Rainforest Agriculture News

New Brazilian government data shows an area of Amazon rainforest 10 times the size of Manhattan was cleared in the past 2 months. New data from the Brazilian government seems…

Brazil's forest code may be about to get an overhaul. The federal code, which presently requires landowners in the Amazon to keep 80 percent of their land forest (20-35% in…

Cow in Mato Grosso. The world's largest meat processor has agreed to stop buying beef from ranches associated with slave labor and illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, according to…

This year's Save the Frogs Day (Friday, April 29th) is focusing on a campaign to ban the herbicide Atrazine in the US with a rally at the steps of the…

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a body that sets criteria for social and environmental certification of palm oil, weighed in on the debate over Australia's proposal to require…

Small-scale agriculture — including cocoa, cassava, and oil palm farming — has driven large-scale conversion West Africa tropical forests, reports new research published in the journal Environmental Management. The study…

KFC Corporation, the fast food giant, will stop using palm oil in its deep friers, reports The Independent. KFC said it is making the change due to health and climate…

Oil palm plantations on peatlands in Central Kalimantan. Photo by Rhett A. Butler 2009 After an 18-month moratorium triggered by complaints over social conflict between local communities and palm oil…

World Growth International, a group that advocates on behalf of industrial forestry interests, has criticized Golden Agri Resources (GAR), Indonesia's largest palm oil producer, for signing a forest policy that…

Outline of Yellowstone National Park, the world's first modern protected are, as seen by Google Earth. Yellowstone was opposed by many when it was first created including logging and mining…

Extensive deforestation for low-yielding cattle production means some Brazilian beef carries a disproportionately high carbon footprint, reports a new study published in Environmental Science & Technology. Researchers at the Swedish…

Distribution of closed canopy oil palm plantations and tropical peatlands in the lowlands of Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra. Click image to enlarge. Expansion of industrial oil palm plantations across…

The Brazilian soy industry's moratorium is proving effective at slowing deforestation for soy production in the Amazon rainforest, reveals a new study published in the journal Remote Sensing. Conducting aerial…

Keterangan pers dari Conservation International awalnya memasukkan Selandia Baru sebagai negara dengan hutan paling terancam kedua di dunia, padahal sebenarnya posisi itu diduduki oleh hutan di Kaledonia Baru Hutan-hutan di…

Vale, a Brazilian mining giant, will buy palm oil producer Biopalma da Amazonia SA Reflorestamento Industria & Comercio, reports Bloomberg. The deal, valued at $173.5 million, will enable the mining…

The press release from Conservation International originally listed New Zealand as possessing the world's 2nd most threatened forests when in fact it is New Caledonia's forests. Asia-Pacific forests are the…

This article—written in April 2010, updated in August 2010, and posted for the first time today—is part of larger "Fate of Forests" series. The commercial shows a typical office setting.…

Researchers have found that coca cultivation is associated with high rates of forest loss, at least in the southern forests of Colombia. According to a new paper just published in…

Sales of palm oil certified under the leading sustainability standard surged 225 percent in 2010, suggesting growing consumer interest in more responsibly-sourced palm oil. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil…

With commodity prices surging, lending to Brazilian farmers for tractors, harvesters and plows reached 8.2 billion reais ($4.8 billion) for the July through November 2010 period, a 64 percent increase…

As pressures increase on the rich forests of Papua New Guinea, how will biodiversity fare? A new study in mongabay.com's Tropical Conservation Science attempts to answer this question by looking…

As more nations adopt better laws and policies to save and restore forests at home, they may, in fact, be outsourcing deforestation to other parts of the world, according to…

U.S. companies should take a leadership role in helping ensure that palm oil production is sustainable and does not come at the cost of forests, climate, and communities, argues a…

The Mato Grosso state assembly passed a bill that would substantially reduce protections for the Amazon rainforest and the Pantanal, a biologically-rich wetland, according to a statement signed by 27…

General Mills berjanji untuk hanya memasok minyak kelapa yang berkesinambungan mulai 2015. Satu dari pembuat makanan terbesar dunia, General Mills, berjanji untuk hanya memasok dari minyak kelapa yang berkesinambungan dan…

Food produced in the tropics comes with high carbon emissions and low crop yields, according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). In…

The rise of industrial deforestation and its implications for conservation. The image of rainforests being torn down by giant bulldozers, felled by chainsaw-wielding loggers, and torched by large-scale developers has…

An interview with Doug Gunzelmann. Like all commercial roads through rainforests, the 5,300 kilometer long Rodovia Transamazonica (in English, the Trans-Amazonia), brought two things: people and environmental destruction. Opening once-remote…

An interview with Katherine Ponte, founder of Ecostasy. Most companies talk green, but few—almost none in fact—actually walk the walk. Sustainable design company, Ecostasy, not only walks the walk, but…

An interview with Scott Poynton of The Forest Trust. The NGO, The Forest Trust (TFT), made international headlines this year after food giant Nestlé chose them to monitor their sustainability…