Rain Forest

Deforestation and climate change may sound like familiar concerns to the modern ear. But a team of French scientists is arguing that even 3,000 years ago, humans may have played a role in transforming the Central African rain forest into the savannas we see today. As Bantu farmers expanded south and east into the rain forest in search of fertile agricultural land, they may have created savanna "corridors" that cut into the forest and helped turn that lush landscape into drier grassland, according to a study published online this week in the journal Science.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory may be most famous for sending Curiosity to Mars and Voyager  to the edge of the solar system, but some of its coolest technology is being used right here on Earth. For the last month, a manned C-20A aircraft owned by NASA has been flying a powerful imaging radar system built and managed by JPL over the Americas to collect data on glacier activity, map the coastal mangroves in Latin America, study tiny changes in the Earth's surface caused by the movement of magna beneath active volcanoes, help scientists and government agencies figure out how to improve the levees in New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta, and look for evidence of a 2,000-year-old lost civilization in the Peruvian desert.  The radar's unweildy name is the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar, but it goes by UAVSAR.

Even though rain forests only cover 6% of the world's land surface, they contain more than 50% of the world's species of plants and animals. But the rain forests serve as more than just a home to these species; they also play a vital role in cooling the Earth, supplying oxygen for the planet and providing medicines. To learn more about the rain forest, use direct links on The Times Launch Point Web site: http://www.latimes.com/launchpoint/

New music in Manila is a too-little-looked-at phenomenon. We've been missing something. For a Monday Evening Concerts program, built around the U.S. premieres of works by two Philippine composers, Zipper Concert Hall became, in Jonas Baes' "Patangis-Buwaya," a rain forest. The sounds made by a quartet of low winds and whistles and stones handed out to the audience were so uncannily authentic that all that was said to be missing were the mosquitoes. But the big piece of the night, José Maceda's "Strata," proved an even more peculiar sonic and spiritual wonder.

Brazil will combat rising deforestation in the Amazon by sending additional federal police officers and environmental agents to areas where illegal clearing of the rain forest rose dramatically last year, officials said. Authorities will monitor the areas in an attempt to prevent anyone from planting crops or raising cattle there, Environment Minister Marina Silva said. The new measures were announced after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called an emergency Cabinet meeting because new data showed an apparent reversal of a three-year slowdown in the Amazon deforestation rate.

With the help of Ventura and Los Angeles county agencies, a local artist has devised an art program geared to teaching deaf elementary school kids about the rain forest. Beginning Feb. 15, an artist who goes by the name VET will conduct eight consecutive Saturday sessions where she will teach students how to use scraps and recycled products to create objects such as jumping frogs and butterflies, to let deaf children understand "how important the [rain forest] is for our survival on this planet."

Rosita Gottlieb sees herself, first and foremost, as a global citizen. Gottlieb is an artist. For two years she has been preparing for an exhibition of her oil paintings called "The Rainforest Series," with part of the proceeds going to the Rainforest Action Network. The paintings are her memories of her native Costa Rica. "I wanted to show the beauty of Costa Rica's rain forest because the country truly values it," she said in an interview at her studio in Marina del Rey.

Peru's Congress voted to repeal two laws facilitating the sale of Indian lands that had generated protests by dozens of tribes in the Amazon rain forest. The laws were passed by presidential decree this year to promote private investment in tribal lands of the South American nation. Thousands of Indians celebrated the lawmakers' decision in the main plaza of Bagua, a Peruvian jungle city where protesters clashed with police this week.

Walt Disney Studios is turning box-office cash from its nature documentary "Earth" into seed money to plant trees in the rain forest. Disney had announced it would plant one tree in Brazil's endangered Atlantic rain forest for every viewer who saw the movie during its first week. According to Disney, the box-office tally hit $16.1 million, which translates to 2.7 million trees. The trees are being planted by the Nature Conservancy, which is trying to reforest 2.5 million acres in the rain forest.

When Felicia Fisher decided last year to relocate her fine furniture restoration and manufacturing business to the Crenshaw district, friends in the industry issued dire predictions. "They didn't think it was feasible," recalled Fisher. "They said the community just couldn't support this kind of thing." A year later, Fisher is having the last laugh. Rain Forest, at 4521 Jefferson Blvd. in an industrial area east of La Brea Avenue, is thriving.

TIKAL NATIONAL PARK, Guatemala - The woman in the shorts shrieked, grabbed her ankle and crumpled to the ground as though she'd been shot. And in a sense she had. "A bullet ant," surmised José Elias, our unflappable guide. "If they sting you, the pain will last 24 hours. Take care. " We left the stricken woman to her friends and plunged deeper into Guatemala's steamy jungle. Birds sang madly, chaotically. Emerald billed toucans alighted in the treetops. The spooky cry of a howler monkey echoed through the forest.

