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Greenpeace lifts pig iron ship blockade in Brazil mongabay.com (05/25/2012)  Actress Q'orianka Kilcher climbs from a makeshift platform on the anchor chain of the "Clipper Hope" cargo ship and returns to the Greenpeace ship "Rainbow Warrior" near the port of São Luis do Maranhão, Brazil. The day protest is currently stopping the ship from loading pig iron which is a key ingredient in the steel making process. Greenpeace research has linked pig iron to deforestation, abusive labor practices and the invasion of indigenous land. The steel is eventually bought by major car companies including Ford, GM, BMW and Mercedes. Image courtesy of Greenpeace.
{%include 'languages/english/includes/2011ads'%} Greenpeace suspended its blockade of a pig iron shipment in the Brazil after industry representatives and authorities agreed to meet to resolve issues raised in a recent report by the activist group. According to Greenpeace, Sarney Filho, the President of the environmental commission of the Chamber of Deputies, is currently meeting with representatives from the pig iron industry to discuss charges that pig iron producers are associated with deforestation and abusive labor practices in the Brazilian Amazon. Representatives from the Federal Prosecutor, Ibama, Imazon and Greenpeace are also attending, according to the group. “We are giving time so that the politicians and the pig iron industry can act. But we will remain here, waiting for concrete results”, says Paulo Adario. “The pig iron companies that buy charcoal from the Amazon must act. They need to have a traceable system that make sure that their charcoal suppliers are not involved with environmental or labor crimes.” For ten days Greenpeace activists, including actress Q’orianka Kilcher of The New World and Princess Kaiulani fame, have blocked the loading of a shipment of pig iron in Sao Luis, Brazil. Greenpeace is calling upon pig iron producers to implement measures to demonstrate their supply chain is free of deforestation and abusive labor practices. It is asking eucalyptus plantations that fuel pig iron production to commit to a deforestation-free policy and adopt free, prior and informed consent in dealing with local communities. {% include 'languages/english/includes/2011comments' %}
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Rangers now allowed to shoot tiger poachers on sight in Indian state mongabay.com (05/25/2012) {%include 'languages/english/includes/2011ads'%} In the wake of a surge in tiger poaching, the state government of Maharashtra, India will no longer consider the shooting of wildlife poachers by forest rangers a crime, reports the Associated Press. Rangers will not should not be "booked for human rights violations when they have taken action against poachers," said Maharashtra Forest Minister Patangrao Kadam this week. Authorities will also offer payments to informants who provide information about wildlife poachers and smugglers. The number of rangers and jeeps in the forest will also be increased.
The shoot-on-sight order is not the first in India. Assam has a similar provision, which some credit for the decline in poaching of one-horned rhinos. No tiger poacher has ever been shot in Maharashtra, although illegal loggers and fishermen have been shot, leading to charges against rangers. Tiger poaching in India is driven by demand for tiger parts in the market for traditional Chinese medicine. {% include 'languages/english/includes/2011comments' %}
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Cute animal pictures of the day: silvery marmosets run free in zoo Jeremy Hance mongabay.com (05/24/2012) {%include 'languages/english/includes/pod'%}  Silvery marmoset. Photo courtesy of ZSL. The Zoological Society of London's (ZSL) Whipsnade Zoo is allowing its seven silvery marmosets (Mico argentatus) to roam the 600 acre facility freely. "It’s a whole new world for them—they are free to go wherever they like and are enjoying themselves foraging," senior keeper, Steve Perry, said in a press release. "They don’t normally venture too far—they’ve been seen in the trees and playing on their rope branches and a couple have been spotted on the picnic lawn. At the end of each day we ring a bell and they come back in for food, which includes fresh fruit and vegetables." Silvery marmosets are native to the Brazilian Amazon. They are listed as Least Concern by the IUCN though their populations are declining due to deforestation.  Silvery marmoset. Photo courtesy of ZSL.  Silvery marmoset. Photo courtesy of ZSL.  Silvery marmoset. Photo courtesy of ZSL.  