After controversy, Plant-for-the-Planet focuses on the trees
CONSTITUCIÓN, Mexico — At an empty outpost deep in a forest in Mexico, biologists were checking whether the windows had been broken or the furniture stolen, or if any animals…
Restoration News
Bangladesh aims to revive five critically endangered plants
For the first time in its history, Bangladesh is attempting to protect five species from extinction by increasing their numbers and strengthening their population in the wild. The floral species…
Resilient forests are key to ecological, economic and social resilience, report finds
The vital role forests play in providing habitat for biodiversity, storing carbon and supporting cultures also buttresses global society economically and socially, according to a new report by authors at…
Indonesian women sustain seaweed traditions in a changing climate
NUSA PENIDA, Indonesia — Storm clouds loom overhead as Nyoman Mitri peers out at rows of seaweed lines stretching across the shallow tidal waters of Nusa Penida. Her weathered hands…
In a big win, Yurok Nation reclaims vital creek and watershed to restore major salmon run
KLAMATH, California — The Pacific Ocean fog hung densely over the narrow mouth of the Klamath River in this coastal rainforest in northern California. Redwood, Douglas fir and alder disappeared…
From local planting to national plan, Belize bets on mangrove recovery
GALES POINT, Belize — On a narrow stretch of shoreline across from the Gales Point cemetery, Jamal Galves and the rest of the team from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research…
Guinea-Bissau’s grassroots efforts offer a blueprint for global mangrove restoration (commentary)
Guinea-Bissau is a mangrove country. These unique coastal forests cover around 326,000 hectares (about 806,000 acres), or 9% of the national territory — the highest proportion in the world. They…
To collect native seeds, Ugandan botanists are climbing forest giants
The mvule (Milicia excelsa) is a giant of a tree, up to 50 meters (165 feet) tall, with a trunk 6 m (20 ft) around. To collect seeds from such…
Deforestation and fires persist in Indonesia’s pulpwood and biomass plantations
JAKARTA — Industrial plantations of trees to make paper and wood pellets are causing widespread and persistent environmental and social violations in Indonesia, despite claims to the contrary by the…
In Panama, an Indigenous-led project rewrites the rules of reforestation
ÑÜRÜM, Panama — Isidrio Hernandez-Ruiz has a soft spot for the bright yellow flowers of the guayacan trumpet tree (Handroanthus guayacan), a native species that blooms across Panama each spring.…
Protection is only the beginning: Creating connection through Belize’s Maya Forest Corridor
BERMUDA LANDING, Belize – “About a week ago we lost a jaguar in a car collision, just over here,” says Celso Poot, director of the nonprofit Belize Zoo and Tropical…
Borneo project hopes to prove that forests and oil palms can coexist
The Kinabatangan River is the last major area in Malaysian Borneo’s Sabah state with a semblance of forest corridor linking the interior rainforest with mangroves on the east coast, according…
Scientists warn coral restoration can’t keep pace with global reef collapse
Coral restoration won’t save reefs from global warming, according to a recent study – at least, not the way we’re doing it now. The study, conducted by researchers at the…
‘It has been worth it’: The local women saving Yucatán’s mangroves
The women of Chelem, a fishing community on the northern coast of the Mexican state of Yucatán, hadn’t planned to work in mangrove restoration. At first, it was simply an…
Where war once raged in Iraq, Yezidi women plant hope
KHANKE, Iraq — In the wind-swept town of Khanke in northern Iraq, a fragile tree stands as a quiet symbol of resilience. Its slender trunk bends slightly in the dry…
Coexistence with Europe’s carnivores is possible (commentary)
Few people working in wildlife conservation in the 1980s could have imagined a future where breeding wolf packs roam the Netherlands and Denmark — but this is now part of…
As Acapulco’s mangroves disappear, Mexico takes strides to protect its coastal forests
In the Mexican port city of Acapulco, in southwestern Guerrero state, human activities have put so much pressure on the most important lagoons that the mangrove areas in this city…
Funding freeze threatens global reforestation and restoration efforts
Global reforestation and forest restoration efforts are facing a serious setback due to the recent U.S. foreign aid freeze. The sudden halt in funding has left projects around the world…
Indonesia’s peatlands face growing flood risks amid widespread degradation
JAKARTA — Nearly half of Indonesia’s peatlands are vulnerable to flooding due to degradation caused by unchecked exploitation, with 6 million hectares (15 million acres) — an area twice the…
How one woman’s wolf ‘moon shot’ changed Yellowstone forever: Interview with director Tom Winston
In March 1995, a few wolves cautiously exited their pens into the melting snow of Yellowstone National Park, returning there 70 years after guns, traps and poison had wiped them…
Collaboration, data and tracking move Africa’s Great Green Wall toward its goal
The Great Green Wall in the Sahel, a mosaic of forests, farmlands and grasslands dotting the arid fringes of Sahara, was launched by the African Union in 2007 to fight…
To benefit biodiversity & climate, restoring lost forests works best: Study
