Forests

"Police and prosecutors from Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname have arrested nearly 200 people in their first-ever joint cross-border operation targeting illegal gold mining in the Amazon region, authorities said Thursday."

"Neither the House nor the Senate included funding for the U.S. Wildland Fire Service in new spending bills. The Interior Department is still forging ahead."

"The House of Representatives voted 214 to 208 Wednesday to open up hundreds of thousands of federal acres to mining near the border of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness."

"Restoration of forestland and other areas is taking root, but lags far behind the rapid rate of deforestation in the Amazon."

"The Republican Study Committee on Tuesday published a framework for a second reconciliation package that calls for selling off federal public lands to build housing, adopting a contentious proposal previously championed by Utah Sen. Mike Lee."

"The House passed a bill last week that would “repurpose” $500 million meant for cleaning up environmental and safety hazards caused by decades of coal mining."

"Some of the world's largest soybean traders are preparing to break their agreement to curb deforestation of the Amazon rainforest to preserve tax benefits in Brazil's top farm state, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters."

"Greenhouse gas and particulate emissions from fires globally may be 70 percent higher than once believed."

"Will lawmakers put a man who has argued that “we do not even need” the vast majority of federal lands in charge of 250 million acres of them?"

"Preventing illegal road building could help protect tropical forests. New research tries to identify which areas are most at risk."