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Forests digest ·
A study reports that unconditional payments to Indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon helped protect rainforest, while three Singapore banks restate strict standards on open burning and deforestation.
Today's reports suggest forests are protected both by paying the people who live in them and by cutting off the money that funds their destruction.
According to the report, a pioneering scheme gave Indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon an unconditional basic income, and a study found it contributed to protecting the rainforest. Researchers say almost 90% of participants adopted environmentally beneficial practices. The analysis, from the University of Bath, is expected to feed a growing debate about direct payments to communities that maintain globally important ecosystems.
It points to a direct link between supporting the people who live in a forest and keeping that forest intact.
Source: The Guardian — Giving £2 a day to people in the Amazon helps protect rainforest, pilot project finds · Oct 20, 2026
The report says DBS, OCBC and UOB may curb financing for companies involved in open burning and deforestation. The three banks reiterated strict sustainability standards for their clients. This comes as scrutiny intensifies over the haze crisis, according to the report.
Where finance is withdrawn from burning and clearing, the economic incentive to destroy forest weakens.
Source: The Business Times — Singapore banks may curb financing of firms in ‘zero-tolerance’ approach to open burning, deforestation · Oct 20, 2026
A second report carries the same account: Singapore's DBS, OCBC and UOB may restrict financing of firms linked to open burning and deforestation. Both reports describe the banks restating strict sustainability standards for clients. Both also tie the move to intensifying scrutiny over the haze crisis.
Repeated coverage of the same commitment shows how closely lenders' forest policies are now being watched.
Source: The Business Times — S’pore banks may curb financing of firms in ‘zero-tolerance’ approach to open burning, deforestation · Oct 20, 2026
Forests survive when people and institutions choose, deliberately, to protect them. If today's reports move you, take one concrete step: make a pledge to plant a tree on the REFOREST pledge page. $REFOREST, which has launched, is built around a simple idea — when members hit a take-profit milestone they publicly pledge trees, and every planted tree is verified by three community members before entering the public registry, which currently holds 0 verified trees. This is not advice to buy anything; it is an invitation to plant something.