resource depletion.www.rainforestSOS.org

The Prince's Rainforests Project invited Sarah Brightman to sing at an event they hosted to engage the financial community in the task of finding a solution to the problem of making rainforests worth more alive than dead. This is the film that accompanied her singing. The music is Nella Fantasia - used in the soundtrack of the movie - The Mission, and often called a Hymn To the Rainforest. For more information go here.