Rhinoceroses have become emblematic of the absolute horror of today’s poaching wars. Images of bloated corpses, their foreheads and horns viciously sawed off, epitomize the greed and malevolence that some…
Against all odds, a young illegally trafficked chimpanzee held in a tiny cage at a private zoo in war-torn Iraqi Kurdistan has been rescued, and has arrived safely at a…
As the world moves into an era above the ominous 400 parts per million carbon dioxide threshold, carbon storage and reforestation are becoming even more significant. In Southeast Asia, Vietnam…
Many companies that deal in commodities such as beef, timber, palm oil and soy beans know that the production of these items can come at the cost of forests. But…
The international police organization Interpol released a report today that highlights the scale of corruption in the global forestry sector as well as the importance of coordinating law enforcement efforts…
Uaxactún, Guatemala - Research has shown that indigenous peoples and local communities play a key role in biodiversity and forest conservation in Central America and Mexico. Drawing on case studies…
A crucial new government regulation on peatland management in Indonesia is spurring debate over whether the country is going far enough to prevent a repeat of last year’s disastrous forest…
A report released yesterday by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the world's most influential forest-products certification organization, describes the findings of a nearly year-long investigation into allegations of illegality on…
Late in 2015, Brazil’s Public Federal Ministry (Ministério Público Federal, MPF), launched legal proceedings against the government’s National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), and Norte Energia, the consortium that built the Belo Monte…
Brazil will restore 22 million hectares of land in what’s being called “the largest restoration commitment ever made by a single nation." “We are a country of forests,” said Rachel Biderman,…
US President-elect Donald Trump has picked Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt to head the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) under his administration. Trump, who infamously once called global warming a hoax…
Southeast Sulawesi Province consists mostly of water. Around 75 percent of the province's territory lies offshore, in the Banda Sea and the Gulf of Boni. Its coasts and waters are…
In 2015, Malaysian officials publicly confirmed there were no wild rhinos left in Malaysia. It was grim news for the Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), whose surviving population is now believed…
When a forest falls prey to disease, pests, drought or clearing by humans, the impacts ripple well beyond that local ecosystem, according to a new study. Much like the well-known…
We live today in the most explosive era of infrastructure development in human history. By mid-century the unprecedented rate of highway, dam, mine and power plant construction; along with city…
Before reaching the Keng Kham valley, the bright green Pang river, the Salween’s major tributary running south through central Shan state, splits into three parallel rivers that form myriad channels…
Water and air temperatures and shifts in wind patterns conspired to hold down sea ice extent, setting record lows for the month of November in both the Arctic and the…
In October this year, Indonesian police rescued 34 critically endangered Javan slow lorises (Nycticebus javanicus) from being illegally sold on social media by traffickers. All 34 rescued animals were sent…
Human-wildlife conflict is an ongoing drama playing out all over the world, from southern India where plantations are forcing humans and elephants into closer proximity to the western U.S. where…
You know a bird has a PR problem when an ornithologist refers to it as “a prodigy of ugliness.” That was written in the 19th century, when the Greater Adjutant…
More than 50 percent of the sharks and rays native to the Mediterranean Sea are at a high risk of extinction, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced Monday.…
Peru’s recent pledge to wage a fiercer battle against illegal logging and timber trafficking could become a thorn in the side of the $30-$100 billion a year global illegal logging…
Mexico is set to get its largest-ever protected area. The new Mexican Caribbean Biosphere Reserve, estimated to cover more than 5.7 million hectares, will be spread across several municipalities, including…
Two of Australia’s biggest retailers have been misleading customers with claims that palm oil used in their own-brand products has been certified by the world’s largest association for ethical production…
Richard Evans Schultes was a Harvard professor, a scientist, an explorer, a writer, and a photographer. He is often referred to as “the father of ethnobotany,” a field of study…
Swimming 4 meters per second, a feeding blue whale swings open its jaws and, in four seconds, swallows 140 percent of its mass—a volume of water and krill the size…
Melaka - The expanse of sand stretches hundreds of meters in both directions, featureless and flat, its dusty monotony alleviated only by the excavators, trucks and dredgers that dump sand…
In October, last year, the state of California banned the sale of nearly all ivory and rhino horn. The new law makes it illegal to trade almost all ivory, including…
Temperate grassland ecosystems are being destroyed around the world, largely due to conversion to agricultural land driven by the need to provide food and fuel for the exploding human population.…
The number of Bengal tigers is growing in Nepal’s Chitwan National Park — a United Nations World Heritage Site. The endangered cats have become healthier, and their population is flourishing…