Aerial view of flowering canopy trees in the Amazon. New research has found significant chemical differences between tree species that occupy just slightly different habitats. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.…
Global Forest Watch, a young online forest monitoring and alert system, provides free, near real-time data on deforestation and tree-cover loss around the world. It allows users to create customized…
Rainforest in Kinabatangan, Malaysia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Scientists at the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts have developed vegetation height maps for the entire tropics at…
A logging road transects Peruvian rainforest (this is not an image of one of the newly detected roads). Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Roads spread out like multi-fingered tendrils, eating…
A remnant tree looms over the landscape in southwestern Tocantins state. Photo credit: Brendan Borrell Farmers in north-central Brazil, where the savanna meets the Amazon rainforest, are clearing land at…
WRI flood map for Indonesia 20.7 million people are affected by river flooding each year, and the number is expected to more than double by 2030 as population growth, urban…
Local and indigenous communities play an important role managing and protecting forests. Research published in 2014 by World Resources Institute and the Rights and Resources Initiative concluded that community-managed forests…
This is the second in a two-part series about advances in mapping technology and how they're being used to keep a closer eye on the world's forests. Read the first…
This is the first in a two-part series about advances in mapping technology and how they're being used to keep a closer eye on the world's forests. Read the second…
Researchers map out poorly understood dry tropical forests in Southeast Asia; technique may help protect wildlife living within Trees of the family Dipterocarpaceae dominate the forests of Southeast Asia. These…
Screenshot of the mapping function of the Sustainable Palm Oil Transparency Toolkit, powered by ESRI. Click image to enlarge. A new initiative ranks the world's 25 largest publicly listed palm…
Administrative maps show DRC's Luama Katanga Reserve in the wrong place, letting mining concessions and agriculture threaten the reserve's unique wildlife - including a new plant species. Scientists have discovered…
Carnegie Airborne Observatory map showing carbon in along the main stem of the Amazon in Peru. All images courtesy of the Carnegie Airborne Observatory/Greg Asner Nearly a billion tons of…
New maps allow public exploration of the area Goodall has used for research for nearly fifty years Google Maps is now available for Tanzanian forest paths. Users can walk virtually…
Global distribution of forest cover, circa-1990. Click image to enlarge Researchers have created a global map of the world's forests in the year 1990, enabling accurate comparisons between past and…
Forest map in the Peruvian Amazon developed from the Carnegie Airborne Observatory, an airplane-based platform that uses advanced LiDAR to measure forest carbon values and other properties. Photo courtesy of…
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…
Map shows where roads should be built, where they should not, and where human and environmental needs conflict Roads make it possible to bring goods to market, to get to…
Innovation in Tropical Forest Conservation: Q&A with Dr. Mark Mulligan Swamp forest in Western Colombia. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Mark Mulligan makes maps for the masses. In his work…
Innovation in Tropical Forest Conservation: Q&A with William F. Laurance Logging road in Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. In the world of conservation, Dr. William Laurance is a household…
Deforestation mapping goes global with Stanford's free online training platform Efforts to map and analyze deforestation and forest degradation got a boost today when Stanford University announced a new online…
Also see our Top 10 HAPPY environmental stories of 2013. Elephant in South Africa. The poaching crisis in Africa is number six on our annual top ten list. Photo by:…
Forest loss in Indonesia has sharply risen over the past 12 years, reports a new study published in the journal Science. The study, led by Matt Hansen of University of…
Researchers today released a long-awaited tool that reveals the extent of forest cover loss and gain on a global scale. Powered by Google's massive computing cloud, the interactive forest map…
An indigenous peoples’ rights group has vowed to map millions of hectares of customary land in Indonesia, an ambitious target it hopes will help protect indigenous forests from encroachment by…
Polka-dotted and striped. Massive but docile. That’s the whale shark for you - the largest fish and shark in the world. But despite being major tourist attractions, the lives of…
What region of the world has the most imperiled mammals? Where are the most bird species found? And where are new amphibians being discovered? Indonesia and Malaysia is the answer…
Drones have been getting a bad rap lately and for good reason. However in the state of Assam, these commonly used weapons of warfare are being used to monitor the…
Female lion with wildebeest kill in Tanzania. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. For a long time male lions were derided as the lazy ones in the pride, depending on females…
In a new video ethnobotanist, Mark Plotkin, talks about recent—and historical—efforts to preserve the Amazon rainforest through map-making and technology. Today scientists like Plotkin are teaching indigenous people how to…
RAISG's map of the Amazon. An update to one of the most comprehensive maps of the Amazon basin shows that forest cover across the world's largest rainforest declined by about…
Herd of elephants crossing a river in Kenya. Photo by: Rob Roy. Scientists have long known that African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are talented tree-topplers, able to take down even large…
