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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/certification/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sat, 12 Sep 2026 14:31:28 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Certification</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/certification/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>How carbon markets can succeed &#038; also serve Global South communities (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-carbon-markets-can-succeed-also-serve-global-south-communities-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-carbon-markets-can-succeed-also-serve-global-south-communities-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jul 2026 21:09:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Pati Ruiz Corzo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/27182742/Encinos-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324619</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Avoided Deforestation, Business, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Sequestration, Certification, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Finance, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Mitigation, Nature-based climate solutions, Rainforests, Solutions, Temperate Forests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Carbon markets were designed around the compelling premise that private finance could flow where forests are most at risk, rewarding the communities and landowners who protect them while helping companies take responsibility for their emissions. For anyone working in climate or conservation, the underlying logic still holds. The world&#8217;s forests provide essential ecosystem services, capture [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Carbon markets were designed around the compelling premise that private finance could flow where forests are most at risk, rewarding the communities and landowners who protect them while helping companies take responsibility for their emissions. For anyone working in climate or conservation, the underlying logic still holds. The world&#8217;s forests provide essential ecosystem services, capture and store huge amounts of carbon dioxide, face enormous pressure, and need sustained economic incentives if they are to survive. So why has the voluntary carbon market so consistently fallen short of this promise? Over the past decade, the sector has faced mounting evidence that many carbon credits, particularly those issued for forest conservation in the Global South, have not delivered the climate outcomes they claimed. There have been well-documented cases of social harm to Indigenous and local communities, scientific analysis has repeatedly found that the methodologies used to calculate emissions reductions were prone to significant overestimation, and trust in the market, among both buyers and civil society, has been eroded. Military macaws (Ara militaris) flying over a forest in the Sierra Gorda. They are one of the many iconic and endangered species that call the forests of the Sierra Gorda home. Image courtesy of Roberto Pedraza Ruiz / Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda. However, this is not a reason to abandon the idea of climate finance for nature. It is a reason to understand what has gone wrong, and to ask what a more inclusive, just, and transparent model can look like. What hasn’t worked&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-carbon-markets-can-succeed-also-serve-global-south-communities-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-carbon-markets-can-succeed-also-serve-global-south-communities-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324619</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ronald Sanabria sought to make tourism more sustainable</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/ronald-sanabria-sought-to-make-tourism-more-sustainable/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/ronald-sanabria-sought-to-make-tourism-more-sustainable/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jul 2026 00:13:35 +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/20/2026/07/14125659/Ronald-Sanabria-wall-facebook-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323354</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Certification, Ecotourism, Obituary, and Tourism]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tourism often reaches small places with large promises. It can bring money to forests, beaches, villages, parks, and old towns. A family guesthouse may become viable. A young person may have a reason to stay. It can help persuade a government that a forest has value if left standing. The same industry can also strain [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tourism often reaches small places with large promises. It can bring money to forests, beaches, villages, parks, and old towns. A family guesthouse may become viable. A young person may have a reason to stay. It can help persuade a government that a forest has value if left standing. The same industry can also strain the places it sells. In many places, roads arrive before rules. Hotels take the best land. Water and waste are handled after the money has begun to flow. Wildlife, wages, and culture are folded into the business later, if they are dealt with at all. The traveler leaves with photographs. The community is left with the consequences. Ronald Sanabria spent much of his career between what tourism said it could do and what it actually did. For him, sustainable tourism meant work: credible standards, training, certification, purchasing decisions, local capacity, and steady persuasion. Tourism, he knew, was too fragmented for simple answers. The same trip might involve a hotel, a guide, a tour operator, a booking platform, a transport company, and a village association. The work had to reach those relationships, or sustainability would remain a claim. Sanabria, who died on July 1st, aged 57, was a Costa Rican engineer who became a central figure in sustainable tourism in Latin America and beyond. He joined the Rainforest Alliance in 1998, first in sustainable agriculture. Two years later, he began building its sustainable-tourism program. Over the next two decades, he worked with hotels, tour operators, community&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/ronald-sanabria-sought-to-make-tourism-more-sustainable/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323354</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pulp and paper giant APRIL&#8217;s supplier choices put FSC remedy process to the test</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-aprils-supplier-choices-put-fsc-remedy-process-to-the-test/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-aprils-supplier-choices-put-fsc-remedy-process-to-the-test/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 04:12:34 +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/20/2026/06/23034155/signal-2026-06-01-105626_002-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321620</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Kalimantan, Global, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Certification, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forest Products, Forestry, Forests, Industry, International Trade, Land Use Change, Logging, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Sustainability, Threats To Rainforests, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Pulp and paper giant APRIL&#8217;s recent decision to lower its deforestation commitments and source wood from two companies associated with extensive recent forest loss has created a new challenge for its relationship with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), with environmental groups urging the world&#8217;s leading forestry certifier to terminate the already suspended reassociation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Pulp and paper giant APRIL&#8217;s recent decision to lower its deforestation commitments and source wood from two companies associated with extensive recent forest loss has created a new challenge for its relationship with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), with environmental groups urging the world&#8217;s leading forestry certifier to terminate the already suspended reassociation process. In late May, APRIL announced it was reviewing its decade-old Sustainable Forest Management Policy (SFMP) 2.0 and lowering its deforestation cutoff date from 2015 to Dec. 31, 2020. The move allows Indonesia&#8217;s second-largest pulp and paper producer to source wood from PT Industrial Forest Plantation (IFP) and PT Mayawana Persada (Mayawana), two companies that have experienced some of the country&#8217;s largest recent forest losses. APRIL said the decision was necessary to address fibre shortages after the Indonesian government revoked the operating permits of four of its long-term suppliers earlier this year, affecting around 15% of its wood supply in Riau Province. According to data from the forest-monitoring platform Nusantara Atlas, together, IFP and Mayawana lost nearly 80,000 hectares (197,684 acres) of forest­­­­­ — an area almost half the size of London — between 2015 and 2024, including more than 54,000 hectares (133,436 acres) after 2020. This is more than any other forestry companies in Indonesia. Deforestation in the concession of PT Mayawana Persada, September 2020–April 2024 © Earthsight. Image source: Sentinel-2 via Copernicus Browser Environmental groups have criticized the move, arguing that it weakens a longstanding no-deforestation safeguard and sends a message that companies&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-aprils-supplier-choices-put-fsc-remedy-process-to-the-test/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-aprils-supplier-choices-put-fsc-remedy-process-to-the-test/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321620</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Thailand, EUDR pressure on small-scale rubber farmers prompts private-sector assistance</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-thailand-eudr-pressure-on-small-scale-rubber-farmers-prompts-private-sector-assistance/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-thailand-eudr-pressure-on-small-scale-rubber-farmers-prompts-private-sector-assistance/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jun 2026 02:02:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/14133641/1.-Banner-option-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321134</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Business, Certification, Commodity agriculture, Corporations, Crops, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, EUDR, Farming, Forest Products, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Law, Plantations, Rubber, Supply Chain, Sustainable Forest Management, Trade, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KRABI, Thailand — Beneath a humid canopy of rubber trees, Sathit Phromraksa pauses to inspect a coagulated ball of rubber in a palm-sized bowl fastened to a trunk. Last night, he and his wife worked their way through the plantation, carefully carving a line in the bark of each tree to stimulate the flow of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KRABI, Thailand — Beneath a humid canopy of rubber trees, Sathit Phromraksa pauses to inspect a coagulated ball of rubber in a palm-sized bowl fastened to a trunk. Last night, he and his wife worked their way through the plantation, carefully carving a line in the bark of each tree to stimulate the flow of milky latex. With a total 500 trees to tap in their 1.6-hectare (4-acre) plantation, their work took them from midnight to 3:30 a.m. “I inherited this rubber farm from my father,” says 59-year-old Sathit, a lifelong resident of Namgaan subdistrict in Thailand’s Krabi province. “Back then, my family used a lot of chemicals to control weeds and pests, but now, we follow organic practices.” Sathit is one of roughly 1.7 million smallholders who produce 90% of Thailand’s natural rubber supply across millions of individual plantations, most of them no bigger than his. For many, staying profitable is a constant challenge amid fluctuating market prices, crop diseases and climate change. Now, the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is poised to add to the pressures facing small-scale producers like Sathit. Under the law, set to take effect in January 2027, only suppliers who can prove their land wasn’t cleared after Dec. 31, 2020, will be allowed to continue selling rubber to EU markets. As the world’s leading natural rubber producer, the economic implications for Thailand are significant. While the bulk of its exports go to China and Malaysia, the value of Thai rubber entering the EU increased by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-thailand-eudr-pressure-on-small-scale-rubber-farmers-prompts-private-sector-assistance/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-thailand-eudr-pressure-on-small-scale-rubber-farmers-prompts-private-sector-assistance/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321134</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Loopholes