- 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
Authorities have intercepted $52 million worth of pangolin scales en route from Nigeria to Vietnam (Environews Nigeria) …
… In Vietnam, meanwhile, customs officials have confiscated 9 metric tons (10 tons) of ivory from the Republic of Congo (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project).
Brazil launches a program to fight deforestation based on a rural property registry, the CAR, despite the small likelihood that it will be completed in 2019 (Reuters).
Cameroonian minister calls for “open war” on poachers (Afrik21).
Recent research questions the benefits of community forests to the people who depend on them (CIFOR Forests News).
Timber harvests, farming and ranching have led to a loss of 40 percent of rainforests in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula (The Yucatan Times).
Food consumption by European Union member countries drives deforestation-related carbon emissions (European Scientist).
Indonesia’s Komodo Island will close to visitors throughout 2020 after a spate of Komodo dragon poaching (The Washington Post).
Local indigenous groups on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island sign on to a forest protection agreement (Radio New Zealand).
Palm oil companies plan to plant 1 million trees in northern Malaysian Borneo (Free Malaysia).
Scientists have found and measured the tallest tree on record in the tropics. located in Malaysian Borneo (National Geographic).
Conservation groups say that “animal genocide” is emptying Vietnam’s forests (The New York Times).
Other news
President Donald Trump has approved a new order to allow the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline (The Washington Post) …
… But cannot lift the ban on oil drilling leases, a judge says (Smithsonian, CNN, The New York Times).
Canada is getting hotter twice as fast as the average for the rest of the world (CBC News).
Scientists charged with spying in Iran are still in danger of not getting a fair trial, observers say (Nature, The Atlantic).
The Zika and West Nile viruses could become more common in a warmer world (Pacific Standard).
A new treaty would protect the high seas (Science Magazine).
The more than 1,000 mutilated dolphins that have washed up on French beaches in 2019 could be a sign of a much larger problem (The Guardian).
Russia is opening a “whale jail” to free some 100 whales (The New York Times).
Humans are closing in the Serengeti, one of the world’s most iconic landscapes (Futurity/Pennsylvania State University, All Africa).
Royal Dutch Shell quit the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, an industry group, over its position on climate change (The Washington Post).
Scientists say that climate change’s assault on the Great Barrier Reef continues (The New York Times, The Washington Post).
Netflix released a new documentary series examining human impacts on “our planet” (The Atlantic).
Banner image of butterflies in Vietnam by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
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