It’s no secret that natural wealth in many African countries often sparks conflict and precipitates decades of the suffering of local populations. Liberia’s ‘resource curse’ is no different. With more…
Ever since the palm oil industry started its industrial-scale expansion in South-East Asia it has been under pressure from environmental activists and NGOs for its negative impacts. Much of that…
On the surface, the Republic of Congo appears to be making strides toward both conservation and economic development. But the process of becoming an emerging economy is not without its…
On Jan. 1, 2017, the world’s largest association for ethical palm oil production came to a decision that, if implemented, will allow the Kapa community of West Sumatra, Indonesia, to…
A recent audit of a leading pulp and paper manufacturer in Indonesia has highlighted a significant gap in its sustainability policy, which the company says it is now working to…
On the latest episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we welcome journalist Sue Branford, a regular contributor to Mongabay who has been reporting from Brazil since 1979 when she was with…
In the summer of 2016, two of the world's largest producers of palm oil, which is found in everything from lipstick to margarine, lost the ability to market what they sold…
A study published in the journal Science Advances this month found that, between 2000 and 2013, the global area of intact forest landscape declined by 7.2 percent, a reduction of…
Loans and credit from the British bank HSBC have helped support the unsustainable clearing of forests for oil palm plantations in Indonesia, Greenpeace said in a report published Tuesday. The…
Few places on Earth escape the reach of humankind, and those areas are dwindling, according to a new study. Between 2000 and 2013, the world lost a Venezuela-sized expanse of…
Massive forest fires in the Congo and Amazon, surging deforestation in Brazil, and tentative steps toward reform in Indonesia and Myanmar: there were no shortage of major happenings in tropical…
IWOKRAMA, Guyana - It’s late afternoon in Fairview village, an indigenous Amerindian community in the heart of Guyana’s tropical rainforest. School is over for the day and children are playing…
KWAKWANI, Guyana - On most weekday mornings, 46-year-old Jennifer Edwards wakes up in the town of Kwakwani, deep in the heart of Guyana’s southern logging country. She goes about her…
A report released yesterday by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the world's most influential forest-products certification organization, describes the findings of a nearly year-long investigation into allegations of illegality on…
Two of Australia’s biggest retailers have been misleading customers with claims that palm oil used in their own-brand products has been certified by the world’s largest association for ethical production…
JAKARTA — The first containers of plywood certified as legal under the EU’s anti-illegal-logging action plan were shipped out of the Indonesian capital on Tuesday, a milestone in the fight…
A complaint lodged earlier this year about alleged abuses by a palm oil company in Indonesian Papua has raised questions over the credibility of the industry’s largest certification scheme in…
The cachet of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has taken a hit with the withdrawal of support for the organization by an Australian watchdog that had pushed some of…
Amid allegations of widespread abuses on its plantations, including the use of child labor, three NGOs this week lodged a formal complaint against Indonesian palm oil giant Indofood, calling for…
2015 was supposed to be a big year for the palm oil industry — the year it proposed to reach a “tipping point” and begin predominantly producing and trading palm…
n expert assessment of a globally popular alternative to regulation - voluntary certification standards systems - has found that results are not always effective. Of the increasing number of voluntary…
This is the second in a series of commentaries about the disbandment of the Indonesia Palm Oil Pledge (IPOP). Read the first one here. Regardless of how conservationists and businesses…
Malaysia’s IOI Group has regained the right to sell “certified sustainable” palm oil under the brand of the RSPO, the world’s largest association for ethical production of the commodity. The…
This is the first in a series of commentaries about the disbandment of the Indonesia Palm Oil Pledge (IPOP). Read the second one here. The Indonesian Palm Oil Pledge or IPOP was signed…
Leading palm oil user Cargill has issued an ultimatum to its supplier IOI Group after the Malaysian producer lost its Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification over environmental destruction…
n May 2013, the journal Conservation Biology published an editorial describing 10 conservation methods that emerged since the late 1970's as fads, “approaches that are embraced enthusiastically and then abandoned.”…
Other stories in Mongabay’s series on the Maya Biosphere Reserve: Killing of Guatemalan activist in the Maya Biosphere Reserve raises alarm Successes and many challenges in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve…
Veteran Mongabay reporter Jeremy Hance’s hard-hitting series investigating recent changes in the field of conservation drew tens of thousands of readers and sparked intense conversation. Catch all four parts of…
One of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil’s disgruntled NGO members officially called it quits on the organization last week, resigning over what it deemed the RSPO’s failure to reign…
Other stories in Mongabay’s series on the Maya Biosphere Reserve: Killing of Guatemalan activist in the Maya Biosphere Reserve raises alarm Communities lead the way in rainforest conservation in Guatemala…