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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/payments-for-ecosystem-services/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>News on Payments For Ecosystem Services</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/payments-for-ecosystem-services/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Biodiversity corridor payments boost household incomes in Vietnam’s Annamite mountains</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/biodiversity-corridor-payments-boost-household-incomes-in-vietnams-annamite-mountains/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/biodiversity-corridor-payments-boost-household-incomes-in-vietnams-annamite-mountains/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Sep 2026 02:00:47 +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/20/2026/09/13113754/Banner_Original_WW1304086-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=329528</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community Forests, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Forest Fragmentation, Fragmentation, Funding, Governance, Habitat, Indigenous Peoples, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Protected Areas, Research, Sustainable Forest Management, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Conservationists say connecting existing protected areas through biodiversity corridors is vital in many landscapes to prevent further loss of species and habitats. Yet the households living inside conservation areas often face stark financial tradeoffs associated with lost access to resources, sometimes making new designations controversial. A recent study from the rugged mountains of central Vietnam, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Conservationists say connecting existing protected areas through biodiversity corridors is vital in many landscapes to prevent further loss of species and habitats. Yet the households living inside conservation areas often face stark financial tradeoffs associated with lost access to resources, sometimes making new designations controversial. A recent study from the rugged mountains of central Vietnam, however, suggests that biodiversity corridors can bring significant economic benefits to the households who live inside them. The study, published in Conservation Science and Practice, analyzed interviews with 120 families living in four villages in Quang Nam and Thua Thien provinces within the Annamite mountain range to find out how financial incentives tied to two biodiversity corridors connecting isolated protected areas affected people’s lives and livelihoods. Households inside biodiversity corridors earned substantially more, mainly from conservation-linked payments, than those outside them. However, they also made less money from forest resources due to greater restrictions on how they could use their land. The researchers say their findings underscore how conservation-linked payments and other longer-term benefits from living near flourishing forests, such as water purification, healthy pollinator populations and conservation-based jobs, can help communities recoup income they once derived from forest exploitation. “By providing regular financial benefits from forest protection, programs like PFES [Payment for Forest Ecosystem Services] create incentives for communities to maintain forest cover and reduce pressures on critical habitats,” study lead author Nguyen Van Tri Tin, a conservation scientist at Southern Cross University in Australia at the time of the study, told Mongabay in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/biodiversity-corridor-payments-boost-household-incomes-in-vietnams-annamite-mountains/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/biodiversity-corridor-payments-boost-household-incomes-in-vietnams-annamite-mountains/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-329528</doi>				</item>
						<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>Mariano Cenamo, advocate for a sustainable Amazon bioeconomy, has died, aged 46</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/mariano-cenamo-advocate-for-a-sustainable-amazon-bioeconomy-has-died-aged-46/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/mariano-cenamo-advocate-for-a-sustainable-amazon-bioeconomy-has-died-aged-46/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Aug 2026 00:02:06 +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/20/2026/08/09220720/Mariano_Cenamo_Renato-Stockler_FolhaPress-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325742</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Conservation Finance, Environment, Environmental Services, Forest Carbon, Forests, Natural Capital, Nature-based climate solutions, Obituary, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Rainforests, Redd, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For people trying to protect the Amazon, one problem has persisted for decades. A hectare of intact forest stores carbon, regulates water, supports wildlife, and provides food and materials for the people who live there. Much of that value does not appear in an economic ledger. Cattle, timber, soy, and gold do. For a farmer, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For people trying to protect the Amazon, one problem has persisted for decades. A hectare of intact forest stores carbon, regulates water, supports wildlife, and provides food and materials for the people who live there. Much of that value does not appear in an economic ledger. Cattle, timber, soy, and gold do. For a farmer, a company, or a local government, clearing forest can therefore produce income more readily than keeping it standing. The Amazon bioeconomy grew from efforts to change that calculation. It includes forest products, agroforestry, biotechnology, carbon markets, and other businesses that depend on maintaining living forests. The aim is to make such activities commercially viable at a scale that matters. Mariano Cenamo spent most of his career working on that problem. He was 23 when he moved from São Paulo to Manaus in 2003. Trained as a forestry engineer at the University of São Paulo, he had first come to the Amazon for an internship. He stayed at the encouragement of Virgílio Viana, a former professor who was then Amazonas state&#8217;s environment secretary. Cenamo was struck by the gap between conservation work and the economic realities of people living in the forest. Environmental groups were doing important work, he later recalled, but local livelihoods often sat outside the conservation discussion. In 2004 he helped establish what became Idesam, the Institute for the Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Amazon. At first there was barely an institution. Cenamo later described himself as an &#8220;ING&#8221;, an indivíduo não&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/mariano-cenamo-advocate-for-a-sustainable-amazon-bioeconomy-has-died-aged-46/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/mariano-cenamo-advocate-for-a-sustainable-amazon-bioeconomy-has-died-aged-46/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325742</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Brazil, a project paying farmers for forests is looking to scale up</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-brazil-a-project-paying-farmers-for-forests-is-looking-to-scale-up/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-brazil-a-project-paying-farmers-for-forests-is-looking-to-scale-up/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jun 2026 11:01:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/01104033/10895990-3d53-4c9b-99ef-0ed67f41bc96-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320294</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Avoided Deforestation, Carbon Emissions, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Farming, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Nature-based climate solutions, Payments For Ecosystem Services, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Landowner Carlos Roberto Simonetti gets three harvests per year from the corn, soy and cotton plantations on his 17,000-hectare (about 42,000 acres) farm called Fazenda Natureza Feliz, or Happy Nature, in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. Over the course of four years, he would also get what he calls a fourth harvest, this time [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Landowner Carlos Roberto Simonetti gets three harvests per year from the corn, soy and cotton plantations on his 17,000-hectare (about 42,000 acres) farm called Fazenda Natureza Feliz, or Happy Nature, in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. Over the course of four years, he would also get what he calls a fourth harvest, this time from the forested areas of his property, located where the Cerrado savanna meets the Amazon Rainforest. That’s because Simonetti would receive regular payments for protecting native vegetation beyond what the law requires, as part of a pilot project for payment for ecosystem services (PES) run by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), an NGO, in the states of Mato Grosso and Pará. The program, called CONSERV, gives landowners financial incentives to keep the forest standing even in areas which they are legally allowed to clear. The pilot project, which initially ran between 2020 and 2024 on 23 different properties, protected 20,707 hectares (about 51,170 acres) of land in the Cerrado and Amazon biomes with funding from the governments of Norway and The Netherlands. Ongoing contracts funded by Soft Commodities Forum members – agribusiness companies committed to preserving the Cerrado – are protecting a further 7,000 hectares (about 17,300 acres) in the states of Mato Grosso and Maranhão. IPAM is now seeking to scale up the program without relying on donations. The risk of legal deforestation The idea for CONSERV goes back to 2016, when an internal IPAM report calculated that around 1.5 million hectares (3.7&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-brazil-a-project-paying-farmers-for-forests-is-looking-to-scale-up/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-brazil-a-project-paying-farmers-for-forests-is-looking-to-scale-up/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320294</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Listening to forests reveals signs of recovery beyond tree cover</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/listening-to-forests-reveals-signs-of-recovery-beyond-tree-cover/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/listening-to-forests-reveals-signs-of-recovery-beyond-tree-cover/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Apr 2026 14:12:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/16140215/Banner-Image-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317628</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioacoustics, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, data, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Research, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Can listening to forests help us understand if the life inside them is thriving? Apparently, yes. Giacomo Delgado likens it to a doctor examining heart health. “A doctor has listened to many people&#8217;s hearts, and knows what healthy hearts sound like,” Delgado, a doctoral researcher in the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH Zürich, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Can listening to forests help us understand if the life inside them is thriving? Apparently, yes. Giacomo Delgado likens it to a doctor examining heart health. “A doctor has listened to many people&#8217;s hearts, and knows what healthy hearts sound like,” Delgado, a doctoral researcher in the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH Zürich, told Mongabay in a video interview. “She then starts to compare your heart to other heart sounds to see if you have a healthy heart.” A team of researchers, led by Delgado, has used the same logic to assess the success of a forest protection and restoration mechanism in Costa Rica. Using more than 16,000 hours of audio recordings of the forest, they found that biodiversity was restored in naturally regenerated forests. These forests were also found to sound similar to forests that have been protected for years. In 1950, half of Costa Rica was forested; by 1995, forest cover had been reduced to 25%, driven in part by cattle ranching and agriculture expansion in the 1970s and 1980s. Since then, however, Costa Rica became something of a pioneer in the payment for ecosystem services (PES) system, a mechanism where landowners and local communities are financially compensated for protecting and preserving