Silvery marmoset. Photo courtesy of ZSL. Nearly 2,000 fish species traded in U.S. tropical aquarium market Jeremy Hance mongabay.com (05/24/2012) {%include 'languages/english/includes/2011ads'%} The U.S. tropical aquarium market poses problems and opportunities for conservation, according to a landmark study published in the open-access journal PLoS ONE. The study reviewed import records in the U.S. for one year (2004-2005) and found that over 11 million wild tropical fish from 1,802 species were imported from 40 different countries. While the number of fish species targeted surprised researchers, the total amount of fish imported was actually less than expected. "Coral reefs globally are already under tremendous stress from climate change, habitat destruction and pollution. Poor harvest practices of tropical fish for the home aquarium trade can add to that decline, yet when done right, it can help counter those effects provided the economic benefits of long term sustainability are met locally," co-author Michael Tlusty, director of research at the New England Aquarium, said in a press release. Still, concerns remain about overharvesting, damaging harvesting practices, the spread of disease, and invasive species. The top three nations trading to the U.S. were Indonesia, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. "There is a delicate balance between the global demand for aquarium fish, and its environmental and economic impacts," lead author Andrew Rhyne, with Roger Williams University and the New England Aquarium, said. "Without mechanisms in place designed specifically to monitor the aquarium fish trade, we will never have a keen understanding of how it impacts our oceans and the global economy." The researchers call for a change in how wildlife imported data is reported in the U.S., including urging a real time system which they argue fix many of the problems in the current system. The researchers also note that a rise of interest in tropical aquariums could lead to rising awareness on the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions, which are imperiling the world's coral reefs through ocean acidification and climate change. CITATION: Rhyne AL, Tlusty MF, Schofield PJ, Kaufman L, Morris JA Jr, et al. (2012) Revealing the Appetite of the Marine Aquarium Fish Trade: The Volume and Biodiversity of Fish Imported into the United States. PLoS ONE 7(5): e35808. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0035808 {% include 'languages/english/includes/2011comments' %}
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New Google Earth tool maps deforestation, threatened forests in Sumatra mongabay.com (05/24/2012)  The new Sumatra map. Click image to visit the interactive version of the map.
{%include 'languages/english/includes/2011ads'%} The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and a coalition of Indonesian environmental groups known as Eyes on the Forest have released a new Google Earth-based tool (maps.eyesontheforest.or.id)that maps forests, land use, carbon stocks, and biodiversity across the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The project is based on a database compiled by experts working on the ground in Sumatra. It aims to boost transparency around land use in Sumatra, which has lost roughly half of its forests since 1985 due to agricultural expansion, mining, pulp and paper development, and oil palm plantations. Forest loss in Sumatra has put a number of charismatic animal species elephants, rhinos, tigers and orangutans — at risk and released massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. “This project is a step forward for Eyes on the Forest as it is a powerful tool to open windows to the world about the devastating destruction happening to forests, particularly on Sumatra Island,” said Muslim Rasyid, Chairman of Jikalahari, a member of the Eyes on the Forest coalition. “We hope that Google will keep updating its satellite imagery library so the world can see the facts of the devastating destruction on Sumatra, who is doing it, and where those forest products end up. Furthermore, we can show this map to decision makers and urge them to protect the remaining natural forests of Sumatra.”  Close-up on the map. Dark green shows 2009 forest cover, while light green reflects deforestation since 1985. Click image to visit the interactive version of the map.
“As a grant recipient, Eyes on the Forest can use the cloud-based Google Maps Engine platform to share its forest data with anyone,” said Tanya Birch, Program Manager for Google Earth Outreach. “Non-profit organizations can simply and easily create custom maps that help their data visually come to life by layering that information on top of Google Earth and Maps.” {% include 'languages/english/includes/2011comments' %}
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Less than 100 pygmy sloths survive Jeremy Hance mongabay.com (05/24/2012)  The three-toed pygmy sloth. Photo © Craig Turner/ZSL. {%include 'languages/english/includes/2011ads'%} The pygmy three-toed sloth (Bradypus pygmaeus) is one of the world's most endangered mammals, according to the first ever formal survey of the population, which found less than 100 sloths hanging on in their island home. Only described by researchers in 2001, the pygmy sloth lives on a single uninhabited island off the coast of Panama. But human impacts, such as deforestation of the island's mangroves, may be pushing the species to extinction. "Very little is known about this species," explains David Curnick with the Zoological Society of London (ZSl). "We've collected data for the first time to get an accurate picture of how many pygmy sloths are left in the world." In the past, researchers have estimated that between 300-500 sloths survive on the 3.4 square kilometer island, but Curnick along with fellow ZSL researcher Craig Turner found that those numbers were optimistic.
