Forest bonds could be key to scaling up finance to conserve the world’s tropical forests, according to the WWF, the Global Canopy Programme (GCP) and the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI). The organizations are calling on governments to take action to close the gap between current financial commitments and the resources needed to protect the world’s forests.
Embattled timber company, Asia Pulp & Paper Group (APP), which has been long accused of committing some of the world’s largest acts of deforestation, says it is initiating its first-ever comprehensive human rights audit across the company's Indonesian operatio
A new report from the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative(UNEP FI) warnsof huge financial and environmental losses that could stem from a post-Kyoto climate change deal that fails to spur private sector investment into deforestation and forest degradation reduction efforts.
Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority has launched an investigation into Deutsche Bank's business relations with the family of Abdul Taib Mahmud, Chief Minister of the Malaysian State of Sarawak.
China aims to increase its total area of forest by 40 million hectares in the next decade, according to yet another edict from China's most senior rank of politician, indicating how seriously the country is taking its natural environment.
A nearly USD30 million grant from USAID is to underwrite a five-year program led by WWF-Nepal that will mobilize the efforts of international and local NGOs to protect critical forests and forest dependent communities in Nepal.
Vietnamese authorities have finally responded to allegations from the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) that Vietnamese companies illegally purchase timber from Laos.
Only days after Western NGOs launched a campaign to pressure the US government’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to cut ties with the Malaysian Taib family, whistle-blower website Wikileaks has confirmed the US government has been aware of Taib corruption for years.
The Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (Gapki) believes that while exports of palm oil look to be going up, the economic slowdown in Europe might affect its planned target of 18 million tonnes, 15 percent higher than last year’s 15.6 million tonnes.
Local government officials are expressing concern over the continued development of small hydropower stations in a central China nature reserve. While the projects were initially encouraged as a way of defending the forest, there are now concerns that other elements of the ecosystem are being damaged.
A 9,100-hectare land concession in Cambodia's protected Koh Kong province forest has been granted to a Chinese company for the development of a hydropower project, according to The Phnom Penh Post.
A total of 320,000 hectares of high-standard forests have been planted in east China's Anhui Province since the 1990s with loans from the World Bank (WB), according to the provincial forestry authorities.
Rights groups in Cambodia have been calling for the reversal of decision by Prime Minister Hun Sen to reclassify a wildlife sanctuary as state land. Almost 30,000 hectares in Oddar Meanchey, Siem Reap and Preah Vihear provinces have been reclassified for agricultural development under four sub-decrees signed by the Prime Minister.
US satellite and cable television news channel CNBC has canceled its flagship international business show, "World Business," following allegations that the lts production company, FactBased Communications (FBC), was doubling as a PR firm for Malaysian politicians alleged to be behind wide-spread illegal logging and other corruption.
Reports out of Australia indicate that Malaysia is the latest country to plan its own sustainability standard for palm oil producers. The move, however, could cause further confusion over any sustainable label on palm oil products and the justification of the move also calls into question the government's commitment to genuine sustainability.
As pressure mounts against the palm-oil industry and its unsustainable practices, Malaysia is ramping up its official rhetoric to support its aspirations to become a major biofuel supplier.
China will spend 14.56 billion yuan (USD2.33 billion) in the next decade for the forest protection of a natural reserve in northeast Jilin Province, local authorities said.
Echoing the toast by Thailand's soldier businessmen a generation ago to "the last tree in Burma," the Vietnamese Army has been accused of helping strip Laos of some of the last tropical rainforest in the Mekong River basin.
This report by the World Bank spells out what the world would be like if it warmed by 4 degrees Celsius, which is what scientists are nearly unanimously predicting by the end of the century, without serious policy changes.
Companies in Asia reveal expectations that regulations that could lead to rising costs for reporting and reducing GHG emissions will also be the main sources of climate-related business opportunities.
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