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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/avoided-deforestation/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Avoided Deforestation</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/avoided-deforestation/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Community programs linked to lower forest loss in Indonesia’s Borneo during COVID-19</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/community-programs-linked-to-lower-forest-loss-in-indonesias-borneo-during-covid-19/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/community-programs-linked-to-lower-forest-loss-in-indonesias-borneo-during-covid-19/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Aug 2026 02:03:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/12215106/kalbar_drone_190946a_sungai_utik-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327673</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity, Community Development, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, COVID-19, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Loss, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Illegal Logging, Logging, NGOs, Pandemics, Protected Areas, Reduced Impact Logging, Research, Solutions, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Villages in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan saw less forest loss during the COVID-19 pandemic when conservation groups provided health and livelihood support, a new study has found, suggesting social safety nets can help protect forests during economic crises. The peer-reviewed study, published last month in Lancet Planetary Health, suggests forest loss in West Kalimantan province on [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Villages in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan saw less forest loss during the COVID-19 pandemic when conservation groups provided health and livelihood support, a new study has found, suggesting social safety nets can help protect forests during economic crises. The peer-reviewed study, published last month in Lancet Planetary Health, suggests forest loss in West Kalimantan province on the Indonesian part of Borneo fell sharply during the pandemic, as weak timber demand and travel restrictions made logging less profitable and harder to carry out. At the same time, villages with access to alternative livelihoods and other support were less reliant on forests for income, the paper adds. The researchers say their study is among the first to combine household surveys with detailed satellite data to examine how the pandemic affected rural livelihoods and forest loss in the same communities, offering a closer look at how economic shocks and social support can influence pressure on tropical forests. “As the pandemic started, we expected economic hardships to cause illegal logging to increase again,” Skylar Hopkins, an assistant professor at North Carolina State University and the lead author for the new study, said in a statement. Mapping deforestation trends Before the pandemic, average forest loss was 52% lower in NGO-affiliated villages than in unaffiliated villages, the study finds. Indonesia has the world’s third-largest tropical forest area, a major store of biodiversity and carbon, long threatened by logging, agricultural expansion and fires. The researchers surveyed 10 villages in West Kalimantan in late 2021: six communities supported by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/community-programs-linked-to-lower-forest-loss-in-indonesias-borneo-during-covid-19/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/community-programs-linked-to-lower-forest-loss-in-indonesias-borneo-during-covid-19/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327673</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can REDD+ deliver for Philippines’ Iraya Mangyan?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/can-redd-deliver-for-philippines-iraya-mangyan/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/can-redd-deliver-for-philippines-iraya-mangyan/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Aug 2026 02:01:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Keith Anthony Fabro]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/25201552/Pederico-Garcia-traditional-healer-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327306</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystems, Forest Carbon, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Nature-based climate solutions, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Redd, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PUERTO GALERA, Philippines — Before sunrise, Bernito Pampilo shoulders a backpack carrying a mobile phone, flashlight and enough food — he hopes — for a day’s patrol through the forests of Puerto Galera in northern Mindoro, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Manila. By around 6 a.m., the 56-year-old Iraya Mangyan patroller and two [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PUERTO GALERA, Philippines — Before sunrise, Bernito Pampilo shoulders a backpack carrying a mobile phone, flashlight and enough food — he hopes — for a day’s patrol through the forests of Puerto Galera in northern Mindoro, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Manila. By around 6 a.m., the 56-year-old Iraya Mangyan patroller and two companions leave their mountain outpost in Aninuan village after praying to Apo Iraya, the creator, for protection. Their route crosses rivers, steep ridges, dense vegetation and deep natural holes known locally as balahaw. “If you walk too quickly, sometimes you won’t see the hole,” Pampilo told Mongabay. “If you fall into it, you could die.” Some patrols continue into the night, forcing the team to cross rivers and climb ridges by flashlight. Mobile apps point them toward assigned coordinates, but not toward the safest path. The forest lies within the 14,661-hectare (36,228-acre) Puerto Galera Biosphere Reserve, designated by UNESCO in 1977. For Pampilo, the work is more than a job. It is part of an effort to protect forests his community has depended on for generations while testing whether an international climate mechanism can deliver lasting Indigenous benefits. Led by the Center for Conservation Innovations Philippines Inc. (CCIPH), the Mindoro Forest and Biodiversity Conservation Programme (MFBCP) aims to conserve more than 40,000 hectares (nearly 99,000 acres) of ancestral forest, while supporting about 2,500 Iraya Mangyan households. Running from 2020 to 2049, it combines ancestral-domain recognition, carbon monitoring, Indigenous patrols and livelihood projects under the United&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/can-redd-deliver-for-philippines-iraya-mangyan/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/can-redd-deliver-for-philippines-iraya-mangyan/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327306</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How carbon markets can succeed &#038; also serve Global South communities (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-carbon-markets-can-succeed-also-serve-global-south-communities-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-carbon-markets-can-succeed-also-serve-global-south-communities-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jul 2026 21:09:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Pati Ruiz Corzo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/27182742/Encinos-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324619</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Avoided Deforestation, Business, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Sequestration, Certification, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Finance, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Mitigation, Nature-based climate solutions, Rainforests, Solutions, Temperate Forests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Carbon markets were designed around the compelling premise that private finance could flow where forests are most at risk, rewarding the communities and landowners who protect them while helping companies take responsibility for their emissions. For anyone working in climate or conservation, the underlying logic still holds. The world&#8217;s forests provide essential ecosystem services, capture [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Carbon markets were designed around the compelling premise that private finance could flow where forests are most at risk, rewarding the communities and landowners who protect them while helping companies take responsibility for their emissions. For anyone working in climate or conservation, the underlying logic still holds. The world&#8217;s forests provide essential ecosystem services, capture and store huge amounts of carbon dioxide, face enormous pressure, and need sustained economic incentives if they are to survive. So why has the voluntary carbon market so consistently fallen short of this promise? Over the past decade, the sector has faced mounting evidence that many carbon credits, particularly those issued for forest conservation in the Global South, have not delivered the climate outcomes they claimed. There have been well-documented cases of social harm to Indigenous and local communities, scientific analysis has repeatedly found that the methodologies used to calculate emissions reductions were prone to significant overestimation, and trust in the market, among both buyers and civil society, has been eroded. Military macaws (Ara militaris) flying over a forest in the Sierra Gorda. They are one of the many iconic and endangered species that call the forests of the Sierra Gorda home. Image courtesy of Roberto Pedraza Ruiz / Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda. However, this is not a reason to abandon the idea of climate finance for nature. It is a reason to understand what has gone wrong, and to ask what a more inclusive, just, and transparent model can look like. What hasn’t worked&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-carbon-markets-can-succeed-also-serve-global-south-communities-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-carbon-markets-can-succeed-also-serve-global-south-communities-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324619</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ecuador’s Amazon coffee farmers get ahead of Europe&#8217;s deforestation rules</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/ecuadors-amazon-coffee-farmers-get-ahead-of-europes-deforestation-rules/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/ecuadors-amazon-coffee-farmers-get-ahead-of-europes-deforestation-rules/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Jul 2026 11:37:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sibélia Zanon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/14111555/Fapecafes_local-production-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322761</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Avoided Deforestation, Business, Coffee, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Crops, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, EUDR, Farming, Governance, Natural Resources, Regenerative production landscapes, Sustainability, and Sustainable Forest Management]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“What motivates us most is being able to say, ‘I take care of the environment, I don’t cut down trees, and my coffee will be valued more highly,’” said Victoria Alverca Peña, a farmer for 25 years and co-founder of APECAP, a small coffee and cacao producers’ association in Zamora Chinchipe, a province in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“What motivates us most is being able to say, ‘I take care of the environment, I don’t cut down trees, and my coffee will be valued more highly,’” said Victoria Alverca Peña, a farmer for 25 years and co-founder of APECAP, a small coffee and cacao producers’ association in Zamora Chinchipe, a province in the Ecuadorian Amazon. “I’ll be able to sell it under better conditions, and my work will be much more valued. “In our farms, besides coffee, you&#8217;ll find cacao, timber trees, fruit trees and even short-cycle crops,” she added. “When the coffee plants are still young, we can grow crops like corn, cassava or plantains. This helps us a lot with food security.” At the end of this year, the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is set to go into force, prohibiting products linked to deforestation from entering the EU market. Coffee is among the target commodities, and here in southern Ecuador, a group of coffee growers has been ahead of the curve in preparing for the EUDR implementation. Since 2019, nearly 400 farmers here have adopted a model that combines forest conservation, traceability, and geospatial monitoring as part of the Deforestation-Free Coffee Initiative, at work in 23 areas across the region. Between 2019-2021, the project developed Ecuador&#8217;s first deforestation-free coffee production model. The effort relies on a national protocol developed by the Ecuadorian government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which uses satellite imagery, traceability systems, and independent verification to track where coffee is grown&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/ecuadors-amazon-coffee-farmers-get-ahead-of-europes-deforestation-rules/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/ecuadors-amazon-coffee-farmers-get-ahead-of-europes-deforestation-rules/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322761</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deforestation is just a symptom. The disease is de-governance (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/deforestation-is-just-a-symptom-the-disease-is-de-governance-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/deforestation-is-just-a-symptom-the-disease-is-de-governance-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 15:38:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ambrosius Ruwindrijarto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/28002821/brunei_251114141317_0047z-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321618</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For decades, deforestation has been treated as the central problem. It’s measured in hectares lost, monitored through satellites, and addressed through conservation programs, carbon mechanisms, and development interventions. Yet despite billions of dollars invested, forests continue to decline. What if we have been diagnosing it wrong? Deforestation is not the disease. It is a symptom. