FSC certification gives boost to rainforest community
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…
UK greenheart restriction could put pressure on Guyana’s logging economy
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…
FSC puts timber processor on probation after ‘scathing’ investigation
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…
Australian retailers accused of misusing the RSPO’s label on their palm oil products
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…
Indonesia ships first containers of timber under EU legality scheme
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…
Complaint against a palm oil company in Papua held in limbo by RSPO
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…
RSPO loses key backer in Australia: ‘We just can’t trust them anymore’
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…
More than 20 labor law violations by Indofood alleged in Indonesia
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…
Scoring palm oil buyers on their sustainability commitments
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…
Voluntary certification standards have far to go, say experts
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…
IPOP’s demise undercuts palm oil industry progress [commentary]
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…
RSPO lifts suspension of Malaysian palm oil giant IOI
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…
Failure of Indonesia’s palm oil commitment ‘not bad news’ [commentary]
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…
Malaysian palm oil giant IOI under pressure after Cargill ultimatum
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…
10 conservation “fads”: how have they worked in Latin America?
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.”…
Communities lead the way in rainforest conservation in Guatemala
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…
Can conservationists overcome their differences to save life on Earth?
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…
PanEco resigns from RSPO over ‘sheer level of inaction’
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…
Successes and many challenges in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve
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…
Epilogue: Conservation still divided, looking for a way forward
Other stories in Mongabay's Conservation, Divided series: Part 1: Has big conservation gone astray? Part 2: How big donors and corporations shape conservation goals Part 3: Conservation today, the old-fashioned…
Conservation today, the old-fashioned way
Other stories in Mongabay's Conservation, Divided series: Part 1: Has big conservation gone astray? Part 2: How big donors and corporations shape conservation goals Part 4: Conservation's people problem Epilogue: Conservation still…
Malaysian palm oil giant IOI sues RSPO over suspension
A Malaysian company that helped found the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is suing the RSPO for suspending its sustainability certification over alleged environmental transgressions in Indonesia. IOI Group has filed…
Malaysian palm oil companies say their concession maps are state secrets
n the war on opaque management of Southeast Asia’s natural resources, reformers gained ground on Tuesday, when Indonesia’s land minister affirmed the right of oil palm companies to publish their…
How big donors and corporations shape conservation goals
Other stories in Mongabay's Conservation, Divided series: Part 1: Has big conservation gone astray? Part 3: Conservation today, the old-fashioned way Part 4: Conservation's people problem Epilogue: Conservation still divided, looking…
A decade in the making: EU, Indonesia to start licensing scheme for legal timber shipments
In 2003, the EU agreed to work with countries like Indonesia to do something about the scourge of illegal logging, a devastating problem for tropical states whose vast rainforests were…
Has big conservation gone astray?
Other stories in Mongabay's Conservation, Divided series: Part 2: How big donors and corporations shape conservation goals Part 3: Conservation today, the old-fashioned way Part 4: Conservation's people problem Epilogue: Conservation…
Conservation, Divided: in-depth series starts Tuesday
onservation is messy. Conservation is complicated. Conservation is really, really difficult. But if we are to avoid mass extinction, conservation, most of all, is necessary. Beginning next Tuesday, Mongabay will…
New ways to fight human-rights abuses in the global seafood industry
hen Bayani secured an overseas job in the fishing industry from a broker in his home country of the Philippines, it was about finding work that he was skilled at…
Study finds link between RSPO certification and profitability for palm oil companies
More evidence is emerging to suggest that for palm oil companies, becoming more sustainable pays off. “Correlating Economic and Financial Viability with Sustainability for Palm Oil Plantations,” a paper by…
Malaysian palm oil giant loses 7 more customers over RSPO suspension
More companies are cutting back supplies from Malaysian palm oil giant IOI Group after its suspension from the world's largest association for ethical palm oil production, the RSPO. Hershey's, Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson, Procter…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- License to Log: Cambodian military facilitates logging on Koh Kong Krao and across the Cardamoms
- Forest behind bars: Logging network operating out of Cambodian prison in the Cardamoms
- Indigenous communities in Argentina’s Chaco fear another heavy fire season in 2023
- As tourism booms in India’s Western Ghats, habitat loss pushes endangered frogs to the edge
Oceans
- A Southeast Asian marine biodiversity hotspot is also a wildlife trafficking hotbed
- Experts, activists unite to blast Indonesia’s U-turn on sea sand exports
- As one Indian Ocean tuna stock faces collapse, nations scramble to save others
- Conservationists aim to save critically endangered European eels on Italy’s Po River
Amazon Conservation
- Boosted with fresh donations, Amazon Fund reboots stalled projects
- Majority of Brazil’s Congress votes to restrict Indigenous land advances
- Protected areas store a year’s worth of CO₂ emissions, study reveals
- Indigenous land rights key to curbing deforestation and restoring lands: Study
Land rights and extractives
- Dams and plantations upend livelihoods in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo River Valley
- Fish deaths near Rio Tinto mine in Madagascar dredge up community grievances
- Award-winning, Indigenous peace park dragged into fierce conflict in Myanmar
- Logging permit threatens Quilombola bioeconomic ‘paradise’ in the Amazon
Endangered Environmentalists
- Indigenous chief shot in head in Brazil’s ‘palm oil war’ region; crisis group launched
- ‘You don’t kill people to protect forests’: New Thai parks chief raises alarm
- Vietnam’s environmental NGOs face uncertain status, shrinking civic space
- ‘We lost the biggest ally’: Nelly Marubo on her friend Bruno Pereira’s legacy
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
- After 20 years and thousands of trees planted, Kalimantan’s veteran forester persists
- Aziil Anwar, Indonesian coral-based mangrove grower, dies at 64
- A utopia of clean air and wet peat amid Sumatra’s forest fire ‘hell’
Conservation Effectiveness
- Africa’s land and forest restoration initiative gathers pace in Malawi
- Study shows Kenyan elephant shrew may be adapting to human disturbance, drought
- Saving forests to protect coastal ecosystems: Japan sets historic example
- From scarcity to abundance: The secret of the ‘peace farmers’ of Colombia
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Indonesia’s new capital ‘won’t sacrifice the environment’: Q&A with Nusantara’s Myrna Asnawati Safitri
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
- To build its ‘green’ capital city, Indonesia runs a road through a biodiverse forest
- Robust river governance key to restoring Mekong River vitality in face of dams