undermine palm oil industry’s antideforestation pledges</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/loopholes-undermine-palm-oil-industrys-antideforestation-pledges/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/loopholes-undermine-palm-oil-industrys-antideforestation-pledges/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 May 2026 21:51:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/02173520/sabah_1209-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320195</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Certification, Commodity agriculture, Corporate Social Responsibility, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, EUDR, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Governance, International Trade, Monitoring, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, and Supply Chain]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — More than a decade after the palm oil industry embraced a pledge to not deforest, clear tropical peatlands, or use exploitative practices, policies to that end now cover most of the global palm oil trade, as major traders, refiners and consumer brands have pledged to keep deforestation-linked palm oil out of their supply [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — More than a decade after the palm oil industry embraced a pledge to not deforest, clear tropical peatlands, or use exploitative practices, policies to that end now cover most of the global palm oil trade, as major traders, refiners and consumer brands have pledged to keep deforestation-linked palm oil out of their supply chains. However, deforestation linked to palm oil continues, particularly in Indonesia, the world’s largest producer of the commodity. Satellite analysis by forest-mapping initiative TheTreeMap shows 31,073 hectares (76,783 acres) of forest were cleared for palm oil in Indonesia in 2025, slightly higher than the 30,956 hectares (76,494 acres) recorded in 2024 — highlighting persistent gaps in how the industry enforces its zero-deforestation pledges. In some cases, palm oil from newly cleared land still enters supply chains that companies describe as deforestation-free. “No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation” (NDPE) policies aim to eliminate three major sources of harm in palm oil production: clearing natural forests, developing plantations on carbon-rich peatlands, and exploiting workers or local communities. By 2020, these commitments covered roughly 83% of palm oil refinery capacity in Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s main producing region. In recent years, companies have also built systems to enforce these pledges. Many now publish grievance mechanisms where violations can be reported, while third-party monitoring groups use satellite imagery to track forest loss and flag suspicious activity. Large-scale corporate deforestation in Indonesia has fallen compared to the mid-2010s, when some plantation companies were clearing vast areas of rainforest. Deforestation for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/loopholes-undermine-palm-oil-industrys-antideforestation-pledges/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320195</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Southern Ocean is key to our planet&#8217;s future &#038; we have a chance to protect it this year (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-southern-ocean-is-key-to-our-planets-future-we-have-a-chance-to-protect-it-this-year-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-southern-ocean-is-key-to-our-planets-future-we-have-a-chance-to-protect-it-this-year-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 May 2026 16:02:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Zac Goldsmith]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/10190606/WWF_Jay-Williams.-Chinstrap-penguins-e1760123344432-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319355</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Antarctica and Southern Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Certification, Commentary, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Overfishing, Penguins, Sustainability, and Whales]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[One of the most striking images in David Attenborough&#8217;s Ocean, his defining 2025 documentary, is of supertrawlers dragging vast krill nets through a pod of feeding humpback whales off Antarctica. For most viewers, it will have been the moment a distant and invisible crisis became viscerally real. But it was also something else: a glimpse [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[One of the most striking images in David Attenborough&#8217;s Ocean, his defining 2025 documentary, is of supertrawlers dragging vast krill nets through a pod of feeding humpback whales off Antarctica. For most viewers, it will have been the moment a distant and invisible crisis became viscerally real. But it was also something else: a glimpse of what is at stake if we fail to act, and a reminder of how little time we have left to protect some of our planet’s most precious resources. The Southern Ocean is not simply another stretch of water in need of protection. It is the engine of the global climate system, and one of the last places on Earth where nature still operates on its own terms. Right now, it is in serious trouble. The Antarctic Peninsula is home to roughly a third of the global krill population, which sustains whales, penguins, seals and seabirds. But three consecutive years of record-low sea ice have disrupted the reproduction cycles that krill depend on, and last year the krill fishery hit its 620,000-metric-ton catch limit for the first time in history, closing three months early. Industrial fleets from Norway, China, South Korea, Chile and Ukraine are extracting them at a pace that the ecosystem, already stressed by climate change, cannot absorb. The Marine Stewardship Council&#8217;s recent decision to recertify the Antarctic krill fishery as &#8220;sustainable,&#8221; despite an outdated stock assessment and mounting evidence of localized harm to whale and penguin populations, has rightly drawn legal challenge.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-southern-ocean-is-key-to-our-planets-future-we-have-a-chance-to-protect-it-this-year-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-southern-ocean-is-key-to-our-planets-future-we-have-a-chance-to-protect-it-this-year-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319355</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Measuring biodiversity in a world of tree-planting pledges</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/one-year-on-tgbs-benchmark-shows-how-to-restore-forests-for-biodiversity/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/one-year-on-tgbs-benchmark-shows-how-to-restore-forests-for-biodiversity/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jan 2026 16:54:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/12121050/Chimps_Photo-credit_Jane-Goodall-Institute-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312848</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Restoration Solutions]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Madagascar, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Sequestration, Certification, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forests, Invasive Species, Reforestation, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Trees, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There are around 60,000 known tree species in the world, and they can do amazing things: store carbon, provide people with food and firewood, shelter creatures big and small, and so much more. In the past two decades, numerous high-profile initiatives have announced ambitious restoration targets for forests. Restoring forests can bring all kinds of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There are around 60,000 known tree species in the world, and they can do amazing things: store carbon, provide people with food and firewood, shelter creatures big and small, and so much more. In the past two decades, numerous high-profile initiatives have announced ambitious restoration targets for forests. Restoring forests can bring all kinds of benefits and is widely seen as an effective nature-based solution to climate change and biodiversity loss. But planting the wrong trees, or planting them in the wrong places, is, at best, a missed opportunity — and at worst, can even harm biodiversity. In fact, a 2019 Nature commentary found that almost half the area pledged under the Bonn Challenge, a high-profile initiative to restore 350 million hectares (865 million acres) of degraded forest by 2030, was for plantation-style monocultures, and thus a poor strategy for both carbon sequestration and biodiversity. Meanwhile, half of the land pledged for reforestation under the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative was actually on savanna, a landscape not suitable for tree planting, according to a 2024 Science study. “It started to occur to us that there was potentially a problem here, particularly given the size of the pledges that were being made,” says Paul Smith, secretary-general at U.K.-based charity Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). What was needed, Smith and colleagues thought, was some way to promote best practices and recognize projects that got things right. When they looked at existing certification standards, they found that none focused primarily on biodiversity. What’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/one-year-on-tgbs-benchmark-shows-how-to-restore-forests-for-biodiversity/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/one-year-on-tgbs-benchmark-shows-how-to-restore-forests-for-biodiversity/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312848</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>SE Asia’s smallholders struggling to meet EUDR: Interview with RECOFTC’s Martin Greijmans</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/se-asias-smallholders-struggling-to-meet-eudr-interview-with-recoftcs-martin-greijmans/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/se-asias-smallholders-struggling-to-meet-eudr-interview-with-recoftcs-martin-greijmans/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Dec 2025 10:59:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/29105530/IMG_6036-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312175</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Europe, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Certification, Coffee, Community Forests, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forestry, Green, International Trade, Palm Oil, Plantations, Regulations, Timber, and Timber Laws]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Smallholders produce significant quantities of Vietnam’s coffee, Indonesia’s palm oil, and Thailand’s rubber exported into the EU. Yet under the bloc’s upcoming deforestation-free regulation (EUDR), industry experts say small-scale producers across Southeast Asia need more support to help prepare them to comply with the new rules. The European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is set to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Smallholders produce significant quantities of Vietnam’s coffee, Indonesia’s palm oil, and Thailand’s rubber exported into the EU. Yet under the bloc’s upcoming deforestation-free regulation (EUDR), industry experts say small-scale producers across Southeast Asia need more support to help prepare them to comply with the new rules. The European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is set to take effect at the end of 2026, after EU lawmakers voted earlier this month to postpone its implementation for the second year in a row, citing technical concerns. Its goal is to ensure that forest-linked products imported into the EU are deforestation-free by introducing mechanisms that enable companies trading seven commodities — cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and timber — to track their products’ origins throughout the entire supply chain. While experts say increased oversight is a vital step to reduce the footprint of EU consumption on forests, others have warned that without appropriate support and governance mechanisms, the new rules could introduce inequities that harm small-scale producers. Many smallholders lack the capacity and capital to comply with some aspects of the new regulations, for instance. This could see them sidelined in favor of bigger producers who can more easily adapt, according to Martin Greijmans, community enterprise program lead at RECOFTC, a Thailand-based community forest nonprofit. Further complicating matters are limited resources to inform smallholders about how the regulations will affect their businesses, underscoring the need for greater efforts by governments and private companies to help smallholders adapt, he says. “One shocking thing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/se-asias-smallholders-struggling-to-meet-eudr-interview-with-recoftcs-martin-greijmans/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/se-asias-smallholders-struggling-to-meet-eudr-interview-with-recoftcs-martin-greijmans/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312175</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pulp giant RGE admits possible deforestation breach in Bornean wildlife habitat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/pulp-giant-rge-admits-possible-deforestation-breach-in-bornean-wildlife-habitat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/pulp-giant-rge-admits-possible-deforestation-breach-in-bornean-wildlife-habitat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Dec 2025 13:54:23 +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/20/2025/09/18204309/indonesia_160271-25-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311741</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Certification, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, International Trade, Pulp And Paper, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Sustainability, Sustainable Forest Management, timber trade, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — One of the world’s biggest pulp and paper companies has acknowledged to Mongabay a potential breach of its no-deforestation commitment in its supply chain, raising questions about the company’s attempt to regain sustainability certification under the Forest Stewardship Council. A new report by U.S.