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For the Maya people, fire has always been a sacred element, central in ancestral Mother Earth celebration ceremonies.

Fire is both destruction and rebirth for Maya communities of Belize

Monica Pelliccia 27 Jun 2025
Amazon rainforest in Ecuador. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

On World Rainforest Day, the world confronts an unprecedented wave of tropical forest loss

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Jun 2025

Deforestation and fires persist in Indonesia’s pulpwood and biomass plantations

Hans Nicholas Jong 28 May 2025
A forest fire burns in Valparaíso, Chile, in February 2024. Image courtesy of the Gobierno de Chile via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0 CL)

Tropical forest loss hit new heights in 2024; fire a major driver in Latin America

Ruth Kamnitzer 21 May 2025
With thick coats and broad paws, Canada lynx are supremely adapted to deep snow.

New research sheds light on Canada lynx-snowshoe hare cycle, human impacts

Ruth Kamnitzer 14 May 2025
A Dayak Ngaju tribe man tries to extinguish fire on burning peatland in Mantangai, Central Kalimantan.

In Borneo village, Indigenous Dayaks leave farming amid stricter fire rules

Rendy Tisna 24 Apr 2025

Indonesia’s peatlands face growing flood risks amid widespread degradation

Hans Nicholas Jong 7 Apr 2025
Fire in an area newly deforested in Brazil.

Brazil is speeding-up forest fire prevention to avoid dangerous tipping points in the Amazon (commentary)

Robert Muggah and Ilona Szabo 6 Apr 2025

Indonesians suing pulpwood firms over haze face intimidation, seek human rights protection

Hans Nicholas Jong 25 Mar 2025

‘Sustainable’ palm oil firms continue illegal peatland clearing despite permit revocation

Hans Nicholas Jong 21 Mar 2025
Emberá community leader Omaira Casama discusses the project with the McGill University team.

Agroforestry stores less carbon than reforestation, but has many other benefits, study finds

Jeremy Hance 4 Mar 2025
Black flying foxes are found in the forests of the Kimberley region of northern Australia. Image by Andrew Mercer via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

In Australia’s little-known rainforests, tradition and science collaborate for good

Nick Rodway 28 Feb 2025
The Kazembe nursery group with Mulanje cedar seedlings in 2018. Community tree nurseries, set up with assistance from MMCT, BGCI and other partners, have been central in building support for Mulanje cedar restoration. The nurseries also demonstrate that it is possible to cultivate native trees, something many people previously did not think was possible. Image courtesy of Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI).

Reforesting Malawi’s ‘Island in the Sky’ to save its vanishing woodlands

Ruth Kamnitzer 28 Feb 2025
Peatland forest in Central Kalimantan.

Protecting peatlands and mangroves could halve Southeast Asia’s land-use emissions

Hans Nicholas Jong 18 Feb 2025

After LA, fire crisis reaches Latin America — from Mexico to Argentina

Astrid Arellano 17 Feb 2025

Mother of 2 jailed in Sumatra as wildfires dragnet continues to catch small farmers

Teguh Suprayitno 4 Feb 2025
A firefighter in the Xingu Indigenous Territory.

World’s record heat is worsening air pollution and health in Global South

Simrin Sirur (with Orji Sunday and Karla Mendes) 13 Jan 2025

After a searing Amazon fire season, experts warn of more in 2025

Fernanda Wenzel 8 Jan 2025
YEAR IN RAINFORESTS BANNER

The year in tropical rainforests: 2024

Rhett Ayers Butler 24 Dec 2024
Satellite imagery captured September 2024 by Planet Labs shows a fire burning along the boundary between Xingu Indigenous Park and Capoto/Jarina Indigenous Territory. The territories are surrounded by denuded industrial farm fields.

Fires rip through Indigenous territories in Brazilian Amazon

Ruth Kamnitzer 29 Nov 2024
Two Paĩ leaders.

Paraguay’s Indigenous Paĩ Tavyterã communities fight invaders, fires and drought

Aimee Gabay 28 Nov 2024

Reserve in Brazilian Amazon struggles as ‘aggressive’ deforestation spreads

Ruth Kamnitzer 27 Nov 2024
Oluwa's forest are home to many species threatened with extinction, including this red-capped mangabey (Cercocebus torquatus). Image by Rufus46 via Wikimedia Commons (CC SA 3.0).

A Nigerian reserve, once a stronghold for chimps, is steadily losing its forest to farming

Morgan Erickson-Davis 21 Nov 2024

Communities band together to save besieged reserve in Bolivia

Iván Paredes Tamayo 20 Nov 2024
A firefighter wears a breathing mask after the Maui fire to protect himself from toxic vapors.

As global fire risk rises, modern homes become toxic plastic traps

Alden Wicker 14 Nov 2024
Pantanal fire. Image courtesy of Gustavo Figueiroa.

Act now or lose the Pantanal forever (commentary)

Steve Trent 15 Oct 2024
Greenpeace Brazil conducted an aerial survey in southern Amazonas and northern Rondônia to monitor deforestation and fires in July 2024. Photo © Marizilda Cruppe / Greenpeace.

Deforestation remains low, but fires surge in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest

Mongabay.com 12 Oct 2024
Rainfall over the Amazon river. Photo by Rhett A. Butler

The Amazon is ablaze again. What it means for us (commentary)

Mark J. Plotkin 30 Sep 2024
An old growth clear-cut in Kwakwaka'wakw territory, northern Vancouver Island. Image copyright: Mya Van Woudenberg, Sierra Club BC.

As logging intensifies forest fires, Wet’suwet’en fight to protect old growth

Erica Gies 23 Sep 2024

Sumatra citizen lawsuit seeks accountability for haze-causing fires

Hans Nicholas Jong 9 Sep 2024
Tropical rainforests are not adapted to fire, and have no natural fire regime.

Brazil launches ‘war’ on widespread fire outbreaks & criminal arsonists

Fernanda Wenzel 30 Aug 2024
Fire in an area newly deforested in Brazil.

Forest degradation releases 5 times more Amazon carbon than deforestation: Study

Justin Catanoso 9 Aug 2024

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