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For decades, deforestation has been treated as the central problem. It’s measured in hectares lost, monitored through satellites, and addressed through conservation programs, carbon mechanisms, and development interventions. Yet despite billions of dollars invested, forests continue to decline. What if we have been diagnosing it wrong? Deforestation is not the disease. It is a symptom. The deeper problem is the erosion of governance over territory, over resources, and ultimately, over the future itself. To see this more clearly, it helps to begin not with global statistics, but with a people and place, like Namblong, in Indonesian Papua, an Indigenous territory spanning more than 52,000 hectares (128,500 acres) that’s governed by a tribe of 44 clans. Around 42,000 hectares (almost 104,000 acres) remain forested as a living landscape shaped by generations of customary governance. When oil palm concessions entered this territory with legal permits, a fundamental question emerged: Who decides the future of this forest? Is it the company holding the concession, the government that issued it, or the Indigenous community whose identity and survival are inseparable from the land? Deforestation outside of Manokwari, West Papua, Indonesia. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. This question points to a broader reality. Across Indonesia, and much of the world, Indigenous territories have been systematically stripped of effective governance. They are treated as empty land available for extraction or intervention. Concessions are issued, projects are introduced, and external solutions are layered onto landscapes that already have their own systems of authority Even well-intentioned efforts often&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/deforestation-is-just-a-symptom-the-disease-is-de-governance-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/deforestation-is-just-a-symptom-the-disease-is-de-governance-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321618</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>It&#8217;s time to engage Mennonite communities in reducing deforestation across Latin America (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jun 2026 21:16:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/08174714/CH_20220608_0015-Edit-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320555</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Analysis, Avoided Deforestation, Commentary, Community Development, Deforestation, Development, Forests, Governance, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Rainforests, Religions, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the global debate over tropical deforestation, the usual cast of villains is well established: agribusiness, global supply chains, cattle ranchers, and governments granting land concessions for political support. One actor rarely appears in this narrative yet has played a consequential role in transforming the South American lowland frontier: The Mennonite agricultural colonist. For more [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the global debate over tropical deforestation, the usual cast of villains is well established: agribusiness, global supply chains, cattle ranchers, and governments granting land concessions for political support. One actor rarely appears in this narrative yet has played a consequential role in transforming the South American lowland frontier: The Mennonite agricultural colonist. For more than five decades, Mennonite communities have functioned as systematic agents of agricultural frontier expansion in the Gran Chaco and Andean Amazon, methodically clearing forests, draining wetlands, and catalyzing waves of deforestation that extend far beyond any individual colony. Mennonite communities operate within the law. They purchase land through formal channels, build permanent communities, and transfer agronomic knowledge to surrounding populations. Their values emphasize hard work, communal solidarity, and a theological relationship to land as stewardship. None of this changes the ecological outcome: Wherever a Mennonite colony is established, forests fall. Faith, mobility and colony formation Mennonites are an Anabaptist denomination rooted in the 16-century Reformation, distinguished by pacifism, communal life, and cultural separation from mainstream society. Conservative congregations — whose ancestors moved from Russia to Canada, then to Mexico, Belize and South America — are organized around a local congregation that functions simultaneously as a religious community, governance structure, credit cooperative and social welfare system. When a colony is established, it is an orderly community with collective decision-making, shared infrastructure, and a coherent plan for the future. Forest being cut, burned, and prepared by a Mennonite colony before planting crops. Image courtesy of Mario Silvero.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320555</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Brazil, a project paying farmers for forests is looking to scale up</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-brazil-a-project-paying-farmers-for-forests-is-looking-to-scale-up/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-brazil-a-project-paying-farmers-for-forests-is-looking-to-scale-up/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jun 2026 11:01:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/01104033/10895990-3d53-4c9b-99ef-0ed67f41bc96-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320294</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Avoided Deforestation, Carbon Emissions, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Farming, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Nature-based climate solutions, Payments For Ecosystem Services, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Landowner Carlos Roberto Simonetti gets three harvests per year from the corn, soy and cotton plantations on his 17,000-hectare (about 42,000 acres) farm called Fazenda Natureza Feliz, or Happy Nature, in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. Over the course of four years, he would also get what he calls a fourth harvest, this time [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Landowner Carlos Roberto Simonetti gets three harvests per year from the corn, soy and cotton plantations on his 17,000-hectare (about 42,000 acres) farm called Fazenda Natureza Feliz, or Happy Nature, in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. Over the course of four years, he would also get what he calls a fourth harvest, this time from the forested areas of his property, located where the Cerrado savanna meets the Amazon Rainforest. That’s because Simonetti would receive regular payments for protecting native vegetation beyond what the law requires, as part of a pilot project for payment for ecosystem services (PES) run by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), an NGO, in the states of Mato Grosso and Pará. The program, called CONSERV, gives landowners financial incentives to keep the forest standing even in areas which they are legally allowed to clear. The pilot project, which initially ran between 2020 and 2024 on 23 different properties, protected 20,707 hectares (about 51,170 acres) of land in the Cerrado and Amazon biomes with funding from the governments of Norway and The Netherlands. Ongoing contracts funded by Soft Commodities Forum members – agribusiness companies committed to preserving the Cerrado – are protecting a further 7,000 hectares (about 17,300 acres) in the states of Mato Grosso and Maranhão. IPAM is now seeking to scale up the program without relying on donations. The risk of legal deforestation The idea for CONSERV goes back to 2016, when an internal IPAM report calculated that around 1.5 million hectares (3.7&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-brazil-a-project-paying-farmers-for-forests-is-looking-to-scale-up/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-brazil-a-project-paying-farmers-for-forests-is-looking-to-scale-up/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320294</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>IMF lending programs linked with deforestation should be rethought (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/imf-lending-programs-causing-deforestation-should-be-rethought-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/imf-lending-programs-causing-deforestation-should-be-rethought-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2026 15:34:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kevin P. GallagherRishikesh Ram BhandaryTimon Forster]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/23151222/kalbar_drone_190742-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320324</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Community Development, Deforestation, Development, Environment, Environmental Policy, Finance, Forests, Governance, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Research, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The price of financial stability should not be environmental destruction. Yet when countries turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help, their forests may quietly suffer. The IMF is currently reviewing the design of its lending programs, and it is time for change. Its recipe for getting economies back on track often features required [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The price of financial stability should not be environmental destruction. Yet when countries turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help, their forests may quietly suffer. The IMF is currently reviewing the design of its lending programs, and it is time for change. Its recipe for getting economies back on track often features required reforms such as cutting government expenditure, increasing revenue collection through taxes or utility tariff increases, winding down public ownership of state-owned enterprises and encouraging the private sector to step up: austerity in other words. These policies are meant to restore stability in times of crisis, but growing evidence shows that IMF programs often fall short in helping countries break out of the cycle of economic and financial distress. Instead, they can trigger collateral damage in the form of negative health outcomes, worsened poverty and inequality and eroded social protection. Image by Forster et al., 2026 (CC BY 4.0). Our new research provides evidence that these programs also have an important and often overlooked environmental dimension, revealing that countries experience 9.2% higher annual tree cover loss during years in which they are under an IMF program. In a typical three-year IMF program, this amounts to forest loss the size of Barbados. This finding comes as no surprise as IMF programs are known to generally cut government