location: Norway

location: Norway

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Norway poised to sail past opposition with deep-sea mining licensing plans
- In June, Norway proposed 386 license areas in the Norwegian Sea for future deep-sea mining activities.
- During the ensuing three-month public consultation period, the government received more than 70 responses from various organizations and members of the public. The responses offered a mix of views: the majority opposed Norway’s deep-sea mining plans, a minority expressed support, and many across the board called for more research.
- One entity criticizing Norway’s plans is the country’s own environment agency, which argued that there’s a lack of knowledge to safely pursue deep-sea mining while protecting the marine environment.
- Norway’s government has stated that it intends to begin issuing licenses in 2025 with a view to starting seabed mineral exploitation in 2030.

How Europe’s only Indigenous group is inspiring a greener Christianity
- The Sámi are Europe’s only recognized Indigenous group, having hunted, fished and herded reindeer across Arctic Europe for millennia before the arrival of Christianity.
- Today, the Sámi are fighting across their territories to resist mining, logging and energy projects that disrupt traditional activities.
- Sámi thinkers and religious leaders are pushing Scandinavia’s national churches to become allies in their fight for self-determination.
- These churches are increasingly interested in better understanding Indigenous Christian theology like that of the Sámi, which may present an alternative to a traditionally anthropocentric worldview. Some churches and followers, however, are not convinced.

Norwegian salmon farms gobble up fish that could feed millions in Africa: Report
- Norwegian salmon farms are taking huge amounts of wild fish from West Africa, mining the food security of the region, according to a report from the U.K.-based NGO Feedback.
- In 2020, the industry produced salmon feed ingredients using up to 144,000 metric tons of small pelagic fish caught along the coasts of West Africa, where they could have fed between 2.5 million and 4 million people, according to the report.
- The analysis comes as the industry faces a wave of public opposition after revelations of high mortality rates and the sale of fish deemed unfit for human consumption, along with accusations of antitrust violations by the European Commission.

EU parliament expresses disapproval of Norway’s deep-sea mining plans
- On Feb. 7, members of the European Parliament voted in favor of a resolution that raises concerns about Norway’s intentions to begin deep-sea mining activities.
- Although the resolution doesn’t hold any legal power, experts say it sends a strong signal to Norway that it doesn’t have the European support it may be relying on.
- Norway’s foreign ministry said that it has taken note of the resolution, adding that, like its European partners, it is committed to “sustainable ocean management.”
- In January, Norway voted to allow deep-sea mining exploration to commence in its waters.

‘Really a sad day’ as Norway votes to allow deep-sea mining in Arctic waters
- Norway’s parliament has voted to allow deep-sea mining to commence in the Norwegian Sea, a move that has garnered criticism from scientists and environmentalists.
- While the Norwegian government insists that it can conduct deep-sea mining in a sustainable way, critics say these activities will put marine ecosystems and biodiversity at risk.
- Norway will open a 281,000-square-kilometer (108,500-square-mile) area of the ocean for deep-sea mining, which mostly falls along its continental shelf.

Norway proposes opening Germany-sized area of its continental shelf to deep-sea mining
- Norway has proposed opening up a Germany-sized part of the Norwegian Sea to deep-sea mining.
- The area holds considerable quantities of minerals needed for renewable energy technologies, such as magnesium, cobalt, copper, nickel and rare-earth metals.
- The Norwegian government and industries say they will take a precautionary approach to this deep-sea mining.
- However, critics say plans should be progressing more slowly to properly assess the marine environment and the possible impacts of mining, and the Norwegian government received numerous responses during a public consultation period arguing that the country should not mine its deep sea.

