<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" >

	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?topic=rubber&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/rubber/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Fri, 30 Oct 2026 06:30:28 +0000</lastBuildDate>
		<language>en-US</language>
		<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
		<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
		<generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.3</generator>

<image>
	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Rubber</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/rubber/</link>
	<width>32</width>
	<height>32</height>
</image> 
				<item>
					<title>In Thailand, EUDR pressure on small-scale rubber farmers prompts private-sector assistance</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-thailand-eudr-pressure-on-small-scale-rubber-farmers-prompts-private-sector-assistance/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-thailand-eudr-pressure-on-small-scale-rubber-farmers-prompts-private-sector-assistance/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jun 2026 02:02:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/14133641/1.-Banner-option-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321134</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Business, Certification, Commodity agriculture, Corporations, Crops, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, EUDR, Farming, Forest Products, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Law, Plantations, Rubber, Supply Chain, Sustainable Forest Management, Trade, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KRABI, Thailand — Beneath a humid canopy of rubber trees, Sathit Phromraksa pauses to inspect a coagulated ball of rubber in a palm-sized bowl fastened to a trunk. Last night, he and his wife worked their way through the plantation, carefully carving a line in the bark of each tree to stimulate the flow of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KRABI, Thailand — Beneath a humid canopy of rubber trees, Sathit Phromraksa pauses to inspect a coagulated ball of rubber in a palm-sized bowl fastened to a trunk. Last night, he and his wife worked their way through the plantation, carefully carving a line in the bark of each tree to stimulate the flow of milky latex. With a total 500 trees to tap in their 1.6-hectare (4-acre) plantation, their work took them from midnight to 3:30 a.m. “I inherited this rubber farm from my father,” says 59-year-old Sathit, a lifelong resident of Namgaan subdistrict in Thailand’s Krabi province. “Back then, my family used a lot of chemicals to control weeds and pests, but now, we follow organic practices.” Sathit is one of roughly 1.7 million smallholders who produce 90% of Thailand’s natural rubber supply across millions of individual plantations, most of them no bigger than his. For many, staying profitable is a constant challenge amid fluctuating market prices, crop diseases and climate change. Now, the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is poised to add to the pressures facing small-scale producers like Sathit. Under the law, set to take effect in January 2027, only suppliers who can prove their land wasn’t cleared after Dec. 31, 2020, will be allowed to continue selling rubber to EU markets. As the world’s leading natural rubber producer, the economic implications for Thailand are significant. While the bulk of its exports go to China and Malaysia, the value of Thai rubber entering the EU increased by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-thailand-eudr-pressure-on-small-scale-rubber-farmers-prompts-private-sector-assistance/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-thailand-eudr-pressure-on-small-scale-rubber-farmers-prompts-private-sector-assistance/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321134</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tiremakers ready to roll with EUDR, but repeated delays frustrate industry</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/tiremakers-ready-to-roll-with-eudr-but-repeated-delays-frustrate-industry/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/tiremakers-ready-to-roll-with-eudr-but-repeated-delays-frustrate-industry/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 May 2026 10:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/19095229/36640893672_e7bb4d2eb0_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319648</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[European Union, South Asia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Commodity agriculture, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, EUDR, Forest Destruction, Governance, Monitoring, Plantations, Politics, Rubber, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The tire manufacturing industry, a major consumer of natural rubber, says it’s ready for the European Union Deforestation Regulation, or EUDR, but remains concerned over the latest delay in the rule’s implementation. The EUDR aims to prevent products linked to deforestation from being sold in the EU market. Rubber is one of the seven commodities [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The tire manufacturing industry, a major consumer of natural rubber, says it’s ready for the European Union Deforestation Regulation, or EUDR, but remains concerned over the latest delay in the rule’s implementation. The EUDR aims to prevent products linked to deforestation from being sold in the EU market. Rubber is one of the seven commodities targeted under the rule that’s set to take effect at the end of this year. Natural rubber is collected by scoring the bark of the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) and collecting the milky white latex. At the base of the natural rubber supply chain are 6 million smallholders, mostly in Southeast Asia and, increasingly, West Africa, who produce about 85% of the world’s natural rubber. These farmers may have just a hectare or two of land under rubber, in multiple plots, and are independent, selling to multiple agents. The latex they harvest may then pass through numerous intermediary agents before in-country processing or export, making traceability within supply chains exceedingly complex. Under the EUDR, companies placing goods containing natural rubber on the EU market will have to show that the rubber didn’t come from recently deforested land, and that it was produced in compliance with local laws. That will mean they must have traceability throughout their supply chains. Originally slated to come into force in 2024, the EUDR’s implementation has been delayed twice. Large and medium-sized companies will now have until Dec. 30, 2026, to be EUDR-compliant, while small and micro-operators will be given a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/tiremakers-ready-to-roll-with-eudr-but-repeated-delays-frustrate-industry/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/tiremakers-ready-to-roll-with-eudr-but-repeated-delays-frustrate-industry/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319648</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Second progress report shows little action on World Bank redress plan at Liberian plantation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/second-progress-report-shows-little-action-on-world-bank-redress-plan-at-liberian-plantation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/second-progress-report-shows-little-action-on-world-bank-redress-plan-at-liberian-plantation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Apr 2026 10:07:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/04104621/woman-sex-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317077</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conflict, Corporate Social Responsibility, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, Plantations, Rubber, Social Conflict, Social Justice, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A year after the World Bank approved a plan to redress community grievances over inadequate compensation and sexual harassment at Liberia’s Salala Rubber Corporation, a progress report provides little evidence that any of its key commitments have been implemented. In February, the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, published a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A year after the World Bank approved a plan to redress community grievances over inadequate compensation and sexual harassment at Liberia’s Salala Rubber Corporation, a progress report provides little evidence that any of its key commitments have been implemented. In February, the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, published a second report on progress with the action plan. “IFC will continue to engage with key stakeholders over the coming months to explore the feasibility of MAP implementation.” But Windor Smith, from the Liberian civil society organization Alliance for Rural Democracy, which works with affected communities around the Salala plantation, told Mongabay she does not know which stakeholders the IFC is engaging with. “The situation is still the same. There is no engagement, no consultation with the communities and supporting organizations.” Luxembourg-based multinational Socfin took over the rubber plantation in 2007 and received an IFC loan of $10 million to rehabilitate and expand it. Community members started voicing grievances soon thereafter. Dissatisfied with the company’s response, they filed a complaint with the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, IFC’s independent watchdog, in 2019, alleging sexual harassment, inadequate compensation for their rubber trees and food crops lost and a flawed land acquisition process. Read more about Socfin&#8217;s plantations in Africa. Four years later, the CAO completed its investigation, concluding that many of the complaints were valid. The IFC developed an action plan, which it committed to implementing along with Socfin. In contrast to what followed many previous CAO investigations, the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/second-progress-report-shows-little-action-on-world-bank-redress-plan-at-liberian-plantation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/second-progress-report-shows-little-action-on-world-bank-redress-plan-at-liberian-plantation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317077</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Community complaints in limbo as Socfin cuts ties with Earthworm Foundation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/community-complaints-in-limbo-as-socfin-cuts-ties-with-earthworm-foundation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/community-complaints-in-limbo-as-socfin-cuts-ties-with-earthworm-foundation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Feb 2026 10:15:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka MukpoVictoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/16124503/Salala4-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313982</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Law, Plantations, Rubber, Social Conflict, Social Justice, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When agribusiness giant Socfin found itself embroiled in allegations of human rights and environmental violations at its plantations in Africa and Southeast Asia in 2017, it called on the Switzerland-based sustainability consultant Earthworm Foundation for help. Earthworm’s investigations eventually substantiated many of the grievances filed by communities across Socfin’s operations, notably including complaints of sexual [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When agribusiness giant Socfin found itself embroiled in allegations of human rights and environmental violations at its plantations in Africa and Southeast Asia in 2017, it called on the Switzerland-based sustainability consultant Earthworm Foundation for help. Earthworm’s investigations eventually substantiated many of the grievances filed by communities across Socfin’s operations, notably including complaints of sexual harassment and pollution of water sources raised at Liberia’s Salala Rubber Corporation. Earthworm’s findings largely mirrored those of a four-year investigation into Socfin’s practices in Liberia by the International Finance Corporation’s independent watchdog in 2023, which Socfin had rejected. Late in 2025, Socfin and Earthworm discreetly announced that they had cut ties. In a November press release posted to its website, the Earthworm Foundation called the decision “mutual.” “We did see Socfin genuinely engaging with and implementing the recommendations,” Jotica Sehgal, a spokesperson for Earthworm, said via email. “They made a strong commitment by allowing the investigation to proceed and by agreeing to have the results shared publicly.” The Earthworm Foundation counts global agriculture commodity giants like Nestlé and Pepsi as members. These companies pay an annual fee, and Earthworm offers support in addressing their supply chain practices. Responding to Mongabay by email in January, Socfin spokesperson Ludovic Saint-Pol said, “Both organisations recognise that the collaboration has reached its natural conclusion, with the main objectives initially defined having been largely achieved.” According to Earthworm&#8217;s website, the relationship with Socfin was intended to help the company develop and implement its Responsible Management Policy, set up grievance&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/community-complaints-in-limbo-as-socfin-cuts-ties-with-earthworm-foundation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/community-complaints-in-limbo-as-socfin-cuts-ties-with-earthworm-foundation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313982</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Researchers find concerning gaps in global maps used for EUDR compliance</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/researchers-find-concerning-gaps-in-global-maps-used-for-eudr-compliance/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/researchers-find-concerning-gaps-in-global-maps-used-for-eudr-compliance/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Dec 2025 14:57:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/19083601/d.