Deforestation for palm oil production in Malaysian Borneo. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Last week, the London-based think tank Innovation Forum convened a two-day conference on the subject of sustainable…
Fast food giant McDonald's will combat deforestation across its main commodity supply chains, including palm oil, beef, paper and packaging, coffee, and poultry. The commitment is the most comprehensive of…
Industrial rubber plantation in Colombia. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Surging demand for natural rubber is decimating some of the world's most endangered forests, putting wildlife and critical ecosystem services…
Google Earth image showing GPS points where forest loss occurred within the past year in a West Kalimantan concession held by PT Bumi Mekar Hijau (BMH). The apparent loss of…
Deforestation for an oil palm plantation abuts forest in Sabah, Malaysia. Photo by Rhett Butler. Forests not only house many of the world's species, but also much of its carbon.…
Forest clearing for an oil palm in Malaysia. Photos by Rhett A. Butler Yum! Brands, the company that owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, on Thursday announced a zero…
Oil palm plantation in Aceh on the island of Sumatra. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Despite a worldwide trend of companies establishing social and environmental safeguards for palm oil sourcing,…
While deforestation for soy production in the Brazilian Amazon has slowed since the establishment of a deforestation moratorium in 2006, clearing for soy has increased sharply in recent years in…
Brazil's Atlantic Forest has been severely reduced in extent from agriculture and urban expansion. Over the past three years dozens of companies have made 'zero deforestation commitments', establishing policies that…
An excavator piles natural forest logs at a log pond inside a PT. Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (PT RAPP) pulpwood concession on Pulau Pedang, Bengkalis Regency, Riau Province located…
An excavator piles natural forest logs at a log pond inside a PT. Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (PT RAPP) pulpwood concession on Pulau Pedang, Bengkalis Regency, Riau Province located…
Palm fruit used for palm oil production. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has purged membership of a number of companies and organizations that…
Washington state rainforest. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. 3M has announced a new sustainability policy that will reduce the impact of its fiber-sourcing practices on forests and wildlife. The initiative,…
An acacia plantation that was burned in Riau by villagers seeking to establish an oil palm plantation. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Indonesian police are investigating the brutal killing of…
Editor's note: KLK issued a response to Chain Reaction Research's report on March 13, 2015. Deforestation for oil palm in Sabah, Malaysia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Malaysian palm oil…
Zero deforestation yet to go mainstream Deforestation for woodpulp production in Sumatra, Indonesia While a number of high profile companies have adopted policies designed to exclude deforestation from their commodity…
First of its kind audit of world's largest pulp and paper producer yields mixed results Arara Abadi acacia plantation near Pekanbaru, Riau, Sumatra. All photos by Rhett A. Butler. An…
Oil palm plantation in Indonesia IOI Corporation officially committed to what its subsidiary, palm oil trader IOI Loders Croklaan, pledged last November: it will no longer source palm oil linked…
Deforestation for soy in the Brazilian Amazon and cerrado. Data from Gibbs et al 2015, photo by Rhett A. Butler. Click image to enlarge. The moratorium on forest conversion established…
Screenshot of Wilmar's transparency dashboard Wilmar, the world's largest palm oil company, has unveiled a tool it says will help eliminate deforestation from its global supply chain. The tool is…
Clip from the SumOfUs Doritos ad. A dispute between environmentalists and PepsiCo over the food company's palm oil sourcing policy is escalating after activists released a video spoofing the Doritos…
What's in store for rainforests in the new year.
Jeff Horowitz is the Founder of Avoided Deforestation Partners and a co-producer of “Years of Living Dangerously” a Showtime climate change documentary series. Actor/Conservationist Harrison Ford doing a bit of…
PT Buana Adhitama, Indonesia , 13 November 2013. New oil palm plantation development amid evidence of recent forest clearance in PT Buana Adhitama (BAT). The area had been identified as…
Conversion of rainforest in Sabah, Malaysia for palm oil production. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. A team of researchers has identified 125 million hectares (309 million acres) of land suitable…
New oil palm plantation established on peatland outside Palangkaraya in Indonesia's Central Kalimantan Province on the island of Borneo. Photos by Rhett A. Butler Development of oil palm plantations is…
About one year ago today, I was pretty down. It was Thanksgiving night, and the Forest Heroes campaign, which I chair, had been running a big global campaign to persuade…
Deforestation in Malaysia for palm oil. Photo by Rhett Butler Singapore-based Musim Mas has established a new sustainability policy that it says will eliminate deforestation, peatlands conversion, and social conflict…
Oil palm plantation in Sabah, Malaysia. Malaysian palm oil giant Kuala Lumpur Kepong (KLK) has joined a growing list of companies committing to zero deforestation for commodity production. On Monday,…
Recent large-scale clearance of peatland forest inside a PT. Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (PT RAPP) pulpwood concession on Pulau Pedang. © Ulet Ifansasti / Greenpeace. Asia Pacific Resources International…
