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The report highlights the explosive growth of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), with an estimated 40.5 million direct workers in 2017. It examines the sector's critical role in global mineral supplies—including 20% of gold and 80% of sapphires—while detailing severe environmental and health risks, particularly from mercury use in gold mining. The document analyzes the tensions between ASM and large-scale mining (LSM), the limitations of current certification schemes, and the necessity of inclusive formalization processes that address the poverty-driven nature of the sector rather than focusing solely on entrepreneurs.

The assessment finds that the world is not on track to meet the 2020 milestone of halving natural forest loss. While net forest loss declined by 23 percent between 2010-15 compared to a 2000-10 baseline, gross tree-cover loss increased by an average of 35 percent between 2014 and 2016 relative to a 2001-13 baseline. Tropical deforestation emissions rose by 25 percent between 2014 and 2016 compared to the 2001-13 benchmark, with 2016 emissions peaking at 5 gigatons of Carbon Dioxide equivalent (Gt CO e). Significant drivers include agricultural expansion for palm oil in Southeast Asia and soy in Latin America, as well as severe droughts and wildfires caused by a strong El Niño event.

The report evaluates global progress in forest governance and land rights, noting a record 182 killings of environmental defenders in 2016. While it highlights positive developments in illegal timber import controls in countries like South Korea, Malaysia, and the US, and the implementation of EU FLEGT agreements in Indonesia and Vietnam, it warns that climate finance for local communities remains insufficient, with only 10 percent reaching the local level in 2016. The document also emphasizes the lack of gender-sensitive provisions in community-based tenure regimes and the ongoing effort to track tenure security via SDG Indicator 1.4.2.

The report evaluates global forest landscape restoration (FLR) ambitions by tracking pledges under the Bonn Challenge and commitments within Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted to the UNFCCC. While the 150 million hectare milestone for 2020 was surpassed in May 2017, actual implementation data remains scarce, with reported achievements representing less than 10 percent of the 2020 goal. The document also highlights the role of regional initiatives and new data tools like the Bonn Challenge Barometer and ROAM in improving monitoring and planning.

The assessment finds that while over USD 4.1 billion has been committed to results-based REDD+ payments, disbursements remain limited and concentrated, primarily in Brazil. It highlights the emergence of jurisdictional-sourcing initiatives across Asia, Latin America, and Africa as a promising mechanism to scale zero-deforestation commitments, though private resource flows remain small.

The SEforALL 2018 Workplan focuses on four primary workstreams: 'Energy Efficiency First', 'Leaving No One Behind', 'Sustainable Energy Diplomacy', and the 'Body of Evidence'. Key initiatives include the 'Cooling for All' program to protect vulnerable populations from heat, the development of energy efficiency finance accelerators, and the coordination of biomass data in Sub-Saharan Africa. The plan emphasizes unlocking finance and brokering partnerships through high-level engagement with the G7, G20, and the UN system. Additionally, the organization aims to enhance its evidence base through the Global Tracking Framework (GTF) and Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy (RISE), while utilizing the annual SEforALL Forum to connect government, business, and civil society leaders.

The document argues that communication and information poverty—characterized by lack of access to platforms, media misrepresentation, and low media literacy—undermines the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It specifically analyzes the intersections between communication rights and SDGs 5, 9, 16, and 17, while providing recommendations for a rights-based approach to communication. The report highlights the need to democratize media systems, increase digital media literacy, and address the specific needs of marginalized groups, particularly Indigenous peoples, which it claims are insufficiently addressed in Agenda 2030.

The Living Planet Report 2018 documents a severe global decline in biodiversity, highlighted by a 60% drop in vertebrate populations since 1970. It identifies overexploitation and agriculture, driven by runaway human consumption, as the primary threats. The report emphasizes that nature provides essential services worth approximately US$125 trillion annually and calls for an ambitious international agreement to 'bend the curve' of biodiversity loss through a roadmap of clear goals, measurable indicators, and transformative actions.

CIEL argues that the World Bank's Draft Guidance Notes for the ESF are 'severely lacking in substance' and often merely reiterate standards without providing actual implementation guidance. The submission provides specific recommendations across several standards, including labor conditions, pollution prevention, indigenous peoples' rights, and stakeholder engagement. Key demands include the integration of international conventions (such as ILO 169 and UNDRIP), the adoption of a 1.5-degree pathway for greenhouse gas accounting, and the explicit protection of human rights defenders against reprisals. CIEL also emphasizes that the World Bank must ensure Borrowers disclose the existence of the Inspection Panel to affected communities and that project-level grievance mechanisms must be independent, transparent, and rights-compatible.