Sámi rights must not be sacrificed for green energy goals of Europe (commentary)
- Last week, the European Commission released the Critical Raw Materials Act for minerals used in renewable energy and digital technologies.
- It mandates that EU countries should be extracting “enough ores, minerals and concentrates to produce at least 10% of their strategic raw materials by 2030,” and part of that looks likely to come from mines on Indigenous Sámi land.
- Mines already sited there have caused pollution, devastated ecosystems, poisoned reindeer forage, and taken away their reindeer grazing areas. “How can this transition be sustainable if it destroys our land and violates our Indigenous and human rights?” a new op-ed asks.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Indonesia opens its ‘ocean account’ for sustainable marine management
- The Indonesian government is designing a new scheme to measure over time the benefits provided by the country’s marine and coastal ecosystems for sustainable ocean management.
- The ocean accounting system will become the standard indicator for the government in policymaking and zoning when it comes to the country’s fisheries, conservation areas, and marine essential ecosystems such as seagrass meadows, mangrove forests and coral reefs.
- Indonesia’s ocean account initiative is also part of an international collaboration under the Global Ocean Accounts Partnership (GOAP), which aims to “develop globally recognized and standardized methods for ocean accounting by 2023.”
- Indonesia has partnered with another GOAP member, Norway, on long-term technical cooperation on ocean accounting.

For Norway salmon farms giving up deforestation-linked soy, Cargill proves a roadblock
- Two major salmon producers in Norway have eliminated all links to deforestation in their soy supply chains, according to new analysis from eco-watchdog Rainforest Foundation Norway.
- This is due in large part to a ripple effect down the value chain, after Brazilian soy suppliers to the European salmon industry made no-deforestation commitments earlier this year.
- However, at least seven of the biggest salmon producers in Norway have yet to become fully deforestation-free, according to the report.
- This is because they buy feed from Cargill Aqua Nutrition, whose parent company, U.S.-based Cargill, has been linked to deforestation in South America.

Billions in fishing subsidies finance social, ecological harm, report finds
- A new report found that the world’s top 10 fishing nations are spending billions of dollars on harmful fishing subsidies to not only exploit their own domestic waters, but to fish in the high seas and the waters of other nations.
- Experts say these subsidies are propping up fishing industries that would not be viable without financial support, and contributing to overcapacity, overfishing, and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
- The report also found that harmful fishing subsidies could also be leading to food security issues in some of the world’s least-developed countries where foreign fleets surpass domestic fleets in terms of subsidies and catches.
- The issue of harmful fishing subsidies will be addressed at an upcoming meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that will take place online on July 15.

Norwegian poultry producer bars Brazilian soy due to deforestation risk
- Norwegian poultry producer Gårdsand has developed a new feed recipe that excludes Brazilian soy due to concerns about deforestation risk.
- According to Rainforest Foundation Norway, Gårdsand reformulated its poultry feed as a response to rising deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
- Gårdsand’s move follows a decision last year by Bremnes Seashore, a salmon producer, to exclude Brazilian soy from its fish feed, while the soy suppliers to the Norwegian aquaculture companies Caramuru, Imcopa and CJ Selecta have indicated they will do the same.
- Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has been climbing steadily since the mid-2010s, with the sharpest acceleration occurring since Jair Bolsonaro assumed the presidency in January 2019.

Governments, companies pledge $1 billion for tropical forests
- The U.S., U.K. and Norwegian governments, working with private companies, have launched a carbon credit program that they say will pay double the going rate over existing schemes.
- Others involved in the Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest finance (LEAF) coalition include Amazon, pharmaceutical giants GSK and Bayer, and consumer goods multinationals Nestlé and Unilever.
- The scheme is built on the REDD+ program, which has allowed companies to compensate for greenhouse gas emissions generated in their operations by paying tropical forest countries to keep an equivalent volume of carbon locked up in their forests.
- Its proponents say it improves on REDD+ by working with larger units of land, thus addressing the issues of leakage (deforestation being displaced to a nearby forest patch), and other methods are meant to ensure additionality (avoiding credits being issued from forests that would have been conserved anyway).

‘Minke whales for dinner’: Norway’s controversial whale hunt is still on
- Norway has announced that it will target up to 1,278 common minke whales in its upcoming whaling season, which is the same quota as the past two years.
- While the Norwegian government says its whaling program is sustainable, some scientists, conservationists and animal welfare experts counter this claim.
- These anti-whaling advocates also point to a growing body of evidence that suggests that whales play a pivotal role in regulating the marine ecosystem, and that whales are worth more alive than dead.
- There has been a global moratorium on commercial whaling since 1986, but Norway chooses to reject this ban.

