We’re kicking off the New Year right with our first Forest Digest of 2015! Here’s what’s been going on in the world of forests:

  • “Tropical Forests Gulp CO2, Slowing Climate Change
    Discovery News

    2014 was the hottest year on record, but a new study shows that tropical rainforests are absorbing far more greenhouse gases than scientists estimated. The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, estimate that tropical forests annually absorb 1.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide out of a total global absorption of 2.5 billion metric tons.
  • “Indonesian indigenous groups look to tourists to protect forests”Reuters
    An Indonesian NGO is working with six indigenous communities to encourage foreign tourism in ancestral forests, an attempt to not only slow the advance of logging operations and palm oil plantations, but also ease poverty, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and diversify from traditional forest-based incomes such as weaving.