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by and - While Latin America and the Caribbean have lost an area of land the size of Mexico to deforestation and degradation, all hope is not lost. Restoration success stories from three nations point to a way forward.
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by Susan Minnemeyer, Sarah Sargent, Karyn Tabor and Greg Soter - July 07, 2016The new Fire Risk Map on Global Forest Watch shows where dry conditions increase fire risk in Indonesia and Malaysia. The tool can help decision-makers take action to prevent forest fires before they ignite.
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WASHINGTON (June 8, 2016)— World Resources Institute finds that analyzing the forests and plantations near palm oil mills can help identify deforestation risk and prevent it. Launched today on Global Forest Watch Commodities, the new PALM Risk Tool will help companies meet their zero deforestation commitments by providing much-needed transparency into the sustainability of the palm oil they buy.
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by Ruth Nogueron, Loretta Cheung and Emily Kaldjian - May 25, 2016The illegal logging trade steals valuable natural resources and undercuts companies' profitability. That's why businesses and governments are turning to new technology applications to expose illicitly harvested lumber.
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by Rachael Petersen, Susan Minnemeyer and Wynet Smith - May 11, 2016Satellites have detected more than 1,000 active fire points around Fort McMurray, Canada in the last week. Data from the Global Forest Watch platform provides context on what's happening in these northern forests.
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by Nancy Harris and Sarah Sargent - April 21, 2016Drained peatland caused by agricultural expansion is an important but little-known source of emissions in tropical regions. New WRI research finds that the annual emissions from peat drainage in Indonesia and Malaysia equate to emissions from nearly 70 coal plants, or the total annual emissions of Vietnam.
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New research from World Resources Institute finds the average American could cut their diet-related environmental impacts nearly in half just by eating less meat and dairy. Shifting Diets for a Sustainable Food Future presents solutions to the challenge of feeding a growing population by reducing animal protein consumption, especially beef, and helping shift billions of people to more sustainable diets.
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by Sarah Weber and Kathleen Buckingham - April 11, 2016Giving farmers legal rights to land and natural resources has helped improve degraded landscapes in Ethiopia, Niger and Tanzania. In turn, it's also helped boost food security, alleviate poverty and curb climate change.
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by Octavia Payne - April 01, 2016New satellite-based research shows that forest loss in tiger habitats was lower than expected, just 8 million hectares over the last 14 years, less than 8 percent of total tiger habitat. With the right conservation and monitoring, scientists say tiger populations can double or even triple in the coming decades.
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Cargill and World Resources Institute today announced a new 2-year partnership to work across value chains to better manage deforestation and water risk. This partnership brings WRI’s cutting-edge tools to the agriculture sector on a global scale.
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by Crystal Davis - March 18, 2016Companies, especially those with consumer-facing brands, have become increasingly concerned about the reputational, operational and legal risks posed by deforestation. So some are seeking out ways to root it out of their supply chains.
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by Jared Messinger - March 15, 2016For better or for worse, plantation forests are here to stay. But through sustainable management and a "landscape approach," plantations can actually help contribute to the global restoration movement. Researcher Jared Messinger explains.
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by Hidayah Hamzah and Reidinar Juliane - March 10, 2016Despite the fact the Indonesia's peatlands are a major carbon sink, we know surprisingly little about them—much of the information out there about their extent, thickness and change is inaccurate. The recently launched Indonesian Peat Prize aims to change that.
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by Kathleen Buckingham - February 23, 2016A history of deforestation has made Vietnam, China and South Korea especially vulnerable to coastal storms, floods and sandstorms. In the face of these crises, all three nations are pursuing the same solution&mdashrestoring degraded landscapes.
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by Nigel Sizer - January 29, 2016Nigel Sizer looks back on the past five years as director of WRI's Forests program. Starting next month, he'll take up his new role as president of the Rainforest Alliance.
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by Rachael Petersen, Elizabeth Dow Goldman, Nancy Harris, Sarah Sargent, Dmitry Aksenov, Alexander Manisha, Elena Esipova, Varada Shevade, Tatiana Loboda, Natalia Kuksina and Irina Kurakina - January 2016Tree plantations continue to expand worldwide to meet demand for timber, wood fiber, fruits, and vegetable oils such as palm oil. Many countries report national statistics on the area of land in plantations, but the extent and locations of these plantations are often not documented.
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by Rachael Petersen, Elizabeth Dow Goldman, Mikaela Weisse and Dmitry Aksenov - January 25, 2016New data on Global Forest Watch shows that in some of the world's most heavily forested nations, more than 90 percent of tree cover loss is happening in natural forests rather than plantations. That's a problem since natural forests, especially those in the tropics, provide much greater climate, biodiversity and water benefits over planted lands.
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by James Anderson - January 20, 2016James Anderson uses the Global Forest Watch platform to analyze forest change in his hometown of Northfield, Minnesota.
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by Nancy Harris and Fred Stolle - January 05, 2016After more than 10 years of negotiations, REDD+, a program to reduce deforestation and forest degradation, is finally permanently enshrined in an international climate agreement.
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by Aurélio Padovezi - December 22, 2015These new commitments, part of Initiative 20x20, already fulfill a quarter of the restoration goal set forth in Brazil's national climate plan to restore and reforest 12 million hectares by 2030.