It might seem unlikely to have Greenpeace and Prince Charles working towards the same goals, but when it comes to preserving rainforests new alliances have been forged as the Prince has used his royal mojo to assemble world leaders, business dignitaries and NGOs to come up with a plan to halt tropical deforestation.

There are some alarming stories in the press today about how much of the Amazon rainforest will be lost due to climate change. According to a new report from the Met Office's Hadley Centre, up to 85 per cent of it will disappear if we see a 4C rise in global temperatures.

It's a nightmare scenario and on the face of it, it makes you wonder if we shouldn't just throw in the towel - I have to admit to the occasional dark thought along those lines myself. But on the contrary, information like this illustrates yet again how crucial it is that we address climate change and deforestation together, and do it now before we get locked in to huge temperature rises.

Katie is the latest contributor to our spring blog relay - catch up on entries from other Greenpeace staff.

Greenpeace is beholden to no government or corporation. Individual people are our only source of financial support. (Beholden - adjective. Obligated; indebted)

It occurred to me recently that the concept of being ‘beholden', or rather the absence of it, underpins the reason for my job at Greenpeace. But first, why is not being ‘beholden' so important to us?

I suppose, because it would be awkward, to say the least, to accept sponsorship from a company like Unilever, and then have to broach the small matter of their involvement in the destruction of the Indonesian rainforest last year. And imagine if we took just a small hand-out from the British government? It would then be rather embarrassing to have to mention that we really wished they wouldn't expand Heathrow airport and risk catastrophic climate change.

Eucalyptus plantations surround an area of rainforest in the Amazon: one of Daniel's winning images ©Greenpeace/Beltrá

Photographs illustrating the environmental problems we're facing provide one of the most powerful tools we have for our campaign work. Whether it's an image of the beauty that still remains or one of the havoc we humans so often create, sometimes one photo really can explain it all.

Tropical trees like these in the Democratic Republic of Congo are sucking up even more carbon than previously thought © Greenpeace/Davison

Amidst the financial crisis and the ever worsening data about the speed with which climate change is occurring, it was a nice change to get some good news last week: trees are getting bigger. And not just any trees, but the rainforest trees which are some of our biggest assets and allies in tackling climate change.

The good news comes from a team of scientists reporting on a 40-year study of African tropical forests which shows that, for at least the last few decades, each hectare of intact African forest has trapped an extra 0.6 tonnes of carbon per year.  

Indonesia: oil palm saplings are still replacing peatlands and rainforest

Cooking oil, chocolate, soap, washing powder, cosmetics and biofuels are just a few of the hundreds of products reliant on one key ingredient - palm oil. Demand for this versatile oil is rising rapidly. Today 80 per cent of world production comes from plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia. Palm oil is the leading cause of destruction in Indonesia, where it is spelling disaster for local communities, biodiversity, and climate change as palm plantations encroach further and further into rainforest and critical peatland areas.

These issues are meant to be addressed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the self-regulating industry body created in 2001 to develop sustainable solutions to palm oil production. To date, despite seven years of existence, no "sustainable" palm oil has entered the market place appearing in products of its members (who include household names like Boots and BP). But that's supposedly now about to change as the first certified palm oil shipment from Malaysia arrives this week in Rotterdam.

Jayapura (image by sandranahdar, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0)

As I write this, I'm sat in a hotel lobby looking out on to a market place where women are sat on the hard tarmac, blankets with tomatoes, lemongrass, onions and chillies spread out before them. Towering behind them is the incongruous bulk of the local KFC and, although there was torrential rain an hour ago, the streets are bone dry. That's because it's very very hot which is not surprising when you're a few degrees south of the equator.

We're going to be a bit short staffed on the blog over the next couple of months - Jamie has joined our ship the Esperanza in Indonesia to help document forest and peatland destruction and collect evidence about the palm oil companies that are driving the devastation.

We knew the government's plans on biofuels were a bit of a mess, but figures released today by the Renewable Fuel Agency show just how bad the situation is.

First off, the agency reports that 80 per cent of biofuels used in the UK don't meet government sustainability targets. In fact several companies, including BP and Esso, admitted that they didn't produce a single litre of biofuel that met the government's qualifying environmental standard.

Primary rainforest, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. © Davison/Greenpeace

Regular visitors to our website might have noticed that a few days ago, we launched a cyber action against the Italian company Ferrero, a major user of palm oil and maker of Nutella and Ferrero Rocher.

Well, we’re delighted to report that, before we even had the chance to email our supporters about it, we’ve had another success in the protection of Indonesia’s rainforests and peatlands - and of the threatened species that live there and, of course, the climate.