Some very controversial news from Brazil this week with the approval of legislation that eases rules on how much tropical forest farmers need to preserve. For the full story, click here. The bill now goes to the President who can sanction it, veto it or partially veto it. What do you think she should do?

Some great work has been put into place over the last few years to slow the rate of deforestation in the Amazon. Could…

Over a hundred eager people entered the Together For Trees Rainforest Reporter competition for the chance to win a once-in-a-lifetime trip to one of the rainforests that we're helping to protect and restore.

Having pored over the application forms, we managed to whittle them down to 25 contestants to go through to the regional heats. Here the wannabe rainforest reporters had to complete three challenges, set to test…

Guest blogger: Dr. Dieter Hoffmann, RSPB Head of International Country Programmes

I have been involved in Harapan Rainforest since the beginning in 2001 and know the site well. Unfortunately, my most recent visit to Harapan Rainforest was not quite so enjoyable. It all started with some satellite images we’ve been receiving over the last few months.

We’ve been working on the ground in Harapan Rainforest with our…

The Easter holidays start today and knowing the Great British weather, it could very well be a wet one!

Don’t worry though, we’ve got plenty of great rainforest themed kids’ activities available online for the whole family to enjoy. Check out our kids’ pages and the Together For Trees kids’ pages for plenty of stuff to keep your little monkeys busy.

Just make sure you’ve got FSC or recycled…

The crested guinea fowl in Gola Rainforest.

which is excuse enough for more cute photos from Gola Rainforest. This week's treat - a pangolin working it for one of our camera traps

There's just something about chocolate. Even those of us who can’t eat it find it difficult to resist. And at the moment the shops are full of the stuff! As soon as the Christmas rush was over, the signs of Easter egg madness started to make their way onto the shelves.

If, like me, you haven’t bought your Easter treats yet, just stop and think for a second. Whilst chocolate is super tasty, it can also be really…

There's something hiding in this photo. Can you spot it?

The search is still on for the first ever Rainforest Reporter. As part of our new partnership with Tesco, Together For Trees, we’re offering a once in a lifetime opportunity for someone with a passion for conservation and a flair for storytelling to go to one of the amazing rainforest projects that we work on.

The winner will not only receive an amazing trip, but they’ll also get a day's pre-trip training with adventurer…

Mums are special people. They’re there for you when you need them. They make you feel better whenever you’re feeling down. They can find stuff in an instant that you’ve been looking for all morning. They take care of you, even when you’re big enough to take care of yourself.

Rainforests are special too. They take care of the planet. They’re home to around 6 million species. They support 

What did you want to be when you grew up? For me there were various options – I wanted to be a vet, until I realised that I’m really squeamish and can’t stand the sight of blood. Then I wanted to be a pop star (as a lot of children do) until I realised that singing was not my strong suit. But I’ve never really stopped wanting to be Michaela Strachan.

And it’s not only because she’s the best part…

Have you ever had a problem so big that you couldn’t solve it by yourself and it takes a team effort to get the job done? A tricky homework question that it takes the entire family to help solve, trying to catch your pet once they’ve realised that they’re about to take a trip to the vet, getting the kids up, dressed, fed and out the door on time. Well that’s how we feel about deforestation.

Deforestation…

It's half term for a lot of schools around the country this week, which means a much quicker journey into work for me and it sees some of our colleagues from our International team taking star turns on Martin Harper's blog. Today Jeremy Lindsell is in the hot seat, sharing what's it's like to work out in the Gola Rainforest in Sierra Leone and telling us about the amazing things you can learn from poo!

Next Tuesday (that’s the Tuesday coming for those of you who are prone to forgetfulness) sees the annual ritual of Valentine’s Day. The exchanging of cards and gifts, the grand (and small) gestures, the general outpouring of love and affection.

But this year we want you to think about a new ritual and it’s one you can use all year round, from Valentine’s Day to Mother’s Day, Christmas to birthdays.…

We were lucky enough to get a healthy dumping of snow over the weekend. Whilst I defrosted from a good old stomp through the white stuff with a cup of tea, I surveyed the footprints we’d left behind in the garden on our way back in. You could see exactly where we’d been, which bits had been left untouched and it got me thinking about the footprints we leave that aren’t so easily spotted. Our actions and choices leave…

Harapan Rainforest's friends in Singapore, The Tree Shirt House, have created a great tee shirt in support of pangolin conservation at Harapan Rainforest: http://www.thetreeshirthouse.com/product/mens-pangolin-t-shirt

They have also written beautifully about the plight of "the walking artichokes", despite their "badass soldier look".

Check out the website, buy the tee shirt and spread the word…

I love a good biscuit. I’m traditional when it comes to my choices though and I love nothing better than a digestive, hobnob or ginger nut. I’m even proud to admit that yes, I do dunk! So imagine my horror when, during a conversation with our tropical commodities guru the other day, it came out that biscuits are one of the worst culprits when it comes to palm oil. It’s hard to believe that something so small could do…

I’m currently working my way through my bookcase, reading all the books I have had since childhood that I haven’t quite gotten round to reading. In the last few months I’ve ticked off The Diary of Anne Frank, Little Women and Jane Eyre. Surrounded by the books that have been my faithful companions for the last decade or so, I started thinking about other favourite things from when I was a kid. One of…

Last month saw NGOS, government officials and industry reps from all around the world descend on Durban in South Africa to take part in the UN climate negotiations. Up for discussion was the topic of saving tropical forests to help in the fight against climate change and to find out more about the outcome of those discussions click here.

The negotiations lasted 12 days and in that time our team on the ground planted…

It was 11 years ago that the RSPB started looking for suitable sites for our first flagship rainforest project. We finally settled on a site in Indonesia, which is now known as Harapan Rainforest. Harapan means hope in Indonesian and the project really has been a beacon on hope in many ways. The project has protected an area of tropical rainforest two thirds the size of Greater London, helping protect the homes of some…

Tropical rainforests are amazing. Not only are they home to millions of species of plants and animals, support over a billion of the world’s poorest people, and provide us with water, food and medicines, but they are also one of our key tools in the fight against climate change.

Tropical rainforests act as carbon stores, taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and locking the carbon up. It’s estimated that…

Our friends over at WWF launched their palm oil score card back in November. Major retailers and consumer goods manufacturers were scored on four areas  to provide an insight into whether they are acting responsibly in terms of palm oil use and sourcing.

The top mark on the score card was 9 and four of our major supermarkets managed to get the top score, proving that even companies who deal with large amounts of palm…

Deforestation is a huge problem and we know it’s not one we can solve overnight. We’ve set ourselves a target of halting deforestation within the next  8 years to fit in with the world’s timescales to halt the loss of biodiversity.

We also know that we can’t solve the problem alone. That’s why we’re calling on organisations, businesses and governments to protect those areas that are left and we need…

When people think of the RSPB they wouldn’t normally think of tropical rainforests, but we’ve actually been working to protect these amazing places for more than 20 years.

We’re now working with partners in 7 different countries – Indonesia, Sierra Leone, Montserrat, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Thailand – to protect over 238,000 ha of tropical rainforest (that’s an area twice the size of New York…

When people think of the products they buy that could contribute to deforestation, your mind would logically go to paper and wood products. But did you know that there’s other products lurking on the shelves that help drive deforestation?

Palm oil, soy, cocoa, coffee, chicken and beef are just 6 such products that can have negative effects on tropical forests. In the case of the first four items, areas of forest…