Last year was the second-worst on record for tropical tree cover loss, according to new data from the University of Maryland, released today on Global Forest Watch. In total, the tropics experienced 15.8 million hectares (39.0 million acres) of tree cover loss in 2017, an area the size of Bangladesh. That’s the equivalent of losing […]

Forest in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Flickr/João André O. Dias New data on global tree cover loss shows that Brazil experienced a major spike in tree cover loss in 2016. Below we explain several caveats and nuances related to the University of Maryland tree cover loss dataset that are important to understand the significance of this […]

Tersedia dalam Bahasa Indonesia di sini. Disponible en español aquí. Disponible en portugués aquí. Global tree cover loss reached a record 29.7 million hectares (73.4 million acres) in 2016, according to new data from the University of Maryland released today on Global Forest Watch. The loss is 51 percent higher than the previous year, totaling an area about […]

By Rachael Petersen, Lilian Pintea and Liz Bourgault Photo by the Jane Goodall Institute. Obed Kareebi, a ranger with the Uganda Wildlife Authority, marches through the dense forests of Kibale National Park in Uganda, an area with one of the highest concentrations of primates in the world. While the park is better protected than many […]

By Andres Chamorro, Susan Minnemeyer and Sarah Sargent For decades, forest and land fires in Indonesia have been an annual environmental crisis, but the dry conditions caused by the 2015 El Niño made that year’s fire season the worst in twenty years: approximately 2.6 millions hectares of land were burned between June and October—Indonesia’s dry […]

By Arief Wijaya, Susan Minnemeyer, Reidinar Juliane, Octavia Payne and Andres Chamorro For the last several years, forest fires driven by agricultural expansion have spiked every summer in Indonesia, creating smog and public health crises, including more than 100,000 deaths, throughout Southeast Asia. While fires are once again flaring, they’re not nearly as bad as usual—there […]

By Susan Minnemeyer, Sarah Sargent, Karyn Tabor and Greg Soter Smokey the Bear fire danger sign in Paradise Valley, Nevada. Photo credit: Famartin / Wikimedia Commons. This summer, visitors to U.S. national parks and forests will be greeted by Smokey the Bear, the Forest Service’s beloved mascot, delivering a warning about the day’s fire danger. […]

By Hidayah Hamzah and Reidinar Juliane Peat swamp forests of the Katingan Peatland Reserve in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Photo by James Anderson/WRI (Flickr). Peat forests, or wetlands, are some of the most important ecosystems for Indonesia and climate change. The country holds the largest tropical peatland in the world, which acts as a major carbon sink. […]

Sunrise over Cordillera National Park, Peru. Source: Toni Fish (Flickr). It’s a warm August day in the pristine forest of Cordillera Azul National Park, located in Central Peru’s Amazon Rainforest. Cordillera Azul, home to more than 1,800 species of plants and animals, is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world—and one of […]