-BANNER-UF18USU-A84A9875-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311699</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Who's implementing EUDR?]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Business, Cacao, Cattle, Coffee, Conservation, Deforestation, Economics, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, International Trade, Logging, Plantations, Politics, Rainforests, Rubber, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, timber trade, Trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A recent scientific review of forest maps used to ensure compliance with the European Union’s Regulation on Deforestation-free products, known as the EUDR, suggests that most may over- or underestimate forest areas, which could lead to inaccurate assessments of deforestation risk. The authors write that those inconsistencies point to the need for EU companies to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A recent scientific review of forest maps used to ensure compliance with the European Union’s Regulation on Deforestation-free products, known as the EUDR, suggests that most may over- or underestimate forest areas, which could lead to inaccurate assessments of deforestation risk. The authors write that those inconsistencies point to the need for EU companies to be discerning about which maps they use to ensure they comply with the regulation. The requirements will go into effect for most companies on Dec. 30, 2026, after a second postponement in as many years by the European Parliament. Only two of the 21 data sets in the assessment met all of the indicators used to assess risk used by the EUDR. The regulation will apply to seven commodities — cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and timber — as well as the products they’re used to make. Companies and government agencies are planning to use maps of satellite and other remote-sensing data to determine whether products entering EU countries are linked to deforestation after Dec. 31, 2020, the regulation’s cutoff date. Importing companies and the EU countries’ government agencies tasked with screening imported goods for compliance will compare georeferenced plots for a commodity with historical maps of forest and tree cover to determine whether it was produced at the expense of recently cleared forest. But many such maps exist, and the EUDR doesn’t specify the use of any one map. That means that a company using one map to verify compliance might come&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/researchers-find-concerning-gaps-in-global-maps-used-for-eudr-compliance/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/researchers-find-concerning-gaps-in-global-maps-used-for-eudr-compliance/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311699</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Insignificant risk’ EUDR proposal threatens fight against deforestation, critics say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/insignificant-risk-eudr-proposal-threatens-fight-against-deforestation-critics-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/insignificant-risk-eudr-proposal-threatens-fight-against-deforestation-critics-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jul 2025 17:07:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/24165241/AP25199052827551-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303145</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe and European Union]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Beef, Cacao, Cattle, Coffee, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, EUDR, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, International Trade, Law, Logging, Palm Oil, Politics, Rainforests, Rubber, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, timber trade, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A last-minute proposal to revise the European Union’s sweeping antideforestation law has conservationists worried about yet another delay to the law’s implementation and weaker oversight of supply chains. The EU deforestation-free products regulation, or EUDR, is scheduled to go into effect at the end of this year, imposing new restrictions on imports linked to forest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A last-minute proposal to revise the European Union’s sweeping antideforestation law has conservationists worried about yet another delay to the law’s implementation and weaker oversight of supply chains. The EU deforestation-free products regulation, or EUDR, is scheduled to go into effect at the end of this year, imposing new restrictions on imports linked to forest loss. But some officials want to simplify a section of the law to make trade easier — a hazardous delay tactic, some critics say. “Further attempts to delay the application of the regulation or to undermine its well thought through architecture will damage the credibility of the EU and frustrate the efforts of companies and third countries that have invested in reaching compliance,” said Together4Forests, a campaign of more than 220 environmental groups. The EUDR requires producers — including those in European countries — to prove cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soy and wood weren’t sourced from land that was deforested after Dec. 31, 2020. Technically, the law took effect in 2023 but allowed countries an 18-month transition period to give producers time to meet the new trade regulations. Last year, the transition period was extended by another 12 months, citing producers’ lack of preparedness. It’s now due to go into force on Dec. 30 this year. Corn and soy fields in Brasilia, Brazil. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres) The rigor of the regulations each country faces is based on a benchmarking system that categorizes them as either high, standard or low risk. This has been&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/insignificant-risk-eudr-proposal-threatens-fight-against-deforestation-critics-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/insignificant-risk-eudr-proposal-threatens-fight-against-deforestation-critics-say/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303145</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous rubber bounces back for Amazon conservation and higher income</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/indigenous-rubber-bounces-back-for-amazon-conservation-and-higher-income/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/indigenous-rubber-bounces-back-for-amazon-conservation-and-higher-income/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jul 2025 14:15:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sarah Brown]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/08065454/Packs-of-rubber-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302014</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioeconomy, Conservation, Culture, Drought, Economics, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Services, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Rainforests, Rubber, Saving Rainforests, Sustainability, Sustainable Forest Management, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Rubber tapping in the forest was once the main Amazonian economic activity, and now an Indigenous group is bringing it back.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the Igarapé Lourdes Indigenous Territory in the Brazilian Amazon, community members gather to listen to José Palahv Gavião. An Indigenous teacher and cooperative leader, he speaks about the past and the future of Amazonian rubber. Rubber extracted from forest trees was a major Brazilian commodity in the 1800s and early 1900s. But for the Indigenous Gavião people of this part of Rondônia state, it also meant exploitation and suffering. Today, however, the community has reclaimed it as an opportunity for income and forest protection, especially for Indigenous youths. According to José, many young people seek better economic opportunities outside the community. But he says it’s important to balance these ambitions with efforts to protect the forest that sustains them. “In every meeting I go to, I always highlight this point: If we don’t give value to the rainforest’s products, it won’t take long before it’s gone,” José tells Mongabay. “It helps reverse that mindset. Because when a seed collector earns income from that tree, they won’t want to cut it down.” The Gavião of Rondônia worked under exploitative conditions imposed by rubber extractors following their first contact with outsiders. Due to land conflicts and the advance of external development projects, they eventually abandoned rubber tapping in the late 1980s. By then, rubber was being harvested at industrial scales from vast plantations of rubber trees (Hevea brasiliensis), obviating the need to venture into the forest to collect it. The process of tapping rubber in the wild starts with making incisions&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/indigenous-rubber-bounces-back-for-amazon-conservation-and-higher-income/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/indigenous-rubber-bounces-back-for-amazon-conservation-and-higher-income/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302014</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Corporate giants fall short on forest protection commitments, report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/corporate-giants-fall-short-on-forest-protection-commitments-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/corporate-giants-fall-short-on-forest-protection-commitments-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Apr 2025 15:23:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/10154758/orangutan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298338</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Beef, Cacao, Deforestation, EUDR, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Green, Indigenous Rights, leather, Palm Oil, Rubber, Soy, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Many everyday items could be connected to deforestation, from your morning coffee to chocolate snacks, leather shoes and wooden furniture. Only 3% of major companies are taking action to stop forest destruction, according to a new report from NGO Global Canopy. The “Forest 500 Report 2025” examined 500 companies with the most influence over products [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Many everyday items could be connected to deforestation, from your morning coffee to chocolate snacks, leather shoes and wooden furniture. Only 3% of major companies are taking action to stop forest destruction, according to a new report from NGO Global Canopy. The “Forest 500 Report 2025” examined 500 companies with the most influence over products most linked to deforestation: beef, leather, palm oil, soy, timber, paper, and newly added cocoa, coffee and rubber. This year&#8217;s report expanded beyond rainforests to cover all forest types. &#8220;It&#8217;s disappointing to see this lack of action from those with the most power to stop deforestation,&#8221; Emma Thomson from the Forest 500 and tracking lead at Global Canopy told Mongabay. &#8220;It is unacceptable that so many companies are still doing nothing.