SciDev.Net

The UN supports forest protection in the next climate agreement, but questions on how to tackle deforestation are still being debated.

The palm oil industry needs to prove its sustainability and is turning to scientists for ways to minimise harm, reports Richard Stone.

Leafy forests replanted by communities in Nepal are flying in the face of accepted conservation practice, reports T. V. Padma.

T. V. Padma reports on Bhutan's dilemma: how to reconcile conservation, economic development and happiness in a modern world.

The Mbendjele pygmies can now protect trees from loggers by mapping their positions using a GPS system, reports Michael Hopkin.

Dust storms in China have been increasing, but a project in Bayinhushu shows how to reduce them, reports Dennis Normile.

The popularity of palm oil as a biofuel is a disaster for Indonesia's forests, providing cover for illegal loggers and destroying biodiversity in the region, reports Ian MacKinnon.

Scientists have embarked on an ambitious plan to restore the ecosystems of Brazil's Atlantic rainforest devastated by deforestation, reports Bernice Wuethrich.

Lucy Williamson reports on the problems faced by a project to rehabilitate Indonesia's depleted peatland rainforests.

A Brazilian farming method that is greener and boosts growth is reaching its small farmers and maybe the world, reports Bernardo Esteves.

China's rapid economic growth is forcing it to confront a growing number of environmental problems, say Jianguo Liu and Jared Diamond.

Marcelo Leite reports on a unique partnership between ecologists and farmers at the edge of Brazil's Amazon rainforest that aims to assess the impact of fires on the conversion of forest to savanna.

Washington Novaes describes the options open to the new Brazilian government in its attempts to slow the rate of deforestation in the Amazon.

In this review article Mark A. Cochrane draws the disparate strands of forest fire research together, and suggests how a more coherent approach might be developed.