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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/temperate-forests/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Fri, 25 Sep 2026 05:45:37 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Temperate Forests</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/temperate-forests/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>How carbon markets can succeed &#038; also serve Global South communities (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-carbon-markets-can-succeed-also-serve-global-south-communities-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-carbon-markets-can-succeed-also-serve-global-south-communities-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jul 2026 21:09:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Pati Ruiz Corzo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/27182742/Encinos-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324619</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Avoided Deforestation, Business, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Sequestration, Certification, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Finance, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Mitigation, Nature-based climate solutions, Rainforests, Solutions, Temperate Forests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Carbon markets were designed around the compelling premise that private finance could flow where forests are most at risk, rewarding the communities and landowners who protect them while helping companies take responsibility for their emissions. For anyone working in climate or conservation, the underlying logic still holds. The world&#8217;s forests provide essential ecosystem services, capture [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Carbon markets were designed around the compelling premise that private finance could flow where forests are most at risk, rewarding the communities and landowners who protect them while helping companies take responsibility for their emissions. For anyone working in climate or conservation, the underlying logic still holds. The world&#8217;s forests provide essential ecosystem services, capture and store huge amounts of carbon dioxide, face enormous pressure, and need sustained economic incentives if they are to survive. So why has the voluntary carbon market so consistently fallen short of this promise? Over the past decade, the sector has faced mounting evidence that many carbon credits, particularly those issued for forest conservation in the Global South, have not delivered the climate outcomes they claimed. There have been well-documented cases of social harm to Indigenous and local communities, scientific analysis has repeatedly found that the methodologies used to calculate emissions reductions were prone to significant overestimation, and trust in the market, among both buyers and civil society, has been eroded. Military macaws (Ara militaris) flying over a forest in the Sierra Gorda. They are one of the many iconic and endangered species that call the forests of the Sierra Gorda home. Image courtesy of Roberto Pedraza Ruiz / Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda. However, this is not a reason to abandon the idea of climate finance for nature. It is a reason to understand what has gone wrong, and to ask what a more inclusive, just, and transparent model can look like. What hasn’t worked&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-carbon-markets-can-succeed-also-serve-global-south-communities-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-carbon-markets-can-succeed-also-serve-global-south-communities-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324619</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Long dubbed a ‘climate refuge,’ warming Tasmanian forests need our help</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/long-dubbed-a-climate-refuge-warming-tasmanian-forests-need-our-help/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/long-dubbed-a-climate-refuge-warming-tasmanian-forests-need-our-help/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 May 2026 21:31:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Stefan Lovgren]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/12184852/2.-Dove-Lake-Cradle-Mountain-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319252</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, Oceania, and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Impact Of Climate Change, Islands, Rainforests, Research, Temperate Forests, Temperatures, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TASMANIA, Australia — A shaded creek winds through fern forest along the Lilydale Falls Trail in northern Tasmania. As hikers pass by, researcher Todd Walsh reaches into the slow-moving water and beneath a rock to pull out a juvenile giant freshwater crayfish caught in one of his live traps. In streams like this one, he [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TASMANIA, Australia — A shaded creek winds through fern forest along the Lilydale Falls Trail in northern Tasmania. As hikers pass by, researcher Todd Walsh reaches into the slow-moving water and beneath a rock to pull out a juvenile giant freshwater crayfish caught in one of his live traps. In streams like this one, he says, present day temperatures rarely climb above about 21° Celsius (69.8° Fahrenheit). “The lethal temperature seems to be about 23°[C, or 73.4°F] for these guys,” says Walsh, an independent crayfish expert who has studied the animals for decades and is known locally as the “Lobster Man.” Walsh says he has encountered a few other Tasmanian creeks reaching 25-26°C (77-78.8°F), which would exceed the species’ apparent thermal limits, and he hasn’t found any crayfish in those streams. Crayfish expert Todd Walsh checks a live trap in a shaded stream in northern Tasmania, where cold, forested waterways provide critical habitat for the giant freshwater crayfish. Image by Stefan Lovgren. A juvenile Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish. Few survive to adulthood, making the loss of habitat for young individuals a major threat to the species. Image by Stefan Lovgren. The Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish (Astacopsis gouldi), also dubbed the giant freshwater lobster (even though it’s not a lobster), is the largest freshwater invertebrate on Earth, capable of growing up to a meter long (more than 3 feet) and living for decades. It occurs only in northern Tasmania’s cool, forested river watersheds — habitat that has remained colder and wetter&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/long-dubbed-a-climate-refuge-warming-tasmanian-forests-need-our-help/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/long-dubbed-a-climate-refuge-warming-tasmanian-forests-need-our-help/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319252</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Invasive plant drives ecological change in America’s gigantic Selway–Bitterroot Wilderness (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/invasive-plant-drives-ecological-change-in-americas-gigantic-selway-bitterroot-wilderness-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/invasive-plant-drives-ecological-change-in-americas-gigantic-selway-bitterroot-wilderness-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Apr 2026 17:08:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lyle Lewis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/09162539/SelwayBitterrootWilderness_LittleRockCreekLakeAndElCapitan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317142</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Invasive Species, Plants, Protected Areas, and Temperate Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Selway–Bitterroot Wilderness was part of the original class of lands designated under the United States’ 1964 Wilderness Act: 1.3 million acres, or about 526,000 hectares, of steep river canyons, cold subalpine ridges, dense forest, and weather so unforgiving it shapes everything that survives there. It remains one of the most remote places in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Selway–Bitterroot Wilderness was part of the original class of lands designated under the United States’ 1964 Wilderness Act: 1.3 million acres, or about 526,000 hectares, of steep river canyons, cold subalpine ridges, dense forest, and weather so unforgiving it shapes everything that survives there. It remains one of the most remote places in the continental U.S. The Selway offers a window into a broader global pattern: ecosystems that appear intact from afar are already being structurally reshaped by invasive species, climate change and hidden biodiversity loss. The idea of “untouched wilderness” persists in our imagination, but ecologically, it is no longer true. Its remoteness is literal. Trails disappear under the brush that regrows faster than crews can cut it. Fire and blowdowns reshape entire drainages in a year. Maps may show routes, but the land often says otherwise. Without intervention, trails vanish, reclaimed by vegetation and gravity. I know this because I’ve spent days clearing them. By 2016, roughly half the trails shown on topographic maps were already impassable, in a failure for recreation but a quiet triumph for wildlife. There are square miles of habitat here that likely haven’t seen a human in decades. The Selway River is one of the most technically demanding whitewater runs in North America. Rafts flip, boats wrap, and accidents turn fatal almost every year. People call it wilderness because it feels like one. But feeling wild and intact functioning are not the same thing. One of the largest elk herds in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/invasive-plant-drives-ecological-change-in-americas-gigantic-selway-bitterroot-wilderness-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/invasive-plant-drives-ecological-change-in-americas-gigantic-selway-bitterroot-wilderness-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317142</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Chile’s ancient conifers host underground web of life that sustains forests: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/chiles-ancient-conifers-host-underground-web-of-life-that-sustains-forests-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/chiles-ancient-conifers-host-underground-web-of-life-that-sustains-forests-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Apr 2026 10:26:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sofia Moutinho]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/09101258/61_Chile_Fungi_DJI_0270-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317250</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Chile, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Carbon Sequestration, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Forest Carbon, Forest Loss, Forests, Fungi, Logging, Old Growth Forests, Planetary Boundaries, Plants, Protected Areas, Research, Temperate Forests, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In an isolated valley within Alerce Costero National Park in southern Chile, one tree towers above all others. At 30 meters (100 feet) high, this alerce abuelo or grandpa alerce, is estimated to be more than 2,400 years old. Its massive trunk and branches are covered in lichens, mosses and even other woody plant species [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In an isolated valley within Alerce Costero National Park in southern Chile, one tree towers above all others. At 30 meters (100 feet) high, this alerce abuelo or grandpa alerce, is estimated to be more than 2,400 years old. Its massive trunk and branches are covered in lichens, mosses and even other woody plant species that take root in the crevices of its bark. But beneath it, hidden underground, lies another hidden treasure: a community of fungi known as arbuscular mycorrhizae. These kinds of fungi establish unique partnerships with plants that are fundamental to keeping forests alive. More than 80% of all terrestrial plants are associated with these fungi, which form underground networks, penetrating roots and creating specialized structures called arbuscules that supply nutrients and water to the plant in exchange for carbon and sugars. Now, for the first time, scientists have sampled and analyzed the fungal community beneath alerce trees (Fitzroya cupressoides) in the Chilean national park, the country’s largest protected area for temperate coastal forests. Their research revealed that the ancient alerce abuelo hosts two and a quarter times more fungal diversity than its smaller, younger