As the world's smallest sloth, pygmy sloths are 40 percent the size of their mainland relatives. They are also the world's slowest sloth. Having been marooned from mainland Central America for 9,000 years on tiny Escudo Island, the sloths are unusually docile and completely unafraid of humans. As one sloth researcher, Bryson Voirin, told mongabay.com in 2010, "When they see me they have no clue what to think. They must just think I am some big, very strange sloth coming to say hello." The sloths stick to the island's mangrove forests, moving up and down the trees depending on the temperature. Higher up to catch the sun on cool days, and lower down to rest in the shadows. "The mangrove forests are relatively hard to penetrate, and from a sloth's perspective they provide protection from aerial predators. We noticed that pygmy sloth mothers carrying young would remain low in trees, which may be an evolutionary hangover for predator evasion," Turner said. Natural predators of the sloths possibly may include native snakes and raptors targeting the babies. Conservation next  More pygmy sloth. Photo © Craig Turner/ZSL. Now that researchers know around how many sloths remain, the next step is to draft a conservation plan, which ZSL is currently raising funds for. There is no consensus as to why the sloths are in decline, but it's possible tourism, hunting, the deforestation of mangroves, or combination of these is having a disastrous impact. As of 2009, the entirety of Escuda Island was deemed a protected area, but it is also a common stopover for local fishermen who sometimes bring families and even dogs. While exploring the island, Curnick and Turner found mangrove forests that had been cut down—probably by the local fishermen for charcoal. "[Reforestation] is an option we hope to explore with the view to potentially develop a local community reforestation pilot project. However, there are areas of cleared mangroves already showing small signs of regeneration so it may be a case of buying them some time to establish themselves," Curnick told mongabay.com.
One of the key components to saving the sloths will be building a coalition devoted to the species long-term survival. "I would like to see better engagement with the local communities and stakeholders and the development of local environmental management plan. This is a process we have already started and hope to develop this aspect of the project over the remainder of this year. We are also seeking funding to support a local Panamanian conservationist to take this, and other areas forward, through the EDGE Fellowship program," explains Curnick. One last-ditch option would be removing some sloths from the island for captive breeding. But Curnick warns this could prove difficult and risky. "As a family, three-toed sloths are notoriously hard to keep in captivity let alone breed and I imagine the pygmy sloths will only be more difficult," he says. "There are a couple of institutions interested in exploring this further but, as it stands, we know so little about their underlying ecology and biology that it isn’t an option in the short term." The three-toed pygmy sloth is not the only imperiled biological wonder of Escuda Island. The island is also home to its own species of bat and salamander: the neotropical fruit bat (Artibeus incomitatus) and the maritime worm salamander (Oedipina maritima), which is number 74 in the EDGE Top 100 Amphibian's list. Like the pygmy sloth, both of these species are listed as Critically Endangered. "We only had a limited period on the island and had to focus much of this on sloth and mangrove surveys. We did have time to conduct a number of bat surveys but, although we found four species, none of these were the endemic. In terms of the salamander, we didn’t have time to survey this time around but I would say it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack as they live in the jungle leaf litter," says Curnick. "We are exploring options with Panamanian collaborators to conduct a wider ecological assessment of the island which would include these and other species." The maritime worm salamander (Oedipina maritima) is number 74 in the EDGE Top 100 Amphibian's list. The species is only known from eight individuals.  David Curnick with the world's smallest sloth. Photo © Craig Turner/ZSL.  Pygmy sloth. Photo © Craig Turner/ZSL. View Larger Map {% include 'languages/english/includes/2011comments' %}
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KFC linked to destruction of Indonesia's rainforests mongabay.com (05/23/2012)  Forest clearing in the Bukit Tigapuluh Forest Landscape in central Sumatra. Courtesy of Greenpeace.
{%include 'languages/english/includes/2011ads'%} Fast food giant Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is linked to the destruction of Indonesia's rainforests through its packaging sourcing practices, alleges a new report published today by Greenpeace. An investigation by the environmental activist group found traces of mixed tropical hardwood fiber (MTH) in KFC's drink cups, food boxes, napkins and chicken buckets. The fiber comes from Asia Pulp & Paper, a paper products giant that continues to rely on conversion of Indonesian rainforests for pulp and paper production. "KFC is the latest big brand to be caught trashing rainforests and pushing endangered animals, like the Sumatran tiger, towards extinction," said Bustar Maitar, head of Greenpeace's Indonesia campaign, in a press release. "KFC customers worldwide will be horrified to learn that packaging destined for the trash comes from trashed rainforests." Greenpeace's latest report was accompanied by a colorful protest at KFC's headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky and Youtube videos. Greenpeace found that some packaging products contain more than 50 percent rainforest fiber. The group notes that neither KFC nor its parent company Yum! Brands have "safeguards in place to prevent products from deforestation entering their supply chains." It isn't the first time KFC has been criticized for its fiber sourcing practices. Campaigners — including Cole Rasenberger, a pre-teen activist — have targeted the company for using packaging from endangered forests in the United States.
