When forest degradation and destruction meet local communities who are simply feeding themselves or making their livelihoods, the case for forest preservation gets complicated. In Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly the Congo Basin, this pattern of clearing and regrowth for subsistence — dubbed shifting cultivation — is thought to have driven the majority of recent, extensive tree […]

The 1.5 mark holds special resonance in the climate struggle. In the Paris Agreement, Parties agreed to try to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius for the best chance at avoiding the worst impacts of climate change. This August, a special report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change unveiled another 1.5 mark: temperatures over land have already risen […]

This is the Gran Chaco. A vast expanse of dry forest, cactus stands and palm savannahs—a stretch of rural Paraguay considered far away from just about everywhere. Despite its remoteness and low population, the Chaco represents both home and livelihood for those who reside there. But the area has become increasingly threatened in the last 20 years as trees are felled in favor of ranches producing beef for export.This is the village of Chaidi, home to the Ayoreo Totobiegosode, an indigenous people

This is the Gran Chaco. A vast expanse of dry forest, cactus stands and palm savannahs—a stretch of rural Paraguay considered far away from just about everywhere. Despite its remoteness and low population, the Chaco represents both home and livelihood for those who reside there. But the area has become increasingly threatened in the last 20 years as trees are felled in favor of ranches producing beef for export.This is the village of Chaidi, home to the Ayoreo Totobiegosode, an indigenous people

In 2016, the expansion of agricultural frontiers accounted for 98 percent of deforestation in Mexico. While the booming production of avocado (often referred to as Mexico’s “green-gold”) has contributed to the country’s economic growth, it has also caused deforestation and degradation in central and southern Mexican forests. To continue this economic growth without further deforestation, […]

Big data surrounds us. Every minute, our smartphones collect billions of data points on our location, search histories and habits. Data has become one of the world’s most valuable commodities for companies. The $6-billion-dollar sale of the game Candy Crush was not so pricey because of the app itself, but because of the massive amounts of user data […]

For this installment of GFW User Profiles, we spoke with Lisa Kelley, Ph.D. Candidate at UC Berkeley What organization do you work with? I am a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. I research how land cover, land use and livelihoods are changing in relation to one another. I have been looking for instance at […]

Today WRI released a working paper that provides new information about Indonesia’s moratorium on new forest concessions. Our analysis concludes that the moratorium alone does not significantly contribute to Indonesia’s greenhouse gas emission reduction goal of 26 percent by 2020. However, the moratorium does support these goals in the long-term by “pausing” business-as-usual patterns to allow time […]

With its Sahelian north and dense tropical rainforest south, Cameroon is a land of diversity and transition. A combination of either dense or mosaic forest landscapes covers about 60 percent of the nearly 47 million hectare country. These productive forest ecosystems provide services and sustenance either directly or indirectly to millions of people. Interactions between […]