Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Are missing palm trees causing more lighting deaths in Bihar appearing in ‘The Times of India’ dated 29.05.2025". The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Are missing palm trees causing …
Seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTF) are located in regions with alternating wet and dry seasons, with dry seasons that last several months or more. By the end of the 21st century, climate models predict substantial changes in rainfall regimes across these regions, but little is known about how individuals, species, …
It’s estimated that about 10 per cent of global emissions comes from deforestation — meaning we could make considerable progress toward halting climate change simply by keeping what remains of the world’s forests standing. Agricultural commodities — especially beef, palm oil, soy, and pulp and paper — have become an …
Peatlands are carbon-rich ecosystems that cover just three per cent of Earth’s land surface, but store one-third of soil carbon. Peat soils are formed by the build-up of partially decomposed organic matter under waterlogged anoxic conditions. Most peat is found in cool climatic regions where unimpeded decomposition is slower, but …
Transforming the global supply chains for beef, palm oil, soy, and pulp and paper so that they are truly sustainable is a $200-billion-a-year investment opportunity, according to a new report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 (TFA 2020). It’s estimated that about 10 percent of …
Reconstructing the history of tropical hydroclimates has been difficult, particularly for the Amazon basin—one of Earth’s major centres of deep atmospheric convection. For example, whether the Amazon basin was substantially drier or remained wet during glacial times has been controversial, largely because most study sites have been located on the …
In an effort to better understand continent-wide patterns of REDD+ finance, this study has built off of the initial five years of the work of Forest Trends’ REDDX initiative through focused stakeholder meetings, distribution of questionnaires, and review of literature and available documents to synthesize the main trends and understand …
In an effort to better understand continent-wide patterns of REDD+ finance, this study has built off of the initial five years of the work of Forest Trends’ REDDX initiative through focused stakeholder meetings, distribution of questionnaires, and review of literature and available documents to synthesize the main trends and understand …
An online tool now allows timber traders to verify the sustainability of their purchases from important tropical timber countries such as Brazil and Indonesia. More than ever before, global consumers are demanding products made from responsibly sourced timber, and importers are increasingly being asked to account for where their timber …
What usually comes to mind when speaking about biodiversity hotspots are tropical regions, pristine areas and magnificent forests. Meanwhile, it is quite rare that a city in a temperate zone is considered significant in terms of biodiversity, much less mentioned as a hotspot. Yet, the city of Ottawa together with …
The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List classifies species according to their risk of extinction, informing global to local conservation decisions. Unfortunately, important geospatial data do not explicitly or efficiently enter this process. Rapid growth in the availability of remotely sensed observations provides fine-scale data on elevation …
Humans have altered terrestrial ecosystems for millennia, yet wilderness areas still remain as vital refugia where natural ecological and evolutionary processes operate with minimal human disturbance, underpinning key regional- and planetary-scale functions. Despite the myriad values of wilderness areas—as critical strongholds for endangered biodiversity, for carbon storage and sequestration, for …
A new report quantifies the carbon stored aboveground in tropical forests that are legally owned or traditionally held by Indigenous Peoples and local communities in 37 countries across tropical America, Africa, and Asia. The report launches a long term collaboration among the Woods Hole Research Center, Rights and Resources Initiative, …
Global wildlife could plunge to a 67 per cent level of decline in just the fifty-year period ending this decade as a result of human activities, according to WWF’s Living Planet Report 2016. The report shows how people are overpowering the planet for the first time in Earth’s history and …
The long-term future of species composition in forests depends on regeneration. Many factors can affect regeneration, including human use, environmental conditions, and species' traits. This study examines the influence of these factors in a tropical deciduous forest of Central India, which is heavily used by local, forest-dependent residents for livestock …
The vast truck, used for water storage, of the Cavanillesia umbellata tree is one of the most conspicuous characteristics in a dry forest Tropical dry forests are among the most threatened habitats on the planet, yet remain overlooked by scientists and conservationists, warn researchers. Despite being home to many species …
CEOs whose businesses commit environmental crimes can now be tried in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The ICC is looking to clamp down on land grabbing, a practise that has seen multinationals take over large areas of foreign land to exploit its natural resources without benefiting the …
A scorecard released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) graded 13 global fast food, retail, and food manufacturing companies based on a variety of criteria, including whether or not they have adopted deforestation-free purchasing commitments and and have established sufficient systems to monitor their supply chains for beef …
ITTO released a revised edition of its pioneering criteria and indicators (C&I;) for sustainable tropical forest management. The aim of this revised edition of the ITTO C&I; is to ensure that this instrument continues to meet the evolving needs of tropical forest stakeholders and to comprehensively inform the development of …
A Korean palm oil company has been dropped by buyers after footage emerged that allegedly shows the illegal burning of vast tracts of tropical forest on lands it holds concessions for in Indonesia. Some of the world’s biggest palm oil trading producers including Wilmar, Musim Mas and IOI have stopped …
Banks from Malaysia, China, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore and Europe are the biggest financiers of 50 selected forest-risk sector companies in Southeast Asia. Know More