forests. The country’s PES initiative, launched in 1997, is one of the first national-level programs of its kind in the world, and to date has covered more than 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres). “Costa Rica’s PES program is notable not only for its&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/listening-to-forests-reveals-signs-of-recovery-beyond-tree-cover/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/listening-to-forests-reveals-signs-of-recovery-beyond-tree-cover/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317628</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A South African reserve shows how carbon can catalyze rewilding conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-south-african-reserve-shows-how-carbon-can-catalyze-rewilding-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-south-african-reserve-shows-how-carbon-can-catalyze-rewilding-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Mar 2026 17:06:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/27145726/gemsbok-Oryx-gazella-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316455</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Private Reserves, Rewilding, Savannas, Soil Carbon, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TSWALU KALAHARI RESERVE, South Africa — From high on a promontory in the Korannaberg Mountains, a mountain zebra (Equus zebra hartmannae) peers down to the west across the green-dappled plain below, the sun rising behind. In the distance, wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) hunt in the veld, verdant after early rains. And nearby, white rhinos (Ceratotherium [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TSWALU KALAHARI RESERVE, South Africa — From high on a promontory in the Korannaberg Mountains, a mountain zebra (Equus zebra hartmannae) peers down to the west across the green-dappled plain below, the sun rising behind. In the distance, wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) hunt in the veld, verdant after early rains. And nearby, white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum) graze among thorny thickets. These species, and dozens more, persist here thanks to a decades-long effort to rewild a sliver of Southern Africa’s great desert and dry savanna. The Tswalu Kalahari Reserve has become a sanctuary for rare and threatened animals, drawing in a steady stream of well-heeled tourists from around the globe. More recently, the reserve’s managers have embarked on a quest to increase the carbon stored in its soils — a quest that relies heavily on the reserve’s animals. At first glance, places like Tswalu might not seem suited for stockpiling carbon. The Tswana people call this part of the world Kgalagadi — “the waterless place.” Fickle precipitation in the Kalahari averages a scant 10-50 centimeters (4-20 inches) annually, and much less in some years. That means the comparative lushness here in late 2025 could evaporate if the rains don’t carry on throughout the austral summer of the Southern Hemisphere. To date, most nature-based carbon storage efforts have focused on fast-growing tropical forests, expanding native or plantation tree cover that draws carbon out of the atmosphere. Soil carbon, by contrast, is slower to accumulate, and it’s more laborious and expensive to monitor.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-south-african-reserve-shows-how-carbon-can-catalyze-rewilding-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-south-african-reserve-shows-how-carbon-can-catalyze-rewilding-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316455</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In the Brazilian Amazon, community conservation success comes with a cost: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-the-brazilian-amazon-community-conservation-success-comes-with-a-cost-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-the-brazilian-amazon-community-conservation-success-comes-with-a-cost-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jan 2026 12:36:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Logan Rance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/29122935/Fisher-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313501</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Fisheries, Forests, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Governance, Illegal Fishing, Indigenous Peoples, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Protected Areas, Research, Rivers, Species, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In rural communities living near Brazil’s Juruá River, a tributary of the Amazon River that flows northward through the country, families of fishers take turns in guarding the entrances of oxbow lakes. The most sinuous river in the Amazon Basin, the Juruá, meanders through low-lying floodplains, creating numerous stagnant water bodies. From small wooden watchtowers [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In rural communities living near Brazil’s Juruá River, a tributary of the Amazon River that flows northward through the country, families of fishers take turns in guarding the entrances of oxbow lakes. The most sinuous river in the Amazon Basin, the Juruá, meanders through low-lying floodplains, creating numerous stagnant water bodies. From small wooden watchtowers built on the water, the community members watch for poachers who seek to illegally harvest pirarucu (Arapaima gigas), the largest freshwater fish species in the Amazon and a staple species for communities’ food security. A study published in Nature Sustainability found that these community-based conservation efforts benefit not only pirarucu and oxbow lakes, but also connect floodplain and upland ecosystems. By limiting access to outsiders, confiscating poaching equipment and reporting illegal activity to government agencies, community members effectively protect natural resources and their own livelihoods. However, this work comes at a substantial cost, researchers found. While on patrol, guards cover the expenses of surveillance, spend days away from their jobs and risk dangerous encounters with poachers, all without pay. A broader conservation footprint Community-based conservation is a strategy that places local communities at the center of managing and protecting natural resources, rather than excluding them. While it involves collaboration among community members, researchers and government agencies, its success comes from local knowledge and community-driven collective action. Conservation goals prioritize the protection of both biodiversity and local livelihoods. To understand the scope of protections provided by the co-management of pirarucu in the Brazilian Amazon, the researchers&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-the-brazilian-amazon-community-conservation-success-comes-with-a-cost-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313501</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Beyond deforestation: redesigning how we protect and value tropical forests (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/beyond-deforestation-redesigning-how-we-protect-and-value-tropical-forests-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/beyond-deforestation-redesigning-how-we-protect-and-value-tropical-forests-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Nov 2025 15:57:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/02172829/vietnam_163028x-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308743</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Biodiversity, Bioeconomy, carbon, Carbon Market, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deforestation, Economics, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Services, Forest Carbon, Forest Products, Forests, Governance, Green, Land Rights, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Rainforests, Restoration, Sustainable Development, Technology, Tropical Forests, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Heading into COP30, where tropical forests are set to be a central theme, it seemed worth looking today’s trajectories a little further forward and imagine where they might lead. Part 1 looked at possible fates of tropical forests. The first act of the forest crisis was destruction. The second, if there is to be one, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Heading into COP30, where tropical forests are set to be a central theme, it seemed worth looking today’s trajectories a little further forward and imagine where they might lead. Part 1 looked at possible fates of tropical forests. The first act of the forest crisis was destruction. The second, if there is to be one, must be design—deliberate, structural, and sustained. The world already knows what is burning; what it hasn’t decided is whether it truly wants to stop it. Last year’s fires tore through more than three million hectares of tropical primary forest, most of it in South America. Drought and El Niño played their part, but so did the same chronic weaknesses: fragmented governance, cheap credit for land clearance, and a market that rewards destruction faster than it rewards restraint. The causes are structural, which means the solutions will have to be as well. Power to those who already protect More than a third of the world’s intact forests lie on Indigenous and community lands. Where rights are recognized, deforestation typically drops. The logic is simple. People with secure tenure have reason to manage land for the long term. Yet only a fraction of community lands in the tropics have legal title. Recognition processes crawl through bureaucracy, while investors and speculators tend to advance quickly. A first-order intervention, therefore, is legal rather than technical: accelerating the transfer of rights. That means repairing broken land registries: mapping who actually owns what and granting legal title to the communities already&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/beyond-deforestation-redesigning-how-we-protect-and-value-tropical-forests-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308743</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The carbon market paradox: Steve Zwick on why financing forests is more complicated than it looks</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-carbon-market-paradox-steve-zwick-on-why-financing-forests-is-harder-than-it-looks/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-carbon-market-paradox-steve-zwick-on-why-financing-forests-is-harder-than-it-looks/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Sep 2025 03:02:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/13205522/vietnam_162000z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305870</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity credits, Books, carbon, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Environment, Finance, Forest Carbon, Forests, Green, Interviews, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Rainforests, Redd, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Carbon markets sit at the awkward junction of science, finance, and politics, where the appetite for simple stories collides with a system built on probabilities. Few reporters have spent more time in that junction than Steve Zwick. He came to climate through the trading pits of Chicago, where he watched how information asymmetries reward insiders [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Carbon markets sit at the awkward junction of science, finance, and politics, where the appetite for simple stories collides with a system built on probabilities. Few reporters have spent more time in that junction than Steve Zwick. He came to climate through the trading pits of Chicago, where he watched how information asymmetries reward insiders and mislead the public. That early lesson became a through line in his journalism and in his current work dissecting forest carbon and REDD+, the mechanism meant to make standing forests more valuable than felled ones. “The great tragedy of climate finance,” he has said, “is that those who understand it most have their noses to the grindstone, while those who understand it least have their mouths to the megaphone.” Zwick’s route was circuitous but coherent. He covered European business for TIME and Fortune, produced and hosted Deutsche Welle’s “Money Talks,” and later helped build Ecosystem Marketplace into a reference point for environmental finance. He has advised NGOs, companies, and governments, and worked at Verra—an organization that develops and manages carbon credit standards—on special projects. Since 2016, he has hosted the Bionic Planet podcast to chip away at the very asymmetries that first bothered him on the trading floor. In 2025, he co-founded Carbon Paradox and co-authored The Carbon Paradox with Renat Heuberger and Marco Hirsbrunner. Both efforts argue that carbon credits can finance meaningful mitigation, especially in the Global South, but only if their tradeoffs are faced openly rather than spun away. If that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-carbon-market-paradox-steve-zwick-on-why-financing-forests-is-harder-than-it-looks/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305870</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil&#8217;s market-based forest fund gets new endorsers ahead of COP30 debut</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/brazils-market-based-forest-fund-gets-new-endorsers-ahead-of-cop30-debut/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/brazils-market-based-forest-fund-gets-new-endorsers-ahead-of-cop30-debut/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Sep 2025 14:50:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lucas Berti]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/05130245/3.