Forests absorb carbon, shelter wildlife, and anchor watersheds — yet billions of trees have been lost to logging and land conversion. This archive tracks the science, policy, and community efforts driving reforestation forward, from Indigenous-led land restoration to large-scale planting programs showing measurable results.
The seed collector networks are the base of the ecological restoration chain and will play an essential role in enabling Brazil to reach its goal of restoring 12.5 million hectares (30.9 million acres) of native vegetation by 2030 — vital in the fight to avoid climate breakdown.
The Brazilian government has launched a long-awaited operation to remove thousands of non-Indigenous invaders illegally occupying two ancestral territories in the Amazon Rainforest, in what human rights defenders hail as a victory for protecting Native communities.
India’s emissions intensity dropped 33% between 2005 and 2019, meaning the country now produces far less greenhouse gas for every dollar of economic output. Even better, the pace is picking up: annual reductions doubled to 3% per year in the most recent stretch measured, the fastest on record. That’s happening while the economy keeps growing, driven by a rapid build-out of solar and wind, expanding forest cover, and fresh investment in green hydrogen. For a country of 1.4 billion people, breaking the old link between prosperity and pollution is exactly the kind of shift the world needs to see — proof that climate progress and development can move together, not in opposition.
An analysis of satellite data showed that 500 square kilometers of tropical rainforest were cleared in Brazil’s portion of the Amazon during the month of July, a 66% decline relative to July a year ago.
“This is really dramatic,” conservationist Rodrigo Botero told The Guardian. “It’s the highest reduction in deforestation and forest fires that there has been in two decades.”
From January to June the rainforest had alerts for possible deforestation covering 2,650 square kilometres, down from 4,000 sq km during the same period last year under former leader Jair Bolsonaro.
Across both countries, average yearly forest loss fell dramatically between the years 2015-2017 and 2020-2022, with Indonesia seeing a 64 percent decline and Malaysia a 57 percent decline.
The “Indigenous guard” (La Guardia Indígena) that will carry out patrols across 175 Indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon.
A new law, passed with an overwhelming majority by the European Parliament, requires companies to demonstrate their products aren’t sourced to deforested land or land with forest degradation, or else risk heavy fines.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said his government is also planning to build new irrigation projects, cut flaring from oil drilling, and ramp up clean energy, aiming to draw 30% of the country’s electricity from renewables by 2030.
