Deforestation is the large-scale, often permanent removal of forest cover, typically through logging, burning, or land conversion for agriculture, infrastructure, or resource extraction, resulting in the reduction or fragmentation of forest ecosystems. As a research topic, it encompasses quantifying forest loss using remote sensing and geospatial analysis, assessing impacts on carbon stocks, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, hydrological cycles, and soil integrity, and examining social-ecological drivers such as governance, commodity markets, and land-use policies. Deforestation studies also investigate feedbacks to climate systems, resilience thresholds, and the effectiveness of interventions including protected areas, certification schemes, and zero-deforestation supply-chain commitments.
Deep in the forests of North Sumatra, Indonesia, lives the Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis), the world's rarest great ape. Fewer than 800 individuals remain, confined to the Batang Toru ecosystem, a landscape that ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 4, 2026
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"An island of biodiversity in a sea of monoculture": This is how a recent study characterized the Pimentel Barbosa Indigenous Territory (TIPB), located in the northeastern part of Mato Grosso state in Brazil's Central-West ...
Environment
Aug 2, 2026
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A map showing the distribution of isotopes in Amazonian tree wood can help identify illegally harvested timber. By analyzing the ratio of different isotopes of elements such as oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and strontium, researchers ...
Environment
Jul 31, 2026
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Biosphere reserves help curb deforestation in the Western Amazon and, taken together, have prevented the loss of more than 7,400 square kilometers (2,900 square miles) of forest over the last two decades compared with similar ...
Environment
Jul 30, 2026
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Invasive alien species are driving human displacement, according to a new research paper published this month in Frontiers. In Kenya, Opuntia stricta has displaced pastoralist communities, while the invasive little fire ant ...
Ecology
Jul 29, 2026
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At picnics and World Cup watch parties across the United States this summer, people have been reaching for bowls of chips and guacamole. Most of that guacamole is made from avocados grown in Mexico—on orchards that, in what ...
Ecology
Jul 29, 2026
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The need for a national deer management strategy to manage the decline of native forests is highlighted in a new research paper published today in the New Zealand Journal of Ecology. Led by Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University ...
Ecology
Jul 27, 2026
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Swidden agriculture—often called "slash-and-burn"—has been practiced on every inhabited continent throughout human history, and for decades it has been blamed for the destruction of the world's rainforests. However, a new ...
Environment
Jul 25, 2026
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A new study led by Japanese researchers from Tohoku University and the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) reveals that some of the minerals most essential for green technologies may have a significant negative ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 23, 2026
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As COVID-19 disrupted rural economies, communities living near protected rainforests faced rising uncertainty about jobs, health and basic needs. A new study in The Lancet Planetary Health shows that when communities were ...
Environment
Jul 21, 2026
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