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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/carbon-offsets/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>News on Carbon Offsets</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/carbon-offsets/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>From land acquisitions to local ownership: Alternatives for carbon offsetting (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/from-land-acquisitions-to-local-ownership-alternatives-for-carbon-offsetting-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/from-land-acquisitions-to-local-ownership-alternatives-for-carbon-offsetting-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Feb 2026 15:32:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Christoph Kubitza]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
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					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314246</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Carbon Credits, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, climate finance, Commentary, Finance, and Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The voluntary carbon market and the business of carbon offsetting have faced increasing criticism in recent years, not only for the systematic overestimation of emission reductions, but also because projects have frequently had adverse effects on local livelihoods, particularly in the Global South, where many land-intensive projects are located. From the perspective of the Land [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The voluntary carbon market and the business of carbon offsetting have faced increasing criticism in recent years, not only for the systematic overestimation of emission reductions, but also because projects have frequently had adverse effects on local livelihoods, particularly in the Global South, where many land-intensive projects are located. From the perspective of the Land Matrix Initiative (LMI), a recent commentary usefully highlights the growing scale and complexity of a certain type of land-based carbon offset projects and underscores the urgent need for critical scrutiny. We welcome this debate. Our analytical report documents approximately 9 million hectares (more than 22 million acres) of land globally affected by carbon offset-related land deals, with a deliberate focus on large-scale transactions that entail direct changes in land control. This focus reflects the Land Matrix’s long-standing mandate to monitor land acquisitions that contribute to land concentration, shifts in control, and power asymmetries at scale. We argue that this massive scale of land acquisitions occurring under the auspices of voluntary carbon markets, and often within countries with weak land governance systems, has profound implications for land access for affected communities as well as for broader debates on climate justice. Blackwater oxbow lake in the Peruvian Amazon. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. Further, we highlight that community- or farmer-based carbon projects that do not entail land acquisitions can have serious risks, including long-term restrictions on land use, inequitable contracts, lack of informed consent, and uncertain benefits for participating communities. The claim in the commentary that we&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/from-land-acquisitions-to-local-ownership-alternatives-for-carbon-offsetting-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-314246</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>World Bank carbon program risks further infringing upon rights of Indonesian Indigenous community (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/world-bank-carbon-program-risks-further-infringing-upon-rights-of-indonesian-indigenous-community-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/world-bank-carbon-program-risks-further-infringing-upon-rights-of-indonesian-indigenous-community-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jan 2026 00:22:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anna Christi SuwardiFuat Edi KurniawanSadar Ginting]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/27155741/c6e3108f-c040-4581-a22b-14f4f1d66a0a-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313404</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, climate finance, Commentary, Culture, Finance, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Rainforests, Social Justice, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the upper reaches of the Mahakam River, inside one of the last intact rainforest corridors of Borneo, the Dayak Bahau community of Long Isun has been fighting a long, layered battle for justice. Their history on the land predates the Indonesian state, yet on official maps their existence is reduced to an administrative code [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the upper reaches of the Mahakam River, inside one of the last intact rainforest corridors of Borneo, the Dayak Bahau community of Long Isun has been fighting a long, layered battle for justice. Their history on the land predates the Indonesian state, yet on official maps their existence is reduced to an administrative code printed on a sheet of paper, with no record of the rivers they follow like family, the sacred groves where their elders are buried, the hills that hold ancestral stories. In the documents that decide the fate of their territory, their cosmology disappears beneath lines drawn to serve other interests. Erasure becomes technical: their land is not seen, so their rights are not acknowledged. The consequence is real. When companies arrive with permits approved in distant government offices, those papers speak louder than generations of lived governance. And now, international climate finance mechanisms have entered this same forest, treating the landscape as a source of carbon emission reductions while the people who protected it have yet to see their rights recognized. In November 2025, representatives from Long Isun filed a formal grievance against the World Bank’s Emission Reduction (ER) Program in East Kalimantan province, arguing that the project infringed upon their rights, ignored unresolved territorial conflicts, and failed to uphold a meaningful process of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC). The complaint is not a sudden reaction, but is the culmination of more than a decade of resistance, from daily patrols and adat (customary laws&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/world-bank-carbon-program-risks-further-infringing-upon-rights-of-indonesian-indigenous-community-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/world-bank-carbon-program-risks-further-infringing-upon-rights-of-indonesian-indigenous-community-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313404</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Brazil, planting forests for carbon credits could help ecosystem restoration</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-brazil-planting-forests-for-carbon-credits-could-help-ecosystem-restoration/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-brazil-planting-forests-for-carbon-credits-could-help-ecosystem-restoration/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jan 2026 11:12:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/23110048/AMAZON-MARANHAO-Entre-Rios-Project-4-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313254</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology, Agroforestry, Business, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Sequestration, climate finance, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Forest Regeneration, Forestry, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Rainforest Destruction, and Sustainable Forest Management]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Eunápolis, in the south of the Brazilian state of Bahia, the clearing of Atlantic Forest for agriculture started centuries ago, leaving a patchwork of cattle pastures, monocultures and degraded land. Between 11% and 25% of Brazil’s native vegetation is in a process of degradation related to deforestation, while 22% of its pasture is severely [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Eunápolis, in the south of the Brazilian state of Bahia, the clearing of Atlantic Forest for agriculture started centuries ago, leaving a patchwork of cattle pastures, monocultures and degraded land. Between 11% and 25% of Brazil’s native vegetation is in a process of degradation related to deforestation, while 22% of its pasture is severely degraded. To reverse this, efforts are underway across the country to recover ecosystems and their services, a vital help in climate change mitigation. Since 2022, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) away from the city of Eunápolis, restoration efforts have been ongoing on the Ouro Verde farm to bring back Atlantic Forest species on hundreds of hectares of unproductive cattle pasture. Currently, 344 hectares (850 acres) of forest have been restored. “In two years, you’ve gone from degraded pasture, extremely damaged, sandy soil, to a forest with more than 60 species, trees more than 4 meters [13 feet] high. It looks like a forest,” said Miguel Moraes, director of projects at re.green, the Brazilian company behind the Ouro Verde project. Founded in 2021, re.green aims to restore 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of tropical forests across the Amazon and Atlantic Forest, while selling carbon credits and generating benefits beyond carbon capture. “We’d like to be a leader showing that there are different models of monetizing forests and natural ecosystems that don’t just generate benefits for the climate, but also for people and biodiversity,” Moraes told Mongabay in a video interview. Restored forest at re.green&#8217;s Ouro&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-brazil-planting-forests-for-carbon-credits-could-help-ecosystem-restoration/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-brazil-planting-forests-for-carbon-credits-could-help-ecosystem-restoration/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313254</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Huge ‘blue carbon’ offsetting project takes root in the mangroves of Sierra Leone</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/huge-blue-carbon-offsetting-project-takes-root-in-the-mangroves-of-sierra-leone/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/huge-blue-carbon-offsetting-project-takes-root-in-the-mangroves-of-sierra-leone/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Dec 2025 20:15:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward CarverMohamed Fofanah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/23151914/4-Community-members-plant-red-mangrove-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311956</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Blue Carbon, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Sequestration, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Carbon, Governance, Islands, Mangroves, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Restoration, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BONTHE, Sierra Leone — On the island of Sherbro in Sierra Leone, as in much of the country, there’s limited access to vital services needed to make ends meet. “Here our people only rely on fishing and a few on agriculture and have nothing else to occupy our children, our youths,” Nenneh Sumaila, the chief [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BONTHE, Sierra Leone — On the island of Sherbro in Sierra Leone, as in much of the country, there’s limited access to vital services needed to make ends meet. “Here our people only rely on fishing and a few on agriculture and have nothing else to occupy our children, our youths,” Nenneh Sumaila, the chief of Gbomgboma, a village of about 300 people on the island, told Mongabay. “There are no good roads, no proper health facilities, there’s poor housing, electricity is a dream and the standard of living is poor.” One of the ways to make ends meet in Gbomgboma is by cultivating oil palm trees. But to process the fruit into palm oil, they need fuel for fire, which often comes from mangroves — one of many local uses for the wood. Cutting mangroves unsustainably turns them from a carbon sink into a