counterparts, highlighting the uniqueness of this old tree. “All the diversity you see above in the tree branches also happens belowground,” says lead author Camille Truong, a mycologist with the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria and the University of Melbourne in Australia and the study’s lead author. “All these root systems and the soil offer a habitat for thousands of fungi, and also&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/chiles-ancient-conifers-host-underground-web-of-life-that-sustains-forests-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/chiles-ancient-conifers-host-underground-web-of-life-that-sustains-forests-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317250</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists can’t agree on where the world’s forests are</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/scientists-cant-agree-on-where-the-worlds-forests-are/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/scientists-cant-agree-on-where-the-worlds-forests-are/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Feb 2026 17:42:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/17172325/cape-york-satellite-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314385</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Brazil, East Africa, Global, India, Kenya, Latin America, South America, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, data, Environment, Forests, Green, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Temperate Forests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A deceptively simple question underlies many global environmental policies: where, exactly, are the world’s forests? A new study suggests the answer depends heavily on which map one consults—and that the differences are large enough to reshape climate targets, conservation priorities, and development spending. Researchers Sarah Castle, Peter Newton, Johan Oldekop, Kathy Baylis, and Daniel Miller [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A deceptively simple question underlies many global environmental policies: where, exactly, are the world’s forests? A new study suggests the answer depends heavily on which map one consults—and that the differences are large enough to reshape climate targets, conservation priorities, and development spending. Researchers Sarah Castle, Peter Newton, Johan Oldekop, Kathy Baylis, and Daniel Miller compared ten widely used global forest datasets derived from satellite imagery. These products underpin everything from carbon accounting to biodiversity assessments. Yet they rarely agree. Across the area identified as forest by at least one dataset, only about 26% was classified as forest by all of them. Even after adjusting maps to a common spatial scale, agreement improved only modestly. This divergence stems partly from differing definitions. Some datasets count areas with sparse tree cover as forest; others require dense canopy. A threshold of 10% canopy cover, for example, will include savannas and woodland mosaics, while a 70% threshold captures only closed forests. Resolution also matters. High-resolution imagery can detect narrow forest strips or small patches that coarser data miss. Methodological choices—such as sensor type, machine-learning algorithm, and training data—introduce further variation. A) Spatial agreement of forest cover classifications between eight land cover datasets. Spatial agreement is defined as the number of datasets that define a pixel as forest, between 1 and 8. Full agreement between all eight datasets corresponds to a value of eight (dark green), and no agreement between the datasets corresponds to a value of 1 (dark purple). No color (gray) indicates&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/scientists-cant-agree-on-where-the-worlds-forests-are/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/scientists-cant-agree-on-where-the-worlds-forests-are/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314385</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A hundred-year vision: Gary Tabor on the rise of large landscape conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/a-hundred-year-vision-gary-tabor-on-the-rise-of-large-landscape-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/a-hundred-year-vision-gary-tabor-on-the-rise-of-large-landscape-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Feb 2026 14:04:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/16003533/gary-tabor-rainbow_1425-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314276</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Australia, Canada, East Africa, Global, North America, Uganda, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecology, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Fragmentation, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Landscape Restoration, Mammals, Mountains, Restoration, Temperate Forests, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Many view conservation as a ledger of discrete gains—acres saved or species rebounded—but for Gary Tabor, the more vital metric is architecture. He focuses on systems that hold when pressure builds. Few careers illustrate that preoccupation better than that of Tabor, an ecologist and wildlife veterinarian whose work prioritizes the relationship between places as much [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Many view conservation as a ledger of discrete gains—acres saved or species rebounded—but for Gary Tabor, the more vital metric is architecture. He focuses on systems that hold when pressure builds. Few careers illustrate that preoccupation better than that of Tabor, an ecologist and wildlife veterinarian whose work prioritizes the relationship between places as much as the protection of the places themselves. Tabor’s conservation instincts were shaped early. As a child, he spent nine summers at a rustic camp in the Adirondack Park, climbing all 46 peaks above 4,000 feet and learning to navigate the portages and open lakes of the New York wilderness. The landscape endured by design, protected by New York’s “Forever Wild” clause and by a civic idea that wilderness and people might coexist. He has returned to those same mountains for decades, seeing the same relatively unchanged woods that inspired the founders of the Wilderness Society. The lesson stuck. (left) Tabor doing a tropical forest wildlife survey. (right) Tabor doing Cock of the Rock research in Suriname. Courtesy of Tabor That early exposure provided Tabor with a sense of scale that would eventually outsize the mountains themselves. Tabor trained as a scientist, but his education accelerated in East Africa, where he lived and worked for nearly a decade. In places like Lake Nakuru, he saw the limits of the &#8220;island&#8221; model; the park was iconic, but it was also entirely fenced in and cut off from the broader landscape. While wildlife crossed boundaries by instinct, governance&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/a-hundred-year-vision-gary-tabor-on-the-rise-of-large-landscape-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/a-hundred-year-vision-gary-tabor-on-the-rise-of-large-landscape-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314276</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Forests don’t just store carbon. They keep people alive, scientists say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/forests-dont-just-store-carbon-they-keep-people-alive-scientists-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/forests-dont-just-store-carbon-they-keep-people-alive-scientists-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Feb 2026 17:57:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/26174503/14-brunei_251114145042_0254z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314250</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Forests, Green, Mitigation, Precipitation, Rainforests, Temperate Forests, Temperatures, Tropical Forests, Water, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For decades, a dominant argument for protecting forests has focused on carbon. Trees absorb carbon dioxide, store it in wood and soils, and slow the accumulation of greenhouse gases. A new scientific review suggests this emphasis overlooks other ways forests shape climate and human well-being. Forests, it argues, are not only a mitigation tool for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For decades, a dominant argument for protecting forests has focused on carbon. Trees absorb carbon dioxide, store it in wood and soils, and slow the accumulation of greenhouse gases. A new scientific review suggests this emphasis overlooks other ways forests shape climate and human well-being. Forests, it argues, are not only a mitigation tool for the future climate. They also help people adapt to climate change today, shaping temperature, water and human well-being in ways that are felt locally. The paper, “More than mitigation: The role of forests in climate adaptation,” synthesizes research on how forests regulate climate through physical processes as much as chemical ones. At local scales, trees act as thermal buffers. Canopies shade the ground and drive evapotranspiration, a process that converts heat into water vapor. Across nearly one hundred field sites, daytime temperatures inside forests were on average about 4°C lower than in nearby open areas, while nighttime temperatures were slightly higher. The result is a narrowing of extremes: cooler afternoons, milder nights. These effects intensify in hotter climates. Tropical forests show the strongest cooling, often exceeding 6°C relative to cleared land. Even urban trees produce measurable relief, lowering air temperatures by roughly 1.5–1.7°C on sunny days. For people exposed to heat stress, the difference between forest shade and bare ground is not marginal. Apparent temperatures during heat events have been recorded as 6–14.5°C lower inside forests than outside. Mist over the rainforest in Borneo. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler Deforestation therefore alters not just landscapes&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/forests-dont-just-store-carbon-they-keep-people-alive-scientists-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/forests-dont-just-store-carbon-they-keep-people-alive-scientists-say/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314250</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Andy Mahler, advocate for public forests in America</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/andy-mahler-advocate-for-public-forests-in-america/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/andy-mahler-advocate-for-public-forests-in-america/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Dec 2025 11:28:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/29141452/Andy-Mahler-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312227</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Forests, Green, Obituary, public lands, and Temperate Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the late 20th century, forest conservation in the eastern United States was rarely a matter of sweeping victories or clean resolutions. It was a practice shaped by hearings that dragged on, injunctions that arrived too late, and landscapes divided among agencies with overlapping mandates and uneven resolve. The work tended to fall to people [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the late 20th century, forest conservation in the eastern United States was rarely a matter of sweeping victories or clean resolutions. It was a practice shaped by hearings that dragged on, injunctions that arrived too late, and landscapes divided among agencies with overlapping mandates and uneven resolve. The work tended to fall to people willing to read environmental-impact statements closely, show up repeatedly, and keep doing so after public attention moved elsewhere. Out of that terrain emerged a form of activism that was neither professionalized nor episodic. It relied on local knowledge, personal trust, and a refusal to accept that extractive outcomes were inevitable simply because they were customary. It was also suspicious of hierarchy. Movements rose and fell, coalitions shifted, and leadership often came from those most able to hold people together through disagreement. One of the figures most closely associated with that approach was Andy Mahler, who died on August 30th 2025. He spent more than five decades working to protect forests in the Midwest and Appalachia, bringing to the work the instincts of an organizer and a belief that politics began with place. Mahler was best known as a central force behind Heartwood, a loose yet persistent