global forests
Calls grow to repurpose land squandered in Cambodia’s concession policy
PHNOM PENH — “Make the bosses rich in Cambodia,” then-prime minister Hun Sen said at the 2012 inauguration of a sugar refinery in Kampong Speu province. “If a country has no millionaires, where can the poor get their money from?” This underscored the ideology at the heart of the policy of economic land concessions, or […]
Malaysian logger Samling’s track record leaves Indigenous Sarawak questioning its plans
UPPER BARAM, Malaysia — When James Nyurang became headman of Tanjong Tepalit village in 2008, he learned from his predecessor — and father — of the terms set by timber giant Samling Group. When the company began cutting trees and leveling roads in Tanjong Tepalit in the 1990s, the headman of this Kenyah Indigenous village […]
Conservationists condemn Nepal proposal to allow hydropower in protected areas
KATHMANDU – Nepali conservationists have expressed outrage over the Ministry of Forest and Environment’s recent proposal to scrap existing guidelines through the backdoor to make it easier for developers to build large-scale hydropower plants inside the country’s protected areas. A draft of the proposal, titled “Construction of Physical Infrastructure Inside Protected Areas (Procedures),” was recently […]
Communities track a path of destruction through a Cambodian wildlife sanctuary
PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia — Sometime after 10 a.m. on Friday, April 21, sweat poured down the face of veteran environmental activist San Mala as he crawled through the forest undergrowth, some 16 kilometers (10 miles) deep in the heart of Chhaeb-Preah Roka Wildlife Sanctuary in northern Cambodia. Rangers from the Ministry of Environment were closing […]
What does land mean to Australia’s Indigenous groups fighting logging?
BELLINGEN, Australia — A coastal breeze can be felt through the rustling eucalyptus leaves of blackbutt, ironbark and tallowwood trees in the old-growth native forest now known as Newry on the coast of the state of New South Wales, in present-day Australia. A faint, melodic creaking sound is audible from a twisted grey gum tree […]
VIDEO: The truth about Cambodia’s Prey Lang sanctuary | Chasing Deforestation
PREY LANG, Cambodia — Cambodia has among the worst rates of forest loss of any nation, and Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary is a quintessential case. The protected area has long faced relentless devastation in near-total obscurity, with many observers saying that Prey Lang’s status as a sanctuary exists only on paper. In this episode of […]
Logging route cut into Cambodia’s Prey Lang from Think Biotech’s concession
STUNG TRENG, Cambodia — A fresh incursion into Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary has added new evidence to mounting allegations of timber laundering by Think Biotech, which exists on paper as a reforestation company producing sustainable wood. Satellite imagery showed that between April 6 and 9, a fresh path had been crudely cut into Prey Lang […]
Defending a forest for tree kangaroos and people: Q&A with Fidelis Nick
MUKU, Papua New Guinea — Fidelis Nick’s eyes lock onto the police vehicle as it passes through his village in northwestern Papua New Guinea. A few people wave greetings as it passes by, but Nick isn’t one of them. He watches as a truck from the construction company working on a new road here in […]
Forest restoration can fare better with human helping hand, study shows
An experiment in Malaysian Borneo found that the more species of tree seedlings planted in a previously logged plot, the more the result later resembles an old-growth forest, with greater biomass and forest complexity.
PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ harming wildlife the world over: Study
While PFAS impacts on human health are well known, scientists are also finding severe impacts on wildlife, including hawksbill turtles, American alligators, Arctic kittiwakes, hooded seals, striped bass, bottlenose dolphins and other species.