spending, and environmental protections are often the first to go. These conditions that come in exchange for financial assistance are a major shortcoming when it comes to effects on forests,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/imf-lending-programs-causing-deforestation-should-be-rethought-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/imf-lending-programs-causing-deforestation-should-be-rethought-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320324</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>For Honduran coffee growers, EUDR compliance means changing old habits</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/for-honduran-coffee-growers-eudr-compliance-means-changing-old-habits/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/for-honduran-coffee-growers-eudr-compliance-means-changing-old-habits/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2026 12:22:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Weiss]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/29120927/9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320278</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, European Union, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Avoided Deforestation, Coffee, Commodity agriculture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, EUDR, Farming, Forest Destruction, International Trade, Monitoring, Politics, Supply Chain, Technology, Transparency, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CONCEPCIÓN DE SOLUTECA, Honduras — In the 1970s, the Honduran government granted a piece of land in the mountains of Concepción de Soluteca to Roberto González’s parents. They duly grabbed a chainsaw and a machete to clear the forest. On the 12 hectares (30 acres) they received as part of a land reform, they planted [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CONCEPCIÓN DE SOLUTECA, Honduras — In the 1970s, the Honduran government granted a piece of land in the mountains of Concepción de Soluteca to Roberto González’s parents. They duly grabbed a chainsaw and a machete to clear the forest. On the 12 hectares (30 acres) they received as part of a land reform, they planted corn, beans and bananas, the basic staple foods. It was a hard life up in the mountains, allowing the farmers and their families to just survive. There wasn’t much public infrastructure, and most children had to help with farmwork early on. This included González, who only attended elementary school for three years. When González inherited the land 20 years later, coffee cultivation was just taking off. Middlemen promised the farmers good money for the export crop, and the banks provided loans for cultivation. At first, this worked well, González, now 39, remembers. Coffee helped the farmers to generate income and improve living conditions. But it didn’t last long. They grew coffee much the same way they did other crops, without adequate soil or shade management. When harvests dwindled, they expanded their area, cutting the last standing forests and damaging water sources. Around 2012, they faced an outbreak of coffee rust, a fungal disease. It was a complete disaster: many farmers were thrown into poverty and forced to migrate. “We destroyed the foundations of our livelihoods, but it was out of ignorance; we just didn&#8217;t know better,” González tells Mongabay. Under the EUDR, coffee farmers step&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/for-honduran-coffee-growers-eudr-compliance-means-changing-old-habits/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/for-honduran-coffee-growers-eudr-compliance-means-changing-old-habits/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320278</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Banks must step in before the Amazon Soy Moratorium collapses (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/banks-must-step-in-before-the-amazon-soy-moratorium-collapses-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/banks-must-step-in-before-the-amazon-soy-moratorium-collapses-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Feb 2026 16:39:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ginger Cassady]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/12141643/Highway-BR-163-stretches-between-the-Tapajos-National-Forest-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314432</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Avoided Deforestation, Banking, Business, Commentary, Commodity agriculture, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Finance, Forest Destruction, Rainforests, Soy, Trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon Rainforest is approaching a dangerous threshold. Scientists warn that continued deforestation could push the world’s largest rainforest past a tipping point, transforming it into a degraded, fire-prone savanna that emits more carbon than it stores. One of the most effective barriers preventing that outcome is now being dismantled. For nearly 20 years, the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon Rainforest is approaching a dangerous threshold. Scientists warn that continued deforestation could push the world’s largest rainforest past a tipping point, transforming it into a degraded, fire-prone savanna that emits more carbon than it stores. One of the most effective barriers preventing that outcome is now being dismantled. For nearly 20 years, the Amazon Soy Moratorium has helped protect millions of hectares of forest. It stopped major traders from buying soy grown on land deforested after 2008, breaking the link between agricultural expansion and forest destruction. Earlier this month, following sustained lobbying and political pressure, Brazil’s leading soy industry association withdrew from the agreement, effectively collapsing a system that had become the backbone of responsible soy production in the Amazon. The moratorium helped drive a nearly 70% reduction in deforestation across monitored regions, even as soy production soared. It proved that strong rules and monitoring, backed by market pressure, can protect forests while supporting livelihoods and economic growth. A section of the Amazon rainforest stands next to soy fields in Belterra, Para state, Brazil, on Nov. 30, 2019. Image by AP Photo/Leo Correa. If it collapses fully, the consequences will be devastating. Researchers estimate that Amazon deforestation could rise by 30% in the coming decades, wiping out years of progress and pushing the rainforest closer to irreversible collapse. That would release billions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere and accelerate the climate and biodiversity crises already devastating communities worldwide. The unraveling of the moratorium is not happening&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/banks-must-step-in-before-the-amazon-soy-moratorium-collapses-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/banks-must-step-in-before-the-amazon-soy-moratorium-collapses-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314432</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cameroon cookstove project looks to slow forest loss</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/cameroon-cookstove-project-looks-to-slow-forest-loss/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/cameroon-cookstove-project-looks-to-slow-forest-loss/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2026 09:13:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Leocadia Bongben]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Ashoka]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/30073019/Pabamis-daughter-in-the-Kitchen-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313523</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Black Carbon, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Food, Forest Loss, Fuelwood, Research, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[GAROUA, Cameroon — One morning during the July monsoon in Bang, a village of 3,000 in North Cameroon, people woke up to heavy rains. The Mayo Tefi, a small river which runs through the village, swelled as the water level rose. Astha Pabami, a mother of 11 in her 50s, could not go out to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GAROUA, Cameroon — One morning during the July monsoon in Bang, a village of 3,000 in North Cameroon, people woke up to heavy rains. The Mayo Tefi, a small river which runs through the village, swelled as the water level rose. Astha Pabami, a mother of 11 in her 50s, could not go out to fetch firewood, as crossing the river would have meant being swept away. Instead, she used some of the wood stacked behind her hut, lighting a fire to prepare a meal on her new cookstove. The cookstove looks like a traditional oven, with one opening for firewood and another for the pot. But it’s a big improvement over what she used to use: an open three-stone fireside. Pabami is one of about 250 women in Bang who were using these stoves when Mongabay visited the town. They were distributed as part of a project run by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), with support from the European Union. The stoves are meant to burn cleaner and use less wood — saving forests and protecting people’s health in the process. “The open fireside consumes more firewood and dirties our pots, and we inhale smoke. We could use about 8-10 pieces of wood to cook a meal; presently, a maximum of four pieces of wood is enough,” Pabami tells Mongabay. Since the improved stoves need less firewood, she doesn’t have to collect as much during the dry season, and what she puts into storage behind her hut&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/cameroon-cookstove-project-looks-to-slow-forest-loss/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/cameroon-cookstove-project-looks-to-slow-forest-loss/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313523</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Setting the record straight on Jurisdictional REDD+: The case of Brazil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/setting-the-record-straight-on-jurisdictional-redd-the-case-of-brazil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/setting-the-record-straight-on-jurisdictional-redd-the-case-of-brazil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Sep 2025 13:17:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Daniel NepstadLuiza MuccilloMonica de los RiosRonaldo Seroa da MottaThuanny Vieira]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/05142002/07-amazon_241209040251z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306300</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, carbon, Carbon Credits, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Green, Jurisdictional Approaches, Mitigation, Rainforests, Redd, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Misconceptions about jurisdictional REDD+ programs have been amplified in recent press coverage, such as reports by Climate Home News and Mongabay. This analysis aims to clarify key aspects of JREDD+ to contribute to a more accurate and informed public debate. Jurisdictional REDD+ Is Not New—In Brazil or Globally Jurisdictional REDD+ (JREDD+) is not an experimental [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Misconceptions about jurisdictional REDD+ programs have been amplified in recent press coverage, such as reports by Climate Home News and Mongabay. This analysis aims to clarify key aspects of JREDD+ to contribute to a more accurate and informed public debate. Jurisdictional REDD+ Is Not New—In Brazil or Globally Jurisdictional REDD+ (JREDD+) is not an experimental approach. It began to be formally discussed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2005, with the first decisions on the mechanism adopted in 2007 during COP 13 in Bali. Through the Bali Action Plan, the Parties to the Convention recognized the need to support developing countries in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation—REDD is the acronym for this phrase—as well as the role of conservation, sustainable forest management, and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks—the ‘plus’ in REDD+. Amazon rainforest. