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The biggest trees capture the most carbon: Large trees dominate carbon storage in forests

Older, large-diameter trees have been shown to store disproportionally massive amounts of carbon compared to smaller trees, highlighting their importance in mitigating climate change, according to a new study in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. Researchers examined the aboveground carbon ...

The beekeeper protecting Kosovo's forests

Kosovo's Sharr Mountains National Park is a paradise of biodiversity under threat. A local beekeper is working to save it through education.

Global Landscapes Forum - Biodiversity Digital Conference, 28-29 October 2020

Reference: SCBD/SSSF/AS/CC/LJ/89201 (2020-080)
To: CBD National Focal Points, SBSTTA Focal Points, Cartagena Protocol Focal Points, ABS Focal Points

Series of webinars for the development of a decision-support platform on forest ecosystem restoration

Reference: SCBD/SSSF/AS/CC/VA/89111 (2020-074)
To: CBD National Focal Points; SBSTTA Focal Points; Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities; relevant organizations

Sixth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Carpathian Convention (COP6)

14 - 16 September 2020, Rzeszow, Poland

25th session of the Committee on Forestry (COFO) at FAO

22 - 26 June 2020, Rome, Italy

Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITWG-PGRFA)

17 - 19 June 2020, Rome, Italy

8th session of the Global Soil Partnership Plenary Assembly (FAO)

4 - 5 June 2020, Rome, Italy

Global Symposium on Soil Biodiversity (FAO)

1 - 3 June 2020, Rome, Italy

15th session of the UN Forum on Forests

4 - 8 May 2020, New York, United States of America

Why Amazon's commitment to working forests matters

The first investment by e-commerce and cloud services powerhouse Amazon’s $100 million Right Now Climate Fund underscores the growing interest in nature-based solutions for carbon removal. But this is not yet-another-tree-planting commitment.

Trees For The Future Launches 20 New Projects

Regenerative agroforestry nonprofit Trees for the Future launches 20 new projects across sub-Saharan Africa in their ongoing effort to end hunger, poverty, and deforestation through farmer education and the Forest Garden Approach.

Remote cameras are revealing the human impact on rainforest species in Africa

Tropical rainforests are the world’s richest land habitats for biodiversity, harbouring stunning numbers of plant and animal species. The Amazon and the Congo basins, together with Asian rainforests, represent only 6 per cent of earth’s land surface, and yet more than 50 per cent of global biodi ...

A new era of forest policymaking

Forests and forest-relevant policies in Europe face a wide array of challenges in a rapidly changing world. Issues such as Brexit, the new European Parliament and European Commission, and the recent European Green Deal proposal are certain to affect policymaking, as are the as-yet unknown impact ...

Palm Oil Deforestation: A Threat to Orangutan Populations, Indigenous People and Biodiversity

The California fires in November 2018 were more severe than ever and yet – the amount of forest that was lost in the combined fires makes up only a fraction of Indonesian forest that is burned every year in slash-and-burn practices to clear palm oil plantations.

Investing in Amazon Rainforest Conservation: A Foreigner’s Perspective (commentary)

Last December, I flew to Brazil to learn everything I could about Amazon conservation. As a global citizen, I wanted to understand more about deforestation and how I can help. I stayed for two months and met with government officials, NGOs, private sector entrepreneurs, philanthropists and othe ...

Massive replant of B.C.'s fire-ravaged forests threatened by fears of spreading COVID-19

The fate of B.C.'s biggest ever reforestation effort is on the line. Thousands of tree planters from across Canada are ready to put more than 300 million seedlings in the ground to replace trees destroyed by wildfires and pine beetle infestations. The project will also increase carbon capture in ...

A More Sustainable Philly Starts In … Costa Rican Cloud Forests?

Costa Rican cloud forests may not readily have much in common with Philadelphia, but ongoing research connects these two environments more than you may think.

Forest loss could make diseases like COVID-19 more likely, according to study

A new study, by the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences at Stanford University has suggested that deforestation could lead to a rise in the occurrence of diseases like COVID-19.

Long-living tropical trees do the heavy carbon lifting

When it comes to storing carbon, an increasingly vital function of rainforests for the health and survival of the planet, all trees are not the same, according to an analysis published in the journal Science.

Plant diversity in European forests is declining

In Europe's temperate forests, less common plant species are being replaced by more widespread species. An international team of researchers led by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) has found that this developme ...

Tropical forests’ damage spreads catastrophically

Tropical forests are vital in the campaign to limit global heating. Here’s how to blunt them as a force – just put a clearing, or a plantation, a road or a ranch in the pristine wilderness. And then, as absorbers of atmospheric carbon, the trees up to 100 metres deep into the jungle will lose th ...

COVID-19 lockdown: Wild animals freely roam Bihar’s forests and fields

Wild animals are freely roaming human settlements in Bihar as people stay inside their homes due to the 21-day nationwide lockdown in the wake of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. A leopard has been spotted roaming in an Indian Air Force base near Patna. Nilgai antelope have bee ...

Brazil, a tapir is born in the Atlantic Forest for the first time in over a century

The tapir is an important species, crucial to its ecosystem because so many others depends on it. These strange, funny-looking creatures – the last remaining specimens of the Perissodactyla order – are thus able to literally shape the environment they inhabit.

Deforestation linked to emergence of new diseases

The continuing deforestation in the country could put the Philippines at risk from the emergence of new infectious diseases, as it loses one of its main protective barriers from possible outbreaks.

Save our forests and protect ourselves

SCIENTISTS from all over the world, including disease ecologists at Ecohealth Alliance who are studying malaria in East Malaysia, warn that human activities in forested areas, such as forest-clearing, road-building, mining, hunting, and logging, cause major disruptions to ecosystems, which then ...

