“I believe that the climate crisis is our greatest opportunity, not only our greatest challenge.”
Al Gore
Deforestation causes roughly one-fifth of global carbon emissions.
Reducing deforestation is vital to reducing this statistic. Motivating those who are deforesting land to value standing forests is critical, as is building governance and promoting monitoring technologies. Working with communities to improve land management ensures protection at the most local level.
To scale all these efforts, influencing local and national deforestation policies is key. We advance innovations that arrest or slow deforestation using policy, market and community-driven mechanisms.
May 20 - 26, 2013
Editor's Pick
Ignoring Innovation: A Review of Michael Levi’s ‘The Power Surge’
The Breakthrough
The "iron law of climate change" says that this challenge cannot be achieved by making energy substantially more expensive. Across the world in countries rich and poor, people have repeatedly indicated that while they will pay some price for environmental objectives, that willingness has its limits.
The "iron law of climate change" says that this challenge cannot be achieved by making energy substantially more expensive. Across the world in countries rich and poor, people have repeatedly indicated that while they will pay some price for environmental objectives, that willingness has its limits.
May 13 - 19, 2013
Editor's Pick
Brazilian supermarkets ban beef linked to Amazon deforestation
Monga Bay
A group representing 2,800 Brazilian supermarkets has signed an agreement barring beef linked to deforestation in the Amazon rainforest from their shelves. The system aims to improve transparency in commodity sourcing, while encouraging landowners to respect Brazil's environmental laws.
Editor's Pick
Carbon Dioxide Level Passes Long Feared Milestone
New York Times
The level of the most important heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, has passed a long-feared milestone, scientists reported Friday. Indirect measurements suggest that the last time the carbon dioxide level was this high was at least three million years ago, during an epoch called the Pliocene. Experts fear that humanity may be precipitating a return to such conditions — except this time, billions of people are in harm’s way.
The level of the most important heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, has passed a long-feared milestone, scientists reported Friday. Indirect measurements suggest that the last time the carbon dioxide level was this high was at least three million years ago, during an epoch called the Pliocene. Experts fear that humanity may be precipitating a return to such conditions — except this time, billions of people are in harm’s way.
Apr 29 - May 5, 2013
Editor's Pick
Low carbon prices may spur deforestation
Mongabay News
Low carbon prices may spur deforestation in New Zealand according to a survey by a researcher at Canterbury University. As reported last week by The New Zealand Herald, a collapse in carbon prices on the country's emissions trading scheme (ETS) has undercut an incentive for farmers to preserve forests.
Low carbon prices may spur deforestation in New Zealand according to a survey by a researcher at Canterbury University. As reported last week by The New Zealand Herald, a collapse in carbon prices on the country's emissions trading scheme (ETS) has undercut an incentive for farmers to preserve forests.
Editor's Pick
Why we must recognise the true value of what our tropical rainforests provide for free
The Ecologist
Tropical moist forests cover about 7% of the Earth’s surface. Here evolution has bequeathed to us more than half of all today’s life forms, 60% of it living in the rainforest canopy, a part of the forest I explored in my twenties.
Apr 8 - 14, 2013
Article
Forum 2013
Skoll Original
Eyes Wide Open: Innovation in Unexpected Places
Do we know where to look for a development solution? At USAID, we commit ourselves daily to finding solutions for the challenges faced by the world’s poor. We start by listening to the wisdom and needs of the government, community, and local organizations and people.
Debate
Forum 2013
Skoll Original
What does Climate Change Have to Do With Health Care?
What health scientists are telling us is that climate change will bring increased asthma, more virulent allergens, medical emergencies from heat stress, the spread of water- and vector-borne diseases and increased severe weather events. The Lancet, Britain’s premier health journal, calls climate change “the biggest global health threat of the 21st century.”
Debate
Forum 2013
Skoll Original
Taming Tropical Forest Frontiers
The last nine years of experience in trying to slow deforestation and support sustainable agriculture have demonstrated that single-mechanism strategies are, alone, insufficient. Instead, powerful synergies can be unleashed by linking together approaches that focus on policy innovation, market transformation, and direct support to farm sectors.
Apr 1 - 7, 2013
Editor's Pick
New training manual gives researchers tools to tackle tenure
Center for International Forestry Research
Tenure rights to forests are notoriously complex – a new guide by the Center for International Forestry Research attempts to help students, researchers and practitioners understand why forest tenure matters, who should benefit and how to manage competing interests in land.
Editor's Pick
How do Brazilian firefighters tackle blazes in the vastness of the Amazon rain forest?
BBC
British firefighter Neil Fairhall travels to Brazil's Mato Grosso state to find out how the local fire brigade deals with blazes in an area of rain forest the size of England. Neil joins Edimar Dos Santos Abreu, the fire chief of Alianca da Terra fire brigade, as they zoom down the Amazon on a speedboat to reach a fire in a remote stretch of jungle. Eventually, guided by a pilot in a spotter plane, they find the fire and tackle it with some fairly basic kit.
British firefighter Neil Fairhall travels to Brazil's Mato Grosso state to find out how the local fire brigade deals with blazes in an area of rain forest the size of England. Neil joins Edimar Dos Santos Abreu, the fire chief of Alianca da Terra fire brigade, as they zoom down the Amazon on a speedboat to reach a fire in a remote stretch of jungle. Eventually, guided by a pilot in a spotter plane, they find the fire and tackle it with some fairly basic kit.