-visita_presidente_chines_Ricardo-Stuckert-_-PR.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305705</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Atlantic Forest, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Finance, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forest Regeneration, Forests, Funding, Indigenous Peoples, Payments For Ecosystem Services, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Brazil is betting big on future rewards to save tropical forest, but critics fear nature will receive a “price tag.”]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Since 2023, Brazil has been pushing a new idea to finance the conservation of global tropical forests: Instead of directly donating money to Indigenous and conservation groups, nations and investors would add billions of dollars to a fund, the profits of which would revert to the countries that are doing a good job of keeping forests standing. The initiative — initially called the Tropical Forest Funds Forever and now rebranded as Tropical Forest Finance Facility (TFFF either way) — was presented at the COP28 climate summit, held in Dubai in 2023, with the goal of turning it into reality at COP30, to be held in Belém, Brazil, this November. Even though it received positive feedback overall, doubts remained about whether TFFF could lock in the initial required amount of $25 billion needed for its launch and reach the $125 billion to operate as designed. In recent months, however, Brazilian diplomats have been making progress. In late August, nations of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) endorsed TFFF during a meeting in Colombia’s capital, Bogotá. The joint statement presented a chapter supporting and welcoming the initiative. It also encouraged “potential investor countries, multilateral organizations, development banks, climate funds, international cooperation agencies, philanthropy, and the private sector to announce ambitious and concrete contributions to the capitalization of the TFFF, in order to ensure its prompt operationalization.” Brazil had already secured support from Norway, the U.K., Germany, the U.S., the UAE and France, as well as several nations with tropical forests, such as&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/brazils-market-based-forest-fund-gets-new-endorsers-ahead-of-cop30-debut/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305705</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Reversing deforestation relies on resource ownership (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/reversing-deforestation-relies-on-resource-ownership-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/reversing-deforestation-relies-on-resource-ownership-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Aug 2025 18:44:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Brent SohngenDouglas Southgate]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/23151222/kalbar_drone_190742-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303773</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Asia, Brazil, Cerrado, Global, Latin America, Nepal, South America, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Avoided Deforestation, climate finance, Commentary, Commodity agriculture, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, International Trade, Land Rights, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Rainforests, Reforestation, Savannas, Soy, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Having receded by 350 million hectares (almost 865 million acres) since 1850, trends in Latin American forests are now inflecting away from further losses of tree-covered habitats and toward their recovery. As we explain in our book Reversing Deforestation, published by Stanford University Press in December 2024, this change stems from reduced population growth and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Having receded by 350 million hectares (almost 865 million acres) since 1850, trends in Latin American forests are now inflecting away from further losses of tree-covered habitats and toward their recovery. As we explain in our book Reversing Deforestation, published by Stanford University Press in December 2024, this change stems from reduced population growth and the continuing improvement of agricultural yields. But as we also point out, the transition from deforestation to reforestation will hinge during the years to come on local resource ownership, not least because this ownership is an unavoidable prerequisite for the financing of carbon sequestration and other ecosystem services provided by forests. Mainly because it causes the demand for food to go up, demographic expansion adds to the displacement of natural habitats by farms and ranches. Forest loss in Latin America during the last 175 years, when human numbers in the region rose from 30 million to 650 million or more, is a clear example. However, human fertility has plunged in the region, from 5.9 births per woman in 1960 to 1.9 births per woman today, so annual natural increase (equal to the birth rate minus the death rate) has declined from nearly 3% to less than 1%. Human fertility has fallen more in Latin America than in sub-Saharan Africa, where women still bear more than four children, on average, and natural increase remains above 2% a year. This difference in demographic trajectories is a major reason why annual forest losses in the two regions are&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/reversing-deforestation-relies-on-resource-ownership-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303773</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Paying to prevent deforestation is positive &#038; not &#8216;nothing&#8217; (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/paying-to-prevent-deforestation-is-positive-not-nothing-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/paying-to-prevent-deforestation-is-positive-not-nothing-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Apr 2025 23:01:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jessica Ausinheiler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/24212058/Amigos-del-Bosque-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298160</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity, Carbon Credits, Carbon Offsets, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Forests, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[During my 2023-24 IIE Rodman C. Rockefeller Centennial Fellowship research in eastern Panama, I walked through my neighbor Johnson’s land (not his real name), discussing the 18 hectares (44 acres) of steeply inclined secondary forest he has left on his property. As we wandered along the forest&#8217;s edge, he turned to me and asked, “How [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[During my 2023-24 IIE Rodman C. Rockefeller Centennial Fellowship research in eastern Panama, I walked through my neighbor Johnson’s land (not his real name), discussing the 18 hectares (44 acres) of steeply inclined secondary forest he has left on his property. As we wandered along the forest&#8217;s edge, he turned to me and asked, “How much will you pay me not to cut this forest down?” His words stopped me in my tracks. Over the past five years of living and working in eastern Panama, I have met dozens of individuals and groups of landholders who value biodiversity and recognize the importance of preserving intact rainforest. At the same time, my overriding observation is that most of my neighbors, pressured by economic demands and following local tradition, place a higher value on land clearing for farming and cattle ranching. Cutting down trees is called “limpieza” or “cleaning up.” The use of fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides is referred to as “medicina,” or medicine. Fear of the forest, with its snakes and jaguars, and a preference for open, manicured landscapes further reinforce this tendency. The prevailing perception is, ‘There is enough forest here.’ Indeed, our communities abut the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena bioregion, a vast chain of forests stretching from eastern Panama to Peru, that is among the most biodiverse regions in the world. On a clear day, you can see the forest of our Indigenous Guna neighbors as far as the eye can see, down to the shores of the Caribbean. Forest in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/paying-to-prevent-deforestation-is-positive-not-nothing-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298160</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Financing conservation of Central Asia&#8217;s endangered mammals on World Wildlife Day and every day (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/financing-conservation-of-central-asias-endangered-mammals-on-world-wildlife-day-and-every-day-commentarycommentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/financing-conservation-of-central-asias-endangered-mammals-on-world-wildlife-day-and-every-day-commentarycommentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Mar 2025 12:03:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anne NeumannChristiane RöttgerJohannes Stahl]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/08/16183224/Saiga_antelope_at_the_Stepnoi_Sanctuary-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295225</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Afghanistan, Asia, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Carbon Market, climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Ecotourism, Finance, Payments For Ecosystem Services, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Central Asia hosts some of the world’s largest and still relatively interconnected yet fragile grassland and mountain ecosystems. These landscapes provide essential habitats for migratory and threatened species, including the snow leopard, saiga antelope, argali sheep, Mongolian gazelle and wild ass. While these species are essential for maintaining ecological balance, they face growing threats from [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Central Asia hosts some of the world’s largest and still relatively interconnected yet fragile grassland and mountain ecosystems. These landscapes provide essential habitats for migratory and threatened species, including the snow leopard, saiga antelope, argali sheep, Mongolian gazelle and wild ass. While these species are essential for maintaining ecological balance, they face growing threats from habitat fragmentation, climate change, and poaching. Despite their ecological significance, conservation efforts in the region remain severely underfunded, hindered by high financial risks and a lack of investment-ready opportunities. The 2025 edition of U.N. World Wildlife Day (March 3, 2025, themed Wildlife Conservation Finance: Investing in People and the Planet) rings the alarm bell: financial solutions to support conservation efforts in regions like Central Asia are urgently needed. As part of these efforts, the Central Asian Mammals Initiative (CAMI), under the Convention on Migratory Species, provides a strategic framework to safeguard migratory wildlife across the region’s arid steppes and mountains. However, without effective financing mechanisms and stronger international collaboration, conservation efforts will struggle to keep pace with mounting threats. New financing solutions needed Conservation finance in Central Asia faces inadequate funding levels, high perceived risks, and limited data on biodiversity projects. The complexity of conservation initiatives, coupled with the long-term nature of economic returns, often deters potential investors. While new financing mechanisms have succeeded elsewhere in the world, their potential in Central Asia remains