&#8221; The report identified 24 &#8220;persistent laggards,&#8221; companies that have never made any deforestation commitments despite being evaluated for more than 10 years. These include major U.S. businesses like Ashley Furniture Industries, beef trader Parker-Migliorini International, and Land O&#8217;Lakes (a “powerbroker” for palm oil, soy and paper packaging). Other significant offenders include the world&#8217;s largest pork producer, WH Group (owner of Smithfield Foods), China State Construction Engineering Corp., and Bright Food Group. Cattle at one of the 70,000 suppliers used by JBS, one of Brazil&#8217;s largest beef producers. Photo courtesy of JBS Some companies are backtracking and retreating from previously announced targets. The world&#8217;s largest meatpacker, Brazil-based JBS, which in 2021 became the first in its industry to commit to net-zero emissions by 2040 and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/corporate-giants-fall-short-on-forest-protection-commitments-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/corporate-giants-fall-short-on-forest-protection-commitments-report/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298338</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia raises concerns over EU deforestation law’s impact on smallholders</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/indonesia-raises-concerns-over-eu-deforestation-laws-impact-on-smallholders/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/indonesia-raises-concerns-over-eu-deforestation-laws-impact-on-smallholders/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Apr 2025 14:01:57 +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/20/2025/01/08081207/oil-palm-workers-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297768</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Europe, European Union, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, data, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Forest Loss, International Trade, Palm Oil, Rainforests, Regulations, Rubber, Supply Chain, Timber, timber trade, Trade, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has raised serious concerns over the European Union Deforestation Regulation, or EUDR, saying it imposes a heavy administrative burden on smallholders while lacking clarity and consistency in its enforcement. When it comes into force at the end of this year, the EUDR will ban imports into the EU market of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has raised serious concerns over the European Union Deforestation Regulation, or EUDR, saying it imposes a heavy administrative burden on smallholders while lacking clarity and consistency in its enforcement. When it comes into force at the end of this year, the EUDR will ban imports into the EU market of seven forest-related commodities — soy, palm oil, coffee, cocoa, timber, rubber and beef — associated with deforestation and illegality. It will require producers and companies trading these commodities into the EU to provide detailed evidence proving they weren’t produced from land deforested since 2020. Indonesia, as the world’s largest palm oil producer and also a major exporter of timber, coffee, cocoa and rubber, stands to be significantly affected by the EUDR. The government is working with the EU to prepare producers and traders for full compliance ahead of the EUDR’s enforcement date of Dec. 30, 2025. However, concerns remain that the EU must address, Indonesian Deputy Foreign Minister Arief Havas Oegroseno said at a March 20 dialogue hosted by the NGO Kaoem Telapak in Jakarta. One key issue is ambiguity in the EUDR’s due diligence requirements. Arief pointed to Article 9 of the regulation, which requires “adequately conclusive and verifiable information&#8221; to demonstrate that a product is deforestation-free. He said the term &#8220;adequately conclusive&#8221; is vague and could lead to arbitrary enforcement, creating uncertainty for operators. Another sticking point is the requirement for operators to stay informed about various international regulations, which Arief said adds unnecessary complexity.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/indonesia-raises-concerns-over-eu-deforestation-laws-impact-on-smallholders/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/indonesia-raises-concerns-over-eu-deforestation-laws-impact-on-smallholders/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297768</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>No justice in sight for World Bank project-affected communities in Liberia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/no-justice-in-sight-for-world-bank-project-affected-communities-in-liberia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/no-justice-in-sight-for-world-bank-project-affected-communities-in-liberia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Feb 2025 12:30:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/03105221/Salala6-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293792</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conflict, Corporate Social Responsibility, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, Plantations, Rubber, Social Conflict, Social Justice, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[More than a year late, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation has finally submitted its response to an investigation that found evidence of grave human rights violations at the Salala Rubber Corporation (SRC) that it helps fund in Liberia. The IFC, established to fund private sector development in poor countries, loaned $10 million to SRC [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[More than a year late, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation has finally submitted its response to an investigation that found evidence of grave human rights violations at the Salala Rubber Corporation (SRC) that it helps fund in Liberia. The IFC, established to fund private sector development in poor countries, loaned $10 million to SRC to rehabilitate and expand its plantations in 2007. Affected communities filed a complaint  with the finance institution’s independent grievance body, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, alleging failure to prevent abuses by SRC. Communities living in and around the Salala rubber plantation accuse SRC, owned and operated by transnational plantation operator Socfin from 2007 until 2024, of land grabbing, sexual harassment of workers, pollution of water bodies, and the destruction of sacred sites and graves. Years of complaints raised directly with SRC’s management, local and national governments in Liberia, and the parent company, listed on the Luxembourg stock exchange, failed to win redress, forcing the communities to take their grievances to the CAO. Since the CAO investigation was completed in December 2023, the IFC has asked for multiple deadline extensions to submit a required management report and action plan (MAP) outlining the measures it will take together with SRC to address the ombudsman’s findings. “We are hoping that the action points of the MAP will be carried out so that community tension can ease,” said Windor Smith, a member of the Liberian civil society organization Alliance for Rural Democracy (ARD), which works on land and customary rights&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/no-justice-in-sight-for-world-bank-project-affected-communities-in-liberia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/no-justice-in-sight-for-world-bank-project-affected-communities-in-liberia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293792</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The calm before the storm: The first half of the 20th century in the Pan Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-calm-before-the-storm-the-first-half-of-the-20th-century-in-the-pan-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-calm-before-the-storm-the-first-half-of-the-20th-century-in-the-pan-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Nov 2024 11:15:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/07193744/WWII-soldados-do-boracha-768x489.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289832</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Colonization, Culture, Deforestation, Governance, Human Migration, Indigenous Peoples, Industry, Plantations, Politics, Population, Rainforest Destruction, and Rubber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The period between the end of the rubber boom and the onset of the colonisation frenzy that began in the 1960s was a time of relative stasis in the Amazon. The governments negotiated the final configuration of their international borders with a series of treaties that formalised the facts-on-the-ground that had been established during the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The period between the end of the rubber boom and the onset of the colonisation frenzy that began in the 1960s was a time of relative stasis in the Amazon. The governments negotiated the final configuration of their international borders with a series of treaties that formalised the facts-on-the-ground that had been established during the rubber boom. Amazonian rubber production did not disappear, at least not in Brazil, where the government subsidised an industry that employed tens of thousands of individuals. Revenues fell from US$ 2.8 billion in 1910 to less than US$ 175 million by 1925, while domestic consumption stabilised at between 15,000 and 20,000 tons per year. Most of the migrants stayed and adapted to their new home. The collapse in the price of rubber coincided with an increase in demand for the Castanha do Para. Known in international commerce as the Brazil nut, it became popular in the United States in the 1920s, when families included it as a treat in the traditional Christmas stocking. Although harvests could be quite variable (Figure 6.6), the duopoly provided seringueiros with a level of economic security and probably avoided a mass exodus. Between 1910 and 1920, the population of Pará fell by only about 10% (50,000), but it increased by 30% in Acre (18,000) and 1.5% in Amazonas (5,000). The population stabilized at about 1.4 million in the five jurisdictions of the Northern Region until the next major geopolitical event that changed its future. Natural rubber production reached a historic&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-calm-before-the-storm-the-first-half-of-the-20th-century-in-the-pan-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-calm-before-the-storm-the-first-half-of-the-20th-century-in-the-pan-amazon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289832</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The rubber boom and its legacy in Brazil, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-rubber-boom-and-its-legacy-in-brazil-peru-bolivia-and-colombia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-rubber-boom-and-its-legacy-in-brazil-peru-bolivia-and-colombia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Nov 2024 22:32:37 +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/20/2024/11/07190122/Free-Indians-Ucayaly-Hardeman-_-the-putumayo-the-devils-paradise-travels-in-the-peruvian-amazon-region-and-0a20cf-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289817</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commodity agriculture, Deforestation, Forests, Human Migration, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industry, International Trade, Plantations, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Rubber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The invention of vulcanized rubber (1839), followed by the popularization of bicycles (1870s) and the invention of the automobile (1886), led to exponential growth in the demand for rubber, which was manufactured from latex produced by several species of trees endemic to the Amazon forest. The supply of rubber was a component of the trade [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The invention of vulcanized rubber (1839), followed by the popularization of bicycles (1870s) and the invention of the automobile (1886), led to exponential growth in the demand for rubber, which was manufactured from latex produced by several species of trees endemic to the Amazon forest. The supply of rubber was a component of the trade in the drogas de sertão, which included latex collected from multiple species of two genera, Hevea and Castilla. The most valuable species were members of the genus Hevea, because their latex could be tapped rather than harvested from a felled tree, as was the case for Castilla. This difference soon led to the development of a Hevea supply chain anchored in remote outposts permanently manned by individuals who would collect the latex, process it into rubber using artisanal technologies and sell it to a trader for transport downriver to an export agency in Belem, Manaus or Iquitos. At the outset, most rubber was collected by Indigenous communities residing in mission villages or Ribeirinhos who supplemented their subsistence livelihoods with trade in forest products. Strong annual growth in the demand for rubber quickly exceeded the ability of the resident population to provide a steady supply, however, stimulating the flow of migrants into the region. During the last half of the nineteenth century, mass migration was facilitated by new technologies. Telegraph systems and newspapers alerted individuals to new opportunities, while trains and steamships would transport them across oceans and continents. Social mobility catalyzed by industrialization and democratic&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-rubber-boom-and-its-legacy-in-brazil-peru-bolivia-and-colombia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-rubber-boom-and-its-legacy-in-brazil-peru-bolivia-and-colombia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289817</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Is the delay of Europe&#8217;s deforestation regulation a cause for regret, or an opportunity? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/is-the-delay-of-europes-deforestation-regulation-a-cause-for-regret-or-an-opportunity-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/is-the-delay-of-europes-deforestation-regulation-a-cause-for-regret-or-an-opportunity-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Nov 2024 17:52:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alain Karsenty]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/11/01154714/cocoa-colombia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289700</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe and European Union]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Beef, Cacao, Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, International Trade, Rubber, Soy, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A European Commission project to counter deforestation and forest degradation associated with &#8220;the making available on the Union market as well as the export&#8221; of certain agricultural products was unveiled in November 2021. The &#8220;Deforestation and Forest Degradation Regulation&#8221; (EUDR) was adopted in June 2023, and was due to come into force in early 2025 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A European Commission project to counter deforestation and forest degradation associated with &#8220;the making available on the Union market as well as the export&#8221; of certain agricultural products was unveiled in November 2021. The &#8220;Deforestation and Forest Degradation Regulation&#8221; (EUDR) was adopted in June 2023, and was due to come into force in early 2025 for large companies. But in early October 2024, the EC proposed a one-year postponement &#8220;in order to assist global stakeholders, member states and third countries in their preparations.&#8221; A few months earlier, the Commission had postponed publication of the benchmarking analysis, which classifies countries into three risk categories (low, standard, high). The level of risk should determine the level of due diligence that importers must carry out when acquiring production that may have been associated with deforestation or degradation. Operators may be penalized for failing to carry out due diligence, even if it turns out that the imported product has not contributed to deforestation. The regulation stipulates that, before a product is offered for sale on the European market (or exported), each operator will have to guarantee that it is not associated with deforested land after December 31, 2020, by geolocating the parcels from which it originates using a traceability system. Farmers (and foresters) will have to upload traceability data, including GPS coordinates, which will be compared with satellite images. The indication of plot boundaries is compulsory from four hectares upwards. Cattle ranching is a key driver of deforestation in the Amazon. Image courtesy of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/is-the-delay-of-europes-deforestation-regulation-a-cause-for-regret-or-an-opportunity-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/is-the-delay-of-europes-deforestation-regulation-a-cause-for-regret-or-an-opportunity-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289700</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Biden Administration mistakenly seeks delay of EU&#8217;s new deforestation regulation (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/biden-administration-mistakenly-seeks-delay-of-new-european-deforestation-regulation-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/biden-administration-mistakenly-seeks-delay-of-new-european-deforestation-regulation-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2024 19:43:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Etelle Higonnet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/31145155/2.-Cattle-raising-in-recently-destroyed-forestland-in-the-municipality-Aripuana-in-Mato-Grosso-state-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286084</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Europe, European Union, Latin America, North America, South America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Beef, Cacao, Coffee, Commentary, Commodity agriculture, Deforestation, Forests, Governance, Palm Oil, Regulations, Rubber, Soy, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A crucial new European law to save global forests is under attack, by the Biden Administration – precisely at the time Biden seeks to burnish his environmental credentials. The regulation at stake? It’s the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), a law that’s widely considered the best hope for the lungs of our planet. Yet the U.S. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A crucial new European law to save global forests is under attack, by the Biden Administration – precisely at the time Biden seeks to burnish his environmental credentials. The regulation at stake? It’s the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), a law that’s widely considered the best hope for the lungs of our planet. Yet the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimundo, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and Trade Representative Katherine Tai sent a letter to the European Commission demanding that the European Union delay the EUDR. Their letter parroted ill-informed arguments put forth by a small number of the U.S.’s least ethical producers, and ignored how thousands of companies and investors representing trillions of dollars are on the opposite side, actively supporting the EUDR. Cattle ranching is a leading cause of deforestation in Brazil, and much of the resulting beef is exported. Image © Marizilda Cruppe/Greenpeace. Worse yet, the letter in essence asked Europe to penalize the most law-abiding companies, many of which are already investing in due diligence and deploying all their resources to ensure timely compliance. Delaying the EUDR, as Vilsack asks, would hurt companies that started early and reward the laggards. The truth is that American producers are perfectly capable of producing the products regulated by the EUDR without deforestation, namely soy, cattle, timber, cocoa, rubber, and coffee. Indeed, the United States should be the foremost supporter of the EUDR, perhaps unlike other producer countries that are less able to control significant deforestation in the regulated commodities. Here’s why: new&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/biden-administration-mistakenly-seeks-delay-of-new-european-deforestation-regulation-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/biden-administration-mistakenly-seeks-delay-of-new-european-deforestation-regulation-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286084</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agroforestry offers Thai rubber farmers a pathway to profit and sustainability</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/agroforestry-offers-thai-rubber-farmers-a-pathway-to-profit-and-sustainability/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/agroforestry-offers-thai-rubber-farmers-a-pathway-to-profit-and-sustainability/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jul 2024 14:24:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/31125619/DSCF0749-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285418</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Development, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Food, food security, Forest Products, Forests, Poverty Alleviation, Rubber, Solutions, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Little by little, the canopy of branches and interlocking leaves closes overhead as our vehicle rollicks deeper into the plantation. Pakamart Tongkam points from the driver’s seat into the stark thicket of rubber trees that now surround us: “When I was a child, I slept out there in a small hut while my [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Little by little, the canopy of branches and interlocking leaves closes overhead as our vehicle rollicks deeper into the plantation. Pakamart Tongkam points from the driver’s seat into the stark thicket of rubber trees that now surround us: “When I was a child, I slept out there in a small hut while my mum and dad worked in the plantation through the night.” Several years later, as an adolescent, Pakamart helped her parents with their daily rubber tapping. The routine was grueling, she tells Mongabay during a visit to Nathawi district in southern Thailand’s Songkhla province, a heartland of rubber production. Rising at 2 a.m., the family would trek through the humid plantation to strip the bark of hundreds of individual rubber trees to collect the milky latex. Most of all, Pakamart recalls an overriding air of uncertainty: if it rained during the two-hour window of time it took for the latex to drip into the collection bowls, the entire day’s yield would be ruined: “No income for that day,” she says. Relying on a single crop meant such poor harvests were devastating for their livelihood. But despite the precarious conditions, rubber farming is a major source of income for more than a million smallholder farmers in Thailand, who together produce 90% of the country’s sizeable annual yields of natural rubber. Rubber has historically been a major driver of deforestation across Southeast Asia. And with recent studies showing that at least 2 million hectares (5 million acres) of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/agroforestry-offers-thai-rubber-farmers-a-pathway-to-profit-and-sustainability/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/agroforestry-offers-thai-rubber-farmers-a-pathway-to-profit-and-sustainability/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285418</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Troubled rubber plantation in Liberia shuts down after labor unrest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/troubled-rubber-plantation-in-liberia-shuts-down-after-labor-unrest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/troubled-rubber-plantation-in-liberia-shuts-down-after-labor-unrest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jul 2024 11:22:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/16131022/Salala3-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285041</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Environment, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Plantations, and Rubber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Two prominent union leaders remain in prison a month after the headquarters of the Salala Rubber Corporation in Liberia was set on fire by aggrieved rubber tappers. The pair are among 60 workers who were named in an indictment seen by Mongabay. Along with another union official, they stand charged with conspiracy to commit a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Two prominent union leaders remain in prison a month after the headquarters of the Salala Rubber Corporation in Liberia was set on fire by aggrieved rubber tappers. The pair are among 60 workers who were named in an indictment seen by Mongabay. Along with another union official, they stand charged with conspiracy to commit a series of crimes, including arson. The three have been jailed for more than three weeks along with six other workers from the plantation. Salala is the Liberian subsidiary of the Belgian-French agricultural conglomerate Socfin, which operates rubber and oil palm plantations across West and Central Africa. The incident occurred on June 27 amid a campaign by the workers’ union to obtain a collective bargaining agreement that would guarantee better housing conditions, medical care for work-related injuries, a reduction in harvesting quotas, and other improvements. In mid-June, workers staged a five-day strike action in which they refused to work on the plantation. Salala’s management agreed to address some of the union’s demands, but said they would not pay the workers for the days they spent on strike. The refusal spurred some rubber tappers to ransack Salala’s headquarters, which were set on fire along with the private residence of the plantation’s manager, who was briefly detained by workers before being freed by company security. According to the Liberian government, more than $275,000 of company property was destroyed in the incident. A photo of the house of Salala Rubber Corporation&#8217;s manager after it was burned on June 27,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/troubled-rubber-plantation-in-liberia-shuts-down-after-labor-unrest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/troubled-rubber-plantation-in-liberia-shuts-down-after-labor-unrest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285041</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Investigation