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler Brazil was the first country in the world to create a JREDD+ program, establishing the Amazon Fund in 2008—as the first results-based REDD+ financial mechanism, designed both to receive payments and to channel resources through benefit-sharing, supporting forest conservation and sustainable development. The country then established its National REDD+ Strategy and the National REDD+ Commission in 2015. At the subnational level, Acre and Mato Grosso states created legal frameworks for REDD+ in 2010 and 2013, respectively. Both have received REDD+ payments under the REDD+ for Early Movers (REM) Program supported by Germany and the UK. These experiences are part of Brazil’s long-standing commitment to climate&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/setting-the-record-straight-on-jurisdictional-redd-the-case-of-brazil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/setting-the-record-straight-on-jurisdictional-redd-the-case-of-brazil/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306300</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The formula that reduced deforestation in Brazil in the 21st century</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-formula-that-reduced-deforestation-in-brazil-in-the-21st-century/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-formula-that-reduced-deforestation-in-brazil-in-the-21st-century/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Sep 2025 09:26:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/09/13124248/Cattle-ranching-in-Amazon-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306234</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Deforestation Alert System, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The dramatic reduction in deforestation in Brazil between 2004 and 2012 was the result of an ‘all of government approach’, which was closely coordinated with private initiatives responding to international boycotts that targeted commodity supply chains. Launched in the first year of President Inácio Lula da Silva’s first term, the Action Plan for the Prevention [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The dramatic reduction in deforestation in Brazil between 2004 and 2012 was the result of an ‘all of government approach’, which was closely coordinated with private initiatives responding to international boycotts that targeted commodity supply chains. Launched in the first year of President Inácio Lula da Silva’s first term, the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (PPCDAm) was successful largely because it was executed from the Casa Civil, a high-level entity within the office of the Presidency (CC/PR). The early success of the PPCDAm demonstrated that reducing deforestation requires policies that span the regulatory apparatus at the federal, state and local level. Although the initiative did not eliminate deforestation, its policies succeeded in changing human behaviour and business models on the forest frontier. In 2009, the government made a commitment to the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to decrease deforestation by 80% by 2020, but exceeded that target in 2012, when the annual deforestation rate was only 20% of its twenty-year historical mean. Despite its initial success, the PPCDAm failed to eradicate certain types of small-scale land clearing and was ineffective in combating the wildcat gold mining that exploded across the region. The shortfall was not necessarily a design failure, however, but the result of the political calculus of subsequent administrations and a global market that continued to drive the expansion of agribusiness. A social backlash fueled by vested interests with raw political power and dissatisfaction fueled by the Lava&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-formula-that-reduced-deforestation-in-brazil-in-the-21st-century/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306234</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The carbon market paradox: Steve Zwick on why financing forests is more complicated than it looks</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-carbon-market-paradox-steve-zwick-on-why-financing-forests-is-harder-than-it-looks/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-carbon-market-paradox-steve-zwick-on-why-financing-forests-is-harder-than-it-looks/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Sep 2025 03:02:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/13205522/vietnam_162000z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305870</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity credits, Books, carbon, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Environment, Finance, Forest Carbon, Forests, Green, Interviews, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Rainforests, Redd, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Carbon markets sit at the awkward junction of science, finance, and politics, where the appetite for simple stories collides with a system built on probabilities. Few reporters have spent more time in that junction than Steve Zwick. He came to climate through the trading pits of Chicago, where he watched how information asymmetries reward insiders [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Carbon markets sit at the awkward junction of science, finance, and politics, where the appetite for simple stories collides with a system built on probabilities. Few reporters have spent more time in that junction than Steve Zwick. He came to climate through the trading pits of Chicago, where he watched how information asymmetries reward insiders and mislead the public. That early lesson became a through line in his journalism and in his current work dissecting forest carbon and REDD+, the mechanism meant to make standing forests more valuable than felled ones. “The great tragedy of climate finance,” he has said, “is that those who understand it most have their noses to the grindstone, while those who understand it least have their mouths to the megaphone.” Zwick’s route was circuitous but coherent. He covered European business for TIME and Fortune, produced and hosted Deutsche Welle’s “Money Talks,” and later helped build Ecosystem Marketplace into a reference point for environmental finance. He has advised NGOs, companies, and governments, and worked at Verra—an organization that develops and manages carbon credit standards—on special projects. Since 2016, he has hosted the Bionic Planet podcast to chip away at the very asymmetries that first bothered him on the trading floor. In 2025, he co-founded Carbon Paradox and co-authored The Carbon Paradox with Renat Heuberger and Marco Hirsbrunner. Both efforts argue that carbon credits can finance meaningful mitigation, especially in the Global South, but only if their tradeoffs are faced openly rather than spun away. If that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-carbon-market-paradox-steve-zwick-on-why-financing-forests-is-harder-than-it-looks/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-carbon-market-paradox-steve-zwick-on-why-financing-forests-is-harder-than-it-looks/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305870</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Carbon offset markets are unfair to communities in Borneo &#038; beyond (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/carbon-offset-markets-are-unfair-to-indigenous-communities-in-borneo-beyond-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/carbon-offset-markets-are-unfair-to-indigenous-communities-in-borneo-beyond-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Aug 2025 19:14:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fiona McAlpine]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/29185237/IMG_5011_173-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305206</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Business, carbon, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Commentary, Forest Carbon, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[I write this while waiting for my tablet to die. Tomorrow, I’ll return to air-conditioning, stable WiFi and refrigeration, but here in Long Moh, deep in the remote Upper Baram region of Sarawak, there has been no electricity for two weeks. The fans sit useless and mocking in the corners, and a sudden downpour is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[I write this while waiting for my tablet to die. Tomorrow, I’ll return to air-conditioning, stable WiFi and refrigeration, but here in Long Moh, deep in the remote Upper Baram region of Sarawak, there has been no electricity for two weeks. The fans sit useless and mocking in the corners, and a sudden downpour is the only relief that cuts through the muggy heat. Communities here are among the least responsible for climate change, yet they’re already living with its sharpest edges. Each year in Malaysia, we now hear stories of children suffering permanent brain damage or death during heat waves because they simply played in the sun. In a place without air-conditioning, 1° Celsius (1.8° Fahrenheit) of global warming is not a statistic — it is a threat to life. And now, through carbon offsetting projects, these same communities are being asked to save the world from a crisis they did not create — often with little say, and even less reward. I have traveled here with local NGOs SAVE Rivers and Sahabat Alam Malaysia, which are leading community workshops on carbon credit and offset projects. Rumors abound that this region — one of Sarawak’s last remaining strongholds of intact tropical forest — has been earmarked for a carbon project courtesy of a timber company with a decades-long track record of trying to chop it all down. Species like the rhinoceros hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros) benefit from forest conservation in Baram, too. Image courtesy of Mark Louis Benedict via Flickr.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/carbon-offset-markets-are-unfair-to-indigenous-communities-in-borneo-beyond-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/carbon-offset-markets-are-unfair-to-indigenous-communities-in-borneo-beyond-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305206</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Reversing deforestation relies on resource ownership (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/reversing-deforestation-relies-on-resource-ownership-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/reversing-deforestation-relies-on-resource-ownership-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Aug 2025 18:44:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Brent SohngenDouglas Southgate]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/23151222/kalbar_drone_190742-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303773</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Asia, Brazil, Cerrado, Global, Latin America, Nepal, South America, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Avoided Deforestation, climate finance, Commentary, Commodity agriculture, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, International Trade, Land Rights, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Rainforests, Reforestation, Savannas, Soy, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Having receded by 350 million hectares (almost 865 million acres) since 1850, trends in Latin American forests are now inflecting away from further losses of tree-covered habitats and toward their recovery. As we explain in our book Reversing Deforestation, published by Stanford University Press in December 2024, this change stems from reduced population growth and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Having receded by 350 million hectares (almost 865 million acres) since 1850, trends in Latin American forests are now inflecting away from further losses of tree-covered habitats and toward their recovery. As we explain in our book Reversing Deforestation, published by Stanford University Press in December 2024, this change stems from reduced population growth and the continuing improvement of agricultural yields. But as we also point out, the transition from deforestation to reforestation will hinge during the years to come on local resource ownership, not least because this ownership is an unavoidable prerequisite for the financing of carbon sequestration and other ecosystem services provided by forests. Mainly because it causes the demand for food to go up, demographic expansion adds to the displacement of natural habitats by farms and ranches. Forest loss in Latin America during the last 175 years, when human numbers in the region rose from 30 million to 650 million or more, is a clear example. However, human fertility has plunged in the region, from 5.9 births per woman in 1960 to 1.9 births per woman today, so annual natural increase (equal to the birth rate minus the death rate) has declined from nearly 3% to less than 1%. Human fertility has fallen more in Latin America than in sub-Saharan Africa, where women still bear more than four children, on average, and natural increase remains above 2% a year. This difference in demographic trajectories is a major reason why annual forest losses in the two regions are&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/reversing-deforestation-relies-on-resource-ownership-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/reversing-deforestation-relies-on-resource-ownership-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303773</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>It’s