Through war, wildfire and pandemic, the world’s seed vaults hold strong
- The global network of plant gene banks has shown resilience and cooperation, growing in importance as an estimated 40% of plant species are threatened with extinction and the crops used to feed the world become less diverse.
- A newly published paper documents the rescue mission of seeds from a gene bank in Syria to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway, and discusses the extensive global system for conserving crop diversity and why it is imperative to do so.
- While Svalbard’s vaults store crop seeds, the Millennium Seed Bank at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is the world’s largest wild seed conservation project, now celebrating its 20th anniversary.
- Gene banks are an important part of conservation, but they are not sufficient on their own, one expert says; the wild places and agro-ecosystems these plants come from must also be protected.

481 and counting: Norway’s whaling catch hits four-year high
- New data show that Norway has killed 481 minke whales so far this year, a number that surpasses the toll from the past three years.
- Norway continues its commercial whaling operation despite the International Whaling Commission placing a global moratorium on commercial whaling in 1982.
- While some whale meat and whale products are sold within Norway, the country also exports it to countries like Japan, Iceland and Denmark’s Faroe Islands.
- Whaling industry representatives say that whale meat sales have gone up in Norway during the COVID-19 pandemic, while conservationists and animal welfare advocates say that most Norwegians are not interested in consuming whale meat.

Svalbard reindeer rebounding better than hoped after nearly going extinct
- The wild Svalbard reindeer (Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus) seems to be on the path to recovery following near extinction in the early 20th century.
- Now, some 22,000 Svalbard reindeer are estimated to occur across the islands, a population size that’s about twice as high as a previous estimate based on opportunistic counts from 1968 to 2008, a new study has found.
- The latest estimates also show that the Svalbard reindeer now occupies its entire historical range across Svalbard; areas from where the reindeer was once wiped out by hunting have the potential to support more animals, the researchers estimate.
- While Svalbard reindeers are doing better than many of their cousins, the subspecies’ recovery could be under threat from human-induced climate change.

Commitments worth $63 billion pledged for ocean protection
- The sixth annual Our Ocean conference took place in Oslo, Norway, on Oct. 23 and 24.
- Governments, businesses, organizations and research institutions made 370 commitments toward improving marine health and productivity that were worth more than $63 billion.
- The commitments, a considerable boost from the $10 billion committed last year, reflect a new level of urgency around ocean protection as its role in mitigating climate change becomes ever clearer.
- Focus areas of the conference included building the sustainability of the global fishing industry and reducing plastic pollution.

New research teases apart complex effects of naval sonar on whales
- A pair of recent studies shows the unique responses of different whales to sonar, typically used by navies to detect submarines.
- Sonar sounds have been linked to hearing loss, deadly mass strandings and interference with whales’ communication with each other.
- One of the studies found that the distance the whales were from sonar sounds didn’t matter — they generally fled whether they were close to or far from it.
- Another study showed that sonar affected the feeding patterns of deep-diving blue whales, but not those that were feasting on krill at the surface.

Citigroup limits financing for mines that dump tailings at sea
- Following pressure from advocates, Citigroup said last month that it will not fund any future mining projects over $50 million that dispose of mine waste in the oceans.
- Tailings, a fine-grained, often toxic slurry left over after the processing of mined ore, are still disposed of in oceans, lakes and rivers in several countries.
- Mines in Papua New Guinea, Norway and Chile are proposing to dispose of tailings in the ocean.
- Local communities are often most affected by pollution from mines and have vocally opposed tailings disposal in the ocean in Norway and Papua New Guinea.

Norwegian government report sharply critical of funding for tropical forest conservation
- A recent report by Norway’s Office of the Auditor General had some tough criticisms for the country’s International Forests and Climate Initiative (NICFI), one of the chief funders of REDD+ initiatives around the world.
- The Office of the Auditor General said that its investigation found “that progress and results are delayed, that current measures have uncertain feasibility and effect, and that the risk of fraud is not well-managed.”
- Responding to the report, Norway’s Minister of Climate and Environment, Ola Elvestuen, said that it provided some useful insights and that its recommendations would be followed up on. However, Elvestuen said he disagreed with many of the report’s key conclusions.

