Sumatran rhinos to get a new sanctuary in Leuser Ecosystem
JAKARTA — The Indonesian government plans to build a third sanctuary for the captive breeding of Sumatran rhinos, a species on the brink of extinction. The proposed facility will be…
Environmental headlines
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Shift to renewable energy could have biodiversity cost, researchers caution
Climate change has widely reported negative consequences, including exacerbating severe weather patterns, harming wildlife and potentially worsening human conflict and migration. In an attempt to minimize these planetary changes, the…
Can REDD+ bring more women into forest conservation?
Slowly but surely, thinking and talking about gender equality has become normal in much of modern life, from the actor Benedict Cumberbatch demanding equal pay for his female co-stars, to…
At least one species has been lost on more than half of Earth’s land area
Last month, the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) released a summary of its extensive research on threats to global biodiversity, finding that species are disappearing…
Recreational divers help researchers track movements of rare stingray
The smalleye stingray may be the largest of marine stingrays, but the species remains a mystery. It’s believed to be widely distributed across the Indo-West Pacific and has been recorded…
New tool helps monitor forest change within commodities supply chains
Commercial agriculture drives some 40 percent of deforestation in the tropics, as suppliers clear forest to plant soy, oil palm, rubber, and cacao or to raise beef cattle. More than…
First Nations have created a robust conservation economy in Great Bear Rainforest: Report
Over the past decade, First Nations have created a robust conservation economy in Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest, one of the largest old-growth temperate rainforests left in the world, through investments…
Norway sees sharp drop in palm oil biofuel consumption after ban on government purchasing
The consumption of palm oil-based biofuels fell 70 percent in Norway last year, following a government policy change on the purchase of the commodity that is being blamed for rampant…
As Cambodia swelters, climate-change suspicion falls on deforestation
As the impacts of climate change become more apparent worldwide, members of the public are connecting more weather events to the phenomenon. In March and April, for example, extreme heat…
Primates lose ground to surging commodity production in their habitats
The global trade of products that come at the expense of tropical forest is driving many primate species closer to extinction, a new study suggests. The research, published June 17…
Deforested areas bleed heat to nearby forests, drive local extinctions
Areas cleared of forests bleed heat to neighboring forests, and this fuels increases in temperatures there, new research has found. Average temperatures in forests around the world are already rising…
Nearly 600 plant species have gone extinct in last 250 years
When plants slide into extinction, they rarely make news. But more species of plants have disappeared from our planet than previously thought, a recent study has found. Since botanist Carl…
Exotic pet trade responsible for hundreds of invasive species around the globe
Last April, a male Burmese python led researchers at the Big Cypress National Preserve in the Florida Everglades straight to a 17-foot female that was carrying 73 developing eggs. The…
In other news: Environmental stories from around the web, June 14, 2019
Tropical forests A new project in the Democratic Republic of Congo aims to use degraded land to grow biomass that will then power towns and villages (CIFOR Forests News). Companies…
Leopards get a $20m boost from Panthera pact with Saudi prince
Wild cat conservation group Panthera has signed an agreement with a member of the Saudi royal family to help protect leopards worldwide, especially perhaps the rarest subspecies in the world,…
Peruvian communities demanding crude cleanup brace for more oil activity
Walking through the tropical forest undergrowth in the Amazonian heat, Elmer Hualinga suddenly stops to observe how tree roots have grown around a rusty barrel. Close by, the remains of…
Predator-free by 2050? High-tech hopes for New Zealand’s big conservation dream
When the British explorer James Cook circumnavigated the islands that he would later call New Zealand in 1769, he described the birdsong on the densely forested archipelago as “deafening.” One…
Despite a decade of zero-deforestation vows, forest loss continues: Greenpeace
In 2010, the Board of the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), an organization comprised of around 400 of the world’s retail and manufacturing companies, passed a resolution to achieve zero net…
Innovative methods could transform Vietnam’s robusta farms into carbon sinks
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Coffee is one of Vietnam’s most important agricultural products, a crop that grows so well in the country’s Central Highlands that it has become…
CITES to move wildlife trade summit from Colombo to Geneva this August
More than seven weeks after a series of deadly Easter Sunday bombings rocked Sri Lanka, an international summit on the wildlife trade originally scheduled to take place in Colombo last…
Special series
Endangered environmentalists
- Arson attack in Indonesia leaves activist shaken
- For embattled environmental defenders, a reprieve of sorts in 2018
- 7 convicted of killing Honduran indigenous activist Berta Cáceres
Indonesias forest guardians
- On the island of Java, a social forestry scheme creates jobs at home
- In Indonesia, bigger catches for a fishing village protecting its mangroves
- In Bali, a village hews to unwritten rules to manage its forest
Amazon infrastructure
- Amazon fish kill at Sinop spotlights risk from 80+ Tapajós basin dams
- Leading Amazon dam rights activist, spouse and friend murdered in Brazil
- Madeira River dams may spell doom for Amazon’s marathon catfish: Studies
Asian rhinos
- Sumatran rhinos to get a new sanctuary in Leuser Ecosystem
- Homestay programs in Nepal’s rhino hub hold promise and pitfalls for locals
- Rare rhino’s death should light a fire under Indonesia (commentary)