source of greenhouse gas emissions and hurts their ability to foster biodiversity and provide other ecosystem services. “Blue carbon” projects aim to reverse this trend, and one called the Sherbro River Estuary Project has just been launched with more than 124 communities there. A wholly owned subsidiary of West Africa Blue, a Mauritius-based company, reportedly signed a deal with the communities in October that will reward them financially for conserving and restoring their mangroves. Company representatives told Mongabay that the funds will be generated by selling offsets on the voluntary carbon credit market, with revenues shared between West Africa Blue, the communities and the government&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/huge-blue-carbon-offsetting-project-takes-root-in-the-mangroves-of-sierra-leone/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311956</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The rise of CC35 and the business behind its climate deals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/carbon-and-charisma-how-climate-network-cc35-tricked-its-way-to-the-limelight/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/carbon-and-charisma-how-climate-network-cc35-tricked-its-way-to-the-limelight/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Dec 2025 22:32:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Pallares]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/26194650/Landscape-1-Parque-Nacional-El-Impenetrable-Matias-Rebak-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311902</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Latin America, South America, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Carbon, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Indigenous Peoples, Law Enforcement, Mongabay investigation, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This investigation was produced with support from the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). Isabel Alarcón contributed reporting from Ecuador. BARCELONA — Covering more than 65 million hectares (160 million acres) across Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, the Gran Chaco is South America’s second-largest forest after the Amazon Rainforest. Over the last decades, the dry forest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This investigation was produced with support from the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). Isabel Alarcón contributed reporting from Ecuador. BARCELONA — Covering more than 65 million hectares (160 million acres) across Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, the Gran Chaco is South America’s second-largest forest after the Amazon Rainforest. Over the last decades, the dry forest ecosystem that fosters thousands of plant and animal species and 9 million people has lost about a quarter of its area to agriculture. In 2024, the Gran Chaco was especially threatened in Argentina’s Santiago del Estero province, where it lost 54,000 hectares (133,000 acres) of forest. A few years earlier, the province’s forest ecosystem was the object of an announcement at COP26 in Glasgow, U.K. On Nov. 2, 2021, Global Carbon Parks Inc., a Miami-based startup, announced a $200-million carbon contract with the province of Santiago del Estero that, according to several sources, would support nature conservation and decarbonization in the region. The startup aimed to trade in carbon credits from subnational protected areas. The announcement of the public-private arrangement was hosted by Capital Cities 35 (CC35), a climate alliance of mayors across the Americas that aims to build capacity to tackle climate change, implement the Paris Agreement and the U.N.’s 2030 Agenda. But findings from a Mongabay investigation suggest that the secretary-general of CC35, Argentinian Sebastián Navarro, used his position at CC35 in ways that benefited private carbon businesses like Global Carbon Parks, which he controlled through majority stakeholder Ethic International, Inc, a holding company&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/carbon-and-charisma-how-climate-network-cc35-tricked-its-way-to-the-limelight/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311902</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Assessments argue carbon offsets are failing communities and climate goals (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/assessments-argue-carbon-offsets-are-a-false-unjust-climate-solution-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/assessments-argue-carbon-offsets-are-a-false-unjust-climate-solution-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Dec 2025 19:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[GRAIN]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/27093058/eucalyptus-monoculture-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310678</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Business, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Offsets, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Commentary, Environment, Finance, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Redd, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Land Matrix, a collaboration between the International Land Coalition and several universities, just published a new report on land deals for carbon offsets. Carbon offsets are “credits” sold to polluters who buy them to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions. The Land Matrix documented 9 million hectares (more than 22 million acres) that are [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Land Matrix, a collaboration between the International Land Coalition and several universities, just published a new report on land deals for carbon offsets. Carbon offsets are “credits” sold to polluters who buy them to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions. The Land Matrix documented 9 million hectares (more than 22 million acres) that are subject to these land deals worldwide. At GRAIN, we came to a similar figure when we tallied carbon land deals last year. However, there are some major differences between these two assessments that we want to highlight. The Land Matrix looked at land deals from the year 2000 onward. They included projects for avoided deforestation (often known as REDD+) as well as tree planting, wetland restoration and grassland management. Two-thirds of the land they accounted for are for REDD+ projects alone. GRAIN, on the other hand, looked at land deals concluded between 2016 and March 2024, and did not include REDD+ or wetland or grassland restoration and management. We only looked at projects where lands were taken over to plant trees and other crops to produce carbon offsets for companies. The Land Matrix data only cover low- and middle-income countries, but exclude China “due to the lack of a country partner.” GRAIN’s data also focused on the Global South, but included China — which we learned was one of the top targets for land-based carbon offset projects. The Land Matrix data set also excludes carbon offset projects where the land claims predate 2000, leaving out&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/assessments-argue-carbon-offsets-are-a-false-unjust-climate-solution-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-310678</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>SE Asia forest carbon projects sidelining social, biodiversity benefits, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/se-asia-forest-carbon-projects-sidelining-social-biodiversity-benefits-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/se-asia-forest-carbon-projects-sidelining-social-biodiversity-benefits-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Dec 2025 17:18:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/01170004/Banner-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310403</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industry, Land Rights, Redd, Research, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Home to Asian elephants, gibbons and critically endangered black-shanked douc langurs, the forests of Cambodia’s Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary were brought under a REDD+ project in 2010. However, several years into the project, Indigenous communities whose land was absorbed into the project reported legal harassment, crop destruction and property confiscation as a result of land [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Home to Asian elephants, gibbons and critically endangered black-shanked douc langurs, the forests of Cambodia’s Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary were brought under a REDD+ project in 2010. However, several years into the project, Indigenous communities whose land was absorbed into the project reported legal harassment, crop destruction and property confiscation as a result of land conflicts with the scheme’s implementers. Across Southeast Asia, forest carbon projects like the one in Keo Seima are falling short on social justice safeguards, according to a recent study published in WIREs Climate Change. While carbon-offsetting programs have been around for more than a decade, they require continuous scrutiny to ensure they aren’t having unintended negative impacts, said Yingshan Lau, an economist at the National University of Singapore and lead author of the study. “Forest carbon credits transcend scale and geographies,” Lau said. “Decisions by more privileged groups of people in one part of the world could affect more vulnerable groups in other parts of the world.” Forest carbon initiatives, such as REDD+ (which stands for “reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries”), are intended as a way of integrating forest conservation into climate change mitigation. Countries, companies and even individuals can buy “credits” sold through carbon markets that help them offset, or compensate for, their own emissions that can’t be avoided. These carbon credits are generated by carbon-sequestering activities like conservation of forests and ecosystem restoration. Natural forests, like this one in Indonesia, contain hundreds of native species that all contribute&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/se-asia-forest-carbon-projects-sidelining-social-biodiversity-benefits-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/se-asia-forest-carbon-projects-sidelining-social-biodiversity-benefits-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310403</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>It’s time to end the carbon offset era, COP30 scientists &#038; communities say (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/its-time-to-end-the-carbon-offset-era-cop30-scientists-communities-say-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/its-time-to-end-the-carbon-offset-era-cop30-scientists-communities-say-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Nov 2025 12:43:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tom Picken]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/10191757/AP25310538786668-scaled-e1763727569530-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309962</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity credits, Business, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Climate Science, Commentary, Conservation Finance, Environment, Finance, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Science, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At COP30 in Belém, the first climate summit held in the Amazon, something rare has happened. For years, the risks and failures of carbon offsetting have been dismissed as activist exaggeration or technical teething problems. But this week, Brazil’s leading scientists publicly said what many Indigenous and frontline communities have long argued: forests cannot be [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At COP30 in Belém, the first climate summit held in the Amazon, something rare has happened. For years, the risks and failures of carbon offsetting have been dismissed as activist exaggeration or technical teething problems. But this week, Brazil’s leading scientists publicly said what many Indigenous and frontline communities have long argued: forests cannot be used as offsets. This warning, issued by the COP30 Science Council, should land with force. These are not fringe voices. Carlos Nobre, Paulo Artaxo, Piers Forster, Thelma Krug, Johan Rockström