Matthew Spencer

Where there’s political will, there’s a way to stop tropical deforestation, study finds Political will is among the most important factors in preventing tropical deforestation, according to a group of experts surveyed for a new study — with strong political commitment often arising out…

A study focused on why deforestation rates have slowed in Indonesia and the Brazilian Amazon revealed that political will was a critical factor, often as a result of pressure from civil society and diplomacy to conserve forests.

Trying to decarbonize the earth while continuing to vaporize forests is like trying to clean your house while smashing your vacuum to bits in the living room. You’re making a mess, and crippling your ability to clean up the mess.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/c...

The most important story in the world right now.

Our new study, led by Joss Lyons-White, @spencerthink.bsky.social, & myself in Conservation Letters, asked 36 experts in forest conservation across the Brazilian Amazon & Indonesia what factors have mattered most for protecting forests in these countries

There are things that can be done to create an effective forest fire response: 1. Learn from Indonesias response to their peat and forest fire crisis of 2015. It worked.
2. Back the community fire brigade groups in the Amazon, which are springing up spontaneously but have few resources

Amazon rainforest cut down to build highway for COP climate summit The infrastructure required to host COP30 in Belém is undermining the cause, campaigners say.

Is this road actually being built for #COP30? It goes nowhere near the conference venue, or the airport, and is a bypass from #belem to the large satellite city of Marituba, in a conurbation famous for its congestion. It may help raise funding to claim a link, but that doesnt make it true.

Happy New Year

Photographs reveal first glimpse of uncontacted Amazon community Exclusive: Automatic cameras in the Brazilian rainforest show images of the Massaco people, who are flourishing despite environmental threats

John Reid, Daniel Biasetto and I worked secretly on this incredible series of reports for over a year. Today, the Guardian and O Globo reveal to the world the Massaco, one of the dozens of uncontacted Indigenous peoples who protect the Amazon rainforest but need our protection.

It took the last government about five minutes to legislate to stop foreigners buying a national newspaper. How long will it take for this government to close a loophole that allows a foreigner to influence the next UK election by sloshing millions the way of one party?

You don’t have to know anything about opera to love the reviews by @eleanorknight.bsky.social

Musk’s $100m to Farage will break our democracy Keir Starmer needs to fix Britain’s broken electoral laws now - if he doesn’t, we will all suffer the consequences

NEW 🚨 Britain's electoral laws are broken - but successive governments have done nothing

Musk's proposed $100million donation to Nigel Farage shows we are on the cusp of a real crisis for British democracy

But it can be fixed. Here's how, by me

democracyforsale.substack.com/p/musks-100m...

Just finished this magnificent tome on the history of the Amazon by John Hemming.

Struck by the VERY long tail of pressure that got us to 25% of Brazilian Amazon demarcated as indigenous territory today. It’s over 70 years since the Vilas Boas brothers proposed the Xingu Indigenous Reserve

Do forest conservation pledges work? (commentary) In late September 2014 a besuited and bearded Leonardo DiCaprio stood at the grey marble dais in the UN General Assembly in New York and declared somberly that world leaders had to ‘make history or be...

Did the decade old NewYork Declaration on Forests fail, or did it help galvanise action? Here I explore the role of forest pledges with campaigners and insiders
news.mongabay.com/2024/11/do-f...