Demand for palm and other vegetable oils is rising sharply, raising questions about which ones will be produced, who will control their production and sale, and where they will be grown.
Our work represents the first assessment of what social and economic factors are connected to environmental degradation across the entire African continent.
Lake sediment tells an ancient story of trees, soil – and disaster.
Dr. Niklas Leicher, University of Cologne
The impact of deforestation for oil palm plantations is well known – and now research has found the replanting process could be additional harm to biodiversity.
Oil palm fruits harvested in Malaysia.
Ahmad Yusni/EPA
Serge Mandiefe Piabuo, Center for International Forestry Research – World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF); Divine Foundjem Tita, Center for International Forestry Research – World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) et Peter A Minang, Center for International Forestry Research – World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF)
Forest communities have seen little or no change in improving livelihoods and stopping deforestation.
Many nations are restoring degraded tropical forests to slow climate change, protect endangered species and improve rural life. But those forests often are cleared again soon afterward.
The Drax biomass plant in Yorkshire is the first in the world to pioneer carbon capture and some specialists see it as it has a bright future. But hold the rosy headlines.
Seizures of pangolins and their scales and skins from Africa, destined for Asia, are increasing.
2630ben/Shutterstock
Lusala, a wild yam that many in Zambia rely on for consumption and trade, is gradually taking longer to find due to deforestation.
The world’s remaining wilderness. Dark blue = terrestrial. Light blue = marine.
Modified with permission from Protect the last of the wild, Watson et al, Nature (2018)
Brazil’s new president could clear the way for plans to develop remote areas around the Tapajos River basin over the objections of the indigenous people who live there.
Brazil’s new president wants to sacrifice the environment, but he faces some constraints.
An NGO representative stands in front of a replica of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris climate change conference in December 2015.
(Michel Euler/AP Photo)