network of grassroots forest defenders active across several states. Heartwood was never designed to scale efficiently. It functioned through gatherings, shared meals, and long discussions that made room for conflict and resisted easy resolution. Mahler believed that alliances built too quickly were brittle. What mattered was whether people stayed&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/andy-mahler-advocate-for-public-forests-in-america/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312227</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Chris Allnutt, negotiator who helped protect the Great Bear Rainforest, died on September 21st</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/chris-allnutt-negotiator-who-helped-protect-the-great-bear-rainforest-died-on-september-21st/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/chris-allnutt-negotiator-who-helped-protect-the-great-bear-rainforest-died-on-september-21st/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Oct 2025 11:12:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/22110213/chris-allnut-P1150576-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308099</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[British Columbia, Canada, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Forests, Green, Obituary, and Temperate Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[He never raised his voice in anger. When talks grew tense—whether across a union bargaining table or a forest-policy summit—Chris Allnutt would grow quieter. The softer he spoke, colleagues recalled, the more certain everyone became that something important was about to happen. He did not trade in bluster or slogans. His power lay in patience, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[He never raised his voice in anger. When talks grew tense—whether across a union bargaining table or a forest-policy summit—Chris Allnutt would grow quieter. The softer he spoke, colleagues recalled, the more certain everyone became that something important was about to happen. He did not trade in bluster or slogans. His power lay in patience, in the long habit of listening before replying, and in the conviction that dignity and justice were not ideals to be demanded, but conditions to be negotiated into being. Chris Allnutt at a HEU protest. That habit had been forged in British Columbia’s labor movement. Allnutt joined the Hospital Employees’ Union in 1989 as a researcher and rose to become its leader in the 1990s, representing tens of thousands of hospital workers—many of them immigrant women—through the province’s turbulent privatization drives. When the newly elected Liberal government tore up contracts and laid off staff, he defied orders to return to work, calling the strike “a fight for justice.” It cost him his job. Years later, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the government’s actions had violated constitutional rights, vindicating the position for which he had been punished. He said little about the verdict, beyond his pride in the members who had stood firm. “I love HEU members,” he told an interviewer. “They knew what they had to do.” For him, leadership was an act of service. His colleagues remembered how he would share credit and absorb blame, and how he mentored younger organizers—especially women—to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/chris-allnutt-negotiator-who-helped-protect-the-great-bear-rainforest-died-on-september-21st/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308099</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>IUCN downgrades guiña threat status, prompting conservation warning</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/iucn-downgrades-guina-threat-status-prompting-conservation-warning/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/iucn-downgrades-guina-threat-status-prompting-conservation-warning/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Oct 2025 14:34:57 +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/20/2025/10/13084256/79fd8a84-da04-43e0-91f5-7bfc618733c6-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307359</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Animals]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Chile, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Diseases, Ecology, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Destruction, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Research, Small Cats, Temperate Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The guiña, a small cat species found only in Chile and northern Argentina, has just been reclassified as of least concern by the IUCN. Until recently it was listed as vulnerable to extinction. Normally such a downgrading in threat status would be cause for celebration, but in this case some conservationists are hesitant. “It&#8217;s not [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The guiña, a small cat species found only in Chile and northern Argentina, has just been reclassified as of least concern by the IUCN. Until recently it was listed as vulnerable to extinction. Normally such a downgrading in threat status would be cause for celebration, but in this case some conservationists are hesitant. “It&#8217;s not that the species is doing better, it’s that we have better information,” explains Nicolas Galvez, who led the recent IUCN assessment and is an associate professor at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. This new information, he says, includes a higher population estimate and data showing guiña (Leopardus guigna) can survive not only in their native forest habitat, but in some altered agricultural landscapes. “Because of this better information, the species has been listed to least concern,” he says. In 2014, when the species was last assessed, this information was not available. But Galvez expects this status shift “will raise a lot of eyebrows in the environmental world and feline conservation world.” That’s because guiña continue facing a daunting number of threats in the wild, including human-wildlife conflict, habitat loss, disease contracted from domestic dogs and cats, climate change and, increasingly, severe forest fires in parts of its range. https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/10150443/Image_2_Low.mp4 Camera trap footage of a guiña. It is now considered of least concern across the entire distribution of the species, but three of six subpopulations remain in high danger of extinction. Image courtesy of Nicolás Gálvez Like other small cat species, guiña play an important and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/iucn-downgrades-guina-threat-status-prompting-conservation-warning/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/iucn-downgrades-guina-threat-status-prompting-conservation-warning/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/10150443/Image_2_Low.mp4" length="0" type="video/mp4" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307359</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>More than half the world’s forests fragmented in 20 years — but protection works: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/more-than-half-the-worlds-forests-fragmented-in-20-years-but-protection-works-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/more-than-half-the-worlds-forests-fragmented-in-20-years-but-protection-works-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Sep 2025 18:19:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/11182803/AP18330696503362-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305801</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Cattle, Environment, Fires, Forest Fragmentation, Forest Loss, Forests, Fragmentation, Green, Habitat Loss, Logging, Mining, Pasture, Rainforests, Ranching, Slash-and-burn, Temperate Forests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“If you can imagine walking into a huge, 1,000-kilometer square [386-square-mile] tropical forest … it&#8217;s moist and damp [with] rich soil and an overstory. You imagine walking into a 10-meter [33-foot] patch of forest and it&#8217;s just a totally different thing. It&#8217;s drier, it&#8217;s more open, it&#8217;s more harsh, and there&#8217;ll be far fewer species,” [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“If you can imagine walking into a huge, 1,000-kilometer square [386-square-mile] tropical forest … it&#8217;s moist and damp [with] rich soil and an overstory. You imagine walking into a 10-meter [33-foot] patch of forest and it&#8217;s just a totally different thing. It&#8217;s drier, it&#8217;s more open, it&#8217;s more harsh, and there&#8217;ll be far fewer species,” says Thomas Crowther, ecology professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich). Fragmentation, the process by which large areas of intact forest become broken up into smaller pieces, is increasing in most of the world’s forests, according to a new Science study authored by Crowther and other researchers at institutions in Switzerland, Australia, China, the U.S. and the UK.   The study finds that more than 50% of the world’s forests became more fragmented between 2000 and 2020. Tropical forests fared the worst, with the findings indicating that up to 80% were fragmented over 20 years. This has profound implications for global biodiversity and ecosystem health, Crowther says. “[T]he scary thing is, even if we kept the same amount of forest area on the planet, if we&#8217;re turning those big intact ones into all the tiny fragments, we&#8217;re losing a lot of the ecological functionality.” Fragmentation can happen in different ways and for different reasons. Shifting cultivation can pockmark intact forests with clearings. New roads into previously intact areas can bring miners or loggers, creating a dendritic pattern of forest loss. Development can eat away at a forest’s perimeter. Stands of trees&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/more-than-half-the-worlds-forests-fragmented-in-20-years-but-protection-works-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305801</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Last chance to save Europe&#8217;s greatest old-growth forest? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/last-chance-to-save-europes-greatest-old-growth-forest-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/last-chance-to-save-europes-greatest-old-growth-forest-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Sep 2025 14:31:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alan Weiss]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/03/10153021/feature1-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305360</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, and Poland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Forests, Governance, Old Growth Forests, Temperate Forests, Trees, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Białowieża Forest is unparalleled in the world. It harbors the best-preserved fragments of lowland deciduous and mixed forests in the European Lowlands, where natural processes, including all stages of forest ecosystem dynamics, unfold undisturbed by human interference over vast areas. Yet, only 36% of the Białowieża Forest on the Polish side is protected within [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Białowieża Forest is unparalleled in the world. It harbors the best-preserved fragments of lowland deciduous and mixed forests in the European Lowlands, where natural processes, including all stages of forest ecosystem dynamics, unfold undisturbed by human interference over vast areas. Yet, only 36% of the Białowieża Forest on the Polish side is protected within the Białowieża National Park and its related nature reserves. The rest is managed commercially, underscoring the urgent need to minimize human impact. In light of climate change and the biodiversity crisis, placing the entire Białowieża Forest under permanent protection should be a matter of course. Conveying the uniqueness of this place cannot be achieved merely by listing species, providing statistics on protected areas, or enumerating natural attractions. Such data is readily available online, yet it pales in comparison to the haunting sound of wolves (Canis lupus lupus), howling at dusk, the swift current of the Narewka River, the rustling of ancient oaks, and the watchful eyes of a pine marten (Martes martes) surveying the forest from a spruce windfall. Here, you can admire the rare three-toed woodpecker (Picoides tridactylus), the vibrant cinnabar moth (Tyria jacobaeae), and the elusive pygmy owl (Glaucidium passerinum). To truly feel the primal pulse and witness the captivating beauty of the Białowieża Forest, you must visit. This