and others are among the world’s foremost experts on tipping points and terrestrial systems. Their statement is unusually blunt: the world is “already facing danger”; fossil fuel emissions must start falling next year; and forests — especially the Amazon — can no longer be treated as a stable carbon sink capable of compensating for continued burning of coal, oil and gas. This matters because the Amazon, once one of Earth’s greatest climate stabilizers, is approaching profound fragility. Drought, heat waves, fires and land conversion are eroding the forest’s ability to store carbon. Parts of the region are already flipping from sink to source. The science is clear: you cannot offset permanent fossil fuel emissions with nonpermanent, vulnerable biological carbon. The accounting doesn’t hold — and the ecological reality no longer allows the fiction to stand. A forest fire in the the Brazilian Amazon, which is already flipping from carbon sink to carbon source, research finds. Image courtesy of Victor Moriyama/Clean Air Fund. Yet in Belém, negotiators are still trying&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/its-time-to-end-the-carbon-offset-era-cop30-scientists-communities-say-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/its-time-to-end-the-carbon-offset-era-cop30-scientists-communities-say-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309962</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia labeled ‘Fossil of the Day’ for echoing industry talking points at COP30</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indonesia-labeled-fossil-of-the-day-for-echoing-industry-talking-points-at-cop30/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indonesia-labeled-fossil-of-the-day-for-echoing-industry-talking-points-at-cop30/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Nov 2025 12:54:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/18123843/IMG_20251115_181933894-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309742</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate, Climate Change, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Nature-based climate solutions, Politics, Rainforests, Solutions, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BELÉM, Brazil — For the Indonesian delegation at COP30, the summit was meant to be a showcase for its climate diplomacy and growing carbon market ambitions. Instead, it was publicly called out for the first time in the history of the U.N. climate talks, receiving the “Fossil of the Day” award on Nov. 15 for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BELÉM, Brazil — For the Indonesian delegation at COP30, the summit was meant to be a showcase for its climate diplomacy and growing carbon market ambitions. Instead, it was publicly called out for the first time in the history of the U.N. climate talks, receiving the “Fossil of the Day” award on Nov. 15 for allegedly allowing fossil fuel lobbyists to shape its official negotiating stance. The award, handed out daily by the Climate Action Network (CAN) International, a coalition of more than 1,900 civil society groups, accused Indonesia of echoing talking points from industry groups during negotiations on Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement, the U.N.’s new carbon market mechanism. Observers said this raises questions about Indonesia’s credibility, its role among developing countries, and the integrity of the carbon credits it hopes to sell internationally. Indonesia’s delegates to COP30 include at least 46 individuals from fossil fuel companies, according to a database compiled by the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition. This makes Indonesia among the developing countries with the largest number of fossil industry delegates. These include officials from the state-owned oil and gas company, coal and mining conglomerates, fertilizer producers dependent on gas, and heavy-industry firms — a cross-section of industry that critics say resembles a coordinated national fossil fuel bloc rather than a handful of incidental observers. Greenpeace Indonesia country director Leonard Simanjuntak said this reflects long-standing political realities. “The presence of 46 fossil fuel industry lobbyists as part of Indonesia’s delegation lays bare the government’s alignment&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indonesia-labeled-fossil-of-the-day-for-echoing-industry-talking-points-at-cop30/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309742</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As Indonesia turns COP30 into carbon market showcase, critics warn of ‘hot air’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/as-indonesia-turns-cop30-into-carbon-market-showcase-critics-warn-of-hot-air/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/as-indonesia-turns-cop30-into-carbon-market-showcase-critics-warn-of-hot-air/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Nov 2025 13:34:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/05130450/Coal-fired-power-plant-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309579</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Brazil, Global, Indonesia, Latin America, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Coal, Energy, Environment, Forest Carbon, Fossil Fuels, Just Transition, Politics, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BELÉM, Brazil — As governments debate how to mobilize trillions of dollars in climate finance, Indonesia is using the COP30 climate summit in Brazil to aggressively promote its carbon market — a system that experts say remains dogged by weak rules, questionable integrity, and uncertain climate benefits. Inside the packed Indonesian pavilion in Belém, carbon [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BELÉM, Brazil — As governments debate how to mobilize trillions of dollars in climate finance, Indonesia is using the COP30 climate summit in Brazil to aggressively promote its carbon market — a system that experts say remains dogged by weak rules, questionable integrity, and uncertain climate benefits. Inside the packed Indonesian pavilion in Belém, carbon trading dominates the agenda. On Nov. 10, Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq opened the pavilion by instructing his delegation to push hard for Article 6, the Paris Agreement mechanism that enables countries to trade carbon credits. “Whenever you enter negotiation rooms, don’t forget to convey our mission. We are serious in pushing for the implementation of Article 6,” he told officials. Indonesia, he added, should return home “with commitment [from other parties to buy] carbon credit that’s quite high [from that of other countries].” Beginning Nov. 11, the government launched a daily “Sellers Meet Buyers” session, where Indonesian state-owned companies and private project developers pitch credits to international investors. Hanif invited foreign companies to join Indonesia’s bid to “lead the global carbon market.” The commercial momentum continued on Nov. 13, when Indonesia and Norway signed a nonbinding expression of intent that could allow Norway to buy credits generated from Indonesia’s grid-connected renewable energy projects under Article 6.2. The revenue, Indonesia says, will fund floating solar installations. The government’s ambitions are enormous. It claims 13.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in potential carbon credits. If accurate, this would make Indonesia one of the biggest&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/as-indonesia-turns-cop30-into-carbon-market-showcase-critics-warn-of-hot-air/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309579</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How a ‘green gold rush’ in the Amazon led to dubious carbon deals on Indigenous lands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/how-a-green-gold-rush-in-the-amazon-led-to-dubious-carbon-deals-on-indigenous-lands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/how-a-green-gold-rush-in-the-amazon-led-to-dubious-carbon-deals-on-indigenous-lands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Nov 2025 19:06:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Pallares]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/04/20210856/amazon_200744-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309280</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Business, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, climate finance, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Finance, Forest Carbon, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Mongabay investigation, Nature-based climate solutions, Protected Areas, Social Justice, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BARCELONA — In December 2022, one of Brazil’s largest Indigenous territories and one of the smallest would each sign a 118-page, 10-year contract they would soon come to regret —as would faraway investors looking to capitalize on the billion-dollar carbon and biodiversity markets. In Brazil’s lush westernmost states of Amazonas and Acre, which border Peru, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BARCELONA — In December 2022, one of Brazil’s largest Indigenous territories and one of the smallest would each sign a 118-page, 10-year contract they would soon come to regret —as would faraway investors looking to capitalize on the billion-dollar carbon and biodiversity markets. In Brazil’s lush westernmost states of Amazonas and Acre, which border Peru, entities promising to turn rainforests into green gold have persuaded Indigenous communities to grant them exclusive rights to trade the ecosystem services provided by their lands, a Mongabay investigation has found. The contracts covered the trade in nature-based solutions, an umbrella term covering a wide range of ecosystem services, from carbon sequestration to biodiversity. The projects, covering more than 8.5 million hectares (21 million acres), failed to materialize in Brazil, with communities pleading to end the contracts, and one carbon certification program issuing a cease-and-desist letter. But the initiator of the scheme continued marketing the deals online and signed at least two more contracts without adequate consent from communities in the lowlands of Bolivia. The three entities that approached Indigenous representatives in Brazil are Biota, a family-run cooperative from Argentina peddling herbal products and nature-based solutions; Biotapass, a related “climatech” startup registered in Spain and the subject of a criminal case; and their Brazilian fixer, Comtxae, which used to provide satellite internet and solar panels to Indigenous villages and nonprofits. As inquiries from Brazil’s Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Federal Police are ongoing and Indigenous leaders worry about the validity of the contracts, some of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/how-a-green-gold-rush-in-the-amazon-led-to-dubious-carbon-deals-on-indigenous-lands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309280</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What fuel will ships burn as they move toward net zero?