• A report by a Swiss advocacy group says a timber company logging Cameroon’s Ebo Forest is tied to a wider network of political élites in Yaoundé.
• The company, Sextransbois, is part of a network of logging and agriculture interests owned by prominent businessman Aboubakar Al Fatih.
• Corporate registry documents analyzed by the group show that Sextransbois was incorporated by relatives of President Paul Biya’s eldest son before being transferred to Al Fatih’s half-brother in 2014.
• Environmental groups have accused a number of companies owned by or linked to Al Fatih of breaking Cameroonian law.

68 THOUSAND hectares of logging concession...

the thing about those CITY TREES is they have it so easy and they don't do ANY REAL WORK - one tree says to another in the middle of a field.

An interesting history of the main threats to some iconic American trees and the efforts to save them.

As an arborist I largely agree with the video's thesis that introduced pests and diseases remain the largest threat to our trees, ahead of some of the things that people more often think of, like logging or climate change.

A resolution adopted by Terrasse-Vaudreuil city council on June 9 declares that trees are worthy of protection, "including the right to life, to natural growth, to integrity and to regeneration."

Mayor Michel Bourdeau says Quebec filmmaker André Desrochers inspired the community to take action.

He said Desrochers' film, called Des arbes et des arts convinced citizens that trees are living entities that breathe and communicate with each other through their root systems.

"A tree is like a human being," Bourdeau said. "It breathes, it lives, it takes in water. It protects us from all sorts of things."

How many lives would have been saved if European cities had taken urban forestry seriously over the past few decades?

and meet Nono le Noisetier also:

Charles le Chêne is an oak tree and Nono le Noisetier is a hazelnut tree. I gave them French names because they're both from French-speaking Belgium.

But I planted them here near the Arctic circle. Oak trees and hazelnut trees aren't indigenous to these parts, but there are a few that eke out a living here.

I love oak trees and hazelnut trees. I grew up with them, and I miss seeing them badly here in our new home in the North. Our gardener reckons they have a 1 in 5 chance of surviving the winter, and if they do, they should be okay.

I hope they make it. If they do, they'll grow very very slowly here compared to their counterparts in Western Europe. I'll be long dead when Charles le Chêne and Nono le Noisetier are fully grown, and I like thinking whoever lives here in 50 years will enjoy fresh hazelnuts under the shade of the oak tree and wonder who had the funny idea of planting these trees here long ago.

The 10.2% increase in beef production forecast by the Brazilian government is expected to cause at least 57,000 sq km of deforestation by 2034

gold mining [...] is projected to cause an extra 375 sq km of deforestation by 2028

Additional pressure is coming from mining for critical minerals, such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt that are used for batteries and other technologies used in the transition towards cleaner energy. The study estimates cumulative deforestation linked to the global electric vehicle fleet will be between 1,500 sq km to 4,700 sq km by 2050 on current trends.

For biofuel-related soy crops alone, [the study] predicts between 31,600 sq km and 35,000 sq km of Amazon vegetation will be cleared by 2035.

Scientists have identified a rare Andean forest tree related to tomatoes and potatoes as a plant group never named before.

The discovery redraws part of the nightshade family and ties the tree to plant chemicals with medical power.

For America-250 (gross) the state of Ohio is revisioning it's native vegitation maps and digitizing original surveyor notes.

They're updating thier progress quarterly, check it out here. Last update was in March. Its very cool.

https://ohiodnr.gov/discover-and-learn/land-water/18th-century-vegetation-of-ohio/vegetation-map/vegetation-map

If the history books that I've read are correct, then during the time of Alexander the Great, the northern coast of Africa (outside of the areas with higher human population density) was a functioning dry-forest ecosystem. During the time of the Roman Empire, people cut down large areas of forest in order to plant grass – wheat and barley for human consumption, and pasture grass for cows and goats. Without sufficient forest cover to pull in moisture from the Mediterranean, the rains stopped coming, the remaining vegetation died off, and the Sahara Desert advanced to the coast. This was a case of human-caused climate change.

Forests precede civilisations, and deserts follow them.

Something to keep in mind the next time that you hear/read that non-forest ecosystems are "natural" and should be preserved as they are.