New research shows that slowing deforestation is the most essential step for saving Madagascar's lemurs, and can help protect them against the longer-term threat of climate change.
More than 300,000 hectares of subtropical forest in Paraguay have burned since July due to illegal land clearing for agriculture, according to the National Security Ministry, Oct. 1, 2019.
AP Photo/Jorge Saenz
Yerba mate is a wildly popular South American tea with a growing global market. Can this 'superfood' save Paraguay's tropical forests, too?
The Paraguayan Chaco, South America’s second largest forest, is rapidly disappearing as agriculture extends deeper into what was once forest. Here, isolated stands of trees remain amid the farms.
Joel E. Correia
The cleared land of Paraguay's Chaco forest produces everyday products like charcoal and leather that are sold abroad to consumers who may never know the unsavory origins of their purchases.
The El Segundo Chevron oil refinery, left, and the Bom Futuro National Forest, right.
Pedro Szekely/WikimediaCommons, Reuters/Nacho Doce
If the Amazon rainforest functions as our planet's lungs, what do raging wildfires threaten? An atmospheric scientist explains why the fires, though devastating, won't suffocate life on Earth.
A fire in the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, in Amazonas state, Brazil, Aug. 17, 2019.
Reuters/Ueslei Marcelino
Don't blame climate change for the 39,000 forest fires now incinerating huge tracts of the Brazilian Amazon. This environmental catastrophe is human-made and highly political.
A new study shows these elephants boost the carbon stored in their forests by 7%.
Forest restoration is underway in Biliran, Leyte, Philippines led by the local community with support from international researchers and government agencies.
Robin Chazdon
Restoring tropical rainforests is good for the climate, wild species and humans. But where to start? A new study pinpoints locations that will maximize benefits and minimize negative impacts.
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.
A regenerating stand of rainforest in northern Costa Rica.
Matthew Fagan
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.
Soybean farms surrounded the Wawi Indigenous Territory in the Southeast Amazon.
Rogério Assis/ Instituto Socioambiental
Brazil has set itself a target of restoring almost 50,000 sq km of the Amazon rainforest by 2030. But it won't get there without changing its policies and how it engages with local people.
Plant remains, preserved in lake sediments like in the Republic of Congo help give accurate deforestation information.
Carla Staver
Tropical deforestation can release a huge amount of carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.
The Amazon rainforest is fed by a rich network of creeks, streams and rivers. Informal road construction is now endangering this critical ecosystem.
Rickey Rogers/Reuters
Thousands of dirt roads crisscross the Brazilian Amazon, serving ranchers, loggers and miners. The area's fragile waterways — and the spectacular fish that live in them — pay a high price.
Toque macaques in Sigiriya, Sri Lanka.
(Shutterstock)
Future initiatives for conservation mainly depend on the proper co-ordination of scientists, governments, conservation groups and the media, especially when corruption is close by.
Guam’s trees are struggling without the birds that spread their seeds.
Guam's trees are in trouble, thanks to the accidental release of a snake species 70 years ago, which has killed off many of the bird species that are vital for the health of the island's forests.