News Selection – Tropical Forests

17/4/2019: Research has found that 29-39% of the carbon dioxide released through deforestation is driven by international trade — with farmers felling forests to clear space for croplands, pastures and plantations that grow goods often consumed abroad.

Source: DW

1/4/2019: In late 2018, Vietnam became the first Asia-Pacific country to reach eligibility for results-based carbon reduction payments under the UN-REDD Program, fulfilling its safeguard requirements.

Source: Mongabay

21/3/2019: A report released for International Day of Forests calls on major companies to do more to ensure their actions match their rhetoric on ending tropical deforestation in their supply chains by 2020.

Source: Mongabay

19/3/2019: Studies show that the main driver of Brazilian deforestation is land speculation, whereby land speculators deforest an area, possibly for timber, then converting the land to pasture, and then again quickly selling the land to a soy farmer. Source: Mongabay

26/2/2019: A recent study finds young forests sequester more carbon per year than old-growth forests, upending conventional wisdom that old-growth tropical rainforests are the planet’s biggest carbon sinks.

Source: Mongabay

21/2/2019: Norway has announced that it will provide the first results-based payment to Indonesia as part of its REDD+ agreement. Indonesia was one of the few tropical nations to reduce its deforestation rates in 2017. Source: World Resources Institute

8/2/2019: Agriculture is the leading cause of tropical forest loss in Latin America. A recent study now shows that the best way to tackle deforestation in the region is to reduce inequality.

Source: Mongabay

5/2/2019: Industries that cause the loss of rainforest and peatlands in Southeast Asia were bankrolled to the tune of $62 billion between 2013 and 2018, according to new data released by the Forests and Finance campaign of the Rainforest Action Network. Source: Mongabay

1/2/2019: The French government has adopted a national strategy to combat unsustainable imports known to be key drivers of deforestation. Pressure is growing on the European Union to take tougher action.

Source: Mongabay

28/1/2019: Recent leadership changes in Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and presidential elections in Indonesia this April, are fuelling political uncertainty over the fate of the world’s three biggest rainforests. Source: Climate Home News