In an effort to stem the bleeding, APP recently announced a temporary freeze on clearing of natural forests until conservation assessments are done. But the move falls short in the view of environmentalists — it only applies to about a million hectares of concessions directly owned by APP. The paper giant's suppliers, which have a land bank of 1.5 million hectares of forest according to The Wall Street Journal, aren't asked to come into compliance until 2015. APP has missed three earlier targets — 2004, 2007, and 2009 — for phasing out sourcing from natural forests. Greenpeace says it will continue to pressure APP's customers until the forest products giant meaningfully reforms. It cites APP's sister company, Golden Agri Resources (GAR), a palm oil giant, as a potential model. After being targeted by Greenpeace, in 2011 GAR established a forest policy that prohibits conversion of land with more than 35 tons of carbon per hectare, effectively sparing rainforests and peatlands. The policy also requires free, prior informed consent in deadling with local communities. The policy has helped restore GAR's reputation among its international customers. KFC has not replied to multiple requests for comment on its forest policies. {% include 'languages/english/includes/2011comments' %}
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Blue tarantula, walking cactus, and a worm from Hell: the top 10 new species of 2011 Jeremy Hance mongabay.com (05/23/2012)  Sazima's tarantula: one of the top ten new species discovered in 2011 according to the annual list by the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University. Photo by: Caroline S. Fukushima. {%include 'languages/english/includes/2011ads'%} A sneezing monkey, a blue tarantula, and an extinct walking cactus are just three of the remarkable new species listed in the annual Top Ten New Species put together by the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University. This year's list includes a wide-variety of life forms from fungi to flower and invertebrate to primate. "The top 10 is intended to bring attention to the biodiversity crisis and the unsung species explorers and museums who continue a 250-year tradition of discovering and describing the millions of kinds of plants, animals and microbes with whom we share this planet," explains Quentin Wheeler, an entomologist who directs the International Institute for Species Exploration. The list is released every year on May 23rd to commemorate Carolus Linnaeus, the father of taxonomy. Top Ten New Species of 2011 in Photos and Video  This mysterious primate (seen here in a reconstruction) not only made headlines last year, but continues to do so as a population of the believed to be Critically Endangered species was recently found in China. The new monkey, the Myanmar snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus strykeri), was discovered byway of a carcass killed by a local hunter. Since then camera trap photos and video have been taken of the species. They are reportedly easy to hunt as locals say their up-turned noses cause them to sneeze in the rain. Researchers believe only a few hundred survive. Photo reconstruction credit: Thomas Geissmann/Fauna & Flora International. (See video at the end of the article.)  This new jellyfish was named by high school teacher Lisa Peck for what she believed divers must say when they first see the beautiful animal: 'Oh Boy', hence: Tamoya ohboya. It is also called the Bonaire banded box jelly because it was spotted near the island of Bonaire in the Caribbean. The new jellyfish is venomous. Photo by: Ned Deloach. (See video at the end of the article.)  Hell has a new member: Halicephalobus mephisto. This super tiny (0.5 millimeter) nematode was discovered nearly a mile (1.3 kilometers) beneath the Earth's surface in a South African gold mine. Named after Mephistopheles, the demon character in Faust, the species has adapted to incredible underground pressures and had not had contact with the atmosphere for up to 6,000 years. This is a photo of the face of the nematode taken under scanning electron microscope. Photo by: A. G. Borgonie, Ghent University, Belgium.  This is the world's only known night-blooming orchid. Discovered in Papua New Guinea, this orchid open from 10 PM to early morning. It is named Bulbophyllum nocturnum, which means "at night". Photo by: Jaap Vermeulen.  This tiny wasp dive bombs ants from above, laying its eggs on the unsuspecting ants in less than 1/20 of a second even though the ants are giants to it. Named, Kollasmosoma sentum, it was discovered in Madrid, Spain. Photo by: C. van Achterberg. (See video at the end of the article.)  Named after the popular kids cartoon character this fungi is called the SpongBob Squarepants mushroom (Spongiforma squarepantsii). Discovered in Malaysian Borneo, this mushroom resembles the sea sponge and when squeezed will spring back to its original form. Photo by: Thomas Bruns.  This high-living poppy probably went unnoticed by scientists for so long because it lives above 3,290 meters (10,800 feet) in the wilds of Nepal. It is named Meconopsis autumnalis, because it flowers in the autumn. Photo by: Paul Egan.  