<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" >

	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?s=&#038;type=post&#038;topic=forest-products" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/forest-products/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sat, 12 Sep 2026 14:31:28 +0000</lastBuildDate>
		<language>en-US</language>
		<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
		<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
		<generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4</generator>

<image>
	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Forest Products</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/forest-products/</link>
	<width>32</width>
	<height>32</height>
</image> 
				<item>
					<title>Indigenous land back in Chile brings mixed bag of environmental outcomes: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-land-back-in-chile-brings-mixed-bag-of-environmental-outcomes-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-land-back-in-chile-brings-mixed-bag-of-environmental-outcomes-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Sep 2026 18:59:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/09154250/Pictures-of-the-Week-Latin-America-and-Caribbean-Photo-Gallery-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=329292</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Chile, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Degraded Lands, forest degradation, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Livestock, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Plantations, Protected Areas, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous land restitution in Chile came with a mixed bag of environmental outcomes and did not boost natural forest cover, according to a new study published in Nature Sustainability. While the return of ancestral lands gave the Indigenous Mapuche communities in southern Chile greater control over how their land was used — leading to an [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous land restitution in Chile came with a mixed bag of environmental outcomes and did not boost natural forest cover, according to a new study published in Nature Sustainability. While the return of ancestral lands gave the Indigenous Mapuche communities in southern Chile greater control over how their land was used — leading to an increase in grasslands for livestock production and a reduction in non-native tree plantations — it did not improve biodiversity, carbon sequestration or erosion control. Researchers say these findings challenge long-held assumptions that Indigenous self-determination automatically equates to positive changes in natural forests, carbon sequestration or biodiversity. “In the past, conservation advocates have at times adopted romanticized views of what such self-determination would mean, assuming that Indigenous communities will always choose to allocate land towards more ‘natural’ uses,” said study co-author Robert Heilmayr, an associate professor at the University of California Santa Barbara in the U.S. He told Mongabay over email that the new research “complicates this narrative,” arguing that true self-determination only emerges when Indigenous communities define for themselves what land uses align with their needs and values. The study set out to understand how Indigenous land restitution in Biobío, Araucanía, Los Ríos and Los Lagos reshapes the environment. It did so by analyzing satellite and administrative data from 1,577 properties across 36 communities to compare land use and environmental outcomes before and after land restitution. Researchers focused on what happened after a Chilean land restitution program, known as the Chilean Indigenous Land and Water&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-land-back-in-chile-brings-mixed-bag-of-environmental-outcomes-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-land-back-in-chile-brings-mixed-bag-of-environmental-outcomes-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-329292</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As hay fever sufferers grow in Japan, the country is looking to plant no-pollen trees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/as-hay-fever-sufferers-grow-in-japan-the-country-is-looking-to-plant-no-pollen-trees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/as-hay-fever-sufferers-grow-in-japan-the-country-is-looking-to-plant-no-pollen-trees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Aug 2026 16:09:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jonathan Vit]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/17115248/Japan-hay-fever-02-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326395</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, and Japan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Conservation, Diseases, Environment, Farming, Health, Plants, Reforestation, Solutions, Timber, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TOKYO — For Mariko Aoki, the new year began with an itch. “Right after the New Year in January, my nose starts to get a little itchy,” Aoki said. “It peaks in March, and the sneezing, runny nose, itchy throat and itchy eyes are really bad. It lasts all the way until just before Golden [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TOKYO — For Mariko Aoki, the new year began with an itch. “Right after the New Year in January, my nose starts to get a little itchy,” Aoki said. “It peaks in March, and the sneezing, runny nose, itchy throat and itchy eyes are really bad. It lasts all the way until just before Golden Week [April 29-May 5].” Aoki, like many in Japan, suffers from hay fever, or kafunsho, an annual affliction that affects more than 40% of the population — nearly double the rate in the U.S. The seasonal allergies leave many with red eyes, a stuffy nose, a sore throat and feelings of exhaustion. The combined lassitude annually costs Japan an estimated 245 billion yen ($1.5 billion) in economic losses per day during hay fever season, according to one survey. “My head feels so foggy that I can’t concentrate,” said Aoki, who works as a secretary at the National Diet — Japan’s legislature. “When it gets really bad, I go to the doctor.” In Japan, hay fever has been called a national disease. But it’s a man-made one. The majority of Japan’s hay fever sufferers are allergic to the pollen of two trees: sugi (Cryptomeria japonica) and hinoki (Chamaecyparis obtusa). Both trees were widely planted in the years following World War II as a much-needed source of timber. Sugi cones. Image by Plant Image Library via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0). The trees helped fuel Japan’s post-war recovery. Now, decades later, they’re fuelling a national health crisis. “People&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/as-hay-fever-sufferers-grow-in-japan-the-country-is-looking-to-plant-no-pollen-trees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/as-hay-fever-sufferers-grow-in-japan-the-country-is-looking-to-plant-no-pollen-trees/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326395</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In South Africa, renewable energy latest part of timber industry’s green efforts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-south-africa-renewable-energy-latest-part-of-timber-industrys-green-efforts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-south-africa-renewable-energy-latest-part-of-timber-industrys-green-efforts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Aug 2026 10:09:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mkhululi Chimoio]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/26100828/HarvestingTimber_MpumalangaSouthAfrica_YorkTimbersFairUse-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327323</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Forests, Governance, Renewable Energy, Timber, and timber trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — York Timber Holdings signed a 10-year renewable electricity agreement with electricity trader Discovery Green for power for its Jessievale sawmill in June 2026. Renewables will now make up approximately 90% of the mill’s electricity use, and the agreement is a trend that is spreading amongst commercial users in South Africa. “The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — York Timber Holdings signed a 10-year renewable electricity agreement with electricity trader Discovery Green for power for its Jessievale sawmill in June 2026. Renewables will now make up approximately 90% of the mill’s electricity use, and the agreement is a trend that is spreading amongst commercial users in South Africa. “The 10-year agreement gives York Timbers access to renewable electricity at scale, while improving long-term certainty regarding electricity costs,” said Linmari Pelser, the company’s group risk and compliance officer. Discovery Green is a subsidiary of one of South Africa’s largest health insurance schemes; Discovery’s renewable energy division works with companies that want to increase energy efficiency and shift to renewables, including “wheeling” agreements like the one with York Timber. Under the agreement, York Timber’s electricity will still arrive over the same infrastructure, but Discovery Green will coordinate the equivalent amount of power being fed into the national grid from a range of solar and wind producers across the country. York Timber also operates a 700 kW solar farm at the mill. Pelser said the agreement will reduce the sawmill’s greenhouse gas emissions, while reducing its exposure to electricity tariff hikes and potential future carbon-based costs, such as South Africa’s Carbon Tax. This tax on greenhouse gas emissions was introduced in 2019, and generous allowances that allowed most polluters to pay only a fraction of their assessed costs are scheduled to be lifted this year. Dan Ginsberg, head of actuarial and research and development at Discovery Green,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-south-africa-renewable-energy-latest-part-of-timber-industrys-green-efforts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-south-africa-renewable-energy-latest-part-of-timber-industrys-green-efforts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327323</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Renato Moraes de Jesus was a pioneer of Atlantic Forest restoration in Brazil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/renato-moraes-de-jesus-obituary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/renato-moraes-de-jesus-obituary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Jul 2026 00:41:39 +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/20/2026/07/19024914/renato-moraes-de-jesus-bw-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323955</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Nature-based climate solutions, Obituary, Reforestation, Restoration, Tropical Forests, and Tropical hardwoods]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 1977 a young forest engineer arrived at a neglected tract of Atlantic Forest in northern Espírito Santo. A mining company had acquired the property as a source of hardwood for railway sleepers. Two hundred hectares had already been cut. Some specialists proposed harvesting more of the forest or replacing it with eucalyptus. The new [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 1977 a young forest engineer arrived at a neglected tract of Atlantic Forest in northern Espírito Santo. A mining company had acquired the property as a source of hardwood for railway sleepers. Two hundred hectares had already been cut. Some specialists proposed harvesting more of the forest or replacing it with eucalyptus. The new arrival found little infrastructure and no settled plan for the land. He moved alone into a deteriorating house inside the forest. At night he heard animals moving through the roof. The supposed ghosts proved to be opossums. One of his first ambitions was to obtain a working telephone. Renato Moraes de Jesus, who died on May 23rd, aged 74, stayed for more than three decades. The property at Linhares became the Vale Natural Reserve, a major center for Atlantic Forest research and restoration. He helped protect almost 23,000 hectares, established biological collections and laboratories, brought scientists into the reserve, and developed methods for returning native trees to land damaged by mines, roads, farms, and industry.  