News
62% of deforested Amazon land ends up as cattle pasture
4 Sep 2011
62 percent of the area deforested in the Brazilian Amazon until 2008 is occupied by cattle pasture, reports a new satellite-based analysis by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and its Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa).
Conservation of forests: Incentives should trickle down to local people
3 Sep 2011
The main aim of the National REDD strategy is to provide wide opportunity and increase national, district, and local benefits from forests, and to diversify local incomes from natural resource management. According to the REDD pilot projects, ...See all stories on this topic »
Illegal logging for charcoal threatens national park
2 Sep 2011
Illegal logging of mangrove trees for producing charcoal in Ca Mau Cape National Park, a UNESCO world biosphere, has worsened this year and forest protection authorities could not...
$11m in funds to help protect forests
2 Sep 2011
The German Government and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) office in Germany have committed 8.2 million euro (US$11.7 million) to enhance the protection of forests...
August in review: Brazil's Forest Code debate, a giant subterranean 'river', India's India's Western Ghats
2 Sep 2011
The two most popular news articles on mongabay.com in August dealt with the Amazon rainforest.
RELEASE: Leaders Announce Global Effort to Restore 150 Million Hectares of Deforested Land
2 Sep 2011
New Global Restoration Council to be led by former Swedish Prime Minister Persson
A global effort to restore 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested lands by 2020 is being launched in Bonn, Germany. The announcement comes during the Bonn Challenge Ministerial Roundtable, where a select group of government officials, business leaders, and international forest experts are gathering to catalyze support for global forest and landscape restoration.
At the meeting, Göran Persson, former...
Sparing or sharing? Protecting wild species may require growing more food on less land
1 Sep 2011
In parts of the world still rich in biodiversity, separating natural habitats from high-yielding farmland could be a more effective way to conserve wild species than trying to grow crops and conserve nature on the same land, according to a new study.
Brazil Forest Law changes threaten to send climate achievements up in smoke
1 Sep 2011
Brasilia, Brazil: Proposed changes to Brazil’s forest laws that will cut back protection and offer wide ranging amnesties for illegal deforestation threaten to undo the country’s impressive performances in cutting back emissions and protecting biodiversity.
"As it stands now, the forest law is a piece of legislation that looks to the future. It is the best possible legal framework for our adaptation to Climate Change through the conservation of ecosystems", the leader of WWF’s Living...
Cameroon's investment plan endangers forest reserves
1 Sep 2011
Push to build port, mines and roads to cut poverty and unemployment threatens the country's shrinking forest reserves