-based campaign group Rainforest Action Network (RAN) alleges that Singapore-based [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — One of the world’s biggest pulp and paper companies has acknowledged to Mongabay a potential breach of its no-deforestation commitment in its supply chain, raising questions about the company’s attempt to regain sustainability certification under the Forest Stewardship Council. A new report by U.S.-based campaign group Rainforest Action Network (RAN) alleges that Singapore-based pulp and paper giant Royal Golden Eagle’s (RGE) supply chain is linked to deforestation in Indonesia, despite the group having adopted a no-deforestation policy in 2015. RGE, owned by Indonesia’s billionaire Tanoto family, is one of the world’s largest producers of wood pulp and the various products made from it, including paper, tissue, packaging, and viscose rayon. According to the report, RGE’s pulp and paper unit in China, Asia Symbol, sourced wood from two pulpwood plantations in Indonesian Borneo where 5,565 hectares (13,751 acres) of natural forest were cleared between 2020 and 2024. The analysis draws on satellite data, field investigations, and customs and wood supply records compiled by supply chain transparency platform Trase in its latest update on Indonesia’s pulp sector. The forest clearance occurred in the watershed of the Mahakam River, which contains some of the largest remaining tracts of intact rainforest in Indonesia and supports populations of critically endangered and iconic species, including the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), Mahakam population of the Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris), and the Bornean population of the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis). Previously thought to be extinct in the wild on Borneo, Sumatran rhinos were detected in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/pulp-giant-rge-admits-possible-deforestation-breach-in-bornean-wildlife-habitat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/pulp-giant-rge-admits-possible-deforestation-breach-in-bornean-wildlife-habitat/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311741</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Green labeler PEFC under fire for certifying Indonesian firm clearing orangutan habitat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/green-labeler-pefc-under-fire-for-certifying-indonesian-firm-clearing-orangutan-habitat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/green-labeler-pefc-under-fire-for-certifying-indonesian-firm-clearing-orangutan-habitat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Dec 2025 17:04:03 +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/20/2025/12/15111219/DJI_0028-min-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311360</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Certification, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forests, International Trade, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Sustainability, Sustainable Forest Management, Threats To Rainforests, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A major global forestry certification body is under scrutiny for endorsing one of Indonesia’s largest recent deforesters, raising concerns that consumers may be misled about the origins of the wood products they buy. In November, the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) approved the certification of Indonesian timber firm PT Industrial [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A major global forestry certification body is under scrutiny for endorsing one of Indonesia’s largest recent deforesters, raising concerns that consumers may be misled about the origins of the wood products they buy. In November, the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) approved the certification of Indonesian timber firm PT Industrial Forest Plantation (IFP). The label allows the company to market its pulpwood as “sustainable,” even though investigative group Earthsight says IFP has in recent years become Indonesia’s second-largest deforester. Between 2016 and 2022, IFP cleared nearly 22,000 hectares (about 54,000 acres) of natural forest in central Borneo, an area roughly the size of Amsterdam, to establish its plantations. Since 2022, the company has cleared more forest each year than almost any other operator in Indonesia’s industrial plantation sector. The concession lies in a landscape recognized as a key stronghold for critically endangered Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), with roughly half the licensed area estimated to be orangutan habitat. IFP has refuted Earthsight’s findings, saying all clearing and planting was carried out under work plans approved by Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry. It also said it stopped logging natural forest at the end of 2023. But analysis by Indonesian NGO Auriga Nusantara shows deforestation continued well into 2024, with more than 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of forest loss recorded in the concession. That made IFP the fourth-largest deforester among plantation permit holders that year. PEFC told Earthsight it found no clear evidence of procedural error in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/green-labeler-pefc-under-fire-for-certifying-indonesian-firm-clearing-orangutan-habitat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/green-labeler-pefc-under-fire-for-certifying-indonesian-firm-clearing-orangutan-habitat/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/15165945/Recording2025-12-10133005-ezgif.com-gif-maker.mp4" length="0" type="video/mp4" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311360</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>FSC to vote on new traceability rules amid fraud allegations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/fsc-to-vote-on-new-traceability-rules-amid-fraud-allegations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/fsc-to-vote-on-new-traceability-rules-amid-fraud-allegations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Oct 2025 15:48:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/25084446/indonesia-fsc-wood-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308306</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Russia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Certification, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Environment, Forests, Greenwashing, International Trade, Politics, Pulp And Paper, Sustainable Forest Management, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The world’s largest green timber label will vote next week on whether to begin work on new traceability rules, amid renewed scrutiny and accusations over whether the body is doing enough to prevent fraud within its supply chains. The Bonn-based Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) bills itself as “the world’s most trusted mark for sustainable forestry.” [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The world’s largest green timber label will vote next week on whether to begin work on new traceability rules, amid renewed scrutiny and accusations over whether the body is doing enough to prevent fraud within its supply chains. The Bonn-based Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) bills itself as “the world’s most trusted mark for sustainable forestry.” Its tree-tick logo can be found on everything from furniture and snowboards to toilet paper and takeaway containers, an assurance the product was made with wood from forests the FSC has certified as responsibly managed. FSC certification appears on products worth tens of billions of dollars in sales each year. But forestry experts and whistleblowers have alleged for years that the FSC lacks a proper control system, allowing bad actors to fraudulently pass off timber that was illegally or unsustainably logged as FSC-certified. Phil Guillery, who was the FSC’s integrity director from 2011-21, said in early October that he believed “20-30% of claims in the system were false” during his tenure “and I haven’t seen anything to suggest the figure has dropped since.” The FSC issued a swift rebuttal to Guillery’s claims, calling them unsubstantiated and “based on outdated information that does not reflect the system today.” “Integrity is central to FSC’s mission, and we take any allegation of fraudulent behaviour seriously,” the FSC said. However, a senior FSC official currently with the organization told Mongabay this week that they believed the figure was actually an underestimate. “I’m actually amazed he said 20-30 percent —&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/fsc-to-vote-on-new-traceability-rules-amid-fraud-allegations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/fsc-to-vote-on-new-traceability-rules-amid-fraud-allegations/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308306</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>RSPO sparks NGO outrage for dismissing complaint over alleged ‘shadow companies’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/rspo-sparks-ngo-outrage-for-dismissing-complaint-over-alleged-shadow-companies/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/rspo-sparks-ngo-outrage-for-dismissing-complaint-over-alleged-shadow-companies/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Oct 2025 07:31:10 +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/20/2025/10/02124848/1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307143</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Certification, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Environment, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Sustainability, Threats To Rainforests, Trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A major palm oil producer linked through supplier-reported mill lists to global brands like General Mills and PepsiCo has escaped sanction for allegedly concealing a web of “shadow companies” linked to deforestation and rights abuses, after the industry’s leading certification body ruled the allegations fell outside its current rules. The Roundtable on Sustainable [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A major palm oil producer linked through supplier-reported mill lists to global brands like General Mills and PepsiCo has escaped sanction for allegedly concealing a web of “shadow companies” linked to deforestation and rights abuses, after the industry’s leading certification body ruled the allegations fell outside its current rules. