Tree Huggers

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The vital role forests play in providing habitat for biodiversity, storing carbon and supporting cultures also buttresses global society economically and socially, according to a new report by authors at the International Union of Forest Research Organizations.

But in making those vital connections, the authors also bring together data showing how humanity’s cumulative negative impacts on forests threaten both their resilience and our own.

• Conserving the world’s tropical forests requires large-scale and predictable finance, a new op-ed by Brazilian officials argue in making their case for the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), a finance regime that will be discussed at this year’s U.N. climate summit (COP30) in their nation.
• The TFFF would pay a fixed price per hectare of tropical forest conserved or restored, providing positive incentives aligned with national fiscal planning via a funding model that blends public investment and private market borrowing.
• “The time to act boldly for our forests is now. The TFFF is not only possible — it is essential. We are calling on the world to join us,” they write.
• This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

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archived (Wayback Machine)

related:

• Will Brazil’s President Lula wake up to the climate crisis?
• On Amazon destruction, will Brazil President Lula's ‘disinformation space’ be penetrated?

A study of one of the rarest pine trees in the world, Torrey pine, conducted by a team including Penn State scientists, has yielded what the researchers called valuable insight into the value of genetic diversity and the importance of ensuring locally adapted diversity is maintained for restoration.

Critically endangered Torrey pine persists naturally across only one island and one coastal mainland population in southern California.

A community to discuss fruit trees, fruit forestry, fruitarianism, and all things fruit-related.

Post photos of your fruit trees or harvests, share growing information or interesting articles, ask questions, or just express your appreciation for fruit in general!

Hosted on slrpnk.net, an instance with an ecological and anti-capitalist focus.

Fruit trees provide many ecological benefits – they are trees, after all! A properly-stewarded fruit forest can provide many of the benefits of a native forest while also providing an abundance of wholesome and delicious food! No tilling the soil, no killing the plants at harvest time, and no wasted vertical space. Fruit trees are also the gift that keeps on giving, producing food for decades and producing seeds and other propagation materials in order to spread the abundance, no profit incentive needed! Share with your friends, share with your neighbours, share with the birds – you'll have so much food, you'll be giving it away! Shifting to a tree-based agriculture would also free up a huge amount of land, allowing native forests to regrow, which would have an enormous benefit for the climate. Fruit trees are the ultimate win-win situation!

/c/fruit@slrpnk.net

!fruit@slrpnk.net

https://slrpnk.net/c/fruit

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/23031952

Forests in the Peruvian Amazon aren't growing back after gold mining—not just because the soil is damaged by toxic metals, but because the land has been depleted of its water. A common mining method known as suction mining reshapes the terrain in ways that drain moisture and trap heat, creating harsh conditions where even replanted seedlings can't survive.

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archived (Wayback Machine)

Peatlands are one of the world’s biggest carbon sinks. These naturally waterlogged boggy swamps can hold thousands of years’ worth of compressed, partially decomposed vegetation matter — despite covering just 3-4% of Earth’s land surface, they’re thought to store more carbon per area than the world’s forests combined.

In honor of World Peatland Day on June 2 we present three recent Mongabay stories that shed light on this critical ecosystem.

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El Santuario Nacional Los Manglares de Tumbes es un área protegida del Perú que abarca una porción de la ecorregión del Golfo de Guayaquil, conocidos localmente como Manglares de Tumbes. Se sitúa en la sección más septentrional de la costa pacífica del país.

Antiguamente, estos manglares abarcaron unas 28 mil hectáreas, reduciéndose significativamente con el tiempo debido a la tala de bosques con el fin de establecer criaderos de langostinos.

Tiene una extensión de 2 972 hectáreas y fue creado el 2 de marzo de 1988 mediante decreto supremo N°018-88-AG. En el 2016 la UNESCO incluyó al Santuario Nacional Manglares de Tumbes como Zona Núcleo de la Reserva de Biósfera Noroeste Amotapes-Manglares.

Hoy en día este santuario ha adquirido su importancia dado que es única muestra representativa de mayor extensión de bosques de manglares en Perú.

