Agroforestry News

Update: Mr. Herndon appeared here on Mongabay's podcast in late 2017 to report that volume two has now been completed, and that the encyclopedia now spans 1,000 pages. In one of the…

A thunderhead builds over a lush agricultural mosaic in a coffee growing region of Ethiopia. Photo credit: Evan Buechley. The next time you order that "wake up" cup of Joe…

Cashew nuts grow in the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve in the Brazilian Amazon. Photo by: P.J. Stephenson. Forests could help alleviate global hunger, according to a new report released Wednesday…

Rainforest cleared for oil palm plantations. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly today on a new cap on biofuels derived from edible crops, which critics say…

Straw-colored fruit bat (Eidolon helvum) at the Zoological Garden Berlin, Germany. This species, along with other fruit bats, is present in the Ebola impacted area and may have been a…

Green revolutions have spared land in the past, but might not in the future Agriculture is the primary driver of tropical deforestation. Indeed, most global food production occurs in the…

Rainforest in Costa Rica. A coalition of governments and organizations today pledged to restore 20 million hectares (50 million acres) of degraded forests and ecosystems across Latin America by 2020…

Despite vast forest loss, the Anjouan scops owl is holding on in the Comoros Islands The Anjouan scops owl. Photo by: Alan Van Norman. The Anjouan scops owl—an elusive owl…

Study calls into question the efficacy of agroforests in conserving biodiversity With an estimated population of 700 million individuals, domestic dogs are the most abundant carnivore in the world and…

Study shows environmental income critical for rural livelihoods, challenges assumptions about how poor use forest resources An employee of MESCOT, a community-run reforestation, conservation, and alternative livelihoods initiative in Malaysian…

Stream in the middle of a new oil palm plantation. Oil palm cultivation is a lucrative form of land use in Indonesia, but the new study suggests that it may…

Note: On May 5, 2014, an official request for correction was submitted to The Jakarta Post to clarify that the Ministry of Forestry was referring to "Hutan Tanaman Rakyat" (HTR)…

With over seven billion people inhabiting the earth and the population endlessly rising, food security is a mounting global issue. As a solution to increasing food scarcity, forests are commonly…

Kelumpang Sarawak (Sterculia megistophylla) in Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Humans have been actively managing vast areas of Southeast Asia's forests for longer than previously believed, according to research…

As primary forests become increasingly rare and expensive to protect, many ecologists are looking to better management of Human Modified Landscapes (HMLs) to shepherd and shield biodiversity in the tropics.…

Dan Childs filming in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo courtesy of Nick Werber. A new series of short films is celebrating the innovation of rural farmers in the Manu region of…

Çağan Şekercioğlu uses radio equipment to track an orange-billed nightingale-thrush in the Costa Rican countryside. A new study by Şekercioğlu indicates that wooded 'shade' plantations where coffee and cacao are…

An Eco-Ola permaculture plot with yuca, beans, sacha inchi, bananas, charapitas, herba luisa, and moringa in the Peruvian Amazon. Communities living in and around tropical forests remain highly dependent on…

Forest destruction for cattle ranching in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Recognizing the global importance of the world's vanishing forests, a 10-year-long research program will focus on…

Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai died Sunday after a battle with ovarian cancer. She was 71. Wangari Maathai. Courtesy of the Green Belt Movement Maathai is best known…

Forest policies in the United States, Rwanda, and Gambia won U.N. backed awards for contributing to efforts to protect and sustainably manage forests. Rwanda, which experienced a reversal in deforestation…

Rambutan fruit. Photo courtesy of Orangutan Foundation International. Among conservationists and biologists, the mega-island of Borneo is a sort of Mecca. Its rich plant and animal biodiversity, as well as…

Anne Hallum is founder of the Alliance for International Reforestation and for her work was recently named a "CNN Hero." Her daughter, Rachel Hallum-Montes has been planting trees with her…

An interview with Michael Jenkins, President and CEO of Forest Trends Over the past 30 years billions of dollars has been committed to global conservation efforts, yet forests continue to…

Organization recommends expanding REDD to cover all land use change emissions. The political definition of 'forest' used in REDD (Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) threatens to undermine the…

Papua New Guinea, the independent eastern half of the world's second largest island (New Guinea), houses one of the planet's last frontier forests. These forests support a wealth of plants…

Sixth in a series of interviews with participants at the 2009 Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) conference. With the world facing a variety of crises: climate change, food…

The campaign to plant seven billion trees has achieved its goal, the United Nations announced Tuesday. 7.3 billion trees have been planted in 167 countries since the UN Environment Programme…

Conservationists work with local communities to protect the okapi, and its rainforest habitat, in the aftermath of a brutal civil war.