forest, embodying the distinct traits of a primeval ecosystem, has existed for 12,000 years. It might not have survived to this day if Polish kings had not placed it under their protection. In modern&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/last-chance-to-save-europes-greatest-old-growth-forest-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/last-chance-to-save-europes-greatest-old-growth-forest-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305360</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Old forests, new fires, and a scientific standoff over active management</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/old-forests-new-fires-and-a-scientific-standoff-over-active-management/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/old-forests-new-fires-and-a-scientific-standoff-over-active-management/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Aug 2025 07:30:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/15160404/marcus-kauffman-iretlQZEU4-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304370</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Bioenergy, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Dry Forests, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Forests, Logging, Sustainable Forest Management, Temperate Forests, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the second installment of Mongabay&#8217;s coverage of active management tools for forest fires. Read Part 1. Photographs of forests in the western U.S. from the mid-1800s show a starkly different reality compared to what we see today, says Paul Hessburg, an ecologist and professor at the University of Washington. “It looks nothing like [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the second installment of Mongabay&#8217;s coverage of active management tools for forest fires. Read Part 1. Photographs of forests in the western U.S. from the mid-1800s show a starkly different reality compared to what we see today, says Paul Hessburg, an ecologist and professor at the University of Washington. “It looks nothing like the current landscape,” he tells Mongabay. Today, many of these forests are overgrown and dominated by younger trees. Back then, they were typically more open — “park-like,” according to many scientists. They were part of a broader mosaic: conifer-dominated forests mixed with deciduous woodlands, open meadows and wetlands in a patchy broth of diverse habitats. Fire played an integral role — perhaps the integral role — in shaping these ecosystems. But soon, European-descended emigrants to the West shut it down in just about every way they could, with little understanding of the implications. Hessburg and other researchers spend their careers teasing apart these dynamics and looking for ways to replicate those effects through a set of “active management” tools, such as prescribed burning and thinning. Where possible, the goal is often to usher fire back into the landscape at lower intensities to promote regeneration and avoid the catastrophic megafires that have destroyed communities in recent years. In those cases, “The next fire often erases the opportunity for a future forest,” Hessburg says. “It’s so intense that it sterilizes soil [with] such burn severity, and it removes seed sources.” But this embrace of active management isn’t&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/old-forests-new-fires-and-a-scientific-standoff-over-active-management/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304370</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fixing forests or fueling fires? Scientists split over active management</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/fixing-forests-or-fueling-fires-scientists-split-over-active-management/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/fixing-forests-or-fueling-fires-scientists-split-over-active-management/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2025 22:26:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/11221558/54693585849_0ac719783b_3k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304055</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America, Oregon, Pacific Northwest, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Bioenergy, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Dry Forests, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Forests, Logging, Sustainable Forest Management, Temperate Forests, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the first installment of Mongabay&#8217;s coverage of active management tools for forest fires. Read Part 2. On Sept. 8, 2020, a brush field in southern Oregon, in the northwestern U.S., caught fire. Over the next week, &#8220;walls&#8221; of flame tore through the towns of Talent and Phoenix in the Rogue River Valley. Here, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the first installment of Mongabay&#8217;s coverage of active management tools for forest fires. Read Part 2. On Sept. 8, 2020, a brush field in southern Oregon, in the northwestern U.S., caught fire. Over the next week, &#8220;walls&#8221; of flame tore through the towns of Talent and Phoenix in the Rogue River Valley. Here, hot, dry summers crisp low-lying vegetation, and convective winds — like those that kicked up in early September 2020 — can fan the spread of fire from even the smallest ignition. The 1,300-hectare (3,300-acre) Almeda Drive Fire was small by contemporary standards in the U.S. West, where blazes repeatedly shatter records. And this one was human-caused, as are more than 80% of fires in the U.S. But neither statistic made it any less devastating to the families of Talent and Phoenix, more than 2,600 of whom lost their homes to the blaze. Amid a swirling mix of past mismanagement of forests in the western U.S., an explosion of dense settlements, and hotter, drier conditions on account of climate change, there&#8217;s been a push in recent decades to actively manage forests for fire risk — aimed at avoiding disasters like the Almeda fire. The idea is that management tools such as forest thinning, prescribed burning and post-fire restoration can help claw back some of the characteristics of how forests used to be, when fire itself was a more active part of the landscape. The scientific literature is stacked with studies on the nuances of &#8220;active management,&#8221;&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/fixing-forests-or-fueling-fires-scientists-split-over-active-management/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/fixing-forests-or-fueling-fires-scientists-split-over-active-management/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304055</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tropical forest loss hit new heights in 2024; fire a major driver in Latin America</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/tropical-forest-loss-hit-new-heights-in-2024-fire-a-major-driver-in-latin-america/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/tropical-forest-loss-hit-new-heights-in-2024-fire-a-major-driver-in-latin-america/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 May 2025 22:02:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/21213531/IF_Quilpue_24_2-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299460</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Bolivia, Brazil, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Global, Indonesia, Latin America, Republic of Congo, South America, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Deforestation, El Nino, Environment, Fires, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Warming, Green, Habitat Loss, Primary Forests, Rainforests, Temperate Forests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tropical forest loss skyrocketed in 2024, with vast swaths of primary forest consumed by fire, according to new satellite data from the University of Maryland’s Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) laboratory, made available on World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Global Forest Watch (GFW) platform. The data indicate a record 6.7 million hectares (16.6 million acres) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tropical forest loss skyrocketed in 2024, with vast swaths of primary forest consumed by fire, according to new satellite data from the University of Maryland’s Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) laboratory, made available on World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Global Forest Watch (GFW) platform. The data indicate a record 6.7 million hectares (16.6 million acres) of primary tropical forest was destroyed in 2024 — an area almost the size of Panama. Nearly half of this forest loss was driven by fire, according to WRI’s analysis of the data. Five times more tropical forest burned in 2024 than in the previous year. That made fire, not agricultural expansion, the primary driver of tropical forest loss for the first time. Non-fire related tropical forest loss was also up, by 14% compared with 2023. “The 2024 numbers must be a wake-up call to every country, every bank, every international business,” Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of GFW said during a press conference. “Continuing down this path will devastate economies, people’s jobs and any chance of staving off climate change’s worst effects.&#8221; In 2024, the Amazon experienced the worst drought — and fire season — in decades. Fires are normally rare in humid tropical ecosystems. But in hot dry conditions, agricultural fires, many lit to clear land, can quickly spread, driving forest loss in the Amazon and other parts of Latin America. The data revealed that in the Congo Basin, shifting cultivation remained the primary driver of tropical forest loss, with rates of forest loss in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/tropical-forest-loss-hit-new-heights-in-2024-fire-a-major-driver-in-latin-america/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/tropical-forest-loss-hit-new-heights-in-2024-fire-a-major-driver-in-latin-america/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299460</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Do forest conservation pledges work? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/do-forest-conservation-pledges-work-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/do-forest-conservation-pledges-work-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Nov 2024 17:10:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Matthew Spencer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/02013159/kalbar_drone_190676_23-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289741</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, New York, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Rainforests, Temperate Forests, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In late September 2014 a besuited and bearded Leonardo DiCaprio stood at the grey marble dais in the UN General Assembly in New York and declared somberly that world leaders had to ‘make history or be vilified by it.’ The pressure was mounting for climate action and governments, companies and NGOs responded with a blizzard [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In late September 2014 a besuited and bearded Leonardo DiCaprio stood at the grey marble dais in the UN General Assembly in New York and declared somberly that world leaders had to ‘make history or be vilified by it.’ The pressure was mounting for climate action and governments, companies and NGOs responded with a blizzard of announcements including the high-profile New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF), which committed signatories to halve deforestation by 2020, and end it by 2030. Sadly, in the years immediately following the signing, deforestation actually increased, and the first target was missed. Deforestation has been on a downward trend since 2017 but the world is currently off track to end forest loss by the end of the decade. The perceived failure of the New York Declaration is a key reason the EU is introducing its tough new deforestation regulation (EUDR). At this year’s New York Climate Week there were lots of forest events but no discussion on the NYDF, or what its weakness might mean for its ‘upgraded’ Glasgow version agreed three years ago, with even greater support. It was therefore a surprise find that many veterans of forest policy I spoke to there felt that the New York Declaration had been worthwhile, despite the failure to meet its 2020 target. There were also people who felt it had been a mistake to get companies and governments to sign up to a target that they didn’t know how to deliver, and a veteran NGO staffer recalled&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/do-forest-conservation-pledges-work-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/do-forest-conservation-pledges-work-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289741</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Resilient giants: How the world’s oldest trees stand tall against climate change (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/resilient-giants-how-the-worlds-oldest-trees-stand-tall-against-climate-change-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/resilient-giants-how-the-worlds-oldest-trees-stand-tall-against-climate-change-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Aug 2024 18:09:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Meg Severide]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/05172607/baobab-tree-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285671</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Commentary, Environment, Forests, Green, Rainforests, Temperate Forests, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Have you ever stood beneath a towering tree and gazed up at its expansive canopy? As you tilt your head back, have you considered the profound history embedded in its branches? Picture the countless individuals and animals that have sought refuge under its branches over the centuries. Think of the storms it has braved, the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Have you ever stood beneath a towering tree and gazed up at its expansive canopy? As you tilt your head back, have you considered the profound history embedded in its branches? Picture the countless individuals and animals that have sought refuge under its branches over the centuries. Think of the storms it has braved, the fires it has withstood, and the droughts it has endured to stand resolute through the ages. Each of these ancient giants has witnessed centuries of environmental change that have shaped their resilience. As climate change intensifies, these trees offer vital lessons in endurance and adaptation. How are these remarkable trees standing tall against the pressures of a changing climate? Their stories provide insight and hope into forest conservation and climate adaptation. River red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), Wilpena Pound, Flinders Ranges National Park. © Juergen Freund / iLCP. Australian eucalyptus: Adapting to fire In Australia&#8217;s arid and fire-prone landscape, eucalyptus (Eucalyptus spp.) trees reign supreme, making up about three-quarters of the country&#8217;s forests . Some species live up to 500 years, having evolved remarkable survival strategies. Among the most remarkable is their capacity for rapid regeneration following the bushfires that periodically sweep through Australia during the dry season. Their thick, fire-resistant bark acts as a shield  against the flames, while their seeds – which lie dormant until awakened by the heat of a fire &#8211; ensure swift regeneration. This ingenious adaptation not only allows eucalyptus trees to withstand periodic fires but also plays a crucial role&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/resilient-giants-how-the-worlds-oldest-trees-stand-tall-against-climate-change-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/resilient-giants-how-the-worlds-oldest-trees-stand-tall-against-climate-change-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285671</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Biomass power grows in Japan despite new understanding of climate risks</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/biomass-power-grows-in-japan-despite-new-understanding-of-climate-risks/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/biomass-power-grows-in-japan-despite-new-understanding-of-climate-risks/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jul 2024 20:55:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/29162909/logs-wood-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285289</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, California, Canada, East Asia, Japan, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Bioenergy, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Controversial, Emission Reduction, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, International Trade, Law, Mitigation, Plantations, Politics, Pollution, Research, and Temperate Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Japan is at a crossroads in its controversial use of burning forest biomass to make electricity. While the government and private sector’s understanding of the fuel’s harmful environmental and climate impacts is growing, biomass power plants long in the pipeline continue to come online, requiring ever-greater volumes of imported wood pellets from primary forests in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Japan is at a crossroads in its controversial use of burning forest biomass to make electricity. While the government and private sector’s understanding of the fuel’s harmful environmental and climate impacts is growing, biomass power plants long in the pipeline continue to come online, requiring ever-greater volumes of imported wood pellets from primary forests in Canada or plantations in Vietnam. Biomass importers and users in Japan are being forced to reevaluate their supply chains after U.S. wood pellet producer Enviva declared bankruptcy in March and prominent ecologists visiting Japan from Canada warned of the pellets’ environmental risks. In addition, new biomass policies from Japan’s biggest banks emphasize the importance of sustainable sourcing, which forest advocates say they hope will encourage biomass users to improve their practices. But ultimately, forest advocates argue that, no matter which supply chain biomass users choose, burning wood to generate electricity is fundamentally untenable, as it puts significant amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere despite the global need to drastically reduce emissions. In 2022, burning biomass accounted for roughly 6% of Japan’s total CO2 emissions, according to a Japanese climate expert. Still, under international carbon accounting rules, Japan is able to count biomass emissions as zero because trees sequester CO2 throughout their lives. Many experts say this is a misguided policy. Using forest biomass for electricity generation took off in Japan in 2012, when the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry introduced a feed-in tariff (FIT) with 20-year fixed rates to support renewable energy projects. “Before the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/biomass-power-grows-in-japan-despite-new-understanding-of-climate-risks/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/biomass-power-grows-in-japan-despite-new-understanding-of-climate-risks/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285289</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Biden&#8217;s new sanctions on Russia should include timber exports (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/bidens-new-sanctions-on-russia-should-include-timber-exports-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/bidens-new-sanctions-on-russia-should-include-timber-exports-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Feb 2024 16:35:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Etelle HigonnetTara Ganesh]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/02/26183424/boreal-forest-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279202</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belarus, Europe, European Union, Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[boreal forests, Business, Commentary, Conflict, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Temperate Forests, Timber, timber trade, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Russia&#8217;s dictator Vladimir Putin has seemingly just had jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny assassinated. Navalny incarnated the best chance for democracy and human rights in Russia. He was a beacon of hope; a bright light in the darkness of corruption and violence that characterizes Putin&#8217;s Russia. His death is a tragedy that demands robust responses [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Russia&#8217;s dictator Vladimir Putin has seemingly just had jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny assassinated. Navalny incarnated the best chance for democracy and human rights in Russia. He was a beacon of hope; a bright light in the darkness of corruption and violence that characterizes Putin&#8217;s Russia. His death is a tragedy that demands robust responses from world leaders – especially from the E.U. and from U.S. President Joe Biden, who had long warned that Putin would face devastating consequences if Navalny were to die in prison. The new U.S. sanctions announced Friday, targeting hundreds of entities and individuals, are a sign that his administration will live up to its word – but they could go further in key areas. We propose a response that would simultaneously teach Putin a clear and painful lesson, and help save the planet from climate change. The U.S. should immediately bar Russian timber, pulp &amp; paper imports, as the E.U. and U.K. have already done. Amur tigers are among the creatures found in Russia&#8217;s taiga forest habitat. Image courtesy of WCS Russia &amp; Sikhote-Alin Reserve. Why is this crucial? Because timber represents more than half of all remaining U.S. imports of Russian goods, in terms of number of shipments. All of Russia’s forests are state-owned, with dues from logging flowing to it. Some forests are even under control of Russia’s military, which is also allowed to log and sell timber in its forests. Since the war began, U.S. Customs data show the nation has imported close to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/bidens-new-sanctions-on-russia-should-include-timber-exports-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/bidens-new-sanctions-on-russia-should-include-timber-exports-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279202</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservationists aim to save South America’s super tiny wild cat, the guina</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/conservationists-aim-to-save-south-americas-super-tiny-wild-cat-the-guina/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/conservationists-aim-to-save-south-americas-super-tiny-wild-cat-the-guina/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jan 2024 18:25:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Petro Kotzé]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/22164301/13-guina-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277896</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Animals]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Chile, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecology, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Destruction, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Research, Small Cats, Temperate Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For more than 200 million years, the ancient Valdivian Temperate Forest in southwestern Chile has been a refuge for plant and animal species found nowhere else on Earth. This global biodiversity hotspot is home to monkey puzzle trees (Araucaria araucana), the endangered chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera), threatened southern pudu (Pudu puda) — the world’s smallest deer [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For more than 200 million years, the ancient Valdivian Temperate Forest in southwestern Chile has been a refuge for plant and animal species found nowhere else on Earth. This global biodiversity hotspot is home to monkey puzzle trees (Araucaria araucana), the endangered chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera), threatened southern pudu (Pudu puda) — the world’s smallest deer — and two critically endangered species: the Juan Fernández firecrown (Sephanoides fernandensis), a hummingbird, and the northern Darwin&#8217;s frog (Rhinoderma rufum). But that’s not all. The guina (Leopardus guigna), the smallest cat in the Americas, also lives here, among the dense understories of bamboo and ferns, hunting for prey including rodents, marsupials, birds and reptiles. Also called the kodkod or Chilean cat, the diminutive guina weighs in at only 2-7 pounds, considerably smaller than domestic cats. It has a bushy tail, spotted brown fur and prominent stripes on the cheeks of its small, round head. It is also one of the most threatened cats in South America, currently listed as vulnerable. The guina’s habitat is a roughly 160,000-square-kilometer (62,000-square-mile) coastal