confirms more abuses on Cameroon, Sierra Leone Socfin plantations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/investigation-confirms-more-abuses-on-nigeria-sierra-leone-socfin-plantations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/investigation-confirms-more-abuses-on-nigeria-sierra-leone-socfin-plantations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jun 2024 04:32:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/23190816/Banner-IMG-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283549</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, Nigeria, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Business, Conflict, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Crime, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Law, Palm Oil, Plantations, Protests, Rainforests, Rubber, Social Conflict, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2023, Socfin hired a consultancy to investigate longstanding allegations of human rights violations and environmental damage raised by communities living around the Belgian transnational company’s oil palm and rubber plantations in Africa and Southeast Asia. Findings from a second round of investigations have now been published. Supply chain consultancy Earthworm Foundation’s investigators visited a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2023, Socfin hired a consultancy to investigate longstanding allegations of human rights violations and environmental damage raised by communities living around the Belgian transnational company’s oil palm and rubber plantations in Africa and Southeast Asia. Findings from a second round of investigations have now been published. Supply chain consultancy Earthworm Foundation’s investigators visited a subsidiary in Sierra Leone, the Socfin Agricultural Company (SAC), and one of the holding group’s four Cameroonian operations, SAFACAM. They found evidence of sexual harassment, problems with concession agreements and compensation schemes, as well as numerous incidents of pollution of water sources and environmental degradation affecting nearby communities in Sierra Leone and Cameroon. “The [SAC] report shows that Socfin does not have safeguards in place and is lacking due diligence,” said Joseph Rahall, from the Sierra Leonean advocacy group Green Scenery. Rahall, whose organization has been a leading voice raising concerns about Socfin’s practices since the plantation was established in 2011, said he was surprised by how forthright the report was. The investigators found pollution of rivers, lakes and lagoons in both Sierra Leone and Cameroon that they said could be linked to the company&#8217;s activities. In Sierra Leone, they also reported that the company doesn&#8217;t always apply measures to mitigate air pollution as proposed in the environmental, social and health impact assessment carried out when the plantation was set up in 2011. Margaret Fascia was amongst those who fought to protect their land when Socfin arrived to set up a plantation in 2011. “I&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/investigation-confirms-more-abuses-on-nigeria-sierra-leone-socfin-plantations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/investigation-confirms-more-abuses-on-nigeria-sierra-leone-socfin-plantations/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283549</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>With an eye on EU’s new rules, scientists test ways to capture Africa’s forest loss</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/with-an-eye-on-eus-new-rules-scientists-test-ways-to-capture-africas-forest-loss/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/with-an-eye-on-eus-new-rules-scientists-test-ways-to-capture-africas-forest-loss/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jun 2024 05:28:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/07072719/coffee-plantation-uganda-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283025</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Europe, European Union, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Business, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Policy, Food Industry, Forests, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, International Trade, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Mapping, Plantations, Rainforests, Rubber, Trade, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Robert Masolele says he remembers being struck by how small-scale farmers in his native Tanzania cleared large areas of forest to grow lucrative crops of cotton and cashews. In an interview with Mongabay, the remote-sensing expert describes how this awareness later prompted him to map deforestation in Africa with a focus on how commodity crops [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Robert Masolele says he remembers being struck by how small-scale farmers in his native Tanzania cleared large areas of forest to grow lucrative crops of cotton and cashews. In an interview with Mongabay, the remote-sensing expert describes how this awareness later prompted him to map deforestation in Africa with a focus on how commodity crops for export drive forest loss. The research, published in ​​the journal Nature Scientific Reports, yielded maps spanning 38 African countries. It’s an intricate and vast “tapestry,” as Masolele calls it, capturing in granular detail how humans make use of lands shorn of forests. While there’s already published work on the causes of forest loss in individual countries, the application derived from the paper allows users to identify the individual drivers of forest loss in Africa and their relative contribution — including cash crops. Masolele’s analysis showed that most of the deforestation across the continent is driven by small-scale agriculture. Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of Congo are hotspots for this kind of deforestation, with more than 85% of forest loss in these countries attributed to small farms. But in countries like the Gambia, Niger, Sudan and Nigeria, Masolele found the largest swaths of woodland were cleared to create large-scale farms. In South Africa, the expansion of tree plantations constitutes a significant threat to native forests. In Somalia and South Sudan, forests are most likely to be cleared for pasture. Roads are intruding the most on Equatorial Guinea’s forests, while cacao is eating away into large&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/with-an-eye-on-eus-new-rules-scientists-test-ways-to-capture-africas-forest-loss/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/with-an-eye-on-eus-new-rules-scientists-test-ways-to-capture-africas-forest-loss/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283025</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Analysis: Michelin’s no-deforestation claims in Indonesia rubber plantation a stretch</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/analysis-michelins-no-deforestation-claims-in-indonesia-rubber-plantation-a-stretch/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/analysis-michelins-no-deforestation-claims-in-indonesia-rubber-plantation-a-stretch/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 May 2024 09:37:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Stefano Valentino]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/16040115/sumatra_9255-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282697</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Jambi, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Mongabay Data Studio, Plantations, Rainforests, Rubber, Sustainability, Sustainable Forest Management, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In its sustainability policy, Michelin, the world’s largest tire manufacturer, highlights its commitment to &#8220;responsible and sustainable management of the rubber industry,” its “zero deforestation” ambitions, and its “commitment to protecting biodiversity.&#8221; The flagship of Michelin’s commitment to sustainable natural rubber is the PT Royal Lestari Utama (RLU) project in Indonesia. But how green is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In its sustainability policy, Michelin, the world’s largest tire manufacturer, highlights its commitment to &#8220;responsible and sustainable management of the rubber industry,” its “zero deforestation” ambitions, and its “commitment to protecting biodiversity.&#8221; The flagship of Michelin’s commitment to sustainable natural rubber is the PT Royal Lestari Utama (RLU) project in Indonesia. But how green is this project, really? In December 2014, the French giant bought a 49% stake in the rubber plantation company RLU, until then held exclusively by the Indonesian agribusiness giant Barito Pacific. Through this joint venture, Michelin aimed to sustainably supply 10% of the natural rubber used in its global operations. In March 2015, Michelin and Barito Pacific issued a set of no-deforestation commitments, promising to expand plantations only on open land within RLU’s two concessions in the Indonesian provinces of Jambi (on Sumatra Island) and East Kalimantan (Borneo Island). The plan called for partnering with local communities to produce rubber and food crops while protecting the ecosystems, with the final goal of improving the livelihoods of more than 50,000 people in 18 villages. After eight years of collaboration with Barito Pacific, in July 2022 Michelin eventually took over 100% of RLU, turning it into its fully owned subsidiary. In its press release, the French company said that, besides planting more than 13 million rubber trees across more than 23,000 hectares (56,800 acres), “RLU has saved thousands of hectares of primary forest, which, without its efforts, would have long since disappeared.” RLU’s latest sustainability report, released in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/analysis-michelins-no-deforestation-claims-in-indonesia-rubber-plantation-a-stretch/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/analysis-michelins-no-deforestation-claims-in-indonesia-rubber-plantation-a-stretch/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282697</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Desperation sets in for Indigenous Sumatrans who lost their forests to plantations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/desperation-sets-in-for-indigenous-sumatrans-who-lost-their-forests-to-plantations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/desperation-sets-in-for-indigenous-sumatrans-who-lost-their-forests-to-plantations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 May 2024 12:09:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Teguh Suprayitno]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/09082800/rubber-tapping-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281858</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Jambi, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Conflict, Conservation, Culture, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Land Conflict, Plantations, Rainforests, Resource Conflict, Rubber, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SEPINTUN, Indonesia — Past generations of Dahwas’s family lived off the food and fuel growing all around them, traversing Sumatra&#8217;s forest unobstructed whenever cultural norms required the seminomadic Suku Anak Dalam people to seek out a fresh location. Dahwas has lived with his seven children inside the forest here in Indonesia’s Jambi province his entire [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SEPINTUN, Indonesia — Past generations of Dahwas’s family lived off the food and fuel growing all around them, traversing Sumatra&#8217;s forest unobstructed whenever cultural norms required the seminomadic Suku Anak Dalam people to seek out a fresh location. Dahwas has lived with his seven children inside the forest here in Indonesia’s Jambi province his entire life, but in recent decades the land available to the Suku Anak Dalam has been shrinking. &#8220;We have been living here for 13 years,” Dahwas told Mongabay Indonesia, as he pointed to nearby fruit trees and the family cemetery. Around half of the Suku Anak Dalam, perhaps as many as 2,500 people, have lost their customary territory to plantation firms, according to KKI Warsi, a Sumatra-based NGO that advocates for the community. Among the companies is PT Alam Lestari Nusantara (ALN), an Indonesian state-owned firm that manages rubber plantations. It has a permit to manage 10,785 hectares (26,650 aces) of land here in Sepintun village, and sells the latex to a local processor owned by Thailand-based Sri Trang Group, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of natural rubber. In 2016, according to Dahwas, an ALN representative visited his family and asked them to relinquish their claim to the land. Someone claiming to own the land had already sold it, all 70 hectares (173 acres), to the company without Dahwas’s knowledge. Now, the ALN representative was asking him to vacate it and, in a goodwill gesture, offering to build him a new house and pay him&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/desperation-sets-in-for-indigenous-sumatrans-who-lost-their-forests-to-plantations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/desperation-sets-in-for-indigenous-sumatrans-who-lost-their-forests-to-plantations/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281858</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesian palm oil, Brazilian beef top contributors to U.S. deforestation exposure</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/indonesian-palm-oil-brazilian-beef-top-contributors-to-u-s-deforestation-exposure/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/indonesian-palm-oil-brazilian-beef-top-contributors-to-u-s-deforestation-exposure/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2024 15:45:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/07152346/colombia_cattle-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281790</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Beef, Biodiversity, Cacao, Cattle, Coffee, Conservation, Corn, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forests, Green, International Trade, Palm Oil, Pasture, Rainforests, Ranching, Rubber, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[If you’re in the United States, your meal might come with a side of deforestation.  