Forests

"As Congress headed home for the Christmas break after passing a budget deal, Agriculture Department Secretary Tom Vilsack presented lawmakers with an angry ultimatum: Put up more cash if you want the U.S. Forest Service to keep putting out huge wildfires."

"PARIS - Ten African countries have committed to restore 31 million hectares of degraded and deforested land, under a new push to make 100 million hectares productive again by 2030."

"Two new reports underscore how important Paris climate talks could be for accelerating efforts to end deforestation, a major contributor to climate change."

"The destruction of Brazil's Amazon forest, the world's largest intact rainforest, increased by 16 percent in 2015 from a year ago as the government struggles to enforce legislation and stop illegal clearings."

"Researchers say expanding food production could radically reduce biodiversity in these important forests over the next 30 years."

"One week ago, two members of a four-person team patrolling for illegal loggers and wildlife poachers in the Preah Vihear Protected Forest in northwestern Cambodia were shot and killed in their sleep, as Mongabay reported. Six men suspected in the murders, including a soldier, were arrested early in the week, but have been charged only with illegal logging for the moment as authorities continue to sift for evidence."

"Indonesia's forest fires, which this year sent vast plumes of smoke across the region described by climate officials as a 'crime against humanity', could return as early as February, the forestry minister said on Friday, but on not such a large scale."

"Fire chiefs from California, Idaho, Washington and other vulnerable states reinforced on Monday the Obama administration’s campaign against climate change."

"Recent scientific discoveries show that the Amazon rainforest might control the climate for much of South America. The theory could mean even more disastrous ramifications for the fragile ecosystem if deforestation continues unabated." Besides being an engine for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the rainforest seems to pump a "river" of moisture through the atmosphere that is larger than the Amazon itself.

"A stubborn forest fire in the Brazilian Amazon is threatening to consume the forest home of one of the last remaining uncontacted tribes on Earth – the awá-Awá."