Twenty-three major retailers and consumer goods companies, including Tesco and McDonald's, have called on soy and cattle agribusinesses to stop deforestation in Latin America, particularly in Brazil's Cerrado. Mighty Earth argues that with 500 million acres of degraded land available, native ecosystem destruction is unnecessary. The organization urges companies like Cargill and Bunge to expand their Amazon deforestation efforts to other regions and proposes a land-use change monitoring system for soy-growing areas costing between $750,000 and $1,000,000 to establish.

Mighty Earth and a coalition of environmental groups support the reduction of US biodiesel mandates, arguing that the fuel is not 'green' because it relies on virgin vegetable oils that drive deforestation in Latin America and Southeast Asia. The document highlights that biodiesel production contributes to carbon emissions and water pollution, such as the Gulf of Mexico's Dead Zone. While the EPA initially sought input on reducing mandates, the document notes that President Trump later intervened to reverse this course due to pressure from agricultural lobbying groups.

Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) declares its alliance with La Via Campesina (LVC) following the VII International Conference. The document highlights a shared commitment to food sovereignty, agroecology, and climate justice, while opposing corporate control of the commons and 'false solutions' to climate change. It presents declarations from the main conference, a women's assembly, and a youth assembly, all emphasizing the need for grassroots mobilization against patriarchy, imperialism, and financial capital to ensure the survival of 'Mother Earth'.

The report details various cases in Latin America where transnational corporations in mining, energy, agribusiness, and tobacco have violated human rights and caused environmental destruction. It highlights the 'architecture of impunity' created by bilateral investment treaties and the ICSID arbitration system, which allow companies to sue states over public interest policies. The document advocates for a binding international treaty and an independent international tribunal to ensure corporate accountability and the supremacy of human rights over commercial interests.

The report details cases of corporate abuse in Latin America, including mining disasters in Brazil, the assassination of environmental defenders in Mexico and Honduras, and legal battles over public health and water in Uruguay and Argentina. It argues that current international investment frameworks, such as the ICSID, protect corporate profits over human rights and national sovereignty. The authors call for a binding UN treaty to end corporate impunity and the establishment of an international tribunal to hold transnational companies accountable for environmental and social crimes.

The report finds that total 'green finance' for forest emissions reduction (roughly USD 20 billion since 2010) is insufficient and vastly outweighed by 'grey finance'—investments and subsidies that potentially drive deforestation—which totals USD 777 billion. While there is growth in impact investment and results-based REDD+ payments, the report argues that a dramatic shift away from traditional investments in deforestation drivers is required to achieve zero deforestation.

The document denounces the neoliberal capitalist system and the 'destructive practices' of transnational corporations as drivers of climate injustice and disaster severity in the Global South. It specifically highlights the impact of Hurricane Irma and earthquakes in Mexico, arguing that the most vulnerable are disproportionately affected. The statement rejects 'false solutions' such as the financialization of nature and REDD, instead advocating for 'people’s solutions' including food sovereignty, agroecology, and energy sovereignty to preserve life and manage the commons.

Friends of the Earth International is demanding the end of prosecution for students from the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH), including Yunior Oyuela of Movimiento Madre Tierra/Friends of the Earth Honduras, who are scheduled for trial on 25 September for peaceful protest. The organization is urging global solidarity and communications to Honduran institutions to secure the freedom of those persecuted for defending the commons and territories.

The document outlines the financial and environmental modeling for a proposed USD 100 million equity fund designed to scale up renewable energy projects. It details the use of an option mechanism to make early-stage development more attractive to investors, projecting that public finance could mobilize significant private capital and abate substantial CO2 emissions. It also compares RESF to various other clean energy funds and technical assistance initiatives across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The document discusses the importance of becoming a 'learning organisation' to address the complex, non-linear challenges of integrating climate change into development action. It draws on the experience of the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) to provide models and frameworks for organisational learning, noting that CDKN generates knowledge across Asia, Africa, and Latin America through research, technical assistance, and communications.

Friends of the Earth Latin America and the Caribbean (ATALC) condemns attacks against COPINH leaders Berta Zúñiga, Sotero Chavarría, and Asunción Martínez in Honduras. The statement links these threats to an 'extractivist model' and 'water privatization strategies' often masked as development or purification projects, specifically citing the role of USAID in generating community confrontations. ATALC calls for the Honduran government to protect indigenous and peasant defenders and urges the international community to monitor the situation to ensure social and environmental justice.