Pressroom

The most widely traded illegal wild product in the world today is rosewood, an endangered hardwood prized for its use in traditional Chinese furniture. An e360investigation follows the trail of destruction and corruption from the forests of Madagascar to furniture showrooms in China.

Even when Europeans buy certified sustainable wood, the environment pays the price.

    Over 200 individuals from conservation organisations, governments, companies and financial institutions have joined in a “Call to Action” for greater efforts to secure “Biodiversity Net Gain” in the context of development. The call to action was issued during Natural Capital Week, where the Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme (BBOP) launched a new set […]

The European Union has signed an agreement to support Vietnam’s forest governance improvement goals, aimed at ensuring that the timber it imports from the Southeast Asian country is legally sourced. The Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) was signed Oct. 19 in Brussels by Federica Mogherini, the EU high representative for […]

Piuray (Cusco) │ At Peru’s first National Water Summit, senior executives and general managers of 23 water utilities, representing 14 regions of Peru, signed the Piuray Declaration on November 9th, ratifying their commitment to protect the country’s source water areas and the natural environments that sustain them. The Piuray Declaration contains seven specific commitments to […]

                  November 14, 2018 │ In the wake of a major new report from WWF and ZSL (Zoological Society of London) showing dramatic declines in biodiversity over the last fifty years, over 100 members of the Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme (BBOP) are meeting in Paris this month to launch a […]

Vietnam is a major wood processor – hoovering up timber from rainforest-rich countries in Africa and beyond. Its trade with the EU now stands to see an major boost, following the recently concluded Free Trade Agreement and so-called Voluntary Partnership Agreement. This lift to international trade demands action from Vietnam, to prevent it from becoming […]

Last year, the 28 Member States of the European Union imported €260 million-worth (about $296 million-worth) of timber from countries that the World Bank considers to be fragile and conflict-affected, according to those countries’ own statistics. That’s an increase of almost 20 percent in reported trade since 2014. While there is no doubt that countries […]

Forest Trends has announced a new partnership with GoSol.solar in the Brazilian Amazon to empower indigenous people with sustainable solar technology. GoSol.solar is an initiative of Solar Fire Concentration Ltd (SFCO), an impact-focused enterprise based in Tampere, Finland. GoSol.solar’s goal is to eradicate energy poverty, empower small and medium-sized enterprises with solar thermal, and minimize the […]

Investments in watershed services (IWS) programs, in which downstream water users pay upstream watershed service suppliers for actions that protect drinking water, are increasing in number and scope. IWS programs represent over $170 million of investment in over 4.3 million ha of watersheds, providing water to over 230 million people. It is not yet fully […]