Vale gave him no precise instructions. He decided that the first tasks were to prevent fires and hunting, document the forest’s species, and apply what was learned there to damaged land elsewhere. He later joked that the company had forgotten him at Linhares. Its limited attention gave him considerable freedom.  The early years could be dangerous. The region was violent, and he dismissed many workers during a reorganization. He carried a revolver for a time and later recalled receiving death&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/renato-moraes-de-jesus-obituary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/renato-moraes-de-jesus-obituary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323955</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How narcos moved 108 tons of timber infused with drugs from Bolivia to Chile</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-narcos-moved-108-tons-of-timber-infused-with-drugs-from-bolivia-to-chile/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-narcos-moved-108-tons-of-timber-infused-with-drugs-from-bolivia-to-chile/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jul 2026 13:30:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Iván Paredes Tamayo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/10131149/Chile-run-anti-drug-operation-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323075</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Chile, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Crime, Drug Trade, Environment, Forest Products, Forestry, Governance, Illegal Trade, Law, Timber, timber trade, Trade, trafficking, and Tropical hardwoods]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[New risks to South American forests emerge as trees becomes a key element in drug trafficking.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new case has exposed the connection between drug trafficking webs and the export of timber from the Amazon and other regions of Bolivia. After Chile announced in June the largest drug seizure — 108 tons of cocaine and ketamine — in its history, authorities confirmed the substances were detected impregnated in Bolivian wood planks. This is not the first time shipments of the so-called “narco-timber” have been caught: The illicit practice dates back at least 20 years, using the same recurring routes. Mongabay accessed prosecutorial sources in both Chile and Bolivia, two Andean nations in South America sharing a land border of 861 kilometers (535 miles). According to investigations in Chile, 32 shipments were made from Bolivia by 15 timber companies, mostly in 2026. In financial terms, the total amount of drugs moved through this system had a value exceeding $8.3 billion in international markets, according to the breakdown. “It is a six-month investigation developed by the Prosecutor&#8217;s Office of Arica [a northern Commune], the Maritime Police, and the National Customs Service of Chile, which culminated in the detection of 45 contaminated containers [with drugs] in the ports of Arica, Valparaíso, and San Antonio,” the Prosecutor&#8217;s Office of Arica and Parinacota stated in a report. Cocaine and ketamine impregnated in timber were detected in Arica, northern Chile. Image courtesy of the National Customs Service of Chile. The timber shipments departed from Bolivia, mainly from the departments of Pando, Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, Beni and La Paz. The cargoes had ports&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-narcos-moved-108-tons-of-timber-infused-with-drugs-from-bolivia-to-chile/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-narcos-moved-108-tons-of-timber-infused-with-drugs-from-bolivia-to-chile/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323075</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lawmakers seek rights probe into Indigenous conflict at Indonesian timber firm</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/lawmakers-seek-rights-probe-into-indigenous-conflict-at-indonesian-timber-firm/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/lawmakers-seek-rights-probe-into-indigenous-conflict-at-indonesian-timber-firm/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jul 2026 10:23:36 +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/20/2024/03/27180141/Screenshot-2024-03-28-010118-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322966</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Apes, Biodiversity, Business, Conflict, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Forest Products, Forestry, Great Apes, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Law, Mammals, Orangutans, Peatlands, Primates, Protected Areas, Pulp And Paper, Social Conflict, Tropical Deforestation, Wetlands, Wildlife, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesian lawmakers have called for a government fact-finding probe into a long-running conflict between an Indigenous community in Borneo and an industrial timber company linked to one of Indonesia&#8217;s largest recent deforestation cases. The call came at the end of a parliamentary hearing in Jakarta on June 30, where lawmakers said testimony presented [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesian lawmakers have called for a government fact-finding probe into a long-running conflict between an Indigenous community in Borneo and an industrial timber company linked to one of Indonesia&#8217;s largest recent deforestation cases. The call came at the end of a parliamentary hearing in Jakarta on June 30, where lawmakers said testimony presented during the session strengthened indications of alleged structural and systematic human rights violations in the conflict. Responding to the hearing, Indonesia&#8217;s Ministry of Human Rights said it would conduct a more comprehensive review of the case, including field monitoring and coordination with other government agencies, as it prepares to investigate allegations of human rights violations linked to the conflict between PT Mayawana Persada and the Dayak Kualan community in Ketapang district, West Kalimantan province. The Dayak Kualan community alleges the company&#8217;s concession overlaps with its customary lands and forests, and that Mayawana proceeded to clear the area without obtaining its meaningful consent. Despite the community&#8217;s longstanding objections, Mayawana razed lands and forests that the Dayak Kualan community says form part of its customary territory, according to Tarsisius Fendy Sesupi, the customary chief of Lelayang, one of the Indigenous hamlets overlapped by the concession. &#8220;The company never sought the community&#8217;s agreement. It simply moved in and cleared everything,&#8221; he said at a recent press conference in Jakarta. In cases where community members agreed to relinquish their land, they did so under pressure and received only 1.5 million rupiah (about $83) per hectare, or $34 per acre,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/lawmakers-seek-rights-probe-into-indigenous-conflict-at-indonesian-timber-firm/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/lawmakers-seek-rights-probe-into-indigenous-conflict-at-indonesian-timber-firm/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322966</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Illegal timber imports from Cambodia, Laos skirt Vietnam safeguards, report reveals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/illegal-timber-imports-from-cambodia-laos-skirt-vietnam-safeguards-report-reveals/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/illegal-timber-imports-from-cambodia-laos-skirt-vietnam-safeguards-report-reveals/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jul 2026 11:35:51 +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/20/2023/10/09032420/RESIZED-Preah-Roka_Mongabay_Andy-Ball-5-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322242</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Laos, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Corporations, Crime, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Illegal Logging, Logging, Primary Forests, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Timber, Timber Laws, timber trade, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Illegally sourced timber from Cambodia and Laos continues to enter Vietnam’s supply chains despite recent efforts to tighten legality controls, according to a new report from U.K.-based watchdog the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). Falsified paperwork, manipulated harvesting quotes, and intermixing of timber from multiple sources are just some of the ways well-established criminal networks perpetuate [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Illegally sourced timber from Cambodia and Laos continues to enter Vietnam’s supply chains despite recent efforts to tighten legality controls, according to a new report from U.K.