s global markets increasingly clamor for palm oil, used in everything from soap to processed foods, companies are actively scouting out prime places to produce that oil, and governments are…
The environment you live in could be killing you. Nearly one in every four deaths can be attributed to polluted air or water, climate change, chemical exposures, or other environmental…
The number of hotspots across Indonesia's forests and peatlands increased to 76 across Kalimantan and Sumatra on Monday as authorities prepared for elevated risks of widespread fires in the coming…
Approximately 120,000 fishing vessels sail the oceans at any given moment, many fishing illicitly. Globally, one in five marine fish caught ends up on a $23.5 billion black market. Unrecorded…
amily planning can prevent unwanted pregnancies, increase birth spacing, and improve women’s reproductive rights. All of this can reduce human populations, theoretically taking pressure off local environments. In recent years,…
Two weeks ago, the activist Berta Cáceres was shot and killed while she slept in her home, in the city of La Esperanza, in western Honduras.The news of her assassination travelled around the world…
Papua New Guinea and Tanzania are both REDD+ countries, meaning they’re participating in the UN program officially enshrined in the Paris climate agreement that aims to channel international finance to…
In this, the third of six articles, Sue Branford traces the rise of the Four Sisters, and notes how BNDES loans helped empower the influential firms. he “Four Sisters”, as…
The elusive, little-known pitta is fast-becoming the victim of wildlife traffickers. Commonly called “jewels of the forest”, these bright and colorful birds are being sold openly -- and illegally --…
Indonesia’s environment and forestry ministry will convert a former gold mining site into a sanctuary for the Sumatran rhinoceros in East Kalimantan province, after conservationists identified 15 of the critically…
Indonesian fisheries minister Susi Pudjiastuti is purging the archipelago of foreign-made fishing boats, which she believes are being widely used as fronts for illegal foreign fishing operations. The action follows…
Researchers discovered the first ever bacterium to feed on plastic [NPR] A plastic chomping bacterium has been discovered in the debris fields around a recycling plant in Japan. Having the…
Despite new research that doubled the estimated number of orangutan living in Sumatra's rainforests, the great red ape is still "on the road to extinction", say the authors of the…
A proposed superhighway in southeast Nigeria has prompted calls from locals and the international community to stop what they claim is a land grab in the middle of a celebrated…
The Nineties were a decade that stood out for Venezuelans, because they discovered that the were garimpeiros in the south of the country. These traditional miners from Brazil, drawn by the gold rush,…
Madagascar’s unique wildlife may be in serious trouble. An invasive poisonous toad, called the Asian toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus), is rapidly spreading across the island country, threatening the survival of its…
overnments have been establishing enormous marine protected areas (MPAs) spanning hundreds of thousands of square kilometers where fishing is restricted. And the United Nations last June began work developing an…
efore leaving Altamira, I spent an afternoon with Raquel Rodrigues Santos, one of two botanists going on the trip into the remote heart of the Amazon basin. We bought massive…
After snowballing for years and culminating in a peak of nearly a million cubic meters of wood smuggled in 2014, the illegal timber trade between Myanmar and China appears to…
As the celebratory dust of the Paris climate change summit settles, an important gap remains. The reductions in carbon pollution that nations pledged to achieve are important steps in the…
Brian pushes off from the rock wall, surfing along the pool's surface before plunging into its depths. Legs outstretched, Brian seizes a fish and swims quickly under a rock to…
The theft of bigleaf maple to feed the demand for rare tonewoods used by musical instrument makers has been a persistent problem in the U.S. Pacific Northwest for years, but…
If you were to fly over Central America on a small plane, from north to south, starting in Guatemala and ending in Panama, you'd be able to see isolated yet…
In January of 2007, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights received a formal complaint filed as Case 12,639, about the Kaliña and Lokono indigenous peoples of Suriname. The case presented the dilemma faced…
Conservation aid may sometimes result in a short-term increase in deforestation, a new study finds – highlighting the incredibly complex network of factors that drive forest loss. The study, published…
Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, dropped 11 companies in 2015 over their connections to forest destruction. The GPFG, which manages $828 billion worth…
t the start of the rainy season thousands of people trudge across tropical landscapes lugging baskets full of tree saplings on their backs. These men and women are carrying the…
In this, the second of six articles, Sue Branford explores the history of BNDES and examines some of the criticisms that have been levelled at the lender. razil’s BNDES (Banco…
The corrupt police officer whose multiple prison escapes have made a mockery of the Indonesian justice system turned himself in on Monday morning after a weekend on the lam. Labora…
The demand for a rare, fragrant ingredient is threatening the survival of one of the world’s most expensive trees, a new Al Jazeera documentary has found. Some trees of the Aquilaria…