Indonesian palm, pulp companies commit to peatland restoration
JAKARTA — More than a hundred palm oil and pulp companies in Indonesia have pledged to restore a combined area of peat forest the size of the state of Connecticut,…
Indonesia prepares to adopt standardized peat-mapping technology
JAKARTA — The daunting task of mapping Indonesia’s vast peatlands in painstaking detail has entered the home stretch, as competing proposals vie for selection as the standard to be adopted…
Forests can beat humans at restoration, new study finds
When it comes to restoring deforested landscapes, letting them regenerate naturally through passive means is generally cheaper than human-driven, so-called “active,” restoration techniques like re-planting. But a new study finds…
Trump budget undercuts U.S. commitment to global wildlife conservation
Congress is locked in a heated debate over the 2018 budget, but if the GOP follows Trump’s lead, they could do extensive harm to the world’s wildlife and to developing nations.
As Northwest salmon economy teeters on brink, Trump gives it a push
Trump’s 2018 budget, if adopted, threatens to kill already precarious Northwest salmon fisheries — crippling the local economies of US and Canadian communities and tribal nations.
Re-peeling the effects of degradation: low-tech application of orange crop waste shows potential to restore tropical forests
Researchers have come upon a new low-tech tropical forest restoration strategy, beginning with agricultural waste. They studied the effects on soil and forest health of the purposeful deposition of tons…
Modern Fish Act: boon to recreational fishing or risk to U.S. fishery?
If passed by Congress, the bill will benefit the economy, recreational fishermen say, but environmentalists fear it could destabilize and even crash ocean fisheries.
Protecting a forest in the land of the Indonesian deer-pig
LEMBAH PERMAI, Indonesia — Joula Goni stepped out of her house cradling a skull. “A babirusa,” she explained, placing the bleached white cranium on a formica table on the patio.…
Canopy bridges keep rainforest animals connected over gas pipeline
Amazon study: arboreal species actively use natural bridges above Peru pipeline, mitigating habitat fragmentation; could work for roads, other infrastructure.
Transforming business as usual in Indonesia: an interview with Aida Greenbury
Perhaps no forestry company operating in Indonesia was more controversial from the late 1990s to the early 2010s in environmental circles than Asia Pulp & Paper (APP). Throughout that period,…
Indonesia blocks major artery in haze-causing Mega Rice canal network
PALANGKARAYA, Indonesia and JAKARTA -- One of the largest drainage canals ever dug through Indonesia’s peat swamps is being blocked in Kalimantan, the archipelago country’s portion of Borneo island, part…
Communities band together to protect El Salvador’s last mangroves
USULUTAN PROVINCE, El Salvador – “Without the mangroves, we couldn’t live here,” says José Antonio Hernández. “We wouldn’t have any water.” He is standing on a rare dry patch of…
Communities conserving local forest in El Salvador vote to ban mining
CINQUERA, El Salvador – It's not far from town, but in the middle of the dry season, it's a hot and dusty walk to the Cinquera Forest Ecological Park in…
The Spirit of the Steppes: Saving Central Asia’s saiga
The beauty of the saiga belies first impressions. It may be hard to look beyond the big nose — a bulbous schnozz that looks like a chunk of an elephant’s…
Bright lights, big city, tiny frog: Romer’s tree frog survives Hong Kong
Romer's tree frog is, in every respect, an animal that keeps out of the way. Start with its size: averaging just 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters (0.6 to 1 inches) in…
Can fig trees regrow lost rainforests?
“By themselves the figs could build a forest,” ecologist EJH Corner wrote almost a century ago. Now a fascinating book, Gods, Wasps, and Stranglers: the secret history and redemptive future…
Declining pastureland around the globe presents significant conservation opportunity
New evidence that global pasture extent is declining presents an important conservation opportunity, according to a researcher. Some 62 million hectares of pasture (about 153 million acres, an area three…
In the rush to reforest, are the world’s old-growth grasslands losing out?
New commitments coming out of December's COP21 in Paris set their eyes on forests as a way to curb global warming. But a recent article published in Science warns that…
Fighting climate change means protecting forests and wildlife
The Paris Conference of Parties (COP) of the UNFCCC has come and gone, and all but the most cynical would agree that the outcomes were on the positive side and…
Agriculture and forest restoration could coexist – with proper planning
A new study finds ecological restoration may help save one of the most imperiled ecosystems on the planet - while still allowing room for agriculture.
Over 75 percent of large predators declining
The world's top carnivores are in big trouble: this is the take-away message from a new review paper published today in Science. Looking at 31 large-bodied carnivore species (i.e those…
Ecological Restoration and Environmental Change: Renewing Damaged Ecosystems – book review
Stuart K. Allison, PhD’s excellent book Ecological Restoration and Environmental Change: Renewing Damaged Ecosystems clearly explains the current state of affairs regarding ecological restoration. He addresses key issues and challenges…
Putting people to work: restoring our ecosystems, sequestering carbon
Richard Blaustein is a freelance environmental journalist writing primarily on climate change, biodiversity, and genetic resource issues. He has written articles for BioScience, World Watch and Ecosystem Marketplace, and other…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Indigenous community in Peru losing forests to timber, drug, land trafficking
- Bolivian protected areas hit hard by forest fires
- The protected area that isn’t: Bolivia’s Ñembi Guasu beset by fires, farms, roads
- New oil refinery ‘a huge disaster’ for Nigerian forest reserve
Oceans
- Fishers in Flores Sea opt to limit harvest of overexploited sea cucumbers
- As shark numbers plummet, nations seek ban on devastatingly effective gear
- Illegal bottom trawling widespread inside Mediterranean marine protected areas
- Will shipping noise nudge Africa’s only penguin toward extinction?
Amazon Conservation
- U.N. report calls for the ban of mercury trade and its use in gold mining
- Following the impacts of palm oil alliance: Violated regulations and penalty proceedings
- Brazil’s new environmental future under Lula: Q&A with Marina Silva
- Growing soy on cattle pasture can eliminate Amazon deforestation in Brazil
Land rights and extractives
- ‘We go in and take Indigenous lands back from cattle ranchers’: Q&A with activist Pablo Sibar
- Delayed Indigenous ‘Man of the Hole’ burial reveals dispute over his land
- As gangs battle over Peru’s drug trafficking routes, communities and forest are at risk
- In Brazil’s soy belt, Indigenous people face attacks over land rights
Endangered Environmentalists
- Worries and whispers in Vietnam’s NGO community after activist’s sentencing
- Scientists call for end to violence against Amazon communities, environmental defenders
- Indigenous advocates sense a legal landmark as a guardian’s killing heads to trial
- In Brazil, an Indigenous land defender’s unsolved killing is the deadly norm
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
- Mangrove forest loss is slowing toward a halt, new report shows
- ‘South Asia needs its own tiger plan’: Q&A with Nepal’s Maheshwar Dhakal
- Nepal was supposed to double its tiger population since 2010. It tripled it
- In prioritizing conservation, animal culture should be a factor, study says
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Tunnel collapse at dam project in orangutan habitat claims yet another life
- Sulawesi nickel plant coats nearby homes in toxic dust
- Indonesia’s grand EV plans hinge on a ‘green’ industrial park that likely isn’t
- Java communities rally as clock ticks on cleanup of ‘world’s dirtiest river’
