Rimba Raya, the world's largest REDD+ project, has finally been approved by the Indonesian government and verified under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), a leading certification standard for carbon credits.…
An effort by an Amazonian tribe to protect their rainforest home against encroachment and illegal logging has finally been validated and verified under a leading carbon accounting standard, enabling it…
The market for carbon credits generated from projects that reduce deforestation and forest degradation — a climate change mitigation approach known as REDD+ — dipped eight percent in 2012 according…
The challenge of trying to save Indonesia's forests The basic premise of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) program seems simple: rich nations pay tropical countries for preserving…
While much has been written about the potential of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by protecting tropical forests, a proposed program to do just that has been challenged by a number…
The Walt Disney Company has purchased $3.5 million dollars' worth of carbon credits generated via rainforest conservation in Peru, reports Point Carbon. Disney bought 437,000 VCUs (verified carbon units) issued…
Mongabay.com is partnering with the Skoll Foundation ahead of the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship to bring a series of perspectives that aim to answer the question: how do…
Mongabay.com is partnering with the Skoll Foundation ahead of the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship to bring a series of perspectives that aim to answer the question: how do…
Rainforest in the Leuser Ecosystem Area The Indonesian province of Aceh on the western tip of the island of Sumatra may be preparing to lift the protected status of key…
Carbon credits generated by forest conservation activities in tropical countries could play a role in California's cap-and-trade program, helping mitigate climate change and providing benefits to local communities, said a…
Rainforest in Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler The World Bank's forest carbon fund got a $180 million injection from Finland, Germany and Norway, reports Point Carbon. The bank's Forest…
Rainforest in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler 2012 was another year of mixed news for the world's tropical forests. This is a look at some of the…
Norway will pay Guyana $45 million for maintaining its low deforestation rate under a climate partnership between the two countries. The payment is based on Guyana's deforestation rate of 0.054…
Deforestation by forest type/classification in DRC, 2000-2005 and 2005-2010. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has its first Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) project validated and verified…
Deforestation near Rimba Raya in Central Kalimantan. Photo by Rhett Butler. The Indonesian government's announcement at climate talks in Doha that it had approved the country's forest conservation project under…
Brazil's Attorney General Office has filed a lawsuit against an Irish company and an indigenous group for unlicensed sales of carbon credits generated from an reducing emissions from deforestation and…
Norway will deposit another $180 million into Brazil's Amazon Fund after the Latin American giant reported a third straight annual drop in deforestation, reports Bloomberg. The payment comes despite a…
Rainforest in Madagascar. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Negotiations over a program that would pay tropical countries for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation — or REDD+ —…
Conversion of forest to oil palm plantations in Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Indonesia's greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation could have been reduced by hundreds of millions of tons…
Rainforest logging. Photo by Rhett Butler. An initiative that aims to slow global warming by paying developing countries to protect and better manage their forests is expected to be an…
Rainforest in the Chocó-Darién Conservation Corridor REDD+ Project area. The Choco-Darien is the first community-owned REDD project in the world to have completed both VCS validation and verification. The project…
Treefrog in Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Safeguarding biodiversity is a critical component in any plan to mitigate climate change through forest protection, argues a comprehensive new assessment published…
Deforestation for oil palm plantations in Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Agriculture is the direct driver of roughly 80 percent of tropical deforestation, while logging is the biggest single…
This is a response from Greenpeace to Dr. Daniel Nepstad's critique of Greenpeace's recent report on a carbon finance program being advanced by California and other subnational entities. His op-ed…
This is Dr. Nepstad's response to Greenpeace's Outsourcing Hot Air report. Nepstad is a member of the California REDD Offsets Working Group From 2008 through 2010, deforestation in the states…
California's forest conservation-based carbon offsets in its climate change legislation may not lead to net reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and could exacerbate social conflict in places like southern Mexico,…
Rainforest in Malaysia. Greenpeace has launched a consultation process to establish global standards for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) projects. Today the environmental group released a set of…
Countries with the highest gross forest loss between 2000 and 2005 according to the new study and earlier work by the FAO. Click image to enlarge. Tropical deforestation accounted for…
Amazon rainforest. Five large corporations have launched an effort to boost demand for carbon credits from "high quality" Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) projects in tropical countries. Insurance…
Observations of planet Earth from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on July 11, 2005. Photo by: NASA. Seventeen top scientists and four acclaimed conservation organizations have called for radical…
