JAVA — Indonesia. Throughout the misty mountains of central Java, the call of the Javan gibbon (Hylobates moloch) once echoed throughout the forest. Today, their voices are fading. Java is one of the most densely populated regions on Earth, and decades of logging, agriculture and infrastructure development have fragmented the forest, while rampant hunting and the illegal pet trade have also taken their toll.With only an estimated 4,000 Javan gibbons left in the wild, they are now listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List. Many of the remaining populations have been left stranded in disconnected patches of forest, unable to move without uninterrupted canopy cover. Conservationists warn this isolation…

The stark and austere landscape of Iceland is iconic and one of the most noticeable traits is a lack of trees. The Icelandic ecosystem is classified as one of the most degraded in Europe, having experienced one of the worst cases of deforestation in the world. When viking settlers first arrived in Iceland, the land was covered in birch forest. But after hundreds of years of sheep-grazing, soil erosion and eruptions, Iceland was left with just 0.5% forest cover and a big problem: how do you grow trees in one of Europe’s largest deserts? Gabrielle Lawrence heads to the remote corners of south Iceland to meet Samson Harðarson and Hrefna…