Palm oil has a terrible reputation. Especially among environmental and social advocates, palm oil is viewed as the crop responsible for a large-scale deforestation, particularly in Southeast Asia. Deforestation of carbon-rich forests leads to greenhouse gas emissions; between 2001 and 2010, palm oil-driven land-use change resulted in an average of 216-268 million tons of CO2 … [Read more...] about Is Investment in Palm Oil Certification Worth It?
Ecosystems and Biodiversity
What is the Value of Nature?
An apple at a supermarket: $0.50. 1,000 gallons of tap water in New York City: $4.95. Annual value of pollination to agriculture: $200 billion. Cost savings from good land management in New York City’s watershed: $8 billion. Total value of benefits from nature: priceless? Robert Costanza, a leading environmental economist, just published the article: “Changes in the Global … [Read more...] about What is the Value of Nature?
How can habitat corridors make our infrastructure more sustainable?
*By @GrahamWatkins. Picture by Narhuanna. A month ago, I visited Porto Joffre in the Pantanal in Brazil. I was lucky enough to spend hours watching jaguars. Normally, jaguars are very hard to see – but in Porto Joffre, they regularly walk along river edges searching for capybara and caiman to eat. While they are abundant along the river, away from the rivers, the cats hunt … [Read more...] about How can habitat corridors make our infrastructure more sustainable?
This week, the Peruvian forests have a reason to celebrate
With more than 68 million hectares of forests, Peru has one of the five largest, most diverse and best preserved tropical forest areas in the world. It is also estimated to be one of the world’s four largest tropical forest carbon stores. These forests are in DANGER. Look at the situation in the Peruvian Amazon: [dropcap type="circle" color="#ffffff" … [Read more...] about This week, the Peruvian forests have a reason to celebrate
Latin America and the Caribbean: Wild Wealth
Wild Wealth, a documentary that depicts the wealth of biodiversity in Latin America and the Caribbean in images not previously seen, will be previewed at the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development on June 20, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the documentary was produced by National Geographic film crews … [Read more...] about Latin America and the Caribbean: Wild Wealth