VENEZUELA

Venezuela is one of the 10 most biodiverse countries in the world and has extensive rainforests. Forests cover over 50% of the country. However, these forests are increasingly threatened by development and each year approximately 290,000 ha of forest are destroyed or degraded by logging, mining and oil drilling. Between 1990 and 2005 Venezuela lost 8.3% of its forest cover, over 4 million ha. This placed Venezuela in the top 10 countries for deforestation between 2000 and 2006, according to the FAO.

Energy is Venezuelas most important export and environmentalists are alarmed by President Chavez's plan to build a huge pipeline to carry natural gas 5,000 miles south. They fear the project could damage the Amazon rainforest by pollution waterways and creating roads that would attract developers and settlers, opening the potential for destruction of forest areas.

Mining operations have also given cause for concern to environmentalists. Informal gold and diamond miners have been particularly active in the southern state of Bolivar and have frequently engaged in violent conflicts with indigenous communities, and caused environmental degradation in the region through pollution of local waterways and deforestation. The government's response has been contradictory ' on the one hand, taking steps to gain control over mining in the region, and, on the other, granting 40% of an indigenous reserve to industrial miners and loggers in 1997. However, in 2008 the government banned gold mining in the reserve and said it would not issue new permits for open-pit mines anywhere in the country.

Logging is still underdeveloped in Venezuela. Historically, logging was concentrated in the south west of the country but, as a result of over-harvesting, is now focussed in the north and east. More than 35% of the country is protected on paper but both legal and illegal logging, and other forms of development, frequently take place in parks and reserves.

On a more positive note, Venezuela is a member of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (ACTO) which has developed criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management and a platform for dialogue between national forestry authorities, and is examining the potential for digital surveying of the regions vegetation cover. ACTO believes that the REDD mechanism provides an opportunity for Amazon countries to design policies to rectify environmental degradation.

DOCUMENTS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
01/12/2012	Atlas of Pressures and Threats to Indigenous Lands in the Brazilian Amazon This report presents a complementary and integrated view of different forms of intervention in the Amazon ...	Amazonian Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information (RAISG)
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NEWS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
19/02/2013	International raid targets illegal timber trade Interpol has announced that it arrested nearly 200 people in a wide-ranging international operation against ...	BBC
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06/12/2012	Deforestation rate falls across Amazon rainforest countries The average annual rate of deforestation across Amazon rainforest countries dropped sharply in the second ...	Mongabay.com
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25/05/2012	Sustainable agro forestry development in the indigenous community Piaroa de Gavilan in the Amazon state, Venezuela Traditionally, indigenous populations of the Venezuelan Amazon, which were mostly nomadic until a few ...	GEF (Global Environment Facility)
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14/05/2012	Representatives of the Amazon countries participate in the Monitoring Project Steering Committee The first meeting of Steering Committee of Project “Monitoring Deforestation, Land Use and Land ...	ACTO (Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation)
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16/02/2012	ACTO countries explore possible cooperation to combat illegal timber harvesting The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) held a workshop on the control of illegal harvesting ...	IISD Biodiversity Update
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15/12/2011	Little headway in Durban on deforestation: experts Brasilia - The UN's Durban conference on climate change failed to make enough headway in efforts ...	AFP
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27/11/2011	8 Amazon countries pledge more coordination in rainforest conservation Eight Amazon countries pledged greater cooperation in efforts to protect the world's largest rainforest ...	Mongabay.com
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14/05/2010	Armed Colombian loggers arrested in Venezuela Caracas – Nineteen undocumented Colombians armed with rifles were arrested while engaged in illegal ...	Latin American Herald Tribune
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19/02/2009	Amazon rainforest in big trouble, says UN Economic development could doom the Amazon warns a comprehensive new report from the United Nations Environment ...	Mongabay.com
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12/02/2009	Payments for eco services could save the Amazon Paying for the ecological services provided by the Amazon rainforest could be the key to saving it, reports ...	Mongabay.com
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21/05/2008	Venezuela bans gold-mining in forest reserve, will not issue new open-pit permits Venezuela banned gold mining in its Imataca Forest Reserve and said it will not issue new permits for ...	Mongabay.com
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07/06/2007	Cedar, rosewood fail to win protection at U.N. talks The Hague, The Netherlands - Bids to curb logging of South and Central American cedar and rosewood trees, ...	Reuters (UK)
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PRESENTATIONS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
17/01/2008	Forest Law Application Initiative - ALFA	Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (Carlos Aragon)
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EVENTS

DATE	TITLE
Wednesday 20th June 2012	ACTO Member Countries Vision of Amazon Forests. Monitoring Deforestation This official Rio+20 side event is organised by ACTO (Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation). ACTO ...
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LINKS

TITLE	DESCRIPTION	REPORT
RainFor - the Amazon Forest Inventory Network	The Amazon Forest Inventory Network is an international network that has been established to understand the biomass and dynamics of Amazonian forests. Since 2000 we have established a systematic framework for long-term monitoring of this region, which holds more biodiversity, water, and vegetation carbon, than any other region of the planet. RAINFOR has worked step-by-step, including partners across the nations of Amazon, taking account of the potentially strong modulating role of environmental variables like soil nutrition, and the need to help develop a new generation of Amazon ecologists. RAINFOR is curently supported by the Andes and Amazon Initiative of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.	Broken link
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