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An overwhelming majority of Europeans want new laws to ensure that the food they eat and the products they buy don’t drive global deforestation, according to a YouGov poll. Eighty-seven per cent of those polled across 25 EU countries agreed that legislation was necessary to protect forests. Ninety-one per cent also said they cared deeply about forests and agreed that deforestation is harmful for people and wildlife.

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A new strategy put forward by fossil fuel corporations to plant trees as ‘compensation’ for climate change is not only a greenwashing gimmick, but a dangerous tactic that could exacerbate the problems caused by fossil fuel exploitation.
Fossil fuel giants ENI (Italy) and Shell (the Netherlands) have announced reforestation programmes as compensation for carbon emissions, in a push to greenwash a corporate model that has caused widespread environmental devastation, land grabbing and the destruction of livelihoods. The two companies are responsible for environmental disasters and crimes as a result of their fossil fuel activities in Nigeria and many other places across the globe.

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In 2016 Greenpeace warned that the growing demand of avocados in the international markets was leading to large scale deforestation. Unfortunately Greenpeace were right, and  deforestation kept growing. 
Most of the country’s avocado is produced in the states of Michoacan, Jalisco and Mexico. In the past decade, the number of avocado orchards has multiplied (by tenfolds in the case of  Jalisco).  Global Forest Watch data shows that forest clearing to establish avocado plantations has pushed into the boundaries of the Monarch Butterfly santuary.

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The flames erupted in the attic of Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral on Monday, one of Europe’s great historical and architectural symbols. They toppled the 13th Century center spire in the process.The cathedral’s roof and the frame that supports it are gone. That will pose a particular challenge to efforts to rebuild the 856-year-old church. As the oak frame met its end, so too did remnants of Europe’s dwindling ancient forests.

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 On 16 March military forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) reportedly fired live bullets against protesters from the Bolombo and Wamba villages in the municipality of Mwingi, Tshopo Province. The two villages are located within the Lokutu oil palm concession of Canadian company Feronia. Tensions in the area have increased in recent months following an international complaint presented late last year by affected communities against Feronia over the alleged illegal occupation of their lands. Since the beginning of the year, nine communities have protested over unpaid or underpaid wages for local plantation workers, and demanded that the company return their lands.
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  4. USA: federal court dismisses racketeering counts against Greenpeace