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) dismissed allegations that Indonesian conglomerate First Resources Ltd. (FRL) controls a network of shadow companies — affiliates secretly under the same ownership but undeclared to regulators — despite evidence presented by NGOs linking these firms to deforestation, peatland destruction, river pollution and labor abuses. The decision by RSPO has triggered outrage among NGOs that say it exposes a loophole that lets corporate groups hide destructive operations behind undeclared affiliates while keeping their sustainability credentials intact. A group of NGOs, whose names were not disclosed in the panel’s decision, filed the complaint against FRL in 2021. They alleged FRL secretly controlled three firms — identified in the RSPO decision only as Company A, B and D, but presumed by NGOs to be FAP Agri, Ciliandry Anky Abadi (CAA) and New Borneo Agri (NBA). CAA has been Indonesia’s single biggest palm oil deforester for the past two years, according to analysis by French-based technology consultancy TheTreeMap. By not declaring these affiliates, NGOs say, FRL has been able to profit from destructive operations while still touting its 2015 zero-deforestation pledge and RSPO membership — allowing it to keep selling certified “sustainable” palm oil to multinational&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/rspo-sparks-ngo-outrage-for-dismissing-complaint-over-alleged-shadow-companies/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/rspo-sparks-ngo-outrage-for-dismissing-complaint-over-alleged-shadow-companies/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307143</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Critics say FSC update risks weakening accountability for forest harm</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/critics-say-fsc-update-risks-weakening-accountability-for-forest-harm/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/critics-say-fsc-update-risks-weakening-accountability-for-forest-harm/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Sep 2025 07:03:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/31045148/GP04KSQ_Web_size-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306052</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Certification, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Pulp And Paper, Rainforests, Reforestation, Rehabilitation, Restoration, Supply Chain, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The world’s largest sustainable timber label is under fire for revising how it applies its rules on corporate accountability — a move activists say could let forestry giants long tied to deforestation and land conflicts rebrand themselves as “green.” The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which certifies wood and paper products worldwide, confirmed to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The world’s largest sustainable timber label is under fire for revising how it applies its rules on corporate accountability — a move activists say could let forestry giants long tied to deforestation and land conflicts rebrand themselves as “green.” The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which certifies wood and paper products worldwide, confirmed to Mongabay that it has revised its internal guidance on the scope of a company’s “corporate group.” The concept is central to the FSC’s rules because it determines how to deal with a company that’s certified if one of its uncertified subsidiaries, suppliers or affiliates is found to have committed forestry violations. The FSC’s corporate group definition is currently based on the standard of “common control” drawn up by the Accountability Framework Initiative (AFi), a collaborative effort by 25 NGOs to build and scale up ethical supply chains for agricultural and forestry products. “This work considers the learnings to date on identifying and concluding the scope of the corporate group and builds on the strengths of the [AFi’s] definition,” the FSC said in a statement. “This is not the same as reviewing the definition itself.” The distinction matters because under the FSC’s Policy for Association and Remedy Framework, an entire corporate group can be held accountable for destructive practices like illegal logging, human rights abuses, or deforestation by any of its members. Under the remedy framework, firms that have lost their FSC certification, or been “disassociated,” can only return to the FSC fold if they make&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/critics-say-fsc-update-risks-weakening-accountability-for-forest-harm/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/critics-say-fsc-update-risks-weakening-accountability-for-forest-harm/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306052</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sustainable biomass certification scheme is flawed, degrades forests, report finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/sustainable-biomass-certification-scheme-is-flawed-degrades-forests-report-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/sustainable-biomass-certification-scheme-is-flawed-degrades-forests-report-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Aug 2025 15:58:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/29131303/Drax-is-the-largest-consumer-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304702</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Canada, Europe, Global, Indonesia, Japan, North America, South Korea, Southeast Asia, United Kingdom, United States, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Biofuels, carbon, Certification, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Politics, Renewable Energy, Sustainability, and Sustainable Forest Management]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) is a leading global biomass certification scheme offering assurances to end users (especially nations in the EU and Asia) that biomass (especially wood pellets for energy) is “sourced both legally and sustainably.” But a recent report by a group of environmental NGOs alleges SBP is approving biomass fuel projects linked [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) is a leading global biomass certification scheme offering assurances to end users (especially nations in the EU and Asia) that biomass (especially wood pellets for energy) is “sourced both legally and sustainably.” But a recent report by a group of environmental NGOs alleges SBP is approving biomass fuel projects linked to forest destruction. While SBP-certified biomass meets minimum legal requirements, it often falls short of genuine sustainability, according to the July 2025 report written by Canada-based forest certification and governance expert Richard Robertson. The analysis was commissioned by five nonprofits: Solutions for Our Climate (SFOC), the Global Environmental Forum (GEF), Mighty Earth, Biofuelwatch, and the Environmental Paper Network (EPN). The booming biomass-for-energy industry touts wood pellets and chips as a winning climate solution. But the report notes that this assertion is based on a faulty carbon accounting loophole that counts significant smokestack emissions from biomass as zero. Numerous studies have shown that biomass burning is more carbon-intensive than coal per unit of energy produced. Billions of dollars in green energy subsidies have been paid out by European and Asian nations to the biomass industry, spurring demand for woody biomass and putting pressure on carbon-rich forests in the United States, Canada, Vietnam, South Korea, Europe, Indonesia and elsewhere. Many end-user nations have put their trust in SBP for sustainability certification. But years of criticism from forest advocates and climate experts have led major importers, such as the U.K. and Japan, to tighten sustainability requirements for subsidized&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/sustainable-biomass-certification-scheme-is-flawed-degrades-forests-report-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/sustainable-biomass-certification-scheme-is-flawed-degrades-forests-report-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304702</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pulp and paper giant APP moves closer to regaining FSC stamp despite pending review</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/pulp-and-paper-giant-app-moves-closer-to-regaining-fsc-stamp-despite-pending-review/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/pulp-and-paper-giant-app-moves-closer-to-regaining-fsc-stamp-despite-pending-review/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Aug 2025 10:19:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/31045148/GP04KSQ_Web_size-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304616</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Jambi, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Certification, Conflict, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Plantations, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Reforestation, Rehabilitation, Restoration, Social Conflict, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Asia Pulp &#38; Paper, one of the world’s biggest forestry groups, has effectively been given the green light to seek ethical certification from the Forest Stewardship Council — a stamp of approval that it was stripped of 18 years ago for deforestation and other violations. In a decision announced in July, the FSC, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Asia Pulp &amp; Paper, one of the world’s biggest forestry groups, has effectively been given the green light to seek ethical certification from the Forest Stewardship Council — a stamp of approval that it was stripped of 18 years ago for deforestation and other violations. In a decision announced in July, the FSC, the world’s leading certifier of sustainable forestry practices, lifted a suspension to allow APP to resume its remedy process — a series of remedial and restorative measures for past violations that would eventually make the company eligible for FSC certification. Watchdog groups say the move caught them by surprise, especially given that a key legal review into the company’s web of corporate holdings remains unfinished. They warn this lets one of the world’s most notorious forestry firms fast-track its return to the ethical timber trade, and also exposes communities in conflict with APP-linked companies to further harm. “We were led to believe that the outcome of the legal review would inform whether APP was eligible to re-enter the remedy process,” the Forest Peoples Programme, a U.K.-based campaign group, told Mongabay. “Proceeding in advance undermines trust in the process and diminishes the credibility of the review itself.” Log yard of Sinar Mas Group/Asia Pulp and Paper&#8217;s Indah Kiat pulp&#8217;s paper mill in Riau Province, Sumatra. In 2003, a lot of the logs used by the mill was obtained by large scale clearance of natural forest. Tangled corporate web APP is the main pulp and paper arm&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/pulp-and-paper-giant-app-moves-closer-to-regaining-fsc-stamp-despite-pending-review/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/pulp-and-paper-giant-app-moves-closer-to-regaining-fsc-stamp-despite-pending-review/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304616</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Remedy frameworks can improve sustainable forestry certifications &#038; right past wrongs (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/remedy-frameworks-can-improve-sustainable-forestry-certifications-right-past-wrongs-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/remedy-frameworks-can-improve-sustainable-forestry-certifications-right-past-wrongs-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Aug 2025 19:32:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marc Jessel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/12/18230744/amazon_201724-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304057</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Certification, Commentary, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Forestry, Forests, Social Justice, Sustainability, Sustainable Forest Management, Timber, timber trade, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For decades, environmental, social and governance systems have focused on stopping harm before it happens. Standards, certification schemes and corporate sustainability policies have all aimed to deter destruction, especially in forests and other high-risk ecosystems. But the uncomfortable truth is this: while these systems have helped reduce future damage, they remain largely unequipped to deal [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For decades, environmental, social and governance systems have focused on stopping harm before it happens. Standards, certification schemes and corporate sustainability policies have all aimed to deter destruction, especially in forests and other high-risk ecosystems. But the uncomfortable truth is this: while these systems have helped reduce future damage, they remain largely unequipped to deal with the harm that has already occurred. Across the globe, Indigenous and local communities continue to grapple with the long-term consequences of deforestation and other harms, often at the hands of companies that have since been excluded from sustainability frameworks. Yet exclusion is where accountability often ends. Companies are removed from certification or policy schemes, but are rarely required to take meaningful steps to repair the social or environmental damage they caused. This creates a structural gap in global sustainability, a growing disconnect between corporate accountability systems and the people and ecosystems they are meant to protect. Environmental justice cannot be achieved through prevention alone. It must also address historical harm, through remedy that is credible, community-driven, and verifiable. Stacks of certified sustainably harvested wood in Peru. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Remedy isn’t a new concept. In the human rights space, it has long been recognized, most notably by the United Nations, as a process that includes acknowledging past harm, providing redress, and taking steps to restore dignity and prevent recurrence. It’s time we bring the same level of commitment to environmental governance. Remedy is not about erasing the past, it’s about facing it,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/remedy-frameworks-can-improve-sustainable-forestry-certifications-right-past-wrongs-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/remedy-frameworks-can-improve-sustainable-forestry-certifications-right-past-wrongs-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304057</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Hope and frustration as Indonesia pilots FSC’s logging remedy framework</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/hope-and-frustration-as-indonesia-pilots-fscs-logging-remedy-framework/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/hope-and-frustration-as-indonesia-pilots-fscs-logging-remedy-framework/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jul 2025 10:34:20 +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/20/2020/03/04053319/Hutan-adat-Sihaporas-yang-hancur-dan-berubah-menjadi-pohon-eukaliptus-dalam-jumlah-banyak-yang-dikuasai-PT.-TPL-mengantongi-izin-konsesi-dari-pemerintah-Ayat-S-Karokaro-768x506.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302935</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Certification, Conflict, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Logging, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Reforestation, Rehabilitation, Social Conflict, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia is testing whether one of the world’s most powerful timber certifiers can deliver justice — or merely a reset — to forest communities harmed by industrial logging. At stake is the credibility of the Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) first-of-its-kind “remedy framework,” an ambitious mechanism that allows logging companies stripped of certification to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia is testing whether one of the world’s most powerful timber certifiers can deliver justice — or merely a reset — to forest communities harmed by industrial logging. At stake is the credibility of the Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) first-of-its-kind “remedy framework,” an ambitious mechanism that allows logging companies stripped of certification to regain it — but only if they repair the environmental and social damage they’ve caused. But early implementation has exposed cracks — particularly in how past harms are assessed. The FSC is the world’s most recognizable ethical wood certifier, whose logo of a green checkmark and tree is widely used to assure consumers of sustainable sourcing and appears on forestry products — from furniture to paper — worldwide. Under the remedy framework that was adopted in 2023, forestry companies can obtain or regain sustainability certificates if they remedy past environmental and social harms. Two of Indonesia’s largest forestry firms have entered this process, making the country a global testing ground for what could become a new model of corporate accountability, opening the door to restoring millions of hectares of forests, and bringing restitution to thousands of affected communities. FSC director-general Subhra Bhattacharjee told Mongabay that the Indonesian context will highlight the framework’s limitations and the need to customize it to local conditions, “because what works in Indonesia won&#8217;t necessarily work in another country — but the processes will.” Area of natural forest near a river cleared by PT Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL). Toba Pulp Lestari&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/hope-and-frustration-as-indonesia-pilots-fscs-logging-remedy-framework/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/hope-and-frustration-as-indonesia-pilots-fscs-logging-remedy-framework/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302935</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Strengthening global forest certification and delivering remedy: Interview with FSC’s Subhra Bhattacharjee</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/strengthening-global-forest-certification-and-delivering-remedy-interview-with-fscs-subhra-bhattacharjee/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/strengthening-global-forest-certification-and-delivering-remedy-interview-with-fscs-subhra-bhattacharjee/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Jul 2025 13:09:18 +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/20/2025/07/21130451/Subhra-B-Headshot-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302603</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Certification, Conflict, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Plantations, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Social Conflict, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Forestry companies, including pulp and paper producers, have a long history of deforestation and social conflict in tropical countries like Indonesia. In Indonesia, millions of hectares of rainforest and peatland have been cleared to make way for industrial forest plantations, displacing thousands of communities from their customary lands in the process. To help ensure sustainable [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Forestry companies, including pulp and paper producers, have a long history of deforestation and social conflict in tropical countries like Indonesia. In Indonesia, millions of hectares of rainforest and peatland have been cleared to make way for industrial forest plantations, displacing thousands of communities from their customary lands in the process. To help ensure sustainable forestry practices, a voluntary global certification organization, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), was established in 1993 by a coalition of environmentalists, Indigenous groups, human rights advocates and timber industry players. Since then, FSC has grown into the world’s most recognizable ethical wood certifier. Its logo — a green checkmark and stylized tree — is widely used to assure consumers that forestry products are sourced sustainably. In 2022, Mongabay spoke with then-FSC director-general Kim Carstensen, who emphasized the need to strengthen the credibility and accountability of forest certification. Two years later, his successor, Subhra Bhattacharjee, is leading the FSC through one of its most ambitious reforms to date: the remedy framework. Adopted in 2023, the framework allows companies previously disassociated from FSC, including some responsible for major deforestation, to regain certification if they undertake credible efforts to redress past environmental and social harms. Indonesia, home to some of the most protracted and complex forestry conflicts in the tropics, is now the testing ground for this framework. Two of the world’s largest pulp and paper producers, including APRIL, are currently undergoing the remedy process. But a recent report by a coalition of NGOs — including Forest Peoples&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/strengthening-global-forest-certification-and-delivering-remedy-interview-with-fscs-subhra-bhattacharjee/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/strengthening-global-forest-certification-and-delivering-remedy-interview-with-fscs-subhra-bhattacharjee/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302603</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bumble Bee asks court to dismiss lawsuit alleging forced labor in tuna supply chain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/bumble-bee-asks-court-to-dismiss-lawsuit-alleging-forced-labor-in-tuna-supply-chain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/bumble-bee-asks-court-to-dismiss-lawsuit-alleging-forced-labor-in-tuna-supply-chain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jun 2025 16:26:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/06123302/tuna-in-taiwan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300315</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Certification, Conflict, Conservation, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, Food Industry, Forced labor, Governance, Human Rights, Industry, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Saltwater Fish, Slavery, Social Justice, Sustainability, and Tuna]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[U.S. canned tuna producer Bumble Bee Foods has asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that it knowingly benefited from its suppliers’ use of forced labor by Indonesian workers. Earlier this year, four Indonesian men filed a complaint in federal court in San Diego, California, against Bumble Bee, alleging the company was aware of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[U.S. canned tuna producer Bumble Bee Foods has asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that it knowingly benefited from its suppliers’ use of forced labor by Indonesian workers. Earlier this year, four Indonesian men filed a complaint in federal court in San Diego, California, against Bumble Bee, alleging the company was aware of and profited from labor abuses and forced labor that they and other migrant sea workers endured aboard fishing vessels supplying the iconic U.S. tuna brand. On June 2, the company submitted a motion to the court to dismiss the case on legal grounds in an effort to end it before it reaches trial. In the motion, the company argued the plaintiffs lack standing for their claims, that they failed to state a proper claim under the law in question, and that the court lacks jurisdiction over certain aspects of the case. “Plaintiffs allege horrible mistreatment at the hands of vessel captains and crew on distant-water fishing vessels owned by two Chinese companies, operating in international waters, that supplied albacore tuna to Bumble Bee Foods, LLC (Bumble Bee),” the company stated in the motion. “Bumble Bee unequivocally condemns forced labor and takes allegations of forced labor in its supply chain seriously. Indeed, when Bumble Bee learned of the allegations in the Complaint, it promptly instructed its suppliers to cease purchasing from the vessels at issue. Plaintiffs nonetheless seek to hold Bumble Bee—a U.S. company—liable under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) and state negligence law&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/bumble-bee-asks-court-to-dismiss-lawsuit-alleging-forced-labor-in-tuna-supply-chain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/bumble-bee-asks-court-to-dismiss-lawsuit-alleging-forced-labor-in-tuna-supply-chain/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300315</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Profit imbalance in palm oil industry risks environmental compliance, report says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/profit-imbalance-in-palm-oil-industry-risks-environmental-compliance-report-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/profit-imbalance-in-palm-oil-industry-risks-environmental-compliance-report-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 May 2025 15:35:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/15152727/Solidaridad-2-scaled-e1747323208671-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299156</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Certification, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Green, Palm Oil, Rainforests, Regulations, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Multinational palm oil-buying companies could be doing more to address financial inequities in their global supply chains that perpetuate challenges for smallholder farmers, according to a new report from sustainable development watchdog Solidaridad. The report highlights how smallholder farmers, who produce nearly one-third of raw palm oil globally, receive a disproportionately small share of industry [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Multinational palm oil-buying companies could be doing more to address financial inequities in their global supply chains that perpetuate challenges for smallholder farmers, according to a new report from sustainable development watchdog Solidaridad. The report highlights how smallholder farmers, who produce nearly one-third of raw palm oil globally, receive a disproportionately small share of industry profits compared to large corporations like retailers and oil-processing firms. The imbalance often leaves farmers lacking the resources to gain a foothold in high-value markets that increasingly demand less environmentally destructive goods, the report notes, a situation set to intensify as the European Union, one of the world’s biggest importers of palm oil, brings its deforestation-free regulations (EUDR) into effect at the end of 2025. The EUDR will require producers of a suite of deforestation-linked commodities, including palm oil, to comply with new standards of traceability, geolocalization and land-use mapping. However, trade experts have warned that without support to comply with these new rules, farmers could lose access to the EU market, worsening their economic position and exposing them to land grabbing, dispossession and other abuses. Meanwhile, smallholders lack the technical resources and financial capital to adopt practices that could benefit biodiversity and boost climate-resilience on their farms. “In