"As in past years, commodity-driven deforestation was the leading cause of tree cover loss." Intentional deforestation as well as drought-induced wildfires made more frequent and severe by the climate crisis drove a significant acceleration of global rainforest loss in 2020, with new figures showing that 12.2 million hectares of tree cover were destroyed in the tropics last year. According to data from the University of Maryland and Global Forest...

When it comes to reversing the damage caused by deforestation, natural regeneration is an alternative approach to tree planting.This involves placing a specific area under protection and allowing it to grow spontaneously.Due to hunting, these areas often lack animals to disperse the seeds, making it harder for ecosystems to recover naturally.A study found that an actively restored forest is more effective, because it stored carbon 50% faster than...

Plants do a lot of work for us, producing the air we breathe, the food we eat, and even some of our medicine. But when it comes to removing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, we may have been overestimating their ability. Photosynthesis acts as the lungs of our planet – plants use light and carbon dioxide (CO₂) to make the sugars they need to grow, releasing oxygen in the process. When atmospheric CO₂ concentrations increase, as they have been tha...

The WithOneSeed community forestry programme in Baguia, Timor-Leste, began in 2009;It establishes village-based plant nurseries to grow seedlings and then pays small landholders annual incentives to reforest their land by planting and maintaining the trees;More than 980 subsistence farmers are now involved and 200,000 trees have been planted to date, earning the Baguia village economy more than $400,000 from the sale of carbon credits. High in th...

Of the world's remaining forests, only 40% have high ecological integrity, according to data from a newly developed index.Ecological integrity is a measure of human impact, looking at factors from infrastructure to tree-cover loss.High-integrity forests are found mostly in Canada, Russia, the Amazon, Central Africa, and New Guinea; of the remaining high-integrity forests, only 27% are currently in nationally designated protected areas.Conserving ...

As the world warms and the atmosphere becomes increasingly fertilised with carbon dioxide, trees are growing ever faster. But they're also dying younger – and overall, the world's forests may be losing their ability to store carbon. That's the key finding of our new study, published in the journal Nature Communications. In a world without humans, forests would exist in equilibrium, taking roughly as much carbon out of the atmosphere as they lose....

Planting new forests is recognised as a powerful natural climate solution, but the best way to achieve this is still a matter for debate.New research suggests natural regrowth could be the most effective approach.Letting nature take its course promotes native species and biodiversity at a fraction of the cost of manual tree-planting. Susan Cook-Patton was planting a native red oak seedling in her backyard. As she finished and stepped back to admi...

The coronavirus pandemic, suspected of originating in bats and pangolins, has brought the risk of viruses that jump from wildlife to humans into stark focus. These leaps often happen at the edges of the world's tropical forests, where deforestation is increasingly bringing people into contact with animals' natural habitats. Yellow fever, malaria, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Ebola – all of these pathogens have spilled over from one species to ...