Chart: the world’s endangered mammals
Last month the International Union for Conservation of Nature — better known as IUCN — released an update on the conservation status of the world's lemurs. The update was not…
Climate and culture: abrupt change and rapid response
As the world experiences record heat, increased drought and fires, unprecedented ice melt and similar extreme weather anomalies decades before expected, climatologists have been forced to reconsider previous climate change…
Earth’s ecosystems still soaking up half of human carbon emissions
Coral reefs off Maui. The extra carbon sequestered by the oceans has put the world's coral reefs at risk due to acidification. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Even as humans…
Gibson Guitar to pay $300,000 for violating Lacey Act with illegal timber imports from Madagascar
Recent rosewood and ebony logging has been associated with a rise in commercial bushmeat poaching of threatened lemurs in Madagascar. Gibson Guitars has now admitted to knowingly importing 'gray-market' timber…
Cambodia’s largest lowland rainforest spared from new land concessions
Activists dress as avatars to protest the destruction of Prey Lang forest. Photo courtesy of Prey Lang: It's Our Forest Too. Four economic land concessions have been cancelled in Cambodia's…
3-D laser mapping shows elephants have big impact on trees
Herd of elephants crossing a river in Kenya. Photo by: Rob Roy. Scientists have long known that African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are talented tree-topplers, able to take down even large…
‘The lion of the cave:’ new predatory, swimming cricket discovered in Venezuela
Tepui, or flat-topped mountain, in Venezuela. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Scientists have discovered what is likely a new species of cricket that is the top predator of its lightless…
Pictures of the day: pangolins saved in Thailand from poachers
A rescued Sunda pangolin. Photo by: FREELAND Foundation. Earlier this summer, 110 Sunda pangolins (Manis javanica) were rescued by Thai customs officials from poachers in a pickup truck. While the…
Extreme heatwaves 50 to 100 times more likely due to climate change
Hitting France especially hard, the Europe 2003 heatwave left tens of thousands of people dead. A new statistical analysis argues that climate change was the cause of this and other…
President of Chad sends troops after elephant poachers
Dr. Laurel A. Neme is the author of ANIMAL INVESTIGATORS: How the World's First Wildlife Forensics Lab is Solving Crimes and Saving Endangered Species. Neme also hosts The WildLife with…
Pig iron producers sign zero deforestation pledge after Greenpeace campaign
Pig iron producers in the Brazilian state of Maranhão today pledged to stop using charcoal produced from Amazon rainforest logging, reports Greenpeace, which had waged a zero deforestation campaign targeting…
Brazil’s deforestation rate still on decline in 2012?
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by more than a fifth for the 12-month period ending July 31, 2012, according to preliminary data released by Brazil's National Institute for Space…
Mangroves should be part of solution to climate change
Mangroves in Honduras Mangroves are under-appreciated assets in the effort to slow climate change, argues a new Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper which makes a argument for…
Jungles in Antarctica? High CO2 levels contributed to tropical conditions on the icy continent 50M years ago
Tropical vegetation grew along the coast of Antarctica 52 million years ago, an indication to dramatic climate shifts linked to elevated carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, report scientists in…
Peru considers big changes to its environmental reviews
The Peruvian government is looking into making large-scale changes to its Environment Impact Assessments (EIA) after a review found significant problems with the vast majority of past reviews, reports the…
‘Penis snake’ discovered in Brazil is actually a rare species of amphibian
A creature discovered by engineers building a dam in the Amazon is a type of caecilian, a limbless amphibian that resembles an earthworm or as some are noting, part of…
U.S. carbon emissions lowest since 1992
U.S. quarterly CO2 emissions from energy consumption. A shift away from coal and reduced gasoline demand coupled with a mild winter led to an 8 percent drop in U.S. carbon…
Tigers vs. coal in India: when big energy meets vanishing cats
Surface coal mining in Bihar, India. Around 70-80 percent of India's power is currently provided by coal. Burning coal fuels climate change, causes acid rain, and spreads toxic pollutants into…
Drought pits farmers against frackers
Drought has created a standoff over water supplies in the U.S. Midwest between energy producers and farmers, reports Bloomberg. Natural gas and oil producers have been forced to seek new…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Bolivia’s El Curichi Las Garzas protected area taken over by land-grabbers
- Authorities struggle to protect Bolivian national park from drug-fueled deforestation
- Poverty and plantations: Nigerian reserve struggles against the odds
- Logging, road construction continue to fuel forest loss in Papua New Guinea
Oceans
- As plastic talks wrap up in Canada, fishers in Indonesia count the costs
- ‘Our life support system is at risk’: Interview with ‘Her Deepness’ Sylvia Earle
- No answers for Ghanaian fishery observer’s family months after suspected death
- Fewer fish and more rules lead to illegal catches, Italian fishers say
Amazon Conservation
- New ban threatens traditional fishers in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state
- Deforestation haunts top Peruvian reserve and its Indigenous communities
- Amid record-high fires across the Amazon, Brazil loses primary forests
- A web of front people conceals environmental offenders in the Amazon
Land rights and extractives
- Women weave a culture of resistance and agroecology in Ecuador’s Intag Valley
- Hyundai ends aluminum deal with Adaro Minerals following K-pop protest
- Brazil’s illegal gold trade takes a hammering, but persists underground
- Maluku bone collector unearths troubling consequence of coastal abrasion
Endangered Environmentalists
- Indonesian activists face jail over FB posts flagging damage to marine park
- Vietnamese environmentalist sentenced to 3 years in prison for tax evasion
- Son of slain Quilombola leader will still strive for community’s rights
- Video: Five Tembé Indigenous activists shot in Amazonian ‘palm oil war’
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- Fenced in by Sulawesi national park, Indigenous women make forestry breakout
- In Borneo, the ‘Power of Mama’ fight Indonesia’s wildfires with all-woman crew
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
- After 20 years and thousands of trees planted, Kalimantan’s veteran forester persists
Conservation Effectiveness
- The conservation sector must communicate better (commentary)
- Thailand tries nature-based water management to adapt to climate change
- Forest restoration to boost biomass doesn’t have to sacrifice tree diversity
- How scientists and a community are bringing a Bornean river corridor back to life
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Study: Indonesia’s new capital city threatens stable proboscis monkey population
- Indonesia’s new capital ‘won’t sacrifice the environment’: Q&A with Nusantara’s Myrna Asnawati Safitri
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
- To build its ‘green’ capital city, Indonesia runs a road through a biodiverse forest
