Old Growth Forests News

Secondary forests are known to sequester carbon more rapidly than old growth forests, meaning they have an important role to play in our efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate…

Rampant deforestation is threatening some of Europe's last old-growth forests.

Two palm oil plantations have recently been established in Peru, supplanting primary forest. Satellite imagery analysis shows extent of the massive development, which is led by a group of companies…

Reaching 1,450 meters (4,750 feet) above the surrounding sea, Cleopatra's Needle is one of Palawan's tallest mountain peaks. Photo by Jonah van Beijnen. Palawan, an island-province of the Philippines near…

One of the world's largest fabric makers for the fashion industry today announced a policy to exclude fiber produced at the expense of endangered forests, reports Canopy, an environmental group…

World leaders are continuing to overlook the worsening condition of tropical forests despite the biome's vast potential to help mitigate climate change, support local livelihoods and ecosystem services, and stabilize…

Logging in Gabon. Photos by Rhett A. Butler Selective logging is causing long-term changes to tropical forests in Africa by facilitating the growth of weeds and vines, which reduces plant…

Clear-cut logging in Alaska. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Seven conservation societies have joined a campaign to push the Obama administration to end old-growth forest logging in Alaska's Tongass National…

Short of buying back logging concessions, switching from conventional logging approaches to reduced impact logging techniques across existing forestry concessions may be the best way boost biodiversity in areas earmarked…

Ants appear more resilient to forest degradation than termites Scientists have long studied how birds, mammals, and amphibians respond to forest degradation, but what about the most abundant animals in…

Industrial logging operation in Malaysian Borneo in 2012. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a body that sets social and environmental certification criteria for forestry products,…

World lost nearly 10 percent of its untouched forests in just over 10 years, according to new analysis Every day, the world loses about 50,000 hectares of forest to agricultural…

An interview with Zuzana Burivalova, a part of our on-going Interviews with Young Scientists series. The path to finding a career often involves twists and turns. Serendipity is important —…

Scientists say both rich and developing countries must recognize primary forests as a conservation priority. Primary rainforest in Imbak Canyon in the state of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The forest is…

Bob Inger's Bush Frog (Raorchestes bobingeri), a species found in the study site. Photo by K.S. Seshadri Selective logging in India's Western Ghats forests continues to affect frogs decades after…

Russian 'intact forest landscape' loses 100,000 hectares in 12 years due in part to FSC-certified timber companies Russia’s trees fuel our increasing demand for wood-based products. The country’s vast forests,…

Some amphibian species, like this Fringe leaf frog (Cruziohyla craspedopus), are particularly affected by heavy logging. Ecologists may be underestimating the impact of logging in old-growth tropical forests by failing…

On bison, wolves, and woodpeckers: the wonder of Europe's only lowland virgin forest. Bialowieza Forest at dawn. Old-growth forest is characterized by ancient trees, tall canopies, little undergrowth, and a…

Modeling program could be used to better manage areas held by indigenous communities Indigenous groups control approximately half of the world’s vegetated areas. As globalization changes the ways in which…

Indonesia now has the highest deforestation rate in the world, topping even Brazil which has more than five times the natural forest cover. Background photo: rainforest in Sumatra. Despite a…

Global carbon emissions from human activities. Eliminating deforestation, peatlands and forest degradation, and forest fires in the tropics could reduce global carbon emissions by two billion tons a year, or…

Selective logging in Brazil. Photo by Luke Parry. Selective logging and small sub-canopy fires are degrading vast areas of rainforest across the Brazilian Amazon, contributing to largely hidden carbon emissions,…

Trees in the rainforests of Borneo have faster growth rates than those in the Amazon, finds a study published in the Journal of Ecology. The research compared wood production among…

Advocates for reduced impact logging in tropical forests often make a case that better forest management cuts carbon emissions relative to traditional forms of timber harvesting. While the argument for…

Innovation in Tropical Forest Conservation: Q&A with Corey Bradshaw Primary peat forest in Sumatra. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Much of Dr. Corey Bradshaw's work has a singular aim: to…

A version of this article appeared in National Geographic Bulgaria. Surprising clatter cuts through the silence in the snowy forest shortly before sunrise. The powerful clicking sounds like a dropping…

Secondary forests, which are areas that were previously cleared of old-growth cover, now comprise the majority of the forested areas in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. A heavily debated…

Old, large trees may be even more important ecologically than long-believed, according to a new study in Nature. Looking at over half a million individual trees from over 400 species…

Environmental initiatives that target zero net deforestation may miss their mark when it comes to slowing climate change and protecting biodiversity, warns a commentary published in this week's issue of…

Palm plantations expanding at 7% per year across Malaysia and Indonesia Some 3.5 million hectares (8.7 million acres) of forest in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea was converted for…