strip in central and southern Chile, southwestern Argentina, and the large island of Chiloé off the coast of southern Chile. In northern and central Chile, the slightly larger and lighter subspecies (L. g. tigrillo) inhabits Mediterranean climate type woodlands and forests. In their southern range, the darker and smaller subspecies (L. g. guigna) inhabits the denser Valdivian Temperate Rainforest, the Patagonian forest in southern Chile and the Andean Patagonian forest in southwestern Argentina. While the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/conservationists-aim-to-save-south-americas-super-tiny-wild-cat-the-guina/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/conservationists-aim-to-save-south-americas-super-tiny-wild-cat-the-guina/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277896</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Forest conservation ‘off-track’ to halt deforestation by 2030: New report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/forest-conservation-off-track-to-halt-deforestation-by-2030-new-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/forest-conservation-off-track-to-halt-deforestation-by-2030-new-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Oct 2023 07:36:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/24072423/DSC_9721-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274565</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, boreal forests, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Finance, forest degradation, Forestry, Forests, Green, NGOs, Old Growth Forests, Primary Forests, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Temperate Forests, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new report reveals that deforestation increased by 4% worldwide in 2022, dimming the prospects of ending forest loss by 2030. The spike indicates rates are trending “in the wrong direction,” Erin Matson, a lead author of the Forest Declaration Assessment, said during an Oct. 19 press call. “The question that comes to mind is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new report reveals that deforestation increased by 4% worldwide in 2022, dimming the prospects of ending forest loss by 2030. The spike indicates rates are trending “in the wrong direction,” Erin Matson, a lead author of the Forest Declaration Assessment, said during an Oct. 19 press call. “The question that comes to mind is why?” said Matson, who is a senior consultant at the Netherlands-based advisory company Climate Focus. “The answer becomes obvious when you look at what we invest in. We are investing in activities that are harmful for forests at far higher rates than we are investing in activities that are beneficial for forest.” Clearance for food and feed crops like soybeans, as well as for pastureland for cattle, drives most tropical deforestation. The annual assessment, released by a group of civil society and research groups Oct. 23, compares progress toward commitments to forest conservation made by countries and the private sector, including the 2030 goal, with “baseline” deforestation rates from 2018-2020. At the 2021 United Nations climate conference (COP26) in Glasgow, United Kingdom, 145 countries pledged “to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030,” after a similar commitment, the New York Declaration on Forests from 2014, missed its initial target of halving deforestation by 2020. The 2022 Forest Declaration Assessment found that deforestation had diminished in 2021, even as observers noted the need to cut back on deforestation more quickly for the benefit of biodiversity and human communities, as well halt the release&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/forest-conservation-off-track-to-halt-deforestation-by-2030-new-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/forest-conservation-off-track-to-halt-deforestation-by-2030-new-report/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274565</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous funding model is a win-win for ecosystems and local economies in Canada</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/indigenous-funding-model-is-a-win-win-for-ecosystems-and-local-economies-in-canada/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/indigenous-funding-model-is-a-win-win-for-ecosystems-and-local-economies-in-canada/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Mar 2023 16:10:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/29113353/humpback-2-e1678463226339-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266336</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Indigenous-led conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[British Columbia, Canada, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bears, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation Solutions, Culture, Environment, Finance, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Reform, Land Rights, Logging, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, Solutions, Temperate Forests, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the past 15 years, First Nations in Haida Gwaii and central and northern coastal British Columbia, Canada, have turned the tables around: once subjected to massive economic, social and cultural damages due to the extractive logging industry, they have now successfully built a sustainable economy that focuses on protecting sensitive ecosystems, while increasing communities’ [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the past 15 years, First Nations in Haida Gwaii and central and northern coastal British Columbia, Canada, have turned the tables around: once subjected to massive economic, social and cultural damages due to the extractive logging industry, they have now successfully built a sustainable economy that focuses on protecting sensitive ecosystems, while increasing communities’ well-being, a recent report shows. The report was released by Coast Funds, an Indigenous-led conservation finance organization set up in 2007 as part of a historic land-use planning agreement negotiated between First Nations, environmental organizations, and the provincial and federal governments. Named the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement, it aimed to prevent logging in 85% of the approximately 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) of temperate rainforests — the largest of its kind in the world — stretching up Canada’s west coast and home to the iconic spirit bears (Ursus americanus kermodei) and coastal sea wolves (Canis lupus crassodon). With an initial fund of C$120 million ($87 million) — half of it financed through money raised by First Nations and philanthropic partners toward conservation and the rest matched by provincial and federal governments toward economic development — Coast Funds began providing funds directly to First Nations in the region to use on projects they deem necessary in their territories. Its funding model allowed it to avoid the typical issues surrounding conservation finance and Indigenous communities, and, according to the report, delivered a long list of successes. Spirit bear in the Great Bear Rainforest. Image by Andrew&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/indigenous-funding-model-is-a-win-win-for-ecosystems-and-local-economies-in-canada/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266336</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil-U.S. cooperation is key for global forest conservation (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/brazil-u-s-cooperation-is-key-for-global-forest-conservation-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/brazil-u-s-cooperation-is-key-for-global-forest-conservation-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Feb 2023 23:55:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John ReidPaulo Moutinho]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/04/16170626/amazon_200116_21_1800-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265476</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, North America, South America, United States, and Washington]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Forests, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Logging, Mining, Rainforests, Temperate Forests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Two days after the two-year anniversary of the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, copycat mayhem broke out in Brazil&#8217;s own capital, Brasília. On that Sunday, newly-inaugurated Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was visiting the flood-ravaged city of Araraquara when he learned of the destruction unfolding inside the Brazilian Congress, Supreme Court, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Two days after the two-year anniversary of the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, copycat mayhem broke out in Brazil&#8217;s own capital, Brasília. On that Sunday, newly-inaugurated Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was visiting the flood-ravaged city of Araraquara when he learned of the destruction unfolding inside the Brazilian Congress, Supreme Court, and Presidential Palace. He went on TV to condemn the “fascists” who hoped to reverse Brazil’s election. Arguably the most impassioned moment of his speech has been almost entirely overlooked in the international press: Lula linked the local floods to the capital riots via climate change, greed, and authoritarianism, and he condemned the cutting of old-growth forest with a vehemence seldom heard from heads of state. &#8220;When people believe that climate change is a minor issue, when they think that it&#8217;s something for students, that it&#8217;s a left-winger&#8217;s cause, that it&#8217;s a concern for the Green Party, no! The climate is changing because of human beings&#8217; irresponsibility,&#8221; the president declared, suggesting that forest destroyers were among the rioters. “A private citizen has no right to cut down a 300-year-old tree in the Amazon that belongs to each and every one of the 215 million Brazilians, just so he can make some money.” Indigenous leader Tingui-Botó blessing then presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a ritual during an April 2022 gathering of Indigenous groups in the capital, Brasília. Image courtesy of scarlettrphoto via APIB. Lula’s words remind us that the U.S. and Brazil have&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/brazil-u-s-cooperation-is-key-for-global-forest-conservation-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/brazil-u-s-cooperation-is-key-for-global-forest-conservation-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265476</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Peatland restoration in temperate nations could be carbon storage bonanza</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/peatland-restoration-in-temperate-nations-could-be-carbon-storage-bonanza/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/peatland-restoration-in-temperate-nations-could-be-carbon-storage-bonanza/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Feb 2023 15:46:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/02/09142504/bear-and-swans-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265420</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Canada, Global, Scotland, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Forests, Freshwater, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Oil Sands, Peatlands, Protected Areas, Restoration, Soil Carbon, Temperate Forests, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Temperate peatlands sequester tremendous amounts of carbon, but many have experienced extensive harm. Now, as climate change worsens, land managers are urgently moving to restore these vital ecosystems.