Religious leaders mobilize to protect indigenous people and forests
- Religious leaders joined forces with indigenous peoples from Brazil, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Meso-America and Peru at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo in 2017 to launch the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative (IRI).
- The IRI plans to mobilize high profile religious leaders to intervene in policy forums and advocate for forests and indigenous people with support from UN Environment.
- It has been estimated that one third of climate change mitigation is from tropical rainforests and securing land rights for indigenous peoples is an effective and low-cost method of reducing carbon emissions.

Rainforests: the year in review 2017
- 2017 was a rough year for tropical rainforests, but there were some bright spots.
- This is Mongabay’s annual year-in-review on what happened in the world of tropical rainforests.
- Here we summarize some of the more notable developments and trends for tropical forests in 2017.

Spot the pattern: Whisker-prints and citizen science
- University of Manitoba researchers are pioneering the use of whisker pattern analysis software to identify and track polar bears in Canada.
- Whisker print identification can aid polar bear researchers in investigating bear behaviors and interactions, assessing and mitigating potential human-polar bear conflict, and evaluating the potential impacts of climate change on the bears.
- The integration of citizen science into the Whiskerprint Project has helped researchers to collect the bears’ images for identification and raise awareness of the importance of polar bear conservation, while enhancing STEM education for local students.

Warnings and protests mark Brazilian President Temer’s trip to Norway
- Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon from 2015 to 2016 jumped 29 percent over the previous year, the highest rate of loss recorded since 2008.
- In a letter sent to Brazilian Minister of Environment Jose Sarney Filho, Norway’s Environment Minister, Vidar Helgesen, noted the “worrying upward trend” in deforestation since 2015 and warned that “Even a fairly modest further increase” in deforestation would mean that no further payments from Norway to Brazil would be forthcoming.
- A number of Norwegian environmental and rights-based organizations, including Greenpeace, Norwegian Church Aid, Norwegian Solidarity Committee for Latin America, and Rainforest Foundation Norway, say they are planning a protest in front of the Prime Minister’s residence in Oslo on Friday.

Religious leaders: Rainforest protection a ‘moral imperative’
- The three-day event, held in Oslo, Norway, includes discussions between NGOs, government agencies, universities, indigenous groups and major religions.
- The event marks the launch of the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative, which seeks to build on the moral case for rainforest protection with tangible metrics and goals.
- Indigenous and religious leaders from 21 countries attended the event, organized by the UN Development Programme, Rainforest Foundation Norway and Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative.

Norway bans government purchasing of palm oil biofuel
- The growth of the palm oil industry has been blamed for a host of damaging environmental impacts, such as deforestation and carbon emissions.
- Research indicates that biofuel made with palm oil may be even worse for the climate than fossil fuels.
- The Norwegian parliament responded to these impacts by voting in a regulation to its Public Procurement Act to stop using biofuel palm oil-based biofuel. The resolution further stipulates that the “regulatory amendment shall enter into force as soon as possible.”
- Conservationists laud the move, but say more countries need to follow suit. They recommend the EU’s biofuel policy be updated to reflect concerns about palm oil.

More than 300 reindeer killed by lightning in Norway
- The Hardangervidda lightning strike was unusually deadly, officials say.
- The mass death may have occurred because as herd animals, reindeer tend to huddle together during bad weather.
- Officials have sent a team of people to take samples from the bodies and send them to the Norwegian Veterinary Institute for research.

Fish-farm escapees are weakening Norwegian wild salmon genetics
- Norwegian scientists conducted a genetic analysis of 21,562 wild-caught juvenile and adult Atlantic salmon from 147 rivers — a geographical sampling representing three-fourths of Norway’s salmon population.
- The researchers found genes from farmed salmon in every wild population they tested, and “significant” genetic mixing in nearly half the rivers they sampled.
- “The extensive genetic introgression documented here poses a serious challenge to the management of farmed and wild Atlantic salmon in Norway and, in all likelihood, in other regions where farmed-salmon escape events occur with regularity,” the authors write in the paper.