If you want to picture this species in real life: think of a sausage. Named the "wandering leg sausage" (Crurifarcimen vagans), this is now the world's largest millipede. Discovered in the species-rich Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania the new millipede is 16 centimeters (over six inches) long. Photo by: G. Brovad.  Belonging to an extinct group of little-known animals called the Lobopodia, this fossil species was given the name walking cactus (Diania cactiformis) for its resemblance to imagined trotting cacti. Discovered in China, the species was alive during the Cambrian, an incredible 520 million years ago. Reconstruction by: Jianni Li.  Amazingly this is the first new species from Brazil to make this list. Sazima's tarantula (Pterinopelma sazimai), which is stunningly blue, is found on a single flattop mountain in the mega-biodiverse country. Photo by: Caroline S. Fukushima. {% include 'languages/english/includes/2011comments' %}
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Island bat goes extinct after Australian officials hesitate Jeremy Hance mongabay.com (05/23/2012)  Now extinct: the Christmas Island pipistrelle. Photo by: Lindy Lumsden. {%include 'languages/english/includes/2011ads'%} Nights on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean will never again be the same. The last echolocation call of a tiny bat native to the island, the Christmas Island pipistrelle (Pipistrellus murrayi), was recorded on August 26th 2009, and since then there has been only silence. Perhaps even more alarming is that nothing was done to save the species. According to a new paper in Conservation Letters the bat was lost to extinction while Australian government officials equivocated and delayed action even though they were warned repeatedly that the situation was dire. The Christmas Island pipistrelle is the first mammal to be confirmed extinct in Australia in 50 years. Weighing less than a U.S. nickel, the Christmas Island pipistrelle fed on insects and roosted in tree hollows and decaying vegetation. Just a few decades ago, the bat was widespread on Christmas Island and roosted in groups of 50 or so animals. "It is estimated that a single pipistrelle consumes its body weight in insects per night," Tara Martin lead author with Australia's national science agency, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), told mongabay.com. "While the loss of the pipistrelle is likely to lead to more insects, it is too early to tell what the long term ecological impact of this will be on the island." A view to extinction Once abundant, after the mid-1980s the situation for the Christmas Island pipistrelle took a sudden turn for the worst. Its population began to drop off while the bat vanished from much of its former range. Between 1994 to 2006, the population fell by over 80 percent. In January 2009 an expedition found only four individuals in a single roost. Bat expert, Lindy Lumsden, at the time warned the Australian government that the population could be as low as 20 bats and "if the current rate of decline continues, this species is likely to be extinct within the next 6 months." Lumsden added, "It is critical therefore that a captive breeding program is established immediately as insurance against further decline in numbers and as a source of individuals to reestablish wild populations once the cause of decline has been identified and controlled." But the Australian government hesitated and instead established a committee to consider options. Months passed. In August 2009, Lumsden was finally given permission to capture bats for captive breeding. But by then it was too late. Four weeks of surveying located only a single bat through its echolocation. Researchers were unable to catch it and the bat went silent on August 26th, 2009. "It is quite possible that this is one of the few times that an extinction of species in the wild can be marked to the day," the entry on the bat for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) notes. While it is possible a colony of bats remains, it's unlikely giving the extensive surveying by researchers. Scientists still don't know what pushed the bat to extinction, although there are a number of possibilities, including a slew of invasive species such as feral cats, common wolf snake, and a recent invasion of yellow crazy ants. Disease is another possibility, though researchers could find no sign of the bats suffering from illness. A lack of leadership  A Christmas Island pipistrelle. Photo by: Lindy Lumsden. So, what went wrong? According to the paper in Conservation Letters a lack of leadership doomed the species. "Leadership has been found to be a key element in the recovery of many endangered species around the world. Without a 'champion' to maintain the pressure on governments to act, species will continue to fall through the cracks," explains Martin, who notes that the leader doesn't have to be an individual but could be an organization or government team. Martin says that officials could have decided that a captive breeding program was not worth it given so few individuals remaining, and the bat should be let go with scarce resources devoted elsewhere.. "However no such decision was apparent," Martin say. Instead officials delayed making any decision whatsoever until eight months after warnings. In the end "a lack of brave decision making in the face of uncertainty, and a lack of accountability for stalling decisions contributed