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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/biodiversity-credits/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Fri, 11 Sep 2026 19:54:36 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Biodiversity credits</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/biodiversity-credits/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>In Panama’s Darién, Indigenous communities test a new way to fund conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/in-panamas-darien-indigenous-communities-test-a-new-way-to-fund-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/in-panamas-darien-indigenous-communities-test-a-new-way-to-fund-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Sep 2026 15:10:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[María Paula Rubiano A.]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/15163740/panama_240512162306_0722-e1768495168974-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328986</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, North America, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Ecosystems, Finance, In-situ Conservation, Indigenous Peoples, Jaguars, Monitoring, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When Elsa Quiroz saw the spotted body of a jaguar appear on her son’s computer screen, she couldn’t believe her eyes. “I’d only seen them in books,” she said. In late 2025, a camera captured the animal crossing a semi-abandoned path in Puerto Lara, a an Indigenous Wounaan village north of Panama’s Darien forest, close [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Elsa Quiroz saw the spotted body of a jaguar appear on her son’s computer screen, she couldn’t believe her eyes. “I’d only seen them in books,” she said. In late 2025, a camera captured the animal crossing a semi-abandoned path in Puerto Lara, a an Indigenous Wounaan village north of Panama’s Darien forest, close to the Pan-American Highway, an area known for its rich biodiversity. The community was aware of how many birds lived around them, but not of the jaguars. Samuel Cheucarama, Quiroz’s son, reviews each photo taken by the two cameras installed in Puerto Lara every two weeks. He was as astonished as his mom when he first saw the extent of the biodiversity concealed within Puerto Lara’s forest, which covers an area less than twice the size of New York City’s Central Park. He reels off the list: agoutis, spotted rabbits, turkeys, margays, white-headed monkeys, among others, all found within this wilderness of just 600 hectares, or less than 1,500 acres. Cheucarama’s work is a small part of a wider project promoting nature-based economic alternatives in four communities managing a combined 18,000 hectares (about 44,500 acres) of tropical forest in eastern Panama. Although the Panamanian government has made efforts to reduce deforestation in Darién National Park, deforestation from illegal logging and agricultural expansion has increasingly been putting communities under pressure, with little to no support from local and national authorities. As a result, communities have been exploring alternatives to make their conservation efforts economically viable. In&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/in-panamas-darien-indigenous-communities-test-a-new-way-to-fund-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/in-panamas-darien-indigenous-communities-test-a-new-way-to-fund-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328986</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Biodiversity bonds can work, but their design flaws must be fixed (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/biodiversity-bonds-can-work-but-their-design-flaws-must-be-fixed-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/biodiversity-bonds-can-work-but-their-design-flaws-must-be-fixed-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Feb 2026 15:49:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anna Comacchio]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/10145640/Elephant-shrew-e1770735478302-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314027</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Finance, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The interlinked crises of climate change and biodiversity loss are slipping down political agendas just as geopolitical instability and fiscal pressures rise. Overseas development aid is falling in real terms, and many megadiverse countries are juggling debt stress that pushes conservation to the margins. Meanwhile, the global biodiversity finance gap remains vast, estimated at roughly [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The interlinked crises of climate change and biodiversity loss are slipping down political agendas just as geopolitical instability and fiscal pressures rise. Overseas development aid is falling in real terms, and many megadiverse countries are juggling debt stress that pushes conservation to the margins. Meanwhile, the global biodiversity finance gap remains vast, estimated at roughly $700 billion a year by The Nature Conservancy’s 2025 analysis. This shortfall has invited a new family of instruments that promise to pay for measurable results. Beyond classic green bonds, we’re seeing biodiversity-linked bonds (BLBs), outcome bonds, and debt-for-nature swaps. However, this shift is controversial. Critics argue that such tools cannot work because nature is too complex to be commodified. Furthermore, a new perspective published in Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution warns that without rigorous design, nature markets risk providing &#8220;cheap&#8221; talk instead of real conservation, potentially rewarding countries for outcomes that would have happened anyway. Social and political safeguards — not just clever finance — will decide whether these financial instruments can really help people and nature. Unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of waiting for perfect instruments while ecosystems unravel, but we can insist on better, more integral ones. Biodiversity-linked bonds and debt-for-nature swaps should scale only when they follow the five essential fixes below. Macaws in Peru. Image by Rhett Butler for Mongabay. Why the hype and the caution? Three selling points explain the momentum for biodiversity bonds. First is scale: the cumulative labeled sustainable bond market reached $6.2 trillion in value in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/biodiversity-bonds-can-work-but-their-design-flaws-must-be-fixed-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/biodiversity-bonds-can-work-but-their-design-flaws-must-be-fixed-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314027</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The year in rainforests 2025: Deforestation fell; the risks did not</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-year-in-rainforests-2025-deforestation-fell-the-risks-did-not/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-year-in-rainforests-2025-deforestation-fell-the-risks-did-not/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Dec 2025 20:11:46 +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/20/2025/12/26174503/14-brunei_251114145042_0254z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312083</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Brazil, Central Africa, Colombia, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Global, Indonesia, Latin America, Peru, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Green, Illegal Logging, Illegal Trade, Indigenous Peoples, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Redd, Regulations, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Technology, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Year-end review]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The story of the world’s tropical forests in 2025 was not one of dramatic reversal, but one shaped by accumulated pressure. In several regions, deforestation slowed. In others, loss continued in less visible forms, shaped by fire, degradation, and political choices not limited to large-scale clearing alone. Governments continued to speak the language of protection, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The story of the world’s tropical forests in 2025 was not one of dramatic reversal, but one shaped by accumulated pressure. In several regions, deforestation slowed. In others, loss continued in less visible forms, shaped by fire, degradation, and political choices not limited to large-scale clearing alone. Governments continued to speak the language of protection, even as infrastructure, extraction, and energy projects advanced into forest landscapes. Progress was real, though uneven, and the distance between policy commitments and conditions on the ground remained substantial. What distinguished the year was the growing influence of indirect forces, rather than a single driver of loss. Heat, drought, and past damage increasingly shaped forest outcomes, even where new clearing slowed. Commodity markets rewarded persistence more than short-lived price spikes. Finance shifted away from individual projects toward broader fiscal tools. Enforcement mattered, alongside institutional credibility and the ability to operate consistently over time. At the global level, climate diplomacy continued, with limited appetite for binding decisions. COP30 avoided collapse and deferred the hardest choices. Forests remained prominent in rhetoric while enforceable outcomes remained limited. Market-based tools—carbon credits, trade regulation, and conservation finance—advanced unevenly, shaped as much by political confidence and capacity as by technical design. Taken together, 2025 underscored that tropical