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/what-fuel-will-ships-burn-as-they-move-toward-net-zero/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/what-fuel-will-ships-burn-as-they-move-toward-net-zero/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Oct 2025 16:56:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/08141520/The-Laura-Maersk-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307225</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Governance, Impact Of Climate Change, Industry, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Politics, and Shipping]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is Part 3 of a short series on efforts to decarbonize the global shipping industry. Part 1 addressed international policy and politics, Part 2 efficiency measures. This part looks at alternative fuels. In mid-October, more than 100 nations will gather at a London meeting to decide whether to enshrine a set of carbon reduction [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is Part 3 of a short series on efforts to decarbonize the global shipping industry. Part 1 addressed international policy and politics, Part 2 efficiency measures. This part looks at alternative fuels. In mid-October, more than 100 nations will gather at a London meeting to decide whether to enshrine a set of carbon reduction rules into international shipping law. If they do, high-emitting conventional shipping fuels will be heavily penalized within a few years. But the rules don’t specify how they’re to be replaced; industry members would get to decide which low- and zero-carbon fuels to use instead. And so, spurred largely by these pending global regulations, the race is on to develop alternative fuels and scale up their use. Shipping accounts for about 3% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, and activity is expected to rise in coming decades. Efficiency measures to reduce fuel use of any kind, such as in hull design, will help but aren’t anywhere near a complete solution. “You’re not going to get to zero” with just efficiency, Lee Kindberg, former head of environment and sustainability for the North America division of Danish shipping giant A.P. Møller-Mærsk, often known simply as Maersk, told Mongabay. “Think about moving this huge mountain of metal with all these boxes of cargo on top of it,” she added. “It takes a lot of energy to do that, so it&#8217;s going to take low-carbon fuels.” Experts may disagree on the best alternative fuels, but they generally agree on which ones&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/what-fuel-will-ships-burn-as-they-move-toward-net-zero/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307225</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>With global rules pending, can the shipping industry get more carbon efficient?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/with-global-rules-pending-can-the-shipping-industry-get-more-carbon-efficient/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/with-global-rules-pending-can-the-shipping-industry-get-more-carbon-efficient/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Sep 2025 18:30:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/17131534/The-pink-panther-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306131</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Governance, Impact Of Climate Change, Industry, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Politics, and Shipping]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is Part 2 of a short series on efforts to decarbonize the global shipping industry. Part 1 discussed international policy and politics. This part looks at efficiency measures. Those in the shipping business have long had some incentive to make their vessels travel more efficiently: saving money on fuel. But the heavy fuel oil [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is Part 2 of a short series on efforts to decarbonize the global shipping industry. Part 1 discussed international policy and politics. This part looks at efficiency measures. Those in the shipping business have long had some incentive to make their vessels travel more efficiently: saving money on fuel. But the heavy fuel oil they use is a “bottom-of-the-barrel” byproduct of crude oil refining and, while the price fluctuates, it generally is less expensive than other fossil fuels. So, getting shipowners to optimize operations or redesign their vessels on a large scale requires regulations, experts say. A big regulatory push may be steaming into port. The European Union recently began regulating greenhouse gas emissions from shipping, and the International Maritime Organization could adopt global decarbonization rules at a meeting in October, which would make shipping the first industry to be governed by a global treaty that sets enforceable decarbonization standards. The IMO deal would lead to a long-term transition to greener fuels and it could, coupled with other IMO regulations, lead to increased use of efficiency measures that reduce how much fuel vessels need in the first place. Such measures include everything from adding sails to ships to lubricating or redesigning hulls and optimizing routes or arrival times. These are cheaper and more immediately available than alternative fuels. “Efficiency measures are the most important because ultimately the most important thing we can do is reduce energy consumption, full stop,” Madadh MacLaine, secretary-general of the Zero Emissions Ship Technology Association&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/with-global-rules-pending-can-the-shipping-industry-get-more-carbon-efficient/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306131</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The carbon market paradox: Steve Zwick on why financing forests is more complicated than it looks</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-carbon-market-paradox-steve-zwick-on-why-financing-forests-is-harder-than-it-looks/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-carbon-market-paradox-steve-zwick-on-why-financing-forests-is-harder-than-it-looks/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Sep 2025 03:02:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/13205522/vietnam_162000z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305870</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity credits, Books, carbon, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Environment, Finance, Forest Carbon, Forests, Green, Interviews, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Rainforests, Redd, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Carbon markets sit at the awkward junction of science, finance, and politics, where the appetite for simple stories collides with a system built on probabilities. Few reporters have spent more time in that junction than Steve Zwick. He came to climate through the trading pits of Chicago, where he watched how information asymmetries reward insiders [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Carbon markets sit at the awkward junction of science, finance, and politics, where the appetite for simple stories collides with a system built on probabilities. Few reporters have spent more time in that junction than Steve Zwick. He came to climate through the trading pits of Chicago, where he watched how information asymmetries reward insiders and mislead the public. That early lesson became a through line in his journalism and in his current work dissecting forest carbon and REDD+, the mechanism meant to make standing forests more valuable than felled ones. “The great tragedy of climate finance,” he has said, “is that those who understand it most have their noses to the grindstone, while those who understand it least have their mouths to the megaphone.” Zwick’s route was circuitous but coherent. He covered European business for TIME and Fortune, produced and hosted Deutsche Welle’s “Money Talks,” and later helped build Ecosystem Marketplace into a reference point for environmental finance. He has advised NGOs, companies, and governments, and worked at Verra—an organization that develops and manages carbon credit standards—on special projects. Since 2016, he has hosted the Bionic Planet podcast to chip away at the very asymmetries that first bothered him on the trading floor. In 2025, he co-founded Carbon Paradox and co-authored The Carbon Paradox with Renat Heuberger and Marco Hirsbrunner. Both efforts argue that carbon credits can finance meaningful mitigation, especially in the Global South, but only if their tradeoffs are faced openly rather than spun away. If that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-carbon-market-paradox-steve-zwick-on-why-financing-forests-is-harder-than-it-looks/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-carbon-market-paradox-steve-zwick-on-why-financing-forests-is-harder-than-it-looks/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305870</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Independent’ auditors overvalue credits of carbon projects, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/independent-auditors-overvalue-credits-of-carbon-projects-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/independent-auditors-overvalue-credits-of-carbon-projects-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Sep 2025 20:06:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carla Ruas]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/09083836/upscalemedia-transformed-2-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305597</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, climate finance, Conflict, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A hidden incentive structure may be driving the approval of questionable carbon credits.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When questions arise about the integrity of carbon credits, project developers often point to one key safeguard: independent auditors who validate their credit claims. However, new research from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School suggests these auditors may not be as independent as they appear — a systemic problem that could be compromising carbon projects. The study, published on the Social Science Research Network, examined 95 projects registered with Verra, the world’s largest voluntary carbon credit registry. These projects were deliberately selected because they had been previously flagged for overstating credits. The researchers found not only had these projects been initially verified by auditors, but two-thirds of the Verra-accredited auditors who worked on them failed to identify the flaws. “This is evidence of a structural problem with the auditing program,” said Cynthia Giles, former senior advisor of the U.S. environmental agency, EPA, under President Joe Biden and co-author of the study. “No auditor can provide a truly independent, unbiased assessment. The point is not to blame auditors — the system itself makes independent reviews impossible.” Globally, there are hundreds of validation and verification bodies (VVBs), auditing firms specializing in carbon offset initiatives. Among the largest are European companies SGS, DNV (Det Norske Veritas) and Bureau Veritas, which employ auditors with expertise in forestry, carbon accounting and climate science. Project developers hire them to validate projects at every stage, from planning through monitoring. To secure certification from registries like Verra, which lends credibility to their projects, auditors must also have&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/independent-auditors-overvalue-credits-of-carbon-projects-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/independent-auditors-overvalue-credits-of-carbon-projects-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305597</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Carbon offset markets are unfair to communities in Borneo &#038; beyond (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/carbon-offset-markets-are-unfair-to-indigenous-communities-in-borneo-beyond-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/carbon-offset-markets-are-unfair-to-indigenous-communities-in-borneo-beyond-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Aug 2025 19:14:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fiona McAlpine]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/29185237/IMG_5011_173-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305206</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Business, carbon, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Commentary, Forest Carbon, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[I write this while waiting for my tablet to die. Tomorrow, I’ll return to air-conditioning, stable WiFi and refrigeration, but here in Long Moh, deep in the remote Upper Baram region of Sarawak, there has been no electricity for two weeks. The fans sit useless and mocking in the corners, and a sudden downpour is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[I write this while waiting for my tablet to die. Tomorrow, I’ll return to air-conditioning, stable WiFi and refrigeration, but here in Long Moh, deep in the remote Upper Baram region of Sarawak, there has been no electricity for two weeks. The fans sit useless and mocking in the corners, and a sudden downpour is the only relief that cuts through the muggy heat. Communities here are among the least responsible for climate change, yet they’re already living with its sharpest edges. Each year in Malaysia, we now hear stories of children suffering permanent brain damage or death during heat waves because they simply played in the sun. In a place without air-conditioning, 1° Celsius (1.8° Fahrenheit) of global warming is not a statistic — it is a threat to life. And now, through carbon offsetting projects, these same communities are being asked to save the world from a crisis they did not create — often with little say, and even less reward. I have traveled here with local NGOs SAVE Rivers and Sahabat Alam Malaysia, which are leading community workshops on carbon credit and offset projects. Rumors abound that this region — one of Sarawak’s last remaining strongholds of intact tropical forest — has been earmarked for a carbon project courtesy of a timber company with a decades-long track record of trying to chop it all down. Species like the rhinoceros hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros) benefit from forest conservation in Baram, too. Image courtesy of Mark Louis Benedict via Flickr.