If you didn’t catch it, an op-ed in The New York Times questioned the role of forests in our climate change solution. See what we said in response.

Meanwhile, world leaders, global companies and concerned citizens gathered this week in New York at the U.N.’s Climate Summer. Read about what transpired and other forest stories in this week’s Forest Digest:

  • “UN Climate Change Summit Yields Major Announcements on Deforestation”VICE News
    At this week’s U.N. Climate Summit, 27 nations, including the U.S., endorsed a declaration to by 2030 and offer more that $1 billion in aid to countries where forest conservation is most crucial. Subnational governments in Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria, Mexico and Peru — regions of the world that contain the planet’s largest intact tropical rainforests — also signed on.
  • “How one Brazilian state is reducing deforestation while growing its economy”Environmental Defense Fund
    The state of Acre in northwestern Brazil has developed incentives initiatives to help reduce deforestation. From supporting timber certification and sustainable livestock agriculture to giving money to indigenous peoples who restore degraded land using traditional practices, Acre reduced deforestation by 60 percent and increased its real GDP by 62 percent since 2002.
The whitebark pine faces an uphill battle for survival, but American Forests and our partners are working to keep this keystone species intact.
The whitebark pine faces an uphill battle for survival, but American Forests and our partners are working to keep this keystone species intact.
  • “For Trees Under Threat, Flight May Be Best Response”The New York Times
    Creating refuges — generally used to protect threatened or endangered species from human activity — might not work for the whitebark pine, as the species faces lethal threats such as the mountain pine beetle and white pine blister rust, not to mention a warming climate. So scientists are considering a pretty radical idea: moving the trees to areas where they will be more comfortable in the future.