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On April 6, 1985, a soil mining machine sparked a peat fire near the North Carolina coast in an ecosystem called a pocosin, an Indigenous Algonquin term that means, aptly, “swamp on a hill.” The flames spread quickly across 95,000 acres (38,400 hectares) of temperate peatland ecosystem, made more susceptible to the blaze by decades of logging, draining and degradation. The dried-out peat burned ferociously, trees ignited, wildlife (including deer, alligators and black bears) tried to flee, and the sky darkened with smoke — a sign of long-stored soil carbon rushing up into the atmosphere. It took responders six days to contain what was dubbed the Allen Road Fire. But that didn’t extinguish the conflagration. You see, peat soils are naturally wet and fire-resistant, but the pocosin soils had been ditched, drained and dried, so the peat went on burning — the fire slowly eating through millennia-old, compacted, once waterlogged vegetation. This is called a ground fire, and the Allen Road blaze continued burning, spewing smoke and carbon dioxide long after the main fire was out. It took 200 marines 13 days to put out all the ground fires. But bad news has long since turned to good: Five years after the fire, the U.S. government established the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in the area. Responding to the blaze, land managers decided to begin restoring the ditched, dried and now partially burned peatlands to bring water back to this “swamp on a hill,” revitalizing this temperate peatland — an&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/peatland-restoration-in-temperate-nations-could-be-carbon-storage-bonanza/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/peatland-restoration-in-temperate-nations-could-be-carbon-storage-bonanza/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265420</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Wildfires are climbing up the snowiest mountains of the western U.S.</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/wildfires-are-climbing-up-the-snowiest-mountains-of-the-western-u-s/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/wildfires-are-climbing-up-the-snowiest-mountains-of-the-western-u-s/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Dec 2022 16:42:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Isabel Swafford]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/14160027/fire_colorado-78114-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263631</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Drought, Environment, Fires, Forests, Green, and Temperate Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the western United States, natural periods of fire and snow are cyclical. The summer brings wildfire season, and the winter brings ski season. But as the globe warms, these cycles have become erratic and less reliable, with dramatic impacts on the region’s vital water supply. Now, researchers have shown that severe wildfires are diminishing [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the western United States, natural periods of fire and snow are cyclical. The summer brings wildfire season, and the winter brings ski season. But as the globe warms, these cycles have become erratic and less reliable, with dramatic impacts on the region’s vital water supply. Now, researchers have shown that severe wildfires are diminishing many snowpacks on mountain slopes by leaving them exposed to sun and soot, according to a recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. As those winter blankets shrink, the communities that rely on the mountains as both a source of water and recreation are facing deeper droughts – and higher fire risks. “We&#8217;re seeing that these fires are hotter and larger, and they&#8217;re having a bigger impact on our water resources and water availability,” said Steven Fassnacht, a snow hydrologist at Colorado State University and co-author of the study. Western US snow and fire summaries showing fire boundaries from Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) 1984–2019, and National Interagency Fire Center 2020. The black circle indicates the 2020 Cameron Peak Fire and East Troublesome Fire. (Credit: Stephanie Kampf and Daniel McGrath/Colorado State University) Wildfires are particularly increasing in the snowiest parts of the western U.S. In 2020, for example, more than 4 million hectares burned during the summer and fall, casting a smoky haze over the region. The new study focused on three fires that scarred the southern Rocky Mountains in 2020. The blazes raged in the “late snow zone,” where&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/wildfires-are-climbing-up-the-snowiest-mountains-of-the-western-u-s/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263631</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New study identifies mature forests on U.S. federal lands ripe for protection</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/new-study-identifies-mature-forests-on-u-s-federal-lands-ripe-for-protection/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/new-study-identifies-mature-forests-on-u-s-federal-lands-ripe-for-protection/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Oct 2022 17:00:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/04163042/BANNER-IMAGE-photo-1-768x453.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=261107</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Carbon, Forests, Green, LiDAR, Logging, Mapping, Old Growth Forests, Protected Areas, Research, Temperate Forests, and Timber Laws]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new map finds that roughly a third of U.S. mature forests are on federal lands, which President Biden appears eager to protect to store carbon. But much mature forest is also privately held, especially in the Southeast, and is at risk. ]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a major new study, a team of scientists has published what it calls the first-ever, map-based assessment of existing mature and old-growth forests in the continental United States. Such forests are critical to fighting climate change and data like this is deemed vital to President Biden’s climate action agenda. But the new research also shows how much mature forests on both federal and private lands in the U.S. are seriously at risk — offering a conservation opportunity to the Biden administration. The peer-reviewed study, published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, found that older forests — estimated to be 80 years old or older — make up about 167 million acres, or 36%, of all forests in the contiguous 48 states. The new study included this map generated by researchers showing mature and old-growth forests by region across the U.S. Image courtesy of Dominick DellaSala / Wild Heritage. Significantly, about a third of those older forests, or roughly 58 million acres, are on federal lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the National Park Service (NPS). The rest are controlled by non-federal entities, including private owners. The research noted that even though U.S. national parks are fully protected from logging, just 24% of U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management forests are similarly protected, with the rest being at various levels of risk. The study calls for all mature and old-growth forests on federal lands to become fully protected.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/new-study-identifies-mature-forests-on-u-s-federal-lands-ripe-for-protection/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-261107</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>British Columbia delays promised protections as old growth keeps falling</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/british-columbia-delays-promised-protections-as-old-growth-keeps-falling/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/british-columbia-delays-promised-protections-as-old-growth-keeps-falling/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Sep 2022 17:06:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/14130747/6a-Torrance-Coste-stands-on-a-stump-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=260304</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Canada and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Carbon, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Old Growth Forests, Plantations, Politics, Primary Forests, Soil Carbon, Temperate Forests, Timber, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Critics say that “the white rhinos of old-growth forests” in British Columbia are rapidly being felled by timber companies, even as the provincial government largely postpones its 2020 pledge to protect the remaining ancient forests.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[VANCOUVER ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA — We drive for hours on rutted, gravel-strewn logging roads of this Pacific Coast island’s unpopulated southern outback. Trucks loaded with freshly cut red cedar and hemlock rumble past us in clouds of dust. Finally, we arrive at a cut block in the Upper Caycuse Valley. It’s one of many watersheds here that once towered with ancient trees shading biodiverse ecosystems. Some were cut decades ago. This 10-hectare block was cut last year. More old growth trees — critical carbon sinks 250 years and older — will fall soon. Steep ridgelines remain forested, but much of the rest of this formerly lush, rare coastal rainforest is decimated. What’s left: jagged stumps, roughed-in dirt roads, eroded runoff gullies and haystack-high slash piles of tangled limbs and roots waiting to be burned. It feels like a war zone; a crime scene. “It’s hard coming back here. This is my second time since it was cut; I had to steel myself to see this,” says Torrance Coste, my guide on this July day and a forest advocate with the British Columbian environmental group Wilderness Committee. Logged mountainside in Upper Caycuse Valley BC with slash piles. The many slash piles at this site and others are burned, causing extensive carbon emissions. Photo by Justin Catanoso Coste climbs atop a splintered cedar stump wider than his truck. He counts the rings, stopping at around 500 — a now missing giant that was already 270 years old when in 1792, Britain’s Captain&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/british-columbia-delays-promised-protections-as-old-growth-keeps-falling/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-260304</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Biomass cofiring loopholes put coal on open-ended life support in Asia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/biomass-cofiring-loopholes-put-coal-on-open-ended-life-support-in-asia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/biomass-cofiring-loopholes-put-coal-on-open-ended-life-support-in-asia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Aug 2022 16:53:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/26083650/3-truck-carrying-acacia-logs-in-Indonesia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=259611</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons, Land rights and extractives, and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Bioenergy, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Coal, Conservation, Controversial, Emission Reduction, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Law, Mitigation, Plantations, Politics, Pollution, Research, and Temperate Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The death knell of coal has been proclaimed, but policy loopholes in Asia allow for cofired power plants, where coal and wood are combined as fuel. Both fuels produce lots of carbon emissions, but those from wood aren’t counted.