Es más, no solo proporciona leña, estacas y puntales, sino que también es una barrera natural contra la erosión que producen las olas y mareas. Además, al producir una enorme cantidad de sedimentos y materia orgánica le va ganando terreno al océano.

También, como hemos dicho antes, allí se encuentran recursos que extraen los pescadores artesanales para la alimentación de la población local y constituyen un refugio para el cocodrilo de Tumbes (Crocodylus acutus) o cocodrilo americano, especie que se encuentra en vía de extinción.

Desarrollar un turismo sostenible es de vital importancia para su conservación y la de los pescadores artesanales que pueden hallar una fuente extra de ingresos y minimizar su impacto a la vez que conservan sus métodos tradicionales. Además un sector turístico fuerte y organizado sosteniblemente puede competir con las langostineras y ayudar a conservar el lugar.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/22919452

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/35625917

While China touts climate goals and sustainability, its banks are pouring billions into commodities from the world’s rainforests, an investigation by the international NGO Global Witness has found.

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Chinese banks became the largest creditors of “forest-risk” companies globally between 2018-2024 – excluding financial institutions based in Brazil and Indonesia – according to a new analysis by Global Witness, based on data released in September 2024 by the Forests & Finance coalition.

The financial sectors of Brazil, Indonesia and Malaysia provide a disproportionate amount of “forest-risk” financing to commodity producers in their own countries and are excluded from this analysis, which focuses on international financial flows. When including these countries, China ranked third globally overall in 2023, the final year for which full data is available.

The Forests & Finance database, compiled by Dutch research firm Profundo, tracks financial flows to over 300 “forest-risk” companies involved in agricultural supply chains such as beef, palm oil and soy production – industries that are major drivers of tropical deforestation.

Key findings

• Recent data shows that Chinese banks have become the largest creditors to “forest-risk”* companies, after major producing countries Brazil and Indonesia, with over $23 billion in financing provided from 2018 to 2024.
• Key Chinese banks, including CITIC, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China, are among the top creditors for “forest-risk” companies such as Royal Golden Eagle Group, which has faced repeated allegations that its supply chain has driven deforestation.
• The increasing flow of finance to “forest-risk” companies undermines China’s climate and environmental goals under the Glasgow Leaders' Declaration and national Green Finance Guidelines.
• Meanwhile, Chinese banks rank poorly compared to their international counterparts in terms of deforestation-related policies, with four out of six major Chinese lenders scoring zero in the Forest 500 annual policy assessment.

• To access the best seeds for the propagation of native species, botanists often need to safely and sustainably collect from a variety of mother trees.
• In Uganda, Sebastian Walaita at the Tooro Botanic Gardens has been honing his skills and training botanists in high tree climbing for more than 25 years.
• These skills allow the botanists to collect seeds from even the tallest trees, in a way that captures genetic diversity.
• In October 2024, Walaita and a fellow Ugandan held a training in high tree climbing and seed collection in Côte d’Ivoire.

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• NGOs in Indonesia have documented widespread environmental and social violations across 33 industrial tree plantations since 2023, including deforestation, peatland destruction, fires, and land conflicts with Indigenous communities.
• Major corporations APP and APRIL, despite sustainability pledges, were linked to illegal deforestation, peatland drainage, and failure to follow proper consent procedures, potentially violating both Indonesian laws and international standards.
• Key case studies include endangered rainforest clearance in West Sumatra’s Mentawai Islands, unauthorized forest clearance in Riau, peatland burning in South Sumatra, and land disputes in West Kalimantan.
• The NGOs are urging stronger law enforcement and reforms, warning that current violations undermine Indonesia’s climate goals and could threaten market access under the EU Deforestation Regulation.

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• Trees growing school yards in Niger’s two largest cities are helping to cool classrooms and illustrate the value of urban forests.
• A study of green spaces across 60 schools in Niamey and Maradi two cities found that trees in schools help mitigate extreme heat, a source of food and income, and enhance learning.
• School yards represent a form of protected area within cities, and the study’s author encourages municipal and educational authorities to integrate urban forestry into planning for school infrastructure.

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Forest cover on Indigenous lands in Panama has remained stable at almost double the rate of protected areas.

