6/24/13 update: APRIL responded to request for comment. Its remarks have been added to the story. Following a complaint filed by environmental groups, Indonesian forestry giant Asia Pacific Resources International…
Protected forest in Sabah. Photo by Rhett A. Butler The Sabah Forestry Department has reclassified 63,700 hectares of rainforest zoned for logging as protected areas. The reclassification applies to four…
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a body that certifies forest management practices, has revoked all certificates granted to the Danzer Group, a multinational logging company, over alleged human rights abuses…
KCF, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell policy excludes fiber from conversion of old-growth rainforests to plantations. After a prolonged campaign by environmental activists, the world's largest fast food company has announced…
Deforested peat forest in Indonesian Borneo. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. From 2004 to 2010, book publishers increased their use of recycled fiber by nearly five times, from 5 percent…
Mongabay.com is partnering with the Skoll Foundation ahead of the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship to bring a series of perspectives that aim to answer the question: how do…
In an unusually bold statement catalyzed by the deaths of 14 rare elephants, six Malaysian NGOs today called on the Sabah state government to pursue "a more conservation focused agenda"…
Logging in Borneo. All photos by Rhett A. Butler Two environmental activist groups blasted the World Bank over its reported decision to block a probe into its support of industrial-scale…
Rainforest in Sumatra HarperCollins has established a policy that excludes paper sourced from destruction of tropical rainforests and old growth forests. The revised policy, posted on its web site earlier…
Future hanging in balance? Borneo orang-utan. Photo by Rhett Butler. Borneo will likely lose half of its orangutans if current deforestation and forest conversion trends continue, warns a comprehensive new…
Logging truck in Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Demand for timber and paper is contributing to destruction of the world's most biodiverse rainforests and worsening climate change, argues a…
Nearly 600 million people manage some one billion hectares (2.5 million hectares) of agroforests worldwide, yet these smallholders have been largely left out of a push to move some commodities…
This is an expanded version of an article, titled A Desperate Effort to Save the Rainforest of Borneo, that appeared last month on Yale e360. Rainforest in Sabah. All photo…
Infant lowland gorilla in the Congo basin rainforest. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Central Africa has the newest World Heritage site. On Tuesday, the United Nations Education, Science, and Cultural…
Photo Credit: Thomas Breuer/Wildlife Conservation Society Elephant numbers in areas surveyed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Central Africa halved between 2006 and 2011, hinting at the carnage wrought…
Destroyed old-growth forest with piles of timber on land leased by IKEA/Swedwood in Russian Karelia. Photo © Robert Svensson, Protect the Forest 2011. A new campaign is targeting IKEA, the…
Sawmill in Indonesia. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Last year researchers took the first ever publicly-released video of an African golden cat (Profelis aurata) in a Gabon rainforest. This beautiful,…
Deforestation by forest type/classification in DRC, 2000-2005 and 2005-2010. Click image to enlarge. Danzer, a Swiss-German forestry company that has been heavily criticized by environmentalists for its logging practices in…
Two affiliates of Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) have announced they are severing at least some ties with the beleaguered paper giant, according to the Northern Virginia Daily and Greenpeace,…
A recent expose by Al Jazeera reveals the environmental toll of clear-cutting on Latvia's forests, in addition to highlighting the fact that the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certifies clear-cut forests.…
Peat draining and large-scale clearance of natural forest by APP wood supplier PT. Ruas Utama Jaya. Eyes of the Forest said the clearing occurred inside APP's Senepis Tiger Sanctuary, but…
Aerial view over Latvian forests—please note almost all cutting patches are fresh, not yet regenerated. Photo by: R.Matrozis, 2007. The economic crisis has pushed many nations to scramble for revenue…
Editor's note: this story has been corrected since originally posted. See the box below for details. Rainforest in Sumatra Levi Strauss & Company had issued a new policy that will…
2011 was designated as "Year of the Forests" by the United Nations. While there was relatively little progress on intergovernmental forest protection programs during the year, a lot happened elsewhere.…
A peace accord has been announced to resolve a long-running conflict between a giant state-owned plantation company and local communities on the Indonesian island of Java. The Forest Trust (TFT),…
A new report finds that conservation giant WWF may demand too little when working with logging companies. Screenshot of WWF website. Arguably the globe's most well-known conservation organization, the World…
Rosewood logging in Masoala National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Photo by Rhett A. Butler A motion filed last month by the U.S. Department of Justice alleges Gibson Guitar…
Update: Motion 18 passed the General Assembly with substantial amendments, including a call to revise FSC's plantation regulations. Members of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), meeting in Malaysia next week…
Infant Chacma baboon in Botswana. Photo by: Tiffany Roufs. Shooting baboons will continue in Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified plantations. After examining a complaint by the NGO GeaSphere against South African…
The forest organization, FERN, has pulled its support from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), reports FSC-Watch. FERN has quit the increasingly troubled organization due to FSC pursuing carbon credits through…