time to pay the true value of tropical forest conservation (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/its-time-to-pay-the-true-value-of-tropical-forest-conservation-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/its-time-to-pay-the-true-value-of-tropical-forest-conservation-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jun 2025 22:31:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[André AquinoJoão Rezende]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/15141419/toucan-in-brazil-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300723</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Finance, Forests, Governance, Rainforests, Solutions, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tropical forests help regulate the global climate, host irreplaceable biodiversity and provide fresh water resources. Plus forests in general are the source of livelihoods for more than a billion people — so our very existence depends on them. However, because their value is not reflected in markets, these areas are often converted to other uses. Conserving our tropical forests [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tropical forests help regulate the global climate, host irreplaceable biodiversity and provide fresh water resources. Plus forests in general are the source of livelihoods for more than a billion people — so our very existence depends on them. However, because their value is not reflected in markets, these areas are often converted to other uses. Conserving our tropical forests requires large-scale and predictable finance. A menu of financing options to conserve tropical forests and reverse ongoing deforestation could include high-integrity carbon markets, private investment in nature-based solutions, promoting sustainable products from forests, and incorporating the value of forests in funding decisions by commercial and multilateral development banks. And the timing for that is now — the road to the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, provides a unique window to summon public, private and philanthropic actors to mobilize large-scale finance to pay for the true value of forests and ensure their vital existence. A proposal on the table — launched by Brazil during COP28 and supported by several tropical and potential investor countries, experts, civil society organizations, and Indigenous and local community organizations — can provide substantial resources to conserve standing forests at an unprecedented scale that’s independent of short-term political cycles. Oil palm planation on the left and intact tropical rainforest at the right, Sumatra, Indonesia. Image by Rhett Ayers Butler/Mongabay. The Tropical Forest Forever Facility Most forest conservation funding comes from national budgets to finance activities such as forest protection, fire prevention, promotion of bioeconomy projects and payments&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/its-time-to-pay-the-true-value-of-tropical-forest-conservation-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/its-time-to-pay-the-true-value-of-tropical-forest-conservation-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300723</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Tropical Forest Forever Facility needs more local and Indigenous focus (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/the-tropical-forest-forever-facility-needs-more-local-and-indigenous-focus-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/the-tropical-forest-forever-facility-needs-more-local-and-indigenous-focus-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jun 2025 13:33:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Joe Eisen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/18204154/amazon_241209144749x-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300115</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation Finance, Finance, Forests, Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2024, the world lost almost 6.7 million hectares (16.5 million acres) of primary tropical forest, the fastest rate ever recorded. The world’s forests are still falling prey to mining, logging and agriculture, but as the climate crisis intensifies, for the first time on record, the leading cause of tropical primary forest loss is fire. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2024, the world lost almost 6.7 million hectares (16.5 million acres) of primary tropical forest, the fastest rate ever recorded. The world’s forests are still falling prey to mining, logging and agriculture, but as the climate crisis intensifies, for the first time on record, the leading cause of tropical primary forest loss is fire. Burning forests are further supercharging extreme weather by pumping more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Against this bleak backdrop — and with world leaders’ promise to end and reverse deforestation by 2030 well off track — a planned new $125 billion investment fund to pay tropical countries to halt deforestation offers a lifeline for the world’s forests, and the Indigenous and local communities who live in them. The Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) was proposed by Brazil at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai in 2023 and aims to keep forests standing by paying nations an initial annual fee of $4 for every hectare of forest they maintain. The money will come from a permanent endowment fund created by a combination of sovereign and philanthropic capital and private investment. Members of Malinggai Uma Tradisional Mentawai, a grassroots, Indigenous-led conservation organization, takes a break during a forest patrol, South Siberut, Indonesia. Image by Ana Norman Bermudez for Mongabay. The fund’s launch is expected to be a major focal point of the COP30 climate summit in November, hosted by Brazil in the Amazonian city of Belém. Investors, tropical forest governments and the TFFF secretariat are currently negotiating&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/the-tropical-forest-forever-facility-needs-more-local-and-indigenous-focus-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/the-tropical-forest-forever-facility-needs-more-local-and-indigenous-focus-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300115</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Paying to prevent deforestation is positive &#038; not &#8216;nothing&#8217; (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/paying-to-prevent-deforestation-is-positive-not-nothing-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/paying-to-prevent-deforestation-is-positive-not-nothing-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Apr 2025 23:01:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jessica Ausinheiler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/24212058/Amigos-del-Bosque-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298160</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity, Carbon Credits, Carbon Offsets, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Forests, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[During my 2023-24 IIE Rodman C. Rockefeller Centennial Fellowship research in eastern Panama, I walked through my neighbor Johnson’s land (not his real name), discussing the 18 hectares (44 acres) of steeply inclined secondary forest he has left on his property. As we wandered along the forest&#8217;s edge, he turned to me and asked, “How [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[During my 2023-24 IIE Rodman C. Rockefeller Centennial Fellowship research in eastern Panama, I walked through my neighbor Johnson’s land (not his real name), discussing the 18 hectares (44 acres) of steeply inclined secondary forest he has left on his property. As we wandered along the forest&#8217;s edge, he turned to me and asked, “How much will you pay me not to cut this forest down?” His words stopped me in my tracks. Over the past five years of living and working in eastern Panama, I have met dozens of individuals and groups of landholders who value biodiversity and recognize the importance of preserving intact rainforest. At the same time, my overriding observation is that most of my neighbors, pressured by economic demands and following local tradition, place a higher value on land clearing for farming and cattle ranching. Cutting down trees is called “limpieza” or “cleaning up.” The use of fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides is referred to as “medicina,” or medicine. Fear of the forest, with its snakes and jaguars, and a preference for open, manicured landscapes further reinforce this tendency. The prevailing perception is, ‘There is enough forest here.’ Indeed, our communities abut the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena bioregion, a vast chain of forests stretching from eastern Panama to Peru, that is among the most biodiverse regions in the world. On a clear day, you can see the forest of our Indigenous Guna neighbors as far as the eye can see, down to the shores of the Caribbean. Forest in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/paying-to-prevent-deforestation-is-positive-not-nothing-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/paying-to-prevent-deforestation-is-positive-not-nothing-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298160</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agroforestry can reduce deforestation, but supportive policies matter, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/agroforestry-can-reduce-deforestation-but-supportive-policies-matter-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/agroforestry-can-reduce-deforestation-but-supportive-policies-matter-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Apr 2025 08:00:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/18144233/Banner_Agroforestry-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297826</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Southeast Asia, Thailand, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Avoided Deforestation, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Environment, Food, Forest Products, Forests, Green, Nature-based climate solutions, Solutions, Sustainability, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Intensifying heat waves, extreme floods and forest fires have devastated parts of Southeast Asia in recent years, spurring experts and authorities to look for holistic solutions. Agroforestry, the practice of growing crops alongside useful trees and shrubs, is increasingly touted as one such solution that simultaneously addresses the biodiversity and climate crises while enhancing farmer [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Intensifying heat waves, extreme floods and forest fires have devastated parts of Southeast Asia in recent years, spurring experts and authorities to look for holistic solutions. Agroforestry, the practice of growing crops alongside useful trees and shrubs, is increasingly touted as one such solution that simultaneously addresses the biodiversity and climate crises while enhancing farmer livelihoods and meeting societal needs for food, timber and other key products. Now, a new study published in Nature Sustainability suggests the benefits of this more climate-friendly and sustainable farming method might extend even further. The findings reveal agroforestry has helped reduce deforestation across Southeast Asia by an estimated 250,319 hectares (618,552 acres) per year between 2015 and 2023, preventing between 43.3 million and 74.4 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually. “These diverse [agroforestry] systems can provide alternative sources of income [for farmers] — fuelwood, timber, fruits, and other products — reducing the economic pressure to clear more forests,” study lead author Steve Hoong Chen Teo, a researcher at the National University of Singapore, told Mongabay. Teo and his colleagues found that areas of Southeast Asia with agroforestry typically lost less forest than similar areas without it, resulting in a net reduction in deforestation across landscapes where agroforestry is practiced. The team suggest this is primarily due to the relative efficiency and profitability of agroforestry reducing farmers’ need to encroach into surrounding forests. “While benefits vary by region, overall we found that agroforestry can help conserve forest remnants in [agricultural] landscapes,” Teo said, adding&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/agroforestry-can-reduce-deforestation-but-supportive-policies-matter-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/agroforestry-can-reduce-deforestation-but-supportive-policies-matter-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297826</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Political