largely untapped. Adapting and implementing these approaches could unlock sustaining investment flows, providing the necessary resources to protect these ecosystems. Saiga&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/financing-conservation-of-central-asias-endangered-mammals-on-world-wildlife-day-and-every-day-commentarycommentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295225</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why biodiversity credits cannot work (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/why-biodiversity-credits-cannot-work-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/why-biodiversity-credits-cannot-work-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Oct 2024 18:43:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Byron Swift]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/14035049/andrean-cock-of-the-rock-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288592</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Carbon Credits, Commentary, Conservation, and Payments For Ecosystem Services]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The earth is on the brink of a sixth extinction crisis, making it urgent to expand programs to conserve nature and its biodiversity, especially in tropical countries with the highest biodiversity. One option is the use of market mechanisms such as crediting systems to help conserve tropical forests to limit both the emissions of greenhouse [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The earth is on the brink of a sixth extinction crisis, making it urgent to expand programs to conserve nature and its biodiversity, especially in tropical countries with the highest biodiversity. One option is the use of market mechanisms such as crediting systems to help conserve tropical forests to limit both the emissions of greenhouse gases and the loss of biodiversity. An existing market already exists for carbon credits, though it has been undermined by a series of critical investigations, and emerging programs are being discussed for biodiversity credits. This article describes a number of fundamental flaws with biodiversity credits, any one of which is potentially fatal. Together they indicate that biodiversity credits cannot be effective in addressing the conservation of biodiversity, and that we need to develop and enhance other, more legitimate ways to fund biodiversity conservation. In essence, the principal reason we are talking about biodiversity credits is not because they are effective, but because of the relentless promotion of the idea by the financial intermediaries who would become its main beneficiaries. Red passion vine flower in the Colombian Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Here are nine reasons why biodiversity credit trading cannot work: Credit trading is a structurally unsound regulatory device that lacks integrity The biggest problem is that crediting programs are a highly imperfect regulatory methodology that has rarely worked well anywhere. The system is easily gamed, accountability is lax, key issues like additionality and leakage are very difficult to prove, and it requires significant transaction&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/why-biodiversity-credits-cannot-work-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/why-biodiversity-credits-cannot-work-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288592</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservation pays and everyone’s benefitting from it (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/conservation-pays-and-everyones-benefitting-from-it-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/conservation-pays-and-everyones-benefitting-from-it-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2024 07:05:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Diego Vincenzi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/15000432/costa_rica_siquirres_0578-2560-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284325</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, Latin America, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity credits, Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Forests, Green, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Rainforests, Reforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In just one generation, Costa Rica halted deforestation and reversed land degradation. Currently, Costa Rica boasts 57% forest cover, with 25% of its land territory protected. All of this has been achieved while the country&#8217;s agricultural sector became the most robust per capita agricultural exporter in Latin America. Remarkably, Costa Rica’s agricultural sector produces net [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In just one generation, Costa Rica halted deforestation and reversed land degradation. Currently, Costa Rica boasts 57% forest cover, with 25% of its land territory protected. All of this has been achieved while the country&#8217;s agricultural sector became the most robust per capita agricultural exporter in Latin America. Remarkably, Costa Rica’s agricultural sector produces net zero emissions! But how can a small country with limited space achieve this? Years ago, we discovered that conservation pays. For some, this notion might sound contradictory, but for us Costa Ricans, it&#8217;s a reality. During the 1990s, environmental legislation in Costa Rica shifted towards a greener framework. We moved from a &#8220;subsidy&#8221; concept in forest conservation to an &#8220;economic recognition&#8221; of the ecosystem services our forests provide. Percent forest cover in Costa Rica since 1940. Data from Hector 2008 and Reid 2018. The Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) scheme is primarily funded by a tax on fossil fuels. Traditionally, PES was granted to estates or people with ownership rights to the land meant for protection. This scheme is institutionalized through a fund called Fondo Nacional para el Financiamiento Forestal (FONAFIFO), a state-of-the-art institution that has gained the necessary experience and expertise to understand the needs of conservation and the flexibility required to meet those needs. Now, FONAFIFO is introducing new components to the traditional PES scheme. Over the past couple of years, one of the first changes is that PES now pays for land that has not been titled. This directly benefits many of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/conservation-pays-and-everyones-benefitting-from-it-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/conservation-pays-and-everyones-benefitting-from-it-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284325</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>To conserve large landscapes like the Florida Wildlife Corridor, payments for ecosystem services could be key (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/to-conserve-large-landscapes-like-the-florida-wildlife-corridor-payments-for-ecosystem-services-could-be-key-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/to-conserve-large-landscapes-like-the-florida-wildlife-corridor-payments-for-ecosystem-services-could-be-key-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jun 2024 01:30:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jen GuytonJoshua Daskin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/18204737/Florida-corridor-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283409</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Florida, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Finance, Habitat, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Florida, one stunningly ambitious habitat conservation program is creating a model for a future in which people coexist with nature. Spanning the length of the state—from Alabama to the Everglades—the Florida Wildlife Corridor is a vision for a continuous, 18-million-acre tract of land that aims to keep nearly 50% of the state undeveloped (Figure [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Florida, one stunningly ambitious habitat conservation program is creating a model for a future in which people coexist with nature. Spanning the length of the state—from Alabama to the Everglades—the Florida Wildlife Corridor is a vision for a continuous, 18-million-acre tract of land that aims to keep nearly 50% of the state undeveloped (Figure 1). The challenges are great: Florida has among the fastest-growing state populations, averaging 1,000 additional residents per day in 2023. As people flock to Florida, the price of land—whether for conservation or development—rises. Between 2001-2019, over 525,000 acres (820 sq. miles) of natural lands, timberlands, crops, and ranch lands were converted to development, an area almost 15 times the size of Miami. In the face of advancing development, conserving nearly 50% of Florida will require every tool in the toolbox. Thus far, conserving the corridor has primarily been achieved through public acquisition (outright purchases to create new conservation areas) and conservation easements (in which the landowner retains the land but relinquishes certain development rights). Progress has been promising: since the Florida Wildlife Corridor Act was approved in 2021, state funding and agencies have helped private landowners conserve an additional 200,000-plus acres within the corridor. Figure 1—Map of the Florida Wildlife Corridor. Dark green conserved lands are already protected, while light green opportunity areas still need to be protected in order for the corridor to be complete. However, we can conserve more, faster by employing other tools, too. We are heartened by budding efforts to protect&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/to-conserve-large-landscapes-like-the-florida-wildlife-corridor-payments-for-ecosystem-services-could-be-key-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/to-conserve-large-landscapes-like-the-florida-wildlife-corridor-payments-for-ecosystem-services-could-be-key-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283409</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>To reverse deforestation and protect biodiversity, build a bioeconomy in the Amazon (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/to-reverse-deforestation-and-protect-biodiversity-build-a-bioeconomy-in-the-amazon-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/to-reverse-deforestation-and-protect-biodiversity-build-a-bioeconomy-in-the-amazon-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Feb 2024 23:14:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Robert Muggah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/06022722/forest-brain-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279148</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Sustainable Development, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Teeming with tropical rainforest, the Amazon Basin is a vital defense against global warming. Yet deforestation combined with extreme weather are behind the region&#8217;s worst drought in fifty years. Forest clearance to make way for cattle and soy are disrupting micro-climates. Warmer temperatures, spurred on by El Nino, are reducing rainfall and drying out plants and soil. As [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Teeming with tropical rainforest, the Amazon Basin is a vital defense against global warming. Yet deforestation combined with extreme weather are behind the region&#8217;s worst drought in fifty years. Forest clearance to make way for cattle and soy are disrupting micro-climates. Warmer temperatures, spurred on by El Nino, are reducing rainfall and drying out plants and soil. As a result, some of the Amazon&#8217;s major rivers and tributaries are at the lowest level in over a century, stranding millions of people living in remote towns and villages. If searing temperatures and deforestation persist, parts of the region could experience a “tipping point” turning rainforest into savannah. Since the Amazon holds 150 billion metric tons of carbon — equivalent to over ten times annual global greenhouse gas emissions &#8211; the implications extend far beyond the Americas.  (Left) Changes in the dry season (July–October) mean temperature reveal widespread warming, estimated using simple regressions between time and temperature observed between 1981 and 2020. (Right) Ecosystem transition potential (the possibility of forest shifting into an alternative structural or compositional state) across the Amazon biome by year 2050. From Exploring ecosystem transition potential across the Amazon forest biome as a result of compounding disturbances. Nature volume 626, pages555–564 (2024) The Amazon is hardly the only part of the world affected by extreme heat. The entire planet is warming. The ten hottest years since records began have all occurred in the past decade. And 2023 was the hottest year ever reported. Rising temperatures, climate change, and biodiversity loss are pushing the world’s vital ecosystems to the brink, with&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/to-reverse-deforestation-and-protect-biodiversity-build-a-bioeconomy-in-the-amazon-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/to-reverse-deforestation-and-protect-biodiversity-build-a-bioeconomy-in-the-amazon-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279148</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What drives and halts tropical deforestation? Analyzing 24 years of data</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/what-drives-and-halts-tropical-deforestation-study-analyzes-24-years-of-data/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/what-drives-and-halts-tropical-deforestation-study-analyzes-24-years-of-data/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2023 15:38:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/19145342/ecuador_237058-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272529</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Cattle, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Green, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Pasture, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Population, Rainforests, Ranching, Reforestation, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Tropics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With the climate crisis in full swing, world leaders have made pledges to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030. In a new meta-analysis, researchers synthesized the findings of 320 studies about what is associated with more or less deforestation in the tropics. According to the study, published in the journal Review of Environmental Economics [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[With the climate crisis in full swing, world leaders have made pledges to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030. In a new meta-analysis, researchers synthesized the findings of 320 studies about what is associated with more or less deforestation in the tropics. According to the study, published in the journal Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, converting land for farming and raising cattle is a significant driver of deforestation. In the Amazon, for example, 70% of deforestation has been linked to clearing for cattle pastures. Building more roads and expanding cities into forests almost always leads to more deforestation in tropical areas. The more accessible a forest is, the more likely it is to be cut. Population growth also means more people cut forests for housing and farming. “They’re things that many people already know,” study co-author Jonah Busch of Conservation International told Mongabay in an email. “But we can state them with the confidence that comes from a comprehensive, systematic, quantitative, review of hundreds of studies over 24 years.” Fires blaze across the Amazon forest in Altamira in Pará in 2019, one of the state’s worst years for fires and deforestation. Most Amazon deforestation is caused by slash and burn agriculture, creating pastures for cattle. Image © Victor Moriyama/Greenpeace. On the flip side, forests on steeper, sloping hills and higher elevations are subject to less deforestation because they’re harder to access. Stronger protections for parks and nature reserves also help slow deforestation, as does better law enforcement and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/what-drives-and-halts-tropical-deforestation-study-analyzes-24-years-of-data/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/what-drives-and-halts-tropical-deforestation-study-analyzes-24-years-of-data/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272529</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Does the Global Biodiversity Framework give due consideration to market mechanisms? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/does-the-global-biodiversity-framework-give-due-consideration-to-market-mechanisms-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/does-the-global-biodiversity-framework-give-due-consideration-to-market-mechanisms-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 May 2023 16:02:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Andre MaderKayleigh Crabb]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/12/18013648/Knobbed-hornbill-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268714</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Finance, Funding, Green, Payments For Ecosystem Services, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Multilateral environmental agreements like the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) call for collective leadership by national governments to address the global challenge of biodiversity loss. Their response options can be divided into two broad categories: regulatory and market based. In December 2022, after two years of delay, Parties to the CBD approved the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Multilateral environmental agreements like the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) call for collective leadership by national governments to address the global challenge of biodiversity loss. Their response options can be divided into two broad categories: regulatory and market based. In December 2022, after two years of delay, Parties to the CBD approved the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF). Like its predecessor, the “Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020,” the GBF is meant to guide countries’ efforts to conserve biodiversity, to ensure that it is sustainably used, and to ensure that its benefits are equitably shared. The Strategic Plan was unsuccessful in fully achieving any of its 20 “Aichi Biodiversity Targets” by 2020. The baton has now been handed to the GBF. The GBF provides more specific guidance on how its targets may be achieved than did the Strategic Plan. In that sense, the extent to which it invokes regulation on the one hand, and markets on the other, is more apparent. COP 15 President Huang Runqiu at the COP15 closing plenary in Montreal. Image by UN biodiversity via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Regulation concentrates power in the hands of government, so it is perhaps the more instinctive option for the governments that negotiated and adopted the GBF. After all, it is governments that proclaim national parks, administer land use, and rein in corporations when production costs are externalized through pollution and land degradation. The iconic corporations that typify market-based economies are often thought of as the villains in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/does-the-global-biodiversity-framework-give-due-consideration-to-market-mechanisms-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/does-the-global-biodiversity-framework-give-due-consideration-to-market-mechanisms-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-268714</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>NGOs alert U.N. to furtive 2-million-hectare carbon deal in Malaysian Borneo</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/ngos-alert-u-n-to-furtive-2-million-hectare-carbon-deal-in-malaysian-borneo/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/ngos-alert-u-n-to-furtive-2-million-hectare-carbon-deal-in-malaysian-borneo/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Mar 2022 04:28:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/03/17041352/orangutan-sabah-borneo-malaysia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=253861</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Kalimantan, Malaysia, North Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, climate finance, Conflict, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Culture, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Finance, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forests, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Land Speculation, Landscape Restoration, Logging, Mining, Nature-based climate solutions, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Politics, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, public lands, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Redd, Reforestation, Restoration, Solutions, Sustainable Forest Management, Traditional People, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Organizations in the Malaysian state of Sabah have filed a complaint with the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples about a once-secretive deal aimed at locking up the rights to credits for carbon and other “natural capital” from the state’s forests. Several leaders in Sabah signed the nature conservation agreement, or NCA, with [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Organizations in the Malaysian state of Sabah have filed a complaint with the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples about a once-secretive deal aimed at locking up the rights to credits for carbon and other “natural capital” from the state’s forests. Several leaders in Sabah signed the nature conservation agreement, or NCA, with representatives from a Singaporean firm called Hoch Standard Pte. Ltd. on Oct. 28, 2021. The NCA laid out a revenue-sharing plan that covered the right to sell credits from the ecosystem services provided by 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) of forest for at least the next 100 years. Proponents of the deal said it would provide funding for economic development to the state and ensure the covered area is protected from logging and other destructive impacts. But the terms were finalized by and large without the knowledge of Indigenous and forest-dependent communities living in Sabah, said Peter Burgess, an Australian businessman who said he was involved in negotiating the agreement, in a November 2021 interview with Mongabay. Since Mongabay published an article on Nov. 9 that first made the details of the NCA public, attacks on the legality and ethical rigor of the arrangement have beleaguered the deal and its proponents. Many skeptics argue that the lack of transparency calls into question whether the deal is binding or enforceable. A rope bridge connected to a community in the Crocker Range. Image by John C. Cannon/Mongabay. “We are taking this issue to the United Nations&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/ngos-alert-u-n-to-furtive-2-million-hectare-carbon-deal-in-malaysian-borneo/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/ngos-alert-u-n-to-furtive-2-million-hectare-carbon-deal-in-malaysian-borneo/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-253861</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous-led report warns against ‘simplistic take on conservation’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/indigenous-led-report-warns-against-simplistic-take-on-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/indigenous-led-report-warns-against-simplistic-take-on-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Mar 2022 04:19:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sheryl Lee Tian Tong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/08/16133316/41790502781_f12f955608_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=253484</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[30x30 conservation target, Activism, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Business, Carbon Offsets, Certification, Climate Change, climate finance, Colonialism, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation Solutions, Culture, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forestry, Forests, Funding, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Monitoring, Nature-based climate solutions, NGOs, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Politics, Protected Areas, Protests, Rainforests, Redd, Restoration, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Traditional People, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Conservation needs to adopt a human-rights based approach to deal effectively and equitably with the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, according to a new report co-authored by more than 20 Indigenous and community organizations across Asia. The report, published by the NGO Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) in February, says that without [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Conservation needs to adopt a human-rights based approach to deal effectively and equitably with the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, according to a new report co-authored by more than 20 Indigenous and