The US imported palm oil, cattle products, soybeans, cocoa, rubber, coffee and corn linked to an estimated 122,800 hectares (303,445 acres) of tropical deforestation between October 2021 and November 2023 — an area the size of the city of Los [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[If you’re in the United States, your meal might come with a side of deforestation.  The US imported palm oil, cattle products, soybeans, cocoa, rubber, coffee and corn linked to an estimated 122,800 hectares (303,445 acres) of tropical deforestation between October 2021 and November 2023 — an area the size of the city of Los Angeles, according to a new report provided by the NGO Trase for Global Witness. More than a third (33.8%) of the deforestation was linked to oil palm imports, primarily from Indonesia. Cattle products, sourced mainly from Brazil, Australia and Mexico, were the second-largest contributor, at 31.8%. Coffee placed third, at 24.2%, followed by cocoa (7.6%), soybeans (2%), corn (0.37%) and rubber (0.15%). “I think it&#8217;s quite striking how palm oil was potentially quite a big source of deforestation exposure for the U.S. as a commodity that has received lots of attention,” Mark Titley, senior research associate at Trase, told Mongabay. Several Latin American countries were identified as significant sources of deforestation. Brazil was the second-largest contributor to U.S. deforestation exposure, primarily through cattle products. Colombia was the source of nearly a fifth of the deforestation linked to U.S. coffee imports. Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Honduras also contributed, mainly by exporting cattle products, coffee and cocoa. Trase&#8217;s methodology combines satellite data on tree cover loss with trade records and commodity production data to estimate the amount of deforestation per ton of production in each country and year. &#8220;So if we&#8217;re looking at palm oil, we&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/indonesian-palm-oil-brazilian-beef-top-contributors-to-u-s-deforestation-exposure/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/indonesian-palm-oil-brazilian-beef-top-contributors-to-u-s-deforestation-exposure/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281790</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>EU law to reduce deforestation is on a knife&#8217;s edge, will leaders act? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/eu-law-to-reduce-deforestation-is-on-a-knifes-edge-will-leaders-act-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/eu-law-to-reduce-deforestation-is-on-a-knifes-edge-will-leaders-act-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Apr 2024 14:41:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Etelle Higonnet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/23134025/Agribusiness-in-Matopiba-768x449.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281397</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Commodity Roundtables, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, International Trade, Palm Oil, Rubber, Soy, Trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[We are now in a make-or break-moment for the landmark law to halt imported global deforestation into the European Union. Global forest defenders watch with bated breath as in the next few days, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen will either decide to support the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), or to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[We are now in a make-or break-moment for the landmark law to halt imported global deforestation into the European Union. Global forest defenders watch with bated breath as in the next few days, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen will either decide to support the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), or to hollow out this vital law. This is happening while recent developments in Brussels threaten the EU Green Deal at its core. Brussels’ current political climate is taking an unprecedented turn against EU environmental policies, including first to withdraw the proposals for a pesticides law by the Commission, second the blockage of the Nature restoration law in the Council, and third the reopening of the Common Agriculture Policy to withdraw environmental provisions. A fourth threat looms now: a few elements in the coffee lobby, soy and other industries activated Austria and a few other agricultural ministries in EU member states to weaken the EUDR. These companies and ministries are lobbying to delay and water down the EUDR, though the regulation was already adopted and entered into force in June 2023. Oil palms inside a concession in Boasom, Jayapura district, Papua Province, Indonesia. Image © Oscar Siagian / Greenpeace. Many NGOs who are standing firm to defend the EUDR have tried to convince von der Leyen that this recent wave of corporate whinging should be balanced against the thousands of corporate leaders who have spoken out repeatedly for the EUDR over the years. Indeed, investors worth $6 trillion supported such regulation in Europe, whilst&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/eu-law-to-reduce-deforestation-is-on-a-knifes-edge-will-leaders-act-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/eu-law-to-reduce-deforestation-is-on-a-knifes-edge-will-leaders-act-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281397</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>World Bank’s IFC under fire over alleged abuses at Liberian plantation it funded</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/world-banks-ifc-under-fire-over-alleged-abuses-at-liberian-plantation-it-funded/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/world-banks-ifc-under-fire-over-alleged-abuses-at-liberian-plantation-it-funded/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Apr 2024 22:10:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/16131419/Salala9-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280629</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conflict, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, Plantations, Rubber, Social Conflict, Social Justice, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The World Bank’s independent watchdog, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), has finalized its investigation into a complaint filed five years ago, alleging grave human rights violations by communities living near the Salala Rubber Corporation in Liberia. The communities accuse the plantation, owned by Belgian multinational Socfin, of land grabbing and forced evictions, pollution of water [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The World Bank’s independent watchdog, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), has finalized its investigation into a complaint filed five years ago, alleging grave human rights violations by communities living near the Salala Rubber Corporation in Liberia. The communities accuse the plantation, owned by Belgian multinational Socfin, of land grabbing and forced evictions, pollution of water sources, sexual abuse, and the destruction of ancestral graves and sacred sites. Publication of the CAO’s findings is being delayed by the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank body whose 2008 loan supported expansion of the plantation, which missed a February deadline to respond to the investigation and put forward an action plan to directly address the communities’ grievances. The Salala plantation was originally established in 1959. Members of 22 communities within the concession’s 4,577 hectares (11,310 acres) in Bong and Margibi counties say they were evicted without their consent and have suffered severe disruption to their livelihoods and cultural and religious practices in the decades that followed. Socfin acquired the plantation in 2007 as Liberia emerged from two decades of civil war. A $10 million loan from the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation a year later enabled the company to expand its concession. The financial institution’s loan disclosure included bold ambitions for the plantation’s role: “IFC’s support will encourage Salala to become a local industry leader with regard to environmental, safety, and social standards.” Instead, the IFC’s own reports show Socfin was in violation of the institution’s social and environmental requirements from the outset.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/world-banks-ifc-under-fire-over-alleged-abuses-at-liberian-plantation-it-funded/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/world-banks-ifc-under-fire-over-alleged-abuses-at-liberian-plantation-it-funded/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280629</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>To ease deforestation, natural rubber industry must &#8216;paddle hard&#8217; (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/to-ease-deforestation-natural-rubber-industry-must-paddle-hard-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/to-ease-deforestation-natural-rubber-industry-must-paddle-hard-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2024 00:07:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aidan Mock]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/22053938/rubber-thailand-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=278165</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Commentary, Commodity Roundtables, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Products, Forests, Green, International Trade, Rubber, Sustainability, Trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Last October, I took some time off work at the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR) to learn how to surf. Surfing has always been a dream of mine and one of the more advanced surfing techniques is learning how to ride green waves (also known as unbroken waves). The image of surfers carving [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Last October, I took some time off work at the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR) to learn how to surf. Surfing has always been a dream of mine and one of the more advanced surfing techniques is learning how to ride green waves (also known as unbroken waves). The image of surfers carving fearlessly across the gaping maw of the ocean is one of the pinnacles of surfing, which is all about riding green waves. To successfully ride a green wave, you first have to assess the incoming “bumps” in the water that wash in from the open sea. Is this wave going to be big enough? Am I in the right place to catch it? Is someone else better set up to ride the wave? These questions are important both while sitting on a 8-foot piece of foam in the middle of the sea and in an office chair working on supply chain sustainability in downtown Singapore. After finding a desirable wave, you have to angle your board in the right direction and paddle like your life depends on it. There is a sweet spot to start paddling. If you start too early, your arms will tire by the time the wave arrives and the wave is lost. If you start too late, you might be able to stand up, but you won’t have enough time to adjust and the water will wash you off your feet, dumping you into the salt spray. Timing is key, in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/to-ease-deforestation-natural-rubber-industry-must-paddle-hard-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/to-ease-deforestation-natural-rubber-industry-must-paddle-hard-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-278165</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Growing rubber drives more deforestation than previously