Major Win for Forests in Landmark Lacey Case

Forest activists around the world are celebrating the successful resolution of the first criminal investigation brought against a company for violations of the amended Lacey Act. This week Gibson Guitar Company accepted responsibility for importing illegal wood from Madagascar into the United States, and for the first time there are real consequences. The Lacey Act [...]

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Top 10 Ways To Celebrate World Rainforest Week

Happy World Rainforest Week! How will YOU celebrate rainforests from October 17-24? Please add your ideas, activities, and commitments as a comment to this blog to keep our thoughts and actions fresh with new ways to think global and act local. Here are some ideas from our staff, friends, and activist like YOU about how [...]

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Hello, World! Love, Tiki

Hello? Can you hear me?? Well, I hope you can hear me. Hi Everybody! My name is Tiki. My friends call me Tiki the Tiny Tiger because I’m the smallest tiger cub in the whole wide world! Will you be my friend? They call me Tiki the Tiny Tiger because there are only five species [...]

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Indigenous peoples as the most effective protectors of rainforests

RAN believes that indigenous peoples are the best stewards of rainforests. Supporting this belief, a new study by researchers at U of Illinois and U of Michigan has added to the growing body of evidence that indigenous peoples are better protectors of their forests than governments or industry. In a review of 80 forests in [...]

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The elephant in the oil palm plantation: China’s growing influence in the oil palm industry

Here at RAN the agribusiness campaign is hard at work pressuring US agribusiness companies, with a  focus on the massive privately held company Cargill, to stop their dirty and dangerous practices of developing oil palm plantations in the rich tropical rainforests of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea. Cargill has a total of five oil [...]

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New research questions value of REDD project in Sumatra

David Gaveau et al. have released an innovate paper that takes a critical look at the widely touted Reduced Emissions through avoided Deforestation and Degredation (REDD) project in the Ulu Masen Ecosystem of Aceh, Sumatra. Sumatra is ground zero for the oil palm and pulp-and-paper industries, and, like many tropical habitats, suffers from a severe [...]

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Oil Palm: An illegal threat too

Reuters ran a story this week on illegal palm oil development in Aceh, Indonesia. The story takes an interesting angle, completely ignoring the massive scale of legal oil palm development in Aceh and focusing in on illegal planting by small farmers or tiny companies. With oil palm threatening to overwhelm Aceh’s Leuser Ecosystem, NGOs and [...]

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