A man harvesting wild honey. West Timor, Indonesia. Photo by: Nanang Sujana/CIFOR

2016 was an exciting year for Forests News, with the unveiling of a new website design to better showcase visual assets in the form of photo essays and interactive maps.

Topics covered on the site this year ran the gamut, from wild honey harvesting in West Timor, Indonesia, to the state of the world’s wetlands, as our editorial team covered the breadth of the forestry sector and explored its impact on human well-being, equity and the environment.

Below is a list of this year’s top features, based on page views from Forests News’ readers.

Happy Holidays from Forests News! Thank you for being a loyal reader, and we hope you will continue to read along in 2017.

1. Delving into the drivers of deforestation

Debates over forest loss generally focus on the extent to which industrial plantations are to blame: those in conservation charge them for the destruction of forests while companies argue that planting is done on already deforested land. Until now, there was a lack of information to distinguish “good” from “bad” plantations. A recent CIFOR study reviewed 400 satellite images of Borneo from 1973-2015 to make that distinction.

2. Wild honey harvest

A living tradition in West Timor brings sweet rewards for forests and the community. The annual honey harvest on this Indonesian island is important not only for the continuation of an ancient tradition, but also for community-based landscape management.

3. Living in a toxic haze

Peatland fires in Indonesia push scale-topping figures. Besides the cost of emissions and hectares burned, research is ongoing into the political economy of fire and haze, as well as the health impacts the fires present. In this photo essay, images captured during the peak of the 2015 crisis offer insights into the day-to-day reality for those who lived through the environmental crisis in Central Kalimantan and Eastern Riau.

4. A map of the world’s wetlands

Although wetlands are critical in the fight against climate change, not enough is known about where these ecosystems are located, or how much area they cover, especially in the tropics. To address this gap, CIFOR and partners launched an online interactive map.

5. Rural women across the globe: Linking livelihoods and landscapes

Discover this audio photo essay featuring female voices from around the world: a charcoal producer in Zambia, a timber producer in Ecuador and a swidden farmer in Indonesia. CIFOR’s Gender Coordinator Dr. Bimbika Sijapati Basnett comments on the progress and unique challenges for these women living and working in rural areas.