Elephant in South Africa. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. The Chinese government announced today that it will "eventually" shut down its legal domestic ivory market. The move, which surprised conservationists,…
Panther chameleon in Maroantsetra, Madagascar. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. The panther chameleon, a lizard prized in the pet trade for its remarkable color changing abilities, may actually represent 11…
The green iguana is one of more than 100 species of reptiles and amphibians found in La Sierra del Divisor. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. The fate of La Sierra…
Forest cover status in Sarawak, Sabah, and Brunei as of 2009, according to Bryan et al 2013. Sarawak's leader has allegedly pledged to stop granting industrial timber and palm oil…
University of Maryland map showing forest loss since 2000 in Sarawak. After decades of intense logging that has left its rainforests degraded, fragmented, and stripped of valuable timber in many…
Philippine Eagle (Pithecophaga jeffery), captive, Philippine Eagle Center, Davao, Mindanao, Philippines. Image credit Klaus Nigge. Seven conservationists have taken home Whitley Awards for their efforts to protect wildlife in developing…
A new study attempts to place a value of goods and services afforded by the ocean, estimating that if the planet's seas were classified as a country, it would rank…
Hanging an octopus to dry. Courtesy of the Skoll Foundation. A program that helps restore overfished areas through community-based marine conservation has won the Skoll Foundation's top prize for social…
While deforestation for soy production in the Brazilian Amazon has slowed since the establishment of a deforestation moratorium in 2006, clearing for soy has increased sharply in recent years in…
An orangutan orphaned after its mother was killed during forest clearing for an oil palm plantation in Sumatra. A new app enables iPhone [download] and Android [download] users to scan…
8-DAY LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE ANOMALY for March 6-13, 2015. Courtesy of NASA. The temperature at a base in Antarctica hit a record high last week, reports Weather Underground. On March…
A yearly buck and fawn meet in Apopka, Florida. PHOTO CREDIT: Ronald Derrig. A camera trap photo of a young buck touching noses with a fawn is among the finalists…
Stuffed tiger in Laos. Photo courtesy of EIA A city-sized resort complex in Laos is facilitating large-scale wildlife trafficking for Chinese tourists, exacerbating commercial poaching in the Southeast Asian nation…
Oil palm plantation and rainforest in Sabah, Malaysia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Malaysian palm oil giant Sime Darby Plantation Bhd has completed its acquisition New Britain Palm Oil Ltd,…
Elephant in South Africa.. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. China has established a one-year ban on imports of carved African elephant ivory. Conservationists say the move, effective immediately, sends an…
Zebra Shark (Stegastoma fasciatum). Photo credit: Jürg Brand The government of Madagascar has established the Indian Ocean island's first shark sanctuary in an area famous for its marine biodiversity, reports…
Local farmer in Indonesian New Guinea Countries poised to receive World Bank funds for achieving reductions in deforestation have insufficient safeguards for ensuring that local communities don't lose out in…
Forests like this rainforest in Borneo provide an array of 'ecosystem services' including carbon storage, flood and erosion control, transpiration, climate moderation, and biodiversity, among others. Forest Trends, a non-profit…
Activists have petitioned the world's largest sovereign wealth fund to drop its investment in a company they say is linked to large-scale corruption in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. In…
Reef manta rays (Manta alfredi) swim off Nusa Penida in Indonesia. Photo Credit: Paul Hilton/Greenpeace For the first time, Indonesia has sentenced an illegal manta ray trafficker to jail time…
Oil palm plantation in Indonesia IOI Corporation officially committed to what its subsidiary, palm oil trader IOI Loders Croklaan, pledged last November: it will no longer source palm oil linked…
Clear-cut logging in Alaska. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Seven conservation societies have joined a campaign to push the Obama administration to end old-growth forest logging in Alaska's Tongass National…
The Black-and-yellow broadbill (Eurylaimus ochromalus) is found in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma Myanmar is home to at least 1,114 bird species after researchers identified 20 previously undocumented…
Lowland rainforest in West Papua. An Indonesian police official busted for illegal logging in West Papua has been missing from jail for nearly a year after being granted permission to…
Map of REDDX countries. Only a small fraction of the $7.3 billion pledged under the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) program has actually been disbursed, find a new…
Logging roads and damaged forest in Sarawak compared with the largely intact forest of Brunei. In 2011, former chief minister Taib Mahmud famously claimed that 70 percent of Sarawak's forests…
Truck carrying raw logs in Myanmar. Photo courtesy of EIA 155 Chinese citizens have been arrested in Myanmar for illegal logging, reports Agence France-Presse. According to a statement from China's…
Logging road in neighboring Sabah. Legal logging has caused substantial forest loss and degradation in Sarawak over the past 30 years, depleting canopy cover, altering forest structure, exacerbated hunting, and…
Google Maps image showing Arajuno Canton Indigenous leaders are calling for the release of six tribesmen implicated in a raid on an oilfield in Eastern Ecuador that left six soldiers…
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