forests are now shaped more by interacting systems rather than single policies. Finance, science, enforcement, conflict, and climate stress increasingly operate together, often reinforcing one another. This review traces where those systems functioned, where they faltered, and what that means for the forests caught&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-year-in-rainforests-2025-deforestation-fell-the-risks-did-not/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-year-in-rainforests-2025-deforestation-fell-the-risks-did-not/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312083</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>It’s time to end the carbon offset era, COP30 scientists &#038; communities say (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/its-time-to-end-the-carbon-offset-era-cop30-scientists-communities-say-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/its-time-to-end-the-carbon-offset-era-cop30-scientists-communities-say-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Nov 2025 12:43:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tom Picken]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/10191757/AP25310538786668-scaled-e1763727569530-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309962</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity credits, Business, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Climate Science, Commentary, Conservation Finance, Environment, Finance, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Science, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At COP30 in Belém, the first climate summit held in the Amazon, something rare has happened. For years, the risks and failures of carbon offsetting have been dismissed as activist exaggeration or technical teething problems. But this week, Brazil’s leading scientists publicly said what many Indigenous and frontline communities have long argued: forests cannot be [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At COP30 in Belém, the first climate summit held in the Amazon, something rare has happened. For years, the risks and failures of carbon offsetting have been dismissed as activist exaggeration or technical teething problems. But this week, Brazil’s leading scientists publicly said what many Indigenous and frontline communities have long argued: forests cannot be used as offsets. This warning, issued by the COP30 Science Council, should land with force. These are not fringe voices. Carlos Nobre, Paulo Artaxo, Piers Forster, Thelma Krug, Johan Rockström and others are among the world’s foremost experts on tipping points and terrestrial systems. Their statement is unusually blunt: the world is “already facing danger”; fossil fuel emissions must start falling next year; and forests — especially the Amazon — can no longer be treated as a stable carbon sink capable of compensating for continued burning of coal, oil and gas. This matters because the Amazon, once one of Earth’s greatest climate stabilizers, is approaching profound fragility. Drought, heat waves, fires and land conversion are eroding the forest’s ability to store carbon. Parts of the region are already flipping from sink to source. The science is clear: you cannot offset permanent fossil fuel emissions with nonpermanent, vulnerable biological carbon. The accounting doesn’t hold — and the ecological reality no longer allows the fiction to stand. A forest fire in the the Brazilian Amazon, which is already flipping from carbon sink to carbon source, research finds. Image courtesy of Victor Moriyama/Clean Air Fund. Yet in Belém, negotiators are still trying&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/its-time-to-end-the-carbon-offset-era-cop30-scientists-communities-say-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-309962</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Norway fund drops Eramet over Indonesia mine threatening forests, Indigenous tribe</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/norway-fund-drops-eramet-over-indonesia-mine-threatening-forests-indigenous-tribe/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/norway-fund-drops-eramet-over-indonesia-mine-threatening-forests-indigenous-tribe/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Sep 2025 01:40:39 +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/20/2025/09/09060958/Nickel-mining-activity-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306096</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, North Maluku, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Biodiversity Hotspots, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Critical Minerals, Deforestation, Electric Cars, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Just Transition, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Norway’s $1.6 trillion state pension fund has dropped French miner Eramet from its investment portfolio over its role in a vast Indonesian nickel mine accused of destroying rainforest and threatening one of the world’s few remaining uncontacted Indigenous groups. The Government Pension Fund Global, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, held a 0.44% [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Norway’s $1.6 trillion state pension fund has dropped French miner Eramet from its investment portfolio over its role in a vast Indonesian nickel mine accused of destroying rainforest and threatening one of the world’s few remaining uncontacted Indigenous groups. The Government Pension Fund Global, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, held a 0.44% stake in Eramet worth $6.8 million as of June 30, according to fund data. The divestment followed a recommendation from the fund’s Council on Ethics, which cited “an unacceptable risk” of severe environmental damage and gross human rights violations from Eramet’s operations in Indonesia. The decision comes as Indonesian authorities revealed that PT Weda Bay Nickel (WBN), the Eramet-operated mine in Halmahera, was running 148 hectares (366 acres) of unlicensed mining inside state forest. Authorities have since seized back the land. Indonesia is the world’s top producer of nickel, is a key ingredient in electric vehicle batteries, making the mine’s output critical to the global energy transition. But the Weda Bay case highlights the mounting tension between demand for “green” minerals and the destruction of tropical ecosystems and Indigenous lands. Eramet&#8217;s Weda Bay Nickel mine on the territory of the uncontacted Forest Tobelo people in Halmahera, Indonesia. Image courtesy of Survival International. Biodiversity hotspot under threat Weda Bay Nickel is the world’s largest nickel mine, located on Halmahera Island, part of the Wallacea Biodiversity Hotspot. A 2024 assessment identified the entire mining concession as critical habitat under International Finance Corporation (IFC) standards — home to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/norway-fund-drops-eramet-over-indonesia-mine-threatening-forests-indigenous-tribe/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306096</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>A Kenya marine biodiversity credit program restores mangroves — and livelihoods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-kenya-marine-biodiversity-credit-program-restores-mangroves-and-livelihoods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-kenya-marine-biodiversity-credit-program-restores-mangroves-and-livelihoods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jul 2025 19:39:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Juliet Akoth Ojwang]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/01081238/Emmanuel-Gona-a-fisherman-and-community-scout-from-Muyu-wa-Kae-village-in-Marereni-believes-that-conserving-and-restoring-mangrove-ecosystems-is-key-to-boosting-fish-populations.-P-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301717</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Indian Ocean, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Climate, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Mangroves, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Reforestation, Restoration, Saltwater Fish, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MARERENI, Kenya — The scorching afternoon sun stretches across the semiarid landscape of Marereni, in Kenya’s Kilifi county, where salt and sea shape both the land and the lives that depend on it. Known for its extensive salt mining operations, this remote settlement lies at the heart of the country’s north coast salt belt. Yet [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MARERENI, Kenya — The scorching afternoon sun stretches across the semiarid landscape of Marereni, in Kenya’s Kilifi county, where salt and sea shape both the land and the lives that depend on it. Known for its extensive salt mining operations, this remote settlement lies at the heart of the country’s north coast salt belt. Yet beyond the glint of salt pans, Marereni is also home to one of the coast’s most vital ecosystems: a mosaic of fringing, estuarine and creek mangrove forests that support rich biodiversity. This is the stunning backdrop to the site of restoration projects aimed at both revitalizing these important mangroves — and the communities that tend to them. In recent years, Marereni’s mangroves have been disappearing due to conversion pressure for solar salt works, aquaculture and human settlement, according to information from the Kenyan government’s National Mangrove Ecosystem Management Plan 2017-27. The plan underscores that the loss of mangrove cover significantly weakens coastal protection, leaving shorelines more susceptible to erosion, storm surges and rising sea levels. This not only heightens the vulnerability of