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/carbon-offset-markets-are-unfair-to-indigenous-communities-in-borneo-beyond-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/carbon-offset-markets-are-unfair-to-indigenous-communities-in-borneo-beyond-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305206</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>World’s first industry-wide climate mandate could be launched with shipping vote</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/worlds-first-industry-wide-climate-mandate-could-be-launched-with-shipping-vote/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/worlds-first-industry-wide-climate-mandate-could-be-launched-with-shipping-vote/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Aug 2025 15:47:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/07145348/container-ship-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303925</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Governance, Impact Of Climate Change, Industry, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Politics, and Shipping]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is Part 1 in a short series on efforts to decarbonize the global shipping industry. Since the Paris climate agreement was signed in 2015, no industry has been governed by a global treaty that sets enforceable decarbonization standards. That could change in October, when more than 100 nations will gather at a meeting of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is Part 1 in a short series on efforts to decarbonize the global shipping industry. Since the Paris climate agreement was signed in 2015, no industry has been governed by a global treaty that sets enforceable decarbonization standards. That could change in October, when more than 100 nations will gather at a meeting of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London to potentially adopt a “net-zero framework” for the shipping industry. The body finalized the draft of the framework and moved it toward adoption at an April meeting. The shipping sector currently accounts for about 3% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, and maritime trade volumes are expected to increase in coming decades. In 2023, the IMO, a United Nations body that regulates shipping, approved a nonbinding strategy to decarbonize “by or around” 2050. The new framework, if it’s adopted and enters into force, will make that vision concrete and binding. Critics, however, say the framework falls short of fulfilling the strategic vision. The framework sets exact emissions targets through 2040, when all large vessels will be required to reduce their greenhouse gas intensity by 65% from a 2008 baseline or pay substantial fees. “That in practice means a fundamentally different energy system for shipping,” Tristan Smith, professor of energy and transport at University College London and a leading expert on shipping decarbonization, told Mongabay. “If the [framework] is adopted, then within 15 years, the entire fleet has to completely change the energy that it uses on board, and the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/worlds-first-industry-wide-climate-mandate-could-be-launched-with-shipping-vote/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/worlds-first-industry-wide-climate-mandate-could-be-launched-with-shipping-vote/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303925</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bitcoin boom comes with huge intensifying environmental footprint</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/bitcoin-boom-comes-with-huge-intensifying-environmental-footprint/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/bitcoin-boom-comes-with-huge-intensifying-environmental-footprint/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jun 2025 16:36:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerry McGovernSue Branford]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/24142940/miami-bull-bitcoin-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301253</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, Coal, Conservation, Consumption, data, E-waste, Energy, Environment, Finance, Fossil Fuels, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Politics, Social Justice, Technology, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[While much has been written about bitcoin, many people still find it a hard topic to comprehend, even as promoters like U.S. President Donald Trump rave about it being a revolutionary digital currency that will rapidly replace hard currency. However, unlike money, there’s currently no bank or government to back up, insure and regulate bitcoin, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[While much has been written about bitcoin, many people still find it a hard topic to comprehend, even as promoters like U.S. President Donald Trump rave about it being a revolutionary digital currency that will rapidly replace hard currency. However, unlike money, there’s currently no bank or government to back up, insure and regulate bitcoin, or protect small holders. It’s an unregulated tool for speculators, not savers, according to critics. Bitcoin today dominates the world of cryptocurrencies: digital “money” based on cryptography, a form of complex mathematics using secret codes that require decryption to achieve worth. Ultimately, bitcoin’s value comes down to something akin to fantasy or faith, it merely being a series of ones and zeros anonymously laced across the internet and “mined” by those few with the financial clout and tech capacity to do so. As such, bitcoin flourishes in a speculative crypto marketplace, posing high risk of boom or bust. But, unlike Holland&#8217;s wildly speculative 17th century tulipmania market bubble, (which upon collapse at least left investors with a garden full of pretty flowers), a bitcoin bust leaves the holder with naught but ones and zeros. Bitcoin does, however, possess an enduring real-world footprint: The greater the perceived value bitcoin achieves, the more environmentally destructive its mining becomes, as it demands ever escalating amounts of energy (with accompanying carbon emissions) to crack the increasingly complex crypto code. Donald Trump originally spoke out against cryptocurrencies, but during his 2024 presidential campaign he wholeheartedly embraced bitcoin, and he continues&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/bitcoin-boom-comes-with-huge-intensifying-environmental-footprint/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/bitcoin-boom-comes-with-huge-intensifying-environmental-footprint/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301253</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate futures: World leaders’ failure to act is pushing Earth past 1.5°C</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/climate-futures-world-leaders-failure-to-act-is-pushing-earth-past-1-5c/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/climate-futures-world-leaders-failure-to-act-is-pushing-earth-past-1-5c/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jun 2025 18:07:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire Asher]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/11165842/sand-storm-afghanistan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300614</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Offsets, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Environment, Environmental Law, Extreme Weather, Fires, Governance, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Health, Impact Of Climate Change, Industry, Planetary Health, Politics, Pollution, Public Health, Temperatures, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This story is the first article of a two-part Mongabay mini-series exploring possible climate futures. Read Part Two. The last two years brought record-shattering temperatures globally and a whirlwind of destructive weather, from catastrophic flooding in Europe and drought in Southern Africa to devastating wildfires in California. 2024 saw more than 600 major extreme weather [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story is the first article of a two-part Mongabay mini-series exploring possible climate futures. Read Part Two. The last two years brought record-shattering temperatures globally and a whirlwind of destructive weather, from catastrophic flooding in Europe and drought in Southern Africa to devastating wildfires in California. 2024 saw more than 600 major extreme weather events planetwide — 152 of which were unprecedented — resulting in the displacement of 824,500 people, according to the World Meteorological Association. Based on mounting evidence, some scientists now fear we’ve entered a new era of the climate emergency, characterized by accelerated warming and amplified disasters. Concurrently, recent destabilizing geopolitical events appear to be steering humanity away from decarbonization, delaying progress on urgently needed climate action. What does this mean for coming decades: Are we on course to avoid the most disastrous futures that climate models have warned of? And if not, how bad could things get? Mongabay asked some of the world’s leading scientists to weigh in. Drought in Bangladesh. Image by Md Harun Or Rashid / IAPB/VISION 2020 via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). A new phase of climate change? The unprecedented warming starting in 2023, then intensifying through 2024, surprised and alarmed many climate scientists. While the underlying warming trend was due to greenhouse gas emissions, several other factors likely contributed to the record temperature surge. This includes a strong El Niño event in 2023-24, an increase in solar radiation as the 11-year solar cycle peaked and a reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/climate-futures-world-leaders-failure-to-act-is-pushing-earth-past-1-5c/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/climate-futures-world-leaders-failure-to-act-is-pushing-earth-past-1-5c/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300614</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bolivia expels members of fake nation Kailasa over Indigenous land lease scandal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/bolivia-expels-members-of-fake-nation-kailasa-over-indigenous-land-lease-scandal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/bolivia-expels-members-of-fake-nation-kailasa-over-indigenous-land-lease-scandal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 May 2025 17:11:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Iván Paredes Tamayo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/16164414/FOTO-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299218</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Conflict, Corruption, Environment, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, and Land Rights]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The United States of Kailasa maintains that it is a real nation. With this title, over the last three years, they have traveled to different countries in South America to look for productive lands where they can settle. They did so in Paraguay and Ecuador, and they recently arrived in Bolivia. There, 20 emissaries from [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The United States of Kailasa maintains that it is a real nation. With this title, over the last three years, they have traveled to different countries in South America to look for productive