Camera traps completed one of the most thorough surveys of African rainforest yet

Tropical rainforests are the world's richest land habitats for biodiversity, harbouring stunning numbers of plant and animal species. The Amazon and the Congo basins, together with Asian rainforests, represent only 6% of Earth's land surface, and yet more than 50% of global biodiversity can be f ...

Happy 60th Birthday to Madagascar! World’s Most Biodiverse Island Gets Gift of 60 Million Trees

To celebrate its 60th birthday, the nation of Madagascar held its largest ever tree-planting ceremony, with a million seedlings going into the ground in just a few hours after the speeches concluded. The country is preparing to plant a million trees for each year of its six decade history.

Nestlé achieves key milestones in helping end deforestation and restoring forests in cocoa

Nestlé has today reported significant progress in its efforts to help end deforestation and restore forests in its cocoa supply chain in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. The company has published its Cocoa & Forests Initiative report (pdf, 17Mb), highlighting key milestones achieved.

New framework will help decide which trees are best in the fight against air pollution

A study from the University of Surrey has provided a comprehensive guide on which tree species are best for combatting air pollution that originates from our roads—along with suggestions for how to plant these green barriers to get the best results.

Invest in the vital biodiversity – plant trees

Today, one million animals and plant species are threatened with extinction and everyday species are lost to never come back. It is both a sad and scary thought, but did you know that biodiversity is a prerequisite for human survival?

Forest and farm producers are critical agents for a healthy planet - GhaFFaP

The Leadership of the Ghana Federation of Forest and Farm Producers (GhaFFaP) has acknowledged the central role of the forest in ensuring sustainable biodiversity for all forms of lives on the planet.

How forests provide value to everyday life in Kenya

Forests are extremely valuable. They provide us with the air we breathe, the water we drink and food we eat. But because they offer all this for free, we take them for granted.

International Day of Forests 2020

21 March 2020, New York, United States of America

Statement by Ms. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Acting Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on the occasion of International Day of Forests, 21 March 2020

Forgotten Forests

Let’s start at the beginning – or, at least the beginning according to what evidence we have. The world’s first trees are believed to be the Archaeopteris, fern-like trees that grew into 10-meter-high forests across the terrestrial Earth some 360 million years ago during the Late Devonian Period.

For my birthday, all I want is a healthy forest

When I think of the forest, I remember playing in it. We would build huts of sticks and moss, and vehicles from bamboo trees. Getting lost in the forest was a real adventure. We used to turn the forest into a navigation game. We could get a sense of orientation without a compass or a GPS.

Forest loss drives viruses as well as climate change, indigenous leaders warn

The same forest destruction that accelerates climate change can also encourage the emergence of diseases such as the coronavirus, indigenous peoples' leaders said March 13 as they criticized Cargill and other multinational companies for replacing forests with soy, palm and cattle plantations.

Group Urges Forestry Commission To Protect Water Bodies, Forests

An environmental civil society group has called on Mr. Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, the Chief Executive Forestry Commission, to protect Ghana’s forests and waters for use by the present and future generations in order to save Mother Earth from ecological devastation and the debilitating effects of clim ...

Lungs of Earth now speeding to destruction

Big ecosystems, including reefs, more vulnerable to climate change, study says. The Amazon rainforest is often referred to as the lungs of the Earth. But this vast lifeline that pumps oxygen into the atmosphere could cease functioning within the next 50 years, according to a new study.

The Fight for Our Future Depends on Forests

The health and future of our forests is inextricably tied to our own. While, too often, we view the value of forests through the lens corporate revenue, this International Day of Forests on March 21st, it’s worth remembering their true worth.

Five (or six) solutions for saving the world’s forests and restoring landscapes

We’ve heard a lot about ambitious tree planting initiatives in recent months. Laudable as these may be – and we offer congratulations and celebrate the community-minded impetus behind them – we need a lot more than tree planting to restore degraded landscapes and to save the world’s forests.

How the Heavy Rains of Hurricane Maria Shattered the Forests of Puerto Rico

Wind may have been pointed as the main culprit for the knocked down trees in all the attacks of hurricanes. However, a new survey was recently released of the damage in the Puerto Rican forests following the back-to-back hurricanes back in 2017. This particular survey highlighted the power of a ...

The planet’s largest ecosystems could ‘unravel fast’

Thanks to their sheer size giant ecosystems like the Amazon’s rainforests are relatively impervious to environmental stresses compared to smaller ones. Or so we tend to think.

Having Your Oil Palm and Forests, Too

Brazil – You might not believe this from reading the news, but the oil palm industry isn’t necessarily synonymous with environmental destruction.At least, not everywhere.

First 'tiny forest' being planted in UK

Some 600 native trees from oaks, birches and elder to dogwood, crab apple and blackthorn will be planted in Witney, Oxfordshire.The UK is to get its first "Tiny Forest" in a plot the size of a tennis court to deliver benefits to urban communities and wildlife.

Statement by Ms. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Acting Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, at the opening of the Subregional Exchange for the Caribbean on the Restoration of Forests and Other Ecosystems, 9-13 March 2020

Statement by Ms. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Acting Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, at the opening of the Subregional Exchange for the Caribbean on the Restoration of Forests and Other Ecosystems, 9-13 March 2020

Subregional Exchange for the Caribbean on the Restoration of Forests and Other Ecosystems

9 - 13 March 2020, Castries, Saint Lucia

Tropical forests may be heating Earth by 2035

Climate change so far has meant more vigorous forest growth as greenhouse gases rise. The tropical forests may soon change that.