-based watchdog the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). Falsified paperwork, manipulated harvesting quotes, and intermixing of timber from multiple sources are just some of the ways well-established criminal networks perpetuate the illicit trade, EIA teams uncovered during a four-year investigation. “We repeatedly observed mechanisms through which timber from questionable sources could be incorporated into formal trade channels,” says Thomas Chung, forest timber campaigns lead for the EIA. Vietnam is one of the world’s largest timber exporters. As a major manufacturing hub of furniture, flooring and other wood products, it plays a key role in international supply chains, shipping roughly $17 billion in timber and timber products in 2025. Timber from neighboring Laos and Cambodia represents a relatively small share of Vietnam’s total supply, the EIA report says, accounting for less than 9% of all timber shipments into the country. However, it carries an outsized legality risk that significantly undermines Vietnam’s efforts to ensure legal sourcing. To maintain access to lucrative export markets, such as the U.S., the EU, Japan and China, the country has made several recent updates to its national timber legality framework, known as the Vietnam Timber Legality Assurance System (VNTLAS). However, the EIA investigation indicates these efforts are being grossly undermined by persistent imports of illegal timber from Cambodia and Laos, exposing key weaknesses in the VNTLAS system. A consistent issue was&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/illegal-timber-imports-from-cambodia-laos-skirt-vietnam-safeguards-report-reveals/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/illegal-timber-imports-from-cambodia-laos-skirt-vietnam-safeguards-report-reveals/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322242</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon floodplains cocoa offers a climate-resilient and sustainable chocolate</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/amazon-floodplains-cocoa-offers-a-climate-resilient-and-sustainable-chocolate/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/amazon-floodplains-cocoa-offers-a-climate-resilient-and-sustainable-chocolate/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jun 2026 18:10:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Cícero Pedrosa NetoSam Cowie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/25143734/CPN_Chocolate_Mongabay-243-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321624</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Bioeconomy, Cacao, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Crops, Drought, Environment, Ethics, Extreme Weather, Food, Forest Products, Forestry, Global Environmental Crisis, Indigenous Peoples, Natural Resources, Sustainable Forest Management, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A river community in Pará uses ancestral secrets to beat the climate crisis one chocolate bean at a time.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BACARENA, Brazil — Sunlight peeps through dense Amazonian foliage as Elene Elda Mota and her husband Giovanne guide their small motorboat down a narrow stream. Equipped with machetes and baskets, they disembark and make their way through the thick forest until they reach a tree bearing dozens of bright yellow cocoa pods. Here, in the Amazon floodplains of Barcarena, in northern Pará state, near where some Amazon rivers meet the Atlantic Ocean, cocoa grows in a natural agroforestry system. “Our cocoa is native cocoa,” Elene said. “We don’t plant our cocoa, we just manage it.” Protected and irrigated by the forest canopy of the floodplains, Elene’s cocoa is more resistant to pests like vassoura de bruxa, a fungus that devastated Brazilian crops in the 1980s, as well as climate change impacts like droughts and heavy rains. It also offers a diverse range of earthy, fruity and acidic flavors, which Elene has utilized to produce an expanding range of artisanal cocoa and chocolate products. Caramelized cocoa nibs are her best seller, she said, and she also produces artisanal chocolate bars, creams and other sweet spreads, cocoa powders and oils. Cocoa and chocolate producer Elene Elda Mota navigates an Amazon river and a new artisanal scene. Image by Cícero Pedrosa Neto. In recent years, the Amazon state of Pará, Brazil’s largest cocoa producer, has emerged as a new frontier, or terroir, for fine and artisanal chocolate. Like Burgundy wine from France or Ethiopian coffee, the concept of its terroir flavor is rooted&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/amazon-floodplains-cocoa-offers-a-climate-resilient-and-sustainable-chocolate/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/amazon-floodplains-cocoa-offers-a-climate-resilient-and-sustainable-chocolate/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321624</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>Pulp and paper giant APRIL adds major deforesters as suppliers after revising sustainability policy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-april-adds-major-deforesters-as-suppliers-after-revising-sustainability-policy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-april-adds-major-deforesters-as-suppliers-after-revising-sustainability-policy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jun 2026 15:12:59 +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=321412</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Kalimantan, Global, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Business, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, EUDR, Forest Products, Forestry, Forests, Great Apes, Habitat Loss, Law, Orangutans, Primates, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Timber, timber trade, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Pulp and paper giant APRIL made recent changes that are concerning to environmental groups. These changes include suspending and reviewing its flagship sustainability policy, lowering its deforestation commitments, and sourcing wood from two companies responsible for some of Indonesia&#8217;s largest recent forest losses. The company, part of the Singapore-headquartered Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Pulp and paper giant APRIL made recent changes that are concerning to environmental groups. These changes include suspending and reviewing its flagship sustainability policy, lowering its deforestation commitments, and sourcing wood from two companies responsible for some of Indonesia&#8217;s largest recent forest losses. The company, part of the Singapore-headquartered Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) group, the world’s largest manufacturer of viscose rayon, said the changes are needed to align its policies with international standards and secure fiber supplies following the loss of several long-term suppliers. Environmental groups, however, said the move weakens a key safeguard that APRIL has long cited as evidence of its no-deforestation commitments. The controversy centers on APRIL&#8217;s decision to add Indonesian concessions PT Industrial Forest Plantation (IFP) and PT Mayawana Persada (Mayawana) as its wood suppliers, integral to manufacturing viscose. Both companies, based on Kalimantan, have experienced extensive forest loss in recent years and have been repeatedly criticized by environmental groups. Previously, RGE and its subsidiaries, including APRIL, pledged not to source wood from plantations linked with deforestation since 2015. It is a pledge the company had reportedly broken. Its new corporate promise lowers the cutoff date to 2020, drawing sharp criticism from environmental groups. APRIL said IFP began delivering wood fiber to the company in May 2026. However, vessel-tracking data reviewed by Mongabay indicated that at least five barges carrying timber from the vicinity of IFP&#8217;s operations in Central Kalimantan were tracked traveling to Futong Port in Riau between mid-March and mid-April. Futong serves&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-april-adds-major-deforesters-as-suppliers-after-revising-sustainability-policy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-april-adds-major-deforesters-as-suppliers-after-revising-sustainability-policy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321412</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>EU deforestation law nudges timber trade, Indonesia probe shows, but risks persist</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/eu-deforestation-law-nudges-timber-trade-indonesia-probe-shows-but-risks-persist/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/eu-deforestation-law-nudges-timber-trade-indonesia-probe-shows-but-risks-persist/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Apr 2026 04:31:26 +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/20/2026/04/17040959/Picture1-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317697</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Kalimantan, Europe, European Union, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Forests, International Trade, Rainforests, Regulations, Supply Chain, Timber, Timber Laws, timber trade, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Several European timber firms have cut ties with suppliers linked to deforestation in Indonesia following a 2025 investigation, suggesting that an upcoming European Union regulation is already influencing behavior ahead of its implementation at the end of 2026. Still, new trade data show imports from high-risk suppliers continued in 2025, raising concerns that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Several European timber firms have cut ties with suppliers linked to deforestation in Indonesia following a 2025 investigation, suggesting that an upcoming European Union regulation is already influencing behavior ahead of its implementation at the end of 2026. Still, new trade data show imports from high-risk suppliers continued in 2025, raising concerns that timber linked to forest clearance may still be entering EU supply chains. In their 2025 investigation, U.K.-based NGO Earthsight and its Indonesian partner, Auriga Nusantara, traced timber from recently cleared forests in Indonesian Borneo to European importers, using government documents, satellite imagery and trade records. Analyzing nearly 10,000 unpublished documents submitted to Indonesian authorities, the investigators identified cases where timber produced through forest clearance had entered European supply chains in some cases. The findings showed that the top five users of deforestation-linked wood in Indonesia in 2024 all exported products to the EU. Their main European customers were companies in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, which together ordered more than 23,000 cubic meters (812,200 cubic feet) of wood products that year, including plywood, decking and door frames. While only some shipments could be directly verified, the investigation pointed to a wider risk that timber linked to deforestation is entering EU markets through opaque supply chains. But despite these findings, the investigation has already prompted changes among some of the companies involved, with several cutting ties with the suppliers named in the report. Under the EU’s new antideforestation regulation, the EUDR, set to come into force&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/eu-deforestation-law-nudges-timber-trade-indonesia-probe-shows-but-risks-persist/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/eu-deforestation-law-nudges-timber-trade-indonesia-probe-shows-but-risks-persist/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317697</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>EUDR is starting to steer company actions, despite slow progress: Report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/eudr-is-starting-to-steer-company-actions-despite-slow-progress-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/eudr-is-starting-to-steer-company-actions-despite-slow-progress-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Apr 2026 20:46:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/11180020/AP23291581278710-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317553</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[European Union and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Beef, Cattle, Commodity agriculture, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Forest Loss, Illegal Logging, Law, Law Enforcement, leather, Palm Oil, Soy, Supply Chain, Sustainability, Timber, Tropical Deforestation, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Some companies have made headway toward removing deforestation from their supply chains in the last year, in preparation for