How did a continent’s domestic logging industry vanish from databases? How did millions of local artisanal loggers become criminals? How to address a threat to the future of forests and people across Africa? CIFOR experts explain.

• GO SLOW ON VPAs?: EU efforts to curb illegal logging should be gradual, a study recommends, to help small-scale loggers comply.
• CHAINSAWS AND CHANGES: A few simple rules could clean up the (large) informal logging sector in central Africa, an ambitious study suggests.

Mangroves and tropical peatlands store immense amounts of carbon, making them crucial in efforts to fight climate change. They’re also fast disappearing. Where to begin the daunting task of compiling evidence—and crafting policy—to protect these places? CIFOR’s new “toolbox” can help.

• TROPICAL WETLANDS IN PERIL: News, videos and research on forests of global importance for carbon, coastlines, wildlife: blog.cifor.org/wetlands

Peru has received international recognition for programs tackling climate change and deforestation in the Amazon—but those efforts have largely been ignored in the national media. A new report examines why—and how that may be changing.

• REDD TO THE RESCUE?: In the Congo Basin, REDD+ is still no match for the lucrative lure of cash crops as long as the price of carbon stays low, new research finds.

In a series of op-eds, CIFOR experts explore the significance of recent gender research, and how it translates into sustainable landscapes on the ground:

• ON THE AGENDA: Why women’s welfare belongs at the core of global development agenda.
• VOICES AND VIEWS: Why—and how—to conduct participatory gender research.
• DESTINY IN DENSITY: How a group of women struggles to sustain landscapes and livelihoods.

A recent report shows that improved land rights led to higher productivity and incomes in Latin America and Asia—but not in Africa. What accounts for the difference? In a field largely overlooked by empirical research, scientists are trying to find out.