Norway, U.S. pledge to coordinate forest protection efforts
- The governments of Norway and the United States on Wednesday pledged to strengthen efforts to protect and restore tropical forests.
- The agreement was signed at the Norwegian government’s Oslo REDD Exchange
- The agreement called for cooperation on a number of points, including both positive incentives for forest conservation, like mobilizing private sector investment for forest conservation, and punitive approaches like tougher law enforcement.

Norway pledges $14M to strengthen forest monitoring platform
- The Norwegian government is providing World Resources Institute with 115 million kroner over the next three years to strengthen Global Forest Watch, a platform for monitoring the world’s forests.
- The grant will support Global Forest Watch’s tools that help monitor commodity supply chains, including those of companies that have adopted “zero deforestation” policies to eliminate forest conversion from food and fiber production and sourcing.
- The grant well exceeds the 68 million kroner Norway provided to help launch and expand Global Forest Watch between 2013-2015.

Norway commits to zero deforestation
- The Norwegian parliament’s Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment made the pledge in a recommendation on the government’s Action Plan on Nature Diversity.
- The Committee requested in the recommendation that the government “impose requirements to ensure that public procurements do not contribute to deforestation of the rainforest.”
- The Rainforest Foundation Norway, which has worked for a number of years to secure a zero deforestation commitment from the Norwegian government in regard to its supply chains, said in a statement that “Norway is the first country in the world to commit to zero deforestation in its public procurement.”

World’s largest sovereign wealth fund just dropped 11 companies over deforestation
- Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), which manages $828 billion worth of funds, released its annual report for 2015 today, revealing that six palm oil companies, four pulp and paper companies, and one coal company were dropped from its investment portfolio.
- Lars Løvold, director of the NGO Rainforest Foundation Norway, said that the GPFG’s actions show that companies involved in deforestation risk being cut off from international investment.
- Despite dropping these holdings, the fund still has as much as $13 billion invested in high deforestation risk business sectors.

Norway pledges $50m to fund Indonesia’s peat restoration
- The pledge follows last year’s fire and haze disaster, which burned 2 million hectares of land, mostly peat, in the archipelago.
- The money will support the newly created Peat Restoration Agency.
- The U.S. government also pledged $17 million for peatland restoration in Indonesia’s Jambi province.

The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund just announced a groundbreaking human rights policy
- Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) manages the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global, which has funds invested in some 9,000 companies in 75 countries.
- As far as NBIM is concerned, the responsibility to respect human rights applies to all companies.
- NBIM outlined its expectation that companies not only integrate their human rights policies into their operations, but that they also report on their human rights performance on a regular basis and establish grievance mechanisms for individuals and communities impacted by their operations.

Norway extends forest conservation initiative
- At the Paris climate convention on Friday, Norwegian Minister of Environment and Climate Tine Sundtoft said the country would extend its International Climate and Forest Initiative through 2030.
- Norway has already put 17 billion krone ($2.5 billion) into supporting forest conservation initiatives.
- Norway said most of its spending will be targeted “towards paying for verified emissions reductions, in line with relevant UNFCCC decisions”. Norway already has performance-based agreements for reducing deforestation with Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, Guyana, Indonesia, Liberia, and Ethiopia.

Personalizing climate change: spy cameras document polar bear behaviors on and off sea ice
- Polar bears are threatened by loss of Arctic sea ice that reduces their prey base and hunting options.
- Spycams and remote cameras take us into the lives of these animals as they face the amplified effects of climate change on the polar fringes of the planet.
- Cameras have also observed polar bears scavenging and changing their movement and feeding habits in response to ice distribution.

Norway pledges $47M/yr to help Congo countries save forests
- Norway and several other countries and multilaterals have created the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI).
- CAFI will function as a trust fund to support efforts to reduce deforestation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Gabon, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo.
- Deforestation is currently on the rise in the region.