lands where they can settle. They did so in Paraguay and Ecuador, and they recently arrived in Bolivia. There, 20 emissaries from Kailasa have been accused of trying to scam Indigenous leaders with whom they agreed on a “perpetual lease” of their lands. Their intention was to become the owners of big territories in three Indigenous communities of the Bolivian Amazon: The Baure, the Cayubaba and the Esse Ejja. Their plans also included a protected area, according to the mayor of San Rafael, a town in eastern Bolivia. By the time this article was first published in March, the migration officials had already expelled the Kailasa representatives from the Bolivian territory. This story starts in September 2024, when some members of the self-proclaimed nation of the United States of Kailasa arrived in Bolivia. The three emissaries who entered the country as tourists, holding Irish citizenship, as confirmed by the Bolivian migration office, had the objective of getting in touch with Indigenous leaders. They settled in the town of Exaltación, in the department of Beni, and from there they began contacting leaders from the Amazon to propose a “bilateral cooperation.” The representatives of the Baure, Cayubaba and Esse Ejja peoples said that they were convinced by lies. Then, 17 more people arrived. This time, most of them were&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/bolivia-expels-members-of-fake-nation-kailasa-over-indigenous-land-lease-scandal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/bolivia-expels-members-of-fake-nation-kailasa-over-indigenous-land-lease-scandal/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299218</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Science lays out framework to assess climate liability of fossil fuel majors</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/science-lays-out-framework-to-assess-climate-liability-of-fossil-fuel-majors/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/science-lays-out-framework-to-assess-climate-liability-of-fossil-fuel-majors/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 May 2025 06:12:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/09034706/johannes-plenio-jfXMQ6MZlR4-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298750</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Air Pollution, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, Coal, Emission Reduction, Environment, Environmental Law, Fossil Fuels, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Heatwave, Law, Natural Gas, Oil, Oil Drilling, Politics, Pollution, Social Justice, and Temperatures]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As billion-dollar climate disasters pile up, and world leaders fail to act against global warming, lawsuits on behalf of impacted states, cities and other government entities have increased in number with the intent of holding the fossil fuel industry accountable for its contribution to climate change-caused economic damages. But directly linking specific companies and their [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As billion-dollar climate disasters pile up, and world leaders fail to act against global warming, lawsuits on behalf of impacted states, cities and other government entities have increased in number with the intent of holding the fossil fuel industry accountable for its contribution to climate change-caused economic damages. But directly linking specific companies and their emissions to the financial harm done by actual climate change-intensified extreme weather events has remained a stumbling block. Now, a new study published in Nature offers a framework to potentially strengthen such legal arguments by enabling plaintiffs to calculate contributions made by individual companies to rising temperatures, tying their emissions directly to extreme-heat disasters. “Advances in climate economics over the last 10 years have told us quite a bit about the way that local climate hazards translate into damage for people [and places],” said study co-author Christopher Callahan, a postdoctoral scholar in earth system science at Stanford University. “But putting these pieces together in a single causal chain is the novel contribution here,” helping to create linkages that can strengthen pending and future cases. Policymakers and litigators may know these climate data exist, Callahan told Mongabay, but they may not know how they can bring all this evidence together in a way that more clearly illustrates causation and thus legal liability by major greenhouse gas polluters. “Causal linkages from emitters to impact have been termed the Holy Grail of climate litigation,” the study states. Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/science-lays-out-framework-to-assess-climate-liability-of-fossil-fuel-majors/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/science-lays-out-framework-to-assess-climate-liability-of-fossil-fuel-majors/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298750</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Report shows policy gaps in safeguarding the carbon rights of forest communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/report-shows-policy-gaps-in-safeguarding-the-carbon-rights-of-forest-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/report-shows-policy-gaps-in-safeguarding-the-carbon-rights-of-forest-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 May 2025 13:49:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/08133706/africa-carbon-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298802</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Global, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Governance, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industry, Mitigation, Politics, Redd, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[An absence of government legal and policy reforms is impacting the rights of Indigenous, Afro-descendant peoples and local communities associated with carbon programs in 33 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, according to a recent report. The report, published by advocacy group Rights and Resources International (RRI), outlines the NGO’s findings on community rights [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[An absence of government legal and policy reforms is impacting the rights of Indigenous, Afro-descendant peoples and local communities associated with carbon programs in 33 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, according to a recent report. The report, published by advocacy group Rights and Resources International (RRI), outlines the NGO’s findings on community rights to forest territories, land and resources in carbon trading regulations. This includes the associated benefit sharing, compensation and safeguards mechanisms of carbon market projects. More than half of the reviewed countries don’t have carbon trading regulations, the report found, while nearly half have no legal provision to recognize the right to free, prior and informed consent of communities. “For Indigenous peoples, the lack of legislation at the national level that fails to guarantee their carbon rights is a major threat which leads to further violation of territorial rights, land dispossession, and loss of food sovereignty,” says Onel Masardule, executive director of the Foundation for the Promotion of Indigenous Knowledge (FPCI), who wasn’t involved in developing the report. The report defines carbon rights as communities’ legal rights and entitlements to the benefits generated by carbon sequestration activities (like payment for conserving forests from deforestation) and capability to consent to initiatives for nature-based solutions. Despite more than a decade of funding and investments in programs like REDD+ (a framework to monetize and protect forests), progress toward an equitable and meaningful recognition of community rights remains slow, says Alain Frechette, author of the report and director of rights,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/report-shows-policy-gaps-in-safeguarding-the-carbon-rights-of-forest-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/report-shows-policy-gaps-in-safeguarding-the-carbon-rights-of-forest-communities/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298802</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New report reinforces critical role of Amazonian protected areas in climate fight</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/new-report-reinforces-critical-role-of-amazonian-protected-areas-in-climate-fight/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/new-report-reinforces-critical-role-of-amazonian-protected-areas-in-climate-fight/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 May 2025 17:19:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/30171154/herps_208131-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298408</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Technology, data, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Indigenous Peoples, Mapping, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Technology, Threats To Rainforests, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new report adds to the already overwhelming case that protected areas and Indigenous territories in the Amazon Rainforest serve as a critical carbon sink. The report, based on satellite data gathered by Earth imaging company Planet and analyzed by the nonprofit organization Amazon Conservation, reinforces the critical role of protected areas and Indigenous territories [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new report adds to the already overwhelming case that protected areas and Indigenous territories in the Amazon Rainforest serve as a critical carbon sink. The report, based on satellite data gathered by Earth imaging company Planet and analyzed by the nonprofit organization Amazon Conservation, reinforces the critical role of protected areas and Indigenous territories in climate action. Although protected areas and Indigenous territories cover only half of the biome, the data found that, as of 2022, they stored approximately 60% of the Amazon’s aboveground carbon, totaling 34.1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. In the decade starting 2013 — a period marked by rampant deforestation, wildfires and droughts — these stewarded areas also served as a significant carbon sink, absorbing 257 million metric tons of CO2. By contrast, the rest of the Amazon emitted a net 255 million metric tons of CO2 in the same 10-year period. “Protected areas and Indigenous territories almost represent an offset of the increasing emissions outside,” Matt Finer, lead author of the report and director of Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), told Mongabay in a video interview. Finer has been studying deforestation and carbon stocks in the Amazon for years. Previously, he used data from NASA&#8217;s GEDI mission, which uses laser beams emitted from the International Space Station to map forests in 3D. However, this lidar data had gaps and didn’t provide data that spanned across the Amazon Rainforest. Since 2024, Finer has used satellite data from Planet’s Forest&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/new-report-reinforces-critical-role-of-amazonian-protected-areas-in-climate-fight/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/new-report-reinforces-critical-role-of-amazonian-protected-areas-in-climate-fight/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298408</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Eucalyptus for Brazil’s steelmaking dries out communities in Minas Gerais</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/eucalyptus-for-brazils-steelmaking-dries-out-communities-in-minas-gerais/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/eucalyptus-for-brazils-steelmaking-dries-out-communities-in-minas-gerais/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Apr 2025 15:01:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Daniel CamargosEmmanuelle PicaudSimone Fant]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/29142037/A-eucalyptus-plantation-just-a-few-kilometers-from-the-town-of-Turmalina-in-Minas-Gerais.