How do peacekeepers operate in Africa? – DW – 05/30/2025
05/30/2025
May 30, 2025
This year, the world marked International Day of UN Peacekeepers with an eye on the future of peacekeeping. But how do blue helmets currently operate in Africa, and what have their challenges been? Eddy Micah Jr. talks to Malawi Defense Forces Major Tadziwana Kapeni and DW's Ben Shemang in Abuja.
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Is the Philippines' reforestation drive coming up short? – DW – 05/31/2025
The Philippines launched one of the world's largest reforestation efforts. But satellite data and field reports raise questions: Is the program really restoring forests? Marlo Mendoza is the architect of one of the world's most ambitious regreening programs. His office at the University of the Philippines in Laguna is crammed with books about trees and nature conservation. Hunched over his desk, he flicks through a glossy government brochure praising his project's successes, with 1.8 billion seedlings planted over 2 million hectares (approximately 4.9 million acres) across the Philippines. Millions of native trees have been replanted and are now growing into forests, sequestering carbon and supporting wildlife. Indigenous and farming communities cultivate produce among the forests and former timber cutters now manage tree farms. Communities sidelined in reforestation effort This is what Mendoza dreamed of — however, he admits it is far from the reality on the ground. "We mobilized the entire citizenry to plant, but where are all the trees planted?" Mendoza told DW. "I made the manual; many provisions were not followed." The Philippines National Greening Program (NGP) was launched in 2011 as an ambitious response to decades of deforestation, which had become a huge issue during the 1970s and '80s. But the NGP struggled with natural resource plundering, which depleted the Philippines' forest cover and replaced community and indigenous forests with plantations of invasive exotic species. An analysis of millions of satellite images suggests that as many as one in every 25 hectares of NGP land experienced a major deforestation event: that is, instead of barren sites being reforested, the opposite occurs: forests are cleared right before or during regreening efforts. The sites are more often than not managed by communities with only short-term access to the land. They are required to grow single cash crops tied to the volatile global commodity markets, which do not provide a steady income. A group of environmental investigators that carried out the analysis said the results expose a new pattern of "greenwashing" — a marketing tactic used to make a product or service appear better for the environment than it is. The most common commodities grown on the sites, including timber and fruit, have a green stamp of approval, potentially eligible for export across the world. This includes the EU, despite the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which requires traders to prove that products do not come from land which was deforested after 2020. Much of the EUDR's attention has focused on small farmers' challenges with proving that their land has not been associated with previous deforestation. Investigators said the image analysis suggests commodities on these sites have been falsely grown under the sustainable banner. Native trees cleared to grow cash crops Additionally, the analysis suggested that forest loss on NGP sites may be more widespread than previously understood. The clearing of forests included communities trying to take advantage of NGP funds. Eduardo Corona, a forest ranger in Palawan, an area of the Philippines covered in re-greening program sites, said that one of the most frustrating parts of his job was seeing the NGP used to clear native forests and being powerless to stop it, despite trying to raise the alarm. Restoring sacred forests in India To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Corona was able to obtain one of the complaints he filed with his superiors, which relates to the UNESCO-recognized Mount Mantalingahan Protected Landscape. The DENR Forest Management Bureau (FMB) told investigators that some forest clearing occurred as part of site preparation, particularly in areas dominated by invasive species. 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The forgotten native forests The regreening program was also intended to regrow and protect native rainforests. Of the 130,000 sites covering over 2 million hectares across the Philippines, some sites designated as protection areas — where indigenous rainforests and the biodiversity that accompanies them were meant to thrive — have little to no tree cover. According to the latest satellite imagery, over a third of those sites have no tree cover at all. Reporting supported by Journalismfund Europe and the Environmental Data Journalism Academy, a program of Internews' Earth Journalism Network and Thibi. This article is part of the Forest Fraud investigation, which uses remote sensing technology, global supply chain tracking, and ground reporting to expose the drivers of deforestation across protected areas in Southeast Asia. Edited by: Keith Walker
DW
3 days ago
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How do peacekeepers operate in Africa? – DW – 05/30/2025
05/30/2025 May 30, 2025 This year, the world marked International Day of UN Peacekeepers with an eye on the future of peacekeeping. But how do blue helmets currently operate in Africa, and what have their challenges been? Eddy Micah Jr. talks to Malawi Defense Forces Major Tadziwana Kapeni and DW's Ben Shemang in Abuja.
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