appointments in Indonesian climate program spark outcry over accountability</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/political-appointments-in-indonesian-climate-program-spark-outcry-over-accountability/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/political-appointments-in-indonesian-climate-program-spark-outcry-over-accountability/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Mar 2025 08:59:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/09/28154349/fire-in-indonesia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295969</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Norway, Southeast Asia, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Carbon Emissions, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Funding, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Peatlands, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Norwegian government is monitoring growing concerns over Indonesia’s decision to appoint political figures with little climate expertise to oversee a climate forestry program largely financed by Norway. Indonesian Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni has come under scrutiny recently for naming several fellow members from his political party, the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Norwegian government is monitoring growing concerns over Indonesia’s decision to appoint political figures with little climate expertise to oversee a climate forestry program largely financed by Norway. Indonesian Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni has come under scrutiny recently for naming several fellow members from his political party, the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), to key positions within the office responsible for the FOLU Net Sink 2030 initiative. This aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from Indonesia’s forestry and other land use (FOLU) sector by curbing deforestation, preventing forest fires, and increasing reforestation efforts. The ultimate goal is for Indonesia’s forests to absorb more carbon than they release by 2030, a part of the country’s climate commitments under the Paris Agreement. To coordinate, monitor and evaluate the program, the government established an operation management office (OMO). However, in a Jan. 31 decree, Forestry Minister Raja restructured the OMO by appointing PSI cadres to the office, raising concerns over political favoritism. Raja is one of the founders of the PSI and currently serves as its secretary-general, the party’s No. 2. The appointments have also drawn criticism due to the OMO’s relatively high monthly salaries, ranging from 8 million rupiah at the lowest level to 50 million rupiah for leadership positions ($500-$3,000). Critics say these salaries are excessive for a government-backed environmental initiative, particularly at a time when the government is cutting the budget for several agencies, including those related to the environment. Raja has defended the appointments, saying the OMO&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/political-appointments-in-indonesian-climate-program-spark-outcry-over-accountability/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/political-appointments-in-indonesian-climate-program-spark-outcry-over-accountability/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295969</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What have we learned from 15 years of REDD+ policy research? (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/what-have-we-learned-from-15-years-of-redd-policy-research-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/what-have-we-learned-from-15-years-of-redd-policy-research-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Mar 2025 00:17:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Grace WongMaria BrockhausMoira Moeliono]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/06234000/44352584784_a723121472_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295437</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Avoided Deforestation, Climate, Climate Change, Commentary, Deforestation, Forests, Governance, Land Rights, Rainforests, Redd, Social Justice, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For decades, efforts to halt deforestation in the Global South have gained much attention within the policy arena, most recently as a powerful and effective measure to mitigate climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. One well-known initiative is the framework on “Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, plus the sustainable [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For decades, efforts to halt deforestation in the Global South have gained much attention within the policy arena, most recently as a powerful and effective measure to mitigate climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. One well-known initiative is the framework on “Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, plus the sustainable management of forests and the conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks,” or REDD+, which was adopted in 2013 at the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP19) in Warsaw and built on the original REDD program, which launched five years earlier. REDD+ is supposed to channel a global willingness to pay for forest conservation through public funds or carbon markets, providing participating countries and jurisdictions in the Global South with incentives for forest protection. REDD+ project in Jambi province, Sumatra, Indonesia. Photo by Icaro Cooke Vieira/CIFOR-ICRAF. Over time, REDD+ has evolved considerably. It has been translated and assembled in highly diverse ways and at various speeds in national forest and climate policy arenas. Initially, REDD+ was considered a “low-hanging-fruit” approach to mitigate climate change — a quick and inexpensive scheme. However, a large body of research has, unsurprisingly, shown that REDD+ is much costlier and more contested than expected. Since 2009, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) has led the Global Comparative Study on REDD+ with the aim of understanding which conditions can enable and hinder desired change away from policies and politics that favor deforestation. The study also sought to determine how REDD+ implementation&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/what-have-we-learned-from-15-years-of-redd-policy-research-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/what-have-we-learned-from-15-years-of-redd-policy-research-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295437</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Do forest conservation pledges work? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/do-forest-conservation-pledges-work-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/do-forest-conservation-pledges-work-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Nov 2024 17:10:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Matthew Spencer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/02013159/kalbar_drone_190676_23-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289741</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, New York, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Rainforests, Temperate Forests, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In late September 2014 a besuited and bearded Leonardo DiCaprio stood at the grey marble dais in the UN General Assembly in New York and declared somberly that world leaders had to ‘make history or be vilified by it.’ The pressure was mounting for climate action and governments, companies and NGOs responded with a blizzard [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In late September 2014 a besuited and bearded Leonardo DiCaprio stood at the grey marble dais in the UN General Assembly in New York and declared somberly that world leaders had to ‘make history or be vilified by it.’ The pressure was mounting for climate action and governments, companies and NGOs responded with a blizzard of announcements including the high-profile New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF), which committed signatories to halve deforestation by 2020, and end it by 2030. Sadly, in the years immediately following the signing, deforestation actually increased, and the first target was missed. Deforestation has been on a downward trend since 2017 but the world is currently off track to end forest loss by the end of the decade. The perceived failure of the New York Declaration is a key reason the EU is introducing its tough new deforestation regulation (EUDR). At this year’s New York Climate Week there were lots of forest events but no discussion on the NYDF, or what its weakness might mean for its ‘upgraded’ Glasgow version agreed three years ago, with even greater support. It was therefore a surprise find that many veterans of forest policy I spoke to there felt that the New York Declaration had been worthwhile, despite the failure to meet its 2020 target. There were also people who felt it had been a mistake to get companies and governments to sign up to a target that they didn’t know how to deliver, and a veteran NGO staffer recalled&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/do-forest-conservation-pledges-work-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/do-forest-conservation-pledges-work-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289741</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Is the delay of Europe&#8217;s deforestation regulation a cause for regret, or an opportunity? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/is-the-delay-of-europes-deforestation-regulation-a-cause-for-regret-or-an-opportunity-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/is-the-delay-of-europes-deforestation-regulation-a-cause-for-regret-or-an-opportunity-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Nov 2024 17:52:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alain Karsenty]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/11/01154714/cocoa-colombia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289700</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe and European Union]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Beef, Cacao, Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, International Trade, Rubber, Soy, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A European Commission project to counter deforestation and forest degradation associated with &#8220;the making available on the Union market as well as the export&#8221; of certain agricultural products was unveiled in November 2021. The &#8220;Deforestation and Forest Degradation Regulation&#8221; (EUDR) was adopted in June 2023, and was due to come into force in early 2025 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A European Commission project to counter deforestation and forest degradation associated with &#8220;the making available on the Union market as well as the export&#8221; of certain agricultural products was unveiled in November 2021. The &#8220;Deforestation and Forest Degradation Regulation&#8221; (EUDR) was adopted in June 2023, and was due to come into force in early 2025 for large companies. But in early October 2024, the EC proposed a one-year postponement &#8220;in order to assist global stakeholders, member states and third countries in their preparations.