At the COP26 climate summit earlier this month, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari struck an upbeat note on Africa's plan to build a Great Green Wall. "With all hands on deck…
Vanessa Nakate, a Ugandan climate activist, emerged as one of the most prominent youth voices at COP26 in Glasgow. "Prove us wrong," was her message to delegates at the climate…
Mozambique's 15-year civil war changed the face of its national parks, which underwent rampant poaching of big mammals, including elephants. It did much more. It changed the face of female…
Rhinos aren’t built for flight. Robin Radcliffe, a veterinarian at Cornell University with several decades of experience taking care of rhinos, is well aware of this. So when Namibia, one…
In February, JPMorgan, the biggest bank in the U.S., organized an online event on "The Amazon rainforest and you," promoting sustainable investment. Now, a new report says the bank reaped…
As the annual meeting of the world's most recognizable ethical wood certifier, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), kicked off on Oct. 25, environmental NGOs accused the body of failing to…
Mining areas are dangerous for many reasons: they’re linked to a heightened risk of cancer, poisoning, heart and respiratory diseases. Now, researchers have identified a hitherto overlooked hazard: roads. Miners…
Of all the extreme weather phenomena experienced by humans today, heat is the deadliest. A heat wave that scorched Europe in 2003 claimed 70,000 lives. At least 15,000 people died…
An analysis of bird sightings in Canada and the U.S. showed that many North American species, from mighty eagles to diminutive hummingbirds, gained ground during COVID-19 lockdowns as humans sheltered…
When the first bongo was reported dead by the Sangha River in the Republic of Congo in 1997, it was believed to have drowned. Several more turned up in the following…
Scientific literature is rife with accounts of desolate reefs bereft of corals, drained of color and sea life. A meta-analysis published Sept. 17 shows that these are not isolated incidents…
When Frank Mbago, a Tanzanian botanist, learned that the IUCN, the global conservation authority, had declared the Erythrina schliebenii plant extinct, he was wary. His skepticism was justified: in 2011, a team…
The Democratic Republic of Congo's Sankuru province saw record-breaking fires in 2020 — 9500 square kilometers (3,700 square miles) of land burned. More than 1,500 km2 (580 mi2) of this…
REDD+ is an idea that has launched a thousand projects. It’s essentially a way to monetize forests’ ability to store carbon and put that money in the hands of communities…
It doesn’t sport swivelly eyes or an absurdly long tongue, but a new robot does boast of a chameleon’s most eye-catching trait: being able to change colors on demand. With…
In Madagascar’s jungles, the fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox) is king. A cousin of the mongoose, this cat-like creature is the island’s top predator, able to hunt Madagascar’s other unique offering to the…
When Robert Frost memorialized forests as “lovely, dark and deep,” the U.S. poet was likely referring to wildlands that are rare, isolated wonders in today’s world. Looking at data from…
Tuna-fishing nations hammered out a temporary plan to stop overfishing of Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) at a June meeting, but fatal weaknesses may sink it, experts say. The…
Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares), one of the most profitable fisheries in the world, is just a few years away from collapse. A meeting that began June 7 will…
Aina Randriarisoa found a perch for Labramia ambondrombeensis on the taxonomical tree of life. She helped identify the tree from its genetic signature, the arrangement of its leaves, the shape…
Toxic Bubble Bounce Mushrooms or Green Iguana Disco Mushrooms may sound like psychedelic drugs, but they are, in fact, names of live corals available for sale online. These brilliantly colored…
"Tell me what you eat, and I shall tell you what you are," the French lawyer Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote in his 1826 opus, Physiologie du Goût. This is quite…
With fewer than 6,000 of Zanzibar’s iconic red colobus monkey (Piliocolobus kirkii) left in the world, there’s much about their well-being that worries scientists. Near the top of that list:…
The Ugandan and Tanzanian governments have signed agreements with French oil major Total and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) to build a 1,400-kilometer (900-mile) pipeline from Uganda's Murchison Falls…
In 2019, when Jeremy Raguain turned up for a cleanup campaign on Aldabra Atoll, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, he bagged a marine monstrosity like no other: a beached fish…
Until Jan 9, 2014, the Playa de Anzoras, a 2,200-ton tuna fishing vessel named for a beach in Spain, built in Spain and owned by Spaniards, sailed under the Spanish flag. On…
As the planet warms, it isn’t just humans who are feeling the heat — trees are too. Rising temperatures are disrupting a primary engine of life on Earth: photosynthesis. A…
The Aedes aegypti mosquito, with its distinctive white-spotted spindly legs, is one of our species’ most irksome foes, sucking blood and capable of spreading dangerous diseases like dengue. Attempts to control their…
Luísa Carvalheiro says she remembers a time when açaí was just a humble berry, a staple for the Amazon's Indigenous communities. That was before the inky purple berries became all…
A new study that counted half a trillion coral colonies between Indonesia and French Polynesia found that most corals are not in imminent danger of being wiped off the planet. Desolate reefs…