theory, it’s fine if everybody in the supply chain makes a profit,” Michel Riemersma, palm oil policy adviser at Solidaridad, told Mongabay. “But if the downstream companies are the only ones making a profit while the farmers at the beginning of the supply chain have to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/profit-imbalance-in-palm-oil-industry-risks-environmental-compliance-report-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/profit-imbalance-in-palm-oil-industry-risks-environmental-compliance-report-says/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299156</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Sustainable’ palm oil firms continue illegal peatland clearing despite permit revocation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/sustainable-palm-oil-firms-continue-illegal-peatland-clearing-despite-permit-revocation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/sustainable-palm-oil-firms-continue-illegal-peatland-clearing-despite-permit-revocation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Mar 2025 02:45:42 +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/20/2021/12/14053750/Peat-fires-Indonesia-2015-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296182</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Business, Carbon Emissions, Certification, Climate, Climate Change, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forests, International Trade, Law, Law Enforcement, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Plantations, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Sustainability, Threats To Rainforests, Trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Palm oil companies in Indonesia continue to operate on protected peatlands and clear forests, despite having their forestry permits revoked and being certified as sustainable, a new report alleges. Local environmental NGOs Pantau Gambut and Kaoem Telapak investigated three companies operating in Central Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo: PT Agrindo Green [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Palm oil companies in Indonesia continue to operate on protected peatlands and clear forests, despite having their forestry permits revoked and being certified as sustainable, a new report alleges. Local environmental NGOs Pantau Gambut and Kaoem Telapak investigated three companies operating in Central Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo: PT Agrindo Green Lestari (AGL), PT Citra Agro Abadi (CAA) and PT Bangun Cipta Mitra Perkasa (PT BCMP). Their findings implicate all three in illegal peatland conversion, deforestation and recurring fires. Two of the three companies, AGL and CAA, are subsidiaries of the PT Ciliandry Anky Abadi, a privately held plantation company with a 120,000-hectare (300,000-acre) land bank in Central Kalimantan. Ciliandry Anky Abadi itself was identified as the single biggest deforesting palm oil company in Indonesia in 2023. The AGL and CAA concessions cover a combined 18,224 hectares (45,032 acres) in Pulang Pisau district, overlapping with protected peatlands and high conservation value (HCV) areas. Around 6,000 hectares (15,000 acres) have been identified as critical orangutan habitat. Satellite imagery from 2015 to 2023 reveals that most of the protected peatlands within CAA’s concessions have been converted into oil palm plantations, with planting beginning in 2022. As of 2023, 2,753 hectares (6,803 acres) of protected peat ecosystems had been cleared for planting — an area the size of 55,000 basketball courts. These peatlands have protected status because of their deep peat layers that hold vast quantities of carbon, and also because of their high conservation value. But converting peatlands&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/sustainable-palm-oil-firms-continue-illegal-peatland-clearing-despite-permit-revocation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/sustainable-palm-oil-firms-continue-illegal-peatland-clearing-despite-permit-revocation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296182</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>NGOs raise concerns over Borneo pilot of ‘jurisdictional’ certification for palm oil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/ngos-raise-concerns-over-borneo-pilot-of-jurisdictional-certification-for-palm-oil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/ngos-raise-concerns-over-borneo-pilot-of-jurisdictional-certification-for-palm-oil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jan 2025 05:01:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rendy Tisna]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/08080918/oil-palm-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292722</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Indonesia, Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Business, Certification, Community-based Conservation, Conflict, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Environment, Farming, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Jurisdictional Approaches, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, NGOs, Palm Oil, Plantations, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANJARMASIN, Indonesia — In October 2023 in the Indigenous Dayak village of Bangkal, Indonesian police fired on farmers demonstrating against PT Hamparan Masawit Bangun Persada (HMBP), a palm oil plantation company owned by Indonesia’s BEST Group. “Without any trigger from the protesters, the security forces shot tear gas and bullets from firearms,” Bayu Herinata, director [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANJARMASIN, Indonesia — In October 2023 in the Indigenous Dayak village of Bangkal, Indonesian police fired on farmers demonstrating against PT Hamparan Masawit Bangun Persada (HMBP), a palm oil plantation company owned by Indonesia’s BEST Group. “Without any trigger from the protesters, the security forces shot tear gas and bullets from firearms,” Bayu Herinata, director of the Central Kalimantan provincial chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), an NGO, told Mongabay at the time. The farmers in Bangkal, located in the Central Kalimantan district of Seruyan, had taken to the streets to press the firm to release 20% of its land concession to local farmers, as many plantations are required to do by law. The demonstrators maintained that the BEST Group subsidiary had neglected to fulfill its legal obligation to smallholders under a required profit-sharing scheme known as “plasma.” One person from Bangkal, named Gijik, was shot dead during the protest, Mongabay reported last year. Now, civil society researchers worry that such conflicts, which are numerous in Indonesia, could be papered over by a proposed change to the way the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the main global body certifying palm oil as responsibly produced, assesses supply chains for compliance. Normally, the RSPO certifies palm oil produced by a single company, which can then sell it for a premium. Under the new methodology, the RSPO would vet the environmental and social credentials of an entire jurisdiction, like a province or a district, treating it as a single&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/ngos-raise-concerns-over-borneo-pilot-of-jurisdictional-certification-for-palm-oil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/ngos-raise-concerns-over-borneo-pilot-of-jurisdictional-certification-for-palm-oil/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292722</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Coffee agroforestry promises a path to EUDR compliance, but challenges remain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/coffee-agroforestry-promises-a-path-to-eudr-compliance-but-challenges-remain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/coffee-agroforestry-promises-a-path-to-eudr-compliance-but-challenges-remain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Dec 2024 12:00:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marina Martinez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/23202318/Coffee-plants-in-a-deforested-scrub-area-in-Laos.-Image-by-Rhett-A.-Butler-for-Mongabay-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292166</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Colombia, European Union, Latin America, North America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Certification, Climate Change, Coffee, Commodity agriculture, Crops, data, Deforestation, EUDR, Farming, Governance, Law Enforcement, Monitoring, Remote Sensing, Supply Chain, Sustainability, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the last two decades, about 130,000 hectares, or 3,210,000 acres, of forest have been lost annually for coffee cultivation. Pressure on areas suitable for coffee growing, usually forest-rich habitats, is estimated to increase, as coffee production is expected to triple by 2050 to meet growing demand. Part of that demand is represented by the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the last two decades, about 130,000 hectares, or 3,210,000 acres, of forest have been lost annually for coffee cultivation. Pressure on areas suitable for coffee growing, usually forest-rich habitats, is estimated to increase, as coffee production is expected to triple by 2050 to meet growing demand. Part of that demand is represented by the European Union market, which consumes about one-third of this global commodity. In an effort to reduce its impact on forests, the EU recently approved a regulation aimed at preventing coffee and other agricultural products linked to deforestation from being sold in its common market. Known as the EUDR, the regulation requires companies to demonstrate that such products didn’t originate from deforested land after Dec. 31, 2020, and that they were produced in compliance with environmental and human rights laws in the country of origin. Although the EUDR’s applicability date has been postponed to December 2025 (and to June 2026 for micro- and small enterprises), some companies in the coffee sector, particularly the largest ones, have begun preparing to meet its requirements. Among them are Nespresso and commodity trader Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC). Source: European Commission (2021). While noncompliance could lead to significant profit losses, including a potential ban from the EU market, both Nespresso and LDC have expressed support for the EUDR regulation, citing their company-wide commitments to eliminating deforestation from their respective supply chains. “We continuously work to ensure a deforestation-free supply-chain,” Nespresso, part of Switzerland-based Nestlé Group, told Mongabay via email. “Forests are&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/coffee-agroforestry-promises-a-path-to-eudr-compliance-but-challenges-remain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/coffee-agroforestry-promises-a-path-to-eudr-compliance-but-challenges-remain/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292166</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Even for ‘progressive’ Danone, complying with EUDR is a challenge</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/even-for-progressive-danone-complying-with-eudr-is-a-challenge/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/even-for-progressive-danone-complying-with-eudr-is-a-challenge/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Dec 2024 11:07:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/03/06184816/Soy_Production_Cerrado_Drought1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291986</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, European Union, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cacao, Certification, Commodity agriculture, Corporate Social Responsibility, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, EUDR, Food, Food Industry, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Law, Law Enforcement, Monitoring, Palm Oil, Pulp And Paper, Rainforests, Soy, Supply Chain, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[French dairy giant Danone has been around for more than a century and operates across more than 55 countries, producing everything from yogurt and milk to protein drinks and baby formula. It did $28.9 billion in sales last year, maintaining its spot as the world’s top dairy producer. But to make all that happen, the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[French dairy giant Danone has been around for more than a century and operates across more than 55 countries, producing everything from yogurt and milk to protein drinks and baby formula. It did $28.9 billion in sales last year, maintaining its spot as the world’s top dairy producer. But to make all that happen, the company needs a complex operation of paper products, soy, palm oil and cocoa — much of it sourced from countries with vulnerable rainforests like the Amazon. With the European Union’s deforestation-free products regulation (EUDR) set to go into effect at the end of 2025, Danone and other companies that deal in cocoa, soy and other commodities tied to deforestation are facing extra scrutiny as they prepare to meet some