Trees & reforestation

Amazon rainforest burning

Brazilian judge orders seizure of illegally cleared lands in the Amazon

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Justice Flávio Dino of the Brazilian Supreme Court has directed the government to seize private lands where forests have been illegally razed. By one estimate, more than half of the forest lost in the Brazilian Amazon has been on private lands. The ruling also calls for halting the process known as regularization, by which land grabbers are granted title to stolen lands, even when they have illegally destroyed forest on those lands. The decision, which may be appealed, further requires the government to seek compensation from landowners who have destroyed forest.

Flower floating on the water with lilies

New Delhi transforms degraded lands into biodiversity parks

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New Delhi, India’s capital city, struggles with numerous environmental challenges, including extremely poor air quality and heat waves. In response, since 2004, the city has created seven large “biodiversity parks” on previously degraded land. The Aravalli Biodiversity Park, a 692-acre park located near an upscale neighborhood, is now a thriving forest of native plants. The Neela Hauz Biodiversity Park is home to a lake that was once a dumping ground for untreated sewage. All seven parks were restored by the Delhi Development Authority and the University of Delhi and together span 2,026 acres.

Satellite from above with Earth below|nasa unsplash

First Earth Fire Alliance satellite for detecting wildfires is now in orbit

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The FireSat constellation, which will consist of more than 50 satellites when it goes live, is the first of its kind that’s built to detect and track fires. It’s an initiative launched by nonprofit Earth Fire Alliance, which includes Google and Muon Space as partners, among others. According to Google, current satellite systems rely on low-resolution imagery and cover a particular area only once every 12 hours to spot large wildfires spanning a couple of acres. FireSat will be able to detect wildfires as small as the size of a classroom and deliver high-resolution visual updates every 20 minutes.

Amazon

Brazil’s crackdown on illegal mining in Munduruku Indigenous land sees success

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Since November 2024, government agents have carried out 523 actions, destroying 90 camps, 15 vessels, 27 heavy machinery, and 224 engines. The coordinated government effort caused losses of $1.9 million USD to criminals. The 5.9-million-acre Munduruku Indigenous Territory, home to 6,500 people, is one of the lands that has been hardest hit by illegal mining in the country. During Bolsonaro’s administration, there was a 363% increase in the area degraded by mining which brought diseases, mercury contamination, attacks, and deaths to communities.

Silhouette of baobob trees

Seeds of 19 African tree species added to Svalbard Global Seed Vault

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Norway is home to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a vast collection intended to secure the world’s vital genetic heritage against any eventuality. The vault currently holds duplicates of 1.3 million seed samples from nearly every corner of the world. Recently, the World Agroforestry Center deposited new seeds to the vault representing tree species of special value to communities across Africa. The 19 species represented included 13 native to Africa and six others that have found a place in the economies and ecologies of the continent.

Rainforest canopy

The Democratic Republic of Congo to create the Earth’s largest protected tropical forest reserve

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An area covering the size of France will now be protected through partnerships with communities that integrates conservation and restoration with green economic development. This forms the world’s largest protected forest area and consists of a network of economic hubs built on sustainable agricultural production and powered by renewable energy derived from the hydropower potential of the Congo River. The initiative aims to create 500,000 new jobs and transfer a million tons of food annually to Kinshasa, Africa’s largest city.

Green plant sprout in cracked soil

China completes historic 1,800-mile “Great Green Wall”

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China has finished a 46-year campaign to encircle the Taklamakan Desert with trees, part of national efforts to end desertification and curb sandstorms. Efforts to enclose the desert with trees began in 1978 with the launch of China’s “Three-North Shelterbelt” project, colloquially known as the Great Green Wall. More than 116,000 square miles of trees have been planted, helping capture massive amounts of carbon and bringing China’s total forest coverage above 25% by the end of last year, up from around 10% in 1949.

Coastal farmland in Denmark

Denmark to plant one billion trees and return 15% of its land to nature

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On farms in Denmark that grow crops like hay for animal feed, the government will soon pay farmers to turn some of their land into forests instead. In other areas, farm fields will revert to peatlands. In total, around 10% of the country will be restored to nature. The plan goes farther than any other country has so far to tackle emissions from the food chain, which is responsible for around a quarter of the world’s total carbon footprint.

Eiffel Tower in Paris City

Paris to replace 60,000 parking spaces with trees 

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Paris aims to replace 60,000 parking spaces across the city with trees by the end of this decade, according to its newly released climate plan. The plan, which must still be approved by the Council of Paris, lays out steps to help the city prepare for more extreme heat. The goal of ripping up parking spaces is part of a larger aim to create more than 700 acres of green space by 2030. The plan also calls for setting up more cooling centers, creating more car-free zones, and installing reflective roofs on 1,000 public buildings.

Cattle

Brazil to adopt full beef traceability by 2032

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Brazil will soon begin tracing individual cattle from birth to slaughter, aiming to make the sector 100% traceable by 2032, Agriculture and Livestock Minister Carlos Fávaro has indicated. The announcement comes amid growing international demand for transparency, especially as the EUDR, a new European Union regulation requiring proof that certain imported commodities aren’t adding to recent deforestation, is set to come into force at the end of 2025. Fávaro stated that a tracing platform would be working by 2027.

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