Surprise! Animals are active and plentiful during harsh, dark Arctic winters
- Scientists conducted a series of extensive surveys in Kongsfjorden in Svalbard, Norway, during three consecutive winters from 2013 to 2015.
- Despite the sunless skies during polar winters, various animals — from tiny plankton to large seabirds — seem to be up and moving in the Arctic Ocean, according to the study.
- Most animals in the ocean continued to feed, grow, and reproduce during the polar nights, and some species were more abundant in winter than at other times of the year, the study found.

Norway pays Brazil $1B to fulfill pledge for curbing deforestation
- Norway ponies up $1B to fulfill pledge to Brazil for success in reducing deforestation.
- Forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon in 2014 was 75% below the 1996-2005 baseline.
- But there are signs deforestation may be rising again.

Arctic countries prohibit commercial fishing in North Pole
- In July, all five countries bordering the Arctic Ocean signed an agreement that prohibits commercial fishing in the international waters of the central Arctic Ocean.
- Until recently, this region remained covered by ice all year round, but the retreat of sea ice due to global warming has prompted predictions that it may become ice-free during the summers, opening it to fishing and other forms of exploitation.
- A lack of scientific information about fish stocks in the region and how they may be responding to the rapidly changing ecosystem prompted the countries to sign the declaration.

Norway, Colombia target partnership to save rainforests

Choco rainforest in Colombia. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Norway and Colombia are in talks to establish a partnership to protect the South American country’s rainforests. According to a joint statement issued last week, the two countries hope to establish a climate and forest partnership by the end of 2015. If other Norwegian agreements are […]
Aru, Mentawai peoples hit the big screen in Oslo

“We will protect our forests until the bitter end,” the above text reads. A pair of documentaries about small-island indigenous peoples in Indonesia were screened in Oslo on Tuesday as part of a global roadshow leading up to the UN Climate Change Conference to be held in Paris in December. The shorts are part of […]
World’s largest sovereign wealth fund takes stand against deforestation

Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global — the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund — is adopting standards to avoid investing in companies linked to tropical deforestation, sending a strong signal that forest destruction is not an acceptable practice for responsible businesses, reports Rainforest Foundation Norway. Conducting an analysis of the Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global’s (GPFG) […]
‘How about that extension?’ activists ask as forest exploitation moratorium deadline nears

Produced in English by Philip Jacobson Less than two months before the expiration of an Indonesian forest exploitation moratorium set up under an agreement with Norway, activists called on Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar to extend the prohibition, as she promised to do after taking office last year. They also called on Siti […]
Arctic upheaval: new book outlines challenges at the top of the world

Chukotkan dancers. Subsistence hunting will be increasingly difficult for the Inuit who depend on marine mammals in the Arctic to provide them with food and materials for clothing. Photo by: Edward Struzik. For most of us, the Arctic is not at the front of our minds. We view it as cold, stark, and, most importantly, […]
Norway sovereign fund drops coal, tar sands, gold-mining companies

Alberta tar sands. Photo courtesy of Dru Oja Jay, Dominion. In its first-ever report on responsible investing, Norway’s pension fund announced last week that it has divested from 114 companies in the past three years due to concerns over global warming, deforestation, and sustainability as well as long-term financial viability. Worth a staggering $861 billion, […]
Norway asked to divest from company linked to Malaysian official

Activists have petitioned the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund to drop its investment in a company they say is linked to large-scale corruption in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. In a letter published this week, the Switzerland-based Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) and Norway-based FIVAS recommended that Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global sell its $11 million […]
Accounting for natural capital on financial exchanges

Maliau Falls in Borneo. The global economy depends on natural capital such as freshwater. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Last month, Norway’s stock exchange, the Oslo Børs, introduced a way for investors to use their money to promote sustainability. A new list by the stock exchange highlights green bonds, financial products issued by companies to […]
Despite high deforestation, Indonesia making progress on forests, says Norwegian official