inland areas and infrastructure to climate-related risks but also disrupts vital marine ecosystems, degrading crucial breeding and nursery grounds for fish, crustaceans and other species, leading to declining fish stocks and reduced biodiversity. For coastal communities, such as those in Marereni, the loss of mangroves threatens their very livelihoods. Many depend on mangrove ecosystems for fisheries, fuelwood, construction materials and a range of other vital services. As the mangroves vanish, so do economic&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-kenya-marine-biodiversity-credit-program-restores-mangroves-and-livelihoods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-kenya-marine-biodiversity-credit-program-restores-mangroves-and-livelihoods/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301717</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mining in a forest conservation site clouds Republic of Congo’s carbon credit scheme</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mining-in-a-forest-conservation-site-clouds-republic-of-congos-carbon-credit-scheme/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mining-in-a-forest-conservation-site-clouds-republic-of-congos-carbon-credit-scheme/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jan 2025 08:00:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Christophe Assogba]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/14151257/Photo-Mine-ouverte-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292921</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity credits, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Carbon, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Mining, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This article was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Network in collaboration with the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP). It is the first part of a two-part series, read part two here. Environmentalist Justin Landry Chekoua says he’s shocked by images of century-old trees uprooted and rivers contaminated in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This article was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Network in collaboration with the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP). It is the first part of a two-part series, read part two here. Environmentalist Justin Landry Chekoua says he’s shocked by images of century-old trees uprooted and rivers contaminated in the northern Sangha region of the Republic of Congo. Mongabay had taken photos of an open-pit gold mine within the boundaries of an area designated as part of the Sangha Likouala REDD+ program. “Looking at it &#8230; this is a mining operation with no regard for sustainability,” Chekoua says. Over the past eight months, Mongabay has conducted an in-depth investigation into the Sangha Likouala REDD+ initiative. We traveled to the Sangha region, reviewed hundreds of official documents, and uncovered a troubling reality: since the REDD+ project’s launch in 2020, the country’s mining minister, Pierre Oba, has issued at least 79 semi-industrial gold mining and exploration permits. This marks a sharp increase from the period between 2017 and 2020, when only eight mining permits were officially issued in the same region, according to a Ministry of Finance report. By definition, a REDD+ project is designed to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. Yet in the Sangha region, 14% of the territory has already been marked out for gold exploration. This doesn’t account for permits to search for the other minerals, such as iron, that are mined on an industrial scale in the area. The consequences for the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mining-in-a-forest-conservation-site-clouds-republic-of-congos-carbon-credit-scheme/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mining-in-a-forest-conservation-site-clouds-republic-of-congos-carbon-credit-scheme/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292921</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The year in tropical rainforests: 2024</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-year-in-tropical-rainforests-2024/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-year-in-tropical-rainforests-2024/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Dec 2024 00:25:54 +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/20/2024/12/24155125/Slide1-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292245</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Brazil, Colombia, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Ecuador, Global, Indonesia, Latin America, Peru, South America, Southeast Asia, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Green, Illegal Logging, Illegal Trade, Indigenous Peoples, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Redd, Regulations, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Technology, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Year-end review]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The year 2024 saw significant developments in tropical rainforest conservation, deforestation, and degradation. While progress in some regions provided glimmers of hope, systemic challenges and emerging threats highlighted the fragility of these ecosystems. Although a complete comparison of tropical forest loss in 2024 with previous years is not yet available, there are currently no indications [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The year 2024 saw significant developments in tropical rainforest conservation, deforestation, and degradation. While progress in some regions provided glimmers of hope, systemic challenges and emerging threats highlighted the fragility of these ecosystems. Although a complete comparison of tropical forest loss in 2024 with previous years is not yet available, there are currently no indications that this year’s loss will be markedly higher. A sharp decline in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon—partially offset by widespread forest fires—suggests the overall rate of loss may be lower. This analysis explores key storylines that shaped tropical rainforests in 2024. &nbsp; Previous year-in-reviews: 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | The 2010s | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2009 Contents Brazil | Suriname | Indonesia | Congo Basin | EUDR | Conservation finance | Carbon market | Biodiversity credits | Forest science | Remote sensing | 30&#215;30 | Illegality in the Amazon | Politics A respite in the Brazilian Amazon: Deforestation declines amid rising fires The Brazilian Amazon experienced a notable decline in deforestation in 2024, offering a rare glimmer of optimism for the embattled rainforest. According to Brazil&#8217;s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), forest loss fell by 30.6% between August 2023 and July 2024, reaching its lowest level in nine years. The 6,288 square kilometers of rainforest cleared—a swath roughly the size of Delaware—marks the smallest annual loss since 2015. The slowdown is part of a three-year trend&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-year-in-tropical-rainforests-2024/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-year-in-tropical-rainforests-2024/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292245</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Biodiversity credit approaches multiply as concerns cloud confidence</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/biodiversity-credit-approaches-multiply-as-concerns-cloud-confidence/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/biodiversity-credit-approaches-multiply-as-concerns-cloud-confidence/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Nov 2024 11:59:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/18104602/gorilla-mum-and-baby-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290234</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Regenerative landscapes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, Community Forests, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the two years since biodiversity credits garnered a prominent mention in the 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) aimed at halting the loss of wildlife, a flurry of projects and methods that underpin those credits have sprung onto the scene. Numerous reports have tried to keep up with these new initiatives, including the Biocredit Catalogue, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the two years since biodiversity credits garnered a prominent mention in the 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) aimed at halting the loss of wildlife, a flurry of projects and methods that underpin those credits have sprung onto the scene. Numerous reports have tried to keep up with these new initiatives, including the Biocredit Catalogue, which documents nearly a dozen developers working on methods. But less than a year after it was published, the authors say it’s already out of date. Another recent report from Switzerland-based nonprofit organization NatureFinance found more than 30 biodiversity credit projects at some stage of development on the African continent alone. Just as these projects have proliferated, so too have the methods used to monetize them. The umbrella term “biodiversity credit” encompasses a wide range of approaches for calculating the value of those credits that can seem impenetrably complex, making them magnets for criticism. In part, that’s because these approaches attempt to peg a value to the conservation benefits a credit might provide — or, as critics put it, “put a price on nature” — across widely varied landscapes, ranging from mountain forests in Colombia to mangroves