the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), according to a new report by the NGO Global Canopy. This shows that the upcoming regulation is driving some progress despite an unfavorable global climate for environmental commitments. The Forest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Some companies have made headway toward removing deforestation from their supply chains in the last year, in preparation for the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), according to a new report by the NGO Global Canopy. This shows that the upcoming regulation is driving some progress despite an unfavorable global climate for environmental commitments. The Forest 500 Report 2026 examined the corporate commitments on deforestation, land conversion and human rights of the 500 companies with most influence over nine commodities linked to deforestation and covered by the EUDR: beef, cocoa, coffee, leather, palm, pulp and paper, rubber, soy and timber. It found that more than a quarter of companies reported new forms of implementation action in 2025, and 14% specifically mentioned the EUDR in documents about deforestation commitments. Forest 500 is based on public documents, and more companies could be making decisions based on the EUDR in private, the report notes. The EUDR is due to take effect Dec. 30 this year after several delays. “The EUDR is the main focus of this report. The key takeaway is that it’s working, it’s appearing in lots of company reporting, with 68 companies in our assessment citing it in regard to deforestation commitments, especially with traceability,” said Chloe Rollscane, a research associate at Global Canopy. “Even though [the EUDR] is not in place yet, it’s obvious that companies are getting ready for it.” These companies include producers and processors in source countries, as well as traders and retailers in the EU, Rollscane told&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/eudr-is-starting-to-steer-company-actions-despite-slow-progress-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/eudr-is-starting-to-steer-company-actions-despite-slow-progress-report/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317553</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A Congo Basin-led bioeconomy could boost Central Africa’s green transition (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Apr 2026 16:27:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Metolo Foyet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/05115844/ForestElephant.Loxodonta.cyclotis_NgounieGabon_marcusgmeineriNaturalistBYNC4.0-BANNER-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317006</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Biodiversity, Bioeconomy, Commentary, Community Development, Environment, Forest Products, Forests, Green, Rainforests, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Trade, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional Medicine, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Congo Basin, often referred to as the “second lungs of Earth,” holds immense potential for leading Central Africa’s green transition. Home to the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest and second-largest reserve of drinkable water (holding 50% of all of Africa’s water resources), the region covers more than 3.7 million square kilometers (nearly 1.5 million square [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Congo Basin, often referred to as the “second lungs of Earth,” holds immense potential for leading Central Africa’s green transition. Home to the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest and second-largest reserve of drinkable water (holding 50% of all of Africa’s water resources), the region covers more than 3.7 million square kilometers (nearly 1.5 million square miles), absorbs more carbon dioxide than any other region in the world — with an annual net carbon dioxide absorption six times that of the Amazon Rainforest — and spans six countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon), storing around 30 billion metric tons of carbon. This critical ecological zone harbors immense biodiversity and natural resources, making it a strategic hub for the emerging global bioeconomy. However, learning from the Eastern African experience, realizing this potential requires a shift from extractive industries to sustainable, nature-based economies that prioritize long-term ecological health and local prosperity. Beyond its ecological importance — containing more than 10,000 species of plants, 1,000 species of birds, and 400 species of mammals, including iconic ones like the forest elephant and the critically endangered western lowland gorilla — the region stands at a critical juncture in the global minerals race, holding a significant share of the world&#8217;s strategic assets like lithium, cobalt, gold, and rare earth elements — key components shaping global power and the future of the energy transition. Despite this wealth, the Congo Basin’s economic strategies have often relied on the “dig&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317006</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia’s deforestation surges 66% in 2025, reversing years of decline</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/indonesias-deforestation-surges-66-in-2025-reversing-years-of-decline/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/indonesias-deforestation-surges-66-in-2025-reversing-years-of-decline/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Apr 2026 03:50:22 +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/20/2025/10/10103728/Nickel-Mining-on-Manuran-Island-Auriga-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316903</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Critical Minerals, data, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Endangered Species, Energy, Food, food security, Forest Loss, Palm Oil, Protected Areas, Pulp And Paper, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s deforestation surged in 2025, rising 66% from the previous year, marking a sharp reversal after several years of decline, according to new data from the NGO Auriga Nusantara. Based on satellite analysis, Auriga estimates that 433,751 hectares (1.1 million acres) of forest, an area more than twice the size of London, were [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s deforestation surged in 2025, rising 66% from the previous year, marking a sharp reversal after several years of decline, according to new data from the NGO Auriga Nusantara. Based on satellite analysis, Auriga estimates that 433,751 hectares (1.1 million acres) of forest, an area more than twice the size of London, were lost in 2025, the highest level in eight years. Forest loss had previously fallen to a historic low in 2021, following five consecutive years of decline since 2017, driven in part by a series of forest protection policies under former President Joko Widodo. But since 2022, the trend has reversed, with deforestation rising again before spiking in 2025 across all of Indonesia’s major islands. “The surge in deforestation in 2025 is truly distressing, taking Indonesia back to a time when it was at its highest,” said Auriga executive director Timer Manurung. The trend stands in contrast to developments in the Amazon, where deforestation has declined for three consecutive years following renewed enforcement and federal efforts under Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In 2025, deforestation in the biome fell 11.1% to 579,600 hectares (1.4 million acres), the lowest level in more than a decade. “Brazil’s deforestation, concentrated in the Amazon, is declining. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s is increasing. So it’s possible Indonesia could become the world’s top deforester among tropical countries in 2025,” Timer said. Auriga’s findings are broadly consistent with early signals from official data. While the government has yet to release full-year figures for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/indonesias-deforestation-surges-66-in-2025-reversing-years-of-decline/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/indonesias-deforestation-surges-66-in-2025-reversing-years-of-decline/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316903</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As traditional forest governance erodes in Peru, ‘ghost permits’ fill the vacuum</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/as-traditional-forest-governance-erodes-in-peru-ghost-permits-fill-the-vacuum/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/as-traditional-forest-governance-erodes-in-peru-ghost-permits-fill-the-vacuum/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Mar 2026 20:23:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Michele Calamaio]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/30182350/19_Peru_Ghost_01-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316593</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Corruption, Crime, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Logging, Natural Resources, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, timber trade, Traditional People, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[HONORIA, Peru — Jacqueline Flores sits cross-legged on a wooden platform inside a dim Asháninka maloca, the Indigenous longhouse where her dress, painted with geometric patterns, seems to merge with the resin-sweet smell of plants macerating for ceremony. Outside, the Boiling River murmurs. Inside, her voice rises in a long, trembling ícaro, part prayer, part [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[HONORIA, Peru — Jacqueline Flores sits cross-legged on a wooden platform inside a dim Asháninka maloca, the Indigenous longhouse where her dress, painted with geometric patterns, seems to merge with the resin-sweet smell of plants macerating for ceremony. Outside, the Boiling River murmurs. Inside, her voice rises in a long, trembling ícaro, part prayer, part medicine, part declaration of her identity. This South American ancestral colloquialism for ‘magic song’ serves her a specific purpose, she says: to anchor herself to something older than memory. “I’m a student of the plants,” she says, “to help humanity and people who need to ‘heal’.” In the ‘80s, Jacqueline’s ancestors were forced to leave their Asháninka territory in Peru’s central rainforest to escape the violence of the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) terrorist group. “A lot was lost,” she says. She sees it in the fragmentation of neighboring communities, internal divisions and the disappearance of shared points of reference. Her work — improving her own healing center, Pumayaku, recovering her language and reconnecting with her territory after displacement — is her answer to that loss. In the Peruvian Amazon, erosion of traditional governance is reshaping the forest as powerfully as any force of globalization, according to anthropologist Glenn Shepard. Ancestral culture fades, languages are forgotten, rituals weaken and community guidance fractures, while internal corruption can concurrently become the driving force behind deforestation and the quiet dismantling of Indigenous stewardship. As elder-based authority, ritual discipline and long-term leadership degrade, collective decision-making gives way to document-based