Latest Forests News
Takeaways from AP's report on Chinese gold mining threatening endangered protected site in Congo
OKAPI WILDLIFE RESERVE, Congo (AP) — For eight years, a Chinese mining company has been vastly expanding inside an endangered World Heritage Site, accused by locals and conservationists of decimating the environment. The Okapi Wildlife Reserve became a protected site in 1996, due...
Chinese gold mining threatens a protected UN heritage site in Congo
OKAPI WILDLIFE RESERVE, Congo (AP) — Scattered along the banks of the Ituri River, buildings cram together, cranes transport dirt and debris scatters the soil. The patches of trees are a scant reminder that a forest once grew there. Nestled in eastern Congo's Ituri province, the...
EU pushes back deforestation law by a year after outcry from global producers
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union agreed to delay by a year the introduction of new rules to ban the sale of products that lead to massive deforestation, caving in to demands from several producer nations from across the globe and domestic opposition within the 27-nation bloc. ...
South Korean politician calls for investigation of biomass energy material imported from Indonesia
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A South Korean National Assembly member has called for a moratorium on wood pellet imports from Indonesia and an investigation into their environmental impacts after government data and satellite analysis linked the country's biomass imports to deforestation in...
Agribusiness-friendly states in Brazil try to undo forest protections
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Several states in Brazil are trying to rid themselves of rainforest protections, bowing to pressure from cattle ranchers and soybean growers to cut down trees and expand agriculture. Their efforts run counter to those of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,...
Cambodian activists investigating illegal logging are freed from detention
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A prominent Cambodian environmentalist and five others were released on Monday a day after being detained while investigating illegal logging in a national park. Ouch Leng, who was awarded a 2016 Goldman Environmental Prize, was taken into custody on...
Papuan women's mangrove forest in Indonesia is increasingly threatened by development and pollution
JAYAPURA, Indonesia (AP) — On the southeastern coast of the city of Jayapura, Petronela Merauje walked from house to house in her floating village inviting women to join her the next morning in the surrounding mangrove forests. Merauje and the women of her village, Enggros,...
In southern India's tea country, small but mighty efforts are brewing to bring back native forests
UDHAGAMANDALAM, India (AP) — Scattered groves of native trees, flowers and the occasional prehistoric burial ground are squeezed between hundreds of thousands of tea shrubs in southern India's Nilgiris region — a gateway to a time before colonization and the commercial growing of tea that...
Denmark will plant 1 billion trees and convert 10% of farmland into forest
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Danish lawmakers on Monday agreed on a deal to plant 1 billion trees and convert 10% of farmland into forest and natural habitats over the next two decades in an effort to reduce fertilizer usage. The government called the agreement “the biggest change...
From the Amazon rainforest, Biden declares nobody can reverse US progress on clean energy
MANAUS, Brazil (AP) — Speaking from the Amazon rainforest, President Joe Biden declared Sunday that there’s no going back in America’s “clean energy revolution” even as the incoming Trump administration vows to spur fossil fuel production and scale back efforts against climate change. ...
