Latest Forests News
More logging is proposed to help curb wildfires in the US Pacific Northwest
U.S. officials would allow increased logging on federal lands across the Pacific Northwest in the name of fighting wildfires and boosting rural economies under proposed changes to a sweeping forest management plan that’s been in place for three decades. The U.S. Forest Service...
From the Amazon rainforest, Biden declares nobody can reverse US progress on clean energy
MANAUS, Brazil (AP) — Joe Biden witnessed the devastation of drought up close as the first sitting American president to visit the Amazon rainforest Sunday, declaring that nobody can reverse “the clean energy revolution that’s underway in America” even as the incoming Trump administration...
Activists plant trees in Mali but residents strip them for firewood. They say there's no choice
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — After years of serving as Mali's minister of the environment, Aida M'bo now spends her time planting trees in a fight that many in the arid West African country acknowledge they are losing. “Deforestation is an important issue in Mali,” she said, standing in...
Disease could kill most of the ‘ohi‘a forests on Hawaii's Big Island within 20 years
Ten years ago, a mysterious new disease was found sweeping through Hawaii’s native ‘ohi‘a forests, killing off the foundation of the islands’ ecology and one of the state’s most culturally important trees. Now, researchers are in a race against time. They say most of the...
Too many wild deer are roaming England's forests. Can promoting venison to consumers help?
WINCHESTER, England (AP) — In the half-light of dusk, Martin Edwards surveys the shadows of the ancient woodland from a high seat and waits. He sits still, watching with his thermal camera. Even the hares don’t seem to notice the deer stalker until he takes aim. The bang of his...
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon drops by nearly 31% compared to previous year
AGUA CLARA, Brazil (AP) — Forest loss in Brazil’s Amazon dropped by 30.6% compared to the previous year, officials said Wednesday, the lowest level of destruction in nine years. In a 12-month span, the Amazon rainforest lost 6,288 square kilometers (2,428 square miles), roughly...
Brazilian state law overturns soy moratorium that helped curb Amazon deforestation
AGUA CLARA, Brazil (AP) — A historic agreement that's helped curb deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon for nearly two decades suffered a major blow after Mato Grosso, the country´s largest soybean-producing state, passed a law ending incentives for participating processing and trade companies. ...
Brazil fines meatpacking companies, including giant JBS, for buying illegally raised cattle
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil's environmental agency has levied $64 million in fines against 23 meatpacking companies and their suppliers for buying and selling cattle raised illegally on deforested land in the Amazon. The operation, dubbed Cold Meat 2, launched last week. It...
Indonesian forests pay the price for the growing global biomass energy demand
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Enormous swathes of pristine forest are being cut down across Indonesia to supply the rapidly rising international demand for biomass material seen as critical to many countries' transitions to cleaner forms of energy. Nearly all of the biomass from...
Criminals may be leveraging climate change as record acreage burns in Brazil's Amazon
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Wildfires in Brazil have swept through an area the size of Switzerland, a level of destruction that will take decades to recover, if it ever does, according to a new satellite assessment. The breadth of forest that has been lost or degraded was revealed as...
