logging

Trump to Remove Protections for Tongass National Forest, the ‘Lungs of North America’

Trump to Remove Protections for Tongass National Forest, the ‘Lungs of North America’

The Trump administration formalized its intention to open up Alaska’s pristine Tongass National Forest, an intact temperate rainforest, to logging and development, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) first announced its intention to lift the forest’s Roadless Rule last month, but it had to wait 30 days before entering […]

Join our newsletter

The best of EcoWatch, right in your inbox. Sign up for our email newsletter!

    Logging Native Forests Worsened Australia’s Wildfires, Scientists Say

    Logging Native Forests Worsened Australia’s Wildfires, Scientists Say

    Australia’s unprecedented wildfires that raged for months and destroyed millions of acres were likely made worse by industrial logging of native forests, according to a new commentary from five scientists published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. The group of five senior Australian scientists from the Australian National University, Macquarie University and the University of Queensland […]

    Indigenous People May Be the Amazon’s Last Hope

    Indigenous People May Be the Amazon’s Last Hope

    Brazil’s divisive President Jair Bolsonaro has taken another step in his bold plans to develop the Amazon rainforest. A bill he is sponsoring, now before Congress, would allow transportation infrastructure to be built on indigenous territory. Such lands cover 386,000 square miles of the Brazilian Amazon — one-fifth of the jungle. Here, Native people are […]

    The Pope Makes Plea to Save the Amazon — Will the World Listen?

    The Pope Makes Plea to Save the Amazon — Will the World Listen?

    by Justin Catanoso Pope Francis, in an effort to reignite his influence as a global environmental leader, released an impassioned document Feb. 12 entitled Dear Amazon — a response to the historic Vatican meeting last autumn regarding the fate of the Amazon biome and its indigenous people. In a 94-page “exhortation,” Francis argued for the […]

    Brazil’s Bolsonaro Unveils Bill to Open Indigenous Lands to Mining, Oil and Gas Exploration

    Brazil’s Bolsonaro Unveils Bill to Open Indigenous Lands to Mining, Oil and Gas Exploration

    By Jan Rocha President Jair Bolsonaro pressed forward with a “dream” initiative sending a bill to the Brazilian Congress on Wednesday that would open indigenous reserves in the Amazon and elsewhere to development, including commercial mining, oil and gas exploration, cattle ranching and agribusiness, new hydroelectric dam projects, and tourism — projects that have been […]

    2 Butterfly Defenders Found Dead Within a Week in Mexico

    2 Butterfly Defenders Found Dead Within a Week in Mexico

    Two men connected to a famous monarch butterfly reserve in Mexico have been found dead within a week of each other, raising concerns for the safety of environmental activists in the country. Homero Gómez González, 50, who managed a butterfly reserve in Mexico’s Michoacán state and campaigned against illegal logging in the butterflies’ winter habitat, […]

    Koalas Found ‘Massacred’ at Logging Site

    Koalas Found ‘Massacred’ at Logging Site

    Australia‘s iconic koalas cannot catch a break. Nearly one third of the koalas in the state of New South Wales may have died in the country’s devastating wildfire season, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC). And now, reports have emerged that dozens of the animals were killed at a timber plantation in the state […]