• Forests

New Study Finds Community-Based Forest Management More Effective Than State Run Parks

• community based management
• deforestation
• forest
• Guatemala
• Maya Biosphere Reserve
• narco deforestation

By Julia Fine A new study published this month by Jennifer A. Devine et al. found that in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve, forests governed via community-based resource management are more resilient to narco-deforestation than state-run parks. As Fred Pearce reported in Yale Environment 360, the study calculated that up to 87% of the deforestation was […]

• Forests

Fighting Deforestation and Poverty Go Hand In Hand In Indonesia

• conservation
• deforestation
• environment
• Indonesia
• poverty
• rain forest
• science

A new study published yesterday in the journal Science Advances found that in Indonesia, a country with bountiful but highly exploited natural resources, a national anti-poverty program also reduced deforestation as a side benefit.

Why This Matters: Indonesia is one of the poorest nations in the world, and has the third-largest amount of tropical rain forest.  It also, according to Global Forest Watch, is the country with the third-highest rate of rainforest loss in the world in 2019.

• Forests

Deforestation and Climate Change Driving Old-Growth Forest Loss

• climate change
• deforestation
• Forests
• old growth forests
• trees

As Sustainability Times wrote, the planet has been losing much of its forest cover, especially in tropical regions. Over the past three decades, some 420 million hectares of forest have been lost worldwide through deforestation. But deforestation along with numerous other environmental stresses have affected forests in a multitude of ways. A new global analysis reveals […]

• Forests

Zombie Fires In the Arctic and Brazil’s Big Burn

• Arcitc
• climate change
• deforestation
• fires
• forest
• illegal logging
• pandemics

The World Resources Institute reported this week that nearly 30 million acres of forest were destroyed globally in 2019, an increase of 3% over 2018, with the heaviest losses in the tropics.  How much forest is that?  It’s a football field every 6 seconds.

Why This Matters:  Our best natural defense against climate change is holding on to mature forests — and it is also one of the key ways to defend against pandemics.

• Forests

Saving Northern Minnesota’s Forests Through Affirmative Adaptation

• boreal forest
• climate change
• conservation
• environment
• forest
• Minnesota
• science

The Washington Post’s Pulitzer Prize-winning series on climate change highlighting the places where temperatures have already warmed more than 2 degrees has a new installment, this one focusing on how to retain tree cover in Northern Minnesota so it doesn’t become a prairie, which scientists believe is a real risk. 

Why This Matters:  If Minnesota’s residents want to keep their forests, humans must limit greenhouse gas emissions, but even so, scientists are looking for ways to help the state’s forest adapt by changing it from spruce and fir trees to maples and oaks.

• Forests

Happy Arbor Day, Now Go Plant Some Trees!

• Arbor Day
• deforestation
• Forests

by Zoey Shipley Earth Day, which has really turned into Earth Week (and even Earth Month) is an opportunity to bring awareness to ecology, climate change, climate justice, conservation, and everything that falls under the umbrella of “environmentalism.” However, today also happens to be Arbor Day–a day set aside on our calendar with the sole […]