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Forest fires in the Amazon released more energy than some of the world’s most polluting, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Lancaster. Triggered by the 2015-2016 El Niño, a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, 2.5 billion trees and plants emitted 495 million tonnes of CO2 from an area that makes up just 1.2% of the entire Amazon rainforest. 

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Is certification the right tool to stop deforestation? A Greenpeace study released today doubts it. According to the environmental group, products linked to forest and ecosystem destruction, land disputes and human rights abuses continue to access the EU market labelled as ‘sustainable’ by many certifications schemes, according to a new investigation by Greenpeace International. Destruction: Certified assesses the performance of major certification schemes used for products like palm oil, wood and soy for animal feed, and shows that these schemes have failed to stop ecosystem destruction and human rights abuses.

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Indonesia’s legal system is failing to act against timber criminals, according to to the local NGO Kaoem Telapak and the British research team of Environmental Investigation Agency. As a result, the country’s top-level efforts to tackle illegal logging and deforestation is seriously undermined. A  new research released today, Criminal Neglect, reveals that enforcement action through the courts was taken against only a handful of companies out of more than 50 investigated which were proven to have either traded directly or indirectly in illegal timber.

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The Indonesian paper mill Asia Pulp & Paper promised 8 years ago to become a responsible company. For seven years this company failed to show serious implementation on many parts if its own commitment. The eight year it started to delete it. Buyers should know, they are just buying empty words. New evidence indicates that buyers and banks’ ineffective due diligence systems have allowed Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), a global market paper supplier, to ignore its own forest conservation and human rights pledges, with the result that conflicts and violence continue unabated in the Indonesian regions where the company produces and sources fibres for its paper production.

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A recent report released by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) after three-year investigation, highlighted the Senegal-Gambia-China rosewood traffic and uncovered unprecedented evidence on a series of major forest crimes. According to the report, around 1.6 million rosewood trees were illegally logged in the Casamance province of Senegal and smuggled to Gambia to China between June 2012 and April 2020, to be re-exported to China.