control,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/as-traditional-forest-governance-erodes-in-peru-ghost-permits-fill-the-vacuum/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/as-traditional-forest-governance-erodes-in-peru-ghost-permits-fill-the-vacuum/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316593</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Planters stranded amid degraded forests as Bangladesh agarwood scheme falters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/planters-stranded-by-degraded-forests-as-bangladesh-agarwood-scheme-falters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/planters-stranded-by-degraded-forests-as-bangladesh-agarwood-scheme-falters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Mar 2026 14:11:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashraful Haque]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/17140235/agarwood-bangladesh-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315835</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Farming, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Land Use Change, Monocultures, Plantations, Timber, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Standing precariously on the slope of a tree-covered hill in Kaptai National Park in southeast Bangladesh, Mohammad Musa was clearing bushes with a machete. Our eyes widened in shock when he ran the machete over a couple of 2.4-meter-tall (8-foot-tall), healthy young fig plants that stuck their heads out of the bushes. “These will attract [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Standing precariously on the slope of a tree-covered hill in Kaptai National Park in southeast Bangladesh, Mohammad Musa was clearing bushes with a machete. Our eyes widened in shock when he ran the machete over a couple of 2.4-meter-tall (8-foot-tall), healthy young fig plants that stuck their heads out of the bushes. “These will attract mama,” he murmured. “See what this garden has become with all this nonsense.” Local Bengalis call elephants mama (maternal uncle) out of fear and respect, just like people living around the Sundarbans call tigers mama. The native wildlife-supporting fig plants are ‘nonsense’ to Musa because they grew on the edge of his agarwood (Aquilaria spp.) plantation, or garden as he calls it, planted on a 2-hectare (5-acre) piece of land in the national park in Kaptai upazila (sub-district) in Rangamati Hill district. Between 1998 and 2011, the Bangladesh Forest Department undertook two projects to create a total of 4,822 hectares (11,915 acres) of agarwood monoculture plantations in five divisions of the Forest Department. In the second project, from 2007 to 2011, 443 hectares (1,095 acres) of agarwood plantation was established in Kaptai National Park, according to official data gathered from the Management Planning Unit of the Forest Department. Musa is one of the local beneficiaries who cleared the forest patches and created the monoculture to earn revenue. The plantations are established under a participatory social forestry approach involving beneficiaries from local communities who plant and manage approved tree species on degraded forests and public lands&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/planters-stranded-by-degraded-forests-as-bangladesh-agarwood-scheme-falters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/planters-stranded-by-degraded-forests-as-bangladesh-agarwood-scheme-falters/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315835</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From forest to flatpack, IKEA faces timber traceability test under EUDR</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/from-forest-to-flatpack-ikea-faces-timber-traceability-test-under-eudr/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/from-forest-to-flatpack-ikea-faces-timber-traceability-test-under-eudr/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Mar 2026 15:59:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/06113832/k.-PH_204034_e2202bf1c8-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315346</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, China, Eastern Europe, Europe, European Union, Global, Poland, Romania, Southeast Asia, Sweden, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Business, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, forest degradation, Forests, Industry, Natural Resources, Regulations, Supply Chain, Sustainability, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Furniture giant IKEA is famous for its wood products, but it may soon need to tighten oversight of its supply chains due to the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation that comes into force at the end of this year. The Swedish company sources timber from both inside and outside the EU, with major source markets including [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Furniture giant IKEA is famous for its wood products, but it may soon need to tighten oversight of its supply chains due to the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation that comes into force at the end of this year. The Swedish company sources timber from both inside and outside the EU, with major source markets including Poland, Lithuania, Sweden and China. It processed nearly 15 million cubic meters (530 million cubic feet) of wood in the fiscal year 2025. IKEA already emphasizes its commitment to sustainable forestry practices, which include ensuring that close to 100% of its timber has acquired voluntary sustainability certification or is recycled. However, investigations in 2024 revealed issues among some of IKEA’s suppliers in Romania, suggesting that even companies committed to sustainable forestry may benefit from the more rigorous traceability requirements under the upcoming EU Deforestation Regulation, or EUDR. To comply with the EUDR, companies must report geolocation data that proves a relevant commodity, whether domestic or imported, was not produced on land deforested after December 2020. “The IKEA business remains committed to responsible sourcing practices that ensure our products and operations do not contribute to deforestation or forest degradation,” IKEA wrote in a statement to Mongabay. IKEA flatpack. Image by IKEA.com. However, the company also highlighted ongoing uncertainties regarding the EUDR requirements and implementation timeline. Adopted in 2023, the EUDR aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect global biodiversity by monitoring the supply chains of seven key deforestation-linked commodities entering the EU market: wood, cattle,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/from-forest-to-flatpack-ikea-faces-timber-traceability-test-under-eudr/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/from-forest-to-flatpack-ikea-faces-timber-traceability-test-under-eudr/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315346</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate or biodiversity? Global study maps out forestation’s dilemma</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-or-biodiversity-global-study-maps-out-forestations-dilemma/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-or-biodiversity-global-study-maps-out-forestations-dilemma/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Mar 2026 02:45:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/05160753/5343928380_7661771c5f_o-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315265</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Earth Science, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Forests, Fungi, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Landscape Restoration, Logging, Mitigation, National Parks, Oceans, Parks, Plants, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, Restoration, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Planting trees is a vital strategy to combat both climate change and the biodiversity crisis. As forests grow, they sponge carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and provide renewed habitat for threatened animals, plants, fungi and countless unseen lifeforms. That ability of forests to help slow climate change has driven a push to reforest degraded lands [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Planting trees is a vital strategy to combat both climate change and the biodiversity crisis. As forests grow, they sponge carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and provide renewed habitat for threatened animals, plants, fungi and countless unseen lifeforms. That ability of forests to help slow climate change has driven a push to reforest degraded lands or even plant new forests where none existed before. It’s also spurred other strategies, like the cultivation of bioenergy crops coupled with carbon capture. But these approaches require a lot of land, and they could potentially put pressure on the species that live in these spots — if a forestation project or hectares of bioenergy row crops subsume native grasslands, for example. A recent analysis shows that around 13% of globally important, biodiversity-rich land overlaps with areas earmarked for these types of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) projects. “It&#8217;s unfortunate that we face multiple global problems all at once, including both climate change and biodiversity loss,” said Mark Urban, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut in the U.S., who wasn’t involved in the research. “When we try to fix one, we can make things worse for the other.” Agroforestry in Ethiopia. Image by Trees ForTheFuture via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, used five existing models that guide climate action in line with the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting warming to 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels to map out locations tabbed&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-or-biodiversity-global-study-maps-out-forestations-dilemma/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-or-biodiversity-global-study-maps-out-forestations-dilemma/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315265</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sustainable trade in wild plants benefits people and planet (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/sustainable-trade-in-wild-plants-benefits-people-and-planet-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/sustainable-trade-in-wild-plants-benefits-people-and-planet-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Mar 2026 15:13:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Richard Scobey]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/02145620/cordyceps-harvest_Sushil-Mainali_ANSAB-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315053</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Economics, Environment, Food, Forest Products, International Trade, Medicinal Plants, Nutrition, Plants, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Every day, millions of people harvest wild plants for their health, nutrition and livelihoods, yet many of the species that sustain them are quietly slipping toward extinction. As World Wildlife Day approaches this March 3, medicinal and aromatic plants take center stage: a group of wild species essential to both human well-being and ecological balance, they [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Every