blog post
by and - Countries are joining the restoration movement, and especially the Bonn Challenge. But few have yet aligned their restoration and climate commitments. Doing so would make the planet greener—and the air cleaner—faster.
forests
event
This event highlights the challenges Indigenous Peoples and communities face in acquiring legal rights to their land, the loopholes companies can often take, and ways countries can simplify complex procedures.
publication
by Ruth Nogueron, Loretta Cheung, Jonathan Mason and Bo Li - August 2018This publication updates the 2014 version of Sourcing Legally Produced Wood, which provided information on illegal logging and associated trade, public and private procurement policies, export country logging and log export bans, and introductory guidance to the wood products legality legislation in the United States, the EU, and Australia.
publication
by Kathleen Buckingham, Sabin Ray, Ana Gabriela Morales, Ruchika Singh, Ornanong Maneerattana, Satrio Wicaksono, Hanny Chrysolite, Aaron Minnick, Lisa Johnston and Bernadette Arakwiye - August 2018This guidebook provides actionable, user-friendly strategies to improve natural resource governance by showing how to identify the networks, priorities, and values of relevant actors. The methodologies allow environmental practitioners to be more strategic in building resilient communities.
blog post
by Susan Minnemeyer - August 20, 2018Hotter-than-normal temperatures and drought are bringing wildfires to wetter, cooler regions. Even places that experience fires annually, like California and Greece, are seeing a faster-than-usual start to their fires seasons.
blog post
by Alain Engunda Ikala, Claire Halleux, Roger Mambeta and Lauren Williams - August 08, 2018Most of the tree cover loss in our sample concession occurred in areas where, using clues from the ground, we can conclude it wasn't illegal deforestation. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
blog post
by Lucas Toh, Salima Mahamoudou and John-Rob Pool - August 07, 2018Nigerien farmers struggle with land degradation. Now, they're tuning in to a new radio program for tips on restoring their fields.
blog post
by Thailynn Munroe, Nancy Harris and Tamara Heartsill Scalley - July 31, 2018Puerto Rico lost 10 percent of its forests in 2017, due largely to Hurricane Maria. But just seven months later, there's already significant regrowth in the island's El Yunque National Forest.
event
WRI will host the second Washington Forest Legality Week, October 23-25, with the generous support and cooperation of the U.S. Forest Service.
publication
by Rohini Chaturvedi, Karishma Shelar and Krishna Singh - July 2018The paper discusses the methodology for collection, collation, and analysis of the data that power MAPTenure, the first web-based platform of its kind which aims to enable tenurial clarity in the orange areas of central India.
blog post
by Edward Davey - July 17, 2018Colombia is the latest country to join the Cocoa and Forests Initiative, which aims to create a global movement for deforestation-free cocoa. Sustainable cocoa farming offers a viable alternative to Colombia's violent coca trade, among other benefits.
blog post
by Laura Notess and Peter Veit - July 11, 2018Las comunidad de Santa Clara Uchunya lleva varias generaciones viviendo en una zona remota del Amazonas peruano.
publication
by Laura Notess, Peter Veit, Iliana Monterroso, Andiko, Emmanuel Sulle, Anne M. Larson, Anne-Sophie Gindroz, Julia Quaedvlieg and Andrew Williams - July 2018Indigenous and community lands, crucial for rural livelihoods, are typically held under informal customary arrangements.
data visualization
This infographic allows you to navigate the process for a community seeking formal land rights in Indonesia, versus for a company securing an oil palm concession.
blog post
by Laura Notess and Peter Veit - July 11, 2018The Santa Clara de Uchunya community has lived in a remote section of the Peruvian Amazon for generations, relying on the forest for hunting, fishing and natural resources. But in 2014, someone started cutting down large sections of their ancestral lands. They've been struggling for their land rights ever since.
project
Measuring the impact of restoring degraded forests and landscapes from the local to the global level.
publication
by Rachael Petersen, Crystal Davis, Martin Herold and Veronique De Sy - June 2018Advances in satellite-based remote sensing and other technologies provide low-cost, frequently updated, and consistent information on the extent, characteristics, and changes in forest cover. This paper assesses the advances in national forest monitoring systems supported by REDD+, explores reasons why there is a gap between what is now technologically possible and what is practiced in tropical forest countries, and explains how proliferating data and methods are generating confusion and in some cases redundant investments.
publication
by Nancy Harris, Crystal Davis, Elizabeth Dow Goldman, Rachael Petersen and Samantha Gibbes - June 2018This working paper explains how much and why results differ between nationally reported deforestation estimates and the Global Forest Change (GFC) tree cover loss data of Hansen et al. (2013).
publication
by Frances Seymour, Belinda Morris and Amy Dickie - June 2018Demand for biofuels has grown rapidly in the past decade, driving conversion of forests to produce food-based feedstocks. This paper highlights three competing views regarding how substituting biofuels for fossil fuels affects climate emissions, and the role of accounting for indirect land-use change in biofuels policies.