in Kenya. According to proponents and critics, this variation makes comparisons between ecosystems nearly impossible — and inadvisable in most cases. But the wave of activity around biodiversity credits, including a prominent role in discussions at the 2024 U.N. biodiversity conference (COP16) in Cali, Colombia, demonstrates that many have pinned their hopes on this strategy to help tackle&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/biodiversity-credit-approaches-multiply-as-concerns-cloud-confidence/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/biodiversity-credit-approaches-multiply-as-concerns-cloud-confidence/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290234</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why biodiversity credits cannot work (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/why-biodiversity-credits-cannot-work-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/why-biodiversity-credits-cannot-work-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Oct 2024 18:43:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Byron Swift]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/14035049/andrean-cock-of-the-rock-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288592</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Carbon Credits, Commentary, Conservation, and Payments For Ecosystem Services]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The earth is on the brink of a sixth extinction crisis, making it urgent to expand programs to conserve nature and its biodiversity, especially in tropical countries with the highest biodiversity. One option is the use of market mechanisms such as crediting systems to help conserve tropical forests to limit both the emissions of greenhouse [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The earth is on the brink of a sixth extinction crisis, making it urgent to expand programs to conserve nature and its biodiversity, especially in tropical countries with the highest biodiversity. One option is the use of market mechanisms such as crediting systems to help conserve tropical forests to limit both the emissions of greenhouse gases and the loss of biodiversity. An existing market already exists for carbon credits, though it has been undermined by a series of critical investigations, and emerging programs are being discussed for biodiversity credits. This article describes a number of fundamental flaws with biodiversity credits, any one of which is potentially fatal. Together they indicate that biodiversity credits cannot be effective in addressing the conservation of biodiversity, and that we need to develop and enhance other, more legitimate ways to fund biodiversity conservation. In essence, the principal reason we are talking about biodiversity credits is not because they are effective, but because of the relentless promotion of the idea by the financial intermediaries who would become its main beneficiaries. Red passion vine flower in the Colombian Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Here are nine reasons why biodiversity credit trading cannot work: Credit trading is a structurally unsound regulatory device that lacks integrity The biggest problem is that crediting programs are a highly imperfect regulatory methodology that has rarely worked well anywhere. The system is easily gamed, accountability is lax, key issues like additionality and leakage are very difficult to prove, and it requires significant transaction&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/why-biodiversity-credits-cannot-work-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/why-biodiversity-credits-cannot-work-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288592</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservation pays and everyone’s benefitting from it (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/conservation-pays-and-everyones-benefitting-from-it-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/conservation-pays-and-everyones-benefitting-from-it-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2024 07:05:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Diego Vincenzi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/15000432/costa_rica_siquirres_0578-2560-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284325</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, Latin America, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity credits, Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Forests, Green, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Rainforests, Reforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In just one generation, Costa Rica halted deforestation and reversed land degradation. Currently, Costa Rica boasts 57% forest cover, with 25% of its land territory protected. All of this has been achieved while the country&#8217;s agricultural sector became the most robust per capita agricultural exporter in Latin America. Remarkably, Costa Rica’s agricultural sector produces net [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In just one generation, Costa Rica halted deforestation and reversed land degradation. Currently, Costa Rica boasts 57% forest cover, with 25% of its land territory protected. All of this has been achieved while the country&#8217;s agricultural sector became the most robust per capita agricultural exporter in Latin America. Remarkably, Costa Rica’s agricultural sector produces net zero emissions! But how can a small country with limited space achieve this? Years ago, we discovered that conservation pays. For some, this notion might sound contradictory, but for us Costa Ricans, it&#8217;s a reality. During the 1990s, environmental legislation in Costa Rica shifted towards a greener framework. We moved from a &#8220;subsidy&#8221; concept in forest conservation to an &#8220;economic recognition&#8221; of the ecosystem services our forests provide. Percent forest cover in Costa Rica since 1940. Data from Hector 2008 and Reid 2018. The Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) scheme is primarily funded by a tax on fossil fuels. Traditionally, PES was granted to estates or people with ownership rights to the land meant for protection. This scheme is institutionalized through a fund called Fondo Nacional para el Financiamiento Forestal (FONAFIFO), a state-of-the-art institution that has gained the necessary experience and expertise to understand the needs of conservation and the flexibility required to meet those needs. Now, FONAFIFO is introducing new components to the traditional PES scheme. Over the past couple of years, one of the first changes is that PES now pays for land that has not been titled. This directly benefits many of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/conservation-pays-and-everyones-benefitting-from-it-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-284325</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Are biodiversity credits just another business-as-usual finance scheme?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/are-biodiversity-credits-just-another-business-as-usual-finance-scheme/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/are-biodiversity-credits-just-another-business-as-usual-finance-scheme/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Mar 2024 18:11:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/19151029/Parque_Estadual_Encontro_das_Aguas_Thomas-Fuhrmann_2023-_01_Jaguar_-_Panthera_onca_swimming-scaled-e1710871756906-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280017</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering Climate Now]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, Community Forests, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Politics, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Nature is in crisis. Yet, there’s a massive $700 billion gap between the financing needed to stop biodiversity collapse versus what’s available each year. In December 2022, nearly 200 governments agreed to close this financial gap by 2030 by signing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) at COP15. With this goal only six years away, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Nature is in crisis. Yet, there’s a massive $700 billion gap between the financing needed to stop biodiversity collapse versus what’s available each year. In December 2022, nearly 200 governments agreed to close this financial gap by 2030 by signing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) at COP15. With this goal only six years away, one source of finance has recently caught attention: voluntary biodiversity credits. However, several Indigenous and environmental groups and researchers are worried that, like carbon credits, biodiversity credits will become yet another way for companies and governments to continue business as usual. “At its current state of conceptual development and thinking and measurement, all of it is greenwashing,” says Arun Agrawal, a political scientist at the University of Michigan. Biodiversity credits vs. offsets There’s no universally accepted definition of biodiversity credits, yet. But several international agencies such as the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the World Economic Forum, the Global Environment Facility and others have described it as a purely voluntary, “positive investment” in nature by the private sector. The idea is that any company that wants to support nature conservation can pay those who are directly protecting or restoring nature. For each “unit” of habitat restored or preserved, thanks to the payment, the buyers earn voluntary biodiversity credits. Biodiversity offsets, on the other hand, are meant to “cancel out” the damage caused to nature in one location by paying