The report said five sectors “intimately connected to the climate crisis” have been linked to the highest number of attacks. A total of 1,681 attacks were attributed to the mining sector, followed by 1,154 from agribusiness, 792 from fossil fuels, 454 from renewable energy, and 359 from logging.

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• Mongabay article
• report cited

• Indonesia’s current biofuel strategy relies heavily on expanding oil palm plantations to meet its B40 and upcoming B50 biodiesel mandates, which could cause up to $4.72 billion in environmental and social damage.
• A proposed alternative scenario by the NGO Madani Berkelanjutan calls for boosting yields from existing plantations and promoting community-based biofuel production using diverse feedstocks like used cooking oil and non-palm crops.
• This alternative model avoids deforestation and social conflict, supports rural economies, and could generate a higher net economic benefit of $37.1 billion, compared to $31.36 billion under the business-as-usual scenario.
• Researchers warn the country is nearing its ecological cap for oil palm plantations, urging a shift to intensification and diversification to prevent irreversible environmental harm.

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The European Union’s landmark anti-deforestation law could fail to deliver on its environmental promises if enforcement authorities disproportionately focus on small importers while missing less obvious violations from major commodity firms, according to a new analysis by U.K.-based investigative nonprofit, Earthsight.

The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which comes into force Dec. 30, 2025, aims to prevent new tropical deforestation from Europe’s supply chains for soy, beef, palm oil and other commodities. To do so, it will require geolocalized data from indirect and direct suppliers that prove their products didn’t contribute to deforestation since December 2020.

The largest importers “will submit due diligence statements accurately and on time. They will have due diligence systems in place. They will have correctly identified risks. They will have traceability systems of some kind in operation,” the report’s authors write.

“The problems with these importers will lie deeper. Their mitigation measures will be weak. Their traceability systems will have fundamental flaws, but these will be well hidden,” they added.

In February, Cargill, one of the largest exporters of soy from Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest and Cerrado savanna, took advantage of the EUDR to weaken already existing anti-deforestation agreements. The agribusiness pushed up its deforestation cutoff date from 2008, the year established by the soy moratorium, to 2020, the cutoff date set by the EUDR. That would allow the company 14 more years of deforestation without consequence.

“There is good reason to be mistrustful of such firms,” Earthsight’s analysis writes. “Unfortunately, there are reasons to fear they will nevertheless get an easy ride when EU Member States start enforcing the new law.”

In the Ivory Coast, Earthsight’s data show, the top 10 importers buy up 83% of the local cocoa. In Brazil, the largest 10 multinational import companies ship out 64% of the nation’s soy exports.

Small companies will have an additional six months to comply with the law after it comes into effect, but producing accurate paperwork may be more challenging. They often lack the financial and technical resources necessary to quickly set up comprehensive due diligence systems with all the data points required by the law, experts say.

According to a report by Profundo, the relative cost for EUDR compliance is three times higher for small and medium-sized importers than large importers.

Europe’s enforcers will need to focus more on the quality of the largest importers’ reports, Earthsight said, rather than simply check bureaucratic boxes. “Going after such small firms will be much easier … and [authorities] will be tempted to focus most of their energy on this,” the group writes. “For the law to achieve its aims, it is essential that [they] avoid falling into this trap.”

archived (Wayback Machine)

archived (Wayback Machine)

• Environmental impact assessments for development projects in Amazon countries have evolved from highly biased, centralized procedures to more rigorous processes that aim to avoid conflicts of interest.
• EIAs have also become increasingly focused on the social impacts of development and on how to mitigate them or compensate affected communities.
• Large-scale development projects are generally reviewed by national-level entities while less controversial initiatives can be attributed to regional governments.

• Scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute are collaborating with local communities in the Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca, a protected Indigenous territory, to foster a ground-up reforestation strategy using native trees and carbon payments.
• The project involves about 30 plots totaling 100 hectares (247 acres) of land, giving participants full ownership of their trees.
• The approach is based on carbon-sequestration data and other scientific metrics collected from Smithsonian’s Agua Salud research site in Colón.
• The work also leans on economic analyses to ensure that reforestation projects can become reliable and sustainable livelihood strategies for Panama’s rural communities.

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