&#8221; A few months earlier, the Commission had postponed publication of the benchmarking analysis, which classifies countries into three risk categories (low, standard, high). The level of risk should determine the level of due diligence that importers must carry out when acquiring production that may have been associated with deforestation or degradation. Operators may be penalized for failing to carry out due diligence, even if it turns out that the imported product has not contributed to deforestation. The regulation stipulates that, before a product is offered for sale on the European market (or exported), each operator will have to guarantee that it is not associated with deforested land after December 31, 2020, by geolocating the parcels from which it originates using a traceability system. Farmers (and foresters) will have to upload traceability data, including GPS coordinates, which will be compared with satellite images. The indication of plot boundaries is compulsory from four hectares upwards. Cattle ranching is a key driver of deforestation in the Amazon. Image courtesy of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/is-the-delay-of-europes-deforestation-regulation-a-cause-for-regret-or-an-opportunity-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/is-the-delay-of-europes-deforestation-regulation-a-cause-for-regret-or-an-opportunity-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289700</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Carbon markets must recognize Indigenous &#8216;high forest, low deforestation&#8217; areas (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/carbon-markets-must-recognize-indigenous-high-forest-low-deforestation-areas-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/carbon-markets-must-recognize-indigenous-high-forest-low-deforestation-areas-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Oct 2024 16:31:12 +0000</pubDate>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/23210438/amazon_200811-e1729717552493-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289126</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, Latin America, Panama, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, carbon, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Rainforests, Social Justice, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For us, protecting our forests is like protecting our families. They are our homes. They give us life. For decades, we’ve witnessed deforestation destroy large areas of tropical forests, where people saw them worth more dead than alive. Our forests have avoided that fate, as we’ve fought for protections to designate them as Indigenous territories. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For us, protecting our forests is like protecting our families. They are our homes. They give us life. For decades, we’ve witnessed deforestation destroy large areas of tropical forests, where people saw them worth more dead than alive. Our forests have avoided that fate, as we’ve fought for protections to designate them as Indigenous territories. But now our forests are under threat. We represent Indigenous communities from the Peruvian Amazon and Panama. We have lived in and safeguarded our forests for generations, helping maintain biodiverse ecosystems designated as high forest, low deforestation (HFLD) areas, which are regions with historically low deforestation. Our forests store immense amounts of carbon and are home to rich biodiversity. Yet carbon markets have not adequately acknowledged our efforts to keep forests standing in these regions. As a result, our communities risk missing out on critical financing that could be made available by the voluntary carbon market. That is why the communal reserves in Peru, represented by the National Association of Executors of the Communal Reserves Administration Contract (ANECAP) and many other Indigenous communities in tropical forests countries like Panama, have been defending HFLD crediting approaches as a way to channel funds to help our communities combat the escalating forces driving deforestation. Forest in Guna territory, Panama. Image courtesy of Onel Masardule. Compensation for our efforts Our communities’ practices to conserve forests have been in place for decades and are helping keep forests standing today and into the future. In the Communal Reserves of the Peruvian&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/carbon-markets-must-recognize-indigenous-high-forest-low-deforestation-areas-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289126</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study: REDD+ doesn’t work without Indigenous peoples, but fails to engage them</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/study-redd-doesnt-work-without-indigenous-peoples-but-fails-to-engage-them/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/study-redd-doesnt-work-without-indigenous-peoples-but-fails-to-engage-them/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Oct 2024 15:19:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sarah Brown]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/24151144/Indigenous-mobilization-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289159</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Emissions, climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Forest Carbon, Forest Destruction, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Redd, and Restoration]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The United Nations’ framework for reducing emissions by protecting forests in less-industrialized countries, known as REDD+, isn’t doing enough to prioritize Indigenous peoples in the Amazon. That’s the finding from a new study, which proposes a dozen principles for giving local and traditional communities, the long-standing stewards of those very forests, more decision-making power within [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The United Nations’ framework for reducing emissions by protecting forests in less-industrialized countries, known as REDD+, isn’t doing enough to prioritize Indigenous peoples in the Amazon. That’s the finding from a new study, which proposes a dozen principles for giving local and traditional communities, the long-standing stewards of those very forests, more decision-making power within REDD+. “The importance of Indigenous Peoples in the protection of the Amazon is not reflected in the design of international climate policy,” the study says. “Given their historical and ongoing struggles against extraction, guidance from Indigenous Peoples must be central to any climate justice approach for mitigating deforestation in the Amazon.” The study groups the 12 principles for improving existing climate policies into four categories: Indigenous territorial defense, Indigenous-led climate initiatives, safeguarding Indigenous peoples’ rights to strengthen existing policies, and equitable climate finance and benefit sharing to enable these types of improvements. The paper’s authors say these recommendations could apply both to the design of new climate programs and to a “justice-oriented reimagining of REDD+.” Cattle raising in the Amazon rainforest. Environmentalists claim that climate policies like REDD+ should prioritize addressing the key drivers of deforestation, such as large-scale cattle ranching, rather than focusing on small-scale land clearing by local communities. Image © Bruno Kelly/Greenpeace. “We do not advocate for the continued use of REDD+ as it is currently conceived, [but] we recognize that it will likely stay around,” they write. “It [is] imperative to present an alternative and to suggest ways to improve current&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/study-redd-doesnt-work-without-indigenous-peoples-but-fails-to-engage-them/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289159</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>With Europe&#8217;s move to delay tropical forest protections, everything burns (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/with-europes-move-to-delay-tropical-forest-protections-everything-burns-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/with-europes-move-to-delay-tropical-forest-protections-everything-burns-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Oct 2024 19:51:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Etelle Higonnet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/28141039/GP0SU2G4C_24_1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288541</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe and European Union]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, agribusiness, Agriculture, Avoided Deforestation, Commentary, Commodity agriculture, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Regulations, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Forests. We can&#8217;t live without them. If they burn, we die. Many forests are at risk today. The Amazon has been so damaged that it may shift from being a carbon sink to a carbon source and morph into a savanna. Scientists overwhelmingly tell us that if humanity wants a future on a habitable planet, we must [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Forests. We can&#8217;t live without them. If they burn, we die. Many forests are at risk today. The Amazon has been so damaged that it may shift from being a carbon sink to a carbon source and morph into a savanna. Scientists overwhelmingly tell us that if humanity wants a future on a habitable planet, we must protect our last forests that remain. Experts agree that to avert climate chaos, we must immediately halt and reverse global deforestation. For a while it seemed that the EU was stepping up to save global forests, with a bold, beautiful law called the &#8220;EU Deforestation Regulation&#8221; or EUDR. Last week, the EU Commission flip-flopped and announced it wants to delay the law for a year, instead of allowing the law to enter into force in January 2025. And it gets worse: delaying automatically means opening up the law to get watered down. Farms or forests? Commodity crops such as soy are major drivers of tropical deforestation. Image courtesy of Marizilda Cruppe/Greenpeace. This decision isn’t just destructive for forests, it’s also bad for business: it flies in the face of hard efforts by thousands of companies who did everything to get into compliance on time. Indeed, roughly 15,000 companies had spoken out for the EUDR and its sister law, the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. Investors representing north of $6 trillion in assets under management supported such regulation. It&#8217;s also bad for democracy: civil society clamored for the EUDR, with millions of people signing petitions, attending protests, writing letters, and making calls, or speaking out in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/with-europes-move-to-delay-tropical-forest-protections-everything-burns-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/with-europes-move-to-delay-tropical-forest-protections-everything-burns-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288541</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Record number of Indigenous land titles granted in Peru via innovative process (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/record-number-of-indigenous-land-titles-granted-in-peru-via-innovative-process-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/record-number-of-indigenous-land-titles-granted-in-peru-via-innovative-process-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Sep 2024 15:59:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Miguel Guimaraes VasquezWendy Pineda]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/06151550/Peru-IP-land-titles-e1725636785645-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287025</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Governance, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Law, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a defining moment for the rights of Indigenous peoples in Peru, 37 land titles were secured in the Amazon in record time, from June 2023 to May 2024. This is not only a remarkable land rights victory for the region, but it also marks a significant step towards addressing climate change, reclaiming Indigenous peoples’ [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a defining moment for the rights of Indigenous peoples in Peru, 37 land titles were secured in the Amazon in record time, from June 2023 to May 2024. This is not only a remarkable land rights victory for the region, but it also marks a significant step towards addressing climate change, reclaiming Indigenous peoples’ sovereignty and rights, and defending territories against external threats. Land titles have proven to be the most effective way to protect Indigenous peoples’ land from deforestation, with titled land experiencing a 66% decrease in deforestation. Legal land ownership allows Indigenous communities to hold illegal loggers and land-grabbers accountable. Additionally, these titled lands act as a buffer zone, protecting adjacent Indigenous territories from invasion. Deforestation is a global concern, but for the Indigenous communities of Peru, it is also about preserving their heritage, culture, and very existence. The process of securing land titles ranges from slow and bureaucratic to extremely dangerous. In Peru, more than 30 Indigenous leaders have been murdered over the past two decades for seeking titles for their territories and the recognition of their ancestral lands. A partnership between AIDESEP, the Rainforest Foundation US, and the Peruvian government has enabled an innovative, low-cost, high-impact model to expedite community land titling in record time. Image courtesy of Sacha Cine/Rainforest Foundation US. The Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP) has been working since the 1980s to raise funds and petition the Peruvian government for the recognition and titling of our lands.