"Scientists are unearthing a quiet truth about the woods: Where trees grow, or don’t, depends in part on the quirky decisions of small mammals."

"The United States is looking to crack down on environmental criminals behind surging deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, using penalties such as Magnitsky sanctions to tackle climate change more aggressively, U.S. sources and officials told Reuters."

"The Amazon is going dry. In one parched corner, a desperate wait for water is only just beginning."

"Brazil’s incoming president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, laid out his vision for the world’s largest rainforest and the future of a warming planet before hundreds of supporters at annual climate talks here Wednesday."

"State public health officials and experts are increasingly concerned about residents’ chronic exposure to toxin-filled smoke."

"The U.S. Center at the COP27 climate talks in Sharm El-Sheikh hosted a panel Monday focused on ending global deforestation by 2030, but the reality on the ground in the nation’s forests looks quite different."

"The three countries that are home to more than half of the world’s tropical rainforests — Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo — are pledging to work together to establish a “funding mechanism” that could help preserve the forests, which  help regulate the Earth’s climate and sustain a variety of animals, plants, birds and insects."

"A unique species on Socotra in Yemen, famed for its bright red resin and umbrella-shaped crown, has been in decline for years. Now islanders are leading efforts to save it",

"With his return as Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is promising to reverse the alarming rate of deforestation in the Amazon. But as he heads to key UN climate talks, his ambitious plans to achieve “zero deforestation” will need to find international support."

"CITES COP-19 starts in mid-November 2022 and is likely going to be a decisive meeting for the protection of species such as rosewood.

Both CITES and Madagascar have banned the export of rosewood and ebony, but there appears to be no end to the illegal trade, and the fate of nearly 40,000 illegally-exported rosewood logs seized in Singapore, Kenya and Sri Lanka in 2014 is still uncertain.