thought, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/growing-rubber-drives-more-deforestation-than-previously-thought-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/growing-rubber-drives-more-deforestation-than-previously-thought-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Nov 2023 05:46:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/22053938/rubber-thailand-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275768</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Mapping, Plantations, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Rubber, Technology, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Rubber cultivation in Southeast Asia is responsible for double or even triple the deforestation previously attributed to it, according to a recently published study. Antje Ahrends, one of the study’s authors, said she wasn’t surprised by the findings. Over the years, Ahrends, head of genetics and conservation at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, had observed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Rubber cultivation in Southeast Asia is responsible for double or even triple the deforestation previously attributed to it, according to a recently published study. Antje Ahrends, one of the study’s authors, said she wasn’t surprised by the findings. Over the years, Ahrends, head of genetics and conservation at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, had observed first-hand how rapidly rubber plantations were spreading in Southeast Asia. This, she said, made her think that previous estimates linking rubber cultivation to around 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of forest loss since 2000 had underestimated the scale of the issue, leading to oversights in policy setting and implementation. Now, thanks to remote-sensing technology paired with on-the-ground verification, she and her team have data to back up their observations from field trips over the years. Using remote-sensing technology, the team mapped 14.2 million hectares (35.1 million acres) of rubber plantations across Southeast Asia. Their study, published in the journal Nature, found that 4 million hectares (about 10 million acres) of forest have been cut down for rubber plantations since 1993, with at least half of that area chopped down since the turn of the millennium. Of the 14.2 million hectares mapped in the study, more than 1 million hectares were found to be in areas that are vital for the survival and protection of biodiversity. “This shows that rubber deforestation has been underestimated and has essentially not received the attention it deserves in policies,” Ahrends told Mongabay in a video interview. While the methodology&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/growing-rubber-drives-more-deforestation-than-previously-thought-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/growing-rubber-drives-more-deforestation-than-previously-thought-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-275768</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bolloré blacklisted over alleged rights violations on plantations in Africa and Asia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/bollore-blacklisted-over-alleged-rights-violations-on-plantations-in-africa-and-asia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/bollore-blacklisted-over-alleged-rights-violations-on-plantations-in-africa-and-asia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Sep 2023 19:46:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/09184645/SynaparcamMembers_Cameroon_ThierryDidierKuicheu-768x480.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273752</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Business, Conflict, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Crime, Environment, Governance, Human Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Law, Palm Oil, Plantations, Protests, Rubber, Social Conflict, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Some of Switzerland’s largest pension funds have placed French logistics giant Bolloré SE on a blacklist. The Swiss Association for Responsible Investments (SVVK-ASIR) decided its members should no longer invest in Bolloré after it failed to act to resolve accusations of land-grabbing, environmental damage and complicity in human rights violations on oil palm and rubber [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Some of Switzerland’s largest pension funds have placed French logistics giant Bolloré SE on a blacklist. The Swiss Association for Responsible Investments (SVVK-ASIR) decided its members should no longer invest in Bolloré after it failed to act to resolve accusations of land-grabbing, environmental damage and complicity in human rights violations on oil palm and rubber plantations operated by Socfin, in which it holds a 39% stake. &#8220;Bolloré SE’s subsidiary has been repeatedly accused of violating the rights of local populations in countries such as Cambodia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cameroon,&#8221; wrote Christina Meier, an associate at SVVK-ASIR, in an emailed response to Mongabay. &#8220;Bolloré SE shares responsibility for ensuring that human rights are observed and protected by the subsidiary due to its considerable influence.” SVVK-ASIR is a group founded by some of Switzerland&#8217;s most powerful pension and social security funds, which together manage $329 billion in assets. The association regularly assesses the ethical conduct of companies its members have invested in with reference to standards set by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the U.N. There are currently 30 corporations on the association’s exclusion list Bolloré is the first French company to be placed on this list, which is part of a voluntary guideline to ethical investment to which SVVK-ASIR’s members agree. SVVK-ASIR blacklists companies only after an extended process. When a company is found to be involved in demonstrable, severe and systematic violations, the association initiates a dialogue to give the accused company an opportunity to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/bollore-blacklisted-over-alleged-rights-violations-on-plantations-in-africa-and-asia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/bollore-blacklisted-over-alleged-rights-violations-on-plantations-in-africa-and-asia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-273752</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>EU deforestation-free rule ‘highly challenging’ for SE Asia smallholders, experts say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/eu-deforestation-free-rule-highly-challenging-for-se-asia-smallholders-experts-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/eu-deforestation-free-rule-highly-challenging-for-se-asia-smallholders-experts-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Sep 2023 12:45:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/09/20122259/01_Banner_Coffee_CIAT-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273471</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Laos, Southeast Asia, Thailand, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Certification, Coffee, Community Forests, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forestry, Forests, Green, International Trade, Law Enforcement, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, Regulations, Rubber, Timber, Timber Laws, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A landmark EU anti-deforestation regulation that entered into force in June 2023 could come down hard on smallholder farmers in mainland Southeast Asia who produce a significant proportion of the region’s forest products exported to the bloc, forest trade experts say. The EU’s deforestation-free regulation (EUDR) aim to prevent seven forest-related commodities and their products [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A landmark EU anti-deforestation regulation that entered into force in June 2023 could come down hard on smallholder farmers in mainland Southeast Asia who produce a significant proportion of the region’s forest products exported to the bloc, forest trade experts say. The EU’s deforestation-free regulation (EUDR) aim to prevent seven forest-related commodities and their products from entering the EU market if they’re found to be linked to deforestation. The rule requires producers and companies trading timber, palm oil, soy, rubber, cattle, cocoa and coffee into the EU to provide detailed evidence proving their goods were not grown on land deforested since 2020. The new regulations give producers and companies until December 2024 to fully comply. While the regulation is a step toward transparency and international deforestation-free supply chain management, observers say it places millions of smallholders who depend on access to the EU market in a vulnerable position. Many small-scale farmers lack the technical capacity and financial capital to meet the hefty due diligence requirements of the new rules, experts say. Intact rainforest in Cuc Phuong in northern Vietnam. Image by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay Smallholders produce 95% of Vietnam’s coffee, 42% of Indonesia’s palm oil, and 95% of Thailand’s rubber. Finding ways to avoid small-scale producers being shut out of EU supply chains should therefore be a top priority for both exporting countries and the EU, according to Phuc Xuan To, a policy adviser at sustainable finance think tank Forest Trends.  “There are a lot of concerns and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/eu-deforestation-free-rule-highly-challenging-for-se-asia-smallholders-experts-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/eu-deforestation-free-rule-highly-challenging-for-se-asia-smallholders-experts-say/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-273471</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rolling car tires into the global circular economy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/rolling-car-tires-into-the-global-circular-economy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/rolling-car-tires-into-the-global-circular-economy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Aug 2023 16:05:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/21131401/tires-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272400</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Consumed, Planetary Boundaries, and Product Lifecycles]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Carbon Emissions, Circular Economy, Climate Change, Consumption, Deforestation, Development, Economics, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Globalization, Industry, International Trade, Microplastics, Pollution, Recycling, Rubber, Supply Chain, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Transportation, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A billion tires enter landfills, are burned, or litter the landscape every year, and more will be dumped as auto use surges planetwide. Industry analysts and entrepreneurs are pressing for circular economy solutions.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Imagine a heap of a billion vehicle tires towering overhead, the total number humanity throws away in just one year — worn-out tires tossed into landfills, burned, or littering the landscape. While that’s a visually distressing image, the harm tires do starts where they’re sourced, with current and future car fleets leaving an environmental trail stretching from tropical rainforests to rubber plantations to global roadsides, along waterways, and even into the atmosphere — impacting global biodiversity and human health. Experts say that applying a circular economy model to tire production and disposal could limit massive resource demand, while simultaneously turning this globally vexing waste stream back into valuable materials. But no matter the solution, the complex composition of the average tire — containing more than 400 chemicals and compounds — means there’s no single silver-bullet solution to this persistent problem. As much as 75% of global waste tires — roughly 750,000 tires annually — currently end up in landfills, according to some estimates, while others place the figure at around 40%. Circular economy solutions, which view used tires as a valuable resource, are needed to reduce environmental impacts across the supply chain. Image by Jared Earle via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). A toxic conundrum Tires typically start their life’s journey in the tropics, with rubber produced predominantly by smallholder farmers on monocrop plantations. Current production methods risk ongoing deforestation and harm to biodiversity, along with uncertain livelihoods for farmers. Some 70% of the world’s natural rubber ends up in car&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/rolling-car-tires-into-the-global-circular-economy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/rolling-car-tires-into-the-global-circular-economy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272400</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Investigation confirms most allegations against plantation operator