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/record-number-of-indigenous-land-titles-granted-in-peru-via-innovative-process-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287025</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sugarcane megaproject poses latest threat to Papua’s forests, communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/sugarcane-megaproject-poses-latest-threat-to-papuas-forests-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/sugarcane-megaproject-poses-latest-threat-to-papuas-forests-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jun 2024 15:56:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas JongSarjan Lahay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/03/28063848/IMG_5021-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283450</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Alternative Energy, Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity, Bioenergy, Biofuels, Climate, Climate Change, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Food, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Plantations, Rainforests, Renewable Energy, Sugar, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government plans to establish 2 million hectares, or nearly 5 million acres, of sugarcane plantations in the eastern region of Papua, home to the last great expanse of rainforest in Southeast Asia. The country’s investment minister, Bahlil Lahadalia, said the land, spanning an area 30 times the size of Jakarta, was available in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government plans to establish 2 million hectares, or nearly 5 million acres, of sugarcane plantations in the eastern region of Papua, home to the last great expanse of rainforest in Southeast Asia. The country’s investment minister, Bahlil Lahadalia, said the land, spanning an area 30 times the size of Jakarta, was available in Merauke district. He denied that this biodiverse landscape constituted “natural forest,” and justified clearing it in the interest of weaning Indonesia off sugar imports entirely by 2027. The government also has plans to develop cane-derived bioethanol as part of its transition away from fossil fuels. “Our country is one of the world’s largest in size. But [when] sugar price increases, we always import. We keep importing [sugar],” Bahlil said in Jakarta on April 29. Bahlil leads a task force formed by President Joko Widodo to allocate land for the project and streamline the licensing process for interested companies. To date, five consortiums, consisting of Indonesian and foreign companies, are confirmed to be participating in the 130 trillion rupiah ($7.9 billion) project, with roles ranging from developing sugarcane plantations and processing mills, to building the power plants to run them. One of the first orders of business is to rezone 419,000 hectares ( million acres) of forested area, six times the size of Jakarta, into non-forest area, thereby allowing it to be deforested — legally. In South Papua province alone, this amounts to 25,654 hectares (63,392 acres) of intact forest that’s been approved for clearing, according&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/sugarcane-megaproject-poses-latest-threat-to-papuas-forests-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283450</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>NZ funding helps Indigenous farmers in Indonesia protect forests, boost incomes</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/nz-funding-helps-indigenous-farmers-in-indonesia-protect-forests-boost-incomes/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/nz-funding-helps-indigenous-farmers-in-indonesia-protect-forests-boost-incomes/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 May 2024 15:48:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/15154100/13-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282156</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Avoided Deforestation, Climate, Climate Change, Deforestation, Economics, Environment, Farming, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Nature-based climate solutions, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, Solutions, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Funding from the New Zealand government is helping Indigenous farmers in Indonesian Borneo improve their livelihoods while protecting their ancestral forests. The funding, channeled through the Farmers For Forest Protection Foundation (4F), will go toward programs such as training and deployment of forest guards, village-based customary forest management support, local forest regulation support, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Funding from the New Zealand government is helping Indigenous farmers in Indonesian Borneo improve their livelihoods while protecting their ancestral forests. The funding, channeled through the Farmers For Forest Protection Foundation (4F), will go toward programs such as training and deployment of forest guards, village-based customary forest management support, local forest regulation support, forest monitoring, and training in and implementation of good agricultural practices. The initial disbursement of NZ$24,800 ($14,900) has been allocated to the villages of Setawar and Gunam, in Sekadau and Sanggau districts, respectively, in West Kalimantan province. Setawar is home to around 400 hectares (nearly 1,000 acres) of customary forest, and Gunam 22 hectares (54 acres). While most of the villagers there as independent palm oil farmers, they still rely on their ancestral forests for various purposes, such as making medicinal herbs, producing handicrafts from rattan, building houses using timber from the forests, and carrying out traditional rituals. “The funding will have a big impact on protecting the remaining customary forest in Sanggau and Sekadau, and on the lives of the village communities,” Tirza Pandelaki, executive director of 4F, said in a statement. “They have been struggling for many years to protect the forests that are essential for their culture, livelihoods and spiritual wellbeing. We thank and appreciate the generous support from the New Zealand Head of Embassy Fund.” The villagers have been assisted by the association of Indonesian palm oil farmers, or SPKS, to produce palm oil without sacrificing their forests. They do this by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/nz-funding-helps-indigenous-farmers-in-indonesia-protect-forests-boost-incomes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282156</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New report details rights abuses in Cambodia’s Southern Cardamom REDD+ project</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/new-report-details-rights-abuses-in-cambodias-southern-cardamom-redd-project/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/new-report-details-rights-abuses-in-cambodias-southern-cardamom-redd-project/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2024 00:01:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald FlynnPhoung Vantha]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Gerryflynn]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/25084942/RESIZED-Koh-Kong-Prison_Mongabay-5-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279732</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Cardamom Mountains, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Conservation, Culture, Deforestation, Forest Carbon, Forests, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Human Rights, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Mongabay Data Studio, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Redd, Social Conflict, Traditional People, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PHNOM PENH — A new report published by Human Rights Watch on Feb. 28 details a litany of alleged abuses in the Southern Cardamom REDD+ project, which covers a vast swath of rainforest across Cardamom National Park in southwest Cambodia. The 118-page report alleges that Wildlife Alliance, the conservation NGO that jointly manages the 465,000 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PHNOM PENH — A new report published by Human Rights Watch on Feb. 28 details a litany of alleged abuses in the Southern Cardamom REDD+ project, which covers a vast swath of rainforest across Cardamom National Park in southwest Cambodia. The 118-page report alleges that Wildlife Alliance, the conservation NGO that jointly manages the 465,000 hectares (1.15-million-acre) REDD+ project with the Ministry of Environment, didn’t secure the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of the largely Indigenous communities whose land was absorbed into the project to sell carbon credits. The rights watchdog detailed numerous accounts from community members who alleged being forcibly and violently evicted by Wildlife Alliance staff as well as the government rangers and military police officers accompanying the NGO’s staff on patrols. According to HRW, customary land rights were ignored and Wildlife Alliance didn’t implement a formal benefit-sharing contract with the communities affected by the REDD+ project. Prior to the report’s release, Wildlife Alliance published a roughly 10,000-word open letter on Dec. 21, 2023, countering the claims made by HRW and expressing concerns over how the report was produced, as well as accusing HRW of failing “to acknowledge and incorporate into their allegations a comprehensive view of the project’s full impacts, nor critical elements of project- and country-level context.” (Wildlife Alliance’s website was in “maintenance mode” when Mongabay published this story; a snapshot of its open letter was archived here on March 8.) This map shows the scale of Wildlife Alliance&#8217;s REDD+ projects across the Cardamom Mountains.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/new-report-details-rights-abuses-in-cambodias-southern-cardamom-redd-project/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279732</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New tool aims to help palm oil firms comply with deforestation regulations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/new-tool-aims-to-help-palm-oil-firms-comply-with-deforestation-regulations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/new-tool-aims-to-help-palm-oil-firms-comply-with-deforestation-regulations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jan 2024 14:02:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/26135356/oil-palm-deforestation-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=278072</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Innovation, Mapping, Palm Oil, Rainforests, Technology, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As countries around the world begin to either propose or enforce zero-deforestation regulations, companies are coming under growing pressure to prove that their products are free of deforestation. But this is often a far from straightforward process. Take palm oil, for instance. Its journey from plantations, most likely in Indonesia or Malaysia, to store shelves [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As countries around the world begin to either propose or enforce zero-deforestation regulations, companies are coming under growing pressure to prove that their products are free of deforestation. But this is often a far from straightforward process. Take palm oil, for instance. Its journey from plantations, most likely in Indonesia or Malaysia, to store shelves in the form of shampoo, cookies or a plethora of other goods, is a long and convoluted one. In fact, the cooking oil or cosmetics we use might contain palm oil processed in several different mills, which in turn may have bought the raw palm fruit from several of the many thousands of plantations. For companies that use palm oil in their products, tracing and tracking its origins through these obscure supply chains is a tough task. Often it requires going all the way back to the plot level and checking for deforestation. However, these plots are scattered over vast areas across potentially millions of locations, with data being in various states of digitization and completeness. “We need to be able to trace these plots to the facilities that ultimately are used for processing the crop into commodities which are sold in one of these regulated-demand markets,” Leo Bottrill, CEO of MapHubs, a technology company that uses satellite data to map logging, told Mongabay in a video interview. “If we don&#8217;t have a way to reconcile these things, these laws are not going to be able to work.” Palmoil.io, a web-based monitoring platform that Bottrill&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/new-tool-aims-to-help-palm-oil-firms-comply-with-deforestation-regulations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-278072</doi>				</item>
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