community organizations across Asia. The report, published by the NGO Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) in February, says that without meaningful consultation of and participation by local communities, top-down conservation solutions such as “30 by 30” will only deepen inequalities while leading to the prosecution of Indigenous groups. Indigenous leaders and activists gathered in the streets of Glasgow, Scotland, during COP26. The climate protest march attracted 100,000 people. Image courtesy of Rainforest Foundation Norway. The 30 by 30 plan, a proposal to conserve 30% of Earth’s land and sea areas by 2030 through “area-based conservation measures” like protected national parks, has seen a wave of support in recent years. But its emphasis on spatial targets has drawn skepticism and concern from some Indigenous leaders, who called it a “simplistic take on conservation” in the report. With country representatives set to gather and discuss the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework in China this coming May — of which the 30 by 30 plan is a cornerstone — the proposal and its focus on spatial targets has increasingly come under the spotlight. “In an environment where identity and territorial rights are either not recognized or ignored,” the use of such targets “[raises] serious human rights concerns,” the report said. See related: New IPCC climate report stresses importance of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/indigenous-led-report-warns-against-simplistic-take-on-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-253484</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Malaysian officials dampen prospects for giant, secret carbon deal in Sabah</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/malaysian-officials-dampen-prospects-for-giant-secret-carbon-deal-in-sabah/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/malaysian-officials-dampen-prospects-for-giant-secret-carbon-deal-in-sabah/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Feb 2022 20:33:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/10182013/20171104-135807-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=252580</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Offset Markets and Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Malaysia, Sabah, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Development, Economics, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Services, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forests, Global Warming, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Land Speculation, Landscape Restoration, Mitigation, Nature-based climate solutions, NGOs, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Politics, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Redd, Reforestation, Restoration, Solutions, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[An agreement for the rights to the natural capital covering 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) in Malaysian Borneo for the next 100 years “in its present form is legally impotent,” according to Nor Asiah Mohd Yusof, the attorney general for the state of Sabah. Nor Asiah’s assertions are the strongest signal yet that the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[An agreement for the rights to the natural capital covering 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) in Malaysian Borneo for the next 100 years “in its present form is legally impotent,” according to Nor Asiah Mohd Yusof, the attorney general for the state of Sabah. Nor Asiah’s assertions are the strongest signal yet that the sweeping pact involving a Singaporean shell company lacks the support of key leaders in the state. “The State Government will not permit any land to be leased, transferred or otherwise &#8216;handed over&#8217; as part of any carbon trading or carbon monetisation program,” she said in a Feb. 9 statement. “This includes the proposed NCA.” The NCA, short for nature conservation agreement, was signed between leaders of the state of Sabah and representatives of Singapore-based Hoch Standard Ptd. Ltd. on Oct. 28, 2021. Though the specifics of the NCA remain vague, it enlists Hoch Standard to help the state sell credits for carbon sequestration, water provisioning and other natural capital stemming from the protection of Sabah’s forests from logging and other potentially destructive uses. In return for its services, Hoch Standard will get 30% of the revenue, according to the deal’s terms. A community in western Sabah. Image by John C. Cannon/Mongabay. Mongabay reported on Nov. 9 that the deal had been struck in secret. One person who said he was involved in the negotiations — Peter Burgess, the Australian CEO of Malaysia-based Global Nature Capital Sdn. Bhd. and Tierra Australia Pty. Ltd. — told Mongabay&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/malaysian-officials-dampen-prospects-for-giant-secret-carbon-deal-in-sabah/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/malaysian-officials-dampen-prospects-for-giant-secret-carbon-deal-in-sabah/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-252580</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous leader sues over Borneo natural capital deal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/indigenous-leader-sues-over-borneo-natural-capital-deal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/indigenous-leader-sues-over-borneo-natural-capital-deal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Dec 2021 10:06:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/17093708/Drone-shot-of-Kg.-Sosogon-Suyad-Kota-Marudu-Credits-to-PACOS-Trust-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=250809</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Offset Markets and Covering Climate Now]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Malaysia, Sabah, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Development, Economics, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Services, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forests, Global Warming, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Human Rights, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Land Speculation, Landscape Restoration, Mitigation, Nature-based climate solutions, NGOs, Palm Oil, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Politics, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Redd, Reforestation, Restoration, Solutions, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Update Feb. 10, 2022: Sabah&#8217;s attorney general says the consent of Indigenous communities is required for this agreement to move forward. Read the update here. Adrian Lasimbang, an Indigenous leader in Malaysian Borneo, is suing the state of Sabah, contesting a recently signed agreement selling the rights to carbon and other natural capital from 2 million [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Update Feb. 10, 2022: Sabah&#8217;s attorney general says the consent of Indigenous communities is required for this agreement to move forward. Read the update here. Adrian Lasimbang, an Indigenous leader in Malaysian Borneo, is suing the state of Sabah, contesting a recently signed agreement selling the rights to carbon and other natural capital from 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) of forest to a foreign company for the next 100 years. The deal allows Hoch Standard Pte. Ltd., a Singaporean holding company, to sell credits for carbon and other natural capital, such as the provision of clean water, on the global market. It also calls for the protection and restoration of forests that would make these credits possible. And it stipulates that Sabah’s 70% share of the revenues, which according to the agreement’s backers, would go to funding employment, education and health care set forth by guidelines such as the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. The remaining 30% of revenues would go to Hoch Standard. Tawai Forest Reserve in Sabah, seen from the air. Image © LEAP. Civil society and Indigenous communities have criticized the agreement, which was signed by representatives of the state government and a Singapore-based company on Oct. 28. They say it bypassed substantive input and consent from the people living in and around Sabah’s forests. And, until recently, the framers of the agreement have shared scant information about the company (or companies) involved in the agreement and who they are led by. Lasimbang, who is a technical adviser&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/indigenous-leader-sues-over-borneo-natural-capital-deal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/indigenous-leader-sues-over-borneo-natural-capital-deal/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-250809</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Is colonial history repeating itself with Sabah forest carbon deal? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/is-colonial-history-repeating-itself-with-sabah-forest-carbon-deals-big-reveal-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/is-colonial-history-repeating-itself-with-sabah-forest-carbon-deals-big-reveal-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Dec 2021 00:01:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Cynthia Clare Ong Gaik Suan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/09191558/20170408-181529-3-2-768x480.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=250062</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Malaysia, Sabah, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Avoided Deforestation, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Climate Change, climate finance, Commentary, Conservation, Corporations, Economics, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, FPIC, Global Warming, Governance, Green, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Law, Marketing, Mitigation, NGOs, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Politics, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“Bornean communities locked into 2-million-hectare carbon deal they don’t know about” &#8211; 9 Nov 2021, Mongabay This was the headline Sabah woke up to on the morning of November 10th. Before the Mongabay story broke, I heard from Australian friends and allies as early as July that something was afoot. Forests, carbon, climate and communities [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“Bornean communities locked into 2-million-hectare carbon deal they don’t know about” &#8211; 9 Nov 2021, Mongabay This was the headline Sabah woke up to on the morning of November 10th. Before the Mongabay story broke, I heard from Australian friends and allies as early as July that something was afoot. Forests, carbon, climate and communities are core to our collaborative work between civil society and government. I asked colleagues in government if they had any information but did not hear a clear response. Over the weeks, I heard increasingly ominous whisperings. On 28 October, I received an email from international partners who had seen a Sabah deal – claimed to be signed in August – mentioned by external corporate entities in presentation materials. They were curious if I knew anything about it. The materials were presented by Tierra Australia, Hoch Standard and Global Natural Capital (GNC) – seemingly Australian, Singaporean and Malaysian entities. Here are two slides from the 43 pages I received: Screenshot of slide 11 of 14 slides presented by the three companies. A month later, I’m still struggling to understand why and how this happened – and why we had to learn about it from outside Sabah. Much has been revealed since then. We’ve now read numerous press articles, social media posts and reposts. We’ve seen online videos of the home offices of our new partners and footage of Hoch Standard’s Corporate Advisor Stan Golokin representing Sabah at COP26 in Glasgow, explaining carbon. We’ve read fact sheets&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/is-colonial-history-repeating-itself-with-sabah-forest-carbon-deals-big-reveal-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-250062</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Details emerge around closed-door carbon deal in Malaysian Borneo</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/details-emerge-around-closed-door-carbon-deal-in-malaysian-borneo/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/details-emerge-around-closed-door-carbon-deal-in-malaysian-borneo/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Nov 2021 11:23:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/24075625/proboscis-monkey-Nasalis-larvatus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=249839</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Offset Markets and Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Malaysia, Sabah, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Avoided Deforestation, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Corporations, Economics, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, FPIC, Global Warming, Governance, Green, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Law, Marketing, Mitigation, NGOs, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Politics, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Update Feb. 10, 2022: Sabah&#8217;s attorney general says the consent of Indigenous communities is required for this agreement to move forward. Read the update here. Leaders in the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo have begun to share more about a murky arrangement in which the rights to carbon and other ecosystem services [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Update Feb. 10, 2022: Sabah&#8217;s attorney general says the consent of Indigenous communities is required for this agreement to move forward. Read the update here. Leaders in the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo have begun to share more about a murky arrangement in which the rights to carbon and other ecosystem services from the state’s forests were sold to a foreign company. On Oct. 28, state authorities signed a “nature conservation agreement” with a Singaporean firm, Hoch Standard Pte. Ltd., and involving an Australian management consultancy called Tierra Australia. The deal ostensibly gave Hoch Standard the right to sell credits for carbon and other natural capital, such as clean water, from “over 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres)” of forested land for the next 100-200 years, according to Peter Burgess, Tierra Australia’s CEO. Mongabay learned of the agreement from several anonymously shared documents and first reported its signing on Nov. 9. A micro-hydropower catchment system used by forest communities to generate electricity in Sabah’s Crocker Range. Image by John C. Cannon/Mongabay. The news arrived in Sabah against the backdrop of the U.N. climate conference held in early November in Glasgow, Scotland. Governments and companies at the conference, known as COP26, announced their intentions to funnel billions of dollars toward ending deforestation, boosting forest restoration, and supporting Indigenous-led land management to offset carbon emissions. Burgess also said his business partner, Stan Golokin, a Sabahan, was at the conference raising funds for the agreement. At the same time, rights&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/details-emerge-around-closed-door-carbon-deal-in-malaysian-borneo/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/details-emerge-around-closed-door-carbon-deal-in-malaysian-borneo/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-249839</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bornean communities locked into 2-million-hectare carbon deal they don’t know about</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/bornean-communities-locked-into-2-million-hectare-carbon-deal-they-dont-know-about/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/bornean-communities-locked-into-2-million-hectare-carbon-deal-they-dont-know-about/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Nov 2021 19:26:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/09191558/20170408-181529-3-2-768x480.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=249206</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Malaysia, Sabah, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Carbon Credits, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Culture, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Finance, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forests, Green, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Land Speculation, Landscape Restoration, Logging, Mining, Nature-based climate solutions, Palm Oil, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Politics, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Pulp And Paper, Rainforests, Redd, Reforestation, Restoration, Solutions, Sustainable Forest Management, Timber, Traditional People, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Update Feb. 10, 2022: Sabah&#8217;s attorney general says the consent of Indigenous communities is required for this agreement to move forward. Read the update here. Leaders in Sabah, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo, have signed a profit-sharing deal to market carbon and other natural capital from more than 2 million hectares (4.9 million [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Update Feb. 10, 2022: Sabah&#8217;s attorney general says the consent of Indigenous communities is required for this agreement to move forward. Read the update here. Leaders in Sabah, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo, have signed a profit-sharing deal to market carbon and other natural capital from more than 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) of the state’s forests for at least the next 100 years. But the communities living in and around those forests know next to nothing about it. The “nature conservation agreement,” brokered by an Australian consultancy called Tierra Australia, is aimed at the restoration of ecosystems. That would allow the sale of credits for carbon and other ecosystem services to companies seeking to meet sustainability goals, such as reducing their carbon footprints by offsetting their emissions. Under the terms of the deal, Tierra Australia and its partners will receive 30% of the profits from the credits for natural capital sold for the next 100-200 years, according to Peter Burgess, the company’s CEO. He said the remaining 70% would go to the Sabah state government to fund economic development for people living in and around the forests. “We’re going to employ [community members] — gainfully employ them — back into restoring jungles,” Burgess told Mongabay. But, he said, “They actually don’t know that their jungles have been conserved, have been signed up and are going to be conserved for 200 years.” Read a November 24, 2021 update on this developing story here. A man fishes in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/bornean-communities-locked-into-2-million-hectare-carbon-deal-they-dont-know-about/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-249206</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous Land in the Brazilian Amazon is a brake on deforestation and may start generating carbon credits</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/indigenous-land-in-the-brazilian-amazon-is-a-brake-on-deforestation-and-may-start-generating-carbon-credits/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/indigenous-land-in-the-brazilian-amazon-is-a-brake-on-deforestation-and-may-start-generating-carbon-credits/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Sep 2021 16:50:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sibélia Zanon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/20164756/Foto-04_Festival-Atsa_Mandioca_-TI-Puyanawa_Alessandra-Melo-scaled-e1632156748223-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=247341</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, carbon, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, climate finance, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Payments For Ecosystem Services, and Redd]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“I believe that those who used to buy soursop juice will stop buying it,” says José Marcondes Puyanawa. “They will stop buying it because they have it in their own garden now.” Puyanawa lives in the Poyanawa Indigenous Land, located on the right bank of the Moa River, which runs through the Brazilian state of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“I believe that those who used to buy soursop juice will stop buying it,” says José Marcondes Puyanawa. “They will stop buying it because they have it in their own garden now.” Puyanawa lives in the Poyanawa Indigenous Land, located on the right bank of the Moa River, which runs through the Brazilian state of Acre in the western Amazon taking fish to tributary rivers and streams, contributing to food security in the two villages inside the reserve, Barão do Rio Branco and Ipiranga. Restoration of degraded areas, such as riparian forest that protects waters; farming and other agricultural activities, preferably in areas that have already been altered; and strengthening agroforestry gardens are on the rise among the Puyanawa. Organized action of community leaders, government institutions and NGOs has contributed to improving their land-use and sustainable exploitation of forest resources. Fish from the Moa River and its tributaries are also benefiting from the fruits of these efforts. “[We] will reforest the areas around the dams, recovering the riparian forest to protect the waters,” proposes the Territorial and Environmental Management Plan for the Poyanawa Indigenous Land. “We will use fruit species that fish can feed on, such as açaí and buriti palms, rubber and others.” A recent study by Embrapa found that these good practices have prevented deforestation and concluded that the Poyanawa Indigenous Land could generate profitable carbon credits. According to the study’s estimations, by 2025, an average of 6,400 tons of carbon dioxide emissions will have been prevented. In&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/indigenous-land-in-the-brazilian-amazon-is-a-brake-on-deforestation-and-may-start-generating-carbon-credits/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-247341</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/is-planting-trees-as-good-for-the-earth-as-everyone-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/is-planting-trees-as-good-for-the-earth-as-everyone-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 May 2021 15:38:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/05/12223340/Hue-10-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=242561</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Conservation Effectiveness]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forest Recovery, Forest Regeneration, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Landscape Restoration, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Reforestation, Research, Restoration, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, Water, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[People have been planting trees to restock forests for a very long time. In the 16th century, for instance, wealthy landowners in Britain and Europe established tree plantations to supply timber for shipbuilding. In the 13th century, Portugal’s King Afonso III had a pine forest planted, known as the Pinhal do Rei, to hold back [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[People have been planting trees to restock forests for a very long time. In the 16th century, for instance, wealthy landowners in Britain and Europe established tree plantations to supply timber for shipbuilding. In the 13th century, Portugal’s King Afonso III had a pine forest planted, known as the Pinhal do Rei, to hold back encroaching sand dunes (and provide timber for the royal navy). In the 5th century, monks on the Adriatic coast reportedly planted a pine forest to supply themselves with fuelwood and food. Even before these forests took root, Roman senator and historian Cato the Elder, who died in 149 B.C., recorded the planting of conifers to provide timber for ships. Earlier still, the Zhou Empire, which ruled China from 1100 B.C. to 256 B.C., created a forest service specifically dedicated to preserving natural forests and replanting cut forests. And there’s evidence that Indigenous peoples’ planting of domesticated species prior to the arrival of European settlers influenced the composition of the Amazon Rainforest we know today far more than researchers previously realized. These are, essentially, early examples of tree planting aimed at supplying some service or product. Tree planting as a means of replacing functional native forests is a much more recent endeavor. “Reforestation in terms of ecological restoration, that is, reestablishing forests that will be similar to their previous ecological state, is a relatively recent ambition for Western society,” Kate Hardwick, a conservation scientist at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, told Mongabay, “although it has been practiced&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/is-planting-trees-as-good-for-the-earth-as-everyone-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/is-planting-trees-as-good-for-the-earth-as-everyone-says/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-242561</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As COP26 looms and tropical deforestation soars, REDD+ debate roars on</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/as-cop26-looms-and-tropical-deforestation-soars-redd-debate-roars-on/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/as-cop26-looms-and-tropical-deforestation-soars-redd-debate-roars-on/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Apr 2021 20:23:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Peter Yeung]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/04/15183634/BANNER-IMAGE-11-768x456.