for reparations elsewhere. However, critics of offsetting say that no two habitats or species&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/are-biodiversity-credits-just-another-business-as-usual-finance-scheme/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280017</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Timber harvests to meet global wood demand will bring soaring emissions: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/timber-harvests-to-meet-global-wood-demand-will-bring-soaring-emissions-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/timber-harvests-to-meet-global-wood-demand-will-bring-soaring-emissions-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jul 2023 15:39:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/10143346/Beyond-Fire_Timber_10_DSC_4839-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=270715</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Bioenergy, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystem Engineers, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Forests, Industry, Logging, Plantations, Politics, Pulp And Paper, Rainforests, Reforestation, Research, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Timber, Trees, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[More than 10% of carbon emissions will likely result from cutting trees, including natural forests, to make wood products over coming decades if action isn’t taken. Plantation forests if made more efficient could provide for a lot of timber needs, scientists find.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Timber harvests to meet the world’s soaring demand for wood products will likely account for more than 10% of total global carbon emissions over coming decades, according to a new study by World Resources Institute scientists and published in Nature. This explosion in emissions — three times those of aviation emissions — comes at a crucial time in the climate crisis when carbon discharges must drop rapidly to put a brake on rising record temperatures and reduce worsening climate catastrophes, which now seem to be in the news almost daily. In real numbers, the scientists write, wood harvests will likely send an additional 3.5 to 4.2 gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually for years to come; global emissions in 2022 were a record 38.8 gigatons. The researchers note that while studies tend to correctly estimate amounts of released carbon, “the problem has been failing to account for the additional carbon forests overall would store if many were not being harvested.” The new study suggests that global wood consumption “will likely grow by 54% between 2010 and 2050,” with wood harvests during that timeframe covering “clear-cut equivalents” of a total area roughly the size of the continental United States. This 52-acre native forest in Edenton, North Carolina, U.S., was clear cut in late 2022 for both timber and for whole trees chipped to make wood pellets for bioenergy. The site was cleared for industrial development. Only trees for landscaping were to be replanted. Clear cuts like this around the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/timber-harvests-to-meet-global-wood-demand-will-bring-soaring-emissions-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/timber-harvests-to-meet-global-wood-demand-will-bring-soaring-emissions-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-270715</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Does the Global Biodiversity Framework give due consideration to market mechanisms? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/does-the-global-biodiversity-framework-give-due-consideration-to-market-mechanisms-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/does-the-global-biodiversity-framework-give-due-consideration-to-market-mechanisms-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 May 2023 16:02:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Andre MaderKayleigh Crabb]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/12/18013648/Knobbed-hornbill-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268714</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Finance, Funding, Green, Payments For Ecosystem Services, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Multilateral environmental agreements like the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) call for collective leadership by national governments to address the global challenge of biodiversity loss. Their response options can be divided into two broad categories: regulatory and market based. In December 2022, after two years of delay, Parties to the CBD approved the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Multilateral environmental agreements like the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) call for collective leadership by national governments to address the global challenge of biodiversity loss. Their response options can be divided into two broad categories: regulatory and market based. In December 2022, after two years of delay, Parties to the CBD approved the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF). Like its predecessor, the “Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020,” the GBF is meant to guide countries’ efforts to conserve biodiversity, to ensure that it is sustainably used, and to ensure that its benefits are equitably shared. The Strategic Plan was unsuccessful in fully achieving any of its 20 “Aichi Biodiversity Targets” by 2020. The baton has now been handed to the GBF. The GBF provides more specific guidance on how its targets may be achieved than did the Strategic Plan. In that sense, the extent to which it invokes regulation on the one hand, and markets on the other, is more apparent. COP 15 President Huang Runqiu at the COP15 closing plenary in Montreal. Image by UN biodiversity via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Regulation concentrates power in the hands of government, so it is perhaps the more instinctive option for the governments that negotiated and adopted the GBF. After all, it is governments that proclaim national parks, administer land use, and rein in corporations when production costs are externalized through pollution and land degradation. The iconic corporations that typify market-based economies are often thought of as the villains in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/does-the-global-biodiversity-framework-give-due-consideration-to-market-mechanisms-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/does-the-global-biodiversity-framework-give-due-consideration-to-market-mechanisms-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-268714</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Biodiversity credits: An opportunity to create a new financing framework (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/biodiversity-credits-an-opportunity-to-create-a-new-crediting-framework-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/biodiversity-credits-an-opportunity-to-create-a-new-crediting-framework-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Feb 2023 23:52:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mariana SarmientoSimon Morgan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/02/18064400/DJI_0583-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265714</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Carbon Credits, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Ecosystem Services, Environment, and Green]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity conservation requires a fundamentally different approach to managing climate change, and their respective crediting systems need to accommodate that difference for technical, social and practical reasons. Carbon credits are created so that emitters can compensate on an annual basis. Biodiversity credits (biocredits) are created to stop and reverse species loss by addressing a multitude [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity conservation requires a fundamentally different approach to managing climate change, and their respective crediting systems need to accommodate that difference for technical, social and practical reasons. Carbon credits are created so that emitters can compensate on an annual basis. Biodiversity credits (biocredits) are created to stop and reverse species loss by addressing a multitude of threats, including permanent habitat loss, in hand with local biodiversity custodians. The nature of the problem they address is different. To make biocredits work for nature and its custodians, and to successfully accelerate funding for biodiversity conservation, a new framework is needed. Operationally speaking, a biodiversity credit system should deliver measurable ecological outcomes and long-term certainty to investors and biodiversity custodians.  These ecological outcomes, represented in biocredits, can be transferred and sold to individuals and companies seeking to make claims on those outcomes. As the debate over the integrity, functionality and governance of a voluntary biodiversity crediting system heats up, there are insights specific to biodiversity conservation that should be considered and which are pertinent to the development of this new financing mechanism. Firstly, the diversity of biodiversity between ecosystems globally means there are no two places alike. This results in varied recovery dynamics between ecosystems. Some regenerate quite rapidly, for example tropical humid forests, while others can take decades like the boreal forests. Recovery patterns will depend on disturbances and factors such as climate change.  