of the most rigorous environmental trade restrictions ever implemented. The EUDR requires companies importing cocoa, cattle, rubber, soy, wood, palm oil and coffee into the EU to demonstrate their products weren’t grown on land deforested after Dec. 31, 2020. It’s proven to be a significant challenge even for companies with relatively strong environmental track records, like Danone. Tracking the impacts of sensitive commodities requires advanced technology and strong relationships with suppliers, but can still ultimately fall short for huge corporations that work across multiple countries. “Voluntary practices are not enough for the magnitude of the challenge [combating deforestation and forest conversion], and public policy such as the EUDR helps bring additional transparency, due diligence and collaboration across the value chain as a few good actors and a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/even-for-progressive-danone-complying-with-eudr-is-a-challenge/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/even-for-progressive-danone-complying-with-eudr-is-a-challenge/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291986</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New standard for ethical palm oil faces backlash before it’s even issued</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/new-standard-for-ethical-palm-oil-faces-backlash-before-its-even-issued/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/new-standard-for-ethical-palm-oil-faces-backlash-before-its-even-issued/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Nov 2024 11:47:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/07151615/Banner_RAB-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289722</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, carbon, Certification, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, International Trade, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, Sustainability, Sustainable Forest Management, Trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The world’s top certification body for ethical palm oil is set to vote on a major new standard aimed at balancing conservation goals with the practicalities of the palm oil industry. This revised standard, expected to pass at the annual general assembly of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) on Nov. 13 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The world’s top certification body for ethical palm oil is set to vote on a major new standard aimed at balancing conservation goals with the practicalities of the palm oil industry. This revised standard, expected to pass at the annual general assembly of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) on Nov. 13 in Bangkok, would be the first update since 2018, revising key environmental and social safeguards for the industry. The RSPO says the new standard retains the safeguards of previous standards and introduces improvements to make them easier to implement and audit. However, some NGOs say the new standard could open loopholes for deforestation, notably through the RSPO’s introduction of a new definition for high-carbon stock (HCS) forest that diverges from the globally recognized HCS Approach (HCSA) toolkit. Critics warn that this approach may pave the way for more palm oil expansion into forests, as the RSPO definition prioritizes the carbon value of forests over their broader ecological role, potentially allowing companies to convert certain forest areas that would have been protected under the HCSA toolkit. The RSPO’s retention of its existing remediation and compensation procedure (RaCP), which allows forest clearing beyond designated cutoff dates if compensated for, has also prompted concerns. Greenpeace International senior campaign adviser Grant Rosoman said this may weaken the RSPO’s stance against deforestation and limit compliance with zero-deforestation regulations like the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). “In its revised Principles and Criteria the RSPO has scored an ‘own goal’ by weakening&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/new-standard-for-ethical-palm-oil-faces-backlash-before-its-even-issued/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/new-standard-for-ethical-palm-oil-faces-backlash-before-its-even-issued/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289722</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Report links H&#038;M and Zara to major environmental damage in biodiverse Cerrado</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/report-links-hm-and-zara-to-major-environmental-damage-in-biodiverse-cerrado/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/report-links-hm-and-zara-to-major-environmental-damage-in-biodiverse-cerrado/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Apr 2024 22:25:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dimitri Selibas]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/17221415/Cerrado-Correntina-Bahia-Brazil-June-2023-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281058</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Certification, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Forest Destruction, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, and Plantations]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Clothing giants H&#38;M and Zara have been linked to large-scale illegal deforestation, land-grabbing, violence and corruption in the Brazilian Cerrado, according to an investigation by Earthsight. Using satellite images, court rulings, shipment records and by attending undercover global trade shows, the U.K. NGO tracked nearly a million tons of tainted cotton going from companies in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Clothing giants H&amp;M and Zara have been linked to large-scale illegal deforestation, land-grabbing, violence and corruption in the Brazilian Cerrado, according to an investigation by Earthsight. Using satellite images, court rulings, shipment records and by attending undercover global trade shows, the U.K. NGO tracked nearly a million tons of tainted cotton going from companies in western Bahia, in the Cerrado, in supply chains serving H&amp;M and Inditex, Zara’s holding company. The two companies in focus, SLC Agrícola and Grupo Horita (Horita Group), have a long history of illegal deforestation and environmental abuse. The report also deplores the lack of supply chain traceability provided by Better Cotton (BC), a certification system that aims to ensure sustainability in cotton farming, widely used by H&amp;M and Zara. Yet investigators found that the cotton linked to illicit activities in the Cerrado carried the BC label. Unlike the Brazilian Amazon, where deforestation has been decreasing, the Cerrado has seen forest loss in 2023 jumping by 43% year on year; the savanna biome hosts a third of Brazil’s biodiversity and 5% of the world’s species, yet it has lost more than half of its native vegetation to large-scale agriculture. © MapBiomas / Thomas Bauer / Earthsight 2023 Brazil’s booming cotton industry is putting more pressure on the region, as the country, which grows almost all of its cotton in the Cerrado, is predicted to become the world’s top cotton supplier by 2030. “If you read Zara and H&amp;M’s sustainability policies and human rights policies, they don’t&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/report-links-hm-and-zara-to-major-environmental-damage-in-biodiverse-cerrado/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/report-links-hm-and-zara-to-major-environmental-damage-in-biodiverse-cerrado/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281058</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bird-friendly maple syrup boosts Vermont forest diversity &#038; resilience</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/bird-friendly-maple-syrup-boosts-vermont-forest-diversity-resilience/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/bird-friendly-maple-syrup-boosts-vermont-forest-diversity-resilience/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Dec 2023 18:36:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nina Foster]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/07/26153629/scarletTanger_Flickr_Jen-Goellnitz-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276810</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Business, Certification, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Products, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Solutions, Sustainability, Sustainable Forest Management, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[WOODSTOCK, Vermont — As the sun rises, the ethereal song of a wood thrush echoes through Bourdon Maple Farm’s 55-hectare (135-acre) forest in Woodstock. A bright scarlet tanager wings about the canopy as hungry yellow-bellied sapsuckers drill into tree bark. At the height of maple sugaring season, birds provide a comforting soundtrack for the farm’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[WOODSTOCK, Vermont — As the sun rises, the ethereal song of a wood thrush echoes through Bourdon Maple Farm’s 55-hectare (135-acre) forest in Woodstock. A bright scarlet tanager wings about the canopy as hungry yellow-bellied sapsuckers drill into tree bark. At the height of maple sugaring season, birds provide a comforting soundtrack for the farm’s head of operations, sales and marketing, Meg Emmons. “A lot of times, the birds are my only company out here in the woods,” she said, smiling at a nearby black-capped chickadee. But the forest’s most vocal residents are also some of its most vulnerable. Bourdon Maple Farm&#8217;s flora exhibits a diversity of levels, from the forest floor to its mid-story and canopy. Image courtesy of Meg Emmons/Bourdon Maple Farm. Forest birds thrive in diverse habitats that consist of young, middle-aged and old growth trees. Most trees in New England, however, are uniformly middle-aged after regrowth following widespread clearing for agriculture in the 1800s. Modern development pressure continues to convert woodlands into residential areas, parking lots and other unforested landscapes, further reducing the amount of habitat available. As a result, many forest bird populations have plummeted. Wood thrush populations, for instance, more than halved in 50 years due to forest loss that increased nest exposure to predators and parasites. Vermont’s Wildlife Action Plan identifies it as a high priority “species of greatest conservation need.” Responding to change Recent technological advances have resulted in an explosion of the maple syrup industry over the past 15 years in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/bird-friendly-maple-syrup-boosts-vermont-forest-diversity-resilience/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/bird-friendly-maple-syrup-boosts-vermont-forest-diversity-resilience/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276810</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Certificate of origin for Acre’s açaí is a boost for the Amazonian superfood</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/certificate-of-origin-for-acres-acai-is-a-boost-for-the-amazonian-superfood/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/certificate-of-origin-for-acres-acai-is-a-boost-for-the-amazonian-superfood/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Dec 2023 12:04:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tácita Muniz]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/05115512/35874466545_80c14beffc_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276281</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Certification, Conservation, Economics, Environment, Food Industry, Forest Products, Forests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The municipality of Feijó in Acre state is the first in Brazil to receive a certification of origin for its açaí berries, raising hopes that the economy centered around the fruit will grow in value.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The town of Feijó in the far west of Brazil is known as “The Land of Açaí.” The fruit is so deeply intertwined with the local culture that Feijó’s biggest cultural festival carries its name, drawing hundreds of people to honor the berries of the Euterpe precatoria palm, native to this part of the Amazon and a focal point of both the local culture and the town’s history. Local growers call açaí pulp “purple gold,” a nod to the fruit’s nickname as the “jewel of the rainforest.” Today, they’re celebrating a victory: the açaí grown in Feijó has been officially recognized as among Brazil’s finest agricultural produce. In September this year, the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), a government agency, awarded the açaí grown in this region a geographical identification of origin. This GI tag is similar to how sparkling wines from only a certain region of France can be labeled Champagne, and is the first ever bestowed on Brazilian açaí. Another renowned açaí-producing region, the Bailique Archipelago at the mouth of the Amazon River, has received Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification and is in the process of applying for a GI label. While FSC certification guarantees that the Bailique açaí berries are extracted from the forest under responsible, sustainable management practices, the GI label in Feijó recognizes the product’s characteristics based on its place of origin, which lends it its singular reputation and identity. Products with this label have unique qualities due to natural resources like the soil,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/certificate-of-origin-for-acres-acai-is-a-boost-for-the-amazonian-superfood/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276281</doi>				</item>
