Tag: #deforestation — 10 segments on Living on Earth
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January 09, 2026:
Tropical Forests, Forever?
As the host of this year’s UN climate treaty negotiations and home to most of the Amazon tropical rainforest, Brazil led a major advance for forests and their indigenous inhabitants called the Tropical Forest Forever Facility. The new $125 billion fund, with guarantees for investors, will send its profits to countries with documented forest preservation, including some cash going directly to indigenous and local populations. Michael Coe, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center who was at COP30, joins Hosts Steve Curwood and Jenni Doering to explain why forest protection is a vital piece of stabilizing the climate.
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November 14, 2025:
Rights of Nature for Stingless Bees
In the Peruvian Amazon, the Asháninka people have developed a symbiotic relationship with the local bees, which often lack stingers, and their honey. As habitat loss linked to climate change, forest fires, and deforestation threatens these pollinators and honey makers, a new and innovative law in Peru has granted these bees legal rights to help protect them and the indigenous people living with them. Reporter Teresa Tomassoni of our media partner Inside Climate News speaks with Host Aynsley O’Neill about the remarkable relationship between these bees and people.
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August 22, 2025:
Reforesting a Gravel Mine
At a former gravel mine in northwestern Pennsylvania, nonprofits are working to plant 70,000 trees as part of a larger project to reforest thousands of acres of degraded mine land in the region. The Allegheny Front’s Kara Holsopple reports on how they’re experimenting with fungi and biochar to help restore degraded soil and give the saplings a head start.
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May 30, 2025:
Reforesting a Gravel Mine
At a former gravel mine in northwestern Pennsylvania, nonprofits are working to plant 70,000 trees as part of a larger project to reforest thousands of acres of degraded mine land in the region. The Allegheny Front’s Kara Holsopple reports on how they’re experimenting with fungi and biochar to help restore degraded soil and give the saplings a head start.
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September 13, 2024:
Brazil On Fire
Heat, drought, and arson are fueling an explosion of fires in Brazil’s Amazon and Pantanal region, home to wetlands and grasslands. Marcio Astrini leads the Climate Observatory, a network of civil society groups. He joins Host Aynsley O’Neill to describe the roots of the crisis and the need for the world to act boldly on climate when Brazil hosts the UN climate talks next year.
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June 07, 2024:
BIRDNOTE®: Resplendent Quetzal
Birds tend not to pay attention to borders between nations, and many routinely migrate between the United States and Mexico each spring and fall without showing any papers whatsoever. But if you happen to live north of that border, you’ll need your passport to go see one incredibly remarkable bird called the Resplendent Quetzal. BirdNote®’s Lucina Melesio has more.
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May 24, 2024:
Uncovering the Truth About Beef and Deforestation
The Brazilian cattle industry has led to massive land clearing in the Amazon rainforest. Investigative journalist Marcel Gomes set out to uncover which companies were involved and documented a direct link between the meatpacking company JBS and illegal deforestation in Brazil. He received the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize for Central and South America and joins Host Paloma Beltran to talk about the need for more transparency about where beef comes from and better cattle grazing practices.
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June 23, 2023:
EU Bans Deforestation Products
The European Union has enacted legislation aimed at reducing global deforestation with a ban on the sale of products made from cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soya, and wood, produced on land deforested after 2020. Anke Schulmeister, the Senior Forest Policy Officer for the World Wildlife Fund joined Living on Earth’s Jenni Doering to explain.
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March 10, 2023:
Indonesia Squelching Biodiversity Research
Indonesia has one of the world’s largest tropical forests and touts itself as a global leader in conservation. But researchers from outside Indonesia say the government is blocking data to assess conservation progress and local scientists fear reprisals if they publish data that doesn’t fit the government’s optimistic narrative. Environmental journalist Fred Pearce joins Host Steve Curwood to discuss.
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February 03, 2023:
The Nutmeg's Curse
Native to the Banda Islands in Indonesia, nutmeg and other spices like cloves were coveted for their trade value by colonial powers, who set about exterminating the local people to dominate the nutmeg trade. In his 2021 book The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis, author Amitav Ghosh reveals the origins of our current climate crisis in the violent extractive economies pioneered by colonial powers centuries ago. Amitav Ghosh joined Host Steve Curwood for a Living on Earth Book Club event to discuss this dark history of the so-called 'enlightenment'.