This mandates us to think about biocredits in a way that is coherent with natural dynamics and does&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/biodiversity-credits-an-opportunity-to-create-a-new-crediting-framework-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/biodiversity-credits-an-opportunity-to-create-a-new-crediting-framework-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265714</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Dollars and chainsaws: Can timber production help fund global reforestation?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/dollars-and-chainsaws-can-timber-production-help-fund-global-reforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/dollars-and-chainsaws-can-timber-production-help-fund-global-reforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jan 2023 14:52:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gianluca Cerullo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/05143502/8_TreePlantingIcapua-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264347</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Afforestation, Agriculture, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystem Engineers, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Forests, Industry, Logging, Plantations, Rainforests, Reforestation, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Timber, Trees, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Pedro Brancalion is used to the roar of chainsaws. For years, he’s heard loggers tearing down rainforest giants in the Brazilian Amazon, and listened as ancient trees were toppled and yanked from the Atlantic Forest’s remaining fragments. But this time the rip-roar of machinery and thwack of falling trees means something very different. This time, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Pedro Brancalion is used to the roar of chainsaws. For years, he’s heard loggers tearing down rainforest giants in the Brazilian Amazon, and listened as ancient trees were toppled and yanked from the Atlantic Forest’s remaining fragments. But this time the rip-roar of machinery and thwack of falling trees means something very different. This time, instead of chainsaws sounding a rainforest’s demise, they provide the soundtrack to its rebirth. Brancalion’s restoration project on Brazil’s Atlantic coast is reviving lost rainforest, with a twist. Like other ecological restoration efforts, his work involves the planting of thousands of tree seedlings of dozens of native species in a plan to resuscitate a dwindling ecosystem. But there’s a big difference here: Along with every few native plantings, his team sinks a surprise into the ground: Eucalypts. These represent an exotic group of tree species, mostly originating from Australia. In Brazil, they’re usually confined to the monocrop plantations that stretch homogenously to the horizon, rather than here, on land slated for reforestation. But after five years, the result is a spectacular juxtaposition that holds promise for the future of forests. Tall, thin, harvest-ready eucalypts, primed for a commercial timber harvest, overtop the chaotic ecology of a regrowing, floristically diverse rainforest. When Brancalion’s team chainsaws down these non-native sentinels and sells their wood as timber, they recoup up to 75% of the costs of regenerating the rainforest. And, according to recent research, they do so without inhibiting the regeneration of the complex understory — the rainforest of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/dollars-and-chainsaws-can-timber-production-help-fund-global-reforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/dollars-and-chainsaws-can-timber-production-help-fund-global-reforestation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264347</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nations adopt Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/nations-adopt-kunming-montreal-global-biodiversity-framework/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/nations-adopt-kunming-montreal-global-biodiversity-framework/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Dec 2022 13:00:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Latoya AbuluSahana Ghosh]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/20065821/52573109390_3b7c60fbe9_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263862</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Canada and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[30x30 conservation target, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Biodiversity Hotspots, Biology, Business, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Finance, Genetics, Global Environmental Crisis, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Land Rights, Species, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COP15, MONTREAL, Canada — After marathon negotiations and a clutch of protests (including a “die-in” by global youth, and a walk-out by developing countries over a funding stalemate) nearly 200 nations struck a historic deal to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by the end of the decade, at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COP15, MONTREAL, Canada — After marathon negotiations and a clutch of protests (including a “die-in” by global youth, and a walk-out by developing countries over a funding stalemate) nearly 200 nations struck a historic deal to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by the end of the decade, at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, Canada. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), with four goals and 23 action-oriented targets, was adopted early Monday morning at the Fifteenth meeting of the Conference of Parties on the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) or COP15, chaired by China and hosted by Canada from December 7 to December 19. The agreement preserves the headline goal to “ensure and enable that by 2030 at least 30 percent of terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, are effectively conserved and managed,” while recognizing “indigenous and traditional territories, where applicable.” COP 15 President Huang Runqiu at the COP15 closing plenary in Montreal. Image by UN biodiversity via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Currently, 17% and 10% of the world’s terrestrial and marine area respectively is under protection. Importantly, the agreement includes a commitment to mobilize at least $200 billion per year by 2030 in financial flows from “all sources” including the public and private sectors, to “progressively” close the biodiversity finance gap of $700 billion per year, and aligning financial flows with the Framework and the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity. “It will be very interesting&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/nations-adopt-kunming-montreal-global-biodiversity-framework/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/nations-adopt-kunming-montreal-global-biodiversity-framework/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263862</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Emmanuel Macron&#8217;s &#8220;Biodiversity Credits&#8221;: What are we talking about? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/emmanuel-macrons-biodiversity-credits-what-are-we-talking-about/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/emmanuel-macrons-biodiversity-credits-what-are-we-talking-about/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Dec 2022 18:59:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alain Karsenty]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/16185743/madagascar_0591_22-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263784</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Business, Carbon Credits, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation Solutions, Palm Oil, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[President Macron announced on 7 November 2022 at the CoP 27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, an initiative to protect the planet&#8217;s &#8220;vital carbon and biodiversity reserves&#8221;, such as old-growth forests, peat bogs or mangroves. A proposal for &#8220;positive conservation partnerships&#8221; is made to countries hosting such reserves, based on &#8220;political and financial contracts&#8221; that would [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[President Macron announced on 7 November 2022 at the CoP 27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, an initiative to protect the planet&#8217;s &#8220;vital carbon and biodiversity reserves&#8221;, such as old-growth forests, peat bogs or mangroves. A proposal for &#8220;positive conservation partnerships&#8221; is made to countries hosting such reserves, based on &#8220;political and financial contracts&#8221; that would enable them to guarantee their conservation. To this end, &#8220;innovative financial mechanisms&#8221; will be explored and it is planned that a &#8220;high-level group will be tasked with making recommendations on the creation of a biodiversity credit market&#8221;. While the universe of different types of carbon credits is fairly well known, the situation is less clear with regard to &#8220;biodiversity credits&#8221;. Broadly speaking, two cases can be distinguished: on the one hand, regulatory or voluntary biodiversity offset systems with offsets, based on the &#8220;no net loss&#8221; principle associated with the avoid-reduce-compensate (ARC) sequence. On the other hand, credits not intended for offsetting, modelled on voluntary carbon credits, which are, above all, financing vehicles for actions in favor of biodiversity. Orangutan in Central Kalimantan. