Insights: WRI's Blog

Returning to WRI as a Distinguished Senior Fellow on forest and governance issues, Frances Seymour reflects on the impact of technology and international efforts to turn the tide on deforestation.

When Jakarta isn't submerged by floods, its residents experience incredible water stress. These twin problems—too much water and too little—are linked by a common solution: restoring the watershed's forests.

WRI's new Director of the Climate Resilience Practice has worked on the frontlines of adaptation and development, most recently playing a key role in negotiations leading to the landmark Paris Agreement. She shares her perspective in this interview.

Computers are invaluable aides to tracking deforestation. But some issues require local expertise to crack—in this case, allowing WRI to map drylands forests that add up to an area equivalent to the Amazon rainforest.

Artificial neural networks fed data on prior deforestation can be used to project and plan for future forest loss in Central Africa and beyond.

Thermal power plants rely on water for cooling, which means droughts can push generation offline. In India, reports describe this vulnerability—itself just another reason to speed the transition to renewables.

One of the poorest countries in Africa, Malawi once faced water shortages and power outages as its forests disappeared. Now, it has launched bold new strategies to restore trees to the landscape.

To help clarify heated debate over what drives deforestation in Indonesia, new analysis of Global Forest Watch data shows that most forest loss -- 55 percent -- occurs in legal concession areas, where some tree removal is allowed, but 45 percent happens outside these areas.

In Indonesia, a land grab by a palm oil company violates local villagers’ land rights. The path to justice is far from easy―but a new mapping initiative could help remove obstacles.

The 2015 data on tree cover loss has been added to Global Forest Watch. Here's what we learned.