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					<title>As RSPO celebrates 20 years of work, Indigenous groups lament unresolved grievances</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/as-rspo-celebrates-20-years-of-work-indigenous-groups-lament-unresolved-grievances/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/as-rspo-celebrates-20-years-of-work-indigenous-groups-lament-unresolved-grievances/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Dec 2023 02:35:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/01022236/20231122_171926-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276180</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Jakarta, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, agribusiness, Agriculture, Business, Certification, Conflict, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, Social Conflict, Sustainability, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — When the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the world&#8217;s largest association for ethical palm oil production, kicked off the second day of its annual roundtable conference on Nov. 21, there was a festive atmosphere. During the opening ceremony in a gigantic ballroom at a luxury five-star hotel in Jakarta, a number of dancers [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — When the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the world&#8217;s largest association for ethical palm oil production, kicked off the second day of its annual roundtable conference on Nov. 21, there was a festive atmosphere. During the opening ceremony in a gigantic ballroom at a luxury five-star hotel in Jakarta, a number of dancers performed a Dayak traditional dance accompanied with thundering percussive music. Dancers perform a Dayak traditional dance during the RSPO roundtable conference in Jakarta in November 2023. Image courtesy of RSPO. And then RSPO CEO Joseph D’Cruz took the stage to deliver his opening remark, where he told the attendees how the organization had grown rapidly since its inception two decades ago. Its membership had grown from around 200 in 16 countries to more than 5,700 in more than 100 countries and territories, with members ranging from some of the largest corporations in the world to smallholders and NGOs. Under the roundtable’s green label, producer members can earn the right to market their palm oil as certified sustainable. Its certified area had also grown from 125,000 hectares (308,800 acres) in 2008 to 4.9 million hectares (12.1 million acres) across 23 countries in 2023.  “All of you deserve huge congratulations for the work of the past 20 years. Together we are delivering one of the most significant transformations ever accomplished in a global commodity sector,” D’Cruz said. “This is a story to be proud of, and to tell proudly.” RSPO CEO Joseph D’Cruz delivered his remark at&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/as-rspo-celebrates-20-years-of-work-indigenous-groups-lament-unresolved-grievances/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276180</doi>				</item>
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					<title>Calls for FSC to drop Canada’s Paper Excellence over ties to deforester</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/calls-for-fsc-to-drop-canadas-paper-excellence-over-ties-to-deforester/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/calls-for-fsc-to-drop-canadas-paper-excellence-over-ties-to-deforester/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Nov 2023 03:15:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/04/23162803/canada-bc-20095-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275487</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Canada, Indonesia, North America, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Certification, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forestry, Forests, Logging, Pulp And Paper, Rainforests, Sustainability, Sustainable Forest Management, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Activists have urged the Forest Stewardship Council to cut ties with a leading Canadian pulp and paper producer that they allege is effectively under the control of an Indonesian conglomerate notorious for millions of hectares of deforestation. Paper Excellence, based in British Columbia, controls 22 million hectares (54 million acres) of forest in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Activists have urged the Forest Stewardship Council to cut ties with a leading Canadian pulp and paper producer that they allege is effectively under the control of an Indonesian conglomerate notorious for millions of hectares of deforestation. Paper Excellence, based in British Columbia, controls 22 million hectares (54 million acres) of forest in Canada and the United States, of which 7.3 million hectares (18 million acres) is FSC-certified. It also has 42 mills across North America and France with FSC certification, the leading stamp for certified sustainable timber production. But Greenpeace Canada and Indonesian environmental NGO Auriga Nusantara say the FSC should disassociate from Paper Excellence, given what they say is abundant evidence that the company is controlled by Indonesian conglomerate the Sinar Mas Group, via its subsidiary, Asia Pulp &amp; Paper (APP). “For too long Sinar Mas has been expanding its operations in North America without any consequences from the FSC,” Auriga Nusantara director Timer Manurung said. “To maintain its credibility, we expect the FSC to implement its own policies and disassociate with Paper Excellence.” The groups have filed a formal complaint with the FSC on the heels of a series of major acquisitions by Paper Excellence that makes it the biggest pulp and paper producer in Canada. “The FSC might be the last to acknowledge that Paper Excellence and APP are two sides of the same coin,” said Shane Moffatt, head of the food and nature campaign at Greenpeace Canada. “It now has a clear decision&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/calls-for-fsc-to-drop-canadas-paper-excellence-over-ties-to-deforester/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-275487</doi>				</item>
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					<title>Report alleges APP continues deforestation 10 years after pledge to stop</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/report-alleges-app-continues-deforestation-10-years-after-pledge-to-stop/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/report-alleges-app-continues-deforestation-10-years-after-pledge-to-stop/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Oct 2023 05:42:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/31043802/GP049LC-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274819</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Jambi, Kalimantan, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Certification, Conflict, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forest Regeneration, Forests, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Peatlands, Plantations, Protected Areas, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Rehabilitation, Restoration, Social Conflict, Sustainability, Sustainable Forest Management, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A decade after Asia Pulp &#38; Paper (APP), one of the world’s biggest paper producers, launched its landmark no-deforestation policy, the company continues to clear forests to feed its mills and drain and develop peatlands, a clear breach of the policy, a new report alleges. APP has a long history of deforestation, with [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A decade after Asia Pulp &amp; Paper (APP), one of the world’s biggest paper producers, launched its landmark no-deforestation policy, the company continues to clear forests to feed its mills and drain and develop peatlands, a clear breach of the policy, a new report alleges. APP has a long history of deforestation, with an estimated 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) — an area the size of Wales — of natural forest having been cleared in the three decades preceding 2010 for conversion into pulpwood plantations in two provinces alone, Riau and Jambi. Following widespread criticism of its role in driving deforestation and contributing to social conflicts, APP launched in February 2013 its Forest Conservation Policy (FCP), in which it pledged to not destroy natural forests for its pulpwood plantations. Under its FCP pledge, the pulp giant vowed to exclude timber sourced from the clearing of peatlands and rainforests as well as to reduce social conflict and seek free, prior and informed consent from communities when establishing new plantations. The policy was meant to apply to all APP operations and those of its suppliers, beginning in February 2013. Greenpeace, which helped forge APP’s policy, called the pledge “a game-changer” for the tropical pulp and paper sector as it was the biggest and most comprehensive corporate promise to end deforestation and peatland destruction by any company at the time. Furthermore, APP is one of the world’s largest pulp and paper manufacturers that supplies pulp and paper products like paper tissue, packaging&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/report-alleges-app-continues-deforestation-10-years-after-pledge-to-stop/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274819</doi>				</item>
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					<title>Indigenous Dayak ‘furious’ as RSPO dismisses land rights violation complaint</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/indigenous-dayak-furious-as-rspo-dismisses-land-rights-violation-complaint/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/indigenous-dayak-furious-as-rspo-dismisses-land-rights-violation-complaint/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Oct 2023 11:24:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/01142415/4-Palm-oil-plantations-in-West-Kalimantan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274714</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, agribusiness, Agriculture, Business, Certification, Conflict, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Culture, Environment, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, Resource Conflict, Social Conflict, Sustainability, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — An Indigenous community in Indonesian Borneo that has waged a decades-long legal battle against a palm oil giant has slammed a decision to absolve the company of allegations of land rights violations. The Dayak Hibun community in Sanggau district, West Kalimantan province, had brought a complaint in 2012 to the Roundtable on Sustainable [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — An Indigenous community in Indonesian Borneo that has waged a decades-long legal battle against a palm oil giant has slammed a decision to absolve the company of allegations of land rights violations. The Dayak Hibun community in Sanggau district, West Kalimantan province, had brought a complaint in 2012 to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) against PT Mitra Austral Sejahtera (MAS), at the time owned by Malaysian palm oil company Sime Darby Plantation Bhd. The company had first arrived in the area in 1996, wielding a permit to the location, despite never having obtained the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of the community. A subsequent permit, known as an HGU and issued in 2000, granted it an 8,741-hectare (21,600-acre) concession, which includes 1,400 hectares (3,460 acres) of ancestral Dayak Hibun land. The RSPO finally ruled on the complaint in August this year, dismissing it due to “insufficient evidence” that MAS had obtained its HGU permit irregularly. “A Company that has obtained a certificate of HGU means that the company has fulfilled all its obligations to the State,” the RSPO wrote in its decision. At a recent press conference in Jakarta responding to the decision, representatives for the Dayak Hibun slammed the RSPO for essentially ignoring the rights and pleas of the community. “We are very disappointed and furious with the RSPO,” said Redatus Musa, a community member. The Indigenous community of Dayak Hibun in Sanggau district, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Image courtesy of Dayak Hibun website. Land sold or&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/indigenous-dayak-furious-as-rspo-dismisses-land-rights-violation-complaint/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274714</doi>				</item>
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