The Indian government has initiated the process of revamping its national forest policy, but the new draft has critics on edge. The current National Forest Policy 1988 (NFP-1988) was announced 30…
The international arm of Greenpeace has ended its membership with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a certification organization that aims to ensure responsibly managed forests. "We believe robust timber certification…
A British government office has prosecuted a wood importer certified by the Forest Stewardship Council after it was found to have failed to ensure the legality of a shipment of…
The camera follows the men through the forest as they arrive at the splintered stump of what looks to have been a massive tree. “For me, the forest is a…
It’s become a trend for big corporations to pledge that their products won’t cause any more deforestation. And while many experts believe in the potential of these “zero-deforestation” commitments to…
New research demonstrates that sustainability certification through the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil does cut down on deforestation in Indonesia’s palm oil industry. But the new study, published online Monday by…
TAHUAMANU PROVINCE, Peru – In June of this year, a group of scientists entered the tropical forest in Tahuamanu Province, situated in the extreme northern portion of the Madre de…
Airborne mapping of the northern part of the island of Borneo has revealed that forests there pack some of the highest levels of carbon on the planet, even in a…
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has the strongest set of requirements among certification schemes for edible oils and biofuels, even if its members often get away with flouting its…
In early 2017, the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) decided that it was going to stop working with certification in agriculture. It was actually a fairly easy and straightforward decision: After…
HO CHI MINH CITY – In a bid to address the history of poor management that has ravaged its forests and the quality of its timber, Vietnam is embracing a…
On today’s episode, a look at the impacts of drilling for natural gas on birds and amphibians through bioacoustics, and a Goldman Prize winner discusses her ongoing campaign to rid…
Held every three years, the General Assembly (GA) is supposed to be the top Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) platform for decision-making. The idea is that members of the three FSC…
Can you answer important questions about conservation by playing a game? Yes, and it works. In August, ForDev, the research team I lead, was invited by the Forest Stewardship Council…
The certification organization Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) took a step toward allowing timber companies that have cut down forests since 1994 to apply for the organization’s stamp of approval. Since its…
The sustainability and legality claims of the largest plywood importer in the US have come under question after it was found to have received shipments of Malaysian plywood worth more…
A new alliance, introduced today at an EU-hosted conference on oceans in Malta, has joined the global effort to shore up legality in the seafood industry. Between 11 million and…
Tropical timber has earned a bad reputation. When we think of timber from lush, tropical forests, it conjures up images of valuable old-growth trees pillaged by logging companies and illegal…
JAKARTA — After a year in which it destroyed over 1,000 hectares of peat swamp forest in violation of its own sustainability policy, palm oil giant Felda Global Ventures said…
Trees from one of South America’s fastest-disappearing landscapes are ending up as charcoal on the shelves of European supermarkets, according to a report by the NGO Earthsight. The London-based watchdog…
Text by Jacopo Pasotti, photos by Elisabetta Zavoli MANGUNHARJO, Indonesia – A mangrove forest once surrounded this village on Java’s northern coast. That was before the woods were clear-cut to…
In a rare instance of a merger in the non-profit world, the Rainforest Alliance and UTZ, two influential agricultural sustainability certification bodies, have announced they will come together under the…
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), one of the world’s most influential sustainable forestry certification bodies, has announced that it will investigate the Indonesian oil palm operations of Korean agribusiness conglomerate…
A month after the world’s largest sustainable palm oil association took action against one of its most prominent members, Goodhope Asia Holdings, over failures to comply with its standards on…
On Jan. 1, the world’s largest association for ethical palm oil production found that Wilmar International had violated the rights of the indigenous Kapa community of West Sumatra, Indonesia, when…
Goodhope Asia Holdings has issued a new sustainability policy, committing the palm oil giant to stop clearing forests and peatlands. The Singapore-based firm was already a member of the Roundtable…
The world’s biggest sustainable palm oil association has frozen the operations of one of its most prominent members on concessions in Indonesia because of failures to meet its standards on…
The world’s flagship certification body for the palm oil sector is undermining its own standards for plantation developments, according to a group of leading environmental and indigenous rights NGOs, who…
Many companies that deal in commodities linked to heavy tropical deforestation, such as soy or timber, have made commitments to significantly reduce or end deforestation in their supply chains by…
An exchange for legally harvested timber in Brazil now has a new backer in the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), perhaps the best-known international certification group for forest products. The BVRio…