Publications & Insight

Blogs

Where are forests in Europe’s plans to make the Sustainable Development Goals a reality?

In September 2015, after the largest consultation in the history of the United Nations, more than 150 world leaders agreed on a new agenda to “free the human race from the tyranny of poverty”.

The Sustainable Developments Goals (...

23/11/2016

Blogs

Video Blog: Why forests are at risk in Liberia and how to plant the seeds of change

 Illegal logging is reducing globally, but deforestation continues as land is cleared for commercial agriculture. In Liberia, oil palm concessions were welcomed by the Government as a means to create jobs and infrastructure after...

15/11/2016

Blogs

Guest blog: Green Invasion

Europe’s once peaceful forests are being invaded - in the name of green energy. To meet European Union policies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting renewable electricity and heating, governments from France to...

15/11/2016

Blogs

Bioenergy and social injustice in North Carolina

Our Bioenergy campaigner, Linde Zuidema, has been visiting the South-East United States to witness how forests are being destroyed to produce wood pellets for the EU energy market. Here she discovers the impact of the industry on...

15/11/2016

Blogs

European Commission risks repeating mistakes with its flawed proposals on bioenergy sustainability

Today Politico has leaked the European Commission’s draft Winter Package on Climate and Energy which is expected to be released on November 30. The draft includes a major overhaul of the EU’s electricity market, and new rules for...

15/11/2016

Blogs

PHOTO BLOG: A story of southern destruction

Seeing is believing, and witnessing first-hand the devastating effect that the European Union’s renewable energy policy is having on the forests and wetlands of the Southeast United States, offers overwhelming evidence of the...

15/11/2016

Forest Watch special - VPA update November 2016

LoggingOff and Fern publish an occasional Forest Watch special VPA update, which provides a roundup of developments across countries involved in VPA processes, from a civil society perspective. In the November 2016 edition, the...

10/11/2016

NGO Statements

Letter to Commissioner Hogan re: commitment to promote meat consumption

Twelve NGOs have written to the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development to express concerns about his commitment to invest in promoting meat consumption in Europe and European beef in foreign markets.

09/11/2016

Elusive ‘negative emissions’ must not distract from immediate action at Marrakesh

Ahead of the November 2016 climate convention in Marrakesh (COP22), Fern released ‘Going Negative – how carbon sinks could cost the earth,’ at an event hosted by the Commission’s DG for International Cooperation and Development...

09/11/2016

2030 renewables policy: Commission must repair bioenergy weaknesses

The European Commission is expected to publish proposals for a 2030 renewable energy and sustainable bioenergy policy on 30 November 2016. One of the main sticking points is whether the Commission will go beyond existing rules –...

09/11/2016