France likes to be seen as a leader on climate action, but when it comes to the role of forests, the country’s priorities lie elsewhere.
The Earth’s front-line defenders are disappearing at an astonishing rate. On average three environmental activists were killed each week in 2015, according to a recent report from the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. Global Witness, an international NGO that documents natural resource extraction, corruption, and violence, reports a 59 percent increase in deaths last year compared to 2014. In total, 185 killings of environmental defenders were recorded by Global Witness in 2015.
Acute competition to access valuable resources in forested areas in Myanmar has, amongst other factors, contributed to large-scale deforestation and environmental degradation. This has had disastrous consequences for local communities dependent upon these forests for food, water, fuel, shelter and income.
Reforesting Kilimanjaro could ease East Africa's severe water shortages – UN
There is a need to reforest Africa’s highest mountain to help protect vital water supplies that are under threat across large parts of East Africa, a UN Environment report urged today.
On 26 October 2015, the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) hosted its 18th Dialogue on Forests, Governance and Climate Change in Washington, DC, US.
The XIV World Forestry Congress, the largest gathering of the world's forest sector which takes place every six years, was held in Durban, South Africa, in September 2015. The event brought together over 4000 participants from 142 countries to discuss topics such as the links between forests and climate change and the role of forests for building resilience.
Haze from Indonesian fires has again blanketed Singapore and Malaysia. Prevention strategies are improving, but will likely take years to become truly effective.
A commentary by Jackson Ewing from the Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS) of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Singapore.
On Friday in New York, countries will adopt a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will guide global development up to 2030. The SDGs take the form of 17 goals, accompanied by 169 targets that give precise information about what should be achieved.
Ecological crises may be piling up in a seemingly hopeless cascade, but Swedish scientist Johan Rockström says the next few decades offer an unparalleled opportunity to undo the damage.
One of the last biodiversity hotspots in Europe was also backdrop to one of its last violent conflicts and now home to its newest nation states. The Prokletije/Bjeshket e Nemuna Mountains, often referred to as the Southern Alps, are a large expanse of wilderness and stunning alpine landscapes that form the border between Montenegro, Albania, and Kosovo.
Given the pressing need to strongly defend the right to land as a human right, a "Monitoring Tool based on the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests" has been introduced.
REDD+, a global framework designed to reward governments for preserving forests, has pledged nearly $10 billion to developing countries. But minorities, indigenous people, the poor, and other marginalized groups that live in forest areas often end up paying more than their fair share of the costs of environmental cleanup and conservation while getting less in return. What can be done to change this?
Asia has a unique opportunity to fight climate change and lift many more people out of poverty if it invests more in the communities living in its forests, experts said.
Forests are disappearing at an alarming rate: according to the World Resources Institute, 46% of the world's old growth forests have been destroyed. Competition for forest resources triggers, exacerbates, or finances numerous crises and conflicts in tropical developing countries.