Small-scale agriculture threatens the rainforest

An extensive study led by a researcher at Lund University in Sweden has mapped the effects of small farmers on the rain forests of Southeast Asia for the first time. The findings are discouraging, with regard to environmental ...

The double-edged sword of palm oil

Widespread cultivation of oil palm trees has been both an economic boon and an environmental disaster for tropical developing-world countries. New research points to a more sustainable path forward through engagement with ...

Serious monkey business at Malaysia school for macaques

A pig-tailed macaque yanked at a coconut on a piece of string until it fell to the floor, a small victory for the simian student at a Malaysian school that trains monkeys to harvest fruit for farmers.

Your dead palm is a woodpecker home—and that's good

At the very edges of urbanization, Northern Flicker woodpeckers live in dead palm trees raising their young. Their populations are on the decline throughout the state, especially South Florida. But Joshua Diamond was lucky ...

Palm tree-killing weevil found in South Texas

An intensive, area-wide survey of the Lower Rio Grande Valley has detected the presence of a palm tree-killing weevil that has caused extensive damage in other parts of the world, according to Dr. Raul Villanueva, an entomologist ...

The quiet loss of knowledge threatens indigenous communities

Most of the knowledge that indigenous communities in South America have about plants is not written down. Now, ecologists at the University of Zurich have analyzed comprehensive information about the services provided by ...

When grown right, palm oil can be sustainable

Turning an abandoned pasture into a palm tree plantation can be carbon neutral, according to a new study by EPFL and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL). These findings, based on measurements ...

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