rom huge expanses of Acacia trees to ancient Baobab trees, forests and woodlands cover more than half of Tanzania’s rugged landscape. In this East African nation, forests help fuel the…
If you’re a coffee connoisseur, you’ve probably heard of kopi luwak — the world’s most expensive coffee, made from partially digested coffee beans, excreted by a shy, forest-dwelling, cat-like animal…
It’s good news for two of the world’s rarest salamanders: Finca Chiblac salamander (Bradytriton silus) and the long-limbed salamander (Nyctanolis pernix). A consortium of international conservation groups has purchased 2,000…
or hundreds of years water has run down the western foothills of Indonesia’s second largest volcano over the nearby Tiu Teja falls. But here on the slopes of Mount Rinjani…
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…
Fast food giant McDonald's will combat deforestation across its main commodity supply chains, including palm oil, beef, paper and packaging, coffee, and poultry. The commitment is the most comprehensive of…
Shade-grown coffee is disappearing, and so is the biodiversity that comes with it Shade-grown coffee is regarded as a form of permaculture, in which coffee is grown under a canopy…
Coffee produced under the Rainforest Alliance's certification system topped a billion pounds (455,000 tons) for the first time in 2013, reports Reuters. The volume of Rainforest Alliance-certified coffee beans surged…
"Elephants are headed our way," said the text. "Please let others know." Ganesh Raghunathan received this message, one of eight SMS messages that day from villagers across the Valparai plateau…
Trends in commodity certification markets Market share for certified commodities. All figures courtesy of IISD's report The volume of commodities produced under various social and environmental certification standards jumped 41…
With more than 140 cities implementing water rationing, analysts warning of collapsing soy and coffee exports, and reservoirs and rivers running precipitously low, talk about the World Cup in some…
Birds are providing a valuable ecosystem service on coffee plantations in Costa Rica, finds a new study that quantifies the pest control benefits of preserving tree cover in agricultural areas.…
An inconvenient truth is not what most people want to hear before they’ve had their first cup of coffee in the morning. Our coffee break is “me time,” and we…
Popularization of the world's strangest coffee may be imperiling a a suite of small mammals in Indonesia, according to a new study in Small Carnivore Conservation. The coffee, known as…
Motorbikes carrying coffee bags out of Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park. Photo courtesy of Patrice Levang. Sumatra's Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park—home to the Critically Endangered Sumatran rhinos, tigers, and…
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…
Deforestation of tropical forests for oil palm plantations in Sabah, Malaysia. Palm oil is one of over 15,000 commodities in a recent study that have been linked to biodiversity loss…