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=241651</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Offset Markets and Covering the Commons]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, climate finance, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Governance, Green, International Trade, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Redd, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Analysts offer an assessment of the 13+ year-long record of the global carbon credit program, examining REDD’s pros and cons, and its future role in curbing deforestation and combating climate change.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In December 2007, delegates from the world’s nations descended on the Bali International Conference Center, a modern complex with touches of traditional Balinese architecture just meters from the pristine beaches and tropical coral reefs of Nusa Dua. Representatives from 180 countries came to the Indonesian island for COP13, the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an event fundamental to establishing the critical role forest protection could play in preventing catastrophic climate change. During the two-week event, heated debates raged over the shape of global forests policy. Today, many point to the Bali summit as a turning point when REDD — reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation — shifted from being a marginal proposal to a center-stage policy solution. COP13 in Bali, Indonesia in December 2007. Image courtesy of UNFCCC. The REDD mechanism, as promoted then by proponents, would be paid for predominantly by wealthy industrialized countries contributing funds to less developed tropical regions (including the Amazon, Congo Basin and Indonesia) to curb deforestation, keep forest carbon sequestered, conserve biodiversity and sustain vital ecosystems, all while helping fight rural poverty. “Bali was the real birth of REDD,” says Arild Angelsen, a professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and a summit attendee. “Everybody and his dog started a REDD project after that,” recalls Frances Seymour, an international authority on tropical forests who attended the 2007 meeting as director-general of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). Now, more than 13 years&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/as-cop26-looms-and-tropical-deforestation-soars-redd-debate-roars-on/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/as-cop26-looms-and-tropical-deforestation-soars-redd-debate-roars-on/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-241651</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Government inaction prompts voluntary REDD+ carbon credit boom in Brazil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/government-inaction-prompts-voluntary-redd-carbon-credit-boom-in-brazil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/government-inaction-prompts-voluntary-redd-carbon-credit-boom-in-brazil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Apr 2021 20:57:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/04/06171242/BANNER-IMGE-USE-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=241397</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Offset Markets]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, climate finance, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Governance, Green, International Trade, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Redd, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Jair Bolsonaro administration, with its anti-environmental policies, has done little to promote a regulated carbon market in the country, which has resulted in the development of a very active voluntary market.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Lábrea, in southern Amazonas state, is one of the Brazilian Amazon’s most deforested municipalities, with almost all of its large swath of privately held rural properties having been denuded of forest to raise cattle. But at the Fortaleza do Ituxi farm, the landowner has taken a different path, aggressively conserving the rainforest on his land. &#8220;In the beginning, all the neighbors said he was crazy, that he was losing money. [But] after he started to sell the first [REDD+] carbon credits, some people in the area were convinced to do the same,&#8221; says Janaína Dallan, founder of Carbonext, the private company responsible for modeling and transacting the Fortaleza do Ituxi carbon-offset project. In Apuí, also in Amazonas state, carbon credits have become a primary financial pillar for Café Apuí Agroflorestal, a project that stimulates small farmers to grow coffee using an agroforestry system, while also preserving forest. &#8220;We have to start to think about financial sustainability in the Amazon, otherwise the bill doesn&#8217;t add up,&#8221; says Pedro Soares from IDESAM, the Institute of Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Amazon, the NGO behind the project. Forty families live from the coffee produced and carbon credits generated in Apuí. Image courtesy of IDESAM. Café Apuí and Fortaleza do Ituxi are very different initiatives, both in scale and nature. Fortaleza do Ituxi covers 48,000 hectares (119,000 acres), almost four times the size of California’s San Francisco, and it issues its carbon credits to willing buyers based on the amount of deforestation avoided&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/government-inaction-prompts-voluntary-redd-carbon-credit-boom-in-brazil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/government-inaction-prompts-voluntary-redd-carbon-credit-boom-in-brazil/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-241397</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ambitious return to carbon markets to conserve Africa&#8217;s forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/01/ambitious-return-to-carbon-markets-to-conserve-africas-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/01/ambitious-return-to-carbon-markets-to-conserve-africas-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jan 2021 23:23:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/01/28231111/35896053595_f2ed94c055_c-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=239052</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, carbon, Carbon Market, climate finance, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Forests, Grasslands, Indigenous Peoples, Payments For Ecosystem Services, and Redd]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ten million hectares of forest: that’s the total area The Nature Conservancy (TNC) aims to see protected or restored by the Africa Forest Carbon Catalyst, launched this week. Adapting a business model from Silicon Valley’s technology startups, TNC intends to help local enterprises raise $300 million of investment by 2025 for forest conservation and restoration [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ten million hectares of forest: that’s the total area The Nature Conservancy (TNC) aims to see protected or restored by the Africa Forest Carbon Catalyst, launched this week. Adapting a business model from Silicon Valley’s technology startups, TNC intends to help local enterprises raise $300 million of investment by 2025 for forest conservation and restoration projects in Africa that will avoid some 20 million tonnes of CO2 emissions and improve the lives and livelihoods of up to half a million people. Around 20 percent of the world’s remaining forests are found in Africa; here, as elsewhere, they are under extreme pressure. “There are so many smart, effective, entrepreneurial ideas out there to slow or reverse forest loss while tackling climate change and improving livelihoods,” said Jennifer Morris, CEO of The Nature Conservancy in a press release. “Yet too few of these ideas have been able to realize their full potential. We are excited about the opportunity to increase the impact of African forest conservation and restoration through this innovative initiative.” TNC sees an opportunity in the rapid growth of the global voluntary carbon market in recent years and the growing numbers of major corporations committing to carbon neutrality. The NGO wants to harness growing corporate and investor interest in carbon sequestration projects and “natural climate solutions” in Africa in particular. According to TNC, there are not enough projects on the continent ready to absorb finance on the necessary scale. The scale and sustainability of conservation and reforestation projects are limited&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/01/ambitious-return-to-carbon-markets-to-conserve-africas-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-239052</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How the pandemic impacted rainforests in 2020: a year in review</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/how-the-pandemic-impacted-rainforests-in-2020/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/how-the-pandemic-impacted-rainforests-in-2020/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Dec 2020 19:25:42 +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/20/2020/12/23121804/amazon_201167_header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=238236</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Borneo, Brazil, Colombia, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Global, Indonesia, Latin America, Myanmar, New Guinea, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Certification, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Coronavirus, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, COVID-19, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Economics, Ecotourism, Energy, Environment, Fires, forest degradation, Forests, Gold Mining, Green, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, Logging, Mining, Palm Oil, Pandemics, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Plantations, Politics, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Redd, Remote Sensing, Roads, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, Wildtech, Year-end review, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Like virtually everything in 2020, COVID-19 defined the year for tropical rainforests. Conservation was particularly hard hit in tropical countries.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Previous rainforest year-in-reviews:The 2010s | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2009 Like virtually everything in 2020, COVID-19 defined the year for tropical rainforests. 2020 was supposed to be a make-or-break year for tropical forests. It was the year when global leaders were scheduled to come together to assess the past decade&#8217;s progress and set the climate and biodiversity agendas for the next decade. These included emissions reductions targets, government procurement policies and corporate zero-deforestation commitments, and goals to set aside protected areas and restore degraded lands. These meetings were to be set against a backdrop of a &#8220;lost decade&#8221; for tropical forests, where progress on arresting deforestation fell short of ambitions, violence against environmental defenders surged, the effects of deforestation and climate change on forests became more apparent, and outright hostility toward tropical forest conservation grew in some of the world&#8217;s largest countries. Yet there were reasons for cautious optimism for tropical forest conservation coming out of the 2010s. The impacts of climate change were becoming so apparent that they were finally starting to provoke a response from the public and private sector; recognition of the role Indigenous peoples play in stewarding forests was rising; technological advances were improving forest monitoring to the extent that ignorance was no longer an excuse for inaction; and interest in forest restoration was reaching new heights. Sunrise over the Amazon rainforest. Photo by Rhett A. Butler COVID-19 upended everything: Nowhere escaped&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/how-the-pandemic-impacted-rainforests-in-2020/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-238236</doi>				</item>
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