day, millions of people harvest wild plants for their health, nutrition and livelihoods, yet many of the species that sustain them are quietly slipping toward extinction. As World Wildlife Day approaches this March 3, medicinal and aromatic plants take center stage: a group of wild species essential to both human well-being and ecological balance, they are too often overlooked in global conservation conversations. These plants grow in the wild and are harvested for their healing and well-being properties. They are widely used in modern and traditional medicines, cosmetic and food products, and the World Health Organization notes their particular importance in developing countries, where up to 95% of people rely on traditional medicine for primary health care. Furthermore, according to the Intergovernmental Science–Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), “Wild plants, algae and fungi provide food, nutritional diversity and income for an estimated one in five people around the world, in particular women, children, landless farmers and others in vulnerable situations.” Many familiar species — such as American ginseng, licorice, argan, candelilla and frankincense — are part of our daily lives, found in kitchen cupboards, medicine cabinets and bathrooms, although mostly hidden from view. But global conservation assessments have only been carried out for a fraction of the many thousands of medicinal and aromatic plants in use. Of those that have been assessed, many are threatened with extinction due to overharvesting, and it is likely this is only the tip of the iceberg. View a report about sustainable harvesting of star anise in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/sustainable-trade-in-wild-plants-benefits-people-and-planet-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/sustainable-trade-in-wild-plants-benefits-people-and-planet-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315053</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil gov’t builds map to help exporters comply with EU anti-deforestation rule</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/brazil-govt-builds-map-to-help-exporters-comply-with-eu-anti-deforestation-rule/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/brazil-govt-builds-map-to-help-exporters-comply-with-eu-anti-deforestation-rule/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Feb 2026 16:39:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Karla Mendes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karla Mendes]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/12140645/a.-BANNER-AP19238006078884-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314202</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Logging, Mapping, Politics, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Technology, Timber, Tropical Forests, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Brazilian government has built a map to help commodity exporters comply with the European Union’s new regulation on deforestation-free products, or EUDR. The country’s National Space Research Institute, INPE, created new technology to generate deforestation data in polygons of a half-hectare (1.2-acre) threshold — one of the EUDR requirements. Brazil&#8217;s official deforestation data for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Brazilian government has built a map to help commodity exporters comply with the European Union’s new regulation on deforestation-free products, or EUDR. The country’s National Space Research Institute, INPE, created new technology to generate deforestation data in polygons of a half-hectare (1.2-acre) threshold — one of the EUDR requirements. Brazil&#8217;s official deforestation data for the Amazon comes from INPE&#8217;s satellite-based monitoring system, PRODES, which uses a one-hectare threshold. &#8220;It was the first time we did [this in] less than 1 hectare [2.5 acres],&#8221; Claudio Almeida, coordinator of INPE&#8217;s BiomasBR monitoring program, told Mongabay by phone. The EUDR, when it comes into effect at the end of 2026 (delayed for the second year in a row), will require suppliers to provide geolocalized data and other documentation to prove that their products exported to the EU aren’t sourced from areas illegally deforested after Dec. 31, 2020. The legislation aims to address increasing claims of products imported into the EU being linked to illegal deforestation, including in the Amazon Rainforest, and will target seven commodities: soy, cattle, rubber, palm oil, coffee, cocoa and timber. Graphic by Andrés Alegría/Mongabay. PRODES’ annual deforestation rate refers to data from Aug. 1 from the previous year to July 31 in the following year, but INPE also used high resolution satellite imagery and developed new technology to produce deforestation data with the cutoff date required by EUDR, Almeida said. December is the start of the Amazon rainy season, which poses challenges to track deforestation due to the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/brazil-govt-builds-map-to-help-exporters-comply-with-eu-anti-deforestation-rule/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/brazil-govt-builds-map-to-help-exporters-comply-with-eu-anti-deforestation-rule/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314202</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nepal’s community forests sit on unsold timber</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/nepals-community-forests-sit-on-unsold-timber/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/nepals-community-forests-sit-on-unsold-timber/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Feb 2026 11:28:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mukesh Pokhrel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/10111217/Dolakha-central-Nepal-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314009</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Governance, Logging, Protected Areas, Sustainable Forest Management, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — The Khorthali Community Forest User Group in Dolakha, central Nepal, produced 1,189 cubic meters (42,000 cubic feet) of timber in 2025 — roughly 18 standard 40-foot shipping containers in volume. However, the group could not sell all of it. About 340 m3 (12,000 ft3) of wood still lies on the roadside. “Community members [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — The Khorthali Community Forest User Group in Dolakha, central Nepal, produced 1,189 cubic meters (42,000 cubic feet) of timber in 2025 — roughly 18 standard 40-foot shipping containers in volume. However, the group could not sell all of it. About 340 m3 (12,000 ft3) of wood still lies on the roadside. “Community members have asked us to help sell the timber, but potential buyers are not interested,” said Anil Regmi, an official at the district forest office in Dolakha. Across Nepal, other districts face similar challenges. In Bara, the district forest office has 2,605 m3 (92,000 ft3) of unsold timber, while in Nawalpur, the figure reaches 1,100 m3 (40,000 ft3), despite repeated attempts to sell it. According to ForestAction Nepal, 60,000 m3 (2.1 million ft3) of timber remains unsold in Lumbini province alone. The estimate represents timber accumulated across multiple storage locations and years, rather than unsold stock from a single harvesting season. Nepal’s community forests are producing large volumes of timber that remain unsold due to high government taxes and competition from private and imported wood, leaving local user groups without funds to implement sustainable forest management while politicians blame strict conservation laws for not facilitating large-scale infrastructure development. “The government set tax rate for timber is very high compared to the prevailing market rate,” said Nabaraj Pudasaini, joint secretary at the Ministry of Forests and Environment. “When you add collection costs and other charges, the prices get further inflated,” he told Mongabay. Nepal is considered a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/nepals-community-forests-sit-on-unsold-timber/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/nepals-community-forests-sit-on-unsold-timber/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314009</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cameroon cookstove project looks to slow forest loss</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/cameroon-cookstove-project-looks-to-slow-forest-loss/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/cameroon-cookstove-project-looks-to-slow-forest-loss/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2026 09:13:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Leocadia Bongben]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Ashoka]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/30073019/Pabamis-daughter-in-the-Kitchen-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313523</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Black Carbon, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Food, Forest Loss, Fuelwood, Research, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[GAROUA, Cameroon — One morning during the July monsoon in Bang, a village of 3,000 in North Cameroon, people woke up to heavy rains. The Mayo Tefi, a small river which runs through the village, swelled as the water level rose. Astha Pabami, a mother of 11 in her 50s, could not go out to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GAROUA, Cameroon — One morning during the July monsoon in Bang, a village of 3,000 in North Cameroon, people woke up to heavy rains. The Mayo Tefi, a small river which runs through the village, swelled as the water level rose. Astha Pabami, a mother of 11 in her 50s, could not go out to fetch firewood, as crossing the river would have meant being swept away. Instead, she used some of the wood stacked behind her hut, lighting a fire to prepare a meal on her new cookstove. The cookstove looks like a traditional oven, with one opening for firewood and another for the pot. But it’s a big improvement over what she used to use: an open three-stone fireside. Pabami is one of about 250 women in Bang who were using these stoves when Mongabay visited the town. They were distributed as part of a project run by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), with support from the European Union. The stoves are meant to burn cleaner and use less wood — saving forests and protecting people’s health in the process. “The open fireside consumes more firewood and dirties our pots, and we inhale smoke. We could use about 8-10 pieces of wood to cook a meal; presently, a maximum of four pieces of wood is enough,” Pabami tells Mongabay. Since the improved stoves need less firewood, she doesn’t have to collect as much during the dry season, and what she puts into storage behind her hut&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/cameroon-cookstove-project-looks-to-slow-forest-loss/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/cameroon-cookstove-project-looks-to-slow-forest-loss/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313523</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia revokes forest and mine permits over role in deadly Sumatra