Blog Posts: deforestation

Salvador and São Paulo are two very different cities. But they are connected by the Atlantic Forest—Brazil's other rainforest, a crucial but compromised ecosystem that both cities are working to protect.

Most communities overlook a critical tool in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions: trees. One of the reasons is that they don’t know how to account for forests and trees in their emissions inventories.

While the Amazon is often in the news, it is not the only rainforest in Brazil, nor the only one worth protecting. Restoring the country's Atlantic Forest could be just as important.

The latest IPCC report confirms a lot we already knew about the relationship between tropical forests and climate change, as well as reveals some relatively new science about how forests interact with the atmosphere. The bottom line? Protecting forests—especially tropical forests—is one of the most important strategies for both climate mitigation and adaptation.

The latest IPCC report finds that while land sequesters almost a third of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions, it will be impossible to limit temperature rise to safe levels without fundamentally changing the way the world produces food and manages land.

While Indonesia is one of few countries actually reducing its deforestation, key provinces are still losing primary forests and peat.

Forests are essential for lives and livelihoods. As these benefits become better understood and valued, investors in sustainable forestry are seeing financial returns that outperform investments in conventional timber.

Indonesia is one of the only countries actually reducing its deforestation rates. But with the annual fires season beginning and El Niño promising fire-prone conditions, the country’s forest protection policies will be put to the test.

Deforestation rates in the Congo Basin — historically lower than in the Amazon and southeast Asia — are on the rise. It's not just a problem for the 80 million people who rely on the forests for food and livelihoods; research shows the world's second-largest rainforest regulates weather patterns across Africa.

More than 360 companies committed to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains by 2020. Most are not on track to meet this target, but Global Forest Watch Pro can help.