Deforestation in the Amazon for cattle pasture. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Twenty-two conservation, indigenous, health and science groups have called on U.S. President Barack Obama to attend the up-coming…
Researchers say restoring seagrass beds would mitigate climate change. Mangroves above and seagrass below in Vohemar Bay, Madagascar. Photo: © Keith Ellenbogen/iLCP. Just below the ocean's surface lies a carbon…
The yellow dyer rain frog (Diasporus citrinobapheus) is a new species of frog discovered in Panama. Photo by: Andreas Hertz. A beautiful, yellow frog species has been discovered in western…
Indicative map May 2012 revision. Indonesia is making "encouraging" progress on its push to reduce deforestation by improving governance over its forests and peatlands but still needs to do more…
An interview with the Nature Conservancy's China Program. TNC staff and volunteers repairing signage at Meili Snow Mountain National Park in northwest Yunnan. Community benefits and ecotourism are at the…
A year-and-a-half after a landmark summit that pledged to double the world's number of tigers by 2022, and still 65 percent of tiger reserves lack minimum standards of protection for…
Three baby North American river otters at the Prospect Zoo. Photo by: Julie Larsen Maher. The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Prospect Park Zoo in New York City has recently seen the…
Temperature anomalies in April 2012 with a base period of 1971-2000. La Nina conditions, which generally bring colder temperatures to many parts of the world, ended last month resulting in…
The new species of lizard, Cordylus marunguensi, from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo courtesy of Eli Greenbaum. A new lizard has been discovered in a war-torn area of the…
In this post, Rob Little provides his video version of Mongabay’s environmental news for the week of April 30. STORY 1: Cambodian activist Chut Wutty was shot dead by military…
A new model aims to forecast future logging road development by estimating the value of timber stocks across the Brazilian Amazon. The research, published in PLoS One, could help prioritize…
Note: PT Sisirau has refuted elements of this post. See below for details The HOCRU team carry the baby orangutan to safety. Photo credit OIC. A mother orangutan and its…
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is lower in 2012 relative to the same period last year according to satellite-based data released by Imazon, an NGO. Imazon's Deforestation Alert System (SAD)…
Palm oil facility in Sumatra, Indonesia. The palm oil industry has hired lobbying powerhouse Holland & Knight to help overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s finding that palm oil-based biodiesel fails…
Reconstruction of Carbonemys preying upon a small crocodylomorph. Courtesy of Cadena et al. 2012 Researchers working in Colombia has discovered the fossilized remains of a giant freshwater turtle that lived…
A new species of arowana, a highly valued aquarium fish, has been described from southern Myanmar (Burma). The description is published in last month's issue of the journal Aqua. The…
Shaq with a mouse lemur. Photo courtesy of Mireya Mayor. One of the world's most recognizable professional basketball players has used his stature to highlight one of the world's smallest…
Over 25 years after people stopped growing cardamom in Sri Lanka's Knuckles Forest Reserve (KFR), the spice crop is still having an impact on the forest, according to a recent…
Young Guarani girl in Misiones. Photo by: World Land Trust. Last month, three Guarani communities, the local Argentine government of Misiones, and the UK-based NGO World Land Trust forged an…
Boat-billed heron in Costa Rica. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Boat-billed herons (Cochlearius cochlearius) are found in Central and South America, as far north as Mexico and as far south…
In March 2012 the head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and well-known climatologist, James Hansen, spoke at a TED conference to explain what would push a 70-year-old scientist…
Village kids in New Guinea Despite a global trend towards urbanization some 1.2-1.7 billion people worldwide remain primarily dependent on forests for their livelihoods, reports a review [PDF] published by…
Scientists in China have located a second population of the Myanmar snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus strykeri), a primate that was only first discovered two years ago in Myanmar, also known as…
Jaguar with its marine turtle prey. Photo by: Benjamin Barca. At first, an encounter between a jaguar (Panthera onca) and a green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) seems improbable, even ridiculous,…
Peat draining and large-scale clearance of natural forest by APP wood supplier PT. Ruas Utama Jaya. Eyes of the Forest said the clearing occurred inside APP's Senepis Tiger Sanctuary, but…
Suburban sprawl in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The average American's ecological footprint is the fifth highest in the world. Photo by: Jeremy Hance. Human society is consuming natural resources as if…
Devastated rainforest in Indonesian Borneo. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. In 48 years wildlife populations in the tropics, the region that holds the bulk of the world's biodiversity, have fallen…
Illegal charcoal kilns in the municipality of Tucuruí. Photo by: Marizilda Cruppe/Greenpeace. According to a new report by Greenpeace, top U.S. car companies such as Ford, General Motors, and Nissan…
Map of extent of global wetlands. Courtesy of Prigent et al 2012. Click image to enlarge. Global wetlands declined by six percent between 1993 and 2007 due to conversion for…
Carbon remaining in storage 30 years after land clearance as a fraction of initial above-ground biomass. Courtesy of Earles et al 2012. Click image to enlarge. Carbon emissions from deforestation…
