On June 17, the European Union (EU) passed the Nature Restoration Law. This landmark policy implements safeguards for the region’s existing forests, while also restoring degraded ones and improving the biodiversity of forests managed for wood production.
The policy is a huge step for the preservation of the EU’s forests, which face increasing pressures. The region’s tall forests — which are critical for carbon storage and biodiversity — have declined by 2.2 million hectares over the past two decades. Meanwhile, more recently, record-breaking wildfires, pest outbreaks and increased bioenergy production in response to the Russia-Ukraine war are driving forest losses throughout the continent. WRI experts analyze the latest data from the University of Maryland’s GLAD Lab, available on the Global Forest Watch platform. Read more.
|
|
|
Log rafts in Notodden, Norway. The vast majority of tree cover loss in recent years in Europe can be attributed to human causes like logging. Photo by Rick Strange/Alamy |
|
|
Jochen Tack/Alamy Stock Photo |
|
As countries strive to rein in emissions, the search has ramped up for critical minerals like lithium and cobalt, essential components of renewable energy technologies and batteries. Some are even looking to the ocean — specifically the deep sea and its untapped resources. With so much unknown about this process and its potential impacts, WRI experts answer key questions. Read more.
|
|
|
|
Estimates suggest around $5 trillion of capital will be needed every year by 2050 to meet climate and biodiversity goals. How can the world move its vast amount of finance in a direction that benefits people, nature and the climate? WRI researchers with the Systems Change Lab point to six critical shifts. Read more.
|
|
|
Edward Parker/Alamy Stock Photo |
|
Tropical forests are home to some of the world’s most precious biodiversity and provide critical goods and services to millions of people. Encouragingly, between 2022 and 2023, Brazil and Colombia — home to the majority of the Amazon rainforest — experienced a 36% and 49% decrease in primary forest loss, respectively. Yet other countries like Bolivia, Laos, Nicaragua and more essentially counteracted this progress with sharp increases in their own tropical forest loss. Read more.
|
|
|
Tropical primary forest loss in 2023 reached 3.7 million hectares, an area the equivalent of losing 10 football (soccer) fields of forest per minute. While this is a 9% decrease from those of 2022, these numbers reflect significant loss. |
|
|
World Resources Institute • 10 G Street NE Suite 800 • Washington, DC, 20002 • 202.729.7900 |
|
|
|
