While deforestation for soy production in the Brazilian Amazon has slowed since the establishment of a deforestation moratorium in 2006, clearing for soy has increased sharply in recent years in…
The city of Itaituba, in western Pará state, is home to several construction projects of strategic interest for the Brazilian government. However, with local infrastructure fragile, residents are worried they…
A forest area in Morowali, Central Sulawesi, that has been cleared by a mining company. Photo: Christopher Paino As a pair of Chinese-controlled mining companies proceed with plans to construct…
Brazil's Atlantic Forest has been severely reduced in extent from agriculture and urban expansion. Over the past three years dozens of companies have made 'zero deforestation commitments', establishing policies that…
Aerial view of Egypt's drylands. Research has linked a changing climate with the downfall of Egypt's Old Kingdom 4,200 years ago. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Look at most climate…
The life of fisherman Rosinaldo Pereira dos Santos, generally known as Tatá, may take a very different direction from the one that the governments of President Luiz Inácio Lula da…
CUNINICO, Peru--Villager examine oil slick near this Kukama Indian village in the northeastern Peruvian Amazon. Photo by Barbara Fraser. CUNINICO, Peru—When Peru's state-run oil company pulled out of this small…
Chocolate company collaborates with NGO to conserve Madagascar's iconic wildlife while helping bolster the prospects of a long-overlooked reserve Madécasse produces chocolate bars from cocoa grown and processed in Madagascar.…
Nearly two-thirds of tropical forests in Southeast Asia have been degraded by logging, agriculture and other human uses, and their fauna have been decimated by hunting and the bushmeat trade.…
Buyat Bay ‘solidarity front' threatens gold miner with legal action A Boltim Primanusa Resources excavator in Garini forest near Buyat Bay, North Sulawesi. Photo: United Buyat Solidarity Front Residents of…
An orangutan orphaned after its mother was killed during forest clearing for an oil palm plantation in Sumatra. A new app enables iPhone [download] and Android [download] users to scan…
8-DAY LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE ANOMALY for March 6-13, 2015. Courtesy of NASA. The temperature at a base in Antarctica hit a record high last week, reports Weather Underground. On March…
An excavator piles natural forest logs at a log pond inside a PT. Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (PT RAPP) pulpwood concession on Pulau Pedang, Bengkalis Regency, Riau Province located…
Conservation compliance programs could reduce forest loss worldwide Old-growth rainforest in Malaysian Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Today, conservation compliance is a U.S. policy between governments and farmers that…
Sumatran elephants in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Across the world, scientists estimate there are about two billion hectares of degraded forestland. In Indonesia alone,…
Monitor lizards, like this water monitor in Malaysia, are popular both in the pet trade and for consumption. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Searching the globe for undiscovered species takes…
A newly protected peat swamp in Tripa. Photo: Indonesian Nature Foundation As Indonesia's Supreme Court prepares to rule on an appeal from oil palm developer Kallista Alam, ordered to pay…
An excavator piles natural forest logs at a log pond inside a PT. Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (PT RAPP) pulpwood concession on Pulau Pedang, Bengkalis Regency, Riau Province located…
Part 2 of 5 of a series on palm oil financing. Part I. Deforestation for palm oil production. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Today, oil palm is Indonesia’s most important…
In Mexico’s rainforests, club mosses – fern-like plants that resemble the branches of pine trees - are in trouble. All nine species of the club moss genus Phlegmariurus found in…
Indonesia's biodiversity-focused protected areas are failing to slow deforestation, while other categories have achieved mixed results, according to a new study by National University of Singapore researchers. The study, which…
A yearly buck and fawn meet in Apopka, Florida. PHOTO CREDIT: Ronald Derrig. A camera trap photo of a young buck touching noses with a fawn is among the finalists…
GLobal Forest Watch map showing protected areas and industrial concessions in and around the Leuser Ecosystem in Aceh and North Sumatra on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The rate of…
Savannah elephant in Kruger National Park in South Africa. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. New figures show essentially no change in the number of elephants killed in Africa by poachers…
Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s largest producer of cocoa, also boasts an ecosystem of great biological richness and species diversity, with over 2,250 endemic plants and 270 vertebrate species. Unfortunately, it…
The white sands of the Tapiche-Blanco region in Peru. Photo by: Nigel Pitman. Most people think of the Amazon rainforest as one massive, homogenous ecosystem—a giant castle of green. However,…
Rainforest understory in Gunug Palung National Park. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Can the act of planting a tree change one’s attitude towards forests and conservation? Erica Pohnan, Hotlin Ompusunggu,…
Produced in English by Philip Jacobson Less than two months before the expiration of an Indonesian forest exploitation moratorium set up under an agreement with Norway, activists called on Environment…
Fragments of forest in the agricultural landscape around Sinop, Brazil, an area where soybean farming and cattle ranching have expanded at the expense of the Amazon rainforest. Image courtesy of…
A cinereous mourner nestling that resembled a toxic caterpillar in the Megalopygidae family of moths. Photo by: Santiago David Rivera. "Mama, I wanna be a toxic caterpillar," says the little…
