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New policy brief: How agricultural commodity trader responses can influence the effectiveness of the new EU deforestation proposal  

Have you ever thought about how the consumption of some of our favourite products can be linked to deforestation? Or how political decisions and policies can influence such linkages? The EU consumes significant amounts of products made from agricultural commodities, such as cocoa, palm oil, and soy, and the related agricultural expansion of these commodities causes vast forest loss in countries of production in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. Various trading companies operate supply chains across the globe and move the products to Europe for our consumption, making them important actors in controlling forest loss linked to agricultural products. In the coming years, new EU regulations will set increased obligations for traders in order to reduce EU market-driven forest loss. However, it is not sure how traders will react to the new regulations and how their decisions could influence the impact of the EU regulation to limit EU market-driven deforestation. 

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Exploring the world of investigative journalism: Some takeaways from the panel session at the International Forest Policy Meeting (#IFPM4) 

From wildfires to deforestation in the tropics, journalism brings various forest-related issues to the public attention. Yet, one of the main concerns from the scientific communities is the issue of ‘speed over accuracy’, where many news journalists fail to report complex topics without providing contextual background. Particularly in the digital age, when the speed of news is faster than ever before, there is even more pressure on today’s news industry to report forest-related issues in a timely and accurate manner.  

The good news is that there is a wide variety of journalism practices that take serious consideration of the process for inquiry. In particular, investigative journalists take a unique approach to exploring the issues in depth before jumping to a quick conclusion. Many investigative journalists spend years following a single issue by working closely with scientific experts and mastering the skills to wrangle complex (and often unstructured) data to identify the links that no one has ever addressed in the news. 

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How to create a new European science-policy-society interface for forests and forestry? Uncomfortable knowledge might help

Are scientists and policymakers getting too comfortable when generating and applying forest-related data and knowledge? What conditions can take them out of their comfort zones to generate more interdisciplinary research and policies that are both legitimate and representative? The politics of knowledge around forests was a topic of heated debate at this year’s International Forest Policy Meeting (27-29 April 2022), with the session on “Science-Policy-Society interactions within Europe ending with a provocative call for the production and use of so-called “uncomfortable knowledge”.

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Do we need a new science-policy interface for forests and forestry? Invitation to join the panel at #IFPM4

Policy makers have stressed the need for reliable and timely information and data from science to better understand the role of forests in climate change, and there have been ongoing discussions…

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What does social media engagement around the Amazon rainforest fires tell us about public narratives? – Takeaways from our analysis

During the months of August and September 2019, the Amazon rainforest fires captured global attention. Celebrities, politicians and other public figures spoke up and shared…

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Growing the community of forest policy, media and science 

Registration for the International Forest Policy Meeting open (27-29th April 2022)! 

We are excited and pleased to open the registration for the 4th International Forest Policy Meeting (IFPM4). To enhance scientific exchange and strengthen the forest research networks, the European Forest Institute (EFI), EFI’s Forest Policy Research Network coordinated by the University of Life Sciences in Vienna (BOKU) and Wageningen University and Research, organise three lively days dedicated to the forest policy and governance research with a special focus on forest policy-media-science interface. Moreover, IFPM4 is a platform for early-career and experienced scientists working in forest policy and governance to present, discuss and inform on the latest research. This year, we decided to shed light to the increasingly relevant role that media play in communicating scientific findings and science-informed decision-making. The event will feature different thematic sessions including, keynotes, round tables, graphic recordings, panels and plenary debate, young researchers’ competitions and oral presentations involving experts from all over the world. 

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Cracking complexity: How we helped the media explore the link between finance, supply chain and deforestation 

For almost five years, EFI has been actively engaging with media from all around the world to help them explore complex issues related to European and global forests. Under the Lookout Station, a science-media capacity-building initiative, we’ve trained more than 320 editors and journalists through 12 workshops and masterclasses organised in-person and online. Our focus has always been on building a bridge between science and media by offering free training and open platforms to engage with experts. We’ve taken this approach because we believe in making long-term impacts at the individual and an editorial level instead of merely generating immediate media reporting.  

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