Norwegian ambassador to Indonesia Stig Traavik commutes to the office by bike every day. Jakarta’s poor air quality pushes many residents to wear face masks on a daily basis. Despite having a deforestation rate that now outpaces that of the Brazilian Amazon, Indonesia is beginning to undertake critical reforms necessary to curb destruction of its […]
Turning point for Peru’s forests? Norway and Germany put muscle and money behind ambitious agreement

Norway pledges $300 million if Peru tackles deforestation crisis by 2021 From the Andes to the Amazon, Peru houses some of the world’s most spectacular forests. Proud and culturally-diverse indigenous tribes inhabit the interiors of the Peruvian Amazon, including some that have chosen little contact with the outside world. And even as scientists have identified […]
Leaders pledge to end deforestation by 2030

Cleared timber plantation and peat forest in Indonesia. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Dozens of companies, non-profit organizations, and governments pledged to work together to halve forest loss by 2020 and end it altogether by 2030. If implemented, the commitment could reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 4.5-8.8 billion tons annually, equivalent to removing a […]
Norway slaughters over 700 whales this season

Norway has its biggest minke whaling season in over 20 years. As of late August, Norway has killed 729 northern minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) during its annual whaling season, the highest number taken since 1993. Norway continues whaling by having filed an “objection” under the International Whaling Commission (IWC), which has banned whaling worldwide aside […]
Norway puts $1.6B into rainforest conservation

Tropical rainforest. Photos by Rhett Butler. Since 2008 Norway has been the single largest foreign donor to tropical forest conservation, putting more than 10 billion Norwegian Krone, or $1.6 billion, toward programs in several countries under its International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI). But how effective have those funds been in actually protecting forests? A […]
Europe votes for an Arctic Sanctuary

Yesterday, the European Parliament passed a resolution supporting the creation of an Arctic Sanctuary covering the vast high Arctic around the North Pole, giving official status to an idea that has been pushed by activists for years. Still, the sanctuary has a long road to go before becoming a reality: as Arctic sea ice rapidly […]
Norway’s pension fund continues to invest in coal companies destroying Indonesia’s forests

Recent deforestation in Sumatra, Indonesia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Norway’s massive sovereign wealth fund is continuing to invest in coal companies that are destroying forests in Indonesia despite divesting from forestry and plantation companies with poor environmental track records, reports the Rainforest Foundation Norway. Analyzing portfolio data released released by the Norwegian Government Pension […]
Norwegian insurance giant blacklists palm oil companies

Fire burning on an oil palm plantation in Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Storebrand, one of Norway’s largest life insurance and pension savings companies, has sold off holdings in eleven palm oil companies due to environmental concerns. In a statement issued last week, Storebrand said it divested after it found the companies had breached […]
Govts pledge $280M to slow deforestation for agriculture

Tropical forest loss by country 2000-2012 The governments of Norway, Britain and the United States pledged $280 million toward a new initiative that aims to reduce emissions associated with forest conversion for agriculture, reports Reuters. The money will come out of previously committed funds for climate change. The initiative, called the BioCarbon Fund Initiative for […]
New corruption allegations in Sarawak energy project

An infrastructure company with ties to Sarawak’s chief minister has just landed a $196 million contract to build transmission lines, sparking new complaints about cronyism and corruption in the Malaysian Borneo state. According to The Sun Daily, Sarawak Cable was recently awarded two contracts by Sarawak Energy, Sarawak’s state-owned energy company, to establish transmission lines […]
Norway blacklists 2 Malaysian logging companies for ‘severe environmental damage’ in Borneo

Norway’s $760 billion pension fund has divested from two Malaysian forestry companies due to ‘severe environmental damage’. On Saturday, the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) — the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund — announced it has sold stakes in WTK Holdings Berhad and Ta Ann Holdings Berhad, Malaysian companies with extensive logging operations and […]
Norwegian Parliament calls for stronger implementation of no-deforestation policy for investments

The Norwegian Parliament has called for the country’s pension fund to strengthen its commitment to avoid investing in companies linked to rainforest destruction. Norway’s $700 billion sovereign wealth fund last year stepped up its no-deforestation policy, asking portfolio companies to disclose their impacts on tropical forests as part of the fund’s risk management strategy related […]

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