Indigenous peoples and other communities hold and manage 50 to 65 percent of the world’s land, yet governments recognize only 10 percent as legally belonging to these groups, with another 8 percent designated by governments for communities. That’s bad economic policy.

In 2005, Brazil was losing more forest each year than any other country. Today, Brazil has reduced deforestation in the Amazon by 70 percent. Seventeen countries across four continents have also shown progress in reducing tropical deforestation. But there is still a long way to go.

Study of the Pedernales Watershed, located along Haiti’s southern national boundary with the Dominican Republic, may provide insights into the stark contrast in land cover patterns between the two countries.

Three Columbia University graduate students recently spent a week in Haiti trying to understand the nuances of the charcoal production process. The study site was in the Port-à-Piment watershed of the South Department where local people are on the front lines of climate, agricultural, and water challenges.

Progress Seen on Forest Scheme, Tehran Times Germany joins a 60-country and multi-billion dollar effort to stave deforestation in developing and tropical countries. The plan was initially discussed during the Copenhagen summit this December. However, the details were finally fleshed out Thursday at an all-day conference in Paris, where representatives gathered to decide how to… read more

2009 was noted as the first year that more people lived in urban spaces than in rural areas.  The hope that a majority urban population would slow the clearing of tropical forests — our most effective carbon sinks — seems, however, to have been misplaced. The idea was simple: if more people moved into forested… read more

In 1943, Norman Borlaug began his research into new varieties of wheat that could feed the burgeoning population of Mexico.  Invited by the Mexican government and funded largely by international philanthropic organizations, Borlaug’s research began what we now refer to as the Green Revolution. Over the next 13 years, Mexico became agriculturally self-sufficient, and in… read more