to the loss of the pipistrelle," says Martin. "Monitoring [of endangered species] must be linked to decisions, institutions must be accountable for these decisions and decisions to act must be made before critical opportunities, and species, are lost forever," Martin says. Where leadership made the difference: the orange-bellied parrot  An orange-bellied parrot (Neophema chrysogaster) male, Melaleuca, Southwest Conservation Area, Tasmania, Australia. Photo by: J.J. Harrison. The orange-bellied parrot (Neophema chrysogaster), according to the paper, shows how bold leadership can make the difference. While the orange-bellied parrot faced a similar situation to the Christmas Island pipistrelle, it has seen a very different, and far more hopeful, outcome. In 1984, the orange-bellied parrot population dropped to around 150 birds. Two years later the first captive population was established, but the bird continued to vanish from the wild. In 2009, researchers predicted the bird would be extinct in the wild in a few years. A recovery team decided within one day to capture more wild orange-bellied parrots to boost the captive population. Today there are nearly 200 captive orange-bellied parrots, and the species has a chance for reintroduction into the wild and long-term survival, unlike the Christmas Island pipistrelle. According to Martin the major difference between the orange-bellied parrot and the Christmas Island pipistrelle was that the parrot had a recovery team devoted to its survival, which had been established as far back as 1986. This team closely monitored the parrot over the decades and was capable of taking swift action to save it from extinction. "Recovery teams are an integral part of species recovery success because they act as the 'champion' to ensure the decision process is carried through from the information gathering stage to the implementation of actions and monitoring of success," explains Martin. Part of the problem, says Martin, may be that the public simply likes parrots more than bats, regardless of their ecological roles or importance. "As humans we inevitably place more value on some species than others. In the case of the orange-bellied Parrot, it has had a committed multi-agency, multi-government recovery team including members from universities and NGOs lobbying and working hard for its protection for nearly 30 years. No such recovery team or 'champion' existed for the pipistrelle," she says, adding that, "There is little doubt that if the pipistrelle had of resembled a panda, a captive program would have been established a long time ago." While the Christmas Island pipistrelle is gone, Martin says it has left behind lessons for future conservation action. "The lessons learned here are relevant to the world. Stemming the loss of global biodiversity through recovery planning will require brave, effective governance, leadership and decision making in the face of uncertainty." Unfortunately the Christmas Island pipistrelle is now added to an extensive list of mammal extinctions on the island, including Maclear's rat (Rattus maclean), the bulldog rat (Rattus nativitatis), and perhaps even the Christmas Island shrew (Crocidura trichura), which hasn't been recorded since the 1980s. With the loss of the Christmas Island pipistrelle, the last remaining endemic mammal may be the Christmas Island fruit bat (Pteropus melanotus natalis), a subspecies of a bat found on nearby islands including Sumatra.  A Christmas Island pipistrelle. Photo by: Lindy Lumsden. View Larger Map CITATION: Tara G. Martin, Simon Nally, Andrew A. Burbidge, Sophie Arnall, Stephen T. Garnett, Matt W. Hayward, Linda F. Lumsden, Peter Menkhorst, Eve McDonald-Madden, & Hugh P. Possingham. Acting fast helps avoid extinction. Conservation Letters. 2012. {% include 'languages/english/includes/2011comments' %}
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Palm oil giant to produce 100% segregated, RSPO-certified palm oil mongabay.com (05/23/2012) {%include 'languages/english/includes/2011ads'%} 100 percent of New Britain Palm Oil Limited's palm oil will be eco-certified, segregated, and fully traceable by the end of the year, reports the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). The move is the first such commitment for a palm oil major. It positions the company for sales in premium markets where consumers are concerned about the environmental performance of the products they buy. Environmental activists have targeted some companies that fail to use palm oil certified under the RSPO, which aims to improve the environmental performance of the crop, which has been linked to deforestation and degradation of peatlands. New Britain Palm Oil Limited has oil palm plantations in Papua New Guinea. New Britain Palm Oil Limited's announcement comes less than a month after Unilever revealed plans to build a palm oil processing mill in Indonesia for segregated, RSPO-certified palm oil. {% include 'languages/english/includes/2011comments' %}
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(11/09/2011) Fleshy whorls of thick brown algae blanket the once-vibrant corals in Glover’s Reef, Belize. According to a controversial study published August 14 in the journal Coral Reefs, a decade of marine reserve protection has failed to help these damaged Caribbean corals recover.