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler As the CoP15 on biodiversity opens in Montreal, let&#8217;s try to shed some light on these two types of complementary systems, their advantages and their limits. Compensate if you can&#8217;t avoid and reduce Mitigation and offset policies with objectives such as no net loss or net gain of biodiversity are already well established in a number of OECD countries. Some countries have structured their implementation in the form&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/emmanuel-macrons-biodiversity-credits-what-are-we-talking-about/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263784</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Biodiversity credit market must learn from carbon offset mistakes (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/biodiversity-credit-market-must-learn-from-carbon-offset-mistakes-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/biodiversity-credit-market-must-learn-from-carbon-offset-mistakes-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Nov 2022 16:44:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Francisco BeneditoMariana Sarmiento]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/11/29190059/yellow-eared-parrot-1-e1669748650385-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263041</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Carbon Market, Climate Change, Commentary, Conservation, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Trade, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity protection and restoration were key topics at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, and for good reason. Ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference, which included a full Biodiversity Day this year, the World Wildlife Fund released an assessment that revealed the catastrophic effect of human activity on wildlife: according to the Living Planet Report 2022, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity protection and restoration were key topics at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, and for good reason. Ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference, which included a full Biodiversity Day this year, the World Wildlife Fund released an assessment that revealed the catastrophic effect of human activity on wildlife: according to the Living Planet Report 2022, wildlife populations shrank by an average of 69% between 1970 and 2018. This level of biodiversity loss is both tragic and dangerous for the future of our planet, since biodiverse ecosystems, such as forests, peatlands and oceans, are natural carbon sinks that lose their efficiency when they become threatened. We must act quickly to reverse this damaging trend and protect our planet. Voluntary biodiversity credits – proactive investments from companies, nations and even individuals to protect wildlife – could be a powerful tool, but only if used correctly. The biodiversity credit market must learn the lessons from the carbon credit market and build a transparent, accountable and inclusive system from the beginning. Despite the promise they hold in fighting climate change, carbon offsets are yet to reach their full potential. There remains a lack of trust as there are many intermediaries, a level of uncertainty as to where the money is going, and a certain lack of standardization in the generation of carbon credits. If we make the same mistakes twice, we’ll condemn the biodiversity market to a flailing future. A spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus), also known as the Andean bear, caught on a camera trap.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/biodiversity-credit-market-must-learn-from-carbon-offset-mistakes-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/biodiversity-credit-market-must-learn-from-carbon-offset-mistakes-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263041</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deforestation-neutral mining? Madagascar study shows it can be done, but it’s complicated</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/deforestation-neutral-mining-madagascar-study-shows-it-can-be-done-but-its-complicated/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/deforestation-neutral-mining-madagascar-study-shows-it-can-be-done-but-its-complicated/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2022 00:10:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/10121310/Diademed-sifaka-Propithecus-diadema-Madagascar-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=255630</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation, Corporations, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Loss, Forests, Islands, Mining, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Resource Conflict, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Ambatovy nickel mine located in a biodiversity-rich Madagascar rainforest made up for the forest lost due to its operation, a recent study in Nature Sustainability concluded. The mine operators did so by reducing deforestation rates in nearby areas designated as “biodiversity offsets.” There are at least 6,000 large mining projects that impinge on forests [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Ambatovy nickel mine located in a biodiversity-rich Madagascar rainforest made up for the forest lost due to its operation, a recent study in Nature Sustainability concluded. The mine operators did so by reducing deforestation rates in nearby areas designated as “biodiversity offsets.” There are at least 6,000 large mining projects that impinge on forests globally. Together, they impact about a tenth of the world’s forests. Project developers establish biodiversity offsets to make up for the environmental destruction caused by their extractive operations, either voluntarily or as a condition of their license to operate. Today, around 12,000 such offsets exist, but there is very little published research on how effective they are. “These findings are hugely significant,” said Joseph Bull, a conservation scientist at the University of Kent who was not involved in the study. “Biodiversity offsets and the mitigation hierarchy more generally, have become one of the most influential global conservation approaches — globally — in recent years,” he said. “However, there are very few peer-reviewed empirical analyses of the outcomes of biodiversity offsetting.” Experts such as Bull say the findings are robust, but warn against considering them a stamp of approval for offsetting in general. If anything, “it is evidence of just how hard you have to work to make offsetting work,” said Sophus zu Ermgassen, an ecological economist at the University of Kent who was not involved in the study. A map showing the location of the city of Moramanga and the port city of Toamasina on Madagascar&#8217;s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/deforestation-neutral-mining-madagascar-study-shows-it-can-be-done-but-its-complicated/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-255630</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Raze here, save there: Do biodiversity offsets work for people or ecosystems?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/raze-here-save-there-do-biodiversity-offsets-work-for-people-or-ecosystems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/raze-here-save-there-do-biodiversity-offsets-work-for-people-or-ecosystems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Feb 2020 11:26:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/02/28100522/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_132a-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=227466</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Conservation in Madagascar]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Business, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, and Mining]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ANTSOTSO, Madagascar — Moussa Evariste, 53, treads lightly on sinewy legs across fields of grass that were once forest. The terrain is sandy and prickly, punctuated by the relief of slender streams. He has traced this path hundreds of times with his bare feet. A stained vest declares him Polisin’ala: forest patrol. Bemangidy-Ivohibe, the forest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ANTSOTSO, Madagascar — Moussa Evariste, 53, treads lightly on sinewy legs across fields of grass that were once forest. The terrain is sandy and prickly, punctuated by the relief of slender streams. He has traced this path hundreds of times with his bare feet. A stained vest declares him Polisin’ala: forest patrol. Bemangidy-Ivohibe, the forest Evariste patrols, looms on the low hills ahead. It’s named for an itchy plant, Hyacinthus cryptopodus. The forest has now become a source of friction between the local community and QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM), a subsidiary of mining behemoth Rio Tinto. Antsotso, Evariste’s native village, sits near the edge of Bemangidy-Ivohibe. To compensate for environmental destruction wrought by its ilmenite mine about 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Antsotso, QMM decided to protect this forest, turning it into a biodiversity offset. Critics say QMM fortified the forest and restricted villagers’ access to essential resources, pushing them toward starvation. The company says it has saved the forest from certain destruction at the hands of local people. A biodiversity offset is a conservation project with a difference. If a developer cannot make up for ecological damage and biodiversity losses at its project site, it can establish a conservation project elsewhere to make up for it. Today, there are an estimated 13,000 biodiversity offsets across the world. While the rights of people directly displaced by development projects like mines are recognized to some degree, those of communities affected by the creation of a biodiversity offset remain