- 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
Ag giant Cargill says it will invest $30 million to stop deforestation in Brazil (Food Business News).
Research finds that paying indigenous groups to reduce deforestation doesn’t do much for their land, but does avoid deforestation in areas nearby (Physics World).
Investigators fear that pushing people in Peru out of illegal gold mining could lead to a rise in other illegal and destructive activities (InSight Crime).
A new study shows that more sustainable, selective logging techniques won’t meet the demand for timber (Science Daily/IOP Publishing).
Indonesian Borneo needs better maps to protect its forests, scientists say (CIFOR Forests News).
Other news
Dolphin strandings are up on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and scientists suspect it may be related to the 2010 BP oil spill (Gulf News).
France’s Corsica is home to what may be a new species of “cat fox” (CNN).
The EU is considering a zero-carbon emission future (The New York Times).
The ice sheet on Greenland is melting unusually fast in 2019 (The Economist).
Many misconceptions remain about recycling plastics (The Guardian).
The legal system in the U.S. has seen a rise in the number of cases dealing with climate change (Undark).
Scientists say a skull that’s been sitting in a museum is from narwhal-beluga hybrid (The New York Times, The Atlantic).
Kenya’s Tsavo Conservation Area has seen a 96 percent decline in elephant poaching (Standard).
Russia’s President Putin helped to instigate the release of 100 orcas and belugas from a notorious “whale jail” (The New York Times).
The Indian Ocean doesn’t have the same garbage patch problem as the Pacific, due in part to the ocean’s geography and currents (Hakai Magazine).
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency just relaxed an Obama-era climate rule, to the potential benefit of the coal industry (The Washington Post, Pacific Standard).
Microbes are vital to understanding the future of climate change, scientists say (Los Angeles Times).
Scientists have captured a giant squid on film (The New York Times).
A new research project aims to assess the health of the Atlantic Ocean (BBC News).
Banner image of a beluga by Ansgar Walk via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5).
FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.