Tree-planting has become a go-to tool for taking carbon out of the atmosphere and repairing deforested habitats. And indeed, reforestation — planting trees or fostering tree regrowth in historically forested…
Mangrove deforestation for commodities limits conservation funding in SE Asia
Home to one-third of all mangroves globally, Southeast Asia has outsize potential to lock away greenhouse gases in these carbon-dense ecosystems. But deforestation for a range of commodities, cyclone damage,…
An Ecuadorian hotspot shows how forests can claw back from destruction
Can a tropical forest mend itself? After trees are cut down and wildlife flees, do microbes on the dank, leafy floor and woody giants with epiphyte-laden crowns come back; do…
Getting rewilding right with the reintroduction of small wildcats
For the briefest moment earlier this year, the Eurasian lynx — extinct in the U.K. for thousands of years — returned to the wild in Scotland. But this release wasn’t…
Protecting peatlands and mangroves could halve Southeast Asia’s land-use emissions
JAKARTA — Southeast Asia’s peatlands and mangroves store immense amounts of carbon, yet they’re rapidly disappearing. A new study finds that conserving and restoring these ecosystems could cut the region’s…
In the high Andes, a dream to restore a special forest takes root
Three years ago, while exploring the Mojanda mountain range in Ecuador, a team of researchers from a local NGO and a government research institute stumbled upon a small, unusual mouse.…
Darfur’s women refugees lead reforestation of war-blighted Sudan–Chad borderland
ADRÉ, Chad — In the dry and windswept plains of the Adré refugee camp in eastern Chad, a grove of young neem trees stands as a testament to resilience and…
Study says land restoration worldwide can be funded with tiny fraction of global GDP
Restoring degraded land around the world would cost a fraction of a percent of global GDP to fund, a new study shows, but the inequitable distribution of restoration needs means…
Lessons from successful mangrove forest restoration in El Salvador (analysis)
The intrinsic value of mangroves and their related coastal ecosystems is getting more recognition than ever before, while actions to conserve and restore our planet’s coastal wetlands are gaining in…
In Uganda, a women-led reforestation initiative fights flooding, erosion
KASESE DISTRICT, Uganda — In western Uganda’s Kasese district, where the Rwenzori Mountains meet the sprawling plains of Queen Elizabeth National Park, Janet Nyakairu Abwoli is on a mission to…
Brazil’s ‘innovative’ reforestation agenda discussed in Davos (commentary)
In the quiet Swiss town of Davos, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain unfolds as young Hans Castorp’s brief visit to a sanatorium turns into a seven-year exploration of ideas, intrigue,…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Narco airstrips beset Indigenous communities in Peruvian Amazon
- 15 illegal narco-trafficking airstrips found near Peru Indigenous communities
- Satellite data show bursts of deforestation continue in Indonesian national park
- Fires rip through Indigenous territories in Brazilian Amazon
Oceans
- Samoa’s new marine spatial plan protects 30% of the country’s ocean
- Tuna fishing devices drift through a third of oceans, harming corals, coasts: Study
- Indigenous Bajo suffer child deaths & toxic sludge amid green energy push
- Southeast Asia’s fisheries thrive despite decades of overfishing warnings: Study
Amazon Conservation
- ‘World’s largest’ carbon credit deal in the Amazon faces bumpy road ahead
- New conservation model calls for protecting Amazon for its archaeological riches
- Brazil dredges Amazon rivers to ease drought isolation, raising environmental concerns
- ‘We need white men on our side to save the Amazon from destruction,’ 92-year-old Indigenous Chief Raoni says
Land rights and extractives
- Indigenous Bajo suffer child deaths & toxic sludge amid green energy push
- ‘Colombia’s Amazon peoples provide solutions’: Interview with José Homero Mutumbajoy
- Should mining companies consider no-go zones where isolated Indigenous peoples live? (Commentary)
- Brazil sets a date to remove illegal miners from Munduruku land, more details await
Endangered Environmentalists
- Environmental & rights activists flee and hide as M23 captures DRC’s cities
- Environmental journalist in Cambodia shot and killed by suspected logger
- Vietnam sentences yet another energy expert over renewables research
- Mother Nature Cambodia activists sentenced to prison — again
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- On a Borneo mountainside, Indigenous Dayak women hold fire and defend forest
- Fenced in by Sulawesi national park, Indigenous women make forestry breakout
- In Borneo, the ‘Power of Mama’ fight Indonesia’s wildfires with all-woman crew
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
Conservation Effectiveness
- How effective is the EU’s marquee policy to reduce the illegal timber trade?
- How sharing and learning from failures can transform conservation (commentary)
- Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?
- Failure in conservation projects: Everyone experiences it, few record it
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- An ‘ocean grab’ for a property megaproject leaves Jakarta fishers grounded
- Study: Indonesia’s new capital city threatens stable proboscis monkey population
- Indonesia’s new capital ‘won’t sacrifice the environment’: Q&A with Nusantara’s Myrna Asnawati Safitri
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