landslides</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-revokes-forest-and-mine-permits-over-role-in-deadly-sumatra-landslides/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-revokes-forest-and-mine-permits-over-role-in-deadly-sumatra-landslides/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jan 2026 01:38:30 +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/20/2025/12/09070406/man-with-chicken-Batang-Toru-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313214</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Aceh, Asia, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, and West Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Apes, Biodiversity, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Forestry, Forests, Gold Mining, Great Apes, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Mining, Orangutans, Plantations, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has revoked the permits of 28 companies over environmental violations that authorities say exacerbated the deadly floods and landslides that struck the island of Sumatra in late 2025. The revocations follow an audit carried out by a government task force responsible for forest area enforcement after disasters triggered by Cyclone [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has revoked the permits of 28 companies over environmental violations that authorities say exacerbated the deadly floods and landslides that struck the island of Sumatra in late 2025. The revocations follow an audit carried out by a government task force responsible for forest area enforcement after disasters triggered by Cyclone Senyar in November 2025, which killed about 1,200 people across Indonesia’s main western island. The audit found that the 28 companies had violated various rules, including the 2009 law on environmental protection, and bore responsibility for environmental damage linked to the disasters. Authorities still haven’t disclose detailed findings or evidence for each case. The audit results were presented to President Prabowo Subianto during an online meeting on Jan. 19. “Based on that report, the president decided to revoke the permits of 28 companies that were proven to have committed violations,” State Secretariat Minister Prasetyo Hadi said at a press conference on Jan. 20, as quoted by CNBC Indonesia. The move signals a shift in how administrative enforcement is framed in Indonesia, with permit sanctions now explicitly justified by post-disaster accountability rather than routine compliance alone. The revoked permits include 22 forest utilization permits (PBPH) for operating in natural and plantation forests, covering a combined area of about 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) — roughly one-third the size of Belgium — as well as six mining, plantation and timber forest product utilization permits (PBPHHK). Among the affected permit holders is major pulpwood producer PT Toba&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-revokes-forest-and-mine-permits-over-role-in-deadly-sumatra-landslides/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-revokes-forest-and-mine-permits-over-role-in-deadly-sumatra-landslides/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313214</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>After Cyclone Senyar, Indonesia probes whether development amplified scale of disaster</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/after-cyclone-senyar-indonesia-probes-whether-development-amplified-scale-of-disaster/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/after-cyclone-senyar-indonesia-probes-whether-development-amplified-scale-of-disaster/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jan 2026 10:53:00 +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/20/2025/12/15024645/AP25342772562499-Batang_Toru-Sumatra-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312648</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Apes, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Disasters, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Flooding, Gold Mining, Great Apes, Hydroelectric Power, Law, Law Enforcement, Mining, Orangutans, Plantations, Protected Areas, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Best known as the home of the world’s rarest great ape, the mountainous Batang Toru forest landscape on the island of Sumatra has become a test case for whether Indonesia can enforce environmental law in a region where mining, energy and plantation projects overlap with fragile ecosystems. In late November 2025, a rare [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Best known as the home of the world’s rarest great ape, the mountainous Batang Toru forest landscape on the island of Sumatra has become a test case for whether Indonesia can enforce environmental law in a region where mining, energy and plantation projects overlap with fragile ecosystems. In late November 2025, a rare tropical cyclone, Senyar, swept across this part of northern Sumatra, bringing extreme rainfall that triggered flash floods and landslides in the provinces of Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra. The disaster killed at least 1,178 people and displaced around 1 million others, according to government figures, making it one of Indonesia’s deadliest natural disasters in recent history. While the storm provided the immediate trigger, climatologists and environmental researchers say the scale of the destruction can’t be attributed to extreme weather alone. They point also to decades of deforestation, land clearing and landscape alteration that have weakened natural buffers across Sumatra’s upland watersheds. “Extreme weather was only the initial trigger,” Erma Yulihastin, a climate researcher at Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), said at a recent public discussion in Jakarta on disaster risk. “The destructive impact was shaped by weakened environmental buffers upstream.” The government appears to have acknowledged this, with Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq announcing on Dec. 23, 2025, an investigation into eight companies operating in the Batang Toru watershed, to assess whether their activities may have contributed to the floods and landslides. The ministry also ordered all eight companies to cease operations&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/after-cyclone-senyar-indonesia-probes-whether-development-amplified-scale-of-disaster/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/after-cyclone-senyar-indonesia-probes-whether-development-amplified-scale-of-disaster/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312648</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon entrepreneur spreads seeds of growth with recycled paper</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/amazon-entrepreneur-spreads-seeds-of-growth-with-recycled-paper/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/amazon-entrepreneur-spreads-seeds-of-growth-with-recycled-paper/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jan 2026 07:00:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rafael Spuldar]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/29160337/B-Ocimum_basilicum_flower_closeup-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312231</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioeconomy, Business, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Innovation, Plants, Pulp And Paper, Reforestation, Seed Dispersal, Sustainability, Trees, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A burnout pushed one woman to build a new, nature-friendly career in one of the rainforest’s most deforested cities.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Alessandra Moreira worked as an administrative assistant in Altamira, an oversized municipality in the Brazilian Amazon — larger than Portugal or Greece. Burned out and facing anxiety and depression, she left her job, but was unsure of what would come next. “I was having panic attacks and couldn’t identify what was happening to me,” she told Mongabay. Then, a suggestion from her brother changed everything: Why not try making seed paper? Altamira, in the state of Pará, is the most deforested municipality in the Brazilian Amazon. There, “development” is often a synonym for deforestation, environmental degradation, and sometimes violence, erupting from clashes between conservationists, loggers and land grabbers. Despite the local culture, Moreira founded Ecoplante, a company that makes plantable seed paper — recycled sheets embedded with seeds that can typically grow into vegetables, herbs, flowers and, in Ecoplante’s specific case, native Amazonian vegetation, too. What began as a personal healing project has grown into an example of how creativity, entrepreneurship and sustainability can coexist in one of the world’s most fragile ecosystems. Plantable seed paper is made by transforming discarded paper into new sheets infused with plant seeds. The process starts with recycled pulp mixed with water, then spread over a fine-mesh screen and layered with seeds, from herbs like basil and arugula, to flowers like daisies. Once dried, the paper can be written on, used, and later planted. When it decomposes, the seeds germinate, turning what would have been waste into greenery. In 2023, Moreira and her brother&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/amazon-entrepreneur-spreads-seeds-of-growth-with-recycled-paper/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/amazon-entrepreneur-spreads-seeds-of-growth-with-recycled-paper/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312231</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>Protected areas in Africa are vital but local perceptions vary (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/protected-areas-in-africa-are-vital-but-local-perceptions-vary-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/protected-areas-in-africa-are-vital-but-local-perceptions-vary-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Dec 2025 16:49:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Diane DetoeufHeidi KretserJessica L’RoeMichelle Wieland]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/19153536/Indigenous-Mbuti-Peoples-going-for-a-communal-hunt-inside-the-Okapi-Wildlife-Reserve.