unclear. What’s more,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/raze-here-save-there-do-biodiversity-offsets-work-for-people-or-ecosystems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-227466</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deforestation for potential rubber plantation raises concerns in Papua New Guinea</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/deforestation-for-potential-rubber-plantation-raises-concerns-in-png/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/deforestation-for-potential-rubber-plantation-raises-concerns-in-png/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Dec 2019 12:59:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/12/19022432/Manus-Island_photo-credit-ELODIE-VAN-LIERDE-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=225508</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers and Investigation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Oceania, Pacific Islands, and Papua New Guinea]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation, Culture, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Forestry, Forests, Frogs, Human Rights, Hunting, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Insects, Land Rights, Law, Logging, Marsupials, Plantations, Poaching, Pollution, Rainforests, Rediscovered Species, Research, Rubber, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Sustainable Forest Management, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, Timber Laws, timber trade, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, Water Pollution, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea — The upstart deforestation over the past year and a half that&#8217;s sidling up to Pochon Lili’s land has him worried. &#8220;As a landowner, I&#8217;m concerned about the environment in which my land is located and has been affected,&#8221; Lili said. The 67-year-old environmental science professor’s property sits just to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea — The upstart deforestation over the past year and a half that&#8217;s sidling up to Pochon Lili’s land has him worried. &#8220;As a landowner, I&#8217;m concerned about the environment in which my land is located and has been affected,&#8221; Lili said. The 67-year-old environmental science professor’s property sits just to the southwest of a new &#8220;so-called agroforestry project&#8221; on Manus Island, part of Papua New Guinea and sitting in the South Pacific’s Bismarck Sea around 320 kilometers (200 miles) from the country’s mainland. The project has already begun to cut into the 700-square-kilometer (270-square-mile) Great Central Forest, one of the last remaining blocks of high-quality forest on Papua New Guinea’s outlying islands. As a leader of the Machom clan, Lili feels obligated to look out for the interests of his fellow community members. His clan did not sign on in support of the project spearheaded by a local landowner company called Pohowa Agriculture Ltd. and its partner, a Malaysian timber outfit called Maxland Ltd. The project is called the Pohowa Integrated Agro-forestry Project, though there are few indications that the &#8220;agroforestry&#8221; the project intends is the sort that aims to grow a mix of trees and crops in a way that maintains vital ecosystem services. Instead, the loss of forest and replacement with a monoculture of rubber could spell trouble for the communities living nearby, Lili said. &#8220;I wanted to see that the project does not end up in all sorts of problems for us,&#8221;&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/deforestation-for-potential-rubber-plantation-raises-concerns-in-png/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-225508</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Loss of Madagascar’s biodiversity is a loss for Earth, Pope says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/loss-of-madagascars-biodiversity-is-a-loss-for-earth-pope-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/loss-of-madagascars-biodiversity-is-a-loss-for-earth-pope-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Sep 2019 13:44:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/09/09115620/Pope_Francis_Malacanang_7-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=222267</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Conservation in Madagascar]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Pope, Tropical Deforestation, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[18-1804-152996-CSD]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With three shovelfuls of soil in service of a baobab plant, Pope Francis underlined a central message of his trip to Madagascar: protection of the island nation’s natural riches is vital for the country and for the preservation of the “common home.” The pontiff, who is on a seven-day visit to Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[With three shovelfuls of soil in service of a baobab plant, Pope Francis underlined a central message of his trip to Madagascar: protection of the island nation’s natural riches is vital for the country and for the preservation of the “common home.” The pontiff, who is on a seven-day visit to Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius, landed in Madagascar on Friday evening and met with President Andry Rajoelina on Saturday morning at the presidential palace in Antananarivo, where the tree-planting ceremony was held. “Your lovely island of Madagascar is rich in plant and animal biodiversity, yet this treasure is especially threatened by excessive deforestation, from which some profit,” Pope Francis said addressing a gathering that included senior officials, diplomats and members of civil society. “The deterioration of that biodiversity compromises the future of the country and of the earth, our common home.” Pope Francis planting a baobab tree at the presidential palace in Antananarivo, Madagascar as President Andry Rajoelina looks on. Image Courtesy: Foto ©Vatican Media In doing so, he echoed concerns laid out in his widely cited 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’, which called on the faithful to act as stewards of the planet. The document, issued in the third year of his papacy, also notably addressed the issue of human-induced climate change. The visit of the head of the Roman Catholic Church was eagerly anticipated in Madagascar, where 35 percent of people identify as Catholic, according to the Vatican, including President Rajoelina. Nearly a million people showed up for the mass held&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/loss-of-madagascars-biodiversity-is-a-loss-for-earth-pope-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-222267</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study looks at positive and negative impacts of biodiversity offsets on local communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/study-looks-at-positive-and-negative-impacts-of-biodiversity-offsets-on-local-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/study-looks-at-positive-and-negative-impacts-of-biodiversity-offsets-on-local-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Dec 2016 14:54:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/12/22194513/madagascar_0608a-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=191894</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Lemurs, Mammals, Mining, Primates, Rainforests, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Large industrial development projects such as hydroelectric dams, oil palm plantations, and mines have an unavoidable impact on the local environment, which in turn can have huge repercussions for biodiversity. One strategy increasingly being adopted in order to mitigate the impacts on wildlife and the provision of ecosystem services are biodiversity offsets, in which a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Large industrial development projects such as hydroelectric dams, oil palm plantations, and mines have an unavoidable impact on the local environment, which in turn can have huge repercussions for biodiversity. One strategy increasingly being adopted in order to mitigate the impacts on wildlife and the provision of ecosystem services are biodiversity offsets, in which a company “offsets” the effects of, say, building a mine in a rainforest by investing in conservation actions elsewhere — habitat restoration or investments aimed at slowing the rate of habitat loss in another area, for instance. The efficacy of biodiversity offsets in achieving “no net loss” or even a “net positive increase” in wild fauna and flora populations has been the subject of much scrutiny, but the same cannot be said of the impacts of biodiversity offsets on local communities. New research shows that local people might actually be suffering negative consequences in addition to a number of benefits from these offsets, however. Biodiversity offsets enjoy a wide range of support. In 2010, the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity agreed to promote biodiversity offsets as a means for businesses to mitigate biodiversity issues associated with their development projects, and the IUCN approved a biodiversity offset policy at its World Conservation Congress earlier this year. The International Finance Corporation and other major lenders now require companies to use offsets in order to compensate for the biodiversity impacts of their operations. But the authors of a study published this week in the journal Conservation &amp;&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/study-looks-at-positive-and-negative-impacts-of-biodiversity-offsets-on-local-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-191894</doi>				</item>
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