Socfin</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/investigation-confirms-most-allegations-against-plantation-operator-socfin/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/investigation-confirms-most-allegations-against-plantation-operator-socfin/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Aug 2023 20:46:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/11150605/oil-palm-harvest-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272011</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Business, Conflict, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Crime, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Law, Palm Oil, Plantations, Protests, Rainforests, Rubber, Social Conflict, Social Justice, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[International environmental consultancy the Earthworm Foundation has released findings from field investigations it conducted in April and May this year into grievances against two plantations owned by Belgian multinational the Socfin Group. EF investigators visited the plantations run by Socfin’s subsidiaries, one in Liberia and the other in Cameroon, where communities and local and international [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[International environmental consultancy the Earthworm Foundation has released findings from field investigations it conducted in April and May this year into grievances against two plantations owned by Belgian multinational the Socfin Group. EF investigators visited the plantations run by Socfin’s subsidiaries, one in Liberia and the other in Cameroon, where communities and local and international organizations had raised serious allegations of sexual harassment, land grabs, pollution and unfair labor practices. EF plans further visits to other plantations, but in two reports covering the first phase, the investigators confirmed the majority of the allegations that were subject to the investigation. At Liberia’s Salala Rubber Plantation (SRC), one of two Socfin owns in the West African country, EF’s team found that allegations of sexual harassment were credible. They found that women at SRC were fired or denied work for refusing to engage in sexual acts. A ”Gender Committee” that the company set up in 2017 failed to pick up any of numerous cases of sexual harassment, including complaints by women about being touched inappropriately without their consent. The EF team also found that work at the plantation is generally contracted and of a short-term nature, and several affected communities had been left out of recruitment processes. In Cameroon, the investigators visited the Dibombari oil palm plantation, one of six run by Socfin’s Cameroon subsidiary, Socapalm. They confirmed reports of rape and sexual harassment of women by employees on the plantation, including one case confirmed by a local doctor. Socapalm&#8217;s investigation of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/investigation-confirms-most-allegations-against-plantation-operator-socfin/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/investigation-confirms-most-allegations-against-plantation-operator-socfin/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272011</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cambodia awards swath of national park forest to tycoon Ly Yong Phat’s son</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/cambodia-awards-swath-of-national-park-forest-to-tycoon-ly-yong-phats-son/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/cambodia-awards-swath-of-national-park-forest-to-tycoon-ly-yong-phats-son/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jul 2023 02:31:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald FlynnMeng Kroypunlok]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/25153445/DJI_0599-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=271331</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Cardamom Mountains, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corruption, Crime, Deforestation, Development, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Illegal Logging, Illegal Trade, Industrial Agriculture, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Logging, National Parks, Plantations, Protected Areas, Protests, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Rubber, Sugar, Timber, timber trade, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BOTUM SAKOR, Cambodia — Once Cambodia’s largest national park, Botum Sakor has shriveled under the gaze of tycoons, whose parcels of land have swallowed up more than 80% of the entire park since 1998. This land rush has seen a 28% decrease in forest across the 182,342-hectare (450,577-acre) park between 2001 and 2022. According to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BOTUM SAKOR, Cambodia — Once Cambodia’s largest national park, Botum Sakor has shriveled under the gaze of tycoons, whose parcels of land have swallowed up more than 80% of the entire park since 1998. This land rush has seen a 28% decrease in forest across the 182,342-hectare (450,577-acre) park between 2001 and 2022. According to Global Forest Watch, some 45,600 hectares (112,700 acres) of tree cover vanished during those 21 years, as tycoons and political allies of longtime Prime Minister Hun Sen carved up the coastal protected area in Cambodia’s southwestern Koh Kong province. Key among these political allies is Ly Yong Phat, a multimillionaire Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) senator, an adviser to Hun Sen, and president of the Oknha Association — a union for Cambodia’s many tycoons, or Oknha — who has been awarded 16,275 hectares (40,216 acres) of Botum Sakor National Park since 2008. The senator has acquired tens of thousands of hectares of land across Koh Kong and Kampong Speu provinces, mostly for plantations operated by companies run by his wife, Kim Heang, and their five children. In January this year, another concession handed a 6,234-hectare (15,405-acre) plot of Botum Sakor to a company where Ly Phoonrat, the youngest son of the senator, serves as a director. In total, three new roads spanning some 45 kilometers have been cut through the best-preserved part of Botum Sakor National Park. All three roads link to concessions owned by Ly Yong Phat, a ruling party senator and Cambodian tycoon with&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/cambodia-awards-swath-of-national-park-forest-to-tycoon-ly-yong-phats-son/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/cambodia-awards-swath-of-national-park-forest-to-tycoon-ly-yong-phats-son/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-271331</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Communities accuse Socfin and Earthworm Foundation of greenwash in West Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/communities-accuse-socfin-and-earthworm-foundation-of-greenwash-in-west-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/communities-accuse-socfin-and-earthworm-foundation-of-greenwash-in-west-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Jun 2023 07:30:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/20074946/palm-oil-west-africa-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=269990</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Business, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Land Rights, Law, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rubber, Social Conflict, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the past decade, communities affected by transnational palm oil and rubber company Socfin’s plantations have raised complaints with local authorities and in international media. Socfin recently initiated an investigation into selected allegations by a supply chain consultancy company, the Earthworm Foundation (EF, formerly the Forest Trust). Even before it began, however, the investigation was [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the past decade, communities affected by transnational palm oil and rubber company Socfin’s plantations have raised complaints with local authorities and in international media. Socfin recently initiated an investigation into selected allegations by a supply chain consultancy company, the Earthworm Foundation (EF, formerly the Forest Trust). Even before it began, however, the investigation was rejected by prominent community and international organizations. In May, a number of local organizations from communities affected by Socfin’s plantations — including Synaparcam in Cameroon and Green Advocates in Liberia, supported by international NGOs like GRAIN and ReAct — wrote a letter to Socfin chair Hubert Fabri, rejecting EF’s invitation to local advocates to participate in the investigation. “The process made public by Socfin and EF does not provide any guarantees as to the criteria that any investigation aiming towards conflict resolution should meet,” they wrote. Socfin is a transnational holding company headquartered in Luxembourg that operates oil palm and rubber operations in eight countries in West and Central Africa, as well as Cambodia and Indonesia. Mongabay has reported on communities’ allegations against Socfin subsidiaries operating plantations in Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Liberia, covering violations of land rights, pollution of water courses, destruction of graves and sacred forests, sexual abuse, corruption, and failure to secure free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) from host communities. Socfin says the current investigations are a sign of the progress it is making in responding to community complaints, in line with what it calls its “responsible management policy,” adopted&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/communities-accuse-socfin-and-earthworm-foundation-of-greenwash-in-west-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/communities-accuse-socfin-and-earthworm-foundation-of-greenwash-in-west-africa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-269990</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Logged and loaded: Cambodian prison official suspected in massive legalized logging operation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/logged-and-loaded-cambodian-prison-official-suspected-in-massive-legalized-logging-operation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/logged-and-loaded-cambodian-prison-official-suspected-in-massive-legalized-logging-operation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Mar 2023 15:56:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/03/08171904/banner-leng-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266219</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers and Investigation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Corruption, Environment, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Green, Habitat Loss, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Logging, Plantations, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Roads, Rubber, Timber, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network where Gerald Flynn is a fellow. &#160; SIEM PANG, Cambodia — “Us locals cannot source benefits from the forest anymore, only the Oknhas can find benefits in the forest now,” Samnang* said one afternoon in January, using a Khmer word for tycoons. His farm [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network where Gerald Flynn is a fellow. &nbsp; SIEM PANG, Cambodia — “Us locals cannot source benefits from the forest anymore, only the Oknhas can find benefits in the forest now,” Samnang* said one afternoon in January, using a Khmer word for tycoons. His farm sits on the eastern banks of the Sekong River, in Siem Pang, a district of Cambodia’s northeastern Stung Treng province, which shares a border with Laos. Behind his small patch of land, a vast canopy of green stretches out as far as the horizon, with densely forested mountains rising against the skyline. Samnang pointed to faraway trails of smoke, the white wispy plumes the only indicator from the ground of human activity deep within the jungle. But Samnang and others living along the riverbank say they’ve been aware of the industrial logging operation for months. Residents reported seeing a flurry of 18-wheel trucks repeatedly ferried across the Sekong River in the final months of 2022. The trucks returned full of timber, crossing back to the west side of the river where, villagers say, they were waved through newly constructed checkpoints set up alongside a road that was built sometime between March and April 2022, adjoining the new ferry crossing and an existing road that leads to Dong Kroloh village through a variety of older economic land concessions. Two ferries are seen in the Sekong river at the crossing point owned by T.S.M.W.: one larger vessel&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/logged-and-loaded-cambodian-prison-official-suspected-in-massive-legalized-logging-operation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/logged-and-loaded-cambodian-prison-official-suspected-in-massive-legalized-logging-operation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266219</doi>				</item>
			</channel>
</rss>