(11/09/2011) The thylacine, the dodo, the great auk, the passenger pigeon, the golden toad: these species have become symbols of extinction. But they are only the tip of the recent extinction crisis, and according to a survey of 583 conservation scientists, they are only the beginning. In a new survey in Conservation Biology, 99.5 percent of conservation scientists said a serious loss in biodiversity was either 'likely', 'very likely', or 'virtually certain'. The prediction of a significant loss of species is not surprising—scientists have been warning for decades that if global society continues with business as usual the world will suffer from mass extinction—what is perhaps surprising is the practically unanimous expectation that a global biodiversity decline will occur.
(11/03/2011) Researchers with the Smithsonian have catalogued almost as many crab species on tropical coral reef bits measuring just 20.6 square feet (6.3 square meters) as in all of Europe's seas, finds a new paper in PLoS ONE. The team used DNA barcoding to quickly identify a total of 525 crustaceans (including 168 crab species) from dead coral chunks taken from seven sites in the tropics, including the Indian, Pacific and Caribbean oceans.
(06/02/2011) A new airplane-based remote-sensing and analysis system will enable scientists to catalog tree species as they create three-dimensional maps of tropical forests. Unveiled today at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, California by Greg Asner of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, the newest version of the Carnegie Airborne Observatory (CAO) will offer powerful insights into the composition and biology of tropical forests.
(05/14/2011) A new animation created using Google Earth offers a tour of an area of forest slated for destruction by logging companies. The animation, created by WWF-Indonesia and David Tryse, with technical assistance from Google Earth Outreach, highlights the rainforest of the Bukit Tigapuluh landscape in Sumatra, the only island in the world that is home to Sumatran tigers, elephants, rhinos, and orangutans. All of these species are considered endangered or critically endangered due to habitat destruction or poaching.
(10/25/2009) Sloths sleep all day; they are always slow; and they are gentle animals. These are just some of the popular misconceptions that sloth-scientist and expert tree-climber, Bryson Voirin, is overturning. After growing up among the wild creatures of Florida, spending his high school years in Germany, and earning a Bachelors degree in biology and environment at the New College of Florida, Voirin found his calling. At the New College of Florida, Voirin "met Meg Lowman, the famous canopy pioneer who invented many of the tree climbing techniques everyone uses today."
Greenpeace's 
(06/28/2011) Indonesia's Ministry of Forestry is already undermining the moratorium on new forestry concessions on peatlands and in primary forest areas, alleges a new report from Greenomics-Indonesia. The report, The Toothless Moratorium, claims that a new decree from the Ministry of Forestry converts 81,490 hectares of forest protected under the moratorium into logging areas. The area affected is larger than Singapore.
(05/20/2011) The moratorium on permits for new concessions in primary rainforests and peatlands will have a limited impact in reducing deforestation in Indonesia, say environmentalists who have reviewed the instruction released today by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The moratorium, which took effect January 1, 2011, but had yet to be defined until today's presidential decree, aims to slow Indonesia's deforestation rate, which is among the highest in the world. Indonesia agreed to establish the moratorium as part of its reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) agreement with Norway. Under the pact, Norway will provide up to a billion dollars in funds contingent on Indonesia's success in curtailing destruction of carbon-dense forests and peatlands.
(11/12/2011) The western black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis longipes) roams the woodlands of Africa no more. The rhino, one of four sub-species of black rhino, was declared extinct this week by the IUCN, five years after the last extensive survey of its habitat in Cameroon. The rhino becomes the second declared extinct this year. All rhinos are threatened by the rhino horn trade.
(10/25/2011) In 2009 poachers shot and killed the world's last Vietnamese rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus), a subspecies of the Javan rhino, confirms a report from International Rhino Foundation (IRF) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The Vietnamese rhino was the last Javan rhino to survive on the Asian mainland and the second subspecies to vanish, following the extinction of the Indian Javan rhino (rhinoceros sondaicus inermis). The Javan rhino is the world's most imperiled rhino species with now only around 50 individuals surviving in a single park on its namesake island in Indonesia.
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