-Credit-Tamas-Bodolay-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298327</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, climate finance, Community Development, Conservation, Deforestation, Drinking Water, Drought, Energy, Environment, Forest Destruction, Freshwater, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Indigenous Peoples, Industry, Infrastructure, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Plantations, Protected Areas, Threats To Rainforests, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Alto Jequitinhonha, Brazil — No photographs remain of João Gomes de Azevedo&#8217;s village before eucalyptus plantations radically transformed it. Instead, fragments of its past live on in a song that Seu João, as he’s better known, composed to remember what life was like in Poço de Água, a small rural village in the Alto Jequitinhonha [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Alto Jequitinhonha, Brazil — No photographs remain of João Gomes de Azevedo&#8217;s village before eucalyptus plantations radically transformed it. Instead, fragments of its past live on in a song that Seu João, as he’s better known, composed to remember what life was like in Poço de Água, a small rural village in the Alto Jequitinhonha Valley, an 11-hour drive from Belo Horizonte, the capital of Brazil’s Minas Gerais state. Fifty years ago, João and hundreds of other farming families could freely graze their livestock amid lush vegetation and abundant water resources. That changed in the mid-1970s, when Brazil’s military dictatorship launched a massive industrialization plan to accelerate economic development in the country’s poorest regions, including the Alto Jequitinhonha Valley. Under this initiative, in 1976, almost 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of land, some occupied by local farmers but legally owned by the state, were handed over to the state-owned steel company, back then known as Acesita. Over time, 60% of the native vegetation in this expanse of Cerrado savanna was replaced by sprawling plantations of eucalyptus trees, which in turn were cut down to produce charcoal. Acesita was privatized in 1992, and in 2011 the company and its plantations came under the control of Europe-based Aperam. Experts warn that these vast plantations have drained much of the water resources that once sustained the Alto Jequitinhonha Valley’s most marginalized communities, including quilombos, settlements established by formerly enslaved Africans. While hundreds of quilombola families struggle to secure water for farming and daily needs&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/eucalyptus-for-brazils-steelmaking-dries-out-communities-in-minas-gerais/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298327</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Refocusing conservation funding on trust &#038; community leadership after USAID freeze (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/refocusing-conservation-funding-on-trust-community-leadership-after-usaid-freeze-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/refocusing-conservation-funding-on-trust-community-leadership-after-usaid-freeze-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Apr 2025 20:48:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Leona M. Bhuyan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/02183620/amazon_201478-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298294</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Credits, Carbon Offsets, climate finance, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Finance, Funding, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The abrupt suspension of USAID’s recent international funding sent shockwaves through the global conservation community. With more than $375 million disbursed in 2023, this freeze disrupted critical biodiversity programs across Kenya, Namibia, the Congo Basin, and Indonesia, halting ranger salaries, community conservation, and anti-trafficking operations. But beyond its immediate damage, the freeze has illuminated a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The abrupt suspension of USAID’s recent international funding sent shockwaves through the global conservation community. With more than $375 million disbursed in 2023, this freeze disrupted critical biodiversity programs across Kenya, Namibia, the Congo Basin, and Indonesia, halting ranger salaries, community conservation, and anti-trafficking operations. But beyond its immediate damage, the freeze has illuminated a long-standing structural flaw: the conservation sector’s deep dependence on external donors. It’s a wake-up call to reimagine how we finance environmental protection, not simply how to replace lost aid, but how to build resilient, locally anchored systems that endure. For too long, conservation finance has operated on a donor-centric model. External institutions determine priorities, metrics and timelines. Local organizations often implement strategies, but without the autonomy to shape them. This framework creates a culture of compliance, not innovation. Pleione praecox orchid. Image courtesy of Kumar Paudel. This imbalance reflects deeper power asymmetries. As Edgar Villanueva argues in Decolonizing Wealth, the structure of philanthropic aid often mirrors colonial dynamics, concentrating control in donor capitals while communities at the frontline remain dependent on short-term, project-based support. To move forward, conservation finance must be restructured to prioritize collaboration over control. Donors should invest in long-term capacity, offer flexible support, and enable local actors to co-design solutions. There are models that already demonstrate the power of such community-led conservation. Namibia’s Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) program enables more than 80 conservancies to manage communal lands. One of them, the ≠Khoadi-//Hôas Conservancy, has effectively reinvested revenue from wildlife tourism into&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/refocusing-conservation-funding-on-trust-community-leadership-after-usaid-freeze-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-298294</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>Building environmental laws across Amazon countries</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/building-environmental-laws-across-amazon-countries/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/building-environmental-laws-across-amazon-countries/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Apr 2025 12:02:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/27191118/herps_208117-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298242</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, Conservation, Development, Environment, Governance, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Protected Areas, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Historically, most countries regulated their biological resources via the agriculture ministry, using laws specific for managing forests, wildlife and fish. Many were inspired by commitments made via United Nations treaties, most notably the World Heritage Convention (WHC) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), or by decisions [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Historically, most countries regulated their biological resources via the agriculture ministry, using laws specific for managing forests, wildlife and fish. Many were inspired by commitments made via United Nations treaties, most notably the World Heritage Convention (WHC) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), or by decisions to join UN-affiliated entities, such as the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). By ratifying these treaties or formally joining an entity, governments incorporated their provisions into national legal frameworks, a process that was reinforced by the ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a treaty signed by all nations at the Rio Summit in 1992. Over time, they complemented these legally binding treaties with legislation that addressed issues in greater detail and, for the first time, used the term ‘biodiversity’.  Among the first laws promulgated in each nation was the creation of a national protected area system and an associated administrative entity. Parallel to this process, governments created agencies dedicated to organizing and reviewing Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs), a 1970s-era innovation intended to avoid or mitigate harm associated with the extractive sector and infrastructure investments. Like the process leading to the conservation of nature, efforts to clean up industry were driven by international agreements; more importantly, however, they responded to a requirement set by financial institutions seeking to limit the risk associated with capital-intensive, long-term investments. Originally, EIAs were commissioned and evaluated within the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/building-environmental-laws-across-amazon-countries/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298242</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New dams call into question Cambodia’s commitment to REDD+ projects</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/new-dams-call-into-question-cambodias-commitment-to-redd-projects/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/new-dams-call-into-question-cambodias-commitment-to-redd-projects/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Mar 2025 06:53:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/19062114/DJI_0004-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296024</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Cardamom Mountains, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Conservation, Corruption, Crime, Dams, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Hydroelectric Power, Illegal Logging, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Redd, Timber, timber trade, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PURSAT, Cambodia — The Cambodian government has approved at least three new irrigation dams across the Cardamom Mountains, carving even deeper into forests currently being used for the Southern Cardamom REDD+ and Samkos REDD+ carbon credit projects. Construction is yet to begin on the new dams, which are slated to be built in Battambang, Koh Kong [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PURSAT, Cambodia — The Cambodian government has approved at least three new irrigation dams across the Cardamom Mountains, carving even deeper into forests currently being used for the Southern Cardamom REDD+ and Samkos REDD+ carbon credit projects. Construction is yet to begin on the new dams, which are slated to be built in Battambang, Koh Kong and Pursat provinces. Officials from the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology, and the Ministry of Mines and Energy all declined to comment on the irrigation dams or their environmental impacts. The approval of these dams raises further questions about the government’s commitment to the REDD+ mechanism for preserving forests. The Ministry of Environment, alongside New York-headquartered NGO Wildlife Alliance, co-manages both the Southern Cardamom REDD+ and the Samkos REDD+ projects, which will lose a further 5,200 hectares (about 12,850 acres) to the new irrigation dams. These same forests have already seen significant deforestation in recent months due to the ongoing construction of five new hydropower dams with reservoirs that collectively span 15,000 hectares (about 37,000 acres). Cambodia’s drive for “green” energy is now undermining REDD+ projects as forest is cleared to make way for reservoirs, transmission lines and the supporting infrastructure of the dams, resulting in fewer carbon credits available for sale from both the Southern Cardamom REDD+ and Samkos REDD+ projects. “It is true that the construction of these dams and roads will cause significant forest loss,” Suwanna Gauntlett, director of Wildlife Alliance, told Mongabay. All of this is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/new-dams-call-into-question-cambodias-commitment-to-redd-projects/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296024</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agroforestry stores less carbon than reforestation, but has many other benefits, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/agroforestry-stores-less-carbon-than-reforestation-but-has-many-other-benefits-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/agroforestry-stores-less-carbon-than-reforestation-but-has-many-other-benefits-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Mar 