- There are many important conservation and environmental stories Mongabay isn’t able to cover.
- Here’s a digest of some of the significant developments from the week.
- If you think we’ve missed something, feel free to add it in the comments.
- Mongabay does not vet the news sources below, nor does the inclusion of a story on this list imply an endorsement of its content.
Tropical forests
Dutch logging company Wijma has shuttered a sawmill in Cameroon amid concerns about conflict in the country (Business in Cameroon).
Scientists discover a new frog species in the Western Ghats, a mountain range in India (Research Matters).
Backers of a reforestation plan for Brazil’s Atlantic Forest say it will save species from extinction for billions of dollars less than other ideas (UPI).
Tanzania moves forward with plans for a dam in the Selous Game Reserve, despite concerns from conservation groups (My Twin Tiers, The Register Citizen).
The Democratic Republic of Congo will delay planned presidential elections until Dec. 30 (The Guardian).
Vietnam takes stock of forests’ contributions to its economy (Vietnam Plus).
Brazilian designer Francisco Costa starts line of sustainable beauty products (Vogue).
Nigeria’s forests have been sporadically guarded, if at all, leading to deforestation, a new study has found (Phys.Org).
The Trump administration is mulling an opportunity to address deforestation in Peru (The New York Times).
NASA has created a program with the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization to keep an eye on changes to forests and other landscapes (Geospatial World).
A community in Sierra Leone is celebrating the return of its lands from an oil palm company (Farm Land Grab).
More than $800 million of projects aimed at addressing climate change and encouraging development have fallen apart, according to some experts (Devex).
Other news
Climate change in the deepest and oldest lake in the world, Lake Baikal, is pushing phytoplankton species there toward extinction, according to a study in the journal PLOS ONE (EurekAlert).
Biologists found a new species of snake in the belly of a coral snake in Central America (National Geographic News).
Scientists are trying to bring back Canada’s “functionally extinct” caribou herd (The Atlantic).
A former oil lobbyist is next in line at the U.S. Department of the Interior after Ryan Zinke’s upcoming departure (The New York Times).
Could the drought in the southwestern U.S. be the result of climate change? (The Atlantic).
There are few easy decisions for consumers looking to do their part in tackling the plastics crisis (Orb).
Taiwan excels at recycling its trash and could be a model for other countries (Ensia).
Assassins kill a Colombian indigenous leader, the second to die in a week (Colombia Reports).
Banner image of a caribou by Dany Sternfeld via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
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