2010 was a landmark year for forests. Glenn Hurowitz, Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy, blogging for Grist.org, listed the five forest stories of the year: a drop in global deforestation rates, a win for opponents of irresponsible palm oil investments, Canada moving to protect a large swath of boreal forest, the first government-backed forest carbon market established in California, and progress on REDD+ in Cancun. (Make that six: The EU decision to ban the import and trade of illegally harvested wood was also significant news in July.)
A video from the Carnegie…
Impact Stories
April 23, 2025 - 05:08PM
In times of conflict, combatants and civilians often seek sanctuary in forests. Forests are sometimes targeted militarily for that reason or cleared to allow the passage of troops.
Less known however is that forests are also at risk in the immediate aftermath of war when post-conflict agendas bring competing pressures to bear on forest cover.
Art Blundell, Doug Farah and Emily Harwell, the authors of background papers focusing on forests and fragile states, shared their insights during a lunch-time discussion at the World Bank. The event was part of an ongoing series based on the thematic…
April 23, 2025 - 05:08PM
When wildfires swept across Russia this summer amid exceptionally hot and dry weather, they left behind more than 50 dead, thousands of destroyed homes and the stark realization of just how much good forest governance matters. After 1.8 million hectares of land went up in flames, the Russian government vowed to amend forestry policies that had decimated the corps of guards responsible for supervising Russia's vast state-owned forests and turned over forest management to regions and private concessionaires sometimes poorly equipped to protect forests.
The tragic fires have already served “to…
April 23, 2025 - 05:08PM
Agroforestry – combining trees with crops -- can play a dramatic role in improving yields, food security and rural incomes, restoring degraded lands, increasing carbon sequestration and taking pressure off indigenous forests.
At a lunch-time discussion at the World Bank in Washington DC on June 10th, 2010, Dr. Dennis Garrity, Director General of the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) and author of Creating an Evergreen Agriculture in Africa, discussed agroforestry's potential in developing countries, citing large-scale results achieved in Malawi and Niger for example.
After the talk, Dr…