2025 17:00:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/03223715/Bayano-jpeg-135-of-175-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295241</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Carbon Credits, Carbon Offsets, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Finance, Fires, Forests, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Mitigation, and Reforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A recent study in Ecological Solutions and Evidence shows just how complicated and challenging it is to achieve carbon sequestration goals through forest management — but not impossible. The research evaluates 10 years of a 14-year-long carbon project in Panama run by an Indigenous Emberá community, which collectively owns the land and tried different methods [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A recent study in Ecological Solutions and Evidence shows just how complicated and challenging it is to achieve carbon sequestration goals through forest management — but not impossible. The research evaluates 10 years of a 14-year-long carbon project in Panama run by an Indigenous Emberá community, which collectively owns the land and tried different methods to store carbon by managing its tropical forest, including planting mixed species of native trees, planting single tree monocultures, and agroforestry, which involves growing food or other crops in combination with useful perennial shrubs and trees. “For us as land stewards, it is important to reforest trees for the well-being of our community and to have carbon credits that we can trade and earn an income, for the well-being of our family,” said Ariosto Guainora, one of the local reforestation project coordinators. The carbon project started in 2008 when the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) initiated the research with the Emberá community. Over the next three years, they’d contract the community for storage of 3,400 metric tons of carbon, assuming that 80% of trees would survive. But the new study found that, in all, the project has only sequestered about half of the carbon anticipated: the surviving plots are underperforming by 23%, while the overall target has been missed by 46% to date. While this result sounds low, it’s still better than the average for carbon offset project. Emberá community member Lidia Barrigón discusses the project with McGill University students. Image courtesy of Smithsonian Tropical&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/agroforestry-stores-less-carbon-than-reforestation-but-has-many-other-benefits-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295241</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Forest communities craft recommendations for better ART TREES carbon credit standard</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/forest-communities-craft-recommendations-for-better-art-trees-carbon-market-standard/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/forest-communities-craft-recommendations-for-better-art-trees-carbon-market-standard/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Feb 2025 15:53:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/08201316/Screen-Shot-2023-12-08-at-3.12.28-PM-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294397</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Central America, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Sequestration, climate finance, Community Development, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Development, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forests, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Politics, Rainforests, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For Indigenous peoples and local communities across Central and South America, financial opportunities from voluntary carbon markets come with both benefits and risks. Working with the Rainforest Foundation Norway and Rainforest Foundation US, 14 organizations representing Indigenous peoples and local communities across the region have submitted a letter of recommendations to increase the benefits and reduce [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For Indigenous peoples and local communities across Central and South America, financial opportunities from voluntary carbon markets come with both benefits and risks. Working with the Rainforest Foundation Norway and Rainforest Foundation US, 14 organizations representing Indigenous peoples and local communities across the region have submitted a letter of recommendations to increase the benefits and reduce the risks. The letter was addressed to the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) Secretariat and Board while it reviews its REDD+ Environmental Excellence Standard, or TREES. TREES is ART’s standard for the quantification, monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emission reductions and removals from REDD+ activities. “It is of fundamental importance if we want to have sustainability in the carbon market that there is the voice of Indigenous peoples within this debate,” Mauricio Terena, from the Brazilian Indigenous association APIB, one of the signatories of the letter, said in a press statement. “These recommendations were made so that the carbon market does not become a violator of rights but fulfills its mission to bring environmental services.” The three key recommendations, they say, will strengthen Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ rights, access to benefit sharing, and equal participation in decision-making in jurisdictional carbon market programs (transactions done at the national or region level, instead of private forest carbon projects). The letter also includes legal frameworks to implement concerning Indigenous peoples, especially as some states lack regulation and legislation to protect their rights. Brownsberg reservoir, Suriname. In late November 2023, Suriname became the first country to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/forest-communities-craft-recommendations-for-better-art-trees-carbon-market-standard/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294397</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mineral exploitation overshadows green diplomacy in Congo’s Sangha region</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mineral-exploitation-overshadows-green-diplomacy-in-congos-sangha-region/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mineral-exploitation-overshadows-green-diplomacy-in-congos-sangha-region/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2025 15:45:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Christophe Assogba]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/30154711/D9B95459-DC46-491A-B0EC-5E3CAFB9AFCE_1_105_c-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293643</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Mongabay investigation, Politics, Pollution, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This article was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Network in collaboration with the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP). Read the first part of this two-part series. BAMEGOARD, Republic of Congo — Deep in the heart of a lush green forest, an excavator is hard at work, turning over [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This article was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Network in collaboration with the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP). Read the first part of this two-part series. BAMEGOARD, Republic of Congo — Deep in the heart of a lush green forest, an excavator is hard at work, turning over the earth in search of gold. The surrounding landscape is devastated — centuries-old trees have been uprooted, and streams that were once drinkable are now vast, muddy stretches of uninviting water. We are near the village of Bamegoard (also spelled Bamegod) in the Sangha region of northern Republic of Congo. Aristide Elong, the administrative chief officer of the village, used to come to this forest to fish and collect drinking water. But today, that is no longer possible. “There used to be forest here, but now the landscape is destroyed — there are no trees left. The river is just mud. How can we get the water back? We can’t drink it, and the fish can’t survive in water like this,” he says. Over the past eight months, Mongabay has investigated the issuing of at least 79 semi-industrial gold mining and exploration permits in the Sangha region by Congolese Minister of Mines Pierre Oba over the last four years. In part one of this investigative report, we described significant environmental degradation and damage at sites we visited. This destruction is taking place in an area designated for a Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mineral-exploitation-overshadows-green-diplomacy-in-congos-sangha-region/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293643</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil&#8217;s &#8216;innovative&#8217; reforestation agenda discussed in Davos (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/brazils-innovative-reforestation-agenda-discussed-in-davos-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/brazils-innovative-reforestation-agenda-discussed-in-davos-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Jan 2025 17:47:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Guilherme LealPaulo HartungRoberto Waack]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/09145631/10-tree-planting-bonn-challenge-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293218</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Afforestation, Business, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Offsets, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Commentary, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Finance, Forests, Governance, Nature-based climate solutions, Rainforests, Reforestation, Restoration, Solutions, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the quiet Swiss town of Davos, Thomas Mann&#8217;s The Magic Mountain unfolds as young Hans Castorp’s brief visit to a sanatorium turns into a seven-year exploration of ideas, intrigue, and debates. The story ultimately becomes a metaphor for Europe’s isolation and decline before World War I. Since the novel&#8217;s publication in the early 20th [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the quiet Swiss town of Davos, Thomas Mann&#8217;s The Magic Mountain unfolds as young Hans Castorp’s brief visit to a sanatorium turns into a seven-year exploration of ideas, intrigue, and debates. The story ultimately becomes a metaphor for Europe’s isolation and decline before World War I. Since the novel&#8217;s publication in the early 20th century, its themes have transcended Europe to reflect a world beset by geopolitical tensions. These tensions are compounded by escalating international conflicts and the repeated failure of United Nations conferences to address urgent climate and biodiversity challenges. Amid this complex backdrop, the world’s leading economic and political figures are gathering once again in the symbolic town of Davos from January 20th to 24th for the 2025 World Economic Forum (WEF). Unique to this event is the mobilization of the private sector to lead the solutions-based agenda for the environmental and climate crises. A coalition of leaders from the business and financial sectors is joining the conversation from Brazil, which is the host of this year’s COP30 in the heart of the Amazon. They are advancing one of the most strategic solutions for achieving climate balance and safeguarding nature: forest restoration. Drone view of Amazon rainforest in Brazil. Image by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay. Forest restoration is widely recognized as one of the most effective strategies for removing carbon from the atmosphere. Enhancing ecosystem services as a whole supports sustainable supply chains and creates pathways for long-term environmental and financial resilience. Yet, despite their promise,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/brazils-innovative-reforestation-agenda-discussed-in-davos-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-293218</doi>				</item>
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