-Photo-%C2%A9%EF%B8%8FBrent-StirtonGetty-Images-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311750</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Madagascar, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Environment, Ethics, Forest Products, Forests, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, National Parks, Parks, Protected Areas, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Protected areas (PAs) are cornerstones of global biodiversity conservation strategy, yet their social impacts remain contentious. The prevailing narrative often pits global benefits, like biodiversity protection and carbon sequestration, against local costs like restricted access to land and resources, particularly in lower-income nations. This antagonistic framing — the interests of local people vs. the interests of other people elsewhere (or [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Protected areas (PAs) are cornerstones of global biodiversity conservation strategy, yet their social impacts remain contentious. The prevailing narrative often pits global benefits, like biodiversity protection and carbon sequestration, against local costs like restricted access to land and resources, particularly in lower-income nations. This antagonistic framing — the interests of local people vs. the interests of other people elsewhere (or of other species entirely) — can lead to polarized politics with respect to PAs. There are valid reasons for concern, as increasing recognition of the problematic historical legacy of many protected areas created on the African continent rooted in colonial alienation, as well as ongoing human rights concerns in several PA systems, make it clear that PAs can cause harm. Many conservation organizations now recognize that it is critically important that efforts to protect land simultaneously protect the rights and interests of people living there, especially those of Indigenous and local communities. Yet, if we want to protect local interests, we must first understand them. We don’t know as much as we need to about the ways that protected areas can, and do, serve the interests of the people living near them. Harm is often more evident than benefits, particularly in the case of acute episodes of violence or evictions, so much has been described about how protected areas can cause harm. The village of Bapukeli at the entrance of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, Democratic Republic of Congo. Indigenous hunter-gatherers divide their time between villages like this and camps deep in the forest. Image by Thomas Nicolon for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/protected-areas-in-africa-are-vital-but-local-perceptions-vary-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/protected-areas-in-africa-are-vital-but-local-perceptions-vary-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311750</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Researchers find concerning gaps in global maps used for EUDR compliance</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/researchers-find-concerning-gaps-in-global-maps-used-for-eudr-compliance/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/researchers-find-concerning-gaps-in-global-maps-used-for-eudr-compliance/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Dec 2025 14:57:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/19083601/d.-BANNER-UF18USU-A84A9875-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311699</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Business, Cacao, Cattle, Coffee, Conservation, Deforestation, Economics, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, International Trade, Logging, Plantations, Politics, Rainforests, Rubber, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, timber trade, Trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A recent scientific review of forest maps used to ensure compliance with the European Union’s Regulation on Deforestation-free products, known as the EUDR, suggests that most may over- or underestimate forest areas, which could lead to inaccurate assessments of deforestation risk. The authors write that those inconsistencies point to the need for EU companies to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A recent scientific review of forest maps used to ensure compliance with the European Union’s Regulation on Deforestation-free products, known as the EUDR, suggests that most may over- or underestimate forest areas, which could lead to inaccurate assessments of deforestation risk. The authors write that those inconsistencies point to the need for EU companies to be discerning about which maps they use to ensure they comply with the regulation. The requirements will go into effect for most companies on Dec. 30, 2026, after a second postponement in as many years by the European Parliament. Only two of the 21 data sets in the assessment met all of the indicators used to assess risk used by the EUDR. The regulation will apply to seven commodities — cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and timber — as well as the products they’re used to make. Companies and government agencies are planning to use maps of satellite and other remote-sensing data to determine whether products entering EU countries are linked to deforestation after Dec. 31, 2020, the regulation’s cutoff date. Importing companies and the EU countries’ government agencies tasked with screening imported goods for compliance will compare georeferenced plots for a commodity with historical maps of forest and tree cover to determine whether it was produced at the expense of recently cleared forest. But many such maps exist, and the EUDR doesn’t specify the use of any one map. That means that a company using one map to verify compliance might come&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/researchers-find-concerning-gaps-in-global-maps-used-for-eudr-compliance/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/researchers-find-concerning-gaps-in-global-maps-used-for-eudr-compliance/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311699</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>New technologies offer hope in fight to save the world’s imperiled rosewoods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-technologies-offer-hope-in-fight-to-save-the-worlds-imperiled-rosewoods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-technologies-offer-hope-in-fight-to-save-the-worlds-imperiled-rosewoods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Dec 2025 16:14:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Katarina Zimmer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/11134007/rosewood-feet-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311125</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Global, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Illegal Logging, Illegal Trade, Rosewood, timber trade, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, Tropical hardwoods, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[News about the poaching and smuggling of threatened species often centers on products like tiger bone, rhino horn or pangolin scales. But much of the world’s illegally sourced wildlife products are actually trees — in particular, 33 hardwood species in the Dalbergia genus, better known as rosewood. Rosewood can sell for tens of thousands of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[News about the poaching and smuggling of threatened species often centers on products like tiger bone, rhino horn or pangolin scales. But much of the world’s illegally sourced wildlife products are actually trees — in particular, 33 hardwood species in the Dalbergia genus, better known as rosewood. Rosewood can sell for tens of thousands of dollars per cubic meter and has the highest overall trafficking value of any wildlife product in the world: Between 2014 and 2018, rosewood accounted for 32% of the monetary value of illegally traded wildlife products seized by law enforcement. But a recent paper in the journal Biological Conservation finds that new technologies could save the world’s rosewoods from being little more than plunder. Demand for the richly colored, aromatic and durable timber continues to grow in China, where rosewood furniture has long been a symbol of status and luxury. International regulations have failed to stop the rampant harvesting of the tropical trees, whose value only grows with their increasing rarity. Two Southeast Asian species — Siamese (Dalbergia cochinchinensis) and Burmese rosewood (D. oliveri) — are now critically endangered, driving rosewood traders to other rainforests in Africa and South America. This appetite threatens the very existence of the unique trees as well as their important ecological roles, such as enriching soil with nitrogen, reducing soil erosion, and providing habitat for wildlife. But technologies exist that could help stop the trees’ plight, according to the paper by a team of scientists at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden’s Center&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-technologies-offer-hope-in-fight-to-save-the-worlds-imperiled-rosewoods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-technologies-offer-hope-in-fight-to-save-the-worlds-imperiled-rosewoods/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311125</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In the Amazon, lack of transparency and corruption undermine the environment</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-the-amazon-lack-of-transparency-and-corruption-undermine-the-environment/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-the-amazon-lack-of-transparency-and-corruption-undermine-the-environment/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Dec 2025 11:00:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/16040940/PORTADA-BRASIL-Beyond-Fire_Mining_04_DSC_2834-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311448</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Corruption, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Governance, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Organized Crime, Politics, Rainforests, Timber, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Brazil’s Ministério Público Federal has demonstrated how an ambitious corps of prosecutors can foster compliance with environmental laws. After charges are filed and indictments served, however, the forum for law enforcement shifts to the courtroom, which in the jurisdictions of the Pan Amazon usually translates into inaction and impunity. Failure to enforce environmental law in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Brazil’s Ministério Público Federal has demonstrated how an ambitious corps of prosecutors can foster compliance with environmental laws. After charges are filed and indictments served, however, the forum for law enforcement shifts to the courtroom, which in the jurisdictions of the Pan Amazon usually translates into inaction and impunity. Failure to enforce environmental law in the courts is part of a larger problem of political corruption and judicial dysfunction. Just as illegal loggers and land grabbers rarely see the inside of a jail, individuals guilty of bribery, embezzlement and money laundering also largely escape punishment. Success in fighting environmental crime depends on a society’s ability to isolate its judicial system from political corruption. Fighting corruption in the judicial system and enforcing environmental laws go hand in hand. Corruption takes many forms, but in the overwhelming number of acts of political corruption that infect government, it is usually a crime of commission, where the guilty parties proactively offer or solicit bribes or kickbacks, or engage in money laundering. This type of malfeasance occurs within the judicial system, but there is a more insidious form of corruption that contaminates the criminal justice system. The failure to act when its officers are legally obligated to do so is a crime of omission; sometimes referred to as ‘wilful blindness’, it describes the behavior of prosecutors who abuse their ‘power of discretion’ to bring charges – or not. For judges, it might be their ability to delay a case until the statute of limitations terminates&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-the-amazon-lack-of-transparency-and-corruption-undermine-the-environment/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-the-amazon-lack-of-transparency-and-corruption-undermine-the-environment/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311448</doi>				</item>
			</channel>
</rss>