Tropical forests are one of humanity’s best hopes for slowing climate change.
Carbon markets can protect forests but increasing the economic value of these lands can also create incentives for land-grabbing.
(Boudewijn Huysmans/Unsplash)
Many see carbon markets as key to channelling billions of dollars into reducing carbon emissions and protecting forests, but they also put the well-being of communities at risk.
Nicolas Dubos, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN)
While species are and will be affected everywhere by climate change, those already living in a warm climate will reach their tolerance threshold faster.
A 32-year-old forest on former pastureland in northeastern Costa Rica.
Robin Chazdon
As governments and corporations pledge to help the planet by planting trillions of trees, a new study spotlights an effective, low-cost alternative: letting tropical forests regrow naturally.
Logs destined for export from the Amazon estuary in Para, Brazil.
Jacques Jangoux/Alamy Stock Photo
More than 100 world leaders have pledged to end the destruction of forests by 2030 as a way to slow climate change. That will require changing how the world produces four widely used commodities.
Brazil, home to the Amazon rainforest and a notable absence in previous deforestation agreements, has signed this time.
Dylan Garcia Travel Images/Alamy Stock Photo
Europe’s forests are growing, but tropical areas are losing tree cover at a massive scale due to EU demand for imported products. Here’s how to redress the imbalance.
A stand of red mangroves in the calm, calcium-rich, fresh waters of the San Pedro Mártir River, Tabasco, Mexico.
Ben Meissner
Mangroves grow in saltwater along tropical coastlines, but scientists have found them along a river in Mexico’s Yucatan, more than 100 miles from the sea. Climate change explains their shift.
We are logging more than can be sustained by tropical forests.
Plinio Sist
Observations collected since the 1980s in the Amazon, Central Africa and Southeast Asia show we are not giving tropical forests enough time to recover after logging.
Mountain forests are significant carbon stores.
Heibe/Pixabay
Palm oil is responsible for widespread deforestation and labor abuses, but it’s also cheap and incredibly useful. That’s why many advocates call for reforming the industry, not replacing it.