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Amid calls for developed nations to phase out coal use by 2030, and for developing countries to do likewise by 2040, cofiring energy production — mixing coal with woody biomass — has emerged as a go-to, near-term climate policy fix in some of Asia’s chronically coal-dependent countries, where forest biomass burning is booming. But that solution has its problems, say analysts. Both coal and woody biomass produce high levels of carbon emissions. But international carbon accounting rules based on controversial out-of-date science allow all smokestack discharges from wood to be counted as carbon neutral — a policy loophole, say critics, that guarantees cofiring’s reduced emissions on paper, if not in reality. Others argue cofiring is the only way some nations can realize their coal cuts. In fact, scientists have determined that woody biomass is less carbon-efficient than coal, as it generates more CO2 emissions per kilowatt hour of electricity produced than coal. The result of the big shift to cofiring isn’t a cut in emissions, but rather an ongoing period of “carbon debt” that will contribute to increased planetary “warming for decades to centuries” before trees can eventually regrow, according to a February 2021 open letter from more than 500 scientists to the leaders of biomass-burning nations. Those scientists urgently warn that waiting for all those burned trees to be replaced by newly planted saplings, and for those young trees to then grow to maturity in order to sequester as much carbon as was originally burned, is time that the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/biomass-cofiring-loopholes-put-coal-on-open-ended-life-support-in-asia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/biomass-cofiring-loopholes-put-coal-on-open-ended-life-support-in-asia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-259611</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>End old-growth logging in carbon-rich ‘crown jewel’ of U.S. forests: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/end-old-growth-logging-in-carbon-rich-crown-jewel-of-u-s-forests-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/end-old-growth-logging-in-carbon-rich-crown-jewel-of-u-s-forests-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jun 2022 05:52:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/08052206/Tongass-National-Forest-bears-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256938</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering Climate Now]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, carbon, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Ecology, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fishing, Forest Carbon, Forest Fragmentation, Forestry, Forests, Fragmentation, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Law, Logging, Mining, Old Growth Forests, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, Roads, Temperate Forests, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, Timber Laws, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Tongass National Forest in the U.S. state of Alaska is a special place for conservation biologist Dominick DellaSala, even after decades of traveling the world to study temperate rainforests. “The trees are enormous,” DellaSala, chief scientist at the Earth Island Institute’s Wild Heritage project, told Mongabay. “It’s like being in a cathedral. It’s an [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Tongass National Forest in the U.S. state of Alaska is a special place for conservation biologist Dominick DellaSala, even after decades of traveling the world to study temperate rainforests. “The trees are enormous,” DellaSala, chief scientist at the Earth Island Institute’s Wild Heritage project, told Mongabay. “It’s like being in a cathedral. It’s an amazing place.” Shag-barked yellow cedar (Callitropsis nootkatensis), mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana), and Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) are but a few of the tree species that can grow for hundreds of years and that anchor a rich and enduring landscape in the Tongass. The august Sitka is the world’s largest spruce and can tack on a meter and a half (5 feet) a year during adolescence on its way to a height of nearly 100 m (330 ft). Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) trees. Image by wild trees via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Walking among the giants, bryophytes and lichens carpet the forest floor, and the ground is spongy underfoot, DellaSala says. Tongass National Forest spans 67,000 square kilometers (about 26,000 square miles) of southeastern Alaska. Around 60% of it is forested, most of which is old growth. It also holds 12% of the world’s temperate rainforest. “You don’t see that in most places around the planet, let alone the temperate rainforest system,” DellaSala said. “It’s so unique on a global scale.” DellaSala and his colleagues recently published a study revealing that the forests of the Tongass hold about a fifth of all the carbon in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/end-old-growth-logging-in-carbon-rich-crown-jewel-of-u-s-forests-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/end-old-growth-logging-in-carbon-rich-crown-jewel-of-u-s-forests-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256938</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Missing the emissions for the trees: Biomass burning booms in East Asia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/missing-the-emissions-for-the-trees-biomass-burning-booms-in-east-asia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/missing-the-emissions-for-the-trees-biomass-burning-booms-in-east-asia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2022 16:55:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/11150013/Biomass-at-Tofte-Norway-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=255702</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, Europe, Global, Japan, South Korea, United Kingdom, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Bioenergy, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Controversial, Emission Reduction, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Law, Mitigation, Plantations, Politics, Pollution, Research, and Temperate Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Japan and South Korea are increasingly burning biomass, such as wood pellets, to make energy, with potentially adverse impacts on the global climate, deforestation and biodiversity.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is part one of a two part series on the Asian biomass expansion. Part two can be found here. The European Union and the United Kingdom are ramping up controversial wood burning to generate energy and heat as they follow legal mandates to phase out coal. But this practice is leaving smokestack carbon emissions uncounted and the atmosphere in arguably worse shape. Now, on the other side of the world, two industrial Asian giants are following Europe’s lead, though with less media scrutiny to date. Japan and South Korea, the world’s third- and 10th-largest economies, have been increasingly relying on burning wood for energy since 2012, taking advantage of a United Nations-tolerated loophole that enables them, like the EU and the U.K., to allow emissions from biomass burning to be counted as carbon neutral, putting it in the same category as renewables such as solar and wind energy. The result may be an undercounting of their actual greenhouse gas emissions, allowing them to meet their Paris Agreement goals — at least on paper. Both Japan and South Korea pledged in 2020 to reach net zero emissions by 2050; the EU and the U.K. have the same goal. Renova Biomass Plant, under construction in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. Photo courtesy of the HUTAN Group. Intensifying pressure on forests Western and Eastern biomass usage is creating a surging demand for wood pellets, putting even more pressure on native forests in the southeastern United States, western Canada, and Eastern Europe. Experts say this&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/missing-the-emissions-for-the-trees-biomass-burning-booms-in-east-asia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/missing-the-emissions-for-the-trees-biomass-burning-booms-in-east-asia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-255702</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Trees and soil at the forest’s edge store more carbon than we thought, studies reveal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/trees-and-soil-at-the-forests-edge-store-more-carbon-than-we-thought-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/trees-and-soil-at-the-forests-edge-store-more-carbon-than-we-thought-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Apr 2022 19:49:35 +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/20/2022/04/20185719/edge3-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=254960</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forest Destruction, Forest Fragmentation, Forests, Fragmentation, Green, Research, Soil Carbon, and Temperate Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Trees and soils keep a lot of carbon trapped in the forest, pulling it from the atmosphere, where it can do more harm than good. In fact, roughly 30% of the carbon generated from fossil fuel burning is captured by forests. “That’s CO2 that’s not in the atmosphere,” said Boston University biogeochemist and ecologist Lucy [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Trees and soils keep a lot of carbon trapped in the forest, pulling it from the atmosphere, where it can do more harm than good. In fact, roughly 30% of the carbon generated from fossil fuel burning is captured by forests. “That’s CO2 that’s not in the atmosphere,” said Boston University biogeochemist and ecologist Lucy Hutyra. “We’re not feeling the full effects of climate change because of the terrestrial climate sink. These forests are doing an incredible service to our planet.” In most parts of the world, forests have been sliced and diced into fragments resulting in a landscape that looks more like a quilted mosaic than a great green expanse. These forest fragments create new environments for the plants and soils that live along their edges, and this can change the amount of carbon they store. A mosaic of forest and agricultural lands as seen from the Piedmont Memorial Overlook in Clarke County, Virginia.  Photo from Chesapeake Bay Program via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0) ‘We think about forests as big landscapes, but really they are chopped up into all these little segments because of the human world,” Hutyra said. In two separate studies, her research group investigated the differences in carbon storage of trees and soils along forest edges versus the interiors of temperate forests in the northeastern United States. Hutyra and her team found that trees on the edge of forest fragments grow faster than those deeper in the interior, and that soil on the edge of urban&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/trees-and-soil-at-the-forests-edge-store-more-carbon-than-we-thought-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/trees-and-soil-at-the-forests-edge-store-more-carbon-than-we-thought-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-254960</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Opium production down as communities in Mexico’s Golden Triangle turn to forestry</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/opium-production-down-as-communities-in-mexicos-golden-triangle-turn-to-forestry/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/opium-production-down-as-communities-in-mexicos-golden-triangle-turn-to-forestry/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Mar 2022 15:34:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rodrigo Soberanes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/03/29145321/foto-2_Durango-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=254243</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Crops, Drug Trade, Forest Products, Forestry, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Solutions, Temperate Forests, Timber, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Two decades ago, the inhabitants of four communities in the northern Mexican state of Durango put together a proposal: to make sustainable forest management a means of living. Over the years, they observed that this path has enabled them to look after their forest, brought economic advantages to their region, and above all, closed the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Two decades ago, the inhabitants of four communities in the northern Mexican state of Durango put together a proposal: to make sustainable forest management a means of living. Over the years, they observed that this path has enabled them to look after their forest, brought economic advantages to their region, and above all, closed the door on illegal crop production. The four communities are situated in a region known as the Golden Triangle, one of the country’s main marijuana and opium-producing regions. But the people living there no longer want to be known across the country for drug production. Now, they want the ‘Golden Triangle’ to be known as an area where what grows, is cared for and sustains their communities, are trees. View of an area in northern Durango which is under forest management. Photo: Courtesy of UCDFI Topia, S.C. The four communities – Ejido Todos Santos y Anexos, Ejido Osos Bravos y Anexos, Las Milpas y Anexos and Santa Ana – are all located in the Tamazula Municipality in Durango, not far from the state borders with Sinaloa and Chihuahua in northern Mexico. Together, they came to the decision to embrace forest management. “We live in a stigmatized area. They call it the Golden Triangle, but here, our strengths lie in forestry,” says Fortino Escárcega Villa, commissioner of the Ejido Todos Santos y Anexos. Since the seventies, there have been community organizations in Mexico that have pioneered forest management. Following their example, these four communities decided to create a civil association&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/opium-production-down-as-communities-in-mexicos-golden-triangle-turn-to-forestry/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-254243</doi>				</item>
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