Large areas of tropical forest worldwide are used for selective logging which requires extensive road networks to access trees harvested for timber. It is well documented that building roads into intact forest can have consequences for forest ecosystems. This is because they lead to fragmentation and facilitate access for people which can lead to long-term […]
Soya: a hot commodity The soya industry is booming across the world. Since April 2011 the global production of soya has risen 35% in response to widespread demand for the hardy, protein-rich bean. It may come as a surprise to some that it is a common ingredient in chocolate and soap, in addition to its […]
Conservationists and environmental scientists are used to bad news. So when there’s some really good news, it’s important to hear that as well. While the battle is far from over, there has been a series of breakthroughs in the long-running battle to protect the imperilled Leuser ecosystem in northern Sumatra, Indonesia – the last place […]
By Meghna Krishnadas. Originally published by Yale Environment Review. South-east Asia hosts some of the world’s most biodiverse forests. In addition to their spectacular species richness, many of these forests also provide vital ecosystem services related to carbon storage, climate regulation, water security, and soil health. However, global market forces coupled with a strong push […]
Brazil’s economy is teetering on the edge of collapse. The country’s political regime has been rocked by recent corruption scandals, and impeachment proceedings are encircling the nation’s leaders. And yet things couldn’t be much better for Brazil’s soybean farmers. At the beginning of the last decade, Brazil emerged as a major soybean exporter. Today, Brazil […]
Greater recognition of the benefits of urban forests is focusing efforts from all levels of government to defend and improve them. Perhaps the most iconic of these efforts is New York City’s Million Trees Program. Other initiatives of note include the City of Melbourne’s and the City of Sydney’s. Earlier this year, federal Environment Minister […]
In 2015, more than 500 million hectares of forests were held by indigenous peoples. Despite the increase in forest area designated for and owned by indigenous peoples in recent decades, governments still administer 60 percent of these forest areas while firms and private individuals administer 9 percent. Pressure exerted by indigenous peoples over the past […]
We are living in the most explosive era of infrastructure expansion in human history. The G20 nations, when they met in Australia in 2014, argued for between US$60 trillion and US$70 trillion in new infrastructure investments by 2030, which would more than double the global total value of infrastructure. Some of the key players in […]
Increasing intensity of human land-use makes ecological communities progressively more similar to one another, leading to an overall loss of diversity. Ecological metrics used to quantify diversity loss could provide helpful conservation benchmarks. How does one estimate biological diversity? Answering this seemingly simple question has occupied many an ecologist’s time. With the rapid rate of […]
When visiting the volcanic islands of São Tomé and Príncipe off the coast of West Africa, one is immediately struck by how unusual these tropical islands are. The steep, volcanic mountains seem to be swathed in impenetrable, story-book jungle. But, as ecologists know, first impressions can be deceiving. When São Tomé and Príncipe were discovered […]
In February, I joined San Francisco-based photographer Mitchell Maher on a trip to Tanzania and Malawi. The two of us journeyed out together to make films and collect images for some ongoing projects IFPRI is involved with in the region. In Tanzania, we joined IFPRI senior research fellow Ephraim Nkonya and his German collaborators, on the massive Trans-SEC […]
