Press Releases

3 November 2017 | Washington, D.C. | This year’s climate talks may not be as glamorous or high-profile as the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that adopted the historic Paris Agreement two years ago, but the agenda for COP23 that starts Monday in Bonn is packed with key issues that […]

Spurred by a booming economy and high demand from China, authorities across northern Laos encouraged smallholder rubber planting in the mid-2000s. This was welcomed by many as a farmer-friendly alternative to the large-scale land concessions dominant in the south, one that could boost local livelihoods while solidifying de facto land claims. What began as an […]

Recent years have witnessed a groundswell of private sector commitments to reducing deforestation linked to the agricultural commodities that underpin vast corporate supply chains. A growing number of companies have been sharing their progress toward those pledges, according to the latest annual report from Forest Trends’ Supply Change initiative.

The private sector channeled $8.2 billion (B) of private capital into investments that seek measurable environmental benefits – in addition to financial returns – between 2004 and 2015 according to a report released today by Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace.

Governments, water utilities, companies, and communities around the world paid nearly US$25 billion (B) in 2015 for nature-based solutions to secure reliable access to clean water, according to a new report from Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace, Alliances for Green Infrastructure: State of Watershed Investment 2016.

15 December 2016 | Washington, D.C. | It’s been a banner year for green infrastructure, from the roll-out of the Paris climate deal to Peru’s groundbreaking new water security strategy to California’s recent legislation recognizing nature as a critical part of its water infrastructure. In 2015, governments, water utilities, companies, and communities spent nearly $25 billion on payments for green […]

Swedish Administrative Courts today confirmed a ruling that a certificate issued by the Myanmar Forest Products Merchants’ Federation (MFPMF) did not provide adequate proof that a shipment of teak imported into Sweden had been legally harvested.

Today, for the first time ever, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) agreed to allow the airline industry to use a global carbon market-based measure known as the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) to achieve its carbon-neutral growth pledge. The plan neither endorsed nor prohibited specific offset types, but instead left […]

BISSAU, GUINEA-BISSAU | April 11, 2016 | For the first time, representatives from 11 West African countries have agreed to take action aimed at curbing illegal rosewood logging and associated trade in the region. At the first international conference ever held in Guinea-Bissau, deputies from Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAS) member countries Burkina […]

17 December 2015 | WASHINGTON, D.C. | China’s demand for rosewood – used for classical Chinesestyle furniture and décor – is threatening some of the world’s most valuable and endangered old-growth forests. Chinese furniture manufacturers’ imports of several species of rosewood, collectively known as hongmu, have soared at an unprecedented rate since 2010 and hit […]