The reality of the height and speed at which I was traveling didn't hit me until almost halfway through the zip-lining course. Joel Hunt, my 23-year-old guide, told me that the fourth and highest line -- the one I was about to ride -- was known as the most spine-tingling. I quickly found out why. After easing off a wooden platform secured to a Douglas fir, I sailed through a cluster of treetops and then watched as the ground gave way below me. Suddenly, I was 30 stories in the air, hurtling toward a mountain, the oaks and pines and streams that litter the floor of the San Gabriels smirking up at me, the Mojave Desert on my left, Hunt just a tiny, faraway speck on the side of a massive cliff toward which I seemed to be careening at 45 to 65 miles per hour.

Five days hardly seems long enough to explore Alaska's Prince William Sound, but adventure travel company Greenloons offers a tour that hits the glacier and fiord highlights for those short on time. The trip begins in Anchorage at a bed-and-breakfast that comes with access to hiking and biking along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. Then it's off to Whittier and two nights aboard a 65-food yacht to cruise the Barry Arm and visit the Harriman and College fiords, Eaglek Bay and Cascade Falls.

Deforestation and climate change may sound like familiar concerns to the modern ear. But a team of French scientists is arguing that even 3,000 years ago, humans may have played a role in transforming the Central African rain forest into the savannas we see today. As Bantu farmers expanded south and east into the rain forest in search of fertile agricultural land, they may have created savanna "corridors" that cut into the forest and helped turn that lush landscape into drier grassland, according to a study published online this week in the journal Science.

It's official: Barbie has broken up with Asia Pulp & Paper Co. Responding to a campaign by environmental activists at Greenpeace, toy giant Mattel Inc., maker of the famed Barbie doll line, announced Wednesday that it would stop buying paper and packaging that the environmental group has linked to rain forest destruction in Indonesia. The El Segundo company said it would tell suppliers to avoid wood fiber from companies "that are known to be involved in deforestation. " Among those companies, Greenpeace said in a statement, is Asia Pulp & Paper.

Howler monkeys, crocodiles, toucans, parrots and lots of birds star in this 10-day trip to Costa Rica sponsored by the Greater L.A. Zoo Assn. The naturalist-led expedition explores Volcan Poas National Park to learn about active volcanoes, the Monteverde Cloud Forest mountain reserve, Carara National Park on the Pacific Coast and a rain forest at Braulio Carrillo, with an aerial tram that takes you into the tree canopy. A tour of capital city San Jose also is included. When: Costa Rica: Nature's Treasure House runs from Nov. 11-20.

Julio Tota stood atop a 195-foot steel tower in the heart of the Amazon rain forest, watching "rivers of air" flowing over an unbroken green canopy that stretched as far as the eye could see. These billows of fog showed researcher Tota how greenhouse gases emitted by decaying organic material on the forest floor don't rise straight into the atmosphere, as scientists had supposed. Instead, they hover and drift -- confounding scientific efforts to unlock the secrets of the world's largest remaining tropical wilderness.

I'm standing in front of an indoor waterfall and I can't hear myself think. Reggae music is blasting away in one ear; in the other, noise from a well-dressed young crowd struggling to be heard above the din, like trees competing for sunlight in the jungle. Makes sense. The restaurant is Amazon Bar and Grill, a Disneyesque mock-up of a rain forest complete with (stone) banyan trees, (real) palm fronds, tropical flowers, indirect lighting and indulgent special effects.

Responding to pressure from Greenpeace this week, toy maker Mattel Inc. said it would direct its suppliers to stop buying wood products from Asia Pulp & Paper, a Singapore company that has clear-cut vast swaths of Indonesia's rain forest. As the environmental group's global campaign against Mattel gained traction, the El Segundo company said on its Facebook page: "Mattel does not support deforestation nor does it contract directly with Sinar Mas/APP. We purchase packaging materials from a variety of suppliers and it is not the normal course of business to dictate where suppliers source materials.

Environmentalists have launched a global campaign against Mattel Inc., the world's largest toy company, as part of a decade-long effort to force multinational corporations to purge their operations of any links to rain forest destruction. On Tuesday, Greenpeace activists in turquoise vests rappelled down the face of the company's 15-story headquarters in El Segundo and hung a giant banner depicting a frowning Ken doll with the message: "Barbie: it's over. I don't date girls that are into deforestation.